USA > Indiana > Monroe County > Bloomington > Historic treasures: true tales of deeds with interesting data in the life of Bloomington, Indiana University and Monroe County--written in simple language and about real people, with other important things and illustrations > Part 28
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a young man who will succeed, says our Harrodsburg correspondent.
"Mrs. Clint Norton of Bedford, is a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Horace Nor- ton.
Joseph E. Henley went to Indian- apolis yesterday on legal business.
"Miss Ida McGee of Marion, Ohio, is visiting her cousin, Miss Elsie Ma- son, in Bloomington.
"Dr. Amzi Hon of Harrodsburg, is a guest of Dr. U. H. Hon and wife. "Mrs. J. W. Jackson and Mrs. Jas. Leas have returned from Gosport.
"Miss Florence Atwood of I. U. is entertaining her sister, Miss Mary At- wood, of Evansville.
"Mr. and Mrs. G. M. Edwards are entertaining their daughter, Mrs. Tho- mas Heaton, of Lyons, Ind.
"Samuel Colpitts and W. J. Leas have returned from Indianapolis, where they have been attending the Grand Lodge of K. of P.
"The Woman's Club will meet at the home of Mrs. Simpson, South Col- lege avenue, Saturday, June 8, at 2:30 p. m.
"Mrs. J. F. Pittman and daughter, Mrs. Joseph Scribner. are guests of Judge R. W. Miers and family.
"Misses Mollie Johnson and Ida Sims visited in Spencer the first part of the week.
Dig Up Bait.
"Horace Blakely, Sam Hunter and Otto Rogers dug fifteen pounds of bait, bought twenty-seven poles, eighty-two hooks, three seins and two pounds of bacon, and drove over to Sandborn, Knox county, fishing. They have promised their numerous friends ten pounds each of brain food when they return. The time they will spend in carrying out the contract is just six days, one week.
"Dr. and Mrs. J. E. Harris are en- tertaining Miss Mary Menzies of Mt. Vernon.
"Ed Whetsell was in Indianapolis yesterday, looking after a law suit now pending in the U. S. court.
"Mrs. Gertrude Romizer of Charles- ton, Ill., arrived last evening and is visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Feltus of College Hill.
"Werter D. Dodds, editor of the Student. has been appointed instruc- tor in English for the ensuing year. Mr. Dodds is every wav qualified to fill this important position and his selection will meet with unanimous approval. It is always the case that persons who are engaged in any way with The World office are in line of promotion.
"Mr. R. W. Wylie and wife who have been taking treatment at the Barnard Sanitarium, in Martinsville, have returned to their home in Bloom- ington.
"Miss Addie Malott, one of Bed- ford's charming society belles. is the guest of Mr. and Mrs. John R. Nu- gent, North College avenue.
Baseball Fans Notice.
"It makes the Bloomington World feel so joyful whenever a ball team of that city wins a game that it de- votes half a column of space to tell about the wonderful performance- Martinsville Leader.
"And why shouldn't The World be greatly elated over the success of the
local ball team ? It is the best team in the state, and can lick any aggre- gation that does business between Lake Michigan and the Ohio river. And The World will wager $16.37 in
subscription accounts against an equal amount of the Leader's cold cash that our judgment is correct."
Do these above items bring to mem- ory other incidents ?- I thought so.
EARTH EMERGING FROM TORRID, DRY PERIOD MARKED BY WORLD-WIDE TRAIL OF DISASTER
Reprinted From The Indianapolis News of October 4, 1921, Under The Asso- ciated Press Credit Line-This Article May Well Be Carried Into This Book For Its Value to Coming Generations.
The future inhabitants may find it interesting to learn that in 1921 the old spheroid known as the earth is emerg- ing from what some human diagnosti- cians might call a serve attack of meteorologial mumps. It has been ac- companied by an intermittent fever, manifested in a world-wide heat wave of unusual length and intensity. In spite of crises and relapses-earth- quakes, tidal waves, cloudbursts, ty- phoons, water spouts, hail storms, floods and hurricanes in many widely separated parts from Kamchatka to Cape Horn and from Gaum to Guada- lupe-the doctors are confident the patient will recover.
Meanwhile, the United States for the last year has been suffering chiefly from an excess of high tem- perature and a deficiency of moisture, a condition unprecedented in the fifty years' history of the weather bureau. From January 1 to September 22, 1921, the temperature of New York City, which is typical of the country, has shown an aggregate excess of warmth of 9.60 degrees above normal, while there has been a shortage of 6.71 inches in rainfall. The greatest amount of September precipitation was in 1882, when more than 141/2 inches fell and the least for that month occurred two years later with onlv .15 of an inch.
