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.
June 1, 1923
Attorney Thad Fancher, of Crown Point, has sold 100 lots near the Dunes Highway in Porter County to the Poff Realty Company of Chicago, for consideration of $20,000 ($356,897 in 2023). Guy R. Cockley, of the Poff Realty Company, consummated the deal, the real purchaser being Stetson Chain Stores, of Chicago. It is the plan of the purchasers to erect a hotel on the site in the near future. Mr. Fancher will retain eleven lots.
June 2, 1923
The question regarding the raise in pay of members of the Valparaiso Police Department will come up at the next regular meeting of the Valparaiso City Council. The regular patrolmen are asking for a raise of $15 ($267 in 2023) over the present pay of $110 (1,962 in 2023) a month, and the chief from $125 ($2,230 in 2023) to $150 ($2,676 in 2023). The salary of the chief was formerly $150 per month, but this was reduced when James A. Jones resigned.
Valparaiso’s entries in the Chicago Daily News Gold Medal tennis tourney went to Gary this morning where they will battle for the honor of representing the Gary district in the finals in Chicago. Fred LePell, Kenneth Kimmel, Leslie Wade, Merton Lish and John Lowenstine made up the local players.
June 3, 1923
Valparaiso’s Boosters defeated the New Buffalo Independents yesterday afternoon at the fairgrounds by a score of 17 to 3. Valparaiso scored 12 runs in the first inning by lambasting the offerings of Manthey and Babe Elkins, the latter of LaPorte and Kouts. Buck Weaver led the local attack with two doubles and a single.
Four of Valparaiso’s entrants in the Chicago Daily News Gold Medal tennis tourney at Gary yesterday survived the initial preliminary rounds played Saturday morning and afternoon. Ben Kimmel was the only local player to go down to defeat. He was defeated 2 to 1 by Higgins of Emerson High School in Gary.
June 4, 1923
Drainage Commissioner S.P. Corboy, of Valparaiso, has received word from Pattee and Johnson, of Crown Point, attorneys, that the injunction proceedings have been dismissed against the construction of the Burns Ditch, from Broadway, in Gary, to Lake Michigan. The work on the ditch was stopped in 1914 when the Northern Illinois Public Utility Company filed an injunction action. The Great lakes Dredge and Dock Company, of Chicago, was awarded the contract in October 1914. Mr. Corboy will notify the company to carry out the terms of the contract the ditch will straighten Calumet and Deep Rivers.
June 5, 1923
The movement on the part of the City of Valparaiso to establish a new grade for sidewalks on Washington Street between Lincolnway and Indiana Avenue has fallen through by the refusal of two property owners on the south end to become parties to the project. The present grade was established some time ago by the city and it cannot be changed without the consent of the property owners. Some property owners who have been figuring on changing grades are threatening to go through with the plan.
June 6, 1923
Work on the new addition of the Schleman-Morton Company, north of the Grand Trunk Railroad on Campbell Street in Valparaiso, is progressing nicely. An engineer from the American Park Builders’ Association, Chicago, in conjunction with Porter County Surveyor Floyd R. McNiece, is laying out streets and lots in accordance with plans of the American Park Builders’ Association. The new addition comprises 112 acres. It is expected grading will be finished in six weeks. Sale of lots will begin about July 4.
Ben H. Urbahns, former Valparaiso man, who has been serving as deputy treasurer of Indiana for a number of years, will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for treasurer of the state. Mr. Urbahns served for four years under Uz McMurtrie as deputy state treasurer and is now serving as deputy under Ora J. Davies. He was a candidate against Davies in 1920 but lost out by a small margin.
June 7, 1923
Harry Diamond, of Gary, found guilty of a charge of slaying his wife, stood before Judge H. H. Loring this afternoon and heard the pronouncement against him. Judge Loring set October 12 as the date of execution at the Michigan City prison.
John F. Griffin, secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Mica Company, of Valparaiso, was yesterday elected to the directorate of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce at the annual meeting at Indianapolis. C. H. Parker, Jr., secretary-treasurer of the Parker Paint Company, of Valparaiso, was appointed to the traffic council of the state chamber.
June 8, 1923
The verdict of a jury in finding Harry Diamond guilty of murder in the first degree and fixing his punishment at death in the electric chair is the first time a body of twelve men in the county has ever reached an agreement of this kind in a murder case in Porter County. The only other time a man was sentenced to death for murder in Porter County was in the case of Francis Staves, who murdered John Pelton in 1838. He was hanged on a lot just south of the Central School.
The Wolf property at the corner of Washington and Chicago Streets owned by the School City of Valparaiso was today sold at public auction at the courthouse steps to the Masonic organization of Valparaiso. Harold J. Schenck conducted the negotiations for the purchase. The Masons also own the lot at the corner of Franklin and Indiana Avenues (site of the PoCo Muse in 2023). It is proposed to build a new Masonic temple on the Wolf site.
