SUV

 Brookville Democrat, May 2, 1935

Chevrolet Announces

New Carry-All Model

Chevrolet has announced the introduction of an innovation in transportation units, called the carryall suburban model, which can be used interchangeably for the hauling of merchandise or as a passenger vehicle seating eight persons.

Wide acceptance of this new body type is predicted, because of its versatile utility. 

It is designed to fit the needs of owners of small businesses who primarily require a commercial license vehicle but who will use it also as a family car; and to  appeal to schools, camps, clubs, hotels and other purchases whose first need is for a passenger vehicle of greater capacity than regular models, for ready use also for hauling baggage, supplies and other loads.

The carryall suburban body is mounted on the Chevrolet 112-inch wheelbase chassis equipped with 5.5G-17 tires. The new model carries a list price of $650.

Note: Widely considered the first SUV, the vehicle was used primarily by government agencies, especially the U.S. Army. Wikipedia says only 75 were built the first year, even though this story announces the car being available in May. More sales came in 1936.

The frame was essentially that of a half-ton truck

Hot times in Liberty -- 1916

 Liberty Herald, spring 1916

Davis' New Franklins

Joshua Davis, the first man in the county to buy an automobile, is fully organized again as a motorist for the 1916 season, having made a deal whereby he exchanges the cars possessed by both himself and his son J.H. Davis, for three Franklins and one Ford. 

Three large Premier cars and a Buick runabout were disposed of in the trade.

The father and son will each drive a Franklin touring car and Mrs. Davis will drive a Franklin Runabout, while the Ford will be used to look after farming interests by J.H. Davis.

Mr. Davis spent several days in Indianapolis last week and procured one of the new cars.

Motor Mail Service

Richmond and Wayne County has had an experience with a so-called motorized rural mail delivery service that has been a signal failure, and patrons on the routes have petitioned for the restoration of the horse-delivery and the old routes and carriers.

No. 5 mail carrier could not make his round as usual on account of the East Fork being so high, Monday. (Whitewater River, Dunlapsville)

Here it Is

(Cambridge City Tribune)

Finly Gray (Democrat congressman) says that the opposition to his renomination and the result of John Lontz's candidacy rests with two men who wanted to be postmaster of their respective towns and were turned down by men whom the people wanted. Local post offices have a curious effect on men's politics sometimes.

Defeats McGuffey

Liberty High once more defeated McGuffey at Oxford Friday evening in a loosely played game by the decisive score of 24-9. A number of interested young men went down to witness the game.

Sewing Bee and Supper

Quaint invitations have been issued by Miss Tillie Lambert to an afternoon affair Friday for the ladies -- a thimble party followed by a supper to which the husbands are invited.

Young Main at Jail has Typhoid

Will Taylor, an Englishman, who was given lodging at the jail Thursday night coming here from Ohio, developed a case of typhoid fever, and has been quite sick. He is reported to be getting along all right.

Apples, Apples

J.O. Sample has 125 barrels of apples on sale in the room next to C.F. Bond's Department Store. The quality and variety is good.  They're good eaters and cookers. Call and see.  Prices right.

1920 ads -- life in a different era

Miami, before they had football

 Western Emporium, Centerville Jan. 8, 1825

MIAMI

University

The Miami University at Oxford, state of Ohio, was opened the first week of last November. 

The faculty at present consists of a President to whom is committed the department of Moral Philosophy and Belles Lettres -- (as well as) a Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and a Professor of Languages.

Three regular classes have been formed in the College, viz: A Junior, Sophomore and Freshman Class, and instruction is given to these according to the codes adopted in the best regulated Colleges in the United States. 

A Graduate School is also attached to the College, where young MEN may be prepared for admission into the regular College classes.

The College year is divided into two sessions of five months each.

The terms of tuition in the College classes are ten dollars per Session and in the Grammar School, five dollars. The expense for boarding and tuition will not exceed $100 per annum.