The persistent higher temperatures, for which a number of speculative ex- planations have been given, began in August, 1920, and for the succeeding twelve months there was an average monthly excess above normal of 3.4 degrees. March, 1921, an unusually warm spring month, had an excess average of 10.8 degrees. The first slight break in the record occurred last August, which was slightly below normal.
Some time before the present phe- nomenon, the nine months period be- ginning in October, 1918, and ending in July 1919, the average monthly temperature was 2.71 degrees above normal, and this was a record until sun spots, sea bottom upheavals or other hypothetical causes sent the mercury still higher. The highest average temperature ever recorded in this country for the month of
March, weather officials said was 48.3 in March, 1921.
The average temperature for April, 1921-55 degrees-was the warmest for that month in half a century. May and June were not unusual, but July broke all records for the preced- ing eleven years.
Weather and Disasters.
A curious freak of the weather in America for the week ending Septem- ber 22 was that, while every part of the country from Bismark, N. D. to Halifax, and from Pheonix, Ariz., to Miami, Fla., was suffering from ab- normally high temperatures, large areas in Wyoming, Montana, Oregon and Nevada were having freezing nights.
Weather bureau officials here de- cline to discuss the possible connec- tion between the present high temper- atures and distasters of nature in many parts of the world. It was re- called, however that when the volcanic eruption of Krakato, a small island in the Malay archipelago in the Sunda strait, between Sumatra and Java, oc- curred in the summer of 1883, the most violent of its kind in modern times, two-thirds of the island was blown away, 20,000 persons lost their lives, and a tidal wave propelled itself as far as the English channel. On this occasion, dust from the volcanic ashes was carried around the world and for days, in many parts, cool temperatures prevailed, owing to the obstruction of the sun's rays. Some of the dust from Krakatoa was sus- pended in layers in the upper atmos- phere for years.
Now, whether the world-wide heat wave is due to some terrible par- oxysm of nature, such as volcanic ac- tion in some remote region of the earth or seismic upheaval in the earth or seismic upheaval in the depths of some unknown sea, or whether it is due to sun spots or some other cause, is entirely problematical.
Explanation of Quake.
It is only as recently at last De- cember 16 that scientists were cud- geling their brains to solve the mys- tery of an earthquake estimated to have been "2.800 miles from Washing- ton." A few days later news came of an earthquake in far off Kan-Su
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Historic Treasures, Compiled by Forest M. "Pop" Hall
province, China, four times that dis- tance, in which 2,000 persons lost their lives. The explanation given was that there probably had occurred two distinct shocks, each widely sep- arated, and from that day to this seismologists speak of the "lost" earthquake. The present tempera- tures may be due to it. It is a fact, however, that, whatever the cause, this terrestrial ball has been subjected of late to rough usage, notwithstand- ing that the war is over. A glance back at some of recent disasters and natural phenomena shows the follow- ing:
Two million Koreans starving in Manchuria owing to drought-ruined crops.
Three hundred buildings wrecked and many killed by hailstorm and waterspout at Baez, Cuba.
Three volcanoes, Villarica, Llaima and Lanin, spout flames more than 1,000 feet from craters.
Drought kills fish in River Seine and France suffers most severe drought in forty-seven years.
Rhine and Moselle rivers do great damage in highest flood in 136 years. Cloudburst and hailstorm damage Rome, Italy.
Mt. Vesuvius shows activity and earthquake shock is felt from Leg- horn to Lake Lugano.
Italian destroyers carry inhabitants to safety as volcano Stromboli re- sumes activity.
Storms and Earthslides.
Damage of several million drach- mas done in Grece by severe hail- storms.
Earthslide blocks Corinth canal. Cyclone devastates three towns in Haiti.
Volcano Kilauea in Hawaii spouts immense fountains of lava.
Activity of the volcano Popocate- petl in Mexico increasing.
Earthquake shakes Vera Cruz and four other cities.
Lightning strikes oil wells, causing millions of dollars damage in Tampico and other districts.
Mexicans pray to "water goddess" to end drought.
Volcano Colima in Jalisco is in eruption.
Many lives lost in waterspout which destroyed part of Tangier, Morocco.
Volcano Masaya in Nicaragua in eruption.
Typhoon and floods in Philippines, and especially on Island of Luzon, do great damage.
New Craters Opened.
Six new craters opend in Mt. Izalco, Salvador.
Waterspout in Maia-Doura prov- ince of Spain damages crops and vil- lages.
