Saturday, March 9, 2024
SPRING FORWARD
The old Methodist Building clock reminds us to spring forward at 2 a.m. tomorrow, Sunday, March 10, or tonight before bed. | photo by JACK BOYCE
Sew-Tec Closes, Ending Family’s Successful Industry Run
Larry and Jackie Schneider and Carolyn and Jerry Schneider (Patti Moss’ parents) founded Elanjay Corporation, the precursor to Sew-Tec. | submitted
Sew-Tec’s recent closure marked not only the end of a business, but also the end of an era that lasted nearly a century.
In 1932, Patti Moss’ uncles started Shelby Manufacturing Company at East Jackson and McLane streets in a building that now houses D & B Cabinet Sales.
“They began the garment factory here mainly because there was a large unemployed workforce in Shelbyville,” Moss said. “The Great Depression hit, and several furniture factories went under.”
At its height, Shelby Manufacturing employed 500, but closed in 1968.
“My dad (Jerry Schneider) and his brother were junior partners, and they started Elanjay,” Moss said of the successor that eventually moved into the former Porter Mirror Works site on Blanchard Street. Elanjay employed about 200 at one time. “That’s where I learned the business, from my dad and his factory.”
Moss’ first job was making samples for companies such as Lane Bryant and Montgomery Ward, which would send patterns and fabric to Elanjay for potential business.
“The factory was a union shop. Some ladies made a lot of money on piecework rates, doing zippers every day, five days a week, for many years,” Moss said.
When her uncle died in 1980, Schneider closed the company and moved to serve as an engineer for other factories. But a heart attack and bypass surgery brought him and his wife, Carolyn, back to Shelbyville in 1988, when they opened Sew-Tec in the Five Points building. The plan was to manufacture non-apparel items, such as tote bags and aprons for restaurants.
“But that was right at the beginning of the big change, and they were up against a lot of Chinese-made goods. They just couldn’t compete,” Moss said.
She joined the business and opened a line for costuming, working with show choirs and competitive dancers. “It very shortly took over the show,” she said.
Jerry Schneider passed away in 1996, but Carolyn and Patti continued. After 15 years, Sew-Tec moved to the corner of East Washington and Noble, and eventually realized another new space was needed. Carolyn drove around town looking at prospects and finally landed on the former Western Supermarket site on Miller Ave. Moss called owner Mike Thomas, whom she had known since childhood, to inquire.
“He said, ‘You don’t want that space. It’s got walk-in freezers and it’s too big, but I’ll show it to you,’” Moss recalled.
She looked at the site, and realized he was right. Fortunately, a space just a couple of doors down in the same plaza came open a few months later.
The years went by, and Carolyn passed away in 2017. Moss has struggled ever since to find help.
“When we opened, we still had a large pool of people we could hire who had been trained by my dad,” Moss said.
Now, few people can operate the industrial sewing machines.
“We can reproduce a garment exactly the way it was made in the factory,” she said. “That’s not to say you can’t make alterations with a domestic machine, but what I did was different. I’m a dying breed.”
So she has operated at a torrid pace.
“I’ve been working seven days a week for several years. I was in here on Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day,” Moss said. “I just turned 70, and I can’t see keeping up that kind of schedule the next five or 10 years. We’ve been in business now 36 years. It’s just time.”
Moss plans to continue to do costuming work for competition dance, which is seasonal.
“That’s going to leave me spring and summer to do stuff I want,” she said. “I want to get back to my artwork.” She also plans to hike and play the dulcimer, which she learned a few years ago.
While Moss looks forward to free time, she’s going to miss her customers, some of whom had been loyal since the Five Points days.
“I know that I’m leaving some big gaping holes,” she said.
One of those is the high school varsity jacket business. While Sports Locker Room does embroidery, Sew-Tec has handled the patches. Despite calling around, she has yet to find someone willing to do the work.
“I hate leaving people in a lurch, but this is my time,” she said, tearing up. “We’ve sure had a long history in this town.”
NOTEBOOK:
NATIONAL NEWS: Last year, voters in Ohio voted to legalize marijuana, which means that all the 400 drug-sniffing dogs that have been trained in the detection of marijuana as well as other still illegal drugs will need to retire, because they’re not able to be retrained and any alert they give can be challenged in court with an “it was just legal marijuana smell” defense. This onslaught of retirements has led to a pair of legislators crafting bipartisan legislation to provide $20,000 in funding to law enforcement agencies for new narcotics dogs. The incoming dogs can range in price from $7,500 to $11,000, and many of the existing dogs will be sold to their handlers for $1 each. (Associated Press/Numlock)
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This Day in Shelby County History
2014: Kody Wagner, a senior at Shelbyville High School, advanced to the Class 5A championship hockey game with his Columbus Icemen team. He was one of two non-Columbus players on the team.
2004: Waldron boys basketball won their first sectional championship in three years. The Mohawks were 23-0 on the season.
1994: Shelbyville Central Schools superintendent James Peck said serious cuts would have to be made to avoid a million dollar deficit in 1995. Peck said that declining enrollment without budget cuts had led to the situation.
1984: Morristown won a sixth grade basketball tournament for county elementary schools. Team members were Scott Havaner, Jeff Martin, Chad McMichael, Todd Fisher, Mearl Thompson, Pat Piper, Jason Shelton, Matt Bowman, Charlie Hart, Ryan Wickline and Larry Ramey. Mark Lane was coach.
