USA > Indiana > Kosciusko County > Pierceton > A history of Pierceton, Indiana > Part 5
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There were eleven district schools int the township. Io.1 was the Tashbaugh School in Section 2 west of Ridinger Lake. No. . was the Mlakemson School in The center of Section 3. llo. 3 was the Morris Chapel School on the Logan farm. The church was across the road on the Cutcelt farm. Lo. 5 iwas at the so thwest corner of the Sheely farm at the south quarter post of Section 7, on the NE cor- ner of the cross-roads. This would now be 1; miles west of the Menzie School on former Road 30. No. 6 was the Menzie School at the northeast corner of the Abe I. Leedy farm. Here was a jog in the
' the road. about where road and the school was on the east died of 5 de the present building is there was a sawmill. The old l'enzie School is now the Alfran Nursing Home. No. 7 was on the Tramer farm ate at the ST corner of the cross-roads, l' miles north of the Cum- mins school. No. 8 was the Cummins School a mile and a half east and one mile north of Pierceton. No. 9 was the Moore School on the
west side of the road about one mile north of town. It was at the NW corner of a T Road. This was an old school site. It was. at the SE Corner of the J. A. Clemens farm. No. 10 must have been at Wooster. No. Il was at the center post of Section 32 on the J. J. Smith farm. This was one-half a mile west of the Catholic Cemetery on the north side of the road. No. 12 must have been the Ryerson
school south
Of town. No. 13 was the railroad school along the tracks on the Galbreath farm in Section 26. This was about ly miles along the railroad east of Pierceton. Besides these schools there wa's a school, of course, at Pierceton. So we find that the townshij was well supplied with district schools in the 1870's. e are not (1) able to find No. 4 on the map. Perhaps some oldtimer can elucidate on this. The map shows a cemetery in the WWE of Jection 3 on the John Makemson farm. There was a sawmill at the northwest corner of the township. There was a cemetery on the MeNeal Farm in section n 15 Southeast of the German Baptist Church which later was washing- ton Union, a wind pump on the J. Grow farm in Section in Section 21, this being something new, a mill on the Ryerson farm south of town, and a bad sinkhole in the center of section 31 now drained by the Zeefer-Evans Ditch. People who owned land around Wooster were H. E. Pollock on the east, John Vaness on the north, G. 3. Smith on the north, Peter Hoover and Vaness on the west and T. Vav Vanvleet and John Rafter on the south. Vanvleet used to teach at the Wooster school and Hoover had a store there. P. Brosnahan owned a small tract next to the town plat on the northeast. Wooster was laid out about the same time as Pierceton. The streets were run perpendicular and parallel to the railroad which formation has some merit. . road to the southeast came over to Pierceton.
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A person travelling west in 1879 along old Road 30 on the south line of Jection 2 would be passing the farms of P. L.cChane, H. J. McCoffrey, J. Lautzenhizer, W. Brown, and when he came to the cross-roads he would pass school No. 7 on his left. In the next mile he would pass the farm of Ir. John brown, J. hramer, Adam herstler, and Daniel bennett, and then pass menzies and ... Niels. Thru the next mile it would still be lenzie and Mcneil as far as the German Baptist church, then it would be m O'Brien on the right and J. I. Orr on the south. Orr later built the large. brick house that still stands. In the next mile he would pass the land of Hr- Messrs. Cretcher, O'brien and J. C. Humphreys, Hart, Abe K. Leedy and Mr. Graham. Then he would pass the old Menzie schoolhouse and the sawmill nearby. The next mile he would go past the home of James Stinson, the home of argarite Liller and a ... McCarty. Text were lards of J. H.McConnell and J. Lightfoot. Tru Thru the last mile in the township he would go past the lands of Lightfoots, Vannesses, Sheely, Torris, Bumgardner, and Elder. Half way thru this mile on the right was school No. 5. On the Menzie farm east of the German Baptist Church he would have to cross some pretty soft ground where the present Shanton Ditch is now. This is the outlet. of Kud Lake. One-half mile north of the Menzie school was the J. Mobaniel farm. One-half a mile south was the Arch Menzie farm and here is the old Menzie home one of the fine old farmhouses of the county. This old road 30 was the longest straight road in the whole township. The road north and south past the Cummings school was five mile' long as a straight road but veered to the west in Section 2 west of Ridinger's Lake. Littles, Flakes, Leagys, Ther Chantons, Jokes, Browns, watsons, Hakemsons, Trumps, Werstlers, all lived along this road.
