Rhonda
HCI Forum Board Member
Posts: 279
|
Post by Rhonda on Nov 8, 2005 18:38:00 GMT -5
From what I've been told, H.C. Whitmer Co. used to be about where Lincoln School is now on 5th Street. They made liniments and salves.......among other things. I recently brought a can of salve back from my furniture run to Florida, to be donated to the local historical society. (Ed Shumway owned the furniture I bought and had the tin of salve.) The salve, and the liniment, both had labels stating that it could be used for burns, cuts, (etc.), and was "good for man or beast." That is the extent of my knowledge of the H.C. Whitmer Company.
|
|
Rhonda
HCI Forum Board Member
Posts: 279
|
Post by Rhonda on Nov 8, 2005 18:52:51 GMT -5
It appears they did spices, too. This is currently for sale on eBay.
|
|
Rhonda
HCI Forum Board Member
Posts: 279
|
Post by Rhonda on Nov 19, 2005 21:07:10 GMT -5
Here's another Whitmer's product bottle currently on eBay. Apparently, they made machine oils, too!
|
|
|
Post by Bill Pumphrey sr on Nov 22, 2005 8:44:42 GMT -5
Nancy, the radio station started out originaly with the WCSI call letters and as you know is still used. A friend and classmate ,Bob Westermier of the hardware store clan got a position as broadcaster and did all sports events. He later got into politics and did well until his untimely death.
Bill
|
|
|
Post by Bill Pumphrey sr on Nov 22, 2005 8:52:47 GMT -5
My Mother , Florence Pumphrey worked in the office at Whitmers in early 30's. My Grandfather Chris Schnabel was a salesman with them and picked up the nick name of Doc. Schnabel. Some of his articles are on display at BC Historical Society.Shoes, gloves ,display sample brief case. Products must have been good as he lived to be nearly 100
Bill
|
|
|
Post by David Sechrest on Nov 22, 2005 11:19:43 GMT -5
Bill: Welcome to the Historic Columbus Indiana Message Board! It's great to have you here! I know I speak for everyone here when I say, "thank you" for the History of Mom and Pop grocery stores in Columbus, and I look forward to your input here on the board!
|
|
|
Post by richard on Nov 23, 2005 17:44:20 GMT -5
Hello All. I received e-mail from Mr. Bill Hawes. Bill was graduated from Columbus High School and now lives in Illinois. Bill was an early member of The Junior City Slickers. If you’ve read the City Slicker postings you know Bill has been interested in sound and radios for many years. He became a Ham Radio operator while attending Purdue and is still active in the hobby. Below you’ll find his information about WCSI radio.
Richard
A little update on Jerry Castor's info about WCSI. I date back to the beginning of WCSI. When WCSI first went on the air around 1948 the station was FM only until a Bloomington Station on 1010 went off the air as Mr. Trueman Rembusch previously was unable to get an AM license. Our good neighbor Bill Dobbins was one of Trueman's lawyers. Trueman had a beautiful 1 KW Collins AM Transmitter ready to go on the air, but when he couldn't get an AM license and was having financial problems had to sell it, but was able to keep the Federal Electric 10 KW FM transmitter on the air. The studios in the beginning were all located at Carr Hill. Later on when Trueman obtained an AM license he purchased an old Western Electric low level modulated AM transmitter running 250 watts output.
The station's tower blew down once, luckily not hitting the old Quonset Hut. Mr. Kelley WCSI's Chief Engineer at that time hurriedly put up a dipole antenna like we Hams use and at least got WCSI-AM back on the air pronto! I don't remember how long it took to get WCSI-FM back on the air.
Bob Lay W9DMK was Engineering at WCSI when he had time back in those days. I earned my Commercial 1st phone license in 1951, but didn't ever work for Mr. Rembusch W9KYB who owned the station and Columbus theaters. I kept in contact with the good man until he passed away.
