The Press-Dispatch
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A-8 Wednesday, Januar y 13, 2021 The Press-Dispatch HISTORY Submit history photos: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: news@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Source: www.history.com • Photo source: solarsystem.nasa.gov Wednesday, Jan. 13 • Pope recognizes Knights Templar (1128) • Johnny Cash performs at Fol- som Prison (1968) Thursday, Jan. 14 • The first colonial constitution (1639) • FDR becomes first president to travel by airplane on U.S. official business (1943) Friday, Jan. 15 • Packers face Chiefs in first Super Bowl (1967) • Elizabeth crowned queen of England (1559) Saturday, Jan. 16 • Prohibition takes effect (1919) • The Persian Gulf War begins (1991) Sunday, Jan. 17 • Americans overthrow Hawai- ian monarchy (1893) • Boston thieves pull off histor- ic Brink's robbery (1950) Monday, Jan. 18 • Cook discovers Hawaii (1778) • Jefferson requests funds for Lewis and Clark (1803) Tuesday, Jan. 19 • Edgar Allen Poe is born (1809) • First McDonald's drive- through opens in Beijing (2007) SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO The Petersburg Press Friday and Tuesday, Jan. 11 and Jan. 15, 1946 Capt. John K, Chappell re- cently promoted to his present rank, returned to the States in November after serving 30 months overseas. He was ad- mitted to the Indiana State Bar and to practice before the Federal Court, immediately prior to entering service. He is re-opening the long-estab- lished law office of his father, the late attorney John K. Chap- pell, who conducted his law business form this place from 1902 until his death in 1940. Rentis Robling was sen- tenced by Mayor Deffendall in Mayor's court, Thursday morning to 90 days on the penal farm. The charge was public intoxication. A fine and costs tot he amount of $12 were also assessed. Mr. and Mrs. P.H. Johnston are building a new grocery store on 11th St. on the vacant lot back of the 12th St. home of Mr. and Mr. Ray Green. The Johnstons are now living in a trailer, which is parked ont he lot. Mrs. Johnston is the former Oma Walton, of Pe- tersburg, and her husband, a discharged veteran, is from Bridgeport, Ill. Births: Mr. and Mrs. Wil- liam C. (Bill) Rogers an- nounce the birth of a son, Rodney Kenneth, January 5; Mr. and Mrs. Donald Wheat- ley announce the birth of a daughter, Wednesday, Janu- ary 9; Mr. and Mrs. Russell Eads, of Winslow, announce the birth of a daughter, Bet- ty Ruth, Thursday, January 10. Marriages: Lois Thomas and James Hale were quiet- ly married Friday evening in the First Baptist Church; Bet- ty Crow and Arthur Fleming were married Sunday after- noon at the General Baptist Church in Winslow. Deaths: William A. Benja- min, 83, of Petersburg, died at his home Monday evening at 6:20 o'clock; James P. Waid, 89, of Petersburg, died at 4 o'clock Wednesday morning at the rooming house of Mrs. Burton, where he made his home; James E. Miley, 74, of Mt. Olympus, died at his home on Monday; Mrs. Anna Hol- lon, of Winslow, died Sunday morning in an Evansville hos- pital; T.H. Phillips, of Union, died at his farm home just be- fore noon on Monday. SIXTY YEARS AGO The Pike County Dispatch Thursday, Jan. 12, 1961 Teresa Shoultz and Jack- ie Morton had their wedding plans changed due to a car accident while on their way to Shawneetown Saturday to get married. The couple, ac- companied by Jackie's moth- er, Mrs. Elizabeth Morton, of Hammond, and his uncle, Ivan Robling, of Spurgeon, were within six miles of Shawnee- town when the car they were riding in skidded on the icy pavement and went over a 30 - ft embankment. Mrs Mor- ton's back was injured, not seriously, but painfully. The wedding was postponed un- til Jackie returns from Ham- mond, where he went Monday with his mother to look for em- ployment. The parents