CROSSING ACCIDENT
One autumn day more than 50 years ago two ladies and a small baby came by horse and buggy from the Broad park neighborhood to Coatesville to trade. Their conveyance was hit by a West bound fast train at the Pennsylvania crossing and the bodies of the two women were tossed sixty to a hundred feet and they landed on the South side of the track Both were dead when reached by those who sought to aid them. The baby was badly hurt but was still alive. It was carried to Dr. Hope's office who gave it first aid and his wife Leva Hope in the many weeks that followed cared for the little fellow and nursed him back to health. Both Doctor and Leva shed tears when the child was taken home.
THE DAY OF THE ARMISTICE
Bells and whistles started ringing and blowing and now and then was heard the boom of an anvil firing in nearby towns and then this town started its own noise and celebration. Nearly every soul marched over the streets laughing, shouting, crying and singing. The Kaiser had been defeated and the Great War I had come to an end. The boys "Over There" would come home. What a happy thought! In the center of town all citizens gathered and no one grew tired of the speeches that were made. Many of those who spoke advocated giving the Kaiser a "fair trial" and then hanging him. This called for resounding cheers.
FIRST AIRPLANE IN TOWN
Landed on the E.R. Ellis farm on West Main Street. Every man, woman and youngster who could walk or run headed for the pasture to see this wonder of wonders. The pilot let folks walk about the machine and answered the questions asked about it. He then asked who cared to take a ten minute ride for five dollars and several brave people took to the air. John Greenlee, a carpenter was among the first to go up and he was relating long afterward his thrilling experience and how Coatesville looked from a thousand feet elevation.
THE INTERURBAN CAME TO TOWN
It was a big day and a great week when cars started running between Indianapolis and Terre Haute. Every boy and girl who could scare up a few cents bought a ticket to Amo or Fillmore to say they had taken a street car ride. The ride from Amo to Coatesville was really thrilling as the car rolled and bounced down the grade through Critenden Hollow, over the bridge and then coasted into the home station.
THE AFTERNOON WRECK
The afternoon local freight had gone east and no more than fifteen minutes later great clouds of black smoke billowed up over Amo. Coatesville men and boys stood in zero weather on the railroad crossing and gazed east and tried to explain the phenomenon they were witnessing. One said the elevator was burning, another that the lumber sheds were on fire. The fact was that the "local" had split a switch at the East edge of town and three or four cars of oil were wrecked and on fire. Amo people somehow got the word that an explosion was liable any minute that would shake the town to its foundations and then burn the wreckage. Citizens left their homes and headed north; there seemed to be a better road and more room in that direction. There was no explosion and the scare subsided and folks returned home. When one fellow was asked later if he were guilty of running his answer was, "No", but said he, "I passed several who were".
JIMMY BOURNE
About the year 1897 a handsome young man by the name of James Bourne lived on West Main Street. He had a love affair with a girl on East Main whose home was near that of where Andy Underwood now dwells. (2 doors east of the NAPA Store on East Main St. On the South side of the street.) "Jimmy" as he was called about town went to see this girl, Anna Awbrey one Sunday evening and on leaving her home he shot himself at the yard gate. Jimmy's folks had seriously interfered with his affair so he ended all disputes.
THE HORSE SHOES IN THE SIDEWALK
If the pedestrian will notice as he walks south from Wayne Kivett's door he will see some horse shoes embedded in the concrete sidewalk. These shoes were made and put there by blacksmith Fred Stewart. They were the duplicates of those made for Mr. McHaffie's noted race horse "W.W.J." They have been in the walk some 50 or more years.
CHEEVER DAVIS
Cheever Davis was a gay young blade of 22 who acted as engineer at his father's flour mill, he had many friends among those his own age, and one and all had formed a dangerous habit. They rode trains. A number of these young fellows went to Indianapolis to a show, the story goes, and decided to catch a freight ride back to Coatesville. In his attempt to catch a speeding car's side ladder he was killed. The accident happened on a Sunday about the year 1895. His untimely death was the talk of town folks and surrounding community residents for weeks afterward.
FIRST AUTO
The first automobile to be owned in town belonged to Matthew Masten. Guy (Masten) did the driving. If memory is correct on this car it was a two cylinder Auburn and was equipped with a chain drive. It's top speed was perhaps around 35 miles per hour. When on trips with it one dared not choose a road that had any long or short steep hills for it lacked the power to climb them. A car salesman was in town one day and when someone asked him what he thought of a four cylinder car that was talked of his reply was, "There is trouble enough with two cylinders, so why should one want to be plagued with four?"
