40 Years Ago
January 1979
Ross Arbuckle, operator of Iolas first radio broadcasting station, a pioneer pilot and the oldest Chrysler car dealer in Kansas when he retired in 1967, died this morning at the age of 87. Arbuckle came to Iola in 1917 to work as a mechanic for the Overland Garage. He opened his own shop that year. In 1922 he built a radio broadcasting station with the call letters KFID which he operated from his garage. In 1926 he became the Chrysler dealer for Iola, a title he held for 52 years. The agency is still operated as Arbuckle Motors by his son, Harold. He learned to fly an airplane from his friend Fritz Womack in 1927 and flew his own plane for 12 years before giving up the hobby. He was mayor of Iola for a year and served on the Allen County Hospital Board for six years.
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Patrons of Bourbon Rural Water District No. 4 will start drinking water purified by Iola National Guard mobile units this week. Saturday and Sunday members of the unit dispatched two of its mobile purification units to a quarry about 3 miles south of Blue Mound. Three heavy canvas water-holding tanks were also set up near the purification unit so that water can be held in large quantities before being fed into the water district lines.
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The water situation at Bronson remains critical. The city is still buying 30,000 gallons a day from Iola. The Chicken Shack is serving dinners on paper plates to save dish-washing water. The only car wash in town closed weeks ago. I guess well just wait for the spring rains, owner Danny Graham said.
