Locked bank vault holds secrets, but not family recipe
From the Farm
In our tiny town of San Pierre, population just about 200 people, there are very few secrets able to be withheld in such a small community.
As mentioned in previous columns, in addition to the annual fall migration of vast numbers of lanky sandhill cranes poking through the fields feasting on any leftovers following harvest, from grains to tiny scurrying creatures, San Pierre was once also noted for the grand and lofty Catholic hospital called Little Company of Mary, which was transformed into a nursing home in later years.
Established in 1854, the name “San Pierre” is said to be taken from an homage to a prominent French Canadian saloon owner, whose tiny shack selling homemade whiskey made this location in Starke County a stop-in-the-road destination, while other accounts credit the town’s naming to a French railroad worker named Pierre who helped settle the area.
At the turn of the century in the early 1900s, among our town’s most prominent residents and family names were the Dolezal Family and the Daly Family.
The Daly Family owned both the first bank in our town, as well as the first boarding house/hotel where traveling salesmen and other lodgers would often stay while passing through on business. Otto Dolezal owned our town’s general store which years later, after a fire, became the family owned supermarket where I worked as a grocery bag boy for Otto’s son Duane Dolezal. The store and the red brick bank building, both along U.S. Highway 421, remained side-by-side for years and