W. C. Madden

White County has been acquainted with loss since its very beginning. First formed in 1834, the county saw its first citizens, the Potawatomi, removed to Kansas in September 1838. As time went by, communities like Wyoming never developed, and others like Headlee died out. Numerous high schools, including Buffalo, Idaville, Round Grove, Wolcott and six others, disappeared with consolidation in the 1960s. Longtime businesses like Bartlett Ford, Ben Franklin Dime Store, Miller's Department Store, and Kentucky Fried Chicken are long gone. Manufacturers like Bryan's Manufacturing, RCA, and McGill Manufacturing have died out, and organizations like the Knights of Pythias, Monticello Jaycees, and the Moose have faded away.Authors W.C. Madden and Maria Salvo Benson lead a journey through vanished people and places of White County.

The Lafayettes, as indicated in the title of this book, refer to Lafayette and West Lafayette in Northwest Indiana. Postcards of that area emerged in the late 1800s as the population began to grow. Since those early days, the number of residents in Lafayette has grown to more than 70,000, and West Lafayette has increased to almost 45,000. These figures exclude Purdue University students, who number more than 40,000 enrolled each year. Postcards from Columbia Park in Lafayette, the Indiana Veterans' Home in West Lafayette, Fort Ouiatenon, and the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe in Battle Ground round out this diverse collection detailing the area's unique history.

The rotary jail was a very unusual architectural design. In response to a need for better control over prisoners, 18 of the revolving, escape-proof structures were erected in the United States from 1882 through 1889. There were problems. There were mechanical difficulties due to the extreme weight of the components. Unwary prisoners lost digits or limbs when carousels were rotated without warning--one lost his life. Because inmates could only be let out of their cells one at a time, some rotary jails were closed as fire hazards. This book describes in detail their construction, operation and eventual demise, as well as some of the colorful inmates that were held in them.

From its humble beginnings as a place to swim and row a boat, Ideal Beach eventually became Indiana Beach, a small amusement park where families could have good old-fashioned fun.Founded by Earl Spackman in 1926, its popularity was bolstered by the addition of a dance hall that drew the top bands of the nation during the Depression and war years of the 1940s. When Earl passed away, his son Tom continued his legacy, setting Indiana Beach on a course that would make it one of the most popular vacation resorts and amusement parks in the entire Midwest, delighting nearly one million visitors every year.

In 1947, the University of California and Yale University baseball teams took the field in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to play the first-1ever NCAA Division I College World Series. It was a two-day, three-game series with an attendance of fewer than 4,000. Today, it is a weeklong series held in Omaha, Nebraska, with eight teams, tens of thousands of fans and millions more watching on television. This book covers each College World Series from 1947 through the 2003 series. For Division I, the authors devote a chapter to each decade, and then richly cover each game of each series. They also provide information on standout players' careers (in baseball and other professions). The NCAA Division II and III team championships are also covered comprehensively if briefly, and an appendix features short profiles of great college coaches.

Residents of and visitors to Broward County might not realize how many haunting tales are connected to the many popular beaches, roadways and destinations here. What really happened to six aircraft that went missing in what might be one corner of the Devil's Triangle? Does a shape-shifting panther man lurk in the wild places off the Dixie Highway? Just how many startling specters have appeared over the years at the county's restaurants, inns and buildings? Authors Dorothy Salvo Davis and W.C. Madden reveal these stories and more in Ghosts and Mysteries of Broward County.

For a dozen years during the 1940s and 1950s more than 600 women played professional baseball in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Some of these women compiled some eye-popping statistics unequaled by their male counterparts: Sophie Kurys swiped 200 bases in one season; Joanne Winter hurled 63 consecutive scoreless innings; pitcher Jean Faut sported a .910 winning percentage one season. Few know that Joanne Weaver was the last professional baseball player to hit .400 in a season: .429 in 1954. This reference book contains the hitting, fielding and pitching records of all women who played in the AAGPBL during its 12-year history. The book also contains all of the team and individual playoff records of the league, compiled for the first time. Included herein are rosters of the all-star teams, as well as a listing of all pitching and batting champions. A brief history of the league is recounted. Complementing the statistics are photos of the league championship teams and key players.

While Elwood Haynes and the Apperson brothers are not as well known as Henry Ford, Ransom Olds and other famous automobile manufacturers, their contributions to the automotive industry are just as significant. They were responsible for one of the first functioning automobiles, if not the first, in the United States. After building their automobile in 1894, the three men formed the Haynes-Apperson Automobile Company in Kokomo, Indiana, one of the first car manufacturing companies in the country. Three years after incorporation, a dispute over money caused the partnership to split up and Edgar and Elmer Apperson formed their own company. Both companies lasted until the mid-1920s. This book is a history of these automotive pioneers and their companies: the Haynes-Apperson Automobile Company, the Haynes Automobile Company, and the Apperson Brothers Automobile Company. It is richly illustrated with photographs of the factories, automobiles, personalities and advertisements.

For a dozen years in the 1940s and 1950s, more than 700 women played professional baseball in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Though some saw their brand of ball as a sideshow or wartime diversion, the women were all tough competitors and superb athletes. They set records that remain unequaled by their male counterparts, including Sophie Kurys' 201 stolen bases in a single season and Joanne Winter's 63 consecutive scoreless innings. And the 1944 AAGPBL All-Star game was the first night game at Chicago's Wrigley Field. This is the most comprehensive look ever at the players of this women's league. From Velma Abbott to Agnes "Aggie" Zurkowski, over 600 players are profiled. For each player, vital dates, place of birth, height, weight, defensive position, teams played for and seasons active are provided, along with complete career statistics. These data are followed (in most cases) by a brief biographical sketch that details the player's career, how she came to play in the league and information on her post-baseball career. Most of the photographs are from the personal files of the players and have never before been published.

One of the first minor leagues in history, the Western League (previously the Northwestern League) was founded by Ban Johnson in 1885 and was the predecessor of today's American League. The Western League endured a season to season existence until Johnson created the American League and the Western continued to be a part of the minors, employing such future Hall of Famers as Charles Comiskey, Dizzy Dean, and Connie Mack. The league's demise in the minors came in the 1950s, but it was revived in 1995 as an independent league on the West Coast with no relation to the majors. This work begins with an introduction to the Western League and documents the history of the Western and the American leagues from 1885 through 1999. Included are photographs of teams and players who participated in the league and in-depth team and individual player statistics.

North Central Indiana is rich in farmlands, wind turbines, and small towns. It is also thick with ghosts. Ghastly apparitions roam the town of Battle Ground, where the infamous Battle of Tippecanoe occurred. A woman trying to put her life back together soon found herself disturbed by inexplicable events in a Fountain County apartment. Roads in Newton, Clinton, and Grant counties are but a few such roads where strange things suddenly appear--and often just as quickly disappear. The Rotary Jail Museum in Crawfordsville is said to have a pair of resident spirits. Purdue University and Indiana Beach harbor their own eerie tales. Join authors and paranormal investigators W.C. Madden and Maria Salvo Benson on a spine-tingling journey of the haunts of North Central Indiana.