Ralph Thornburg

Lived here all his life; his parents came up in 1915 to open their first drugstore (on alley on Main Street, then moved down to Pickwick Block after the first time it burned, down to present location in the Village); their drugstore was “a gathering place;” people came from the whole region, as far as Cincinnati, Chicago, Detroit – broad based – they came to stay in hotels, now no hotels, they come here because they own – not too many rental places anymore; Ralph grew up in the store; people came in for what old time drugstore used to sell – patent medicines to cosmetics to souvenirs to fountain, paint and wallpaper, jewelry; father and mother worked in the store; in 1921 or 22, something like that, he took Charles Crow/Kroh into the business;

Family lived on corner of Main and Lake – a block from the lake; used Public Pier – a half a block away swimming, bicycling, working as a child; Ralph worked at the store – anything that came along –fountain to sweeping to what-have-you; Ralph had a sister;

Everyone was more than welcome with open arms!

Uptown businesses: restaurants, grocery stores, variety stores, doctors, dentists, hotel; town was main hub of activity.

When Thornburg’s moved to the Village, Orval Klink already had his grocery store out there, maybe Tom Socks had his store, but there wasn’t a whole lot there; made business a little more convenient.

Ralph went to school here; grade school across from the library; high school torn down a year or two ago; rivalries between Milford, Webster and Warsaw; seemed like about 35 in Ralph’s class;

Syracuse Lake: everything ended about Smoker’s Addition; houses all through here, but not very many; pollution levels are probably up; used to have heavy reeds – finally they’ve given up;

Major events: theater fire – burned down twice; big events; Waco – orchestras came in – Cab Calloway –all ages attended

Restaurants: Syracuse Café; hotel at main and Huntington with restaurant/dining room downstairs; tearoom along about where Love Furniture is.

Personalities: Court Slabaugh (Ralph’s father-in-law) was the principal of the school; Eli (Lilly) was a person that everybody liked – friendly, outgoing, just like anybody else, used to bring his buddies up from Indianapolis every Spring to go fishing; miss being with customers – Lilly’s, Teetor’s, Spurgeon’s (Blanche and Ralph, Sr. were good friends of Spurgeon’s); Marjorie (Mrs. Ralph Thornburg, Jr.) says the basic difference in people really has more to do with television – “There were great story tellers in years’ past – that no longer seems to be true; I remember the old lady who used to live next door who’d keep our kids in stitches telling them stories about long ago.”

Winter: As a kid – ice boating – some regattas when ice clubs came down from Wisconsin and so forth, skating

Lot of people miss Thornburg’s – especially fountain – more talkative people sitting at the fountain drinking a cup of coffee or a soda, what-have-you – now you go to a store, you’re there, out and that’s it – you get your shopping done, pay and you’re out the door; Slower pace then – more canoes and rowboats.

Hoy ’s Landing and Indian Hill (no houses then) were about the only swimming beaches around when
Ralph was young. Any beach to be good has to be used – kids beat beach down.

Cement factory; Wilt’s Cedar Chest Factory (Todd’s condominiums now); Sheldon Harkless had a machine shop right on lot(where Ken Harkless’ house was in 1993)next to where public pier is – one son, Pete, had a Chevrolet (?) dealership- is (Pete’s) daughter is Betty Appenzeller “We’ve developed all we should – concerned with filling wetlands – we’ve built all we should have been building, as far as I’m concerned.” On the East Shore of Syracuse Lake (where Ralph and Marjorie lived), 60% of the homes are probably winterized – used to all be seasonal; house next door – they went up and over it; Dr. Stoelting’s house burned and a National Home built there – present owners are Waltz from Marion; all homes along there were not as they were built.

Where Phil Oppenheim built its bumper to bumper houses.