I like to share newspaper stories from the past, especially those related to Cardington.
A story in the November 27, 1941 Cardington Independent describes a Cardington Red Cross Worker who “found money in a vision.”
“Last Tuesday afternoon while soliciting funds in Cardington Township for the Red Cross, Mrs. J. H. Kreis lost her pocketbook. After discovering that her pocketbook was missing, she and Mr. Kreis backtracked their route but were unable to find the purse. However, Tuesday night, Mrs. Kreis dreamed that her pocketbook was on the grass at the side of the lane leading to the Charles Hacker house.
“When they awakened Wednesday morning, Mrs. Kreis told her husband of the dream and he went to the Hacker farm where he located the pocketbook which had not yet been found by the Hacker family.”
Several people have inquired about the apartment building that once stood on the west side of the railroad tracks in Cardington (West Main Street).
Some of the history of that building can be found in this 1973 story which describes the demolition of the 20 room two story frame building owned at the time by Mrs. Vinnie Russell. The building stood on the north side of West Main Street and at one time was known as the Reed House, an early hotel in the village. Passengers on the trains which stopped in the village, would stay overnight in this building.
Later it served as an apartment house for six families. Beams in the building were hand hewn and the floor boards were wider than those used in later years in either commercial or home construction. Those beams and wide boards were salvaged. Also razed at that time was a one story building immediately east of the large frame.
The two-story building was believed to have been more than 100 years old and is said to have originally located on the south bank of nearby Whetstone Creek. Hugh Lisse, who operated a distillery on the Whetstone Creek bank owned the frame building at one time, the Lisse family residing there and having rooms to rent.
The Lisse Salon was in a one-story building made into a garage by the late Zeb Russell. The brick distillery building was later used by the Hart Oil Co to refine used oil and by Zeb Russell as a warehouse for the storage of new steel.”
The story concludes “The present garage building was a restaurant for a period prior to 1920 and the present Russell storeroom was the site of the Lyric Theater.”
Today, the vacant theater building still stands and the Patriot Bar is located on the site of the old apartment building.
Looking back
October, 1941: Milton Powell of near Fulton reported the theft of 100 chickens from his farm. The six building Florence Pottery in Mount Gilead burned to the ground, leaving 150 people unemployed.
Sherry Conant of near Cardington, enrolled in the medical laboratory technician course at Elkhart Institute of Technology in Indiana.
October, 1981: The Cardington postmaster announced that the price of a first class stamp would increase to 20 cents in November.
The Cardington Fire Department decided to not conduct its annual fire seals fund drive this year due to the tornado that struck the village in June.
