Monday, November 18, 2024
ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: STEPHENSON RIFE ATTORNEYS
SIGN FROM ABOVE
Facade work sponsored by MainStreet Shelbyville reveals the old “Sandman Bros.” painted sign at the southwest corner of E. Washington and Pike Street. | photo by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS
Courier Bonus: May 9, 1951
Editor’s note: In addition to the usual Courier highlights, today’s Addison Times features extended pieces of general significance from a select edition.
New Piano Dedicated
A beautiful Steinway piano has replaced the old upright in the assembly.
The Sunshine Club presented this piano to the school in a special dedication program, April 26.
This piano with its lovely mahogany finish offers visible evidence of just how hard the Sunshine girls have been working these past nine years.
Several of our talented young students took part in dedicating this piano.
They were: Carol Schoolfeld, Marilyn Mohler, Sheila McDonald, Mary Janet Slifer, Ruthann Rigsbee, Carolyn Rigsbee, Gary Ash and Larry Eckstein. Monna Thomas, Senior Sunshine president, presided at the dedication.
Test Your Wits (Answers in Parentheses)
Who is the most popular girl in school? She knows almost everyone by his first name. (Goldie)
Who never gives an assignment without joking with you first? (Mrs. Simpson)
What takes more beating than anything in the entire school building? (Stairways)
What gets the attention of almost every student in the school? (Clock)
In what class do you get music while you work? (Miss Ashby’s typing class)
Young Charles Major
The young boy was proud that day back in 1872, and why shouldn't he be?
He was dressed up this day, and there was an air to the way he walked. His head was higher, his shoes more carefully polished, his clothes more neatly brushed than usual. Today was a day to be remembered, for today he was graduating from high school.
He looked around at his fellow classmates, all five of them. They too were erect and proud in their boastful best on this graduation day. And rightly so.
For these six were members of the first graduating class of Shelbyville High School. They were pioneers, just as their fathers before them had been, although in a slightly different field.
They remembered the struggles and trials of the years, helping their parents to make a city and attending school at the same time. It had not been easy for this class of 1872.
So the young man sat and thought of all the classes that would succeed him, the caravans of future graduates. And he was again proud as he thought of all the great men who would follow in his footsteps.
He thought that he would probably be forgotten, except that he would be remembered as one of the six graduates of the class of 1872. Little did he dream that someday a building on the site of the first high school in Shelbyville would bear his name. So humbly and yet so proudly too, young Charles Major walked on to his own graduation exercises.
Addison Times Update
First, thank you to Dave Childres State Farm Insurance and Greg & Marsha Mings for your $500+ contribution yesterday, and thank you so much to each supporter who has already given various amounts toward our 2025 fundraising goal.
Of the $44,500 goal, we have raised $28,495. Last year, many readers donated a one-time gift for 2025. This will not automatically renew. You can, however, make another one-time donation for 2025 either online or via a check to The Addison Times, 54 W. Broadway, #13, Shelbyville, Ind., 46176. We will once again provide a quarterly publication with extra news and photos in 2025 as a gift for your support of $100 or more. Any amount raised above the goal will be placed in a rainy day fund for 2026 operations and beyond.
Thank you for your continued support of daily local news and history. I appreciate each of you.
- Kristiaan Rawlings, Editor
NOTEBOOK:
The Joseph Boggs Society’s quarterly meeting is set for Wednesday, Nov. 20, 7 p.m., 2616 N. Sand Creek Road, Boggstown. After an organizational meeting, retired geology professor Tom Plymate will speak about “the rocks of Shelby County.” Participants are welcome to bring rocks to ask him about.
