Page 24 - Demo

Signed by Henry F r e d e r i c k Schricker, who was Governor of Indiana during the Indiana Territory Sesquicentennial, and made a few remarks during the celebration%u2019s luncheon. He is the only person to have served two nonconsecutive terms in Indiana%u2019s highest office%u2014from 1941 to 1945 and from 1949 to 1953. As a young man working in the Starke County clerk%u2019s office in Knox, Indiana, he spent a year studying law on the side. He then passed the bar examination and began practicing as an attorney. At one point, he was Chief of the Knox Fire Department as well as owner, publisher, and editor of the Starke County Democrat. In 1952 he gave a nomination speech for Adlai Stevenson at the Democratic National Convention. Schricker died in 1962, at the age of 83.The following nine blocks of four (without plate numbers) were most likely collected by George W. Purcell, who was appointed Acting Postmaster at Bloomington in 1933, then Postmaster in 1934. In 1938, he was national president of the Association of Postmasters, and he served as Bloomington%u2019s Postmaster until his death in 1952. Purcell had close ties to Vincennes, in that his family had owned the Vincennes Western Sun newspaper, where George received his early newspaper training. Prior to becoming Postmaster, he owned the Bloomington Evening World, the Bloomfield Evening World, and the Spencer Evening World. Purcell was an ardent philatelist, and encouraged many others to take up the pastime. A colleague said he had %u201cthe entire mail service at heart%u2014no one could have been more sincere than he was.%u201d George is buried in Vincennes. Each of these blocks has been autographed by an individual who was an Indiana political figure during the Indiana Territory Sesquicentennial celebration, or who had a important role in the celebration.