"Fresh Air School" to fight tuberculosis

     Due to the high number of tuberculosis cases in the area in December, 1917,

Mills School

Crawfordsville’s Mills School, at 801 West Main St., was the location of an educational experiment by the principal, Elizabeth Winter, and a new teacher, Miss Adda Fraley. An Indiana University graduate, Miss Fraley came across the “fresh air” method of education while attending special training in Chicago. “Fresh air” schools hold to the tenets of “fresh air, cleanliness, proper food, and sobriety” in order to fight tuberculosis. There were 34 students involved in this experiment, in which they wore warm coats made of horse blankets while the room temperature was kept at between 54 and 64 degrees.

It was thought that the students would be more alert, and learn more in the same amount of time, and that their bodies would be healthier from breathing fresh air, and not the stale air of a closed room. 

from Crawfordsville Daily Journal, December 13, 1917

Hoosier Chronicles--Reading Our Local Past

     Hoosier Chronicles, available on our Local History page on the CDPL website, is a wonderful resource for early Montgomery history.  Papers available are: four Crawfordsville papers from 1834- 1902; one New Richmond paper from 1900-1915; and three Waynetown papers covering various years from 1880-1930. Not only do you find marriages and obituaries, but various other events or legal matters in a family's life. Here are several examples from the Crawfordsville Recorder, 1835. 

Real Estate Probate

Directors of the Indianapolis and Lafayette Rail Road Co.
All Montgomery County Residents

Candidates for Local Election, 1835

and, of course, a SWINDLER!!!