HOOSIER NEWS: Indiana University’s Board of Trustees voted Friday to name the planned $110 million athletics center on the IU Indianapolis campus after the late James T. Morris. Morris, a graduate of IU Bloomington, served on the Board of Trustees on and off from 1996 to 2022. His positions in Indianapolis included president of the Lilly Endowment; vice chairman of Pacers Sports and Entertainment; and chief of staff to Mayor Richard Lugar. The arena will include a basketball/volleyball court with seats for 4,500 fans, locker rooms, training facilities, and offices for IU Indy Athletics and USA Track and Field. Construction is expected to conclude in late 2026. IU will fund $21 million of the project, with the state contributing $89 million. (Indiana Public Radio)
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Shelbyville Fraternal Organizations at the Start of the 20th Century: Part 5
by GEORGE YOUNG
Royal Arcanum was one of many fraternal lodges in Shelbyville, Indiana, in 1902. Shelbyville fraternal organizations thrived during that Golden Age of Fraternalism when 40 percent of the adult male population held membership in at least one fraternal order.
Royal Arcanum - Valentine Council #1684
The Supreme Council of the Royal Arcanum, commonly known simply as the Royal Arcanum, is a fraternal benefit society founded in 1877 in Boston, Mass., by John A. Cummings and Dr. Darius Wilson, the latter who had also played a prominent role in the foundation of the Knights of Honor, American Legion of Honor and the Royal Society of Good Fellows, as well as being a prominent official in the Order of United American Mechanics, Ancient Order of United Workmen, a Freemason and an Oddfellow. For three years he had tried to convince the knights to adopt a graded assessment plan, but to no avail. Therefore, he decided to create his own society that would work on the plan. To make sure he would have control over the direction of the group, he wrote its ritual, constitution, beneficial plan, passwords and even designed the organization's emblem himself. On June 23, 1877, he called together a group of his friends in Boston and initiated them as the first Supreme Council of the new order.
The Royal Arcanum’s basic structure and its headquarters in Boston have remained stable since the 19th century. The membership requirements of the RA have changed significantly over time. Initially, membership was restricted to “acceptable” men between the ages of 18 and 55, with the additional requirement that members profess a belief in a Supreme Being. The organization also explicitly excluded individuals of Mongolian descent, regardless of their beliefs. Such restrictive and now widely considered offensive terms were once common in many fraternal benefit groups. Today, however, the RA has removed these discriminatory restrictions.
Even as late as the 1970s, the order put a good deal of emphasis on its ritual. It was described at that time as being quite elaborate, and made use of the number 1105, which had a sort of esoteric meaning to the members of the order. The order's motto is “Mercy, Virtue, Charity.”
The Supreme Council administered death benefits, called the Widows and Orphans Benefit Fund, paying out over $40 million by the mid-1890s in $1,500 and $3,000 certificates. Sick and disability benefits were administered by the Subordinate Councils. However, with increasing assessments in 1896, the order switched from the graded assessment modal to an actuarial modal at its Supreme Council in Cleveland in 1898 and went into effect August 1 of that year.
The Royal Arcanum is the only surviving founding member of the American Fraternal Alliance (formerly the National Fraternal Congress of America), an organization representing 70 fraternal benefit societies and millions of fraternalists. The Royal Arcanum has been helping families since 1877. Today they have over 25,000 members across the United States and parts of Canada.
Rev Wm. J.H. Boetcher was the Orator for the local Valentine Council #1684, he published and compiled the 1902 Picturesque Shelbyville book.
SHS Courier Archive Highlights:
December 1, 1967
Veteran race car driver Johnny Boyd spoke to SHS students about driver safety.
Sunshine members Karen Cover, Marti Ekstrand, Christine Hornback, Melissa Oltman and Sara Jane Bailey made trays for Major Hospital patients’ Thanksgiving dinners.
Student Council announced plans for a Christmas Dance, Dec. 21, 8 - 11 p.m. Appropriate dress was semi- formal (jackets and party dresses). The Dawn Five would entertain.
The Courier was printed by the SHS Vocational class, which included Richard Brown, Bill Hardin, Tony Pettit, Mike Schoelch, Kent Halbertstadt, Ron Armstrong, Kenneth Jacobs, Mike Ross, Dwaine Smith and Mike Platt.
