On This Day in Terre Haute History

The Terre Haute Express asked several prominent local merchants their predictions for the first year of the new century. Anton Hulman of Hulman and Company said, “It is going to be a good year, but I do not anticipate doing any better…the year 1899 has been the largest year in the business of this house…Yes, the trade is in excellent shape…taking advantage of the discounts and paying their bills in prompt cash instead of waiting sixty days.”

W.S. Rea of Bement, Rea and Company commented, “The country is in first-rate condition. The higher prices are not likely to retard trade. Terre Haute has not felt them much yet, as it has been one of the slowest towns in the country to raise prices.”

W.H. Albrecht, wholesale and retail dry goods merchant, summed it up well: “From all I hear in every direction 1900 is going to be a ‘cracker jack’ year.”

A blast ripped through the Home Packing Company plant at 400 North First Street a few minutes after 7:00 a.m. Sections of the roof and a wall collapsed, piling debris and rubble over the workers. Minutes later, seventeen workers were dead and fifty-two injured. Personnel from area mines shored up the building to allow rescuers, hindered by ammonia fumes, to search for victims. Terre Haute policemen, firefighters and physicians, along with Civil Defense, Red Cross and Indiana National Guard teams, responded. An emergency first aid station was set up at the County Highway Garage at Second and Ohio Streets; the injured were transported to Saint Anthony Hospital. Robert Scott, company president, surveyed the damage where his brother, Don Scott, lost his life. Just the month before, the building had been designated as a fallout shelter by Civil Defense. A historical marker was dedicated on the site in 2015.

Daniel Fasig, superintendent of police under the administration of Mayor Louis Gerhardt, issued his annual report for the year 1912. His department was composed of eighty-two individuals, among whom were included sixty patrolmen, five detectives and nine plainclothes officers. A court bailiff, matron and clerk; a humane officer; and a police surgeon were also among those listed. His remarks read, in part:

The automobile patrol, which was installed January 1, 1912, has proved to be more efficient than the horses, and the cost of maintenance is less. I call your attention to the ambulance in use at the present time. This ambulance has been in continuous service for about eighteen years, and at the present time is not in fit condition for ambulance duty. I would suggest that the ambulance be done away, the horses sold, and an automobile ambulance purchased.

The Indiana-American Water Company, Inc., had begun to comply with a judge’s order to fluoridate the water supplies to Terre Haute and Seelyville. The Terre Haute City Council had approved the fluoridation ordinance thirty years before, but Mayor Ralph Tucker vetoed it and the council erased the veto. Another ordinance, passed in 1959, was repealed by the council to the amazement of fluoridation proponents. The issue continued to be very controversial in the community. In 1984, an anti-group filed suit to prevent water company action on the Board of Health fluoridation order under Dr. W.W. Drummy, county health officer. The judge’s order, as reported this week, was expected to finish this issue debated for three decades. Yet in John Halladay’s Tribune-Star interview with Darrell E. Felling, attorney for Seelyville, Felling said, “They were not ready to open the faucet to fluoridation—not yet anyway.”

The Wabash Valley Region of Indiana Vocational Technical College (Ivy Tech) was chartered. It was the first region to have a permanent location, as the site five miles south of downtown Terre Haute on U.S. 41 had been acquired earlier. C. Huston Isaacs, director, presided over the groundbreaking ceremonies on June 30, 1968. Prospective students and their parents were invited to an open house on May 3, 1969; they were informed that fees would not exceed $100 each quarter. In September, 150 full-time students began classes in auto mechanics, auto body repair and painting, diesel mechanics, welding, accounting, drafting, electronics and secretarial science. Forty years later, the 2009–10 enrollment was 9,405 students working toward associate degrees and/or technical certificates and credits that could be transferred to four-year schools throughout the state. “Learn a living” continued to be more than a slogan.

