Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 57, Number 128, Decatur, Adams County, 1 June 1959 — Page 1

Vol. LVII. No. 128.

Killed By Dynamite Blast Near Berne A dynamite blast killed a 59-year-old drag-line operator Friday afternoon as he was setting a charge into a tree stump on the Don Abnet farm, three and onehalf miles east and south of Berne. John Oakley Biddle, of route 4, Bluffton road, Fort Wayne, who had been working with Abnet for a week clearing the Peel ditch, was killed instantly when he set a full charge in the stump. He had just blown out a hole in the stump with half a charge. The second charge apparently became heated from the previous charge and exploded. Abrfet, who was working at the other end of the ditch cutting trees, said that he had yelled over to Mr. Biddle, asking him if he was having trouble getting the second charge lighted. ■ Mr. Biddle answered, “Yes, I am." The dynamite then exploded. . ’ ' _ The accident was investigated by Adams county sheriff Merle Affolder, deputy Robert Meyer, state police detective Walter Schindler, and county coroner Elmer Winteregg. Jr. The authorities discounted theories that the explosion was linked with another dynamiting in Adams county earlier in the week, when a crane on the Julius Kohne farm was almost totally destroyed by a mysterious blast about 9:15 p. m. Wednesday. The Biddle death was definitely accidental. A resident erf Allen county for 35 years, Mr. Biddle was a native of Ossian. He was a member , of toe Wayne Street Methodist church and the church’s men’s • club. Surviving are his wife, Iona; a daughter, Mrs. Maurice Keltsch, Fort Wayne; two brothers, Ned, of Fort Wayne, and Scott, of Bluffton; two sisters. Mrs. Richard Coak, of Fort Wayne, and Mrs. Mae Donaghy, erf Ossian; and two grandchildren. Services were conducted today at 10 a. m- at the Chalfant-Perry funeral tome, Dr. Gerald H. Jones officiating. Burial was i« Greenlaw* memorial park. TB Association To Meet Friday Night The annual meeting of the Adams county tuberculosis association will be held at 8 o’clock Friday night in room 206 of the Decatur high school. Reports of the year’s activities will be presented and officers and directors will be elected for the ensuingyear.

Report Lloyd To Be Ousted

GENEVA (UPI)—A report in the Times of London that British > Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd < might be rplaced gravely dis- i turbed Western diplomats today i just as a break seemed imminent i in the East-West deadlock over Berlin. t The Conservative Times often i reflects the opinions of Prime t Minister Harold Macmillan and < the report hit here with shatter- i ing impact. There was no indication in the report that Lloyd s would be replaced as foreign min- i ister before the East-West confer-J ence here is ended. 1 But diplomats feared the report t seriously damaged Western unity I and impaired Lloyd’s effectiveness here. Until Lloyd had a < chance to fill in his Western part- i ners on the situation, no official c wanted to assess the possible 1 effect on East-West talks. < The Western Big Three ministers met in strategy session this ; morning to prepare for a secret t East-West session at the Soviet i villa with Russian Foreign Minis- < ter Andrei Gromyko. There had j been hope some break in the Berlin.question would tome then, t Informed British sources in Lon- j don said Macmillan had not dis- i cussed a possible change with i Lloyd. A spokesman said, “You 1 can knock that on the head.” The sources said Macmillan i was reported seriously concerned s at what he considered an ill- j timed, ill-informed story and the j effect it could have on Lloyd’s < nrestige at Geneva. The Times said Macmillan be- ] lieved the foreign minister’s job 1 was such a demanding one that < no one man should hold it for too < long a time. He was said to feel ] Lfoyd should be shifted from the 1 position before it ruined his health. < ■Until today’s developments Sec- , retary of State Christian A. Her- i ter was reported to feel a break 1

