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: We have a whitewashed view of politicians from times past. Our early newspapers fortunately yield priceless perspectives and editorials when gleaning partisan opinions. Unquestioning party loyalty is the grail I seek, but I discover other things. In 1885, “the distinguished U.S. senator from Indiana, Hon. Daniel W. Voorhees, certified that in a case of rheumatism in the back, he obtained instantaneous relief from St. Jacobs Oil. He says it is a remarkable remedy.” Modern comparison: Mitch McConnell gushes over CBD oil. Serving from 1877-1897, the Terre Haute Democrat was an anti-war Copperhead during our Civil War. He favored a negotiated settlement to restore the Union rather than war. Stilesville correspondent Bourgeois found fault with Voorhees late in 1885. “In 1880 the Hon. Daniel W. Voorhees said the country is suffering from a moral malaria that was poisoning to death the life of the Nation.” Bourgeois asserted that if Voorhees “should now open his mouth to teach and illuminate the minds of the people, he would say that they are afflicted with a concentrated attack of financial malaria.” Farmers’ hogs were at risk of pulling prices of only $2.50-$3 per hundredweight. Bourgeois said Voorhees and former Indiana governor (and now vice president) Thomas Hendricks had promised an $8 per capita distribution if Grover Cleveland won the presidency. In November 1884, Pittsboro correspondent I Bet U C reported incoming Lieutenant Governor Mahlon Manson was “staggering drunk” on the train ride home from Indianapolis to Crawfordsville. “If this constitutes Democracy, we want none of it in ours – the whiskey especially.” I Bet also believed the nation was really hard up “when it has to be represented by such a libertine as our next president (and) such a rebel sympathizer and copper-head as our next Vice President.” Cleveland, the referenced president, was unmarried at the time of his inauguration, marrying the following year a 21-year-old who was 28 years younger than him. Party affiliation colored I Bet’s accusation. The county voted for Republican candidate James G. Blaine of Maine by a large margin over Cleveland, 3,003-2,069. Prohibition candidate John P. St. John took 88 votes while the Greenback’s man, Benjamin F. Butler, received 162. County man Spencer Hiatt unabashedly supported Blaine while condemning Cleveland. “How any man that was proud of the name ‘Republican’ can ignore peerless statesman James G. Blaine, and support the ex-sheriff of Erie County, New York, and the habitue of (deliberate blank space), who never was accused of any suspicion of statesmanship, passes all knowledge.” Hiatt believed Blaine was the target of “a conspiracy of slander,” while Cleveland was “a moral leper with a character as black as hades.” I discovered that Sheriff Cleveland personally hanged two prisoners. An on-line encyclopedia entry about that presidential campaign unearthed little to back up Spencer’s slung mud. Blaine apparently had a reputation scorched by “financial impropriety” (possibly using his office for financial gain), while Cleveland faced accusations of rape and of illegitimately fathering a child 10 years earlier. He acknowledged an affair with a widow and agreed to support the offspring while not sure it was his. During a Clayton Democratic jollification in November 1884, S.M. Ralston (likely Samuel Moffett Ralston, our eventual 28th governor), “in a flight of oratory and burst of eloquence,” denounced Blaine supporters. “The ministers who hold Mr. Blaine up before the mothers and young men of their churches as a pure man ought to be kicked out of house and home, and go to the graveyard, along the avenue of starvation. “. . . their influence is as poisonous to society as the bite of the spreading adder . . . the ministers are themselves the most infamous rebels to the welfare of the United States that will disgrace the pits of hell.” The Republican in turn thoroughly denounced Ralston. He “ought to go to the moral graveyard, along the avenue of moral depravity, drawn in the vehicle of imbecility, by ignorance and licentiousness, and have for his winding sheet the filthiest and most vulgar edition of the Police Gazette . . .” Ah, rhetoric in those earlier times. Some of our U.S. senators and representatives today can only be characterized by an abundance of sententious blather, pettish biliousness, conspiracy mongering and outright lying. Paul Miner Lizton _____________________________________________________________________
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Thursday, August 12, 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 August 13, 1896 Danville welcomes the survivors of the gallant Twenty-first Regiment First Indiana Heavy Artillery. The boys came in yesterday and in the afternoon a reception was tendered them by Mr. and Mrs. James W. Hamrick at their elegant home in West Main street. Last night a camp-fire was held. Brownsburg: The canning factory is now under full headway. The crop of corn and tomatoes promises to be large and of an excellent quantity. Amo: A lot of “hobos” (?) broke into a car of watermelons on the track Saturday night and stole a number. The grand jury will probably investigate. Mont Clair: The Indiana Bridge Co. has just completed a splendid new bridge across the Barnett ditch and the supervisor is having the hill just south graded down. This will make an excellent road direct from Danville to Lizton. No hills. Plainfield: The McKinley club met Tuesday evening and had a short but enthusiastic session then adjourned to meet regularly every Tuesday evening. There are 226 members with a fine prospect for more. W.C.T.U. Industrial School Notes: August 6th being the birthday of Mrs. Zeralda Wallace was celebrated throughout the state by a franchise meeting. A mock election was one feature of the entertainment. Belleville: Harry Tincher of this place has the contract for the brick work at the new M.E. church at Cartersburg. The heat was so intense Monday that two horses dropped dead in Washington township. They were owned by M.A. Euliss and William Pike and were engaged in hauling gravel. _____ ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO Issue of August 11, 1921 Saturday afternoon with impressive ceremonies the corner stone of the splendid new school house at Lizton