Newsletter of the North Manchester Historical Society, Inc.

Volume XXV Number 1 February 2008

Thomas Marshall House -2007 Stephen A. Batzka

It has been a busy year at the Marshall house and it is beginning to look more inviting on the interior. However, there are several things that remain to be done to make it ready for furnishings. The following was completed this year:

All Interior carpentry work is complete. This includes placing of register covers, hanging a door upstairs, placement of all the door hardware and placement of the floor quarter round in place.

The process of faux graining of all the woodwork is continuing. Only one room, the office, remains to be completed. This is a five step process and is very labor intensive but the results are worth the effort. The upstairs woodwork and the kitchen woodwork is painted. The most difficult woodwork to finish was the staircase due to the many spindles.

The antique ingrain carpet was put down on the floor of the parlor. The exterior shutters were repainted due to failure of the original paint. Touch up painting was done around several of the exterior doors.

In August, during Fun Fest in North Manchester, we had a dedication of the new state marker that was placed in front of the house. A nice crowd attended and several officials from the state Historical Society attended.

In late December three windows of old glass were broken out and these will need to be repaired when the weather is better. A supply of antique glass was ordered several years ago and is stored in the basement.

The Beef Ring

E. William Ranck

I do not know when or where the idea originated, but one of my earliest memories (around 1896) was of going with mother to the barn and watching her harness Nelly and hitching her to the buggy. It was Tuesday morning and we were going to bring the beef home. Father and the hired man were already at work in the fields. We also would bring the beef for our good neighbors, the Henry Cripes, who lived on the farm across Clear Creek from us, half a mile west of North Manchester, Indiana. The next week Henry would bring our beef.

The Beef Ring consisted of 20 farmer members. Each was assigned a week when it would be his turn to supply a well fleshed, steer or heifer.

The Ring's butcher would arrive at the designated farm in his one-horse spring wagon with tripod and tools, late Monday afternoon. The spring wagon was a light weight, four wheel vehicle. A platform type spring seat up front accommodated a driver and two small boys --if they held on tight going around corners or over bumps. The shallow box bed was suitable for light loads. The butcher would kill, skin and quarter the animal, then drive to the farmstead of Isaac C and Mary Frantz Cripe, my mother's parents. They had a large, cool spring house. In it he would hang and wash the beef and leave it to cool all night.

In those days before farmers had electric refrigeration, a spring house like this one was very useful. Few had one so well located. In 1876 Grandpa built his three-story brick home 3 miles west of North Manchester. When they were digging to built a cistern near the Northwest corner of the house, they ran into gravel filled with spring water. Grandpa decided to make maximum use of this. A spring house was built 20 feet west of the southwest corner of the house, with its brick floor set four feet below ground level.

Steps led down into a small entrance room, where a stream of water from the captured spring fell from a pipe into a pool in the floor. A dipper hung nearby and many a thirst was satisfied there.

A screened door from this room led west into a 10-by-14 foot room, which had a two-foot wide concrete trough built along the north wall. A pipe from the pool brought water into this trough. The water was five inches deep. Covered crocks of milk, cream, meat, etc., set into it were kept cool. A pipe at the far end continued the flow out to a large drinking trough in the barnyard where the cattle and horses could enjoy fresh water that never failed and never froze. The entire system worked at all times and by gravity.

There was a long table along the south side of this larger spring house room. On a shelf above it were 20 shallow boxes, one for each Ring member. About 3 a.m. the butcher began to cut, weigh and wrap the meat for each box. Each family got the same amount and each received a total of four soup bones during the season.

People came early for the meat while the morning was still cool. Some farmers had their own ice houses and put up ice each winter from Eel River or some lake. They used it in an icebox refrigerator or in what was called a "creamery" to keep food cool.

Soon after the last beef of the season as butchered and distributed, a meeting was held "to settle up the Beef Ring". The entire family attended. The meeting was usually held in Grandma's family room and overflowed into the adjoining summer dining room.