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

Four Are Killed By Cave-In, Fire At Mine In Michigan

' IRON RIVER, Mich. (UPI) — Four men died from poisonous . sulphur fumes today when trapped by a cave-in and fire at the. bottom erf the Sherwood iron mine of the Inland Steel Co., one ' mile south of here. Thirty-one other miners made . their way to safety, although two were in critical condition at Stambaugh General Hospital. I The dead were Rudy Carl An- . derson, 1, Iron River, father of six children; Einar Johnson, 59, Crystal Falls; Ingver Wester, 31, Iron River, and August Zuckoff, 431, Crystal Falls. Those in critical condition from ■ sulphur burns and inhalation, ■ were Howard Grutte, 31, Crystal Falls, father of two children, and t Robert Jarvi, 51, Iron River. The men were working at the ’ bottom level of the mine, 1,400 ‘ feet below the surface, in a stop ‘ leading off the main tunnel. Fire, apparently started spontaneously in sulphur deposits in the slate rock of the mine, ate away a rock • pillar holding up the ceiling of ■ the stope. Most of the men man- : aged to flee before the ceiling t caved in, but the dead were trapped. i The men reached the mine elevator, by riding electric engines that pull the ore cars. One of ’ the men who survived said the I burning sulphur made the mine “about twice as hot as a steam . bath.” He said he threw his shirt over his face to keep from breathing the sulphur fumes and made his way to the main tunnel where he and the others jumped aboard • the electric engine. A rescue team, wearing gas masks obtained from the M. A. Hanna Mining Co., went into the mine to clear away the debris of the cave-in and pull the bodies of the dead out. Sherwood Mine Supt. R. W. Edwards said all those in the mine at the time of the fire and cave-in were out by 11:05 a.m., less than two hours after the cave-in, which occurred at 9:15 a.m. 1 He said the fire was out. “We don’t know exactly what happened and I’d rather hot talk about the extent of the cave-in and fire before we’ve had a

in the Berlin stalemate would come before the middle of the week and that enough progress might be made to justify a summit conference. I The East and West were unable to get anywhere on their various package plans for an overall German settlement and turned in desperation to a stopgap arrangement on Berlin. Despite Western optimism there seemed little common ground for a German settlement or even a Berlin arrangement that would permit the United States, Britain and France to remain in West Berlin. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gave no reason for optimism when he said in a speech Saturday night in Tirana, Albania, the Western plans were totally unacceptable. “We have no reasons to make any concessions since our propos- w als were not made for bargaining,” Khrushchev said. The Western plan “does not contain a single element for negotiation.” The Allies’ only hope was that this was one of Khrushchev’s propaganda statements which was not to be taken at face value but made to strengthen Russia’s position at the Geneva talks. Partly as a result of this, the Western Allies were consulting among themselves about just how much progress was necessary to justify summit talks. They were divided on this. . President Eisenhower has aid he would not attned a summit meeting with Khrushchev unless substantial progress was made at Geneva. British Prime Minister Hamid Macmillan wants summit talks regardless of Geneva. France’s President Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany were still not convinced that summit talks were desirable at all.

1 M chance to examine the mine," he said. The cave-in occurred on a sloping tunnel leading out from the main shaft A fire apparently was started spontaneously in the sulphur deposits in'toe slate-rock , in the mine. Warren Ahl, superintendent of the Bristol mine at nearby Crystal Falls, had told United Press International before toe bodies of the last four men were brought up that “it doesn’t look good” for them. Ahl said the fire was burning an estimated 600 feet from the main shaft at the 1,400 foot deep level. The fire broke out at 9:15 a. m. Rescuers wore breathing appa- . ratus to protect themselves frj>m , the poisonous fumes. They car- , tied ropes, picks and axes. The chief clerk at toe mine said an hour after the fire broke out ■ that it was "doubtful” toe four men were still alive. He said 88 men are employed at the mine, which was started in 1940. The clerk said the only way to put out the fire was to seal it off ’ after the attempt to bring out all ; the men. , Local Lady's Mother : Dies At Fort Wayne Mrs. Mary Kintz, 96, mother of 1 Mrs. Joseph Smith of Decatur. ; died in her Fort Wayne residence ; Sunday at 4 a.m. following a ones month illness. A native of Seneca county, 0., she had resided in Fort Wayne for the past 32 years. A son > and her husband preceded her in ! death. Other survivors are two sons, : Hubert, of Fort Wayne, and Beri nard, Sarasota, Fla.; another daughter, Mrs. Anna Lankenau, of > Salamanca, N. Y.; 15 grandchll- • dren; 54 great-grandchildren and : four great-great-grandchildren. i The Rosary society will conduct i services at the funeral home tonizht at 8 o’clock, Mrs. Kintz was

