FCS Financial: One Hundred Years July 2016 | Page 68

Not surprisingly, emotions ran high as the agricultural crisis
raged on and the foreclosure rate reached its peak. Though the
protest never got violent, Darrell Skipper remembers a few nervous
days in the Chillicothe office as tractors rolled into town en
masse. Organizers like Jesse Jackson showed up and John Cougar
Mellencamp came to give a concert. Even though the protest was
aimed primarily at other lending agencies whose liberal lending
policies had led to an even higher foreclosure rate, the Chillicothe
PCA office was barricaded by tractors as well. “Our central office at
that time was in Kirksville and I called and asked what we should do.
They said, ‘We don’t want to bend in to the pressures of the protest so
you need to open the office even though it’s barricaded.’ We parked
across the street and walked over to the office. They told us, ‘If you’re
confronted, answer the questions,’ so that’s what we did.”

Garnett Innes of
Fayette wins the
drawing prize
during the 1981
Missouri State Fair.

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Selected References