a principal and three assistants. The departments are the high school, grammar, intermediate and primary. The enrollement last year was 156. The principal for the year 1887-'88 is Edward Aikman. The school has two literally [sic] societies, -- the Philadelphians and the Sapphonians.
Newport Lodge, No. 209, F. & A. M., was chartered May 25, 1857; and the first officers were James A. Bell, Worshipful Master; Eldridge M. Groves, Senior Warden; James Tarrance, Junior Warden; Andrew J. Adams, Treasurer; Joseph B. Cheadle, Secretary; Seth Knight, Senior Deacon; William Blackstone, Junior Deacon; J. L. Thomas and T. J. Arrasmith, Stewards; R. H. Nixon, Tyler. The number of members was twenty-three, who met in the same hall that is still used. The present membership is thirty-one, and the officers, R. C. Sears, Worshipful Master; R. H. Nixon, Senior Warden; E. D. Wheeler, Junior Warden; Abel Sexton, Senior Deacon; J. H. Kerdolff, Junior Deacon; A. R. Hopkins, Secretary; Charles Potts, Treasurer; Elias Pritchard and G. W. Clark, Stewards; and H. S. Cady, Tyler. Financially, the lodge is strong.
Vermillion Lodge, No 594, I. O. O. F., was organized in the room over the furniture store of David Hopkins, by Past Grand Hiram Shepard, of Dana Lodge, under a charter granted May 18, 1882, on the petition of Robert E. Stephens, Lewis Shepard, Thomas Cushman, F. V. Wade, Julius Groves and J. M. Taylor. The following members were elected officers and duly installed: Lewis Shepard, Noble Grand; Robert E. Stephens, Vice-Grand; Thomas Cushman, Secretary; J. M. Taylor, Treasurer. At the time of this organization there were thirteen members. There are now thirty-seven members, and the present officers are, M. G. Rhoades, Noble Grand; H. A. Conley, Vice-Grand; Matthew Lytle, Recording Secretary; Thomas Cushman, Permanent Secretary; W. P. Henderson, Treasurer. The society is now in a very prosperous condition. The furniture, equipments and regalia cost about $600, and the room is an unusually nice one, 38 x 50 feet in dimensions, exclusive of the vestibules.
Hope Lodge, No. 268, Daughters of Rebekah, was chartered November 18, 1886, and the first officers elected January 22, 1887, with ten members. Thomas Cushman, Noble Grand; Mrs. D. S. Hopkins, Vice-Grand; Mrs. Dessie Johnson, Secretary; Mrs. Mary Henson, treasurer. The membership is now (June, 1887) thirteen, who are zealous, with a good exchequer. They comprise the best talent in the community.
Shiloh Post, No. 49, G. A. R., was organized March 22, 1882, with R. J. Hasty, Post Commander; J. H. Kerdolff, Senior Vice-Commander; J. A. Darby, Junior Vice-Commander; R. H. Nixon, Surgeon; Z. Thornton, Chaplain; A. C. Brokaw, Officer of the Day; T. A. McKnight, Officer of the Guard; who were duly installed by Mustering Officer R. B. Sears. The appointed officers were J. W. Harlan, Adjustant; J. C. Bailey, Quartermaster Sergeant; William C. Myers, Sergeant-Major. The officers comprised the whole membership. The post has not been meeting lately, but the present officers are, Edward Brown, Post Commander; R. H. White, Junior Vice-Commander; John A. Darby, Officer of the Day; John Richardson, Quartermaster; William Bennett, Surgeon; H. H. Conley, Chaplain; C. S. Davis, Adjustant; W. P. Henson, Sergeant-Major; J. C. Dillow, Quartermaster-Sergeant. There are about thirty members in good standing. The time of meeting is every second and
fourth Friday evening of the month, in Place's Hall.
A company of Sons of Veterans was organized March 20, 1884, with Frank Hasty for Captain. Commencing with ten members, they reached sixteen, but they soon lost their zeal, holding their last meeting December 19, 1884. They contemplate reorganizing. Their last Captain was William F. Thornton.
The A. O. U. W. organized a lodge at Newport March 4, 1879, with a membership of sixteen, and Dr. M. L. Hall as Past Master Workman; R. B. Sears, Master Workman; W. P. Henson, Grand Foreman; Joseph Dillow, Overseer; C. S. Davis, Recorder; George W. Odell, Financier; L. J. Place, Receiver; L. D. Dillow, Guard; Henry Dillow, Inside Warden; Lou Coil, Outside Warden. The charter was surrendered February 24, 1883. At one time they had as many as twenty-five or thirty members.
The Newport Light Guards were organized under the military law of the State, with over forty members, and J. A. Souders, Captain. They obtained from the State an equipment of fifty guns and the necessary accoutrements. But in a year or two they got to quarreling over the captaincy, some favoring J. A. Souders, but a majority R. H. Nixon, and consequently let their interest in the drill die.
The Newport Cornet Band was organized a number of years ago, went down, and reorganized, or a new organization effected. John A. Darby and J. W. Hartman are the only present members who were members of the original organization. The present members are, John A. Darby and Quincy Myers, E. flat; Ernest Darby and Albert Wheeler B flat; J. W. Hartman, solo alto; William Sharp, second alto; W. C. Arrasmith and Joseph Hopkins, B flat tenor; L. M. Wheeler, B flat baritone; Fred Duzan, E flat tuba; William Brown, snare drum; Henry Garrett, base drum. This accommodating band "discourses sweet music" every Sunday afternoon at the court-house. The players are skillful, and have often rendered satisfactory service on public occasions.
