June 2005                                                     The Megaphone                                                       Page 2

One Hundred and Four Years Ago!

by Nancy Sumner

Do you ever think that you might have missed your "calling" along life’s highway? Why did I do this instead of that? Where you are at now – is it anything similar to what you might have planned, even if it was only in your head? I guess some might call it "In Retrospect." Especially in the last 8 years or so, I have thought that maybe I missed my calling and tend to reflect on my after high school graduation decisions. I have no regrets about any of those decisions but wonder how things might have been different today if I went down the other road. 

Retrospect and Reflection

Since I have worked at the Elwood Library I have come to realize how much I enjoy research! Digging up history and finding out what was. Why didn’t I realize this enjoyment then and not 31 years after graduation! Who knows, I could have been an archeologist or a historian or a super sleuth!

One of the many things that I enjoy about our Den site is the memories! Memories told by each of the members of a time past. Personal recollections about things that happened in our hometown. Even though I was born and raised in Elwood, I don’t seem to have memory cells dedicated to that time period! One year after high school graduation I entered the United States Marine Corps and my life took a different direction. That was in 1967. Twenty-eight years later I returned home. You miss a lot in 28 years! What was, is gone. But through the members memories and research at the Library, all the bits and pieces take hold and I find myself reliving those forgotten times.

I have a thirst for the people, the buildings, the little antidotes of life. This site is great for memory lane walkers. 

I found the following letter in the files in the Indiana Room of the Library. It is of a time gone bye ... back beyond our members memories. Memories of a city and her people written 104 years ago, in penmanship long forgotten. I hope you enjoy!

May 30, 1901

Dear Friend Mollie:

  It was on a bright morning in May 1876 when a bell sent forth its sweet music announcing time for beginning of the term of school and calling the children (also older ones) to come prepared for work, Among those responding was a little (toe headed) boy, who with slate and “A.B.C.” book in hand went gleefully trading down Anderson Street in the old town of Elwood. The “toe head” went out upon the commons (as it was then but now the site of the Grist Mill, L. E. and W. Depot as well as a part of the L. E. & W. tracks) with other pupils and engaged in a general romp; but before time for the second ringing of that good old bell (Oh!, where is that bell, that its sound may once again be heard?), the little “toe head” becoming tired requested his friend, Tim McCormick to go into the school house and get for him his slate and book, no sooner said than done, whereupon the boy went troding home to return accompanied by his Father. This was the first day of school for “toe head”, and well does the writer remember the day. Do you?

  Think of it, twenty five years, yes a quarter of a century ago, hard to realize it has been so long.

  Those were happy days. where are all the pupils, the persons that were residents of Elwood then, also, the old buildings, trees and streets of the old town? Many are dead while those living are scattered to the four winds, some married and others not, some have children and others not.  Well do I remember the chorus of “Good Morning” with the opening of school and “Good Afternoon” at its close, how pleasant to think of it, what a profusion of flowers were constantly kept in the room producing delicate perfumes, also making or putting before the pupils a study of kindness and obedience, this mingles with the prattles of the pupils and kind words of the Teacher made the school cheerful and gave it tone of life.

  Elwood then a village of about 700 or 800 persons all acquainted with each other, now a city of 15000 to 16000 knowing not the neighbor of one another.

  The old mud (for they were) roads now paved with brick, the old forest trees taken down and dwellings and factories in their place.  Where the oxen pulled the cart harnessed lightning now rapidly sends forth the trolley cars.

  Since that memorable day most all of the few frame buildings there standing have been supplanted with larger and some of the larger with larger ( M. E. Church, Pan Handle Depot, Main Street School Building and others), also it was some time later when ties and rails of the L. E. & W. R. R. (there Lafayette and Muncie R.R.) were laid and cars begun to run over them, and for a while our old school building used for a depot.  The many sewers prevent hemps and others from boat riding in the vicinity of Anderson and South A (old Simmons) streets while the large and heavy iron pipes under the streets, together with the engines and pumps at Water Station and the outfits at fire barn have robbed our bucket brigade of their usefulness at such times as fire breaks out in the old Christian Church or papa Chambers Tin Pan Alley.

  The Telephone permits persons of extreme points of town to remain at their respective home to “gossip” thus saving them the trouble of having to wade through mud and water in attending such duties, we might mention that it is a commercial benefit.

  Once upon a time there were a few (one or two) oil street lamps which were trimmed for burning now and then, where are they? Gone. The Electric Lights which have taken their place transforms the night into day.

  No more do we see the old faces or hear the voices in the school rooms, and the old Ministers have gone from among us.

  Where are the dispensaries of pills and quinine for chills and agues, where are they? all, yes excepting probably Drs. J. D. Armfield and D. T. Sigler, mouldering in the graves.

  While they live, no more do we hear the echoes from the hammers and anvil of Father Barmes or James Hannah. Even Old Tom our horse fondled so much by my sister and brothers, is long years dead and gone.

   When we but stop to think of it, it does not seem so much could have transpired in so short a time. What will the next twenty five years bring forth, how many of us will live to see it?

  With kindest regards and best wishes for your health and happiness, I am as ever

Yours Truly,

Will A. DeHority 

Nancy Sumner '66

Elwood, Indiana

to Page 3