Post news 85th

Post News KV POST-NEWS | AUGUST 24, 2017

Kankakee Valley

THURSDAY • AUGUST 24, 2017 kvpostnews.com

CELEBRATING 85 YEARS

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ HERSHMAN ★ ★ ★ ★SENATOR ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ BRANDT ★★★★★★★ ★★★★★★★★★★★ has served our community in the Indiana Senate with common ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★sense ★ ★and ★ Hoosier ★ ★ ★values. ★★★ Congratulations to the on ★ 85 years recording history and ★★★★★ ★ KV ★ Post ★★ ★ ★of★ ★★★ ★★ ★keeping ★ ★ DeMotte, ★ ★ ★Wheatfield, ★ ★ ★ Ros ★ elawn ★ and other communities informed. We are fortunate to have a local newspaper in our communities. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Senator ★ ★ Hershman ★ ★ ★serves ★ ★in District ★ ★ 7★ ★★★★★★★★★★★★ which includes: and★ portions Boone, Carroll, Jasper, Tippecanoe counties ★ ★ ★ ★ White ★ ★County ★★ ★ ★of★ ★★ ★ Clinton, ★★★ ★ and ★★ ★★★ ★★★★★ listen ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Senator ★ ★ Brandt ★ ★ Hershman ★ ★ ★is always ★ ★ willing ★ ★to★ ★to★your ★concerns. ★★★★★★★★★ Email him at: senator.hershman@iga.in.gov ★★★★★★★★★★ ★ ★ ★ or★317-232-9400 ★★★★★★★★★★★★ Call★ him★ at: ★ 1-800-382-9467 Paid for by Hershman for Senate

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AUGUST 24, 2017 | KV POST-NEWS

DeMotte State Bank: Still with us all these years

By SCOTT BUCKNER City Editor In looking at every issue of the Kankakee Valley Post between the end of July and December 1932, more than 30 different businesses placed weekly display ads.

The vast majority of those ads were from businesses outside DeMotte; places like Hebron, Rensselaer, Thayer, Shelby, Schneider, and even Tefft.

It wasn’t a matter of the DeMotte business community being unsupportive of the Post; it was more a matter of the newspaper’s first owner — The Runyon Printing Co. — had been established in Shelby, and brought its existing ad business with it.

As the year went on, though, more DeMotte businesses began to advertise on the Post’s pages. Of those original advertisers here and elsewhere, none of those business (see our list, next page) are around today. Some may have been bought by a

competitor some time later, but the original business name no longer exists.

That is, with one exception: DeMotte State Bank. It was with us when we began, and has continued to be with us today. (Sears was a major weekly advertiser throughout 1932 Post and is still in business as a national chain, but no longer at their advertised location at 813-217 Broadway Ave. in Gary).

Here’s a history of the bank as well as an impression of DeMotte by Art L. Lageveen, one of the bank’s original five shareholders, from a 1997 history narrative as published on Faithfabric. com. You can see even in 1997 how much the banking industry — and DeMotte State Bank itself — had changed: Lageveen characterized DeMotte during The Post’s early days this way: “It was quite different then, there were no TVs, everyone listened to the radio. Telephones were on

party lines and operators worked at the switchboard connecting the callers.

Highways were two lanes, and it took much longer to travel from city to city.

Families spent more time together, as did communities.

Times have changed since then, but I like to think that DeMotte is still the same small town where businesses and businessmen still care for their customers. And the number of churches still out number the saloons. I believe the town my set a record for the number of churches per capita, and that makes DeMotte a great place to live.”

The Bank of DeMotte, today known as the DeMotte State Bank, was first chartered in 1917. The ground for the first bank building was purchased from John Bunning and was located just south of the railroad on what is now Halleck Street. The

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bank started out as a privately owned bank with $10,000 in assets and two officers, president John Bunning and cashier, John J. DeCook.

There were five shareholders, Daniel Wolf, Frank M. Hart, Albert Konovsky, Henry C. DeKock, and Art L. Lageveen. When the stock market crashed in 1929, the U.S. Government ordered that all banks be closed. The Bank of DeMotte was closed for only one day and was one of the few in existence to survive the crash.

Due to the intervention of August Schultz and stockholders who contributed their resources to keep the bank open, the bank rallied and remained solvent through the Great Depression that engulfed the country during the next 10 years. The Report of Condition of the Bank of DeMotte as of October 26, 1933 lists Frank M. Hart, bank president; A. Crawford, vice president; Harry Rathburn, cashier; Frank M. Hart, Jr., assistant cashier. The resources and liabilities of the bank at that time totaled $114,582.97.

The bank was robbed in 1937 at machine-gun point by three men, who escaped with $2,422.32. Hart wasn’t able to get the safety catch off of a gun that was kept at the bank at the time or, “I would have shot the son-of-a-gun,” he was quoted as saying. The trio were later caught and prosecuted and all losses were covered by insurance.

With the advent of World War II, the country began to prosper again. The war effort put everybody back to work and there were sweeping changes in the laws governing banking institutions. In 1942 the United States Government ordered all banks to be chartered by the state in which they were located and stringent government regulations were put in place.

The bank was again chartered, this time as the De-

Motte State Bank. The board of directors were: Henry Swart, president of the bank from 1942 until 1959; August Schultz, Cornelius Westerhoff, Henry C. DeKock, Otto DeYoung, Albert Hamstra and Andress Crawford.

Westerhoff became bank president in 1959 and remained in that capacity until 1966. In the early days of banking, transactions were recorded by hand in ledger books. It wasn’t unusual for the bank when it first opened in 1917 to have less than 10 transactions a day.

In 1997 the bank uses stateof-the-art computer equipment and electronically processes around 30,000 items every day. DeMotte State Bank became the second bank in the state of Indiana to offer ‘Image’ DDA statements and was one of the first twenty in the nation to offer this in 1994.

During the 1960s the DeMotte community experienced much growth and it became apparent that a larger facility with drive-up windows would be needed. Paul Bauman, bank president from 1966 to 1983, steered the bank through the growth period of the ‘70s.

In 1971, the board of directors paved the way for a new building to be constructed at 210 S. Halleck St. and the bank was moved from its location in the old downtown part of DeMotte. Since that time DeMotte has experienced unbelievable growth, as has the bank. The building has been added on to four times.

