Anna Rex Sudlow

Anna has lived in the Syracuse area for all of her 96 years. The Rex farm was just over the county line in Elkhart County at Cranberry Hill (on SR 13 north of Syracuse, presently a trailer company).  She attended elementary through eighth grade at the Worley School (1^st crossroads past US 6), then Hex Grange school, followed by the Hex Consolidated school (still sits at CR 52 & CR 133, northeast of Syracuse).  Anna learned to drive at 12 years of age in the school hack that her father drove.  She continues driving today!  Grades 9 & 10 were attended at the old Syracuse High School (now upper parking lot).  The “new”er high school (where she attended elementary school is now lower parking lot) was built in 1927, which she graduated from in 1930.  Miss Lillian Hammon taught Anna.  She stressed matter & manner as keystones of successful public speaking.  Upon hearing her presentation today, all in attendance realized Anna learned her lessons well! 

Speaking of growing up, she told of everyone going to downtown Syracuse to enjoy concerts at the bandstand that would be put up every Wednesday night during the summer.  The roads were dirt.  Some of the stores through the years were (business located there now):

Grocery stores: Kindig, Miles (Anchor Bar), Seider and Burgener (hardware), A&P (Love Furniture/Revolving Closet)

Clothing:  Bachman’s Dry Goods (clothing & groceries), Foster & Harley Men’s Store (Star Store/parking lot), Mrs. Connolly’s Dress Shop, Yard Goods & Gift Shop (Dime Store – Mrs. Connolly’s La Petite dress shop upstairs/ torn down).

Quite a few taverns, Thornburg’s Drug Store – fondly remembered 15 cent pecan hot fudge sundaes, Hoch Rexall Drug Store (Burkholders) – 5 cent drinks

Churches: United Brethren (her church), Methodist, Church of God, Dunkard, etc.

Miscellaneous stores: hardware, Hollett’s Garage, several car dealers, Grand Hotel (NE corner at stop light in town), Sprague Lumber Company (car wash by railroad tracks), Disher Feed Mill (grain elevator, ice too), ice cream factory (two doors north of Hoy’s Landing)

Around Wawasee, every few miles there was a grocery store.  Solt’s (South side), Wright’s (didn’t mention location), ….

At one time, Anna assisted with cooking for a family near the Spink Hotel.  She has a bookcase from the hotel.

Johnny and Anna were Syracuse High School sweethearts. In 1931, Anna Rex married John Sudlow at the Goshen Airport.  Anna recalled, “We were supposed to get married while flying in an open-air airplane plane, but the weather wasn’t the best, the plane didn’t arrive, so we got married in the hanger at the Goshen Airport.” (Rev. Armstrong of the Syracuse Methodist Church officiated).  John’s grandparents (Charles A. Sudlow) lived in New York City where John lived for many years during the winter (presumeably he spent part of the summer at Wawasee).  She told a story about how they were headed for New York for their honeymoon, but ended up somewhere else.  John and Anna had to be back in Indiana by March, 1931, because John had taken a job at the South Shore Golf Course working for owners Roy Brown and Carl Tuttle.  They stayed the winter in the old Sudlow summer home on East Vawter Park Road. At the golf course, Mr. Brown took care of the course itself, Mr. Tuttle took care of the inside, and Anna made sandwiches, etc. (she didn’t specify what John did – probably mowing & a little bit of everything).  The couple rented a house in Syracuse for a short time because the Sudlow cottage was rented in July and August.  Then they lived in the green house in the woods behind where she lives now (pier #491, E. Vawter Park Road).  In 1935, they moved to where the pier shop is now, spending the winters in Brownsville, Texas.  Louis Solt offered her a job at his nearby grocery store.

As a child, Johnny helped people install piers – wooden horses with wooden posts & wired pier to them.  After a few years at the golf course, he came up with the idea of pipe standards.  He started by building a few piers in their basement.  Anna helped by sanding and painting.  Their first pier was for Mr. Conrad from Kokomo (#504).  In 1938, John quit the golf course and went full time into the pier business.  Anna did the book work, etc.  In 1940, they built the pier shop where everything was sawed and drilled by hand.  Anna emphasized that the pier business works “with the wind” – nature decides when the lake is calm enough so that the piers can be installed!

John and Anna bought the Ovid Butler home (#491) in 1965 where she continues to live today (2009). (c. 1855, Ovid Butler (1801 – 1881) established North Western Christian College on the outskirts of Indianapolis, serving as chairman of the Board of Directors for sixteen years; in 1877 the school changed its name to Butler University; son, Ovid Dyer Butler, lived 1837 – 1919)