James Hill, Emma Torr, and the Indiana Y.P.R.C.

A few days ago, a patron donated to Mooresville Public Library's Indiana Room a framed membership certificate for 1904-1905 to the Young People's Reading Circle of Indiana (Y.P.R.C.).  The certificate belonged to James Hill and was signed by Emma Torr, teacher.  Who were these people?

James Hill's Y.P.R.C. membership certificate (1904-1905)

as it appeared framed and matted

(with decades-old dirt obscuring the glass)

(click images to enlarge)

 

James Hill's Y.P.R.C. membership certificate (1904-1905)

removed from its frame and digitally scanned

One of the first lessons in archival research is, if possible without damaging the artifact, to remove it from a frame to see what, if anything, is written on the back.  We hit paydirt, as someone (probably James Hill himself) wrote his name (including middle initial) and hometown on the back of the certificate.

James F. Hill of Belle Union, Indiana

(written on the back of the Y.P.R.C. membership certificate)

Belle Union is located in Jefferson Township, Putnam County, Indiana, about 14.3 miles west of Monrovia (Morgan County, Indiana) along State Road 42.  It was an unincorporated town, with a post office established in 1870 but discontinued in 1906.  The village's name was taken from the Bell family who resided there and from the church they attended, Union Valley Baptist Church (Baker, 1995).

Belle Union in Putnam County, just west of Morgan County

(courtesy of Google Maps)

 

James Frank Hill (1895-1970) grew up in Belle Union, and when he was age nine and ten, his teacher was Emma Torr (married name, Pitchford) (1883-1971).  Emma Mabel Pitchford (née Torr) was born and raised in Greencastle, Putnam County, Indiana, receiving her education from schools there.  She taught in the Putnam County school system.  In 1905 Emma married James Harley Pitchford  (1879-1948).  Emma died in Urbana, Illinois, in 1971.  The 1910 U.S. census shows Emma and James Pitchford living in Marion Township, Putnam County, Indiana.  The 1920, 1930, and 1940 U.S. censuses show the Pitchfords living in Greencastle, Indiana.  James Pitchford's 1942 WW II draft registration card lists their address as 425 North Chauncey, West Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana.  James Pitchford worked for the Hoover Vacuum Company through the Lafayette Carpet and Rug Shop.  In 1945, the couple had moved to Linden, Madison Township, Montgomery County, Indiana, where Emma continued to reside following her husband's death in 1948.  Emma was a member of the Linden-Kirkpatrick United Methodist Church and also belonged to the Greencastle Order of the Eastern Star for over half a century.

Emma Mabel Torr marriage record (1905)

 

Emma (Torr) Pitchford's Obituary

(Lafayette [Indiana] Journal & Courier, Friday, August 6, 1971, p. 6)

James Harley Pitchford's WWII draft registration card (1942)

 

James Frank Hill (1895-1970) was a nine- and ten-year-old student when he received his Young People's Reading Circle of Indiana (Y.P.R.C.) certificate in 1904-1905.  Apparently, he did not complete the four-year membership, which would have entitled him to a diploma from the Putnam County School Superintendent.

Y.P.R.C. members were expected to read a series of approved books that were perceived by the Indiana State Teachers Association to be of wholesome value.  According to the pamphlet entitled Concerning the History and Management of the Teachers' and Young People's Reading Circles of Indiana (1904-1905):

We regard the subject one of the highest importance.  To place the general reading of the half million of children of the public schools under competent guidance and control, even to a limited extent, would, in our judgment, be productive of most beneficial results.  To substitute for the trashy and often vicious reading matter which finds its way into the hands of children and youth a grade of literature at once sound in its contents, chaste in its language and imagery, and pure in its moral tone, is an end which may properly command the best and most earnest efforts of this Association, and of the teachers of Indiana.  To  your committee the enterprise proposed seems a means for accomplishing, in a measure, this highly desirable end.

The selected books were typical of the variety the Association sought to promote, as excerpts (below) from their pamphlet indicate.  These were the books that James F. Hill would have been reading while participating in the program.

(Below) Y.P.R.C. reading lists for third, fourth and fifth grade students

(during the 1904-1905 academic years)

The Y.P.R.C. was quite active in Putnam and Morgan Counties during 1904-1905, according to the pamphlet (see below).

