IN 1977

Feb. 18 preliminary hearings were set for two brothers, James Gardner, 18, and Joseph Gardner Jr., 22, in the stabbing death of Margaret Mary Maxey, 46. Mrs. Maxey’s body, with the legs severed near the knees, had been found on a wooded hillside at the north end of Connecticut Street.

Lawrence city commissioners unanimously agreed “in principle” to proposals allowing the city to reacquire rights to 6 of 14 acres making up the south bank levee property east of the Massachusetts Street bridge over the Kansas River. In return for the rights, which were viewed as essential if the area was to be upgraded, the Bowersock Mills and Power Co. was to retain the right to generate electricity at the Bowersock Dam on the river. And Kansas Fibreboard Inc. was to get a new 30-year lease on 8 acres at the eastern end of the site, a lease no longer tied to a requirement that the firm maintain the dam.

IN 1902

On Feb. 10, 1902, the Lawrence Journal, in light of the recent decision by the county commission to accept J.B. Watkins’ free offer of the southeast corner of Quincy (now 11th) and Massachusetts, commented one county commissioner’s motivation in voting for the location. The Journal quipped: “In explaining his vote on the court house location, Jack Watts said he ‘consulted the feelings in his own breast.’ Does Jack carry his pocketbook and the deeds to his south end property in his breast pocket?”