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Puzzle Picture, Day 4!

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By adminMay 4, 2017Category: Henry County StoriesTags: 2017, puzzle picture

Hint: A favorite of General Omar Bundy!

Copyright 1887-2024 Henry County Historical Society, New Castle, Indiana

Bringing History to Life &
Life to History Since 1887!

Hours of Operation
Please contact us to make an appointment to visit during these hours:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays~1-4:30 p.m.
Tours by appointment.
We can work with you if you can only come in on a
Monday or Saturday.
March through December

Admission Fees: None!

Call us: 765-529-4028
Email us:
[email protected]
Mail us:
606 South 14th Street, New Castle, IN 47362

4,684

Henry County Historical Society, Inc

Hours Tuesday-Friday from 1 to 4:30 p.m.
We're ALWAYS open by appointment.
Call Co-Director Darrel Radford
at 765-524-0530
Email: [email protected]
Call: 765-529-4028

Henry County Historical Society, Inc

21 hours ago

On this day in Henry County history, Jan. 1, 1968, a collision of two Pennsylvania Railroad trains caused an entire town to be evacuated, an environmental catastrophe, and a fire that required several days to extinguish. The wreck had occurred when two trains, each heading different directions on the Pennsylvania-St. Louis mainline, collided at Dunreith. One of the trains was carrying 12,000 gallons of ammonia, and another with the chemical acetone cyanhydrin. The wreckage started a fire, burning half the town and forcing the evacuation of all 236 residents. Several shared memories of this event on our Facebook page. Here are a few."I lived in Spiceland but was spending the night in New Castle," Pam Crabtree said. "It shook the pictures on the walls and moved chairs.""I was six years old," Alan Gregory Edwards said. "We also lived in New Castle. My father thought our furnace had exploded. We quickly evacuated the house to see the firemen that lived across the street and next door were called out to the emergency. I remember being woken by the shock wave.""One of the tanker lid domes went through the corner of our house. I had nightmares from it," said Jan McDaniel."The tanks had cyanide in them," Sharon E. Baker said. "It drained into the creek. There were dead cows laying everywhere just south of town along State Road 3. We were like two miles to the southwest. Our whole yard was lit up. We could see LP tanks blowing up, too, in smaller explosions at the tomato cannery.""It rattled our windows in Greensboro," Kevin Stonerock said."My mother's late aunt, Minnie Fairchild, lived on the north side of U.S,. 40 in Dunreith during the time of this devastating accident," Dan Bertram said. "She was fortunate that she wasn't injured or even killed. But the blast blew out all of her windows in her home.""I remember it well," Ann Haler said. "The large mushroom cloud that was produced by the explosion and the policemen coming to the house saying we had to leave."Do you have memories of this event? Here is an interesting account of the accident from the Indiana Transportation History website.A collision of two Pennsylvania Railroad trains causes an entire town to be evacuated, an environmental catastrophe, and a fire that required several days to extinguish. The wreck would happen a month before the formal end of the Pennsylvania Railroad as an entity. It would also be an example of what happens when choices are made as to where to spend money.The wreck had occurred when two trains, each heading different directions on the Pennsylvania St. Louis mainline, collided at Dunreith, a town east of Indianapolis in Henry County. One of the trains was carrying 12,000 gallons of ammonia, and another with the chemical acetone cyanhydrin. The crash ended up catching fire, burning half the town and forcing the evacuation of all 236 residents of the town. Since the tracks were right next to US 40, the road was closed as well. A brakeman on the westbound train believed, at the time, the rail had broken beneath the 75th car of the 98 car train, forcing a derailment. The cargo of gasoline, crude oil and ammonia caught fire almost immediately. When the west bound train derailed, it sideswiped the east bound freight train.The explosions caused by the fire knocked a fire truck driver out of the cab of his truck two blocks away. It also knocked out street lights in Knightstown five miles away. Flames shot into the air some 300 feet.News reports the next day reported that the damage had been less than expected. As of the reports on 2 January 1968, two homes and the town’s only industry, the Butterfield Canning Company, were destroyed. Also, the acetone cyanhydrin, when it was burning, created a large quantity of cyanide gas and spilled that chemical into the Buck Creek, a tributary of the Big Blue River.In the aftermath of the wreck, the State Board of Health planned to dump some five tons of chlorine into the Big Blue River from the SR 44 bridge west of Shelbyville. The initial concentration of the cyanide was 20 parts per million at Knightstown. On 19 April 1968, it was announced that the State Department of Natural Resources was to begin an effort to kill, over five days, the last remaining species of fish in the Big Blue River from the mouth of Buck Creek at Knightstown to the dam at Edinburgh. The fish kill was designed to kill off the carp, since all of the bass in the river were killed by the cyanide in the river. The 56 mile stretch of the Big Blue River would be restocked with smallmouth bass, rock bass, suckers and some perch. All traces of the cyanide in the river were negligible within two weeks. The rivers were checked all the way downstream to Seymour.What ultimately caused the crash was decades in the making. The Pennsylvania Railroad, the most extensive railroad network in Indiana at the time, had been stumbling like a teetering giant for years. The PRR was, at the time, the largest industrial employer in the United States. Railroad rates were not controlled by the railroads themselves at the time, but by the federal Interstate Commerce Commission. The company had made the choice to maintain employee wages over maintenance. The mainline between Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, had been on slow orders for years with a speed limit of ten miles per hour. The company had also been investigating a merger with a stronger railroad since the mid 1950s. All merger talks had failed until the ICC approved the merger between the PRR and the New York Central, which was to take place on 01 February 1968.In the end, the location of the wreck would be abandoned in the early 1980s by a successor company of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), as was the entire line from Richmond to Terre Haute, with the exception of a small section on the westside of Indianapolis that connects the city to the former Indianapolis & Frankfort. Ultimately, most of the old PRR properties in the state were dropped, mainly due to the cost of getting the long neglected rails into usable shape.BASKETBALL LIVES HERE This Day In Henry County history is brought to you by Destination Henry County Indiana. Discover slam dunk experiences at www.HoopsInHenry.com. Visit the Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/VisitHenryCounty.com. ... See MoreSee Less

