Other days

100 YEARS AGO July 19, 1919

FORT SMITH — “The threatened strike of coal miners of the Central Coal and Coke Company in the Bevier district of Missouri will not extend to Arkansas,” Peter R. Stewart, commissioner for the Operators’ Association, said today upon his return from Muskogee, Okla., where yesterday he attended a meeting of the joint board of miners and operators. “The miners employed by the Central Company in Arkansas have no grievance with their employers and there is no reason to extend the strike call to this state.”

50 YEARS AGO July 19, 1969

■ The State Police said 643 cars were stolen in Arkansas during the first six months of this year, and 488 were recovered, including some stolen outside the state. The Arkansas thefts represent about $771,600 worth of property. The recoveries represent about $585,600. Each car may be expected to receive $200 damage while stolen, the police said. Col. Ralph D. Scott, the State Police director, said the recovery of stolen vehicles, particularly those from outside the state, had been increased “considerably” through access to the National Center at Washington, which acts as a clearinghouse for computerized data about thefts and greatly speeds up checking out suspected stolen cars.

25 YEARS AGO July 19, 1994

■ A fire that gutted a vacant building at the old Vertac plant site early Saturday was “suspicious,” the Jacksonville fire marshal said Monday. It was the second abandoned building at the site to burn since May 29. “There was no known heat source at the structure,” said Capt. Charlie Pope, the city fire marshal. “We’re treating it as a suspicious fire.” Security guards working for URS Consultants, the company overseeing the incineration of hazardous wastes at the site, summoned firefighters about 1:55 a.m. when they noticed flames coming out of the one-story building. Hercules Inc. used the building as a locker room and break room when it produced herbicides at the plant during the 1960s, Pope said. But Pope said a second building built onto the locker room building contained drums of 2,4-D waste. A fire wall separated the buildings.

10 YEARS AGO July 19, 2009

TEXARKANA — A homeless Shetland pony, blind in the right eye with a deformed right leg after a collision with a vehicle, is still alive, probably because of stubbornness. The Shetland pony has been rescued by neighbors of the late D.W. Wilson, the ARTEX Animal Welfare Association Inc. and Connie Slater, an animal control officer for the Texarkana, Ark., Police Department. The capture of the pony June 12 will give it a chance to feel love again, Slater said. For about three years the Shetland pony has roamed about 90 acres on the east side of Texarkana between Old Post Road and Joey Lane, surviving like any wild animal. Wilson died in 2006 in a car accident, said ARTEX President Dixie Wilson, no relationship. When he died, D.W. Wilson was caring for several other animals, including horses and the Shetland pony. “The horse had been hit by a car when it was young, and Mr. Wilson rescued it. He also rescued other animals. A vet [wanted to] put the horse down, but he didn’t want to. Most of the neighbors validated Mr. Wilson saved the horse,” Dixie Wilson said.