Shelby  County,  Indiana
Historical  Articles
Populated  Areas

St  Omer

[St Omer is actually in Adams Township, Decatur County, Indiana, just east of Noble Township, Shelby County, and southeast of Liberty Township, Shelby County.]

          The present Officers of Adams township are:  Trustee, L W. Jewett;  assessor, Ed Shower;  advisory board,William Larrigan,  J. S. Townsend  and  Manford Slifer;  road supervisors,  Ed Hoffman,  T. M. Favor,  George Smith  and  Thoms Teitsort.

ST.  OMER.

          The little villiage of St. Omer is located in section 2, Adams township, and appeared on the horizon for the first time in 1834, when it was laid out by  John Griffin  and  A. Major.  It is on the old Michigan road and was formerly an important trading center of Adams township.  Scattered along either side of the famous old thoroughfare, which is the main street of the little village, amy be seen quaint old cottages, once the home of happy and contented people.  The first building in the town dates from 1830.  The Michigan goad was once an Indiana trail which wound its way through this country, and, from the opening of the "New Purchase" sto settlement, the trail became the main road from the southeastern part of the state to the new capital at Indianapolis.  With the opening of the Michigan road by government and state aid, in the early part of the thirties, taverns sprang up at intervals throughout its entire length, and these taverns, in many instances, became the centers of hopeful villages.  In St. Omer may still be seen a few buildings which were once used as taverns.  The Wilder property was once such a tavern.

ST.  OMER.

          In the early forties, St. Omer began to see visions of a railroad, but the vision was all the people ever saw.  The present Big Four was first planned to run through the village, but subsequent surveys showed that it would miss the town by about two miles.  Another projected road which was to pass through St. Omer was a line from Greensburg, part of which was actually graded.  However, this line never materialized, and since that time the town has given up hopes of ever having a railroad.
_History of Decatur County, Indiana_, Lewis Albert Harding, editor. Indianapolis, B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 1915. Pages 102-103.
[The article continues for two more pages.]
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming

The  Shelby  Democrat
May 8, 1879
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ST.  OMER.
(Special Correspondence of the Democrat.)
              St. Omer, Ind., May 7, 1879
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          --- Miss Lide Short  is attending the Normal school at Danville, this State.
          --- A couple of forlorn looking organ peddlers were seen in our town on Monday.
          --- Dr. J. M. Cook,  of Adams, was in our town yesterday, on professional business.
          --- The St. Omer school enumerates one hundred and thirty pupils, as per the trustee's late report.
          --- Owing to the perversity of the people I have no births, marriages or deaths to report this week.
          --- THE DEMOCRAT still coninues to be the favorite paper at this office, and its popularity is on the increase.
          --- Stogsdill & Co., of this place, are running a delivery wagon for the accommodation of their St. Paul customers.
          --- I would humbly suggest that playing marbles for "keeps" is not the best manner for our men and boys to spend their Sabbaths.
          --- The United Brethren held their quarterly meeting at the M. E. Church in this place last Sunday,  The Rev. Samuel McKee  officiated.
          --- Corn planting is being pushed forwar with vigor in this section during the present favorable weather.  A larger number of acres are being planted than usual.
          --- Benton Jordan,  who sustained a fracture of the thigh-bone some weeks ago, is able to walk around on crutches.  Benton says that he doesn't want any more wrestling [?].
          --- Work has commenced in good earnest on the new school building, and it will be rapidly pushed to completion.
          --- The fine building being erected for a hall by the Odd Fellows of St. Paul is rapidly approaching completion, and will be quite an ornament to that town.
          --- Almost any day now the average St. Omer housewife may be seen scouring over the firlds and in fence corners, armed with a knife and bucket in search of -- greens.
          --- The divorce case of  Slifer vs. Slifer  was tried on Tuesday, May 5, in the Greensburg Circuit Court.  There was a large number of our citizens in attendance as witnesses.
          --- Fine strings of fish are being brought into town every day, taken from the classic waters of Flatrock by our men and boys in a stricktly legitimate way, (i.e., with hook and line) -- so they say.
          --- Prof. Max Noukirchner,  who is at present teaching a class in the German and French languages at Greensburg, was visiting friends in town yesterday.  Everybody was glad to see the genial Professor.
          --- Jim Clark  says he would just like to find out who wrote to the papers about his black eye.  Come, come, Jim, don't get your brimstone [? two words] or I will send for the fighting editor of THE DEMOCRAT to come to my protection.
          --- Some cowardly wretch or wretches broke into a stable belonging to  Mr. John Marshall,  of this place, last Saturday night, and wantonly and maliciously cut a new set of harness in such a manner at to totally ruin them.  This makes the thrid depredation of this kind that has been committed here in the last month.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming

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