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Henry County Historical Society, Inc

2 days ago

On this date in Henry County history, Dec. 31, 1914, a New Year's Eve party featured some prominent and familiar names. See how many you recognize.Seated l-r around the table Marguerite Hatch, Mabel Ice, Margaret Huston, Grace Frost, Hilda Polk, Helen Jeffrey, Adda Frances Goodwin, Jean Bond, Hazel Townsend, Louise Stanley, Helen Gronendyke, Edith Nation, Jane Millikan and Edna MacDonald.Standing: Neal Townsend, Dr. H.W. MacDonald (holding daughter Betty, later known as Betty Mann), Oakley Polk, Ward Huston, Chester Lamb, Chester Hall, Myron Millikan, Max Hutzel and Claud Stanley,Thanks to Doug Magers and the late Mike Bertram for collecting and digital archiving these great pictures of the past.Happy New Year from the Henry County Historical Society! ... See MoreSee Less

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Henry County Historical Society, Inc

3 days ago

On this day in Henry County history, Dec. 30, 1957, construction began on New Castle Fieldhouse.Do you remember construction of what would become "the world's largest and finest high school gymnasium?BASKETBALL LIVES HEREThis day in Henry County history is brought to you by Destination Henry County, Indiana. Discover slam-dunk experiences at www.HoopsInHenry.com.Visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/VisitHenryCountyINHELP US PRESERVE COMMUNITY HISTORYPlease join the Henry County Historical Society with a $25 annual membership. Visit our website at www.henrycountymuseum.orgCOME SEE US!Come visit the Henry County Historical Society Museum at 606 S. 14th St., New Castle and see a 1911 Maxwell. We're open Tuesday through Friday from 1-4:30 p.m. and ANYTIME by appointment. Call 529-4028 and leave a message. ... See MoreSee Less

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Henry County Historical Society, Inc

4 days ago

On this day in Henry County history, Dec. 29, 1983, Indiana University freshman Steve Alford was expected to start for Bobby Knight’s Hoosiers against Ball State in the Hoosier Classic at Market Square Arena. In Alford’s first eight games for the Hoosiers, the New Castle star had hit 62 percent of his shots from the floor, 90 percent from the free throw line and had a team-leading 13 steals.BASKETBALL LIVES HEREThis day in Henry County history is brought to you by Destination Henry County, Indiana. Discover slam-dunk experiences at www.HoopsInHenry.com.Visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/VisitHenryCountyINHELP US PRESERVE COMMUNITY HISTORYPlease join the Henry County Historical Society with a $25 annual membership. Visit our website at www.henrycountymuseum.orgCOME SEE US!Come visit the Henry County Historical Society Museum at 606 S. 14th St., New Castle and see a 1911 Maxwell. We're open Tuesday through Friday from 1-4:30 p.m. and ANYTIME by appointment. Call 529-4028 and leave a message. ... See MoreSee Less

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Henry County Historical Society, Inc

5 days ago

On this day in Henry County history, Dec. 28, 1973, New Castle Police Dept. Capt. Charles W. "Chuck" Wood, founder of the city's First Aid Unit, was preparing to retire after 31 years of service. Mayor Scott Bouslog proclaimed his retirement day as "Charles M. "Chuck" Wood Day."Wood, a 1926 graduate of New Castle High School, is credited with founding the New Castle-Henry County Emergency First Aid Unit in 1944. Wood served the unit until retiring on this day in 1973. At the time of his retirement, the unit had saved more than 900 lives and had made nearly 34,000 emergency runs.The photo here shows in a 1971 photo. Thank you Chuck, and all of those who have worked on the unit since that first run 80 years ago.BASKETBALL LIVES HEREThis day in Henry County history is brought to you by Destination Henry County, Indiana. Discover slam-dunk experiences at www.HoopsInHenry.com.Visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/VisitHenryCountyINHELP US PRESERVE COMMUNITY HISTORYPlease join the Henry County Historical Society with a $25 annual membership. Visit our website at www.henrycountymuseum.orgCOME SEE US!Come visit the Henry County Historical Society Museum at 606 S. 14th St., New Castle and see a 1911 Maxwell. We're open Tuesday through Friday from 1-4:30 p.m. and ANYTIME by appointment. Call 529-4028 and leave a message. ... See MoreSee Less

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