New Carlisle Historical Society President Endorses the Levy Renewal Campaign

Dave McWhorter is a familiar figure on the third floor of the Heritage Center, sitting hunched over a small working area as he turns page after page after page of virtually every newspaper publication in the history of Clark County – searching for two key words – New Carlisle.

The Enon Montessori School principal and president of the New Carlisle Historical Society is on a mission to identify and log the names of every person, place, business, or news item that found its way into print in either the Springfield Republic, Springfield Tribune, Gazette, Champion City Times, Springfield Daily News, The Sun and the Springfield News-Sun.

He is creating a database with all the Information so generations of residents for years to come will be able to view the history of New Carlisle, its citizens, businesses and growth dating back to its beginning in 1810.

The tedious hour-by-hour, almost daily undertaking, is only possible because of the Clark County Heritage Center and its archives. In six years, he has combed every page of all the aforementioned newspapers from 1829 to 1958, identifying all mentions of the city on the western edge of our community.

“It is the most underused resource in the county,” he says of the Heritage Center. “With no Heritage Center, I couldn’t have done this. It would have been too difficult.

“Without the archives, there would be no history available. We would be limited to people’s memories,” the educator stated.

To enable such labors of love, the Heritage Center needs your vote to continue its work. The cost of the renewal levy on the May ballot is less than 90 cents per month – approximately $10 a year – for a person owning a $100,000 home. A vote for the passage of the levy ensures the free public museum will continue to serve our citizens.

Article written by Jack Bianchi