131. Winchester People And Places - Rev. Richard Merriman and Dr. Lowell Painter.

Rev. and Mrs. Richard Merriman.

  The public is invited to a community reception for the Rev. Richard Merriman, Sunday Jan. 8, at the Winchester Main Street Christian Church fellowship hall.
  Rev. Merriman and his wife, Ilene, will leave Winchester Jan. 16. Jan. 15 will be his last day in the pulpit here. He has accepted a pastorate at First Christian Church in Greensburg, Pa.
  The Main Street Christian Church, Christian Women's Fellowship is planning the reception.
  "This is more than a church reception. We want the community to come since he has been involved in so many community activities," said reception co-chairman Margaret Bunsold.
  In addition to inviting the public, the group is sending personal invitations to people associated with various agencies with which he has worked, including Planned Parenthood, the Mental Health Association, the Cancer Society, The Ministerial Association and others.
  Mrs. Bunsold said three ministers ordained under Rev. Merriman, the Rev. Greg Overmyer, Zionsville, the Rev. Jack Baldwin, Revena, Ky. and the Rev. Terry Nolier, Gas City, are also being invited.
  Rev. Merriman's involvement in community and philanthropic activities has been extensive, and he has helped start some programs here including Planned Parenthood and Alcoholics' Anonymous.
  Other groups with which he has been associated are the Dunn Comprehensive Mental Health board, Community and Family Services, Kiwanis Club, Randolph County Hospital Chaplain's Association, Winchester Chamber of Commerce, Band Aides and the Boy Scout Council.
  He has worked closely with the Randolph County Dept. of Public Welfare and with Susie Green, another Winchester resident involved in philanthropic activities.
  Mrs. Merriman has been a member of the Women's Club and eastern Star.
  "I pretty much stick to church, kids and school," she said.
  The Merrimans came here from Rushville in 1970, and their four children graduated from Winchester Community High School.
  "We've been very happy with the school here. We've been through the whole system from the first grade through high school," said Mrs. Merriman.
  Their son Richard, 27, is educational director for the Indiana Civic Art Association. Daughter Becky Gibbons, 26, works for Dr. Alan White in Lynn.
  Daughter Amory, 21, will graduate from Hanover College in May, and daughter Sarah, 20, is a junior at Eureka (Ill.) College.
  Amory will join her parents in Pennsylvania after graduation since she will continue studies in voice in Pittsburg.
 Born in Buhl, Idaho, Rev. Merriman graduated from Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Ore. He then held a three-year pastorate at Redmond, Ore., his wife's home town.
  He decided to do graduate work at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, and the couple moved to Rush County, Ind., where he took a pastorate at Flat Rock Christian Church. Later he held a pastorate at Main Street Christian Church in Rushville.
  Leaving Winchester and this pastorate is not easy for him. "It's a unique profession. You get so emotionally involved in people's lives," he said.
  Apparently his leaving is not easy for others as well. "We've been overwhelmed by people's reaction to our leaving. I had no idea we had so many friends, not only in the church but outside the church, too," he said.
  Mrs. Bunsold said no one has been chosen to succeed Rev. Merriman. She did indicate that an intern minister will serve the church until a replacement is found.   Winchester News-Gazette, Jan, 1984.



Dr. Lowell Painter.

  After more than 50 years of service to this community, Dr. Lowell W. Painter is taking in his shingle. Painter , who turns 77 this month, will retire Oct. 1. "I felt like this was the time to do it," he said of his reasons for retiring now.
  Apparently some of his patients disagree. Office nurse Olive Hudelson said she observed tears, dismay and a sense of "He can't do this" in some patients upon learning of his decision.
  Others have accepted the inevitable. Painter said many patients, some of whom are younger than he, have told him he deserves the rest and have wished him well.
  He is unsure how many patients he has treated over the years but says some of the babies he delivered are now grandparents.
  An Ohio native, Painter, whose father was a school superintendent, lived in several Indiana communities while growing up. He did undergraduate work at Earlham College and Indiana University School of Medicine in 1930.
  His service here began an 1931. He was still interning at Indianapolis City Hospital, now Wishard Hospital, when an acquaintance told him of several Indiana communities needing doctors. One of these communities was Winchester.
  "I came over and looked at the town and I liked it," he said. He and his wife Lillian, settled here after he finished his internship. "I've never been sorry," he added.
  Painter established his first office in the Davis Building arcade at the corner of South Main and East Franklin streets. In 1940 he had his present office built a little over a half block east of there on Franklin street.
  "I guess I made some of the boys mad, he learned several years later when someone told him neighborhood boys had used that particular lot to play basketball.
  Painter has watched the years bring a multitude of changes in medicine. but he said
  "We didn't have people who injected dye into veins and took X-ray pictures of arteries," he said of medicine when he began practicing. He also recalls the difficulty doctors had in treating diabetes before the use of insulin in the 1920's. People with the disease either went on extremely restrictive diets or simply face shortened life spans.
  Medical specialties in those days mainly included surgery, the treatment of eye, ear, nose and throat and general practice.
  His specialty was surgery, but he said, "Back in those days we did everything." His interest in orthopedics led him to develop a board on which to lay patients who had broken hips.
  Painter also enjoyed obstetrics and recalls the City Hospital maternity ward as a joyous place. "It's fun. Tragedy happens but it is unusual."
  He did give up his obstetrical cases a few years ago because they cut into his surgery schedule. "I found so many mothers who didn't schedule their babies very well," he explained.
  Although the advent of numerous specialties in recent years has led general practitioners to make more referrals to consultants, Painter sees little change in the basic doctor-patient relationship, especially in a rural community such as this. "People know their doctor. They come to him because they like him and have faith in him," he said.
  Painter's contributions to the community extend beyond treating patients. "The role of the doctor in the community is that he should be a citizen and help in that community," he commented.
  He was, in part responsible for establishing the Randolph County Hospital coronary care unit 14 years ago.
  He also carried on with plans a local minister had for establishing a nursing home here, after the minister left town. He said he and four other doctors involved in the project decided even if it offered no financial return, the project would give some of the community's elderly a place to live.
  In 1976 the Winchester Chamber of Commerce recognized Painter for outstanding community service. In 1981 Randolph County Hospital acknowledged his 50 years of service to the hospital and community.
  He also recalls enjoying doing research on carillons when the Winchester United Presbyterian Church was preparing to purchase one from funds a late member willed for that purpose.
  Painter's involvement in professional, civic and service organizations include memberships in the American Society of Abdominal Surgeons, The American Medical Association, the Indiana State Medical Association, the American Heart Association, Randolph County Medical Society, the American Cancer Society the Kiwanis Club and the YMCA.
   Painter speaks proudly and fondly of his family and says of Mrs. Painter, "She's a very faithful assistant." although she did not work in the office, she has handled countless calls to their home, often a hard chore. Painter also takes pride in his wife's participation in church and civic activities.
  The medical tradition lives on in the Painter family in their so, Robert. He is a chest and vascular surgeon in Connecticut and was recently invited to join the New England Surgical Association. "We are very proud of him," Painter says.
  Tragedy struck the family a few years ago when the Painter's 36-year-old daughter died suddenly of a cerebral aneurysm.
  Many have asked the doctor what he plans to do when he retires, to which he replies, "I'm going to find out."
  Although his plans are not specific, Painter says he enjoys many things, including reading and following I.U.'s Hoosiers he said. "Ever since 1923 I've been morally certain we're going to have a winning football team - next year."
  The Painters have always traveled and have especially enjoyed a resort the I.U. Alumni Association maintains in Wisconsin. "Don't go there," he advised, "You'll get hooked on it. It's like morphine. You can't get rid of it."
  Painter has no plans for the office space at this time but said, "If a new doctor wanted to come to town, its available."
  Those who have worked with Painter hold him in high regard. Mrs. Hudleson remarked. "He's the best employer in the world." She also works part time at the hospital and observed that she and other nurses have seldom, if ever, seen him angry. "He always has a smile for the nurses," she added.
  Reaction to his retirement may best be summed up by the words of Randolph County Hospital director of nursing, Jannalee Fraser, who said simply "He will be missed."    Winchester News-Gazette, Sept., 1983   By Kathy Welch.

130. Winchester's First High School Commencement, 1875

Winchester Journal-Herald, Oct. 30, 1937
By Phillip Kabel.


  Knowing that all graduates of the Winchester High school have devoted much time to the study of ancient history, some from choice, others otherwise, and believing it wrong to withhold from you anything that might add to your store of knowledge, I thought it might be well to tell you the history of the beginning of our Alumni Association, of which we are all so proud.
  On the night of May 28, 1875, there appeared on the stage of the old City Hall the first graduates of the Winchester High School, two in number and they received the first diplomas ever presented by the Winchester Board of Education, the pupils being Will E. Monks and Alice Kizer.
  Will has long since answered the final call, and Alice is the oldest living graduate of the Winchester High School, not old in years, for in spirit she is the youngest of the whole bunch, and the question of old age has never once entered her mind.
  Just because she was graduated at the time your grandmother was a little girl, is not a sign of old age, but one of wisdom. So if you think we are writing about an old woman, you must dispel that thought from your mind at once.
  We wonder if you think the Winchester High School was always under such splendid supervision, and blessed with so fine a course of study as now-not so. Prior to the coming of Professor John Cooper, as the superintendent of the schools, we had no prescribed course of study, and none of the higher branches were taught. At the beginning of every school year the older pupils were put into a class that began a study in grammar and percentage in arithmetic, and went so far as they might. Then the next year they went back to the study of percentages again. The new superintendent graded the schools and laid out a course of study, and the young minds were given a chance to expand. In their senior year they studied trigonometry, Latin, rhetoric, chemistry, astronomy and mental philosophy.
  Can you imagine what it must have meant to be a member of the class of '75, you who have been in such large classes, and have had such jolly times in your class meetings? Don't you think it must have been dull indeed to have had only two? They couldn't talk about whether they would wear white dresses or light silk, or whether they would wear white shoes or black.
  By the way, would you like a description of the first commencement dress? Well it is (Yes, IS, for it still exists, and is laid carefully away in a trunk in the attic), of white tarlatan, (this is the name of the material from which the dress is made). An old maid told me that it is a stubborn, wiry goods that looks pretty before it is worn, but decidedly crumpled afterwards. Don't know how she knows it is crumpled afterwards, as she has never had occasion to wear such a dress at either a commencement or a wedding. It has a sweeping train, the part that drags behind, sweeping up all the dust from the floor, and an overskirt with the front all puffed out. These scientific terms are getting me all muddled and before getting into deep water I am going to close the descriptive part.
  Natural flowers were not the thing at all then, so she went to Richmond and purchased two bunches of white artificial flowers, wore one at her throat and the other in her hair.
  Yes, her hair was so red that red flowers could not be distinguished and white ones were necessary.
  Of course her hair was well crimped, as it had been done up on crimpers all day, curling irons were not in existence then. But the roses in her cheeks were natural, not put on with a brush.
  Will Monks borrowed Bob Morrow's basket phaeton buggy and white pony and escorted her to the city hall, which in early days had a stage or platform its full width, and, on this occasion, it was filled to overflowing with the school board, teachers, singers and a whole brass band, bass drum and all.
  But that was all right with the sweet girl graduate, for her sweetheart was a member of the band.
  The literary productions were quite weighty and the next issue of the local papers predicted brilliant futures for both of them. theorems and problems in natural philosophy
  Will's subject was, "The End, Not yet." Alice's was, "Beauty Everywhere."
  In it she spoke of the beautiful mathematical theorems and problems in natural philosophy. Getting into deep water wasn't she?
  When you have been burning the midnight oil, or electric current, studying the reflection of light when the source is between the center of curvature and the principal focus, or when you have been worrying over the binomial theorem in your algebra lesson, or tiring of that, have taken your solid geometry and have tried to prove that the area of a zone is equal to the product of its altitude and the circumference of a great circle of its sphere, did you think of the beauty of them then?
  Yes, we know you did, because at the young and tender age of 18 everything is beautiful.
  It was astonishing what this young lady did get out of her subject, with such an inspiration close by in the band.
  There were two young ladies in the audience who had attended a commencement somewhere before, and they each had a bouquet of garden flowers, which, at the proper time were thrown by main force at the performers, at the risk of knocking a gas lamp from the chandelier, or the flowers from a spring bonnet.
  Both bouquets were intended for the girl graduate, but since none of the men, (thoughtless things that they are) in the audience had one for the boy graduate, one was given to Alice, the other to Will.
  Boys, how would you like to sit on the stage, facing the audience, and hold on your lap a Black-eyed Susan or a Pansy? Of course, we refer to flowers.
  Their immediate friends did not know it was customary to give graduating presents, so they received only one each-a gold pen and holder from their superintendent, Professor Lee Ault. Fountain pens had not yet been invented.
  The diplomas were presented in large gilt frames by their high school teacher, Professor Polly.
  And thus, after another loud selection by the brass band, ended the first commencement exercises of the Winchester High School.