Newport has had the usual fights over the temperance question, and the usual temperance societies. Skipping over the long period before the war, we notice that since the war about the first public movement was the organization of a lodge of Good Templars, in 1868, with the following officers: Rev. J. E. Wright (Methodist traveling minister here at the time), Betsy Griffin, Joseph Hopkins, Benjamin Carter, Ivy A. Astor, Sally Canady, John Wigley, Rebecca Huff and Joseph B. Cheadle. The lodge has long since ceased to exist.
The next movement was the tidal wave of the "woman's crusade" in 1874, which struck Newport with some violence and persistency. Meetings were held at the churches, speeches made, and a committee appointed to wait upon the two saloonists of the place, who soon closed their dram shops and signed a pledge not to open again in Newport. A firm of druggists, however, comprising William M. and William L. Triplett (father and son), refused to sign the same pledge, offering one of their own drafting, which allowed them to sell liquor for "medical, mechanical, chemical and sacramental purposes." They were publicly charged, in a set of formal resolutions, with selling liquor by wholesale for drinking purposes, but they denied having done so for a long time. The controversy over their case was long and bitter, but they held their ground. Since then
the senior member of the firm has died, and the junior has moved away.
In December following an enraged woman from the country came into town and smashed in the windows of a saloon where her husband was spending too much of his time, made a general "scatterment" among the inmates and soon persuaded her loafing husband to take a straight line for home.
In 1877 the Murphy, or blue-ribbon movement struck Newport like a cyclone. At the very first meeting 153 signed the pledge, and in a few days afterward probably as many more. But the red-ribbon movement, inaugurated by Tyler Mason in 1879, proved to have more vitality. Of this, Thomas Cushman, William Gibson and Robert B. Sears were in succession presidents.
A Woman's Christian Temperance Union was organized in Newport, in which the leaders were Mrs. Zachariah Thornton, Mrs. Ramsey, Mrs. Ervin Lamb, Mrs. Sears and others. At one time they had forty or fifty members or more, but their meetings have been discontinued. In connection with the Perrysville union, they for a time edited a temperance column in the Hoosier State.
Order of Eclampsus Vitus! -- This is the high-sounding title, apparently Greek or Latin, of an imaginary secret society, taking its rise at Newport and other points in this county probably about fifteen years ago, whose entertainment consists in blindfolding the candidate for initiation and playing a variety of make-believe tricks upon him.
The Presbyterians organized a church here many years ago, ran down and reorganized in the spring of 1875, by Rev. Mitchell, of Clinton, with only seven members. The ruling elders were M. G. Rhoads and I. B. Fusselman, now of Danville, Illinois. Mr. Rhoads and his wife are the only members now, and there is no regular preaching. The church building, a frame about 40 x 50 feet, on Market street a little east of the public square, was erected probably about forty years ago, soon after the first organization was effected, and is now occupied by the United Brethren. There has never been a resident pastor at Newport. Among the earlier pastors were Rev. J. Hawks, of Perrysville, some thirty years ago, who died about ten years afterward; Rev. Henry Bacon, now of Toledo, Ohio, then of Covington, Indiana; after a vacancy, Rev. Mitchell preached once a month for a part of a year, 1875-'76.
The Methodists organized a class at Newport in primitive days. in time they built a church. When this became old, and the congregation too large for it, it was sold and some time afterward torn down. The present large edifice was erected about 1851, except that eighteen feet have since been added. The present membership is 175, including a few probationers. The class-leaders are Rev. John A. Parrett, a local preacher, and Abel Sexton. Exhorter, John Henson. Stewards -- H. H. Conley, C. S. Davis, David Hopkins, James Hasty and Joshua N. Davis. Sunday-school all the year, with an average attendance of 125, superintended by Abel Sexton for the last twenty years. Rev. Richard S. Martin, pastor, occupying the very fine parsonage on East Market street, built in 1882. The greatest revivals, or periods of special interest, were under the ministrations of Revs. Richard Robinson, about 1860, W. A. Smith and J. H. Hollingsworth.
The United Brethren Church at Newport was organized in 1870, by Rev. Samuel Garrigus, who was then a resident of Bellmore, Parke County, but is now at Crawfordsville, this State. The society at first comprised but
twelve or fourteen members, but it has increased to ninety, principally under the labors of the present pastor, Rev. B. F. Dungan, within the last few months. The first class-leader was C. M. Parkes; the present class-leader is Rettie R. Smith; assistant class-leader, Mrs. Belle Thornton. These ladies have a very large field of spiritual work, compared with class-leaders generally. A lively Sunday-school of about seventy pupils is maintained throughout the year, superintended by Mrs. Thornton. The steward of the church at this point is Z. P. Thornton. The society at present worships in the Presbyterian church, on Market street, one block east of the public square, but they contemplate building a house of worship this year. A pleasant house is rented for a parsonage in the west part of the village.
Rev. B. F. Dungan, minister in charge of the United Brethren churches of the Newport Circuit, Upper Wabash Conference, was born in Fountain County, Indiana, in 1863. His parents, Benjamin T. and Hannah (Campbell, nee Shoup) Dungan, are both living in Parke County. Both the parents are natives of Ohio; father of Scotch, German and Irish ancestry, and the mother of German. Mr. Dungan was brought up on a farm, and has always been an industrious, hard-working laborer, both with mind and body. Was ordained a local preacher in the church of his choice June 28, 1883, and since September, 1885, he has been a member of the annual conference. Having a strong physical foundation and a high ambition, he is a "man of destiny" in its noblest sense. June 13, 1883, he married Miss Mary Taulby, daughter of C. Columbus and Emeline Taulby, and a native of Boone County, Indiana. Both her parents are deceased. Since September, 1886, Mr. and Mrs. Dungan have been residents of Newport.