added a copy of the 1976 Pioneer days program that I found at the Boone historial society. added a PDF on the "life of Riley" to the top of the Laughner family page. Added a description of the town which was found in the 1976 copy of the pioneer days program to the bottom of the narratives page
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It seems I have neglected the blog when adding new content.
Todays additions include a folding fan from the regal Market on the odds and ends page, as well as a deposit book (pdf) from the Citizens bank. I created new content for the Smith cemetery, added a baptist church postcard, and some new church info with pics from the Ralph Stark collection added a 1952 and 1953 WHS class photo towards the top of the school page and added a baby picture of Susan (Belcher) Hancock to the bottom of the Luaghner/Hancock family page
The laptop just wasn't cutting it anymore and I needed a more powerful dedicated desktop computer that could be permanently connected to all my scanners and handle chores in a fraction of the time. This site is image intensive and the files take up over 50GB of memory and counting.
added 2 vicky Bates paintings to local artist page.
Added a JT Laughner blotter image to laughner family page. Added John Hancock Masonic certicicate to Laughner/Hancock page towards the bottom. Added a scan of the Albert White oration for William Harrison to the Albert white docs page Added copies of the Argus from 1934, 1937, 1940, 1958, 1959 and a senior memories book from 1954 belonging to my dad
As If I needed any more evidence that our town leaders are selling out to developers. During the plan commission meeting on January 13, 2020, the towns planning director gave an update on the UDO (unified development ordinance). Apparently the developers said the terms were to restrictive, so changes were being made to appease the developers. Unbelieveable. This is our town but developers get to make their own rules? During my last meeting as VP of the towns historic preservation commission in December of 2019, I was pushing for stronger protections for the Legacy core section of Whitestown and was surprised to get hard push back from council person Susan Austin and plan director Brittany Garriott. A couple months later at the first council meeting of January 8, 2020, I was unceremoniously kicked off the HPC and then this update was given during the January 13th meeting of the plan commission. The town is updating their UDO and it is supposed to include an overlay district, with special considerations given to the Legacy Core area. I had been pushing for certain protections relating to history and heritage similar to those of other towns and cities in Indiana. I was dumbfounded when commissioner Austin and director Garriott told me that my suggestions were illegal and would get the town sued in a court of law. Well, thats strange because the suggestions I made were those already enacted in other towns in Indiana. It was my opinion that they were making excuses NOT to provide preservation protections, but rather to protect the developers with pockets full of money.....and this video would seem to support that conclusion. It's really sad that these people seem to care more about the developers than the residents who call this town home. My mom attended Perry Central school and I have obtained a few of their yearbooks, and uploaded them to the yearbooks page under the school tab
put a few new photos on the fire dept page, buildings page, Laughner page, newspaper clippings page, and a 1951 phone book on the odds and ends page
On the railroad page, I added a gallery at the bottom of the page for the depot model I built last year
added some PDF to the home page including a list of early land transfers. added to the bottom of the school page. added to postcard page. added to railroad page. added a total of about 100 items today
Created a new Lions Club Park page under the assorted tab. added content to the buildings page, art page, boyscout page, and church page,
I added several photos and info to the Churches page and added some content to the bottom of the odds & ends page
I was unanimously appointed to the Historic Preservation Commission for the town in January 2018 and elected VP at my first meeting. I set about to help create rules that would help to preserve and protect the history and heritage of Whitestown, specifically the original "Legacy core" area that represents the original 1 square mile of the town.
We started off very good with the assistance of town manager Dax Norton and his background and shared passion for history, but Dax would later resign as the town manager and things would take a turn. Some of the protections that Dax had proposed were suddenly deemed "not possible" by the elected official on our board and the towns young and inexperienced planning director who should have never been hired in the first place (in my opinion). Anyway, tensions began to rise toward the end of 2019 and disagreements became apparent during HPC meetings as I was told that certain protections could not be enacted due to the possbility of lawsuits. This despite the fact that other communities around the state of Indiana had already enacted similar protections. Then came the elections in November of 2019 and I was asked to support the candidate with whom I had had the disagreements. I refused, and instead supported the competing candidate who had lived in Whitestown his entire life, as had his family for generations before. The candidate whom I had refused to support suddenly broke off all communications with me, despite our 18 year friendship and near daily communications. My candidate of choice ultimately lost the election by a handful of votes (a loss for the town as well) and communication with the winning candidate remained absent. Then the new year rolls around and the town council has the responsibility to nominate people to fill any board vacancies. There were no vacancies on the historic preservation commission but the council, quietly and without any prior notification, removed me from the HPC without giving reason. Thats right, the person generally recognized as the town historian and has lived here my entire life was kicked off the historic preservation commission and replaced with a council members friend who has lived in this town for less than 10 years. I had 2 years on this board and the most of what happened was just a lot of talk. We did manage two significant items and those were the commission of the historic survey by Grey & Pape and the public art mural on the side of the old pharmacy building at 8 south main (the mural was my idea, but it didn't gain real traction until someone realized it could provide a boost to their election campaign)(thats my opinion....and that of several others) It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened. If you make waves, refuse to be controlled, or go against a certain political agenda, then you will find yourself on the outside. That's ok, because I don't need the blessing of the local political machine to document and preserve the history of this town. Finding artwork by Victorene Bates is no easy task but well worth the effort.
Scanned and uploaded stories and photos related to Whitestown, which were printed in the Boone Your County magazine. Lots of good information covering several years.
I keep forgetting to update the blog when I update the website but there is bunch of new stuff since the last blog post. Today I added some stuff to the odds and ends page down at the bottom. I copied some previously posted photos of the Laughner family members to the top of the Laughner page. I also added a couple of obituary images to the bottom of the newspaper clippings page.
Added some photos to the bottom of the page for the Laughner/Hancock family page
Added 17 new items to the school page, toward the top
Added 30 items to the People page, at the bottom Added an Albert White program script to the Albert White documents page Added a Centennial photo book to the home page It's been a few busy days of scanning and uploading. I have added the following
Maps page 7 new items Church page 6 new items Buildings page 13 new items Laughner page 6 new items Narratives page 14 new items Newspaper page 5 new items Odds & Ends page 6 new items Pioneer days page 5 new items and more to come soon Created a Map page under the assorted tab.
Also built a cemetery page but its not quite ready to go live added about 50 photos to various pages including Laughner Family, buildings, churches, odds & ends, and pioneer days pages
Scanned and posted some old church information/booklets to the church page
The town of Whitestown ran a story about the creation of the Whitestown history website in their quarterly magazine dated August 2018. I scanned the story and posted the link to the PDF on the hom page just below my introduction statement.
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