Additionally, in 1994 a 4,000 square foot ‘Operations Center’ was constructed, which houses the bark’s computer equipment. The new center also made room for a remodeling project in the back office area of the main bank which provided a more private environment for new account customers.

The former bank building was sold to the Town of De-

Motte and was used as a town hall and police station from 1971 to 1995, when a new town hall was built at the Spencer Park location. Since the 1937 robbery, the bank was robbed again in 1971 after they moved to their new facility.

The robbers got away with a considerable amount of money and were never apprehended. In 1996, a robbery attempt was thwarted by bank employees.

Prior to deregulation in the late 1970s, banks were permitted to offer only a narrow range of products which were limited to non-interest bearing accounts, savings passbooks, and a four-year certificate of deposit. After deregulation, a wide array of services and products could be offered to customers, and banking has practically become a science.

Not only did the bank have to deal with deregulation and the high interest rate environment of the ‘80s, it also was faced with the change in banking structure. ‘Hometown’ banks were originally protected by law in that a bank from another community could not branch into an area where a main office bank was located.

In the early 1980s, this protection was lifted and banks were allowed to branch into towns within counties that were contiguous to where their main office was located. Donnie R. Morrison was bank president from 1983 to 1988 during these tumultuous years of upheaval in the banking industry.

In 1985, Senate Bill-1 was passed. The bill allowed out of state banks to purchase Indiana-based banks. According to Donald E. Goetz, who became bank president in 1988 and is still at the bank in that capacity in 1997, the banking industry has experienced tremendous consolidation under the guise of economies of scale due to Senate Bill-1.

See BANK, Page 4

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KV POST-NEWS | AUGUST 24, 2017

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The 1932 Post: The eyes (literally) of DeMotte, and beyond It was 1932. The while, families were Great Depression sending their kids to school in clothing was in full swing, and the World War II made from flour postwar years that sacks. A yearly subrestored jobs and opscription to the Post timism to the Amerprobably wasn’t ican economy was a high on their list, either. few decades off, and SCOTT However, for to add insult to injuBUCKNER ry, Prohibition those who did City Editor would be in exisspring for a subtence for another scription, there was year. plenty to keep your attention.

DeMotte was feeling the A good deal of it was acpain of the Depression like counts of all manner of death every other rural communi- and disaster, starting with the ty — and perhaps even more leadoff story in the very first so, since rural communities issue of the Post. You can have always lacked the re- read all about that drowning sources major cities have tragedy in this special seceven in lean times. tion’s 1932 front-page reproBut life did indeed go on in duction on the cover, but the DeMotte, and part of that life Post was never lacking in acbegan on July 28, 1932 with counts just like that, and ofIssue 1, Volume 1 of the ten described in greater deKankakee Post, which pro- tail than most readers today claimed itself “The Only would be comfortable with: Newspaper Between Lowell and Rensselaer, Momence (8/11/32) “AGED FARMand North Judson” and “DeER HAS STROKE” Mr. Will voted to Every Interest AffectH. Tyler, 80, a Keener Towning This Comunity and It’s ship resident, “fell lifeless [sic] People.” in his a barn last Friday It was a four-page broadmorning, when it is besheet available by subscriplieved he was stricken with tion, mailed to your home for a heart attack.” He “was “$1.50 per year locally; $2 per still actively engaged in year mailed outside Indiana.” farming and was holding The Aug. 4, 1932 issue carthe lines to a team of mules ried “A Toast To The Post,” attached to a cultivator at which wished good health to the time he was stricken.

As he slumped to the the Post: ground the mules became “Heres to the new newsfrightened and started to run, dragging his body paper that comes into our over the cultivator blades. midst. Let us hope that its news will be the best. That This inflicted several cuts we will gain knowledge and a hole in his side, but from its pages. That it will the wounds were not suffibe fearless in giving us the cient to have caused his truth that we expect from death. His son Barton who was near rushed to his side, its columns. And last, but not the least, let us all wish but Mr Tyler was dead beit a decided success and its fore he reached him.”

Editor the best kind of luck. Yours for an enor- An item from nearby Lamous circulation, Les M. Crosse: Stroube.”

(9/22/32) “Mr. Charles Swanson who lives near The Post had always existed at least in spirit, since Brems was painfully innews of DeMotte had regujured Tuesday when he fell larly been included in the into an insilage cutter. The Kankakee Valley Review, a conveyor carried him into weekly that published the knives, cutting one leg through the 1920s and had a off near the knee.” tendency to move every few years, from Roselawn (known The Post was crammed full then as Rose Lawn) to De- of news on all four of its pagMotte to Wheatfield and then es — probably enough to keep back to Roselawn. The Post, a reader occupied for an enthough, was the first newspa- tire day. This was more out per DeMotte could call its of necessity than anything very own. It would become else, because the size of the the Post-News in 1971, when type could be described, charpublisher Keith Robinson itably at best, as “miniscule.” purchased the Jasper County In those days, readers of the News, consolidated it into the Post were best served by perPost, and renamed the whole fect eyesight or a big magnithing the Post-News. fying glass.

The business of small town In the Spring 2017 issue of newspapers has always been Columbia Journalism Rea tough business which oper- view (“The Future of Local ates perpetually at the edge News”), writer Michael Rosof the financial cliff, and es- enwald states, “There was a pecially so in rural farm time when there was no local towns where advertiser dol- news. News traveled by lars — or even advertisers — mouth in small towns, so aren’t in great supply. This country newspapers printed was probably especially true whatever news came abroad in 1932, when merchants by post.” barely had two Buffalo nickThis may have been true in els to rub together. Mean- small-town Siberias, but it

certainly wasn’t true in the 1932 DeMotte. In fact, nearly the entire front page (and I do mean the entire front page) was dedicated to little more than the everyday comings and goings of practically everybody in DeMotte and nearby burgs and hamlets.

The front page of the Sept.

22, 1932 issue was a good example of nothing being too inconsequential to warrant attention, with each item receiving its own individual line of type as well: (9/22/32) In Wheatfield, “Burl Keene drove Fendigs car to Indianapolis last Saturday. / Leo Cunningham, and Operator on the N.Y.C. is moving in Ethel Heights house this week. / Mr. and Mrs. James Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Don Strader and Dr. and Mrs. J.R. Manz visited Mr. and Mrs. Carl Sommers Friday evening Everything was fine except the red paint on Carls shirt.”