(The city building mentioned was on the north side of the square on the second floor of the Magee/Moore block. The Merchants Bank tore it down but it was next to the building where Tom Batt's "The Country Gentleman" is located. The second floor was also known as "The Opera House," seating 400 people. It was one of three Opera Houses in Winchester in that period. The oldest was Lee Snattinger's where Geyer Chevrolet was and the other, the newest, was Bud Irvin's "Irvin Opera House," seating 600.) 2019 mh

129. Washington Township, District 13 School At Kennedy's Corner, 1880's Carlos Area Schools

Union City Times-Gazette, Aug. 27, 1955.
By Elza Stevenson.


Kennedy's Crossroads @ 1880.

  Some twenty years or more before the beginning of the present century if we could have ridden horseback, walked or by some other mode of transportation of that day to a point in the central part of Randolph county we would have found a crossroads known as Kennedy's crossroads or Kennedy's corners. The east and west road was soon afterwards known as the Bloomingsport and Economy turnpike. It was the first road of its kind in the southern part of the county. Either side of the roads leading up to this crossing was bordered by the old style stake and rider fence.
  In the northwest corner of the crossroads was the farm of Hester Jackson. In the southwest corner was land once owned by the Mullen family and finally by J.B. Engle. His heirs still possess it. The southeast corner was originally owned by the Cranor family, later by Dr. W.R. Coggeshall. Many of the descendants of these families still reside in this community. In the northeast section of this crossing lived at one time, a family by the name of Kennedy and from them the crossroads was named.
  In the immediate northeast corner of these roads was a square plot of near an acre in area in the center of which was located the first school building in the community and it might have been called Kennedy's Corner school, but this writers first knowledge was of district 13, Washington township. J.B. Engle was known to have taught one term there a few years prior to 1880 which was near the time he purchased the farm at the crossroads,
  This building was not large, being near twenty by thirty feet. The first teacher I recall was a Miss Ella Teas from near Greensfork, or Washington, as the little town was called. Then came one Wayne Brewer from the Losantville community.
  True to the custom of that time he walked over to school on Monday and back on Friday evening. Another early teacher was Cyrus Robbins who resided in Lynn. He also rode "shanks mares horses," frequently walking back and forth. The railroad was built then and made a good footpath for him.
  Angie Nichols was another teacher of this period. The following were reported as not tardy or absent during the term: Alta Hutchens, Elza Stephen, Mary Hodson, Carlie Stevenson, Lorne Bachelor, Mary Stevenson, Evert Cogshall, Mary Cox, Carrie Davis, Tish Mumbower. Number enrolled 40, average attendance.
 It might be interesting to know the whereabouts of those former pupils who have survived. Carlie and Earnie Stevenson are at South Haven, Michigan, Everett Cogshall is at Saratoga, Leota near Greensfork, and Alta Hutchens and Elza still reside in the Carlos community.
  When the railroad was built the town of Carlos City came into being. Due to postal regulations the name was later shortened to Carlos and after this the school was known as the Carlos school. This was about the time of the building of the two roomed school on the hill just east of the town. These rooms were always known as the "Big Room" and the "Little Room." It was always an event comparable to a college promotion when the children had the credentials that entitled him to enter the precincts of the "Big Room."
  This building was erected near the year 1886. Robert Engle was the trustee and Nathan Morris the contractor. Alice Nichols was the principal and the first teacher in the big room. Mary Smith taught the little room.
  Teachers who followed were Lon and Tom Hutchens, Pendleton Lasley, Austin Morris as principals and Mattie Botkin, Clara Gaines, Charles Gordon, Angie Nichols Norman and Georgia Ladd in the little room.
  Near the year 1920 the new brick building was erected. It was a three room modern building. The old two room school was moved back and for a time was used as a recreation building. This brick building was used only a short while when patrons wanted thei children to attend a larger school and the school was laid down and the pupils sent to larger schools by bus. A few of the teachers of this school were Clarence Washler, Fred Baxter, Grace Cox, Emma Riley and Irene Chamness.
  It is impossible to give much data concerning this school as the older pupils have passed on. It was sometimes called the Catey school because of the family name in the community.
  Among the early teachers was Lon Hutchens, Allie Hunnicutt, Alonzo Farquar, Alonzo Bales, Angie Norman, Tom Hutchens. From the group came a judge, county clerk and county prosecutor. Others who followed were William Haynes, Pendleton Lesley, Wilson Hardwick,Elza Stevenson, Walter Jessup, Homer Hernley, Hazel Gordon, May Houck, Mollie Hunt, Raymond Thornburg, Jennie Lee and Margory Brown.
  Many will recall the close of school at old number 11. It was the custom to have a big dinner and an entertainment given by the pupils. It was anticipated with a lot of pleasure during the term.
  As the community just west of Carlos, known as the number 11 district, is so closely related to the Carlos school a committee has been appointed to take steps to hold a joint reunion of the two schools on Labor Day, September 5. An invitation is extended to all former pupils, their families and friends, to meet in the basement of the Carlos church.

A poor picture is with this article. It shows a group of students standing and seated in front of a large American flag. Named are C.A. Stevenson, visitor, Warnie Thomas, Enos Thornburg, George F. Stevenson, visitor, Oscar Catey, Andy Sharp, Clyde Catey, Ed. Conyers, music teacher, Orison Morrison, Charley Bales, Jessie Peacock, Frank Catey, holding slate, Charley Wadman, Maud Catey, Lizzie Stevenson, India Fennimore, Olive Sharp, Sally Morain, Elza Stevenson, teacher, Raymond Morrison, Grace Morrison, Clell Morrison Olive Wadman, Harry Catey, Clarence Sheppard, Ozro Durbin, Essie Morrison, Zella Wadman, Lillie Thomas.

















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128. Remembering Lynn And Its Railroad History

Winchester News-Gazette, Nov. 1982.

By Ken Thomas.

  "I remember as a boy sittin' out here in a ditch by the tracks and watchin' the train men runnin' this way and that way. This used to be all a bustle," recalls a Lynn old-timer as he studies the remains of the Lynn train yard.

  The man has grayed with time, and so has the scene he is observing. He sees that this place is so terribly stripped of what used to be here.

  It's true, there's not much left. An old hand pump still protrudes from the ground, but the ground is old and broken and weed infested. All of the one-time surroundings of the pump -- busy folks waiting to board the train, the train station, colorful railroad signal lights, the unique clanging and clacking and bustling of the railroad era are all gone now.

  The old man sees that across the way a power equipment hut still stands, reminders of the equipment once inside it still decorate its crusted walls.

  In fact, one imagines that the hut must have looked something like this over a century ago.

  But the last of the tracks, the very rails themselves are gone now, taken up only in recent months by those who know they'll never be used again. Many of the original tracks, the ones that supported the locomotives that helped make Lynn a thriving social and commercial center in the late 1800's  and 1900's were removed many years ago. But it's been only recently that the fateful intersection of Lynn's two track lines near the southwest edge of town was uprooted. The last train had long ago passed over it.

  Now there are no Lynn rails, save the ones discarded and strewn near somebody's side property.

  But, though it may seem so, it's not really been so long ago when the railroad era was in full swing here, for some of the old-times remember it still.

  "Even New Castle didn't have the railroad network that Lynn did back then," recalls Ed Chenoweth, whose family goes way back to the formative years of the town. Chenoweth himself was born in 1895. "The railroad was everything then."

