President Harry Truman receives a copy of John F. Mitchell’s book “The Rooster — the National Emblem of the Democratic Party” from Mitchell’s granddaughter, 4-year-old Ann Mitchell Staller. Also pictured in this photo of Truman’s Oct. 12, 1948, stop in Greenfield are (left) Congressional candidate Robert C. Oliver of Winchester and (right) Indiana Gov. Henry Schricker.
Hancock Democrat
Oct. 9
In 1970, Greenfield-Central High School senior Barbara Reuter was selected the first Riley Festival queen in judging sponsored by the Greenfield Jayshees and Jaycees at the Hancock County Courthouse.
Oct. 10
In 1927, a longtime Greenfield resident who was blind sued Standard Oil Co. of Indiana and a local businessman after excavation along West North Street to install a gas station caught him by surprise and made him fall. The man suing said the pit was left unguarded; he sought $25,000 in damages after suffering a broken hip and other injuries in the fall.
Oct. 11
In 1936, three members of the “Brady gang” escaped from Hancock County Jail, beating Sheriff Clarence Watson with an iron bar and stealing the car of Edgar Ridlen, a local barber who saw the scuffle and stopped to help the sheriff. One year and one day later, two of them — Al Brady and Clarence Lee Shaffer Jr. — were gunned down during a holdup attempt in Maine. The third escapee, James Dalhover, was wounded.
Oct. 12
In 1948, President Harry Truman passed through Greenfield on a train. During his stop, local resident H.D. Paynter was invited onto the train to speak with Truman; he had known the president years before when both lived in St. Louis and Truman was a frequent visitor to the bank where Paynter worked. Truman’s speech in Greenfield can be heard online here at the website of the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum (https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/soundrecording-records/sr65-37-4-rear-platform-remarks).
In 1973, Greenfield-Central golfer Susan Kirby received the first Girls Mental Attitude Award from the Indiana High School Athletic Association. Kirby was part of a Cougars team that won a sectional championship.
Oct. 13
In 1997, Martin Thomas was sentenced in Hancock Superior Court 1 to 50 years in prison. The 42-year-old Ohio man had been convicted of shooting another Ohio man along County Road 375E in 1996 and setting the body on fire.
Oct. 14
In 1962, Greenfield Friends Church dedicated a new building at 323 W. Park Ave. The church, which organized in 1889 and had gathered at other sites previously, continues to worship at the Park Avenue site today.
In 2016, the Indiana Bicentennial Torch Relay route wound through Hancock County.
In 1927, sixteen died when a Union Traction car struck a truck carrying merrymakers to a barn dance at Fort Benjamin Harrison. Five had local connections. Von W. Glascock and Charles Virgil Wheeler grew up in Greenfield. Former Greenfield resident Charles E. Pauley lost a daughter and two sons-in-law. Wheeler’s wife and two more of Pauley’s daughters were among the 19 people injured in the crash at the Emerson Avenue traction line crossing.
Oct. 15
In 1982, A Dayton, Ohio, trucker suffered second- and third-degree burns over 20 percent of his body when the semi he was driving swerved to avoid a car, instead striking the median on Interstate 70 near the Mt. Comfort Road exit. His cab and trailer burst into flames on impact.