Meanwhile, in DeMotte that same week: “Mr. Harold Struble and his fiancee Miss Blanche Sigler motored to Hammond Sunday evening. / Misses Dorothy and Jean Summers motored to Wheatfield Sunday afternoon. / Mrs. Gerald Curtin and Mrs. Charles Curtin motored to Gary Saturday afternoon.”

Or this, from the Aug. 25, 1932 issue: “Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and Mr. and Mrs. P. Musch has dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Grevenstuq last Sunday. / Mrs. Wm. Dyke is spending the week in Chicago with her sister, Mrs N Wayner. / Doctor Leeson spent Monday in Chicago

By September, the towncentric columns began to carry bylines, so at least readers got to know who was doing the snooping: Amy Grunwald in DeMotte, Russell Jensen in Wheatfield, Hubert Long in Range Line, Kenneth Weinkauf in San Pierre, and Virginia Dickey in Shelby.

There was even a correspondent at two major resorts of the day on the Kankakee River.

The Fogli Hotel had Anstia Fogli Oehmich and Ahlgrim’s Resort had Miss E. Chick, who both provided regular dispatches about their guests that week.

Oehmich provided this tidbit in the Aug. 11, 1932 issue: “Mr. Muthart, Peacock, and DeGeer of Chicago, are out to tease the finny tribe this week. We sincerely trust they will not have to dive for them, as our supply of old clothes has given out, and unless we can prevail upon the Ladies Aid to supply these young divers with their mother’s wrappers, it will be just too bad. / Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lumely returned to Chicago to attend the funeral of Mr. Lumley’s grandmother.”

Yes, readers, for just over the first quarter of the 20th Century, most of the front page of the Post amounted to ... a gossip sheet. Contrary to

Michael Rosenwald’s assertions in the Columbia Journalism Review, the people of DeMotte were the most wellinformed readers on the planet when it came to the comings and goings of anyone within a 10-mile radius courageous enough to venture out of the house.

Given that the 1940 census counted 1,135 people in all of Keener Township in 1930 and telephone service consisted of party lines and phone company switchboard operators who connected them, it was only a matter of time before you’d end up on the front page even if you never bothered to leave the house. Probably a good many times a year too, whether you liked it or not.

The inside pages were filled with content provided by a newspaper service — typically two- or three-line news briefs from anywhere an everywhere, serialized fiction, and whole hodgepodge of things too numerous and varied to mention here in one sitting.

A good deal of it, though, presented humor. Given the mood of the country during the Great Depression, it must have been especially welcome.

For example, there was Random Shots (“Refulgent Reports Reliably Reported”), which provided short jokes and humorous sayings most of us today call “groaners” — or as my kids would grow to call them, “Dad jokes”:

Or this one:

Dentist (looking into patients mouth): I see a very large cavity.

Patient: Well you see doctor, I missed lunch to-day.

I had to read that last one a few times before it occurred to me that dental insurance and dental care as we know it today barely existed in 1932 and your dental fillings changed with whatever you last ate.

I came to read about a lot of things on the pages of the Post that I didn’t know existed in 1932, and about the people and events in DeMotte and points beyond.

Unfortunately, this special section touches only upon a mere fraction of them, but I hope you find them interesting. Especially the ads.

Or you could stop feeding your children candy. Well, that was how my grandmother kept saying kids got worms when I was a kid, anyway.

Anxious Enquirer: Who was the last man to box John L. Sullivan? [Editor’s note: John “Boston Strong Boy” Sullivan (1858-1918) was the last champion bare-knuckle boxer and America’s first heavyweight gloved-boxing champion.]

Answer: The undertaker.

Even grownups were a mess back then.

They were there to serve you in 1932 Here’s a comprehensive list of the Post’s regular display advertisers in and around DeMotte during 1932.

See how many of these businesses from the past you might recognize: Al Konovsky (building materials), DeMotte Bank of DeMotte Kimmet Lumber & Co, DeMotte C.W. Hathaway / The Shelby Market Philco Sales, Lowell (W.J. Bergin, proprietor) S. Sirois & Son, Shelby (superflex refig) S&J Boestra Shoe and Harness Repairing, Thayer Rathburn & Hart (general insurance agency,) DeMotte Dickey’s, Shelby (“Must Be Out By Aug. 31. Forced to vacate after quarter century, must reduce stock to fit smaller quarters.”)

Tefft Grain Co., Inc. Tefft (“If it’s feed we have it”) Art Burk’s Barber Shop,

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on business. / Howard Luse and mother are spending the week end with Mrs. Chas. Spencer. / Mrs Art Lagoveen and occupants of their car experienced a general shaking up when Mrs Lagoveen attempted to pass another car on loose gravel, causing her car to strike a telephone pole, spoiling a perfectly good fender. The were enroute to Winona Lake.

325 S. College Ave. Rensselaer 219-866-5941

tion.”)

D.R. Strong (grocery), Thayer ( “Where New Customers Come To Stay. We Deliver to Roselawn, Shelby, Thayer, and also Threshing Orders to County.”)

Wenger Tire Shop, Rensselaer (“Phone 68, Open Day And Night / Front And Washington Sts.”) Mary’s Restaurant, DeMotte (“Phone 3”) Lowell Grain & Hay Co., Shelby W.J. Wright (auction Their phone number was 3. house), Rensselaer Shelby Rensselaer Ice Cream Cypher’s Barber Shop, & Supply Co., Rensselaer Thayer H.C. Decock & Sons (groCypher’s Filling Station, ceries, meat market, hardThayer (“Carefree Motoring ware), DeMotte Is Yours With Our Service, Star Ball Room, Wheatfield Johnson Gas and Motor Oils, (“Ladies Free, Gents 35c”) Candies, Cigarettes, Tobacco, Frame’s Shoe Store, Crown Ice Cream, Cold Drinks, Point (“Open Wed. And Sat. Lunch Room in Connec- Evenings”)

Folsom & Epley (funeral home), Hebron (“Dignified But Not Costly”) Wilbur Lumber, Schneider Shelby Garage & Service Station, Shelby (Fred Wann, proprietor) DeMotte Mercantile Co., DeMotte Worland Funeral Home, Rensselaer (“Above all else, we have tried to make our establishment home-like. We know that it must serve as a temporary home to those we serve and those who attend services, and we want them to feel at home.”)

