10 Years Ago Former Leesburg resident, Mark Tarner, was honored recently as the Indiana Entrepreneur of the Year. He founded the South Bend Chocolate Company as a part-time venture in 1991, being incorporated in 1994, and the business has expanded from the original location and factory on Sample Street to 10 company-owned stores. Mark's parents are Don and Ruth Tarner, Leesburg. He was a Times-Union carrier in the 70s. He's even written a children's book about a boy who dreams of opening a chocolate factory. Bill Hilliard, president of the Center Lake Conservation Association, presented a proclamation from Mayor Ernie Wiggins to Walt Martin upon his retirement. Martin served the CLCA continuously since it was founded in 1980. 25 Years Ago Former Warsaw attorney Porter Williamson, now living in Arizona, found a picture, circa early 1900s, in a Tucson museum, of a group of men with an early “flying machine.” He sent a letter and the picture to the Historical Society here. The late William K. Mollenhour published in The Times-Union, in the early 1950s, an aviation column, “Sky Writing,” revealing that an early airplane was built in Warsaw, circa 1915-17, by local mechanics, headed by Chalmers “Domie” Dome, who is an uncle of Irene Dome, Winona Lake, and sold Hudson motor cars here for years before moving to Tucson, Ariz., passing away in 1986. Henry Anson, Frank Conklin, Marion Hart and George Mowrey worked on the plane, which had a seven and one-half foot propeller, powered with a 20-horsepower Detamble (car) engine. In a field near Country Club Drive (later a golf course), Marion Hart took the controls. On several occasions, the plane left the ground, not very high or far, but it flew! 50 Years Ago Rozella Ford Women's Golf Assn.18-hole officers: Marge Neville, president; Evelyn Niemann, vice president; Norma Pinkerton, treasurer; Jane Grossnickle, secretary. Nine-hole officers are Marie Fisher, president; Marjorie Mitterling, vice president; Frances Dobbins, treasurer; Sue Erwin, secretary. 75 Years Ago Starting Monday, August 5, the Times and Union will carry the comic strip “Freckles and His Friends” by Merrill C. Blosser, brother of Warsaw photographer, Lowell. Merrill, born in Nappanee in 1892, was expelled from school at 16 as his yen for drawing matter resulted in caricatures of the faculty, and finished school at Blue Ridge, Md. Merrill and two friends won a trip to Washington, D.C., through their artistry, were escorted into the White House and presented to President Teddy Roosevelt. Merrill grabbed a pad from the president's desk and whipped through a likeness of him. Later, he took a position with the Newspaper Enterprise Association, Chicago. Merrill gave two Nappanee boys their starts, Fred Neher and Bill Homan, who now have their own strips. He and his wife, Hayde, now live in Los Angeles. Lowell's studio here has two pictures of his brother with movie stars, Harold Lloyd and Douglas Fairbanks Sr.
