Noble and LaGrange Counties' Bicentennial Salute by KPC Media Group

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Bicentennial Salute

A special two-part supplement to The News Sun, The Advance Leader and the Albion New Era.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

Two hundred years and counting BY LEE SAUER

In 200 years of statehood, Indiana, the smallest of 12 Midwestern states, has grown accustomed to being overlooked. From the moment its borders were drawn, Indiana’s 280-mile, northsouth axis put it in the path of American growth and progress. But no one seemed to notice — or when they did, they did so with derision. Old-time travelers nicknamed the state “crossroads of America.” In other words, a place to pass through, not a destination. And yesteryear’s wags referred to the state’s residents as “Hoosiers,” a derogatory term meaning “uncouth simpleton.” In more recent times, Indiana’s conservatism and religiosity have left it out of step with a changing and secular world. Again, U.S. sentiment seems to say, it’s a quaint place to visit for a Super Bowl or NCAA finals —but who would want to live there? Today, sophisticated travelers refer to Indiana (together with its Midwest neighbors) as a “flyover state.” But lack of notice is not the same as lack of importance. Indiana’s place in American history is second to none. *** Think the only war on U.S. soil was the American Civil War? Think again. Residents of Indiana live on a battleground. When U.S. expansion backed eastern woodland Indians up against the prairie — the very limit of the vast, seemingly endless forest which began

at the nation’s East Coast and essentially ended at Indiana’s western border — this land’s native people made a last desperate, violent stand. Historians commonly call these fights The Indian Wars. Hoosiers’ modern life bustles them past places with names of incredible historical significance: Fort Wayne, Tippecanoe, Mississinewa. And yet, the significance of these places has contracted over time. Now they are memorialized by historical markers on busy streets or near a cornfield. Or parks for walking the dog. *** Indiana’s history since settlement by Americans survived better. Ask any child about Indiana’s pioneers, and they will tell the story of brave, hardworking families willing to face dangers in an untamed land. Less well known is the pattern of settlement. Blocked by an impenetrable natural wonder known as the “Black Swamp” (which covered the northern half of Ohio), Indiana’s residents largely came from the south. That simple fact reverberates today in our state’s religion, race relations, government and speech. *** The pioneer era led to the romantic period for which Indiana is best known: The time of the family farm. With the arrival of trains, towns popped up all over the state. Markets across the country came within reach. And products from eastern cities became available here. With automobiles,

manufacturing now provide the economic motor. But neither is as embraceable as singlefamily farming. Both bring environmental and social challenges. And neither can honestly promise a secure financial future. It’s an era still in progress, its history largely unwritten. When Indiana gets national notice today, it’s when the state passes a law, or a politician makes a statement, that swims against the national current. *** Two hundred years. Twenty decades. That’s how we’ve arrived at Indiana’s bicentennial. What follows is a series of articles on our state’s story, decade by decade. Each 10-year period is associated with a topic connected to that time. We’ll discuss topics introduced above, plus a few more. With reverence for the past and hope for the future, happy birthday, Indiana! ABOUT THE WRITER

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF THE INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

HISTORIC MAP — shows the Northwest Territory before Indiana statehood.

isolation melted further. Growth and prosperity came within reach of anyone willing to work hard. This was the time of Friday night basketball games, Saturday night visits to town, 4-H and

county fairs. For more than 100 years, family farms served as the backbone of the state’s economy. It went on so long, and became so intertwined with the state’s

image, it seemed impossible it should end. *** Since the passing of the family farm, Indiana has struggled for a new identity. Industrial farming and

Formerly a teacher, commercial ﬁsherman and journalist, Lee P. Sauer now makes his living as a freelance writer, illustrator and handyman. He is the author of “It’s a Duesey!,” “The Many Lives of Glenn T. Rieke,” and the illustrated books for children, “Ralph’s Indiana Bicentennial Activity and Coloring Book,” and “Drawing from History: Abraham Lincoln.” Sauer plays lead banjo in the musical duo Schmaltz & Blarney. He lives in Angola with an ever-changing combination of daughters, chickens and cats.

County’s name comes from Revolutionary War hero’s home LaGrange County, which was established in 1832, was named after LaGrange-Bleneau, an 800-acre farm and castle near Paris, France, that was the country home of Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, otherwise known as the Marquis de Lafayette,

the French aristocrat and military officer who fought the Revolutionary War. The castle stood three stories tall, was made of dark stone and was surrounded by a moat. The castle had belonged to Lafayette’s wife, Adrienne Francoise de Noailles, who

came from an important family in France. She was married to Lafayette when she was 14. The castle, according to Who’s Your County Named For? And Other Hoosier County Facts” by Glenda S. Shull, which was published in 1990, and farm eventu-

ally would become home to Lafayette’s children and grandchildren, and it served as meeting place when Lafayette’s American friends visited France. About one-third of the county’s 38,809 residents are Amish, who dot the countryside with small,

medium and large farms and homes. According to the most recent Census of Agriculture, there are more than 1,500 farms in the county, ranking it first in the state of Indiana in the number of farms and the number of small farms. It also ranks first in the state in cattle

and calf production, first in the state in horses and ponies, second in the state in meat-type chickens, and second in the state and nation in duck production. About 3.9 percent of the county population is Hispanic, representing a community that has grown in recent years.