lliglll 41b © W VlUWfe. - cute- (MUM a member of the Catholic Ladies of Columbia and the Third Order of St. Francis. Friends may call at the Eikenberry funeral home after 7 p.m. today. Final serviced will be conducted at 9:30 a m. Wednesday in the funeral home and 10 a.m. in the Most Precious Blood Catholic church, the Rev. Alfred H. Meyers officiating. Burial will be in the Catholic cemetery in Decatur. State Rests Case On Arnold 6. Hobbs FORT WAYNE, Ind. (UPI) — The state rested its case today against Arnold G. Hobbs, 32, who is on trial before an Allen Circuit Court jury on a $1,600 embezzlement charge in connection with a huge shortage in the accounts of the Noble County Credit Union. Hobbs, who was manager of the union for 10 years until the board of directors fired him last September for making "unauthorized loans” was expected to be his own witness Tuesday or Wednesday. Courtroom observers believed the case would reach the jury by midweek. The state recalled an earlier witness this morning as the trial was resumed after a weekend recess. He was Darwin Freck, Huntertown accountant f First defense witness was Fae Lemish, who testified she Was hired as a cleaning woman by Fay Parr, who succeeded Hobbs as manager and was an assistant , manager before Hobbs left Mrs. Lemish told 'of finding ' fragments of various records and , S6B in currency in wastebaskets. She said she turned the fragments over to Hobbs’ brother-in-law, Walter E. Campbell. She said Parr told her to burn everything , she found in the institution’s . wastebaskets. • ]

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER Dt ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Monday, June 1,1959.

Decatur Man Aids In Bank Bandit Capture

FORT WAYNE Ind. (UPI'—A 21-year-old Fort Wayne man was held today as a suspect in the $4,975 holdup of toe Grabill bank last March 31. Police who surprised David Lawrence Lynch as he slept Sunday in his home merely wanted to question him about a SIOB holdup a few hours earlier at a filling station, where an attendant ■ memorized a getaway car license number that turned out to 'be ■ Lynch's. But on further questioning, poI lice extracted an admission that ■ Lynch was responstb'e for other holdups, including ‘ that at the Grabill bank near Fort Wayne. State police said Lynch confessed that he held up the Grabill bank and directed them to a spa 4 1 where they »“iad a small brown suitcase, a br>wr> jacket and tn-users believed used by the bandit,' and an undetermined amount of money identified as part of the loot. When troopers Donald Fry and Richard Henderson of’ the Fort Wayne post firs*i got Lynch out ot bed Sunday morning, it was ■ nly w..h the idea of questioning »;rn about a filling static! holdtp a [ few' hours earli'". f Japes ,C- tian’a 34. Fort I Wayne, attendant at a service sta- \ tion in Fort Wayne, reported to i priice that a m?’: held him up and ■ warned him he would be killed if i he called authortfe; Harris said t the bandit was the same man who Three Miners Are Rescued ; hi. l4 u——