The State Normal School in Terre Haute opened with thirteen female and eight male students. Its object, as declared by law, was “the preparation of teachers in the common schools of Indiana.” The law required a Model School to be organized in connection with the Normal School, in which Normal students could be trained in teaching and managing schools. Admission required students to be sixteen years of age for women and eighteen years for men, be in good health, possess undoubted moral character and submit a written pledge that the student would teach in the common schools of Indiana for a period of twice the time spent as a Normal student. Tuition was free to all residents of the state. No religious or sectarian tenets were to be taught, but Christian morality was to be observed. The institution became Indiana State Teachers College in 1929, Indiana State College in 1961 and Indiana State University in 1965.

Old Main was constructed in 1889 on the east side of North Sixth Street after a fire destroyed the first campus building in 1888. Courtesy J. S. Calvert Collection.

The results of a survey by the Terre Haute Motor Carriers Association were released today. Bert L. Wheat, president, pointed out the “terrific impact” trucking had on the local economy. Terre Haute was one of the six largest trucking centers in the state. Motor Freight Corporation, which began operation in 1928, was serving 267 midwestern communities. The city was also home to Eastern Motor Express, the largest motor freight line in the state, employing 244 workers at its Terre Haute headquarters. Other national lines with home offices in the city included Lovelace Truck Service, Gerard Motor Express, Green Line Motor Express and Merchants Freight System, founded in 1923 by F.S. Yenowine as the city’s pioneer trucking firm. Eleven other over-the-road firms used city truck terminals and provided service to the city. J.W. Coakley, president of Teamster’s Local 144, who had seen the industry grow after World War II, commented, “Trucking ought to be our community’s No. 1 business.”

Deming Elementary School was the first of four new elementary schools for grades kindergarten through six to be opened this year by the Vigo County School Corporation. An enrollment of 484 students occupied the new building that had replaced the old Deming and Lange Elementary Schools. DeVaney Elementary was occupied on February 19, replacing Montrose and Thornton Schools. Enrollment was 489 students. A total of 478 students moved into the new Ouabache Elementary, which replaced Collett and Rea Schools on March 19. Occupancy of Hoosier Prairie Elementary, which would move Pimento School students and some who had attended Dixie Bee, was delayed. An enrollment of 500 was expected.

The Deming, Montrose and Collett school buildings would be razed. Covered Bridge Special Education District offices were housed in the former Lange building; the Thornton building was being converted into an instructional materials center.

The four-day annual Cooking School was in session each morning at the Grand Theater at Seventh and Cherry Streets. Long before the doors opened at 9:00 a.m., women began congregating in front of the theater to be sure of seats. The theme for this year’s two-hour daily sessions was “Rhapsody of Recipes,” presented by Florence Gattshall and Alice Watters of the National Livestock and Meat Board. Laurine Hardie, consumer education agent, represented the Vigo County Extension Service and Helen Ryan the newspaper. Members of Tri Kappa assisted in the smooth operation of the event. As in former and future years, the cooking school was free. Overflow audiences were made up of homemakers, teachers, students and club groups from throughout the Wabash Valley. Everyone attending received a free recipe book, and the lucky ones won one of the fifteen food baskets given away at the close of each day’s session.

Governor Frank O’Bannon’s announcement that Interstate 69 between Indianapolis and Evansville would be constructed over new terrain past Bloomington was front-page news in the Tribune-Star. County and city officials and the Greater Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce had worked very hard for a long time promoting the use of Interstate 70 and U.S. 41 for this new portion of Interstate 69, but now the new road would bypass both of them. Bert Williams Jr., chairman of the I-70/U.S. 41 task force, said, “It will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than the upgrading of U.S. 41. The upgrade of U.S. 41 is at least 50 miles of road construction less and lots of money less and that money will be robbed from road projects of other communities. So the next time your car hits a pothole in South Bend, thank the governor.”