1816: Indian removal clears the way for settlement BY LEE SAUER

It is right to celebrate the bravery, hard work and foresight of the people who made Indiana’s statehood a reality. It is wrong to ignore the people who got hurt in the process. When the last history is written, two dark stains will mar America’s story. Most folks can name one: Slavery. But the other? It seems to have been swept from the American conscience. It, too, comes with a legacy of problems, but they seem remote and quarantined. What is that “other”

stain? Indian removal. *** Natives and Europeans clashed from the moment Columbus arrived on the continent. A pattern emerged: Europeans settled new land,; the natives became upset,; Europeans promised to stay put, but encroachment resumed. The natives responded violently. The settlers (or their proxies, soldiers) sought revenge. A truce was called. Promises made. And the cycle began again. By the time the United

States declared independence from Britain, natives of the eastern woodland forest could be pushed no further. Literally. The Indians had been herded to the forest’s edge — now the western border of Indiana. *** To describe woodland Indians of this period as half-naked humans living a pure hunter-gatherer lifestyle would be misleading. Natives longed for their old way of life, but they were dependent on trade. Guns, knives and tomahawks were their

weapons of choice. Native dress had turned into a stew of European and Indian style. Racial purity, too, no longer existed. French traders took Indian wives. Tecumseh, the great Shawnee war leader, had a British forebear. And both sides took the other’s children. William Wells, a fierce Miami warrior who fought alongside Little Turtle and would later leave his mark on Fort Wayne, had been abducted from a Kentucky farm. By the early 1800s, the woodland Indian way of life was rapidly slipping away.

Since 1860

*** To describe Indians as ignorant of American intentions would be misleading, too. The Northwest Ordinance outlined America’s plan for carving states out of the land between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Indians knew what statehood meant — land speculators, settlers. More land lost. By the late 1700s, the natives turned desperate. They raided Kentucky settlers. Afterward, they retreated north to villages at the convergence of three rivers.

President George Washington felt he must do something. He sent Arthur St. Clair to displace the Indians at the three rivers and establish a fort. St. Clair failed. Near today’s Fort Recovery, Ohio, natives routed the Americans. The battleground stretched for miles as braves picked off 600 retreating soldiers and camp followers. The war chief Little Turtle commanded braves to stuff dirt into the mouths of dead and dying Americans. See 1816 page A3

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1816 From page A2

The message: “Hungry for land? “Here it is!” *** In 1792, Washington sent General “Mad” Anthony Wayne on the same mission as St. Clair. Wayne defeated the natives at Fallen Timbers (near Toledo, Ohio) and established Fort Wayne at the three rivers. The back of the eastern woodland Indians had been broken. Tecumseh would try one last time to unite tribes. But, in 1811, while Tecumseh was away on a recruiting trip,

his erratic half-brother, The Prophet, attacked a U.S .Army force, led by William Henry Harrison, at Tippecanoe. The Americans won. For all practical purposes, violent Indian resistance in Indiana ended. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. A few Miami Indians — notably Little Turtle’s descendants — avoided the order. But the remaining Indiana Indians were marched out of the forest and onto reservations west of the Mississippi. Note the irony? Indiana means “land of the Indians.”

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INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

INDIAN LEADERS — Two Native Americans played vital roles in the Indian Wars. As a Miami war chief, Little Turtle, left, twice defeated American armies. After The Battle of Fallen Timbers, he led his people to assimilate with settlers. If the natives had won at Fallen

Timbers, America might have decided to leave the Northwest Territory to the Indians, and the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, right, would be honored as the father of this new nation.

