Greencastle Nail Mill - Putnam

GREENCASTLE. Ind., January 16.— For more than 20 years Greencastle was a dead one,” said a leading real estate man, “but now it has come to life, and we are going to have one of the best cities in Indiana.  It woke up once when we had the nailmill here but the discovery of natural gas took the mill away and we lost nearly one thousand population.  Now. however, the good times are coming to us again. The cause of the Jubilee in Greencastle is that a great tinplate factory Is to be located here, and men are wearing badges around town, announcing that fact. Under the agreement the mill will employ between four hundred and five hundred men for a period of five years, and to secure this the citizens donated twenty-five acres of ground and held here, two years hence, there would $60,000 in cash, and they feel that they  have made a good investment. It is stated also, that the Commercial Club is on a glass concern that will employ five hundred men, and there is no doubt, members of the club say. but the factory will be located here, and when that comes there are other things in view. The members of the club are In earnest, and they have the backing of the solid business  men of the city, who want to see the place forge ahead, and take rank with cities of its class In Indiana.

Greencastle to a beautiful place. It has fine streets, shaded by stately trees, and its business houses are equal to any in the State In cities of its size. There is no city that has better railroad facilities, and It is so closely connected with the coal fields that fuel can be brought here for almost nothing. The famous De Pauw College has given the city a world- wide reputation in the sphere of learning. The social life of Greencastle to refined, and there is nothing that has held the city back except lack of enterprise, and that has now been changed. The newspapers of Greencastle and they are as good as are printed anywhere have been singing the praises of the town for years but it needed something beside singing to put the place on the upgrade and the business men have now stopped singing and are going to work.

I said lack of enterprise held the city back – there is something else – the beastly excuse for a courthouse that is rotting away on the prettiest site for a public building in Indiana. The citizens here, regardless of party are ashamed of the court house and at the convention yesterday every visitor received an apology for the building. They were begged not to consider Greencastle from the courthouse standpoint and many declared that when another district convention was held here, two years hence there would be another county building.  At the last session of the Legislature, John H. James who represented this county in the lower House pushed through a bill that makes it possible for Putnam County to have a decent court house but everyone seemed afraid to take hold of it. But it begins to look now as if the people were not going to rest under the shame any longer and a movement may be started soon that will result in a new courthouse and the average citizen of Greencastle will not have to run and hide every time a stranger or a party of strangers comes to town.

The convention yesterday was a good advertisement of Greencastle, and an effort will be made to hold more of them here but the conventions will not come if it is known that the meetings will be held in the courtroom.  There is one thing that has caused some comment here. The convention of yesterday endorsed about everything but the State administration and many thought that this was an intentional slight of Governor Durbin. That is not true. It was an oversight on the part of the committee on resolutions, the members of which greatly regret what occurred.  WH Blodgett