After 41 Hours BEAVER DAM. Ky. (UPI) — Three miners, rescued from a coal mine 496 feet into a hillside after a cave-in had trapped them for 41 hours, rested today, apparently in good shape. The three were freed early Sunday when a mechanical coal mole ground its way to the 12 by 120 foot room in which they were stranded. Officials said the cavein was due to a ‘‘high-wall shift.” “We never gave up,” said Earl Bennett, 50, Taylorsville, Ill.'“All three of us prayed. The thing we missed most was the sunshine and toe stars.” Bennett, a survivor of toe West Frankfort, 111., mine explosion that killed 22 persons in 1922, said he plans to return to toe mines. “I’ve been a miner all my life.” he said. Don McClernon, 53, Pana, 111., said he would take it easy a while before going back to work. “I’m going to take a vacation and T may get me a white collar job,” he laughed. Jake Lewis, 38, Harlan, Ky., had little to say about the experience. Examined at a hospital where they were taken immediately afterward, Dr. Albert H. Joslin said toe men were in "remarkably good condition considering toe ordeal they went through.” He said they were in much better shape than expected, considering they were in a damp room at 55 to 60 degree temperatures and with no heavy clothing. I Joslin said Lewis and Bennett had slight cases of bronchitis due to toe dampness and he gave them sedatives and sent them to bed. Superintendent Ralph Bailey of toe Ken Cqal Co. said toe men would “have as much time otf as they want, but they’ll probably be ready to come back to work in three or four days.” The state began an investigation under toe direction of James H. Phalan, state commissioner of mines and minerals. E.E. Quenon, safety director for toe Ken Coal Co., said as far as he knew, it was toe first time a cavein had occurred at a highlevel wall mine.

■ * i k ,— < . robbed him abm: 10 days earlier ’ j and slugged him. j Authorities we r e debating whether to preset de Lyn h on j federal bank robbeiy charges or . on state charges of inflicting physI i- al injury in the commission of I the first robbery of Harris. The t Injury charge would carry a pos-. «Me life term in prison. * . » Aids In Capture r Until they decide, Lynch was held on a preliminary charge of . armed robbery. t Police said Lynch lived at De- ■ troit until a bout a year ago when « he moved to Auburn, then later to Fort. Wayne. The and . clothing were found in the attic of I his former home in Auburn. Detectives said Lynch told them i he committed the robberies bel cause he was out of work and his • wife was expecting a child. The I robberies included four at service > stations in this area, j Harris had the help of a passing I motorist in obtaining the license : number of Lynch’s car. After the t holdup, he flagged Kenneth Kiser, ' 28, Decatur, and they sped after i the getaway vehicle I .’ They got i close enough to get toe license number, then gave up’the chase t and notified police. - Police found $lO4 in cash and 3 two pistols in Lynch’s home. f ' _ ; Memorial Day Rites Held Here Saturday A crowd of approximately 500 persons, the largest for many years, attended the Memorial Day services Saturday sponsored by the local veterans organizations. "We must wage a relentless war against evmr form of law--»>—■■a < t J ! a—-

lessness arid immorality in the state and nation,” the Rev. Richard C. Ludwig, pastor of the Zion Lutheran church and a first lieutenant in the Air Force Reserves, told the group at the peace monument. » The observance started with a motorcade to the Catholic cemetery, where rites were held at the grave of Oscar Lengerich, under the direction Os the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The group then went to the Decatur cemetery, to the grave as Artie Jackson, rites there by the American Legion. Bill Jacobs sounded taps at both cemeteries. The motorcade returned to the VFW home, where ' the parade formed. A very large parade, with the Adams Central and Decatur Catholic school bands, and marching groups from the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, then proceeded to the Monroe street bridge, where the sergeant at arms threw out a wreath as a token of enduring memory for the sailors and marines who participated in the various wars of the nation. The parade was led by Marshal Severin H. Schurger, prosecuting attorney. 60th Celebration Only one Spanish-American War veteran was present at the ceremony—William Noll; of Pleasant Mills, who attended his 60th Memorial day celebration. Os those, 58 were celebrated at Decatur, and two in Ohio. Stan Kling, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, presided at the monument, where the Decatur Catholic band played one stanza of “America.” Kling then introduced Chaplain Edward Pacha, who gave the Memorial Day prayer. Wreaths were then placed on the crosses mounted before the peace monument, as follows: Grand Army of the Republic, Charles Morgan; Spanish-Ameri-can war, William Noll; World War I, Leslie Hunter; World War 11, Charles Chew; Korean War, H. P. Schmitt, Jr.; nurses of all wars, Miss Margaret Eiting. Rev. Ludwig Speaks Rev. Ludwig then reviewed the Continued on page five