June 9, 1923
Two Valparaiso tennis players are still in the running in the Chicago Daily News Gold Medal tennis tourney being played in Gary. John Lowenstine and Fred LePell are members of the local squad who are still undefeated. Phyllis Hisgen, of Valparaiso, is also undefeated in the women’s class.
The proceeds from the Elks-Kiwanis baseball game at Brown Field on June 14 will go to the completion of the automobile tourist camp in the east part of Valparaiso.
The Lincoln Highway from Schererville to Valparaiso will be completed within another week, contractors announced today. Construction work began in the spring of 1922. Before the close of good weather last year eight miles was completed. The road is hard-surfaced concrete and cost $222,000 ($3,961,563 in 2023). Shea & Company, of Hammond, had the contract.
June 10, 1923
J. E. Dreschoff, of the Oliver Hotel, South Bend, was in Valparaiso today and in company with representatives of a Chicago bonding house, held a conference at the office of H. H. Loring at the First State Bank of Valparaiso. The men discussed financing the building of Hotel Lembke, upon which construction was stopped some time ago. Mr. Dreschoff, in a statement this afternoon, said he believed the financing program would go through without a hitch.
Ransom Olds, a former Valparaiso boy, was accidentally killed yesterday morning while tuning up his racing car for races at the Roby Speedway in Hammond, Indiana. The car overturned while Olds was going at terrific speed. He was thrown high in the air and suffered a broken neck. His brother, Roy Olds, saw the accident from the grandstand. Olds was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Ransom Olds, east of Valparaiso. He leaves a widow, one daughter, five brothers and one sister, besides his parents.
June 11, 1923
One of the units of Valparaiso’s new firefighting machinery steamed down Franklin Street this noon to the Central Fire Station. The truck, which is a triple combination, six-cylinder Seagrave, arrived yesterday afternoon from Columbus, Ohio, over the Grand Trunk Railroad. A representative of the Seagrave Company from Chicago superintended the job and drove the machine to the fire station. Riding on the machine were city councilman S. E. Collins, Wilbur Cowdrey, John Deardoff, John Marks, and William Johnston. The truck attracted much attention. The other unit, a combination city service truck and pumper, will arrive here in a few days.
June 12, 1923
William H. Hardesty, bailiff of the Porter Superior Court, has entered the ranks of home builders. He has purchased land southwest of Valparaiso, recently given the title of city dump, from William Arnold. The tract contains twelve acres. He announced that it will be laid out in two-acre lots and houses will be built. The consideration named in the deal was $3,500 ($62,457 in 2023).
June 13, 1923
Fire of unknown origin last night at 11:40 o’clock caused between $30,000 ($535,346 in 2023) and $49,000 ($874,399 in 2023) damage at the Smith and Smiths’ lumber yard, the McGill Manufacturing Company, and the Pennsylvania Railroad along West Indiana Avenue in Valparaiso. Between $20,000 ($356,897 in 2023) and $25,000 ($446,122 in 2023) damage was done to the Smiths’ plant. The McGill plant was damaged, and a caboose, several gondola cars, and a fence along the Pennsylvania Railroad right-of-way was also damaged. The new Seagrave pumper truck, which arrived here yesterday, but which has not yet been turned over to the city, was pressed into service to help out the old service truck.
Candyland, on West Lincolnway in Valparaiso, in the Horn building, closed its doors last night. Financial difficulties were said to be the reason. The business was established some time ago by a Chicago man who conducted a similar enterprise at LaPorte and Michigan City. The Horn building was remodeled, and costly fixtures were installed. Several changes in owners were made during the last year.
June 14, 1923
By a contract recorded at the office of John W. McNay here yesterday between William R. Curkeet, of Madison, Wisc., agent and trustee of the Francis A. Ogden estate, and Samuel H. Reck, of Gary, the estate agrees to sell 6,075 acres of land in the northwest corner of Porter County for $398,440 ($7,110,114 in 2023). The land will be made into a subdivision, it is said.
The American China Products Company, of Chesterton, has been awarded the contract to furnish $400,000 ($7,137,952 in 2023) of china products by the New York State Commission at Albany, New York. The commission is in charge of china purchases for more than thirty institutions in New York state. Deliveries will cover a period of twelve months.
June 15, 1923
The Valparaiso Lodge of Elks defeated the Valparaiso Kiwanis Club in a baseball game yesterday afternoon at Brown Field for the benefit of a free auto tourist camp at Brown Field. The score was 16 to 11. The Elks put the game on ice with a six-run attack in the sixth inning off Dr. R. C. Shurr.
