These century-old historical excerpts were selected from the Looking Backward feature of The Vidette-Messenger newspaper, which are part of the PoCo Muse Collection. Originally, these bits of information appeared as larger stories in the Valparaiso Daily Vidette and The Evening Messenger newspapers.
July 1, 1926
Frank Kroetz, along with his wife and daughter, returned last evening from Lake Wawasee, Ind., where they were in attendance at the Indiana Retail Jewelers’ convention. Kroetz was elected treasurer of the association for the second time. The late George F. Beach was elected treasurer for the thirteenth time shortly before his death. The meeting was held this year at the South Shore Inn on the south shore of the lake, and Kroetz reports a fine convention.
F. H. Hurt, tuberculosis sanitary inspector from Indianapolis, who has been in Porter County for the past four days on official work, is leaving tomorrow for Indianapolis. Hurt has been inspecting Porter County herds and instructing farmers on how to provide proper sanitary care.
July 2, 1926
Beginning Thursday, a fee of ten cents for all persons will be charged at the Dunes State Park. This admission price is the same charged at all state parks in Indiana, conservation officials said. In announcing the establishment of a gate fee for the Dunes, Richard Lieber, state conservation director, said that campers may go back and forth from the park without further gate charge. Cottage owners in the park will be accorded the same privileges as campers. The money received from admission fees is used to develop trails, keep park areas in first class condition, and make them safe for women and children who may not be accompanied by escorts.
Parted in 1882, when at the death of their mother, the family circle was broken, Charles Danielson, of Valparaiso, and his brother Frank Danielson, of Los Angeles, Cal., of whom nothing has been heard of in years, met yesterday. Frank will also visit Sarah Danielson, his sister-in-law, on Garfield Avenue.
July 3, 1926
Charles Haskins, 69-year-old Gary steel worker, who worked by day and stole at night, was sentenced to 2-to-14 years in Michigan City prison by Judge H. H. Loring in Porter Circuit Court today on a charge of felonious assault growing out of his shooting of Barney Jungels, farmer in the vicinity of the Hayes-Leonard School, on the night of June 6, when Jungels surprised him and his son, Wilbert, in the act of raiding a hen coop. The latter has not been sentenced. Jungels is recovering from his wound in Christian Hospital.
John Nichols, formerly well-known Valparaiso man, dropped dead last evening in the Gordon Clothing Store in Whiting, Ind., where he had been employed. Nichols was formerly in the clothing business on College Hill and was employed by the Lowenstine Department Store. The body will be brought to Valparaiso for burial.
July 4, 1926
Sheriff W. B. Forney and his deputy, Burney Maxwell, raided Burrough’s Camp near Kouts on the morning of Fourth of July, sparking a violent clash with the Masla family and patrons. The fight ended with brothers Frank and John Masla arrested and charged with possessing liquor after resisting officers.
July 5, 1926
John Read, clerk in the Chesterton State Bank, is off duty today, all because of a little Fourth of July celebration. Read hooked up a cannon, which was connected to the ignition of his automobile for firing. He fired off one volley ignition. When he tried to reload the cannon, it discharged and he suffered burns about the face.
July 6, 1926
Wilbert Haskins, 18-year-old son of Charles Haskins, Gary steel worker chicken thief, who was sentenced to serve a 2-to-14-year sentence in state prison at Michigan City for wounding Barney Jungels, Leonard school farmer, during a chicken thieving raid, was sentenced to four months at the state penal farm and fined $10 by Judge H. H. Loring today. Young Haskins’ sentence was reduced from six to four months because of aid he gave the officers in preparing the case against his father.
Perry Nickerson, age 16, son of Otis P. and Bessie Nickerson, 456 West Jefferson Street, died early Sunday morning in Christian Hospital from injuries sustained when the ice cream delivery truck, property of the Nolta Dairy, driven by Russell Baker, with whom he was riding, jumped the West Lincolnway straightaway, about five miles west of the city, near Deep River.