of a Pike Coun- ty Marine private slain in a robbery four years ago made a plea Monday that the woman convicted of the slaying not be pardoned. Mr. and Mrs. Ovia Kirk, of Petersburg, told the Il- linois Pardon Board in Spring- field that Trudy Jo Baker's plea for freedom from a 30 -year prison sentence should be de- nied. "She's as guilty of killing our son as her husband," Mr. Kirk told the board. Mrs. Bak- er, 20, and her husband, Rob- ert, were convicted in 1858 of murdering Marine Private Larry Kirk, 21. His body was found Dec. 22, 1956, in a field northeast of Centralia. Bak- er was sentenced to 99 years in Menard State Penitentiary and Mrs. Baker to the wom- en's reformatory at Dwight. Mrs. Baker escaped from reformatory about a year after she was sentenced. She was recaptured in Chicago, where she had been working as a prostitute. The Bakers told au- thorities they shot young Kirk to death after robbing him of $11 and dumped his body in a field. They said they picked up the Marine as he hitchhiked along U.S. 50. "He was a good boy," Kirk told the board. "He would gladly have given them every last penny he had." Mrs. Kirk, 45, sobbed quietly as her husband, a coal mine foreman, testified. Under her original sentence, Mrs. Baker would have been eligible for parole after serving 14 years. For her escape, she was sentenced to an additional 1-10 years. Mrs. Baker stated in her petition she took no part in the crime. Births: To Mr. and Mrs. Glenn C. Hendricks, of Lock- hart Township, a daughter, Kathleen Ross, born Sunday; To Mr. and Mrs. Lyndon Ab- bott, of Otwell, a son, Aaron Lee, born Saturday, January 7 at Memorial Hospital; To Mr. and Mrs. Howard Briscoe, of Petersburg, a son, Howard Dean, Jr., Friday, January 6 in Good Samaritan Hospital. Marriages: Martha Jane Deen and Neal Mack Brown were married at 6 o'clock in the evening of December 21 in the Winslow Methodist Church; Margaret Bolin and Robert Kirby were married Friday evening, January 6 in the Winslow Church of God. Deaths: Sandra Sue Deck- er, 2-month-old daughter of Danny and Betty McCrary Decker, died Friday at Daviess County Hospital in Washing- ton; Guy Gray, 64, of Otwell, died at 12:45 p.m. Sunday at the Daviess County Hospital; Sophia A. Wilson, 73, of Pe- tersburg, died at 4 p.m. Thurs- day at Good Samaritan Hos- pital; Mary J. Harden, 88, of Pike County, died Thursday in Gibson General Hospital at 2:30 a.m. FIFTY YEARS AGO The Press-Dispatch Thursday, Jan. 14, 1971 Sonja Cooper was injured in an accident just north of Ar- thur Saturday night when the car she was a passenger in hit another auto in the rear. Both were headed south. She suf- fered a fractured left collar bone and was treated and re- leased at Huntingburg Hos- pital. Larry Charles, 29, of Owensboro, driver of a 1964 Chevrolet convertible appar- ently was stopped on the high- way with his lights turned off. David Barrett, of Stendal, al- so headed south, did not see the Charles auto until it was too late because of oncoming traffic. When he did see the car, he braked and slid into the rear of the Charles auto. Melvin Robling, 42, of Wash- ington, was a passenger of the Charles car. Both Charles and Robling were jailed on public intoxication charges. Charles was also charged with improper parking. On Monday morning, Charles plead guilty to both charges and was fined $1 and costs on each charge. Robling, who had been charged with public in- toxication a few days earlier, was sentenced to 180 days at Indiana State Farm. Vandals went on a window breaking spree in Winslow Saturday night, throwing bricks, rocks and metal drink cans through windows. AT the Winslow High School build- ing, seven windows were bro- ken and at the grade school building, four were broken. A large plate glass window at the M.L. Arnold Equipment build- ing, one block off Main Street, and other