Boswell News

BENTON CO., Ind. - An arrest has been made after a woman fell off the back of a motorcycle Wednesday night in Benton County.

Janet Dwenger Kult of Boswell volunteers to help people she's never met and even those yet to be born. When someone takes an interest in his or her family history or Benton County's past, now or years from now, that person will find the facts, thanks in part to Kult's diligence. She enters marriages, deaths and other items that will interest future generations into computer files at the Benton County Indiana Historical Society, 404 E. Sixth St. in Fowler. 'My love of history started in my childhood home,' she says. From birth until graduating from Ambia High School in 1962, Kult lived in an 1874, two-story home built by her great-grandparents, John and Angela Brost. He had arrived two years earlier from Germany; Angela Shons was from the Kentland area. One of their nine children was Kult's grandmother, Lena Brost Dwenger, and one of her seven children was Kult's father, Urban Dwenger. A farmer, Urban married Alice Hasser, and they had nine children, Kult the second. 'The house was square, with four bedrooms upstairs and a bedroom, kitchen and living room downstairs,' she says. 'I liked living there, our large family all together.' When she was in the third grade, her mother gave her a camera, and Kult became the family photographer and historian. She was further encouraged in high school. 'My history teacher, Lucy Marko, inspired me. But when I read the 1883 Benton County Book, I noticed my family was not represented. I made a mental note that if I ever had a chance to work on a new county book, I would.' And she did, starting in 1983, when she was asked to help with the book published in 1987. She contributed photography and Grant Township information, and she's been volunteering for the historical society ever since. She's been treasurer since 1990, and since retiring in 2010, she's spent countless hours in the office recording history. Virginia Taylor, on staff at the society, is grateful. 'She relieves some of the burden I would have, and she's so interested in history.' In all, the Benton County database has records on 21,664 families. 'We have a lot of good people in Benton County, and they deserve to be remembered,' Kult says. 'Whatever I can do to make that happen, I will.' Her love of history was enhanced by knowing Benton County historian Harold Furr, who died in February. 'He worked 45 years to promote our county. I learned from him.' As for her own family history, she's spent time on that, too. She wrote four volumes on the Brost family and compiled information on her mother's family, the Hursts from Earl Park. She has 71 family photo albums, and in 2006 she wrote her immediate family's history. Kult also wrote a 25th Ambia High School reunion booklet and a history of her grade school. 'I used to have a sewing room,' she says. 'Now, it's a library.' Mayer writes about wisdom keepers -- those who keep the stories and share their knowledge -- in area communities. Email her at kathy@kathymayer.net.

Former NASA engineer Ray Hooker, 106, of Gloucester, received an Apollo Achievement Award for work he did to help Neil Armstrong land on the moon in 1969.