SERVING HENDRICKS COUNTY SINCE 1847
Page 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: At 420 pounds, Phil Kreigh was “the biggest Democrat” in Indiana in March 1896. The farmer apparently was north Franklin Township’s Democratic committee. Another source, recalling his tours with Barnum & Bailey Circus, cites his top weight at 775 pounds. He rests at Stilesville Cemetery. Politics was big in Stilesville back then. Governor Conrad Baker, a Republican, and U.S. Senator Thomas Hendricks, Democrat, convened their fifth “joint discussion” (a debate) in Stilesville in September 1868. The Democratic convention for the local congressional district was held at Stilesville in August 1878. Being on the National Road then apparently had its advantages. Governor James “Blue Jeans” Williams addressed “the democratic yeomanry.” Former U.S. district attorney and Congressman John Hanna spoke at a town jollification in October 1880. California suffragist Nellie Holbrook and Nebraska’s Paul Vandervoort spoke at Stilesville’s political rally in October 1884. Vandervoort was a former commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. Patriotism! Young ladies of Stilesville were complimented in the Indianapolis Journal in August 1863. Union soldiers pursuing “the traitors” in Putnam County stopped to rest at the town. “It was not known they were coming, but in less than an hour the patriotic ladies had prepared . . . an excellent and plentiful supper.” Overwhelmed by the women’s “cordiality and grace,” the soldiers declared they were “’going for them’ as soon as the war is over.” Crimes were outstanding. Forty were poisoned near Stilesville in June 1851 and doctors believed 29-30 would not recover, the Putnam County Sentinel reported. “The person implicated as being accessory to this horrid deed is said to be an old woman anxious to get rid of some grand-children.” She reportedly poisoned a barrel of flour meant for her intended victims, but it ended up being used by a family hosting a quilting party. The victims immediately began violently vomiting and exhibiting signs of poisoning. The old woman was brought before a justice of the peace, but was released due to insufficient evidence. A Stilesville snowball fight gone bad in February 1874 ended with knives drawn, and a boy of 11 stabbed another in the abdomen. He was jailed. White Caps almost lynched a man implicated in his wife’s poisoning in early April 1888, but when he refused to confess, the mob cut him down and ordered him to leave the county by morning. “But for his pugnacity,” O.A. Hume of Stilesville would have fallen victim to footpads on South Illinois Street, Indianapolis, in November 1874. In other words, on-foot highwaymen picked the wrong guy to rob. In March 1877, two doctors and another fellow were charged with digging up a just-buried woman from a Greencastle cemetery, hiding it in a stable near town and then taking it to Stilesville, “or vicinity,” where they dissected the remains. They were released on $200 bail until the circuit court’s next term. One of at least five town doctors, Allen K. Heavenridge practiced from the mid-1870s until at least 1899. The Rush Medical School graduate died in 1902, age 72, and rests at Stilesville Cemetery. I don’t know whether he or the others dug up bodies. Heavenridge was vice president of the planned 150-mile Indianapolis, Eel River and Southwestern Railroad, intended to serve small towns and “running through the best coal fields of Indiana.” He promoted the railroad at Belleville in February 1882 and it was said the company’s $2 million in capital stock “foreshadows success.” The failed plan would have been “of inestimable value to those beautiful, but tomblike, villages.” Stilesville was considered “a quiet village” in comparison to “the commercial town” of Coatesville in 1883. That tiny Franklin Township town was expecting “a boom in the near future” in mid1885, waiting “patiently for the development of the evolvement.” One boom already had occurred. Stilesville’s Martha Cooper won 25 yards of carpet at Danville’s July 4, 1887, celebration in a contest for the matron who could “show up” with the most kids under 21. The wife of Methodist Episcopal minister Shelby Cooper claimed 13 children ranging from 24 to three-years-old, with 12 still at home, but I wonder whether she’d overlooked one, because more than one source cites 15, with one dying in infancy. 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, April 1, 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 April 2, 1896 Mont Clair: Wade Harrison’s sale was well attended and everything brought a fair price – for Democratic times. Stilesville: Otis Hendren is erecting an ice cream parlor. New Winchester: Ben Kennedy has been appointed postmaster here. Hazlewood: a bundle of switches was found at a certain man’s door a few mornings ago. A few written words of explanation were left with the switches. Danville Town Board: Mr. Downard said that Mr. James Jeffers wanted an ordinance passed making it unlawful for chickens to run at large in the town of Danville. Mr. Tinder said he was in favor of such an ordinance as he thought he fed about 300 of his neighbor’s chickens. Mr. VanNote and Mr. Downard said they were against it as they did not keep chickens and when they came in their yards, they killed them. They both intimated that if such and ordinance be passed, they would lose one source of meat supply. The Republican students of the Central Normal College have organized a club and named it the”McKinley League of Central Normal College.” The festive burglar was out Saturday night. They went to Howell’s grocery and worked on the safe, but were unsuccessful in getting inside. They took a lunch of sausage and crackers and went on their way. Pecksburg: Ozro Hadley, who had passed the civil service examination for a position as postal clerk, has a job of weighing mail for a month on the T.H. & I. local run. _____ ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO Issue of April 7, 1921 Miss Julia Kreider, representing Plainfield high school, won the discussion contest in the county contest, Friday night, at the chapel. The piano contest was won by Miss Alice McCoun, representing Danville. In voice, Miss Elizabeth Johnson, of