Clayton High School Alumni Database Added

A listing of alumni of Clayton High School for 1899-1920 has been added to the Hendricks County GenWeb site. The list was compiled from the school's 1921 yearbook, Claytonian.

College Students Database Updated

Entries from the 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929 school years have been added to the database Hendricks County Students Attending Indiana Colleges, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. It is a listing of some of the students from Hendricks County who were either attending or graduating from various colleges in Indiana, as compiled from information sent by college officials to area newspapers. The list was comprised of the student's name and hometown, and sometimes included their major or the degree they were receiving.

The colleges that submitted information to the newspapers varied from year to year. Ball State University, Butler University, DePauw University, Earlham College, Indiana State University, Indiana University and Purdue University are among those who submitted information at one time or another.

The database is an ongoing project. It currently covers the period of 1925-1961.

Stilesville High School Alumni Database Added

A listing of alumni of Stilesville High School for 1913-1920 has been added to the Hendricks County GenWeb site. The list was compiled from the school's 1921 yearbook, Memories.

Marriage Index Updated

Entries from Hendricks County Marriage Book Volume 46 (11 August 1984 - 29 June 1985) have been added to the database Index to Hendricks County Marriage Books, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. It includes the names of the bride and groom, their date of marriage and the corresponding book and page number.

This index is in progress - so far it covers the period of 1904-1985, as well as 1824-1848.

Marriage Index Updated

Entries from Hendricks County Marriage Book Volume 45 (27 August 1983 - 4 August 1984) have been added to the database Index to Hendricks County Marriage Books, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. It includes the names of the bride and groom, their date of marriage and the corresponding book and page number.

This index is in progress - so far it covers the period of 1904-1984, as well as 1824-1848.

Teachers Database Updated

Entries from the 1930-1939 school years have been added to the database Index to Teachers in Hendricks County Schools, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. It is a list of all of the teachers in the county's schools, as published in area newspapers at the beginning of each school year by the county's schools superintendent. The list was comprised of the teacher's name and their location, and sometimes included the subjects they were teaching.

The database is in progress - it currently covers 1930-1963.

Marriage Index Updated

Entries from Hendricks County Marriage Book Volume 44 (18 September 1982 - 21 August 1983) have been added to the database Index to Hendricks County Marriage Books, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. It includes the names of the bride and groom, their date of marriage and the corresponding book and page number.

This index is in progress - so far it covers the period of 1904-1983, as well as 1824-1848.

Probate Records Work Session in Plainfield

The Indiana Genealogical Society is holding a work session on Saturday, October 15 from 9:30 am to 4 pm for all those who would like to help with their project to preserve and digitize Hendricks County's earliest probate records. The work session will be held at the Plainfield Public Library and you can stop by at any time during the day to help unfold the papers and place them in folders.

Please register for this work session - you may register online through the library's Events Calendar or by calling the library's Indiana Room - (317) 838-3800.

Since this project was started in 2009, over 2,000 probate records have been worked on.

College Students Database Updated

Entries from the 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1935 school years have been added to the database Hendricks County Students Attending Indiana Colleges, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. It is a listing of some of the students from Hendricks County who were either attending or graduating from various colleges in Indiana, as compiled from information sent by college officials to area newspapers. The list was comprised of the student's name, hometown and class, and sometimes included their major or the degree they were receiving.

The colleges that submitted information to the newspapers varied from year to year. Ball State University, Butler University, DePauw University, Earlham College, Indiana State University, Indiana University and Purdue University are among those who submitted information at one time or another.

The database is an ongoing project. It currently covers the period of 1930-1961.

Index to Divorce Cases Added

A database consisting of divorce case filings listed in Hendricks County Entry Docket Book 11 (which covers June 1953 to March 1965) and Book 12 (which covers March 1965 to August 1975) have been added to the Hendricks County GenWeb site. The database includes the names of the two parties, the date the divorce case was filed, and the case number.

Marriage Index Updated

Entries from Hendricks County Marriage Book Volume 43 (24 October 1981 - 18 September 1982) have been added to the database Index to Hendricks County Marriage Books, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. It includes the names of the bride and groom, their date of marriage and the corresponding book and page number.

This index is in progress - so far it covers the period of 1904-1982, as well as 1824-1848.

Surname Index to Probate Order Books Updated

Entries from the surname index included at the front of Hendricks County Probate Order Book Volume 4 (15 May 1865 - 30 May 1868) have been added to the database Surname Index to Hendricks County Probate Order Books, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. The surname index was compiled by the clerk at the time they were writing the entries. It includes the subject of the probate case, the type of case (estate, guardianship, etc.), and the corresponding book and page number.

This is an ongoing project - currently the surname index covers the years 1865-1891.

