April 7, 1976: Go Western In Bicentennial Project

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on April 7, 1976.

Go Western In Bicentennial Project

By MARK HUMBERT

Decked in western attire and toting six-shooters, three Porter County Sheriff’s deputies will go about their normal duties beginning today, reflecting the past as Bicentennial police.

Patrolmen Walter “Chip” Yanta, William McGhee, and Robert Herring will be participants in a public relations project undertaken by the sheriff’s department through which some of Porter County’s past will be represented.

The three men will make public appearances and with Capt. Lawrence Pennell ー dressed in his modern-day uniform to show contrasting styles ー will make presentations about the history of law enforcement and Porter County before civic groups and school children.

Some of the first special events in which the men will participate will be the Law Enforcement Week program at Southlake Mall, and Fourth of July parades in Chesterton and Hebron. The three also plan to escort the Bicentennial wagon train through Porter County. They will continue to wear special uniforms until the end of the year.

In a news conference Tuesday, when the three men first publicly displayed their traditional western garb, Sheriff Jack J. Bradshaw Sr. explained that his group of Bicentennial officers is the first in Indiana but he picked up the idea by reading about a similar five-man group organized in the Seattle police department.

The men are dressed from head to toe in western clothing depicting the 19th century ー including replicas of six-shot firearms and holsters, purchased individually by the officers who volunteered for the program.

Their clothing ー two western-type shirts, hats, vests, boots, two pairs of pants and a special sheriff’s star ー was purchased through donations from local businesses. Cost was about $200 per man. Donations of four more shirts and pants are being sought.

“We chose costumes from the 1800s because Porter County was organized in 1836,” Bradshaw said. Calling cards printed for each officer in the program notes the organization of the county in 1836, the first sheriff, Benjamin Saylor and the present sheriff, Bradshaw.

Bradshaw noted that when he took the idea to members of his department they were generally receptive to it. Yanta, who coordinated the fundraising for the program, said every merchant contacted by the sheriff’s police was willing to donate. More sponsors are being sought so the men can obtain additional pants and shirts, Yanta said.

Research for the program was completed by Bradshaw and the four officers involved by visiting the library and Porter County Historical Museum archives and by speaking to former sheriffs Mike Crampton and Les Hineline.

“The presentations will be short and each man will speak to a specific topic he has researched,” Pennell said. “Some of the historical data included will be the date the county was organized, the first baby, the first sheriff and the first judge. We will tie in the history of the county as it relates to law enforcement.”

Most of the programs conducted by the men will be done in their off-duty time ー one reason Bradshaw said he selected volunteers from three different shifts.

They will also wear the uniforms on duty. When they make a traffic stop they will display their regular police identification and hand a motorist their Bicentennial calling card, which also briefly explains their appearance.

“There are no legal problems with the uniforms,” Pennell said. “The men are already authorized to make arrests in plainclothes and in four states west of here sheriff’s uniforms are very similar to the ones worn by these three men.”

The three have also practiced using their new firearms.

Patrolman Robert Herring said he volunteered because he believes the benefits derived from good police community relations created through the project will outweigh any ridicule.

“It gives me a chance to tell about our department,” Herring said.

Yanta and McGhee said the same idea led them to volunteer.

One thing none of the three volunteered to do was ride a horse. Only Herring has ever ridden one.

CONTRAST BETWEEN old and new is shown by modern uniform worn by Porter County Police Capt: Larry Pennell and western outfits of )from left) patrolmen Robert Herring, Walter Yanta and William McGhee. Yanta shows his replica of .44 caliber six-shooter as four officers involved in sheriff’s police Bicentennial project stand in front of old Porter County Jail.

(V-M: Jay Jarrett)

April 4, 1931: VET IS OUT OF COUNTY JAIL

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on April 4, 1931.

VET IS OUT OF COUNTY JAIL

Henry L. Baker, “man about town,” world war veteran, who claims to have spent many months in government hospitals because of wounds, is out of Porter county jail where he has been the last two weeks.

Baker was arrested on a petit larceny charge. A Valparaiso woman who is said to have befriended Baker charged that he appropriated a table cloth, dresser scarf and pillow tops from her home. The property was valued at $15.

Arraigned before Judge Grant Crumpacker in Porter circuit court Friday afternoon, Baker was given another chance when his case was explained to the court by Prosecutor Howard D. Clark.

One dollar fine and costs and sixty days at the state penal far was the sentence meted out by the court.

