The Press-Dispatch
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C-10 Wednesday, November 21, 2018 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 SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO The Petersburg Press Friday and Tuesday, July 16 and 20, 1943 Paul Dilley, 11, son of Reverend E. Dilley of Pe- tersburg has been reported missing from home. Paul went swimming with sev- eral other boys on Wednes- day and returned to Peters- burg with the other boys. He was later seen at the railroad roundhouse and at the De- pot Cafe. Thursday morning the chief-of-police received word that Paul was believed to be on the road to Wash- ington, Indiana, but inves- tigation revealed no trace of the boy. As we were go- ing to press, word was re- ceived here by the police department that Paul Dil- ley was being held by the city police department of Evansville. He was picked up on the streets of Evans- ville at 10 o'clock, Wednes- day night. He told them his name was Taylor. The de- scription of the boy held in Evansville answered to the Dilley boy's description, and the father, Elliott Dilley, left immediately to bring him home. George L. Shull, of Pe- tersburg, was awarded a $25 special merit scholarship at Indiana University, accord- ing to Dr. Frank R. Elliott, chairman of the scholar- ship committee at Indiana University. Mrs. Johnny Alford fell into a ditch in their garden, located on the lot beside the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Gardner, and broke her right arm just below the elbow. The ditch had been dug for drainage and the re- cent rain had washed grass and weeds over it and Mrs. Alford did not know it was there, and stepped into it. She was taken to the Da- viess county hospital, where the fracture was reduced. Geraldine Sanderson, six year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Delbert Sanderson, liv- ing near Clark's Station, on highway 57, was seriously injured Sunday afternoon at 4:45 o'clock when she ran across the highway and was struck by a car driven by Everett Frederick. The child received a broken right shoulder and a possi- ble skull fracture, and at last report was still unconscious at the Daviess County Hos- pital where she was taken af- ter the accident. The child had started across the road to her home from the neigh- bor's house and as the road is bordered by high banks on each side the driver of the car was unable to see the child until too late to avoid hitting her. Harry Simonecht, propri- etor of the Down Town Mo- tor Sales and Garage, of this city, was the victim of a pain- ful accident the latter part of the past week when a bullet from a 22 pistol which he was examining hit his mid- dle finger of the right hand. Mr. Simonecht dropped the pistol and it was discharged upon hitting the floor. He was taken to the Daviess county hospital where the bullet was removed and it was found that the bone of his finger had been broken. No serious results are ex- pected. Births: Born to Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Charles of this city, Friday, a nine pound boy. Deaths: Mayme Pot- ter Sakel died at her home in Indianapolis Thursday morning at 6 o'clock; Wayne Cockrell, a native of Marion township died at his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, ac- cording to information re- ceived here by Mrs. David D. Corn, a sister-in-law; Mr. and Mrs. Harrison Lett, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Craw- ford. Mrs. Eliza Harris, and Mrs. J. W. Harris, all of Ayr- shire attended the funeral of Mrs. Anna Dallam in Oak- land City, Sunday. Mrs. Dal- lam was the wife of the Rev. John Dallam, former pastor of the Mount Hebron Baptist church in Ayrshire; How- ard Allen (Nick) Carter, Sr. of Evansville, a lineman for the Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Company, was electrocuted at 4:15 Tuesday afternoon while doing repair work on a high tension pole along the C. and E. I. rail- road tracks near the String- town road. He leaves a wife and two children. Funeral services were held in Evans- ville, Wednesday morning. SIXTY YEARS AGO The Petersburg Press Tuesday and Friday, October 14 and 17, 1958 Arthur Vincent Kautz, a transmission engineer for the Northern Indiana Pub- lic Service Company since 1946, has been named to succeed Stan Evans, of War- saw, as Operating Superin- tendent of the Warsaw dis- trict, effective as of Oct. 1, 1958. Kautz is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur E. Kautz, who lived in Petersburg from 1930 to 1933. He has an uncle Orlen still residing there. Mr. C. N. Montgomery, District