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DAYS OF CIVIL WAR(CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE)the Knights of the Golden Circle were thought to be active in this locality.A Flag-Pole Tragedy.In file rear of this store buildingand between it and where the Nick In theatre now is, there was .a flag-pole raising, with atU/ndanit ceremonies, about the beginning of the war. A young man named By rus Reed climbed the pole to adjust a rope and fell from the top. He was not killed, but for weeks his life was despaired of. He finally recovered, joined the army and was killed in action.On the First National Bank corner John Humphreys had a drug store. Aside from the few places mentioned there were no other business houses.But Hinton had another industryworthy of mention. Thomas Masonwho was generally known as Judge” Mason, conducted a tan-yard, where a good many cow-hides were turned into leather. 11 is yard was in the block beginning about the Public library corner and running east and north. There was a small building down in the hollow that used to be (before it was filled up) between what is now “A” Northeast and Vincennes streets, that was used for dressing,hides. Mr, Humphreys says Judge Mason was postmaster, also, and the postoffice was also in this small building.In excavating a few years ago, forthe Burton garage some of the old tanning vats were uncovered. Ground oak pulp mixed with water was put in these vats and the hides, soaked in the acid mixture to loosen the hair.stlt;S(ubTonernof:cIInteresting Old Character.Judge Mason was quite a character. He lived on the farm that is now the Country club and for years lie carried the mail from Switz City to Linton on horseback.One elmraeheristie of the judge” was that few people ever saw' him ride his horse, as he preferred walking and loading the animal and he was always whistling. Long years after this time I remember, Judge Mason whothen lived west of town. He would come to town to church or 011 other missions, and invariably entered and left town leading his horse—andwhistling. I never saw him ride.• •It was about fifteen' years later than his period, or in 1878 or 1879. that the S. E, S. E. railroad was finished through Linton and not long afterwards, perhaps in 1880, that the first mail was brought to Linton by train. Prior to that the mail was carried overland from Carlisle and from Switz City after the building of the I, V. I think I have mentioned something of the mail service rendered by the old narrow-gauge railroad. The conditions became so. deplorable that the contract was taken away from the railroad and, about 1885 and for a year or so was again carried overland from Switz City by Lucien Hixson.htretiBack to Old Narrow Gauge.When mention is made of the old narrow-gauge road there are conjured up many stories of an interesting as well as amusing nature. One had to live in that time and to see and know that toy, make-believe railroad to ftil 1 y appreciate what it was—or rather what it was not.Beil F. Baker, now among Linton’s older and better-known eiizens, was a one-time engineer on this road. Compared to some of the big locomotives that now thunder over this same road-bed pulling trains of a hundred cars, the ‘dinky* engine Mr. Bakei drove would he a mere pigmy.I, myself, can recall Mm time when there were no eattle-guards along the line and trains had to stop while the railroad men “laid down” rail fences, let the train pass through and Mien put up the fences again so that slock would not. stray from one farmto another.There were other inconveniences also suffered by the railroader in those days. There were no water-tanks at first and locomotives got their supply of water from wells, ponds or creeks, I recall that trainmen used to let us kids” ride out to Black Creek about three miles west in order to help bail up water for the engine. There was always plenty of water in the creek then. All we got out of it was the ride out. We walked back, us it was sometimes several days between trains.Where Linton Gels Its Water.Speaking of’ water-tanks reminds iue that Quincy B. Winters, who b till living on a farm east of town, later got a contract to supply water for the. railroad and dug a well and built a tank just east of Hu* present Union waterworks plant. The fact that he always had a good supply of water is I think, responsible for the location of the water plant in theBuck Creek valley.After all# those years the thirsty locomotives on this road—and theyarc* ten times larger and forty times more numerous -still drink Buck Creek water, after it is pumped three miles to the tank in Linton.iThere are thousands of true stories of the old opera bouffe narrow-gaugerailroad that would read like fictionto the younger generation.
Newspaper Details
Linton Daily Citizen
Linton, Indiana, US
Sat, Aug 24, 1929
Page 3
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USA 11 Jul 2020
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