Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 37: Present Century Events, 1916

Keeping abreast with the universal advance of woman in every activity of the world's progress, early in the Twentieth Century, or on September 30, 1801,' - VHU'i to be exact, Tell City Chapter No. 272, Order of the Eastern Star, was instituted with impressively elaborate ritual in the Masonic hall at Tell City.

Nineteen names are on the charter-roll, and one of these members has since attained the most exalted Masonic honour which the craft in Indiana can award to a woman, Mrs. Martha (McAdams) Zoercher, now resident in Indianapolis, having been elected Grand Matron for her native state at the Grand Chapter of 1914.

Among those who had signed the application for a charter were two enthusiastic Masonic daughters, Misses Flora Menninger and Alice Patrick, who were prevented by absence from becoming charter members. Ill health, from which she never recovered, had compelled the former to seek a change of climate in the "Sunshine State," Colorado, whither the latter, her de- voted niece, accompanied her; but an interesting personal detail is the fact that Miss Patrick (Mrs. Louis Zoercher) later enjoyed the privilege of being the local chapter's first initiate.

The first move toward definite club work among the women of Perry County also had its beginning in Tell City about 1906, and the name of Mrs. Robert Proctor Carr (Anna Upton) may be given as its virtual founder. The Women's Reading Club then organized and now in full swing of success, had for its original officers: Mrs. Philip Zoercher (Martha McAdams), president; Mrs. R. P. Carr, secretary. Owing to removal, neither of these energetic women is now a member of the club, though their strong influence is still felt and gratefully acknowledged among their coworkers.

As the community center of a rich agricultural section, Tobinsport has always been peculiarly the home of Farmers' Institute work in Perry County, and women have always had a place among the annual instructors, no less than among the intelligently interested listeners. In November, 1912, directly following an institute session, the Tobinsport Home Economics Club was formed with Mrs. W. 0. Little (Ethel Booker), as its first president; Mrs. J. Curtis Ryan (Mollie Clark), treasurer, and Mrs. James H. Payne (Addie Polk Miller) , secretary. Their work is conducted along lines of university extension in domestic science, directed from Purdue.

About a year later, in 1913, also under the sponsorship of Purdue, a number of Tell City's progressive housekeepers organized a home economics club, which is one of the most influential societies in the town. Its original officers were Mrs. John Sweeney (Louise Marti), president; Mrs. John Herrmann (Dora Kay Simonson), vice-president; Mrs. Louis Zoercher (Alice Patrick), secretary; Mrs. Frank Oberle (Anna Vogel), treasurer.

ized in September, 1914, with Mrs. Lee Rodman (Margherita Welling), president; Mrs. Frank H. Clemens (Marguerite Cullen), vice-president; Mrs. D. Eugene Hicks (Zillah Walters), secretary-treasurer. Their first year's programme was one of foreign study, but for 1915-16 Indiana History was chosen as the major topic, together with current events and practical plans for civic improvement and beautification.

In the same year with the Eastern Star, though some months earlier, another national fraternal order made its entry into the county, March 15, 1901, when Cannelton Camp No. 9348, Modern Woodmen of America, was organized, with the following officers: Venerable Council, Claude T. Hendershot; Adviser, Arthur E. 'Stewart; Clerk, William Guthrie Minor; Banker, Charles L. Bartles; Escort, John D. Rathsam; Watchman, Charles P. Marshall; Sentry, Thomas H. Doughty; Trustees, Anton Zellers, J. W. Maxwell, Charles H. Walls.

In the galaxy of Hoosier literature "Ben-Hur" has carried the name and fame of Lew Wallace clear around the world, and a national benevolent society, founded in 1894 in Indiana, at General Wallace's home town of Crawfordsville, was appropriately styled The Tribe of Ben-Hur. It was introduced into Perry County about 1904 by Dr. Millard F. Wedding and Rodney W. Shoemaker, both of Rome, where their efforts formed a local branch. Its charter was held as an open one for something like two years, or until 1906, when Rome Lodge No. 283, T. B. H., was officially installed, with Samuel G. Reynolds as Chief, Doctor Wedding as Scribe, and Samuel S. Connor as Keeper of Tribute.

One of the youngest among the great fraternal orders is the Knights of Columbus, and its nation-wide growth had measured not quite a quarter century when its introduction to Perry County took place, January 13, 1907. On that day Cannelton Council No. 1172, was formally instituted the initiation work conducted by degree teams from visiting councils in I. O. 0. F.

