The Press-Dispatch
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D-6 Wednesday, December 1, 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: www.britannica.com Wednesday, Dec. 1 • Lincoln gives State of the Union address (1862) • Rosa Parks ignites bus boycott (1955) Thursday, Dec. 2 • Environmental Protection Agen- cy opens (1970) • "Good Will Hunting" premieres in theaters (1997) Friday, Dec. 3 • "A Streetcar Named Desire" opens on Broadway (1947) • Washington arrives at the banks of the Delaware (1776) Saturday, Dec. 4 • Hostage Terry Anderson freed in Lebanon (1991) • Psychiatrist reports on the phe- nomenon of shell shock (1917) Sunday, Dec. 5 • Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle (1945) • Prohibition ends (1933) Monday, Dec. 6 • Washington Monument com- pleted (1884) • The 13th Amendment is ratified (1865) Tuesday, Dec. 7 • Pearl Harbor bombed (1941) • Delaware ratifies the Constitu- tion (1787) net edition pressdispatch.net/edition Web, Smartphone, Tablet Streamline the Headline! 812-354-8500 • 820 Poplar St., Petersburg, IN • ads@pressdispatch.net 1953 Junior-Senior prom Class members of the 1953 Petersburg High School class at the Junior-Senior prom in 1953. Members in the photo are, front row: Noretta Smith Moske, Mary Ann White and Joy Bakes Wascom; second row: Frances Bur- ton Hartley, Carol Blaize Smith, Jean Hubbell Barnes and Flo Shawhan Phillips; back row: Helen Gross On- yett, Barbara Beck Sturgeon and Naomi Risher Miley. The photo was taken in front of the bandstand in the old Petersburg gymnasium. The photo was submitted by Noretta Moske. SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO The Petersburg Press Friday and Tuesday, Nov. 29 and Dec. 3, 1946 The members, friends and neighbors of White River com- munity pooled their dinners Thursday and held a delight- ful Thanksgiving service and dinner in the Chapel. Rev. Tay- lor was in charge of the service and the excellent cooks in the group presided at the dinner. A program appropriate to the oc- casion was presented in the af- ternoon. The Petersburg Kiwanis Club enjoyed a turkey dinner served by the ladies of the First Methodist Church on Wednes- day. Program chairman of the day was Dr. Elbert, who had on hand Mr. J.R. Hanaly of the Eas- ter Air Lines with movies of the lines operation. Other guest of the day were: Arthur Elmore, C.H. Carlisle, Everett Fisher, Ed Glover, Robert J. Doxtators and Joe Manhart. Pfc. Horace E. Whitehead, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Whitehead, of Otwell, arried home Sunday afternoon after serving several months in the U.S. Army. Pfc. Whitehead en- tered service May 1945 and received his basic training at Camp Livingtston, La. On Nov. 29, 1945, he sailed for Naples, It- aly, and was stationed there for three months. Later, he went to Rome and was recently sta- tioned at Leghorn. Pfc. White- head is on terminal leave and will receive a discharge soon. Births: To Mr. and Mrs. Gene Corn, a daughter, Mar- sha Rae, born at Daviess Coun- ty Hospital, November 26. Marriages: Helen Eileen Kime became the bride of George Albert Scott in the Sec- ond Presbyterian Church in In- dianapolis Saturday morning at 11 o'clock; Bessie McGil- lem and Elzie Beck exchanged vows on Saturday evening at 5 o'clock; Patricia Criswell and Gordon T. Loveless were mar- ried at the manse of the Main Street Presbyterian Church on Monday evening at 8:30 o'clock; Helen Heuring Bahr and Cloyd France were married Saturday afternoon at the First Method- ist Church; Bernice Patterson became the bride of Morris O. Moore Thanksgiving evening at 6 o'clock in the Baptist par- sonage. Deaths: Mrs. C.E. Barrett, 77, of Scottsburg, died at her home Wednesday; Mrs. John Hayes, 72, of Winslow, died at her home a week ago; Emma J. Engler, 73, of Petersburg, died Sunday evening at her home; John T. Hays, 74, of Otwell, died at his home Wednesday at 11 a.m. SIXTY YEARS AGO The Pike County Dispatch Thursday, Dec. 1, 1961 Two mules on Highway 57, about four miles west of Peters- burg, caused three accidents, injury to two persons and the death of one of the mules at 6:45 p.m. Sunday. Neither of the injured was in serious con- dition. The first of the three ac- cidents happened when a south- bound 1959 Chevrolet, driven by Bruce A. Marsee, of Peters- burg, went between the two an- imals. Marsee said that he was traveling toward Oakland City when suddenly the mules ap- peared before him on the