Heat in the Alps causes glaciers to shrink and nine mountain climbers are killed.
Seventy-five dead in tornadoes which sweep southern United States. Flood inundates Pueblo, causing $10.000,000 property loss.
Forty-seven perish in San Antonio (Texas) flood.
One consolation of the freak weath- er, however, is the prospect of an "open winter." -The ' Indianapolis News.
MAKING A NEWSPAPER.
Expressions of newspaper editors and publishers, brought about by the founding of the Joseph Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern Uni- versity, are of interest. Stephane Lausanne cabled from Paris his hope that journalism would develop a still greater worship for truth and the constant practice of good faith. Paul DeDupuy, another French editor, pleaded for honesty. President-elect Harding, the first newspaper editor to be elected to the presidency, sumred up the aims of the average newspaper when he telegraphed:
"But the greatest achievement --- an achievement entirely away from all personal ends-is to promote the public good. I have been a partici- pant in thirty-six years of measur- able success with a small city jour- nal, and I attribute our good fortune to the unfailing work for community first and the putting aside of our 'per- sonal ends. We made it a rule to cry out against meanness and evil, but studiously avoided needlessly wound- ing and never sought to destroy what could be cured. * * * A newspaper with abiding conscience finds oppor- tunity each succeeding day with re- gards beyond the measurements of material gain."
A few years ago one of the govern- ment bureaus issued a bulletin deal- ing with the profession of journalism. It spoke of the opportunity for ser- ice in all the leading professions and concluded that the newspaper's op- portunity is greater than the others
because it reaches more people and it works at the task day after day. As Mr. Harding said in the beginning of his message to the Medill schoo !: "Nothing surpasses the possibilities for service that are invested in a journal commanding the public con- fidence." It is to that end-the end that the public will trust it, will re- spect its opinions as being for the common good-that every newspa- per worthy of the name strives from one issue to the next .- Indianapolis News.
Named Site Buena Vista.
Indian Creek Township, in Monroe county, Indiana, has had two or three small villages that flourished within its boundaries.
In March, 1849, Jesse W. East, proprietor, assisted by Henry Farm- er, surveyor, laid out ten lots on the south part of the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 20.
Mr. East named the village thus started "Buena Vista," a name then rather fresh in the minds of all Hoosiers, and started a store about the same time. Soon a blacksmith and a few families found suitable livlihood attainable at the place. In after years there has usually been a blacksmith shop and a store, along with probably a dozen families lo- cated at the place.
John Evans, Henry Oliphant, Woodward & Clay and King, Wood- ward & King were merchants of the village during the years of its early life.
OLDEST MAN IN WORLD?
(Earl E. Evans in Leslie's)
Ka-be-nah-gwey-wence (Wrinkled Meat), better known to tourists of the northwest as plain John Smith, is alleged to have recently celebrated his 134th birthday and any one who ob- serves the depth and number of wrinkles in his face will have no rea- son to doubt that his given age is cor- rect, although many will suspect him of witholding a number of birthdays from the total.
During a recent vacation trip, in the region of Cass Lake, Minn., the writer twice visited Wrinkled Meat at his home, on the outskirts of the aforementioned village, and, on both occasions, found Old John in the best of spirits and willing to talk, so long as there was anyone to listen.
John began the routine story of his 134 years, choosing as the first sub- ject his nine squaws, who, John main- tains, are responsible for his many wrinkles and long nose. "Me have nine squaws," said John. "All pretty face, but crazy. Pretty quick me get tired of squaw; throw 'em in the woods No good."
"Me big Injun," continued John. "Fight two wars, many battles. Kill five Sioux and scalp 'em." At this part of his story John points proudly to his feathered headgear, hanging on the wall near his floor bed, and upon which are arrayed the five feathers representing the five unfortunate Sioux Indians. Long Prarie and Pine City were the two principal battles in which John engaged.
Chicago is his great nightmare, and he is not a trifle backward about ex- pressing his opinion. "Crazy town," says John. "Many man, many sauaw, too many kids; all crazy. Money, money, money, too much money."
TELEPHONE WIRES COULD
REACH MOON 100 TIMES
It seems almost incredible that it was only 45 years ago that the tele- phone was invented. Since then, in less than a life time, the telephone in- dustry has been developed and ex- panded to such a remarkable extent that it now provides a service of na- tional scope for the 107,000,000 people living in the United States. This has required the stringing of enough wire to span the distance from the earth to the moon more than 100 times; the erection of pole lines which would reach nearly 15 times around the world; the installation of duct space for carrying cables underground in .sufficient length to reach more than six times through the center of the carth from pole to pole, and the con- struction of buildings, if brought to- gether to form a city as large as Ft. Wayne. Over 33,000,000 telephone conversations take place every day.