1820s: Settlement moves from south to north BY LEE SAUER

Imagine Indiana’s north-south axis as a wick drawing moisture from the Ohio River. That’s how early settlement took place. Transportation through the eastern forest presented a problem. Sure, trails established by animals and natives over millennia cut through the woodlands, but obstacles lurked: Wetlands. Lakes. Quicksand. Across the top half of Ohio stretched the “Black Swamp.” Until drained and turned to farmland, the swamp blocked foot traffic to northern Indiana. The only dependable way to move people and goods in the early 1800s? Water. That’s why early Indiana

settlements clung to rivers and streams. From there, pioneers attacked the forest. *** After defeating Britain in the American Revolution, the United States claimed land north and west of the Ohio River. America named it the Northwest Territory. The new nation wanted to open this land to American settlers. The Northwest Ordinance of 1789 set ground rules: waterways would remain free and open to all U.S. citizens; once a territory achieved a population of 60,000, it could apply for statehood. The ordinance even laid out a plan for six-milesquare townships — a provision still apparent in county maps. ***

The Northwest Ordinance set important precedents that would echo loudly in coming decades. The free waterways clause established the sovereignty of the federal government. Although states had rights, they would bow to a greater whole — that of the nation. The ordinance also prohibited slavery in territories, making the Ohio River the boundary between slave and free states. This anti-slavery clause is often pointed to as the beginning of American conscience, when the country began to live up to its ideals. But notice that the U.S. Constitution and Northwest Ordinance come from the same time period. Why would Southern states demand slavery in one document, and prohibit it in

another? Historians point out that the Southern states agreed to prohibit slavery in the Northwest Territory out of economic selfishness: They didn’t want competition growing tobacco. As the Northwest Territory divided into states, political power tipped toward free states. In response, the South began battling for the admission of more slave states. The chess board for the Civil War was set. *** Indiana’s early settlers retained strong ties to the South. Most were poor and uneducated. Some held resentment for slaves, with whom they had competed for jobs. Typically, they moved from one unsettled area to another without title.

When a legal dispute arose, they moved on. These were not “Yankee” farmers— thrifty, puritanical, industrious — who set up homestead with hundreds of dollars in goods and equipment. Descended from Appalachian hill farmers, early Indiana pioneers moved “jinglety bang”with possessions strapped on the backs of family members and an animal or two. And, unlike Yankees, early Indiana pioneers did not equate leisure with sin. They often did not make hay or plant fruit trees. In the spring, if they assessed the forest’s acorn and beechnut crop to be sufficient to feed their animals, they planted little corn. Indiana’s only tie to eastern markets depended on the Ohio River. Produce from Indiana floated down

the Ohio to the Mississippi, then to New Orleans. The few eastern goods to arrive in the state made the trip by steamboat. *** The quintessential American story wound its way through Indiana. Thomas Lincoln got into a land dispute in Kentucky, so he moved his family to Indiana. The year: 1816. Tom’s son, Abraham, grew up with an ax in his hand, clearing land. As a teen, Abe worked as a ferryman on the Ohio River. Then, in 1828, a neighbor hired Abe to help float cargo down to New Orleans. Abe repeated the trip in 1831. While in New Orleans, Abraham Lincoln watched a slave sale. He never forgot it.

Albion was Noble County’s fourth county seat On March 1, 1836, Noble County was established by an act of the Indiana General Assembly. Before that date, the 432-squaremiles of land had been part of LaGrange County. Noble County was named for James Noble, the first U.S. senator from Indiana, who served from 1816 until

his death in 1831. Noble County has had four different county seats over the years. The first was, now Kimmell, on the Fort Wayne and Goshen Road. In July 1837, a commission appointed by the Indiana General Assembly, relocated the county seat to

Augusta, west of Albion in York Township. It remained the county seat until its courthouse burned in 1843. The county seat was then moved to Port Mitchell by a decision of a state Legislature commission that met in March 1844. Port Mitchell was located at the south branch of the Elkhart

River in York Township and became a growing community. A short time later, the Indiana General Assembly approved an act to allow citizens of a county to select their own county seat. An election was held in April 1846 with “The Center,” as Albion was then known,

selected. In 1847, the first frame Noble County Courthouse was completed in Albion and the county offices were relocated there. In January 1859, at a time when the county experienced troubles with outlaws and counterfeiters, the courthouse burned.

A second courthouse, completed in 1861, was built at the same site, at a cost of $11,000. The courthouse was replaced by a 2 ½-story red-brick structure in 1887 that was designed by E.O. Fallis & Co. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

1830s: Pioneer life was hard and scary BY LEE SAUER

Imagine life without electricity, grocery stores or 9-1-1. No community. No help. No security. Everything you eat, wear or use must be fashioned from what the land provides. That’s the life early Indiana pioneers faced. Modern conveniences and infrastructure have removed us so far from this style of existence that we’ve grown nostalgic for it. But don’t kid yourself. It was a hard, scary life. We think of our pioneering ancestors as farmers. And that was their goal — to fulfill Thomas Jefferson’s ideal of independent land laborers. But the forest got in the way. *** Our nostalgia for Indiana’s early days comes from the pioneers’ reliance on nature. The pioneers provided their basic needs — food, shelter and clothing — three ways: hunting; gathering; and farming. Before land was cleared and crops grown, hunting provided most of the food. Deer and bear were the main targets. Along with meat, animals gave fat for lard, skin for clothing, fur for blankets. A bear skin served as the cabin’s front door. Today, hunting is considered leisure activity. Pioneers considered it the hardest, most labor-intensive of their jobs. Men hunted. Women and children gathered. In the forest, pioneers

