The beautiful weather this week has been perfect timing for Fall Break! It has been great to see so many children in town riding their bikes, and playing at Harris Park!
Patriot Baptist Church will host its annual Homecoming Service on Sunday, October 23rd at 11 a.m. There will be special music from Ricky Crawford from Warsaw, Kentucky, church history, and more as we honor our past, and look to the future! After the service we will have lunch and fellowship at the Patriot Town Hall! The community is invited.
Trick or Treat will be held in Patriot on Monday, October 31st from 6-8 p.m. Costume judging will be at 5:45 p.m. at the parking lot by the four-way stop in Patriot.
With Halloween coming, I am reminded of all the scary stories that the old timers would tell us about the old Mead Cemetery on Meades Ridge. They loved telling us scary stories! We were scared to death of that old cemetery!
Congratulations to Posey Township resident Gracie White on advancing to the Cross Country Semistate in Brown County with an 18th place in the Regional held at Shelbyville. Clare Rogers also advances with a 21st place finish. Posey Township resident Amber Detmer placed 55th in the Regional completing an excellent season!
Patriot had one of the early female doctors in this part of the state with Dr. Kathryn Jackson, who practiced here for four years in the early 1940’s. She received her medical degree from New York University Medical School. Reflecting on her time in Patriot, she remembered how friendly the people were and she never felt like the people were prejudiced toward her as a female doctor. She said she treated everything from “the mumps to meningitis”. After leaving Patriot, Dr. Jackson joined the Army and served in the Army Medical Corps in France and Germany. She was Vera McAister’s doctor, delivering her brother Larry Kinman and sister. Her sister. Mary Kathryn was named for Dr. Jackson.
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The business I will highlight this week is the former Reese’s Garage that was located in the old Universalist Church on Main Street (156). I gathered this information from Dolly Reese Green and her sister Mary Lynn. I will also report on Dolly who was born in 1940 in Patriot, making her the current resident who has lived in Patriot the most consecutive years.
Charlie and Sam Reese first operated their garage in Bark Works (Quercus Grove). Later Charlie moved to Patriot and opened a garage in the building that is now the Patriot Town Hall. Sam continued operating the Bark Works Garage. Sam then moved to Patriot, and they bought the Universalist Church building and renovated it to relocate their garage. They worked on just about anything from bicycles to farm machinery to cars and trucks. They even made house calls to do repairs! Charlie retired in the mid 1960’s, and Sam continued operating the garage until the mid 1970’s. Sam also drove a school bus for 38 years and mowed the Eastview Cemetery for many years. On a side note, Sam was my bus driver, as well as my mother’s and brothers’.
Dolly Reese Green was born in 1940 in Patriot at their family home which was located at Main and 4th Street in Patriot. She was delivered by Dr. Kathryn Jackson. When she was about five her family moved to a house located on 2nd and Plum Street, and in 1954 they moved to the Bill Chase House on Third Street where Mary Lynn still resides today. Dolly graduated from Patriot High School in 1958. She married Ivan Green in 1960, and they were married for 61 years until his death on August 2nd, 2021.
Unfortunately, August 2 is also Dollie’s birthday.
After graduating from high school Dollie worked at the U.S. Shoe Factory for two years. Ivan and Dollie had four children, Deanna, who passed away in 2017, Andrew, Reesea and Charla. After leaving the Shoe Factory, Dollie became a full-time homemaker. She and Ivan put a home adjacent to the family home on Third Street where she still resides. A few interesting stories Dollie shared included living at the house on 2nd and Plum when the water got up and they had to move upstairs. She remembered going out a window on the second floor into a row boat to leave the house! She would have been five years old then!
Also, when she started working at the Shoe Factory, she bought a yellow 1959 Vauxhall sedan at Chris Volz in Milan. I had never heard of a Vauxhall! It was a Pontiac manufactured in England. In 1961, Mary Lynn was having her 8th Grade graduation in the gym at Patriot High School. The electricity went off, and Sam drove the Vauxhall off the street up the ramp off Columbia Street into the area next to the gym and they were able to finish the graduation service with the light from the headlights! Now that is a graduation to remember!
I asked Dollie if she ever had thought about moving from Patriot. She remarked, “no, I was born in Patriot and will spend my life here”. Thanks to you and your family Dollie for being so devoted to the Patriot community over the years!
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Bill and Bonnie Schreiner were special guests at the Patriot Baptist Church on Sunday. Bill was the Gideon speaker and talked about the work of the Gideons in placing copies of Bibles throughout the nation and the world. He gave several testimonies on how lives have been changed by placing Bibles in schools, businesses, hotels, and medical facilities. The Schrieners live in Ohio County and have attended church at Concord Community Church for many years. It is always great to visit with them!
That’s all for this week. Remember to contact me (Mike) at (812) 290-3088 or mike1405@earthlink.net with news or Barrie Watters at (828) 335-8270. You can also leave news with Linda at the Patriot General Store.
Until next week, remember to “show a little kindness and shine your light for everyone to see”.