News compiled by Ginny Leap from past
issues of
Switzerland County newspapers
10 YEARS AGO
Keith Brown, a native of Vevay who now lives in Seattle, Washington, was inducted into the Lindsey Wilson College Hall of Fame over the weekend. He was a standout basketball player for Vevay High School before going on to Lindsey Wilson for two years. He then was a two-year starter for the University of Washington. Keith Brown led Lindsey Wilson to back-to-back National Junior College Athletic Association National Tournament appearances, and the 6-foot-3 guard was named an NJCAA All-American following his sophomore season in 1960. The experience earned him a chance to play for the University of Washington, which he did for his final two years of college, starting both years.
Amanda Roberts was chosen as the 2003 Queen of Hearts during ceremonies held Saturday night at the Switzerland County High School cafeteria. The Queen of Hearts pageant is organized each year by the Switzerland County FFA chapter. Amanda is the daughter of Michelle and Eric Thien of near Patriot.
Belterra Casino Resort officially broke ground last Friday afternoon on its 300-room hotel expansion; and if indications are correct, the expansion is the first step in a long term plan that will make Belterra the largest casino resort in the state. The $35 million expansion will add 300 guest rooms onto the hotel; and will also add approximately 33,000 square feet of meeting and conference space. The added hotel rooms and conference and convention facilities will allow Belterra to attract larger groups for conferences, as well as provide additional guest rooms at a time when the Belterra hotel is filled to capacity nearly every night. Once completed the hotel will be the second largest hotel in the state of Indiana – behind only the Marriott in Indianapolis.
20 YEARS AGO
Last Saturday, Dave and Joanne Evans fulfilled one of their dreams. They bought a pleasant place in the country they could visit and enjoy, and they build a house there and live, after all their five children were grown and they could retire. On Sunday, the Evans family went out to their newly bought property. They decided to go sledding. Late in the afternoon Joanne Evans said she was going to take a ride on the bobsled “one more time.” As she was riding the bobsled down a slope, it hit a hole in the ground and slammed into an embankment. She was thrown violently off the sled onto the frozen ground. She was critically injured and died shortly after midnight at University of Louisville Hospital.
The week has been a difficult one for the Switzerland County Emergency Unit. Last Thursday the Unit’s Rescue 6 ambulance wrecked on the way to the scene of an accident. Since then the Emergency Unit has been short an ambulance and short on personnel. The problem with the ambulance will be corrected next month, when a new ambulance arrives. The Unit’s insurance company has agreed to pay over $47,000 to replace the Rescue 6 ambulance, which was destroyed in the accident.
30 YEARS AGO
The honors continue to roll Switzerland County’s way as Girls’ Basketball Head Coach Wayne Daugherty was named “Coach of the Year” in the Ohio River Valley Conference. Also, the All-Conference Team was selected and Sheri Alexander and Letha Reuter were named to the squad.
Windows on Main Street in Vevay are all painted up with words of encouragement for the Switzerland County Pacers basketball team wishing the Pacers well in the sectional. The Pacers meet Rising Sun Friday evening in Lawrenceburg. The other game is between Lawrenceburg and South Dearborn. The championship game is set for Saturday around 8 p.m.
The Jefferson-Craig Elementary School and the Parent-Teachers Organization conducted its annual Spelling Bee last Thursday evening in the cafetorium at the Switzerland County High School.
40 YEARS AGO
A recreation development described as “the largest development in Switzerland County” is being planned near Patriot. It is to be called Swiss Lakes. Present plans call for a 1500-site camping, vacation home and recreation complex to be established on a 736-acre tobacco farm adjacent to the Hilltop Concrete Corporation above Patriot.
Howard T. Dunning, 59, of route 2, Madison, near Caledonia, passed away February 21st at King’s Daughters’ Hospital in Madison following a three-year illness.
Funeral services will be held in Vevay Friday for Everett E. Sprague, 73, of route 2, Rising Sun near Quercus Grove. He passed away Tuesday at Hanover Nursing Center.
50 YEARS AGO
Miss Julie LeClerc Knox, local historian, has been selected to prepare a script suitable for narration of a historical pageant during Vevay-Switzerland Sesquicentennial.
Jenkins O’Neal of Vevay sustained second and third degree burns on his right leg February 20th when his trousers caught on fire while he was fighting a grass fire at his property on Turnpike Street.
At a disastrous fire at the farm of Harland Scott near Florence earlier the same day, a barn was consumed with all its contents including 160 baby pigs and 18 sows, a tractor, and a quantity of feed.
60 YEARS AGO
Mr. and Mrs. John McKenzie, one of Vevay’s most widely known and popular couples, will quietly observe their 60th wedding anniversary on Friday.
