Timeline From The Past: Train Derailment, School Board Dispute
From the Files of the Kosciusko County Historical Society
Editor’s note: This is a retrospective article that runs a few times a month on InkFreeNews.
May 14, 2004 — A Cromwell man fired about 70 shotgun rounds at police officers Thursday night, injuring Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department deputy Jeff Howie.
Robert James Louden, 41, of Cromwell, was arrested without incident, though it took three hours of negotiation before he submitted to police.
May 18, 1956 — Forty-two cars of an eastbound Baltimore and Ohio freight train were derailed early today at Milford Junction, about a mile north of Milford, tearing up about 1,000 feet of tracks and scattering wreckage over a wide area.
No one was injured, but many of the overturned cars were carrying farm implements, army tanks, cold storage meats, lumber loads and other perishables.
May 15, 1954 — The long-standing dispute among school board members at Nappanee is reported to have reached a climax Thursday night when three board members and the superintendent of the schools offered to resign.
A spokesman for one of the factions of the board is reported to have said that Dr. Douglas Price, Carlyle Mutschler and Harter Wright, members from Nappanee, and John Kendall, superintendent, all had offered to resign. Kendall, whose salary was reported as $8,500 per year, held a contract that extended to 1955.
The disagreement among the school board members reportedly was over building plans for schools and also was described as a clash of personalities.
– Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels