1943 :: No Holiday Street Lighting This Year

As was the case last year there will be no holiday street lighting in downtown Rockdale this year, in compliance with requests of the War Production Board. The WPB is again urging communities to forego extensive illumination displays in order to conserve vital energy and materials. The Rockdale Reporter and Messenger (Rockdale, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 45, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 9, 1943

1906 :: No Hunting

All hunters are hereby warned not to hunt in the field north of the Odd Fellows' cemetery. This field is posted. N.J. Alford. Rockdale Reporter. (Rockdale, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 6, 1906

1896 :: Death of J.E. Baumgarten

Dallas Morning News. Rockdale, Tex., Nov. 20. -- The dead body of J.E. Baumgarten, with the top of the head blown off and a shotgun beside the body, was found in his room this afternoon by the man's two motherless boys, 9 and 11 years of age. The aged father and two children had lived together and kept a small grocery store. Austin Weekly Statesman, November 26, 1896 

1960 :: Grave of Lawson Woods

. . . Some slaves are buried near their masters. Most of these graves are unmarked but one simple monument erected by a white friend marks the grave of Lawson Woods, a former slave of the Wilson - Sampson family. The Cameron Herald (Cameron, Tex.), Vol. 101, No. 35, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 24, 1960

1896 :: Killing of E.B. Shipman

The Galveston Daily News
October 14, 1896

Committed Without Bail.

Rockdale, Tex., Oct. 12. -- In the case of the killing of E.B. Shipman, an account of which was published in The News of the 10th instant, R.N. Penny, who was charged with the killing, was committed to jail without bail. It was developed in the examining trial that there had been bad blood between the parties since the father of the murdered man was accidentally killed by Tom Penny, a brother of the man charged with this murder, although E.B. Shipman was the father-in-law of his slayer, Penny having married his daughter about a year ago.

1881 :: Prison Escape

Dallas Morning News. Rockdale, September 20. -- Six prisoners escaped from the Cameron jail last Saturday night. One was captured; the remainder are still at large. Robert J. Boykin, jr., who killed Wm. Brodnax, is among the number. Weekly Democratic Statesman, Austin, Texas, September 22, 1881

1921 :: C.H. Sullivan Body Found

BODY OF ROCKDALE FARM MANAGER IS RECOVERED

Special to The News. Rockdale, Tex., Sept. 16. -- The body of Charles Hewlett Sullivan [sic, e.g., Hewlett Chiles Sullivan], drowned in the recent flood, was recovered at a late hour this afternoon by Ottie Alford, a member of the Rockdale searching party which has been at work ever since last Monday. Sullivan's home was in Anderson, S.C. Galveston Daily News, September 17, 1921