News compiled by Ginny Leap from past issues of
Switzerland County newspapers.
10 YEARS AGO
A group of residents at the Swiss Villa Living Center in Vevay sit around in the dining room of the facility waiting for an afternoon activity to start. Normally that time might be filled with silence and different residents roam in; but now that time is filled with the fluttering of wings and the songs of birds. A new aviary has been installed at Swiss Villa, and along with it 13 birds now make their home at the center; alongside the 78 residents who live there. So far, the new living arrangement has bee a wonderful success.
Everett O’Day of Vevay will celebrate his 100th birthday this Sunday, March 25th. The celebration will be held at the Moorefield Firehouse from 1-4 p.m.
Russell W. McKay graduated from basic training and advanced individual training on February 23rd, 2001 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He is the son of Russell and Roberta McKay of Patriot.
The Switzerland County Public Library has been notified that it has received a grant of $27,135 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The funds will be used to purchase additional computers and software programs for both the Vevay and Patriot branches.
20 YEARS AGO
Several Vevay officials traveled to Indianapolis last Wednesday, March 20th, to accept a Community Focus Fund grant of $495,630 from the Indiana Department of Commerce (IDOC). The funds will be used to develop seven acres of land east and west of Ferry Street along the Ohio River into a riverfront park.
Switzerland County Councilman Wilbur R. “Toots” Buchanan died last Thursday after an apparent heart attack. He was 76.
Celebrations have been cropping up throughout the county for area servicemen returning from the Persian Gulf. A “Welcome home, Thank you” celebration was held Tuesday night at the Courthouse along with the unveiling of a sign with the names of servicemen and women with local ties who have been serving in the Middle East.
30 YEARS AGO
Vince Roberts and Steven Konkle served as pages in the Indiana House of Representatives during the current session for State Representative Bob Pruett. Vince Roberts, 16, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Roberts, and Steven Konkle, 17, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Konkle. Both are from Vevay and are juniors at Switzerland County High School.
The town of Vevay will be receiving a $612,000 federal Housing and Urban Development Grant for housing rehabilitation in the next few months. The money will be used for upgrading homes, as well as street and sidewalk construction and property acquisition and abandoned housing demolition. Town Board President Roy Branham said he is happy with the announcement.
Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd L. Valentine, Bennington, wish to announce the engagement and approaching marriage of their daughter, Sharon Kay, to Scott David Mynsberger, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alphons Mynsberger, South Bend.
40 YEARS AGO
Vernon W. Robbins, 27, of route 1, Bennington, was killed March 16th when the car he was driving collided with another auto on state road 56 in Ohio County.
Wendell W. Walston of Main Street, Patriot, has completed requirements for a juris doctor degree at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Barry Lee Courtney was inducted into the U.S. Army March 17th. At the same time James Edward Richards left for the Louisville induction center for pre-induction physical examination.
Carl Webb is reported to be improving and getting ready to go back to school after suffering serious injuries requiring 50 facial stitches when he was struck by a bottle thrown from an automobile March 13th.
50 YEARS AGO
Guy S. Harris, principal of Jefferson-Craig Consolidated School for the past four years, has resigned from that position and will retire from teaching at the end of the 1960-61 school year.
Another shipment of deer was released in Switzerland County last week.
Aurora Schwanholt’s annihilated the Batesville Merchants, 158-96, at the Vevay High School gymnasium Thursday to win the Vevay independent basketball league tournament championship.
Shirley D. Wentworth, electronics technician seaman, USN, and son of Mrs. Elizabeth D. Wentworth of Main Cross Street, Vevay, Indiana, is serving aboard the heavy cruiser USS Newport News participating in an annual training exercise in the Caribbean.
Mrs. Alma Burke, 115 West Main Street, Vevay, has been appointed vice chairman of the 1961 Indiana Cancer Crusade.
Scrap metal, derelict autos, and other junk clutters the Mount Sterling public courtyard which was once used as a playground for the now extinct Mount Sterling grade school. Mount Sterling residents are planning to clear the plot and establish a new playground for children of the community.
A project for developing a technical school locally, which would qualify local young people for better jobs, will be discussed at a Switzerland County Development Committee meeting Monday night.
Miss Lois Craigmyle, a junior student nurse at the Good Samaritan Hospital School of Nursing, Lexington, has been placed on the school honor roll at the end of the second quarter of the junior year, by having a standing of three or better.
