[no source, no date]
TNT PEOPLE WILL
CONDUCT A COMMUNITY AUCTION
Howell’s Main Street
Will Be Auction Block Saturday; Families Seek New Homes
TWO AUCTIONEERS
If Merchandise Is Not
Sold By Nightfall The Sale Will Continue At Softball Park
A mammoth
auction sale, at which personal property of a majority of the 200 families in the
area absorbed for the TNT plant will be offered to the highest bidders, will be
held all day Saturday at Howell.
Although
the auction is expected to attract several thousand people and state officers
will be there to control traffic, the affair will be far from a cheerful one
for the persons who are putting up their wares for sale.
The auction
has been brought on through necessity, Morris Muschany, Howell merchant said.
People who are expected to get an order any day to move, have many things they
will be unable to take to their new quarters and must dispose of them some way.
Muschany
pointed out that some lifelong residents of the area will move to places where
they cannot have livestock and will not have an opportunity to sell after
getting the short notice to vacate.
Dust
covered antiques, some of them dating back to almost a century and a half ago
when Daniel Boone and other pioneer families settled in this county, will be
offered for sale. Household goods, farm machinery, live stock and every imaginable
piece of personal property is expected to be offered at the sale.
Residents
are expected to start moving their things to Howell before sale time as the
affair will get under way at 9 a. m. Livestock must be there by 8 o’clock.
The main
street of Howell will be the auction block with George Pallardy of O’Fallon,
and John Lowery of Defiance serving as auctioneers. The two will continue all
day and if the goods and stock is not sold by nightfall activities will be
shifted to the softball park behind Muschany’s store. Terms of the sale will be
cash.
Mr.
Muschany said he was moving to New Melle where the funeral business will be
transferred. The Muschany merchandise store will be set up in Weldon Spring.
Two other brothers who are in the business, Claude and Carl will make their
homes at O’Fallon and Chesterfield respectively.
==========
[no source, November 30, 1940]
Thousands Attended
the Community Sale at Howell—3 Auctioneers
[handwritten: Nov.
30, 1940]
Clerks Report
Articles Were Selling Cheap—Other Sale at Hamburg, December 4th
More than
two thousand people attended the Community Sale at Howell today. Three
auctioneers were kept busy selling various articles, including household
articles, farm machinery, live stock, etc.
Antique
dealers who had heard of the community sale several days ago, had bought up
most of the old articles, but there were still many left for the attendants at
the sale today.
One youth
paraded the street of Howell with a pet goat bearing the sign “For Sale: Give
Me a Bid.”
Clerks of
the sale said articles were selling very cheap.
A similar
Community Sale will be held at Hamburg, Wednesday, December 4.
==========
[no source, no date]
Rush Work On Phone
Circuits to TNT Plant
Telephone Employees
Work on Thanksgiving Day to Speed Project.
Fifteen
crews of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company employees worked Thanksgiving Day
to rush the completion of telephone lines between St. Louis and the TNT plant
at Weldon Springs.
Fraser-Brace
Engineering Company of New York, plant contractors asked for at least five
circuits to the outside world by Monday and the phone company hopes to have
them completed by Saturday.
Crews
buried a 51-pair cable along Highway 61 from the Daniel Boone bridge to the
company headquarters in the Miller School, using a special cable-laying plow.
Other crews were stringing aerial cable from the school to the new buried
cable.
An 80-line
switchboard and a maximum of 15 trunk lines also will be installed at the
contractors’ headquarters.
==========
[no
source, December 3, 1940]
100 FAMILIES GET
NOTICE TO MOVE FROM TNT AREA
[handwritten: Dec. 3]
Instructed To Be Out
of Area Within Ten Days[;] Majority Will Remain In this County
WORK STARTED
Construction of Railroad
Into Area and Contractors’ Building Have Been Started
One hundred
families in the danger zone of the TNT area, who received notices Thursday and
today to vacate their land within ten days are making plans to get out of the
area as soon as possible.
The notices
to vacate were sent out by R. Newton McDowell, government purchasing agent. No
specified time was set except that the people must be off the property within
ten days. Most of the residents are expected to figure that time from the date
on the letter.
Majority of
the families will move to the northwest part of St. Charles county, staying as
close as possible to their old homes. Some are moving into adjoining counties
while a few will leave the state.
Construction
on a spur track in the area was started today and work on the plant proper is
expected to begin before the 100 families have moved out.
About 100
more families reside in the safety zone and they will not be required to move
until March. People living in the danger area will be allowed to keep stock in
the safety zone until next March.
Families in
the area will conduct a mammoth community sale all day tomorrow at Howell. Two
auctioneers will be kept busy and if all the articles are not sold by dark the
activity will be transferred to the Howell softball park.
Construction
of an office for the contractors is under way on the Howell High School
grounds.