Day in history for June 24, 2003

1853 -- 150 years ago

Ben Harper has sold his beautiful residence above town (7th Ave., Rock Island) and 10 acres of ground to Charles Buford of Kentucky for $10,000.

1878 -- 125 years ago

Phoebe W. Sudlow, for many years superintendent of Davenport schools, has been elected professor of English at Iowa University, where the board of directors long have wanted a lady professor to take care of lady students.

1903 -- 100 years ago

The Rock Island Lines expects to occupy the large new railroad shops being built at Pleasant Valley (Silvis) by Jan. 1, 1904.

1928 -- 75 years ago

Karl ``Peanuts'' Swanson, second baseman of the Rock Island team in the Mississippi Valley league, was sold to the Chicago White Sox.

1953 -- 50 years ago

Moline police and FBI agents continued their investigation into the mysterious disappearance of seven dozen women's dresses, valued at $400, from a truck shipment. The dresses, in two cartons, were shipped from Boris Smolen Sons, Elkhart, Ind., to the Petersen Harned VonMaur store in Davenport. The shipment cleared the Chicago docks of the company where the truck was sealed. The truck arrived in Moline with the seal intact but with no trace of the dresses.

1978 -- 25 years ago

Mrs. Ralph Gerhardt's flowering cactus at Barstow has blossomed out this year with 20 large, orange-red blooms and buds, the most it has ever had during its 65-year life.

Back: Available days in June 2003