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.
August 1, 1926
Johnny O’Reilly, Chicago man sentenced to life imprisonment in Michigan City upon his conviction in Porter Circuit Court of the slaying of Attorney Thaddeus S. Fancher, of Crown Point, in the Halfway House holdup in May, 1924, has refused to be the goat any longer and positively identified Frank McErlane, now being held in the Cook County Jail in Chicago, as being one of three men in the Halfway House at the time Fancher was killed. The identification of McErlane was made in a deposition taken at the Michigan City prison in the presence of Judge John P. McGoorty, of the Cook County Criminal Court. At trials of Alex McCabe, also charged with the murder of Fancher, O’Reilly refused to implicate anyone in the crime because he feared reprisals to his family.
August 2, 1926
Ellen M. Lytle, age 85 years, widow of Thomas G. Lytle, second mayor of Valparaiso, died Sunday afternoon at the home of her daughter, Effie Sisson. She was born in southern Indiana and came to Porter County in 1853. Besides Effie, two other children survive. They are Elma Garman and Elvan A. Lytle, both of Valparaiso.
August 3, 1926
C. T. Eadus, Kouts contractor, was this afternoon the successful bidder for the contract to construct the new Tratebas gravel road in Jackson Township. His bid was $18,270 as against a bid of $18,400 by Gerald McGillicuddy and $18,500 by Ray DeMass. DeMass captured Buchanan Road in Boone Township with a bid of $7,293, as against a bid of $7,300 by McGillicuddy. The Tratebas road construction is expected to place Lake Plantation on the map as one of Porter County’s fish fan headquarters. The lake has just been opened by the owner, John Tratebas. Two years ago, the pond was stocked with 55,000 black bass and bluegills, and the fish have thrived. The Tratebas milling plant is also located on this lake. It was purchased a short time ago from the McMahans. It is the only Porter County mill using water power.
Dr. J. E. Gibson, federal veterinarian, addressed the members of the Porter County Commissioners and County Auditor B. H. Kinne at a meeting of the directors of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce at a noonday meeting at Hotel Lembke on the question of employing a tuberculosis tester for work among the county’s 12,000 cattle. It is estimated that more than 3,000 head of cattle in the county are still uninspected and that the county cannot be placed in the modified area until these are tested.
August 4, 1926
Although the Porter County Board of Commissioners were confronted Tuesday with the question of whether or not they would approve a plan by which a state veterinarian would be employed at a salary of some $4,000 per year and Porter County placed in the modified area class of dairy counties in fighting tuberculosis, the commissioners decided to mark time and investigate the matter. While they have been warned by the federal veterinarian that only by this method could the Porter County district be properly certified, the commissioners, recalling the strong protest of a few years ago against the introduction of such a system, await further information.
Fame of Chesterton’s model high school building is spreading. Many times it has received the praise of state school authorities and other visitors, and today County Superintendent of Schools Fred H. Cole received word from E. E. Ramsey, now instructing in the summer session at Cornell University, asking that he be provided with plans, specifications, and approximate cost of construction of the Chesterton school, the building of which was started by Trustee Gus Johnson and is now being completed and beautified under the leadership of Trustee Charles Pearson.
August 5, 1926
The J. G. Keenan Company of Cleveland has about completed its contract for new crossing installations for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in Valparaiso. Work started July 5 and all but two installations have been completed under direction of W. J. Loomis, foreman. Twelve men have been employed and the old wooden plank crossings torn out and replaced by modern Hanley units that provide a durable street or road-level approach.
Charles Zane paid a fine and costs of $115 before Justice Roscoe Huff of Chesterton. Zane, who took too much moonshine, took a punch at Marshal Frank Wannegar, but was finally subdued and placed in the town jail, from which he attempted to make his escape. He was detected in time to avoid a successful jailbreak.
August 6, 1926
The Wright Electric Company of Valparaiso was the low bidder on the boulevard lighting system for Hobart. $9,146 was the figure given by the Wright Electric Company. This is the fifth piece of work in the city of Hobart given to the local concern.
The lives of Roy Ludington and Henry Hittle, employees of the Lytle Ice Company, were endangered this morning at 9 o’clock when an automobile in which they were riding skidded on the heavy coating of oil on Calumet Avenue and was wrecked. The car pinned Ludington underneath as it half turned over. Hittle was able to free himself. Ludington suffered a dislocated hip. The mishap occurred in front of the J. C. Awkerman residence.
