George Switzer – Plymouth to Paris

George Switzer – Plymouth to Paris

by | May 6, 2026 | Plymouth, Visitor Stories & Oral Histories

1918 Plymouth High School Basketball Team, Switzer on left.

George Switzer was born in Plymouth in 1900. He was a talented artist and at age 16 was chosen to illustrate the book, Centennial History of Indiana, by Judge John Kitch. George went on to graduate as the president of his class and studied psychology at the University of Illinois. He distinguished himself there as president of the arts and psychology fraternities, and as art director of campus publications. His first design business was launched when he successfully bid against Chicago firms for the decorations used in the college dances.

From college, George worked as a Bible salesman, where again, he excelled by doubling the business in 16 months. His desire to work in an artistic way led him to accept a job as an industrial designer. His work in Chicago led to an offer from an advertising firm in New York where he designed everything from envelope stickers to messengers’ uniforms and delivery trucks. Having made his name, Switzer opened his own office in 1929 as a designer and consultant. He subsequently worked for 65 American companies, and shortly opened an office in Paris, France. He designed a variety of things including letterhead, sausage labels and a Rolls-Royce automobile body. Switzer was instrumental in organizing the 1937 Exhibitions on Modern Packaging and Materials show in New York. He also promoted packaging shows in the U.S. and France. He won several awards for his designs internationally as well as stateside.

George passed away in 1940 following surgery for mastoiditis. His funeral was conducted in the Presbyterian church, and he is buried at Oakhill Cemetery. The print obituaries in the Museum’s archive summarize his life well, but it is the extra artifacts in the file that tell the real story. An article from a New York newspaper shares several nuggets about George:

“He still drawls, he still says mebbe for maybe. He might have been a farmer, except for one summer when he was nine years old, he ‘rented a piece of land from grandfather. I hoed and planted and watered all summer. The other kids were playing baseball or swimmin’. I kept careful books and at the end of the summer I had made 37 cents for four month’s work. I never wanted to be a farmer after that…’

“His interests range all over the earth: from re-designing ocean liners ‘so that folks will feel more like they are out on the seas that pirates used to roam over, instead of safe and sound in an apartment hotel…’ From that field, his interests range to ‘working out an art program for high schools…I am experimenting with it back in my hometown sort of…it’s based on a pretty simple idea that sounds sort of screwy when I say it, but here it is: Just teach kids that every place they leave, ought to be made more beautiful for their having been there.’”

 

Christmas Card by George Switzer.

George never forgot his hometown and remained close to his Plymouth family throughout his life. Our archive includes letters to his aunts and an amazing collection of hand-made Christmas cards. His designs are as imaginative and fresh now as they were when created in the 1920s and ‘30s. Each year George created a sophisticated work of art, very much in the art deco style of the day. He used metallic papers and inks, embossed detail, intricate folds and handwritten verse. In these days of digital greetings, these pieces of art are all the more charming.

This is just one file in the Marshall County Museum’s archives, and one more story of a life that made an impact. We are privileged to preserve these items to tell our collective story! Come visit this holiday season. The Museum is open located at 123 N. Michigan St., Plymouth, and open Tuesday – Saturday, 10-4.

Family Searches for Long Lost Nephews

Family Searches for Long Lost Nephews

by | Apr 30, 2026 | Plymouth, Visitor Stories & Oral Histories

Herbert M. Cunningham’s gravesite.

The Plymouth Republican of April 23, 1908 had an interesting article about a Maine family searching for long lost nephews in Indiana. The boys were sent to Indiana on an orphan train. The Orphan Train movement (1853–early 1900s) was a massive social welfare experiment that relocated over 120,000 to 200,000 orphaned, abandoned or homeless children from crowded Eastern cities—primarily New York—to foster homes in the rural Midwest.

About 20 years earlier, the father of the boys, William Morey, died and their mother, Lillie Dean Morey, was in very poor health. Lillie was sent to a sanitorium where she later died. Her brother, D.L. Dean, was unable to care for the boys, having a family of his own, so he placed them in a Boston orphanage who promised to take very good care of the brothers. Before long, the Morey brothers were shipped west on the Orphan Train. The Dean family were not told of their whereabouts.

