The La Porte
County, Indiana Genealogical Society met at the La Porte Park Department
Headquarters on Tuesday, August 12, 2014. The meeting was called to order by
the President, Dorothy Palmer. A business meeting followed.
Genealogist-Historian Fern Eddy Schultz showed a mystery photograph from the
files of the Michigan City News-Dispatch
showing a submarine on Franklin Street, in front of a movie theatre. Some
detective work, involving the title of the movie, led to the precise date of
the exhibition and more information.
After the
business meeting, a program by Lester Chadwick introduced many to an incident
in United States history. A chance remark overheard at a family reunion led to
Lester’s interest. Lester played a short
video which helped to explain what happened at Mountain Meadows, Washington County,
Utah Territory, on September 11, 1857. A wagon train from Arkansas, bound for
California, was attacked by the local Mormon Militia and a few Paiute Indians.
The adults of the train were killed, while under the Militia’s escort. Seventeen
children were spared, and among them was Lester’s Great Grandfather, Felix
Jones. Lester told of the insights which he has gained through research into
the Incident, and from gatherings of descendants of the children.
Program
chair Patricia Harris reminded the group that the presentation of the Residency
Awards will be the feature of the September 9 meeting.
The society
meets at 7 pm on the second Tuesday of each month, weather permitting, at the
La Porte City Parks and Recreation Department building at 250 Pine Lake Avenue.
The business meeting will start promptly at 7:00, and the social time and
refreshment period will come between the business meeting and the program. The
public is welcome at all meetings. For more information about the society's
activities in awards, research, abstracting, transcribing, indexing,
publishing, and records preservation, visit our website at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/.
