JANUARY EVENTS OF THE PAST

 ON THIS DAY

1966 January 2 - The stately George Walker home was razed to make way for the YM-YWCA building at Ninth and E. Broadway in Logansport, Indiana.

The George Walker home became Holy Angels Academy, 

then became home the YMCA before the new building was constructed.

1937 January 20 - The Logansport High School gym sold out for the game with Richmond.

The Berry Bowl LHS gym was razed in 1975.

1913 January 25 - It was announced Johnny "Red" Corriden, Logansport native, will be playing shortstop for the Chicago Cubs.

Trivia: John "Red" Corriden was the brother in-law of Frank McHale.

1897 January 26 - Large downtown fire in Logansport. A fire at the three-story Murdock Hotel and adjoining Elliott Wholesale grocery on E. Broadway resulted in losses of $80,000. No one was injured.

Aftermath of the fire at the Murdock Hotel on E. Broadway, 1897. 

Photo courtesy Cass Co. Historical Society

1972 January - The T -N- T Lounge, 418 E. Market, Logansport, burned. Owners were Benny D'Andrea and Earl Hornback.

1922 January - Logansport Police Department hired Garfield Chilcott.

Above: Logansport Police circa 1920s

photo collection of T. Conrad

1971 January - It was announced that traffic lights will be installed for Eastgate Shopping Plaza on the city's east end.

The Kroger store at Eastgate Shopping Plaza in 1960s.

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CASS COUNTY INDIANA AND NATIVE AMERICANS

 READY FOR INDIAN WAR

In May of 1832, when the prospects for an invasion by Black Hawk and his band were alarmingly auspicious, the people of Cass County rose in their might and prepared to dispute his rights to come with the fire-brand and scalping knife and deprive them of their homes by the blighting touch of savage cruelty. The expected visitation, however, failed to materialize, and Black Hawk and his party were captured on the 2nd of August, 1832 in upper Iowa. Source: History of Cass County 1886 by Thomas B. Helm

Black Hawk 

TRADING MISSIONS

The Pottawottomies came to Logansport frequently, in large groups, and sometimes remained for days at a time. The principal chiefs and leading men of the tribe who came here for the purpose of trading and were most familiar to the early citizens were: Aw-be-naw-be, Ash-kum, Paw-siss, Muck-kose, Co-ash-be, Che-quah, Kwak, Ko-kem, Shpo-tah, Che-chaw-koase, We-saw, Weis-she, and the chiefs Mish-no-quah and Mis-ne-go-quah. The last two, along with several others and several Indian scenes, have been captured onto canvas by the elegant pencil of George Winter. Their usual camping ground while in Logansport was on the north side of Eel River on the site of West Logan. The Miamis came in smaller parties and camped on the south side of the Wabash, leaving once they had finished trading. The Pottawatomies ended their trade mission with a grand “spree” of consuming alcohol and generally “taking the town.” 

KNOWN CASS INDIAN TRADERS

Many Cass County settlers descended from the “men of the wilderness,” the early fur traders. Some early Cass Co. traders were:

General Hyacinthe Lasalle

Michael Brouillet, brother in-law of Joseph Barron, traded with the Miami nation.

John B. Richardville, the chief of the Miami, traded at Ft. Wayne, Indiana from 1815 to 1836.

Alexis Coquillard traded with both Miami and Pottawatomies, 1817 to 1835.

John B. Duret was an agent of the American Fur Company. He traded in Carroll Co. Indiana from 1820 to 1823.

George Cicott traded from 1820 until his death in 1830. From 1827 to 1830 he traded on his reserve at Georgetown.

William & George Ewing traded from 1822 to 1838, the last 10 of those years in Logansport.

General Hyacinth Laselle image courtesy Cass County Historical Society

George Ewing and his brother William operated a trading post in Logansport, which stood on the northeast corner of modern-day E, Market and 3rd Street. Source for photo image of George Ewing and documentation of trading post location can be found at the Cass County Historical Society.

RED HAIR BABY

There is a story about a pioneer couple who lived in a log home in the northern part of the county at a time before the Native Americans were rounded up by the government, with General John Tipton in charge, and moved out of the area (read more about that - check out the Trail of Death journey to Kansas). The man of the house needed to take grain to the mill to be ground. He instructed his wife and children to stay indoors until his return. The wife used the last of the cornmeal to make corn bread and, as fate would have it, a passing group of "Indians" were drawn to the aroma. They indicated that they were hungry and they didn't seem menacing so the wife shared some of the corn bread with them. The tiny group then got a look at the woman's baby - it had red hair! They were so amazed that they  returned, more than once, and asked to see the child.