  Indeed, the railroad played one big part in Lynn becoming the enviable small community a hundred years ago. Not one, but two tracks came through the outskirts of the town, and because of this attractive feature Lynn became the nice little town where many a traveler would stop and trade. In fact, many stuck around and established businesses of their own.
  Lynn resident Alice Ross, now in her mid-80s, has had the railroad here as part of her life for as many years as she can remember. Her grandfather, Philip Nearson, helped lay the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad in Lynn between 1860 and 1870. Her late husband, Jess, worked on the railroad almost all his life. Her mother operated a restaurant at the Lynn depot when Alice was just a youngster.
  Alice notes that not every railroad stop had a roundhouse, but Lynn did. The Lynn tracks at their height could boast of a roundhouse, cinder pit, car repair house and other structures that would please avery engineer that passed through.
  Since the Lynn roundhouse included facilities where the train cars would be serviced and cleaned before beginning the next long stretch of their journey, train stops at Lynn often meant somewhat extended stays and lots of traveling folks having time and opportunity to do any of various and sundry things while remaining in town.
 Necessity being the mother of invention - and business, too - there sprang up a whole host of businesses that centered around the increased activity of the railroad.
  As best Alice Ross can recall, S. Burris operated a restaurant near there. Amos Surfus was a well-known sawmill operator at the time. A hotel which some recollections have being operated by a Harl Hunt was also nearby. A blacksmith shop was in the area, and a watering trough still sits in front of where that shop was once located. Thinking of one Lynn house which was once a blacksmith shop. Mrs. Ross says, "If you would tear the shingles off that house, you'd be shocked."
  Poultry sheds, flour mills, slaughter houses. one owned by James Thurston and stockyards were in the vicinity. Men would buy hogs, put them in the stockyards and later load them onto the train.
  The original Lynn roundhouse states Mrs. Ross, was one of the largest of any in eastern Indiana at the time, with 11 stalls. As the years passed, it had but four.
  The old Lynn depot was moved from one side of the tracks to the other in 1912 or 1913. On the south side of the tracks were two ticket offices and one large waiting room. Bill Norton was a yard clerk, and he and Mr. Lewis were among the first to turn the track gates. Charlie Wilson ran the coal dock where the chute was located. Depot operators have been Walter Lonsbarry, Fred Bowen. Burt Bowen, Raymond Bowen and Dave Brown.
  Hacks similar to the old horse drawn school hacks carried people across town if they wanted to get on the train.
  Mrs. Ross remembers when there were fairgrounds, a race track, and a ball diamond near the tracks on the west side of town. Between the activities at the grounds and the crowd from the railroad, that part of town was quite a busy place. The fairgrounds was also the same place where the centennial celebration was held in Lynn in 1876.
  Mrs. Ross recalls that political rallies were also held in the wooded area beside the tracks on the west side. Camp meetings and the rallies kept things alive in the town.
  "We have political rallies now," says the railroad historian, but she quickly adds, "but not like they were then. They had hot times then!"
  She says that the candidates for offices which included presidential elections came through on the train and gave speeches near the Lynn depot. The activity at the railroad depot area explains why the rallies were held there and not in the middle of town where the downtown business and pedestrian district was located.
  Mrs. Ross says without hesitation, remembering it as if it happened yesterday, "You should have seen the people come and listen to them candidates 'speel off." The first significant rally she remembers is when McKinley and Bryan ran against each other. Speaking of that election, she states, "That was a hot time in Lynn. I remember that."
  The race track in the fairground area put on quite a show, according to those who can remember it. Two-wheeled carts pulled by horses were the race entries. She also remembers a circus with sideshows which she saw as a child.
  She recalls in 1917 or 1918 after a terrible snow storm which stalled the train and forced passengers off in Lynn, that many of the stranded people came to her house and were fed a hot meal.
  Of course, there were many in the town associated with the railroad who, were they interviewed today, might not be so nostalgic about the train - people whose jobs were essential to the train's existence but whose jobs were also very hazardous.
  Many times the "boilermaker inspector" found it necessary to actually crawl into the train's boiler hole. If inner repairs were needed, he would stay and try to fix them. Protected only by extra heavy clothes, he worked in the cramped space in heat that could burn him alive.
  When the locomotive was separated from its cars. it was the job of the "trainman" to release the pin joining the cars together. His life was in jeopardy every time stepped between the cars. The cars could behave very strangely when the trainman released the pin from the link. Many escaped a close encounter with death minus fingers or hands.
  Before the invention of the modern air brake, the train had to be "braked by hand." The brakeman performed a very risky maneuver at every stop. One long blast on the whistle by the engineer was his signal to run over the train or through each open car to the hand brakes. One uncoordinated step on his way to the brakes might have been his last.
  but all that is just so much memory now, for the scene in Lynn where all the hubbub and activity once was is quiet, weedy, and mostly deserted. Residences or farm fields surround the now-excavated depot site and a firm that cuts wood has set up operation in this area.
  The old man standing near where a track once was and remembering the railroad days with fondness suddenly notes the glaring reality of a makeshift sign bearing the ironic label, "OFFICE," which hangs loosely on one of the only structures of the turn-of-the-century railroad era in Lynn that is still standing today. That is a pair of dilapidated wooden shacks joined at the bottom sides by a cement foundation and at the top by a light roof. Of all the large structures that once lined the tracks along the Lynn Station, these old buildings - which constitute the area near where ticket offices once were busy spots, are the only ones still standing.
  "The train, it don't run by here no more," the oldtimer notes.
  Lining the east and west length of where the tracks once were is a long stretch of cement - the loading area that once supported thousands of passengers waiting for the trains. The cement is still there today, though weather beaten and cracked with hardy weeds.
  Time marches on.




  

127. Randolph County Misc.

WINCHESTER.  Tractor Demonstration, 1919.

April 16, 1919.   The tractor demonstration which will be held Tuesday, April 22, on the Ves Haisley farm, two and one-half miles southeast of Winchester, will be something worth seeing. Each and every tractor, with an agency in the county, will be represented and the merits of each machine will be demonstrated. Tractors are fast becoming one of the main necessities on the farm, and this demonstration is to show you the workings of the different machines that you may be better able to buy the one of your choice without making the purchase blindly. You should attend this demonstration whether you want to buy or not.

  April 23, 1919.   The weather for the tractor demonstration Tuesday was ideal, although the ground was a little on the damp order which made pulling for the tractors a little harder. But the work was done to the satisfaction of the twelve hundred or more people who witnessed the demonstration. There were eight tractors present and broke about fourteen acres for "Vet" Haisley that will be of some advantage to him. The people present seemed to take quite an interest in the work and watched each tractor very closely.
  E.W. Hill, C.D. Brumfield and T.A. Almonrode, the judges, made the following report:   The Fordson in plowing one acre used three gallons and one quart of kerosene; the Parrett one and one-half acres, four gallons and three quarts of kerosene; Rumeley, 4-bottom outfit, two acres, seven gallons kerosene and one pint of gasoline; Rumeley, three bottom outfit, one and one-half acres, 3 gallons kerosene, 3 pints gasoline; Case two bottom outfit, one acre, two gallons and three quarts of kerosene and one quart of gasoline; International Titan, three bottom, one and one-half acres, four gallons and one quart of kerosene and one-half pint of gasoline. International Titan, two bottom, one acre, five gallons kerosene and one pint of gasoline. The machines all plowed a uniform depth of from seven to seven and one-half inches. The land on the north side of the tract plowed was in a little better condition than that on the south side which might probably account for some of the difference in the amount of fuel used by some of the tractors.
  L.R. Faucette, of the Advance Rumeley Thresher Company, said it was the best demonstration ever handled. Will Peek, of the Parrett Tractor Company, made the statement that it was the finest demonstration he had ever attended, while George M. Logan of Richmond, manager of the Indiana Harvester Company, said there was as good a crowd present at this demonstration as he ever saw at any of them and the work was fine.
  Automobiles were lined up on each side of the road at the place of demonstration for a half mile or more besides what were inside of the field. Everybody was pleased and satisfied.


HUNTSVILLE.  Weddings, December, 1861. Johnson, Jobes, Butler.

  This was in the Winchester Journal under a weekly column titled "Huntsville Locals."   At this writing, we are, as usual, at this season of the year in the midst of an interminable sea of mud: the "bottom is out," and we may expect muddy roads and mud everywhere henceforth 'till Summer.
  We are led to conclude that this is going to be a severe Winter, by the fact that so many marriage notices occur, recently, in the Journal, and the prevalency of the fashion generally. Why, we almost wish that we could think that we are old enough to be in fashion. We hope that it will not be out of place to say a word or two on the events of the marriage of our friends, T.M. Johnson and Viola E. Jobes and Levi Johnson and Bettie T. Butler. We have thought this long time that Tom and Viola would eventually conclude; - this done they married; and now that they have entered the matrimonial state we hope that their pathway through life may be, as has been their courtship, long and pleasant. But who would have thought that Levi and Bettie were going to "launch their bark on the rolling deep?" However, "wonders never cease," and this accounts for it. Well, Levi has been our good friend from first acquaintance, and Bettie, (we might say without much exaggeration), has been, as was said of Genevra, "our play-mate from birth," etc. Therefore, we can but wish that prosperity may weave for them her choicest wreath of happiness, and crown all their undertakings with success.   Winchester Journal, December 5, 1861.


WINCHESTER.  Woodbury Glass Plant.

  In the year, 1904, Winchester inherited the Woodbury Glass Company which had moved from Parker.
  Parker at that time was known as Morristown. The gas wells which had supplied the little boomtown's many industries began to go dry, making it necessary for the industrialists to move their plants to other localities.
  The old Woodbury plant operated on a one tank basis for a few years until the first semi-automatic machines came into existence. The first glass making machines were called "gathering machines." The glass was gathered by means of a punny. A punny was a long steel rod with a cone shaped fire clay on the end. There were various sized punnys to go in according with the different size ware produced.
  The gathering-boy would gather the glass on the punny and then insert the glass into a mold in the machine. A man operating the machine would cut the glass at the mold with shears and then pull the machine around by hand. Carrying-off boys would take the ware from the mold and place it into the lehrs.
  Packing glassware in the early part of the century was done in a crude manner compared to the present day system. Wooden crates and straw were used to ship glass containers. Today corrugated paperboard boxes and partitions are used solely for shipping purposes.
  Luther "Doc" Wells, one of the oldest active glassmakers in the business today with forty-three years service behind him, was on hand when the Winchester plant burned to the ground in 1917.
  It was only a few months following the disastrous fire that the glasshouse had been rebuilt and was back in operation.
  Through a series of mergers the present Winchester plant of the Anchor Hocking Glass Corp. came into being. The present company was formed in 1937 through a consolidation of the Anchor Cap Corp. and the Hocking Glass Company. The principal units were the Hocking Glass Company which operated two plants in Lancaster, Ohio; General Glass Corp. which had plants in Winchester and
Terre Haute, Indiana.
  Today, Anchor Hocking is the second largest manufacturer of glassware in the world and the largest manufacturer of metal molded closures for glass containers. Of the fourteen manufacturing plants in the United States and Canada, of which approximately 10,000 people are employed, about 10 percent of these are employed in the Winchester plant bringing into the community an annual payroll somewhere in excess of $2,500,000.
  Truly, the progress of the glass industry since the turn of the century has been nothing short of miraculous. World War II stimulated glass manufacturers to develop glass for special uses that ten years ago would have been considered fantastic.
  The nose of some projectiles were actually made of glass and the Flying Fortress' crew was protected by the non-shatterable laminated glass, transparent yet with almost no distortion of vision.
  Without glass, fire control equipment, land mines and radio and radar glass parts, World War II could not have been won.
  The constant ribbon of glass flowing from the three tanks of the Winchester Container plant is making for a much healthier and happier America.
  Winchester and Randolph county salute the central management of Anchor Hocking in Lancaster, Ohio, and the local plant manager, George T. Meyers and all the men and women of the Anchor Hocking Glass Corp, for their part in the progress of a giant industry, which in turn has made for a better community life.   Randolph County Enterprise (Farmland), May, 1951.

