Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1916 — SAYS HANK GRANGER DRESSED IN SKINS [ARTICLE]

SAYS HANK GRANGER DRESSED IN SKINS

Chicago Tribune GiVes False- But Amusing Description of Life of Well-Known River Man. . The Chicago Tribune is responsible for the appended article telling of the death of Henry Granger, of Thayer. Like many articles in the city papers so was prepared without much regard to its truth but was written to entertain. * Instead of dressing in skins Granger was always quite well dressed and was a very clean looking and well appearing man. The article is reprinted here because of its untruthfulness. It shows the demand of the public for sensation and the fertile imaginations of the city reporters. The Tribune said: “Fate played a grim prank on the ‘king of the Kankakee river’ yesterday. A figure left over from the days of Daniel Boone, hundreds of wealthy sportsmen in "Chicago, northern Illinois and Indiana knew the ‘king’. At his little shooting lodge 10 miles into the woods from Thayer, Ind., Gen. Lew Wallace, the Studebakers of South Bend, and notables from every part of the middle west had been his guests year after year. He had been hunted and arrested periodically for moonshining, poaching and fishing out of season. Roughly tanned animal skins had been his clothes for fifty years. He lived and fought with his boots on. But on Saturday, for the first time in years, he emerged into civilization to visit his daughter, Mrs. Rosina Haberman, in Hammond, Ind. At night he tore off the boiled collar his daughter had forced on him, close dthe windows to shut out the. clang of the unfriendly street cars, and declared his intention of getting back to the woods for good ‘if he lived unti Imoming.’ And at dawn they found him dead of heart failure, “The ‘king’, his real name was Henry Granger—was a picturesque figure, 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 285 pounds. Although prosecuted repeatedly for various offenses, no jury of Indianians ever would convict him, for his game and fish and the proceeds of his ‘moonshine’ whisky-, always went to his poorer neighbors. Government agents who went to his cabin in the guise of sportsmen usually went away baffled, and frequently the victims of some grim practical joke. “Granger had his lodge fitted up with a few rude bunks and his distinguished visitors always had to sleep as he did —with their clothes on. Many of the notables who had hunted and fished with him are expected at his funeral in Thayer tomorrow.” Of his death The Hammond Times says:

Henry “Hank” Granger, “king of the Kankakee river,” passed into eternity Saturday night and with him went a thousand secrets of the picturesque stream. Hundreds mourn the death of the ante-be Mum character who remained an unchanged pioneer, hunter and fisher, while a moneymad world sped on. In the home of a daughter, Mrs. William F. Haberman, at 317 Thofnton Ave., Granger died of heart failure following an injection by a physician of serum for lagrippe. He had spent a jolly hour with the family after the evening meal and those present assumed his health to be as improved as his spirits. He suffered no pain at death. He was 58 years of age and weighed 286 pounds. He was arrack shot. The huntsman, father dr nine children who survive him, was born out of season. His people passed away fifty years ago. At his home in Thayer he ruled the community with a kindness and only prowling government agents feared him, for on them he played practical jokes that. sos originality have no equal. “Farmers came from miles around to the Granger domicile to have him settle their disputes. The hundreds of geese and ducks he killed were distributed to those in need. No man, woman or child in want was ever denied assistance by Granger. A woman, 80 ygars of age, unable to walk, was taken into the Granger Home and kept until her death. “Up the river 10 rpiles from Thayer, Granger maintained his hunting lodge, and entertained many wealth / sportsmen. It was never proven in onnrt that the host served other than pure spring water. He neither used tobacco or liquor in any form, and did not swear. He was bom in Eagle Creek township and lived in Newton and Lake counties his entire life, doing nothing but hunting and fishing* Many a coon supper was supplied by the hunter, in fact, he only recently. He is survived by his widow. Three of their eleven children are dead. “There were,v Indians around Thayer when Hank Granger was a boy. He changed the channel ■of the river