Checkerdom's Holy Grail passed from Henderson 50 years ago

By FRANK BOYETT, Gleaner staff
April 23, 2006

Checkers is kind of like comedian Rodney Dangerfield in that it doesn't get much respect.

That's because it has a little of an image problem. The popular image of checkers is a bunch of good ol' boys sitting around a pot-bellied stove in a country store or in an old fire station spitting tobacco in the sawdust and contemplating the next move.

And that's not far from the truth 50 years ago in Henderson. During this week in 1956 The Gleaner carried a photo on the front page of a bunch of checker players at Fire Station No. 1, which was located right behind the current Henderson Municipal Center. Pete Burton and Frank Buckles were playing a game while firefighter Bill Hayes watched, accompanied by Joe Miller and Albert Casey.

And that's not far from the truth 50 years ago in Henderson. During this week in 1956 The Gleaner carried a photo on the front page of a bunch of checker players at Fire Station No. 1, which was located right behind the current Henderson Municipal Center. Pete Burton and Frank Buckles were playing a game while firefighter Bill Hayes watched, accompanied by Joe Miller and Albert Casey.

According to the caption, Casey was "reputed by some to be the ruling champ around the station." According to the accompanying story by Hugh Edward Sandefur, Miller also had something of a reputation. "Miller is considered one of the leading checkers players in this area and is a frequent visitor at the Henderson fire station, where he engages other top players."

But Miller wasn't boastful. "I'm more of a collector than a player and play mostly from books," he said. And that was the point of the newspaper article: Miller's books about checkers, which Sandefur characterized as "one of the largest and most complete checkers libraries in the country."

The bulk of the library was originally put together by Guy A. Carlisle, who died in 1926 at age 78, and Miller acquired it after his death. Miller added to the collection, and sold the entire thing to O.C Spears of Indianapolis for $400 in 1956. His eyesight was failing and he couldn't really read the books anymore.

When he decided to sell his collection, Miller ran an advertisement in a checkers publication, and received about 30 inquiries, but virtually all of them wanted only select portions of the collection. Spears was the only one who agreed to take the entire collection intact, which is why Miller chose him.

"He preferred to sell it intact to someone who would appreciate it," Sandefur reported. The collection consisted of 70 text books, 30 match tournament books, 14 problem books, four complete sets of magazines, "several incomplete magazines with only a few numbers missing," four scrap books and three large ledgers of correspondence games. Miller often engaged in games played by postcard with players throughout the country.

"A number of the books in the library are no longer available and are real collector's items," Sandefur reported. The publications ranged from an English book for beginners that originally sold for one cent, to a master play concordance that originally sold for $55.

The Holy Grail of his collection, however, was a book by Roland Edwin Bowen. The book was known as Bowen's "Bristol" and it recorded classic checkers maneuvers as far back as 1755. "Everybody wants this, but I did not want to break the library," Miller said.

The book apparently is so rare that I could find no reference to it on the Internet - and that takes some doing. The closest I could come was a description of a book written in 1886 by M.F. Clouser, which was based on Bowen's notes, and was described as a companion piece to Bowen's Bristol. It was described as "very scarce," which gives you some idea of what the original Bowen book would be worth today.

That should give you some indication of how long the game of checkers has been around, although it comes nowhere near to the antiquity of chess. Chess players, as a rule, are somewhat dismissive of checkers when they are kind, and downright contemptuous if they are not. That's another facet of the image problem the game of checkers labors under.

I suppose since I've spent so much time telling you about Miller's library I really ought to tell you a little more about him. He was born about 1885 and his full name was Joseph S. Miller. He went to work for the Illinois Central Railroad in April 1905 and spent 40 years as a signal maintainer before failing eyesight forced his retirement in 1946.

At the time he sold his checkers library he and his wife, Annie, lived at 308 N. Green St. But when he died in 1962 he and Annie lived at 428 Cherry St.,where he died in his sleep May 21, 1962, at the age of 77. He also left two daughters, a son, four grandchildren - and a rich legacy of playing checkers.

100 years ago

On this date in 1906 word was received in Henderson of the death of Mary Towles Sasseen Wilson in Florida, according to an article in The Gleaner.

Wilson, who was originator of the idea for Mother's Day, had died in childbirth on April 18, 1906. "For several years she was one of the most popular teachers in the city schools, and she will be remembered for her institution of 'Mother's Day' in the schools."

75 years ago

Despite the onset of the Great Depression, Henderson had a total of 234 retail establishments in 1930, doing a total of $5 million worth of business and employing 484 people, according to a 1931 article in The Gleaner.

Those figures come from a report from the Census Bureau and were based on information gathered in the 1930 census. There were 69 stores selling food, making up 30 percent of the total retail business, and there were 38 automotive establishments, making up 26 percent of the business.

25 years ago

Alan Taylor and Henderson Fiscal Court reached an agreement in 1981 in which Taylor would pay $1 for ownership of a newly formed island, according to an article in The Gleaner.

The island was located about 400 yards upstream of the Newburgh Dam and at that point was about 2.5 acres in size. It was the first time that fiscal court had sold unappropriated land since 1954, and apparently was the last time it has been done here. Taylor wanted the land for duck-hunting.