August Meeting Wrap-up

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/.