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I person riding a horse westward from Larwill in 1879 would have entered the county at the southeast corner of Section 35 on the land of J. E. Hayden. He would have continued to the north est thru the land of Thomas Cole, John Cole, and and Daniel Sleighter. In the next mile he would have passed the farms of John Cole, A. Yohn , Reuben Broadbelt, M. Ryerson and 7. P. Ryerson. here the road crossed Deed's creek and went past some mills. The Ryersor west quarter post
cemetery was on the left at the southeast/corner of the/ Section 34. 1 Then he would cross the ... H. Gibson farm and go past the 1 buildings on the same. Then he would go onto the William Latchett farm'and cross Deec's creek again over a bridge whose foundations are still standing. Here he would tess the home of K.L. Switzer on the right. In section 29 he would travel over the land of I. P. Chap- lin passing his home on the left. The next farm was "illiam Jolley! and then J. R. Talkers. In the last section he would be on the J. H. Anderson farm, K. Truman and Ichliel and Dick. Nere he would con- nect with the present straight road to Pierceton. This straight road following the center line of Sections 30 and 29 was built years later. In road ran straight out west from town for a mile and then turned thruned northwest to Wooster. It angled thru the farm of ! Thomas Rafter and J. Rafter Sr. best of "ooster the road passed the farms of John Vaness, T. J. DeBore, and E. VanCuren. The L. Eibler small farm was to the left and south of this Nancy Royse owned 21 acres. G. T. Dunbar had 70 acres east of Rooster. .
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picture appears inthe atlas of Ir. & Mrs. Firestone and their home ilso the residence and picture of Mrs. and Ir. Joseph farner who lived near the south quarter post of Section 17 east of Froehly lake. The Ryerson home is pictured and pictures of George . and his wife Rebecca. Other pictures show the Heagy farm, the Hoover
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farms both Daniel & Alfred. The home of William O. Kyle is also shown. These old pictures are interesting to look at and the maps in this book are very clear and accurate.
Pierceton is on high ground for the most part. The water drair four ways, east, south, west and north. On the east side of town is is the Eli Fluke ditch, a tile drain starting north of the tracks and going south into the Andreas ditch. A schoolhouse branch comes into this ditch. The Fluke Ditch goes thru some low ground east of Lee Ee Raber's house. On the west side of town the Mary Emma Wine Ditch flows west thru the Mort farm and the Westover Farm owned by Suda Smith and Herb Robinson and empties into the same andreas ditch. The George Knox tile ditch flows north across the tracks and on north to the Leifer ditch and this flows northwest into the Shanton ditch which empties into Ridinger Lake thru the Abraham Elder Ditch. This Elder ditch is shown as Grassy Creek on the old maps. It comes in from the other county and goes thru Rob- inson Lake. The Abe K. Leedy ditch begins northwest of the corner where Roads 13 and Old 30 cross and flows west and south and west into the Me Vancuren which goes into the L'eCarter or Deed's Creek. The Vancuren ditch and its tributary the James Divinney ditch drair the northwest part of the township. The west part of the township is drained by the Bareham-McCleary ditch which empties into the McCarter. The south part of the township is drained by the Unruch and the babcock arm of the Wyland ditch. The east part of the town- ship is drained by the Maston ditch, the C. R. Long ditch, and the Shanton ditch all of which form about the longest system in the township. This water goes through Mud Lake and into Ridinger Lake and outlets finally into Kuhn Lake. The whole township is a part of the Mississippi River basin.
