News compiled by Ginny Leap from past issues of
Switzerland County newspapers
10 YEARS AGO
The fifth annual Storyfest Celebration was held over a two-day period last Thursday and Friday in Vevay, with more than 1,000 students from area schools enjoying three different presenters. Rain forces this year’s event to move inside to the Hoosier Theater, the Old Gym and the Jefferson-Craig gym, but it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the presenters or the audience. Each of the presenters used students to help during each one-hour performance, and all of the acts took children and teachers on journeys through different ways of telling stories and relaying history.
John W. Bailey, a 1998 graduate of Switzerland County High School, is currently playing college football at the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati. He is the son of Gary W. Bailey of Patriot and Maunta K. Bailey of Miamitown, Ohio.
J.D. Mathews and Bethany Robinson represented Switzerland County High School at the King and Queen contest of the Versailles Pumpkin show on Wednesday, September 23rd. Both are seniors at SCHS.
Representing Switzerland County High School at next Thursday’s Aurora Farmers Fair King and Queen contest will be Devin Scudder and Roschelle Christman. the contest will be held on Thursday, October 1st.
With a $150 million riverboat gambling complex an apparent reality here, about 30 residents of the community of Florence gathered Monday evening at the Florence Church of Christ to discuss how to handle the expansion of their community, and the possibility of incorporating the town. The group elected a committee to work with the county commissioners and county council to see that the Florence area and its residents are considered on all matters as the riverboat complex is constructed.
15 YEARS AGO
The message that gambling is wrong and a riverboat casino wouldn’t be good for Switzerland County is beginning to be communicated by the Switzerland County Ministerial Association. The group met Monday night to start making plans for its campaign against riverboat gambling in Switzerland County. Switzerland County voters will be voting in a referendum November 2nd on whether they want or don’t want to allow riverboat casino gambling in the county.
Cindy Seebauer of Greenbriar Ridge near Moorefield was among 74 practical nursing graduates honored at Ivy Tech College Southeast in Madison. The school held a capping and pinning ceremony last month.
Kathleen Daugherty of Vevay graduated this summer from Ball State University. She earned a master of arts degree in elementary education.
20 YEARS AGO
Helen Parks has been chosen by her colleagues to represent Switzerland County in the Indiana Teacher of the Year program. She is a teacher at Switzerland County Elementary School and began her 22nd year of teaching this fall.
Switzerland Countians Sandy and David Hunt are the owners of the largest tulip tree entered in the Historic Hoosier Hills Woodland Committee’s first annual Big Tree Contest. The tree, located on their farm near Florence, measures 129 feet tall, 68 feet across the crown, and 12 feet, 8 inches in circumference.
Mr. and Mrs. Allen J. Markland of Streator, Illinois, recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. The Marklands are former residents of Switzerland County.
Casey and Robert Banta, sons of Casey and Barbara Banta of Moorefield, are currently serving their country from both coasts of the United States. Casey is in the U.S. Air Force at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Robert is in the U.S. Navy at San Diego, California.
40 YEARS AGO
U.S. Army Privates Richard D. McClellan and Kenneth W. Owings have been assigned to Company B, 17th Battalion, 5th Brigade in the U.S. Army Training Center, Armor, at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. They are the respective sons of Mr. and Mrs. Edward McClellan of route 3, Vevay, and Mr. and Mrs. Edward W. Owings of route 1, Vevay.
U.S. Marine Corps Private Kerry L. Craig, 18, son of Mr. and Mrs. Vachel Craig, has graduated from eight weeks of recruit training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California.
Seaman Apprentice William W. Brown, U.S. Navy, 19, son of Nelson W. Brown of Vevay, received a Meritorious Unit Commendation while serving aboard the Seventh Fleet tank landing ship USS Westchester County.
Some 50 pairs of pulling horses are expected in Fairview Friday and Saturday evenings to enter competition in the annual Indiana State Horse Pulling contest. For the third consecutive year, Switzerland County Saddle Club has been named by state officials to serve as official host for the state championship event.
