McLEAN COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY NEWS
By Euleen Rickard
In our October 10th news we mentioned the donation by Tom Rector of a Kentucky-Indiana League baseball trophy that was won by the 1950 Island team. Names listed on the trophy are Ray Hughes, Ben Davis, Gary Sartain, Herman Colburn, B.J. Miller, Narvel Wood, Junior Bowman, Weldon Bolton, Sam Pate, Jimmie Howard, Bobby Austin, Billie Bibb, F. Clayton and Tom Rector. Rector remembers all the men except
F. Clayton. Do any of you remember him? During the 30s, 40s and into the 1950s small towns or businesses sponsored teams and most teams had a good following of fans. Beech Grove, Calhoun and other towns supported teams. The museum is seeking information of players, pictures and newspaper articles of the teams of that era.
We had calls from Ethel (Higgs) Conrad and Maureen (Ellis) Bower this week. Ethel had attended the Higgs family reunion and enjoyed the genealogy that her family is compiling. Ethel is a native of Island and her lineage goes back to the founder William Worthington. Maureen is copying information that she has to send to the museum. She is a native of Sacramento and her mother, Mrs. Cleva Ellis taught at several of our one-room schools, Ellis, Shutt, Bennett and Station and in 1939-40 taught at Sacramento. Her sister Adell Ellis Craig taught at Drake school in 1936 and later taught in the Owensboro School System.
Sacramento native, Cheryl Rickard Huff and her husband Phil, gave the museum a Kentucky flag and a newspaper account of a letter written by Phil’s great-great uncle in 1862 while he was camped at Camp Calhoon during the Civil War.
Hubert Mattingly, of Owensboro contributed many copies of Ken Ward’s McLean County News articles,“MEADERING IN MCLEAN.” They contain the rich history of our towns and people. If you have clippings of his articles that you would share with us we would be happy to copy them and return your originals. Also seeking articles and pictures of the “Great 1937 Flood” and other floods of the Green River.
Helen Anderson, Mildred Iglehart, Audra Conrad, Virginia Davis, Dorothy Pinkston and Euleen Rickard met at Smith House on Tuesday to study cataloging methods. Helen and Euleen attended a cataloging workshop sponsored by the Historical Confederation of Kentucky in Bowling Green in July where proper methods were taught. Those methods will be used for artifacts received by our museum. The next day for work on cataloging and filing at the museum is planned for Tuesday October 29th at 1PM. Everyone that can help is invited. For more information call Helen Anderson or Euleen Rickard.