SERVING HENDRICKS COUNTY SINCE 1847
Page A-2
The Republican
Delving Into Yester~Year
Local historian and writer Paul Miner takes items from
The Republican’s Yester-Year column to develop an interesting, informative and often humorous article.
To the Editor: Chess was Pecksburg’s “prevailing amusement” in early 1896. Mid-December a dozen years earlier, checkers was “all the go” in Brownsburg. Top town news was the question, “Who killed the cat?” Whose cat? How did it die? Someone gets run over by a train and every gory detail is provided. Is not a cat’s demise worthy of faint description? Two Pittsboro fellows laid claim as checkers champions two Decembers later. The decisive game would be a sports reporter’s dream assignment. Around which store’s pot-bellied stove did the two battle? Was either title-seeker considered rather aged for the sport? What did they wear? Did they sit, stand, or lounge languidly, feigning desultory moves to confuse their opponent? Were there downright unnerving high-decibel tennis grunts when one player triple-jumped his way to demanding “king me?” Dear Editor, Pecksburg often had the best news. Mart Roberts reported he had occasional “well defined” symptoms of pink eye in June 1883. Dogs had killed 36 of Scipio West’s “fine flavor” Southdown sheep in the past 10 months. Amo was suspected for planting smallpox fake news against Pecksburg. Today, that kind of stuff would appear on Facebook, garnering innumerable “likes.” I found myself riddling how many grains of wheat fit on a chessboard if the first square holds one, the second one two, the third four, and each successive square doubling again. The answer, of course, is 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains. The hard part is ensuring a single grain doesn’t spill onto a neighboring square. Progressive euchre was becoming popular in Danville early in 1885, and so was the Wabash Scratches if repeated mention in local news is any indication. Woolford’s Sanitary Lotion cured it in 30 minutes on humans, and horses. Arguments over Scripture and chess seemed “to go together pretty well” at an unnamed Brownsburg drug store in February 1888. Try that at Walgreens today. The town’s Thomas Canary was “fond” of the game. Bud Boteman was considered Montclair’s checkers champion in March 1888. A doctor was rumored to arrive. Village barber and cobbler Andrew Weddle was busy. Danville’s Dr. Frank Huron and Professor Tuttle played chess during their spare time in August 1889, but far bigger town news was the paper’s exhortation to “kill the rest of the dogs” and admonishing those with no manners not to attend church. Amo men played checkers in the street in mid-1890 while their wives chopped wood “for their dinners. Think of this, good people.” “Crack” checkers player Orlando “Lannie” Powers was the man to beat in Danville in 1893. Several players practiced to topple him and, responding to rumors, he dropped in at Keeney’s livery stable one November Sunday, where the “schemers” immediately challenged him. When Lannie left the livery victorious, the vanquished declared “they did not care to play checkers anymore.” Anyone wanting to be “up to the times” in Danville in 1894 had a checkerboard ready for play. Visitor Theo Gibbs offered the locals hints during an early January visit. Lannie Powers was the only Danville player to beat Gibbs. Powers was Hendricks County’s last harness horse trainer when he died in April 1945, his obituary reported. He trained from around 1884 to 1917. He and his family lived awhile near the racetrack west of Danville. He had worked for Klondike Milling Company and then Farm Bureau Cooperative. Following the death of a “phenomenal” chess player in 1893, examining anatomists declared molecules in part of his brain had arranged themselves into squares resembling a chessboard and that each square bore “position” marks of the last 12 games he’d played simultaneously while blindfolded. The reprinted report avowed microscopes “of the highest power” discerned the discovery that was “true in every particular.” Did Liberace’s brain resemble a piano? Did Walt Disney’s hemispheres pass for a pair of over-developed rodent ears? The Daughters of Rebekah put on a two-game checkers “social” one October night in 1898, with the ladies serving as living checker pieces. Dr. Harlan won one game and Mell C. Masten won the other. What did the ladies do when either of the two players reached the king’s row? During play, did they actually jump over each other, and was that proper behavior for those times? Paul Miner Lizton ______________________________________________________________________
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It’s News To Us
Birthday parties, new babies, anniversaries, visits from long-lost cousins -these items that make up the kind of news you only find in the pages of The Republican. If you have a local news item you’d like to contribute, you can call us at 317-745-2777, send by fax to 317-647-4341, e-mail to therepublican@ sbcglobal.net or drop by the office at 6 East Main in Danville. Our deadline for submitting news items is noon on Monday for Thursday’s edition.
