The Mail-Journal, Volume 23, Number 27, Milford, Kosciusko County, 2 July 1986 — Page 17

Milford's Main street

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SHOWN BEHIND Weldon Haggerty in this photo are Merle Campbell, Woodie Free, Lee McFarren, Milford Mayor Elsie Free and a number of other people as they watched the recent street dance. The event was another in the year-long celebration of Milford’s 150th birthday. The next dance will be held on July 18 with the Music Machine from ZIP 104 providing the music. This is the station that provided music for the street dance held during the sesquicentennial festivities. —o— DENNIS REHBORG, a resident of Dewart Lake, is planning to open a game room and video arcade in the building formerly occupied by Campbell’s IGA in downtown Milford. According to Rehborg, the room will have a couple of pool tables and a number of video games. He hopes to open before July 4. —o— ENGLANDS OPENED on Main Street Tuesday morning and is serving breakfast beginning at 5:30 a.m. The business is currently closing at 2 p.m., following the lunch hour. Kelly England said yesterday afternoon that if customers indicate a need, he will put on another crew and keep the restaurant open into the early evening hours. MILFORD FIRE Chief Max Duncan was contacted by a MJ reporter on how the new state fire codes which go into effect in July will effect this community. Some feel the new codes will call for full time fire chiefs in all communities. Duncan said a decision will have to be made by the town (board) regarding the role of the fire chief. With the new fire codes going into effect Tuesday, July 1, additional time will have to be spent by the fire chief doing things previously reserved for other departments. This extra time could inevitably lead to a full-time position for the fire chief. According to Duncan, a decision as to what the town will do may not come for another year, but a decision will have to be made eventually. NOW COMES an article from Don Kaiser of Leesburg. During the sesquicentennial celebration he toured AEB and Delia’s house and while there Arch asked him to write a nostalgic article about Milford. Following is that article: On June 1, two lovely Leesburg ladies and I had the pleasure of touring eight fabulous Milford homes in commemoration of the town’s sesquicentennial celebration. Every house, with its beautifully arranged furnishings and oldfashioned decor, was a work of art and truly appealing to the eye. 1 especially enjoyed the home of Arch and Della

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Baumgartner, located at 102 James. Theirs is an absolutely gorgeous house, just like a setting out of "Better Homes and Gardens.” The Baumgartners were very charming hosts, who offered the tourists delicious punch and snacks on their patio out near their big, picturesque swimming pool. I feel as though I have a bond with the Baumgartner family, for, in 1908, the Baumgartners and the Kaisers, along with other distinguished clans, migrated to Kosciusko County from Cissna Park, 111. The Baumgartners first attained residence in this county on a farm just south of the Leesburg gravel pit. while Emil and Anna Kaiser and children secured a farm site southwest of Milford. Later,, the Baumgartners settled in the Milford area, where they have added prestige to the community ever since. Back in the late ’2os and early ’3os. my mother and stepfather, brother Glen, and sister, Dorthy, lived in Milford, occupying the Klopenstein place next to the old Bedell furniture factory. I resided in Leesburg with my grandfather. but would occasionally ride the interurban to Milford to visit the rest of my family. I recall that whenever I rode the interurban to Milford. I had to dig up the fabulous fee of one precious nickel to be able to do so. Whenever I paid my folks a call (usually on the weekend) we kids often attended the Milford Theatre on Saturday night (I believe that the old Milford movie house was run by a Miss Barnes). We three youngsters enjoyed many silent films there (shown to the accompaniment of a loud, plinking piano) Then about 1929, the Milford Theatre was wired for sound pictures (the "talkies” they used to call them). How well I recall the first talking picture that I saw at the old Milford Theatre. Decades ago, motion pictures didn’t have a soundtrack, but the films were run simultaneously with a disc (similar to a phonograph record) and if the movie operator failed to play the disc in line with the film, the dialogue didn’t always come out at the proper time. I remember what a good laugh we kids had (along with the rest of the audience) when the theatre showed a western and the operator didn’t get the disc started at the same time as the film. So, when a scene flashed on the screen showing a herd of cattle grazing on the prairie, while the cows chewed their cud, deep male voices flowed from their mouths; then, when the cowhands opened their mouths, they started to moo! (I’d say that movie operations in those days were a bit crude!) On May 28 of this year a photo depicting a 1937 scene of the Milford Grain and Mill and the old standpipe was printed on page 36 of the sesquicentennial section of The Mail-Journal. The standpipe brings back memories of the time my brother, Glen, (who, as a teenager was a real daredevil) decided to climb the standpipe Some of his buddies

dared him to go to the top after dark. So, one midnight, with flashlight in hand, he accomplished the task! (Yes, fortunately, my brother is still alive today to tell about it!) Another vivid recollection I have regarding Milford in days of yore, is the holocaust that befell the Milford business district in 1931. To be exact, it happened on Friday, Feb. 6. I’m talking about the big fire downtown that consumed Charlie Sparklin’s general store. 1 was in the fifth grade at the time and the weather that Friday morning was bitterly cold (about 10 below). When I arrived at school, I commented on the sub-zero atmosphere to a fellow classmate, and he answered me with: “Yeh, the weather might be cold. But, believe me, there’s been a hot time in the old town of Milford since early this morning! The Sparklin store burned!’’ And so it did. The fire started from an oil burning furnace in the basement, the store turning into a roaring inferno that destroyed 3 two-story rooms belonging to C. A. Sparklin, causing $50,000 in damages. After the big blaze, Sparklin held a fire sale in an empty store building across the street. I . remember that I had 10 cents and bought a Buddha incense burner. For months afterwards, my house smelled like a boudoir in a maharaja’s palace. Yes, I have fond memories of Milford and always felt close to the town. I have known many fine families there: the Hartters, the Haabs. the Beers, the Wuthrichs, the Campbells, the Dotys, the Graffs, the Felkners, the Baumgartners, and my relatives, the Kaisers. They, along with many other prestigious families of the community, are all marvelous citizens who constitute a great little town called Milford!