Queens of the Golden Mask, the women's auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan, held a big convocation at the Porter County Fairgrounds last night. About 400 women were in attendance from Porter County. A supper was served at 6 o’clock and later a parade was staged from the fairgrounds to the business district. Seventy-five candidates were initiated into the order. Five large fiery crosses were burned at the fairgrounds and one at the ruins of Valparaiso University’s Old College Building on College Hill.
June 16, 1923
Dr. A. O. Dobbins, wife Bessie, and daughter Betty will leave Monday on a two months’ eastern trip, which will embrace visits to Niagara Falls, Thousand Islands, Montreal, Washington, New York City, and Boston. Dr. Dobbins will enter Harvard Medical School for the summer months, taking a special course in pediatrics.
Prof. B. F. Williams, of Valparaiso University, left yesterday for Cambridge, Mass., to attend the twenty-fifth anniversary of Harvard University’s graduating class of 1898, of which he was a member. The class of 1898 numbered 475, and between 200 and 300 of this number are expected to attend the reunion.
June 17, 1923
Buck Weaver’s home run in the ninth with three men on the bases and two down defeated Jimmy Ryan’s Chicago Romeos on Sunday at the Porter County Fairgrounds, 8 to 5. Weaver’s clout went into the racetrack in right field. Ray Knight pitched for the locals and was touched for 15 blows.
Miss Phyllis Hisgen, of Valparaiso, defeated Peg Hammet, of South Bend, in the final match of the Chicago Daily News Gold Medal tennis tourney at Gary on Saturday and won the right for her to compete in the interdivisional matches in Chicago this week as Northern Indiana’s girl champion.
June 18, 1923
Oil well No. 1 on the farm of J. C. Cavanaugh in Jackson Township, drilled by George Oliver, of Chicago, was plugged yesterday by O. H. Hughes, of Indianapolis. Hughes is an inspector from the department of natural gas supervision of Indiana. The state law requires that as soon as a driller abandons a well, he must report to the state and an inspector is sent out to plug the well. This is done by driving cedar blocks into the pipe, cementing the top, and sapping the same. A seal of the great state of Indiana is placed on the top.
June 19, 1923
Robert F. Winslow, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank B. Winslow, of Valparaiso, was graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor yesterday and received the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. Dr. Winslow has been honored by the University of Michigan with the appointment of an internship at Bellevue Hospital, New York City, where he will take up his profession of oral surgery. He plans to go to New York City on July 1.
June 20, 1923
Judge and Mrs. H. H. Loring will embark on a European trip tomorrow night. Judge Loring will close the April term of court tomorrow. While in Europe they will visit the World War battlefields in France and attend a banquet in Paris given in honor of Ambassador Myron T. Herrick. Judge Loring and wife will visit England, Italy, Austria and other countries. In England, Judge Loring will make a study of the English courts.
Prof. Harold L. Butler, formerly connected with Valparaiso University, and brother of Mrs. W. S. Lindall, of Valparaiso, has been elected Dean of the School of Fine Arts at Syracuse University. Prof. Butler is at present head of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas at Lawrence. Prof. Butler was head of Valparaiso University Vocal Department at one time and also was head of the vocal department at Syracuse from 1903 to 1907.
June 21, 1923
Harry Diamond, of Gary, convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of his wife, Nettie Herschovitz Diamond, and sentenced to the electric chair by a jury in the Porter Circuit Court, was taken to the Michigan City prison this morning by Sheriff William Pennington, Deputy Sheriffs W. B. Forney, William Mohnssen, and Jerry Lafrentz. Diamond will be electrocuted on October 12, if his motion for a new trial, scheduled to be heard on September 4, is overruled.
On account of complaints being registered by Porter County people in regard to speeding on the Dunes Highway, Prosecutor Field Ray Marine last Sunday detailed Constable Charles Adams and Chester Klineman to patrol the highway. Eleven offenders were taken before Justice Roscoe Huff at Porter and paid fines for speeding.
June 22, 1923
The Kouts All Stars, managed by Attorney T. E. Crowe, defeated the Valparaiso Boosters, led by Buck Weaver, at Kouts yesterday afternoon in eleven innings by a score of 5 to 4. Lefty Sullivan, of Chicago, pitched for the Boosters. It was his wild heave and some weird first-basing by Ray Knight which gave Kouts the tying run in the ninth after the Boosters were leading by a count of 4 to 1. Chief Rainier pitched for Kouts.