OXFORD

IS in the northwest part of Butler County, 12 miles from Hamilton and 37 from Cincinnati. The situation is high and dry and few places in the West can compete with it and the surrounding country for health. And while those to whom in the immediate management of the institution is committed, cannot promise more than diligence and fidelity in discharging the duties of the respective trusts, they flatter themselves that upon trial they shall not be found altogether unworthy of the confidence of an enlightened and generous community.

-- Printers in this state are requested to give the above a few insertions.

NOTES: Belles Lettres is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. Put another way, nice handwriting without substance.

Miami University is one of the oldest public universities in the country, made possible by an ordinance signed by President George Washington in 1795. Chartered in 1809, Miami welcomed its first students in 1824, so this story represents one of the first "recruitment ads" in the school's history.

The Western College for Women (Western Female Seminary) was established in 1855 and was drawn into Miami in 1974 as it flopped financially.  

Well, it finally happened

Connersville Courier, Feb. 2, 1910

MAN AND 'WIFE'

ARRESTED HERE

A pitiful story was brought to light in this city (Connersville) by the arrest of Ralph Duncan and Goldie Frances Winders, both of Cambridge City.

The story goes, that Duncan is a married man and has a bad reputation, that he and Miss Winders have been roaming the country ever since last November and have been the object of a search for the police of various cities throughout the state.

They came to this city and put up at a rooming house as man and wife. Marshal Drischel of Cambridge City learned that the couple were in this city and notified the authorities here, who arrested the pilgrims and put them in jail for safe-keeping.

The girl gave as her reason for leaving home that her parents were unkind to her. She is only 15 years of age and pretty. (Well, if you say that....)

Duncan has a black record so it is said, and he will be vigorously prosecuted. Miss Winder is now at the Home for the Friendless at Richmond while Duncan is in the Wayne County jail.

Friendless.

Birds of a feather

 Connersville Courier, March 4, 1910

THE SUPPLY

EXHAUSTED

No more Hungarian partridges or Mongolian pheasants will be distributed for stocking game preserves in Indiana this spring, save where promises have been made and even then, some of the promises will have to be cut down a little.

The Pheasant Family

State Fish and Game Commissioner Z.T. Sweeney of Columbus has announced that he will be unable to get as many of the imported game birds as he had ordered, and he will be unable to fill any additional orders. 

He has been getting numerous letters from all parts of the state from farmers and others who wanted some of these birds to stock preserves and the inquiries have also come from other states.

But a letter to Sweeney from his importers to Philadelphia states that his last order for birds has been cut from 3,800 to 2,800 and that no more can be furnished for some time.

Indiana was the first state to establish game preserves among the farmers, such as are found in Bartholomew and neighboring counties. Sweeney decided five or six years ago that the game preserve idea in which farmers would join and sign an agreement to keep their lands closed to hunters for a period of three years would be a good way to solve the problem of rapidly disappearing quail and that it would also be a good chance to introduce a species of game bird that was hardier and larger than the quail, so that if weather conditions etc. did kill off the quail, then the imported bird could be gaining a foothold and taking the quail's place.

This experiment was tried with the Hungarian partridges and Mongolian pheasants, and it has proven a great success.

The success of the experiment has caused numerous people to ask for shipments of the birds.

Sweeny began importing game birds for Indiana he has turned about 18,000 partridges and pheasants loose. Those birds multiply rapidly and he estimates that about 40,000 are now to be found in various parts of the state.

NOTE: The Hungarian partridge is also known as the gray partridge and while it may have been introduced to Indiana in 1910, it apparently isn't common now. It does not appear to be endangered.

Mongolian pheasants are evidently not too inspiring, and while they are slightly different, being a bit larger. That taps me out on North American game birds.

The buzzard, meanwhile ....

1912 appliance ads

 

Soldiers and such

 Franklin Democrat, Aug. 1865

More Returned Soldiers

Nearly all the members of the 37th Regiment who enlisted from this county have been mustered out and now at home again, dressed in their citizen suits, looking like civilians. 

They have found in many a battle, enduring many hardships, and seem to enjoy the pleasures of sweet peace and the joys of home.

The Franklin County boys of the 68th, who first went out with the regiment have also returned and o'er this are all deeply engaged in peaceful pursuits. There are now but a few more to return and before many months, Old Franklin will welcome home the last of her surviving sons of 'Mar.' 

