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.
December 1, 1922
Addison N. Worstell was today duly installed as postmaster of Valparaiso. Following a checkout of John T. Scott, yesterday, Mr. Worstell assumed charge. The new official announced there would be no changes for the present. The salary of the postmaster is $3,500 ($62,085 in 2022) per annum. Mr. Worstell was accorded the plum on account of his services as head of the Republican County Central Committee for more than eight years.
The First Congregational Church of Porter has voted to change its denomination. It will henceforth be known as an evangelical church. Rev. J. D. Abel, who was called to the pastorate in April, is a member of the evangelical church, and his coming hinged upon the understanding that the church denomination be changed. Under the evangelical church, the congregation will have the advantage of well-organized support, the church having 100 pastorates in Indiana.
December 2, 1922
Freight conditions on local railroads at present are reported as deplorable, with not much improvement in sight. Poor time and a large quantity of freight are giving the railroad men plenty of opportunity to growl. Placing embargoes on shipments without reason has not alleviated the situation. Poor condition of the railroad rolling stock is held largely responsible for the failure of the railroads to give the proper service to the public.
A remonstrance signed by 785 taxpayers of Porter County was filed with the county commissioners and the county council, protesting against the using of any county funds or selling any bonds for the resurfacing of the Valparaiso-Chesterton Road or any other road in the county with cement, asphalt or any other material until some protection is provided for governing traffic over roads in the county.
December 3, 1922
Auditor B. H. Kinne has records to show that holding of the primary, the two sessions of the registration board and the holding of the general election this year cost county taxpayers $1.35 ($24 in 2022) per vote. The total cost will approximate the $9,000 ($159,649 in 2022) mark. The total vote cast for secretary of state was 6,600. More than 8,200 voters registered at the two registrations.
Valparaiso High lost to Elkhart on Friday night at Elkhart by a score of 25 to 17, and Saturday night at University Gym to Froebel of Gary by a count of 12 to 6. The Valparaiso High School reserves defeated Kouts by a score of 31 to 6 in the curtain raiser.
December 4, 1922
Two rooms of the new Wheeler High School were occupied for the first time yesterday. The remainder of the building will probably be ready within ten days. The new building has five classrooms for students; two recitation rooms, manual training and domestic science rooms and community auditorium. It cost $40,000 ($709,552 in 2022). Dr. A. O. Dobbins, township trustee, supervised the construction.
December 5, 1922
The first issue of The Valparaiso Daily Vidette from its new home at 23 Washington Street, across from the old location, was printed yesterday. All the moving has not yet been completed. The paper will print an issue later describing the new plant.
December 6, 1922
Trustee A. O. Dobbins, of Union Township, has two abandoned schools on his hands, one at Cherry Glen and the other, the Foster School. The law stipulates the buildings cannot be sold within ten years unless the majority of the people living in the school district sign a petition to that effect. As no one is interested except the man to whom the land would revert, it is not expected a petition will be circulated. At the end of ten years the buildings would be of little value.
Yesterday afternoon at 4:53 o’clock the new ornamental lights on Lincolnway and the business district were turned on for the first time in Valparaiso. A scheduled demonstration was called off because of bad weather. The number of lighting units turned over total 101, and the cost of installation was about $16,000 ($283,820 in 2022). The monthly expense to the city will be $2.50 ($44.35 in 2022), making the city’s monthly bill $650 ($11,530 in 2022). The ornamental lighting system movement was inaugurated ten years ago but did not materialize until early last summer through the efforts of Mayor E.W. Agar, Valparaiso City Attorney E. G. Osborne, and the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce. The General Electrical Company, of Chicago, was secured to make a survey of city illumination.
December 7, 1922
Henry W. Lenman, Chicago owner of property on Lake Michigan, has sold 582 acres of land west of Waverly Beach, under a leasing agreement, to William A. Wirt, of Gary. The annual rental will be $17,460 ($309,719 in 2022) a year, with the option to purchase the property in whole or part at $600 ($10,643 in 2022) per acre. The deal marks the second involving realty in the north Porter County section. Negotiations are underway by the Morgan interests for the sale of 320 acres at Waverly Beach to A. Murray Turner, Peter W. Meyn and others, of Hammond. A summer resort is planned by the purchasers.
Porter County taxpayers will pay increased taxes next year. The only exception will be in Liberty Township. Valparaiso’s tax rate will be $3.74 ($66 in 2022), an increase of fifty-two cents. Increases in Union, Morgan, Portage, and Westchester Townships and the towns of Porter and Chesterton were due to new school buildings, and increases in Pleasant and Boone Townships, and the towns of Kouts and Hebron were due to decreased assessments.
December 8, 1922
W. G. Windle and Son today sold their grocery store at 121 East Lincolnway to Harry Herrick. The same business was sold by Mr. Herrick three years ago to the Windles. The business then was located on West Lincolnway. The Senior Mr. Windle will retire because of ill health.
Mrs. Helen Herrick, Roger Wilson, Al and William Seff, Robert McGillicuddy, Edward Siercks and John Sievers, Jr., attended the opening of the $1,500,000 ($26,608,214 in 2022) Trianon Ballroom in Chicago last evening. Paul Whiteman’s orchestra was the headliner. The latter organization receives $25,000 ($443,470 in 2022) for one week’s play.
December 9, 1922
Peter J. Horn, veteran farmer and businessman of Valparaiso, with a carload of Duroc Jersey Red hogs in the International Livestock Show won great honors. The hogs took first prize for reds, and second prize on other classes, and sold for the highest price, 11 cents a pound. The hogs were raised on the Owens farm owned by Mr. Horn.
John B. Clifford, Jr., is now associated with P. T. Clifford and Son, local railroad contractors. Mr. Clifford has been general superintendent for Western Contractors Supply Company, of Chicago, and was also a member of the firm of Clapp, Norstrom and Riley, of Chicago. The local firm has a large number of contracts on hand for next summer.
December 10, 1922
Members of the fire committee of the Valparaiso City Council and Chief J. A. Wise will soon go to Chicago to witness a demonstration of firefighting equipment by the Seagraves Company. The Chicago company expects a new shipment of apparatus soon. It is planned to purchase two fire trucks for the city. The present truck will be traded in. The new trucks will not be available until early next year.
Valparaiso High lost to Emerson High of Gary at Gary last night, 21-13, in a fast game. Gary led at half time, 12 to 2, when Valparaiso was unable to cage its shots. In the second half the locals came back and outscored the crack Gary quintet, 11 to 9. Sackett, Cavanaugh, Kelso, Sturtridge, Ruman, Kerr, Momardt and Dunleavy comprised the Emerson team, and G. Douglas, Seymour, McCord, White, Horan, Shurr, Riddle, Lowenstine, Gordon and Parker was the Valparaiso lineup.
December 11, 1922
Oil drilling operations will soon begin in Jackson Township in the vicinity of Suman, George L. Oliver, of Chicago, who last year obtained leases of many acres in that township, stated yesterday that materials for building derricks already had been placed on the ground and active work would be commenced shortly. The location of the well will be near the one drilled some time ago when a workman was killed in a fall from a scaffold. Leases secured by Oliver comprise the lands of Mary Wilson, Gustaf Lindwall, Arthur Johnson, F. L. Beach, Almerton Crowe, Frank Johnson, Charlotte Lindwall and Andrew Holmgreen.
December 12, 1922
Three federal board students of Valparaiso University got in bad at Gary on Sunday when they were arrested on charges of assault and battery on a woman inmate of a disreputable resort. They were released by the authorities when witnesses failed to appear against them.
December 13, 1922
Valparaiso University defeated the Chicago Tecks basketball team last evening at the university gym, 42-12, and the Valparaiso University reserves won over the Gary Independents, 22-14. Anderson was the high point getter with seven baskets. Hiltpold and Harris collected five baskets apiece.
Federal board men of Valparaiso University were exonerated of any connection with an alleged disturbance in Gary on Sunday night in which a woman inmate of a resort was assaulted, when Alfred Lynch, 505 Freeman Street, Valparaiso, who says he is not a federal board student, assumed the blame for the affair. Lynch said the federal board trainees had no part in the fracas and assumed full blame for the affair.
December 14, 1922
Tom Novak, an alleged wild man, created some excitement at Hebron yesterday when nearly the entire populace of the town engaged in a roundup of the man. The trouble started when Novak attacked a citizen without warning. A posse captured him and placed him in jail. Sheriff William Pennington and Deputy Jerry Lafrentz went to Hebron after Novak. Another fight ensued before Novak was overpowered and brought to the county jail.
A boy scout troop was organized at Crisman. The troop will be affiliated with the Gary organization. The new troop comprises eight members. Allen J. Black, principal of the Crisman High School, is scoutmaster. He will be assisted by Robert Scofield. As soon as the troop is approved by the national headquarters, investiture and initiation will be held.
December 15, 1922
Complaints are being made by owners of large tracts of land in the north part of Porter County that thousands of young pine trees have been cut and are being hauled to Gary and Chicago for Christmas trees. It is estimated that 50,000 young trees have been cut in the dunes this week. Many of the tracts are being guarded to protect the young trees.