Manager for Amer- ican Motors Sales Corp. re- leased the notice of appoint- ment of Petersburg Auto Co. Inc. as the newest Ram- bler Dealer in the St. Louis Zone. Petersburg Auto Co. Inc. is constructing a show- room and service facilities on their location on South 7th Street. Six Petersburg High School students participat- ed on the panel discussion at television station WT- V W, Channel 7 Evansville, last Friday morning. The program was on a history class under the direction of Robert Millis, former P.H.S. teacher. The class talked on voting procedures. The class is under Mr. Slatton at Petersburg. Participating students are Beverly Buech- ele, Carroll Malton, Sue Jer- roll, Bill Richardson, Caro- lyn Songer and Tom Hill. Miss Pamela S. Greek, winner of the 1957 Poppy Poster Contest, sponsored by the Illinois American Legion Auxiliary, has cho- sen Oakland City College as the institution to further her education. Miss Greek won $25 and the American legion Scholarship award of $500 in her junior year while attending Albion High School in Illinois. Her family moved to Indiana at the end of Miss Greek's junior year and she was graduated from Oakland City High School this past spring. Her schol- arship was then transferred to O.C.C., where she is now enrolled. She has decided to enter the field of teaching. Marriages: Vonda Fay Johnson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Johnson of this city and Donald Paul Wilson, son of Mrs. Lucy Keith were married in Shaw- neetown, Ill. Thursday, Oc- tober 9; Miss Dorothy Miley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Courtney R. Miley, became the bride of Denzil Fowler, son of Mrs. Sarah Fowler, Washington, at 6:30 Satur- day in the Gospel Center. Births: Born to Mr. and Mrs. Son Selby, a son, Jeffry Dean, Saturday, October 11 at the Good Samaritan hos- pital. Deaths: Miss Adelphia Pepper, of Hazelton, re- ceived word Friday of the death of her aunt, Mrs. Bes- sie Adam Youngblood, in Monett, Mo.; Mrs. Cordia West, 71, who resided east of Oatsville, died Sunday in the Gibson County hospital; Mrs. Mary A. Robinson, 87 years old, died at 5:45 p.m. Monday at her residence on Pike Avenue, Petersburg; Frank S. Furman, 42 year old World War II veteran, died at 4:45 p.m. Monday at his home in Petersburg. FIFTY YEARS AGO The Press-Dispatch Thursday, October 24, 1968 David Copple escaped injury Sunday night when he lost control of his 1965 Pontiac after slamming in- to a heavy set of conveyor wheels and axle just south of the Ashby church near Island pit south of Winslow. Copple said he was driving north on the blacktop road just off highway 64 and was within a few feet of the wheels and axle before he saw it. He slammed on his brakes and swerved, hitting them with the left front fend- er. Following the impact he lost control of the car and slid into a ditch on the right side of the road. The wheels had been placed on the road intentionally. Police stated it appeared that they had been dragged from an abandoned mine nearby, and that it ap- peared that a jeep had been used. Damage to the car was estimated at $500. Addie Hawkins, 75, who lives alone in Logan town- ship near Loveless vicinity, is a patient in Daviess Coun- ty Hospital, Washington, re- ceiving treatment for a bro- ken right hip. Mr. Hawkins had gotten out of a car in front of his house after re- turning from a store Sun- day afternoon when a dog grabbed his trousers leg. Mr. Hawkins hit at the dog and lost his balance and fell, sustaining the broken hip. He managed to crawl part of the way into his yard when he was able to flag down Mr. and Mrs. Heber Schul- tz who were driving by. They stopped to help him and then stopped another motor- ist passing by who happened to be Dr. and Mrs. Milton Omstead. Dr. Omstead ex- amined Mr. Hawkins and said he thought the hip was broken and that he should be taken to the hospital. The Harris ambulance was called from the home of a neighbor and Mr. Hawkins was removed to the hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Ber- ry will observe their Gold- en Wedding Anniversa- ry on Sunday, October 27 with open house from 2 un- til 5 o'clock at their home in Monroe City. Citizens of Petersburg were stunned Saturday morning, October 19, when it became known on the streets that Michael Pfrang had been seriously injured, then deeply grieved upon learning of his death that followed, at 11:15 in the Robert Long Hospital. Mi- chael, a sophomore at Indi- ana University, was taking part in I.U.'s homecoming parade at Bloomington and was on the Sigma Phi Ep- silon fraternity float when