Since the animals that were supplied varied somewhat in weight, the average net weight of all 20 was computed. Members whose animals fell short paid into the treasury at a pre-fixed price per pound and those who supplied more were compensated accordingly. A captain for the next year was elected. He would hire the butcher. Then each member drew a number indicating which week he was to supply the animal.

This cooperative venture enabled these families to enjoy fresh beef all summer at minimum cost, produced from their own pasture and feed. The only cash outlay was to pay the butcher. Nothing was charged for the facilities.

The business session was soon over. It was still early evening and what we youngsters enjoyed most would now begin. Big baskets appeared and the ladies began to decorate the tables in both rooms with beautiful cakes and pies while the men opened freezers of ice cream. Grace was said, then all enjoyed the abundant good food and the fellowship with good neighbors.

We children and the teenagers were soon exploring the many interesting things and places inside and outside the large and unusual home. It was a great time to make new friends and over the years more than a few romances began under the October moon at Grandpa's place-- because there was a Beef Ring.

Appeared in the Star Magazine, date unknown. E. William Ranck was a graduate of Purdue University, was an agriculturist and economic advisor for the State Department in El Salvador and Puerto Rico before he retired in 1958. Later, he lived in Ft. Wayne.

_____________________

John Aughinbaugh

(from records at Wabash Co. Courthouse)

John was a son of Henry and Susanna (Sieple) Aughinbaugh, from York County, Pa. John had married to Susan Gary/Garry in Tuscarawas County, Ohio before 1840 and by her had a child, Amanda Melvina. Susan Gary died, leaving John a widower. After John moved to Wyandot County, Ohio, he became engaged to a Miss Fensall and had published their banns to marry. John pulled a fast one and abandoned his engagement to marry in the fall of 1844 Miss Eleanora Vanarsdale, a daughter of Peter Quick Vanarsdale and Catherine Powelson.

Miss Fensall sued John for breach of promise to marry and won her case. It was the first case tried by the Court in the newly formed Wyandot County, Ohio, 1845. Miss Fensall charged also that John and some of his male friends tried to defraud her out of property she felt she was entitled to, but owned by the above mentioned John and his friends in Marseilles, Ohio.

John had traveled to Michigan to scout out some wooded land in that state, but found it wanting. John was a saddlemaker by trade, but in N. Manchester, Indiana he ran a drug and general store and served as a Post Master for that village. His daughter, Amanda Melvina is said to have been able to speak in the Wyandot tongue. John bought a pony from the departing Wyandot tribe, 1844-45, which he kept for over 20 years.

BREACH OF PROMISE Buckeye Eagle June 25, 1845

A case of this kind was tried in the Court of Common Pleas in this place last week. The parties were Mr. John Aughenbaugh and Miss Louisa Fenzell, recently of Grand Twp., we believe. After a patient hearing, the Jury returned a verdict of $1,850 in favor of Miss Fenzell, the Plaintiff. The case was somewhat interesting, but we are unable to give its details.

The biography of the one whose name heads this sketch furnishes a notable example of what industry and good financial management may accomplish, even when unaided by the possession of average bodily health and strength. In the spring of 1844, John Aughinbaugh came to the then straggling village of North Manchester, in poor health, without money, and an entire stranger.

Being a saddler by trade, he opened a small shop there -- the first in the place -- having managed to borrow money enough to make a start with. In the course of time he accumulated a sufficient amount to enable him to buy out Richard Helvey's tavern stand, and in 1847 to start a drug store. A general grocery, dry goods and hardware establishment was subsequently added, and in course of time he came to own more than one half of the town of Manchester.

A close calculator, though by no means a penurious man, he has been remarkably successful from the very first. On the ensuing spring after his arrival in the place a total stranger, he was elected Justice of the Peace, and afterwards appointed Postmaster, serving in the former capacity five years, and fulfilling the duties of the latter seven.

In April of 1855, Mr. Auginbaugh, having at that time a large family and becoming tired of town life, sold out his interests in the village and bought a part of the large farm on which he at present resides.