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In looking thru the transfer books at the Auditor's of- fice for the years 1886 to 1892 we find that lots in Pierce- ton were listed at from 5 dollars up to 740 and houses at .30 up to about #450.00. The Balliett Lill was listed at 1000.00. Amelia Hays had property listed at $2400 and $1200 which were uptown buildings. People who owned any considerable amount of property in Pierceton were as follows:
Sarah J. Shaffer
B. F. Andlauer
William H. Spayde bridget .1. Rafter
Balliett & Strauss -
Francis Ann Reed
Tim Brosnahan
Sarah Reed
Orrin 5. Biglow
Pierceton Wheelbarrow and lifg Co. william O'Brien
Maurice brosnahan
Mary Ann Conrad
Ada . Nichols
F. V. Linnich
William Moivamara
Kirkham & Estes
John & Augustus Froehley
Norman J. Guy
Chas. F. Guy
Wm. J. Graham
E. A. Long
Pat Galvin
E. J. Long
Dora F. Latchett
Ann Mosier n
Jacob Miller
Henry Wiseman
John E. Hayden William Harvout
Daniel Hoover Davis S. Hat Hayden
William hays
James Johnson
John S. Hass
Aaron M. Simpson Eva L. Shanton Susan J. Snyder
Reeds and O'Brien seemed to own quite a bit of the town.
There is eveidence of many sheriff sales during this period.
At Wooster some of the land owners were J. I. Bash, Phillip Baker, Michael Dailey, Anna Finton, Peter Hoover, wade Harris, Isaac Jackson, Sylvanus King, Darius Pollock, Mary Streiby and Sarah Vanness. In this village lots were listed as low as -5. It would be interesting to consult the books for 1893-4 when
the country was going thu through one of its worst panics.
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C. G. Coplin Francis H. Foster
A. I. Lawrence Lawrence, Spayde & Co. 1
Amelia Hays Henry Hackett
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Pierceton after 1900.
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In 1910 some of the business houses in Pierceton were as fol- lows. Z. Z. . shley was dealer in furniture, rugs, draperies, and was also the town undertaker. Beyer Brothers & Co. were produce shippers. M. F. Brosnahan was dealer in hardware harness and imple- ments. The store was known as the Brosnahan Hardware Co. The Corner Store was run by L. J, McMeekin. It was a general store dealing in dry goods, shoes, furnishings, and groceries. Davison & Price were grain and hay shippers. Deardorff & Orr kept groceries and meats. G. D. Gill had a hardware and implement store. Monroe Dill dealt in dry goods, shoes, notions and groceries. Levi Dohner had a grocery with a restaurant in connection. 5. B. Draper dealt in flour and feed. John & Augustine Froehly were running the Exchange Bank. Jack Foster was agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad. John Gibson had a jun junk yard. Painting & paper hanging was done by Loie Grindle, and by William Grindle. Alice Hass was a seamstress. Charlie Hass was a clerk. H. D. Heagy dealt in drugs. J. R. Hoover was manager of the Pierceton Record. John M. Humphrays made brooms. Fred Helfrich was a barber. Lee Jackson was a blacksmith. - ## Kilpatrick & Dill had a hardware store. Fraus and Apfelbaum dealt in grain, seed & wool. Alfred L. Kuhn was the town marshall. A. C. Liefer had a monu- ment yard. B. E. Liefer had a bakery and restaurant. James B. Vancur en was the hotel keeper at the Leland House. J. P. Lipos had the planing mills. Margaret Logan was a pjotographer. Mathhett Bros. & Co. ran the peoples bank. The brothers were J. K. & W. F. Matchett. Orr & Switzer had a drug store. It was called the Peoples Drug
Store. Pletcher & Son sold groceries and meats. This was L.L. and .H.Pletcher. W. S. Price dealt in hay, grain, coal, feed, lime and cement. Radcliff Brothers had a general store. C.O.& J.L Radcliff.
