July 6, 1951
• John James Steele, 90, one of the county’s oldest and best known citizens, died at the Fairfax Community Hospital Monday. When he was only 16 years old, he taught his first school and he spent the next 22 years teaching in various schools in Missouri, Washington, and California.
• Atchison County’s campaign to elect a successor to the late Dr. Gray in the state legislature has developed into one of mayor vs. mayor. Fairfax’s three-time mayor Fred R. McMahon is opposed by Rock Port’s second-term executive John J. “Jack” Wright.
• Farmers have had some chance to get into their fields this week, but not for long. Rain fell Monday night, quite heavy in some sections, halting planting and cultivating in most areas.
• Charles Floyd Ely, 35, of Peru, Nebraska, was seriously injured Wednesday night at a meeting of an Alcohol Anonymous group north of Nishnabotna. Ely’s assailant was an Auburn man who was captured Thursday morning. After shooting Ely, the man terrorized all inside the building, including women and children who had been attending a party, shooting randomly, before he finally left.
July 8, 1976
• Several local members of the Moila Shrine Temple of St. Joseph were in Kansas City this week participating in the International Convention of Shrine. The seven-hour parade, heralded to be the longest and most elaborate ever to show in Kansas City, featured several units of Moila Shriners. Locals attending were Mr. and Mrs. Jack Kruse, Mr. and Mrs. K.R. Pennel, Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Moore, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. H. Moore and Ched, Mr. and Mrs. Hal Davis, Mr. and Mrs. Don Maris, and Mr. and Mrs. Hayden Pyeatt.
• Rep. Jerry Litton, Congressman from the Sixth District and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, made a brief stop in Fairfax Saturday on a whirlwind July 4th weekend tour of cities in northwest Missouri.
• The city of Fairfax has set up business in a new location. A newly-remodeled room, formerly the eastern portion of Fairfax Hardware, is the new home of Fairfax City Hall and the city collector’s office.
• English Grove Church, located 2 1/2 miles west of Fairfax on Route J, was closed in March as a result of a merger between the church’s congregation with the congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Fairfax. The newly organized church is known as the First Presbyterian Church of Fairfax. English Grove Church was organized May 22, 1858, by Robert Dunlap, John Dunlap, and Isaac Curry. The church’s cemetery contains graves dating back to 1845.
July 5, 2001
• Executive Services of Fairfax, a residential truck-mounted carpet cleaning business, is owned and operated by Jon and Julie Whistman.
• Scott and Kelly Smith of Fairfax are pleased to announce the birth of a daughter, Jordan Linn, born June 29 at Community Hospital Association in Fairfax. She weighed six pounds and 12 ounces.
• Funeral services were held Monday, July 2, at the Fairfax Baptist Church for Lela Helen Fair. Lela, 83, had worked as a factory worker at the Fairfax Manufacturing Company and was a charter member of the Community Hospital Auxiliary, of which she was currently president and was Auxilian of the Year.