Judge Crumpacker suspended the penal farm sentence, and then released Baker on his own recognisance when he promised to pay up just as soon as his compensation check arrived.

April 1, 1966: Filed Under ‘I’ For ‘I Want This’

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on April 1, 1966.

Filed Under ‘I’ For ‘I Want This’

By ADA CADDELL

An attempted purse snatching occurred at the Porter county jail this morning, but was solved quickly and the purse returned to its owner within minutes.

The purse had been left on the table in the office when its owner was offered a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

The whole thing appeared to be a scheme planned by two women, reportedly known as matrons. One of them has been showing a deep interest in this particular purse.

When the owner of the purse returned to the office, the purse was gone.

Playing it cool, the owner calmly sat down in a complete panic. The purse-snatcher hadn’t even left lunch money. When the owner began to cryーthe purse was one of her prized possessions and so was the lunch moneyーone of these matrons who had been so generous with the coffee began acting suspiciously.

Again, calmly the victim screamed, “Give me my purse.”

Faced with such a swift, calm unperturbed accusation, the purse-stealer returned the item in question after retrieving it from its hiding place in the filing cabinetーfiled under “I” for”I want this.”

No charges were filed because the matron who wanted the purse fell to the floor in a tantrum, kicking and screaming and it was impossible to get her name. It's something like David or Davies, the first name Laverne or Yvone or something. Her husband, who claims he’s a deputy, has a first name something like Jerry or Jesseman. It is believed they reside in Wheeler.

The victim of the purse-snatching scheme later said she felt this day in particular was no day to file charges. They might not be taken seriously. And who would believe that a nice old lady (not too old) would be victimized at the sheriff’s office?

March 21, 1931: HARRY OSBORN ON RAMPAGE HURLS ROCKS THRU CITY HALL GLASS BEFORE OVERPOWERED

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 21, 1931.

HARRY OSBORN ON RAMPAGE HURLS ROCKS THRU CITY HALL GLASS BEFORE OVERPOWERED

Howard Osborn, residing near the Nickel Plate depot, went on a rampage this morning in front of city hall station, and before being overpowered by Policeman Gordon Reynolds and Fireman Wilbur Cowdrey, threw large pieces of concrete through the glass door leading to the city council chamber stairway, and the windshield of the old police car.

One of the hunks of concrete, taken from broken parts in the street curbing, was aimed at Chief of Police Robert L. Felton. The latter had just entered the door leading to the stairway and reached the fourth step when the concrete came hurling through the glass and struck near his feet.

Osborn had a piece of concrete in his hand when Policeman Reynolds rushed down from the station above. He threatened to throw it at the officer if he came any closer, but Reynolds was not intimidated. He grappled with Osborn, and Cowdrey came to his assistance.

Osborn was placed in a padded cell at the county jail. All the time he raved against the police for some fancied wring that had been done him. A search of his clothes revealed $453 in bills, mainly of $20 denomination.

March 6, 1976: Museum Curator’s Grandma Early Jail ‘Prisoner’ - Proprietor Of The ‘Community Attic’ Finds Local Roots Helpful In Work

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 6, 1976.

Museum Curator’s Grandma Early Jail ‘Prisoner’

Proprietor Of The ‘Community Attic’ Finds Local Roots Helpful In Work

By MARY HENRICHS

AS MRS. TREVOR STALBAUM works among exhibits at the Porter County Historical Museum, she laughingly comments that she is now curator of an area where her Grandmother Elma (Skinner) Bull was once locked in a jail cell.

Mrs. Skinner used to tell her granddaughter about having been playfully locked in a cell of the Porter County jail when it was being built in 1871 and she was 11 years old. The “jailers” were construction workers who were relatives of a school chum with whom she’d gone to inspect the building project.

The maternal side of Mrs. Stalbaum’s heritage stems from the Bull family which settled in Rolling Prairie in the 1840s and she finds, “having roots in the community saves lots of leg work and searching in books” because she often knows the people about whom she gets requests for historical information.

The curator noted that because many Americans are currently working on genealogy, she often receives letters from distant places asking for material on Porter County ancestors.

MRS. STALBAUM also said that many items with some historic relationship to this area have been given to the museum by people living elsewhere. For example, an Illinois woman in her 80s who was the granddaughter of Army Capt. John Louderback, a Porter County Civil War leader imprisoned with his men at Andersonville, sent the museum a plate which Louderback had brought home from that notorious prison.