Chesterton Masons have taken the first step in their building program by acquiring a lot opposite the New York Central Depot on Broadway, of Mrs. Kleinman, at a consideration of $5,000 ($88,694 in 2022). The purchase was made by an agent who is holding it in trust until an organization is completed to take possession. The Chesterton Masonic Building Association is being organized and shares are selling at $10 ($177 in 2022) each.
December 16, 1922
Coach Ralph Schenck’s Valparaiso High School basketball team won its first game of the season at the university gym last evening, defeating the rangy lads from Culver by a score of 20 to 14. The game was fast and close throughout. Wade and Whitted, two Black players for Culver, were stars. Larson and White stood out for Valpo.
Members of the Ku Klux Klan, attired in white, staged a parade in the downtown district last night. About 125 were in the line of march. At the corner of Indiana Avenue and Franklin Street on a vacant lot, a huge cross was ignited. Reports were that a number of the marchers came from Michigan City, Knox, Gary and other cities.
December 17, 1922
The thermometer this morning registered 11 degrees below at the Valparaiso Home Water Pumping Station at Flint Lake. The lakes north of the city, and Sager’s Lake, south of the city, are covered with a thick coating of ice and preparations are being made to harvest the ice crop.
Dr. H. M. Evans, of Valparaiso, connected with the U. S. Public Health Service, will return to Valparaiso to spend his Christmas vacation with his family after a six months’ trip around the world as a member of Assistant Secretary of Commerce C. H. Huston’s party. The world-wide tour was undertaken on behalf of American trade and the development and protection of the fur, seal, and salmon industries of Alaska.
December 18, 1922
Word was received here today of the death of Thomas B. Wood, president of the Valparaiso Male and Female College in 1868. Mr. Wood was the son of Aaron Wood, Methodist circuit rider in the early days of the Northwest Indiana Conference. Mr. Wood was a resident of the local school following the presidency of Rev. C. M. Sims, B. Wilson Smith, Mr. Staley, Mr. Utter and Aaron Gurney.
December 19, 1922
Tony C. Dilley, of Bourbon, Ind., former Hebron man, and son of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Dilley, of Valparaiso, has sold his undertaking business at Bourbon to W. J. Williams & Son, of Gary. Mr. Dilley has been in Bourbon since 1905, and during that time has had 1,200 funerals. He disposed of his furniture business some time ago. He will look after his farming interests near Bourbon.
December 20, 1922
Joseph Wilgen, residing east of Valparaiso, visited Chicago one day and returned with the germ of an unconventional idea. Wilgen selected a low spot on his farm and caught enough water to form a small pond. The recent cold weather has frozen the pond to a depth of several inches and the kids in the Wilgen neighborhood are enjoying skating.
Rufus Snell, of Gary, a Black man held in the Porter County Jail for murder of Henderson Weaver, also Black, following the disagreement of a jury in Porter Superior Court, yesterday received a box of sugar cane from a sister in Alabama. The cane was eaten by Snell and a fellow prisoner, William Veasley, also awaiting trial for murder.
December 21, 1922
Valparaiso University defeated Crane College last night at university gym by a score of 41 to 23. Captain Hiltpold’s local crew were too big for the small, but fast Crane cagers. Coach Goheen used his second team after the first stringers had run up a 26-to-6 lead.
Valparaiso University students are in favor of the plan of Joel W. Eastman, of the university, to incorporate the industrial idea at the school in line with the policies of the school’s founders, Henry Baker Brown and O. P. Kinsey.
December 22, 1922
Herman Hagen, of Valparaiso, today received from Indianapolis a retired commission as colonel in the Patriarchs Militants, uniformed rank of Odd Fellows. The honor is in recognition of Mr. Hagen’s service to Odd Fellowship during 34 years as a member.
The town of LaCrosse was hit by a fire early this morning that caused a property loss of between $15,000 and $20,000 ($266,082 - $354,776 in 2022). The buildings burned were occupied by Goetz and Ness Meat Market and Grocery; Reed Brothers General Store, and the Goetz residence. The Jones Drug Store building was slightly damaged.
December 23, 1922
The new high school building at Wheeler was fittingly dedicated last evening with appropriate ceremonies. A fair-sized crowd attended. Talks were made by Lewis E. Myers, Trustee A. O. Dobbins, Edward Anderson, and Superintendent Fred H. Cole. Music was furnished by the Walker sisters.
Dr. A. O. Dobbins, who recently purchased the Dr. J. R. Pagin residence in Valparaiso, will move here on Jan. 1. He has leased rooms in the Premier Theatre building. Dr. Dobbins has practiced medicine in Wheeler for a number of years. At the present time he is closing his term as trustee of Union Township and had the honor of erecting the new high school building at Wheeler, dedicated last night.