July 7, 1926
Automobile thieves put in a very successful night when they visited the G. G. Shauer home, near Flint Lake, last night, and drove away with two cars from a garage located between two houses. Three new Ford cars were in the garage, and the thieves took two, one a coupe driven by Charlotte and Audrey Shauer, nieces, and the other, a sedan, owned by Harry Ogden, son-in-law of G. G. Shauer. One of the cars contained a box of cigars and the other a gas book. No trace of the robbers has been found. Both cars were insured.
July 8, 1926
Wednesday marked the completion of the transaction by which the Farmers’ State Bank becomes owner of the west corner of the Specht-Finney block at Lincolnway and Franklin Street in Valparaiso. Papers filed with Porter County Recorder C. E. Barrett show that the consideration was $75,000. Through the deal, the bank will take over the Franklin Street site sometime in August in order that it may remodel this section so as to accommodate the Silvey-Aylesworth men’s furnishings department and thus cooperate with the Specht-Finney Company in getting its remodeling operations out of the way by early fall. Present plans contemplate the remodeling of the banking quarters by September.
E. A. Moore, Locust Street grocer, lies seriously ill at his home, suffering from the sickening effects of a bite from a large, poisonous tarantula spider. The spider was brought into the Moore Grocery in a bunch of bananas. After being bitten, Moore rushed to the offices of Dr. E. H. Miller, who gave immediate treatment. He was nauseated within twenty minutes after being bitten. The spider was captured. It is as big as a silver dollar.
July 9, 1926
It costs Porter County some $10,000 in tax money to have a property valuation greatly in excess and somewhat out of proportion to its population. This was again demonstrated when Porter County Treasurer A. J. Fehrman received a check for $13,260 as the county’s portion of the revenue paid into the common school fund and from the state school tax. This fund is raised on a valuation basis and returned on the basis of school enumeration. Porter County contributed some $23,000 to it, and thus by the process of distribution, losses about $10,000. Porter County Auditor Kinne states that the Porter County common school fund now totals $125,000, and of this, $115,000 is loaned out.
George Hitesman, one of four candidates for the nomination for Justice of the Peace in Center Township, is going to fight to have his name placed on the election ballot. Hitesman ran second to Justice G. E. Bornholt in the primary, running ahead of Stephen Corboy by 67 votes and far ahead of Justice J. A. Houghton. He contends that Center Township is entitled to three justices, and that the statute which the election board took its position, that holds that all townships in which there are municipal courts, only one justice shall be elected, does not apply, as Valparaiso does not have a municipal court. He intends to make a legal test of the issue if the board does not grant his demands.
July 10, 1926
The “rear-end” of West Lincolnway in Valparaiso lost most of an old-fashioned landmark today when Nelson St. Clair purchased of David Barry, owner of the Messenger block, the wooden shed, that for some twenty-five years has served as a storage room, first for Barry’s farm machinery business conducted while he was a blacksmith, and later as a paper storage room for The Evening Messenger. Only a small portion of the structure is retained. The building had been condemned by the state fire marshal’s office.
Valparaiso people will trek to Crown Point on Sunday, July 25, when a grand patriotic and religious assembly will be held at the Lake County Fairgrounds, sponsored by the chambers of commerce of every city in this section of the middle west. James J. Davis, secretary of labor; Congressman Will R. Wood, and other public men will address the gathering which is expected to approximate 50,000 people. Others expected to attend are ex-Senator A. J. Beveridge, George Ade, Mayor William Dever, of Chicago, Meredith Nicholson, and all the mayors and prominent men of the district.
July 11, 1926
The annual summer rally of the Christian churches of Porter County was held yesterday at the Adams Church in Morgan Township. More than 500 people participated in the services during the morning and afternoon. Churches from Valparaiso, Boone Grove, Kouts, Wanatah, Hebron, Hobart, and Deep River were represented. The morning sermon was preached by Rev. C. E. Burns. Rev. Potter, of Wanatah, Rev. Ora E. Oxley, of Monticello, Ind., and Rev. J. C. Whitt, of Kouts, preached in the afternoon.
