Maturity Journal
FOR MATURE CITIZENS - OUR MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE
Volume 39 Issue 11
November 2024
Hometown History
Presented by the Vanderburgh County Historical Society
Manson Reichert, No Stranger to Controversy by Kelley M. Coures, author & former director Evansville Metro Dept.
Although several men who have served as Evansville’s mayor were interesting characters, none were as colorful as Republican Manson Reichert who was a surprise winner in 1942 and a surprise loser in 1947. He inherited a sand and gravel business from his father and married while young to his wife Mabel. Together they had one daughter, Maybelle, who was colorful in her own right. The gravel company was heavily involved in the paving of city streets during the 1920s and 1930s, and Reichert became involved in Republican politics after the 1920s Klan debacle drove the party out of power in 1929. Reichert was notable for employing many African American men in his company and also for owning a baseball team in the old Negro Leagues, which endeared him to Evansville’s Black community and voters. In 1935 during a wild GOP party convention at the
McCurdy Hotel Rose Room, Reichert was defeated as chairman by the owner of a taxicab company. Always playing hardball, Reichert announced he would start a competitor cab service undercutting his
rival by five cents a mile. While the Democrats maintained power both locally and nationally during the 1930s, a Republican wave began building in the early 1940s with the nomination of Elwood, Indiana native Wendell Willkie in 1940. Reichert entered the 1942 mayoral race against incumbent Democrat Bill Dress, seen as unbeatable for a third term. Republican fixer Ben Bartlett, a beer salesman who had been a collector of graft during the Klan administration of Herbert Males and had a slimy reputation with local voters, was one of only a handful of prognosticators who predicted Reichert would win. With many male voters in military service, a light turnout indeed resulted in the shocking win by Reichert. His inauguration was very memorable for the live elephants that appeared in his parade to city hall. A circus company, stranded in Evansville
INSIDE A Depression-Era Family Feud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Grandma’s Poems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Senior Moments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Good News!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Newburgh Remembered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Cooking Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Hometown History Contest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Picturing Our Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Brain Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 & 21 Just for Laughs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Windows to Our World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Good for a Giggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23