Road loadin'

Anderson Herald, December, 1919

INDIANA ROADS

The Indiana highway weather report on the condition of Indiana roads for the week ending Dec. 5 says:

Indianapolis-Ft. Wayne road, excellent; road to Lawrence city, fair to Pendleton, good to Alexandria, but Pendleton pike a little rough; Marion-Huntington-Ft. Wayne, fair to good, but chucky first five miles out of Marion.

Dixie short line to Cincinnati: Fair road, Indianapolis through Arlington to Rushville; poor and muddy between Metamora and Brookville, with two miles very poor, but passable; good Brookville to Cedar Grove, and fair beyond to Harrison. Bad spots in low places beyond New Trenton, but no detours.

Anderson Herald, January, 1927

State Highways

In Bad Condition

Flood waters and constant patrol to prevent heavy loads on state highways, made soft by recent rains and thaws, constituted the chief maintenance problems of the State Highway Commission today.

A traffic report showed that northern roads were free of snow and traffic is moving, but roads are slippery in places.

Virtually all grave and stone surfaces in central and southern Indiana are soft and subject to severe damage if load limits are not enforced.

Route 1 open to light traffic only between Brookville and Connersville. 

 

The end of 1865

Brookville Democrat, December, 1865

Large Hogs

Mr. James Rucker of this township has lately butchered four hogs, none of them over seventeen months old, the four averaging the high figure of 410 pounds, the heaviest weighing 425. This is the heaviest average we have heard of this season. The hogs were of the Ferguson breed, and this is not an unusual weight for them to attain at that age.

Tobacco and Cigars

"The moment a man puts a pipe to his mouth, he becomes a philosopher," said Sam Slick, and we endorse it.

The best place to purchase your smoking or chewing tobacco is at Adam Hegg's, Brookville, who has a splendid assortment in large quantities on hand. He also manufactures every quality of cigars, which he can furnish saloon and hotel keepers at lower rates than the can be purchased in the city. In addition to all this, he keeps for sale a hundred varieties of smoking pipes, tobacco and snuff boxes. Patronize home manufacturers.

Money Lost

On Tuesday last, Mr. Hiram Brooks, a poor hardworking and respected citizen living a couple of miles below town, met with the misfortune of losing his pocketbook, containing about $115, money which he had earned in the sweat of his brow. He supposes, it to have been lost near the White bridge and will feel himself under deep obligations to the finder if they will return it to him and will liberally reward them for their trouble.

Correction

It now appears evident that the McNeely boy who went before the Commissioners last week with such a pitiful story of harsh treatment at the hands of John Barber of Springfield Township has imposed upon the board and the community at large.

Mr. Barber informs us (and his statement is corroborated by disinterested witnesses) that although he did whip the boy, it was with a small switch and could not have inflicted the wounds which he exhibited here.

They must be self-inflicted with the intention of exacting a heavy fine from Mr. Barber, who knew nothing of the matter until he saw it in the Democrat. 

We are confident now that Mr. Barber did not punish the boy beyond what he deserved and warn the public not to be longer deceived by the boy's invented tale.

Bridge

The bridge across the Whitewater at Harrison, which was burned by Morgan during his raid through this state in 1863, is being rebuilt. The work is rapidly reaching completion and will be a much more durable and imposing structure than the old one. 

Buggy bumpers

 What they cost ... and when you got one dirt cheap 

Truckin'

 

Irma, popular in 1926 ...

... and then she died.

 

Rumely

Brookville American, 1912

Wm. Mettle tried his new Rumely threshing machine last Saturday at his home west of Laurel. It did the work fine.

Mr. Mettle is going to start out on his long trip of threshing early Monday morning. The wheat is good grain -- much better than was expected after the hard, cold winter.

A large crowd of lively folks spent Sunday at the country home of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Shera. All kinds of sport was indulged in and in the evening Mr. Shera took the merry crowd to the home of Ralph Weber and wife, east of Laurel, on a hayride where all enjoyed the evening with music and son until a late hour -- Even Grandma Reiboldt said she had one of the most pleasant times of her life.

Grandma Reiboldt is staying with her daughter Mrs. Ralph Weber. Grandma has not been very well for some time but her many friends will be pleased to know that her health is somewhat improved.

The primary class of the Mt. Carmel Methodist Sunday School (Bertha Major, teacher) gave a picnic in Clarkson's woods Saturday. All reported a good time. 

New old flood news

LAWRENCEBURG REGISTER, January 1886

FLOODS ON THE OHIO RIVER

The St. Louis Republican says a paper in the American Naturalist by William Hosea Ballou asserts that there are two great flood ranges in the United States, lying at right angles -- one marked by the line of the Mississippi, the other by the line of the Ohio -- and of the two, the Ohio flood range is the more destructive -- "the most terrible on the earth's surface."

"All atmospheric destruction by tornado, simoon, whirlwind, and waterspout and all the damage done through subterranean upheavals by volcano and earthquake do not compare with the ravages of the floods of this river."

The explanation of this is found in the river's parallel position to the Equator, which brings about the melting of the snows in the valley, and the precipitation of the spring rains at once. At this time, says the writer, "the Ohio is not a tributary of the Mississippi; the latter is its confluent."

Its gigantic projectile of water, often 100 feet high, 600 feet broad and about 300 miles long, is hurled on its mission of obliteration, sweeping before it cities, towns, forest, farms, levees, livestock, shipping and humanity.

He estimates that $500 million has been expended in the effort to protect the riparian country from these floods and repair their damages, and individual losses are twice as much more. This estimate ($1,500,000,000) appears beyond all reason, and it is probably an exaggeration.

Still, there is no doubt that the Ohio River floods are the most destructive agency in this country. Along the Lower Mississippi, from Cairo down to the coast -- a distance of nearly 1,200 miles -- the inhabitants treat reports of the annual June flood in the Missouri and Mississippi with little concern; but the reports of the February rise in the Ohio fill them with terror and dismay.

The first part of a rise in the Missouri and Mississippi will pass into the Gulf a month before it reaches New Orleans, and the entire flood will be distributed along a line of 1,200 miles. 

But an Ohio River flood is a mountain of water sent out in a week, rushing down the valley with irresistible force and inundating thee farms on both side of the river.

The serious nature of these floods presses upon us the necessity for protecting the country against them, and this, the writer says, is to be effected by the construction of reservoirs by means of dams in the hill country where the headwaters of the river take their rise, and the planting of forests around the sources of these tributary streams.

The forests would protect the snow and ice from the rays of the sun, and make melting gradual, and the reservoirs would hold back a portion of the water and reduce the volume of the flood.

Note: Sounds like a great idea.