 ( Woodbury Glass came to Winchester in '04 through some shady business dealings by the Davis Brothers, owners of the local Monarch Gas Company. Monarch raised the price of natural gas to the Indiana Window Glass Company causing them to close their plant. Monarch then bought the factory, tore down the old buildings and sold the property to Woodbury. I'll have this story later.)


PARKER.  "Still On The Boom," June 21,1893.

  The people of Randolph county, with almost one accord, are rejoicing over the fact that we have within our borders one real, booming town. There has been a vast amount of wind work about a boom in general, and Parker has been talked about a great deal of late, but talk culminated in action last Thursday when the great land sale took place.
 The two men who have had more to do with booming this town than any other are Messrs. Evert and Kitts, now of Muncie. These gentlemen, while young in years, are old in experience, and have had much to do in this line in various parts of the gas belt. They laid out and boomed Whiteley, now the most prosperous suburb of "Magic Muncie," and this alone testifies to their skill and ability along this line. In this enterprise they have been greatly assisted by our own Joe Meeks, who has turned out to be a veritable boomer. These men, in connection with some others, organized what is called the Enterprise Land Company, and then went to work. The first thing they did was to buy several hundred acres of very valuable land lying next to Parker; and, as soon as this had been accomplished, they set to work to secure factories. These efforts resulted in locating four thriving institutions there, the combined number of hands of which will amount to over three hundred. After this was done, the next thing on the programme was a land sale, and this was arranged for last Thursday. These men at the head of this institution are business men. They are not afraid to invest and chance it, for they know that by hustling they can reap a rich reward. They are not afraid to spend a few dollars even on an uncertainty. And so they took advantage of that peculiar trait of every American which impels him to grab everything that id free, and offered a return trip ticket and a free lunch to every man or boy who would go to Parker to the land sale. Of course, when this offer became known people were ready to go, and of course the fourteen car excursion train was jammed to the platform with "capitalists" and "boomers" from every town along the Big Four railroad from Bellefountaine to Farmland. Three hundred tickets were given away at this place. The train arrived at Parker a little after 11 o'clock, and the excursionists found the town already pretty well filled with investors from the immediate vicinity of Parker. The entire crowd, headed by the very excellent band from Cowan, proceeded at once to the big tent in which the sale was to be held - the tent standing on the land that was to be sold.
  After a ten minute concert by the band, W.O. Beckinbaugh, of Baltimore, Md., the auctioneer, took the floor and introduced successively E.L. Watson and I.P. Watts, attorneys of Winchester, and Dr. Crouse, of Muncie. These gentlemen proceeded at once to enlighten the crowd present on the gas and land questions, on Parker and its prospects, on the Enterprise addition - what it had done and what it intended to do - and then, after the announcement of the terms, the sale began. But seventeen lots were sold before dinner because of the shortness of the time. Free dinner came next, and it would doubtless have been enjoyed by every one present had not the rain driven the good women who were waiting on the table, under shelter and softened the otherwise delicious pies a little too much for them to be exactly palatable. But after all was eaten that could be had, the crowd once more proceeded to the tent and the sale re-commenced. A large plat of the addition was erected behind the auctioneer, in sight of all present, so that everyone could readily see the lay of the land. Small bid plates were furnished to those present, and the sale began. The lots were gobbled up in short order, and by 5:30 o'clock, two hundred and twenty-five lots had gone down under the hammer, the average price being two hundred dollars and the sale netting over forty thousand dollars.
  The things that are encouraging about the sale are these: No one person bought any great number of lots, but they were sold to a large number of individuals living all over the country. This will make just that many more people interested in Parker and they will all push that way. Again, the lots did not sell too high. They went at a price so high as to net the Company a handsome return on their investments, and at the same time at a price so low that those who bought can readily realize a good profit on all they purchased. These two things have added to the number of Parker boomers, and from now on the success of the town is assured. Some towns in the gas belt are always counting on what is "going to happen," basing their claims on the future alone. But Parker can proudly exclaim, "See what I have." We have said so much in regard to the factories already located here that we deem it unnecessary to go over the list again. Suffice it to say that the now little town of Parker will son have within its bounds more factories than all the remainder of Randolph County put together, and nothing can possibly prevent her population from being close to two thousand in twelve months from now. It is certain that the members of the land company count largely on the future, for they contracted with everyone who bought a lot that, if every factory was not built and run as they represented, the purchaser need not take the lots. This fully shows their confidence as to the location of factories and the future growth and prosperity of the town. A private letter just received from Messers. Kitts and Everet says, among other things, "all the material has been contracted for and part of it delivered for the three factories, which will be commenced immediately. There will also e contracts let this coming week for three large two-story brick business blocks, a hotel and about forty houses. We propose to have in three factories within six months, three hundred men at work if it is possible to obtain the material and labor in time to build them, and secure the houses for the men so we can bring them there.
  We can say to the people that there is just as good a chance to invest in Parker now as ever. Lots can be bought for the same money that they could at the sale, and it is simply an immense opportunity to invest. People go clear to California or Oregon or Montana or Kansas or the far west to invest and speculate, and yet right here under their very noses is the greatest opportunity for legitimate speculation that the world ever saw. Untold millions of dollars have been made in the gas belt, and untold millions can yet be made. Now is the time for our citizens to get in the swim, and it is absolutely certain that for every dollar put in two will be taken out.
  Messrs. Kitts and Evert, together with Joe Meeks and Charley Dotson are to be congratulated over the gigantic success of the land sale.

(This was found with a group of newspaper clippings with a date but no source. June, 1893 would have been around the high point of the investment frenzy brought on by the boom which lasted from  the early 1880's to the early 1900's.)

126. Randolph County Misc.

Saratoga Blacksmith, Tom Harshman, Jan., 1954.

  70-year-old "Tom" Harshman is Saratoga's oldest active businessman. Tom works in the shop started by his father, the late J.F. Harshman, about 75 years ago on the same lot on what was Saratoga's first frame school building. The village had built a new brick building across the street, this structure now being owned by H.A. Rickert. Tom says he was around 16 years old when he became active in his father's business, at first horse shoeing, buggy and wagon repair along with general blacksmith work. He shod his last horse around 15 years ago. Now his work consists of plow sharpening, welding and lawn mower repair. His father, who died in 1942 at the age of 87, was active in the business all but the last six months of his life. Tom, who received his education in Saratoga, is the father of one daughter, Mrs. Leah Pratt of Saratoga. Mrs. Harshman, the former Mary Mock, died seven years ago. Tom still lives in the house next to the shop, has lived there most of his 70 years.  Winchester Journal-Herald, Jan., 1954.


At the Museum- Huntsville 5" x 8" Store Photograph.

  This picture shows a store with several people standing or sitting on the board porch. Written in ink underneath:  In front of Levi Johnson's store - Huntsville. Left to right, back row- Levi Johnson, Thirsa Rosser Butler, Betty Johnson, Abe Thompson, Perce Stump, Bill Ross, Mace Stump, Tom Gaddis, Gus Butler.
Front row- Boy unknown, Frank Harvey, Ol Harvey, Tom Mills, Welcome Harvey, Waldo Ross, Fred Kepler, Hovey Harvey, John Shepherd.




Deerfield,  Lawrence "Bubby" McGriff, 1942.

  Never living any farther away from Deerfield than an eighth of a mile since migrating there with his parents in 1862, Lawrence "Bubby" Mc Griff will celebrate his ninety-second birthday anniversary today, January 26. He is the third child of a family of eight of which three are still living. Sam "Sherman" McGriff of Indianapolis, Mrs. Abigail "Pet" Mock of Eugene, Oregon and "Bubby" oldest of the three.
  Asked about his given name he explained that members of the family carried their nicknames given them by their parents throughout the years and stated few persons living in the Deerfield vicinity knew his true given name. Emerson McGriff, former Jay county judge and attorney, now deceased, was a brother.
  Mr. McGriff, born in Darke county, Ohio, with his parents moved to Salamonia in 1859 and then to near Bluff Point in Jay county before coming to Deerfield. He has lived in the same house just north of the I.O.O.F. building for more than 50 years and has lived alone since the death of his wife 19 years ago. A daughter, Mrs. Edith Toddle lives in Greenville, Ohio.
  Bubby has an excellent memory, his hearing unusually keen, his eyesight not so good and his outlook on life shows a marvelous sense of humor. He worked at the stone quarry in Ridgeville for 17 years, quit at the age of 85.
  Reminiscing he remarked about the residents of the little village he has called home so many years.
"I have seen them come and I have seen them all go. I can remember only three people living here who were here 40 years ago."
  Describing the old church and the school house he attended when first coming to Deerfield he said they were built in the "commons," back of the Methodist church now standing and were built of boards instead of logs.
  Asked by this reporter how that could be possible so many years ago with no quick or easy transportation of lumber or other facilities, he explained that the immediate district boasted a number of saw mills, grist machines and even a carding machine where wool was spun and cloth woven, standing west of the I.O.O.F. building on the Leota Towell farm. He recalled how the 40 by 60 foot church was built on four large boulders, one at each corner and remembered how in the heat of the day all the sheep in and near Deerfield would sleep under the building, filling the space completely.
  Mr. McGriff also remembers Levi Mock as being one of his teachers. The only complaint about our modern ways was about people's diction today. He said people mumbled their words and recalled how if that had happened when he was young he would have been told to "speak that again."


Lynn Memorial Library, 1942.

  The Frist Memorial Library, made possible by funds given by the late Mr. and Mrs. James P. Goodrich and a like amount by the WPA, (Works Progress Administration) is rapidly being completed and dedication of the new building will be held in the near future.
  The library was opened during the latter part of August, but as yet the entire facilities of the building have not been completed. School children and the public are rapidly makin use of the library and its 7,000 volumes are eagerly being read.
  The Goodriches donated $11,000 for the library in memory of Mrs. Goodrich's parents, who were former Lynn residents. Before her marriage, Mrs. Goodrich was Miss Cora Frist, She was a former teacher in the Lynn schools.
  Merl Chenoweth, city clerk, in holdingstated that Washington township owns the library through donations. Construction and unskilled labor on the building was done by the WPA.
  Funds for the completion of the building were exhausted before its completion and Lynn businessmen are providing money for the rest rooms which as yet are not completed.
  The building is heated by a stoker-blower type furnace and a coal bin holding 25 tons is in the basement of the building.
  Also in the basement is an assembly room which will be used by the city. It easily can seat 200 persons. A sump pump for the purpose of drainage below the basement floor is located in the furnace room also.
  It is planned to install a water fountain and facilities for a kitchenette in the assembly room in the basement.
  It required 14 months for the work on the construction of the building and in place of the three large steel bookcases which were planned in the center of the library proper, shelves have been built around the walls to hold the books. It was impossible to acquire the steel cases because of the war.
  Volunteer workers of the township built the wall cases and did most of the finishing of the floors, woodwork and windows.
  Mabel Tharp is the librarian and Miss Rosemary Jones, who is a senior in the Lynn High School, is assistant.
  The library has five adult reading tables and two childrens. The books are in the process of being catalogued by the librarians. Monthly and weekly magazine publications are available for the patrons.
  The children are permitted to check out only two books at a time, but adults may check out as many at a time as desirable.
  School classes from the second grade through the fifth grade are brought to the library by their teachers and select their books.
  Indirect lighting is used in the library, and it is planned to have two millstones at the entrance from the city sidewalk. Shrubbery will be placed at the corners of the lot and hedges will border the premises.
  Mrs. Bell Anderson, who lives in Lynn is painting a picture of an old Indian trail which ran through Greensfork township and it will hang in the library.


