Melville/Qulin Historical Society
Volume-2 Issue-8 August 1st 2006
Welcome to the August issue of our newsletter. We will be using this as our way to
communicate with you what is going on with our efforts on your behalf. As elected
Board Members, we are here to serve the best interests of the membership. This
means a two-way communication is needed. You need to let us know what you
would like to see done. We always want new ideas and suggestions. This year we
hope to have a lot of our artifacts on display during Qulin Days. We have had some
changes to the way we operate, to allow the members to become more involved.
Future elections for Board Members will be done by ballot so all members can
participate. For the time being we have changed the term of a Board Member from
six years to one year. This does not mean that a Board Member has to leave after
one year but we all have to face re-election each year. This will make the Board
Members more accountable to the members and make the members more aware of
what each Board Member has done throughout the year.
Welcome to our new home.
The Board voted their approval to buy the old Post Office building and use it as a
location to display some of the Historical items that have been collected over the
years. It is small, but a start in being able to share with the public the things that
have been donated to the Historical Society over the years. We also voted to hold
board meetings on a monthly basis rather than quarterly. We hope to have this
building open for display for Qulin Days this year.
The Board Members for the next year are Pat Bradley, Iris Wright, Tish Lampley,
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Marilyn Vancil, Marcella Stockton, Larry McGee and Glen A. Sedrick.
New officers were elected during this meeting. For the operating year of 2006-2007
Glen A. Sedrick has been elected President, Larry McGee as Vice-President,
Marilyn Vancil as Secretary and Marcella Stockton as Treasurer. We will need
members to step forward as committee chairperson throughout the year for various
projects. If you would like to participate we would like to hear from you.
Remember if you haven’t paid your dues get them in. Expenses have just gone up as
we will now have the electric bill to pay.
Do you remember?
On September 7th 1967 it was published in the Great Bend Daily Tribune in Great
Bend, Kansas the following story.
Blackie Creasey of Qulin appeared in police court charged with being drunk in
public. “Guilty or not Guilty,” intoned Judge Tom Cahill.
Your Honor, “I was only half drunk,” Creasey pleaded.
“Then I’ll find you only half guilty,” declared Judge Cahill.
Cahill fined Creasey $17, half the usual fine for the offense.
On December 23rd 1955 it was published in the Atchison Daily Globe in Atchison,
Kansas and the Great Bend Daily Tribune in Great Bend, Kansas that Two armed
men, fitting a Mutt & Jeff description, robbed the bank of Fisk of about $35,000.00
and then shouted “Merry Christmas” as they locked three employees in the vault.
The shabbily dressed pair fled in a car of one of the bank employees but switched to
another auto about eight miles southeast of here. State Patrol officers set up a
roadblock near the small town of Qulin where the men were reported heading after
they were seen getting into a light green car. The bandits, one about six feet tall and
the other only five feet, shouted “Merry Christmas” as they slammed the vault door
shut on the three employees who were locked inside for forty minutes before they
managed to free themselves.
The following was published in The Lethbridge Herald in Lethbridge, Alberta on
August 7th 1955 and The Independent Record in Helena, Montana on August 5th
1955.
In Qulin, Missouri, merchant Joe Hefner sold three rooms of furniture to a farmer
and accepted as down payment 800 watermelons and 12 cemetery lots.
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Citizen Profile
Julius Warren Hall
Julius moved his family to Qulin from Dyer County, Tennessee in 1931 after being
flooded out twice by the mighty Mississippi River. They settled in a little one room house
in Qulin for the first couple of months, and then Julius bought eighty acres southeast of
Qulin. Thirty-five acres were cleared and the rest was timber. Pat & Bob Ledbetter cut
the house in Qulin into four pieces and took it to the farm and put it back together. They
stayed in this house until 1939 and when Julius became sick and he sold the farm and
moved back into Qulin. They owned a little two bedroom, white shotgun style house at
the north end of Qulin, in the shadow of the old railroad water tank. All the kids were
gone by this time except Myra & Nana. Also Julius & Estella took their grandson to raise,
after the death of his mother. Julius loved to fish and spent a lot of summer days with his
grandson on the ditch that ran behind the house. The ditch is mostly dry now except when
it rains, but in those days it was free flowing and had some good fish.
They were never wealthy in monetary terms but always considered themselves rich with
friendships of their neighbors and members of the churches they attended. Julius was a
deacon in the Osborn Baptist Church until his health forced their move into Qulin and he
didn’t have the transportation to get there. He started attending the Qulin Baptist Church
and was a deacon there when he died in 1947.
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The Old Qulin Cemetery
Listed below are the last ten (10) original tombstones that were in the old cemetery
before it was turned into a park by the City of Qulin. The rumor still remains that the
tombstones were torn down by a bulldozer and dumped into a ravine or ditch.
The John Lee Sadler and Sarah Lee inscriptions were on the same stone.
Annie or Cinnie Hall
Died August 24th 1901
Age 13 years
Gennette Johnson
Born October 11th 1885
Died September 1931
Added on Earth to Bloom in Heaven
John Lee Sadler
May 5th 1862
May 24th 1943
Albert V. Smith
March 1st 1875
Anne Smith
February 2nd 1895
November 29th 1929
Alfred Johnson
Born February 9th 1887
Died 1925
Arvel W., son of G.W. & M.M. King
Born August 14th 1891
Elizabeth Marler
Born March 20th 1876
Died November 2nd 1927
Gone but not forgotten
Sarah Lee
1879-1932
Charles Smith
Born and Died November 10th 1929
Margie M. Fonville
September 17th 1922
November 11th 1925
God needed one more angel child amidst
his shining band.
Some informational small metal frame markers, with glass covering paper records
that were faded beyond being readable were also found. These were presumed to be
funeral home markers. This cemetery was located on the north side of Qulin. Some
of the bodies buried here were moved to the new Qulin cemetery located on
Highway N west of town. The City of Qulin now maintains the old cemetery in a
park like setting. Supposedly in the early day of Qulin there were a lot of killings in
town and these people are buried there. If records were kept from those days they
would be close to impossible to find today. The records listed here were transcribed
by Mrs. Lola Haynes on March 12th 1979.
I remember in the early forties it was no longer being used as a working cemetery as
the kids used to spend a lot of time playing there. There were a lot of trees to climb.
Food for Thought
Each time you are honest and conduct yourself with honesty, a success
force will drive you toward greater success. Each time you lie, even with
a little white lie, there are strong forces pushing you toward failure. -
Joseph Sugarman