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'This Is An End Of An Era' The late Andy Barlich was a friendly storyteller who was loved by many
People who knew the late Andrew "Andy" Barlich, of Linton, say he was a unique individual who paid uncanny attention to detail and held onto the "old way" of doing things.
Andy was a frugal bachelor, a slow-talking, friendly storyteller, and an independent guy who tended to his own business and spoke frankly about what was on his mind.
He didn't like things to change.
Andy always ate his evening supper meal promptly at 4 p.m.
The interior of his 1-1/2 story, three-bedroom frame home at 790 7th St. NW was simple with few modern conveniences -- just the way Andy wanted it.
There is a small, seldom-used window air-conditioner in the home and that's about it for the modern stuff.
A new furnace was installed about a year ago, but Andy had all of the vents taped up -- opting to heat his residence with a coal-wood burning stove that he also cooked on for decades.
He recently had bought a gas cooking stove, but his family said he seldom used it.
Barlich, who worked for the city of Linton's water department for 30 years until his retirement in 1989, died unexpectedly in his sleep the evening hours of Sept. 6.
Andy was born in this same house Sept. 28, 1928 in an upstairs bedroom and lived his entire live there except for three years when he resided in Indianapolis and worked at Allison Transmission and when he served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War from 1951-53.
Yearly, he raised an extensive garden filled with a wide variety of vegetables and tended to a grape arbor that has produced beautiful fruit for more than 100 years.
Andy had a garage and other outbuildings where he liked to tinker on things and where he produced some of the best homemade wine around.
Over the years, he also raised pigeon and chickens.
Andy loved to share his wine, grapes, eggs, and garden produce with neighbors and friends throughout town.
McKim's Auction Service will conduct a unique public sale Saturday at 10 a.m. at this two-acre farmstead.
The historic home, built in 1899 in the old French section of town in the former Olson Addition, and many of Andy's possessions, will go on the auction block.
Auctioneer Monty McKim said he's had few auctions over the years like this one.
"This is an end of an era," McKim said.
He added that when he walked into the home it was like going back 100 years.
"This is primitive. This is one of the last primitive little farmsteads in a community like this."
John Krischak, who came to Linton from Danzie, Germany, built the home 112 years ago.
Andy's parents, Vincent and Angela (Osredkar) Barlich, purchased the home in October 1923 and moved in a month later on Nov. 11.
Vincent Barlich immigrated to the United States from Yugoslavia in 1920 and saved enough money to bring his new bride to Indiana three years later when they came to Greene County.
Andy was born five years later -- the second child of the family. He had an older brother, Frank, who died a few years back.
The gated fence that's still around the home was erected in 1932.
Andy's dad tragically died in an underground coal mine accident in 1944.
"We found the local newspaper and papers from Terre Haute and Indianapolis that grandma had kept from the explosion. It was front page news in all of those places," Andy's niece, Jane Clark, pointed out. "She kept all of the sympathy cards that she had received."
Until 1998, Andy lived with his mother, who died when she was almost 100 -- 99 1/2 years to be exact.
"She died in her sleep as well. So she went very peacefully. She had lost both legs and for 20 years he (Andy) took care of her. He was never married and had no children. He was born and died here," Clark said.
Andy's surviving family is small. They include a sister-in-law, Doris Barlich of Speedway, two nieces, Jane (Bill) Clark of Shell Lake, Wis., and Patricia (Mark) Callahan of Brownsburg, a great-nephew, Billy Clark, and a great-niece, Stephanie Clark.
In recent weeks family members have been getting things ready for the big auction and conjuring up precious memories of this old house and remembering the good times they experienced when they came for frequent visits with Andy.
Doris Barlich said she'll always miss the weekly calls she received from Andy for years, promptly at 7:30 a.m. every Saturday.
The family has discovered extensive handwritten daily journals on which Andy scribbled out the details of his activities, the weather conditions, names of visitors and personal thoughts that span decades -- dating back to his high school days. Most were written on yellow-colored, legal size notepads and were found neatly bundled together with weathered rubber bands or pieces of cloth.
"Those journals aren't for sale," according to his niece, who's been working with her mother and Andy's sister-in-law, Doris Barlich, of Speedway, for the last three weeks, in getting things set up for the auction.
They've discovered that Andy never threw away much of anything. The family has found bundled receipts, letters, photographs, folded and used Christmas wrapping paper, and important papers dating back to the early 1930s.
"How many people get to see a family history like that?" Clark interjected.
There is an extensive collection of antique tools, non-mechanical garden implements, hand tools, ammo boxes, kerosene lanterns, bee farming equipment, a railroad lantern, pigeon cages from the 1930s and 1940s, old stoves, jars, bottles, an old cider press, whiskey and wine barrels, furniture, birdhouses, a horse buggy, and numerous other items.
In the living room there is a 1902 clock that came from the old North Linton Mine that will also be auctioned off.
Wallpaper in an upstairs room was hung in 1929 and it's still on the walls.
"It's going to be a guy's dream auction," according to Clark. "What is cool is, he never threw anything away."
Andy, who was a member of St. Peter Catholic Church and the Slovene National Society in Indianapolis, was a man for detail and dated items almost to a compulsive extreme.
When you walk through the house everything has little tags or notes attached that indicate the year it was purchased -- even a tag that said the last time something was cleaned or painted.
"My uncle wrote everything down," Clark said. "When we cleaned the house there were notes everywhere about when something was purchased. You took something off the wall and it said when it was cleaned and the date. It was literally a blast from the past."
Clark admitted that conducting the estate auction is bittersweet.
"It's like the end of an era for all us," she said in pointing out that her family came to visit in Linton every weekend when she was growing up in Indianapolis.
Andy owned just two automobiles in his lifetime -- the first a 1953 model. His last vehicle -- a blue-colored 1977 Chevrolet Impala -- is currently on display in the showroom at Kinnett Auto Sales. The mint-condition car has only 38,000 original miles on it.
"He (Andy) kept everything and Larry (Kinnett) put the original window sticker back on the car," Clark explained.
Another long-time family friend, J. Ken Wright, son of former Linton Mayor, the late Jimmie K. Wright, commented that Andy was a valuable asset to the city -- even after his retirement.
"There was always a city truck down here because they (the water department workers) were always wanting to know where stuff was. He had it all memorized -- where the water lines and water mains were," Wright said. "I've known Andy forever. We spent a lot of time down here talking and visiting and stuff."
Clark agreed that her uncle knew plenty about the town's water system.
"I never appreciated this about him. I don't think he had a photographic memory but there was something there. The week before he died some of the city men were out here and asked him some questions because he had it all memorized and knew where every water line in town was," Clark stated.
Wright continued, "Andy was such a unique individual ... Andy and his mom were just so pleasant to be around. They were just folks ... would you say we're losing a special generation? This is no more. You just don't see this anymore. People who know how to stay out of other people's business and take care of themselves."
Pointing to the old house, Wright said, "This will always be remembered as Andy's place."
Next-door neighbor Connie Kinnett said Andy was more than a neighbor.
"He was like family to us for years," she said.
It was Kinnett who found Andy after he died.
The previous evening she had baked him his favorite chocolate cake and made a big pot of goulash.
It was past his suppertime when Connie took it next door, but Andy came and sat at the kitchen table and talked with her for about half an hour saying he would put the pot of goulash in the refrigerator when it cooled.
The next day, she found his body in a small cot in his front room. He had passed away during the night.
The cake and goulash were still sitting out.
Connie says Andy was a special guy to many in the Linton community.
She remembers a sign that hung in his tool shed that read, "The best business is to mind your own business."
"That's pretty good to follow and he did. He was just a sweetheart," she said with a satisfied smile.