Trueman had one of his big KW Ham transmitters stored in the main studio of WCSI no less! Just thought I'd update the Jerry post a little. I have completely lost touch with commercial radio in Columbus since the 50's. My friend Harold Crater worked for the then WJCD in Seymour, IN a "budget" 500 watt AM station. The transmitter was in the same room asthe announcer.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Bill
|
|
nancs
HCI Forum Board Member
Posts: 948
|
Post by nancs on Nov 24, 2005 8:36:06 GMT -5
Hi, and have pondered overnight on this info from Richard and Bill Pumphrey----and of course, I can't put my hands on the email that confirmed that one of the newscasters was Harold Arthurs. (Know that is the name, tho'.) But I think that WCSI was the station he worked for. Knowing that I would sometimes go with Harold and my dad when it was near time for Harold to do his newscast, I'll be 'switched' if I can remember a quonset hut-----would that have been where the studios were in the late 40s? Altho' I sort of recall a gravel parking lot? ?? And a big radio tower. The inside, I can recall vividly----the teletype equipment and watching Harold tear off the information that he planned to report. And inside the 'booth' that had a big clock on the wall-----and me watching the hands go around to the point on the clock when I couldn't say a single word! BUT, am not sure that all of this is in reference to WCIS. Have a great Thanksgiving, one and all. Nanc
|
|
|
Post by richard on Nov 27, 2005 21:17:35 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by David Sechrest on Nov 27, 2005 23:55:05 GMT -5
Richard, thank you for providing that letter! By the way, this is the same Trueman Rembusch that, at one time, owned all 3 movie theatres in Columbus, as well as the Columbus Drive-In. I shared this story on the old Angelfire website, the very first "Historic Columbus Indiana" website back before I purchased the "new" domain name. My brother-in-law who lives in Wabash Indiana called me up one weekday back when I was employed in Lexington KY, and told me there was a major renovation going on at the old Eagles Theatre in Wabash. I went up that weekend, and around 8am, Bob and I headed downtown with a couple of coffee cups and a thermos. They had a HUGE dumpster out front, almost to the point of overflowing. I checked the sky and it looked like rain, so I dove into the dumpster and began rummaging around. I spent 4 or 5 hours in that dumpster, and pulled out a ton of old pressbooks. I think the earliest I got dated back to the late 1960's. I still have the pressbooks from the movies Let It Be, and Easy Rider (BTW, pressbooks were nothing more than ads that the movie theatre clipped out and sent to the newspapers for inclusion. Some included a brief synopsis of the movie. PressKITS, on the other hand, included stills from the movie, as well as a section where posters could be ordered). By the time we got all the stuff back to the house, I had two six foot stacks of pressbooks and ad mats. BUT, also included was a 3-ring binder, with the name Fred Ellington on the front. Inside included schematics and a working log of many drive-ins and movie theatres throughout Indiana, including ones in Columbus. Which makes me think this: Trueman also owned all those Theatres and Drive Ins as well. There were several black and white pictures inside as well. Some were of the Crump, and a couple taken at the Drive-In. Also, a few of the building of the Commons Mall. I still have this 3 ring binder. I don't know what I'll ever do with it. But, being the packrat I am, I can't part with it either!
|
|
nancs
HCI Forum Board Member
Posts: 948
|
Post by nancs on Jan 14, 2006 21:42:36 GMT -5
Okay, this seems to be the logical place to put this thought--------does anyone recall a 'mink farm' somewhere in 'the country' around Columbus? I can remember going there with my folks to look at the cages/runs full of the mink, think it was in the winter time. Now, apparently, mink eat horse meat. As the gentleman, whoever that was, ran a 'band' of horses that were destined to feed the mink. My kid-like thoughts centered not around how the mink were going to exist, but more around what was going to happen to these horses, knowing full well that, no matter how pretty they were, they were FOOD on the hoof!!!! Don't even ask, have no clue why that memory popped up in my brain. ;D Nanc
|
|
|
Post by B on Jan 16, 2006 22:54:35 GMT -5
I seem to remember a mink farm out toward Greensburg or in that general direction, not far from Columbus, maybe Hartsville. B
|
|
mfaure
HCI Forum Board Member
Posts: 53
|
Post by mfaure on Feb 1, 2006 17:58:54 GMT -5
Hi Nanc, Margie here. Just got on this site yesterday and was here till one this morning. great Memories. You mentioned being sick and listening to the soap operas. I remember, we lived not too far from East Columbus School and I would run home at noon to listen to "Stella Dallas" and "Our gal Sunday", "Can this girl from a little mining town in the west find happiness as the wife of a wealth and titled englishman."
You mentioned soda, shame on you! We didn't drink soda. That was what you took when you had the stomach ache. The drink then was "PoP".
I remember the Sunday night radio most. The Green Hornet, Inner Sanctom" and another scary one I can't remember the name of.
Talking about groceries, does anybody remember Henry's at State and McKinley - Purity Dairy, Frankies on Hinman I think. You took your jug and they would fill it for you.
better go, I think my husband is getting anxious about how much I've been on the computer. Just can't get enough of this. So glad to hear about this in Harry's column.
