1918 -- wartime news that wasn't about the war

Democrat, June 1918

Benefit Dance

The Improved Order of Red Men will give a dance at Fairfield Red Men's Hall, Saturday night, July 6. Proceeds will go to the Ambulance Fund. Special music from Connersville.

Everybody invited!

Sauerkraut Approved as Patriotic

On account of its supposedly German name, sauerkraut seems to be losing popularity as an American dish. It is said, however, to be of Dutch rather than of German origin.

But in any event, sauerkraut is a valuable food and adds to the variety of ways in which cabbage may be prepared.

Ach du Lieber!

Lutherans Discontinue Use of German Language

The St. Thomas Lutheran people (Brookville) voted Sunday on the further use of the German language in the hour of divine service, and it was decided by more than two-thirds majority to drop it.

Speak English!

Baptist church -- a grain bin in the '60s

Centennial Meeting

A centennial meeting will be held at the Baptist Church west of Fairfield next Sunday, June 30.

Elder R.W. Thompson of Greenfield, and Elder E. Harlan of Connersville will be in attendance.

You are invited to come and bring your dinner and spend the day in celebrating the centennial of this old historic church.

Hallelujah!

Glaring Headlights

The non-observance of the automobile headlight dimmer law, passed by the 1917 General Assembly, has caused the Hoosier State Automobile Association to get behind a statewide effort to enforce the law, for the safeguarding of the motorist and the public.

Many accidents have been caused by glaring headlights that might have been avoided had the dimmer law been observed. City, town and township officials have been instructed to be on the lookout for motorists who disregard the law.

Dimmit, dammit.

Alvie Kunkel -- my uncle

Newspaper pictures, around 1900

 The artist who was able to line-draw was most valuable in the days before newspapers and magazines had the tools to produce actual photo reproductions. These were wood cuts, quite intricate and reserved only for people who were important -- such as the woman who used liver oil to control her bodily fluids.

WWII propaganda ads -- and PSAs

 

SEVERAL blog items from 2015

Cop learned his lesson

Indianapolis Star, Aug. 12, 1913

A TOWN MARSHAL'S BLUNDER

Caspar Schuck, who was assistant town marshal of Brookville until a day or so ago, has lost his job because of his mistaken notion that it was a part of his official duty to enforce the law. He conceived this idea, presumably, from the fact that his oath of office enjoined the aforesaid task upon him.

In pursuance of his theory, at all events, he proceeded to arrest Mr. Frank Moniger on a charge of keeping his saloon open after 11 o'clock. Here is where the deputy marshal was in error.

Mr. Moniger did not deny that he kept open after legal hours; on the contrary, he admitted that he did keep open all night. But he was deeply injured and righteously indignant because he had been singled out as the object of official attention, when Deputy Marshal Schuck must have known, as all citizens of Brookville knew, that all the saloons of the town ran open night and day.

The attorneys for Moniger scorned Schuck bitterly for his discrimination, and the jury was so influenced by the legal eloquence that it failed to agree on facts which were not denied and was dismissed. 

But the matter did not end there. As the story goes, so impressed were Brookville's citizens by the outrage upon Moniger that a group of them made complaint to the Town Board and at their suggestion, the deputy marshal was dismissed from office.

Whether the guileless man had acted upon the theory that if he could get one lawbreaker punished, the moral effect on the others would be good, or whether me meant to arrest the others in their turn is not known, but whatever the case, he will not now have an opportunity to proceed further.

It would be interesting to know what would have happened had all the saloon keepers been arrested at one time.

Would the citizens have arisen en masse and driven the deputy marshal out of town?

And is it henceforth to be the rule in Brookville that when a thief or other lawbreaker is arrested in that town, all other thieves shall be arrested simultaneously, lest the feelings of one be hurt? If not, why not?

Note: Most likely Schuck was a bit of a jerk, but the Star didn't know that. His replacement Adam Peters said he'd make sure all the saloons followed the law. Schuck was given the half-month's salary due him.

Board adjourned.

Demon rum

Indiana American, Aug. 1854

SAD AND MOURNFUL PROCESSION

A short time since, a touching spectacle was seen in the streets of our neighboring city, Richmond. An orphan boy who had stemmed the world's destructive tide without the counsel of a father or the prayers of a mother, murdered by rum and rum seller was conveyed to his last and resting place, a drunkard's grave, attended by one solitary mourner, an orphan sister.

His last hours were spent in the ravings of a soul-killing delirium, which haunted his dying couch with all the unearthly phantoms and bloody demons which that loathsome disease brings up to torment men before their time.

-- Ladies' Temperance Wreath

ANOTHER VICTIM

We are fully aware that our liquor sellers, their attorneys, candidates and organ, do not thank us for parading before the public their victims, but in truth, we do not want their thanks.