60 YEARS AGO
Members of the Vevay Civic Club have taken steps to procure a processing plant of the Kraft Cheese Company for Switzerland County.
Little Billy Jones, son of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Jones of York Township who is in Riley Hospital in Indianapolis for treatments for spinal meningitis, is much improved.
Miss Ollie Brindley, a native and former business lady of Vevay, passed away at the home of her sister, Mrs. Stella Bersot of Ghent at 5 p.m. Monday following a long illness.
The new consolidated school building for Jefferson and Craig Townships became an assured fact during the past week when the holding company, known officially as the Jefferson-Craig School Building Corporation obtained a contract for sale from heirs of the Dupraz farm just west of State Highway 56.
The Kiwanis Club has arranged an Easter Egg Hunt, beginning at 2:30 o’clock Thursday afternoon at the Kiwanis Playground here.
Dr. Wallace Childs, x-ray specialist of Madison, was guest speaker at the health meeting of the Eggleston Club on Thursday evening.
Miss Betty Schirmer, who is employed by the Indiana State Personnel Bureau in Indianapolis, was recently chosen one of the six girls to model “Vacation-Time” dresses for the buyers in a style show for the J. C. Penney Company, located on Monument Circle.
Miss Edith Ellis, fell at the skating rink Friday and fractured a bone in her left wrist.
Miss Joan Richards of near Center Square, a student at the Vevay High School, fell while skating and splintered a bone in her left wrist, Saturday.
The phone company in Cross Plains is now ready for service.
70 YEARS AGO
Albert Cotton, native of the Mount Sterling neighborhood, died in San Francisco, California, March 10th.
Workmen of the Vevay sewage system, digging across the intersection of Liberty and Seminary streets this week, uncovered several sections of pipe which had been laid 60 years ago by the old Vevay Woolen Mills, then located at the north end of Ferry Street. The pipe was laid by the citizens over the soapsuds that poured out of the mill and down through Vevay streets.
Contracts are to be let in April for construction of a new fill over Hog Run and bridges over Hog and Hunt’s Creek.
Mrs. Cordia Ambrose, wife of County Commissioner, Clem Ambrose, died in her room at the Swiss Inn Sunday afternoon from the effect of a heart attack. Mrs. Ambrose had been seriously injured in an automobile accident February 27th, and after a stay in the Madison hospital had been removed to the Swiss Inn to facilitate treatment by her physician.
80 YEARS AGO
Vevay High School basketball team lost to Greensburg by the score of 31-27 in the first game of the regional basketball tournament at Columbus last Friday afternoon.
Married in Hanover, March 15th, Miss Helen Cripe and Emmett Danner.
Anton H. Wegener of this city has accepted an appointment as principal of the Aurora High School for the remainder of the school year in that city.
East Enterprise suffered a series of robberies last week when the Tinker and Chase Bakery and restaurant was robbed of about $50 worth of cigarettes and provisions. Woodlawn Inn, operated by Mr. and Mrs. O. B. Heady, was also entered and robbed of a rifle, shotgun and tobacco.
Mary Alice Owings of Switzerland County, has been initiated as a member of the Phi Mu Sorority at Hanover College on March 4th.
Miss Martha Harris of near Bennington who has been ill with inflammatory rheumatism, is now a patient in a Louisville hospital.
90 YEARS AGO
Twenty-eight seniors will graduate from Vevay High School on April 29th. They are Robert Archer, Margery Allen, Beulah Burress, Harold Benedict, Mildred Bliss, Wilbur Baird, Ellenora Butters, David Cotton, Russell Pickett, Alfred Day, James Hall, Emerson Hickman, Ichabod Weaver, Edna Sauvain, Elizabeth Scott, Lennie Phillips, Dilver Phillips, Loren Dunwoodie, Eldo Scudder, Anna Belle Holdcroft, Helen Griffith, Nell Griswold, Hazel Protsman, Edna Holder, Martha Harris, Miriam James, Raymond Osborn, and Sadie Lacy. The ushers chosen for commencement are Edwin Pangburn and Irene Lacy, Claude Dunwoodie and Lucy Lamson, Cecil Shadday and Ruth Holder, Ralph Blodget and Juanita Ramseyer.