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Danville Students Attending College (1919)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, September 11, 1919 – page 1, column 4:

YOUNG PEOPLE HEAR CALL OF HIGHER INSTITUTIONS
Large Number Leaving to Attend College

With the opening of colleges and universities, young people of Danville are preparing for another year at higher institutions of learning.

The number planning to go away to school is unusually large this year.

Mary Agnes Showalter leaves Tuesday. She will continue her work at Butler this year.

Robert Hollowell, Jr. will leave Sunday to attend Indiana University. Bruce and Bratcher DeMarcus will also re-enter Indiana.

The Misses Helen Parker, Jeanette Wilson and Anna Martha Osborn will leave within the week to enter Earlham College at Richmond.

Miss Unity Thomas, Darvin Thomas, Estie Hunt and Donald Hogate leave the last of the week to enter DePauw at Greencastle.

Miss Josephine Hornaday will attend Wisconsin University again this year. She leaves the last of the month.

Miss Mary Edwards, Myrle Vogel, and Glendon Scearce have left for Lafayette to take up their work at Purdue.

James Bridges left Friday for Pittsburgh, Pa., to enter a technical school in that city. Orin Shutts left Monday for Chicago University to enter the School of Mechanical Drawing.

Otis Gulley, Jr. left Wednesday for Lafayette to enter the Civil Engineering department of Purdue University.

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Couple Marries in Civil and Quaker Ceremonies (1920)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, August 26, 1920 – page 1, column 5:

MARRIED TWO TIMES AND NEVER SEPARATED
First by Rites of Friends Church, Then by ‘Squire

Roy L. Nelson and Lenia Peacock Nelson have been married twice, both times legally and without any separation intervening. They were married some two weeks ago according to the rites of the Friends. Saturday, they were married according to the civil law, ‘Squire Kennedy officiating.

Saturday afternoon in company with the bride’s father, Galileo Peacock, a well known citizen of Guilford township, they appeared at the clerk’s office. Miss Ethel Clark, the deputy, waited on them when they said they wished a marriage license. All was going well until the question, on the application blank, whether either of the parties had been married before, was reached. And they said they had, were in fact then husband and wife.

This was a new problem for Miss Clark and she called Clerk Woodward who decided he had struck something absolutely new early in his official life. Mr. Peacock explained that the lady is his daughter, that she was married but they had all decided as law-abiding citizens that they wished a civil wedding. Mr. Woodward then issued the license and they asked for a brief ceremony, the less formality the better. So ‘Squire Kennedy was called.


from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, September 16, 1920 – page 1, column 3:

R.L. NELSON DEFENDS HIS MARRIAGE CEREMONY
I, the undersigned, wish to correct the misleading inferences set forth in these columns of August 26, in the article headed “Married Two Times but Never Separated,” which so inferred that I and Miss Peacock had disrespected the Quaker ceremony or “rites” of the Quaker church which we were said to have accepted some time previous to our engaging the ‘Squire under the civil law for our second marriage or, a more lawful union as the article infers.

Correction – The fact is I deny being married twice or by the civil law at all so far as the marrying goes. I contend that we were married but once and that by the so-called Quaker manner. But the fact is that tho [sic] married after the “Quaker manner” we were not married in or by the Quaker church. Hence further steps were necessary in order to provide the civil law a “record” of our intent and action.

The reason we were not married in the Quaker church was because that I myself am not a registered member with any denomination but since I as a Christian heavily indorse [sic] Quaker principles and especially their simple, informal, Divine manner of uniting man and wife, we, Miss Peacock and myself, married under this self-same method without the church. That is, on August 20, we and her parents arranged for the spending of a part of the day in a nice woods just outside Danville where, after having a few hours in prayer and meditation, Miss Peacock and I, long having known our union God’s will, united in holy matrimony, there beneath the skies, with God as witness Who is the only rightful official to such a matter. After our dinner, we went to Danville, secured a license and “Mr. ‘Squire” and proceeded to satisfy “Caesar, the law” whereupon I made known the fact that were already husband and wife by ordinance of God and hence desired only enough ceremony to make a record of our intentions possible and pleasing in the eyes of the law and all was accomplished very nicely. We were married in the woods by the Lord. The action or contract was recorded thru another action at the court house by the kindness of the clerk and the ‘Squire.

I, myself, deny that the power of either uniting or of separating man and wife lies within the power of man or earthly law. And hence I fully agree with the Quaker principles that such is a matter belonging wholly to God Himself as “Liscensor” and officiating minister. I invite any person who desires to slur the Quaker view and practice on this point to note the almost entire absence of separation among those united in marriage under the Quaker or Friends manner of marriage as against the daily divorces among unions made thru the courts or civil law which are too often by the mere hand of man (I pronounce you man and wife) preceded by a moonlight, prayerless courtship.

R.L. Nelson,
Plainfield, Ind.

