The Middlewesterner

LAST DAY OF CLASS AT OXFORD SCHOOL BENTON COUNTY, INDIANA A REPORT BY JANET KULT

LAST DAY OF CLASS
AT OXFORD SCHOOL
1874-2006
by Janet Kult

[My friend Janet Kult sent out an e-mail yesterday about the last day of school at Oxford Elementary in Oxford, Indiana. The school is closing and students will be attending a new, consolidated school, Prairie Crossing. Something has ended. Something new has begun. This is Janet's report of the last day's activities.]

What a wonderful morning I spent today! I wouldn't have missed it for anything. It started out at 5 till 8 AM at the school.

Today was the last day at Oxford Elementary School. Each of the kids had a new blue t-shirt that read, "I Closed Oxford Elementary School 1874-2006". The teachers & aids all wore them too.

Since [my husband] Joe graduated from there in 1960, and he couldn't be there because of work, I decided that I really needed to go; also to take pictures for the Historical Society (and I took 3 rolls of film).

The Principal Mr. Jake Kukartz let me go to each classroom and take photos of the kids till we went outside where a large group picture was taken with all the kids and teachers etc. I think someone said there were 174 students.

At 9 AM everyone came to the gym as well as community people for a final tribute. Many speeches were given, and of course, Mr. Atha had to give the Oxford "yell"and gave a lot of the history of the school and the previous schools in Oxford. Another former principal, Mr. Schneck was in attendance and gave a speech.

The oldest person in attendance graduating from Oxford in 1931 was present and that was Lorene Griffiths. She stood up when Mr. Atha announced her name. Channel 18 was there and at the end of the speeches, the reporter interviewed Mrs. Griffiths and also Mr. Atha. I was sorry that our famous Oxford person and historian, Mary Cross, was unable to attend. Thelma Glaspie is typing up all of Mary's stories to be published in a book.

Mrs. Brooks led the kids in one final song. Refreshments of cake and punch were next to a table that held year books from 1957, 1967 and other years.

There were a lot of stories told by members of the audience from years' past and quite a few tears.

A new chapter is just beginning for these students.

In the afternoon today at 1 PM, they are being transported to the new school Prairie Crossing for just an afternoon of looking around and getting acclimated. The actual first day at the new school is this coming Monday, October 30 where they will be joined by the kids from the Fowler Elementary School.

I finished at 10:30 and then came back to work.

So much fun and enjoyment for this perfect "fall" day.  I loved doing this.

DAN PATCH - 1:55

My new friend Thelma Glaspie almost

wanted to throttle me when she realized I didn't know who Dan Patch was. I had seen the "Dan Patch Cafe" in Oxford, Indiana, as I drove through that community on my way to the Glaspie's place a little farther south. That was on my first visit to Benton County, Indiana, in June, 2003. I had wondered outloud who Dan Patch was, that they'd name a cafe after him.

I am ignorant no longer. Dan Patch was a horse. He set a sulky racing record at the Minnesota State Fair in 1906, finishing the mile in 1 min. 55 secs. flat. The record stood unchallenged for thirty-two years, when "Billy Direct" tied it in 1938.

Dan Patch was born in 1896 at Oxford, Indiana, in Benton County, from the sire Joe Patchen and the dam Zelica. He was first owned by Dan Messner, Jr. The barn in which Dan Patch was born still stands at Oxford, still owned by the Messner family.

Dan Patch's first race was August 30, 1900, driven by John Wattles. His best time that season was 2:16. By the end of racing in 1901, he had reduced his time for the mile to 2:04.5 In the spring of 1902, Dan Patch was sold to M.E. Sturgis of Buffalo, New York, for $20,000. On August 2, 1902, Dan Patch stopped racing other horses and started running only against the stopwatch; other horse owners got tired of losing to Dan Patch and wouldn't enter their sulkies to race against him. The rest of his life, he ran against the stopwatch rather than against equine competition.

In the fall of 1902, M.W. Savage of Minneapolis paid $60,000 for Dan Patch. Thereafter the horse and its running prowess were used to help market Savage's "International Stock Food" products. That day in 1906, ninety thousand people were on hand at the Minnesota State Fair to see the king of sulky racing set his best time, 1:55. I believe Harry C. Hersey was driving the sulky that day.

Dan Patch pulled a tendon running in Los Angeles in 1909 and was put to retirement in the fall of that year. He died at the International Stock Food Farm in Savage, Minnesota, in July, 1916. His owner, M.W. Savage, died just thirty-two hours later.

Mr. Savage had intended that Dan Patch be stuffed, and the dead horse had been sent to the taxidermist. When Savage died, the family retrieved Dan Patch and, instead of having him mounted for display, had him buried secretly someplace on the farm. Exactly where I don't know, because it's still a secret; but I do know someone who knows someone who does.