Once an interurban center, Terre Haute saw passenger service to Indianapolis end on this day, forty years after the first line in the Wabash Valley was completed from Terre Haute to Brazil. The Clinton line was constructed to Ellsworth (North Terre Haute) and on to Clinton in 1903. Service was offered to West Terre Haute in 1905; Farmersburg, Shelburn and Sullivan in 1906; Greencastle in 1907; and Indianapolis in 1908. In 1952, local historian A.R. Markle explained:

Almost any community of any size, on this wide-spread system, was a station though it seldom had a ticket office and all freight was prepaid. The numerous unnamed stops, which in many cases were only road crossings, were actually “whistle stops,” where one-half mile away the motor man sounded his air chime, and people desiring to board the car stood at the side of the track and waved their hand in the daytime or burned a newspaper torch at night to attract his attention.

Joshua Patrick, an American Revolutionary War veteran, died on this day. A muffled drum announced the funeral procession to the Congregational Church, where the Reverend M.A. Jewett delivered the sermon. Patrick was buried in the new Woodlawn Cemetery. The obituary in the Wabash Courier was captioned, “Another Soldier Gone.”

The publication of Revolutionary Soldiers of Vigo County, Indiana by Dorothy J. Clark, under the sponsorship of the Fort Harrison Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, in 1976, lists Patrick as one of the thirty-eight veterans who had some connection with the early years in the Terre Haute area: “Of these it is known where twenty-seven are buried within the county…Born in far places, they entered the army, fought for and would have died for that spiritual intangible thing—freedom. In maturity, they sought a new land where they might live in freedom and leave to their children that priceless heritage—freedom.”

A few years ago after a heavy snowfall, Mayor Leland Larrison took a lot of criticism for the city’s inability to clear the streets of the city effectively. “God sent it, and God will take it away,” was his reply. Larrison may or may not have said those words, but in any case they accurately sum up Terre Haute’s usual response to any sort of snowfall. It was true during Mayor Ralph Tucker’s long regime, just as it was during Mayor Larrison’s and now, as simply demonstrated by the last two snowfalls, during Mayor Brighton’s administration…The agonies were many: stuck cars, slippery roads, lost time, canceled meetings, decreased business, falls, colds and other assorted ills. But Terre Hauteans can take heart. As Mayor Larrison noted, “God will take it away.” Eventually.

The Haley Tower was moved to be the cornerstone at the Wabash Valley Railroaders Museum, at 1316 Plum Street, by the Haley Tower Historical and Technical Society. On the morning of October 22, 1999, at 7:00 a.m. CSX time, Haley ceased operations, ending seventy-five years of service as a manned interlocking tower. CSX Transportation sold the tower to the society for one dollar after the tower work was performed via switches operated by a dispatcher in corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida. The Spring Hill Tower was purchased by the society in 2000 and moved to the museum site in 2001. Other acquisitions include a 1943 caboose, a ninety-nine-year-old Pennsylvania Railroad car built in Terre Haute and a World War II vintage Pullman troop sleeper car. The society operates this railroader museum as “an ongoing tribute to the men and women of the railroad industry…past, present and future.”

Why were the majority of retailers located on Wabash Avenue until the “move south” began in the 1960s? The Saturday Spectator gave this opinion:

When the start is made in the direction of making Terre Haute something besides a one-street town, there is going to be an exodus of merchants from Wabash Avenue, where for the last few years owners of business property have squeezed every penny possible from the store keepers in the matter of rents. There are buildings on Wabash Avenue renting for $300 to $500 a month that in reality ought to be condemned…[The owners] point to their old buildings as worthless shells, and plead they are being taxed to death; yet when it comes to rentals, the screws are clamped down on the merchant who feels he must stay on Wabash Avenue or get out of business.

This column also predicted that Ohio Street would become as good a business street as Wabash, but the majority of retailers remained on Wabash.

The opening of Terre Haute’s second USO lounge to serve armed forces in transit had the distinction of being the 100^th USO lounge in the country. It was named for the late Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin H. Wimer, veteran of the Spanish-American War, the Mexican Border Campaign and World War I. It served service personnel traveling through Terre Haute by bus, whereas the first USO lounge in the city served those traveling by rail. The Union Station lounge opened on November 14, 1942, staffed by forty-seven volunteer hostesses serving six hours each week and aided by seventeen substitutes. In addition, to meet the needs of U. S. Army cadets and U. S. Navy V-5 and V-12 men stationed on local campuses, USO lounges were made available at the YWCA and at the parish house of Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church.