At the time of his coming to the country Mr. Aughinbaugh brought with him a pony which he had purchased of the Wyandotte Indians (with whom he had passed seven years of his younger life very happily), and the pony is at the present time, May, 1875, still living. Her age, according to the best information at hand, is thirty-six years.

Henry Aughinbaugh Married Susanna Sieple

Son - John Aughinbaugh

born 1814 in York Co. Pa married Susan Garey

(John Aughinbaugh moved to North Manchester in 1844 and died

10 -15- 1876.)

Daughter - Amanda Melvina

born 1835 married Hamilton A. Young in Wabash Co., died 1916

2^nd marriage Michael Rupp

3^rd marriage Edmund Ruppel

John Aughinbaugh

2^nd marriage Ellen Vanarsdoll 1844

dau. of Peter Vanarsdoll

Children:

Mary Alice married John Kuhnle

2^nd marriage Irvin Vorhise

3^rd marriage Moses Krichbaum

Lucy Marie born 1849 married Henry Krisher died 1914

Henry P. born 1851 married Rachel Fannin

2^nd marriage Ella R. Simms died 1930

John R. born 1852 married Ida Martin

2^nd marriage Mary Bicewinter

Franklin M. born 1855 married Jennie Porter

2^nd marriage Sarah J. Wilson died 1937

Charlie C. born 1855 married Olive M. Keelin

Ida A. born 1856 married John Fodge died 1926

Duff born 1859

Hattie A born 1861 married Henry S. Messmore died 1941

B. William born 1864 married Minnie Mary Walters died 1925

Orpha Ellen born 1866 married John Shively died 1918

Effie B. born 1870 married Charles Gill died 1950

Editor's note - The preceding information was taken from courthouse records and reproduced exactly as recorded. Some alternate information was provided by Wilma Mulholland, great granddaughter of a son of John and Elenora VanArsdale. Information is available indicating Franklin's middle initial was P., not M. There was a marriage between Franklin and Mollie Baker in 1899. The middle name for Duff was Green. Variations from the original material are shown in italics. Anyone interested in any of the above information and who wishes to contact Wilma, please contact the editor at jtstreator@gmail.com or see Ferne Baldwin.

Program

Thirty-Fourth Annual Commencement Manchester High School

Opera House, Thursday Evening, April 30, 1914

High School Chorus

Invocation Rev. A. H. Huntington

High School Chorus

Oration Mabel Adele Boyer

Pot Calling Kettle Black

Oration Don Carlos Gaskins

Wanted: A Man

Oration Robert Murray Connell

A Blot or a Blessing, but not a Blank

High School Chorus

Oration Russel O. Scott

Stick to Your Bush

Oration Jessie Murl Thompson

By the Wayside

Oration Elizabeth Lady Scott

The Lightning-Bug Convention

High School Chorus

Oration Frances Waneta McCreary

Big I and Little You

Oration Helen Augusta Land

The Index to a True Heart

Oration Dekalb Martin Grimes

The Stairs not the Elevator to Success

High School Chorus

Oration Dewey Henry Richmond

On the Fence

Oration Lucy Virgin Weddle

Hung on the Chamber Walls of Memory

High School Chorus

Presentation of Diplomas Hon. Charles L Swain

Cincinnati, Ohio

Head, Hand and Heart

High School Chorus

Benediction Rev. J. S. Dapp

_________________________

Class Motto - Bene Factus

Class Colors - Purple and White

Class Flower - Violet

Board of Education

President, Dr. J. W. Guthrie Clerk, B. P. Stone

Percy Doddridge Alex. Roush Rufus Cox

Superintendent, H. E. Dening

Principal G. A. Patton

Assistant Principal, Edna M Howland

Faculty

Eva Martin Estella Potts, Lucille Cooley, Cora Platt, Nellie Lawwill, Grace Ellis, Kathryn Drake, Bertha Drenau, Julia Marie Darnell, Anna Ryan

Brooks & Jefferson continued

608 West Main St. - A January 4, 1932 ad announced West End Radio Shop at this address. Sheak Accessory Co. advertised at this address March 16, 1936. Charles A. Hutchinson advertised here from 1941 through 1950.

