The Mail-Journal, Volume 21, Number 39, Milford, Kosciusko County, 10 October 1984 — Page 2

THE MAIL-JOURNAL — Wed., October 10,1984

2

Preserving Indiana's newspaper heritage

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was written by David Nord, a professor in the School of Journalism, Indiana University Bloomington. Nord is a specialist in the history of American journalism and is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Indiana Newspaper Project.) BLOOMINGTON - Indiana is one of the great newspaper states of America, with 76 daily papers and more than 150 weeklies and semiweeklies scattered through every county from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River. ' But these papers represent only a small living remnant — less than 5 percent of all the newspapers that have published in the state. Since 1804, when the Hoosier newspaper industry began, some 8,000 newspapers have been born, lived and. in most cases, died in Indiana. These newspapers are our most important documentary source for state and local history. In fact, for many of the things historians are interested in. newspapers provide the only historical record. Yet Indiana’s priceless newspaper heritage is at risk. More than 4.000 of these 8,000 titles have already disappeared completely — no copies are known to exist. At least some copies of about 3.200 titles have been saved, and many of most important have been well preserved on microfilm in the State Library at Indianapolis and in the major college and public libraries. But many more historic newspaper files lie. crumbling with age in newspaper offices and in small libraries and historical societies in scores of cities and towns throughout the state. Beginning this summer, a major new effort was launched to preserve Indiana's historic newspaper record. The program is called, simply, the Indiana Newspaper Project It is a cooperative state-wide effort of the Indiana Historical Society, the Indiana State Library, the Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority and the Indiana University Libraries. The Indiana Newspaper Project is the first full-scale state effort to be funded by the U.S. Newspaper Project, a program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. NEH officials in Washington have approved a grant of $229,000 for the bibliographical phase of the Indiana Project. The four groups waking on the project will contribute $84,000 in labor and services, and another $54,000 in matching funds will be sought from interested groups and individuals throughout the state. Total cost of this phase will be $367,000. The "bibliographical phase” will lay the foundation for the “preservation phase." which will come later. Before newspapers can be preserved (usually on microfilm) they have to be located, identified and catalogued With newspaper holdings spread out in more than 200 Indiana towns, this first step will be a painstaking three-year effort, very much dependent upon the cooperation and support of libraries and newspapers all around the state. < Perhaps the most striking thing about Indiana's historic newspapers is how scattered they are. The Indiana State Library at Indianapolis holds about 1,500 titles, and the Indiana University Library at Bloomington has another 370. These are by far the two largest repositories in the ' state. Outside Indianapolis and Bloomington, however, many repositories have as few as one or two titles, and sometimes just a handful of copies of each. Project staff members or local volunteers will have to visit some 238 different cities and towns. This scattering of newspapers

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Historical papers are missing The following is a list of newspaper holdings that are thought to be unique to Kosciusko County. These historic newspapers are hot held by the Indiana State Library or by any major college or public library in the state. They are a unique and irreplaceable resource for the history of Kosciusko County. Mentone — Community Farm News, June 5,1929-May 1932; and Gazette, Apr. 14,1885-1891 Syracuse — Enterprise, 1875; Journal, May 7,1908-June 10,1909 (scattered); May 19-Dec. 1910 (scattered); 1911-1916; Jan. 3, 1917; 1918-1936; Register, 1894-1895 (scattered) Warsaw •>— Daily Times and Northern Indianan. July 10. 1919-Nov. 1949 Winona Lake - Assembly Review, 1900,1905-1909 For more information about the history of newspapers in Kosciusko County, see John W. Miller. Indiana Newspaper Bibliography (Indianapolis; Indiana Historical Society, 1982, pp. 216-221. is a vivid reminder of how the business began in Indiana 180 years ago and what purposes the newspaper served in the early 19th century. "Indiana Gazette.” was founded in Vincennes in 1804 by a young printer named Elihu Stout, who had brought his press and type cases by riverboat from Frankfort, Ky. Stout changed the name of his paper in 1807 to the "Western Sun,” a name that still survives today in the “Vincennes Sun-Commercial.” In many ways, Elihu Stout's paper was typical of the frontier press in the Old Northwest. Stout hoped to make his living as the public printer for the new Indiana Territory, turning out laws, proclamations and other official publications. The news iper was a kind of political and business sideline, designed to promote the administration of Gov. William Henry Harrison and to advertise "the productions and natural advantages of the Territory.” In those days, it was clear that the prosperity of a printing business depended upon the prosperity of the printer’s political party and of his community. While printers could not survive as the first business in a new town, they were often early arrivals who hoped to grow rich as their towns grew rich. The colorful commercial and political . rivalries between Indiana towns in the early 19th century are wonderfully reflected in the yellowing pages of Indiana's frontier press. As one early editor delicately put it; "Sometimes these papers represented things that had not yet gone through the formality of taking place.” Perhaps even more important than commercial rivalry, at least in the early days of statehood, was the competition for public institutions and public printing contracts. In a decentralized political system such as ours, the close link between government printing and newspapers helped to make newspapers both highly political and widely scattered. Often if a town had a newspaper at all, it had two — —for each of the major parties. Also, newspapers were closely associated with the growing number of local government centers, especially the established county seat towns or the wilderness villages that hoped to become county seats when new counties were formed As the political and business activity of the state gradually concentrated in Indianapolis and the other major cities, the big city newspapers prospered and ex-

tended their circulations far beyond their home counties. But the localism of the Indiana press, established so early, was never lost. And today there is at least one newspaper in every one of Indiana’s 92 counties. Less than 50 years after the founding of the little four-page “Indiana Gazette.” the newspaper business was well established in the state. In 1850 there were nine daily, two tri-weekly, and 95 weekly newspapers in business in Indiana, with a total annual circulation of more than 4 million copies. Already by 1850, some prominent Hoosiers had begun to recognize both the historical value and the ephemeral nature of these millions of sheets of paper. In his annual message in December 1850, Gov. Wright told the General Assembly: “The subject of a small appropriation annually to the State Library, sufficient to pay for one or more of the newspapers published in each of the counties of this State, to be regularly filed and bound, is worthy of your attention. In this way, we shall, for an inconsiderable sum, obtain a history of our State, that will be of great advantage in after time ... How highly would we prize full files of papers, which have been published in our State since the year 1804 — since 1820? They would be more sought after than any work in the state Library. By this means, you would preserve the religious, moral and political history of our State, from year toyear; and although you would have a variety, much, of but little value; yet, it is from this alone, in after times, that our history is to be written. To this, the historian must go. to do justice to the men and the age of which he writes.” The legislature of 1851 was neither as visionary nor as fiscally generous as Gov. Wright had hoped. Much of "the religious, moral and political history" that he spoke of has now been lost forever in ashes and dust. But much still remains. It is the aim of the Indiana Newspaper Project to take a big first step toward preserving it.

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Target date: End of November — Set time schedule for superintendent selection

(Continued from page 1) ballast roofs wherever possible. Three inches of insulation will also be added on top of the existing roofs to decrease the amount of heat loss. In other project-related business, the board approved use of the State Bank of Syracuse as registrar and paying agent for the $990,000 bond sale which will finance the renovations. Personnel Changes In personnel matters, the board granted a leave of absence for WHS home economics teacher Janie Leach. Mrs. Leach has requested a pregnancy leave from Nov. 26-Dec. 21. Mary Kay Ridings will fill in for Mrs. Leach during her absence. The board also accepted with regret the resignation of Syracuse fifth grade teacher Mavis Vanderveer. She was on a leave of absence this year and has decided not to return to the classroom. Her resignation take effect on Nov. 1. Nancy Nelson was approved as

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Milford Town Board ponders bowling priority

(Continued from page 1) Board member Dennis Wuthrich, another bowler, stated that it didn’t matter to him what night the board met. "I never considered the angle from the newspapers point of view,” said Wuthrich. “I can understand their point.” After the three tried to come up with a solution, Treesh temporarily tabled the topic until later in the meeting. Even though it was tabled, it did receive a motion and second, before dying. Perhaps the biggest reason why the proposal did not pass was the thought that Orn would resign his position, rather than miss his bowling evening. "Would you quit if we changed the meeting night, Darrell,” ask- t ed Treesh. "Not if you would pay for my bowling, said Orn.” In the final decision of the evening, the town board decided to table the issue until next month’s Monday meeting. Three Hired In other matters, three new employees were hired by the town. Aaron Rovenstine, son of Kosciusko County Sheriff Al Rovenstine, and Ronald Kreider were hired as part-time deputy marshals. They replace Rich Schneiders, who resigned in August. Andrew Fox was hired as the crossing guard for students from the two Milford schools. He has been on duty for a month, but was officially named at the meeting. Another matter dealing with the police department was stated by Monica Bice, clerk-treasurer. She said that Milford Town Marshal Dave Hobbs is to remain off work until November 5 because of a slipped disc in his back. Mrs. Bice noted that he has been seen on duty since the back problem started. Accept Ordinances Three new ordinances were signed by the town board and will go into effect as soon as possible. The Fair Housing Ordinance (84-9) states that no person can be denied housing because of discrimination. Penalty for this violation will be a SIOO-$!,000 fine. Additional penalties may be enforced according to additional applications from the state and federal laws. The Thorough-Fare Ordinance (84-10) allows for one-way traffic on Railroad Street. The newly ■yarned street is located next to the Conrail railroad tracks and behind some of the stores in Milford. A $lO-SIOO fine will be issued to anyone driving down the wrong way. The new street was previously an alley and is located behind the east business block, between Emeline and Catherine

Sheriffs son named new Milford deputy marshal

Twenty-four-year-old Aaron Rovenstine seems to be following in his father’s footsteps. On Monday evening, Oct. 8, Rovenstine was hired as a deputy marshal for the town of Milford. His father is the Kosciusko County Sheriff. "I have always wanted to do something like this,” explained Rovenstine about his new position. "I enjoy helping people and I love small towns.”

the instructor forGED classes at Wawasee High School. Board members also gave their approval to the list of instructors for adult education classes. Other Business Arnold presented board members with updated enrollment figures which show that an increase of 107 students from 1983. Arnold attributed the rise — the largest in 10 years — to the recent upswing in local industry. Arnold reported that Syracuse has 962 students, Milford has 577, North Webster 648 and Wawasee 922. Little voiced his appreciation to the State Bank of Syracuse for its donation of a portable computer, a printer and monitortO the corporation. He also thanked the Lakeland and Milford Kiwanis clubs for their S4OO donation to improve the sound system in the WHS auditorium. The board will hold a special public meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23, for discussion of budget concerns.

Streets. The third ordinance, known as the Garage Sale Ordinance (84-11), prohibits more than two garage sales for residents in a calendar year. Those people interested on having a garage sale must obtain an application from the clerk-treasurer’s office prior to the sale. A $2 fee will be charged for the license and no sale may extend longer than three days. A clause in the ordinance allows for churches or other organizations to have more than two sales a year. Penalty for any violations in this ordinance will result in a $25-1100 fine, with separate penalties for each additional day an infraction occurs. The board accepted the only bid received for the smashed 1978 Ford LTD police cruiser. Stan Price paid $126 for the vehicle. Halloween Activities The board also settled the trick-or-treat dilemma by proclaiming October 31 ther night children trick or treat. The activity will begin at 6 p.m. and last until 8 p.m. The annual Halloween party will take place October 27 at Campbell’s IGA, just off SR 15. In late action, the board heard, a report that Bill Knowles, Street and Water Commissioner, and Mrs. Bice put together a list of residents who are not hooked up to the town’s water and sewage utilities. Registered letters will be sent to those residents within 100 feet of the lines stating that they must hook up with the town. The only concession to this requirement is if they have a septic tank four years old, or less. The board, with input from Knowles, discussed using the Chore-Time-Brock repayment money to extend water and sewer lines to the entire portion of town that has been annexed. A problem concerning the price of the project was looked into, and it appears as thought the town might have to cut back on the project. "We are committed with this project,” said Knowles. “We have to go ahead with this, but we might have to cut back some.” A contract was signed by the three board members to have Layne-Northern Company, Mishawaka, install the well at a price of $25,000. .Finally, the board authorized Mrs. Bice to send SSO to the State Board of Health for a permit on the well project. Additional requests were issued to the Department of Natural Resources and State Highway Department, but the Board of Health has the final word on what work will be done. The next meeting has been scheduled for Monday, Nov. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the town hall.

Rovenstine is a 1978 graduate of Warsaw Community High School and 1982 graduate of Ball State University. He majored in criminal justice in Muncie and will put his education and love for the job to worli in Milford.

AARON ROVENSTINE

According to Rovenstine, he will further his education next summer at a police academy in either Plainfield or Fort Wayne. The town will financially back the 16-week education session. In return, Rovenstine will remain on the job in Milford for at least two years following the education. This is a program that the town used with Rich Schneiders, and it was beneficial for both. Rovenstine offically began his duties Tuesday, Oct. 9, the night after being hired, but be was on the job for several days prior to his being officially hired. He will work two nights a week while Ron Kreider, another deputy, will work a couple nights as well. Rovenstine’s ambition to become involved in police work started when he was a young child. He remembers times when members from the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department would take him with them while on duty. That developed into an opportunity to help his father take prisoners to their jail cells. He later worked with some reserve officers from the county on some security matters before going to college. “I have no real Mg ambition to get involved with a major city police department,” said Rovenstine. “I grew up in a small town and that is what I like most.” , The Atwood resident plans on moving to Milford sometime after the first of the new year.

