Salvation's Free

April 23rd, 1880

On Sand Ridge, wheat was thriving after the rain. The weather was warm. Peach trees were blooming as were apple trees. The sowing of oats was about over, and preparations for a large crop of watermelons were being made by the farmers. In Denison, farmers were plowing for corn. Near Pleasant Grove, S Newell planted his potatoes.

Miss Mary Buchanan was teaching the summer term at Fillmore. Wesley Clark and George Buchanan were the best marble players. Thomas Gillespie was badly hurt by a falling tree but was recovering.Miss Relaford was the teacher at Pleasant Grove school. Charles Martin was the teacher at Mt Zion School. Mr. John Mullins lost a child to scarlet fever; others of the family had it also.

The Vincennes newspaper published a reminder that the rules of the Ohio rRiver steamboats did not allow a gentleman to visit a lady in her stateroom. Fines would be levied.  Rev Mary Phillips, a female minister of Olney, was refused a seat or membership in the Methodist Episcopal Conference. James Ryan and E Pickerel of Lawrenceville secured the contract to build the (rail) fence on the line of the Lawrenceville and St Francisville railroad recently advertised in the newspaper. 

Miss Allie Wesner of Lamotte twp Crawford County filed a complaint againt Robt Richards, her stepfather, charging him with rape.  The case was tried at Palestine with the accused being bound over to the court with a bond of $600. The woman charged that the occurrence took place last October in broad daylight on the big road.  It looked very strange to the editor that it took the woman nearly six months to find out a rape had been committed.

County News: Running for election on the Republican ticket were Lewis Jones and Edmund Ryan for sheriff, K P Snyder for State’s Attorney, George Huffman for Prosecuting Attorney and D L Gold as representative for the 45th Senatorial district. Lafayette Barnes was a candidate for Circuit clerk. G W Lehr of Bridgeport was a Democrat running for Circuit clerk, of Lawrence County.

Lawrenceville:  The river was falling at the water mill of C Cole was running every day. No one was made happy by getting married this week. Justus Struble made an attractive improvement to his neat little dwelling in the way of a front porch and veranda. Three little children of Oliver Smith of Claremont were badly poisoned from eating some poke root which was plowed up in their garden. One of them died but the others are likely to recover.

The Newspaper editor, Ms. Jane Buntin continued her campaign to clean up ponds of stagnant water in Lawrenceville. “The Messrs. Swinehart’s made a good deal of noise with hatchet and hammer putting a new covering on the Christian church.”  The editor rejoiced to see anything in the way of improvement in that end of town. “Be happy,” she said, “with no ponds of stagnant water around to grumble about.”  Mr. H H Propes erected a workshop adjoining the Mason’s building.  A new roof was added to the “L” forming a part of the building.  “Now if the pond up here is drained H H Propes will in all probability live long and be happy.”   But she wasn’t about to let him or anyone else in that part of town rest until they cleaned up the stagnant water pooling outside her office. She wrote: “About the time I got comfortably seated and began wading into a knotty piece of manuscript that was the very time He undertook to annoy me.  I sighed and wondered why I couldn’t be left in pursuit of my avocation unmolested.  I went and tossed some spirits of brick bats at him and were rewarded by hearing him drop into this cellar with a ger-chug.  He was not a large frog, but I didn’t like the way he mixed the notes in his music.”

Dr Z D French with the assistance of Drs Baird and Bedell and Mr. W W Shepherd of Sumner amputated the right had of Paul Sheridan who had been suffered with it for over two years.  The doctors dissected the hand and found the entire bony structure in a necrosed condition.

The Village (Lawrenceville) election resulted in favor of the Anti-license ticket (no saloons would be given licenses in the city limits) by an overwhelming majority. As previously arranged, the ladies held a soiree in Gold’s office where at 9 o’clock they gathered, and a clerk was placed on duty with a ballot box and all the ladies invited to come and vote on the license question.  It was surprising how readily the women took up the new departure by solicitations for women voters, sending out messengers on their errand of love to bring out those who were not advised or were lukewarm.  In the afternoon the office was full of the old grandmothers, their younger daughters of ripe age with a good number of sweet eighteens, all of whom helped on this first grand movement of the village. It was a success, a decided victory and the blessings of many both in town and country were showered upon them.  In the evening a meeting was held at the M E church to count the vote of the ladies’ votes. Mrs. T W Roberts and Miss Lizzie Bass counted the ballots. The whole house was quiet and orderly until the result was announced, --all votes against license-- no one for license.  The pent up feeling of the audience then burst into a solid round of applause. Many had tears on their faces whose sad experiences in years past from the effects of saloons had been bitter and sorrowful. 

In other town election results: St Francisville elected a Liquor Board.  Sumner defeated a liquor board the same as Lawrenceville.    The Vincennes newspaper saw fit to publish an article about the women voting saying that “the little village of Lawrenceville was destined to go into history as the most remarkable place for its size in all Suckerdom. Women voted, and what is more surprising, not a fight occurred the whole day. The result of the voting was sent over to the regular precinct every half hour to influence the men.  The election went in their favor, but it would have doubtless resulted the same way had they not balloted at all.”

How did your ancestors vote? These men voted for licensing saloons: Clinton Abernathy, A H Barrett, Jr, Justus Struble, John H Roberts, D A Myers and A I Judy.  These men voted against it: T W Roberts, Albert Organ, S P Barton, HH Corrie, Ashnel Rawling, and Wm Walton.

Thomas Kirkwood, trustee for the Presbyterian Church, published that an election would be held April 26 to fill the two trustee positions.  Mrs. A M Piper invited the ladies of Bridgeport, the county and adjoining towns, to see her display of trimmed bonnets and hats suitable for all ages and at prices to suit the times.  Wm Seed the executor for the estate of Hugh Seed deceased appeared to settle the estate. A S Roberts was appointed administrator of the estate of Isaac Jones deceased.

Log teams were wanted for steady work and a full season by A H Barrett of Lawrenceville.      Croquet game sets were for sale in Vincennes. The Democratic Herald paper published the delinquent tax list on Thursday, April 22nd, 1880. Thomas F Hardacre was re-elected school director for Lawrence district by a 16 majority over Ashael Rawlings.

Bridgeport: House cleaning was in order.  Stock hogs were sold for $3.50 a hundred. Warner Bros had a railroad carload of flour barrel hoops ready for shipment.  Large quantities of green cordwood to season over the summer were being delivered to town at $1.50 per cord.  Funds were being raised to put up a Methodist church building three miles south of town. Farmers such as the Seeds, Kirkwoods, Gillespies, and Buchanans who had held their 1879 crops sold the week before at $1.04 and $1.05. They were offered at one time $1.30 but refused. Julian Taylor and Samuel Gray were brought up before the Judge and charged with driving through town too fast. They both donated three dollars and ten cents to the treasury for it. 

And from a reporter in 1880, It comes kind of sudden- like just as the congregation has finished singing Salvation’s free to have the preacher announce that the collection would now be taken up.