Arts Garage, Shelby Harry’s Service Station, DeMotte Ben Lynch Insurance, Lowell Sam Hamstra (Coal), DeMotte Rathburn & Hart Insurance, DeMotte Ernie Houck Electrical, Shelby Boston Store, Crown Point

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AUGUST 24, 2017 | KV POST-NEWS

DeMotte deals with Depression

By SCOTT BUCKNER City Editor Unless you lived through it, it’s impossible to fully realize the depths of the Great Depression, which began at the close of 1929 and didn’t abate completely until several years beyond the end of World War II. Today, there are seniors among us who were alive as children during those years, but children as a rule are shielded by their parents from the worst of even ordinary everyday life, or see even the worst of times through the prism of innocence.

By 1932, the nation’s unemployment rate stood stubbornly at 24.1 percent. The severity of destitution brought to the doorsteps of America is perhaps illustrated best by this account from Offthegridnews.com: “My parents were just toddlers when the Great Depression burst into their lives. It forever altered their view of the world, and not always in a good way. … Perhaps the worst story she told me was that my paternal grandmother, who was in her early 20s at the time, woke up one January morning in a barn to find that her husband had just left her and their toddler in the night. She had no food, no money, no family, no place to live, and a baby to feed. She walked along the highway and offered her baby to anyone who would take her. She assumed that someone with enough money for a car had money to feed a baby.

These type of stories can give you nightmares and make you wonder how people survived!”

One way, apparently, was by having a strong stomach.

According to the same account, “My grandmother had a large pot with a lid that she kept in the ice box or outside in the snow. Cans (or jars) of fruit or vegetables were filled with a bit of water, and then scraped out and put in the pot. Everything, and I mean everything, went in that pot: bread crumbs, a tablespoon of rice, a shriveled-up carrot, a half-rotten potato (just cut off the

BANK

In a few short months, Hoover would be gone. So would the gold standard.

bad part), fish heads and tails, bits of garlic, chicken skin, necks, livers, hearts, the hard skin of onions, broccoli ends, carrot and radish greens — you name it; unless it was rotten, it went into that pot.”

Locally, there was plenty for farmers to be miserable about, courtesy of the European Corn Borer. Largely eradicated today, the destructive pest had grown to epidemic proportions throughout the corn belt in Illinois and Indiana. According to one Post account (“Local Produce Is Barred By Ordinance”) during the summer of 1932, a quarantine of corn “and a long list of garden truck [produce] as well as flowers” had been declared, preventing any produce from our local farms from being transported to Illinois markets for sale unless a state inspector had first personally issued and signed a certificate stating the shipment was completely free of corn borers.

In and around DeMotte, a big cash crop was asparagus, and farms were among the few places where work might still be found, although not in any appreciable amount.

Still, there were spikes of good news on the pages of the Post in 1932. An August 18 item stated, “The season’s first car load of iced cabbage left here last Friday, for the St. Louis market, being shipped by Ed. DeVries.”

The good news concerning DeVries continued the following week:

We also learn that Mr. DeVries has some fifty car loads of cabbage to ship in the very near future.

Hats off to Mr. DeVries.”

and Benton counties a more direct and much more available route to the Calumet region and from there to Chicago.”

In the September 1 issue, optimism reached a fever pitch under the headline “DeMOTTE MERCHANT DECLARES NEW DEAL” with an account of dry goods proprietor Art Lagaveen’s business trip to Chicago, where he was “greatly impressed with prospects for the future.” The experience, judging by the Post accounts, was nothing short of transformational:

The extension, the editorial stated, would also provide a “bee-line to Roselawn.”

An October issue brought word of Carron & Co. possibly bringing a canning factory to DeMotte. The company, which already had established operations in Fowler, was in the business of canning tomatoes, pumpkin, and corn. The editorial offered congratulations to company for “employing a large amount of people in the depression” and “buy(ing) local stock” from growers.

Surprisingly, there was no editorial reaction by the Post in the week or weeks immediately following the defeat of President Herbert Hoover

by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the November 1932 election.

The Post was staunch supporter of the Republican party, and I almost expected to see a Page 1 headline on the order of “We’re Doomed!” in headline type of a size reserved only for declarations of war.

However, beyond state and national vote totals afterward and an article entitled “Why I Shall Vote for Hoover” penned just prior to the election by one Bruce Barton (who didn’t provide much of a compelling argument for anyone else to support Hoover beyond “weathering the storm” and managing to hang onto the presidency this long), there wasn’t a peep out of the Post.

That election, of course, would change the course of American history — and everyday lives — in ways not yet realized or even imagined in 1932.

“It is very interesting to note that mr L has evidently caught the spirit of optimism. He informs us that he is laying plans right now to transform his store into a modern up-todate retail establishment. … he further declares that as an outcome of the last three years economic disturbance entirely new methods of retailing have come into practice; that merchandising methods have been revolutionized, and that with the inception of new plans for his store, modern methods of merchandising and retail store operations will be put into effect.”

More down to earth, short Page 2 editorials periodically offered glimmers of 1932 optimism. One announced the decision by the state highway commission to extent State Route 55 from Gary to Fowler:

“HATS OFF TO MR. DEVRIES. Folks, shake hands with Mr. Ed DeVries, of DeMotte, as he has ‘ole-man depression’ on the hop. Last week three more cars of iced cabbage left for southern markets.

“When completed, this new road will give Gary, Crown Point and other Lake County cities a much needed outlet to the heart of the Kankakee Valley regions, and will afford the citizens of Newton, Jasper

Firsts.” The bank offered Jasper County its first Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) and package checking account.

The bank brought extended hours to the marketplace in 1981 by extending traditional bank closing hours from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Also starting in 1981, customers were first able to bank in DeMotte 12 hours a day during the week and nine hours a day on Saturday with the opening of its first minibranch located in Tysen’s Family Food Center in DeMotte.

Today, according to Goetz, that branch handles a large percentage of the DeMotte market’s transactions. From two employees and $10,000 in assets in 1917 to over 100 employees and $155 million in assets in 1997, the DeMotte State Bank is proof positive that their motto, “Dream it,

together we can achieve it,” has had true meaning, not

DeMotte always had grocery stores, primarily small, family-run general/dry goods stores such as H.C. DeKock & Sons, which sold everything from brooms to hardware to food basics such as flour, breakfast cereal, peanut butter, and lard.