It is pleasing to see how readily and how naturally they throw aside the habiliments and character of warriors and resume the duty of private citizens. 

The Railway

Laborers in small numbers are already at work constructing the railway to this place and we understand it to be the intention of the Company to push the work along with all possible dispatch.

Corn

Corn in this section is a very uneven crop. On the bottomlands it looks remarkably well, while on some of the uplands it is short, yellow and beyond hope. Upon the whole, in our opinion, if the fall frosts keep off long enough, we may have a fair crop of this staple.

Well, feather my bed!

 Brookville National Defender, June 1864

HOW TO SAVE MONEY

At the present high price of goods it is to the advantage of everybody to save money where they can. Feathers are so high now, that few can afford to purchase new feather beds, but we are happy to inform our readers that they have now a chance to get their old beds renovated, so that the feathers will be rendered as sweet, light and lively as those freshly picked from geese. 

Those who sleep on impure feather beds are apt to contract diseases which often result in death (!!!) or if they do not prove fatal, at least incur a heavy doctor's bill.

Weller & Smith

have established one of their

RENOVATING MACHINES

in Brookville and for the small amount of

$1.50 FOR EACH BED

will render old feathers equal to new ones. Although they are not magicians, they perform a feat that is as wonderful and much more useful than any sleight of hand trick.

They are at work in Roberts' Warehouse, opposite the Valley House Livery Stable, where the public are invited to call and see them.

WELLER & SMITH

1864 -- Medical science

 Reflective of nothing important, but a shoeprint in our history -- the era of patent medicine, which was mostly castor oil, boiled figs and coal tar. But it cured everything from a toothache to those nagging "female" problems. The secret was to purge the system of demonic spirits. These are all from 1864. 

If he only knew ........

Brookville Democrat, April 12, 1925

And Yet We Kick

I am writing this in my living room of my home on a typewriter that weighs no more than a moderate sized book.

Light is provided by a lamp in which burn two incandescent bulbs.

In an adjoining room is a telephone from which I can talk to any city on the continent.

On the wall is a thermostat which regulates the flow of gas in my furnace and keeps the room at an even temperature of 70 degrees.

Almost within an arm's reach are several shelves of books filled with the most profound and beautifully expressed thoughts of the ages.

The floors of my home are cleaned with a suction sweeper, operated by electricity, while the clothes are put through an electric washer and ironed in an electrically driven mangle.

My children attend a school where they are given a better education than the sons of kins could command a century ago.

I enjoy all these things and yet I am just an ordinary citizen with an ordinary income, living in an ordinary way. Tens of thousands have as much as I have and more.

And yet I kick and wonder what ails the world.

Were the good things of life ever so easily at the command of the ordinary man as they are today? Don't we all do a lot of welching that we haven't any right to do. And if we are not careful, isn't there a danger that we will upset the greatest civilization the world has ever known? 

-- William Feather in the Philadelphia Public Ledger

No news is good news

 Brookville Inquirer, 1833

FLOOD ON THE OHIO

The Ohio River for a few days in the first of this week rose unusually rapid, and on Wednesday had attained a height several feet above any freshet at this season of the year for a number of years past.

 Much of the corn on the low bottoms has been destroyed. In this neighborhood, although there is yet every indication of a plentiful corn crop, the damage sustained must prove ruinous to the present prospects of many industrious and needy citizens. We have heard of several who have lost their entire crop. The water has been falling since Thursday.

-- Lawrenceburg Palladium

CHOLERA IN CINCINNATI

This disease is said to have made its appearance again in Cincinnati. Our information is so authentic that we have no room for doubts on the subject.

We have also received accounts, by a gentleman direct from Lawrenceburgh that the disease is not prevalent in the vicinity of that place. Our informant states that it has assumed a serious type -- that 11 out of 18 cases had proved fatal. Death has generally ensued an attack in the brief space of a few hours.

We have not made this statement with a view to terrify our citizens -- nor do we consider it a just cause for alarm. We would remark fear is said to be a great inciting cause of an attack, and e do not question the fact -- therefore, let those exposed to it watch the system and at the first symptom apply the antidote.