If we can place before the citizens of Indiana, such facts as will show that the liquor traffic is a work of death, and the slain are in our midst, we expect they will act promptly to remove the destroyer. The rummies and their allies so believe, also and hence they rage.

Let them rage. They hay even charge us with cruelty in alluding to the dead but such a charge comes with a poor grace from men that will take the last dime from a poor drunkard, regardless of wife's sufferings or feelings, or will take a fee against a poor woman, who sues for damages.

Last week, a man living on Blue Creek, once an affable citizen, a kind husband and affectionate father  -- but the liquor made him a demon and his wife applied for a divorce. The man has died, and present desolation of his once happy family is clearly attributable to the liquor traffic.

ANOTHER -- Mr. Cuppy, who ahs been confined in our jail for many months, was sent this week to the penitentiary for two years, ostensibly for passing counterfeit money, but really on account of drinking whisky.

The county has been taxed heavily in his imprisonment trial, and now he goes to spent two years laboring in solitary confinement for the state that has licensed men to make him what he is.

And yet the Democratic party says it would be worse to search doggeries, for mean whisky, than to send men to the penitentiary for drinking it. 

Note: T.A. Goodwin, the paper's editor, was a Methodist minister and strong prohibitionist. He never let up and was ruthless in his editorial comments. "Doggery" was another word for saloon or ginmill. Goodwin was a Republican (or, Whig in those years.)

Oil and water -- a mixture

College Corner News, Oct. 1910

Streets Oiled

Liberty's streets in the business section with the exception of a portion around the courthouse, which is controlled by the county, have been treated to a coat of oil.

The work has been done by C.E. Davis of Connersville and is paid for by the firms having frontage on the streets benefited.

The dust and loose dirt is first swept to the side of the street and the crude oil is applied by a large sprinkler. An amount of the dirt is then swept back to cover the oil and the street rolled by the steam roller.

This treatment is no longer an experiment, as least in many other places and the good effect is already evident. The odor is not very bad and the streets are a little unsightly for a time and a little inconvenience by the oil being tracked into the stores and houses, the road soon hardens and the dust is kept down.

It is believed that two or three treatments a year will demonstrate the superiority of this method of road preserving and dust prevention and that it will be used extensively, if not altogether on the streets next year.

In College Corner, the dust laying qualities have been demonstrated and a movement is now being agitated by our progressive merchants who will arrange to oil our streets next summer.

Democrat, Dec. 1914

Novel Water Supply

On the farm of Andrew Kelley in Fairfield Township can be seen in operation what one might call a novel method pf supplying water where needed. Mr. Kelley has experienced much difficulty in obtaining water, having dug and blasted a number of wells which were failures as the earth is underlaid with continuous ledges of heavy limestone.

At the suggestion of friends, he was persuaded to try his luck on a high elevation back on the farm far above the line of limestone.

This he did during the dry season just past, and at a depth of 23 feet, succeeded in finding a good supply of water raising to near 14 feet.

Then with one and one-quarter inch galvanized pipe he had same piped to his barn and uses instead of a pump, an inch and a quarter hydrant lever, a full flow is had in an instant.

It required about 600 feet of pipe and as the well is at an elevation of some 60 feet, the water is syphoned and will flow continuously when hydrant is open.

This work was planned and installed by J.T. Buckley of Fairfield Township.

 

Death and taxes

American, Feb. 1850

Obituary

Died in Fairfield on Friday, Feb. 8, Rev. E. Rutledge, pastor of the Fairfield Circuit, and a member of the Indiana annual Conference.

His disease was small pox. For some weeks before his decease, Mr. R. had been indisposed, which perhaps tendered him ore susceptible of the dreadful disease of which he died.

How he was exposed or from whom he received the contagion, we believe is not certainly known. The fact that he was exposed, however, and its consequences are now known to his family and Charge.

Mr. R. united with the Indiana Conference at its session in Indianapolis in 1837, in company with 26 others, several of whom have also ceased their labors and entered into rest.

Mr.  R., though not a brilliant preacher, was a man of very respectable preaching abilities, to which he added personal and ministerial dignity and deep solid piety.

He remained two years in charge of several circuits, and had entered upon his second on Fairfield circuit, when the summons came for him to lay down the cross and take up the crown.

Amen

Liberty Herald, Dec. 1863

Turnpike to Liberty

There is a good turnpike from Fairfield to Brookville, while Liberty and Fairfield are connected only by a common dirt road. 

At present the farmers of Fairfield and vicinity bring their grain to Liberty on account of her railroad facilities, but when Brookville becomes a railroad market, the Fairfield trade will certainly leave us, unless a good road is built to that place.

Such a road, we understand, could be made at very little expense, gravel being easily obtained all along the route, and it certainly would be a great advantage to our businessmen.