August 7, 1926
Pleasant Township is going to line up solidly behind the campaign to gain a county appropriation and thus ensure the services of A. M. Jacoby, state veterinarian, as director of the anti-tuberculosis drive amongst the 12,000 head of dairy cattle in the county, was made clear Friday evening at the regular monthly meeting of the Farm Bureau held at Kouts. W. C. Sutter, secretary of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, stressed the importance of putting Porter County’s dairy industry in the approved area classification as outlined by Dr. J. E. Gibson, federal veterinarian for Indiana. Kouts is an important dairy center and unless Porter County joined in the eradication campaign, the Chicago market would be closed and the big Bowman dairy station at Kouts, handling 25,000 pounds of milk daily, would have to close. A committee was appointed to appear before the next session of the county commissioners to urge an appropriation for carrying on the work.
Judge John P. McGoorty today in Cook County Criminal Court in Chicago warned attorneys for Frank McErlane, Chicago gangster, that he would not tolerate further delay in the extradition proceedings brought by Lake County authorities to return McErlane to Lake County to answer to the charge of killing Attorney Thaddeus Fancher, of Crown Point, in the Halfway House shooting orgy near Cedar Lake. Johnny O’Reilly, sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the killing, has sworn that McErlane was at the Halfway House that night of the holdup and shooting. McErlane will probably be tried in Porter County, where the cases of others involved in the Halfway House holdup were tried.
August 8, 1926
Alice Dalrymple, one of Valparaiso’s best-known and beloved women, died this morning at 4 o’clock at the home of her brother, Dr. A. P. Letherman, 302 North Washington Street. She suffered a stroke of apoplexy fifteen weeks ago and has since that time been confined to her bed. For the past several weeks she has been in an unconscious condition. She was born in Valparaiso on November 20, 1861, a daughter of Dr. Joseph and Mary Jane Letherman. She was a member of the city board of health at the time of her death. Surviving are three children, three brothers, and two sisters.
Fifty members of the Valparaiso Council, Knights of Columbus, were in Gary Sunday attending the ceremonies of the laying of the cornerstone of the Knights of Columbus temple, a million-dollar structure, at Fifth and Madison. Bishop John F. Noll, of the Fort Wayne Diocese, presided. Father E. J. Mungovan was toastmaster at a banquet at Holy Angels School Saturday night, the final event of the cornerstone laying. J. C. McGinley, supreme secretary of the Knights of Columbus, delivered the principal address. T. P. Galvin and Bishop Noll were other speakers.
August 9, 1926
R. G. McLeod, of McLeod and McLeod, of London, England, arrived in Valparaiso today to visit Fibroc Insulation Company’s plant and discuss with officials the specifications of Fibroc for use in automatic telephones now being installed in England. McLeod outlined the interesting expansion program of automatic telephones in Great Britain and stated that England’s plans cover the expenditure of approximately $150M to be spent on automatic telephones within the next ten years. McLeod was accompanied by John Hill, foreign representative of the Fibroc Insulation Company.
August 10, 1926
Salvator Gutierrez, also known as Jose Ramirez, was granted parole by Governor Ed Jackson so he could be turned over to federal immigration authorities for deportation. Gutierrez had been serving a 90-day sentence at the state penal farm for theft of an overcoat at the Pennsylvania Depot in Valparaiso and was identified as a parole violator with prior prison terms in California.
August 11, 1926
Carroll L. Bates, a lineman for the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, was instantly killed Tuesday afternoon when he fell from a giant pole at the company’s substation near Woodville Junction. Bates had climbed the pole and had reached a point about thirty-five feet from the ground when he attempted to pass between two wires to deaden a wire coming into the substation which provided power for the Gary Interurban line. In some manner he came in contact with a 6,000-volt wire, and the electric charge surging through his body caused him to relax his hold and fall. Midway his body struck a guy wire and turned him, so he plunged head-first to the ground the remaining fifteen feet. He suffered a broken neck.
Several hundred dollars’ worth of fire damage was the result of a blaze last evening about 8 o’clock at Church’s Dairy, 403 Lincoln Avenue (Brown Street as of 2026) in Valparaiso. The fire started in the basement from an unknown cause and spread upstairs to the dairy. Machinery in the dairy was damaged. Despite the fire, the dairy was able to make the regular milk delivery today.
