The Spirit of ’76

We are excited to announce the display of items from The Spirit of ’76 vault! While the Historical Society and the Pulaski County Indiana America250 Committee are taking responsibility for this project, these items – everything that went into The Spirit of ’76 from this community – belong to you. They will be available to you to view in a variety of ways.

There will be a temporary display of some items at the Museum.
There will be archives of documents, publications, and artifacts “forever” at the Museum.
There will be photographs and an inventory available for viewing on our website.

To illustrate the breadth of the items that were in The Spirit of ’76, we offer some photos of the process of documentation. You will learn more about the articles through the published photos and inventory.

What you’ll see in the photographs offered here is a series of “neatly stacked” items and documents. What we had at the beginning was a mess. Things came out of the vault and went onto a table. After two days of trying to create an inventory, an industrious member of the Historical Society took the time to rearrange the tables into “like” items, as much as that was possible. That member, with the help of a friend of the Society, then began the arduous process of handwriting an inventory.

The next step was to begin the process of taking photographs. Some items are photographed only by the cover or front page. For example, the Pulaski County Journal issues are photographed only by the cover. In contrast, letters from every 5^th grader in the County were photographed individually, as were many other items.

Quality of Vaulted Items

For the most part, everything in the vault was preserved as intended. Some moisture came into the vault – from – as far as we can tell – artifacts that were inside. No ground water or moisture was apparent from the opening of the vault. Some possible culprits:

Due to the Courthouse renovation, the vault was unburied for a time. It is possible that having warmed up a bit, then being reburied, moisture was created.
Some items could have brought moisture into the vault. (A lesson we are learning for the vault to be buried in 2027.)
- There was a beer can, totally ruined. Was it full at the time? (We did not find the tab, so it is possible it was empty. It is also possible that moisture was inside the can.)
- At least one battery was inside. (Did we not know, 50 years ago, that batteries corroded?)
- Other items could have been moist at the time of burial.

Following is a synopsis of the items, by table.

Photo 01: This shows a view of the entire room. There are 11 tables stacked with items, and two tables with a special item. We’re also going to share our photography studio!

Photo 02: This table holds only two items: a flag and a T-shirt.

Photo 03: On this table are about a million license plates – we will keep one and PROBABLY allow visitors to take one for a donation – and a certificate announcing Pulaski County as a Bicentennial Community.

Photo 04: This table is mostly filled with scouting items and congratulatory statements from other communities.

Photo 05: This table holds some 4-H items and some items from local businesses.

Photo 06: This table holds items from clubs and local businesses and a beer can (!!) from a local candidate for office. (It’s a familiar name.)

Photo 07: This table holds advertisements and miscellaneous items.

Photo 08: On this table we have information and photographs from county offices, among other things, including a list of Bicentennial committee members.

Photo 09: The Bicentennial official documents and newspapers from Indianapolis and other areas are illustrated on this table.

Photo 10: Publications from Pulaski County and nearby areas are on this table.

Photo 11: Items from local school corporations are on this table. There is a blank area here: that’s because the letters from several 5^th grade classes were in the “photography studio.”

Photo 12: These tables hold a handwritten Declaration of Independence signed by Pulaski County citizens. It is too tall to even be hung from the highest point of the Historical Society Museum.

Photos 13, 14, and 15: These photos illustrate our unprofessional photography studio (we are NOT professional photographers), a sample of how the studio was used (letters from 5^th grade students), and the same studio from a distance.

Look forward to announcements of the display, the availability of the archives, and the publication of the webpage!

July 1976 Pulaski County Journal

July 8, 1976, retrieved from the Spirit of ‘76 Vault.

Lugging blankets, lawn chairs, picnic baskets and children, several thousand people turned out Sunday for Pulaski County’s fourth of July celebration in the Winamac City Park.

Activities began at 1 p.m. in the park’s community building with demonstrations of spinning and candle making and displays of old farm implements and homemade bread and quilts.

Bonnie Fry, Logansport, showed the crowds wandering through the building how she spins varied-colored yarns using flax, sheep’s wool and other materials.

Mrs. Fry said she bought a 200-year-old spinning wheel a few years ago and her husband repaired it. “He showed me more how to use it than I knew,” she said. As she became more interested in properly learning how to spin, she took classes and began seriously devoting time to the skill.

Edith DePoy, Winamac, demonstrated how pioneers made candles by either dipping them in hot tallow or by pouring the tallow into molds.

She said she learned the craft nearly five years ago after her grandfather gave her a mold that had belonged to his father. She said she decided that since she had the mold, she should learn how to use it.

Roy Master, Winamac, displayed some old farm implements. He showed viewers an apple butter kettle and stirrer which originally came from Pennsylvania, a scrub board, a broad ax used for squaring timber, a brush ax used for clearing areas, a sausage grinder, a boot jack, and wooden blocks which farmers put on horses’ rear hooves to prevent their sinking in muck land while plowing.

The annual Winamac softball league tournament which began July 3 in the baseball diamond ended Sunday afternoon with Shepherd’s Sales and Service winning the championship game.

Herb’s North Side beat Central Soya and Star City triumphed over Winamac Jaycees Saturday in the preliminary games.

Shepherd’s won over Winamac Coil and Spring Sunday in the first game and then beat Star City 16-13 in the final game at 2 PM.

“History in Review,” a Bicentennial program presented by Pulaski County Federated Clubs, began at 7 PM and reenacted scenes from America’s history.

Thomas P. Shank gave the welcome followed by an introduction by Mrs. Harry J. DePoy, president of Federated Clubs.

A float constructed by Harry DePoy and his sons provided the backdrop for the seven depictions. Narrating the first scene, Columbus Discovers America, was Mrs. Russel Nale.

Mrs. Neal Hiatt told about the Landing of the Mayflower and the Rev. Harold Oechsle reviewed The First Thanksgiving. Robert Conn gave Patrick Henry’s famous speech and Mrs. Robert Redweik read a poem describing Paul Revere’s midnight ride.

Gen. George Washington, portrayed by Neal Hiatt, was voted in as Commander-in-Chief.

Men portraying the 56 members of the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence duplicated the original signatures. That replica will be buried in a capsule in the Pulaski courthouse lawn and is to be opened in 50 years.

Following the hour-and-a-half long program, members of American Legion Post No. 71 gave a 21-gun salute. Since the post didn’t have 21 guns, each of the seven members fired his gun three times.

Members of the squad were Dick Newman, Chuck Webb, Bill Webb, Bob Widup, John Kruger, Wilber Scott, Gerald Lebo and Keith Sayers.

Before the program had ended, people had begun moving their blankets and chairs to the area where the annual fireworks display was to occur at dusk.

Cars and vans vying for choice spots along the fence area had long ago parked to insure good viewing positions.

The fireworks display, which began at 9 PM and lasted an hour, was supervised for the 28^th consecutive year by Paul Fritz and Ralph Galbreath. The fireworks were provided through joint efforts of the Winamac Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs.