The Daily Banner, Greencastle, Putnam County, 11 July 1964 — Page 4

Page 4 SATURDAY, JULY 11,1964

6REENCASTLE, INDIANA

THE DAILY BANNER

3rd in a series of Salutes to our neighboring communities Published as a public service by The Daily Banner:

The Russellville Stone Company, managed by H. C. Gorman, began operations in 1947. Pictured above is the large crushing plant which has a capacity of 250 tons of crushed stone per hour. Quarrying operations take place one-half mile south of the main plant to which the bulk stone is hauled for crushing. Finished products are crushed stone of all sizes and agricultural limestone which is used for fertilizer.

According to local records, the town of Russellville was, laid out in 1828 by a James Manners. It was originally called Darter. The first store in the town was owned by Jacob Durham. Mr. Durham reportedly traveled to Philadelphia to purchase his stock, shipped it by train to Pittsburgh, floated it down the Ohio and Wabash Rivers to Montezuma, and finally hauled it to Russellvile by horse drawn wagons. Today this quiet little Putnam County community with a population of 372 gains most of its economic prosperity from the local farm trade as it has for many years. The main business section is shown in the above photo. /

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The International Minerals and Chemicals Corporation plant, which is operated by manager Joe Ramsey, offers complete fertilizer service to the farmers of the Russellville area. Mr. Ramsey says, “It is one of the first bulk distributing companies in this area.” Their large storage tanks for liquid fertilizer and the accompanying warehouse have a ■torage capacity of nearly 6000 tons of fertilizer products.

t * ^ USy f day at J he ^ U f ellVllle E,evator as ^ese local farmers bring their freshly combined wheat to be weighed wh^/s L t 5 - PPed t0 PaFtS Unknown ' The owner <>t this flourishing business is Robert Wh.te’ Pailroad h R !! SSellVllle the past twelve years - Mr - White says of his business, located on the B&O bihels of cTm alone » ” grain aS ^ eleVat<>r “ the COUnty - Last year we bou & ht and sold over 300.000

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The Russellville High School, buUt in 1911, has a total enrollment of 184 students. The physical plant consists of this main classroom building and the large gymnasium shown above which was completed in 1956. In addition to the traditional athletic events, the gymnasium also houses special classes such as shop and home economics. Russellville is of course a part of the newly formed North Putnam School Corporation which will some day absorb the present high school enrollment. However according to the school s principal. Vernon (Hap) Gardner, “The Grades will probably stay

here, but that will be up to the decision of the new school board.”

NEXT WEEK: R0ACHDALE will be the fourth feature in this series.

The Hebron Christian Church of Russelville ranks as one of the oldest in Putnam County. It was organized in 1826 and became a Christian church in 1829. One of its famous ministers of the pioneer days was a man named “Blind Billy” Wilson, who is accredited with the founding of sixteen churches in Indiana pioneer settlements. Legend has it that “Blind Billy” had no trouble riding the wilderness circuit except “when his horse threw him he had a hard time finding it.” He was recognized as one of the “ten outstanding pioneer ministers in Indiana” in the early 1880’s. During the Civil War when all Christian churches refused to take sides in the bloody conflict the old church was burned to the ground by marauding night riders. This quaint structure pictured above was built by the congregation in 1905. The minister of the 400-con-gregation church is Rev. Charles Davis.