the accident occurred. The float was a Pirate ship with six cast iron cannons mount- ed on the float, three on each side. Each cannon had a slight charge of gun powder to discharge flour and con- fetti into the crowd. As the parade progressed two can- nons had been fired, then Michael's turn came. As his cannon discharged, a piece of cast iron the size of a quar- ter from the cannon flew off, entering Mike's forehead about his left eye and lodged into the back of his right ear. Michael's mother stated that boys from the Sigma Phi Ep- silon fraternity house where Michael was a resident, and where he was a pledge to be initiated into the fraternity in February, said a young nurse in the crowd nearby when Michael was injured also climbed upon the float A History of Coe: Monroe Township, Pike County By Ivan Mason Jr. Coe, Ind., is found in the northern part of Monroe Township in the hills of south- ern Pike County, Ind. High- way 61 goes through its cen- ter and it is part of the Lin- coln Heritage Trail - the route Abraham Lincoln and his fam- ily traveled on their way from the little Pigeon Creek com- munity to reach their new home in Illinois. In earlier years, Congress passed an Act on April 24, 1820, not long after Indiana became a state, for the sale of Public Lands. According to the land records of the time, Simeon LeMasters, of Pike County, purchased at the Land Office in Vincennes, Ind., forty acres on Septem- ber 15, 1838. This was dur- ing the time when Martin Van Buren was President of the United States. Mr. Le- Masters came from Tennes- see and was the son of Coon- rad and Nancy Lowe LeMas- ters. He was born July 13, 1811, and died in Pike County, Ind., on January 29, 1899. He is buried in Blackfoot Ceme- tery about two miles from the town he founded. Mr. LeMasters and his wife, Nancy Almon, farmed and lived on this property and in 1869, decided to be- gin a town so that supplies would be handier for he and his neighbors. In the 1881 plat book, the town of Arcadia was plotted by Mr. LeMasters and included 18 lots. He gave the streets the names of Main, High, Cherry, Persimmon and Walnut. The main part of the town was north and to the east of Highway 61. It also had plotted a store and School #13. Arcadia came from the name of the voting district associated with the area at the time. Since Mr. LeMas- ters had donated the land and had lived in the area for such a long time, the town soon be- came known by many of the community as LeMastersville in the 1890s. In historical re- cords, from the Pike County Democrat, in 1887 and 1888, the article announced the an- nual examination of pupils to be held in Arcadia, however in 1890, it listed that the gradua- tion ceremony of LeMasters- ville to be held on the third Saturday in February. Soon after, the town was called Simertown and finally start- ed going by a shorter name to commemorate its founder - Simtown. This name stuck and was used until the Sim- town school closed its doors and consolidated with Spur- geon in 1947. As the town grew in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was talk of incorporating the town of Simtown. It was found that there was already a Sim- town, Ind., and knowing that Pleasantville had already had to have a name change to Spurgeon, it was decid- ed to rename the town Coe. The first mention of this name was found in the school items of the newspaper in 1897 and 1898, but did not appear again until 1912. It was nev- er incorporated. However, the 1900 Plat Book of Pike Coun- ty showed the name of Coe. It remains the name of the ti- ny community today. Some feel the name came from the shortened mispronunciation of the word "coal," but a re- al reason is unknown at this writing. In November of 1921, ac- cording to the article, the for- mation of Monroe Township, the entire town was moved so that the coal mines could strip the land on the north side of the town. They called a house mover by the name of Willis Swallow to use his trucks and move the town to its present day location - about a half mile south and a little west of its original location. The build- ings would be placed along Highway 61 and would be set upon new foundations. All of the houses and build- ings were moved, including Jordan's General Store. The coal company bought most of the property around the high- way and provided jobs for ma- ny of the people who lived in the area. During the most prosper- ous times, Simtown/Coe had several businesses. The afore- mentioned school was always called Simtown School or School 13. It was located atop the hill on the northeast side of town. It