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Harry Reid had a billiard hall. Mike Ryan ran a restaurant. J. F. Bailo dealt in hardware, plumber supplies, stoves, paints & oils. Sherman Shirley was a barber. J. J. Snyder was a wagon and carriage maker. Claude Trump was a blacksmith. J. Trump dealt in wagons, carriages, blacksmithing and horseshoeing. W. H. Vanwor- mer was a shoe maker. Hayden Wiley was a drayman. Wine Brothers had a livery, feed and sale stables. These were Ham Wine, James R. Wine and John A. Wine. F. Zintsmaster sold general merchandise. And such were some of the business houses in Fierceton 41 years ago Forty-one years ago in Pierceton Samuel Baker was a railroader Charlie Balliet was a railway postal clerk, William H. Beebe was a travelling salesman. His wife and four children lived a happy life and they went to school. J. D. Bell was. a drug clerk and after wards owned a store of his own. Frank & Sherman Black were carpente and Newton Bryan ters. I. N. Bryan owned a sawmill. Mary bryan was a nurse. George HI. Clouse was a concrete worker, Tom Cole dealt in poultry, Den
Cretcher was a clerk. F. L. Davis was a telegraph operator. Ber- nice Dicks was a music tracher. W. L. Dick was with the Brosnahan hardware company. Inez Downs was a teacher. Wesley P. Downs was a section foremen. Mary Dudley was a telegraph operator. William H. Finton was a plasterer. DeEtta Fluke was a student. Tom Fluke was a carpenter. Charles H. Foster was a mail clerk on the railroad. Charles Gillespie was a painter. Nellie Galvin was a teacher. August Goering was a towerman. U. S. Graham was a rural mail car- rier. James D. Greer was a railroad carpenter. Donald E. Guy was a fireman. Victor Haman was a. painter. Joe Hanson was an electrician. Grace Hass was a clerk in the postoffice. Rev. Paul Heiligman was one of the ministers of the town. Anna & Jeanette James were dress- makers, A. E. Johnson was a veterinary surgeon.
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O. R. Keller was a salesman. M. P. Kilpatrick was a milliner. John Kissinger was a plastering contractor. Loren Knox was a mail clerk on the railroad. Carl Knull had an auto garage. Autos were still a pretty scarce article. C. E. Leedy was a physician and surgeon. Gertrude Leedy was a telegarph operator. A good one in those days was paid about $65.00 a month. Ira C. Little was a barber. Edith and Maud Leiter were teachers. N. C. Leiter was a barber. Lewis Lipps was a telegraph operator. These were the days of single tracks on some roads and train orders were, given to most passing trains. C. R. Long was a well known physician and surgeon. Florence & Lena Long were students. Frank Long was a rural mail " Ducky" carrier. Free delivery had been started about 1900. Walter Long was also a rural mail carrier. These were the days of the horse and buggy. Homer Longfellow was one of the towns attorneys. his wife was Carrie Longfellow who afterwards became a teacher. I. Z. Longfellow was a teacher. Matthew L. was an attorney. Sarah V. Longfellow was a stenographer. Catherine McDaniels was a dressmakel Ross McNamara was a machinist. J. W. Maston was a cement worker. James Matchett was a baker. Jess Matchett was also a baker. Tuck H Miller was a laborer. Ambrose lioses was a mail clerk on the rail- road. His wife was Kate Moses. Norbert Moses was in the Navy. L. D. Nichols was agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. This posi- tion was connected with this family for many years. Willis O'brien fran Revector was a railroader. when any engineer or firemån went thru town he gave a well known signal with the whistle. J. M. Perry was an elec .. trician. Harry Phillips fired on the railroad. John Phillips was a printer. Fred Pletcher was a rural mail carrier. L. L. Pletcher was a grocer. E. M. uay ran a pool room. H. F. Radcliff was the post aster. R. R. Radcliff was with Ried-Murdocks.
