These century-old historical excerpts were selected from the Looking Backward feature of The Vidette-Messenger newspaper, which are part of the PoCo Muse Collection. Originally, these bits of information appeared as larger stories in the pages of Valparaiso’s Evening Messenger and Valparaiso Daily Vidette newspaper publications.
May 1, 1923
Noah S. Amstutz, of Valparaiso, has received an official invitation from the Port of New Orleans Board of Commissioners to be present at the formal opening of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal on May 5. This project connects the Mississippi River with Lake Pontchartrain, relieving the City of New Orleans from a serious shipping handicap.
Porter County schools will hold a track meet and general athletic contest on Wednesday, May 9, at the Porter County Fairgrounds. Schools will be closed for the day. There will be one series of events for the high school, one for the grades, and one “free for all” for the girls.
May 2, 1923
Carl Zook, a former Valparaiso man, was awarded $5,000 in a settlement in U. S. District Court, Chicago, in his suit for injuries against the Pennsylvania Railroad. Zook was injured in March 1922, in Plymouth, when he fell over a draw bar.
Leighton Mount, Northwestern University student, missing since September, 1921, during a class rush at the school, and whose skeleton was found on the Evanston lakefront Monday night, was a former resident of Valparaiso. Mount, according to the police, was killed in the class rush and his body carried beneath the heavy stones. His father, J. L. Mount, was at one time connected with the Chautauqua Manufacturing Company of Valparaiso.
May 3, 1923
A judgment of $4,306.90 was awarded William Alyea, of Hebron, Wednesday night by a jury in the federal court at Indianapolis in a suit brought against the American Railway Express Company. The judgment was for furs valued at $3,712.85 shipped from Rushville to Hebron on March 30, 1920, and stolen on April 2 from the express company’s office at Hebron. Mrs. Alyea was notified of their arrival in Hebron but did not claim them. It was contended by the express company that the owners of the fur had been notified of their arrival and did not come after them within a reasonable length of time.
Last evening, a special meeting of the congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church was held for the purpose of electing a successor to Rev. C. W. Baer, who resigned. After much deliberation, it was resolved to extend a call to Rev. George F. Schutes, from Trinity Lutheran Church in Logan, O.
May 4, 1923
The Yellowstone Garage on Linwood Avenue has been acquired by Joseph Zeller, who traded a 200-acre farm near Winamac, Ind., to Biven Coburn of Medaryville, Ind. The latter obtained the garage from Alexander Watt, of Valparaiso. Mr. Zeller will conduct the garage business himself in conjunction with his son, Donald Zeller.
Valparaiso’s Chautauqua will be held in July this year. E. W. Agar, president of the local association, has received word from the Mutual Morgan Bureau of Chicago that tentative dates of July 4 to 8, has been selected for Valparaiso. This would give the sessions a holiday and a Saturday and Sunday ensuring large crowds.
May 5, 1923
The Valparaiso City Council at a meeting last night decided to issue bonds in the sum of $19,000 to pay for the two new Seagrave fire trucks recently purchased. The issue will be spread over a term of three years.
The Valparaiso High School Senior Class staged “The Charm School” at the Memorial Opera House last night. Mrs. C. W. Boucher directed the production and Miss Darby was in charge of the music. Those taking part were: Eva Kruse, Paul Stevenson, Ivan Hayhurst, Ruth Van Arsdel, Margaret Timmons, Clarissa Ely, Alice Ludington, Mary Stoner, Alice Fabing, Myrtle Willing, Edith Richards, Delphine Corson, Ruth Hershman, Merle Dowdell, Ernest Lembke, Dickey Mitchell and Herbert Mitchell.
May 6, 1923
The Valparaiso Boosters, led by Buck Weaver, former Chicago White Sox player, defeated the Hammond Colonials at the fairgrounds on Sunday, 5 to 4. Callahan, second baseman of the Boosters, hammered out a home run. Webb pitched for the locals and was opposed by Frankie Simon. Each pitcher allowed five hits.
Rev. Ora E. Oxley, of Rolling Prairie, filled the pulpit of the Christian Church at Boone Grove last night, it being his first sermon as pastor of the church. He was greeted by a large crowd that filled the edifice. Several hundred members of a well-known organization from Valparaiso and Porter County were in attendance. Rev. Oxley succeeded Rev. Chester W. Jacobs, who left Boone Grove in February to accept a church pastorate in Illinois.
