March 8
In 1916, votes from the March 7 primary continued to be counted. A story in the Daily Reporter noted, “The canvassing board may not complete their work before midnight tonight and it may be Thursday morning, they say. The official results will not be known until they have counted and placed the second choice votes.” The story also noted the presence of a few Progressive party voters, about five per precinct.
March 9
In 1942, a Greyhound bus driver and a passenger were killed in a collision with a milk truck on U.S. 40 three miles east of Greenfield.
In 1962, Greenfield Postmaster Wayne Crider announced a new shipment of stamps honoring Lt. Col. John H. Glenn’s space flight had arrived at the post office. The first shipment of the commemorative stamps had sold out quickly.
March 10
In 1940, NBC brought its radio microphones to the Riley Home in Greenfield for its “A Pilgrimage of Poetry” series. The series visiting the home of famous poets had made previous stops at the homes of Edgar Allen Poe, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and others. The Greenfield stop was No. 22 in the 32-part series. More than 500 English department heads at colleges and universities voted on which poets should be featured.
In 1967, the Church of the Bible Covenant was organized at the John T. Hatfield Campground on U.S. 40 near Cleveland. The denomination dissolved in the late 1980s.
March 11
In 1889, the Wilkinson Church of Christ was permanently organized.
In 2020, a jailer at Hancock County Jail learned he had tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the county’s first case of infection from the novel coronavirus.
March 12
In 1925, Confederate Army veteran Joseph L. Hooker died. According to the City of Greenfield website, he is the only Confederate veteran buried at Greenfield’s Park Cemetery.
In 2020, Hancock County Sheriff’s Department reported a jail employee — a Marion County resident who was not in contact with inmates — tested positive for COVID-19. All four of Hancock County’s school districts called off classes for the following day.
March 13
In 1992, Gov. Evan Bayh signed Public Law 44, a bill authored by Indiana Rep. Sarah Wolf, D-Greenfield. It returned boat excise tax revenues to counties once a month instead of twice a year, as had previously been done. “What this is basically doing is getting the county’s money to it sooner,” Wolf said. “It will give the county a chance to draw interest on the money.”
March 14
In 1972, Hancock County commissioners met with property owners along County Road 1050 East between Charlottesville and Wilkinson to discuss acquiring right-of-way to widen the road. The day before, two Eastern Hancock High School students were injured when the southbound car they rode in near County Road 200N went over a rise and then off the road and into a tree.
