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: Brownsburg was almost deserted in August 1849 as cholera attacked the populace. Three had died in seven cases reported. Doctor Alverson Pinchney Mendenhall, not yet 30 and fearful of contracting the disease, “refused to visit or go near any person that had been near it,” the Locomotive newspaper of Indianapolis reported. A medical student there, shown how to treat patients and supplied by an Indianapolis physician, “succeeded very well.” Mendenhall saw the student riding through town, and asking for cholera medicine, left a bottle on the sidewalk and went back into the house while the student filled it, “so fearful was he of contact with the disease.” Julius A. Jeger posted an ad in the Indiana State Sentinel in December 1852 alerting readers that Brownsburg wanted to grow. The town offered $500 to anyone who would build a steam gristmill and operate a carding machine. “The country for such an enterprise cannot be surpassed, and the Plankroad, now in a state of forwardness, offers great facilities for transportation.” (An 1858 estimate held that land along the Indianapolis and Brownsburg Plank Road had increased in value by $5 an acre.) Jeger was born in 1808 at St. Croix in the West Indies and educated in Copenhagen, according to The Republican. He came to the States at age 18. Jeger arrived in the forest around Brownsburg in the spring of 1845 and wrested a farm from that wilderness. He moved to Lizton in 1856 where he farmed and was a merchant. He lived many years around Brownsburg and Lizton before moving on to Nebraska in 1882 where he ended his days in 1894 among his children. True to style for those times, a Terre Haute paper vividly described what happened to a worker at the Brownsburg woolen mills when he was caught up by a spinning shaft in February 1869. Discovered half an hour later . . . well, a leg was subsequently found in the dye vat. Brownsburg’s John South in 1872 learned “it is not safe to remain in the same building with a buzz saw . . . the infernal machine threw a piece of timber at him, which broke his frontal bone into fifteen pieces and tore out an eye.” Crawfordsville correspondent Perry Winkle declared Brownsburg “has some pretensions to greatness,” in May 1869. The woolen mills might have been a success “but for the want of water.” Brownsburg, in Perry’s opinion, was “a quiet place, of indefinite size, or small, and though it may receive new life from the railroad, can never be very great.” White Lick Creek to the town’s west was rather narrow for skating practice in the winter and offered “tolerable accommodations” for summer baptisms. Reverend Urban Cooper Brewer baptized eight in White Lick Creek in February 1889 during “a blustering snowstorm. The thermometer marked zero. “Several of the enthusiastic converts were young girls.” Tippling was not confined to the male sex in November 1888, according to the shortlived Brownsburg Modern Era newspaper. “It is not only the boys of our town who indulge in the cider-drinking habit . . . We have just learned of some of our young ladies who got their sufficiency more than elegantly filled one night last week with some of the kind that bit.” Not one saloon was to be found in Hendricks County in 1890, but “intoxicants” were being sold under “Government license” in the towns and villages, “and drunkenness is on the increase. “Great complaint in this regard is made at Brownsburg.” That year’s drought led many to seek the springs feeding White Lick Creek, and in the process, mineral springs on Francis M. Hughes’ 272-acre farm immediately west of Brownsburg and just west of White Lick, were found to hold curative powers. Some claimed to be healed after 10 days of drinking the water. “In the space of fifty square feet there are six springs, each containing a different kind of water.” On a single July day, invalids “in numbers” visited and drank from the springs, carrying more away in pails and jugs. Hughes reportedly was having the water analyzed and planned to build a summer resort. Hughes’ farm, if I read maps aright, is long built over by the town. Paul Miner Lizton _____________________________________________________________________
Fashion Dictates Straw Hat Season
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Somewhere between the first sign of spring and the dog days of summer, the fashionable man switched from his felt or wool head covering to the cooler, and jauntier, straw hat. The Republican of March 22, 1888 reported the first straw hats of the season were seen on the streets. On April 29, 1915, Dr. Huron, president of the town board declared the custom of waiting for a certain time to don straw hats was “a relic of despotism.” The issue of April 24, 1919 reported John Underwood came out in his straw hat - vintage 1873 - a sure sign that spring had arrived. The following year, 1920, Osa Dooley donned his straw hat - vintage 1876 - and paraded arount the square mid-February. The Republican reported “on every side and at every turn, he was jeered, hooted, guyed and almost mobbed, but he stuck bravely to his task and finally won out.” In the advertisement from 1921, shown above, The House of Hadley at Danville, promised the bare headed gentleman could breese in for the cure - a New Straw Lid, all kinds and styles, in a size for every head, for an affordable price of $3.95. ___________
Thursday, June 3, 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 June 4, 1896 Rainstown: Wallis Wilson rides a new bicycle. George Doty reports a baby at his home who will be a voter in twenty-one years. Janitor Moore, at the court house, has had to remove a great quantity of straw from behind the ventilators where it was carried by the English sparrows. The telephone company made arrangements to move the office to the office of the express company but different arrangements have since been made and the “hello” will remain at Curtis’ grocery. Tuesday evening, May 26th, Coatesville Lodge Knights of Pythias celebrated their third birthday by spreading a banquet and a very enjoyable time was had. In three years the lodge has grown from a membership of twenty-five to a roll of fifty-six and the boys still think there are more to follow. Monday was “Guest Day for the ladies of the Browning Club and in the afternoon about fifty of the friends of the members were delightfully entertained in the beautiful home of Mrs. Showalter on West Main street. Immense vases of roses adorned the tables, and their delicate perfume mingled with that of the honeysuckle in every room. Owing to failing health, Dr. Bennett, of the Keeley Institute, has retired and has been succeeded