  610 West Main St. - In an ad dated June 8, 1939 Charles A. Hutchinson announced the grand opening of a west end grocery. The ad didn't give an address, but we believe it was at this location because a later ad on January l, 1940 shows Hutch's Cloverfarm Market at 610 West Main Street. We frankly don't know for sure what happened here.  We don't know if the grocery was here and then moved to the previous address, or if 608 and 610 are one and the same and the number changed due to postal changes, perhaps the later.

  Note - We are not able to place all of the addresses, 602-604-606-608-610 West Main Street today, because all that is left is 602, an empty space where 604 (the Sheller Restaurant) had been, and 606. Most of these addresses changed hands often making it difficult to know who was where when. The Vandalia station was in the west end of the block, near Washington Street.

  706 West Main St. - Don Sheak and his father, L. C. Sheak, built a new filling station at this address and sold Phillips 66 products, as advertised on March 8, 1937.  Grand opening dates were April 12 - 17, 1937. On June 2, 1938 Paul Abbott and Dewayne Bone ran an ad for this station. Then it was Abbot and Kitson Phillips 66 Station, owned by Paul Abbott and Dick Kitson.  This station, where they also sold sporting goods, was here into the 1950s.

708 West Main St. - The 1924 phone book shows this address as 704 West Main Street. We do not know when it changed to 708 but addresses had a way of changing back then as other buildings were erected on the block.

This was the Big Four, New York Central Train Station. Passenger train service ran between North Manchester and Indianapolis, but was discontinued after our time period. The railroad was always referred to as the Big Four Railroad because its builders and operators had been the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroads, dating back to the early 1870s. This is covered in more detail in the Railroad Section.

802 West Main St. - A building was constructed at this location in 1911 to house the S. S. Cox Show Case Factory, which only lasted a few years before going bankrupt. The building remained vacant for a number of years. Then a news article on the front page of the October 4, 1934 News Journal reported the Northfield Furniture Company moved in from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The president of the company was Ernest W. Schultz. The Northfield Furniture Company was featured in the 1938 film, and they placed ads as late as 1943. The company went out of business after Schultz died, and the building was vacant again. An article in the News Journal dated June 24, 1943 stated the Northfield plant was sold on June 23, 1943.

Boyd W. Warner, owner of the Warner Brooder Corporation, started his company in 1933 or 1934 in a small room on the south side of Main St. (address not identified). An October 29, 1936, News Journal article reported that Warner Brooder and Wabash Valley Milk Products Co. would remodel and occupy the old Syracuse building behind the foundry. When the building at 802 West Main became available in 1943, the Brooder Company purchased it, as related in a September 13, 1943 News Journal article. Warner Brooder moved their manufacturing operation into this address. The business continued to grow and Wendell Scheerer and Robert Stauffer came into the organization. The business thrived for many years beyond our study, but alas, it too is gone and the building has been torn down.

808 West Main St. - In the early days, ads showing this address included 810 West Main Street, so we believe that this old building was a two front location. An ad in the August 6, 1923 News Journal showing Olinger and Ulrey Garage at this address. The 1924 phone book also listed this address for Olinger & Ulrey Garage & Machine Shop. DeVon Olinger continued an automobile repair shop here with a gasoline pump out front. He advertised as West End Garage on February 22, 1932. Later, he even raised chickens above the garage, according to his daughter Barbara Olinger Barnes. Failing health required Devon to give up his business in the late 1930s and he became town clerk.

On March 27, 1930 Jacob L. Bower advertised Oldsmobile at the West End Garage but didn't show an address. We place this information here for the reader to speculate if this is where the West End Garage was at this address at the same time Olinger was here. We are a little fuzzy on this address because Olinger used both 808 and 810, so it may have been a double building that included the next address.