■ II < EUB Pastors Are Returned ■ By Conference No changes were made in the four Decatur area Evangelical ’ United Brethren pastorates, but * changes were made at Petroleum, and Monroeville in this area, it was announced today. A new district superintendent, s the Rev. Marshall Chambers, of j the South Bend .Central E. U. B. , church, was elected to replace Dr. 1 Benjamin F. Smith, of the Fort Wayne district The Rev. -Wilson S. Parks, of the South Bend dis- ! trict, was reelected, and the Rev. . Verner Carlson, of the Warsaw First church, was elected superintendent of the newly created Logansport district. Rev. Chambers, the new head of the Fort Wayne district, wSI live temporarily in Warsaw. The Rev. Benj. G. Thomas, of the Bethany church, the Rev. J. O. Penrod, of the Trinity church, the Rev. Emmitt Anderson, of Union Chapel, and supply minister F. I. Willmert, of the Calvary E. U. B. church, were all returned. The Rev. L. T. Norris, former Union Chapel minister, was moved from near Avilla to Zanesville, in Wells county. 'Die Rev. A. E. Givens, of Berne, was moved to Hillsdale Chapel, near Kokomo. The new Berne pastor will be the Rev. J. H. Schaeffer, formerly chaplain at the Haven Hubbard home for the aged, near New Carlisle. The Rev. James Sutherland, of West Lafayette, has been elected north conference director of Christian" education, succeeding Rev. Thomas of Decatur, who has served for the past nine years. Next year the director of education job will become full-time. The Rev. Paul Garner will be the new pastor at Petroleum, replacing the Rev. Beves Hill, who will go to Jefferson, near Frankfort. • The Rev. J. C. White, formerly at Colfax, will move to Monroeville/replacing the Rev. Joe Beard, who has been moved to Bippus, near North Manchester. The vision for victory program of the Evangelical United Brethren church will move into its second year, with the emphasis on missions. The Bethany congregation at Fort Wayne, established a ago, now has a growing membership of 60. Land will be purchased in the Kokomo.area for a suburban church this year. False Alarm Answered By Fire Department The Decatur fire department answered a false alarm Saturday at 3:55 p.m. at Court street. A report, telling of a motorcycle burning, proved to be erroneous as the firemen found no vehicle In distress. INDIANA WEATHER Scattered thundersh o w e r s south this afternoon. Partly cloudy and cooler tonight with a few showers likely extreme south. Tuesday fair and pleasant Low tonight 46 to 55 north, 54 to 60 south. High Tuesday 68 to 75. Sunset today 8:06 p. m. Sunrise Tuesday 5:19 a. m. Outlook for Wednesday: Mostly fair with slowly rising temperatures. Lows 50 north to 55 south. Highs 75 north to 80 south.

■■■ ___ -5 1k, d 1- iHF Iff iwL Wyl w Mur M I i > W % * bHONOR NATION’S WAR DEAD— Sumner G. Whittier, (center), Administrator of. Veterans Affairs places President Eisenhower’s wreath at the Tomb, of the Unknowns in Arlington National cemetery in observance of Memorial Day. Color guards and troops from all branches of the military took part in the 91st annual Memorial Day rites among the cemetery’s green rolling hills and gravestones.

Holiday Death Toll A Record

United Press International The nation posted its blackest " two-day Memorial Day holiday in “ history with a record slaughter on u the highways. The toll ran far above the pre- " vious 54-hour Memorial Day hoi- ” iday record of 251 persons killed set in 1953. It also surpassed toe National Safety Council’s pre-holi- c day estimate of 260 deaths in c traffic. A United Press International 1 count at 9 a.m. e.d.t, showed at v least 289 persons killed in traffic. An additional 88 persons drowned and 51 died in miscellaneous ac- | cidnets for an overall toll of 428. , California led the nation in high- I way fatalities with 26. Ohio had 21, New York 17 and Tennessee 15. Five-An-Hour Toll In setting the record toll, more 1 than five persons were killed in i traffic every hour on the average 1 during the holiday period between 6 p.m. Friday and midnight Sunday. , The tragic mark was reached despite one of the most intensive holiday crackdowns by police in , motoring history. The safety council said it simply couldn’t erplain the jump in auto deaths. “There’s a whole upward trend in highway deaths that’s been go- ' ing on since the first of the year," the council said. “For sortie reason the toll just started going up again. Last year, during a three-day Memorial Day week end. United Press International counted 243 deaths in traffic. 5 Death-Free States Only five states and the District of Columbia escaped death on the highways this holiday. The states were Delaware, Idaho, New Hampshire, ,Vermont and Washington. Indiana’s holiday toll was boosted by two high fatelity traffic crashes. A young mother and four of her children were killed at Crown Point, Ind., Sunday when their car was struck by a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger , train at a crossing obscured by high weeds. • Near New Bedford, Ind., three

Horrible Atrocities Charged Red China

WASHINGTON (UPI) — A congressional committee has charged Red China with “horrible atrocities,” including the torture of Christians who refused to surrender their faith to Communism. The Communists murdered 30 million people behind the Bamboo Curtain during the past 10 years, according to previously secret testimony made public Sunday. , The witnesses, five Christian missionaries who fled from the Reds, detailed to the House Committee on Un-American Activities alleged atrocities rivaling those of the Nazsi. The Rev. Tsin-Tsai Liu, now pastor of a Baptist church in Taipei, Formosa, said Chinese Christians are sent to "self-confessing” classes to be “re-educated” by the Communists. If the classes are not successful, he said, “physical force is used.” “They stop the noses of the people and pour water into their mouths,” Liu said. “Every time the person breathes, he swallows water.” Another witness, the Rev. Samuel W. S. Cheng, now a church mission leader on Formosa, said

men were killed when their car traveling at high speed skidded Into the path <?f an oncoming car. Four persons were killed and three others injured in a two-car head-on collision at Northampton, N.Y. However, the record traffic toll s could not be blamed on an increase in multiple fatality crashes. In most cases, the count mounted by ones and twos—there were just more accidents. Former Poe Resident Dies Saturday Night Mrs. Ross McDevitt, 53, died of a heart attack Saturday night at her home at Sylvan Lake, where she and her husband operated a boat livery and cabins. They lived at Poe until five years ago, when they took over the Antlers. Surviving in addition to her husband are two sons, Albert of New Haven and” Norman of Columbia City; her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Sutorius of Poe, three brothers and fiye sisters. Services will be conducted at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Hite funeral home in Kendallville. Bufial will be at Poe. Lase Bulletin ST. LOUIS (UPl)—Convicted mass - slayer Charles Starkweather, being held for execution in the Nebraska State Prison. today filed an appeal from a Federal Court order which denied him a habeas corpus writ. WASHINGTON (UPI) — The Supreme Court today refused for the time being to review an appeal by the National AssoIciation for the Advancement of Colored People from a contempt fine imposed In Georgia for failure to produce records.

“at best” the Communists preach “modernism” in Christianity. “They take away the divinity of Christ and point out he was a good carpenter, a good example for the working people to follow,” he said. “At the worst,” he said, “thdy substitute Lenin the Father, Stalin the Son and Mao Tse-Tung the HtJfy Ghost” for the Cristian trinity. Cheng said the sister-in-law of a member of the Chinese Nationalist House of Representatives was tied to five horses by the Reds. J‘One horse was tied to her neck,” he said, “and the other horses were tied to her arms and legs and they went in all directions. “The biggset horse ran and it just tore her body into pieces. The blood streamed all over the public square and the people shut their eyes and cried. They could not stand to see it.” The testimony painted a grim picture of life in the communes, where family units are completely broken tip, separating wives, husbands and children.

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