August 12, 1926
Burns Ditch is now a living reality. The Little Calumet River in Gary practically has ceased to be. Ditch contractors have pierced the dike at the Porter County line that held the upper river to its old level during the completion of dredging operations, and the Little Calumet as well as Deep River now is flowing into Lake Michigan eight miles east of Broadway. The water will be let through the dike slowly, and it will be several days before the completion of the eight-mile ditch is seen. A narrow ditch was cut through the earth dam, and this will be gradually widened and deepened until the dike is entirely removed.
Two Hebron farmers experienced threshing mishaps Wednesday. John Anderson, residing southwest of Hebron, suffered a bad laceration of his right hand in the blades of a thresher. Dr. F. J. Kleinman was called and succeeded in stopping the flow of blood before it was too late. Lewis Keller, residing east of Hebron, fell from a wagon which he was unloading and was badly shaken up.
August 13, 1926
F. F. McAuliffe, living west of Valparaiso in Union Township, reports having threshed 420 bushels of wheat from eleven acres, an average of nearly thirty-nine bushels per acre.
Joseph D. O’Brien, son of the late Michael O’Brien of Valparaiso and later of Kouts, died at Great Lakes Hospital in Illinois this morning. He was forty-five years of age and was a soldier in the World War. Six sisters and four brothers survive. The body will be brought here for funeral services and burial in St. Paul’s Cemetery.
August 14, 1926
Because of an increased valuation of railroads and utilities by the state tax board, the Porter County assessment abstract, as prepared by County Auditor B. H. Kinne, shows an increase of nearly $1,000,000 and sets the total for the county at a high-water mark of $60,000,000. The boost given the utilities was approximately $995,000. Last year, the county assessment total was $59,848,460. Valparaiso’s valuation is $8,752,030.
At a meeting of the city council last evening the body refused to cooperate with the state highway commission in rerouting State Road 2 through Valparaiso and served notice that the administration was not to take advisory dictation from the Chamber of Commerce without complete independence of decision and action. Approval of the exclusive Forest Park subdivision program was made by the council after every engineering and financing step had met with administrative demand.
August 15, 1926
The beautiful new Lowenstine family mausoleum, recently completed at Graceland Cemetery, was formally dedicated Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock. Rev. Marks of South Bend officiated at services in the presence of members of the Lowenstine families. The mausoleum, which is constructed of Vermont stone, contains eighteen crypts.
August 16, 1926
Repeating the dose of two weeks ago, rain upset the auto race program scheduled for Sunday at the fairgrounds track. Upwards of one thousand fans were on hand but had to be satisfied with only the tryout test, as rain stepped in and ended the program. The fans were given a thrill when a Michigan racer crashed into the fence, breaking a rear axle, but stopping his craft before any serious damage resulted. Rain insurance of $1,000 covered all expenses of the twelve drivers who qualified. The races will be held Labor Day.
August 17, 1926
Prospects that Porter County will be the setting for the trial of Frank McErlane, Chicago gangster, for the slaying of Attorney Thaddeus Fancher, Crown Point attorney, in the Halfway House holdup in May 1924, loomed today when Judge John R. McGoorty ordered McErlane turned over to Lake County authorities to stand trial for the Fancher killing. There is little doubt but what McErlane’s counsel will seek a change of venue to Porter County, where the cases of Johnny O’Reilly and Alex McCabe, also charged with the Fancher murder, were tried. McErlane was pointed out as a member of the gang by Johnny O’Reilly, now serving a life sentence at Michigan City for the murder.
At the last assembly during the Valparaiso University summer school term today, President W. H. T. Dau addressed the faculty, the students, and visitors on the subject, “Summer Schools at American Universities.” Charity Belcher Tow, Bachelor of Music; John Payne, Bachelor of Arts in Education; and Thomas Howard Burnett, Bachelor of Science were given their degrees.
August 18, 1926
Crossing watchmen who have been stationed at the Pennsylvania Railroad crossings at Washington and Greenwich Streets in addition to the flashing light signals will be removed beginning at 10 o’clock Thursday night, according to Ira A. Mummert, local agent. After that time motorists and pedestrians using those crossings will be governed by the indications of the signals. The crossing watchman at Franklin will be retained during September in order to educate schoolchildren crossing the tracks at that point.
Valparaiso taxpayers will not have to bear the burden of a higher school city tax rate the coming year. This despite the fact that the school board is pushing construction operations on the new $150,000 unit of the high school, and this despite the fact that new equipment and furnishings will be necessary, and this despite the fact that interest charges of $7,000 per year must be financed. Tuesday evening the board adopted the budget program of Superintendent C. W. Boucher, which calls for a levy of $1.84 per $100 valuation.