Southwestern’s class of 1984 band members, Spartenettes, athletics, cheerleaders and their parents were honored at a basketball game. Band members honored were Kelly Bledsoe, JeanAnna Gore, Melinda McQueen, Angie Metcalf, Belinda Mohr, Alicia Warder, Gwynn Robertson, Troy Burton, Matt Fuchs, David Howard, Ray VanGorden and Tom Smothers. Spartanettes were Cris Arnett, Lisa Slone, Belinda Helser, Margaret Solenberg and Nancy McDaniel. Senior athletes were Gore, Helsar, McQueen, Diane Monroe, Toni Pile, Vicky Powell, Warder, Todd Krise, Tim McCain, Bryan McClure and Smothers. The two varsity cheerleaders honored were Lisa Higdon and Tiffany Tackett.
1974: Eight Shelbyville High School senior boys completed their dribbling of basketballs from the Columbus North gym to the Public Square here in time to help kick off a pep session at SHS in preparation for the regional at Columbus. A city police patrol car escorted the dribblers from the south State Road 9 city limits through the downtown area, then back to SHS. Participating in the 30-mile dribbling trip were John Fox, Ron Hurst, Bruce Everhart, Jim Coulston, Bill Farrell, John Walker, Eric Wickizer and Dave Gooding with Ian Skogland and Steve Ferguson serving as alternates.
1964: The A & P Food Store announced plans for a new supermarket in Shelbyville’s incoming Belaire Shopping Center. The store would replace the company’s present store at 636 S. Harrison St.
1954: Local school and medical authorities gathered to discuss preventing a possible outbreak of scalp ringworm following detection of the first new local case in three years.
The Shelbyville Fire Department offered to provide eight local firemen to Columbus so that several of their crew would be free to follow the Bulldogs to the semi-final tourney in Indianapolis.
1944: Shelbyville’s Karl Kennedy was conducting a search through records to determine which local bridges had been built by his father and grandfather, A.M. and E.L. Kennedy. It was believed the bridge at the Green school house was originally built over Brandywine at the site later occupied by a cement structure on State Road 9. He was following up on various other leads as well.
1934: One hundred and four Shelbyville High School seniors applied for graduation, to be held June 1. There were 55 girls and 49 boys.
Chase Webb, a Morristown graduate who was a student at State Teachers College in Silver City, New Mexico, was honored for his latest written comedy drama, “Should Poets Eat?” Webb had written several notable works as a college student.
1924: Ola Bass sold her grocery store at 22 West Broadway to Charles Planck, of Swayzee, Ind. Bass had purchased the store from Carl Strickler. Before then, she had operated a hem-stitching establishment in the Morrison-DePrez building on South Harrison St.
1914: Local suffragists organized. There were 10 states in the U.S. in which women could vote. Women had organized in several nearby cities for the cause, such as in Franklin and Connersville. “It is not the intent of the enterprising women of Shelbyville to be outdone by the sisters of neighboring towns,” an anonymous letter in The Shelbyville Republican said.
OBITUARIES
Evelyn Mae Miller, 55, of Shelbyville, passed away Sunday, March 3, 2024, at her residence. Born September 18, 1968, in Richmond, Indiana, she was the daughter of'Harold B. "Bud" Rowland and Rose Mary (Weaver) Rowland. Survivors include her mother, Rose Mary Martin, of Shelbyville; daughter Elizabeth Jane Miller of Rushville; a son ,Larry Eugene Miller III of New Castle; sister Virginia Swango of Shelbyville, two brothers, Mike Rowland (wife Sherry) of Arlington and Thomas Rowland (wife Tammy) of Shelbyville; three grandchildren, and special friend, George Proffitt, of Rushville. She was preceded in death by her father and a brother-in-law, Larry Swango.
Ms. Miller was a lifelong resident of this area, and graduated from Waldron High School in 1987. She had been a factory worker at several local factories for several years. She was a member of the local Eagle's Lodge. Evelyn enjoyed playing poker and socializing with friends at the Eagle's. She was a hard worker, a free spirit, and very independent. Her family was very close-knit, and she loved spending time with them.
Funeral services will be 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 12, 2024 at Glenn E. George & Son Funeral Home, 437 Amos Road, with Denise Rodenhuis officiating. Burial will be in Haw Creek Cemetery in Bartholomew County. Friends may call on Tuesday morning from 10 a.m. until the time of the service at the funeral home. Online condolences may be shared at glennegeorgeandson.com.
Gracie “Louise” Phares, 88, of New Castle, passed away Thursday March 7, 2024 at Hickory Creek in New Castle, IN. She was born February 9, 1936 in Pomona, CA. to Marcus M. Whitchurch and Edna Grace (Milligan) Whitchurch. Louise worked in Home Health Care. She attended Baptist Church. Louise was loved by all and will be missed very much. She loved singing and playing the piano.
Louise is survived by her sons, Garry Phares, Elliott Phares and Ian (wife, Stephanie) Phares; several grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; her ex-husband, David Phares; her youngest son, Coyt Phares; one sister and three brothers.
Visitation will be Tuesday, March 12, 2024 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Murphy-Parks Funeral Service, 703 S. Harrison Street, Shelbyville, IN 46176. Funeral services will follow at 1:30 p.m. at the funeral home. Burial will be at Forest Hill Cemetery. Funeral Directors Greg Parks, Sheila Parks, Stuart Parks, and Darin Schutt are honored to serve Louise’s family. Online condolences may be shared at www.murphyparks.com