Joseph Derr

On June 30, 2004, Judge Naus ruled that Benton Borough can utilize 50% of the Joseph F. Derr Trust distributions presently held by the Borough to acquire tools and equipment to maintain the Benton Park grounds. Future distributions of income from the fund may be distributed one-third for the Borough to acquire permanent improvements to the park and two-thirds to be utilized for wages, tools, and equipment for the maintenance, grooming, and planting of the Benton Park.

Who was Joseph Derr and what money are we talking about? What relationship did he have to the small community of Derrs in Jackson and Greenwood Townships? We will attempt to answer these questions and raise some others over the next couple of days as we discuss the man who was the son of Fred Derr, one of six children raised in "Derrs," at the crossroads of the church and the cemetery, a location once referred to as "Derr's Crossing," and later simply "Derrs." For information on the Town of Derrs, click here.

Eleanor Klementik, Third Street, recalls that her mother, Ada Young Dildine, was the daughter of Minnie, a sister to Fred. Eleanor's mother was therefore a first cousin to Joseph. Joseph was not a person to keep personal touch and contacts between Joseph and the family were not close. Fred, a lumberman, lived in Rhorsburg when he passed away.

Joseph Derr was born in Derrs May 6, 1906, and was raised by a grandmother and an aunt. He was last seen alive January 21, 1987, at the Hotel Playa Hermosa in Acapulco. Two days later his traveling companion, Donald Baggett, left Mexico without notifying anyone that Derr was missing. Police extracted a written statement about the case from Baggett, but he soon recanted and withdrew his statement, then stopped answering all questions about his companion until February, 1987, when he asked that Derr's $1.2 million estate be disbursed. In July, 1987, Baggett invoked the Fifth Amendment 78 times in front of a Superior Court judge looking into the case.

At the time, Benton's Mayor was Wayne Yorks, now deceased, and the President of the Town Council was Ted Whitenight. No one was more surprised than they were when they found that the town of Benton was the recipient of approximately half of Derr's 1.2 million estate.

In 1854, Hiram Derr bought 585 acres of land. He eventually divided the acreage among his seven living children and the family helped each other build homes and develop farms. The area became known as Derrs and a one-room school sprung up near the Baptist Church. The school house was known as the Chestnut Grove school house, so called because it was in a grove of native Chestnut trees near the Jackson Baptist Church and Jackson Cemetery. By 1885, a country store and a "Derrs" Post Office opened in a building located below the Baptist parsonage. Later Jack Derr built a building for a store and Post Office.

We'll slip forward in time in June, 1924. Joseph Derr graduated from Benton Vocational School, and following a love affair where his partner died, Derr left the Benton area ending up in Bridgeport, CT, to work for General Electric as an accountant. In 1940, Derr arrived in Evansville, Indiana, where he worked for Hoosier Cardinal, a plastics firm. Six years later, Derr and three colleagues left Hoosier Cardinal and established a company called Kent Plastics. Ball Plastics later bought out the company and with that money Derr and a native of Evansville, Robert Orr, (January 13, 1981-January 9, 1989), later the Governor of Indiana, invested in various ventures.

In 1952, Derr married JoAnn Raney, ex-wife of legendary oilfield gambler A. C. "Titanic" Thomas, whose history is interesting enough to digress to take the time to read. Derr tired of the marriage within a few years and began a relationship with an ex-reform school inmate thirty years younger than Derr, Donald Baggett. The two men began living together in 1972. Derr divorced his wife in 1965, but continued his working career. He founded Windsor Plastics in 1964 and stayed with the company until his retirement in 1975. He sold his interest in the company at that time.

A year later, in November 1976, Derr made out his will, leaving $200,000 to various people and institutions, and spreading the balance of his $1.2 million estate to Donald Baggett and to the Borough of Benton and the school district of Benton.

On January 21, 1980, Derr and Baggett were wintering in Acapulco. Derr left his hotel, Playa Hermosa, to go fishing alone. He never returned. Two days later, Baggett left Mexico without telling authorities Derr was missing. By February, 1980, Evansville police investigate the disappearance of Derr and locate Baggett back in Mexico. In February, 1987, Baggett requested that Derr be declared legally dead and his estate disbursed. Indiana law permits that a man can be declared legally dead if he is missing for seven years.

The probate court on July 29, 1987, grilled Baggett over the disappearance of Derr, while Baggett invoked the Fifth Amendment 78 times. The town and the school district of Benton first heard of their share of the inheritance following this hearing. Derr was declared legally dead January 21, 1987, seven years after his disappearance. Derr's estate was then put up for probate.