Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 12, 1936.
Chesterton, Porter Plan Big Banquet To Bury the Hatchet; Fire Truck For Farmers Sought
CHESTERTON, March 12.ーThe age-old rivalry between Chesterton and Porter, miniature “twin cities” of Porter county, may soon be just a memory of the horse and buggy era.
If present plans materialize the two towns may join handsーnot to the extent of forming one communityーbut to bind two units into a group working together for common benefits.
Not so long ago a reorganization of the Chesterton Business Men's club was effected and a younger element gained control. More recently a membership drive was sponsored by the Porter Chamber of Commerce and the new blood obtained has enlivened the group considerably.
The latest result of this unheard of phenomenon is that a committee has been appointed by the Porter group to meet with a similar body from the Chesterton organization and smoke the pipe of peace. Porter representatives are M.H. Smith, Arthur Hokanson and William Givens. The Chesterton group will be appointed next Monday night by President Leslie Pratt of the Business Men’s club.
The two committees will formulate plans for a joint banquet at which time the hatchet which has taken so many scalps in the past will be buried and the promotion of projects to mutually benefit the two towns will be discussed.
One of the proposals is being clothed in airtight secrecy but that both towns would welcome a new factory is common knowledge. Recreation parks, attractively landscaped and with facilities for kittenball and tennis is the most immediate goal of the Chesterton club which has appointed Lester Gunder as chairman of a committee to obtain permission for the use of Railroad park, located in the heart of the north Porter county community.
To date no active attempt has been made by either Porter Chesterton to entice the hundreds of summer resorters at Lake Michigan into visiting their shops and churches. A program of this nature is expected to be one of the major issues at the hatchet-burying banquet.
The one immediate problem: where will be the banquet be heldーin Porter or Chesterton?
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A spark which Friday night started the fire that completely destroyed the home of Carl J. Rhoda, Jr., has also generated a blaze of sentiment for the purchase of a new fire truck. Leaders in a new movement to get such equipment for the use of farmers in the north end of the county are John Lenburg, C.A. Anderson and M.P. Brummitt.
Township trustees of Westchester, Pine, Jackson, Liberty and Portage will be asked to contribute toward the purchase of a light truck equipped with a 500-gallon tank.
The fire Friday night was the second disaster to befall the Rhoda’s within the last year. The owner had just recently completed a new barn, the old one having been destroyed by a conflagration. Because of the frozen water main and lack of other adequate water facilities both the Chesterton and Porter fire departments were handicapped in fighting the most recent blaze.
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Chesterton is entering a “wite hope” into the heavyweight ranks. He is Bill Peterson, 19-year-old giant, son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Peterson and a graduate of the local high school in 1934.
Bill was spotted by a fistic expert while working at the Inland Steel company and now holds a membership in the George Trafton gym, Chicago. The local fighter, while a student at Indiana university, was a star member of the boxing squad.
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Bernard Wiseman is reported improved following a dangerous double mastoid operation at the Mercy hospital, Gary, last Friday. Earlier reports which gave the cause of his critical illness as streptococcus infection and a spinal meningitis complication were not substantiated by a more complete medical examination.
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Twenty-one Boy Scouts were guests of their sponsors, members of the Chesterton Lions club, at a chicken dinner held Tuesday night at Mrs. Krueger’s restaurant.
Boys who enjoyed both the dinner and the entertainment were: James Lillywhite, Kenneth Magnuson, James Somers, Richard Wiseman, Richard Friday, Henry Radiger, Ned Beatty, Horace Cooper, Harlan Behrendt, Raymond Deiotte, Howard Johnsen, Milford Hageman, Cleon Trowe, Myron Braun, Bud Fend, Dewayne Yost, James Dee Vaughn, Richard Klinkman, Walter Peterson, Frank Brunk, and Robert Miller.