In all cases, an attack is preceded by a slight diarrhea, or diarrhea may be said to be cholera asphyxia, in its incipient stage. The patient should, in each case immediately take from 20 to 25 grains of Calomel with 1 grain of opium and keep dry and warm during its operation and no longer need to be apprehended. Exposure to night hair is pernicious. 

We would suggest to families the propriety of procuring for each member a dose of Calomel as above, lest an attack be made when medical aid cannot be procured in season.

1867, even more newsy around the area

 Brookville American, April 1867

The Normal School

The State Normal School has been located in Terre Haute. The city taxes herself $50,000. The Legislature at its last session appropriated $50,000 towards the buildings. It is calculated that $50,000 more will be required to furnish the building and fence the grounds. (Indiana State University)

The Fire in Bath Township

Eliphalet Allen save about two hundred dollars worth of his furniture at the recent fire which entirely destroyed his residence in Bath Township. The house took fire from sparks falling on the roof. Mr. Allen was at work some distance from his home at the time and arrived too late to save it. His loss is heavy there being no insurance. He has the sympathy of the community, having accumulated his property by his own hard work. He has fitted up two rooms in an adjoining building where he and his family reside at present.

Valley Railroad Beyond Connersville

The Cambridge Mirror says that a large number of hands are being placed on the line between that city and Connersville, which will enable the Road to be done to that place by June or July, and by September to Hagerstown.

Notice

To those who have donated to the W.W.V.R.R. that an excursion train will leave Laurel on the first day of May, 1867, at 7 o'clock in the morning and return in the evening to Cincinnati and back. All parties who have paid their money are respectfully invited to a ride. 

By order of Messrs. Lord and Peters.

JOHN COLTER, Collecting Agent.

Another Snow

The rain on Sunday night changed to snow, and the ground was again covered with the white mantle. But on Monday the sun came out and it all melted away. Someone informs us that this is the 51st snow this winter.

S. & J. Loper, of Fairfield

At their sales-room in Brookville, immediately in the rear of Rockafeller's store, keep on hand, at all times, Carriages, Buggies etc., for sale. These gentlemen are well known in our county and throughout this portion of the state, and will give satisfaction to all who may purchase. Mr. Alven Tucker is their agent at Brookville. See their advertisement in another column.

(December, 1867)

Messrs. S & G Loper have sold their carriage shop in Fairfield to Messrs. Samuel Rose and Allison Loper, who will carry on the carriage business hereafter. 

The Laurel Dam

Walter S. Baker Esq. informs us that the Laurel Dam will soon be completed, and it will then be a permanent structure. Water will be let into the Canal most probably next week.

Tailor

There is a good opening for a tailor at Fairfield, as Mr. G.W. Adams, the former tailor there, has removed to Greensburg.

1867, newsy year in Brookville

 Brookville American, April 1867

Main Burgess Street.

The graveling of this street progresses slowly but steadily. The mud has been wagoned off during its entire length -- so much better fortified are Brookvillians against a visit of the cholera. A small gutter also extends along both sides -- small enough for a commencement. Maybe our Main Street may yet present a respectable appearance for a growing town. It all depends on the "city dads."

Cars Off the Track

The last one of the four empty freight cars that recently ran off the track near Riker's above town, was place in proper position last Sunday. A drove of hogs suddenly appeared on the track at the curve, causing the catastrophe.  Some three or four days before this accident, a cow placed herself in the way of the construction train, throwing off four or five flat cars. Our railroad wouldn't be a railroad, were it not for such accidents, especially wen our people won't keep up their stock.

Hogs Killed

It is a frequent occurrence for hogs to be killed along the line of the railroad both above and below Brookville. Half hogs, and hogs mashed into a jelly, are scattered promiscuously. When will our people learn to keep their hogs within enclosures?

The Valley Railroad

The Connersville Times understands that about the 15th inst. regular trains will commence running to Connersville on the Valley Railroad. The depot is to be erected immediately, the timber already being prepared. The company is doing excellent work in town. The bridges across the canal have been lowered and are being widened to the width of the streets. The company deserved great credit for the energy displayed in pushing ahead the work during a very inclement season.