The Morey brothers, William and Herbert, were both taken in by a Mr. Cunningham in Plymouth, who intended to keep Herbert and find another home for William. In 1908, Cunningham said that William had been shifted from home to home and “had a hard time of it.” At first William made his home with Preacher Clark in Plymouth. He later spent time with Sam Swaysgood, and then John Cook, living west of Plymouth. He returned for a time to Preacher Clark and finally went to Peter Brown in Michigan City.

Dean remained interested in his nephews and as time passed and he prospered, he began to seek information about them and their whereabouts. He found out “in a roundabout way” that William was working for a farmer in Michigan City named Peter Brown. He determined to take a trip to Indiana and look for his missing family. In 1908, the Deans visited Peter Brown in Michigan City. He indicated that William Morey had left his employ two years earlier, and he did not have a new address for him.

While they did not locate William, they did receive a clue about where to find Herbert. Upon visiting him in Plymouth a few days later, they found a young man close to turning 21. Herbert had a good home with the Cunninghams and was satisfied with his present lot. He did not know of the death of his mother, nor that he had an uncle and aunt living until shown a clipping from a LaPorte newspaper.

Herbert Cunningham went on to fight in WWI and was discharged to the Veteran’s Home in Marion, IN, with a diagnosis of Constitutional Psychopathic State. This diagnosis covered a wide range of problems, including shellshock. In 1920, Herbert was living in South Bend with his foster sister.

In 1921 Herbert married Mary Cannon, and they had a son, Rex, in 1922. He was apparently still struggling with mental health issues, as he was sent to Longcliff, later named the Logansport State Hospital, in 1929.  By 1930, Herbert was back at the Veteran’s Home in Marion. At some point he was transferred to the Veteran’s Hospital in Dayton, OH, where he died on September 18, 1969.

    This is just one of the fascinating stories contained in our archives. Our library is available from Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM. The Museum is located at 123 N. Michigan St. in Plymouth. Call us at 574-936-2306.

    John R. Jacoby’s Meat Preservation Technique

    John R. Jacoby’s Meat Preservation Technique

    by | Apr 15, 2026 | Agriculture, Plymouth, Visitor Stories & Oral Histories

    Food planning and preparation books.

    Meat preservation involves methods to retain the taste, texture and safety of meats. Artificial refrigeration began in the 1750s, and developed more fully in the early 1800s, but it wasn’t until the 1930s that refrigerators became popular in the U.S. Before this, knowing how to preserve food without refrigeration was vital for families!

    Read this excerpt from the memories of John R. Jacoby, born in Center Township in 1859, on his days-long process of preserving meat. Jacoby was a lifelong Marshall County farmer and secretary of the Jacoby Church and Cemetery in Plymouth, which his grandfather co-founded. The article has been edited for clarity.

    How to Preserve Meat by John R. Jacoby

    “First to do is to rub saltpeter over the meat. Then, put salt in the kettle, enough to cover the hams and shoulders good. Get the salt good and hot so it smokes.

    Take a hoe and dig a hole in the salt, then drop a ham in and cover it completely. Leave in for two minutes and then take it out and turn it over. Leave in salt for two minutes more, or a little longer according to the size of the hams.

    Then wash the meat again with Borax and hang the meat up. Let it drip for a couple of days, then smoke the meat all it needs. Then take down the meat and wrap in paper and put in sacks. Then it is ready to put away.”

    The MCHS and Museum is currently renovating its Dairy and Ice Room which tells all about the history of refrigeration and ice harvesting in Marshall County. Stay tuned for its grand reopening later this year! The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am-4 pm at 123 N. Michigan St. Call us at 574-936-2306 for more information.

    One-Room Jail in the Fire House

    One-Room Jail in the Fire House

    by | Mar 19, 2026 | Crime, Plymouth

    Feature Image. Old Marshall County Jail and sheriff’s residence, postmarked 1911.

    A “calaboose” was usually a one-room jail used to house transients and drunks overnight, before sending them on their way. The following un-edited articles were found in a couple of our early newspapers.

    Dealing With Crime

    According to the Marshall County Independent of November 23, 1894, “Every day a number of tramps drift into Plymouth and enjoy the luxuriant sleeping accommodations of the city calaboose. It is due to the efforts of Marshalls Meyers and Mead that these gentlemen of indolent leisure are induced to continue their weary wanderings after only partaking of Plymouth hospitality for a few hours. Unless this class of citizens is watched closely by the police everywhere, and more especially in the smaller cities, they quickly become a nuisance. The way to treat them is to give them some place to sleep at night and then send them on their way.”

