100 YEARS AGO, FEBRUARY 1919
Quite an assemblage of planters gathered at the courthouse last Monday. A. L. Maxell was elected permanent chairman, R. C. Fox, Jr., Secretary and C. P. Adair, Assistant Secretary. Delegates from Beat 3 are W. R. Early, C. F. Klingman, J. W. Corder and W. H. Carothers. They adopted a resolution to not plant more than 2/3 of their cultivatable land in cotton.
J. H. Price announced his candidacy for office of County Attorney. Mr. Price is one of the oldest and best members of our county bar.
50 YEARS AGO, FEBRUARY 1969
Forty-three Eagle Scouts from the Delta area were recognized at the annual meeting held at the Cleveland Country Club last week. John Ammons of Inverness and Burke Fisher of Indianola were two of those.
Mr. R. M. Yarbrough, retired Postmaster and conductor of tours was the guest speaker at the Garden Lovers Club. Mrs. Phillip Fratesi presided. The meeting was held in the home of Mrs. Henry Weber on Magnolia Drive.
Mrs. P. W. Allen who is retiring after more than 20 years as Clerk of the Selective Service board was honored with a dinner at Weber’s Restaurant, hosted by W. D. Hemphill, Chairman, Edgar Hobbs and Waldemar Pritchard.
The First Methodist Church in Leland was the setting of the wedding of Kaye Franklin of Leland and John C. Duease of Indianola.
25 YEARS AGO, FEBUARY, 1994
Members of the B & PW Club met last Wednesday at Weber’s Restaurant. Mrs. Barbara Randall was program chairman and the topic was hobbies. She stated that her hobby was knitting and displayed one of her sweaters. She told the group that all her family had sweaters which she had hand-knit for them. Mrs. Abe Weinberg said that her grandchildren were her hobbies.
15 YEARS AGO, FEBRUARY 2004
Wellington Cox Howard, Sr., and Wellington Cox Howard, II, grandson and great grandson of Wayne and Minnie Cox were in town for the dedication of the historical marker in Cox Park honoring the famous Indianola couple.
Spring is approaching and so is Gentry High School baseball. Starting pitchers will be Adrian Cobb, Cedrick Palmerlee, Sam McClinton and Jeffrey Lee.
Lifelong resident and former member and president of the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors, Jim Corder, was the subject of a feature article. He will celebrate his 93rd birthday on March 3. He talked about early life in Sunflower County and told a humorous tale of his first day at school at the one room schoolhouse in Fairview. “I was just a little farm boy. We had lots of animals on the farm and I knew what the word “castrate” meant. Well, on my first day at school some boys said they were going to “initiate” me into their club. It sounded a whole lot like “castrate” to me, so I walked home. It was a year before my mama could get me back in that schoolhouse”.
THE CORDER FAMILY
The name Corder has been identified with community service in Sunflower County almost since its beginning.
The first James Corder came to Sunflower County and settled in the Fairview Community in 1882. As noted in pages from 100 years ago, he was elected to serve on a committee involving farming.
In addition to that, he was the first person to buy a car from the Myrick Agency in 1915. In 1938 when efforts were being made to bring electricity to rural areas, he was named to an eleven-member board by Delta Electric Power Association.
His son, Jim, as he was affectionately called, followed right along in his footsteps.
He served 28 years as a member of the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors, 16 of those as President, he was a member of the South Sunflower County Hospital Board, Sunflower County Progress Board, a lifetime deacon at the First Baptist Church. In 1995, he was awarded the prestigious Morris Lewis Jr. Citizen of the Year Award by the Indianola Chamber of Commerce.
