Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1906 — Old Time NeWs. [ARTICLE]

Old Time NeWs.

Fifty-One Years Ago. j JASPER BANNER, DEC. 21, AND 28, 1854. Billy Rook, the busman, had reduced the stage fare to Bradford to sl, or $1.50 for the round trip, if made the same day, : A strong editorial called the attention of the people to Rensselaer’s great need of better schools. Many families had to send their children away to school, because of the poor schools and short terms here. Wonderful the change for the better here since that day. And this old time editor surely deserves some of the credit for starting the move for better schools, for he kept everlastingly at it. The editor had made a trip to Morocco, and though he did not stay long enough to visit every place of business, yet he saw enough to convince him that the town was thriving and destined to be at no distant day, a place of importance. It then possessed the Bank of America, and water privelegee, and for a bonus of SSOO an Indianapolis man was about to put in a steam saw mill. There was a move on foot to divide Jasper county by cutting off a big piece along the north end, and joined with some more taken from Laporte, Pulaski and Stark counties, to make a new county. The ladies of the Presbyterian church were getting up a big oyster and ice-cream supper to finish raising a fund for a church bell. They already had $124 on hand. The merchants of Rensselaer published a list of 13 wild-cat banks in northern Indiana which were unworthy of credit and whosa bills they wonld not allow more than 75 cents on the dollar for. The Morocco bank was one of the number. It is pretty safe to say that a few

years later the bills of these banks were wholly worthless. Thirty-Seven Years Ago. ■ RENSSELAER UNION OCT. 15, 1868. At the election just held Jasper county had gone Republican nearly two to one. Among the county officers elected were Chas. Platt for treasurer, Jarsd Benjamin for commissioner and 5 orman Warner for coroner, all of whom are still with us. Allen J. Yeoman was elected sheriff. He was better known as Jack Yeoman. .He made a good sheriff, by all accounts, but afterwards ruined his good record by going crooked financially, as many of his best friends remember to their sorrow. He afterwards repeated his crooked financial methods on a much larger scale in Missouri. Gen- R. H. Milroy then lived in Delphi, having moved back there after the war. It was reported that he had been elected treasurer of Carroll county. 8. P Thompson claimed that the commissioners had no right to appoint a school examiner in September, and that the place still belonged to him, 'and the state superintendent was of the same opinion, but for the sake of peace and harmony, (he had resigned. It will be remembered that the commissioners had appointed G. M. Johnson to the job in September. The June term was was when they ought to hare made the appointment.