    The Independent of December 2, 1898, said “A report made by the committee on police, heartily recommended that a new calaboose be built, and more, that it be built on the city’s property now occupied partially by the waterworks plant. It was deemed advisable to heat the structure with the waste steam from the exhaust pipe of the pumping engine. The facts which seem to argue strongest for erecting the new calaboose are, first, that the old one is uninhabitable and unsafe. Second, $12 a year rent must be paid for the old one, and the fuel costs much more. The matter of locating and constructing the building has been left in the hands of a committee who will report at the next meeting.

    A New Calaboose

    Apparently, the new calaboose was built, because the Independent of April 20, 1900, stated” The new calaboose has already been put to a very good use. For several nights it has been filled with those knights of idleness commonly called hobos and others of a more degenerative order.”

    Interestingly, Plymouth’s last “calaboose” was located inside the old Fire House. The headline of the Weekly Republican of October 13, 1910, was “Hobos in Fire House.” The article went on to say “The old calaboose in which many a “weary willie” has been sheltered from the icy blasts of a cold night in Plymouth, is soon to be effaced from the landscape of Plymouth. In its place, a cell is to be fitted up in the fire house, which will harbor the unfortunates during the winter months. The abandonment of the calaboose was made necessary because of the impossibility of heating the little house, as before. The council last evening voted to fix up a cell in the fire house.”

    Using the Calaboose

    The new calaboose was put to good use according to the Weekly Republican of September 21, 1911. “A well-dressed young man who was decidedly under the weather, made his appearance on Michigan St. Saturday at a little past 7:30. Being unable to keep the sidewalk, officer Jacoby was called to his assistance, and placed him in the cage at the fire house.

    The man was well dressed and offered practically no resistance to being locked up. Officer Jacoby states he is from Fort Wayne.”

    If you love trivia about history, check out the newspaper files in the Historical Society & Museum archives. We are open from 10:00 until 4:00, Tuesday through Saturday.

    Plymouth Was a Bicycle Manufacturing Hub

    Plymouth Was a Bicycle Manufacturing Hub

    by | Mar 13, 2026 | Business & Industry, Plymouth

    Feature Image. Rialto line to see Smiley Burnette, ca 1952.

    By Dennis Gibson

    During the 1890s, the U.S. was in the midst of its first bicycle craze. Bikes helped bridge the gap between horses and automobiles. The boom awakened an interest in good roads, furthered the cause of women’s liberation and was even linked to changes in social behavior. Improvements in bike technology fueled the fad. Once it was both safe and comfortable to ride, everyone wanted in. The average cost of a bike in the 1890s was $75 – that’s $2,625 today!

    Plymouth Cashes In On Bikes

    The attitude toward women riders was still very conservative during the 1890s. There were questions of whether women should ride, how they should ride, whom they should ride with and what their reputation would be if they did ride! The long, heavy skirts women commonly wore also made biking difficult. Bloomers and shorter skirts were an option but could draw scorn and unwanted attention. However, suffrage advocates praised the bicycle as means of giving women more freedom.

    Marshall County cashed in. Bicycle parts made in Plymouth were sold to dealers throughout the United States. There were two bicycle factories located here, as well as one that manufactured handlebars.

    Built in 1891, covering nearly 50,000 sq. ft., even featuring its own fire department, the Indiana Novelty Manufacturing Company was one. It was the largest factory in the world that made wooden rims for bikes, as well as mud and chain guards. In 1893, co-founder George W. Marble patented a method of making one-piece bicycle rims from ash that were both lighter and stronger than metal ones. Two carloads of lumber were used daily and by 1895, the plant was producing 700,000 rims a year, as well as 100,000 sets of guards. Indiana Novelty supplied nearly all the leading bicycle companies in the U.S. and had agents in most principal cities, as well as Toronto, London and Paris. They made more than half of the wooden rims used by bicycle manufacturers.

    Plymouth Cycle Manufacturing Co.