August 19, 1926
With popular acclamation, Vernal Sheets, youthful Valparaiso violin artist, was pronounced winner of the radio revue held at Premier Theatre last night and will carry Valparaiso’s colors to the big tryout sponsored by the Radio Artists Producing Company. Sheets had as his opponents last evening the Baker Sisters, vocal and ukulele; Harold R. Folger, organist at Presbyterian Church; Kellogg Perry, organist at Immanuel Lutheran Church, piano; John Portero, xylophone; and Paul Titus, orchestra.
August 20, 1926
As another step in its program of rehabilitating Valparaiso University holdings, the Athletic Board of Control of the university today announced that it had decided to begin at once to place Brown Field, the athletic headquarters of the university, in presentable shape. A new steel fence will be placed about the property, replacing the old wooden fencing. In addition, five tennis courts will be constructed. Conrad Moll, the new athletic director, is expected to arrive shortly, and it is known that one of the chief objectives of his leadership will be to interest the entire student body in athletics and physical training. Increased athletic accommodations will be necessary to permit the carrying out of this schedule.
Lake County authorities have doubled all guards about the Crown Point jail and are taking every precaution to see that Frank McErlane, Chicago beer runner and gang leader, transferred to Crown Point the first of the week to face a charge of complicity in the slaying of Attorney Thaddeus S. Fancher in a holdup at the Halfway House near Cedar Lake in May 1924, is secure from a threatened jail delivery. Ever since being locked in jail at Crown Point, Sheriff Ben Strong has been watching McErlane like a hawk, after Sheriff Peter Hoffman of Cook County had informed him that he had heard reports that friends of McErlane were planning to rescue him. Every indication is that McErlane’s attorneys will endeavor to have his case tried in Porter County.
August 21, 1926
Prospects are bright that a start, at least, will be made upon the ambitious fair building program sponsored by the Porter County Fair Board during the coming years. Last spring the board was given a setback when an appeal to set aside a sizable building budget was tabled, but it seems the county board did not pigeonhole the matter, for in the budget chart now being prepared by County Auditor B. H. Kinne, an appropriation of $8,000 is proposed for construction of the first of a series of five structures. The structure will be known as the Art Building and will include a basketball play way. The county council must yet pass on the budget.
Professor George Schicks, dean of the Valparaiso University School of Pharmacy, will not quit the school to accept a St. Louis offer, it was announced today. It was also announced that Professor Schicks had been appointed a member of the educational committee of the Indiana State Board of Pharmacy. He has also been appointed associate editor of The Indiana Pharmacists, official publication of the state board of control. Professor Schicks will attend the sesquicentennial at Philadelphia as a representative of Valparaiso University to convene with the American Association of Pharmaceutical Colleges, of which Valparaiso is a member.
August 22, 1926
The Ball property located on North Campbell Street in Valparaiso was sold Saturday to Lewis E. Myers through the Charles Link agency.
Valparaiso Rotary, in a round-table discussion this noon, sounded itself opposed to any routing of a state highway by way of Flint Lake so as to divert traffic from Valparaiso. Little has been said on this project, which was known to be under consideration by the commission a few months ago, but individual speakers announced themselves as opposed.
August 23, 1926
S. C. Billings, president of the Porter County Council, is strong for giving the Porter County Fair Association the proper equipment for holding a high-class fair. The county commissioners have included in next year’s budget an appropriation of $8,000 for the construction of the first unit of the improvement—an Art Building. It is expected the council will approve the appropriation.
August 24, 1926
Victory, after six years’ fight, loomed today for the Porter County Farm Bureau and associated leaders in the drive to have this county placed on the list of Indiana counties now conducting extensive dairying operations under what is known as the “modified accredited area” plan of control and elimination of cattle tuberculosis. This morning the county council voted to recommend an appropriation of $3,000 in next year’s budget to take care of the hiring of a full-time federal inspector.
August 25, 1926
Eleven years ago on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 1915, occurred the assassination of the Rev. Edmund Kayser, pro-German pastor of St. John’s Evangelical Church, Tolleston, Gary. This weird crime, staged in a weird setting, is one of the unsolved mysteries of a cycle of events that preceded the United States’ entry into the Great War. The mystery today remains as deep as it did on the cool August night of 1915, and these eleven years Rev. Kayser has slept in a lonely grave at Chesterton, the crime having been forgotten by most people. His former home in Tolleston still stands in a dismal location, but his church long ago was removed to the Ridge Road district of Gary, where it became St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church.
