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: A young girl was in trouble in Danville in July 1884. Jailed for theft, she shocked The Republican’s reporter when he visited her. “A more horrible sight is scarcely ever seen in a small town.” Sixteen, ragged and dirty, she was clad only in a torn calico dress, worn-out slippers, “and a thick coat of dirt.” Illiterate, she hailed from Belle Union and had left home after falling “into bad company and becoming morally depraved.” Going to Greencastle, she went “from bad to worse,” and then arrived in Coatesville looking for work, but was forced to live in the woods. Men and boys there had given her food but “treated her badly.” Then she stole a dress and earrings from a local home. Apparently “unmindful of the crime she has been committing,” she acknowledged the theft was wrong but “hunger and need for clothing drove her to it.” A pretty young Rochester lady “of the highest respectability” dressed in men’s clothing in March 1882 and visited the gambling dens and saloons. “She says she had a perfect revelation of the wickedness of men and will never, never marry.” Arrested and jailed, she revealed her identity “and her parents came in hot haste for her.” Later that year, a doctor’s wife was arrested at the Hotel Brunswick in Indianapolis for fornication, apparently with a Chicago man, who complained. Had the doctor not fled, he, too, would have been arrested. Then a Spencerville man beat another doctor, likely to death, for telling a joke that offended the man’s wife. Much of the trouble those days was due to people not spending half a cent a day for “intellectual recreation,” meaning they were not buying newspapers. The “great mass of people” had plenty of money for “theatrical humbug,” hats, whiskey and cigars but not to subscribe to a good newspaper. Dear Editor, have you told The Publisher about this? But before you do, warn him that the editor of a Hot Springs paper was shot and killed later that same year by a railroad magnate and a hotel owner, both former colonels, over “an offensive newspaper article.” Someone calling himself “Not Nunc” in a Union issue in November 1873, declared, “Knowledge, morals – all the virtues – grow and prosper only as they are cultivated, and the man who does not ‘hoe his row’ in these fields shirks duties which others must do for him, or he and his generation are developing downward.” Proper “pruning” of young plants and minds was essential, else they would produce “none or inferior fruit.” I get the sense there was “filth” and “cholera poisons” in Danville, but as I wasn’t there, I don’t know what Nunc was writing about. “There is a sink of iniquity which has for some time been poisoning the moral atmosphere of Danville.” Property values had depreciated. That declaration likely caught attention. I’ve no time to learn more about it. An indignant pastor deplored what he had experienced in November 1871 when two young women were baptized. Their “modern and enormous” chignons were so overpoweringly large that not a drop of the baptismal water touched their heads. Instead, he was obliged to wet their topknots. I cannot tell whether Amo’s Addison Coffin intended allegory or wrote of fact when he penned “A White Slave” in February 1865 while the war, clearly won, still raged. His farm had for some years sheltered fugitive slaves but never “a slender, graceful, beautiful girl, young in years and perfectly white.” She declared herself a slave fleeing a brute who sought his way with her. He was “an unprincipled monster who sought to seduce her from the path of virtue.” Resisting, she was relentlessly pursued, “and when persuasion failed . . . the cruel lash was her portion.” When that failed, “he resorted to violence” and knocked her senseless. Thought near death she awoke hidden by a black man who arranged for her to reach Coffin’s farm. Feverish, in delirium, she nearly died, but miraculously recovered. She then vanished, not to be seen for years until a brother espied her, happily married, on the arm of a “noble specimen of manhood” who knew nothing of her past. The brother kept her secret. Addison asked, then, “could there be a sin in that amalgamation?” Paul Miner Lizton ______________________________________________________________________
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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, June 24, 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 25, 1896 If you want to enjoy yourself free of charge the Fourth, come to Brownsburg. There will be sack races, foot races, bicycle races and a drill by a number of young ladies under the direction of Prof. J.A. Johnson. We desire your presence. Hadley: There will be a picnic held on the Industrial School grounds the Fourth of July. The speakers’ subject will be “Temperance.” Avon: Supt. Hostetter and trustee Parsons spent last Saturday at Toll Gate locating the Bailey school house. They decided to place the new building one-half mile up the Shiloh road in the corner of Barney Gossett’s woods. No. 1 has been abandoned and this will accommodate pupils in both districts. The Stilesville “Gold Bugs” are wanting to hear from some of the ball teams in the county. A Sunday school was organized at Quebec, Sunday. Pecksburg: E.B. Harlan picked 650 gallons of strawberries this year and sold 400 gallons at Danville. Alex. King brought to this office for exhibition a head of lettuce which is certainly entitle to the prize for size. It is of the “Mammoth Prize” variety and deserves its name. Trustee Ensminger has a plan for a high school building to be built by Center township and Danville and to be used by the corporations jointly. His ideas is that the ground and building should be paid for by the town and township equally. Rainstown: Barney Keeney, James Johnson and Omar Baker have entered land in Dakota adjoining each other. Saturday, a goodly number gathered at the home of Henry Kurtz, six miles northwest of Danville, to celebrate the ninety-ninth birthday of Uncle Lawrence Vannice. About ninety partook of a bountiful repast and “all went merry as a marriage bell.” ______ ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO Issue of June 23, 1921 That the T.H.I & E. traction