War

Posted on Author WKVI
Lovina Streight

This year, 2011, marks the sesquicentennial of the Civil War in the United States. At 4:30 in the morning of April 12, 1861, Confederate forces started the American Civil War by firing on Fort Sumter, a Union military base located outside the entrance to the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Just two days later, after suffering severe damage from four thousand shells, the federal forces surrendered. The American flag came down, and the Confederacy’s new Stars and Bars banner flew over the fort.

President Lincoln asked for a quota of 4600 men from Indiana… “Soldiers, or good men willing to be converted into soldiers for the emergency.” In reality, almost 200,000 served from Indiana. My grandfather was one of those men. During those four years, 25,025 Hoosiers died. In fact, the Battle of Antietam in 1862 was much more devastating than present day wars around the world. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000 casualties.

The Historical Society has an excellent program about William Garner, the last Civil War soldier from Starke County to die. If you would like a program about the “Billy” Garner in the Civil War for your club or organization some time during this sesquicentennial year, call me at 574-772-4311.

Also, the Starke County Historical Society has made special arrangements with the Indiana Historical Society to exhibit, Faces of the Civil War from May 3, 2011 to May 27, 2011, here in Starke County. The exhibit will be at the Henry F. Schricker Library in Knox. The exhibition brings to life the stories of many Hoosiers whose lives were touched, and in some cases taken, by the Civil War.

Non-soldier stories featured in the exhibition include the stories of women who served both on the homefront and on the battlefield. Lovina Streight followed her husband into battle and was captured more than once by the Confederate Army while tending to her husband, as well as his wounded and dying comrades.

Ober Savanna

Posted on Author WKVI

Savanna – Now what is that? You have heard of savannas in Africa, but here in Indiana? Yes, right here in Starke County. In fact, there are several in Northern Indiana. For the most part, savannas occurred in Indiana’s main prairie region in the northwestern part of the state. The plant geography of Indiana is a transition between the wide open prairies of Iowa and Illinois and the deciduous forests of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Early Indiana had prairies (almost 15 percent of the state) and forests. Savannas were interspersed between and shared some characteristics of both prairies and forests. Savannas have trees like a forest and many of the same grasses and wildflowers as a prairie. Typical trees are black and white oaks with scattered wild black cherry and sassafras. Typical shrubs are winged sumac, blueberries, and huckleberries. Wildflowers in the savannas are very different from the typical forest ones. They are more of the prairie type flowers. Lupines, puccoons and bird’s-foot violets welcome the spring, while coreopsis, sunflowers, blazing star and butterfly weed accent the summer. Fall is heralded by asters and goldenrods. Prairie grasses are also highlighted in the landscape. We probably have several small savannas in Starke County, isolated on some of the sand ridges, but one that gets all of the attention is the Ober Savanna.

Ober Savanna – Located just west of Ober, Indiana, this 59-acre parcel is owned by The Nature Conservancy and contains a high-quality remnant of a black oak savanna. Clusters of large black oaks grow among prairie grasses and wildflowers, such as little and big bluestem, Indian grass, porcupine grass, June grass, and puccoons. The rare prickly pear, yellow wild indigo, globally endangered fame flower, and wild indigo are found here, as are some rare, prairie-specific butterflies.

To find the Ober Savanna, drive west of Ober on 200 S., cross the RR tracks, and within a few hundred feet there is a small parking area on the north side of the road with the Ober Savanna sign. Follow the instructions on the sign. See attachment.

Jim Shilling
Starke County Historical Society

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

Ice

Posted on Author WKVI

It is winter —
—- Many years ago in the winter it was ice-making season on the ponds, rivers and lakes of Starke County. Really, I should say “ice harvesting.” Farmers and others from the area would be hired by the Ice Companies to cut blocks of ice to store for the next summer’s use. These blocks of ice were elevated and placed in large “ice barns” and insulated with saw dust or marsh hay. Because of the large mass of ice in one location, the ice would last for several months. Often the ice, in large blocks, was loaded into railroad box cars and shipped to Chicago and other places for the customers’ kitchen ice boxes. Bass Lake had a railroad line on the south side of the lake to carry vacationers in the summer and ice in the winter.

Ice house at Bass Lake

The Modern refrigerator has changed the way people live all around the world. It’s easy to take the “white box” in your kitchen for granted. Just take a look at places in the world which don’t have refrigeration. People go shopping every day. They may lower dairy products and other foods into a well or spring so they will stay cool for a couple of days without spoiling. There is no way that a modern America would be recognizable to you or me if it weren’t for refrigeration.

In the 1930’s, before electricity, I remember the ice box. It was a common fixture in every home. Ice boxes were usually made of wood with insulated walls, lined with tin inside. There was a door for a large (maybe a 100 lb) block of ice. The other doors were for milk, fruit, vegetables and other perishables. There was a drain tray at the bottom for the melting ice water. My Mother would put a sign (see attachment) in the window, letting the ice man know how much ice she wanted to buy that day. He would cut that approximate size with his ice pick, grab it up with his ice tongs, throw it over his shoulder, carry it into the house and put it into our ice box. I was usually close at hand to see if I could find any small chunks of ice which I could suck on during a hot summer’s day.

This last picture (left) shows the Shaws from Knox with their delivery truck ready to haul ice to customers. The Shaw family had ponds and ice houses just north of the Yellow River and north of the present location of the Knox Railroad Depot (Gateway area). Across U.S. 35 from the Depot, they owned a coal yard and ice storage building. They would regularly deliver ice in the summer and coal in the winter.

Refrigerators, as we know them now, have only been mass-produced since the late 1940s. Appreciate yours!

Jim Shilling
Starke County Historical Society

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