50 YEARS AGO
It is always gratifying to learn of the success of boys and girls who have gone from Switzerland County to attain high places in the world and a recent edition of Central Manufacturing District Magazine of Chicago records such a story. Kenneth F. Stepleton, eldest son of Mrs. Belle Stepleton of Vevay is serving as president of one of the largest frozen food companies in the world, Continental Freezers of Illinois, based in Chicago.
A son was born September 27th in the Milan hospital to Mr. and Mrs. James E. Smith of Switzerland County. He weighed 8 pounds, 3/4 ounce, and has been named Glenn James.
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lohide of near East Enterprise are parents of a baby girl who was born September 15th at Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati. She weighed 9 pounds and has been named Mona Carol.
Charles K. Lorch, son of Mr. and Mrs. Herschel A. Lorch, recently completed the eight-week automotive maintenance helpers course at the Army Armor Training Center, Fort Knox, Kentucky.
60 YEARS AGO
On display in this office is a novelty in the vegetable world known as a New Guinea bean which was grown by Louis Reed. The bean resembled a crooked neck squash with a similar rind but is 55 inches long, 11 inches in circumference and weighs 9 5/8 pounds. The specimen on display is a mature bean but the vegetable is eaten when it is young and is cooked much like egg plant.
Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Hambrick of Jefferson County on Monday of this week, purchased the building, fixtures and stock of the Brownmore Confectionery on Ferry Street and will take full possession October 1st.
Extensive repairs are being made on the tall steeple of the Switzerland Baptist Church here by a contracting firm from Madison. The repairs include strengthening of the steeple by use of a steel beam and removal of the four cupolas at the base of the spire. The slate siding on the spire is being removed and the structure sheathed with aluminum. Floyd Roland, local contractor, is giving the main building general repairs.
Captain John C. Heady has purchased the three story brick building owned by Dr. Opp Sieglitz at the southeast corner of Main and Liberty streets here.
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Rix, who recently bought the interest of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Fehr in the Swiss Inn, moved to Vevay from Versailles last week and have now assumed management of the hotel.
70 YEARS AGO
Work on the new heating plant and rest rooms at the Courthouse is expected to be completed sometime this week.
At the end of the second week the total enrollment of the Patriot-Posey schools shows 390. This is the largest enrollment the school system has had up to this date.
Born, a son, to Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Green of Plum Creek.
A baby boy was born Monday morning to Mr. and Mrs. Bill Mays.
Word has been received by Chester Kiesel that his son Harold has been named as one of a team selected by the National American Athletic Union to our South America.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Criswell of Moorefield, a daughter.
Born September 23rd to Mr. and Mrs. William Thayer of Bear Branch, a son.
Work on the new Holiness League Tabernacle started here Wednesday.
Born to Ed Ashcraft and wife of Florence September 26th, a son.
Born to Samuel Osborn and wife of Aaron September 26th, a boy.
80 YEARS AGO
Roscoe Jackson, aged about 20, was shot in the head Saturday evening by his stepfather, Carl Logan, at the latter’s home near Moorefield. Authorities are investigating but both men claim the shooting was accidental.
The first frost of the season was reported Friday morning.
Fire believed to have been started by a cigarette thrown on the floor caused small damage to the William Cook barber shop Thursday night.
The 100th anniversary of the founding of the Presbyterian Church in Vevay was celebrated Sunday with an appropriate all-day program.
Miss Pauline Detraz left last week for Lynchburg, Virginia, where she started on a twenty weeks lyceum engagement through the south. She is pianist for the Dorothy Haines Company.
Dr. J. A. Muret is moving his office from the Shadday building to his home on Pike Street.
E. T. Riggs is having an addition built to his wareroom which will be used for storing potatoes.
The report that the Indiana Baptists might forfeit the Schenck Memorial Home at Vevay, is entirely without fact, according to Mrs. M. A. Zook, one of the Schenck heirs. Mrs. Zook expressed herself as gratified at the present management.