Brownsburg was first. The deed has just been recorded by which the trustees of Central Academy at Plainfield transfer the property to Guilford school township, the consideration being given at $30,000. Avon: There is a potato planting race on between Douglas Givan and John Huron. Master Billy King Harvey is a victim of mumps and whooping cough which is about enough for once. Clayton: The fore part of the week we could hear loud reports from west of town like dynamiting stumps but could not understand it. Now we are informed that “Bill Gum” Johnson was blowing up his potato crop so that he could set our fruit trees. Coatesville: The Bluze Base Ball team will again be in the field. A new park is under construction and the following players have been signed: Dawson Scott, A. Stewart, Sullivan, Blue, O. Stewart, Pruitt, Whitiker, Clark. This is practically the same team that won 16 out of 21 games played last year. Pittsboro: Jonas Jordan, a lad who left here in the early ‘70’s, came this way to visit last week. Forty-two years absence from Pittsboro changed everything to “Jone” as we used to call him. He has been a railroader forty years of his life. ______ SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of April 4, 1946 Work has been started on the proposed elevator at Old Avon by contractors for Bernard Bradley of Bridgeport. Construction is expected to be completed by harvest time. Two hundred fourteen seniors will graduate from 11 high schools in the county this spring. The Republican has been accredited by the Indiana State Approval Committee for training veterans under the G.I. Bill of Rights “on-the-job” training program and A.B. Hussong, Jr., who returned last fall after two years overseas in the European Theater of operations, is the trainee. County Commissioners recorded a recommendation of $3,360 for the employment of a county service officer form May 1 to December 31, 1946 to represent and assist veterans. North Salem: Rev. C.H. Hanson, who represents the Christian church in sponsoring the Boy Scouts, recorded the Charter, Thursday night. Avon: Boy Scout charter night and candle investiture will be held at the church, Sunday, April 7. The group will receive their charter for the third year as Troop 306.
Construction work on the north side of the public square in Danville is at a standstill this week, pending settlement of damages which resulted last Thursday afternoon when a wall of a building owned by Ed Crawley, and located on the west side of the two vacant lots, collapsed. ______ FIFTY YEARS AGO April 1, 1971 Miss Jeanne Gulley, with her father, Norman Gulley, and brothers David, Glenn, and David, spent the past weekend celebrating her birthday with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. H.J. Quinett, at Vincennes. Danville will become Site No. 12, comprising Danville, Lebanon, and Greencastle in a forthcoming change in the Indiana Selective Service System. Hubert Haynes has signed a three-year contract as superintendent of schools at Brownsburg. He will succeed Frederick L. O’Neal, who will retire June 30 Attendance was estimated at nearly 2,000 at the 35th annual meeting of the Hendricks County Rural Electric Membership at Cascade high school. Every inch of ground in Hendricks County is being studied and mapped in comprehensive study “701,” now in progress. This information will be used in updating the 1958 Zoning Ordinance and Master Plan of Hendricks County. Mark Havens, Danville Community High School senior, placed first in the Hendricks County Talent Contest, Saturday evening in Brownsburg. He received a $100 prize for the piano solo, “Malaguerna.” Danny Pritchett, Danville Community High School junior, won the Rotary Speech District Contest at Lebanon last Monday evening and received a $25 savings bond. He spoke on “Prison Reforms.” ______ TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of March 28, 1996 Lizton: Several from here attended the wedding of Kevin Covey and Amy Hurst at Avon, Saturday evening. Kevin is the son of Keith and Karen Covey. The newlyweds will reside in Lizton. Members of the graduating class of Danville Community High School will be the first recipients of the Joe & Mary Helen Bennett Scholarship. These scholarships are because of a trust set up by the will of Mary Helen Bennett, who died March 12, 1995. Hendricks County’s $35-million northsouth corridor will link I-74 and I-70 in 10 to 12 years, according to predictions of engineers and county officials at a public hearing last week, at Plainfield High School. March 20 was the first day of Spring. A total of 13.5 inches of snow fell with eastwest roads drifted shut, with some drifts 7 ft. high. An estimated 100 cars and trucks were stranded on U.S. 36 between Danville and New Winchester. On the New Winchester end, Elvin Ray and Kathleen Cassity opened their home to some 35 motorists and truck drivers who were stranded. Congratulations to Mollie O’Brien for breaking the Danville Community Middle School record in diving earlier this year. The French Department of Danville Community High School announces that tree students are currently participating in the Indiana University Program in Foreign Languages for high school students: Kate Harcourt, Jennifer Rodney, and Sharyn Routh. _______ TEN YEARS AGO Issue of March 28, 2011 The Danville Parks & Recreation Department is looking at the possibility of acquiring a third piece of land for expansion of the Town’s park system. The Park Board has the opportunity to purchase 48 acres, located east of the north portion of the park, along Sycamore. All members (past and present) of Twin Bridges Toast Master Club are invited to the 11th anniversary of the founding of the club. The Indiana Historical Society Press has released, Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court. Six of the Justices had ties to Hendricks County. The chapter on Judge Hadley was written by local historian Libbe Hughes of Danville. The Greater Danville Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony as part of the open house for Hunt & Sons Memorials, LLC, at 2655 East Main Street, Danville, on March 16. Mary Ann and Estel Barry celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on March 24. They first met in Geometry Class at Howe High School.