Hall (courteously lent for the occasion). This required several hours of continuous ceremony, and was followed by a banquet in St. Patrick's Hall, into which the second St. Patrick's church (built 1882 at the comer of Sixth and Adams Streets), had been changed on the union of the two Roman Catholic parishes.

Fifty charter members from Cannelton, Tell City, Troy and other places in the county were enrolled and the first officers installed at this same time were : Norman E. Patrick, Grand Knight; William E. Dougherty, Deputy Grand Knight; Martin F. Casper, Chancellor; Joseph M. Hirsch, Recorder; Anthony J. Kirst, Financial Secretary; Peter H. Casper, Treasurer; Henry M. Clemens, Lecturer; Michael D. Casper, Advocate; Thomas Cullen, Warden; Francis J. Busam, Inside Guard; Edward J. Stich, Outside Guard; George W. Hufnagel, Joseph J. Graves, Andrew Vogel, Trustees; the Rev. George H. Moss, Chaplain.

Although other industries have been undertaken at different times with varying degrees of success, the most important manufacturing enterprises inaugurated in Perry County since the early days of Cannelton and Tell City have been the United States Hame Company and the Cannelton Sewer Pipe Company.

About 1903-04 the Herrman Brothers' factory in Tell City was taken over by the United States Hame Company, but remained for two years on the old site at Ninth and Blum Streets, under supervision of Charles F. Herrman. During 1905-06 extensive plans were perfected for enlarging the plant and Robert Proctor Carr came from Andover, New Hampshire, to assume the duties of superintendent. Ground was purchased just south of the original corporate limits of Tell City, lying along the old Cannelton and Troy plank road (now Riverside Drive) and reaching as far as the Brazee homestead, "Mulberry Park." Situated between the river and the Southern Railway, excellent transportation facilities were thus available on either side, and a vast equipment of buildings was erected there, and machinery installed, making a plant which is an accepted model of its kind. The weekly output of hames (22,000 pair) is the largest of any factory in the world, and the operating force when running full time, is over two hundred men.

The superior qualities and inexhaustible quantities of the clay underlying the hills at Cannelton were touched upon more than once in the official reports of State Geologist Blatchley, and its availability for sewer pipe of the highest grade had been demonstrated by test, but its use was long confined to the manufacture of pottery by the original Clark Brothers, the later distinct firai of Clark Brothers, and the Cannelton Stoneware and Pottery Company, of which J. Crutcher Shallcross is president.

In 1908-09, however, the Cannelton Sewer Pipe Company was organized by local and Louisville capital, and ground procured just opposite the Southern Railway station at Front and Adams Streets. The old hotel, built in 1849 by the American Cannel Coal Company, still occupied a part of the premises and a portion of it was utilized for offices, moulding rooms, etc. A fourstory brick factory was erected, with a battery of twelve kilns, whose number was increased to eighteen during the next year, by the growing demands of the business, which proved a success from the outset.

Henry M. Clemens is official manager, and Anthony P. Clemens superintendent of the working force which numbers eighty people, in addition to the office corps and traveling salesmen. Two thousand tons of native clay are worked up each month, at a fuel expenditure of twelve hundred tons of coal, producing an annual output of 1,000 carloads of finished ware, and the yearly pay-roll is near $50,000.

Inspired by a laudable sentiment of local pride, the citizens of Tell City arranged to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their town's foundation by a fitting golden jubilee, a "Home-Coming Week," the first in Perry County, held June 28 to July 4, 1908. The occa- sion was carefully planned and excellently advertised in advance, so that fully twenty-five hundred visitors enjoyed the gala week, many of whom came back from afar after long years of absence.

