By TJ HEMLINGER
Staff writer

“This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me!” Elmer Heinley said with a broad smile as he received a Sagamore of the Wabash award from Gov. Mitch Daniels while surrounded by friends and family Wednesday afternoon.
The lifelong farmer, who will turn 93 in April, has been a volunteer fire chief, a Sunday school teacher and a Rotarian. But farming — and Helen,  his wife of nearly 70 years — has held his heart.
Heinley said he was born in Hell’s Half-Acre in Whitley County and eventually bought a farm from his father, who had in turn bought it from his father in 1917. He said the farm has been in the family since before the Civil War. The barn on the site was built in 1888, Heinley estimated. He has lived on the farm since he was two and one-half years old.
Helen had lived within three miles of the Heinley farm, but he didn’t know her until a friend, who was interested in her sister, introduced them in downtown Columbia City in front of the cannon on the courthouse square. Elmer never had eyes for anyone else after that, even remembering that she wore a purple hat that evening and they went to hear music at Tri Lakes.
“She’s one of the greatest assets I’ve ever had,” Heinley said Wednesday, with her at his side, smiling as usual.
The Sagamore of the Wabash award was created during the term of governor of Indiana Ralph F. Gates, who served from 1945 to 1949. Gov. Gates was to attend a tri-state meeting in Louisville with officials from the states of Ohio and Kentucky. Aides to the governor discovered that the governor of Kentucky was preparing Kentucky Colonel certificates for Gov. Gates and Sen. Robert A. Taft, who was to represent the State of Ohio. The Hoosiers decided that Indiana should have an appropriate award to present in return.
The term “sagamore” was used by the American Indian Tribes of the northeastern United States to describe a lesser chief or a great man among the tribe to whom the true chief would look for wisdom and advice. Each governor since Gates has presented the certificates in their own way. It has been said that one governor even resorted to wearing full Indian headdress as he read the scrolls. The award is the highest honor that the governor of Indiana bestows. It is a personal tribute usually given to those who have rendered a distinguished service to the state or to the governor.
In presenting the award, Gov. Daniels said to Heinley, “You have done remarkable things.”
Heinley replied, “I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve ever done. If I can make you laugh, I’m happy.
“I’ve never had anything like this. This is the culmination of a whole lifetime. But I couldn’t have done all I did without Helen, with the way she accepted things and pitched in.
“I just can’t express how nice people have been.”
Heinley started farming with six horses and three walking plows. He bought his first Farmall tractor in 1940, and working from daylight to after dark he could do 11 acres.
His fellow members of the “Liars Club” sit around a table at Copp Farm Supply Store that Heinley recently renamed the Table of Knowledge because he thought the former name “wasn’t dignified.”
Sheriff Mark Hodges teased Heinley about being a slow learner because he had told him his mother would lock him in a dark closet when he misbehaved.
“How many times did she have to do that before you learned?” Hodges asked.
State Sen. Gary Dillon told Heinley, “Truly, you are one of my heroes. You have spent your life giving to the community. You’re someone who looks at the community, works on it and does things even if they’re not easy. I hope when I’m 92 I’m still out there.”
Heinley represented the farmers on the plan commission for 24 or more years.
“We were called communists because we were telling people what to do with their land,” he recalled. “But we saw that Columbia City couldn’t grow without setting up a plan. The plan commission has worked really well.”
His career nearly over, Elmer Heinley said succinctly, “I don’t know of a person I dislike. I may disagree with them, but not dislike them.”