The 1900 and 1910 U.S. censuses show that James F. Hill lived with his widowed mother, Mary E. Hill (born 1863), in Belle Union.  In 1918, James entered the armed forces and served in France.  At the time, he was, according to his World War I draft registration card, living at 153 North Marion Street in Martinsville, Morgan County, Indiana, and was employed by the Martinsville Auto Company.

 

World War I draft registration card

James F. Hill (1918)

A letter James Hill wrote home to his mother appeared in the Martinsville Daily Reporter, February 24, 1919, page one:

James F. Hill's late 1918 letter to his mother, Mary E. Hill

 

Following World War I, James worked as a truck driver for Standard Oil Company.  He subsequently entered the poultry business, as shown on his 1942 draft registration (below), from which he retired many years later.  James' World War II draft registration card indicated that he then lived at Rural Route #3, Martinsville, working for the Hatchery and Poultry Farm there.

James F. Hill's WW II draft registration card (1942)

 

The 1920 U.S. census shows James living with his mother in Martinsville.  The 1930 and 1940 U.S. censuses showed James still living in Martinsville but, now, married (in 1924) to Estelle C. Hill (née Clore) (1894-1989).  James and Estelle were living at 1441 South Ohio Street in Martinsville at the time of James' death.  The couple are buried together in the Greenlawn section of New South Park Cemetery in Martinsville.

Burial marker for James F. & Estelle C. Hill

James F. Hill funeral announcement

(Martinsville Daily Reporter, Tuesday, March 3, 1970, p. 1) 

 

James tragically died in a vehicular accident on Saturday, February 28, 1970 in Kentucky.  His sister-in-law was also killed and his wife injured.  The newspaper article stated that James and his parents, James and Mary Hurst Hill, had moved to Martinsville in 1903, but this is contradicted by the 1904-05 Y.P.R.C. certificate, which would suggest that he was attending Putnam County schools then.  Also, the 1900 & 1910 U.S. censuses clearly state that James and his mother were living in Putnam County at the time.  Further, the 1900 U.S. census listed James' mother Mary as a widow, and no male parent was shown as residing with them in the 1910 census, either.  James must have moved to Martinsville sometime after 1910 but before 1918, given the address shown on his 1918 draft registration.

 Martinsville Daily Reporter, Monday, March 2, 1970, pp. 1, 9

 

Using the Y.P.R.C. membership certificate as our starting point, and searching the resources available in the Mooresville Public Library Indiana Room, we were able to unlock James F. Hill's and Emma Torr Pitchford's personal histories, at least to some extent.  It's amazing what stories one may find from an ordinary, everyday document found among lost or forgotten belongings.

OTHER SOURCES:

Ancestry Library Edition (online), various documents.

Baker, Ronald L. (1995).  From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History.  Bloomington:  Indiana University Press, pp. 63-64.

Concerning the History and Management of the Teachers' and Young People's Reading Circles of Indiana (1904-1905) (digitized copy available here).

Spooky Hoosier Books, Part BOO --er-- Two

We continue with our recommendations for ghostly tales from Hoosierland.  (See our previous post, too.)

Hoosier folklorist Tom Baker has published several haunted books, including the ever-popular Indiana Ghost Folklore (Arglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2009).  Baker includes stories from across the state, and besides ghosts and haunted placed, he includes werewolves and other monsters, lucid dreams, spirit possession, witches, and other supernatural offerings.  This is folklore, so the cases aren't presented as factual events; rather, they are legends that have grown over time in particular places or surrounding specific circumstances.  Did they actually happen?  That's beside the point.  In folklore, the legend is everything.  Baker deftly delivers riveting yarns that will fascinate readers.  Check it out from an Evergreen Indiana (E.I.) library near you (if you're a cardholder, that is).

 

When I was a student at Indiana University, its folklore department was recognized as the best in the world, or so I was informed by a folklore major who had travelled from Israel to study there.  I had (and have) no reason to doubt the academic strength of the I.U. folklore department, as I discovered first-hand when I read Linda Dégh's classic treatise, Indiana Folklore:  A Reader (Bloomington, IN:  Indiana University Press, 1980), available to checkout from Evergreen Indiana.  It is a scholastic masterpiece.  The book includes a superb cross-section of Hoosier folklore, but for our purposes, its accounts of magic, horror, ghosts, and haunted places make this an essential read for anyone interested in the supernatural.  After reading it, I regretted not having taken any undergraduate folklore courses at I.U.  I even reflected that it would have been a more interesting major for me than the one in which I earned my bachelor degree (I won't tell tales out-of-school, so to speak, which means I won't divulge what my major was.  Anyway, I'm old now, and it's possible I've forgotten.  Since my B.A., or, as I.U. shows it, my A.B., theoretically helped me gain admission to a top I.U. graduate program, from which I earned a doctorate, I don't have too many regrets.)