 

The F.O.E. Eagles Lodge in Logansport IN

 Originally the Eagle's lodge was at 211-213 S. Sixth Street, Logansport, Indiana

1938

A clipping about the Logansport Eagles drill team, 1937 Pharos Tribune.

The Eagles Drill Team, organized in 1936.

The gentlemen above are not identified in the photo, however names found for the drill team in the local newspapers of the day indicate that members of this award-winning drill team included: Guido Scagnoli, Art Lailin (sic?), Woodrow Krieg, Orville Croder, Roy Moore, Leton Cole, Lawrence Loner, Michael Musselman, O. H. Krieg, August Sundy, Harley Daggett, Charles Runyun, Nicke Forte and Lloyd Musselman. Other members were R. R. Kline, Charles Appolonio, Fred Scagnoli, Charles Hankee, John Moorehead, and Arthur Moorehead. George Hepperle was acknowledged in the news article as a recently deceased member.

Photo did not contain names for these gentlemen.

Lat names Iannelly, Corcoran, Sheets, Huffman and Campbell are names that show up when searching newspaper bowling team results of that era, if anyone looks familiar.

Above March 1, 1955 Logansport Pharos Tribune

The new Eagles lodge was built next door on the southwest corner of Sixth and North Streets.

The "new" Eagles lodge, 1956

New interior view.

February 18, 1956 Pharos Tribune, page 1

The original home of the F.O.E. was razed. The story below is from the Logansport Press, June 13, 1957, page 1:

Railroad Baggage Wagons Photo Info

 

1925 Melbourne Avenue, Logansport, Indiana 

The camera was on the south side of the tracks looking to the north, between 4^th and 5^th streets, on Melbourne Avenue. Circa 1925.

 

This scene was common about midday, any day, and midnight when through trains reached Logansport. While the baggage trucks had lined up for this photo, there was nothing unusual about their number or the amount of express items ready for shipping. In fact, there were days when a larger amount could be found, being transferred from one train to another at the 4^th street (Pennsylvania) depot, just out of camera range to the left.

 

The three buildings facing the camera were all undoubtedly there before the railroad tracks were which was prior to 1860. Canal Street, as Melbourne was called then, was covered with nice homes – on both sides of the street – all the way from the confluence of the rivers to 14^th  or 15^th Street. The coming of the railroad spoiled it as a residential street.

 

In this photo: the two houses at the left no doubt were built as residences.

   The weather boarded frame at the extreme left had been the home of Earl Stewart, who owned a livery stable just around the corner on 4^th…out of the picture. (There were several stables around town at that time and Stewarts was considered one of high class. Nicest cabs for rent, fastest horses and most stylist drivers to take the customer wherever they wanted to go.) In later years the railroad used rooms in the house for ticketing, and the U.S. Railway Mail used some space for sorting mail. The railroad company equipped the place with showers and reading rooms and put a secretary in charge and made it available to its trainmen. Three of those secretaries were: a man named Davidson, a man named Nelson W. Benning, and a man named Pendleton.

 

   The building at the right in 1888 was used by a man named Otto Meinshausen whose business was metal roofing. His main store was around 4^th and Market; this was more of a shop and storehouse. The porch wasn’t on it at that time but was added later. After that this property had several uses – interestingly it had at one time been the site of Logansport’s Colored School of which Thomas J. Legg was the principal. (It seems that a colored school had been in operation as early as 1871 on the SE corner of Heath and W. Market. The date of this one would’ve been about 1881.)

 

   The building in the middle after 1888 was by the railroad company for the use of its passenger trainmen who might have difficulty finding rooms with bathing facilities. (Considered to be the first form of a YMCA.)

