Kicking Match

Lawrenceville Mill

In Lawrence County the week of July 30, 1880, Mr. Cole repaired the Lawrenceville water-powered flour mill dam by taking out the old dam for the purpose of putting in one that was stronger and more convenient. While assisting with the repairs he accidentally slipped from some logs in the water and was carried over the breakers with a rush that made those shudder who were on terra firma.  He came out all right a short distance below the dam with slight bruises.

 The Bridgeport Band wagon entertained the folks in Lawrenceville. The time of the watermelon was near. From the Court docket: Law cases 38; Criminal 16; Chancery 83.  Wm Tanquary, whilst out riding with his wife in a wagon, had the misfortune to be thrown out of the vehicle, the team becoming unruly.  The injuries were not serious but severe. The Normal institute was in session with 35 teachers in attendance. W C Price of Lawrenceville would soon start his new steam flouring mill.

Elmus Haines, fourteen-year-old son of Dan Haines of Bond twp., disappeared.  He went to the woods in search of berries, and nothing had been heard of him since at the time of the publication of the newspaper. Miss Jennie Carey, daughter of William and Mary A Carey of Allison Prairie, received a canary and a cage as a wedding present when she married Alvin Jones.

The sheriff of Lawrence County, John P Scott, came near being presented with a new deputy by his wife, only she was a girl and weighed twelve pounds.  John was mad because the cherub couldn’t vote for Garfield and Arthur, nor be his deputy. (Daughters in 1880 couldn’t vote or be police officers.)

Charles Shank of Dipend (not sure where this was in Lawrence County) was arrested being on a drunk at Dollahan Chapel Sunday night and tried before Esquire Walton who fined him $3.  The editor, Miss Buntin, suggested to the law officers that a fine of not less than $100 and immediate imprisonment, as the law authorized if not paid, was the only way to suppress the lawless church disturbers who infected that portion of the county.

In June 1880 the largest number of immigrants to arrive in the United States were from Ireland, Germany being the next largest. The foundation was laid for the new Wabash County Courthouse at Mt Carmel. Mr. Downey and Dan Finfrock were the proprietors of the Sumner Democrat. Farmers who delivered their wheat to Russellville received 3 cents less than if they delivered it to Vincennes.

To Lawrence County residents standing on the Illinois side of the Wabash River, the dense smoke arising from the flouring and woolen mills, furniture factory, foundry, planing mills, and the pork houses that stood out in bold relief along the river bank, all gave Vincennes the appearance of a manufacturing town of the first magnitude.

Bridgeport Brevities: The O & M RR built a new platform at the depot and repaired the depot building. John Wolfe and wife were rusticating at Stivers Springs near Bridgeport. Several citizens of Vincennes were at Stivers Springs to enjoy the picnic. A B Cummins of Mt Vernon Ohio bought Ed Thomas’s barber shop.

Denison Items: Herman Buchanan was hired to teach at Bunker Hill school the following winter term. Mr. and Mrs. John Ryan moved to the old Vandermark place. The Pisgah church was to be repainted if $500 could be found. Harlan Rayman Buchanan, son of Wm and Lizzie Buchanan was buried in Buchanan graveyard. The Jordan and Maher steamer was threshing wheat in the neighborhood.

Plank Road Neighborhood:  The corn needed rain.  Little plowing had been done for wheat because of flies and drought. The questions of Women’s’ rights was freely discussed at a meeting there with some of the ladies taking an active part.  Watermelons were in abundance.

The grain dealers of Sumner took in 250 wagon loads of wheat, and became, according to the Vincennes editor, one of the most thriving towns on the Ohio and Mississippi Railway. S P Barton of Lawrenceville shipped from one to three carloads of wheat every day. Miss Harriet Potts, daughter of Jacob Potts, supervisor of Denison twp., returned from Valparaiso Indiana where she had been attending normal (teacher’s) school.

 John Richardville of St Francisville, dropped a $20 bill during an auction on Saturday. A little girl named Osman found the money and returned it to its owner and was rewarded with a $2 bill for good luck.  A valuable horse belonging to Abraham Jordan of St Francisville died of a disease said to be very fatal to horses, called the “strangles”.

Russellville was treated to something extra in the way of a show.  Prof. Horsman’s assortment of trained bears, dogs, coons etc. entertained, but the people soon became tired of the program and the boys attacked the tent at night with stones and knives and riddled it. The Professor sought out the town authorities in the morning and vented his injured feelings upon them in a manner more expressive than polite, because they did not afford him protection after he paid for his $2 license.

 Lester Reeves, the young man who broke into the post office at Sumner July 17th was arraigned in Springfield on the 21st and pled guilty. The next day he was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary.

William Richardson, a wealthy farmer living below Lawrenceville, was united in marriage to Mrs. Rachel J Mahaffey, widow of a former Lawrenceville printer. Robert W Irwin, a blacksmith of Saint Francisville, received $682.47, a pension claim that had been pending for five years. A lady named Johnson, living near the line dividing Lawrence and Wabash counties, gave birth to triplets, the children all died. Wheat is worth $0.80 in Sumner.

Dr T J Ford of Russellville, the well-known druggist was planning a temperance picnic to be held in Hoke’s grove near Russellville August 14.  Chas H Martin and K P Snyder of Lawrenceville, William Ferguson of Russellville, and others would address the meeting.

A horse attached to a wagon became frightened by the train and wanted to sit down on the single tree. The owner objected and kicked the horse. The latter objected and kicked back, kicking both shafts out of the vehicle, kicking the front of the wagon in and kicking itself out of the harness.  It was a fair kicking match and the horse won.