Another endorsement of the proposed adoption by Porter County of the modified area plan of cattle tuberculosis control and extermination was given last evening when the Kouts Chamber of Commerce went on record strongly backing the project, which received favorable attention at the hands of the county council yesterday. The Kouts Chamber last night heard the details of the movement from County Agent A. Z. Arehart and other leaders in the campaign. The meeting was a joint one between the Chamber of Commerce and the Pleasant Township Farm Bureau.
August 26, 1926
Mayor William F. Spooner arrived in Valparaiso early last evening from a vacation in the East, and today his first official act was to place his signature upon the contract for the paving improvements in Forest Park. Word was flashed to South Bend, and the Columbia Construction Company will move its machinery here at once.
Conrad Moll, new athletic director for Valparaiso University, arrived here today and at once proceeded to the university quarters to see just what he had in the way of fields, gymnasium, and equipment to start with. Fine and fit, having just completed a course of instruction under Knute Rockne, University of Notre Dame’s famous mentor, and prior to that taking a baseball and track course at Springfield, Coach Moll expressed himself as being delighted to get on the job. A new steel fence is being constructed around the athletic field.
August 27, 1926
Rev. C. E. Nyhart, for the past year pastor of the local Nazarene Church, left today with his household effects and family for South Bend, from whence he came. When he came here a year ago, Rev. Nyhart found his people worshiping in a tent pitched on South Lafayette Street. Now they have a beautiful $8,000 church edifice of their own. During his short stay here, not only was the church built, but the Sunday school attendance has been doubled, and all lines of church work have been built up. The membership at his coming here was 25, and now numbers 40.
The city council is to get full benefit of the open-air concert promised Valparaiso music lovers by Hebron’s band. The promised concert scheduled for this evening has been postponed until next Friday night on account of the council meeting on call this evening. It is hoped that after enjoying one concert, the council will undoubtedly appropriate funds for next year’s local concerts.
August 28, 1926
Flora Philley, for the past eight years principal of Flint Lake School and prior to that a teacher in the Valparaiso’s city schools, announced that she had given up the teaching profession to enter a specialized field of salesmanship. She will join the sales force of the Compton Picture Encyclopedia Service of Chicago. In fact, she has already started work after a thorough course of training. Her headquarters for the present will be in Chicago.
State Road 2, which by official action of the city council last evening is apparently to be admitted to Valparaiso over Lincolnway and carried eastward over East Main Street, will be carried on to the city limits on a cement roadway of eighteen-foot state highway specification, cement paid for out of the general funds of the city.
August 29, 1926
Announcement was made today that Rev. C. E. Burns, former pastor of the Valparaiso Christian Church, has been elected as regular pastor of the Boone Grove Christian Church, taking the place of Rev. Oxley, who resigned early in the spring. Rev. Burns has been supplying the Boone Grove pulpit while the church sought a regular pastor. It soon developed, however, that no minister as able and inspiring as Rev. Burns could be located, and he was given the call and accepted. He will be the regular pastor until next June.
Senator Arthur Raymond Robinson and his wife were overnight guests at Hotel Lembke Saturday night. The senator and his wife were motoring. Sunday Senator Robinson addressed the big Lake County Republican rally at Crown Point. Today he is in Marion, where he speaks before the State American Legion convention.
August 30, 1926
Manager W. C. Sutter of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, who led the campaign to have the city council approve the East Main Street routing of State Road 2 through the city Saturday, wired Director John D. Williams of the state highway commission of the action taken at Friday night’s session of the city council in directing Mayor Spooner and City Attorney William Daly to enter into a contract with the commission, as it desired, and today received acknowledgment. “I am glad to get the news,” was Director Williams’ comment.
August 31, 1926
Porter County is mourning today over the deaths of two of its veteran lawyers, David B. Fickle of Hebron and Frank B. Parks of Valparaiso. Fickle died last night at his home in Hebron following a three-year illness. At one time he practiced law in the office of Attorney Daniel E. Kelly of Valparaiso. Attorney Parks died this afternoon at his home following an attack of influenza. He was the city’s first city judge and also served as deputy prosecuting attorney. He was sixty-one years of age.