Still close to home

JONESVILLE — Armin Mellencamp may have spent the better part of the past 70 years living in southern Bartholomew County, but there’s one place even more special to him.

“My heart’s still there,” Mellencamp said of Hamilton Township in Jackson County, where he was born in 1920.

Mellencamp, who will be celebrating his 90th birthday Saturday, attended Cortland School until the end of his freshman year.

“I wanted to play basketball, but my dad wouldn’t let me because you had to stay after school,” Mellencamp said. “He wanted me at home to help out. Then my brother came along, he wanted to play, and he was allowed to do it. I don’t know why. I guess he wanted to prepare me for working, and he did.”

In 1941, Mellencamp married his wife, Dolores, and they were married until her death in November of 2001 at the age of 82.

“She was a good, good person,” Mellencamp said of his wife.

At the time of his marriage, Mellencamp purchased 40 acres just north of the Bartholomew-Jackson County line near Little Acres. There, he and his wife raised five children, Roger, Carol, Brenda, George and Mark. The three boys all still live in the area, while Carol lives in the St. Louis area. Brenda is deceased.

His offspring have given him 17 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren (one of whom is deceased) and a great-great-grandchild.

Over the years, Mellencamp has added 155 acres to his farm and he also still owns farmland in Hamilton Township.
“It’s the only thing I’ve ever known,” Mellencamp said of working the land.

“I think I’ve been pretty successful at it,” he said. “I just know it’s been a lot of hard work.”

These days, however, he leaves most of the work to his sons.

“I’m their gofer,” he said.

There was one brief period, however, when Mellencamp wasn’t farming and he wasn’t living here either.

“I already had two sons when Uncle Sam decided he wanted me,” Mellencamp said. “All my friends were serving, and I couldn’t see why I should be any different.”

That was back in December of 1944. After ten weeks of basic training at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Little Rock, Ark., he was shipped to Europe with the 563rd Military Police Battalion.

“We sent 4,000 of them to state and federal prisons,” Mellencamp said.

He wasn’t referring to enemy combatants, but to U.S. military personnel who got into trouble and had to be sent home.

Mellencamp didn’t see any combat while in the army, but he did have the chance to visit Paris on five occasions.
“I rode my first subway in Paris,” he said. “I went right through the Eiffel Tower.”

Mellencamp said it was a great experience being in Europe, but he was ready to get out of “This Man’s Army” as soon as he was eligible. That was in March of 1946.

When he came home, Mellencamp said he told his dad he wanted to try something new when it came to farming.

“He didn’t want to,” Mellencamp said. “He wanted to keep working with his mules. I told him I was going to do something else if he wouldn’t try something new. He said, 'Let’s try half of it new this year.'"

That was the last year they did it the old way, Mellencamp said.

The new involved purchasing equipment such as tractors and combines.

“I spent a fortune for equipment,” he said.

The first combine he bought, however, was an Allis-Chalmers All-Crop Harvester.

“I paid less than a thousand dollars for it,” he said. “Now you couldn’t buy a tire for a thousand dollars.”

That purchase was made back in the late 1940s and Mellencamp said he still has an Allis-Chalmers All-Crop Harvester, although not the original one.

“It was the best for clover,” he said.

The Mellencamps also lived through the destruction of their home when a tornado lifted and twisted it off its foundation on April 3, 1974. That tornado was part of a super outbreak that spawned 148 tornados across the heartland. The tornados killed 315 people and left more than 5,000 injured.

“We rebuilt our home, and were back in it in August,” he said. “We lived in the old house until it was done.”

Besides farming and raising children, Mellencamp and his wife spent a lot of time traveling.

“We went to South America,” he said. “We went to Hawaii. Everybody should go once, but I wouldn’t go back.”
While in South America, the couple spent time in Brazil and Bolivia. He also visited Europe with his wife in the 1970s and Armin said he’s been to Mexico three times.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes in my life,” he said.

Those changes include the advent of the telephone, the automobile and so many other new things.

“I hear the next 100 years is going to go even faster,” he said.

When he’s not spending time helping his sons farm or visiting with family, Mellencamp said he’s reading.

“It helps you learn things,” he said.

All in all, he said life has gone by much too quickly.

“It’s been a short 90 years.”

At a glance

What: Open house being held by the family of Armin Mellencamp in honor of his 90th birthday

When: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday

Where: Hamilton Township Volunteer Fire Department station in Cortland