The bus station at Sixth and Cherry Streets was located adjacent to this USO lounge established in a former gas station. Courtesy Vigo County Historical Society.

Twenty-seven years ago, H.N. Oakley opened his first small grocery store at 1105 Wabash Avenue. Since then, he has built an organization of sixty food stores throughout the Wabash Valley employing more than three hundred people. But on this day, each of the stores in the chain was closed to make them all self-service to cut operating costs. On the next day, a Saturday, the grand opening of the “serve yourself system” was inaugurated. Oakley sold his chain to the Kroger Company in 1939, and the name changed to Oakley-Kroger Economy stores. In 1954, the Hollie and Anna Oakley Foundation was formed to promote religious, educational and charitable purposes, particularly in the states of Indiana and Florida. Recent Oakley Foundation projects have included the Ivy Tech Oakley Auditorium, the Oakley Playground in Deming Park and Oakley Place at Third and Cherry Streets on the Indiana State University campus.

Physicians at Saint Anthony Hospital reported that Detective Matthew Dorley, who had been shot by Raymond “Buck” Smith, had very little chance of recovery. He died five days later. Smith had died the day before from bullet wounds inflicted by Detective William Baker. His last words to the physicians were “to get him well, so he could get some more police.” Dorley, a member of the Terre Haute Police Department since 1900, and Baker had battled with three holdup men at Sixth Street and the Vandalia Railroad crossing. The Terre Haute Star reported, “All three men had lived in Taylorville and had figured in a number of robberies.”

Detectives William E. Dwyer and Dorley are the first two police officers listed on the Fire and Police Museum Memorial as having died in the line of duty. Dwyer died from wounds in 1908.

A passenger train pulled into the Big Four station at Sandford, a Fayette Township community. As the passenger train passed two parked freight trains, one or two explosions were heard. On Monday, tragedy from this Saturday night was reported by the Terre Haute Tribune:

People were struck dumb from the first breath of the terrific concussion. The darkness and the fierce wind added to the terror and it was some time before the population awoke to a realization [of] what had actually happened. Many reached the scene in time to hear the piteous wails of the unfortunate ones who were buried under the debris and were being slowly burned to death. After a time the wails died away and the awful death was over.

The official count was fifteen casualties. Officials of the Big Four declared there was neither nitroglycerin nor dynamite in the freight cars. It remains an explosion mystery unsolved.

Seldom has Vigo County been featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, but a news item on this day reported the visit of George Stephanopoulos to Boo Lloyd’s Crossroads Café at 679 Wabash Avenue. He had come to find out how Vigo County voters had voted for the presidential winner in all but two elections since 1900. They had missed only in the elections of William Howard Taft over William Jennings Bryan by 462 votes in 1908 and Dwight Eisenhower over Adlai Stevenson by 35 votes in 1952. Stephanopoulos said, “It’s obviously not scientific, but it’s fun.” James McDowell, professor of political science at Indiana State University, added, “I can’t explain it. A lot of it is coincidence. Most of us probably don’t realize it has happened until we wake up the next morning. It’s not a conscious act.”

Sue Loughlin, Tribune-Star reporter, noted, “Downtown Terre Haute’s renaissance has been slightly tainted by a growing pigeon and starling problem, with bird droppings littering the landscape and sidewalks.” It was not a new problem. In 1961, the Downtown Merchants Association had worked with the B&D Exterminators of Clinton to eliminate the starling nuisance. The droppings were identified as a crow problem in the new century when Mayor Duke Bennett said, “We can’t shoot them. We can’t poison them. We’ve got to figure out a way to transfer them someplace else.” Enter Joy Sacopulos, a leading community organizer, and the Crow Patrol was formed. Fireworks are shot into areas where crows gather, sending them on their way. It was such a good story that it was featured in the New York Times on October 27, 2011.