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Yester~Year
The Republican has published local news weekly since 1847. We offer this column as a look back at events from our archives and to help connect today’s readers to the people and events in our past. ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of March 26, 1896 New Winchester: Aunt Melinda Sharp, aged seventy-six, rode to church on horseback Sunday. The “old maids” of Avon and vicinity held a leap year convention at the home of Miss Ora Bartley, one evening last week. “How to be Happy tho’ Married” was the title of a thoughtful paper by Miss L.S. She insisted that by judicious management, a married woman could have her own way and yet have the husband under the impression that he was the sole boss of the ranch, so to speak. Plainfield: Miss Mary Clark won first prize in oratory and Miss Merritt won first in declamation at the Academy Contests. Mont Clair: Bill Howard, formerly employed at the buggy and wagon factory of Mr. Olsen at Pittsboro, is now engaged in blacksmithing at this place. Rainstown: Milt Armstrong has had a new milk house built at the base of his windmill. Mont Clair: Jovial Isaac Mendenhall is highest and surest footed in favor of McKinley than any man in the county. That is, he is seven feet tall and wears a No. 14 shoe. Lizton: A.M. Thompson, in one shipment on Dec. 14th, shipped from this place 19,940 pounds of dressed poultry on which the freight was $149.55 and has handled, during the seson just passed,a total of 45,000 pounds of dressed poultry for which he paid the farmers in the round numbers $6,000. He assures us that the business is only in infancy. New Winchester: Dr.Osborne had a pleasant drive two miles north of New Maysville, Putnam County, that horrible stormy night, at midnight, seven miles from here. It was enough to kill a man made of sheet-iron. ______ ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO Issue of March 24, 1921 Despite what the weather man and Uncle Mike Rodney may have up their sleeves for the future, there are some sure signs of spring. Saturday, the blind man was singing on the streets, his cup being extended for the change of people passing. The first medicine man of the season held forth all afternoon and evening and raked in the dollars in exchange for the cure-alls he sold. Judge Dougan thought he almost had the infant class before him when three Washington township lads, ages 14, 13 and 12, were charged with petit larceny, the alleged offense being in taking chickens from the hennery of the Methodist parsonage at Avon. A Carnival is to be given Saturday night, April 2, at the D.H.S. building in which we will have “An Old Mill Fish Pond, Swimming Match, Fortune Teller, Smallest Baby in the World, Some Excellent Belgian Hares and a Merry-go-round.” Also a vaudeville and roof garden with swell music. Clayton: The new fence about the high school grounds is nearing completion. Shrubbery, trees and hedges are shortly to be planted with appropriate exercises by the high school on Arbor day. According to the calendar, spring officially arrived last Monday, when the sun crossed the Rockville road and the wind and rain storm cut up “high jinks,” as usual, followed by clearing and colder weather. Miss Mildred Musgrave closed her studio, this week, to attend series of lectures, at Indianapolis, on advance photography. Thad S. Adams received a special shipment of eight gallons of Miami county pure maple syrup from Mr. and Mrs. Will Howes of Peru. Two gallons of it were immediately expressed to his sons, Campbell and Donald Adams, New York City. Hazelwood: Tom Mix at “The Cozy Theater” Saturday night in “The Untamed.” Good comedy. _______ SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of March 28, 1946 Clayton: The Seniors added $100 to their Washington trip fund from concession rights and dance following the donkey basketball game, Saturday night. Sammy Eggers, employed at Thompson Drug Co., is driving the first Dodge to be displayed at E.J. Roberts’ garage. Everett Long, living near Clayton, bought the second Dodge the same day. Since the opening of the Frozen Food Locker plant, an average of over 3,000 pounds of processed meat per day has been taken care of. The newly organized Hoosier Sympho-
