Welcome to Loyal, Indiana
Living History Village
1900-1925

1920s General Store

Rural general stores were operated in regular houses, and the telephone
exchange was in the front room. This house was built in 1910 at 124 W. 9th Street,
Rochester. The house was scheduled for demolition because the Rochester
Telephone Company had purchased it to make a parking lot. RTC donated the
house to FCHS. Fulton County Solid Waste District gave FCHS a grant of $8,000
to pay the mover so that it would not end up in the landfill. The house was restored
by volunteers. RTC donated $2,000 for materials. In the front room is an old
telephone switchboard, illustrating the fact that Germany had its own telephone
exchange. In 1913 RTC bought out the Germany Exchange but continued to list its
customers separately in the phone book, which is displayed by the switchboard.
During festivals candy is sold in the front room which has a candy case and old ice
Coke machine. Florentine's Beauty Shoppe and a barber shop occupy the back
room. Shelves and glass cases display items that would have been for sale in an
old general store but they are for display only.

Friendly Swartz Cider Mill

This cider mill was moved from near Athens in 2000. A grant of $3,000 from the
Northern Indiana Community Foundation helped to fund this. The huge iron cider
press was last owned and operated by Friendly Swartz in 1962. The cider mill was
built before 1900 and was owned by Frank and Lyda Moore from 1900 till Frank
retired and then his son Carl operated it. Carl sold it to Friendly and Vera Swartz in
1958. Farmers would bring wagon loads of apples to be made into cider in the fall.
Horses and wagons and Model T trucks line up for a quarter of a mile waiting for
their turn. They paid 3 cents a gallon to have their apples pressed into cider.
Originally a horse powered the mill's line shaft. Later a gasoline engine did it and
after REMC came in 1935, electricity provided the power.
Fulton County Historical Society Museums
Fulton County Historical Society
Located in North Central Indiana
Loyal, Indiana
Living History Village
1920-1925