found berries, nuts and honey. *** Before dreams of farming came true, the forest needed to come down. Cutting trees provided cropland, but it also supplied building material. Tree trunks became log cabins. Branches became chimneys. Wood also provided fuel for the pioneers’ main energy source. Fire cooked the pioneers’ food and gave them heat in winter. Once land was clear, farming began. Pioneers grew crops we’d recognize today: corn, beans and squash (especially pumpkins). A pioneer family grew only what it needed. Why? Roads were bad. The few towns were virtually inaccessible. Selling crops was not an option. *** In modern terms, pioneer life wasn’t sustainable. Despite dependence on the forest, pioneers considered nature an enemy — a foe to be brought to its knees. They saw danger in the woods. Cutting trees opened land for cultivation, certainly, but it also provided a safe zone from wild animals and any humans who were not friends. So pioneers kept busy with their two primary tools: ax and gun. Under hunting pressure and loss of habitat, Indiana’s native animals could not survive. The bigger animals, which needed more space and made easier targets, especially suffered. At its See 1830S page A4

INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

ROUGHING IT— Pioneers relied on hunting, gathering and farming to provide their basic needs. They used the building material at hand — most often wood. Although modern Hoosiers pine for the simplicity and back-tonature aspects, pioneer life was difficult and dangerous.

Proud to be part of Ligonier, Indiana Since 1886 In 2009, Governor Mitch Daniels honored Star of the West Milling with the Century Award for longevity and community service. For 130 years, Star of the West Milling Co. in Ligonier has been turning wheat into flour, as well as offering employment opportunities and tax revenues for the city, county and state. When the mill opened back in 1886, it was celebrated as one of the first steel roller mills in the country, according to Ken Schuman, the facility’s current general manager. Schuman’s great-great grandfather, Marcus Lyon, opened the mill in the 19th century under the name of Ligonier Milling Co. Schuman is the fifth generation from his family managing this facility. Star of the West is the 14th largest milling company in the country. Its Ligonier plant produces over 800,000 pounds of flour each day for the wholesale baking industry. Flour produced here is sold to bakeries throughout the country and is used for cookies, crackers, pastries, pies, breading, pretzels and even licorice. A few years after being built, the mill was renamed Lyon & Greenleaf, Co, Inc. It remained that for almost a century. In 1987 the mill was purchased by Star of the West Milling Co. of Frankenmuth, MI. Wheat for the mill is purchased from elevators and farmers throughout the Midwest. In the milling process wheat is separated into flour, bran, middlings and wheat germ. This mill specializes in making the wide variety of flours necessary for the products they go into. The company has its own railroad tracks, allowing its 44 flour cars to be loaded and shipped to bakeries. The majority of its production though is shipped in bulk flour trailers. The Ligonier facility has 2,000,000 bushels of storage capacity. This plant grinds 6,000,000 bushels of wheat each year. At Star of the West our goal is not only to be a good employer, but also a good citizen of the community, participating in and supporting many local causes. We’re looking forward to being part of Ligonier for many years to come!

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1830S From page A3

founding, Indiana was home to buffalo (note the state seal), bear, panthers, wolves and elk. All are now gone. (Although recent bear and panther sightings have been

reported.) Even the soil, nourished for millennia by forest compost, couldn’t stand the abrupt change. Under farming techniques of the time, by the end of the pioneer period, the soil was wearing out. Note the contradiction:

Pioneer life required forest. By clearing land, pioneers destroyed means to continue their way of life. In any measure of time, but especially geological terms, settlers completely transformed Indiana’s landscape in an incredibly short period.

Under relentless pressure, the virgin forest and its inhabitants — both human and animal — disappeared. *** American history is littered with stories of pioneers who moved when they could see smoke from a neighbor’s chimney. (This indicated that the neighbor-

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

hood was too crowded.) They would move further west, clear more land, hunt until the game ran out. Then move again. That’s because pioneering was based on a myth: That the forest would never run out. But many pioneers

stayed put and grew into family farmers — the topic of our 1870s article. They made Jefferson’s view come true. That’s another reason for nostalgia for Indiana’s early days: That anyone willing to work hard and take a risk can build their own version of the American dream.