Larger groceries-centered stores primarily represented the IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance) chain, which still exists today. In 1932 DeMotte, it was W.M. Swart & Co. (both above).

Today, when we look at ads from the early- to mid-20th century, we are quick to wax nostalgic over the prices of that day: Wow! How stupendously low they were! Why can’t prices be that low today?

Well, they’re not because they can’t be — and because even in those days, they really weren’t. They only seem dirt-cheap today because price nostalgia is missing one important thing: inflation.

In short, the 10 cents of 1932 doesn’t represent the same 10 cents of 2017. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator (bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator. htm) here’s the difference 85 years has made on a dollar or less: 1 cent = 18 cents; 5 cents = 90 cents; 10 cents = $1.80; 25 cents = $4.50; 50 cents = $9.01; $1 = $18.00.

So sure, that 10-pound bag of sugar that cost 48 cents at Swart’s in 1932 only seems like a wildly inexpensive bargain today — until you consider the same 48 cents in July 1932 would be the equivalent of an $8.64 bag of sugar in July 2017.

Here’s a sampling of some common things and their 1932 prices courtesy of The People History Blog (thepeoplehistory.blogspot.com), with each followed by what their equivalent price would be in July 2017. See how many of those things you’d consider inexpensive today: New house average Price: $6,510 / $117,254.19 Wages average: $1,650 / $29,718.81 Gallon of gas: 10 Cents / $1.80 5-piece decorated kitchen suite: $10.95 / $197.22

FROM PAGE 2

During that time, according to Goetz, the Board of Directors of the DeMotte State Bank felt that there would be no economies of scale experienced and decided it was in the best interest of the shareholders and customers of the bank to remain a locally owned and operated institution.

They further realized that in order to be competitive, the bank needed to expand into other markets. During that period, the bank opened offices in the following markets: purchased Morocco State Bank in 1987; opened an office in Lowell in 1991; purchased an office in Knox, 1992; opened a mini-branch near Wheatfield, 1995; and purchased an office in Hebron from NBD Indiana. The bank also currently has four ATM locations. In the early 1980s, DeMotte State Bank was billed as the “Bank of

Low, low prices? Not really

only for their customers but for the bank as well.

FOOD Dozen eggs 18 Cents / $3.24 Loaf of bread 7 cents / $12.61 Pound of hamburger meat 10 cents / $1.80 Shoulder spring lamb 17 cents Lb / $3.06 Clifton toilet tissue: 4 cents / $0.72 Pound of potatoes: 2 cents / $0.36 CARS Chrysler Six from $1,125 / $20,262.82 Packard Custom 8 Club Sedan from $2,750 / $49,531.34 Willys 2 Passenger Coupe from $673 / $12,121.67 CLOTHES Latest fashion ladies dresses from $4.98 / $89.70 Mens shirt $2.50 / $45.03 Mens socks 10 cents / $1.80 Boys courduroy pants and breeches, from $1.98 / $35.66 ELECTRICAL Electric toaster $9.95 / $179.21 Electric flat iron $1.49 / $26.84

FACTABULOUS The Post had plenty on its inside pages every week to satisfy curiosity seekers and factoid buffs. Fifty years later, Post readers would be more than prepared when the game of Trivial Pursuit is introduced.

“Congratulations Kankakee Valley Post News on 85 Years” Proud to serve District 5 in Indiana Senate

Senator Ed Charbonneau Serving District 5 - Pulaski County and portions of Jasper, LaPorte, Porter and Starke counties

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So kids, when your dad or your grandfather tells you stories today of getting an allowance of only a dime a week or mowing lawns in the blazing heat all day for a dollar or their first job serving up burgers and fries at some hamburger stand only paid 50 cents an hour, don’t let ‘em fool you. An inflation calculator says they were actually making some not-bad money for a kid.

— Scott Buckner, City Editor

ìServing Jasper County for 57 yearsî

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KV POST-NEWS | AUGUST 24, 2017

Good times or bad, DeMotte has been a sports town

By SCOTT BUCKNER City Editor The Post carried sports news in 1932, and like most other rural newspapers, it always occupied its own space on the front page, most often at the very top of the righthand column of the six-column newspaper. The headlines were large and bold, and accounts of games could run the entire column.

Sports reporting in the Post in 1932 differed drastically from what we recognize as modern sportswriting.

The writing — complete with the writer’s own vernacular and often lacking reliable punctuation — had a homespun and snarky atmosphere missing from today’s

standards of journalism even at small rural newspapers.

Above all, the reporting was unapologetically and unabashedly hometown booster-ish of the hometown boys.

Read with today’s eyes, a lot of the writing doesn’t make a lot of sense, and this newspaper’s un-bylined writer(s) was not above a bit of editorializing and reminding readers of the racial divisions that existed not just in the country, but of the color line in baseball itself.

As it happens, the account in the Thursday, August 4 issue — reproduced here as it appeared — makes mention, although indirectly, of an important chapter of American baseball: the existence of Ne-

gro league baseball, which fielded professional teams even after Major League Baseball was integrated just after end of World War II. The account here makes mention of the Kansas City Monarchs, which was one of the most successful and longest-running of the Negro Leagues teams. (Read more at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Kansas_City_Monarchs): DEMOTTE SPLITS DOUBLE HEADER WINS FROM WHEATFIELD, 9-0, LOSES TO HAMMOND DIETRICHS, 5-2 Another day of two games of baseball (too See SPORTS, Page 6

Through the years....

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Sunday Worship 9:30 A.M. Wednesday Night Meals Sept.- March 5:15-6:30 P.M. “Reason for the Season” 5K Run/Walk - Nov. 25 Benefitting the Children’s Backpack Food Ministry (Register at demottearc.com)

5

6

AUGUST 24, 2017 | KV POST-NEWS

SPORTS

FROM PAGE 5

much). The first game Wheatfield vs Demotte, with some second string players, but “Stick” Williams on the mound with “Mid” Hart receiving.

Score was 9-0 ”Stick.”

The second game Hammond Dietrichs vs DeMotte A.C. with “Tabe” Hixson on the hilltop and “Stew” Hofferth catching, resulted in a score of 5 to 3 favor of the Deitrichs.

This is the same team we defeated here before, by the score of 4 to 2, and they came back with more kick in the way of a new player or more.

The game went along with a score of 1 to 0 favor DeMotte, until about the 7th inning, two mis-judged flies coupled with two hits gave the visitors three runs and in the 8th three hits in a row brought up

two more runs and pitcher Hixson was spiked at the plate and retired. Again old reliable “Stick” Williams had to take up the mound duty and the first two Deittrichs [sic] went out the “whiff route” (whatever that is) and the pitcher Mr. Holly then came up., who was given a base in balls intentionally, in order to get at the comedy man left hand, first baseman Mr. Rutledge who wanted to bet he would not strike out, but “crawfished” when the money came forth that he would (Mr. Rutledge is a regular kidder).

He missed the first two strikes then knocked a short foul down first base line, and he did not hear the umpire say foul. He made a home run on his

own hook, only to again step up to the plate and “whiff ” (theres [sic] that word again) at the third strike, giving “Stick” three strike-outs in the 9th. They will return here the 28th of this month to play off the “rubber game” with “Stick” facing them. __Next Sunday the Oraselli Giants (colored) a traveling team will oppose our boys here with “Stick” Williams and “Stew” Hofferth as the battery. The regular lineup will be strengthened as needed to trim this aggregation of colored stars. To give you an idea as to who they are here in the line-up Milton, short stop, of Wiley College; Cary, catcher, of Home of Seed Grays; Robinson, first base, has played on every colored team of note; Miles, center field,

Johnstown Professionals; Harper, second base, American Giants; McKinney, right field, Kansas City Monarchs; Harrell, left field, St. Louis Colored Aces; Love, third base, Orcon College, and Jackson, Miss; Johnson and Tiggs, pitchers, who say “we pitch against ‘em all and they go down befo’ us.”

We are not “cocky” enough to say we will beat them, but with the line up we have that will get into a game of baseball well worth the money. The Club here is now trying to make a deal with the House of David, who will have Grover Cleveland Alexander with them and one of the greatest pitchers ever to play in a ball game and also known to every baseball fan in the U.S.”

Post readers would have been able to put a face to the names of big-league baseball players they might have heard about on radio broadcasts. Here, Earl Grace says makes a summer 1932 appearance on one of the inside pages, where players were often featured. “Just the other day Earl Grace, catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, completed his one hundredth consecutive game without an error. He had handled 270 chances without a misplay, his last previous error being on August 29, 1931.”

That’s entertainment!

From medicine shows to movies, The Depression didn’t starve anyone’s hunger for diversions in and around DeMotte

By SCOTT BUCKNER City Editor DeMotte has never had a movie theater, so you’ve always had to go elsewhere for your Hollywood fix. Two welladvertised movie houses were the Gayble in North Judson and the Palace in Crown Point.

However, movie tickets and gasoline for a nearly 50-mile round trip to either out of town venue cost money, and by all accounts, money was in short supply in 1932.

That’s why medicine shows, which were most always free, were a welcome distraction in rural towns like DeMotte where there were not a lot of entertainment choices.

They were called medicine shows because they were a showbiz-atmosphere marketing tool to hawk and sell and sorts of elixirs and tonics — most of dubious ingredients and origins — but the shows themselves were quite a popular draw, even if nobody could say for sure whether Chief Rolling Cloud was an authentic native chief.

So, in August 1932, “Chief Rolling Cloud and his Big Free Show” rolled into DeMotte for a two-week stretch of nightly engagements, bringing with him “5 acts of high-class vaudeville, singers, dances [sic], novelty acts,

Black Diamond, the pony of human intelligence, Preacher, a trained monkey and 16 trained dogs.”

And, almost assuredly, and ample supply of tonic. Chief Rolling Cloud’s brand was OK-A-TON, “the O.K. tonic made purely of vegetable ingredients.” Naturally, the chief “or his assistant will be at the office car on lot.

Even more naturally, there wold be “plenty of parking space.”

The Post’s Amy Grunwald chronicled the chief ’s visit this way: Better come out to the free shows being held in the school yard by Chief Rolling Cloud and his comedians. they surely are fine. they are giving away lovely gifts each night.

In a following issue:

ning the diamond ring. it was a very close race until the very last night when gladys received nearly the majority of votes. some were more or less “vexed” because their favorite candidate did not win the honors, although the crowd went home smiling and in a good humor. “Heres to you, Gladys.”

Chief Rolling Cloud and his Big Free Show would depart that week for a September 6 show in Lowell and then disappear into the vapor of time.

The Gayble and the Palace would outlast medicine shows and tonic-hawking chieftans, but they too would fade. The Gayble was bulldozed during the 1970s and the Palace (later renamed the Crown), today sits empty along Crown Point’s Courthouse Square.

Chief Rolling Cloud’s two weeks Popularity Contest reached its climax Sat night with Miss Gladys Bohler as the most popular young lady and also win-

The

HAS BROUGHT COMPLETE LOCAL NEWS COVERAGE OF THE KANKAKEE VALLEY AREA SINCE 1932 From the start, the KV Post News announced it would ìendeavor to make the Post a real disseminator of information regarding the Kankakee Valley.î A tradition started 85 years ago has been carried through the years.

The communities of DeMotte, Wheatfield, Roselawn, Hebron, Lake Village, Thayer, Tefft, Sumava Resorts, Schneider and San Pierre have had a ready and willing champion in the columns of the KV Post News.

It is the privilege of the KV Post News staff to be of service to our local communities. The prosperity and welfare of this region is vital to us. School news, church news, civic news, and local events are as important to us as they are to our readers.

Radio’s still around, too.

Meanwhile, Lydia E. Pinkham was giving Chief Rolling Cloud a run for his money on the pages of the Post in the quest to make DeMotte a happier place.

Home ownership really does pay off.

If you are interested in complete local news coverage of the area in which you live and work, then subscribe to the

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KV POST-NEWS | AUGUST 24, 2017

FOR 1932 | FROM ONTHISDATE.COM JANUARY 1 The United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth.

1 18th Rose Bowl: Southern California beats Tulane, 21-12.

