The Great Fire of 1888
Early days in the search to solve a puzzle
The Pulaski County Library in Winamac has a genealogy section, and in it is a book of very old newspaper clippings. There are a number of them from Medaryville, although there are huge gaps in the record. I have made several trips there and tried to scan for things that are of special interest, or have some connection to the Old Medary Ville properties, relatives, etc.
One of those clippings reports a fire that took out, amongst many other buildings, “Cyrus Posey’s store, and home.”
Cyrus Posey was a Medaryville businessman for many years. His wife Martha was the daughter of Henry Poisel, subject of the article Genealogy. Cyrus’s daughter Mary married Frank Baughman, who came to Medaryville from Monon. He and his brother Lee operated Baughman Brothers’ Store, a large “men’s furnishings” store on Main Street in the center of town.
Frank and his wife Mary, Cyrus’s wife Martha, and Martha’s mother Mary (Poisel, Henry’s widow) variously at one time or another owned the Baughman house during a period of 1887 through 1919.
Tonight while I proctored an exam I suddenly realized that there is a possible confluence between a description of the fire in the newpaper clipping and a “walking tour” description of the town provided to the local newpaper in the 1960s by an elderly woman who grew up there in the late 1880s. Her name was Flossie Poisel, and it turns out that she was a daughter of James E. Low (of the Low Brothers Hardware, a successful early business in town) and Frank Baughman’s sister Mary Jeanette.
Her husband’s father was Henry Poisel’s second son George Washington.
I have a trip set to the library and courthouse on Monday to do a litle more looking-into the matter.
The official word is that the picture below was a successor business to the one that burned. As this story closes I’m not so sure. This building seems to be stucco on its exterior, a cheaper finish that was in wide use during Medaryville’s early days. Hopefully the future will bring some clarity.
Posted by Brian Capouch on Friday, November 17, 2006