 

 

Speaking of Indiana University (Bloomington), Kat Klockow compiled a collection of ghost stories from Monroe County (and elsewhere in Indiana) that focuses upon I.U.  Like most good folklore, the tales include horror (the "McNutt hatchet man," for instance) as well as more traditional supernatural activities, ghosts, or haunted places.  A few of these I had heard as a student over forty years ago, but most were new to me.  They'll raise the hair on your neck, I'll wager.  Evergreen Indiana cardholders can checkout a copy.

Mark Marimen is a prolific writer of Hoosier hauntings, and his books explore the gamut of Indiana-related supernatural stories.  They remain some of the most popular books on the subject at Mooresville Public Library.  If you're an Evergreen Indiana cardholder, you'll have a field day checking them out and reading them.

 

Nicole R. Kobrowski has written several haunted Indiana books, of which her Encyclopedia of Haunted Indiana (Westfield, Indiana : Unseenpress, 1st edition, 2008--see also the updated 2017 edition) gathers statewide stories of the macabre, organized by location.   See the Evergreen Indiana catalog for a listing of Kobrowski's titles available to checkout.

 

Another popular author of Indiana hauntings is Wanda Lou Willis, whose Haunted Hoosier Trails (Cincinnati, Ohio : Clerisy Press, 2002) and More Haunted Hoosier Trails (Cincinnati, Ohio : Emmis Books, 2004) are perennial favorites for ghost aficionados.  Find these titles here in Evergreen Indiana.

Edrick Thay's Ghost Stories of Indiana (Edmonton, AB, Canada : Ghost House Books, 2001) includes a wide range of haunted places (houses, public places, universities, historical landmarks, bridges and tunnels, cemeteries, and legendary ghouls).  Evergreen Indiana cardholders can check it out here.

Tom Baker and Jonathan Tichenal teamed-up to present hauntings from Indianapolis (and other Hoosier locales) in another excellent survey of the supernatural.  E. I. Cardholders can  check it out.

I was born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana, but I hadn't heard of most of these haunted tales compiled by Dorothy Salvo Davis and W. C. Madden in Haunted Lafayette (Charleston, SC : Haunted America, 2009).  Recognizing the locations helped bring to life the scary stories from Tippecanoe County (and nearby).  Find it here in E.I.

 

 

  

S. E. Schlosser retells several supernatural stories in Spooky Indiana (Guilford, CT : Globe Pequot Press, 2012).  Schlosser garnishes these folklore favorites with some spine-tingling spice.  Find it here in E.I.

 

 

K. T. MacRorie's Hoosier Hauntings (Grand Rapids, MI : Thunder Bay Press, 1997) is an earlier compilation of supernatural and paranormal tales that will send shivers down readers' backs.  It's here in E.I.

 

There are many, many more spooky Indiana books out there, but these will get you started.  Others are easily found in your libraries' catalogs or local (or online) booksellers.  Let's end on a terrible pun:  Put the BOO in books this Halloween season.  There's nothing quite as invigorating as a good ghost story, especially when so many may be found in your own state.

 

Spooky Hoosier Books, Part One

October is nearly here, so we've got Halloween on the horizon.  That means it's time to read some spooky books.  Mooresville Public Library has plenty available to checkout, both fiction (call numbers FIC and the first three letters of the author's last name) and nonfiction (call numbers 133 and 398, generally, although there are other places to find them, too).  Since this blog focuses upon Indiana-related (or, more precisely, Morgan County-related) subjects, I'll share the works of a few Hoosier paranormal writers.

Let's begin with Morgan County authors.

