Making small steps

In November of 2009 an errant driver crashed into the steps on the east side of the new alternative school near Monnett Elementary. Yesterday two carpenters began to rebuild the steps.

 

 They finished today.

 

Charles Halleck, RIP

Charles Halleck, the most famous person buried in Weston Cemetery, died on March 3, 1986. His grave marker is not especially big or notable. It is located in the old section of the cemetery, not too far from the road along the river. In the picture below, we are looking toward the east and the city sewage-lift station is visible in the background.
Here is a closer look at his marker.
I never met Halleck, but he lived in Rensselaer almost 12 years after I arrived.

Chadda

Do you know where Chadda Boulevard is? How about River Drive?

 

Chadda also intersects Powell Drive.

 

Maybe I just do not get out enough.

The Ayda's rumor

I may have been spreading a false rumor when I reported that two people had siad that Ayda's Restaurant might be moving. I saw Ayda outside the restaurant on Monday and stopped to ask her what was happening. She said that she was opening a second restaurant in Kentland. She will cook there in the morning and in Rensselaer in the evening. Wow--that will be a lot of work.

The old poor farm

Searching through the library for interesting tidbits on Rensselaer, I found a book with an insurance map of the old poor farm that was once located west of the airport and north of the fairgrounds, where the animal shelter and/or the corrections facility are now. The map is from 1921.

I do not fully understand what the purpose of the poor farm was. It seems to have been the place for people who could not take care of themselves but who had not committed a crime that merited prison. Here is a bit about another poor farm, this one in  Fulton County and here is a wikipedia entry that seems relevant. It was a farm, and presumably the people who were classified as inmates were expected to work on the farm if they were able. If you know the Jasper County poor farm or poor farms in general, please comment.

Among the outbuildings is one labeled, "Jail." What do you think that was for?

I do not recall poor farms in Minnesota when I was growing up there in the 1950s and 1960s. I do remember very large state institutions for the mentally retarded. People with mentally retarded children (that was the term used at the time) were almost encouraged to put them into these institutions, which was a horrible way to treat such vulnerable children. I am pretty sure that those are no longer operating, but I long ago lost touch with most of what is going on in Minnesota. Did Indiana have similar institutions?

I have one memory of the old poor farm. I am pretty sure that it was already closed when we came to Rensselaer. A few years after we arrived, there was auction there, and we bought an old dresser, which we still have. There were quite a few dressers up for sale, as I recall, so my guess is that my dresser came out of one of the rooms of what the map calls the "inmates."

(Talking to an original Rensselaerian  about poor farms, I learned that the old poor farm for Winamac is still in operation under the name of Pleasant View. I could not find anything about it on the web. Does anyone know about this facility?)