From 1924 biography: Manager of the Western Reserve Condensed Milk Company of Yorktown, Metzcar is a native of Ohio but has been a resident of Indiana and of Delaware county for many years. Mr. Metzcar was born on a farm in the vicinity of Greenville, in Darke County, Ohio, November 11, 1877, and is a son of Daniel and Emma (Wissinger) Metzcar, the latter of whom was born in Baltimore, Md. The late Daniel Metzcar was born in Darke county, Ohio, grew to manhood on a farm there and was a farmer all his life
John W. Metzcar was reared on the home farm in Darke county and as a young man was for some time employed working in a hotel at Greenville. He then came over into Indiana and became employed working in a glass factory at Yorktown, became a glass blower, and was thus engaged for six years, at the end of which time he became connected with the operation of the Union Fibre Company of Yorktown. For thirteen years Mr. Metzcar was employed with the Union Fibre Company, or until early in 1918, when he transferred his connection to the operations of the Western Reserve Condensed Milk Company of Yorktown.
Five months later, in September of that year, he was made manager of the plant and operations of this company and has since occupied that position, general manager of a concern for whose products a wide market has been created. Mr. Metzcar is a Republican. He is affiliated with the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Improved Order of Red Men at Yorktown and has been “through the chairs” in all of these lodges. He and his wife are members of the Christian (Disciples) church. John W. Metzcar married Myrtle Fletcher, daughter of Fountain Fletcher and a member of one of the pioneer families of this county, and he and his wife have four children, Paul, Crystal, Juanita and, Maurice Metzcar. Paul Metzcar married Beatrice Hoffman and was a (1924) principal of the Cammack school.
Newby, Jonathon, was the lead singer of the post-hardcore/progressive rock band Brazil from its inception in 2000 until August 2007. Jonathon and his brother Nic Newby were two of the founding members. On earlier Brazil recordings, Jonathon played drums but eventually became the lead singer. Newby left the band in 2007, resulting in its break-up. (Source: Wikipedia) Wikipedia Link See Brazil perform “Escape” HERE.
Bruce Parkinson lead the Yorktown team to its first ever sectional championship in 1972 and won against New Castle in the regional. As the team captain, he received a gold medal at the Pan-Am Games in basketball in 1975.
Parkinson was a four-year starter for Purdue University and an All-Big Ten point guard. He holds Purdue’s all time record of assists over 40 years after his last game with a career record of 690 assists.
He is the son of Jack Parkinson. Parkinson was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004. He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1976 and the Washington Bullets in 1977. He did not actively play in the NBA.
Herbert Elmer Warfel was a well-known zoologist and oceanographer. He was born in 1902 in Yorktown, Indiana to William Turner Warfel and Hester Ann Myers. He lived in Winter Park, Colorado; Amherst, Massachusetts; New Hampshire; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the Philippines. He was a college professor at Massachusetts State College in Amherst teaching zoology. In 1947, he left on a 3-year oceanography expedition living in the Philippines with his family. Their families and available resources in Ancestry are in the PDF files below.
Photograph Archive Documenting the Career of Zoologist Herbert Warfel in Colorado, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Various Places: 1920s-1960s. Collection of 350 photographs belonging to Herbert Warfel, a zoologist whose career spanned the country and the globe. In the 1920s, Warfel worked as a High School Biology teacher in Gunnison, then at the Rocky Mountain National Laboratory, a high altitude field station founded in 1928. He went on to work as a professor at Massachusetts State College and in the New Hampshire FIsh and Game Department, before departing in 1947 as part of a three year oceanographic and fisheries research expedition in Philippine waters aboard the Spencer F. Baird. One article called the expedition “the most intensive survey attempted in the at science [oceanography].” Warfel also served as head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Philippines, before changing careers and becoming headmaster of the American school system in the Philippines in the 1950s and as superintendent of the largest private elementary school in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the 1960s. This collection includes images documenting every period in Warfel’s life. Roughly 60-80 images depict hiking and camping trips in the mountains around Gunnison, Colorado; some appear to have been high school field trips, while others were possibly research trips. Around 45 images (including a few 8 x 10″ photos) depict the Spencer F. Baird and her sister ships during the oceanographic expedition, including photos of crew members and many photographs of deep sea fishing–including the catching of huge, exotic sea creatures such as angel sharks and sand tiger sharks. 25 images from the same period depict the shores of the Phillipines, including a dozen or so photographs of native villages–houses, docks, villagers, and people rowing long canoes. Another 85 or so photos depict research work, mainly in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, including field work with students in swamps and marshes, laboratory images, and photographs of scientific slides and animal specimens. Finally, there are five photographs (and some newspaper clippings) relating to a teachers’ award ceremony in Puerto Rico, plus around 130 photographs of family life. Overall in excellent condition, some curling and/or yellowing. [5885]
Warfel, Herbert Elmer (1902-1981) and Lucille Gladys Talbott(1910-1985) Herbert Elmer Warfel was an internationally-known zoologist and oceanographer. He was born in 1902 in Yorktown, Indiana to William Turner Warfel and Hester Ann Myers. He lived in Winter Park, Colorado; Amherst, Massachusetts; New Hampshire; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the Philippines. He was a college professor at Massachusetts State College in Amherst teaching zoology. In 1947, he left on a 3-year oceanography expedition living in the Philippines with his family.