Frank Childers, age 35 years, a chicken thief, was captured in Washington Township Sunday night through the alertness of Leo Trunk, farmer-youth of Malden, who was returning home following a Sunday night call. Noting the approach of a suspicious looking Ford truck, Trunk made a gesture that caused Childers to stop his machine, throw a tire, and take to the open field. Previous to Childers’ arrest, Elias Cain, living at Prattville, had heard someone in his chicken coop, but before he could get his gun and load it, the man had gotten away. Investigation revealed that other henneries in the vicinity had also been visited.
July 12, 1926
Rev. J. D. Birky, widely known and eminently popular in Kouts, died today at 5 o’clock. Pneumonia was the cause of death. Rev. Birky was born in Illinois and came to Kouts in 1920 and established the Mennonite Church, where a large number of his sect had formed a colony. He acted as pastor of the church in addition to following farming. A widow, seven sons, and four daughters survive.
July 13, 1926
Officers and directors of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce and the Porter County Farm Bureau were elated today upon the showing made yesterday, when joining forces to oppose the petition of Clarence J. Osborne, of Crown Point, they sent upwards of one hundred protestors to the hearing held by Howard Ellis, secretary of the public service commission. Osborne is seeking a franchise to operate some seventeen milk routes through Porter, LaPorte, and Lake Counties. It is contended such an action would give a virtual monopoly.
July 14, 1926
The director of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce this Noon made the first move in their program to launch a drive for the submission to the voters of Porter County, of the question of financing a county hospital. President C. W. Wharton of the chamber will select the committee that is to handle the preliminary steps, points to the drawing up of a bond issue question for the fall election. The committee will probably be named this week or early next week. The Hospital Drive platform is part of the chamber’s program for the year. Leaders of the county farm bureau organization are known to endorse the idea and are expected to place their unit back of the movement.
A number of automobile drivers have been summoned before Valparaiso Mayor William F. Spooner in the last week and warned against speeding. Two young men who were caught racing on Monroe Street last night were brought before the mayor this morning and warned. Chief of Police William Pennington is conducting a campaign against all speeders. Mayor Spooner has announced that the next offenders brought before him will be fined, and penal farm sentences may be imposed.
July 15, 1926
Bequeathed $20,000 of the estate of the late P. A. Johnson, of Chesterton, on condition that an additional $30,000 be raised by the church organization for the construction of a new church home, the officers and members of the Chesterton Methodist Episcopal church are now ready to launch the big financial drive by August 1. The building committee has employed an architect to draw plans and specifications for the new church. It’s expected to be able to submit plans for bids soon.
The Chesterton Tribune is still protesting the ten-cent fee charged by the state conservation department for entrance into Dunes State Park. It is pointed out that no charge is made to enter parks in the big cities of the country. The Tribune contends that the public should not be charged to enter its own property and asserts that there is big money to be made in leasing cottages sites and concessions, without the necessity of charging an entrance fee. The gate to the lake beach is not entirely closed, according to the Tribune. The Town of Porter is north to the lake front, using some attempting to extend Waverly Drive of the streets laid out years ago in the stock yards addition to Chicago, and called “No Man’s Land.”
July 16, 1926
In a short communication received from Rev. George Schutes, pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church, who represented the Valparaiso Society at the National Walther League convention at Baltimore, Md., in its efforts to bring national headquarters of the Walther League to Valparaiso, says the convention put Valparaiso on par with Chicago and that the matter is to be further negotiated with the national executive board. This means that St. Louis, one of the strongest contenders, has been eliminated and that the matter now rests between Chicago and Valparaiso.
H. B. Cooley, of the Purdue Animal Husbandry Department, will be the horse and pony judge at the Porter County Fair on September 22, according to word received yesterday by Walter Williams, superintendent of the department. Cooley also revised the premium list of the department, and having given such general satisfaction last year, was asked to officiate again.
July 17, 1926
At a meeting of the Pine Township Farm Bureau last evening, a decision was made to build a hall for the use of the membership. A campaign, put on Chairman Herman G. Kempf, to raise funds for a community hall to be built adjoining the schoolhouse has met with success so far, and the needed $800 to put over the project is now assured.
In an effort to obtain the ear of the state highway commission on a plan that will save Valparaiso $2,000, City Attorney William Daly and City Engineer A. R. Putnam are in Indianapolis today. Their object is to persuade the commission and Engineer W. J. Titus to again alter the routing of State Road Two so that the present Lincoln Highway entrance into the city may be made over LaPorte Avenue, as now, and to make unnecessary the proposed extension of Main Street to connect with a link to be constructed by the county past Limit Street and angling over to LaPorte Avenue to form a new junction with Lincoln Highway near the Jones property, bringing it down over Route Two over East Main Street. This would entail an expenditure of $2,000.
July 18, 1926
We will fight on. This was the word brought back from Indianapolis today by City Attorney William Daly and City Civil Engineer A. R. Putnam who Saturday went to the state capital to voice protest against the Valparaiso routing of State Road Two. The Valparaiso officials made a plea with the state highway commission against the plan to reroute the highway over Lincolnway out East Main Street to Limit and thence across to LaPorte Avenue, at present the roadway for Lincoln Highway, east and form a new junction. It is claimed this will cost the city some $2,000 and the county $20,000 for new right-of-way. The local men received no indication of what they state will do in the matter.
Dr. Edward Richard Edwards, popular pastor of the Valparaiso Christian Church, has been extended and has accepted a call to remain here as pastor during the new church year, extending from October to October. At a special meeting of the membership of the church Sunday morning, the board of officers submitted a recommendation continuing the services of Dr. Edwards, who came here a year ago from Kokomo.
July 19, 1926
John Stoddard, lineman for the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, residing at Hillcrest, Long Lake, has just completed a motor trip through the west in which he made a record mountain climb ever attempted. According to his account, Stoddard drove 1,620 miles in a Chrysler 70, with an average gas mileage of 23 miles without a single bit of trouble other than tire grief. On the return trip, he drove from Omaha, Neb., to Valparaiso, a distance of 591 miles in 20 hours. “I drove the car up a mountain over 9,000 feet above sea level where no other machine had ever been driven. I had to cut down trees and move boulders to make the climb and most of the way I had to travel in low,” he said.
July 20, 1926
The Porter County Commissioners this afternoon took final steps for the reconstruction of the heating units of the courthouse, Memorial Opera House, and the Porter County Jail. The courthouse will no longer supply heat to the other two units in the new arrangement. Instead, it will have two boilers of its own, while those in use will be reconditioned and placed in Memorial Opera House and the county jail. The Valparaiso Plumbing and Heating Company was awarded the new boiler and the boiler transfer work on a bid of $5,240. The Memorial Opera House job, including the excavating for the furnace room, went to the Marks-Wolf Company on a bid of $1,585.
July 21, 1926
Downtown Valparaiso this morning experienced a riot. The immediate cause of the disturbance may have been the heart, but a swarm of pesky honeybees invaded lower Lincolnway, near the post office, and for a time threw all motorists and pedestrians into a panic. Albert Zimmerman, battery man, and somewhat of an expert with bees, cleared the street by a well-directed sand attack upon the swarming horde, driving them into the post office yard. Just about that time, Frank Darst, of Erie Street, who answered a similar alarm call, put in an appearance, and not finding anyone in charge, started to handle the situation. Upon the return of Zimmerman, the question arose as to which should get the find. The two men agreed on who should find the queen bee would be entitled to the bees. They had no opposition.
