Pioneers of Starke County

Saturday, August 1, 2009, 8:30 to 12:30 Eastern Daylight Time is the date and time set for our area's Forestry Field Day. The field day is held each year in one of four counties, Fulton, Marshall, Pulaski and Starke. It is always a good opportunity to learn from our Indiana State Forestry experts about the forests and woods of our area - the care and maintenance and sale of these natural resources.

This year, with our small Classified Forest, Melba and I will be host to this event. (Held at 3750 E. 50 N., Knox - you are all invited.) I have been asked to welcome the attendees to our woods, and also to talk about the history of the forests in Starke County. There is a little history on this subject in several of the history books written about our area. One book, A Standard History of Starke County, published in 1915, has some fascinating reading on the early pioneer life in the 1850's in Starke County. I turned to this history book in order to prepare for the forestry meeting on Saturday, but became interested in the description of pioneer life in general. My family came to Starke County in 1851, a year after it was organized. So, as I am reading, I am also visualizing my great grandparents' life on their new frontier.

On page 5: "After unyoking their cattle and turning them loose to feed upon the never-ending crop of wild grass they begin to make preparation for a hut or tent to house their good wives and babies from the inclement weather of the cold autumn months then coming on.

After they had provided a place or home for their families the next thing was to fence and plow or "dig up" a patch to plant their next crops and while the family would cultivate the soil the man of the "farm" would shoulder his gun and go in quest of a deer or some wild game which constituted a great share of their living. After they had raised a sufficient amount of grain they would load up an ox wagon or cart and drive miles and miles to some mill to have it ground, taking one or two days in going and the same in returning, camping out at night while make the trip. The family at home, if they should run out of meal before he returned, would grate or grind some meal from ears of corn on an improvised grater or a piece of tin punched full of holes, over which they would rub the corn to make meal for bread or mush."

Each week, when I drive to the grocery store for a loaf of bread and the many other wonderful convenient items that are available these days, on streets that are paved (and not swamp trails), I should think of the tremendous progress and inventions that have taken place since the 1850s in Starke County. It is awesome. Melba says that she would not have made a good pioneer woman.

Jim Shilling
Starke County Historical Society

http://www.starkehistory.com
http://www.scpl.lib.in.us/historical/

A new book

A new book, Bass Lake - Round'n About In the Past has been published by Pat Gray Thomas. It is a wonderful little history of Bass Lake and will be for sale at this year's Bass Lake Festival . She mentions the many notables that have visited or lived at Bass Lake over the years. One of the stories in the book is about Bill and Nancy Sonnemaker's home, originally the Center View Hotel. The Hotel was built in 1907 and has seen many vacationers over the years. In her book, Pat says: Early in the 20th Century, Leo Friedman, the composer of Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland, and other popular songs of the era, was a frequent hotel guest. The Sweetheart song was written on site, and the original score was given to the Sonnemakers by Mrs. Hewitt, the hotel owner who, according to legend, was the song's sweetheart. With twelve guest rooms decorated in "themes," as might be guessed, one of the rooms is a "Sweetheart" room where the original score is displayed. In the 1960's the hotel became the Oz Cot Lodge and Restaurant, so-named by then-owner Harry Neal Baum, son of L. Frank Baum, author of the famous "Oz" stories. The Historical Society also has a beautiful video interview with Mrs. Sonnemaker's mother, Mrs. Vera Lorenz, who worked in the Center View Hotel as a teenager with her mother, the hotel's cook.

Below is a little about Leo Friedman and the song Let Me Call You Sweetheart. You may not remember the main verses of the song, but the last four lines are familiar to most everybody.

Leo Friedman (July 16, 1869 - March 7, 1927) was an American composer of popular music. Friedman was born in Elgin, Illinois and died in Chicago, Illinois. He is best remembered for the sentimental waltz "Let Me Call You Sweetheart".

"Let Me Call You Sweetheart" is a popular song, with music by Leo Friedman and lyrics by Beth Slater Whitson. The song was published in 1910 and first recorded by The Peerless Quartet.
The song was recorded by Bette Midler for the film "The Rose" and the accompanying "The Rose Soundtrack".
The last four lines of the lyrics:

Let me call you "Sweetheart," I'm in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper that you love me too.

Keep the love-light glowing in your eyes so true.

Let me call you "Sweetheart," I'm in love with you.

Jim Shilling
Starke County Historical Society

http://www.starkehistory.com
http://www.scpl.lib.in.us/historical/

"Tidbits of Starke County History".....

Oh, that sound. What a great sound it was. You don't hear it very often anymore. I had been mowing and I noticed that a bearing was going bad on the mower. I stopped to investigate and that's when I heard it. About 3:05 Wednesday afternoon. The sound? It was a train going through Knox. Ah, you say, we hear those train horns all of the time. But, but not like this sound. This was a steam whistle. Steam whistles have this "wet" sound. This was the Nickel Plate 765 Engine going through Knox, on the old Nickel Plate tracks. It was headed to North Judson by the way of Brems, Thomaston, LaCrosse and English Lake.

I remember the old steam whistles. My folks, years ago, would take me to the Knox Nickel Plate Depot at 5:00 in the morning and we would get on the "west bound" to Chicago. We would visit the museums or some other sites in Chicago and arrive back in Knox at midnight. I still remember those steam whistles. Beautiful sounds.

The old steam whistles on locomotives were almost always activated by a pull cord (or sometimes a lever) that permitted proportional action, so that some form of "expression" could be put into the sound. Many locomotive operators would have their own style of blowing the whistle, and it was often apparent who was operating the locomotive by the sound. Modern locomotives often make use of a push-button switch, which takes away the fine control over the way the whistle is sounded. Also, the modern horns are air horns, not the "live steam" from a whistle.

As I said, this Nickel Plate 765 Engine was going to North Judson to be a guest at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum. Here is their website - http://hvrm.railfan.net/nkp/765_index.html

For more information on this 2-8-4 Berkshire steam locomotive that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, go to this site - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_Plate_765

Jim Shilling
Starke County Historical Society

http://www.starkehistory.com
http://www.scpl.lib.in.us/historical/