Township History · 1921
Community Meeting at Leo
The Fort Wayne News and Sentinel, Saturday, March 19, 1921, page 11.
On a Friday night in March 1921, one hundred Cedar Creek township residents came to Leo high school for the first community meeting of the Cedar Creek Township Farmer’s Federation. The speaker, H. M. Widney, told them the farmer “cannot exist without the merchant,” allowed that “we have crooks among the farmers, as well as among the merchants,” and called education “the most valuable asset toward keping boys on the farm.”
Transcription
Unofficial transcription, prepared from the archive scan for ease of reading, copying, and searching. The printed page is authoritative. Original spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing are preserved. Nothing has been corrected or modernized.
CEDAR CREEK TOWNSHIP HOLDS COMMUNITY MEET
More Than One Hundred Attend First Sociable Gathering At Leo.
H. M. WIDNEY IS SPEAKER
One hundred Cedar Creek township residents attended the first community meeting held in the Leo high school Friday night, under the auspices of the Ceder Creek Township Farmer's Federation. H. M.
[Photograph: head-and-shoulders portrait of a man in a dark suit and tie, captioned "H. M. Widney."]
Widney, one of the most successful farmers in northern Indiana, and a well known speaker, delivered the principal address of the evening. Allen G. Warner presided. County Agent Showalter gave a brief talk telling the reason for holding the meeting. It was later decided to meet again April 12.
Mr. Widney spoke in behalf of farmers' federations, but said that if any of them were fostered to kill other organizations, they should be denounced. He declared that the farmer cannot exist without the merchant and that cooperation and square dealing practiced by both would solve all the difficulties between the farm and the city.
"Just because I happened to get robbed on a bit of leather which I purchased today, does not convince me that all city merchants are crooks," the speaker declared. "If you will lok around, no doubt you will find men who have themselves manipulated a crooked deal, for we have crooks among the farmers, as well as among the merchants."
Mr. Widney spoke of the Chamber of Commerce, whose organization throughout the country, he said, is staunch because its members are united. He explained how it is necessary to have a strong organization among farmers, in order to be adequately represented in congress and in the state legislature, and in order that farmers might have sufficent money with which to counteract movements against them.
The speaker talked at length on education and educational facilities. He declared that every community should possess a consolidated school, so that the boys and girls might be given the first opportunity possible to cope with modern methods of living. He gave education as the most valuable asset toward keping boys on the farm, provided fathers carried their share of the responsibility by keeping the farm in good condition.
Notes
- The sentence broken by the photograph. The first paragraph ends "H. M." and the sentence resumes below the portrait with "Widney, one of the most successful…". That is the paper's layout, not an omission.
- Misprints kept as printed: "Ceder Creek" (once, in the first paragraph; "Cedar" everywhere else), "lok," "sufficent," "keping."
- "Farmer's Federation." Apostrophe placement as printed.
- "first community meeting." The article calls it the first such meeting at Leo under the Federation; it doesn't claim it was the first public gathering of any kind.
- "consolidated school." Widney's call for consolidated schools matches what was happening in the township: after the Hurshtown school burned in November 1909, its thirty pupils were carried to the school at Leo "each day by wagon conveyance" (News and Sentinel, Nov. 27, 1909, p. 1), and the 1912 trustee's report shows payments for a new Leo school building. The article doesn't mention either; this is context from other clippings in the collection.
- "Allen G. Warner." The 1912 trustee's report lists Perry Warner and Daisy Warner; relationship not stated.
- "County Agent Showalter." First name not given.
About this clipping
- Source
- The Fort Wayne News and Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana), March 19, 1921, page 11.
- Archive
- Newspapers.com, image 29322351 (subscription site). The images and transcription on this page are complete and free to use.
- Copyright
- Published in the United States before 1931 and in the public domain.
- Images
- Cleaned from the archive scan for legibility; the photograph was processed separately.
- Transcription
- Prepared by Robert J. Pfister, October 2026, and checked word by word against a magnified view of the scan.