faced Main Street and was a two-roomed school house with a hallway divid- ing the lower (grades 1-4) and the upper (grades 5 -8) school. Each grade was called to the front as the others worked on their own studies. The school had a large population of stu- dents in the early 1900s. The old pitcher pump remains near where the school once stood. Going down Main Street was a sorghum mill ran by a steam engine where farm- ers would bring their sugar cane to be processed into sor- ghum molasses. Tine Green ran this mill at one time. This was a slow process as the cane would be squeezed to remove the sap before being boiled down into the sweet syrup. On the southeast side of town was the General Store where you could buy just about anything and if they didn't have it, you could order it. This store was standing and in operation un- til Margaret Woolsey closed the doors after her husband, Kermit (Tee-wad), passed away. It had many owners down through the years, in- cluding the Jordans, Luther and Lottie Fleener, Floyd and Stella Fleener Corn, Kunnie Klusmeyer, Joe and Genivie Duncan, Ivan and Georgia Mason, Cotton and Judy Ma- son, Louella Wellmeyer, and finally the Woolseys. The gen- eral store was also the place where people came to vote. This was done in the "feed room." Many stories could be told at the liar's bench as well as a time when gag car "bombs" could be placed un- der the car that exploded when the engine was started. One story about the aforemen- tioned bomb included a man who said they'd never pull that gag on him getting so excited he shoved his ice cream cone up his nose. On the Northwest side of the road, before mining be- gan, the county road 775 South connecting to Main Street had a two story build- ing which included a restau- rant with an attached livery stable and the local black- smith shop. The second floor of the restaurant was a hotel for guests who were passing through. This area was torn down and dug by the Black- foot Coal Company and the road was killed. The two story office for the mine was locat- ed on top of the hill closer to Highway 61 and remained un- til the mine was closed. As you traveled south, another gro- cery store was located about halfway down the hill. Around 1923, William (Bill) and Mi- chael Mason - (who taught at Simtown School) owned the store. This store burned when my father, Ivan Mason, was playing with matches and accidentally burned it down. It was rebuilt and was owned later by Bill Andy and Sarah Ashby Morton. Many Sim- town school kids would visit both stores during their lunch breaks. The store was later bought by Mildred Fettinger and finally by Artho and Mil- dred France. They closed the store and tore it down, using the lumber to help build their home that is still standing in Coe today. During the early years, a feed mill was near to this store as well. At the base of the hill on the southwest side of High- way 61 was another two sto- ry building containing a res- taurant on the bottom and a hotel on the upper level. Leon Klipsch owned this establish- ment at one time and Adeline Klusemeyer worked for him. One common story includes a Halloween gag where a wire or rope was attached going from the top floor of the ho- tel to the general store across the highway. A dummy was at- tached that would swing down the rope and startle unsus- pecting drivers as they came into town. Word was that one frightened fellow ran off the road and drove into the store's gas pump. Excitement came to town when the Central Coal Com- pany and later Blackfoot Coal Company found large depos- its of coal under most of the town and the surrounding ar- ea. A tunnel went beneath the road south of the store where coal cars could go from one side of the highway to the oth- er. Railroad tracks were later placed on the south side of the town and the new "Din- ky" steam engine started pull- ing cars around the west side of town. The town's children would run when they heard the train coming to see the engine go by and wave to the engineer. The tracks contin- ued and would use concrete platforms for the cars to go over the stockpile area and empty the black gold. The train would continue until it reached a tipple located near the northwest side of town I would like to thank Iona Froman, aka the Mayor of Coe, Orville "Sonny" Skinner, and my mother, Georgia Mason, and several others for assist- ing me with this history. Blackfoot Coal Co. 1932 The Picture above was taken on February 29, 1932 of Blackfoot Coal Co. and the men that worked there. Photo submitted by Ivan Mason Jr. Files of the Past Continued on page 12