Echoes of the Past



10 Years Ago

Friday, Sept. 2, 2011 – Duneland Girl Scouts schedule a registration event and celebrate the 100th anniversary of scouting. . . CHS volleyball team beats Crown Point. Leading in offense are Emily Nix and Lydia Gill. . . Approximately 800 people attend the Party in the Park hosted by the Chesterton/Duneland Chamber of Commerce.

15 Years Ago

Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2006 – CHS football team beat Michigan City 49-14. Scoring touchdowns are Erik Ledbetter, Travis Anderson (2), Alex Beierwalter, Ryan Meyers (2), and Aaron Knight. Extra points are kicked by Mark Babcock (6) and Zack Novak. . . The derailment of two Shore Shore train cars just east of the Beverly Shores station shuts down service. . . Duneland Swim Club, coached by Jim Voss, begins a new season. . . Alex Mannen and Seth Walker each record a save in the CHS boys soccer team’s 7-2 win over Munster.

25 Years Ago

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 1996 – Eleanor Morgan Read dies at age 90. . . Eric Kroeger is winner of the Duneland YMCA house raffle. . . Erin Womble, Alexis Virtue, and Carolyn Chase run first, third, and fourth in the CHS girls cross country team’s win over Valpo. . . CHS football beats Andrean 41-10, led by Andy Pack and Brian Osan. . . Penalty kicks by Brad Gramke give the CHS boys soccer team a 2-0 win over Highland.

50 Years Ago

Thursday, Sept. 2, 1971 – A 16-year-old driver faces 13 charges after a high-speed police chase through Chesterton yesterday afternoon. The Gary resident is charged with running a stop sign seven times, no operator’s license, reckless driving, and four counts of speeding. He is in juvenile detention in Porter County Jail awaiting Lake County authorities on charges of joy riding and unauthorized control of a vehicle. . . Duneland Schools faculty workshops will keep teachers busy tomorrow and there will be no school. Teachers will attend any of 24 special workshops according to their fields or the grade level. . . Louis Menke of Poynette, Wis., had two visitors from Chesterton last week. Mrs. Joseph Gifford and her daughter Jackie paid a call to the nursing home where the former Chesterton Tribune reporter now lives and found him pretty well and glad to see them. . . The CHS football team opens what promises to be a tough but exciting season tomorrow when it faces Hobart at Troy Field. Hobart is one of the four teams on the CHS card this season that is ranked in the Top 20 teams in the pre-season rating. Valparaiso, Michigan City, and Andrean are the other top ranked teams. . . Girl Scouts of the Westchester neighborhoods are reminded to be collecting things for the Red Cross ditty bags to be sent to American servicemen and women in Vietnam. . . A popularity poll of hymns among persons over 60 at the Indiana State Fair gave the role of favorite to “How Great Thou Art.” The hymn received the No. 1 rating from 25 percent of those participating in the poll. Others in the Top 10: “Beyond the Sunset,” “Nearer My God to Thee,” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” and “Holy, Holy, Holy.” . . Tonight’s TV Highlights: Dick Cavett Show, ABC. Steve Allen is guest host and scheduled visitors include Louis Nye and Tom Poston. . . A federal judge, contending that busing is “as American as apple pie,” has refused to revise the North’s first massive school desegregation order. And Judged Damon Keith warned vandals in Pontiac, Mich., where 10 buses were destroyed by explosives Monday night, that “this case will not be settled in the streets. If necessary, we will put marshals” on the buses.

100 Years Ago Thursday, Sept. 1, 1921 – The body of Dan McGhee, member of the U.S. Coast Guard, was recovered Friday at Dune Park beach, after it had been in the water 24 hours. McGhee and another Coast Guard member were exploring the beach east of Gary for a Coast Guard station. After finding a place they thought ideal, McGhee went swimming. He suffered from cramps and went under. His comrade was unable to find the body after two hours of search. . . The library for Chesterton will be open in about a week. Workmen are laying the floor and shelves will then be built. Books are being packed at Gary to be brought here and new purchases are being made. The Havril Bros. battery and electric shop has moved out of the building. It is now located in the Havril residence farther down Broadway. . . Chesterton may have a creamery in the near future. Local representatives of milk producers went to Gary on Wednesday to put the proposition up to the directors of the marketing company there who had called a conference. The creamery, if established here, would be situated in the brick mill building on South Calumet Road and Porter Ave. There is currently a large surplus of milk being handled at the Gary plant, and James Lenburg and Carl Rhoda, who went to the conference, argued that there is little use in shipping milk to Gary to dump it into the sewer, when it might be used to advantage in Chesterton. . . The Dunes Highway through Northern Indiana might be built next year. The contract for grading the road may be let this fall if possible. Work may yet begin on this project before cold weather. If so, construction of the highway may begin early next spring. The road was included on all official state highway maps last year and has been included on the state road building program for 1922. . .

125 Years Ago

Saturday, Sept. 5, 1896 – The announcement has been sent out that the yards of the Chicago Hydraulic Pressed Brick Company will close down indefinitely, the order to take effect this evening. This includes the Porter plants, and throws nearly 200 men out of employment. The cause of the shutdown is assigned to an overstock of brick on hand and no sales. The Porter warehouses are filled to their utmost capacity and the kilns are full. The shutdown is a hard blow to the community, as it will compel a large number of people to leave town and seek employment elsewhere, and this would lose for the Republican Party at least 100 voters in November here. After today things will be dead, for the only factory running will be the Featherbone, and if a man wants to work there, he will have to wear a Mother Hubbard and change his sex. . . Mr. J.A. Wilson, the enterprising boot and shoe dealer of Chesterton, has moved his stock of goods into the Thomas building, to make room for Nels Henry Highwood, who will convert the vacated storeroom into a dispensary for intoxicating liquids. . . A few hundred of Valpo’s four hundred drove over to Chesterton on Sunday and dazzled the Sanhedrins of this bailiwick. Chesterton is a critical judge of feminine beauty and knows a pretty girl when she sees one. We can truthfully say that it has been a long time since such a bewitching aggregation of loveliness has been on exhibition in the town. . . It is predicted that the coming winter will be the coldest ever experienced in this latitude. It is also predicted that the same winter will be mild and lamb-like. Notwithstanding, we are going to stuff up the cracks with oakum, and lay in the usual supply of coal, potatoes, and pork. . . The boys and girls of Chesterton are the future church, and their future usefulness will be determined by the manner in which they are encouraged by those who have an interest in the morals and religion of Chesterton. Indifference of the parents to the highest interests of their children is a crime, and God only will be capable of meting out the punishment it deserves.

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