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: I rather wish Lizton was still called New Elizabeth. No reason other than if the name had to be shortened, I would have preferred Lizzie. Lizzie, Indiana, is where I’d rather be. Perry Winkle, Crawfordsville Weekly Journal correspondent, described New Elizabeth in an 1859 account of a journey that passed through the Union Township village. It was “quaint and quiet, with low and dingy houses and muddy streets.” Jesse Vieley laid out the town in 1837, naming it for his wife. She was not called New Elizabeth; of that I’m certain. Perry Winkle called New Elizabeth an old place, “once celebrated for its TwentyThree-Mile House” midway between Crawfordsville and Indianapolis. “The rich, black soil” surrounding New Elizabeth, Perry reported, “has been covered to a considerable extent with water,” but timber clearing was converting it to farmland. “What was once called the swamps of Boone and Hendricks will become the best farming land in the State.” The village anticipated a gravel road connecting it to Danville. Lizton never occupied “a forward place” in the county, saith the 1914 county historian, although it claimed “prosperous and public-spirited citizens.” Could be. Between 1,200-1,500 attended a political gathering at a “beautiful grove” just east of town in August 1868. It was an election year, culminating with Ulysses Grant sworn in as president. The crowd began with “hickory wagons loaded with young ladies, with the wagons decked with small flags, accompanied by a martial band of music and a large number on horses pass(ing) through town.” The actual words three speakers uttered were not recorded, but from the report given by the Daily State Sentinel, I conclude they were racially tinged. I’ve not time to delve. The following September, New Elizabeth hosted an agricultural exposition. Jacob Kennedy, sweet potato plant seller, offered a $10 lamb as premium for the best half bushel of sweet potatoes raised from his sprouts. William Davis took the prize. Irish potatoes, corn, apples, peaches, pears, onions – “in short, specimens of everything raised in the garden, orchard and field” were displayed. Only sweet potatoes won a premium. It was, after all, Jacob’s exposition. New Elizabeth was growing. The “little village” had two new dry goods stores, with a second-floor Masonic Lodge ensconced in one of them, along the new railroad. “A spirit of enterprise has been awakened.” In keeping with journalistic tradition, one paper described the June 1870 agonizing 13-hour death of a New Elizabeth woman when a can of coal oil she was pouring into a stove exploded. “Her body was literally burned into a crisp.” Dear Editor already knows of the fellow who in July 1870 pawned a stolen silver watch in New Elizabeth for whiskey, redeemed it, lost it gambling and was caught roughly five months later. A January 1871 headline, “Dead and Eaten by Swine,” caught my attention. Found in a wooded area near Southport in early 1871, Hickman Hall of New Elizabeth was consumed to his bones by hogs. He was identified by his boots, a ring, his teeth and the remnants of his clothing. The 23-year-old Montgomery County schoolteacher disappeared in December 1870 while visiting his physician brother in Indianapolis. His case was never solved, although foul play was suspected. His remains are at Vieley Cemetery, the boneyard that two years later accepted numerous New Elizabeth cholera victims, some buried in haste and little ceremony. Many overcome by that “pernicious fever,” as some called it, died within four to seven hours. One September 1873 report claimed that out of 108 families there, only five remained. The rest had fled. An 80-year-old War of 1812 veteran succumbed, along with his two-year-old son. New Elizabeth, on the “Crawfordsville Railroad,” had earlier died around May 1873, when “the old awkward post office name” was abbreviated to Lizton by none other than the Postmaster General. That’s what the Indianapolis Journal claimed. There were five other Elizabeths and Elizabeth towns. The village had familiarly been called Liztown. The new name “sounds well, and is convenient.” Then in late September 1874, three I.B.&W. rail cars loaded with ice went off the tracks near Lizton, and their entire contents were lost. Since it happened near the “convenient” village and not New Elizabeth, my interest melted quickly. Paul Miner Lizton (formerly New Elizabeth) ______________________________________________________________________
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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, May 6, 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 May 7, 1896 Mont Clair: House cleaning is the order of the day among the housewives, consequently, the husbands remain in the fields as long as possible. Is there a man on earth who will stay at home during house cleaning time and why to day dislike the job more than a woman? Brownsburg: Ben Salmon will enlarge his hall this summer by raising the roof, making it sixteen foot ceiling, also extending it back, making it seventy feet in length. When completed, it will be the most commodious hall in town. Amo: Sam Atkins treated himself to a nice new surrey, Saturday. Harrison & Garrison are fitting out a great many people with rigs this spring. Our own Albert Orth is setting a rapid pace in the National League. A private letter from a Philadelphia citizen to the editor, says that Orth is regarded as the coming great pitcher of the league. Plainfield has fifty bicycles. The newly-organized Tribe of Ben Hur at Pittsboro has thirty-eight charter members. J.S. Marshall thinks he has the boss hen. She has raised a brood of chickens this year, and has since added forty-eight eggs to the world’s supply. Cartersburg: Sunday was a great time for the Springs, hundreds coming and going all through the day. It is estimated that 3,000 different people were on the grounds during the day. Some 400 wheelmen were out from Indianapolis and with those that came in from other places, it is believed that there were no less than 600 there. Prof. Williamson reports a fine boy at his house, just twenty-four years younger than himself. Coatesville: Earnest Greenlee has a fine new wheel. Pecksburg: John Kendall has been cultivating an appetite by farm labor the past week. _____
