Melville/Qulin Historical Society


Are there any trees this size around any more?
This is one of the photos from the early 1900’s and we are looking for more. Do you
have any old photos of any buildings or people from the Fagus area?  We would like
our next project to be a book of the Fagus location. 
Marcella has finished her book about Upper & Lower Davis and they will be available
during Qulin Days. It is a beautiful book and will quickly become a collector’s item as
there is a limited first printing. The cost will be $30.00 each as the book is about 160
pages.
Also the Butler County Marriage Index books will also be for sale for $15.00 each.
Book # 1 covers March 1849-December 1914
Book # 2 covers January 1915-December 1939

Book # 3 covers January 1940-December 1967
These are also a “must have” for Genealogists and Family Historians. A nice addition
to any home library for research.

Published in The Sikeston Herald of Sikeston, Missouri on September 6th 1945.
William DePriest of Qulin was serving aboard the USS Missouri when the formal surrender terms were signed. This is a nice piece of history about one of the former residents of our city.

1. Remember, once you get over the hill, you'll begin to pick up speed.
2. I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
3. If it weren't for STRESS I'd have no energy at all.
4. Whatever hits the fan will not be evenly distributed.
5. Everyone has a photographic memory. Some, like me, just don't have any film.
6. I always know God won't give me more than I can handle but there are times I wish He didn't trust me quite so much.
7. If the shoe fits .... buy a pair in every color.
8. Never be too open minded, your brains could fall out.
9. Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.
11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.
12. Some days are a total waste of makeup.
13. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.
14. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
15. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
16. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
17. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
18. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
19. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
20. Learn from the mistakes of others. Trust me ... you can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

Norma Adkins-Rush-Brummett 107 years of age in May 2006 (Interview done by Iris Hall)
Father: Curt or Kurt Adkins
Mother: Loutisha Welty

Norma moved with her father from Bernie to Qulin.  She doesn’t remember for sure
but thinks the town was called Melville at that time.  She thought her father worked
for the railroad or some business at the depot.  She married and lived in Qulin until
l938 or 39. At that time she took her children, Ransom and Fred to Orange,
California and lived there with her children and met her second husband, Mr. ?
Brummett.
(She didn’t give information about her first or second husband. She would always
say she doesn’t remember when I would probe her for details during that particular
time of her life. That to me was a nice way of saying "mind your own business"
because this woman still has a mind for business and is very aware of her
surroundings and what is going on in the world today.)  
Norma talked about working in some kind of factory while also learning about what
herbs and vitamins could do to keep you healthy.  

(Continued on Page Four)

From bits and pieces of what she talked about I gathered she had dabbled in real
estate and other types of self employment to become financially independent. 
She came back to Poplar Bluff, Missouri in 2003. She did not say why she came
back but she acknowledged to me that she wished she could have stayed in Orange,
California. ( I assumed she returned because of her age and illnesses so her son,
Ransom, could care for her.)
 Ransom is 90 or + and did live with his mother until about a year ago when he left
to live with his daughter in one of the Carolinas because of his failing health.  (He is
in worst shape physically than his mother because of Lung Cancer.) His son Chester
and his wife, Dolly, care for their grandmother now.

Norma is in poor health because her bones have deteriorated and one of her arms is
broken. She is too old to be operated on and suffers with the constant pain of the
broken bone. She talks about having a swimming dizziness in her head all the
time. Norma says she just wants to go to sleep and not wake up but God keeps
waking her up for some reason.  She just wants to go home.

Thoughts to Ponder
IF you had to name the one most important ingredient of human beauty, what would you say it is?
IF you could rid your family of one thing, what would it be?
IF you had to name the all-time best song, which would you pick?
IF you could say (or have said) one thing to your father on his deathbed, what would it be?
IF you could have one thing made out of pure gold, what would you choose?
IF you had to pick one experience or situation when you were the most decisive, which would it be?
IF you could be the characters in any spy novel, who would you choose to be?
IF you had to name the time when you came closest to death, when would it have been?