A Hobart resident gave the museum a book of photographs, taken about 1920 of people who lived in the Cooks Corners neighborhood. In it, Mrs. Staulbaum found a picture of her paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Wohlenberg, which she had never seen before.

“Sometimes a museum is like a community atticーa hodgepodgeーbut we have a good variety of items,” the curator noted proudly as she pointed out that the Historical Society still has several objects from its original 1916 display, including a melodian and a brass clock.

Nearly everything in the museum collection has been donated and many of the exhibits loaned for the 1916 Centennial program at the Valparaiso Public Library were reclaimed by their owners.

THE PORTER COUNTY Historical Society was founded in 1916 with the goal of “collection and preservation of all records and materials calculated to shed light upon the natural, civil and political history of Porter County and surrounding country, the marking of historical places…,” according to a history of the organization written in 1966 by the late Mrs. Alfred R. Putnam, former Society president.

In 1918, the Society purchased some articles of historical interest from the Joseph Bailly Homestead then being sold by Bailly’s granddaughter, Francis Howe. That same year, the Valparaiso Library Board gave the Society permanent display space in what is now the library’s genealogy room. Shortly thereafter the DAR assumed responsibility for operating the museum which it continued to do until re-incorporation of the Historical Society in 1948. In the meantime, the museum had been moved in 1937 to the fourth floor of the newly-rebuilt Porter County Courthouse where it remained until opening in its present location in September, 1974.

“This is the first and only museum I ever moved, and I don’t want to move any more,” laughed Mrs. Stalbaum, who recalled that many items were carried from the courthouse to the old jail by the Stalbaum family’s tractor and hay wagon. Two trucks and three men from Landgrebe Motor Transport, Inc., needed three days to move the rest.

Mrs. Stalbaum became interested in the museum when she joined the DAR and she recalls that Mrs. WIlliam Johnston and Mrs. Fred Bartz were then donating their time to keep it openーat first, by appointment and, later, on Fridays every week.

IN 1963 the Porter County Council approved a $4,500 budget for the museum and the Commissioners used some of those funds to hire Mrs. Irving Bundy as part-time curator in 1964.

Mrs. Stalbaum soon began assisting Mrs. Bundy and, “Although she had lived in Illinois and Missouri before coming here, we discovered we had two common ancestors ‘way back.”

Mrs. Stalbaum succeeded to the curator’s post after Mrs. Bundy retired in December, 1966.

“Porter County can be thankful that people are interested enough in the museum to donate articles to ot and that the Commissioners are helpful,” commented Mrs. Stalbaum as she displayed a letter from Marion Isaacs, former Porter County Historical Society president and current resident of Florida: “After touring other parts of our country, I believe we are the most blessed society of any to have our county government behind us. Down here the society is trying everything they can to do to preserve an old house and just can’t get enough money.”

March 9, 1971: Order Appropriating Jail Land Signed

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 9, 1971.

Order Appropriating Jail Land Signed

An order appropriating property for construction of a new county jail and appointing appraisers for the two condemned parcels was signed today by Porter Circuit Judge Alfred J. Pivarnik.

Appraisers to be sworn in Thursday are Dorothy Fry, James Dickey and H. Pete Hudson, for the property of Mr. and Mrs. Donald FIndling at 103 Monroe; and John Griffin, Max Dickey and Gilbert Gregory, for the property of Bruce Bornholt, 155 Franklin.

Appraisals are to be returned March 23. The county may then gain possession of the land by paying the amount of the appraisal into the clerk’s office. County Atty. Roger Claudon reported that the county would like to have possession April 1.

If the county or landowners in either case object to the court appraisal as being too high or too low, and a condemnation trial results, the county or landowners pays the difference required after the jury award.

Tenants on the Findling property are Mr. and Mrs. Walter Lamberson and John, Anthony and Ann Nykiel, who are also listed as defendants in the condemnation suit. Bornholt’s niece, Ann Browning, has an interest in his property and is also a defendant in the condemnation suit of his parcel.

Hearing this morning was on the question of whether the County Board of Commissioners was entitled to appropriate fee simple title to the land.

Judge Pivarnik ruled that the county has the power to build jails and that the Board of Commissioners has the power to appropriate real estate, and condemned the property for the use of the county.

The condemnation suits against owners of the two parcels were authorized by the Board of Commissioners Feb. 1 after the landowners refused to sell their land for the amount of appraisals made for the commissioners last year.