Shortly after World War II, Arnolt Corporation briefly stored machinery here that they had used in war production across the street. An ad dated February 21, 1946 showed Bollinger Farm Equipment moved to this address from a couple of doors away at 812. Bollinger left this address and moved to the city limits on West S. R. 114 on January 28, 1948.

810 West Main St. - A blacksmith shop, owned by a man named Metzger, occupied this location in early years. Russell Reahard moved Reahard implement Co. here per an ad January l, 1940.

812 West Main St. - Brice Sherburn operated an automobile repair and welding shop in this concrete block building, based on a May 29, 1939 ad. Then Bolinger Farm Equipment advertised this as their new location in a May 11, 1944 ad but moved a few doors east (to 808 West Main Street ) in 1946.

902 West Main St. - Vera Freels' Grocery was at this address and is covered in the Neighborhood Grocery section.

Before proceeding west on the north side of Main Street, an explanation is needed. Prior to a change in the route of S. R. 114, Main Street continued west for a few blocks (and still does, though with an interruption for a few hundred feet). State Road 114 highway was rerouted at this point and it headed in a northwesterly direction, but Main Street still continued west. We speculate the buildings 810, 812 and 902 were torn down to make way for the rerouting of the state road.

1104 West Main St. - William and Betty Sawyer lived at this address. They had a small barn behind their home where they kept an apple cider press. Every fall, they made apple cider and sold it to the residents. Mrs. Sawyer very meticulously removed any rotten spots in the apples before Mr. Sawyer ran them through the press. Those who drank their product, including the writer of this piece, remember how delicious it was.

1210 West Main St. - Weimer Canning Factory was here - at the northeast intersection of where Main St. ended and what would be a few blocks west of Wabash Rd. The canning factory is covered in the factory section toward the end of this work. Main Street ended at this point back then, a street ran straight north for one block, and then S. R. 114 turned left to head west out of town.

During the period of our study, the vast majority of the businesses in North Manchester were on Main Street just covered. The streets we now cover had varying degrees of businesses on them, but they all were primarily residential streets with only the portions close to the central part of the business section having business locations. Walnut Street, covered next, was the only street other than Main Street that was considered in the "downtown business section". We therefore cover each side of Walnut Street separately as we did Main Street. The rest of the streets we cover both sides for each street.

Walnut Street West Side North from Main Street

This probably had a Main Street address, but.... On the second floor of the Landis Walgreen Drug store, there was a recreation room that had ping-pong tables and games for young people in the 1940s. To get to it, you had to climb the outside iron fire escape stairway on the Walnut Street side of the building, (which is why we are placing it here). The overhanging fire escape was entered on the south end of the stairway. The overhang made a nice little area under the stairway where, we are told, John Paul set up a popcorn stand in the late 40s. The popcorn stand was just one of the many things John Paul, a lifelong resident, did during his lifetime.

104 North Walnut St. - The Kroger Grocery started in North Manchester at this location in 1927, after several other groceries had preceded it. Kroger was here until May, 1936.

In 1936, Frame and Little dissolved their partnership across the street and each went their separate ways in the hardware business. A September 10, 1936 ad for Ace Hardware Store, owned by Ivan B. Little, announced a grand opening at this address on Saturday September 12, 1936. This store showed up in the 1938 film ever so briefly. Mr. Little remained at this location until February 15, 1945, when he moved across the street to where Frame Hardware had been located for many years. The Style Shop, owned by Harry Rich, then advertised its grand opening for Saturday March 16, 1946. They sold ladies apparel and infant's wear the rest of the 1940s and into the 1950s.

106 North Walnut St. - The post office moved here from Main Street, but then moved down the street in 1928. This three-story edifice, built in 1907, is the Masonic Building where the order moved to from a location on Main Street.