high- way. He said they appeared to walk onto the highway from a side road. Marsee tried to miss the mules, but he slid his car between them. Police said that Marsee's car skidded 120 feet in trying to dodge the big ani- mals. However, the left side of his car struck one of the mules and the windshield hit the other. The windshield was broken, but the driver was not insured. The car had about $150 in damage. The mule, after being struck by the Marsee car, went into the northbound lane of traffic and stepped into the path of a 1961 Ford convertible driven by Mrs. Jane Murray, 34, of Washington. The car hit the animal head on. It hit the hood of the car and slid up over the top of the car. The windshield was mashed flat and the cloth top of the car was torn off. There were other dents in the car. Riding with his wife was Robert Murray and their seven-year-old son, Kim. Mr. Murray suffered facial lacera - tions and a jaw injury. The boy was treated for minor facial lac- erations and released from the Daviess County Hospital. Mr. Murray was kept in the hospi- tal for treatment. The injured were taken to the hospital in the O.D. Harris and Sons am- bulance. The third accident oc- curred when a 1958 Chevrolet, driven by Donald York, of Green castle, tried to miss the Murray car and the animals. As York tried to miss the animal which was left standing through all of the banging and hitting, he cut to the southbound lane of traffic. He said that just as he passed the mule, it apparently kicked the rear fender of his car, almost upsetting it. He went off the left side of the road and ran head-on into a 1960 Rambler, driven by Closson Hendrix, of Paris, Tenn. Mr. Hendrix said that he saw the York car nearly turn over and that he pulled his own car off the road in order to avoid an accident. However, the two cars hit head-on, but there was little damage to either car. The mules, one of which disap - peared for the night after the accident, reportedly belonged to Hobart Grubb, who lives five miles west of the scene of the accident. Births: To Mr. and Mrs. Ar- ville Rainey, a daughter, Linda Fay, born November 23 in the Daviess County Hospital; To Mr. and Mrs. Joe Deen, of Love- less community, a son, Daniel Vaughn, born Saturday, Novem- ber 25 in Daviess County Hos- pital; To Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Dyson, of Petersburg, a daugh- ter, Amber Lynn, in Daviess County Hospital Thanksgiv- ing Day. Marriages: Judy Nolan and Bobby Robling exchanged vows Saturday, November 18 at the Friendship Church. Deaths: Herman G. Schmitt, 77, of Spurgeon, died at 2:30 p.m. at his home; Jake Cole, 88, of Oakland City, died at 10 :20 p.m. Tuesday in the Vincennes Nursing Home. FIFTY YEARS AGO The Press-Dispatch Thursday, Dec. 2, 1971 Petersburg businesses did not go on fast time Monday as announced in last week's pa- per. As far as we know, all re- tail businesses in the county are operating on Central Stan- dard Time. Last week, the presi- dent and secretary of the Peters- burg Chamber of Commerce re- ported to this newspaper that all Petersburg and Otwell business people had decided to go on fast time on the coming Monday. They asked that we publish the fact that they had held a meet- ing and made this decision. The article was published as report- ed to us except the part concern- ing the schools and city hall. On these two points, we checked with city and school officials. We considered the president and secretary of the Chamber of Commerce as representative of the business places. For the confusion caused by this, we are truly sorry. Traffic was tied up for near- ly three hours on Highway 61 at the south edge of Winslow at the Southern railway crossing Thanksgiving evening when four railroad cars jumped the track. The train, headed east, around 7 p.m., stretched across both the crossings on the high- way and also across the cross- ing near where the old South- ern depot was located. The de- railment occurred when a piece broke on one of the cars and dragged the roadbed, forcing the car to jump the rails. The de- railed cars were a short distance east of Winslow. Track workers had the line open for rail traffic around 6 a.m. Friday. The high- way was opened when an engine was brought from near Oakland City to pull the train from across the highway. Births: To Mr. and Mrs. Louis Drew, of Petersburg, Tuesday, in the Daviess Coun- ty Hospital, a daughter; To Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Dillon, of