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Elmer Rallings was a travelling salesman. Charles D. Reed was head sawyer at the saw mill. Harry Reed was a clerk. Loren Bei Reidinger was a showman. Homer Sailor was a clerk. Clarence Sanner drove the creamery wagon. Carl ... Schlutsmeyer was manager of the Reid-Murdock Plant west of town. Charles Schrom was assistant cashier of the Peoples Bank. Fred Schrom was a bookkeeper. James R Schrom ran the elevator. John Schuman was a well driller. Leroy
Scoles was a teacher as was Marie Shanton. Frank Shorbe worked at the power house. Abner Sipes was a wood worker. L. C. Smith was a dealer in coal. N. T. Smith was a dentist. Orton B. Smith was a dentist. B. D. Snyder was a carpenter. John C, Snyder was an auto e driver. Joseph Speigle was a railroader. Onadore Strumk was a car- penter. Joseph H. Taylor was a gardener. -label Taylor was a teacher Claude Trump was a blacksmith. Harry Trump was a tinner. Charles Underwood drove a creamery wagon. Eugene Underwood worked at the on planing mill. Maxwell Underwood was a tin plate worker. Lena ward was a stenographer. E. J. Watson was a huckster. Miles edale worke for Beyer Brothers. Orange Wiley was a barber. Earl Wine vas a barl bæbarber. Fred Wolford was a lineman. Iva Wones was a teacher. m R. Wones was a minister. Ella Yohn was a teacher. Walter Yontz was a teamster. J. F. Zehner was a lineman. Skilled mechanics in these days recieved three or four dollars a day. Working men were paid about $2.00 a day or less. Teachers recieved about >50 a month ec and section men on the railroad about »40 a month. Rents were cor- a month respondingly cheap for a house came at from $3 to 99. ggs were .0-
15¢ a dozen, bacon 3 pounds for a quarter, ham about the same, and side meat 5¢ a pound. 25 or 30 cents bought a lot of steak and for a dollar one could walk out of a grocery store with quite
a basket full of groceries. Butter was about 12, a pound.
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People who owned farms in Washington Township in 1920 in amounts of quarter sections were about as follows. They were George & Blanch Weimer, Hiram Orr, John Makemson, Hal Wright, John Perry, Dr. A. O. Newlin, Lyman Menzie, Outcelts, Kuhn & Davis Edna Cole, John E. Miller, J. W. Brower, Reuben Leifer, illiam F. Matchett, Mary MacFarland, Mary Galvin, Hulda M. Ayers, A. M. Lc Namara, Ezra & Bessie Covert, Emma J. & C. R. Long, Susan Maynard, Amos Stump, Lyman Dill, Stanley Weaver, Royse Clover, Lewis If.
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Vernette, George Auer, John N. Unruch, Nettie I. Kirkpatrick, and William & Minnie Kirkendall. Many others, of course, owned farms in the township but these were picked at random. The 1920's was Stanley Boggs marked by the building of three mile roads. Don Lessig and Billy Taylor were surveyors during these years. we helped some in the of- fice. Some of the roads built by E. 4. Gast or other contractors were the Leifer Road north of town now covered by Road 13, the Hiooster Road west of that village, the Stinson Road, and the road out west of town called the Kissinger Road. These were all concrete wide and well made but the pavements were made 16 feetainstead of about .
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20.^Mickeys were the contractors on the Leifer Road. Miram E. Smith and I arrived there one morning and Mae Mickey was in a car. She said, "Mr. Nye, would you please tell Mr. Boggs to send someone out: here to give us some grade stakes." I replied what do you think we are out here for?". Another time when we appeared with a red neck tie on she told me my nose was bleeding. There was in the 20's a law that a road could be petitioned not to exceed three miles O 19.30
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in length and that the Township paid the bill. Then a law came out that the indebtedness could not exceed 400 of the valuation and
since it was above this already road building stopped. In a few
years the County Road Department was created.