In 1933, The Sandwich Shop - H. D. Wilcox advertised at this address. In the spring of 1933, Green Furniture advertised here, and then in the fall of that same year they advertised a removal sale (prior to moving to Main Street). Hickman & Huffman Restaurant, owned by Fred Hickman and Cecil Huffman, moved to this address in early 1934. They had been across the alley, but the IGA grocery took over that space in early 1934.

A November 23, 1936 ad showed Cecil alone at this address. After Huffman, on September 28, 1939 Jerry Parker, Sr. advertised the opening of his restaurant on Saturday, September 30, 1939. To complicate things, the restaurant went through various owners who each had various people running the restaurant. Jerry Parker, St. operated the restaurant a few years until he went to Panama. Then his wife, Peg Parker, operated it for about a year before she joined Jerry in Panama. Eugene Snyder and Paul Snyder actually owned the restaurant during this period of time and the Parkers were operating it for them.

The Snyders then sold the restaurant to Russell Amberg in early 1944, and the Snyders then bought the Gresso Building that is covered at that address on Main Street. Russell Amberg, better known by his nickname of Sam, ran an ad on January 29, 1944 that showed both this address and 901 West Main Street, so he apparently owned both restaurants then - and called them both "Sam's." By April 20, 1944 Sam advertised at 901 West Main Street only. Then George Spann advertised the Walnut Street Cafe here on May 4, 1944. George owned the cafe from 1944 to 1949.

To further complicate things, George didn't advertise in 1947. But there was an ad on November 10, 1947 in the News Journal for "The Walnut Street Cafe - John and Don." We have found no one with any idea who John and Don were. However, George again advertised the Walnut Street Cafe on December, 23, 1948. Restaurants in North Manchester had a way of changing hands quite often. At the end of the decade, this address ceased to house a restaurant and attorney Donald R. Mote moved his office from the second floor to the ground floor.

106 1/2 North Walnut Street - Walter E. Boyer's insurance office was at this second floor address, as advertised in the 1934, 1935, and 1936 college annuals. Attorney Donald R. Mote ran an ad on January 14, 1937. Merl M. Wall later joined Mr. Mote. Mr. Wall was not a member of the firm very long before returning to Indianapolis, according to a February 3, 1947 article in the News Journal. The law office moved downstairs in about 1949 or 1950 when the Walnut Street Cafe vacated the premises.

108 North Walnut St. - Harry White was listed in the 1923 phone book, at this address and advertised a Flower Store. The shop may have been in addition to his greenhouse on Market Street, but we don't know. In 1930, City Lunch - owned by Fred Hickman, Albert Wilcox and Pearl Wilcox - advertised in the 1930 Manchester College Aurora. The restaurant went bankrupt, and then Fred Hickman and Cecil Huffman bought it on Saturday, November 28, 1931. Advertisements in the college annual place Hickman and Huffman Restaurant at this address in 1933 and 1934. They later moved across the alley.

An April 26, 1934 ad announced the grand opening of Snyder IGA, owned by E. Eugene and Paul R. Snyder, brothers, at this address on Saturday, April 28, 1934. The IGA remained here until December 15, 1944 when they moved to the Main Street address abandoned by the Gresso Department Store. The Snyder brothers - sons of F. E. Snyder - came here from South Whitley, where they had learned the trade in their father's grocery.

Frank Johnson moved Johnson Bakery here from Main Street after IGA moved out. He advertised from 1943 through 1948, but only showed this address in a 1946 ad and the 1947 high school annual (we are presuming that he was here in the earlier years). Frank then moved his bakery to his residence at 716 North Mill Street. Harold Werking advertised Quality Bakery here on October 7, 1948, December l, 1949 and January 12, 1950 and was here into the 1950s.

110 North Walnut St. - City Meat Market had ads in 1928 through 1933. Richard and Pauline Neal opened Neal's Tasty Ice Cream Shop about 1937 and advertised from 1940 through 1947. Bill and Myris Miller owned Neal's briefly, about 1947. Gene Arthur had Arthur's Photography Studio here in 1947. Kenneth Werking had the studio in the 1950s.

material provided by A.F Baldwin edited by J.T.Streator