May 7, 1923
The Valparaiso Home Water Company today commenced work on the extension of water mains in several parts of the city. The beginning operations on Grove Avenue, Sunny Crest addition, Chautauqua Park, followed by lines on Evans Avenue, north of the Grand Trunk, extending west from Calumet, making the circuit on East Limit Street, near Kirchhoff Park, and there joining two dead ends. Three-quarters of a mile of pipeline will be laid at this time.
May 8, 1923
Work will start tomorrow on the Lincoln Highway, east of Valparaiso. The road will be closed to traffic. George T. Pearce, in charge of highway construction in Lake, Porter, and Jasper Counties, will begin getting berms ready for the asphalt penetration top, the contract for which will be awarded today at Indianapolis. The road to the Malone School in Washington Township will be improved this year, and next year from that point to the LaPorte-Porter County line.
May 9, 1923
Valparaiso and Porter County were blanketed last night in one of the worst snowstorms ever occurring in the month of May. The storm assumed blizzard proportions and embodied sleet, hail, snow, and abnormally low temperatures. In the rural districts, autos were stalled in the drifts, which in some places were six feet deep. Property, fruit, and sprouting crops were damaged.
Wallace C. Sutter, secretary of the chamber of commerce at Connersville, Ind., and formerly secretary for the Manufacturers’ Association at Marion, Ind., was elected secretary of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce at the weekly meeting of the board of directors held this Noon. He will take up his new duties in the middle of next week.
May 10, 1923
The state highway department is asking Porter County to stand good for costs of obtaining the right of way not yet acquired for the Dunes Highway in Westchester Township. The department will conduct condemnation proceedings and the county will pay damages which can be done under the 1923 act. The amount involved is $3,500. The commissioners took no action upon the advice of Porter County Attorney Grant Crumpacker. If the county cannot appropriate money, then it will have to be raised by popular subscription.
Babe Elkins, pitcher; James Blande, first base, and Victor Schultz, utility member, of the LaPorte All Stars, have been signed by the Valpo Boosters. Elkins defeated Kouts three times last year and Valpo once. The three men will be in the local lineup next Sunday against the Hammond Elks here.
May 11, 1923
Members of the Elks will have a horseshoe court in the rear of the lodge property at Washington and Jefferson Streets in Valparaiso. This was decided at a meeting of the lodge last night. A number of teams will be formed. The Elks and Kiwanis Club will play a series of matches, it was announced.
Nearly 300 eighth grade pupils in the rural schools outside Valparaiso will sit for final examinations to be held tomorrow at designated places in the county, Superintendent Fred H. Cole announced today. A short time ago, the number was 250, but since that time additional calls have been received, indicating the number will approach the 300 mark.
May 12, 1923
Rev. Clarence Mitchell, former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Valparaiso, is now pastor of the Columbia Baptist Church at Cincinnati, O. Since the year and four months he has been pastor of the church, 115 members have been added. The Mitchells have a new boy, Frederick Eugene, which arrived a month ago.
Nobody wants four-and-one-half percent gravel road bonds these days. Recently Porter County Treasurer J. G. Graessle advertised the sale of $122,500 bonds of the Payne, Carlson, Esserman, and Gloyeski Roads. Only one bid was received by the Citizens’ Savings & Trust Company, of Valparaiso, bidding on the $30,000 Payne Road issue.
May 13, 1923
The Valparaiso Standards defeated the Hammond Elks here Sunday, 13 to 3. Webb pitched for the Standards. Buck Weaver, of the old Chicago White Sox, played a fine game for the Standards at third base. The locals made fifteen hits.
Word has been received here that Rev. George F. Schutes, of Trinity Lutheran Church of Logan, O., has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Valparaiso Immanuel Lutheran Church. He succeeds Rev. C. W. Baer, who goes to the Redeemer Lutheran Church at Fort Wayne.
May 14, 1923
William P. Shadoan, of Somerset, Ky., former star athlete at Center College, Danville, Ky., has been signed to coach athletes at Valparaiso University during the coming year. He succeeds Earl J. Goheen. The new coach will take up his duties on September 1. Shadoan is a former teammate of Bo McMillan and “Red” Roberts, stars at Center College.
May 15, 1923
Herbert Douglas was elected captain of the 1923-24 Valparaiso High School basketball team at a meeting held yesterday afternoon. He received six votes to his brother George’s two votes. Douglas played at back guard last season and defeated LaPorte in the regional tourney here by dropping in two long shots from the middle of the floor.
