Trouble that has been brewing in the Brunswick town council between Mayor Edward C. Shafer and four members of the council came to a climax at the regular monthly meeting of the council when Mr. Shafer scored in a severe manner and called upon Councilmen H.C. Allgire, C.H.F. Keenan and C.M. Lloyd to prove a statement published over their signatures. He said he would give them 10 days to prepare and publish a retraction of their statement.

Merchants and business men of the city have signed an agreement to consider closing their stores at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, Saturdays excepted, until Oct. 14. Beginning Dec. 26, the 5 o’clock closing hour will again go into effect and continue until the following Oct. 14.

50 Years Ago

April 9, 1971

Maryland became the 16th state Thursday night to ratify a proposed amendment to the federal constitution that would give the right to vote in state and local elections to persons over 18.

Six Bradford ornamental pear trees are displaying buds in honor of their first spring in Frederick. The trees, planted in the sidewalks on West Second Street near North Market Street last fall by Donald C. Linton, will have white blossoms but no fruit.

20 Years Ago

April 9, 2001

Nearly 1,000 spectators flocked to Walkersville High School on Sunday night to hear more about the life of one of the victims of the most tragic school violence incident the country has ever seen. Darrell Scott, father of Rachel Joy Scott, recalled for the audience his emotions and a slew of spiritual writings of his daughter before her death at Columbine High School on April 29, 1999. He quoted words from some of Rachel’s six diaries in which she asked that God use her “to teach the unreached.”

Who burned down a local distillery during the Civil War’s Battle of South Mountain? According to an exhibit in Burkittsville, opened to the public for the first time Saturday, rumor has it that Union officers set fire to the whiskey mill just south of town. Why would they do that? Because the northerners were unhappy that their soldiers were getting drunk when they should have been fighting the rebels.