Farmland, Samuel McGuire, 1908.

  Word has been received at Farmland that Samuel McGuire, who removed his large saw mill from Farmland to Houston, Minnesota, has sold out his interest in the plant and would return home. There is a colony of about one hundred people from Farmland located in Minnesota and the interests of the saw mill were purchased by C.C. McProud and Sherman Wright, who will enlarge the plant. Mr. McGuire owns a factory plant at Farmland which has been leased for a saw mill, the machinery of which was brought there last spring. It is reported that Mr. McGuire has refused to renew the lease and has given notice that he wants the buildings for the installation of machinery preparatory to the starting of a stave factory.


Washington Twp., Early Cataract Surgery, 1876.

  The following strange story comes to us from Washington Township, and is vouched for by reliable parties; Some days since while chopping wood, Stephen Hodson, who has been blind in one eye for 25 years, a white skinny substance having grown over his right eye, was out chopping wood and a chip struck his eye violently, knocking him down. As he lay for some time suffering great agony, his comrades gathered around, and asked if he was much hurt. He replied, "yes, and I can tell you something you never heard of before, you've heard of men getting an eye knocked out, but I've got one knocked in."
  On examination it was found out that his eyesight had been restored, the sharp edge of the wood chip cutting the covering that had so long covered his eye. His sight is perfectly restored.   Winchester Journal, April, 1876.



Good-bye Emma Jane wherever you are.

125. "Driver Drag" The Voice of Driver High School 1959 & 1960, #2

DRIVER DRAG NEWSLETTER,  December 17, 1959, Vol. XXIV  No. 6


"LET'S GO STEADY"--  There have been many arguments about going steady. There are many advantages and many disadvantages. High school students don't always look at both sides of the fence. For example:

Kay Welch - Yes, in some cases. Sometimes though, it's hard to break up. But once you start going steady, it's pretty nice.

Larry Long - Yes, it shows companionship. I am bashful and it helps me meet people. It's cheaper.

Butch Tucker - Yes, I think it's O.K. to go steady. Don't you think so Linda Kay?

Barb Lucas - I think it is O.K. if you don't get to serious and if the right boy comes along.

Linda Addington - I think it is O.K. if you don't get serious. I think you should go out with a lot of boys. Then you will be sure which one is for you.

Tammy Helms - No, I think they should just play the field, and go out with lots of people. If you think you've found the guy, or gal for you, how can you be sure unless you date others? Vickie Warren - No, I don't think they should, cause they're only young once, so why not go out and have fun!

"A HEP XMAS"--  "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the pad, not a hep cat was swinging and that's nowhere dad. The stove was hung up in that stocking routine, in hopes that the fat man would soon make the scene. The kids had all had it, so they hit their sacks, and me and the bride had begun to relax, when there started a rumble that came on real frantic, so I opened the window to figure the panic. I saw a square short that was makin' fat tracks, bein' pulled by eight dogs who were wearing hat racks and a funny old geezer was flippin' his lid. He told em to "make it" and man like they did, I couldn't help diggin' the scene on the roof. As we stood by the chimney in bunches and clusters, 'till tubby slid down coming on like gang busters. His threads were the squarest and I had to chuckle, in front, not in back, was his Ivy League buckle. The mop on his chin hid his button down collar, and with that red nose man, he looked like a baller. Like he was the squarest, the most absolute. But face it, who cares when he left all that loot? He laid the jazz on me and fled from the gig, Wailin', "Have a cool yule and man later, like dig!"

"MYSTERY HELPERS"--   Miss Santa has a shop on Franklin Street. In her shop she makes many friends, including Kathy Parrish, Carol Gulley, Linda Addington, Barbara Lucas and a lot of others. She has a couple of girls who help her in her shop, Diana W. and Gloria J., and a younger sister named Becky.
  She formerly had her shop in Florida. She is tall, dark and has a bubbling personality. Do you know this Junior girl? Of course it's Roberta Hubbard.

  Master Santa has a sweet shop at 535 Washington street. He has a few helpers including Jan R., Bob M., and a few who would like to be, including Jane Q. and Dee Ann S., and many others.
  He is tall, dark and very good looking. He is a Junior and plays basketball on the varsity team. You will always find him making something for sports in his little shop. His reindeer pull him in a blue sleigh. Who is this shy Junior boy? It's Clif Chute!!!!!!!

"KNOW YOUR FALCONS AND FALCONETTES"--

Mary Alice Boomer, a short blonde sophomore, has a drive that can send a soccer ball from one end of the gym to the other....she is a real help to the sophomores in the intramurals.

Bill Piercy, a member of the junior class, is setting a hard pace for the rest of the mighty Golden Falcons....Bill moved here from Redkey and he has proven that he deserves to wear the varsity uniform.

Bob Mills is known to his friends as "Tomcat" because of his inclination to prowl.....his job was digging holes last summer for a housing project in Muncie.

Jerry Little, a quiet Falcon can make a lot of noise when he wants to.....he vacationed in Florida last summer and met a pair of twins (girls of course)…..Jerry is an active member of the Student Council.

Joani Stiverson, one of our mighty Falconettes, really has the go, go, go in our senior intramurals. She is also the block captain which takes a lot of pep and energy.....no one could fill her spot!

Butch Tucker is another short member of the junior class...when playing basketball he proves that you can do as much when you're short as you can when you're tall.

Rick Pingry, also a senior, has the highest average in the bowling league.....when he lets go of the ball, the pins fly!! Wow! he's tough!!!!

"WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF---"

Mr. Casey didn't like to read?

Phil Hawley got up before 7:45?

Bobbie Keys didn't agree with Mr. Rowedda in Econ?

Gene Thornburg did agree with Mr. Rowedda in Econ?

Carol Ramsey didn't have Monte S. down for lunch every day?

Bob Kaugher ever brought a pencil to Spanish class?

There weren't two Pat Molands and people didn't get them mixed up?

Shari Medsker and Pitt Stults agreed with Mrs. Butler?

Jeanne Shively wrote darked so Mrs. Norris could read it?

Some unknown person didn't help Sharon Parsons with her sand sculpture?

Donna French didn't have G.T. written on her notebook?

Bobbie Clouse ran out of boys in Lynn?

Paul Resler couldn't draw?


"DEAR SANTA BRING ME....."

Mr. Callan:  a winning season

Jeannette Laux:  my two front teeth

Bob Mills:  flock of chickens that lay two eggs a day.

Jerry Little:  you'd be surprised?

Sharon Erwin:  a trip to Florida or a talkative boy!

Kay Welch:  A in history

Marte Roskosz:  A Falcon, A Bulldog and an Indian!

Fae Holloway:  records
.
Becky Hubbard: money to go to Florida.

Randi Perkins:  automatic theme writer

Janet Keys:  Terry's class ring.

Kathy Parrish:  a visitor from Pompano Beach

Gary McKnight: a little niece

Carol Gulley: a class ring from Purdue!

Mick Overmyer:  1000 gallons of gas.

Dave VanNote:  a secretary for Mr. Casey

Shari Medsker: a penpal, playmate and pet!

Eddie Farmer:  A Sectional win.

Pitt Stults:  that's between me and Santa!

Larry Long:  2 hot turkey sandwiches with jelly and mayonnaise???

Nanci St. John:  Jerry

Shorty Arthur:  honor jacket

Joan Stiverson:  a meat cutter

Jim Gibbons:  a years supply of Mad magazines.

Jeanine McHolland:  a Lynn man

Ed Hansen:  walking, talking, living doll!!

Jess Riley:  straight A's in Biology

Bob Addington:  wagon full of money pulled by a semi full of money.

Dan Baker:  Joan Hendrickson.

Judy Slick:  A Ball State man

Rusty Symmes:  Bridget Bardot

Linda Addington:  everyone to mind their own business

Jerry Thomas:  Sally Hinchman

Barbara Lucas:  a date with Larry on New Years Eve.

Mr. Casey:  a new red pencil to grade Senior themes.

Karen Benson:  bring Marcia K. a boyfriend of her own!!!!

Gene Thornburg:  a teddy bear

Linda Rice:  a driver's lesson for Penny.

Delbert Rittenhouse:  a car load of girls.

Jan Reynolds:  a diploma'''


"PER  FECTION"

Shape of Joan Hendrickson

Hair of Judy Steele

Eyes of Nancy Little

Clothes of Mary Tharp

Personality of Cheryl Vaupel

Walk of Pam Lowe

Grades of Sissy Hudleston

Athletic ability of Evie Vanlandingham


Build of Tom Zell

Hair of David Wallace

Eyes of Dean Dwiggins

Clothes of Keith Hinshaw

Personality of Maurice Northam

Walk of Jan Keener

Grades of Craig Chute

Athletic ability of Mel Smoot

124. Winchester School News

Sept., 1959. Kindergarten.

  Launching an in-service-training-program, the kindergarten and first grade teachers of the Metropolitan School District of Winchester-White River township met at the Willard kindergarten with chairman, Principal John Kidder.
  The subject for discussion was "Number Readiness in Kindergarten and First Grade Students." Grace Meeks presented the kindergarten readiness program and enrichment uses of number aids.
  The group plans to further its program with a discussion of "Phonics" with Virginia Crew at the Baker first grade room, the second Tuesday of the second grading period. The teachers will study "Reading Readiness" with Verna Emminger at White River first grade, the third grading period of the present school year.
  Members of the Kindergarten and First Grade Teacher's planning program are Principal John kidder, Morton; Grace Meeks Baker and Willard kindergarten; Margaret Moore, Morton kindergarten; Glenda Myers, Willard first grade; Bernice Parker, White River first grade; Kay Mendenhall, White River kindergarten; Verna Emminger, White River first grade; Doris Jones, Morton first grade and Virginia Crew, Baker first grade.

Aug. and Sept., 1959. Band.