    Safety bikes were the alternative to high wheelers, or penny farthings, introduced in the 1880s. Some sources credit Marble with inventions linked to these and other early types of bikes. Marble also created most of the machinery used by Indiana Novelty in the manufacture of its wooden rims. In 1892, he and several other founding members of Indiana Novelty formed the Marble Cycle Manufacturing Company, with the addition of W.D. Smalley, who also had years of experience in the bike trade, and was the namesake for their bike, the Smalley.

    In 1894, the company was sold and became the Plymouth Cycle Manufacturing Company.

    “It is estimated that the company made approximately 700 bikes a year for the first two years. The output was increased to 4,500 bikes in 1895, with hopes of making 6,000 for 1896. It was reported in the Plymouth Republican that ‘Plymouth Cycle had been operating for months at 13 hours per day. The factory was limited to 5,000 bicycles but now has orders for 2,000 more.’”

    However, the country was in recession, and large orders that had been placed were never paid for. Plymouth Cycle was taken over by creditors Bass and McDonald. They reopened the factory in 1897 as the Elektron Cycle Company, but work was halted in 1898 and a judgment secured by former employees for wages due. The company’s machinery and materials were sold to the Shelby Manufacturing Company and moved to Ohio. The bicycle business that had boomed in the early 1890s became a thing of the past. According to the Department of Transportation, bike sales nationwide plunged 79 percent from 1897 to 1904. The craze was over.

    Smalley pins.

    Unfortunately, the MCHS Museum does not currently have a Smalley or Elektron bicycle to display, but we do have more good information on display in our transportation room. We always welcome donations of any items made by any Marshall County manufacturer! Our Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

    Mildred Bovee (1909-1979)

    Mildred Bovee (1909-1979)

    by | Mar 4, 2026 | Plymouth

    Feature Image. Image of Esther Badiac, Mildred Bovee and Berniece Strang, ca 1958.

    To celebrate Women’s History Month, we are highlighting some of the remarkable women who have improved the quality of life in Marshall County and beyond, not just for women, but for all of us. The following is a lightly edited story written in the 1980s by Betha Haag.

    A Portrait of Mildred Bovee in Words

    Some people do big things and some little

    Some succeed each time – some fail

    Some become famous and some never do,

    And some put their fingers in so many pies

    nothing comes through

    But this lady with hair turning grey, blue eyes sparkling bright and a gracious smile to greet friend or foe, finds that in the end the foe always becomes a friend.  She meets each challenge that comes her way with courage and wisdom, and never quits a task until completed  and completed successfully.

    This blue-eyed, eager, busy woman was born February 28, 1909 in the city of Chicago, the oldest of eight children.  She was born under the sign of Pisces, and is intelligent, brave and outgoing.  She has all these traits, and with her love of others she has a deep wish to make the world better, beginning with her own community and spreading out from there.

    After high school, Mildred graduated from Trooks Commercial College in Chicago, and always worked in real estate and the building and loan field in the city.

    In 1931, she married Carl Bovee in Chicago.  They are proud of their two sons, Kenneth and Curtis, and their five grandchildren.  But God works in a mysterious way “His wonders to perform”.  Both boys developed an asthmatic condition when small, and the doctor suggested they get the boys out of the south Chicago air into some area where the air was clean and pure.  Now where could anybody find better or purer air than in Marshall County?  Not only is the air purer, but many other things are better about this locale.

    They were impressed with Plymouth, and because of Carl’s previous business dealings with Allen Rudd, selected the Plymouth area.  They moved here in 1947 and began operating a motel.  The boys were never again bothered with any serious asthmatic attack after coming to Indiana.

    Mildred Bovee will be remembered by many mothers and fathers, for she arranged for them to talk to their soldiering sons via ham radio.  Through her kindness and thoughtfulness, happiness was given and lonely hours became perfect hours – not only between parents and soldiers, but between friends and relatives when sorrow struck, or when “Merry Christmas” was sent across the air waves to a daughter far away from home or an ill aunt.  American Field Service students were thrilled to talk to their families, even though an ocean might separate them.

    Mildred aided in all Civil Defense work when needed.  She could never sit with idle hands when there were tasks to be done – especially if those tasks would help others.

    Having started the motel business in West township, she became interested in the community and the 4-H programs.  She became a 4-H leader and West township was the first to have an electric project, which Mildred instructed and directed.  She was also active in the Parkview hospital auxiliary and in the work of the First Methodist Church.  She also found time to manage the family business.