1840s: Canal mania strikes Indiana, America Currently, several serious companies are working out the massive problems behind traveling far into space, and — perhaps — around in time. Why? Imagine the payback if they succeed! Canals promised the same to early Americans. The technology was not new, but the problems of constructing water highways through vast stretches of unsettled wilderness were immense. The amount of labor needed — incredible. But the payback! People and products would be able to move freely over this vast, “new” continent. Midwest farm produce could reach eastern cities, and manufactured products from the cities could reach the farm. New cities would spring up. Land that had previously been inaccessible would open to settlement. The list of possibilities went on and on … Canal mania struck America. It hit Indiana particularly hard. Canals seemed the answer to each of our young state’s problems. All that was needed: bulldog determination and lots and lots of work. Oh, yeah. And money. *** To appreciate advantages of a canal, take a short mind journey: imagine your living room furniture piled onto a trailer. Now imagine pulling that loaded trailer down a road. Tough to get started, but

BASS PHOTO CO. COLLECTION, INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

LEAKY INFRASTRUCTURE — Canals leaked water, time, money and manpower. When railroads arrived, the canal era ended.

not too bad. Now pull the trailer off road. Yikes. Not so easy. Next, imagine that same furniture loaded onto a flat-bottomed boat. In your mind, pull that boat along the shore of a calm lake. Wow. BIG difference! Canals promised to replace pack animals, carts and wagons. The difference in economy could be incredible. Consider this: to move one ton of material over early American roads required eight mules, plus a team of human workers to care for the animals.

By canal, one mule and one person could move one ton … . along with an additional 29 tons! *** In equal measure with their advantages, canals presented problems. The first of which was getting the $#@*&^% things built. At first blush, a trench in the ground wouldn’t seem to require engineering. But think again. How do you account for changes in elevation? How do you maintain a consistent water supply? And, for crying out loud, what do you do when the

canal needs to cross a river? But none of this daunted Indiana. The state jumped into canal building with both feet. In early 1827, Indiana accepted a federal grant and made plans to build the Wabash and Erie Canal. In 1832, construction began. *** Then the Panic of 1837 struck. Indiana had overextended itself with internal improvement projects — like building canals. It couldn’t pay its bills. In 1851, the state would rewrite its constitution and require

that the state conduct its business within a balanced budget. It was a traumatic lesson — and echoes of 1837 can still be heard today. *** The remaining timeline of canals would be unsettlingly short. In 1843, even though construction wasn’t completed, operation began. That same year, the canal reached Lafayette. In 1848, it opened to Terre Haute. In 1853, it reached Evansville. In 1874, the canal closed. Problems were simply

too great. Even when boats operated at slow speeds, water washed over banks, causing erosion. Muskrats bore holes in the banks when water seeped through, the holes grew. Repair work went on continuously. And everyone who came in contact with canals mentioned mosquitoes. But the death knell for canals came elsewhere — from a new technology. It promised everything the canals had, and MORE! In several ways, canals provided a path for railroads to follow.

Ligonier’s founder Isaac Cavin chose life in the country (Editor’s note: This is from The News Sun files of the late columnist and Noble County historian Bob Gagen.) Isaac Cavin, one of northeastern Indiana’s earliest settlers, came to Noble County in 1832 from Ligonier Valley in southwestern Pennsylvania. His original intention had been to make a home on Elkhart Prairie, a stretch of rich bottomlands along the Elkhart River between Benton and Goshen. But after looking over the area he chose rather to settle on the eastern edge of Perry’s Prairie, a location then in LaGrange County that became part of Noble County upon its creation in 1836. It was there, about a mile-and-a-half east of the Hawpatch that he built

a crude slab hut on his property of some 420 acres that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would call home until their deaths in Isaac Cavin 1884. Considered the founder of Ligonier, which he platted in 1935, Cavin never lived in what would later become a flourishing city, choosing rather to spend more than half a century on his country farm some 4 1/2 miles to the northeast. Cavin was 23 when he left his Pennsylvania home for the country’s western frontier, which was still populated by Indians. On horseback he followed primitive trails to Pittsburgh, Columbus,

Ohio and Indianapolis, at that time a modest settlement of some 1,500 inhabitants. Looking for more sparsely settled country, he pushed northward to Elkhart Prairie. There he found about a dozen families, including those of Col. John Jackson, a veteran of the Indian wars and the War of 1812; Mark Thompson, William Pierman, James Fryer and Christopher Myers, cozy and content in their snug log cabins co-existing peaceably with the Potawatomi Indian neighbors. Young Cavin spent the winter of 1832 scouting the countryside for the best available land to purchase. Told of Perry’s Prairie to the east, he found some of it covered with hawthorn trees, hence the name Hawpatch.

At that time Robert Latta was the only settler in the Hawpatch. His nearest neighbor was Henry Hostettler eight miles to the south (and one mile south of the site of Ligonier), his next nearest neighbor was 10 miles to the west and the nearest settlements to the north were Lima (today’s Howe) and LaGrange, and Ligonier was then nothing but woods. Cavin was delighted with the Hawpatch and April 10, 1832, he entered land in Sections 1 and 2 of what later became Perry Township, on which he lived until his death May 3, 1884. Cavin subsequently bought several other tracts in Perry. On one he laid out Ligonier, so named for his old home in Pennsylvania. On a visit to Ligonier

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in May 1914, J.L. Cavin, Isaac’s son, said he had records belonging to his father which indicated that in 1835 he sold three city lots to Abram Pancake for a total of $3.37. These lots on the west side of Cavin Street are now the location of Lake City Bank, 222 S. Cavin, and adjoining businesses. Lonely in his Hawpatch home, Cavin returned to Ligonier, Pennsylvania, and on March 27, 1834, married Elizabeth Marker, who would be his wife for nearly half a century. A few days after their marriage the happy couple set off for the wilds of Indiana, making their way as far as Dayton, Ohio, by canal boat and other means of public transportation. It was slower going from there to Fort Wayne with a heavy load and bad roads. Two days after heading north out of Fort Wayne they arrived at the door of the cabin which Cavin had left three months earlier. Wild animals had made a sad mess of its interior and until the necessary repairs could be made they lived with the family of William McConnell nearby. In the Cavin cabin a bed was improvised by driving stakes into the earthen floor. There was, at first, no stove and the only table was half of a flour barrel. An incident often related by Mrs. Cavin to her grandchildren illustrates the loneliness and perils of early settlers. While working one day in the cabin she heard noises outside and, thinking it was Isaac, opened the door to admit him. To her horror she discovered four brawny, scantily-clad Indians sharpening their knives at a small grindstone. She

fell, half-fainting, into a chair with the cabin door left open. Finished at the grindstone, the Indians advanced to the cabin and made it known by their motions and a few broken words that they wanted to trade venison for bread. A suitable bargain was quickly arranged and the Indians departed. It was typical of Indians in this area, mostly Potawatomi, to refuse to settle in one place and take up farming, despite encouragement of the government’s Indian agents. They preferred instead, as illustrated above, to trade venison for foods they did not raise. In 1807 the village of Chief Five Medals near Benton was one of two in the area selected as the location of an experimental farming operation financed by the federal government and directed by Quakers. It failed to make agrarians of the Potawatomi. Numerous wandering Indians were Cavin’s neighbors during his early decades in Noble County and he maintained good relations with them. The Cavins “united” with the Presbyterian Church and he was always “a consistent Democrat.” Women at that time could not vote and were not active in politics. Cavin had been an invalid for nearly 25 years before his death but, according to his obituary, “endured his suffering with great patience.” His last words just a few moments before his death were “I see Moses and the Prophets.” He and his wife are buried in the Salem Chapel Cemetery about a mile from their home.

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1850s: Railroads tie the nation together In the pioneer era, each Indiana town kept its own time. Clocks set by position of the sun might say 1 p.m. in one town, 1:34 p.m. in the next; 1:18 p.m. in the next. Without instant communication or fast travel, who would know? But when trains arrived, everything changed. When people could travel at unbelievable speeds of 50 mph and more, time mattered. Distances shrunk. Possibilities grew. In a broad sense, trains connected Indiana to itself. And to the nation. *** Railroads fulfilled the promise of canals: they connected Indiana farmers with eastern markets. In return, railroads made eastern merchandise available in Indiana. A level of comfort and convenience unimaginable scant years before suddenly came within reach of Hoosiers. Trains brought this change by stimulating economic activity. Pioneer farmers began to grow more food than their families could consume. They took produce to town and sold it. With money in their pocket and a day off work, farmers

found themselves in the market for goods, services and entertainment. Merchants obliged. Farms grew larger. More wooded land was cleared. Trains brought more people and previously unsettled land became settled. More farms created demand for new towns, new roads, new schools, more merchants. *** Railroads gained steam slowly in Indiana. In 1838, the state’s first steampowered train carried a contingent of dignitaries 15 miles at 8 mph. With the state’s commitment to canals and subsequent money problems, public backing for railroads remained meager. By the late 1840s, only 100 miles of track existed within the state. Then, an explosion! Private companies took over railroad financing. In early 1851, 245 miles of rail had been laid and investors expected 500 miles to be in operation before the end of the year. Indiana’s rail lines led to northern cities. The North built networks that tied regions together. Southern states,

meanwhile, remained content with building short, unconnected lines for getting cotton to water transportation. The difference in these two approaches would become apparent in the coming war. The shift to eastern markets tied Indiana more closely to the North — and distanced it from the South. *** Tensions between free and slave states rose. Southerners contended that blacks were content with subservient lives. Or, even if they weren’t, were incapable of self-determination. In other words, blacks needed white masters to care for them like animals. Yet evidence said otherwise. Thousands of slaves risked their lives in an ultimate act of self-determination, escaping across the Ohio River into free territory. Because the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act mandated that northerners help capture and return runaways, the slaves headed for where they would truly be free — Canada. And they did so in secret. Indiana provided a path (in reality, many paths) and enough sympathetic citizens

