1897-1901 William McKinley served as the 25th president
1897-1901 William McKinley President
1898 The Cammack Sawmill Burns
1898 The Cammack sawmill, the town’s only industry, burns and is not rebuilt.
1898 Yorktown Pike Ceases to be Toll Road
1898 The pole is removed and toll house destroyed on Muncie-Yorktown Pike. After 40 years, Yorktown Pike ceases to be a toll road. The county commissioners purchased the road for $1. All toll roads in the county are now free to use except for Muncie-Granville Pike. (8 Feb)
1898 The Morning News begins using Linotype machines
1898 The Morning News (Muncie) begins using Linotype machines, the first in the Delaware County (25 May) The Linotype machine, was developed in the United States in 1884 by a German watchmaker named Ottmar Mergenthaler.
The Linotype drastically sped up the printing process by its innovative technique of “line casting,” which placed entire lines of type for printing, rather than just individual letter typesetting. “Linotype” is a derivation from its full name, “Line of Type,” which describes the individual lines produced in lead. The machine revolutionized the newspaper industry and drastically increased the speed at which a printing plate could be produced.
International Printing Museum, 35-minute video on the Linotype machine
Yorktown Methodist Church
The Yorktown Methodist Episcopal Church built their first church in January 1875. The churches were supported by ministers who rode a circuit to minister to the people. The earliest churches in Yorktown met in homes and the school house.
Just 23 years after building the first church, they had outgrown it. The old church was moved to another site and another church built in the same location on the corner of High and Walnut Streets. These boys pose sometime after 1898 in front of the brick structure. The church had a fire in 1950 The structure is still in use in 2021 by the Baptist Church.