Owners of two other parcels to be taken for the jail settled for the appraisal offers. The county paid $20,000 to Leslie Large for property at the corner of Franklin and Monrow and $10,000 to Mrs. Jennie Cavinder Porch, 103½ Monroe, west of the alley in the blok.

Bonds for $1.96 million for construction of the jail were sold by the county in December at a rate of 4.02 per cent to a group of banks including Northern Indiana Bank and trust Co. and several Chicago financial institutions.

The new jail is to be built south of the present jail, and will include juvenile and sheriff’s facilities and room on the fourth floor for county offices until the space is needed for future jail facilities.

Architect Campell Kane is working on specifications for bids for construction of the jail.

March 2, 1931: SHERIFF MAXWELL IS NOW THE OWNER OF FARM THAT HAS BEEN FAMILY ESTATE FOR 80 YEARS

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 2, 1931.

SHERIFF MAXWELL IS NOW THE OWNER OF FARM THAT HAS BEEN FAMILY ESTATE FOR 80 YEARS

A realty transaction that had many unique features surrounding it was consummated Saturday in this city when deed to fifty acres of land in Pleasant township, owned by James A. Hollandsworth, was acquired by Burney Maxwell, sheriff of Porter county.

The land in question had been in the Hollandsworth family for nearly eighty years, Mr. Hollandsworth’s mother buying it and entering the government patent when she obtained title.

During those four score years the land has never been encumbered with a mortgage, no judgements have been entered against it, and there have been no delinquent taxes or liens of any kind.

Sheriff Maxwell’s home is in Pleasant township. He has owned a small tract near the Hollandsworth property for a number of years. Whether the sheriff is looking ahead to the time he will retire from office, planning to take up farming, or merely purchased the old homestead as an investment, is not known. Right now the sheriff is so busy handly the Kirkland trial that he can’t be approached on incidental subjects.

Mother and Father At Kirkland’s Side

Rough as has been the going of his trial, which today entered its second week, with the state still placing witness after witness on the stand to condemn him and perhaps send him to the electric chair for his part in the murder of Arlene Drives, pretty Gary school girl, Virgil Kirkland, the first of the five Gary youngmen of the five Gary young men to face a jury as the result of the wild gin party of last November, has the consolation of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles J. Kirkland, pictured here in the Porter county circuit court chambers here during a recess. To the Kirklands, Virgil is still “their boy,” the victim of prohibition liquor and the “loose times.” pictured below is Mrs. David Thompson, at whose home, in Glen Park, Gary, the fatal party was held. Her husband is one of the four other defendants, awaiting trial for their parts in the death of the Draves girl.

Feb. 25, 1946: Rampage Ends In County Jail Cell; Offender Is Sad But Wiser Citizen

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on February 25, 1946.

Rampage Ends In County Jail Cell; Offender Is Sad But Wiser Citizen

Herman Klemz, Valparaiso man, and former Kouts resident, went on a rampage Saturday to prove to his family and Valparaiso and Porter county authorities that he is a tough hombre.

Today he is ruminating in his cell in the county jail, a sadder but wiser fellow, and at the same time considerably chastened.

This morning he appeared before Judge J.A. Fleishbein in Porter superior court to answer changes he violated a restraining order issued by the court preventing him from molesting his wife, Ella, and daughter, 208 Napoleon street, pending a divorce action. He was remanded to jail for a cooling off period.

Ransacks House

Saturday Klemz went to his wife’s home and ransacked the house. He locked the door after leaving the premises and his wife had to gain entrance through a window.

Later Klemz returned to the home and became embroiled in an argument with his wife and daughter. Mrs. Klemz charged her husband made threats against her, the daughter, Atty. James W. Chester, Mrs. Klemz’ counsel, and also said he would kill police who interfered.

Sheriff Harry Borg and city police went to the home and arrested Klemz despite the fact he barricaded the doors and was armed with a rifle and revolver.

Attacks Prisoner

Saturday night Klemz became unruly in jail and he was placed in a cell. Later upon his promise to be “good” he was allowed in the bullpen. His first gesture of good will was to kick Robert Brown, of Niles, Mich, held on a charge of murder, in the groin. Brown was painfully hurt but he got up later to clash with Klemz. In the ensuing battle with Brown and others in the jail, Klemz was severely pummeled. This morning when he appeared in court he sported two black eyes.