Contributors to the New Gym

By winning the 1915 Indiana State High School Basketball Championship, Thorntown secured enough funds to build a new gym next to the school. The gym was opened in time for the 1916 season. Many in the town contributed to the building fund, including my 3rd-great-grandmother Easter Vail Armstrong (mispelled in the 1916 Thorntown yearbook as Esther), my 2nd-great-grandfather Thomas Robert Jones, his oldest son Roy Jones and my great-grandfather Edgar Jones.

Source: Ancestry. 1916 Thorntown High School yearbook.

Another descendant in the extended Jones line later played basketball in this gym, Edna Florence Jones' son Thomas Hendrickson played basketball for Thorntown High School between 1935-1938. Tom, also known as "Toad" to my Gumpy, appears in several of his stories in my Gumpy's self-published book.