Smith, Oliver Hampton, (23 Oct 1794 – 19 Mar 1859) Smith founded the village of York Town in Delaware County, and there built a saw mill, grist mill, and fulling mill. Smith was a United States Representative and Senator from Indiana. He purchased large tracts of land around Mt. Pleasant Township. The land he purchased for the plat of a town was at the confluence of the White River and Buck Creek on 320 acres in Section 22. The land was owned by Samuel Cassman, a Native American, who received the land as part of the Treaties of St. Marys in 1818. Goldsmith Gilbert, an early settler from Muncie, purchased the land from Cassman after a years-long fight for fair compensation. The land reserve for Cassman had been part of the Treaties at St. Marys in 1818. When the sale was finally finalized, Goldsmith Gilbert, quickly sold the land to Oliver H. Smith in 1837. Smith was able to plat York Town in section 22 of Mt. Pleasant Township, Delaware County. Below is the PDF of the Ancestry.com file for Oliver H. Smith’s family.
Smith, Oliver Hampton, (23 Oct 1794 – 19 Mar 1859) Smith founded the village of “York Town” in Delaware County in 1837 and there built a sawmill, grist mill, and fulling mill.
Born on Smith’s Island, near Trenton, New Jersey on the 24th of October 1794, Oliver Hampton Smith was the son of Thomas and Letitia Smith and the grandson of William Smith all Quakers. William Smith, the grandfather of Oliver, settled in Wrightstown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1684. He built a log cabin in 1686 and a field stone addition to the cabin in 1690. It is one of the oldest standing homes in the United States. Oliver was born and raised in this house. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places. Oliver’s father died in 1913 when he was 19-years-old. The family property was sold and the money was divided among 9 children.
Oliver moved west, eventually settling in Lawrenceburg, Indiana in 1818, just two years after Indiana became a state. He had attended the common (public) schools and he studied law. Smith was admitted to the bar in 1820, setting up his law practice in Connersville, Indiana.
In 1822, he was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives serving two years. During his tenure, he served as the chairman of the Judiciary Committee ending his time in the House of Representatives with an appointment by the governor as the prosecuting attorney for the third judicial district in Indiana. He rode around the 3rd district from 1824-1825 from trial to trial.
Of note: Smith was the prosecuting attorney against four men who massacred nine Native Americans–two men, three women, two boys, and two girls. They had been peacefully trading with the frontier people in the area. They were known to be friendly. According to Wikipedia, “It [the trial] was the first documented case in which white Americans were convicted, sentenced to capital punishment, and executed for the murder of Native Americans under U.S. law.” Of course, the precedent didn’t last.
Smith later wrote and published a book about his experiences ion the court circuit in The Early Indiana Trials and Sketchespublished in 1858. You can read more about the massacre of Fall Creek HERE. There was also a book written in 1975 about the massacre titled, The Massacre at Fall Creek by Jessamyn West,
Smith served in the United States House of Representatives from 1827 to 1829, riding his horse to Washington, DC to sit for the 20th Congress. He was a member of the Committee of Indian Affairs and vigorously, pleaded for an Indian policy “marked with justice, humanity, and magnanimity of purpose that will atone, as far as possible, for the great injustice we have done to them”. As a Whig, Smith was elected to one term in the United States Senate, 1837-1843. Smith served on the Committee on Engrossed Bills (Twenty-sixth Congress) and the Committee on Public Lands (Twenty-seventh Congress).