f ‘ —J > v llfl I I m lißfl UNITED WAY GRANT FOR SCOUT CABIN — Many improvements have been made to the Syracuse Scout Cabin because the Budget and Admissions Committee recommended and the United* Way Board of Directorsapproved a $7,500 grant to the Syracuse Scout Cabinßoard this past May. United Way felt it was an appropriate gift to help the community as well as to benefit United Way Agencies in the Syracuse area. This past year United Way agency statistics show the following: Home Health Care visits in the Syracuse area, 354; Weil Child visits, 5; Girls Scouts, 92; Boy Scouts, 201; Energy Assistance, 11 families; as well as the use of the Happy Wanderer Van each Wednesday. United Way agencies in Syracuse include the Turkey Creek Senior Citizens, Lakeland Youth Center and Lakeland Day Care Center. In 1982, the United Way provided a $35,000 matching grant to the Lakeland Day Center to be used for a new building. The United Way has reached 71 percent of the $450,000 goal with contributions still being solicited. The campaign ends Oct. 28. ’ ' ak Pictured above, left to right, at the Scout Cabin kitchen are: George Gilbert, United Way board member; Bob Westfall, president, Syracuse Scout Cabin board; Bob Troutman, past president, Syracuse Scout Cabin board; and Bill Sanders, United Way board member. (Photo by Brenda Rhodes)

Volunteers needed for Milford Halloween party

By JO STURGIS Staff Writer Milford organization and business people met Monday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. to further plans for the Halloween party planned for Saturday, Oct. 27, at Campbell’s IGA. Proceeds from the festivities are slated to establish a fund for the purchase of a JAWS unft for the Milford Fire Department. Phil Campbell, owner of Campbell’s IGA; Denny Wuthrich, , Lions Club and Kent Doty, Lions Club, are the committee chairmen for the Halloween festivities. A donation supper from. 4:30-6:30 p.m. in the IGA parking lot will start the activities. The meal will consist of ham, scallop potatoes, baked beans, and a salad. All the Pepsi, apple cider and doughnuts you can eat and drink will also be furnished. A tent will provide shelter in case of threatening weather. A cake decorating and pumpkin decorating contest is also scheduled. The cakes and pumpkins will be displayed on two wagons. The costume parade is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Prizes will be awarded for these events. In the costume contest, an overall grand prize of $25 will be awarded. Other prizes in each costume division will include $5 for first, $3 for second and $1 for third. In the cake decorating contest, $25 will be awarded to first place, $lO for second and $5 for third. First place in the pumpkin carv-

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ing contest will receive $lO, second will receive. $5 and third place will receive $3. Anyone wishing to enter a cake or pumpkin in the contest is urged to contact one of the three committee chairmen as soon as possible. The main purpose of the meeting was to inform the various organizations of what is expected of their organization. Each organization will need to sign-up eight volunteers to fill nine committees needed for the evening. The committees include set-up; food servers; costume line-up; table cleaners {luring the supper; clean-up committee after the supper; decorating; lighting, paging and music and pumpkin and cake receivers. All organizations were urged to think of who would serve as cake and pumpkin judges and an emcee for the evening, also. If anyone is interested in being a judge, again contact one of the three committee chairmen. • The EMS plans to have an ambulance for the public to view and plans are almost finalized on having an actual JAWS unit on hand so the public can see the lifesaving piece of equipment firsthand. The organizers are still discussing other plans such as obtaining an auctioneer to auction some of the cakes and contacting Cowboy Bob from WCMR for entertainment. Campbell said at the close of

the meeting, “I really think it is super we can get all the organizations together to pull off a joint effort like this.” The JAWS unit costs approximately SIO,OOO to purchase. This amount will purchase the basic equipment — the pump, spreader and cutter bar. It is not expected to obtain all the funds needed -to purchase the unit from this Halloween party. The organizations do hope the Halloween party raises a significant amount on which each organization can add to with its own activities. The three committee chairmen will meet with the various organizations again on Monday, Oct. 15, at 8:30 p.m.,” at the Milford Community Building to finalize the committees and any other plans. Donation for Winter Carnival Syracuse-Wawasee Winter Carnival committee recently received a cash contribution from Augsburger’s Super Valu, Syracuse, for activities, support and appreciation for the carnival. Each year the two-day carnival provides sledding, skating, crosscountry skiing, snowmobile events and fireworks for people of all ages. The 1985 Carnival is scheduled for Saturday, and Sunday, Jan. 26-27.