North Webster woman injured

Valerie Kissinger, 19, of North Webster, is listed in critical condition in the intensive care unit of Parkview Hospital, Fort Wayne, after suffering internal injuries from a three-car collisfon at 10:24 p.m. Saturday, June2B. A passenger in a car driven by Bryan M. Bowen, 23, North Webster, Kissinger was transferred from Kosciusko Community Hospital, while Bowen complained of head pain and was treated and released at KCH. Bowen was traveling east on CR 500 N, when he failed to yield the right-of-way to a car driven by Lisa C. Miller, 23, Cromwell, colliding with the Miller vehicle, which then collided with a car driven by Adrian C. Hood, 18, North Webster. Miller suffered lacerations to one arm while Ron Miller, 28, Cromwell, a passenger in her car, sustained lacerations to the head. Both were treated and released by KCH. Hood was not hurt in the collision. Bowen was arrested for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and booked into the Kosciusko County Jail. He was later released on his own recognizance.

U.S. Ports of entry

As the symbol of our nation and our freedoms, the flag of the United States provides a welcome greeting to travellers from other countries and to American citizens returning home. Many, however, enter our country at night when the flag was not flown becausee of the nearly universal custom of displaying colors from sunrise to subset. This was corrected by Presidential Proclamation of May, 1972 which extended the welcome by the flag to 24 hours a day at all U.S. Customs ports of entry, except when the weather is inclement.

If your day n hemmed with prayer, r We Would like To Invite You To Join Us Ow IMHI In Worship This Week jL . B 8:15 and 10:30 a.m. — Sunday Morning Worship i|m '’ n a m - — Sunday Bible School Classes jB For All Ages '.. 7:00 p.m. — Evening Service Fred Walls- Dale Kuhns Associate Minister Minister TRANSPORTATION provided for Sunday morning. Call 658-9151 or 658-9241. CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF MILFORD Fourth & Henry Streets 658-9151 Milford

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SESQUI MEMORIES — The Milford High School band won l.he National Band Contest in Class C at Joliet, 111., in May of 1928. The Milford band was entered in Class D, but it was the only band so entered, and so it was moved to Class C, which it won. Judges for the event were John Phillip Sousa, Frankie Goldman and David Berger. The band won the district contest at Elkhart and the state contist at Muncie earlier in the year, in order to qualify for the national competition. In the front row are Gerald Tusing, Merrill Vanderveer, Eugene Felkner, Forrest Helminger, John Method. Keith Jones, Frank Price, Richard Handgen. •A xz

Body of woman found in creek

The body of Janis Marie Thompson, 42, 21143 US 6, New Paris, was found by her son, Mike Kohl, Goshen, floating in a deep water-filled ditch along US 6, by Turkey Creek, at 4:07 p.m. last Thursday, June 26, after she had been missing for 26 hours. Death .is presumed to be by drowning, with no indication of foul play, according to Elkhart County Coroner Carl Yoder. Thompson had left the 20th Century Restaurant, at the junction of SR 15 and US 6, where she was

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a cook, at 2 p.m., Wednesday, June 25, and was walking home when she was last seen. A group, headed by her husband Robert Thompson, searched the area when she didn’t return home Wednesday. Mike Kohl continued the search Thursday, finding his mother’s body, floating in five feet of water just west of the Turkey Creek bridge. A final ruling on the cause of death is pending as officials await results from laboratory tests.

MHford's bund won notional honors

Serving our country

BONNIE HARWOOD Bonnie J. Harwood, Dewart Lake, a 91D Operating Room specialist has been assigned to Letterman Hospital at Presido, Calif., near San Francisco. She will spent 19 to 26 days at the hospital before being transferred.

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Wed., July 2,1986 — THE MAIL-JOURNAL

Marybelle Lentz, Lucille Kline, Dorothy Lawburg and Helen Weisser. In the second row are Arthur Price, Harold Gawthrop, John Fisher, Bill Rex, Dewey Fox, director Lloyd B. Eherenman, Gladys Lippincott, Marion Fisher, Mary Alice Phend, Clifford McDonald, Joe Bushong, Lee McDonald and Everett Closson. In the third row are Warren Fisher, Russell Price, Sammy Helminger, Bill rhoades. Noble Fisher, Ralph Krull, Donald Duncan, Hoy Jones, Herbert Morehouse and Wilber Waddell. In the top row are drum major Walter Smith, Clarence Miller, Jack Mangas and Emerald Callander.

LET THE 4TH OF JULY GO * ' "71 ■ OFF WITH A ■' : . \ wR| >- ’ " BAMe " not A crash • • • Qi PLEASEDR,VECAREFULLY! Tffijsjw Little A Clark \\ YF\A Insurance Agency I H — Don Arnold — j| 658-9468

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