Feb. 25
In 1912, Cordia Martin, who was facing a burglary charge in connection with a robbery at New Palestine Bank, escaped from Hancock County Jail the day before his trial was to start. He was aided by someone who entered from a basement window; the two left shoeless, and Martin took Sheriff Jesse Cox’s revolvers when he left. Martin was arrested in Litchfield, Illinois, in October 1913 and finally stood trial in the 1910 robbery in January 1914; the jury returned a guilty verdict. He was released from the state prison in Michigan City in 1920 and returned home to Greenfield.
In 2017, Greenfield-Central High School junior Zachary Cook won a state championship in the 100-yard butterfly in the IHSAA Boys Swimming and Diving State Finals at IU Natatorium at IUPUI. He finished the race in 48.6 seconds, a school record.
Feb. 26
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
In 1937, 89-year-old Mary Jane Shockley received a leather-bound Bible presented by the Rev. Vern Krause and a committee from the New Palestine chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. A WCTU member had donated the Bible, to be given to the oldest woman in New Palestine, and upon that woman’s death, presented to the next oldest woman.
In 1974, five Hancock County Highway Department employees needed a crane, a dump truck and about four hours to remove an unwanted two-ton safe from the second floor of the Hancock County Courthouse.
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.