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In the 1920's when we were teaching at Pierceton it was a busy trading point. The streets had been paved and the one past the library was paved in 1923. we got out the specifications for this street. It has held up good because it has not been cut to pieces by digging for pipe lines etc. Red Smith was then the ed- itor of the Record in the old building just south of the railroad. Liefers had the grocery store on the corner south and west of this was the Overall Factory. Schroms had a hardware store as did Kuhn Davis. Mr. Switzer was the harber and mr. Booth was another. Matchetts had the insurance and bond office. Radcliffs store was one of the oldest in town. Charlie Nye who sold clothing on the roa road in the 1890's sold goods to them. There was one hotel. run by Mrs. Greer, a sister of Dr. Leedy. Below the hotel was a furniture store and next door a pool hall. The Citizens Bank was just south ( of the alley. Jean Hart worked here. .. Mr. Shepard from Redkey had a 5 and 100 just north of the alley and north of Kuhn & Davis. .. r. , Harold Switzer had a very complete drug store and soda fountain. Mr. Bell had a day on The Fire. There was no picture show in town but one started some time later. The Pierceton Lumber Company was going strong north of the tracks. Dr. Shultz had a hospital down south on the Main street. Dr. Kuhn came down from South Bend for surgery work. The Methodist, fre=by- terian, Laptist and Catholic churches were all well attended. The first three would have a big home coming dinner every fall. Trains still stopped at Pierceton. A morning train went west about 9 o' clock and a passenger going east stopped there about 8:30. Mr. Davis was the gateman. He also assisted in giving plays. It is said that the night man on the gates would put them down about midnight and leave them down and go to sleep. Dr. Long was about the only man out and he went under at the subway a block west.
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The Main Street in 1935
In 1935 we were surveying the Abe . Leedy bitch and we took our dinners at Kilgore's restaurant. While sitting on a bench we recorded the names of the stores as they were that summer. On the west side beginning at the railroad was the Pierceton Record, then a filling station and then the street. Going on south was Bernie Summy's grocery and market, the Rider pool room, the Hardman Grocery, then Krogers gro- cery, than a cafe and then came Sweitzer's drug store, Plet- cher's grocery, a shoe shop, Leiter's barber shop, a pool hall then a vacant room and then the alley. Across the alley the old bank room was vacant. Then came Ben Hersher's grocery, the B&O Hardware store, Dr. Shult's office, a vacant room, and the corner room was vacant. On across was the library and then Snyder's garage.
Going south on the east side was the postoffice probably with McCarter as postmaster. Then came Kilgore's restaurant, then a feed store in a small frame. Then came the alley and the hardware store, then Radcliffs general store with Oscar ;. as clerk& Then came a tin shop, a barber shop and Matchett's insurance office. These were in frame buildings. Then there was another barber shop, then a vacant room and then the alley Next in a one-story frame was a shoe repair shop and then a dwelling. Next was vacant and then a three front brick housing the Ford-Hewitt garage. This burned about 1941 and the Legion mason Have the Hall replaces the south part. Then came a street and then a 5 filling station. The building then were practically the same as today in 1952.
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Tierceton in 1952.
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1951 In March 1881 the lineup of stores at Pierceton on the east side of the Main Street was as follows. Going south from the railroad park we come first to the postoffice corner with Eddie PequimNOT das postmaster. Next is Kilgores restaurant. These are in a two story brick building. Kilgore has been there for perhans 15 years. Next in a frame one story building is John biltz' res- taurant. He started this about a year ago. Crossing the alley we come to a vacant room and next is Beattie's department store. This is also a brick two stpry building. Next we come to the C&B roofing and heating store, Hiveley's shoe repair, and Nancy Mat- chett's insurance office. These last three are frames. In the
Odd Fellows Brick building next south is Dr. herring's office
q " operated By Claud Ställ and south of it an a clean and repair shop. Then there is a storage room. Crossing the alley we come to an old frame shell MASONIC FF .-
which is vacant, then a stucco dwelling, a vacant lot and then the Legion Home which is only a year or so old. It is on the 1
corner where a garage burned some years ago. Crossing the street to the south we find the Mort Filling Station and south of it the Ashley Funeral Home. The Legion Home is the only new building in this stretch. They have a good post here. They have square danc- ing every Jaturday evening. This street has been recently paved by the State and it is a very pleasant street to live on. The
Presbyterian church is down a few blocks on the east side on the
. northeast corner of an intersection. Further down on the edge of town is the schoolhouse yard east of a very fine building. The
new road makes a gentle curve to the right after leaving town
and thus avoids the old righ angled turns of the horse and buggy
days. About 8 miles takes one to sidney and another 7 to,Mancheste: - North
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