August.....The Driver high school marching band began rehearsals Monday evening with 53 students present. Total enrollment for the band is 75 students, with 63 instrumentalists and 12 twirlers. The band will participate in the Indiana state fair marching contest on Thursday, September 3.
  Also beginning this week, band members will practice in groups of 10 students, learning the fundamentals of marching under the direction of six upperclass students. These student leaders are Ramona Arthur, Mary Paul, Judy Welbourne, Betsy Green, Pat Meek and Bob Keys.
  The 12 band majorettes have been rehearsing separately and include the following students: Judy Mills, Martha Roskosz, Barbara Walters, Jeanie Shively, Mary Ann Campbell, Jean Simmons, Carol Jennings, Beverly Barnhart, Evie VanLandingham, Joan Hendrickson, Pamela Lowe and Betty Ayres.

September....The Driver high school band has begun its annual magazine subscription campaign which will be held September 4-18. An effort will be made by the 76 members of the band to contact every home in the city and the township before the campaign closes.
  The band has been divided into four teams of 19 members each. Each team will be headed by a captain and two co-chairmen who will handle the money and check all the subscriptions for accuracy.
  Students heading these groups are: team one-Mary Paul, captain, Janet Hoerst and Sharon Drill, co-chairmen; team two-Betsy Green, captain, Max Spencer and Lonnie Pitman, co-chairmen; team three- Ramona Arthur, captain, Judy Mills and Karen Burkett, co-chairmen; team four-Elaine Murphy, captain, Susan Thornburg and Ginny Rinehart, co-chairmen.
  Proceeds from the magazine campaign will be used to "start" a new uniform fund for the band. At present the Driver band is wearing both sets of uniforms used by the two former high schools.
  Prizes to the ten highest salesmen will be awarded at the close of the campaign. A total goal of $3,400 has been set by the band for the combined efforts of the four teams. Each student will be given a letter of introduction which will be handed to each customer who is contacted, whether they purchase a magazine or not.


Homecoming Parade, 1968.

  Miss Roberta Terrell was crowned queen of the Winchester Community high school Homecoming in ceremonies Saturday evening. WCHS Principal Robert Jones presented the tiara (a gift of Webb Jewelers.)
  "Songs of the Twenties" was the theme of the annual Homecoming, carried out in the designs of the four class floats. The Sophomore float, which won the first prize, used
Tea For Two" as its theme and the freshmen second place float's motif was "I'm Sitting On Top Of The World."
  Even though the Centerville Bulldogs downed the Golden Falcons 7-6 in the Homecoming football game, the entire program was considered the most successful to date, including the postgame dance and the large pre-game parade.
  City officials and a city fire truck led the parade. The WCHS band, under the direction of Richard Buehler, provided the marching music. Varsity cheerleaders were driven by Rusty Symmes, B-team cheerleaders by Roy Bowers and convertibles carrying queen candidates (Leesa Horn, escorted by Steve Chalfant and driven by Larry Horn; Lynne Houser escorted by Boyd Skinner and driven by Larry Pugh; and Roberta Terrell, escorted by Ron Anderson and driven by Harvey Caupp) preceded by the senior float.
  The senior's float was on the theme "Who's Sorry Now?" and depicted a large scoreboard on top of a dog house, showing a Falcon victory over the Bulldogs. All of the floats used some mechanical device to dramatize their theme.
  Heather Helms, junior princess escorted by Jerry Browne, junior class president, was followed by the junior float "Varsity Drag", showing a football player dragging a bulldog back and forth. An antique auto pulled this float.
  Shelby Longnecker, sophomore princess, escorted by Kevin Wallace, class president, was followed by the winning sophomore float; Bobbie Ertel, freshman princess, escorted by Chip Loney, freshman president, was followed by the second place freshman float, "Sitting On Top Of The World."


Sept., 1959. County Schools.

  School consolidation has come a long way in Randolph county and more is coming, according to Supt. Paul Beck who spoke at this week's meeting of the Winchester Kiwanis club.
  Ten years ago, said the county school head, there were 18 high schools in the county-two city corporations and 16 township schools. The largest was Winchester with an enrollment of 217, the smallest was Green with only 38. Two others had more than 100 pupils, Union City 155 and Lynn 126.
  Now 10 years later, there are nine high schools, the largest of which is Lee Driver in Winchester with 446. Smallest is Spartanburg with an enrollment of 88.
  The results of reorganizations-such as Union Twp., Monroe Central, Ward-Jackson, Winchester-White River, Union City-Wayne? Said Supt. Beck; Better curriculum, stiffer competition among students, better buildings and facilities, improved commissions. There are now two first-class commissions, the remainder being continuous.
  In smaller units there is limited opportunity to pupils and per capita costs are out of line with the benefits received.
  Supt. Beck has seen the system under his supervision dwindle from 16 to a mere five, but is convinced that consolidation for the benefit of the pupils is a "must."
  In his domain now are Spartanburg, Union, Ridgeville, Lynn and Ward-Jackson, where not too many years ago the list included Lincoln, McKinley, Huntsville, Spartanburg, Lynn, Modoc, Losantville, Wayne, Jackson, Saratoga, Jefferson, Ridgeville, Parker, Farmland, Green and Stoney Creek.
  If some county superintendents lose their jobs in the process of progress, that's all right with him. He's of the thought that schools are for the kids.
  Supt. Beck drew considerable interest when he advocated special training and facilities for retarded children. This is a must, he said.
  It will cost money, he stated, and warned that "men like you" (Kiwanians) will have to dig down deep in their pockets to finance it.
  In relating past history of reorganization progress in Randolph county, Supt. Beck gave these:
1950- Union Township formed by uniting West River and Nettle Creek townships, becoming effective January 1, 1951, with the schools (Modoc, Huntsville and Losantville) operating as before.
1952- Huntsville and Losantville high schools were moved to Modoc. Lincoln was closed and pupils transferred to McKinley.
1955- Jefferson school moved to Saratoga.
1956- Monroe Central School corporation was the first consolidation. Plans now are to build between Farmland and Parker on St. Rd. 32.
1957- Wayne consolidated with Union City and Wayne high school closed. Ward-Jackson school corporation formed, with high schools operated as before.
1958- Stoney Creek high school moved to Farmland, Green to Parker, Jackson to Saratoga.
1959- Metropolitan School district of Winchester and White River formed.
  Speaking of the future, Supt. Beck says it is in the hands of the county school reorganization committee of nine members. This committee, under Senate Bill 6, has the power to revamp, (subject, of course ,to public approval) any school district and school districts now organized and to suggest future consolidations.


New School Song, 1959.

  Dr. Earl B. Marlatt, who recently retired to Winchester to live after a career as a university professor, is author of the words of a new Winchester-White River school "fighting song."
  Dr. Marlatt, who acquired fame for his hymn-verses, many of which are incorporated in standard hymnals, has written the words to the tune of "The Stars and Stripes Forever."
  The song will be heard for the first time at Friday night's Driver-Clinton Central football game at Goodrich Park.
  The half-time show is entitled "The Tombstone Story" and depicts the story of the famous "Gunfight At The O.K. Corral" at Tombstone Arizona. Featured in the gunfight will be students taking the part of Marshall Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the Clanton gang.
  A special feature of the half-time show will be the presentation of the floor show at the "Bird Cage Theatre" with the band twirlers presenting a special dance routine.
  The band will conclude the half-time ceremonies with a salute to the Clinton-Central school and a special presentation of the "Fight Song."




























m

123. Randolph County Misc.

Ridgeville High School Closes. 1966.

  Twenty-six Ridgeville seniors completed graduation ceremonies this year. They were the last class to graduate from Franklin school. Next years seniors will graduate with those from Deerfield, Saratoga and Winchester at the newly consolidated Winchester school.
  What were the thoughts of this, the last senior class, as they completed the closing rituals? What thoughts passed through the minds of the relatives, friends and teachers as they observed the closing of an era.
  Were they remembering those proud days in 1892 when the first Ridgeville school was completed? The brick school was the envy of the county, with two stories, basement, a tall bell tower and a revolutionary new furnace system, which may have caused its ruin.
  The pride of the Ridgeville community, the school with the revolutionary furnace burned to the ground in October of 1893. Many people felt that arson was involved and rumors circulated that the fire had been started by a rival furnace company. However the rumors were never validated.
  School continued throughout that dismal winter after the fire in various store rooms. One class met in a building called the Eagle House, which stood where Sadie's Restaurant is now located. One of those pupils recalls, "That was the worst winter of my life - a wood stove with green wood and a woman teacher!"
  Even worse than the shock of the fire was the realization that the building had not been insured. One school board member reportedly did not believe in that new-fangled idea.
  Still paying for the building which burned, the town next year began constructing a new school. Pupils moved into the partially completed building the following year. However, a real hardship had been placed on the Ridgeville townspeople.
  This financial burden was felt intensely a few years later. Funds were so scarce that elementary teachers were paid as little as $20 per month. To alleviate the situation, an agreement was made between the school board and Ridgeville College whereby the college would offer high school courses to the Ridgeville students for $9 per year per student.
  This was most agreeable to Ridgeville College, a Congregational Church school founded in 1867 and supported by money from the East. The college was having difficulty meeting the enrollment required to obtain the financial support.
  Thus the high school was disbanded in  Another1900. But instead of solving the problems of the Ridgeville residents, the use of the college created a bitter feud which divided the community. Those parents favoring the action were opposed by parents who felt their children would be "ruined" by attending a denominational school. The dissidents sent their offspring to Winchester, Redkey or elsewhere, but not to the college.
  The feud continued for several years. One long-time resident comments, "Neighbor refused to speak to neighbor." Another goes so far as to say that those favoring the college were taking the risk of being insulted and even manhandled when they walked down the street.
  The hard feelings existing in the community against the college caused the eastern backers to withdraw their support, closing the college. The last class graduated May 30, 1901. Among the members of that class is Gail Bailey, who still lives in Ridgeville today.
  The college building housed the Just Chair Factory for four or five years, then the Lay Broom Factory until the Depression years. Now all that remains of Ridgeville College is the cornerstone mounted in a limestone pillar before the state highway department The school erected to replace the one which burned was torn down to make way for the present school, built in 1922.
  But the history of Ridgeville High School concerns more than a succession of buildings. It involves people.
  The lore of the Ridgeville school includes the first basketball team, formed in 1913. The boys practiced in baseball suits above the old brewery, now Cope's Feed Mill. The team played its first game against Farmland in the opera house above the drug store. Unfortunately the team lost by a score of 33 to 11.
  The 1920 team, coached by Ray Addington, made up for this first defeat by trouncing the Muncie Bearcats. Team members were Melvin Lafollette, Jack Carpenter, Herchill Rinker, Harold Pettyjohn, Francis McCartney, Kenneth Collins, Daryl Lemaux, Donald Nurname, Charles Allen and Glenn Carpenter.
  Ridgeville's team won its first sectional tourney in 1921 by defeating Jefferson with a score of 36 to 17. They also won in 1926, defeating Winchester 30 to 15, and in 1936 and 1938 at Hartford City. Stanton Cope, now a doctor in Huntington, was a member of this squad. He later became a college All-American.
  School secretary Eleanor Fisk recalls she was a student when the team won the sectional in 1936. The news of the victory had reached Ridgeville before the returning team and fans. As they approached Ridgeville the sky was glowing "as though the town were on fire."
  The townspeople had built a great bonfire in the center of town to celebrate. The firetruck met the layers at the edge of town and they rode into town atop the truck.
  This happiness was brief, however. At the regional the "Cossacks" lost their first game, against a Fort Wayne school.
  In 1927 a contest to select a name for the teams was won by Martha Lay Mendenhall who submitted "Cossacks."
  There have been many good years at the school, but like all good things this chapter in the town's history has come to an end. Next years students will have the opportunity to attend a modern, comprehensive high school more adequate for today's needs...and they will also have the chance to start a new tradition of their own.