nese smallpox, a disease said to be spreading from the west coast, inland. A building code for Danville was discussed at a meeting of the town board. As a formality, E.J. Roberts requested a building permit, necessary only in residential sections, for the building under construction north of the garage. Polly, forty-seven year old pet of Mrs. Anna Skillman died, Saturday. Mrs. Skillman owned the parrot since it was a few weeks old. Polly enjoyed singing more than talking, her favorite song being “The Old Rugged Cross.” ______
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO Issue of May 12, 1921 In a letter to the Danville school board, from Wm. C. McGuire, of the firm of McGuire & Shook, architects, the opinion is expressed that the Mattie A. Keeney building in Danville is in such condition that the estimated amount to repair it is too large to be used for that purpose. Friends and neighbors of Mrs. Dallas Bilbee, whose husband died a few weeks ago living near Maplewood, yesterday went to her home and put in for her thirty acres of corn. At one time, there were working in the field, 51 horses and mules and one tractor. Frederick Vee Osborn, who has just graduated from the Plainfield High School, has been named by Senator New for cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point. County Surveyor Johnson and crew of assistants are moving their instruments and effects from the northwest corner rooms to the southwest corner rooms of the third floor of the court house, formerly used for jury rooms. Stilesville: A fine class of fourteen graduated and all the commencement exercises were good. The Washington township public library will start a book delivery, May 16. Marshall Comingore saw the great Kentucky Derby run at Louisville, Saturday. The alumni banquet of the Amo high school was attended by about eighty and a very enjoyable reunion was held. The ladies of the Rebekah lodge served a delightful four-course supper. _____
FIFTY YEARS AGO Issue of May 6, 1971 Roger Riggs, age 17, R.R. 2, Danville, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ross Riggs, has been selected to perform with the 1971 State 4-H Chorus at the State 4-H Round-Up, June 26-30, at Purdue. Mark Pierson was selected “the most promising grade school musician” Thursday evening in the annual Most Promising Young Artist Contest at the Danville Community School. “It is therefore our recommendation that the old structure [County Home] be replaced with a new, compact, fireproof single story modern structure be built and located on the county acreage south of U.S. 36…” Such was a portion of the report of the Hendricks County Grand Jury to the Circuit court last Wednesday. Miss Pamela Sue Herald, chosen “Miss Plainfield” was a contestant last week in the “Miss Indiana-USA-Universe Beauty Pageant” at Gary. Boy Scout Troop 302 from Danville spent Saturday planting some 750 trees at the site of the former city dump, southeast of Danville, with the hope that some time in the future this area might be suitable for additional park land for the community. Officials of the First National Bank of Danville “broke the sky” instead of the earth at an unusual ground-breaking ceremony, Wednesday afternoon. Fifty large weather balloons, filled with helium, were released from the site by community leaders and the bank’s officers and directors. _____ TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of May 2, 1996 Hendricks County added over 4,100 names to the list of registered voters since the last Primary election in 1994, bringing the total for Tuesday’s election to a record 47,643, The Muncie-based Community Partnership team, headed by Dr. James Segedy and Brad Johnson, conducted a charrette – collection of information – in Danville during the weekend to aid local Town Council members in planning the future. After three and a half years of planning, engineering and undergoing protracted bidding process, work crews are industriously engaged in replacing North Salem’s downtown sidewalks and installing 24 new street lamps. Richard Thompson, of North Salem, Republican candidate for the U.S. Congress, 7th District, received the Washington Tomes Foundation Service Award in Washington, D.C. on April 16. Sharyn Routh, daughter of Marcia and David Routh, has been chosen as one of 30 Indiana high school students to spend 7 weeks in France this summer with the Indiana University honors program in foreign languages. The Danville Community High School junior will live with a French family in Brittany. Craig Callahan graduated from the University of Indianapolis with his Masters degree in Business Administration, Saturday. ______
SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of May 9, 1946 With the final approval of the Northern Diocese, yesterday, upholding the vote of the Southern Diocese last Thursday, the Episcopal Church of Indiana prepared for the assumption of final and complete control of Central Normal College. L.M. Kirtley, Coach at Clayton high school for the past two years, recently resigned and will teach mathematics at Clayton during the coming year. Mr. Kirtley has coached for thirteen years in Hendricks County, having been at Danville eight years and also at Pittsboro three years. In the state poetry contest held this spring, Mrs. Eva Waters (Tiny Mite), Pittsboro, was announced as winner of the first prize for a novelty poem of four lines and Mrs. Arthur Shartle received honorable mention for an eight-line nature poem, “The Birds.” Students in Center township school are being vaccinated this week against Japa-
TEN YEARS AGO Issue of May 5, 2011 The Easter Bunny made his fifth annual visit to Hendricks Regional Health on Saturday, April 24. The costumed Easter Bunny (retired jailer Frank Kolacz) was provided by the Hendricks County Sheriff’s Department. Dressing like a queen without spending a king’s fortune is the idea behind Katie McClure’s resale boutique at 65 W. Marion, Danville. The 500 Festival announced the winner of the inaugural 2011 Centennial Celebration Essay Contest is Kaitlyn Averion from Danville South Elementary. The 500 Festival received 750 entries from fourth grade students across the state. Two Hendricks County students were recently awarded Indiana Sheriffs Association scholarship during a short ceremony at the Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Dave Galloway presented $500 scholarships to Nick Call and Aaron Claus. ___________