The Columbia Record Club officials were the guests of the local plant and the Advertising Club of Terre Haute. C.F. Keating, vice-president and general manager, gave tribute to John Kappa, director of the local operation, and told of the friendship between the company and the community since the plant was located here in 1957. Mayor Ralph Tucker welcomed the New York visitors to the city and expressed the community’s appreciation to Columbia for its economic contribution and its worldwide publicity for Terre Haute. Lester Wunderman, head of the advertising agency handling the club account, said, “It has grown to be the world’s largest record club serving more than 2,000,000 members—four times as large as the other largest club, the Book-of-the-Month Club.” He also predicted continuing growth due to the 5 million new phonographs produced and the 4 million young people maturing each year.

“Unknown to all but a few, four men had quietly entered into a management agreement effective midnight to operate the Sheraton,” wrote Jan Chait, Tribune-Star staff reporter. They were Max Gibson, Glen Ankney, Tom Clary and Larry Bird. The hotel at 555 South Third Street became the Boston Connection, filled with Bird memorabilia and featuring a life-sized Larry Bird cutout with basketball hoop and balls in an enclosed practice corner. Patrons in the sports-themed bar, labeled “The Bird’s Nest,” were served Boston Beer by cheerleader-clad waitresses. Membership was available in the MVP Club. The Boston Connection opened in May 1987; it was later renamed Larry Bird’s Home Court Hotel after Bird returned to Indiana to coach the NBA Pacers. The city lost one of its most popular attractions when the hotel closed in 1999.

For the second time, a circuit court judge has declined to intervene in the Terre Haute dispute over Center City, a proposed $6.4 million commercial/residential complex designed to stimulate activity and help revitalize the downtown business district. Investment and development downtown has been lacking in recent years…[Mayor James] Jenkins defended government investment in the marketplace as an appropriate and necessary catalyst for progress. “Apathy,” he said, “is a poor redevelopment strategy.”

A construction agreement was signed with CDI Inc. for the thirty-three-apartment and lower-floor commercial space structure. Ground was broken on February 19. Center City, 630–40 Wabash Avenue, was nearing full residential occupancy less than a month after the first tenants had moved in on May 31, 2000. Six years later, the City of Terre Haute sold Center City to Ellis Ventures for $1.6 million.

The nation was only seven weeks into World War II when this article appeared in the Terre Haute Tribune and Sunday Star:

While the sugar situation has grown acute recently, it need not be so, according to local wholesalers and retail grocers who point out that the unnecessary storing of sugar supplies by the consumer has brought the condition about. Due to the apparent hoarding of sugar by great numbers of consumers, a sugar shortage loomed and it has now become necessary to place a limit on the amount of sugar the wholesale distributor may release to the retail stores each month. This in turn has made it necessary for the retailer to restrict his sales in order to stretch the limited supply.

In March, the U.S. Office of Price Administration announced, “Mr. and Mrs. America will be unable to get sugar without ration coupons beginning May 5.”

After this charter was issued to Chauncey Rose and his investors, construction began in 1849; the inaugural trip was made on February 14, 1852. The Vigo County Historical Society Leaves of Thyme (December 1959) explained:

Mr. Rose was foremost in securing the railway transportation in the new State…his courage and resolution secured the construction of the road by individual subscriptions—largely secured from his friends by his personal efforts—instead of by the aid of a grant of public land, which had not then become the fashion, and his scrupulous supervision made the road one of the best and safest in the United States. He contributed largely to the railroads from Evansville to Terre Haute, from Terre Haute to Crawfordsville, and from Terre Haute to Danville, Illinois. And nothing but the approach of age withheld him from the same cooperation in building the road from Terre Haute to St. Louis by way of Vandalia.

According to the Terre Haute Tribune, an Associated Press release on the front page read, “Agreements on ending the fighting in Vietnam and calling for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces were signed today.” Another story announced, “America stops military draft.” The communists openly violated the agreement as soon as it was signed, leading to the collapse of South Vietnam. Many of the political refugees came to the United States; some of them were settled in Terre Haute. Dorothy Drummond, chairperson of the Trinity Lutheran Church Social Ministry and coordinator of the Terre Haute Resettlement Committee, reported that approximately 170 Vietnamese, representing twenty-nine families, were living in Terre Haute in 1976. Schools and volunteers offered help in housing, clothing, food and language training. The ultimate project aim was to encourage interaction and understanding among the Vietnamese and older Terre Haute residents to promote acceptance within the community.

The city’s new theater at Ohio and Seventh Streets opened at 1:00 p.m. The Saturday Spectator commented on the Spanish baroque style created by Austrian-born designer John Eberson: “One seems to stand in the province of Andalusia. A promenade extending the entire half block is handsomely furnished with massive divans where guests may meet, talk and smoke before taking their seats.” This $750,000 movie palace with seating for two thousand was built by Theodore Barhydt. On opening night, a twelve-foot-high peacock replica of three thousand lights was part of the marquee, and live peacocks strutted in the lobby. The doorman was dressed as a toreador and the usherettes as señoritas. The orchestra, directed by Raymond B. Townsley, opened each show, and the $50,000 mighty-voiced Wurlitzer organ, played by R. Wellington Welch, accompanied the silent movie Cappy Ricks. Afternoon admission was twenty-five cents, and evening and weekend shows were forty cents.

Mrs. Miniver, an inspirational war movie, led to the Terre Haute Tribune naming six local women as “Mrs. Minivers.” Courtesy Vigo County Public Library.

The Bob-O-Link Mine near Seelyville had set an employment record. The Terre Haute Tribune reported the mine kept its 120 employees, all members of the United Mine Workers of America, employed for 233 days during the year. One of the largest surface mines in the nation, it was operated by the Pyramid Coal Company, a subsidiary of the Binkley Coal Company. In order to mine 504,885 tons of coal the past year, workers moved a total of 8,790,950 cubic feet of earth with the huge Bucyrus-Erie dipper. This dipper, as tall as a six-story building and moving under its own power, was capable of moving 30 cubic yards of overburden from the vein at each operation. Trucks made about thirty round trips each day between the work pit and the tipple. Ben H. Schull was the vice-president in charge of operations and John M. Hamm the mine superintendent.

The new dining room opened this month at Frank’s Restaurant and Drive-In at 1229 Wabash Avenue. Owner Frank Martin advertised, “A new dining room seating ninety persons with either style of service—table or smorgasbord. The new arrangement allows the use of the Black Angus Room for special parties or groups as well as for additional dining area during the peak hours. Two parking lots…across the street from Frank’s and on the west side of the restaurant.” The cost of the smorgasbord was $1.25 (afternoon), $1.50 (evening) on weekdays, $1.50 on Saturday and $1.75 on Sunday, including dessert and drink. Children were served at $0.85, Monday through Saturday, and $1.00 on Sunday.

Frank’s was one of 114 restaurants listed in the City Directory. Business officers were identified as Frank E. Martin, Sophia A. Martin and Marguerite E. Martin. Courtesy J.S. Calvert Collection.

More than 1,500 volunteers made up the Mothers’ March in connection with the annual March of Dimes campaign. The residential solicitation took place between seven and eight o’clock in the evening. Mrs. Claude Wardle, county chairman, pointed out that with each volunteer assigned only ten houses to visit, it was possible to complete the canvas within the hour. Approximately $6,000 was collected.

Years later, WalkAmerica replaced the national March of Dimes fundraiser. A corporate leadership breakfast was held at the Idle Creek Country Club on January 29 to plan the 2004 WalkAmerica to be staged on April 24 at Indiana State University’s Memorial Stadium. The event raised more than $130,000 annually in the Wabash Valley, the second-largest WalkAmerica in all of Indiana.