December 24, 1922
The substation at East Gary owned by the Calumet Electric Company, of Hammond, which supplies power for the Gary and Valparaiso Interurban, burned to the ground today at 9 o’clock. The fire was discovered by a passing motorman. Only the bare walls of the brick building were left to mark the site. The loss will be in the neighborhood of $17,000 ($301,559 in 2022). The building, which was built about 12 years ago, will be rebuilt, but in a new location. The local interurban is now getting power from substations at Gary and Goodrum.
December 25, 1922
Valparaiso University’s basketball team won three of its four games on its recent road trip. Kalamazoo was defeated, 20 to 17; Michigan Aggies, 21 to 17, and Crane College, 41 to 23. The only loss, to Detroit, saw the home team outscored from the field, ten goals to six, but made the most of its chances at the free throw line, scoring 12 times.
December 26, 1922
The Dunes Highway, the beautiful new concrete trail through the duneland of northern Porter County will be completed about May 1, if present plans go accordingly. The road will cost $650,000 ($11,530,226 in 2022). Its total length is 23 miles. It is twenty feet wide of reinforced concrete, with a ten-foot berm on each side.
December 27, 1922
Sheriff William Pennington received a large, bulky package through the mail this afternoon. To his surprise when opened, the package contained a large edition of the Bible. The book was bound in leather. It was sent by Al Mace, of Lacota, Mich., a former Valparaiso resident, who had been a guest at the Porter County Jail on numerous occasions.
The Indiana Society of Sanitary Engineers has guaranteed work for all students of the plumbing course offered by the Valparaiso College of Economic and Cultural Arts of Valparaiso University. Contracts have been signed by officers of the society and school officials. A two-year course leading to a degree of sanitary engineering has been approved and perfected by both contracting parties.
December 28, 1922
A carload of tools to be used in oil drilling operations at Suman is being unloaded today. Mr. Condon, who will drill a well on the Jerry Cavanaugh place for George W. Oliver, of Chicago, will erect a derrick. Mr. Oliver has secured leases on hundreds of acres of land around Suman.
December 29, 1922
Valparaiso will lose one of its industries next week when P. Kenneth Brock moves away. Mr. Brock has been identified with the manufacture of shirts in Valparaiso for the last 3 ½ years. He came here from Chicago with the Kingley Shirt Company and was in charge of the company’s plant until the concern abandoned it and moved back to Chicago. Mr. Brock soon afterward started up operations on his own hook. He has taken a position with the Goshen Shirt Company at Cadillac, Mich.
Word has been received in Chesterton that Dr. C. L. Minges, formerly engaged in the practice of dentistry in Chesterton, died by suicide in Paris, France. Dr. Minges left Chesterton at the outbreak of the World War and enlisted in the dental corps. Since the war he has been living in Paris.
December 30, 1922
Dr. H. M. Evans was elected president of Valparaiso University at a meeting of the board of trustees held yesterday. He succeeds Milo J. Bowman, Dean of the Law School, who served as the school’s head since May 26, 1922. Prof. A. A. Williams resigned as vice-president and will continue as business manager and head of the mathematics department. Dr. Evans will be installed as the new president on January 1 at special chapel exercises.
Chesterton’s sewer case will be heard in Porter Circuit Court next week before Special Judge John C. Richter, of LaPorte. A remonstrance asking for a permanent injunction against the building of the proposed sewer which provides for drainage across the “boom” and northward to the Little Calumet River. G. R. Williams, of Chesterton; William Schneider, of Hammond, and Ralph N. Smith of LaPorte, are attorneys for the remonstrators. Charles W. Jensen is attorney for the Chesterton Town Board, and will be assisted by Grant Crumpacker, of Valparaiso. Daly and Freund are counsel for the contractor, Gerald McGillicuddy, of Valparaiso, and William McVey of LaPorte, represents all the defendants.
December 31, 1922
Dr. H.O. Seipel, coroner of Porter County, held forty inquests during 1922. Trains and auto collisions resulted in nineteen people losing their lives. Seven of the lot were members of the Hargot family, of Chicago, who were killed by a Pennsylvania train, west of Valparaiso.
The Valparaiso High School basketball team defeated the Valparaiso High School alumni last night, 23-16. The varsity consisted of George and Herbert Douglas, Kenneth Larson, Forrest Seymour, and Fred White. Walter and Werner Hiltpold, Jack Fabing, Earl Scott, Art Steward, and Edward Siercks made up the alumni squad.