Work Session for Probate Records Project in Plainfield

The Indiana Genealogical Society is holding a Saturday work session in October for all those who would like to help with their project to preserve and digitize Hendricks County's earliest probate records. The work session will be held on Saturday, October 15 from 9:30 am to 4 pm at the Plainfield Public Library and you can stop by at any time during the day to help unfold the papers and place them in folders.

Please register for this work session - you may register online through the library's Events Calendar or by calling the library's Indiana Room - (317) 838-3800.

Since this project was started in 2009, almost 2,000 records have been worked on.

8th Grade Graduates List Added To Website

Entries from a 1922 list of the 8th grade graduates of Hendricks County's common schools have been added to the Hendricks County GenWeb site. The list consists of the student's name and the township.

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Stilesville Teachers Egged By Students (1920)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, April 29, 1920 – page 1, column 4:

UNFORTUNATE AFFAIR IN STILESVILLE SCHOOL
Roy Cox, superintendent of the Stilesville schools, with Cleo Casserly, Lloyd McClellan, Howard McClellan, Kathleen Ousler and Mary Warmoth, all pupils in the Stilesville schools, are in Squire Kennedy’s court with various charges against them of rout, assault and battery and assault. The parties against whom the alleged offenses were committed are Josephine Lewis, Marcena Kendall, Katie Coble and Helen Coble, teachers in the Stilesville school. It is alleged that a few nights ago Cox bought two dozen eggs and he induced his pupils, named above, to throw them at the four ladies as they were passing along the street. Some of the eggs took effect and some did not. The story goes, according to Prosecutor Owens, that Stilesville has not had much of a school this winter, that Cox is lax is discipline and there was friction between him and other teachers. It is alleged that Cox told pupils that the orders of other teachers were not to be obeyed. The defendants have their hearing May 16.

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Danville School Teachers Named (1920)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, September 2, 1920 – page 7, column 4:

CONCERNING SCHOOL YEAR IN DANVILLE CORPORATION
Supt. D.T. Cushman, of the city schools, authorizes the following:

Danville schools will open Monday, Sept. 13 with the following teachers:

High school
--L.C. Winternheimer, principal, science
--Leroy Cook, mathematics, manual training, athletics
--Mattie A. Keeney, English
--Latin and history, to be filled
--Ruth Boyd, domestic science
--Mildred Christie, music

Mattie A. Keeney building
--C.C. Bosstick, principal, arithmetic
--Bertha Watts, English
--Ruth Pattison, geography and history
--Helen Hadley, 5th
--Eula Lawson, 4th
--Mae Comer, 3rd
--2nd, to be supplied
--Edith Peyton, primary

Miss Boyd, of Richmond, a graduate of Earlham, taught last year in the Richmond high school. Miss Christie, of Amo, taught music and art in the Clayton high school the past year.

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Danville Resident Marries in Boone County (1920)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, July 8, 1920 – page 1, column 5:

KINDER – GRIFFEN
Russell Kinder, son of Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Kinder, slipped away to Lebanon, Saturday, where by previous arrangement he met Miss Edith Griffen, daughter of Attorney Griffen, of Sheridan, and they were married at the parsonage of the Christian church. The groom was an overseas soldier and the romance of the young people began while he was in camp in Indianapolis. He is now employed in Indianapolis but their home for the present will be with the groom’s parents here.

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Danville Students Attending College (1920)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, September 2, 1920 – page 5, column 3:

COLLEGE LADS AND LASSIES PREPARING FOR YEAR’S WORK
The exodus of Danville young people for colleges throughout the middle west has begun, and from all indications the number going this year will far exceed any other previous year. The greatest number are going to Purdue, Indiana and DePauw.

Otis Gulley, Jr., Mary Edwards and May Masten have already left for Purdue to take up their work. Mildred Harrison, Irene Thompson, Margaret Scearce, Bernice O’Brien and Glendon Scearce will leave for Lafayette the latter part of the week to enter Purdue.

Robert Hollowell, Jr. leaves Wednesday to take up his work at Indiana. Benjamin Harrison will continue his studies at the I.U. medical school. Darwin Thomas, Estie Hunt and Milburn Easley are planning to leave the latter part of next week to enter I.U.

Unity Thomas will return to DePauw this year to complete her college course, and Donald Hogate will also take up work at DePauw. John Harvey and Harold Cook of the D.H.S. 1920 class will enter DePauw as freshmen. Harvey is one of the 100 honor students of the state and will receive a Rector scholarship.

Jeannette Wilson and Ann Martha Osborn will re-enter Earlham College at Richmond the latter part of next week.

Lucile Nichols will leave the last of the month for Ann Arbor to enter Michigan University. Mary Agnes Showalter will resume her studies at Butler College next week. Lorine Brill will return to St. Marys-of-the-Woods for another year, and Maurice Kirk will enter a chiropractic school in Davenport, Ia., the middle of September.