ny Orchestra will make its debut, Sunday afternoon, April 7, at 3 o’clock, in the Central Normal College gymnasium, with Percy Grainger, world-famous pianist-composer-conductor, as guest artist. The Danville High School Warriors’ regional tourney basketball team was entertained at a dinner at Spring Hill and a hockey game at the coliseum at Indianapolis, Sunday evening, by House of Hadley, Moore Insurance Agency, Danville Drug Store, H.H. Disney and son, Hursel, Jr. Dr. Harlan H. Tyner of Indianapolis has purchased the office and residence of Dr. R.E. Jones at Clayton and will move his family there within the next week. Dr. and Mrs. Jones will move to California for permanent residence. Amos Shelton of New Winchester , former basketball coach at Amo, is walking on crutches as a result of the donkey basketball game at New Winchester, Saturday night, when his foot was injured. _____ FIFTY YEARS AGO Issue of March 25, 1971 The new Reno substation, energized January 25, will highlight the accomplishments at the 35th annual meeting of the Hendricks County Rural Electric Membership Co-operative, Saturday, at Cascade High School. Mrs. Evelyn R. Nye has been promoted to Post Master at Amo. Hursel Disney, president of the First National Bank & Trust Co, Plainfield, has presented an original signature of President Martin Van Buren to the Historical Room of the Plainfield Library. “Aerial” was the word that kept Cindy Newell of Pittsboro from winning the Hendricks County Spelling bee last week at Plainfield. Larry McClane of Cascade Junior High School corrected the word and then spelled “benevolent” correctly to take first place. Bruce Gibbs, R.R. 1, Clayton, has been named to receive a special award for his excellence in corn growing from Funks G-Hybrids. A daughter, Kelly Maureen, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Elvin Cassity of New Winchester, March 20, at Hendricks County Hospital. The Cassitys also have a 4-yearold daughter, Colleen Marie. __________ TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of March 21, 1996 “Clycler,” a recycled robot, spoke to Grade 2 students last Monday about ways we can help reduce, reuse, and recycle to reach the goal of Half the Trash by 2001. Monday night, the Danville Twin Bridges Recycling and Disposal Facility presented their plans for connection to the Town’s sanitary sewers for leachate. The North Salem Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, North California street, will dedicate its recently refurbished sanctuary on Sunday, March 24. The current sanctuary was built in 1903. Cole Warren Dugan was born on March 15, 1996 at the Hendricks Community Hospital, Danville at 6:24 a.m., weighed in at 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 22 inches long. Cole is the son of J.R. and Tammy Dugan. Clayton Pruet of Danville exhibited the reserve bull calf champion at the 1996 Indiana Angus Futurity Show & Sale at Franklin. The winning entry is named Pruet Executive 16E. _____ TEN YEARS AGO Issue of March 24, 2011 Avon resident Ralph “Zoc” Zoccolillo of the Indiana Blue Star Salute program was honored for his work in support of veterans and their families at the Indiana Social Work Celebration. The luck of the Irish was with Judge Jeffrey V. Boles on March 17 as he was declared winner of the annual Dash to the DQ by default when his competitor, Emory Lemke, Executive Director of Hendricks County Convention and Visitors Bureau, did not show up on opening day. On March 22, a tribute was made to the late Bob Carroll, building program manager of the Hendricks County Engineering Dept. for more than 30 years. A portrait was unveiled that will hang outside the Circuit Court Room with a plaque recognizing Carroll’s “commitment and unwavering dedication to restoring and preserving the integrity of the Hendricks County Court House. Hendricks County Arts Council announces the establishment of the Susan Miller Carter Scholarship for Fine Arts and Philanthropy Plans are underway to renovate the aging concrete block Amo Community Building that was dedicated in 1959. __________
