Glory to be Restored for 150th

Proposed restoration drawing of courthouse tower with window

Marshall County Commissioners embarked on a rather impressive vision for a courthouse that would grace the public square for the next 150 years when they hired Gordon Randall, an architect of Chicago, in 1870.  According to an expert in Indiana courthouses, Marshall County's courthouse was the very first example of a "county capitol" building that shifted the tower to the center of the building.  Up until that time, Indiana courthouses had their bell-clock towers centered on the front or in a front-corner of the building.  Randall, a native of Vermont who providentially landed in Chicago prior to the Great Fire, also designed the courthouse in Benton County with a similar look, but with the traditional tower and Second Empire style (1874).  Randall did extensive work in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

Original appearance of the Marshall County Courthouse, taken shortly after construction
(note the tower window and that the clock face is missing its hands)

What many people don't realize is that the internal organization of spaces and some minor exterior changes were undertaken that changed Randall's original design.  Inside, some rooms were reorganized and the basement became offices for the county.  Generally, interior finishes were upgraded with marble and tile, and the building received a new marble staircase that was lit internally with a stained glass skylight.  The architects for the renovation project, which occurred in 1913, were Freyermuth & Maurer, a noted South Bend firm.  The renovations cost $30,000.  During that renovation project, windows in the courtroom (south end of the building) were shortened and stained glass installed.  And it was also during this renovation, we believe, that the building's iconic tower was changed to eliminate windows centered in the portico-like belfry on each side.  Likely due to maintenance, the windows were replaced with louvers to match those flanking the opening.

Argos Republican, August 14, 1913

Most people also would believe that the tower is constructed of stone or iron.  It is not.  It is wood.  Remember, this was a new technology for 1870 and Randall no doubt considered the weight and rocking of the bell when he engineered a most-unusual heavy timber system that includes a tall chamfered post that extends into the spire.

The bell that will become visible once more

In 2018, in response to the need for restoration work on the tower, we applied for funding to complete an engineering analysis and preservation drawings of the building and tower.  Those plans include restoring the original design of the window openings in the tower, which would allow Marshall County residents to once again peer up and see the massive iron bell in the belfry when lit at night.  I personally am excited to see this design feature come back to such an important Indiana landmark as a "first of its kind" and in anticipation of the building's 150th anniversary coming in 2022.  The cost of the building when completed in 1872 was $109,254.  That's about the same amount now anticipated to extend a sprinkler system throughout the roof and tower.  Few buildings can represent the collective will and pride of a people than their public courthouses.  This is the best we have in Marshall County and we owe it to past generations, and future generations, to prepare it to serve another 150 years.

Clockworks level

Clock face

Clockworks

Faithful in Little Things: Coronavir-US?

Typically on my weekly posts, I try to include historical perspective on today's headlines, or maybe vice versa.  A few weeks ago, I posted about the 1918-1920 Spanish Influenza epidemic when the Coronavirus was still only in China.  Strange how things can change in such a short time.

I've seen a number of posts about how Christians should respond.  We are not given "a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7), so we should keep our cool, restrain our conversation, and maintain a calm head.  Anxiousness should not define a Christian's response "be anxious for nothing" (Philippians 4:6), nor should we label it something that stirs a racist or angry response "a soft answers turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger" (Proverbs 15:1).  All these deal with how we allow our spirits to respond to this situation.  But what about our actions?  We are called to "obey all those who have authority in this world because that will make the Lord happy." (1 Peter 2:13).  This should give us the parameters, the boundaries, for our actions during this time.

But there is another verse that I have been thinking about during this time, one spoken by Christ in Luke.  "He that is faithful in very little is also faithful in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." (Luke 16:10).  Why this?  Because as Christians, we are being called to be faithful in something very little.  We are being called to stay home.  Greater generations than ours were called to far greater things, far greater sacrifices.  While our current situation is no small thing, what we are being called to is indeed little.  I fear that in not being faithful, not obeying those in authority, that if and when bigger things come, we will be found wanting:  our disobedience, a result of our selfishness.

I have family members and friends engaged in the health care industry.  I have friends who are at risk.  By "not being faithful in very little", you put your own interests above theirs.  While that message applies to all, it should apply most to Christians.  If you are continuing to meet and gather together in groups of 10 or more, you are failing the most basic thing, the little, that is being asked of you.  And by doing that, God can't trust you with the big things.  If you are providing a forum for that to happen, thinking that it's up to the individual to make a decision of obedience, think again.  It would be like handing a drunk their car keys and hoping they don't kill anyone.  Honestly, if your judgement is that impaired, I can't trust you to do the right thing.  

When I served as county commissioner during the Flood of 2018, we asked the public's help by staying off the streets.  This was done for two reasons specifically.  It was done for their own safety, but it was also done for the safety of emergency responders.  We did not want selfish actions on your part to put our responders at greater risk.  We are being called to this today-your health may not be in jeopardy, but you may put others, exponentially, at risk.  And now, as more counties and states raise the level of emergency to essential travel only, the Christian response demands obedience.  Furthering the spread will only aggravate the health care system, potentially causing more deaths, and extending the situation where people are losing jobs.

The Christian response?  This is bigger than "us".  Stay home.  Be faithful in little, so that you can be trusted with much.

