Monday, February 13, 2023
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Construction work is on-going at the new county highway garage, transfer station, recycling building and fuel station on N. Michigan Road. Shelby County Recycling District Executive Director Lisa Carpenter said last week she was pleased with the progress. The current highway garage will be used to house Shelby County Emergency Management. The new facilities will include expanded offerings and classroom space. | photo by JACK BOYCE
FLYING OVER FAIRLAND
These birds, captured while flying over northwest Shelby County by photographer Jeb Bass, are heading north.
NOTEBOOK:
The following students were named Shelbyville High School’s Bears Best for February: Michael Creech, Emmie Higgins, Cameron Powell, Adrian Don-Juan Ramos, Faye-Lynn Voss, Julian Eads, Shelby Lasure, Harrison Neace, Osvaldo Reyes, Diana Lira and Josue Issac.
Shelbyville High School girls basketball senior Kylee Edwards was honored at the boys’ game over the weekend. Edwards completed her Golden Bear career as the basketball program’s all-time leading scorer, rebounder and with the most blocked shots, and holds the record for most points (45) scored in a game. Edwards is going to Mississippi State University in the fall, where she will play softball.
HOOSIER NEWS: Data released Friday by the State Budget Agency show Indiana taking in $1.94 billion in general fund tax revenue during January. That was $73.8 million, or nearly 4%, more than anticipated by the forecast issued in December. The extra money, primarily from higher-than-expected sales and individual income tax receipts, suggests that the revised revenue forecast due to be released in April could project even larger state revenues during the 24-month period beginning July 1. That might spur spending-wary Republican lawmakers into embracing some of the legacy-defining features of Gov. Eric Holcomb’s final budget without fear of violating the balanced-budget mandate of the Indiana Constitution. (Munster Times of Northwest Indiana)
SHELBY COUNTY PEOPLE & PLACES: REV. JOSEPHINE HUFFER
Editor’s note: In the mid- to late 1940s, The Shelbyville Republican published a series of articles by Ave Lewis and Hortense Montgomery covering community people and places. Below is one of those features.
BELOW: Trinity Methodist Church and the parsonage where Huffer raised her three children, pictured here in a July 2021 file photo.
The "dean" of ministers of the Indiana Methodist Conference, Rev. Josephine B. Huffer, pastor of the Trinity Church here, hadn't planned, especially when a young girl, to enter the ministry. She had planned to be a minister's wife.
But the course of events in her life has seen her both as a minister's wife and as a pastor for 27 years. Only one other minister in the entire state has held the pastorate of the same church longer than she, and it is through her 24 consecutive years of service at the Trinity Church that she holds the Methodist deanship honor.
Rev. Huffer, who was born Josephine Pavey in Switzerland County, came from a family of teachers. Four of her five brothers and sisters were teachers, and Rev. Huffer recalls only one other minister in the family. Her paternal grandfather was a Baptist pastor.
Following her graduation from Moores Hill College with a Bachelor of Science degree, Rev. Huffer too was a teacher for a number of years in the Switzerland county schools and in the Lawrenceburg high school. She began teaching at the early age of 17 years, but even in her college years her trend toward the ministry was apparent because she recalls that she did evangelistic work during that time.
Her "plans" to become a minister's wife materialized with her marriage to Rev. Wilbur A. Campbell, and aside from caring for the three children born to them, she was happiest when aiding him with his work and study. Following Rev. Campbell's death in 1919, she turned to the ministry as the vocation she most loved and as the best way in which to keep her family together.
In 1920 she was licensed as the first "woman preacher" in Indiana and was assigned to the Cross Plains Church. Rev. Huffer also has another "first" to her credit: she was the first woman in Indiana to be ordained an elder and is the only one to have taken the complete traveling-preacher four-year course of study. She served the Cross Plains congregation for four years, and during this time a new $10,000 church was built. She is proud of the fact that at the same time the church was dedicated, four young men were dedicated to the ministerial service. She also speaks with pride of Charles Hale, a former member of her Trinity congregation who now has been a licensed pastor for the past three years.
She came to Shelbyville in 1924, and although she disclaims any credit, the attractive red brick place of worship on Fair Avenue stands as a monument to her sincerity, faith and conscientious desire to be of service to the community. The church to which she came here was called the Main Street Church and was a small building located on Alice Street. The congregation numbered 75 people with a Sunday school enrollment of 65. Immediately, plans for increasing the membership began forming in Rev. Huffer's mind, as well as plans for a larger church to service a wider scope. During her first year here, the parsonage, which stands next door to the present church, was purchased and next came the purchase of a plot of land. Rev. Huffer remembers that "no one thought we could possibly build a large church, but somehow we did." The Trinity Church was dedicated in 1927 with fitting ceremonies and it's with a sense of happiness and satisfaction that amounts almost to "gloating" that Rev. Huffer says, thoughtfully, "Now it’s paid for and the church and parsonage are valued at $90,000."
Always intensely interested in young people, her church programs are planned so that "her" boys and girls may have a part in its activities. Right now she is mulling over having the parsonage basement made into a recreation spot for them. And it almost goes without saying that the idea will materialize because this woman who reared three children almost single-handed and also found time to continue with her intensive study and the ministership of a growing church seems to have a way of getting things done for the betterment of her congregation.
In 1929, she was married to Rev. W.W. Huffer, who also took an active part in the church and aided with her work until his death in 1939. Since that time her children all have graduated from DePauw University and now are "gone from home." Mary Elizabeth received her registered nurse's degree from DePauw and remained to teach on the faculty until her marriage to Robert Merkle, a former Army captain. They now reside in Warsaw with their Emily Sue. Mariam, now Mrs. Herbert Senger, is a teacher in the schools at Frankfort, and James is in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Outside of her interest in people, which amounts to a "hobby," Rev. Huffer likes dramatics and has written many pageants and other articles. Back in the days when she was serving as president of the Parent-Teacher Association at the old Kirby school building and heading the former Community Chest, she had ideas that "when the children are a little older I may do something with dramatics." But now she finds that her years here have brought such a wide acquaintance that calls for service from outside her own church are so numerous that time still is at a premium. "Sometimes yet I may write," she says, "but right now I'm too busy - and being busy is a blessing, particularly when you are doing something in answer to a call for help.”
This Week in Shelby County" works by George L. Stubbs Sr. are owned by the Shelby County Historical Society (Grover Center) and used with permission.
THIS DAY IN SHELBY COUNTY HISTORY
News around Shelbyville and the surrounding area as reported on or about this date in history. Selections are curated from the Shelby County Public Library Genealogy Department.
20 YEARS AGO: 2003
After four years as Deputy State Attorney General and two years as General Counsel for Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, attorney J.D. Lux resumed practice in Shelbyville, joining his father, Jerry Lux, as Steve Talbert reported for The Shelbyville News. Lux, who had been working for State Attorney General Jeff Modisett, had retained his local residence. His new office would be in the former home of Hub Shoe Store. The article quoted Judge Charles D. O’Connor, attorney Jeff Bate and Shelbyville High School teacher John Heaton lauding Lux’s character. Heaton had coached Lux, a 1986 SHS graduate, and the rest of the Golden Bears basketball team to a semi-state appearance at Market Square Arena during Lux’s senior year.
30 YEARS AGO: 1993
An open house was held at Standard Register on West State Road 44. Delores Hawkins, Lynda Thomas, Maggie Hasecuster and Mary Cockerham were recognized for 25 years of service.
40 YEARS AGO: 1983
Shelbyville’s fast-pitch softball team, the Sting, announced plans to sponsor a “farm team,” under the direction of manager Rudy Thoman.
Two players each from Triton Central and Morristown were selected to the All-Big Blue River Conference girls team. Jennifer Robinson and Jodie Inman, from TCHS, and Kathy Hauk and Kelli Jo Fort, of Morristown, were selected. Shelbyville’s Teri Staker had the top scoring average in the girls South Central Conference regular basketball season. In wrestling news, Shelbyville’s John Schuck, Morristown’s Chuck Short and Triton’s Mike Gilsdorf were all headed to semistate action.
50 YEARS AGO: 1973
Some 500 local residents visited the new facilities of the Girls Club of Shelbyville at the Civic Center on E. Washington St. Presiding at the ribbon cutting were Mrs. James Swanson, Charles Reynolds, Mrs. Kevin Findley, Mrs. Al Melton, John Wetnight Jr., Mrs. Clifford Grigsby, Mrs. William Tindall and Jack Tindall. Nearly 600 girls had joined the new organization.
60 YEARS AGO: 1963
Elvis Presley’s “Girls! Girls! Girls!” was on in Technicolor at The Strand.
70 YEARS AGO: 1953
Police Chief Lloyd Mellis left to attend the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy in Washington , D.C. Mellis was the first city police officer ever to attend from Shelbyville. Since the academy opened in 1935, only seven law enforcement officers in Indiana from cities south of U.S. Highway 40 had attended the school. The board of works granted Mellis $12 a day living expenses while at the academy.
80 YEARS AGO: 1943
“Hitler’s Children” was on at The Strand. Shows also occurred at noon for swing shift war workers.
90 YEARS AGO: 1933
Two Shelbyville police officers were charged with neglect of duty at a special meeting of the city council. The charges were based on an incident in which the two were called to arrest a drunk, and failed to do so when the man offered resistance. The charges followed the complaint of a man on W. Locust St. who had asked police to arrest a man attempting to intimidate him. The suspect was confronted by the officers but was free just 20 minutes later. A trial would be held before the whole council. One of the officers had been in poor health and, at the time of the arraignment, was undergoing treatment at Major Hospital.
100 YEARS AGO: 1923
Work on the building of Major City Hospital was started. The addition to the Major home would be on the west side of the building. “When Alfred Major planned this splendid home, he provided for a winding driveway from Washington Street to the north side with a stone canopy with a slate roof, a door entering the home under this canopy. Along the driveway was set a double row of Norway maples,” The Republican said. “This morning, men were engaged in taking this stone canopy down.” The addition would be 100 feet long, extending over the ground purchased from the Muchmore estate. Work on the brick garage on Franklin St. that would be converted into the nurses’ department and power plant had been on-going for some time.
OBITUARIES
None today