May 16, 1923
The French Cafe on College Hill, owned by Mrs. Mary Daniels, has closed its doors. Its career was terminated Sunday night when a sign was placed on the front door stating that the accounts were on the inside. Lack of business was given as the reason for closing. The cafe was formerly owned by Wilford Foster, who sold it to Mrs. Daniels.
Flint Lake is benefiting from recent rains. Two weeks ago, a 2.61-inch rainfall was registered while 2.15 inches was recorded last night. The various ditches emptying into the lake are running good-sized streams at the present time.
May 17, 1923
The official school enumeration of Porter County, which includes boys and girls between the ages of six and twenty-one, was announced today by Superintendent Fred H. Cole. A total of 5,711 boys and girls is shown by the count, as compared with 5,864 in 1922, a net loss of 153.
The Gary and Valparaiso Interurban directors at a meeting yesterday decided to sell the depot buildings at the Gary and Woodville Junction. The former building has been abandoned for a new structure. The building at the Woodville Junction is larger than conditions demand and it has also suffered at the hands of vandals. Another small building will be used. The directors also authorized the purchase of 2,000 ties to be used in repairing the road between Gary and Valparaiso.
May 18, 1923
Yesterday after school, eighteen members of the Valparaiso High School Senior Class, who had been pupils under Miss Margaret Beer, were guests at a surprise party staged by her in Miss Mabel Benney’s room. The pupils were taught by Miss Beer at the Columbia and Gardner Schools.
A. R. Hardesty and Herbert Schleman have opened up an office in Hobart from which they will sell the remaining lots in the H. & S. addition located west of the brick yards. Mr. Schleman is living with Dr. A. C. Wickham and is considering locating in Hobart permanently.
May 19, 1923
Valparaiso University defeated St. Viator College yesterday at Kankakee, Ill., by a score of 9 to 1. Graham, of Valpo, allowed four hits, two of which were made by Clancy, St. Viator first baseman. Valpo did not make an error.
Members of the Ku Klux Klan ushered in their homecoming and May Festival being held here today by burning fiery crosses in every town in the county. Two burning sticks were touched off in Valparaiso, one at the courthouse square, and the other at the old college building ruins. At Chesterton, klansmen burned a giant cross on top of Mt. Tom in the sand dunes. This morning, members of the klan began arriving for the celebration. An automobile party of 100 cars arrived from Terre Haute. Two special trains over the Pennsylvania from Chicago and another of twelve coaches from Indianapolis also arrived.
May 20, 1923
Over 8,000 klansmen marched in the huge parade which climaxed the last session of the Ku Klux Klan festival and celebration held at the Porter County fairgrounds Saturday. The procession started at the fairgrounds and traversed the business district. Three bands furnished music. Estimates of the number of visitors in Valparaiso on Saturday vary from 10,000 to 50,000. Two hundred women and 500 men were initiated into the klan and ladies’ auxiliary. National officers attended the meeting, coming by plane.
Valparaiso University won the Western Interstate Baseball Championship Saturday by defeating Y.M.C.A. College of Chicago, 8 to 5. Walter Hiltpold, on the mound for Valpo, struck out eleven men. The win gave Valpo a clean slate of four wins and no defeats. St. Viator, DePaul, Columbia, Kalamazoo, LaCrosse, and Luther were other teams in the conference.
May 21, 1923
Eleven members of this year’s graduating class of the Valparaiso University Law School were admitted to the bar by Judge H. H. Loring in Porter Circuit Court this morning. Included in the number were Neil McEachum, Oliver M. Loomis, Gust Hoff, William Behanna, Herman Carter, Juan Herrara, William H. Sheaffer, Dewey Smith, Kenneth Williams, R. J. Wiltrout, and David Chesrow.
May 22, 1923
The work of selecting a jury in the case of Harry Diamond, of Gary, charged with slaying his wife, and shooting his Black chauffeur, William Armstrong, was halted in Porter Circuit Court this morning when the second venire of 40 men were exhausted. A second venire of 20 names was drawn by the jury commissioners. The state today indicated it was looking for the whereabouts of a girl alleged to be Diamond’s sweetheart, who is said to have about $40,000 of securities which belonged to Mrs. Diamond, and which disappeared following her death.
May 23, 1923
E. D. Hodges was re-elected president of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce at a meeting of the directors held this noon. E. L. Loomis and Dr. Marx Ruge were named vice-presidents; T. L. Applegate, treasurer, and Edmund J. Freund, secretary. The election was to have been held in January but was deferred until it was found whether enough money could be raised to carry out the proposed program of the organization and insure the selection of a manager.