Cass County Indiana Court Park

 May 15, 1920 Logansport Pharos Tribune Court Park Undergoing Many Changes

Court Park adjacent to the Cass County courthouse and county jail is being placed in conditions in preparation for summer visitors. William Gasho, park custodian, states that during the last few years a great change in the character of the visitor to the park has been noticed. Where once the town bum loafed in the park now women with their small children are visitors and the working man brings his family after the evening meal to spend an hour or two. The fountain is being refurbished, including a curbing that is being placed under the iron fence that surrounds it. The fern bed surrounding the pool is filling in nicely. All of the benches have been freshly painted and secured to the ground

Court Park was located on the west side or in back of the Cass County Courthouse; on Third Street. The area now serves as parking for the new courthouse.

The photo above shows the Civil War memorial cannon, the fountain, and the west (or back side) of the Cass County courthouse, on Third Street. The fountain now stands in Heritage Park on E. Market Street, Logansport. The cannon is still displayed next to the courthouse.

Above: Cass County courthouse; photo date 1892. This was the east side or the front side, facing Fourth Street.

The courthouse was razed in 1979 and a new one built in its place.

Edwin Rutenber & Western Motor Company

 

In 1900 a new industry came to Logansport, Indiana and opened a new foundry on the west side, at the west end of Wheatland Avenue at Center Street and Western Avenue. It was known as the Logansport Foundry Company. A year or two later, two men who had been living in Chicago came to the new foundry. They were Edwin A. Rutenber and Henry D. Rutenber.

Ed was a clever designer and had invented a new multi-cylinder motor. Henry, his older brother, was a skilled pattern maker and made patterns for his brother's designs. The new motor became so popular that the foundry firm was re-organized and became the Western Motor Company.

The Western Foundry buildings in, Logansport, Indiana photo dated 1916

The Rutenbers and James F. Digan, the practical foundry man of the company, developed a method of casting a four-cylinder motor in one piece or "en bloc", to use a technical term. It became immensely popular.

Ed Rutenber wanted to build complete automobiles. He enlisted the help of two Logansport men - Lem Coppock and Charles S. Ferguson. The two men, working in Ferguson's barn, produced a car that ran satisfactorily. The hish body reaching fully six feet above the ground had no top. And, no one knew how fast it would run, because speedometers weren't made at that time.

The high body style wasn't new. In fact it was the popular style of the day and there were many cars of that type in town.

Rutenber and Coppock used a four-cylinder standard Rutenber motor for the car. Joe Amen, a local carriage maker, built the body. The group had ambitious plans for the establishment of a company to manufacture cars on a large scale, but those plans never materialized.

During the summer of 1902 the firm produced 10 automobiles. One of those was known to have been designed for C. W. Swift of the famous Chicago meat packing house. 

It was Rutenber's first and last series of automobiles. The comapny did, however, become famous as an engine builder.

In 1973, the Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum, in Washington D.C., accepted a Rutenber engine into its collection, with the understanding by descendants of the Rutenber family that the engine might not be on display, but would be properly preserved and stored. (Copies of the correspondence between the Smithsonian and the Rutenber relatives are included in the Cass County Historical Society archives.)

Edwin Aubert Rutenber died in 1962, in Greenville, Michigan. He is buried there - in Forest Home Cemetery. His wife, Lorayne rests next to him.

The Rutenber home aka the "Rutenber Mansion" still stands on the NE corner of Helm Street and Park Avenue in Logansport, Indiana. 2021 photo - credit Jerry Wolfe.

The A. L. Jones Building 417 North Street

 

March 13, 1916 Logansport Reporter, Page 1

A. L. JONES TO BUILD LATEST STYLE APARTMENT BUILDING

Spring building operations in Logansport received another big boost today when A, L. Jones of the Northern Realty Company announced that within a few days he would begin the erection of a $30,000 strictly modern flat building at No. 417 North street. The building will be constructed of brick, three stories in height and will contain six flats of five rooms each.

And when Mr. Jones says, modern, be means that in the strictest sense of the word, for the, new building will be fashioned after the very best apartment houses erected in California.

Each flat will have a sun parlor, there will be a generous supply of disappearing beds, and either there will be ice boxes built in the walls or there will be a refrigerating plant; there will be an electric elevator, a billiard parlor in the basement, city heat with an independent steam heating plant for use in emergencies and in fact everything will conform to the latent idea of apartment house building.

Mr. Jones was not in a position today to state what rental rates would be in the new building, but he did vouch safe the information that they, would be high, However, he declared that the price apparently did not cut much figure with a number of local, people, as several have stated to him that they would take flats in the building, seeming willing to pay the price if all the modern conveniences are to be supplied. Architect Carl Horn prepared the plans.