Ha- zleton, in the Memorial Hos- pital, a son; To Mr. and Mrs. Kasper Weisheit, of Velpen, in St. Joseph's Hospital, a son; To Mr. and Mrs. James Parker, of Oakland City, Wednesday, No- vember 24, in St. Mary's Hospi- tal, a son, Barry Larson; To Mr. and Mrs. George McClellan, of Petersburg, in Good Samari- tan Hospital, Saturday, Novem- ber 27, a daughter, Mindy Ann; To Mr. and Mrs. Delmer Hick- ey, of Petersburg, in Deacon- ess Hospital, Wednesday, No- vember 24, a son, Jason Allen; To Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Smith, of Stendal, in St. Joseph's Hos- pital, Monday, November 29, a son, Bruce Allen. Marriages: Carol Fisher and Ronald Carter were united in marriage Saturday, November 20 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles I. Stewart. Deaths: James Robert Raney, 46, of Otwell, died Wednes- day, November 24 at 6:20 a.m. in Daviess County Hospital; Melvin E. Chestnut, 77, of Ot- well, died at 6:25 a.m. Thurs- day in Daviess County Hospi- tal; Iden Phillips, 79, of Peters- burg, died Friday, November 26 at 2:20 p.m. in Gibson General Hospital. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO The Press-Dispatch Thursday, Nov. 28, 1996 Three local fire departments spent much of Sunday morning fighting a fire in Glezen. The North Patoka Volunteer Fire De- partment was called out around 9:15 a.m. to the residence of Ron and Vicky Phillips across from the Glezen Revival Center. Fire- fighter Virginia Howard was the first to arrive on the scene. How- ard said the house was fully en- gulfed in flames when she ar- rived. She said a member of the Glezen Revival Center, Bill Gad- berry, was in the front entrance of the house when she arrived. "He had gone in the house to see if anyone was at home and had swallowed a lot of smoke," Howard said. "He was coughing and I told him to get out of the house, but he said he had to go back in to see if anyone was in the house. I made him get out of the house. It was already flash- ing over when I got there and there was a lot of smoke." Gad- berry was taken to Jasper Me- morial Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. Howard said she got Gadberry out of the house and then discovered there were other people from the church trying to open the garage door to get to some cars that were inside. "I had to tell them to move back away from the house and the garage be- cause it was dangerous," said Howard. "Everybody was want- ing to go in the house because they thought there might be someone in the house, but then we found out from a neighbor, Trisha Lamar, that the family was in Indianapolis." Howard said the Lamar family told her they had smelled smoke Sun- day morning, but thought it was coming from their house. "They check their house and then looked out back and saw the that Phillips' house was on fire," said Howard. "One of the church people saw it at about the same time and called it in." The Lamar's residence is less than 20 feet form the Phillips' house, so there was some wor- ry the fire would spread to their house. Howard said she told them to hose down their house and an LP gas tank, which was even closer to the fire. Within a few minutes, the South Pa- toka and Petersburg Fire De- partments were called in to help combat the blazing infer- no. Firefighters could do noth- ing to save the house or the Phillips' belongings and it be- came a battle to stop the fire from spreading to any adjacent structures. North Patoka fire- fighters stayed at the fire until 9:50 p.m. Sunday to watch for hot spots and in case the fire re-erupted. Howard said it took the North Patoka firefighters another two or three hours to secure the equipment used to battle the blaze. Marriages: Margaret Sue Fulcher-Ennis and Robert Joe Moore were united in marriage on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 3 p.m. at their home. Deaths: Rev. Homer M. Leighty, 91, of Petersburg, died Saturday, Nov. 23 at 1 a.m. at Petersburg Healthcare Center; Kenneth Riddle, 97, of Oakland City, died at 2 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20 at his residence; Rev. Paul K. Potter, 83, of Winslow, died Sunday, Nov. 24 at 4:45 a.m. at Amber Manor Care Center; Owen D. Erwin, 52, of Winslow, died Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 10 :20 a.m. at Mary Sherman Hospital in Sullivan; Edward L. Miller, 67, of Petersburg, died at 11:06 a.m. Monday, Nov. 25 at Wirth Regional Hospital in Oakland City.