Directors of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce this Noon heard Willis C. Nusbaum, Field Secretary of the Indiana Taxpayers’ Association, urge them to take the lead toward the foundation of a unit of that association for Valparaiso and Porter County. The tax expert declared that Porter County paid the highest per capita tax in the state, now placed at about $62 per year. He suggested that by combining the efforts of the finance committee of the chamber of commerce and the Porter County Farm Bureau the important service of reviewing current tax levies and tax assessed improvements might be carried out for both the city and county under state tax association leadership.
July 22, 1926
Valparaiso and Porter County poultry raisers are to be given the services of a hatchery. This was announced today by Porter County Agent A. Z. Arehart and W. C. Sutter, manager of the chamber of commerce. J. D. Claudon, of Geneva, Ind., representative of the Geneva hatcheries, will be the manager of the Valparaiso unit. Property will be bought or leased here shortly, and construction of a hatchery with capacity of 45,000 eggs every three weeks will be placed in operation in February. The Porter County Poultry Association has been campaigning for some time, and once or twice last year thought they had landed one, but the projects fell through.
The new management of the Chesterton Boosters baseball team has released several players from the team after last Sunday’s exhibition at Hammond. Those getting the hook were Cy Williams, pitcher; Matthews, catcher; Dalrymple, shortstop; Weinke, second base; Young, left field. Tim Murchison, formerly with Lowell, will be in the box for the Boosters, and Wellman, who has been playing the third sack, will be behind the bat. New replacements will be obtained for next Sunday’s game to fill in the places of those released. Haskell & Barker team, of Michigan City, will be the opponent of the Boosters. They recently were defeated by Hammond, the team that defeated the Boosters twice last Sunday, 1 to 0.
July 23, 1926
Porter County Superintendent of Roads Joseph Crowe today sounded a warning to all motorists not to discard rubbish and throw papers and magazines along county highways. Crowe said that home people would be dealt with in the same manner as general tourists. “It seems to me that pride alone should set Porter County people against this practice,” Crowe declared.
Robert L. Miller, son of Councilman E. S. and Anna Miller, is receiving many compliments upon his ability as a color-portrait and photographic print artist. A student at Indiana University, young Miller took up photography some three years ago as a hobby. He has kept at it since, and besides following the experts, developed a technique of his own. His prints on the Duneland region of north Porter County have attracted considerable attention.
July 24, 1926
Leniency was refused yesterday by the state pardon board in the cases of Bruno Zitko, sent to prison from Porter County for assault with intent to kill, and Joseph Symborski, also sentenced from Porter County on a charge of petit larceny. Zitko wounded Sheriff W. B. Forney during a liquor raid made by Porter County officers in Portage Township several years ago.
Valparaiso faces a parking limit ban as a tentative solution to the traffic jam on Lincolnway. An ordinance to be introduced by Councilman E. S. Miller provides that it will be unlawful to park a vehicle along Lincolnway between Lafayette Street and Michigan Avenue for more than two hours between 8 o’clock in the morning and evening.
July 25, 1926
While Walter Hughes, 24-year-old Miller young man, driver of the Lakin Brothers’ Wholesale Fruit Company, of Gary, was being held in the Porter County Jail, subject to indictment for manslaughter in connection with the Dunes Highway automobile tragedy late Friday night in which the wife and one son of Hiram Currier, of Chicago, and 12-year-old Walter Ditchburne, friend of the younger Currier boy, William, were practically killed outright, the death toll mounted to four today when James Currier, driver of the death car, passed away in Mercy Hospital.
Two men made their escape from the Porter County Jail Saturday night. They were Frank Childers, who robbed the henneries of Porter County Commissioner Elias D. Cain and other farmers residing east of Valparaiso, and Harry Guernsey, Porter County youth, who was placed in jail the day before on a charge of forgery preferred by Alex Lippman. Sheriff W. B. Forney and deputies staged an intensive search all day Sunday and Sunday night after the two men. Childers was not located, but Guernsey was returned to the jail on Sunday by Walter Kilney, a stepbrother, who serves as steward at the Michigan City prison. Guernsey appeared at the Kilney home but would not explain the reason for his early morning call.