An unsuccessful candidate for reelection, he moved to Indianapolis and resumed the practice of law. Beginning in 1835, Smith purchased many acres of land in Mt. Pleasant Township in Delaware County, Indiana. The property was part of the “first public sale” of lands purchased from Native Americans covering the central third of the new state of Indiana. Smith wanted one choice piece of property that set at the confluence of the White River and Buck Creek in northwest half of section 22. However, the land was a reserve for Samuel Cassman, a Native American, and had been granted the land as part of the Treaties at St. Marys in 1818.
Goldsmith Gilbert had tried to purchase the 320 acres since 1830. The disagreement over the land “sale” was not resolved until 27 July 1836 when Gilbert paid Cassman $1200.00 for the land. Oliver H. Smith was able to purchase the “Cassman Reserve” for $1500.00 on 29 Oct 1836. Smith was able to plat “York Town” in the northwest quarter of section 22 of Mt. Pleasant Township, Delaware County in 1837,
Smith named the town “York Town” for the Native Americans who were camping along the White River. The main street through the town is still called “Smith Street” after Oliver Hampton Smith, the founder of our town. More on this under the history section.
In the last decade and a half of his life, Smith lived in Indianapolis. There he was interested in railroads, especially the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad and the construction of the first Union Station. He became president of the Belllefontaine Railroad, known as the”Bee Line” and later the CCC & I. He worked tirelessly to ensure that major rail lines passed through Mt. Pleasant Township to Indianapolis and Cincinnati to add value to his investments. The trains arrived in the 1850’s.
Family: Smith married Mary Brumfield on 8 Nov 1821 and had three children, of whom one, Marcus Camillus Smith, (b. 11 Apr 1825) was a state representative and then mayor of Muncie, Indiana. Letitia Smith, the oldest daughter, (b. 30 Sep 1822) m. Thomas L. Sullivan. The youngest child, Mary Franccnia Smith (b. 28 Feb 1829) m. John Love. See the PDF file above with the file from Ancestry.com as of 29 Dec 2020.
Oliver Hampton Smith died in Indianapolis, IN on 19 March 1859 and was interned in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana.
The locals were off to visit family and family members came to visit. It was a holiday entertaining bonanza! It was very common to put visits between family and friends in the newspapers. My grandmother still did that even in the 1980’s because that was how people learned about each other before Facebook.
Mentioned are: Mrs. Oscar Sipe, Yorktown; Miss Martha Cox, Anderson; Mr. John Yingling; Mrs. John Metzcar, Yorktown; Mrs. Jess Smith, Muncie: Mrs. Hester Swift, Indianapolis; Mrs. Otto Cox and daughter Martha Cox, Anderson; Mrs. Fountain Fletcher, Anderson; Mrs. Leonard Hawthorne; Mr. Herbert Warfel, Yorktown; Mrs. George Parkinson, Yorktown; Mrs. Walter Staggs, Muncie; Rev. and Mrs. Henry Wood and son, Leland Wood, Yorktown; Mr. Edwin Overmire, Indianapolis; Mr. Lewis Clevenger, Yorktown. More on them below.
Muncie Evening Press 25 Dec 1920
Sipe, Oscar Jennings, son of Orville “Ora” Horton Sipe and Nora Sparks Sipe; wife is Lillian “Leota” TaylorSipe, daughter of Harry Taylor and Myrtle May FletcherTaylor. More HERE
Cox, Martha Marie (1900-1987), daughter of Otto Cox and Margaret E. FletcherCox. She later married Fred Kahler. Leota Taylor Sipe is her cousin.
Yingling, John M., Jr (1893-1954). He was the son of John Marshall Yingling and Jess L. Sutton Yingling. He moved his family to San Francisco, California sometime between the 1920 census and the birth of his son, Donald in 1924.
Metzcar, (John Mrs.) is Myrtle May Fletcher Metzcar. (1879-1962), daughter of Fountain Fletcher and Eliza J. Crawley Fletcher. Myrtle married John Metzcar in 1900. Biography HERE
Swift, (Jess Mrs.) is Charlotte R. Pence Swift, “Lottie” (1875-1930). Lottie was the daughter of David Pence and Catharine Conrad. Lottie and David were married in 1890. In 1935, five years after the death of Lottie, Jesse married Grace Rawls McIntire (1885-1970). She was the daughter of John R McIntire and Mary Emma Roules (or Rawls) McIntire. Grace was married 1) Joseph Watson Weeks who died in 1932. She married 2) Jesse Swift, son of Elijah William Swift and Rachel Alice Fisher Swift in 1935 and lost Jesse just four years later. She later married Arthur E. Bowman who outlived her. Grace died in 1970. No information on Mrs. Hester Swift. No so lucky in love was Lottie.