2 Young gang shoot dead 6 police in Springfield, Mo. 7 First game played at Orchard Lake Curling Club, Mich.

10 “Mickey Mouse” comic syndicated.

12 Hattie W. Caraway elected first woman senator (D-Ark).

12 Philip Barry’s “Animal Kingdom” premieres in New York City.

14 First totalisator (to record racetrack bets) in US installed, Hialeah.

14 Horse racing legend Eddie Arcaro wins his first race.

28 First US state unemployment insurance act enacted (Wisconsin).

31 US railway unions accept 10 percent wage reduction.

••• FEBRUARY 4 3rd Winter Olympic games open in Lake Placid, NY. 6 First Olympic dog sled race, Lake Placid, NY (demonstration sport).

9 USA enters Olympic 2-man bobsled competition for first time.

11 73°F, highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in February.

13 “Free Eats” introduces George “Spanky” McFarland to “Our Gang.”

15 3rd Winter Olympic games close at Lake Placid, NY. 15 George Burns and Gracie Allen debut as regulars on the “Guy Lombardo Show.”

15 US bobsled team member Eddie Eagan becomes only athlete to win gold in both Summer and Winter Olympics (1920 boxing gold).

16 First patent for a tree issued to James Markham for a peach tree.

21 Camera exposure meter patented.

22 Purple Heart (the Badge of Military Merit) is reinstituted.

24 Malcolm Campbell drives record speed (253.96 mph) at Daytona.

27 Explosion in a coal mine at Boissevain, Va.; 38 dead.

••• MARCH 7 Riots at Ford factory in Dearborn, Mich., 4 killed 24 First US radio broadcast from a moving train (Belle Baker, WABC, Maryland) 29 Jack Benny debuts on radio, on Ed Sullivan’s New York interview program.

31 150 wild swans die in Niagara waterfall.

31 Ford publicly unveils its V-8 engine.

••• APRIL 4 Vitamin C is first isolated at the University of Pittsburgh.

9 Stanley Cup: Toronto Maple Leafs sweep NY Rangers in three games.

19 36th Boston Marathon is won by Paul de Bruyn of Germany in 2:33:36.4.

••• MAY 2 Jack Benny’s first radio show premieres on NBC. 2 Pulitzer prize awarded to Pearl S. Buck for “Good Earth.”

12 Body of kidnapped son of Charles Lindbergh is found in Hopewell, N.J. 14 “We Want Beer!” parade in New York.

17 US Congress changes name “Porto Rico” to “Puerto Rico.”

21 Amelia Earhart’s first transatlantic solo flight lands in Ireland.

25 Goofy, a.k.a. Dippy Dawg, first appears in ‘Mickey’s Revue’ by Walt Disney.

••• JUNE 6 The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States, at a rate of 1 cent per sold.

10 First demonstration of artificial lightning Pittsfield, Mass.

16 President Herbert Hoover and VP Charles Curtis renominated by Republican Convention.

17 Bonus Army: around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.

21 Jack Sharkey beats Max Schmeling in 15 for heavyweight boxing title.

22 Congress approves “Lindbergh Act” making kidnapping a federal offense (amended 1934).

22 National League finally approves players wearing numbers.

23 Lou Gehrig plays 1,103rd successive game in a NY uniform, equaling Joe Sewell’s record with one team (Cleveland).

••• JULY 1 NY newspaper Evening Standard goes bankrupt.

2 Franklin D. Roosevelt makes first presidential nominating conventional acceptance speech.

3 First Sunday game at Fenway Park, Yanks beat Red Sox 13-2.

6 First class postage back up to 3 cents from 2 cents.

6 Cubs shortstop Bill Jurges is shot twice in Chicago hotel room by a spurned girlfriend, Violet Popovich Valli.

9 Yanks’ Ben Chapman hits 2 inside-the-park HRs, tying record.

15 President Herbert Hoover cuts own salary 15 percent.

18 US and Canada sign a treaty to develop St Lawrence Seaway.

20 In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force who attempt to march to the White House.

28 Battle between unemployed war veterans and federal troops; 4 die.

28 President Herbert Hoover evicts bonus marchers from their encampment.

28 “White Zombie,” the first feature length zombie film directed by Victor Halperin and starring Béla Lugosi is released in the US 29 Great Depression: in Washington, D.C., U.S. troops disperse the last of the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans.

30 10th modern Olympic games opens in Los Angeles.

31 George Washington quarter goes into circulation.

••• AUGUST 5 Clyde Barrow and two associates kill Sheriff C.G. Maxwell and his deputy, Eugene C. Moore, the first time the Barrow gang killed a lawman.

14 10th Olympic Games at Los Angeles closes.

14 Dodger John Quinn, 49, is oldest pitcher to win a major league game.

14 Philips makes 1 millionth radio.

25 Amelia Earhart completes transcontinental flight.

••• SEPTEMBER 9 Steamboat SS Observation explodes in NYC’s East River, 71 killed.

18 Actress Peg Entwistle commits suicide by jumping from the letter “H” in the Hollywood sign.

20 Chicago Cubs clinch the National League pennant.

28 1932 World Series opens with the Chicago Cubs vs. NY Yankees (6-12).

••• OCTOBER 2 NY Yankees sweep Chicago Cubs in 29th World Series.

19 Henry Ford gives his first radio speech.

23 “Fred Allen Show” premieres on radio.

••• NOVEMBER 7 First broadcast of “Buck Rogers in the 25th century” on CBS radio.

8 Franklin Roosevelt elected 32nd President for first time.

15 Walt Disney Art School created.

18 “Flowers & Trees” receives first Academy Award for a cartoon.

22 Pump that computes quantity and price patented and delivered.

24 In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.

••• DECEMBER 2 “Adventures of Charlie Chan” first heard on NBC radio network.

5 German physicist Albert Einstein granted a visa to enter America.

18 Chicago Bears beat Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in first NFL playoff game.

21 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers first joint movie (“Flying Down to Rio”).

27 Radio City Music Hall opens.

7

GOOD YEAR FOR GRIT Grit was a weekly newspaper, popular in the rural United States during much of the 20th century. It carried the subtitle “America’s Greatest Family Newspaper.” In the early 1930s, it targeted small town and rural families with 14 pages plus a fiction supplement. By 1932, it had a circulation of 425,000 in 48 states, and 83% of its circulation was in towns of fewer than 10,000 population.

It ceased being a newspaper in 2006, when it was turned into a glossy bi-monthly magazine.

MAD ABOUT SHOES It’s not known whether the man in this 1932 ad was angry about something or whether he wanted to make a strong point about his sale, but this ad for Frame’s Shoe store was certainly created to catch everyone’s attention. Few if any Post ads that year were created with as much attention to design and visual impact as this one.

CRAZY ABOUT CLAY And sometimes, the Post just relished news of the weird and outrageous, and

by the end of the summer of 1932, photography started becoming a bigger, regular part of the inside pages. And sometimes, the story just wouldn’t be the same without a photo. The description of this on was, “IN ST. LOUIS, MO, there has been discovered a colony of clay-eaters. Their source of supply is is an ideal clay mound about which they gather to scoop it up and consume it. They claim they do not eat it because of hunger but because it leaves a pleasant “tang” in the mouth and is desirable food. Persons of various ages admit eating this clay and some have done it for years. This particular mound is most favorable because its clay is not gritty. Our photograph shows two youngsters sampling the clay.”

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8

AUGUST 24, 2017 | KV POST-NEWS

Our longest subscriber (that we know of)

By SCOTT BUCKNER City Editor

Microfilm roll spooled on its projector: Our window to the past.

BUCKNER/Post-News

DeMotte Public Library: Guardian of local history

By SCOTT BUCKNER City Editor A great deal of gratitude for this special section needs to be extended to the DeMotte Public Library and the library’s geneology specialist/ Indiana Room curator, Marlene Beedle, who gave us free and frequent access to the sole roll of microfilm containing the first-year issue of what would eventually become known as the Kankakee Valley Post-News.

This access is the sole reason the content of this special section was made possible.

It also illustrates the importance of newspapers and preserving them, and most of all, the importance of small-town libraries to the preservation and presentation of our own local history.

Many years ago, typically at the end of an issue year, newspapers were bound in huge, clumsy hardcover volumes and tucked away in some back room (typically known as “the morgue”) of the newspaper office.

As you might expect, this eventually created major space/storage problems, so the volumes were were shipped off to regional or state libraries or, more often, ended up at local historical societies and libraries.

As you might imagine as well, the temperature and humidity control of those small, perenially-underfunded places is roughly equal to that of the average home basement or garage, transforming the contents of those bound volumes over time into fragile, crumbling relics.

In fact, the reproduction on the front page of this special section of the very first Post shows that sort of decay.

(In all fairness to small local libraries and historical societies, those volumes were regularly received in that sort of condition in the first place since they were usually donated from garage and basement finds.)

It’s also the reason there are often wide gaps in news-

paper-volume years in all but the most well-funded libraries and historical societies.

Small-town newspapers went out of business early and often — and with them the back copies of their newspapers containing decades upon decades of everyday small-town life and events are lost, almost as if they never happened at all.

To preserve space, libraries would ship those volumes to companies which would photograph each and every page in whatever condition they were received, and transfer those images in a single long row onto a roll of microfilm (also known as microfishe or microform).

The roll(s) of film would be returned to the library, where they would be stored in their individual, labeled boxes until some researcher needed to see one. The roll would then be spooled onto a microfilm projector, where each page could be viewed.

Beedle, who has been with the library for 25 years, said despite the low-tech nature of its Indiana Room projector, youngsters who have been raised in the era of sophisticated devices don’t seem to mind this technological dinosaur. “Once they get the hang of it, it’s technologically not scary to a kid,” she said.

If anything, this special section illustrates the value of our local libraries not only as repositories of print and digital media, but as resource for those researching our town’s ordinary events and everyday people of years past. You can find an astounding amount of the past on the Internet, but not stuff like this.

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Losing things like nearly century-old newspapers that exist today only on microfilm — and the local libraries that care for them today — would be beyond tragic.

“I don’t think we ever want to lose those resources,” said Beedle.

In thinking about this special section some weeks ago, we wondered amongst ourselves who has been receiving the Post-News continuously, without a break in their subscription, for the longest amount of time.

Upon a search of our subscriber database, we came up with a single customer: Pat Kopanda of DeMotte. She has been a subscriber since March 15, 1994, eclipsing runners-up Jasper County REMC in Rensselaer (Sept.

6, 1994) and Catherine Allen of DeMotte (Sept. 20, 1994) by six months.

Kopanda is a familiar face around a number of DeMotte organizations as well as the Post-News office, where she drops in regularly and usually for no specific reason at all. “People call me The Virus, because I’m so hard to get rid of,” she said upon introducing herself to me in May. She keeps visiting every week without fail, so there may be a kernel of truth to her self-assessment. But I’ve come to like Pat and welcome the occasions where she

PAT KOPANDA

darkens our doorstep.

Kopanda has subscribed to the Post-News since moving to DeMotte 22 years ago, and in that time, her regard of the newspaper could be described as something of a love-hate relationship. She has a subscription as well to The Chicago Tribune for daily news of the nation and the world, but has a better appreciation for the Post-News because it’s the only newspaper with news of DeMotte each week.

“I live in an area where I don’t get local radio because I live in a dead spot, little pockets where we don’t get a signal. The Rensselaer FM station and the rest, could

never get ‘em. So the (PostNews) has always been my salvation because it keeps me posted on what’s happening.”

Compared to the newspaper that first started showing up in her mailbox all those years ago, Kopanda said this of the present-day PostNews: “I think it’s gone down.

There’s not as much in it. But we’re lucky in this town that we have a newspaper. It’s a good newspaper because it keeps me informed about things I want to know. You cover the main stuff.”

Well, Pat, we here at today’s Post-News are going to keep trying to do a better job of things. Because we do what we do every week for readers just like you.

(Editor’s Note: The PostNews’ current computerized subscriber database didn’t come into existence until the 1994, so it might be entirely possible that a continuous subscription older than Kopanda’s may exist on paper records no longer in existence. If yours is one, we apologize in advance. However, our current records show Kopanda’s to be the oldest continuous subscription.)

Thank You

Jasper County for voting us Best Grocery Store

Doug Ballas-Produce Mgr, Carol Sterk-Deli Mgr, Karl Schulz-Store Mgr, Mark Peo-Meat Mgr