Pitchfork Justice: it's where you got your mean streak, son

Lewis Swihart

Another story that Gramps used to tell was about his grandfather, Lewis Swihart, who purportedly ran his pitchfork through a fellow during a dispute about a creek that ran through his property.  The fellow consequently died from the injuries sustained.  Knowing Gramps' proclivity for telling tall tales, I had my doubts on this one as well.  But, knowing Gramps and my great grandmother, descended from Grandpa Swihart himself....made me think, well, yeah, I could see that.

Gramps "Jack" (the younger one) and his brother, Merritt sitting on the stone porch Grandpa Swihart built

Grandpa Swihart was a tall, strong man.  Both farmer and stonemason, I imagine he was a force to be reckoned with.  He descended from two generations of Dunkard preachers and took a wife with deep Quaker roots.  Somewhere along the line, that pacifist gene was lost to the generations.  The story that Gramps told was set southeast of Argos, where Lewis Swihart had a large farm and fishing ponds.  Evidently his neighbor upstream dammed a creek that fed the ponds and watered Swihart's cattle.  Breaking open the dam, Swihart was angry enough that when confronted, he took the pitchfork in-hand and ran it through his farmer-neighbor.

Argos Reflector 1910

So I went looking for evidence to this story.  And there is more than just a kernel of truth to it.  I found no follow-up about a pitchfork or anyone dying, but indeed, there was an altercation and Grandpa Swihart was threatened with a gun by this farmer-neighbor, named John Eckert, in 1910.  Gramps left out the part about his grandfather threatening to kill Eckert's livestock.  Of course.  I wish there were more details than this.  I also found an article about Lewis's brother, Milo, who was shot by chicken thieves in 1933.  He managed to crawl to Lewis's house a few hundred feet away.  Those Swiharts were a hardy stock.

Logansport Pharos-Tribune 1933

The Swihart Family held reunions of a few hundred relatives at Grandpa Swihart's farm a little northeast of the Walnut Church of the Brethren, where he and his parents attended and are laid to rest.  We discontinued the Swihart Reunion in 1998, the 100th anniversary of the first one held at the farm.  Grandpa Swihart constructed a new home for himself at the ponds in 1911.  Being a stonemason, he built the rubble-stone porch himself.  The concrete fence posts at the farm were capped with large rubble-stone caps, a few which remain today.  My great grandmother, Ocie "Granner", took two of these to her house in Argos and when she moved onto Gramps' farm, she brought them with her.  They then landed at the truck stop for about 30 years before being taken to my parents' house.  A few years ago a buddy of mine with arms the size of my legs loaded them into the back of my truck for transport to my farm.  They flank the lower walk to the front door.

A rolling stone gathers no moss they say.  Stories though, pick up more moss the more they roll.

Dueling Druggists of Downtown Argos

Moore's Drug Store ad in the Argos Reflector November 23, 1893

This is the story of Dr. Clark Chapman and Col. William Moore, both of whom operated small drugstores in Argos in the late 1800s.  Clark Chapman received his medical degree from LaPorte Medical College during the 1840s-1850s.  The New York State native settled with his father's family in Argos in about 1850.  William Moore, who enlisted from Illinois during the Civil War, achieved the rank of colonel before being wounded, captured, and placed in a Confederate prison.  Moore moved to Argos after the war to form a partnership in a lumber mill with his brother.

Col. William Moore wearing the ring he carved on his left hand

It was said of Dr. Chapman that he rode horseback from his country home to tend the sick, with his medical bag thrown over the saddle, and an elixir that had been patented under his name.  Chapman, in partnership with his brother, opened a drugstore in Argos by the 1870s.  Colonel Moore found mill work too strenuous due to the wounds he sustained during the war.  A similar issue grew out of farming.  He settled on opening a drugstore in Argos during the 1880s.  Moore had a talent for carving and furniture-building.  He fashioned a ring from a horse's leg bone during his time in military prison.  He crafted inlaid lead into a pattern in the ring and wore it until his death.

Dr. Clark Chapman, tin type, c. 1855

The dueling druggists, who also offered a wide variety of drygoods in the small village of Argos, no doubt were in competition for the same patrons.  But small towns being as they are, found Clark's son, Henry, and William's daughter, Lucy, desperately in love not unlike Romeo and Juliet.  The couple married in 1887 and established a homestead and farm next to the doctor's north of town.  They were my great, great grandparents.

Chapman's Pharmacy ad in the Argos Reflector December 14, 1882

I have Henry Chapman's rocking chair.  The museum has the ring carved by Colonel Moore in their collection-they let me wear it during my wedding.  I wish I had Dr. Chapman's medical bag.  I was told that old family members remembered seeing it but they were unsure what happened to it.  Dr. Chapman died in 1898 and Colonel Moore died in 1893.  The Clark and Henry Chapman families are buried at Maple Grove Cemetery east of town, while the original pioneer, Ezekiel Chapman is buried at the old town cemetery along with William Moore and his wife.  I had the privilege of speaking at the dedication of a monument to the town's pioneers at the cemetery a few years ago.  As I ran my fingers across my ancestors' names inscribed on the stone, that stands in lieu of removed markers, I couldn't help but wonder what life was like for them 150 years ago.

Purchase list from Moore's store-this is likely a settlement with family members since two of his children are listed on it, including my great, great grandmother, Lucy Moore Chapman.  Check out those prices.