The Feeders at Night, by Aldo G. Gonzalez

(MPL Book Trailer #307)

Following a divorce, Aldo Gonzalez needed a new start and a new home.  The house he found offered features not included in the real estate multiple listings.  First, there were barely discernible footsteps and voices when no one else was present.  Then, the horror escalated.  Supernatural forces seemed to be feeding off the author.  You'll want to read this real-life terror with the lights on.  Check it out from the library's Evergreen Indiana catalog.

 

Haunting at Sycamore Lake, by Karl C. B. Muilliwey

(MPL Book Trailer #14)

Attorney Karl C. B. Muilliwey (a pseudonym) investigated a haunted house near Union City, Randolph County, Indiana, in 1992-1993.  The author, who now lives near Mooresville, presents the evidence that an unseen spirit entity, who committed suicide in the barn on the property, lingered on the premises, wreaking havoc but causing little actual harm to the buildings or inhabitants.  Muilliwey began as an open-minded skeptic but was finally convinced of the reality of the paranormal phenomena and their apparent spirit-source.  Checkout the book with your Evergreen Indiana library card.  Here's the catalog listing.  Or you can buy a copy (Kindle eBook or paperback) from Amazon online.

Shelf Doll & Other True Paranormal Tales, by Karl C. B. Muilliwey

(MPL Book Trailer #110)

Muilliwey's son was the primary investigator in a poltergeist case near Centerton, Morgan County, Indiana.  Muilliwey intended to write a short book about the case (hence the book trailer above), but publication fell through, and so we are forced to settle with this article we included in this blog.  The purported spirit entity lived inside a doll on the shelf of a teenager's bedroom, and it was considerably more malevolent than Muilliwey's Sycamore Lake discarnate.  We're hoping that someday this case will appear in book form.

 

The People in the Attic, by Doretta Johnson with Jim Henderson

(MPL Book Trailer #691)

Beginning in 1987, Doretta Johnson and her family experienced a truly horrifying house haunting in Madison, Indiana.  Her 1995 book (written with Jim Henderson) will chill your bones.  From the safety of your armchair, it makes a marvelously spooky read.  Learn more here.  Evergreen Indiana cardholders may place a hold on the book here.

 

Looking for Carroll Beckwith, by Captain Robert L. Snow

(MPL Book Trailer #3)

Of course, most of the spooky Hoosier books available to checkout from Mooresville Public Library were written by Indiana authors living outside Morgan County.  Here are a few popular titles.

Captain Robert L. Snow, a retired Indianapolis police homicide commander, made a surprising discovery:  He remembered details from a previous life as painter James Carroll Beckwith (1852-1917) that he could not reasonably have learned through ordinary means.  As a police detective, Snow was highly skeptical, but he was also open-minded in his investigations.  He chronicles his journey from extreme doubt to eventual conviction (in the truth of the matter, not in the criminal sense).  The book is available in the library's Evergreen Indiana catalog.

 

Four Books About Precipitated Spirit Portraits, by Various Authors

(MPL Book Trailer #355)

In a previous blog post, we discussed the Bangs sisters of Chicago, psychic mediums who specialized in precipitated spirit portraits.  These were purported portraits of deceased individuals that "painted themselves" without apparent human intervention.  Camp Chesterfield, a spiritualist camp near Anderson, Indiana, displays several of these portraits in their Hett Memorial Art Gallery and Museum.  (Read a PDF copy of the book, or, if  you prefer paper, drop by the MPL Indiana Room and peruse one of its copies.)  Many psychical researchers investigated the Bangs sisters and determined that their phenomena were genuine.

We featured Indianapolis resident May Wright Sewall's Neither Dead Nor Sleeping in a previous blog post.  Sewall (1844-1920) was best known as an advocate of women's suffrage, education, and world peace.  Few of her contemporaries knew that she was also interested in survival of bodily death, and she researched the subject for many years.  She reported her findings in this 1920 book, published posthumously and reprinted in 2008 by Cather Press.  It's available to checkout from the library's Evergreen Indiana catalog.

In my next blog post, we'll continue showcasing further haunted Indiana books by Hoosier writers.   There will be plenty of scares to go around!

The Library's First "Spokescritter"

Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library has had many resident animals over the years--birds, lizards, salamanders, turtles, fish, mice, guinea pigs, gerbils, a ferret--but, so far as I know, there has been only one feline roving reporter.