by Dr. Box. Hazlewood: Marbles is the prevailing game. It is played by both young and old. Pecksburg: Dayton Carter has purchased a new threshing outfit of the Stevens pattern through their agent, Geo. Harvey. B.P. Hyten, of Pittsboro, claims to be the only man in the county who marched in the famous Harrison campaign of ’40 in Danville. He was then ten years old. _____ ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO Issue of June 2, 1921 With 350 new students at the midterm opening this week, Central Normal College touches the highest attendance record. A step forward. Tuberculin-tested cows insures pure milk. Help stamp out the white plague by using good milk. Order of Harry Hall. Phone 228. Darnell’s grocery is to be moved from the Shirley corner to the corner room of the County Fair building. The Citizen’s Motor Co. is to occupy what will be the middle room of the building by erecting a partition on the west side of the grocery room. Miss Stella Hendricks, of the faculty of Elon College, North Carolina, has arrived for a few days’ visit to her brother, S.M. Hendricks and family, before entering Columbia university for advanced work. Coatesville: Hilden Harris has purchased the Mecca [theater] from Otto F. Lakin and it will be under new management the first of June. Mr. Lakin installed one of the most up to date movies in this part of the state. Allen Campbell bought the furniture and undertaking business. Mr. Lakin will have charge of the same until fall. Horace G. Miles has been appointed one of a committee of stockmen of he State to seek the improvement of regulation of the Union Stock Yards, Indianapolis. Police Court: In a family row, harsh words were spoken by some of the Daums in Guilford township. As a result, John T. Daum filed suit against his son, John F. Daum, alleging profanity. ‘Squire Kennedy figured it all up at $12.85. Maplewood: Short services were held, Sunday morning, at the Christian church and the service flag was taken down. _____ SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of June 6, 1946 Central Normal College will graduate its last class of seniors at commencement exercises in Chapel Hall, Friday morning at 10 o’clock. Housing units are being erected on the parking lot at Central Normal College and are expected to be completed by middle of this month. Dr. W.T. Lawson attended the 198th commencement at Wabash college, Crawfordsville, Sunday. Dr. Lawson graduated with the class of 1876 and is the oldest alumni of Wabash. Keith Matthews of Danville and Roy E. Jones of Pittsboro have purchased the Evans & Webb funeral directors establishment at Brownsburg and will assume ownership, Friday. George Hadley, of Danville, was appointed service officer of Hendricks county at a special meeting of the board of Commissioners Wednesday night.
Kenneth Smith and Crit Waters played in the Legion Band at the 500 mile race Memorial Day. Western Star Masonic lodge of Danville will observe its one hundredth year with a centennial celebration, Friday, June 21. _____ FIFTY YEARS AGO Issue of June 3, 1971 Weather balloons, which were released as a part of the ground-breaking ceremonies for the new First National Bank of Danville, have been discovered as far away as 300 miles in such places as Rachel and Middlebourne West Virginia and Logan and Stockport, Ohio. Nancy Gibbs, Grade 3 student at Avon Elementary School was won first prize in the National AAA poster contest. Her prize of a $75 savings bond was awarded by the Hoosier Motor Club. W.C. Eggers, president of the First National Bank of Danville, presented the first monetary donation for the Danville Jaycees Community Building Fund to fund chairman Jack Lawson, at the shelter house at the Danville park. John Paul Mowery, son of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Mowery of Danville, as received his A.B. degree in missions from St. Paul Bible College, St. Paul, Minn. North Salem: The Porter Insurance Agency has moved to their new office across the street and are now located between Charlotte’s Glamour Nook and the North Salem Sundries. The G.V. Wellman, Jrs. hosted their annual “Indy 500 Pit Stop” all-day party, Saturday, for a large number of local friends and the Norman Baylisses, vacationing here from there Florida home. _____ TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of May 30, 1996 Sue Allen, bus driver for the Danville Community School Corporation is retiring after 27 years. Gill Pool in Ellis Park will be under new management this summer. Sally Boles is the pool manager for the 1996 season according to Brad Andrews, Park Superintendent. Rosemary Helton, retired math teacher and veteran tennis player, presented her award last Tuesday at the Spring Sports program at Danville Community High School, to Laura Williams. The award goes to the girl who best exemplifies athletic ability, scholarship, and mental attitude among the senior athletes. The “Health Tracks Locomotion,” a 4K run and 3K walk, is being planned for Sunday, June 9. The Avon Station Medical Center will also host a Health Fair that same day. Sheriff Roy Waddell presented Cory Mason of Danville a $500 scholarship from the Indiana Sheriffs Association and the Hendricks County Sheriff’s Department. Rob Copeland was presented the Robert Leedy Award at the Danville Community High School Commons by Principal Davie Marcotte. This award is presented to the boy who best exemplifies athletic ability, scholarship, and mental attitude among senior boys. The Danville Police Department and the Danville Auto Dealers Association will sponsor the first annual benefit Golf Tournament on August 10, at the Tomahawk Hill Golf Course, Jamestown. _____ TEN YEARS AGO Issue of June 2, 2011 In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the Danville Public Library and the Hendricks County Historical Museum are sponsoring Civil War Heritage Days – Hendricks County on Saturday, June 15 and Sunday, June 16. Shoppers at the Chamber of Commerce’s Farmers Markets at Danville, Avon, and Plainfield, will be able to carry their purchases home in new, reusable market bags, provided through a grant from Hendricks County Solid Waste Management District. Diana Virgil, a modern day “trail blazer,” was honored by the Hendricks County Commissioners for her efforts and advocacy in the establishment and growth of the B&O Trail. Danville Chamber of Commerce will host the 1st Annual Family 4th Festival on July 4th at the Danville High School Football Complex. Memorial Day was made more memorable for CMS Michael Lucas and family. For the first time in many years, all military family members were “stationed” at home for the holiday. __________
