Mt. Vernon Daily Register, Saturday, May 6, 1916
Submitted By: Mary Zinzilieta

Dear Editor,

Will now write a few lines in regard to our town & country. Will say we are all well satisfied in the Sunny South. We have a real nice town, fine schools and churches, 27 factories, four cotton gins and seven nice dry goods stores and an abundance of grocerys, and have city water and I will say I think it is the finest I ever used. This a fine dairy country. We have four nice creameries and they are doing a big business. I believe Paragould covers more ground than Mt. Vernon. There are lots of Southern Illinois people here. Paragould is just full of them and several in the country that I know of. Have been having garden stuff for over a month, strawberries are coming in they say this week. Will be a big rush. There is some fine ground around here and some not so good. We have a nice fish market right here by us, so we have fresh fish anytime. They catch them right here at the lake. Paragould has a fine fire department. Will I will close, as this is my first letter to the paper, and probably will come again.

S. A. WATERS, Paragould, Arkansas

Unsure of date of newspaper
Submitted by: Judy Hinson
March 23, 1998

MATTRESS FACTORY BURNED ON LEAP YEAR DAY

As recalled by Gretta Crosnoe Brooks age 17

It was a clear, cold day on February 29, 1916 when, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, Posie White's mattress factory on south Ninth Street was burning....It was a big fire--with the two-story frame building filled with cotton and felt.

Bill Underwood's garage was next to the burning building...the front was on Ninth St. and the large doors for cars to drive in through were on Casey Ave...through this door my father (J.W. Crosnoe) and other men were helping Mr. Underwood carry out garage equipment. I was walking along Casey Ave. and stopped at the garage door to look inside; then, as I continued walking I heard what I thought was a lot of tin falling on me...the next thing I knew I was flat on my back and covered with fallen bricks and a window frame was over my face. Three walls of the garage had blown out, blowing Malcolm Heslip across the street but he wasn't seriously injured. I was the only person touched by the debris and I was lucky to have the window frame over my head.

I could see the men working to remove the bricks from me and I could hear others yelling at them to get away because another wall might fall. Finally, the men pulled me from under the rubbish and started to carry me to a more safe place. I told them I could walk but Orville (Red) Henry said, "Oh, no you can't walk", so they carried me to the home of C. C. Carpenter and placed me in a chair. I was white with plaster dust and mortar and had quite a cut on my head...Dr. Poole was there and seemed quite excited as he sent a boy scurrying for his medical satchel...and while this was going on, Boulivier Rose--who drove Grigg's delivery wagon--raced for my home to bring my mother to the scene.

The next day an old gentleman knocked at our door and brought my angora cap to me. He was weeping and, as he handed it to my mother, he said, "I dug it from under the bricks and I believe it saved your daughter's life." I was married thirty days from that leap year day.