Feb. 27
In 1898, the first Mass was celebrated in the new St. Michael Catholic Church building. The church moved in April 1954 to a new church-school building in the Weston Village section of Greenfield, but the original building remains on North Street.
In 1918, the Greenfield company of the Liberty Guard was officially organized.
In 1961, an armed robber made the assistant cashier at New Palestine Bank fill a bag with money, leaving with $5,815. Police set up roadblocks, hoping to catch the man days after a snowstorm had made many local streets sluggish.
In 1965, poet Barton Rees Pogue died. He grew up in Greenfield, and his family later moved to Indianapolis. He was a Methodist minister and a professor at Taylor University. He had a radio show on Cincinnati station WLW.
Feb. 28
In 1967, local sheriff’s deputies saw the car as half-full. That’s because someone had pushed the vehicle, stolen the day before in Indianapolis, down a 14-foot embankment into Buck Creek near county roads 500 West and 300 North. The 1966 Pontiac GTO had been stripped of its engine, transmission and seats.
March 1
In 1828, Hancock County was established from land separated from Madison County. Hancock had three initial townships: Blue River Township was the eastern third, Brandywine Township was the central third, and Sugar Creek Township was the western third.
March 2
In 2013, the Mt. Vernon High School girls basketball team won the Class 3A state championship. Mt. Vernon senior Rachel Houck received the Patricia L. Roy Mental Attitude Award for Class 3A.
March 3
In 1992, firefighters battled a warehouse fire at D&D Brake Sales for 15 hours. About 250 residents in a one-mile radius were evacuated from their homes.
March 4
In 1993, Eastern Hancock spellers finished first and second at the Hancock County Spelling Bee. Matt Wales, a seventh-grader, earned a return trip to the Central Indiana Regional Spelling Bee by correctly spelling “clandestine.” Erica Powers, a fifth-grader, was runner-up.
March 5
In 1985, voters in the Southern Hancock school district agreed to a local property rate tax increase of about 63 cents over the next three years. The vote was 1,030 in favor and 234 against. Following the vote in favor of the referendum, Superintendent Gene Pruitt said the school board wanted to replace elementary physical education classes and restore electives at Doe Creek Middle School.