Home-Coming Sunday opened the programme, with commemorative morning services in all the churches, and an afternoon concert of choral and instrumental music in the park. Monday at 2 p. m, a reception to old settlers was given in the park, Philip Zoercher delivering an address of welcome, to which Albert Bettinger, of Cincinnati, responded. A display of fireworks from a barge in the river was a night feature, for which seats were arranged all along the waterfront. Tuesday morning a Schoolmates' Reunion in the old North Building revived memories of childhood years as nothing else could have done, teachers and pupils coming together once more in the familiar rooms to recall days that were gone but not forgotten. Wednesday, an old-fashioned basket picnic was held at Camp Sherman, itself the scene of so many historic associations, the ground being placed at public disposal through the graceful courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Albert P. Fenn (Anna Zoercher) who had built a summer home there as part of their large fruit farm. A baseball game between Tell City and Rockport was also a feature. At 9 o'clock Thursday morning memorial addresses were pronounced in the First Evangelical church, by Gustave L. Spillman, in English, and Dr. William Simon, in German. Friday was devoted to visiting the manufacturing plants, all of which were in operation and open to sightseers, with guides in attendance to explain and demonstrate. Saturday, the "Glorious Fourth" witnessed a patriotic celebration of Independence Day, with all the customary and appropriate observances. A pyrotechnic display was given every night, two halls were opened for dancing, and a variety of popular entertainment was furnished by a carnival company presenting sundry free attractions of street fair nature.

Probably the only monthly magazine ever published in Perry County, one of uncommon character among a small class of its kind, is the Derby Game Bird, established September, 1892, by Alexander ("Eck") W. Cummings, and printed for nearly eighteen years on his farm a few miles south of Derby. Its circulation ran into the thousands, and as an advertising medium in its particular field none was rated higher.

The material details of its production on so large a scale in the country, added to the inconvenience of distribution through a small postoffice twelve miles from a railroad, led in the spring of 1910 to a removal to Tell City; although the old name has been retained. Larger presses and equipment were purchased, permitting a weekly journal to be printed in the same office, so on June 25, 1910, appeared the inaugural number of the Perry County Tribune, as a Republican sheet, with Uriah B. Cummings, son of Alexander and Jennie (Ballard) Cummings, as its proprietor and editor.

The November election of 1912 in which the Democracy headed by Wilson and Marshall won such sweeping victories in state and nation, brought additional honours to a Tell City man who had already represented his home county in the Lregislatures of 1887 and 1889, Philip Zoercher, who was chosen to the responsible office of reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court. He had been graduated in law from Central Normal College at Danville (a small but effective institution among whose other Perry County alumni have been William G. and Oscar C. Minor, Solomon H. and Logan Esarey, Ferdinand Becker, II, Joseph Herr and Gustave A. Fischer), nor was the element of school-room romance lacking, through the fact that he there first met his wife (Martha McAdams, of Plainfield) as a fellowstudent.

So great was the enthusiasm over the result on both sides of the Ohio that arrangements were made for a joint Indiana-Kentucky ratification in which Perry and Hancock Counties should unite. Cannelton, as the larger town and equally accessible with Hawesville, was fixed upon as the place and Thursday evening, November 21, as the time. Free ferriage transported Kentuckians by the hundred from Hawesville, Lewisport, Pellville, Utility, Skillman and other Hancock County points, while Tell City, Troy, Leopold, Bristow, Rome, Derby and practically all the rest of Perry County were in Cannelton on that night.

Fully a thousand persons were in the parade, which was one continuous circuit of red fire from its starting point at Seventh and Adams Streets to its culmination at the court house in a magnificent tableau of blended colours. County Clerk William V. Doogs, dressed in white and mounted on a white horse, headed the progression, carrying the national standard, while the other mounted mashals were Mayor Oscar 0. Denny, D. Eugene Hicks and James Evrard. The Hawesville Concert Band furnished instrumental music ; young women dressed in white sang patriotic songs; another float held "Jubilee Singers and Orchestra," Joseph M. Hirsch, leader; John Hambleton, John Hayes, Charles Barney, Charles Fishback, Edward Wittmer and William Whelan, who warbled and played characteristic Southern melodies ; a drum corps comprising Theodore Gerber, Edward Minnett, Harry Belleville and Oscar Lehmann contributed volume if not harmony. Eighteen differently inscribed transparencies were carried ; from motor-car to ox-cart ranged the variety of vehicles; and near a hundred horsemen were in the line which passed through brilliantly illuminated streets, densely thronged by a crowd which the next week's Cannelton Telephone estimated at from 6,000 to 8,000 people.

An immense bonfire on the hill point above Taylor Street lighted up the heavens for miles and was visible at Troy and Tobinsport, where also could be heard the presidential salutes of artillery discharged at frequent intervals.

famed eloquence of Augustus Owsley Stanley, then a candidate for United States Senator, but elected Governor of Kentucky in November, 1915. After a musical selection, Chairman Henry M. Clemens presented Edward E. Kelly, of Newport, Kentucky, a former Hancock County boy, as the first speaker. His talk was brief, mainly an effective introduction of Stanley, whose glowing effort then held his listeners for fiftyfive minutes in rapt attention. As a conclusion to the meeting, a ratification ball was announced to follow immediately in Acme Hall, where Hoosier and Corncracker - Democrat or Republican - merrily danced until the wee sma' hours ayont the twel'.

