“Aw’ dern it”

March 12, 1880, from the Rural Republican and the Weekly Western Sun

The Sand Ridgers were about to build a new church east of Gilmore Howell’s residence.  Seven railway carloads of cane fishing poles passed on the Danville & South Western en route to Chicago.  K P Snyder’s law office was still located in the southwest corner room of the courthouse with Treasurer Whittaker. The County Treasurer’s office has moved to the first floor of the courthouse and Mr. Whittaker had it fixed up comfortably.     

Joe Childress (Big Joe) was found at an unusual hour of the night inside of Tracy’s grocery store.  He was arrested under a warrant for larceny late in the day and Constable Powers undertook to keep him until morning for trial.  Somehow Joe watched Billy better than Billy did Joe, and Joe vamoosed leaving a poor watchman behind.

A writ for a ten-dollar fine and costs or go to the lock- up was in the hands of Deputy Sheriff Ryan against Dick Musgrave.  The jail had repeatedly been condemned as unfit for business but still Dick was put into the hall late in the afternoon.  Before morning Dick heard the early train whistle, and he skipped out by a bad window leaving the Deputy and friends to pay the reckoning. It is all paid off, Dick is gone, jail is busted.  Moral: Build a jail that is a jail.  (The outspoken newspaper editor Mary Buntin strikes again.)

 The village authorities had been busy this week trying to convict the “hoodlums” who lately had disturbed the usual peace and quiet of the village.  A conviction of Will Walls was secured by Prosecutor George Huffman, K P Snyder defending with a fee of five dollars.  The other parties escaped for the present.  Jim Dixon and Laham Meadows were also arraigned for a knock- down in the mud, to the disadvantage of Jim’s new clothes and Esquire Robinson thought the fun was worth five dollars apiece and so the books closed for the day. 

 The editor Mary Buntin devoted almost an entire front-page column to a new invention of the Fifteen Game otherwise known as the Gem Puzzle.  According to one story it was the invention of a deaf mute in Hartford who made it for the entertainment of the inmates of the asylum where he lived without a thought of the insane asylum for which it seems likely to make so many patients. (There was a long description of how to play and how to make a game for oneself out of a cigar box. Even the Vincennes newspaper was talking about the game of Fifteen.   Readers, you can still buy them new at Amazon. Did you know they had been around since 1880?

This week in 1880, maple sugar could be found in the market for sale. Ed Tracy wanted 500 dozen chickens for the southern markets for which he would pay the highest cash price

At the County Commissioner’s meeting J A Dickinson, representing the purchasers of the Paris and Danville Railroad, filed a petition proposing to pay fifty cents on each dollar of taxes due to the county for the years of 1876, 1877, 1878, and 1879 provided the railroad be released from the payment of the whole amount of county taxes. The proposition was rejected.  Margaret Buchanan was paid $21.25 for boarding jurors during criminal cases. F W Cox was paid his quarterly salary of $75.00 as County Supt of Schools.  James Sandiford was paid $3.50 for cleaning the privy during circuit court. Cornellus Meadows was paid $12.50 for a new stove and fixtures for the courthouse. (Remember a few weeks ago the stove pipe fell down during court and dirtied the attorneys.) Dan’l Thorn was paid $4.50 in the case of Harvey Dibble, insane.

On the O &M RR the previous week there were over 6,000 freight cars moved which made between 200 and 250 trains out of Washington Indiana over the local tracks. Nearly all the passenger engines were brought into requisition to pull freight and were compelled to then return with the passenger trains without being able to give their engines or engineers the least rest.  This was the heaviest freight business ever done on the road in one week.  Nearly all the crews doubled the road everyday in the week and were groaning for want of sleep and rest.

The Presbyterians of Sumner elected S M McClure, William Orr and J S Brooke to oversee the building of the new church. The cost would be $1000.

 A resident showed the editor of the newspaper an old document dated November 11, 1825, for a warrant that was issued by John Myers for the arrest of Reason Ruark of Lawrence County and Lloyd Rollins of Wabash County. Ruark and Rollins sold Myers 90 lbs. of beeswax at 26 cents per pound. Myers soon discovered he had been deceived by 15 lbs of sandstone that had been overlaid with beeswax.

In 1870 U S Congress passed the 15th Amendment that stated that voting rights could not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. While the 15th Amendment barred voting rights discrimination on the basis of race, it left the door open for states to determine the specific qualifications for suffrage such as the time of residence within a state. To vote in Lawrence county in 1880 one must have lived in the state one year, ninety days in the enumerator district and 30 days in the township or village. Also the Supreme Court in 1880 finally decided that Negroes had the right to sit on juries.

When the country lad first comes to the city he uses the very profane expression, “Gaul darn it” with reckless ease.  As the refinement of metropolitanism begins to take hold of his speech he mildly says, “By durn” and when he reaches the lavender trousers, drab overcoat and eyeglass stage of culture he twirls his little wisp of a cane in his fingers and murmurs “Aw’ dern it”.

Deaths in March

March 1             Mary Lucinda Brothers 15 years phthisis pulmonalis  

March 3             Frances Mullins Mills 61 years typhoid pneumonia

March 5             Mary Jane Brookhart 12 days premature birth

March 10           Barbara Tougas Bordeleau Birdlow 38 years pulmonary consumption

March 17           Della May King 7 months pneumonia

March 18           Charles Mullins 3 years scarlet fever

March 20           William Lanterman 14 years typhoid fever

March 25          Josiah Shroyer 57 years heart disease

Genealogists, if you have any information about these individuals please contact Lawrencelore@gmail.com.