THE TOWN JAIL
Many of the men and women of today's town do not know that Coatesville once had a white, concrete, "Calaboose" on the south side of the Pennsylvania tracks near the elevator. It was built to hold a Jesse James or one of the FBI's most wanted men.
There was a time in the town's history when "Speezer" Crews was town Marshal and one Saturday evening he arrested Bill Bundy and put him in the lock-up. Somehow Speezer forgot all about Bill until sometime on Monday and he meandered up to the jail to see if Bill had "sobered up." Bill had. He had gone without food and without water all those hours. When he explained in picturesque language what he thought of such treatment Speezer reminded him, "I didn't put you in here Bill to fatten ye!"
A STAR IN THEIR CROWN
Perhaps a few persons should be named who for one reason or another have been a servant and a blessing to the town. Mention should be made of Minnie Hunt, wife of Dr. Stephen Hunt and of Aunt Molly Gambold who gladly gave years of service to the Methodist Church and labored for the moral uplift of their home town. Along with them should be named a good, old time teacher of men's Sunday School Class. This individual was Berry Swain.
In the Christian Church was Mrs. Burke, the wife of Uncle Jack. No church dinner was held that she did not do more than her part to make it a success. She was a kind, Christian person.
A preacher came a few years ago to the Christian Church whose name will not be forgotten in a long, long while. This man was Jack Nichols. He was a shrewd, witty preachers, a friend maker among all classes and a man who had a way with teen age boys. He organized them in baseball teams and taught both the game and clean living. It was a bad day for Coatesville boys when Jack went to other pastures.
A doctor had his office upstairs over the bank for several years and was known for a number of things. He kept most things to himself; he drove a balky ford that no skilled mechanic could quite cure; he loved to cook and try out with anyone bold enough all types of games from land and water. He loved mud turtle, raccoon or whatever some friend brought to him; he was forever and sincerely dedicated to give his medical know-how to his fellow-man. Somehow, money was never his consideration but the man woman or child's comfort and cure were. He thought nothing of sitting all night long at the bedside of a desperately sick patient and after weeks spent in getting him cured charge him but a trifle especially if the patient were in dire need. The whole town mourned when Dr. Elvora Wright passed away.
James Davidson was a versatile man. He had that faculty of being able to do many things and doing them well. Town, Church and individuals soon learned to go to him for help. He drew up a plot for a cemetery, he figured the cost of building a mile or so of road for a contractor, he showed a Church how to meet their debts and helped to put electric lights into Coatesville business places and homes. Any school boy or girl who had a problem in circular measure or cube root he could not solve he went to Jim. It comes to be that town, church, lodge or individual went to Jim for consultation when they found a problem too difficult. They figured that Jim could handle it and he did.
John J. Gambold was the town's busy business man whose activities covered a half century. He went by a number of nick-names to those who had worked beside him and knew him best. He was called "Gamy" "Cheese" "The Dutchman" "Jack" and John Jacob.
He had literally hundreds of friends and acquaintances who ranged from the paper boy and section hand to the Presidents of Indianapolis Banks and wholesale establishments.
Jack was a successful owner of a grocery and meat market. He was a stock holder in the local bank and was its President at his death. He believed there was much good in Scouting and for several years collected money and attended Scout meetings. He loved the church and Sunday school and felt that the latter had been a great influence in his early life and felt it was capable of doing for other boys and girls what it had done for him. In all his business life he was a down-to-earth practical man, never one with his head in the clouds. It was a shock when word was passed that he was dead. People heard and could not speak.
Laura Elrod was a slim widow lady whose home was on South Milton Street. She lived in the little section that Ira Masten called "Tired Hill". Mrs. Elrod had been a farm woman the greater part of her life and if there was a bush on her own lot that she wanted moved she picked up her spade and dug it up. One time when she was doing some unusually hard outdoor task her son Claude came up behind her and said, "Mother, if you love hard work and lots of it, I'll hire you to cut forty acres of stalks for me down on the farm." She laughed and laid off the work until Claude left and then went back and finished what she had started.
Any near neighbor who had a bushel of beans to snap or shell knew the answer to the problem when Laura put her apron and came smiling across the lawn. While she remained to see the work completed there was pleasant talk and laughter.
She was never unhappy, never depressed, but always enthusiastic, always jolly.
One who knew her well thought of her as the happy character in Browning's poem of "Pippa Passes". Pippa was the lovely soul who brought joy and hope to all she passed and so did Laura Elrod. A wonderful neighbor, a Christian lady, a neighborhood saint.
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Questions about Coatesville:
Contact Town Hall at 4994 Milton Street
Coatesville, IN 46121 765-386-7205