Pavements

A few of the dwellers along the line of our main Street are putting pavements in front of their houses. This action is to be strongly commended, as the commencement of a series of improvements which it is to be hoped will be continued until every piece of property fronting on that street cn boast of a brick or stone pavement.

Arrests

Our worthy Town Marshal is determined to put a stop to drunkenness and disorderly conduct on the streets. Several violators of the law in this regard have lately been arrested and confined to jail.

Ah, 1879 -- Fairfield, lots going on

 Connersville Examiner, Jan.1, 1879

Fairfield Fragments

--The Universalists give a concert Friday night, Feb. 1.

-- Several parties here are doing a large business buying and shipping walnut logs.

--The Teachers Institiute, called for Jan 11, was postponed. It was a fizzle.

-- Dances were given last week at several places in the immediate vicinity.

-- John VanMeter recently took unto himself wife No. 3. Well done, & John.

-- The schools in this township will close for the winter term about March 20.

-- Miss Lou Ferguson, a stylish young lady of Indianapolis, recently visited here.

-- Frank Seeley is spending the winter with his uncle, near New Castle.

-- T'is rumored that one of Fairfield's toniest young men and an Ireland belle will wed ere the coming of springtime. 

-- That "little charmer" of Glenwood will be sorry to learn that John Conner has been confined to the house for several days with a bad cold.

-- Clinton D. Rose, one of Fairfield's best young men, will leave at an early day for Texas, whither he goes in quest of the fickle goddess, Dame Fortune.

-- Hannibal Hughes of Ripley County, a former Fairfield boy, was recently home on a visit to his parents, who reside near this place.

-- D.F. Ernst, the carriage painter so long connected with the Samuel Rose Carriage manufactory, recently removed to Liberty, where he has opened a paint shop. Fairfield regrets to part with such a good citizen and accomplished workman, but her loss is Liberty's gain.

--While on the way home from Brookville some days since, Charles Filer had a fearful runaway -- his horses becoming frightened at some object along the road, spilled him out of the wagon but luckily, he as well as the team, escaped injury, although the wagon was somewhat badly used up.

-- The Quakertown correspondent for the Liberty Herald says that a drug store saloon is in full blast in Fairfield. How did you get your information, "Zuinglous?"

-- Our merchants are thinking seriously of adopting the cash system. By conducting their business in this way, they will avoid making bad debts and save much care and anxiety. In the long run, it will be much better for the farmer, mechanic and all who have heretofore been customers of the merchant. By the "pay as you go" system, an immense amount of trouble would be prevented. Everybody will be benefitted by the "ready money" plan -- much extravagance would be prevented, more economy practiced, and a safer and better business would be done in Fairfield in the future than for years past.

== Random

-- 

Saloon controls

 Democrat, April 11, 1911

Franklin County Saloons

Under the Proctor Law, regulating the saloon business, counties are allowed to fix the number to which a community is entitled, from 500 population to 1,000.

The Board of County Commissioners of Franklin County held that the action of the Legislature was satisfactory and allowed the limit of one saloon to each 500 of population to stand. The population basis is fixed as five persons for each vote cast at the last preceding general election in the municipality.

Under this construction, when a township contains but one incorporated town, the two are considered as one.

Brookville is entitled to 11, Butler to 2, Highland to 2, Laurel to 2, Ray to 3, Salt Creek to 1, and Whitewater to 2, a total of 22 as against 43 now in business. FORTY-THREE? 

Under the law, the saloons now in business may be re-licensed but whenever any quit for any cause, no new one may be licensed to take its place, until the number has been automatically reduced to the legal limit.

The town boards of Brookville and Laurel fixed the town license fee at $300 per year, the maximum rate, while Cedar Grove and Oldenburg selected the lowest rate for towns, $150.

NOTE:  Fairfield Township was technically always dry.