Spartanburg, 1939. New Gym.

  Without a gymnasium for the past two years, during which time the Spartanburg basketball team played its home games at Whitewater and Lynn, the 1939 Spartans will play their first game in their new gym tonight. The McKinley Presidents will furnish the opposition.
  The new playing floor is 42 x 68 feet while the old one was seven feet narrower. The old stage was located at the south end of the playing floor and was about 20 feet wide and 15 feet deep while the new one is 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep. A heavy curtain has been put in place at the front of the stage.
  The new construction-remodeling program included the addition of a building to house the stage, which permitted the tearing down of the old ones and use of that space for bleachers. In the old gymnasium spectators were seated in a balcony almost 25 feet above the playing floor. This has been removed, the space below the balcony now forming a part of the playing floor. The new flooring was placed over the top of the old one after the latter had been treated. An electric timer has been placed and bleacher seats purchased for placing on the stage for basketball games. At stage shows, seats are placed upon the playing floor. Rubber tired trucks will be used to move chairs from the playing floor to storage compartments located beneath the stage.   Winchester Journal-Herald, Dec., 1939.



Farmland Census, 1887.

  The following is the census of Farmland as given in by the town clerk, H.T. Good, and published in the Times:

Whole number of souls.....825
Male.....407
Female.....409
Married.....130
Unmarried males.....188
Unmarried females.....204
Widows keeping house.....12
Widows living with others.....4
Widowers.....14
Domestics and boarders.....44
Number of dwellings.....185


Winchester, Best Grocery Adv., 1968.

  Our grocery is one of the oldest continuous business establishments in the county. Randolph county was a mere 49 years old when our grocery was started by Ed. Best, grandfather of Thomas as Thomas Best & Son, son being Ed. Best, father of James Best, later J.M. Best & Son. Though the grocery had to move several times in its 101 years, it is now in the same location that it started in.
  In 1944 Eddie and Ruby Henizer became partners with Ed. Best. After the death of Eddie, June 1963, Mary Shoopman, Conrad Shoopman and Ruby Henizer purchased Mr. Best's interest in the grocery and it is now known as Henizer & Shoopman, Grocery and Garden Center.
  The store has been modernized into a semi-super market, you may wait on yourself or we are glad to wait on you.
  We still have in stock a lot of the old time items, and in the bulk; however, they are getting fewer as most items now are pre-packaged.
  We stock- Groceries-Frozen Foods-Holland Bulbs-Fertilizer-Grass Seeds-Plants-Sprays and Equipment-Gold Fish and Supplies-Dozens of Old Time Items.

Henizer & Shoopman Grocery-108 W. Washington-Phone 21841-Winchester


Maxville, 1892.

  Last Friday there was a dinner and reunion of some of our oldest settlers at the residence of John W. Clayton, near Maxville. There were only ten people present and their combined ages amounted to 655 years. Their names and ages are as follows: Mrs. Solomon Semans, 78; Mrs. Mary Jane McIntyre, 72; Mrs. Henry McIntyre, 58; Simeon Brickley, 70; Samuel Clayton, 58; Mrs. Samuel Clayton, 62. Some of the reminiscences of the crowd may be interesting to our readers. Four of the number, viz; Mrs. Semans, Mrs Mary J. McIntyre, Henry McIntyre and Mrs. Brickley are brothers and sisters and children of Robinson McIntyre, who settled in this county in 1819, and moved with his family to Maxville in 1825 and laid out that village, living there until his death at the age of 86 years. Solomon Semans and wife were married and settled in Maxville about 1835; built the first store in the place; kept store and hotel there about twenty years, and the farm west of there until they sold it to Ira Branson in the year 1880. Mary Jane McIntyre is the widow of Alexander McIntyre. They were married and settled in Maxville in 1837 on the farm now owned by Robert Addington. They lived there until their removal, in 1862, to Farmland, where he died in 1885. Henry McIntyre has the distinction of being the oldest resident born and now living the county, having been born in 1820, on what is known as the old Stephen Huffman farm, three miles west of Winchester. He moved with his father to the farm on which he now lives in 1825, and has lived there continuously to this time, having been married in 1855. Simeon Brickley came to this county in 1843, married in 1846 and has lived in and near Maxville ever since. John W. Clayton was born in 1831, on the same spot where he now resides, and has lived there continuously ever since. Probably no other person in the county has such a record for "staying qualities" as Mr. Clayton. Samuel Clayton was born on the farm now occupied by his brother John; was married in 1856 and has lived on his present farm ever since. It is seldom a crowd of ten of our old settlers get together at a reunion who have lived so near to each other so long a time.   Farmland Enterprise, August 10, 1892.



Lee L. Driver New School Name. 1959

  Both senior and junior high schools of the Winchester - White River Metropolitan school district have been named after a former Randolph County superintendent. Decision on the name was made this week by the district school board, members of which also made the following "acting" administrative appointments for the 1959-60 school year.

High school principal - Robert G. Jones.
Junior high principal - John Robert Smith. Junior high students will be housed in the former White River high school building.
White River elementary principal - Thomas Johnson.
Oscar R. Baker principal - Dale Braun.
Morton principal - John Kidder.
Willard principal - Wayne Hinchman
Merritt H. Beck previously had been designated as acting superintendent of the new system.
In honoring Lee Driver, the board is paying tribute to a long-time educator oftentimes referred to as the "father" of rural school consolidation. It was early in his tenure as county superintendent that Driver was credited with the county's first consolidated school Lincoln, west of Winchester on St. Rd. 32.
  Dr. Driver was born in Stoney Creek Township and was educated in the Farmland school. He was graduated from Central Normal college at Danville in 1883, received his A.B. degree from Indiana University in 1919, his master's degree the same year from Earlham college and the degree of doctor from Wabash in 1921.
  Dr. Driver taught the Winchester eighth grade from 1895 to 1897, served as Winchester high school principal from 1901 to 1907, then became county superintendent, serving until 1920.   Winchester Journal-Herald, July, 1959.



Modoc Youth Dies At Maxville Pool. 1959.

  A coroner's inquest will be held next week to determine the exact cause of death of 16-year-old Ralph Duane Oxley Jr. of Modoc who was injured fatally in an accident late Thursday afternoon at the Maxville swimming pool.
  Randolph county deputy coroner Robert Elliott said Thursday night X-rays taken at the Randolph County hospital in Winchester revealed that Oxley suffered a fractured neck. Elliott said Oxley apparently died of the neck injury.
  The son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Oxley Sr. of Modoc route 1 was found in six feet of water a short time after being reported missing by his brother, Timmy, 13, who accompanied him to the pool, located about six miles west of Winchester on Ind. 32.
  Authorities Friday were still puzzled as to exactly how the tragedy occurred.
  Authorities first believed that the youth had drowned. A resuscitator from the Goodrich Park swimming pool in Winchester was rushed to the scene by the Winchester city police department.
  The youth was pulled from the Maxville pool at 4:45 p.m. Officials on the scene worked for nearly two hours, employing the resuscitator and artificial respiration in efforts to revive him.
  The Maxville pool is operated as the Maxville Recreation Club by owner Harold Hartley who acts as lifeguard when the pool is occupied.
  Farmland town marshal Ed Huddleston was one of the first to arrive at the scene. He said not more than a dozen persons were swimming at the time of the accident. No one reported seeing the accident occur.  It was reported that young Oxley had picked up a swimming mask about five to ten minutes before his body was found. No one saw the boy go into the pool after getting the mask.
  He would have been a junior at Union High School this autumn.   Winchester Journal Herald, Aug., 1959.

122. "Driver Drag" The Voice of Driver High School 1959 & 1960, #1

DRIVER DRAG NEWSLETTER, November 25, 1959.

THE DRAG STAFF:

Editors- Joanie Stiverson & Judy Slick
Assoc. Editors- Nanci St. John & Shari Medsker
Features- Marte Roskosz & Barb Lucas
Business Manager- Carol Gulley
Circulation- Linda Addington
Typist- Sharon Erwin
Production Chief- Dave VanNote
Photography- Kathy Parrish
Faculty Advisor- Joseph Casey

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR-  Changes take place every day. Some are minor and some are more difficult to adjust to. In the past few months a new school system has been formed. True, we of the township did not want it, we fought against it to end. White River was not a one room school. We did not want to give up our new school for an old one, but the city vote outnumbered us three to one.
  Now Winchester and White River are combined. We have organized and are fast becoming one new school in thought and feeling. We are neither White River nor are we Winchester. We are Driver High School. Lets help out. Lets work together to make Driver the best. We will never forget our memories of White River, how could we ask you to forget Winchester? But they are memories! Let's be Driver High in everything we do!!!

A SALUTE-   We would like to congratulate Joanie Stiverson and Bobby Keys for their wonderful performances in the Senior Class Play.
We would also like to congratulate Mike Sumwalt and Larry Long for making the M.V.C. team.

SCIENCE CLUB-   During the first meeting of the Science Club, Doug Tipple and Ronnie Weimer were elected President and Vice President. Plans were made for each of the members to have a project to work on at the meetings. These will be used for the spring exhibit and to put in the display window. About thirty members and Mr. Arnold were present.