The unprecedented record of two excessive freshets within less than three months of each other will make the year 1913 forever memorable in the natural history of the Ohio Valley. 1832, 1883 and 1884 had long been marked points to reckon from, and 1907 came close to reaching these in height.

Heavy rains in January, 1913, brought a rise of unexpected swiftness, so that like most of the other tovv'ns along both banks the lower portions of Cannelton, Tell City, Troy and Hawesville were submerged. Many families were driven from their homes on short notice. Train service was annulled over the Cannelton branch of the Southern Railway and over the Henderson route for its entire length, as miles of both tracks were under water, and every factory in Tell City was at a standstill. The Tell City Journal of Wednesday, January 15, came out in half-sheet form, with boxed headlines explaining that the water was then rushing into their rear press-room and their motor clogged so that work had to be done by hand.

Unofficial bulletins indicated the river falling above, so the crest of the rise was expected on that day, but the town was described as a complete peninsula. The river washed the foot of Camp Sherman hill at the south, and toward the north spread for miles in the direction of Windy Creek and Troy, while the water-way

But the terrible cloud-bursts which swept across the states of Indiana and Ohio during Easter week (beginning March 23) of that year carried such fatalities of devastation to towns and cities in the Wabash, White, Whitewater, Miami, Scioto, Olentangy and Muskingum Valleys, that the mere flood-tide which resulted in the lower Ohio was not a circumstance of danger in comparison.

After two days of continuous rainfall in Perry County the weather cleared and fine spring days followed during which it was a marvelous sight to watch the river steadily climbing until all records had been surpassed. There was less suffering or inconvenience than there had been in January, every one threatened having had time to move to higher ground. Tuesday morning, April 1, the water overtopped a marker in the Indiana Cotton Mill premises placed there by Superintendent Wilber. Set into a sandstone block is a marble slab inscribed : "The top of this stone is level with the high water mark here February 18, 1883, and 18 inches higher than the high water mark of 1832." The record of 1884 was 9f inches higher than that of 1883, and it was generally conceded that 1913 exceeded this in both Cannelton and Tell City.

Owing to alteration in street and sidewalk grades it was difficult to determine the question in the absence of permanent markers, but on Thursday, April 3, skiffs were landing in Washington Street, Cannelton, at the intersection of Smith (between Second and Third), while Tell City's Eighth (Main) Street was under water as far north as the Citizens' Bank building between Humboldt and Franklin ; and Seventh Street for its entire length was a canal or lagoon through which plied every variety of craft, from the plebeian joe-boat to the aristocratic gasoline launch.

Telegraph and telephone service was virtually discontinued, and mails were completely suspended for more than a week. With all these discomforts, general good humour prevailed. Idle business allowed much interchange of neighbourly visiting. Kodaks and cameras were in evidence on all sides, so that the pictorial story of April, 1913, can be accurately reproduced in the years yet to come.

During the autumn of this eventful year steps were taken in Tell City toward the formation of a Moose Lodge, and on October 13, 1913, Tell City Lodge No. 1424, Loyal Order of Moose was organized. Its first officers installed were: Wilham T. Hargis, Dictator; Louis A. Siebert, Vice-Dictator ; Richard C. Bohm, Prelate; Sidney C. Cummings, Secretary; Gustave A. Fischer, Treasurer ; Carl A. Bergis, Sergeant-at-Arms ; Joseph Wulf, Inner Guard; Floyd Blackford, Outer Guard ; Theodore Brenner, Edward J. Schultz, Frank J. Becker, Trustees.

At the beginning of 1915 the personal enthusiasm of several young men agitated the organization of a militia company in Tell City, resulting in the enlistment of seventy-five men. They were sworn into service on February 14, as Company I, of the Second Indiana Regiment, with Sidney C. Cummings, captain; Volmar Franz, first lieutenant; Edwin D. Patrick, second lieutenant. The company went into camp during the summer, at Indianapolis, with the state guard, and for such a new body of troops made a most excellent official rating.