July 26, 1926
Eight Porter County youths are attending the summer term of Indiana University. They are Myron S. Clites, Boone Grove; Grace I. Frame and Thelma R. Johnson, Chesterton; Julius R. Bell, Edward G. Billings (medical school, Indianapolis), Katherine L. Deery, Russell R. White (biological station, Winona Lake), and Jesse G. Wright (medical school, Indianapolis), Valparaiso.
July 27, 1926
A greater Valparaiso waits upon an adequate, modern, and well-engineered water and sewer system. A safer Valparaiso waits upon a sufficient, properly “mained” water supply and the services of an all-time, technically trained fire chief. These were the highlights scored Monday evening at the joint conference of members of the city council, the city planning commission, and the city surety committee of the chamber of commerce, held in the chamber of commerce headquarters with Councilman E. S. Miller, president of the planning commission. The first two points were scored by Major J. M. Bush, chairman of the city survey committee, and the third point, that of a trained fire chief, was made by Councilman Louis Gast.
July 28, 1926
W. A. Chambers is in a serious condition today at Valparaiso’s Christian Hospital as result of a fall from a ladder at his home, 312 Madison Avenue, last evening at 7:30 o’clock. Chambers, on a two weeks’ vacation, decided to assist painters in painting his residence. In some manner, the plank on which he was standing broke and he fell, striking his head on the cement sidewalk. He was rendered unconscious but was revived after his removal to Christian Hospital in an ambulance. Chambers is employed at the offices of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Chicago.
Directors of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, who last week determined to take the lead in the campaign to put the question of a county hospital directly before the voters at the coming November election, were today informed that the undertaking they sponsored would be placed underway within the next few days. Attorney E. J. Freund, commissioned to draw up the petition that is to be circulated in order that the hospital issue may be decided at the election, informed the directors that the task was about completed. It is understood the directorate intends to wage a vigorous campaign on behalf of the hospital and that the county farm bureau will also join hands.
July 29, 1926
Morony’s Hall, the oldest amusement center in Chesterton, which in years past has served as a show house and dance hall, is to give way and become a modern flat building. The Foster Lumber and Coal Company, Inc., of Valparaiso, has the general contract.
Manager W. C. Sutter, of the chamber of commerce, has received a letter from James T. Hallett, assistant engineer of the Indiana State Highway Commission, asking for immediate action by Valparaiso on the East Main Street paving extension, the Spooner administration has delayed approving this step in order to sound out the commission on the proposition of using LaPorte Avenue as the junction lane of State Road 2 and Road 42 and thus save some $2,000 paving expenditure. The commission is understood not to have considered such a proposition. Because of delays in obtaining right-of-way in this county, some six parcels of land being involved, the commission this week refused to let but one bridge construction contract on the new route. This does not necessarily mean the work will be delayed until next year. Engineer Hallett urges quick action by the city, however.
July 30, 1926
Lake, LaPorte, and Porter County Woman’s Christian Temperance Union organizations held their annual picnic yesterday afternoon in a grove near Hobart. A cafeteria dinner was served. Attorney Edward Knight, of Crown Point, gave a stirring talk on prohibition. Knight said that Sheriff Ben Strong is enforcing the law in Lake County. The tri-county picnic will be held at LaPorte next year. The Indiana Woman’s Christian Temperance Union State convention will be held at LaPorte from October 14 to 18.
For a second time within a little more than a week, Sheriff W. B. Forney early last evening raided “Shady Inn,” a resort in northwest Porter County. Four women were arrested, but no men. All were held at the county jail overnight and today Sheriff Forney granted them release, accepting an automobile as security. They are charged with frequenting a disorderly house. All pleaded not guilty and will stand trial.