Proctor law was a state law regulating liquor licenses, replacing a law that let the various counties enforce prohibition with a series of scattered local ordinances. Proctor was enacted in March 1911 and signed into law by Gov. Thomas Marshall. Local options for communities were not impacted by this. Local option referendums closed many saloons in Indiana in 1915, including Laurel, and all of them closed in 1919 when Prohibition was ratified.

None of these laws were better than the people who were paid to enforce them. You could still get a drink if you knew the correct knock.

A saloonkeeper could lose his liquor license for opening his saloon for business on any Sunday, holiday or election day, or for allowing any of the following in or about his saloon:

• slot machines, or any other form of gambling;
• the presence of "lewd women";
• bartending by any woman, even the saloonkeeper's wife;
• the display of "nude or lascivious pictures";
• rooms above or behind the saloon maintained "for immoral purposes"; or
• the operation of any other business directly in the saloon, including real estate or employment offices, pool rooms or barber shops.

Oil, it's for roads

 Brookville Democrat April 13, 1011

ROADS WITH OIL

Methods Which Will Give Fair Results

PREPARATION OF SUBGRADE

Same care should be taken with this as with a Macadam Road -- the greater part of work can be done with a traction machine in preparing the road for treatment.

The oiled earth road is still in its experimental stage, and it will have to be given considerably more study before it can be expected to give uniformly good results under all the varied conditions of soil and the available oils.

Different methods of construction have been followed in different states, but there seems to be only one practical method of construction which is giving fairly uniform results. This method is as follows:

A shoulder furrow is plowed on each side of the center of the roadway, making the width to be treated from sixteen to eighteen feet, and the loose earth graded outside of tis width unless the crown of the road is too steep, in which case it should be plowed and this material thrown out to the sides.

Plowing only the shoulders renders it easy to shape the subgrade with a crown of about one inch to the foot.

The grade of oil to be used is much more important than the kind of soil. Light oils and those having a paraffin base are a little better than so much water. The oil should be one having an asphalt base of at least 85 per cent. 

It should be free from paraffin and all lighter oil. The oil should be applied to the road at a temperature of not less than 250 degrees F. and an oil containing 85 per cent of asphalt will have to be heated before it cn be taken from the car.

After applying the first course of oil sufficient earth should be grade on to absorb the oil. On a 2-1/2 gallon treatment to the square yard, four inches of loose earth should be graded in and then be thoroughly soaked with water and the tamping process begun.

The greater part of the work can be done with a traction engine and a road machine. The earth can be drawn back either by a road machine or road leveler. 

There is very little danger of using too much water. The wetter the materials, the more thoroughly the oil and earth can be mixed.

NOTE: Macadam roads were the Taj Mahal of roads in an era when people had to ask the township if they could get "free" gravel.

Macadam is an angular aggregate of stone used for paving without any binding medium to hold the stones together. The macadamized road consisted of multiple layers of crushed stone: the largest stones at the bottom, then another layer of fist-sized stones, with a top layer of small stones. Asphalt was just tar that held it all together. That came later. 

Fun: A requirement

 Brookville Democrat

Social Calendar for May 1927

WOMEN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY

The Women's Foreign Missionary Society of Fairfield met on Friday afternoon with Mrs. Horace Ward, east of town, the president in charge.

After singing "I Love to Tell the Story," prayers were offered by Mrs. Snider and Mrs. Barbour. The hostess read the devotional lesson from "The Rose Jar." After the business, Mrs. Geo. Jinks read a paper on the last chapter of "Moslem Women," with Mrs. Herbert Ward and Mrs. Herbert Jinks each taking a part.

Mrs. Herbert Ward read a leaflet "Lydia" and Mrs. H. Jinks read a letter from a missionary. 

Several are planning to attend the group meeting at Liberty, and Mrs. Alma Himelick will go as delegates. Mrs. Mary Pinkerton read the benediction.

The hostess served fruit salad, little cakes and coffee.

14 members were present. Mrs. Herbert Sherwood and Mrs. Dimmitt Butcher and daughter Marjorie were guests. 

The meeting was much enjoyed by all.

NOTE: As of April 1, 2025, I am still living and I actually KNEW many of these women. Of course, in 1927, they weren't quite as old as they were when I knew them. -- John