company proposes to build the Danville and Amo line, connecting at Amo with the Terre Haute Line, is now known to be a fact. The local members of the Friends church and its popular pastor, Rev. Mary M. Harold, had the honor and distinction, Sunday, of conducting the largest and most enjoyable meeting of the kind ever held in Danville. It is estimated that some 400 people were fed and there was ample for all. On Saturday, June 25th the Plainfield library will start a branch library at Clayton in the rear of Mr. Grant W. Stone’s store. This branch library will be open two days each week – on Wednesday and Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Arthur Shartle, of this city, and Miss Mildred Musgarve, of Brazil, who has been operating a photo studio here for a year, were married in the Christian church in Brazil a week ago today. Grant Hornaday is now in full charge of the Sanitary milk station on north Washington street, which he recently purchased of its Indianapolis owners. William “Skipper” Hart, of Indianapolis, tramped over Danville, Saturday, to see if he could find a familiar spot that he knew in his boyhood days. The horn on a lonesome auto parked on the east side of the square, Tuesday, broke loose in a mournful strain and ten minutes, three men and four boys were required to stop it. In about fifteen minutes, it broke loose again and the owner appeared on the scene and quieted the wails. C.L. Thompson, of the Thompson Drug Company, the first of this month, rounded out just 30 years of continuous service in the same line, ministering to the public wants. ______ SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of June 27, 1946 A new Ercoupe plane will be on display at the Mecca airport, west of Danville, Sunday afternoon. Don Hood and Hugh Thompson, instructors, will be on the field to demonstrate the new ship and explain the simplified controls. Western Star Masonic Lodge of Danville marked its 100th year with a meeting and banquet, Friday. W.P. Rigdon of Danville has been awarded a contract for repairing and resurfacing black-topped streets in Plainfield. Mrs. Basil Rauth of Danville has a poem, “Dark Harvest,” published in the nationally-known “Writer” magazine.
Sunday, July 7, is the tentative date set for the qualifying round of the annual Hendricks county golf tournament, to be played at Martinsville. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Roberts was the scene of a cleverly arranged announcement party of the approaching marriage of their daughter, Jane, to Gorman Boots. At the conclusion of the card games, each guest was present a white booklet of matches on which was engraved, “It’s a Match – Jane & Gorman, July 13, 1946.” Danville Taxi – Phone 66 – Taxi Stand at East Side Café. After 12 p.m., at the Hoosier Hotel, Phone 403. O.K. Baird, owner and operator. The Sub-Deb club met last Wednesday. Thirteen members answered the roll call with their favorite material. Joan Miller and Ruth Wean gave talks on the care of washing a sweater. _____ FIFTY YEARS AGO Issue of June 24, 1971 The 4-H Fair Board voted to build a horse & pony barn this year. And received money from 30 county citizens who signed personal notes. Previously, the 4-H members had to stable their animals in tents, which was inadequate and dangerous. The board of school trustees of North West Hendricks Schools decided to table any new construction plans for a new high school until such time as the financial ability of the corporation is adequate to sustain such a program. The Evelyn Miller Artificial Kidney Fund has a balance, as of Saturday, of $5,373.60. James Associates has presented the architectural drawing of a new, estimated $1.7 million elementary school for the Mill Creek Community School Corporation. The structure is supposed to accommodate elementary students in the Clayton-Hazelwood area. Bride-elect, Miss Alice Cox, has been honored with two parties, recently, the first a “spinster” party given by Miss Becky Deeb, June 10. The second affair was a family luncheon with her aunt, Mrs. Wendell Mann, of Francisville, Saturday, at the Iron Skillet in Indianapolis. Miss Tracey Leigh Duffin and Miss Brenda Jane Jordan, both of Plainfield, were named princesses in the recent court of the 1971 Indiana Rose Festival pageant at the Hillsdale Gardens, Indianapolis. ______ TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of June 20, 1996 The Greater Danville Chamber of Commerce will host its first Fun Feast-ival, a special community event, Saturday, July 6, at Danville’s Ellis Park. Fifteen Hendricks County 4-H young ladies are competing for the title of Miss Hendricks County 4-H Fair Queen. Craig Callahan recently earned a Chartered Financial Consultant diploma and professional designation from the American College, Bryn Mawr, Pa. He also recently earned the Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Indianapolis. David M. Hoffeditz, son of Ray and Cyrena Hoffeditz of Pittsboro, a 1988 graduate of Danville Community High School and 1992 graduate of Cedarville College, Ohio, received his Master of Theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. Rob Roberts, president of the Danville Fire Association would like to invited everyone to attend the July 6 Fun Feast-ival. The Association will be having a hog roast with the proceeds used for purchases for the Fire Department. _____ TEN YEARS AGO Issue of June 23, 2011 The Hendricks Regional Health YMCA at Avon will officially open its doors to members on Saturday, June 25. Hendricks County has been selected as one of six destinations to be featured for filming by the Indiana Department of Tourism for release during the 2012 travel season. The Town of Danville recently received a grant to construct a street tree inventory through the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Dr. Roger B. Beck, a 1965 graduate of Cascade High School, served as Commencement speaker at the University of Evansville’s 153rd Commencement ceremony on May 7. In 1945, just out of the Army, where he served as a gunner in the Tank Division, Joe M. Harper bought a truck off of a guy that had a load of fertilizer. That was the beginning of Harper Trucking. His son, Joe III, has continued the business.