90 YEARS AGO
Mrs. Charles Wells, 41, of Madison, until recently a resident of Vevay, was killed Saturday night when her husband’s automobile turned over down an embankment on the highway below Lamb. Mr. Wells met a buggy on the narrow fill and the front wheels of the two vehicles locked for a moment. The Wells car went out of control and turned over. Mr. Wells and two of their sons were injured.
Rudolph Courtney, 40, was fatally injured Saturday morning at the farm of Joseph B. Ramseyer near Mount Sterling. He was opening a gate for Mr. Ramseyer who accidentally backed into him and ran over him.
Lieutenant Clifford Thiebaud has been promoted to the rank of Captain. He recently returned from France to serve as an instructor at Camp Humphreys, Virginia.
Wilfred Dufour has been promoted to First Sergeant and is in charge of Regimental Headquarters at Camp Travis, Texas.
Switzerland County’s quota for the united war fund organizations will be $10,000. It will come from the county War Chest.
Louis Sauvain has grown a squash which measures five feet in length and weighs 60 pounds.
A girl was born September 28th to Mr. and Mrs. James Carf of Humphrey Corner.
A girl was born September 28th to Mr. and Mrs. John Lee of Fairview.
Mrs. Robert Emerson of East Enterprise has accepted a position as teacher in the Vevay schools.
Ethol Brown and Frank Todd of Moorefield have entered military training school at Muncie.
A boy was born September 28th to Mrs. Curtis Archer of near Pleasant. Mr. Archer is in service at Camp Taylor.
A girl was born September 20th to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Rogers of near Pleasant.
100 YEARS AGO
Carl Dunning, aged about 23, was seriously hurt in the Golay gravel pit above Vevay Saturday, the bank caving in on him.
Earl Carver, aged 18, died at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ted Carver of Florence, Saturday from injuries received last week when a team of mules drawing a corn cutter ran away with him causing him to be thrown under the machine.
Dr. C. H. Geiger has bought the old Woollen property owned by Robert Slate and is moving his family into same.
Mrs. B. D. Jaynes fell from the bridge over the gutter in front of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Krummel Thursday evening and broke the bone in her right arm.
A new business known as the Vevay Produce Company was opened for business Monday morning by Anthony Locke, owner.
120 YEARS AGO
Last Thursday the wife of Edward Park of Parks Ridge was badly injured when she fell and her arm was trampled by a horse.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. William J. Downey Sunday, a daughter.
Licensed to marry: Thomas J. Russell to Imogene Dyer; Frank Shadday to Lucy N. Farwood; Willie Bales to Lucy McCreary; John L. Edrington to Ella White; Laner J. Butler to Kate Lanningham; George T. Bledsoe to Lucy J. Hall; William L. Ward to Amy B. Morrison; Charles M. Clemens to Emma Taylor.
140 YEARS AGO
An aged man of Ghent who taught school eight miles back of that city was taken prisoner by the Ku Klux Klan of Carroll County Sunday night and was given 200 blows across his back with a cow hide. They gave as the reason for this brutal treatment of the man that he had stolen a pair of boots.
152 YEARS AGO
Francis Adkinson has announced as a candidate for prosecuting attorney for the First Judicial Circuit. The Southeastern Indiana Methodist Conference was held at Madison last week with Bishop Waugh presiding. Reverend D. Demott, agent of the Asbury University, addressed the conference. Reverend C. W. Ruter led the singing and James Morrison of Vevay was admitted to the conference. Appointments were made to churches in the Indianapolis, Connersville, Madison and Jeffersonville districts. Mr. Morrison was assigned to Vienna in the Jeffersonville district and the following preachers were assigned to Switzerland County churches: Vevay, John Miller; Moorefield, J. B. Sparks; Mount Sterling, Jesse Brockway, G. Bundy; Patriot, B. F. Gatch.