 The building owners in recent years were Judge Julian and Susanne Ridlen. The current owner is Susanne Ridlen. Julian passed away in 2017.

When I was still the Executive Director for the Cass County Historical Society I wrote a story and shared the above news article with the membership, in the newsletter. That was a few years ago. Judge Ridlen was still living and after reading the newsletter he sent me the following note:

Judge Julian Ridlen 1940-2017

Thelma,

Thank you very much for the article and photo re: The A. L. Jones / Commerce, and now, Ridlen Building. 

A few noteworthy additions to the Jones article:

• Each apartment had a voice tube between it and the mailbox unit in the foyer.
• Jones purportedly was the patent owner of the in-a-door beds that were installed -- three in each unit.
• Each unit had a pantry with window facing on the rear service stairs. Residents could place their order card for ice in the window, and the ice man could provide ice to the ice box without entering the apartment.
• Finish woodwork was entirely in butternut wood.
• Though windows could be opened in pre air conditioning days, each unit had a natural external air system that could be utilized to provide fresh air circulation.
• Though the elevator operation system has been modernized to meet all requirements, the classical cage and appearance has been maintained.

Thanks again for the article for our archives.

 

Best regards,

Julian

 

The Mall - Logansport Indiana

 Built in 1967 - May 26, 1967 clipping from the Logansport Pharos Tribune and Press, page 1

Photo of the Logansport Mall Sign taken in 1977

List of merchants in a 1977 promotional ad

 Just as in any other city, the shopping mall was the place to go for so many reasons, not just shopping. It was a place to see people, have a snack or a sandwich, play acarde games or just get a little exercise by walking laps inside the place.

It was a place to go to get into the holiday spirit, with it's beautiful Christmas tree(s) and lights and decor and Santa's Sleigh and big, comfy chair to greet everyone.

Saturdays were perfect for kids at the mall to hang out. Parents could drop off car loads of their kids and their kids' friends for a couple of hours, much to the chagrin of the mall employees, who resented being made to feel like they had to be responsible "babysitters" for "other people's kids".

So much happened at the local mall. Car shows, coin shows, musical programs, charity auctions, and oh yeah - shopping. Side walk sales were a seasonal thing. Merchants, especailly Sears and J C Penney - the anchor stores - would fill the center aisle of the mall property with racks and tables filled with clothing, shoes and any item sold at any of the stores - all offered at great discounted prices.

During Christmas shopping season, "Black Friday" to Christmas Eve, that center floor space would be filled with seasonal vendors who sold everything from hats to tee shirts to perfumes, candy and Hickory Farms products, to sunglasses.

February 1996 - Twelve Vacancies

Cocerns expressed at a meeting of the Logansport Economic Development Foundation board about vacancies in the mall were published in the Logansport Pharos Tribune. The article was on page 1, February 23, 1996. Terry Alley, Mall manager at that time, confirmed that the property was for sale and that prospective buyers had been looking at it for months. Within the article Alley was quoted, "I'm very optimistic. I think that it (a sale) will happen very soon." and "I think its going to be for the better - a real improvement".

Alley also explained that of the stores that had left the mall, some didn't renew leases as ordered by their corporate managers, but most of the vacancies were due to national chains going bankrupt and other chains just closed their doors.

March 18 1996 - Pharos Tribune

August 1996

The announcement that the mall now had nine vacancies instead of twelve and the opening of a fashion store called Stage was encouraging. (Below is an excerpt from the article. Pharos Tribune August 11, page 1.)

Two Mall Managers were arrested, at different times, for theft. Deedee Blume was hired as manager in 1998.

2003

On September 24, 2003 the Pharos Tribune page 1 headline read "Former Mall Manager Charged With Theft". Above is a clipping of the sub headline.

April 9, 2004, Pharos Tribune, page 1

Lynda Warner became Interim Manager in 2003 after Blume's arrest. Ironically, Warner was, herself, arrested for theft in 2009.

2009

June 4, 2009 Pharos Tribune, page 1

Store spaces began to empty in the mid to late 1990s. By July 12, 2015 the public was being asked for ideas for the Mall property. Below: clip from Pharos Tribune July 12, 2015.

This story is not finished. It is history in the making.

The fountain at the main entrance.