The first phonographic disc, made in 1887 by Emile Berliner, is pre- served in the Smithsonian Institution.
An English centenarian is recorded as having lost his first tooth at the age of 102 years.
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Historic Treasures, Compiled by Forest M. "Pop" Hall
AIR RECORD-FIFTY-NINE SECONDS TO TWENTY- SIX HOURS IN EIGHTEEN YEARS
Incredible Progress in Less Than Two Decades From Man's First Feeble Flutter at Kitty Hawk, to More Than a Whole Day and Night in a Flight of Indurance by Plane at Minola, Friday, December 30,1921.
Man's first feeble flutter in his conquest of the air lifted him aloft for the fleeting period of fifty-nine seconds. Eighteen years later he soared eagle-like through space for twenty-six and one-third hours. When Wilbur Wright, in a heavier-than-air machine, flew 825 feet at Kitty Hawk, December 17, 1903, the feat was pronounced one of the marvels of the century. The whole world rang with the accomplishment. Friday, December 30, 1921, a monoplane, piloted by Edward Stinson, accompanied by Lloyd Bertaud, a mechanic, completed a continuous flight of twenty-six hours nineteen minutes and thirty-five seconds. In eighteen years a span of less than a minute had been stretched to more than a day and a night, yet the marvelous performance at Mineola is heralded as simply the breaking of a world's endurance flight in aviation.
While the advance in the science of flying has been both rapid and start- ling, when the period involved is con- sidered a careful analysis shows that' the progress came not by leaps and bounds, but rather through hundreds of experiments, sacrificed lives and determination seldom devoted to simi- lar projects.
Five Years After First Flight. Five years after Wright's first flight he still held the world's record, with 77 miles made in 2 hours 20 min- utes 23 seconds, at Anvours, France. Two years before that A. Santos Du- mont covered 720 feet in the first flight ever made in Europe. In 1909 Henry Farman had gained the flying honors for France with a flight of 137 miles in 4 hours 6 minutes 25 seconds.
Just a decade after Wright had made his first "hop off" national and
international flying races for famous trophies were the vogue in both Eu- rope and America. Then came the war and the sporting side of aviation gave way to the more serious combat of the air with hundreds of aviators killing and being killed in a realm foreign to man-kind only a few years before.
Before the transition, however, the feats of the Wrights, Farman, Santos Dumont and other pioneers of the plane with records for speed, endur- ance, altitude and passenger-carrying being pushed upward annually. Seven years after Wright's fifty-nine-second flight, G. Fourney held the endurance record with eleven hours of continu- ous flying.
At the Close of 1914.
At the close of 1914 this record had been almost doubled, for W. Land- mann had a continuous flight of 21 hours 48 minutes 45 seconds in Ger-
many, June 26-27 of that year. The records also show that T. Noel, of England, flew more than nineteen min- utes with nine passengers, and fifteen passengers had been carried to a hight of nearly 1,000 feet by the Russian aviator Sykorsky. Stinson on Decem- ber 29, 1921 added two hours and twenty-eight seconds to the world's best previous endurance record, held by Broussoutrut and Bernard, as the result of a flight made in France a year ago last June. A span of four and a half hours was thus added by Stinson to the record made by Lind- mann seven years ago.
Flying at a speed of ninety-five miles an hour they had battled with a snow storm while skimming over the earth at a hight of less than 100 feet, with the thermometer below zero, with a seventy-mile gale and with hot stinging oil that splashed in their faces and almost blinded them.
While no official record was kept of the distance flown by the Amer- icans, competent observers estimated that their plane had covered approxi- mately 2,500 miles.
Distance Record Broken.
In distance covered, Stinson and Bertaud undoubtedly surpassed all former records and more than equal- ed the trans-Atlantic flight of 1,960 miles made by Captain Sir John Al- cock and Lieutenant Arthur W. Brown from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Ireland.
The endurance flight came as a fit- ting climax of the achievements of American aviation in 1921 when four world records were made by Yankee aviators. The other three were:
An altitude and efficiency record for flying boats made when a Leon- ing monoplane reached 19,500 feet
Get-together Home-Coming Banquet held in Indiana University Gymnasium
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Historic Treasures, Compiled by Forest M. "Pop" Hall
with four passengers, August 16. An altitude record made by Lieut. J. A. McCready, of the army air serv- ice, who pioleted an airplane to the hight of 37,800 feet at Dayton, Ohio, September 28, breaking the previous mark of 33,114 feet set by Major Ru-
dolph Schroeder.