Memorial services for Sarah Porter Kinsey were held yesterday afternoon at the Methodist Episcopal church in Valparaiso. Mrs. Kinsey died at Catlettsburg, Ky., on July 22, 1922. Many prominent club women from all over the state attended. Rev. Henry L. Davis, of Greencastle, Ind., former pastor of the local church, made the principal address. Mrs. W. F. Torrance, president of the Indiana Women’s Club, and Miss Vida Newsom, a member of the general federation of Women’s Clubs, gave short talks eulogizing Mrs. Kinsey. Dr. H. M. Evans read a poem written by Professor B. F. Williams, who was unable to attend because of being in Cambridge, Mass., attending a reunion of his class at Harvard University. The body of Mrs. Kinsey, which had been reposing in the mausoleum at Graceland Cemetery, was removed and placed in a grave.
June 23, 1923
Peter Ludolph, for more than fifty-one years connected with the newspaper business in Valparaiso, is here from Los Angeles, Cal., visiting at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Schneider. Mr. Ludolph started in the newspaper business under Aaron Gurney, who published the Vidette fifty years ago. At one time he was the owner of the paper. For many years he was in the newspaper business in California.
Yesterday at the Pennsylvania Railroad Freight House, farmers of Porter County pooled 7,000 pounds of wool. E. D. Cain, of Washington Township, was in charge of the pool. The wool will be shipped to the Ohio Sheep and Wool Growers’ Association at Columbus, Ohio.
June 24, 1923
Buck Weaver’s Valparaiso Boosters defeated the Brooklyn Royal Giants from New York City yesterday afternoon at the fairgrounds, 8 to 4. “Slim” Anderson pitched for Valparaiso and held the Negro league team to seven hits. Weaver led his teammates at bat with three hits.
Saturday (June 23) was the hottest June day at the Flint Lake Pumping Station since the establishment of the government records at Flint Lake in 1915. Joseph Bradley, custodian of the records, reports a temperature of 97½ degrees on that day.
June 25, 1923
Garrett D. Conover, of Valparaiso, who recently was graduated from the dental department of the University of Michigan, has leased the front suite over the Vidette office on Washington Street and will open up a dental office on August 1. He is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Ransom Conover.
June 26, 1923
W. H. Sheaffer, a law student at Valparaiso University, and one of the best known and most popular athletes at the school, has joined the Schleman-Morton Company. He will assist in selling lots in two subdivisions now being opened, Forest Park, in Valparaiso, and The Pines, on Dunes highway, one-half mile south of Lake Michigan and close to Michigan City.
June 27, 1923
The French Cafe on College Hill was reopened this morning under the management of Steve Pappas. Mr. Pappas has installed new furnishings and the interior has been redecorated. The cafe was closed six weeks ago by Mrs. Mary Daniels, of Gary, who owns the building and formerly conducted the business.
The state highway commission will take over the road from Valparaiso that extends south to a point two miles south of Hebron and will connect with State Road 8. This was the announcement brought back today by Senator Will Brown, of Hebron and Porter County Commissioner F. W. Alpen, who appeared before the commission yesterday at Indianapolis. The taking over of the Valparaiso-Chesterton end will not be undertaken until the location of Dunes State Park has been determined.
June 28, 1923
Four Lake County murderers were brought to the Porter County Jail here today. The men held in custody to await trial in the local courts are Henry Jackson, Quinton Cameron, August Coleman, and John Johnson. Three more men charged with murder are to have their cases venued here it is said.
Work on the Dunes Highway near Baillytown, held up by refusal of property owners to sell right-of-way, will begin next Monday by the General Construction Company of Gary. Two miles of highway was affected by the action of the property owners. The appraisers appointed by Judge H. H. Loring in condemnation proceedings fixed the amounts of damages at $300 ($5,353 in 2023) to $1,100 ($19,629 in 2023) in three cases.
June 29, 1923
Captain W. E. Harris, who has been stationed at Omaha, Neb., for the last two years, was recently transferred to Fort Humphreys, Va. The trip from Nebraska to Virginia was made by auto. Captain Harris was accompanied from Valparaiso by Mrs. Harris, who has spent a short vacation here. Fort Humphreys is situated on the Potomac River near historic Mt. Vernon.
Harvey C. Varner, of the Specht-Finney Company, downstairs department, has been apprized he was the winner of a contest in Tipton, Iowa, for suggesting the best name for a corrugated steel trunk manufactured by a company there. Mr. Varner sent the name, “Metal Monarch,” and received first prize, $120 ($2,141 in 2023).
June 30, 1923
The Valparaiso City Council and members of the city board of education met in an informal session last evening at Valparaiso City Hall to confer regarding the building of a high school building in Valparaiso. A number of citizens, principally residents of the First Ward, were in attendance. The meeting had been requested by the school board. The board asked that the city come to the aid of the school authorities with a gift of $25,000 ($446,122 in 2023). It is planned to spend $200,000 ($3.57M in 2023) in erection of a new building.
June, the month of brides, was a busy one for Porter County Clerk Ross C. Jones and his assistants. Fifty-five licenses were issued this month compared to thirty-nine last year.