Patriot High School’s commencement was held Monday night with the following graduates: Mildred Humphrey, Bert Rankin, Nellie Hewitt, Hilda Powell, Ora Stockdale, Pearl Kinman, William McNeeley, Dorothy Olcott, Charles Stevenson, Freda Grieve and Sheldon Snyder. Each member of the class gave a short address.
The square dance given at the O’Neal and McKay garage building Thursday night by the Vevay Concert Band was a huge success. The prize for the best couple of square dancers was divided between two couples after the judges could not decide upon one. They were Eugene O’Day and Mrs. Edna Leap, Elmer Reeves and Miss Lora Banta.
Some real exhibitions of square dancing were enjoyed by spectators of the prize dance. The band cleared about $300, but the sum is not yet sufficient to purchase uniforms.
The steamer Queen City, en route from Cincinnati to New Orleans, stopped at Vevay to take on a shipment of hay. Captain Clarence Carter of Vevay is the pilot.
The four-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alger Dunning was severely injured at their home near East Enterprise when she was attacked by a cow. She was found in an unconscious condition after she strayed to the barn to play.
100 YEARS AGO
Sheriff Pickett found a large fish net across the mouth of Plum Creek. No owner.
John K. Lewis is quite ill at his home in Vevay.
Mrs. William H. Oatman of Pleasant was operated on in Cincinnati. Her condition is extremely serious.
The Vevay Racket Store is going out of business.
The following will graduate from Patriot High School: Fred D. Bunger, Laura A. Schroeder, Hazel Lowe, Charles Martin, Hessie Gullion and Wrelah Goff.
Shock from a giant explosion of powder in Wisconsin caused windows to rattle in Vevay.
Mrs. Jessie F. Williams is again proprietor of the Williams hotel having returned here this week from Cincinnati. Following the death of her husband, W. A. Williams, she sold the hotel to Mr. and Mrs. James S. Wright, who have been operating it. Mr. Wright will return to his law practice, exclusively.
Professor Omer Cunningham of Ohio State University has been visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Cunningham, of Patriot. He is another of Patriot’s boys who has made good.
120 YEARS AGO
The little son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Henry is quite ill.
A mad cat attacked the wife and two children of William Heath of Vineyard, then went to the home of Mr. Dovel and attacked his child. It was later killed by a neighbor.
Ed S. Peak is studying law in the office of Addison Works.
“In Switzerland County the tax is 74 1/2 cents. This, of course, includes salaries, bridges, poor, courts, etc. The tax in Vevay, for city purposes is 60 cents. That is, after the county has borne the really necessary expenses of governing the county, the ring here charges 60 cents for establishments. It is a very expensive political tin rattle.”
“W.H. Weaver of Craig was circulating among Vevay friends Monday. By the way, away back in the ’50’s when Billy was a boy, he learned to make wagons with Samuel Shuff and lived in the family of Mr. Shuff in Vevay. He is a skillful mechanic and a clever man.”
Professor H.L. Hall of Center Square is teaching school in Buffalo, North Dakota, scene of recent Indian troubles.
C.E. Golay attended a meeting of directors of the L.C.&D. Railroad in Louisville, Kentucky, Monday.
“A week ago last Monday night Mr. John Douglas’s folks at Quercus Grove left their winter underclothing hanging out overnight, as they were not dry enough to take in, and on going out in the morning were surprised to find someone had stolen them, together with eight flour sacks, 20 chickens, and several other articles. It was rather hard to have their clothing taken as it seems winter has just begun.”
140 YEARS AGO
The firm of White and Yonge has been dissolved and Mr. Z.I. Yonge will continue the business.
A steam sawmill in Craig Township was burned Tuesday night. A large amount of lumber, belonging to Fred Detraz, was also consumed.
Married in Vevay by Reverend M.D. Steen, William B. Howlett to Miss Lizzie Henderson.
Died in Vevay, Thomas J. Thiebaud, aged 27.
150 YEARS AGO
The Virginia Convention recommends that a conference of the border states be held in Frankfort, Kentucky on the last Monday in May.
The Missouri Convention recommends a border slave state convention to be held in Nashville, Tennessee, and appointed commissioners to Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia to send delegations.
Commander Stewart has tendered his resignation as Flag Officer of the Navy. His resignation has not yet been accepted.
The Indiana Legislature adjourned March 11th. The game law was amended extending the time for shooting quails and pheasants to the first of February.