A speed record for a close course in the Pulitzer trophy race made by Bert Acosta, who drove a Curtiss navy racer at an average speed of 176.7 miles an hour for 150 miles at Omaha, Neb., November 3, 1921 .- The Indianapolis News.
Mausoleum Rose Hill Cemetery
MT. TABOR, ONCE THRIVING VILLAGE OF IMPOR- TANCE IN MONROE COUNTY, LIVES ONLY AS A MEMORY OF THE PAST
Story of the Growth and Decay of One of Busy Commercial Centers in the Early Days of Bean Blossom Township-Her Industries, Business Life, and Incidents of Interest in the History of Early Settlement.
"Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn, Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn.
Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen,
And desolation saddens
all thy
green." --- Goldsmith
There was a time in the life of Monroe county when the village of Mt. Tabor was the leading commercial center, with prospects far greater in a business way for becoming a thriv- ing city than any other village in the county (the towns and cities of the county today were all villages then), for it was an important shipping point, as far as grain and live stock was concerned.
Important Before Town.
Mt. Tabor was an important place before any town was there, if that is not an ambiguous statement, for the importance of the location led John Burton to choose the place for a site for his saw mill when a saw mill in a wooded, new, unsettled territory ment untold advantages for future growth of that community.
As early as 1820, John Burton erected a saw mill on this location, and constructed a dam in Bean Blos- som creek, and a little later began grinding corn and wheat, though the holting of the latter was done by hand. He enjoyed prosperity through a wide and useful patronage for sev- eral years before any other buildings were erected near his site.
The business center (we can not
yet call it a village) began to expand about 1825, it is said by people who remember of older people telling of olden times in the community.
James Turner and Jefferson Wamp- ler established blacksmith shops there, which, it is thought were the first in Bean Blossom township, about 1825.
William Ellett opened the first salesroom at the place as early as 1828, it is said, in the shape of what later generations might call a "sa loon," but known then as a "grocery," for he sold whisky and other liquors (called "wet groceries" in early days), and within a year began selling a small stock of groceries. He remained only a few years.
Village Laid Out in 1828.
April, 1828, saw Mt. Tabor a real, sure-enough village, for at that time the village was properly laid out and recorded at the county seat (Bloom- ington), with W., D. Mccullough as surveyor.
Sixty-six lots were laid out on the north side of Bean Blossom creek, and the old plat shows the bridge, the saw mill and the old grist mill.
In 1829, James Gilbert and Andrew Wampler began selling liquor in the village, but it is likely that these men were not there at the same time.
First Real Store in 1829 or 1830.
Parks & Hite opened the first store of any consequence in Mt. Tabor in 1829 or 1830, and during the later period Hezekiah and David Wampler opened a combined liquor establish- ment and grocery. About this time
William Ellett also sold some mer- chandise. In 1831 Ellett & Kirkham engaged in the grocery business to- gether. In 1832, Hezekiah Wampler brought on a stock of general mer- chandise, which he steadily increased in time until he had the largest stock in the village.
In about 1828 or 1829, Samuel Hartsock purchased the old Burton Mills and rebuilt both on much im- proved lines, and improved the old dam until an excellent water power was obtained. Within a year or two, Hartsock sold out to Parks, Shelburn & Hite, and in 1831, Gideon Walker purchased a half interest in the con- cern.
Shipped By Flat-Boat.
The old mills had a large local trade besides shipping large quantities of good flour to the southern markets by flat-boat. In the thirties and dur- ing the forties, great quanitities of produce were sent to the southern markets by Nathan Hill, Parks & Eg- bert, Wampler & Co., W. J. Sparks and others. As high as 5,000 hogs were slaughtered in Mt. Tabor in one season, and shipped down the river.
In the spring of the year White river rose so high that back water in Bean Blossom creek would rise in the town of Mt. Tabor to sufficient depths that boats could be floated.
It is said that a freshet would oc- cur, a flat-boat would be hurriedly built and loaded with pork, flour, corn and wheat, then sent down the stream. There was very little current in the creek, so the boats were poled down to the river current, after which hand labor was over until the destination was reached.
Fifteen Boat Loads Sent.
As high as fifteen boat loads were shipped from Mt. Tabor in one sea- son, and when we recall that the sea- son was only during the flood period of the spring rains, we must know the importance of the town.
Dr. W. S. Walker used to tell of making nine trips to New Orleans with flat-boats, and Mathias Berry is said to have made the trip thirteen times.
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