It has been lovely weather. There has been not a lot of rain so everyone has been working in their yards.
Thanks to all of you who came up to the park and worked on clean-up day. I hope to have a list of volunteers by the next time I write.
Remember that the summer youth program ZYP begins on June 4 at the Tower Life Center on Wayne Street. For any information or questions go to Wendy Bailey at 260-410-6952. There may still be time to sign up.
The Lions Club gathered on Monday evening, May 20. The meeting was an informational meeting with guests PDG Roger Nash and DG Jim Bush on hand to answer many questions. Jim had to park way out in left field as the park was packed with ballplayers, coaches, and those watching the game and buying goodies at the concession stand.
My granddaughter Emma and her husband Leim came into the clubhouse to say hello. With them was there son Briley who is under one year old. Briley is the eighth generation of our family to live in the Town of Zanesville.
The lineage begins with Jonathan Michael who moved here at the age of 21 in 1858 just 10 years after the town was set up. He was followed by his father John Michael who came from Clear Spring, Maryland, in 1865 to help Jonathan take care of his five children and the hotel (my house) as his wife had died and he needed the help of his step-mother.
They moved in the house next door to the east of the hotel. That house has since been torn down. Jonathan’s daughter Almissa was born in the hotel house and died there in 1963. She was 98 years old. Her son Don McBride was born in the house delivered by his father Dr. J.L. I was not born here but out on the McBride farm just south of town that has been in our family since 1865 and I moved back here to the hotel house in 1973.
My twins Jonathan and Jeremiah were born at that time in 1977 and Jeremiah is the father of Emma who now lives here and is the mother of Briley. Thus the eight generations.
Did you know at one time where Sorgs and County Line Pizza and Pub stand now we had a Zanesville Bank? It was located in the large Knight’s Store.
Zanesville Bank history condensed from Wells County Banking by Alan Daugherty.
Although Zanesville dates to March 4, 1849, the Zanesville Bank did not get its start until 1903, over half a century later. According to a story in “History of Zanesville, Indiana” [1976, p 89] which provided the previous dates, the bank began in the Knight’s Store, also the location at the time for the telephone office. The safe in the middle of the store was blown by bandits robbing the Bank in 1903 or 1904. No additional details about the Zanesville Bank were listed in that book’s timeline until 1932 when it stated “Zanesville Bank goes under.” The bank would be officially an Allen County bank with many Wells County patrons. Because Wells County families supported and worked in the bank, it became a featured financial institution of this research and history.
The bank certainly existed in August 28, 1924, when a burglar alarm went off at the building being readied to house A. H. Knight and Sons Store and Zanesville Bank. Local citizens armed with revolvers and sawed-off shotguns rushed to the shop expecting to kill robbers. The store had been robbed twice the preceding year. Previous robberies resulted in quipping it with the electric alarm that sounded a gong with doors or windows were opened. Knight failed to completely close one of the windows. An early Thursday morning deliveryman of Perfection Biscuit Company of Fort Wayne spotted the window and knocked it open while delivering bread. This news item from Bluffton Evening News suggested the store and bank were relocating or remodeling, but already functioning businesses.
John Smuts (1875-1947) worked in the Knight’s Store. In this previous family history, he identified Zanesville Bank’s position in the center of the Knight’s Store. Thomas Diffendorfer and Nettie Wolf received mention as bank workers. Thomas ‘Tom’ Rollo Diffendorfer (Oct. 1870-4.26.1937) worked as the Zanesville Bank cashier as verified in the 1910 census, at age 39, married to Dora (nee Hamilton). Tom continued the same employment in the 1920 and 1930 census, a Union Township resident. That previous Zanesville history publication provided a half-page photo of 1930’s Knight’s Store front with Gearry Knight (1884-1945), John Shepler, and John Smuts standing on Scott Street in front, the northwest corner of Wayne and Scott Streets. A photo of a negotiable note was also included, stating “payable at Zanesville, Ind.” but the date of 1893 identifies it with lender “Michaels & Hamilton”, not the Zanesville Bank. Obviously banking transactions occurred in Zanesville prior to the Zanesville Bank’s existence. The M&H concern previously operated on the same corner as Knight’s at some point prior to Zanesville banking business in this community. The Knight Store burned May 19, 1939, after the Zanesville Bank ceased to operate inside the structure.
East Union’s Alumni is over for another year. How many more years will this take place? The school opened 120 years ago this fall.
Construction began on East Union Center in 1903. The site being the center of the township where the old Center School was located. The school opened to students in the fall of 1904 and two students graduated in the spring of 1905. School colors of black and white were chosen as was a badger for the mascot. Those remained throughout the school’s life until the high school closed in the spring of 1962. In fact, they remained up until the elementary closed in 1968.
A song was also picked and winning out was lyrics written to the tune of the Notre Dame fight song. There was a total of 825 graduates from East Union Center with the smallest class of one in 1912 and the largest of 26 in 1944. Basketball was the main sport during the life of the school. In 1936 the Badgers won the Wells County Sectional Tournament. How many games were played remains a mystery. We are all proud to be graduates of East Union Center.
I just came across a picture of LONG AGO CHAMPS — It was taken of the Wells County’s Independent Basketball League Champs in 1945-46. They called themselves the Union Center Independents. Members of the team were John Hoopingarner, Woodrow Pence, Max Wilson, Denver Slater, George Schwartz, Dale Hoopingarner, Bud Jacobs and Manager Curly Burnau. Dewey Hobbs also was a member from Lafayette Central. All others were from Union and were graduates from 1934 to 1945.
Do you have anything to add to the Lions summer festival brochure as I am reprinting it soon with more information. Maybe you would like to help out with volunteers at times during the day or we need someone to head up some kids games at the Tower Life Center Church. Call me, 260-638-4327, if you have any other ideas! Maybe join the parade!