was laid under Masonic auspices. The address was by Benjamin J. Burris, the in-coming State Superintendent. Brownsburg secured a sufficient number of pledges for tickets for next year’s Chautauqua to make a contract for the return of the five day Redpath course. Charles T. Spicklemire came by airplane last week to his mother’s funeral, traveling all the way from Duluth, Minn. Two men were arrested, and from 400 to 470 gallons of corn mash in varying stages of fermentation, a copper boiler fixed to be used as a still, a copper worm, 100 pounds of granulated sugar, a pound of yeast and a quart of white mule taken into official charge were the results of Monday afternoon’s work in Guilford township. The Clayton High School Alumni Association held his annual reunion Sunday at Camp Short. Lizton: The Big 4 shipped a carload of hogs Tuesday, sold by Chas. Rutledge, Howard and Stewart Pritchett, directly to the Kingan Packing Co. Amo: An airplane from Indianapolis stopped for gasoline last Sunday afternoon. It alighted in the Eli Masten field west of town and a crowd of about 200 soon collected. Later, the aviators continued their journey a bit richer on account of a dozen or so of the boys who desired to know how Amo looks from above the treetops, for a consideration of $5.00 each ride. Mrs. Eliza Lee, who moved from here to Philadelphia some two years ago to make her home with her sons John and Fred, writing to a friend, says she and her sons are well and doing nicely, and she asks to be remembered by all Danville friends. Horace L. Millikin, one of our Danville boys and a student at the college, is attending a military school in Baltimore. ______ SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of August 15, 1946 The Danville Saddle club will sponsor its annual fall Saddle Horse Show at the club grounds, north of Danville on Road 39. Seventeen events are scheduled to give men, women, and children an opportunity to compete for the many prizes with their horses. Acreditment for the academic year 1946-47 has been received by Canterbury College from the State Board of Education. Bradley’s Avon Elevator, located a mile east and a quarter mile south of Avon, will be opened Saturday, August 17, Bernard Bradley, owner, announced this week. Miss Ruth Ward of Brown township will be crowned Insurance Queen at the annual picnic of the Hendricks County Farm
Bureau to be at the Danville park, Friday, August 23. The Alumni organization of Psi Chi Omega sorority met for a picnic supper at the Danville park, August 1, to elect officers and plan for an active organization. Mrs. Vivian Gilham was elected president. Hendricks County Shrine club will host their annual picnic at Merritt’s Park next Sunday. Students of the tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades of Danville high school will meet for conferences with Principal Harry Neimeyer, Monday and Tuesday, August 26 and 27 in the office. _____ FIFTY YEARS AGO Issue of August 12, 1971 The Danville Tennis Club ended the summer season with the annual tournament at the Danville Park under the direction of Danny Rinehart and Rosemary Helton. Three delegates from Hendricks County have been chosen to participate in the 1971 Indiana State Fair School for Girls and they will take up residence at the State Fairgrounds Aug. 18-28: Mary Beth McNeff, Marion Township; Ann Harvey and Pam Pardieck of Guilford Township. The main floor of Danville’s new First National Bank building was set in place recently when huge slabs of precast concrete, a total of 12 5-ft x 40-ft slabs and 24 5-ft x 28-ft slabs were needed. Tuesday, the new drive-up, walk-up and night depository facility for the Danville State Bank arrived at the bank site across the street from the Post Office. Danny Pritchett, Danville Community High School senior, won top honors during the drum major camp at Smith-Walbridge, Syracuse, N.Y.. Howard Harmless of Greencastle, who for over 14 years has operated the laundramat at 117 South Washington Street, Danville, announces the opening of his new facility at 119 South Jefferson St., Danville. The interior of the brick structure has beamed ceilings, paneled walls, terrazzo floors for cleanliness and the very best equipment and water conditioner. An attendant will be on duty at all times. Mrs. Vera M. Hall, president of the Danville Gazette, Inc., has personally invited relatives and friends to an open house, Sunday, 2 to 5 p.m., in celebration of her 80th birthday. ______ TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Issue of August 8, 1996 The newly-formed Danville Secondary Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) has compiled a 1996-97 school corporation calendar. Danville resident Barb Cameron will perform during the Indiana State Fair with the 90-member women’s barbershop chorus. Harold E. Hiser has recently joined Freedom Mortgage Co. as a Mortgage Loan Officer. The Hendricks County Sheriff’s Department is proud to announce the formation of Law Enforcement Explorer Post #732. Two Hendricks County Girl Scouts have earned the highest honor a Girl Scout can earn – the Gold Award. They are Crystal Curran of Danville and Candace Olmstead of Plainfield. A Night Golf Mixed Scramble is being planned for Saturday, August 24, at the Hendricks County Golf Course, old U.S. 36, east of Danville. Three Danville youths, one age 14 and one age 13, have been apprehended and charged in the vandalism of the Ellis Park amphitheater canopy, which was slashed on July 15. Marilyn Burnett, of Clayton, is the featured artist for the month of August at the Danville Public Library. __________ TEN YEARS AGO Issue of August 11, 2011 Historical records from Central Normal College and Canterbury College will be available on the Internet as part of the Indiana State Library’s “Indiana Memory Project.” Andy Brock, of Stilesville, placed first in a class of 12 in the junior division of the Area 4-H Tractor Driving contest. August 8 marks Bob Snyder’s 75th birthday and his 65th year as a professional musician. Bob says he plans to celebrate at his Florida home, with a concert by his students, the Piano Road Band. The story of Hoosier humorist Dick Wolfsie and his canine companion, Barney, will be the focus of the 2011 One County, One Book program. For the third year, Danville Parks and Recreation will host Family Camp Out Night on August 26.