windows there dam- aged were estimated at $ 350. At the home of Mr. and Mrs. Eldon McDaniel on Center St., a metal Coke can was thrown through a window at the front of their home. Quality Hard- ware had several small win- dow sections broken at the back of the store. Births: To Mr. and Mrs. William Alfred Harris, of Pe- tersburg, in Gibson Gener- al Hospital, a daughter; To Mr. and Mrs. David Elgin, of Bowman, Thursday, January 8, in Daviess County Hospi- tal, a son, Carl David; To Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Treadway, of Winslow, Wednesday, January 6, in the St. Joseph's Hospital, a daughter, Angela Kay; To Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Russell, of Augusta, Saturday, January 9, at Good Samaritan Hospital, a son, Dennis Heath; To Mr. and Mrs. James Bell, of Peters- burg, Monday, January 11 in the Daviess County Hospital, a son, Brian James. Marriages: Martha Jane Griffith and Billy Joe Roll were married January 9 at Shawnee- town. Deaths: Oretta Fergue- son, 75, of Winslow, died at 5 a.m. Wednesday, January 6 in St. Joseph's Hospital; Myr- tle Erwin, 76, of Oakland City, passed away at 8 p.m. Wednes- day, January 6 in Wirth Memo- rial Hospital; Grace Smith, 84, of Petersburg, died Sunday, January 10 at 9 p.m. in Daviess County Hospital. TWENTY- FIVE YEARS The Press-Dispatch Thursday, Jan. 11, 1996 Sledding accidents in the ar- ea lead to one death and an- other injury over the last few days. Billy E. Brockus, 16, of Monroe City, died in an ac- cident at about 11 a.m. Mon- day, near Hamlin Chapel unit- ed Methodist Church. Accord- ing to the Knox County Sher- iff's Department, Brockus was one of several teens slid- ing down a large hill behind Hamlin Chapel on snowboards and sleds. A new release said, "he started down the hill on a snowboard" while Jack L. Du- rall, 49, also of Monroe City, was driving west on an un- marked county road. Brock- us hit the truck in the right side, "just below the passen- ger door area. A fter hitting the vehicle, the boy and the snowboard continued to trav- el and rolled under the right rear wheel of the vehicle." He was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital, where he died later that afternoon. In Pike Coun- ty, a five-year-old was injured while sledding Saturday after- noon. Dalton Sutt, 5, of Peters- burg, slid down a hill and hit a parked car head first at about 1:50 p.m. near Bowman, ac- cording to Pike County Am- bulance Service director Jan- et Hunt. Sutt, the son of Jer- ry Sutt, was taken to Memori- al Hospital and released after complaining of head and back pain. Kathy Davis and her two children were awakened ear- ly Saturday morning by the smell of smoke in their mobile home. They went to a neigh- bor's house, where they called the Petersburg Fire Depart- ment. Firefighters were called to the mobile home on CR 125 W. at 4:30 a.m. Fire Chief Phil Taylor said the cause of the fire is believed to be a faulty heat trace. Damage to the trailer was extensive. Births: To Mr. and Mrs. Hadley, of Petersburg, at Jas- per Memorial Hospital, a daughter, Kalee Jo. Marriages: Ginger Sander and Travis Lawyer were unit- ed in marriage on Saturday, December 9 at 4 p.m. at the Good Shepherd United Meth- odist. Deaths: Willard Pancake, 90, of Petersburg, died at 7:09 p.m. Friday, January 5 at Am- ber Manor Care Center; Mar- ion Shoultz, 86, of Petersburg, died Thursday, January 4 at 10 a.m. at his residence; Tommy M. Texada, 70, of Petersburg, died Wednesday, January 3 at 9:50 a.m. at Memorial Hospi- tal in Jasper. Don's Drive-In Don's Drive-In, built in the late 1940s or early 1950s, on North Main Street in Petersburg, by Don Wyatt shortly after he returned from the service. The Kangaroo stands there now in the place where the drive-in was built. Photo was furnished by Sandy McBeth, courtesy Pike County Museum.