Paul Graham, star flinger of the Valparaiso University baseball team this year, has departed for Topeka, Kansas, where he has signed up with the Topeka team of the Western League. Graham won every game he pitched for the university, and two games for the Valparaiso Boosters.
May 24, 1923
A jury to try Harry Diamond, Gary wife slayer, was secured in Porter Circuit Court this morning. William Querry, the 102nd juror examined, was the last juror selected. Others on the jury comprise: William Arnold, Pleasant; Max Otto, Pleasant; Gus Greiger, Morgan; Jerome Bartholomew, Pleasant; Earl Knapp, Center; Charles Bowman, Jackson; William Winselman, Morgan; E. F. Bird, Westchester; Thomas Doyle, Jackson; and Don L. Richmond, Center.
Agitation has been started in Chesterton to compel the Valparaiso & Northern Railway to take up its tracks in that town. The persons advocating the step declare the tracks are a nuisance inasmuch as the railroad has ceased operation of its cars. W. J. Henry, of Valparaiso, vice-president of the railroad, is opposing the step. He believes the time will come when the operation of the railroad will be resumed, and that Chesterton will need the line.
May 25, 1923
An old vault in the rear of the Valparaiso Chamber building on Washington Street, formerly used as a storage of valuables when the post office was housed in the building, will be removed to the rear of the Modern Toggery Shop on Lincolnway by the Schleman-Morton Company, owners of both structures. The vault was formerly located in the rear of the building on the site of the present Lowenstine Department Store and was used by city treasurers to keep books, money, and records in days gone by. It was moved in the 1890s to the Salyer Building to use for storage of important papers.
Professors John R. Effinger, Dean of the College of Literature, Arts, and Sciences of the University of Michigan, made the address to the graduates of the Valparaiso High School at the annual commencement exercises held last evening at the Memorial Opera House. Attorney Bruce B. Loring, local grad and University of Michigan alumni, introduced the speaker. Professor C. W. Boucher presented the diplomas to the fifty-nine graduates, the largest class ever to be graduated from the local school.
May 26, 1923
The Jahns Bus, which has been operated between Valparaiso, Hebron, and Lowell, will instead begin to run between Hebron and Michigan City. The Lowell end of the trip proved unprofitable. The bus will start at Hebron, come to Valparaiso, and go through Chesterton and Tremont on his way to Michigan City. Two round trips will be made daily.
May 27, 1923
Work was commenced today by John Sievers, senior member of the firm of the Sievers Drug Company, on the erection of a new building on the lot just west of the Johnson Oil Filling Station on East Lincolnway. Harvil Brothers, of Valparaiso, will be the lessees of the structure. The building will have a floor space of 10,000 square feet. The site of the new structure was formerly occupied by the T. B. Louderback Blacksmith and Wagon Shop.
The Valparaiso Boosters baseball team, with Buck Weaver in the lineup, defeated the Chicago American Giants at the fairgrounds yesterday by a score of 7 to 5. Weaver led the Boosters with two doubles and a single.
May 28, 1923
Representatives of a bonding company and J. E. Dreschoff, lessee of the Hotel Lembke, are in Valparaiso today for the purpose of investigating the feasibility of floating a bond issue to take over the hotel and complete the building. Mr. Dreschoff has an option on the lease of the building which expires on June 1.
May 29, 1923
J. Earl Mavity was elected president; Bernard Szold, secretary and treasurer, and Ben Schenck, team captain, at the organization of the Valpo Tennis Club held last evening. Some 15 to 20 attended. Fred LePell, John Lowenstine, Phyllis Hisgen, Kenneth Kimmel, Merton Lish, and Leslie Wade having dignified their intention of entering the Chicago Daily News Gold Medal Tourney.
May 30, 1923
Valparaiso policeman Matthew Brown is one man who enjoys the distinction of having been an eyewitness to the knocking out of four homers by a ball player in a single game. It was in 1887, at the old West Side Baseball Park, Congress and Loomis Streets, Chicago, that this occurred. Dan Brouthers, of Detroit, a member of the Big Four, was the man who clouted the pill for the four successive homers.
May 31, 1923
The marriage business in Porter County this year is running light, according to figures compiled by Porter County Clerk Gust E. Bornholt. During the first five months, a total of 163 licenses were issued. May yielded 34 of this number. It is expected the entire year will not show more than 400 licenses.