PER  FECTION-

Shape of Sheila Simmons
Hair of Betty Bingham
Eyes of Nancy Slick
Clothes of Bev Barnhart
Personality of Judy Hinchman
Grades of Suzanne Snyder
Walk of Becky Hubbard
Athletic ability of Mary Watkins

Build of Jim Cole
Hair of Bill Bradbury
Eyes of Doug Lowe
Clothes of Craig Helms
Personality of Ron Jones
Walk of Tommy Baker
Grades of Mark Peacock
Athletic ability of Kent Heckley

PARTY LINE-

Suz T. sure counts funny--seems somethings on her mind. Wonder what it is? it's all backwards. 10,9,8,7,6, etc......Seems Carol G. has a big problem on her mind. Wonder what it is?.....Rogena M. and Barbara H. think that some seniors from Lynn are really sharp.....Could those have been senior girls uptown Halloween night all dressed up? You might ask Kaye, Suz, Nanci. Shari, Marte or Barb.....Seen at Cooper's party after the class play were: Suzanne S. and Steve Lumpkin, Judy slick and D. Bogard, Nancy Symmes and Phil U., Marcia K. and Bill Clark, Andy P. and Linda M., Bobby Keyes and Nancy Slick plus all the Senior "widows" and "old maids" and "bachelors".....The Freshmen have four new cheerleaders, Linda Wolfe, Linda Lasley, Nancy Little and Joan Hendrickson.....New Steadies: Mick Overmyer and Kay Welch, Larry Horn and Linda Addington.....Sharon Erwin had a tragic accident on the way to Cooper's party--Goodness Sharon!!!!!.....Who's this Mary Lou C. likes now? Could it be Cliff Chute?.....We hear that Lee S. asked Judy H. for a date. Did you go Judy???.....Tam Helms finally got those letters from California.....Jim S. and J. Murphey really make a cute pair.....Bob A. seems to have quite an eye for Linda W., and we think it may be vice-versa?!

Thanks to Jim Study for bringing these newsletters to the museum. I'll have more from the Dec. 17,1959 and the Feb. 12, 1960 issue later.

121. Winchester Misc.

First Moto-Scoot Wreck Of 1943.

The first moto-scoot casualty of the season occurred Tuesday afternoon when a large group of local residents accumulated almost instantly to watch Paul R. Grubbs pick himself, and the pieces of what used to be a moto-scoot up from the middle of North East street after colliding with the railroad tracks. Witnesses said that  Grubbs, the moto-scoot and the rail tracks each had a difference of opinion as to which way the scoot and rider were going upon negotiating the intersection.
  Mr. Grubbs, a resident of North Main street, was sorely bruised in the fray.   Winchester Journal, July, 1943.


School Songs From Alumni Banquet Booklet, 1986.

  The Yellow And The Blue. This was the WHS school song around 1900.

Here's to the colors that float on the air.
Hurrah for the yellow and the blue!
Here's to the hearts that are true.
Violets and roses in beauty combine with sparkle of sapphires and the gleam of sunshine. Hail!
(Repeat first four measures)

  Winchester High School:

Love and Honor to Winchester High School, old and grand.
Proudly we shall ever hail thee Over all the land.
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Blue and Yellow how we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this day.
Love and honor to Winchester
Forever and a day.

   Driver High School:

Sing a song, loud, D. H. S.
Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go
She's a winner
She's known from East to West
That she'll fight - to victory
Fight! Fight!
Let high schools remember her name
As an omen of fear and disaster
And known for her worth and her fame
That she will beat them
She'll defeat them
Driver High School. Fight!

   Winchester Community High School:

Let's go you Golden Falcons
Let's fight to win this game
With a victory we will win fame And honor for our name
Let's Fight! Let's Win!
We will cheer our mighty Falcons And our colors, gold and white
Remaining always loyal to the Winchester Community High
Fight! Fight!


The Keys Bear, 1943.

 The war has struck a cruel blow at Winchester's one animal menagerie, the Keys & Son bear, because everybody's been so busy that no one has had time to find a name for the two-year old animal.
  Even worse, her owner, Herman Keys, hasn't had time to train her properly and she's had to learn such things as drinking from a bottle and begging for food without the aid of a trainer.
  The bear was found as a cub when Mr. Keys and seven others were on a hunting trip at Timiskaming, Quebec, two years ago and Mr. Keys bought it for $10 from a Canadian who found it in a tree. Others on the hunting trip were Mr. Keys' father, the late John Luther Keys, the late Carl Summers, Elwood Keys, Ed Fidler, Bob Huffman, Arla Rowe and Anderson Damewood.
  The bear, which was brought to Winchester as a six-months-old cub, is kept in a specially built wire cage at the Keys garage on East Washington street, across from the Rainbow restaurant. The animal seems to have taken a liking to Winchester and Winchester apparently likes it, judging from the friends who regularly feed it candy, peanuts, table scraps and other food dear to a bear's heart.
  Among its best friends are Guy Reuter, Fred Cummins, Charles Ashville and John Lenkensdofer who see that it is well supplied with gastronomic delicacies, Mr. Keys says. The bear is particularly fond of honey and has learned to beg for food from her visitors.
  The bear is a particular treat for children, Mr. Keys points out, because for many of them it is their only opportunity to see such an animal. Eating an ice cream cone and drinking pop from a bottle are two of her tricks that amuse them most.
  Mr. Keys contemplates giving his zoo to the city some day so that it can be taken to Goodrich Park to form the basis of a city zoo.   Winchester Journal-Herald, Aug., 1943. (The Keys station was where the fire department/city bldg. is today, 2019)


Rhoades Drive-In, 1957.

Located at 727 W. Washington street, across from Sullivan's Drive-In.
   Owned and operated by Richard and Carolyn Rhoades. (Today the building is Dr. Howells            
   Veterinary Clinic, 2019)



Waltz Drugstore Closes. July, 1978. 41 years ago.

  An era in history ended some time ago where the old corner drug store or soda fountain was the "in place," the hangout for all the high school kids. Many of today's present generation, myself included, don't really know what that era was all about. We may have seen movies, or read books about it, yet, to hear our parents talk about the "good old days," it's just not the same.
  Winchester had three such soda fountains, Reed's, Leonard's and Waltz's, where kids would come after school to talk, eat and have a good time.
  Another part of the history ended earlier this month when Homer Waltz was forced to close his drug store and put his business up for sale due to health reasons. Homer is retiring after 45 years in the business.
  The history of Waltz Drug Store actually begins before the turn of the century when J.H.B. (John) White first opened a store where Bob Oliver's office is now, on South Meridian st. Homer said that Mrs. White told him that the store was moved to its present site on South Main in either 1897 or 1898.
  "John sold a lot of liquor in the basement and stayed open on Sundays," Homer says. "The men would come in and order Abe Sheeleys (drinks) after church. He was arrested several times for selling liquor."
  Later, John White went into business with C.P. Overmyer and founded the Overmyer Mould Corp.
White was to run the foundry. In order to have the money to join Overmyer, White sold a half-interest in the drug store to Jim Brady of Union City and the store became the White-Brady , White soldDrug Company.
  A few years later, White sold his interest in the foundry to Overmyer and started a bottle cap company. White nearly went broke in the bottle cap business, so he bought Brady's interest in the drug store. White died in 1921 and Mrs. White ran the store until 1939 when Waltz bought it from her.
Homer, originally from Union City, graduated from the Indiana College of Pharmacy (now a part of Butler University) in 1933 and was hired by Mrs. White.
  "Because she wasn't a resident pharmacist she had to have two men in the store with her. John Reynard from Farmland was the other male employee," Waltz recalls. "We could sell liquor only on a doctor's prescription," he adds.
  Homer purchased the store from Mrs. White in 1939.
  "There were shelves clear to the ceiling. We had a ladder on a round track that went all the way around the store."
  "There were bottles everywhere," Mrs. (Josephine) Waltz adds. "Perfumes and medicines used to come in big bottles and if a customer wanted a small amount we had to pour some from the big bottle into a smaller bottle."
  "Yes, at that time we might only receive an order or shipment once a month. Now, we get things every day," Homer chimed.
  Homer says the biggest change in the drug business has been the distribution of pills and medicines.
  "We used to have to make a lot of capsules, pills and medicines," he says. "Now they're already made up."
  The Waltzes son, John, began working in the store while he was in high school, although "he made his first coke when he was seven," says Mrs. Waltz. He started college at Butler, but his parents say he didn't like school and quit. He has worked at the store since then.
  "We've had 75-80 high school kids that have worked for us through the years," Mrs. Waltz noted. "And there hasn't been a bad one in the bunch. Most of them have gone on to become a real credit to their community," she added.
  Nine of those former employees have gone on into pharmacy school, including three who Homer helped through school. One of those is Robert "Daggy" Lykins, pharmacist at the Randolph County Hospital. The other two are Eddie Diggs in Ft. Wayne and a Freeman boy in California.
  We've had a fine relationship with the people of the community and with the professional community," Homer says.
  "We used to be open from 7-11 seven days a week," he stated. "When we changed our hours to 8-5 and didn't work Sundays, we didn't lose any business," he added.
  "Before they built the new high school our place was a hangout for the kids," said Mrs. Waltz. "It was full every evening."
  "Yeah," Homer adds, "I can remember the "Great Books" discussions in Winchester, and many were held by students around the soda fountain."
  "We never had a bit of trouble with the kids," Mrs. Waltz noted. "If they got a little loud, all Homer had to do was walk to the prescription room door. He didn't have to say a word."   Winchester News-Gazette, July 1, 1978. By Mark Macy.


City Council Issues Porn?

  In case anybody in the USA exists who hasn't heard of Winchester, Indiana, he must be a hermit, or blind or deaf - because as far as I can find out, just about every newspaper, TV station and radio station has mentioned Winchester - and quite
a story to go with it, in the last day or so.
  Though perhaps it isn't exactly what the Chamber of Commerce would have ordered if it had a choice, it is nevertheless quite a lot of free, and usually funny, publicity. And all due to the News-Gazette and our publisher Richard Wise. As any reader of this paper knows, our publisher this week refused to print an anti-pornography ordinance passed by the city council. Normally such ordinances are printed as legal advertisements, but in this case this one was refused. Reason? As you read, the language was considered a little too specific to be in good taste. Anyway, as the new law prohibits selling pornography to those under 17, the News-Gazette might have been put in the awkward position of violating the ordinance by printing it and permitting the paper to be sold to minors.
  One of the stories we've read about the incident begins by noting that "Winchester, Indiana's anti-pornography ordinance is too dirty to print."
  Our publisher spent a large percentage of Friday morning on the telephone, explaining his stand to news media people from all over, and I mean all over. He talked to reporters from ABC radio, Chicago; UPI and AP wire services; a Los Angeles radio station, a Kansas City radio station, and the Canadian Broadcasting Co.
  It seems to be a real man-bites-dog situation - the Unusual News Story of the Week.
  Although the council has yet to announce any plans as far as I know, I suppose it could post the legal notice on the doors of the county courthouse. This wouldn't be "selling" pornography but it certainly would be making available to those of reading age some pretty 'tangy' language; and if the law is posted this way, I'll bet the crowds will be large around it for awhile at least.   Winchester News-Gazette, Dec. 30, 1973, by A.M. Gibbons.  (In the 1-7-1974 N-G it was noted that the paper still refused to print the ordinance and that it had been posted at four Winchester locations: The Post Office, the Police Department, Fire Department and Waltz Drugs.)






































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