Raymond Mann was a new science teacher at the Junior High School. Mann was a Morristown High School graduate. Karen Kenyon was the new seventh and eighth grade English teacher at SJHS. She had taught one year at Waldron.
Shelbyville defeated Madison Heights, 93-84, with big plays from Wes Miller, Tim Ash and Bob Adkins. Ash had 29 points and 20 rebounds. The Bears led by 30 at one point.
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 by The Addison Times from Shelby County Public Library Genealogy Department materials.
2014: Shelby Community Health held a successful Touchdown Tuesday fundraiser at Maxim Events, with Colts players Mike Adams and Jerrell Freeman on hand. Johnny McCrory, with WSVX, interviewed the players and opened up questions to those in attendance. The free healthcare center’s entire budget came from donations, grants and fundraisers.
2004: “Sister City” visitors were in town. Harou Okabe, Yumi Mizuno, Toyoharu Ishikawa and Yuki Hiraiwa met with Mayor Scott Furgeson to discuss the possibility of Kambara being annexed by Shizuoka, a larger city.
Dylan Jack, 7, received a certificate and medal from Shelbyville firefighters for calling 911 and saving his mother Pam Jack’s life after she suffered a heart attack. Firefighters Buck Lapan, Danny Marcum, Chief Todd Anderson, Deputy Chief Tony Logan and Tom Laughlin presented the award.
1994: The speech development caseload had increased 35 percent in Shelby County over the previous five years, Blue River Special Education Cooperative officials said. The six full-time and one part-time staff member were managing 473 cases.
1984: An expensive sports car, reported stolen in Florida two weeks’ prior, was found on Moriseni Ave. by Sgt. Robert Belles. A Florida man was placed in the Shelby County Jail.
1974: Gov. Otis Bowen called for voluntary conservation of electricity and natural gas because of the possibility of a coal strike. He asked businesses to reduce outdoor lighting “to the minimum amount necessary for security and safety.” He asked residents to turn off unneeded lights and electric appliances in homes.
To better prepare students for college English courses, Marian Chenoweth had her 12th grade SHS students write papers on “surprise” subjects, announced only at the beginning of class. The previous two days’ topics had been “To spank or not to spank?” and “Conformity.”
1964: Fairland National Bank gave away pine-scented pirouette candles to those who opened Christmas Club accounts.
1954: William Dobbins, 57, a prominent Bartholomew County attorney and former prosecutor, died of a heart attack in Shelby County Circuit Court while trying a case. He had just completed what was termed by attorneys a “brilliant” cross examination of a witness. He then complained to Judge Harold Barger that the courtroom was “too warm.” Judge Barger ordered the windows opened. Ralph Adams, plaintiff attorney, then called the first witness back to the stand, but before he could begin, Dobbins slumped in his chair and was later pronounced dead. Dobbins, his nephew Arthur King and Emerson Bruner represented one side in the case. Adams & Cramer and Charles Wells, Columbus, represented the other.
1944: Otto Wilson, 33, a Shelbyville native, confessed to killing two women in downtown Los Angeles. He had been in the Navy until his discharge in 1941. He said he killed the first woman “because she wanted $5” and the other “through plain cussedness.”
1934: Joseph Fountain in the Public Square was re-painted and rehabilitated. “What’s a fountain without water?” The Republican had asked.
Little Miss Sue Ann Eschmeyer, 4, of California, was named “the prettiest California child” in a statewide contest. Her mother, Gladys (Jones), was from Shelbyville. She was the sister of Marie (Jones) Sexton, the wife of Elisha Ray Sexton.
1924: A slot machine operated by brothers Lewis Hawkins and Joseph Hawkins in Waldron was confiscated from their pool room by county law enforcement.
1914: Federal post office officials said children writing letters to Santa (delivered to the newspaper office) must have a two-cent stamp or they would be sent to the dead letter office. Previously, letters were delivered free.
OBITUARIES
None today.