    Her ham radio experience proved invaluable to the Civil Defense, and it served as a wonderful basis for 4-H leadership.

    Mildred has served on many county boards, providing constructive ideas and suggestions to improve and implement programs for the community and the organizations.  These organizations include the American Red Cross, the County Mental Health Association, Parkview hospital board of trustees and the Civil Defense board.  Mildred was a member of the Parkview hospital board for 11 years.

    As a member of the public relations committee of the Plymouth Business & Professional Women’s Club in 1958 with chairperson Bernice Strang, a survey of Plymouth industries and their products was conducted.  Employment and potential expansion plans were also part of the survey.

    With the cooperation of Plymouth industries and “The Pilot-News”, a week was designated as “Salute to Plymouth’s Industries”, with articles and pictures highlighting each industry.  There were articles about this project in the “National Businesswoman”.  One of the industries featured was Lemert Engineering, and the head of the business, Mrs. Eva Lemert, was then a member of BPW.  Her firm had produced an invention that marked a great forward stride in the aircraft manufacturing industry.  Eva Lemert and her firm’s invention were written up in two trade publications with a national distribution.  An article also appeared in the “Independent Women Magazine” of Washington, D. C., and the 1961 issue of “Who’s Who in American Women” included her in their publication.

    To this day, the members of the committee that promoted this project are convinced that their studies and actions were the inspiration to the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce when they later formed the Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation.  This committee, Mrs. Bovee believes, convinced PIDCO that a woman should be on their board, whereupon BPW member Rosetta Beiter Casbon served as the secretary-treasurer for several years, serving with distinction.

    Mildred has always had many hobbies.  Besides her pet hobby, that of being a ham radio operator, was the making of lovely arrangements of everything from the most beautiful flowers to the lowliest weed.  All through spring, summer and fall she gathered these items, and her completed arrangements would end up in the hospital, nursing homes, some sick room, or anywhere that they might add a little sunshine.

    Her latest hobbies are macrame and lapidary.  She and her husband Carl especially enjoy making lovely gems from just simple rocks.  They have ordered their own equipment so that they may make them at home at their leisure, instead of using the club house equipment.  They give away almost all the items they make.

    Eight years after the Bovees moved to Marshall County, Mildred became a member of the Plymouth Business & Professional Women’s Club, and in 1958-1960 she served as president, when the membership reached 148.  She gives the entire credit for her later attitudes, ambitions and achievements to the wonderful women she worked with through the years.  Without the leadership abilities that she acquired through her BPW responsibilities, she would never have attempted to be active in politics on a local or county level or served on the various county boards.

    In her new community of Hawthorne (a Leesburg, Florida suburb) she recently has become the editor of their community newsletter, “Penn-Notes”.  It is just two years old, beginning with four pages and growing to the present eight pages.  Last year she helped organize a tax aide service.  She and 11 other qualified residents attended a two-day training session and twice a week they counsel any senior citizen in the county.  These counseling sessions are held at Mildred’s church, the Methodist church, where she is also active in the Methodist Women’s group.  Missing her hospital auxiliary work back here in Marshall County, she recently signed up for service at her local county hospital in Florida.

    Mildred is in excellent physical health and keeps it that way by hiking, along with her husband, two and three miles a day.  The rest of their waking hours are spent outdoors as well, swimming, golfing, playing shuffleboard and enjoying archery, the consumption of citrus fruits and the Florida sunshine.

    Of her years as a member of the Plymouth BPW, Mildred has this to say: “We have had some great leadership in the club and the district, and I am certain that the newer women are availing themselves of all that the BPW Club has to offer its members.”

    I will close this biography of a very wonderful person, one whom Marshall County hated to lose and one who hated to leave us, too.  We close with her own philosophy of life, and I quote: “I feel that you are what you make of yourself or – we are our own destiny.  As you well know, we are happiest when we are serving others.”

    This is just one example of the personal stories and biographies contained in our archives. We welcome researchers to our library. The Museum is open from 10:00 until 4:00 from Tuesday through Saturday. Located at 123 N. Michigan St. in Plymouth, and our staff is always willing to help. For more information, call us at 574-936-2306. Check out our website at www.mchistoricalsociety.org.