Margie
|
|
mfaure
HCI Forum Board Member
Posts: 53
|
Post by mfaure on Feb 2, 2006 22:57:53 GMT -5
Margie back, Something you all sort of skipped, (i can understand as you all are a few years younger than I) the 40's were very full of the WWII happenings. I spent '41-48 at State Street School. I remenber the war stamps, also remember rationing very well. No sugar for canning or morning cereal. No rubber for tires(tires were patched until all patches, inner tube and out). Meat only three days a week. You gotta love Karo Syrup. I remember my dad's garden. They were called war gardens. Also raised some chickens. Remember killing 27 chickens in one day for my mom and I to can. We were not very skrimsh in those days. After all I cleaned horse stalls every Saturday.
Does any one remember the metal collection in the middle of the school yard? Also some of those newsreels were rather burtal. The ovens in Germany and babies on bayonets on the other side of the other ocean. But what came after that kept all of us on the edge of our seats.(at the Rio) When I first started going to the movies on Sat. afternoon, it cost 7cents. I know a lot of you remember the 10cent days. My cousins and I used to take up the left corner of the down stairs. There was "Hoppy" "Roy and Dale". I also went to Indy to see them. Roy came out on Trigger and welcomed us with spot light and all.
I need to get my daughter to go thru my old pictures. Got a lot for State Street School.
Margie
|
|
nancs
HCI Forum Board Member
Posts: 948
|
Post by nancs on Feb 6, 2006 9:56:34 GMT -5
Hi, and Margie, when you related the cost of, say the movies, do you have any recollection of the cost of a bale of hay?? My dad always bought in the summer, and stored the winter supply, purchased by the ton, in the hay mow, but have often wondered the cost. Know for sure that money would have been 'tight' so it had to be 'affordable.' I realize the IN hay prices are far more reasonable than CA prices, but................
My dad bought day old, or perhaps even older, I suppose, bread at Sap's for a penny a loaf, to feed the horses. During the winter it would freeze in the hay mow, and actually stay quite fresh. Plus, we gleaned the corn fields on the Marr farm to have grain for the horses through the winter.
I smiled when you mentioned cleaning out stalls as a regular chore!!!!! Yes, it is! ;D Can remember my dad saying, when we got out here, 'horseless,' (and me miserable) that it was NOT a matter of just buying a horse, it was the upkeep!!!!!
Happy trails.
Nanc
|
|
mfaure
HCI Forum Board Member
Posts: 53
|
Post by mfaure on Feb 6, 2006 15:31:48 GMT -5
Hi nanc: Seems to me it wasn't more than $1.00. I really don't remember because we always bought it by the field with Bob Wagner and put it up ourselves. It's kinda hard to believe you or me, neither one of us weighing even 90 lbs, throwing around those big old bales of hay, but we did.
Princess Anne of the royal family of England mucked out her horses stalls. She once commented, "you must know both ends of your mount". I rather imagine the queen as well knows the familiar scent.
Dick Wetzel's barn is right down at the end of our road. We go down for fertilizer every now and then. Last I heard he still had the trail rides at Brown Co and Versailles. This should probably have been under the Trail Blazers.
Later Margie
|
|
|
Post by richard on Feb 20, 2006 9:30:35 GMT -5
Youth Camp Hill - Summer of 1946
|
|
|
Post by richard on Feb 26, 2006 14:38:16 GMT -5
The Hege & Flanigan Funeral Home at 702 Fifth Street was on the northeast corner of Fifth and Pearl Streets.
|
|
|
Post by richard on Mar 8, 2006 11:12:37 GMT -5
1946 - 1947 MOONEY’S TANNERY BASKETBALL TEAM Row 1 Gerald Leon Bray, Wayne Allen Scheidt Row 2 Raymond A. (Pete) Burns, Donald S. Bray, John Carter Harrison, Homer M. Rush Jr., Charles K. Zurbrugg Row 3 Gene Eddy, William O. Wheeler, Edgar L. Stillinger, William Butler, Fred L. Eddy, Jim Thompson Photo Courtesy of Evelyond Barker Harrison
|
|
|
Post by Dona Mathis on May 16, 2006 21:24:12 GMT -5
Does anyone remember Ms. Helen Smith who taught lst and 2nd grades at the Lincoln Elem. School, or someone who started school there in 1939 or 1940?
|
|