Cox, Otto (Mrs.) is Margaret Fletcher Cox (1877-1962). She was the daughter of Fountain Fletcher and Elizabeth Crawley Fletcher. She was the sister of Myrtle Fletcher Metzcar above. Myrtle married
Hawthorne, Leonard (Mrs.) is Peachie Younts Hawthorne (1900-1976). She was the daughter of Frank Younts and Mary Fergusan.
Warfel, Herbert Elmer (1903-1981) was the son of William Turner Warfel and Hester Ann Myers Warfel. He became a well-known zoologist working in Colorado, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Philippines, and Puerto Rico. He was a professor at Massachusetts State College. In 1947, he went on a three-year oceanographic expedition in the Philippines. He married Lucille Gladys Talbott in 1929. They are both buried in the Yorktown Cemetery.
Parkinson, George Washington (Mrs.) is Hattie Endora “Dora” May Parkinson, daughter of John and Ada May. She was born in Hoospton, Illinois in 1881 and married George Washington Parkinson (1879-1953) in 1899. George lived his whole life in Yorktown and raised 6 sons. George and Dora are buried in the Yorktown Cemetery.
Wood, Henry Reverend (1891-1977) and Edith Randall Wood (1894-1981) are named. They were married in 1915 and she was disowned by the Quaker Church as a result. Edith was the daughter of J. Freemont Randall and Rosella Day. They are from Hamilton County area. Rev. Henry Shirley Wood was born in Kentucky and was the son of William and Georgia Martin Wood. The couple were likely visiting Henry’s family in Kentucky. Leland Randall Wood had left Delaware County as a small boy. He had “Pete’s Shoe Shop” in New Palistine, Indiana.
Clevenger, Lewis David is spending time with his ex-wife’s sister, Margaret Fletcher Cox and her husband Otto Cox. (Also above). Arrel Fletcher divorced Lewis Cox and married George H. Sellers by this time. Putting such a thing in the paper would be an slap in the face to Arrel from either her own sister or her ex-husband. Ouch!
More information can be found on Ancestry.com on the “Yorktown Family Trees” or in the biographies tab on our web page.
Childs and Son Hardware Store was operated by Carl and Pearl (Witt) Childs and their son, Enoch and daughter-in-law, Alice Dorothy Potter Childs. The first advertisement for Childs and Son Hardware was in The Star Press on 2 Jul 1934.
Carl and Pearl Childs are living in Yorktown in the 1920 census residing on Yorktown Pike. In the 1930 census, High Street is listed as their residence. In 1940, they reside in Yorktown but there is no street listed. (At this time 1940 is the latest available census.) In 1938, Carl and Pearl purchased the north half of lots 129 and 130 in downtown Yorktown from the estate of Mary E. Miller for $1750. This lot is on Walnut St. , the side of the lot runs along the alley, near the southwestern corner of Arch St. The purchase of these lots may mark the Childs move into downtown Yorktown. They moved to Yorktown sometime between 1910 and 1920 from Monroe Township.
Carl Childs (1878-1945) operated the store until he died in 1945, with son, Enoch (1910-1987). Enoch and Alice operated the hardware store until their retirements, she in 1968 and he in 1971.
Enoch was in the 8th grade class in the 1925 YHS yearbook and the Freshman class in the 1926 YHS yearbook. In the 1928 Enoch is willed by senior Herbert Barker “his position at center”. This information leads to the conclusion that Enoch graduated from Yorktown High School with the class of 1929. I could find no on-line yearbooks for 1927 or 1929. He and Alice were the parents of Jay K. Childs, a long-time Clevenger Vending supervisor and Shelia, a veterinarian. She married Timothy Sheward.
~Julie Musick Hillgrove; contributor, Pat Mason
Carl and Pearl (Witt) Childs
Enoch and Alice (Potter) Childs
1926 YHS Freshman Class
Facebook comments bring to light that the building had a number of tenants through the years: A general store, meat market, the original Dickey Mouse Tavern, Childs and Son Hardware Store, Junior and Betty Sollars‘ Hardware Store, Painted Memories, Greek’s Pizza, The Toy Soldier? (toy store). It is presently the home of an architecture firm.
Pat Chasteen says that her grandfather, Charles Mohler, worked there. He was a hard worker and much beloved by customers.