Dr. J. Robert McKay expects to open his new dental office inthe Vevay Clinic building on East Main Street on Monday, March 2nd. Mrs. Hilda Manuel has been employed as Dr. McKay’s dental assistant.
Mrs. Ora Ricketts, 55, wife of Walter Ricketts of near Florence, passed away at her home there about 2 o’clock last Friday moring following an illness of several years.
Mrs. Margaret Janet DeHart, wife of C. B. DeHart of Patriot, passed away at their home there about 10 o’clock Tuesday night.
70 YEARS AGO
The Vevay Kiwanis Club is making arrangements to sponsor a Victory Garden Club in Vevay.
Charles A. Dufour, retired farmer, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Charles Cheever in Vevay last Wednesday, February 24th, from a heart attack with which he had been stricken three days previously.
Mrs. Emma Gullion Baldwin, a resident of the county for the past few years, died in the Madison hospital Friday following an injury which she received on January 9th of this year.
80 YEARS AGO
Mrs. Ernest Schoffner, aged 39 years, died at her home near Mount Sterling Wednesday from the result of burns sustained Sunday morning. Kerosene poured on live coals while building a fire exploded, burning Mrs. Schoffner on the body which resulted in her death.
The Switzerland County spelling contest held at the county library in Vevay Friday night was won by Elizabeth Scudder, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Scudder of route 1, Florence.
James Bladen and family have moved to Vevay from Covington, Kentucky, and he will again engage in the grocery business here, having rented a room in the Sieglitz building on Main Street.
Robert Slawson has bought a restaurant on Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, and has engaged Armand Dibble to operate it.
Born February 17th, a son, James Everett, to Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Scott of Log Lick.
Born Thursday, a daughter, Kay, to Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Haskell.
90 YEARS AGO
The Vevay electric light plant is now being shut down each night from 4 o’clock to 5. This is made necessary while one of the old engines is being torn down to install new oil burners.
Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Jackson, aged 81 years, died Thursday evening at the home of Andy Newkirk and wife in Bennington after a short illness of pneumonia.
Robert Weisickle, young farmer of Posey Township, died last Thursday following an illness of only three days duration. He was 21 years of age.
Mrs. Andy Jones, 72, died at the home of her son, Bern, in Vevay Friday evening. Eight years ago she fell and broke her hip and has been bedfast since that time.
100 YEARS AGO
Rollin Buschmann is preparing to open a grocery store in the Dufour building on Main Street. He will occupy the same room in which the Nat Fallis Grocery was located for years.
We are advised that the Ripley County road authorities have stopped C. R. Downey’s motor bus from traveling over the roads in that county, while they are in their present condition.
Protsman and O’Neal have rented the room in the Tandy Building adjoining the one now used by them as an automobile salesroom and will use same as a buggy repository and salesroom.
Joe Harman, an aged fisherman of Patriot, was found dead in his bed Thursday morning. He had been ailing for several months.
120 YEARS AGO
Vevay will celebrate the 4th of July. We write this by a hot fire.
The Creamery at Bennington gives every indication of being a complete success.
Anyone wishing to join the Vevay Bicycle Club is invited to call on Bennett and Mills at Schenck’s Store for particulars.
Died at Peru, Indiana Thursday, February 23rd, Edwin H. Mead, aged 43 years. Mr. Mead was a native ofVevay having gone to Peru recently to accept a position in the drug store of C. O. Thiebaud.
150 YEARS AGO
Onions are gettingto be among the luxuries of living and command the same price as apples, $5 per barrel. The present high price ought to induce every farmer to raise a crop of them this season. $5 is an extreme price and we know of no crop that will pay so well. They will – on good soil and kept free of weeds – produce 400 or 500 bushels to an acre. It is expected that there will be a large demand from the South next fall and winter.
The mail boat Major Anderson broke a portion of her machinery Saturday night near Carrollton during the storm. She was blown into the woods and damaged considerably. One man drowned and Michael Linds of this place was severely injured. The steamer Prioress towed her to Cincinnati for repairs.
The Constitutional Convention of Western Virginia, in session at Wheeling Tuesday, unanimlously ratified the Wiley amendment providing for the abolition of slavery in the state beginning July 4th. The amendment will be submitted to a vote of the people on March 26th.
Switzerland County paid $367.63 in Internal Revenue for January.
Colonel McMillan’s 21st Indiana regiment at New Orleans has been converted into an artillery corps, in charge of the siege guns there.
The amendment to the game law permits the shooting or trapping of quail and pheasants between the first of October and the first of February.
The gunboat, Indianola, ran the blockade at Vicksburg a few days ago without a single shot from the rebel batteries hitting her.