Dianna,
How neat! Is there any way you can scan the pictures and send then to individuals?
Shirley
----- Original Message -----
From: Treesearcher59(a)aol.com
To: INRANDOL-L(a)rootsweb.com
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 7:14 PM
Subject: [INRANDOL] Newspaper article from 1977 about Huntsville
While going through old files on my line to the Hunt family, I found a very
faded copy from an article that was in the Muncie Star in 1977. It is a
lengthy piece about many things concerning Huntsville. It also has pictures but
they have faded to the point of almost not being able to see them. One has a
caption that says "This building housed the Trenton I.O.O.F Lodge No. 248in 1866.
Since the disbandment of the Lodge the buiilding has been used for grocery
stores, garages, a restaurant and is presently used for living quarters". I
decided to transcribe the article while I could still read it until I can maybe
find it in the Muncie Star files. The paper was given to me by a woman who
was researcing another family and didn't need it. Then I thought I'd share
this with you in case anyone is working on the history of the town or any of the
people mentioned. I will paste it into this e-mail so you don't have to worry
about being able to open it. Enjoy
Dianna
Transcribed from faded copy on 15 MAR 2009 by DSV:
Muncie Star
Sunday, April 10, 1977
Town of Distinction
Huntsville Memorial Day Dates From 1868 (or 1867)
By MARY CATHERINE BARRETT, Special Correspondent
HUNTSVILLE - Very few of the 70 residents of this 143-year-old community
realize their town holds a national distinction that no other town, large or
small, can claim. The pioneers who made their homes here and those who have lived
here for a relatively long time have claimed that this small southern Randolph
County town was the first in the United States to observe Memorial Day. The
observance dates from 1868, when Gen. John A. Logan issued his famous Order
No. 11 to the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) directing that May 30 every year
be a time for decorating the graves of Civil War soldiers.
The oldsters of Huntsville claim a special observance was conducted in 1867,
a year before Gen. Logan's proclamation. Four of the town's young men had
died in hospitals or were killed in small battles early in the war. Men who fell
in the great battles usually were buried in military cemeteries far from
their homes.
In the peaceful, well kept three acre cemetery at the southwest corner of the
town lies graves of forty-two soldiers, seven of whom served in the war of
1812, three in World War II, one in World War I, one in the National Guard, and
the remaining 30 graves are those who served in the Civil War.
At any rate, Huntsville was going strong in 1879. long before Indiana had
recognized May 30 as a legal holiday. In fact, Hoosiers were slow in that
respect. New York had memorial Day in 1874, Ohio in 1881, but Indiana not until
1889, according to the state reference library. Many towns were already
observing the holiday.
Huntsville has not always been Huntsville, and by no means has it been small
in size as it is today.
"Uncle Billy" Hunt, a powerful Methodist preacher, came here from Kentucky in
1818 and built a log cabin in the are where the cemetery was later located.
Two later houses replaced the original log cabin, all belonging to the Hunt
family. The last house met its fate by demolition just a week ago to give way
to agriculture.
"Uncle Billy" called his homestead Hunts X Road and it continued to [be}
called that until 1852. The mail was delivered to the Hunts X Road post office by
horse and buggy. The William E. Botkin family, descendants of a pioneer
family, have many letters in their possessions that were written from distant
states with no postmarks, stamps, or envelopes, only the name and address to
Hunts X Road.
In 1853 , the post office name was changed to Trenton for some unknown reason
and the town was referred to as Trenton for many years. The first lots were
recorded in 1834. E. Tucker's Randolph County history states, "The town
stands in a fine and fruitful lregion far enough from other and larger towns to
have some room to flourish. It has become quite a thriving country village, and
seems likely to grow somewhat in time to come." What a sad disappointment if
this famous historian could see it today.
Five of the original buildings in Huntsville remain after all these years.
The Red Men's Lodge building has been converted into a storage barn by a local
farmer. The Independent Order of the Odd Fellows Lodge building that was also
used by the Masonic Lodge, stands stately and appears that it will stand
through another era of desperation or progress.
The Bogue Hotel has long been abandoned for living purposes but still stands
behind a row of maple trees and broken down side walks to remind reminiscers
of the time it ranked high in Randolph County for its homey atmosphere.
The Huntsville Community building is the property of the United Methodist
Church and is a popular meeting place in the county for wedding receptions,
social events, church activities and family reunions. Originally, this building
was the first Huntsville school and was used until 1893. Later it was purchased
by the Grand Army of the Republic and used as a meeting place. Years later
it was the Harvey brothers blacksmith shop until the 1920s. After the building
had physical and weather abuse for many years, the men in the community
remodeled the building in 1953 to make it the attractive and popular building that
it is today.
One building of a tile factory is being used as a stock barn, having been
moved to another location on the same farm where the tile factory once stood.
The second school at Huntsville was a three room school built in 1894 at the
north edge of town. In 1912, four more rooms were added. With an increase in
enrollment, another wing was built to the existing building in 1921, complete
with a gymnasium that was one of the first and finest in the county. It had
a seating capacity for 100 spectators.
The Huntsville school was the last building to submit to progress when it was
demolished in 1958 to join the Modoc and Losantville schools in the Union
township consolidation. Although so many and so much is gone from this little
town today, not in their wildest dreams could those early settlers have
imagined that a transformer, with its voltage control of 69,000 volts, would one day
send light, heat, and power to hundreds of homes, and to schools, businesses
and factories from the very site where they themselves had put in so many
patient hours of hand labor, raised their families and built this community. If
they could now see the modern Wayne County REMC power station that was built on
the north edge of town in 1970 on the same site where one of the tile
factories had stood for 50 years…..
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