One cold December day in 2010, I saw a black cat hanging out by the library's front entrance.  As patrons came and went, the cat would run alongside for a few feet, mewing pitifully.  Although she looked reasonably well-fed, I presumed she was a stray (or had been cruelly dumped to fend for herself), so I telephoned my wife, who promptly brought canned and hard cat food from home to share with our new feline friend.  As the temperature was likely to drop well below zero by nightfall, and the library was closing shortly, we didn't have time to canvas the neighborhood, so we decided to give the kitty shelter for a few days until the weather warmed up.  So we took her home.

We called  her Cauliflower, as she had a bad ear from some past feline fracas.  Then we began to consider what to do with her.  We felt a bit guilty "catnapping' her, in case she had lived close to the library.  We didn't want to deprive someone of a beloved pet.  We took her to our veterinarian, who said she was probably four years old and was healthy.  She wasn't too pleased about receiving a battery of shots, though.

With warmer temperatures arriving a few days later, we returned Cauliflower to the library and allowed her to make her own way back where she came from, watching closely to ensure she came to no harm from careless drivers.  Cauliflower sauntered down the sidewalk for a block or so, walking directly to the front door of a house where several outdoor cats congregated.  We suspected that this was Cauliflower's point of origin, but, as we later learned, it was hardly a "forever home."

A few hours later, I happened to be walking around outside when I saw Cauliflower in the library's exterior Kindergarden area, searching for prey among the bushes.  This time, I carried her to the house she had previously walked to and rang the doorbell.  An irritated occupant answered the door.

"Is this your cat?" I queried.

"Maybe," said the occupant, who looked fairly seedy.  "I don't pay much attention.  We got a whole lotta cats that live in the barn."  It was, at best, a dilapidated shed on the rear of the property.  There must have been half a dozen cats lying around the broken shed door.

That decided the matter as far as I was concerned.  "If you're not sure she's yours, I'll ask around the neighborhood."

"Okay."  Occupant shut the door.

None of the other nearby residents claimed Cauliflower, so I returned her to the library, and, later, took her to my home again.  She subsequently decided she liked living at our neighbor's house better than with us, so she began spending most of her time there.

 

Cauli Le Chat, official MPL feline roving reporter (2010-2019)

 Cauli Le Chat the MPL "Spokescritter"

 

Since we had discovered Cauliflower roaming around outside the library, my wife suggested that she should be put to work, if we were going to feed and shelter her.  "Maybe she could be your library's pet, and she could be like a spokesperson for the library," my wife suggested.

"Spokescritter," I prompted.

"Since she roams around town, she could be the library's roving reporter, sharing library news with your patrons."

That was a stroke of genius on my wife's part.  "She could even write a blog promoting the library.  But she needs a catchier name."

My wife thought for a moment.  "If she's a feline roving reporter, she should have a classy name.  Maybe something French, like Cauli Le Chat."

And so a feline blog was born.

Cat's Eye View @ MPL Blog, by Cauli Le Chat (2010-2019)

 

Cauli Le Chat became Mooresville Public Library's official feline roving reporter, blogging about anything she found interesting at the library, around town, or wherever else that grabbed her attention.  She vigorously promoted the library and Mooresville, her hometown.  She was known for her acerbic, sarcastic tone.  She did not suffer fools gladly, especially among her human "co-workers."  This was an affectation, however; she had a pleasant personality and was friendly toward most everyone.  She posted hundreds of articles to her blog, which were read over half a million times around the world.  Not bad for a cat working at a small township library.

Unlike resident library cats such as Baker and Taylor, Dewey Readmore Books, Tober (and Chance), Browser, Oliver, Porter C. Bibliocat, Carnegie, Elsie, Trixie, and many, many more, Cauli did not actually live inside the library.  Several also predated Cauli's online presence, as did other resident library "spokescritters" like Morgan the Library Bunny.  But Cauli was different in that she played the roving reporter role.  She was designed to report, and, thus, market, the library's resources, events, and activities.

Cauli retired a couple of times from blogging, as she eventually became an exclusively indoor kitty.  She passed away a few days ago.

Cauli's efforts to promote Mooresville Public Library were distinctive compared with those of us who were paid to work there.  She was paid, too--free room and board with "Kindly Couple" and our neighbors--but, most importantly, she was paid with love, which she generously reciprocated.  I will miss her cheerfulness, her good company, and the sheer joy she radiated at being alive and free.