to help fugitives along their way. So many slaves escaped that these covert operations across northern states earned a nickname based on a new technology of the time: Folks called it the Underground Railroad. *** In 1809, the year of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, no train tracks existed in America. In 1830, the year Lincoln’s family moved to Illinois, only a few, short sections of track appeared near the East Coast. In 1850, the year of the Fugitive Slave Act, 9,021 miles of track crisscrossed the Eastern United States. In 1860, the year Lincoln was elected president, miles of track jumped to 30,626. In 1864, Lincoln signed an executive order to create the first rail line to the West Coast. Railroads wouldn’t institute standard time until 1883 — in other words, setting schedules by one master time standard for all towns (whether or not the towns themselves followed suit). But by then, the work of tying the nation together had largely been done.

PIG-TURNED-PORK INSPIRES POEMS Although Indiana farmers and railroads depended on each other, tensions existed. Farmers often lost valuable livestock when it wandered onto the tracks. Grieving a hog, a farmer turned to verse to make his case to the railroad. He wrote: My razorback strolled down your track, A week ago today. Your #29 came down the line, And snuffed his life away. You can’t blame me; the hog you see, Slipped through a cattle gate; So kindly pen a check for ten, The debt to liquidate. The farmer received this response: Old #29 came down the line, And killed your hog, we know; But razorbacks on railroad tracks, Quite often meet with woe. Therefore, my friend, we cannot send, The check for which you pine, Just plant the dead; place o’er his head; “Here lies a foolish swine.” From A history of Eugene Township (Indiana) by Harold L. O’Donnell, 1963

Lima served as first LaGrange County seat The first county seat of LaGrange County was Lima, which eventually would change its name to Howe. White settlers arrived in the area in 1828 and found what had been a well-populated and widely known Native American

village called Mongoquinong, which is thought to have meant “land between waters” or “high land between rivers.” At one time, about 3,000 Potawatomi are believed to have lived along the Pigeon River in Lima Township. “Finally, the Indians

disappeared altogether when the U.S. government ‘relocated’ them in 1839. It was certainly not one of our prouder moments as a young country,” the Ladies of the Philomaths wrote in their 2014 book, “Historic Howe.” The first white settlement

was built about a half-mile from Lima/Howe along C.R. 575N, which runs between the North and South Twin Lakes. In 1829, Moses and Ica Rice opened a trading post, and they also built the first log cabin in Lima. Lima changed its name to Howe in 1909 because of

confusion with delivering mail and freight to Lima, Ohio. It took its new name from John B. Howe, the first, lawyer, teacher and banker in Lima, and the founder of the Howe School. LaGrange County’s first courthouse and jail were constructed on the Lima

public square in 1834. At one point, the town’s population swelled to nearly 3,000. But when the county seat was moved to the more centrally located town of LaGrange in 1844, the population began to dwindle, according to “Historic Howe.”

1860s: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War If Indiana’s only contribution to history was as incubator of Abraham Lincoln, it would be enough. Lincoln didn’t create the ideas on which the nation fought the Civil War, but his role proved pivotal. In his famous debates with Stephen Douglas, Lincoln helped frame the arguments. As president, he guided the nation successfully through its most turbulent period. Next, he skillfully anticipated the nation’s willingness to change and adeptly channeled that will. Finally, he phrased the nation’s new adherence to its founding ideals in a way that has inspired free people ever since. Most leaders melt under the glare of hindsight. Lincoln, the most scrutinized of all, glows. *** The nation known as United States of America came into existence through compromise. Along with enlightened ideas about individual rights, the new nation had to bow in certain cases to the status quo. Only by allowing slavery would Southern states approve the Constitution. Even the founders acknowledged the irony: that a nation built on individual liberty, and the idea that all men are created equal, would allow one man to own another. Most Southerners saw no contradiction. They did not consider slaves human. To them, the legality of slavery boiled down to property rights — and the federal government had no right to tell free men what they could or could not own. The South ostensively went to war over states

rights — it contended that if a state decided to allow slavery or drop out of the union, it had that right. Lincoln went to war with the idea of overarching authority: that of a nation over its constituent parts, and — in the final phase of the war — of freedom applying in equal measure to all people. *** Indiana stood for Union. In other words, it denied states the right to secede and fought to keep the nation intact. But after Lincoln deftly changed the role of the war with the Emancipation Proclamation, Indiana’s Southern roots were exposed. Suddenly, the war hinged on abolishing slavery and freedom for all. While New England states roared approval, Indiana murmured. Many of the state’s soldiers felt they had enlisted to save the Union, not free slaves. In contrast to Hoosier abolitionists who helped runaways, Indiana’s Democratic representatives in Congress bitterly opposed any movement toward equality for former slaves— including allowing blacks to deliver mail. The attitude became apparent in the aftermath of the war. As free blacks moved north, many Hoosiers, in word and action, encouraged them to keep moving. *** Lincoln built his lasting legacy on these ideas: that the Union was inviolable. If states could come and go, the United States no longer existed. The experiment in representational government would have See 1860S page A6

INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

UNION — Before Abraham Lincoln, the nation considered itself a plurality: United States of America. After Lincoln, the nation thought of itself in the singular: THE United States of America.

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failed. The nation must succeed — or fail —as a whole that, while all people may not be equal

in ability or means, all people were equal in rights — the most important being liberty and, finally, Lincoln insisted that one man’s freedom could not be extended so far as to impinge on the freedom of

another man. *** The Lincoln family moved from Indiana when Abe was 21. He returned just a few times afterward, most often when traveling by

train through the crossroad state to somewhere else. But Lincoln did not overlook his boyhood home. In 1859, in a speech in Indianapolis, Lincoln opened with the line:

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“Fellow citizens of the State of Indiana …” then noted that he had grown to his “present enormous height on our own good soil.” Lincoln’s last pass through the state took

place on April 30, 1865 — two weeks after his assassination. Lincoln didn’t survive the Civil War. But through his role in saving American democracy, his ideas live on.

1870s: Indiana dominates in politics and presidents BY LEE SAUER

In 1876, as the United States celebrated its Centennial, Indiana was in the midst of its Golden Age of influence on national politics. Thirty five years earlier, in 1841, the Hoosier state watched its former territorial governor, “Old Tippecanoe” William Henry Harrison, become president. And, in the year 1876, Thomas A. Hendricks was placed on the Democratic ticket with Samuel Tilden. (They lost.) Just three years earlier, Schuyler Colfax Jr. finished his stint as Ulysses S. Grant’s vice president. Yet to come from the Hoosier state: Hendricks would win his next vice presidential bid; another president named Harrison would be elected, and Indiana would provide the nation with even more vice presidents. *** William Henry Harrison got his nickname leading U.S. forces to victory over

The Prophet at Tippecanoe in 1811. It was just one notch in an action-packed life. Son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, William built his early reputation in the Indian Wars. He fought alongside Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers. After Tippecanoe, in 1813, he led forces in the Battle of the Thames, near Chatham, Ontario, Canada. (In this battle, Harrison’s old rival, Tecumseh, lost his life.) While still a soldier, William entered politics. After being Indiana’s territorial governor — and after moving to Ohio — Harrison served his new state in Congress, both as a representative and senator. Running for president in 1840 alongside vice presidential candidate John Tyler, Harrison inspired the election cry, “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!” The team won handily. Harrison’s influence on national politics, however, would be brief. Trying to

prove the old soldier could still withstand physical discomfort, 67-year-old Harrison gave a two-hour speech at his 1841 inaugural in cold, wet weather — all without benefit of coat or hat. He died of pneumonia 32 days later. *** It takes a fairly informed student of history, or an Indiana trivia buff, to know that William Henry Harrison’s grandson, Benjamin Harrison, served as the 23rd U.S. president. Benjamin had an impressive resume, if less spectacular than his grandfather. He practiced law in Indianapolis and served in the Union army. Benjamin owns the dubious honor of being one of four U.S. presidential candidates to lose the popular vote, but win the presidency by electoral count. Harrison gave credit to “Providence” for his victory, while critics credited Republican Party shenanigans.

Harrison gets praise for his support of African-American voting rights and education. And no man more conscientiously sought to do his duty. But phrases like “coldly dignified” and “colorless” described his demeanor. Out of the 43 men who have served as president, Benjamin Harrison usually ranks around 30th and his grandfather around 40th in the estimation of historians. *** Here’s a brief rundown of Indiana’s five vice presidents: Although a leading anti-slavery voice and founder of the Republican party, Colfax misstepped when he announced his own presidential bid (on the wrong assumption that Grant would not run again). His alleged involvement in the Credit Mobilier Scandal didn’t help. In 1885, Hendricks virtually repeated William Henry Harrison’s short tenure in office. Elected

INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

FIGHTER — William Henry Harrison lived a dashing, soldier’s life. He fought at Fallen Timbers and Tippecanoe. But his term as U.S. president would be the shortest in history — 32 days.

vice president with President Grover Cleveland, Hendricks served eight months. He died unexpectedly on a trip home to

Indianapolis. In 1904, Charles W. Fairbanks was elected vice president on Theodore Roosevelt’s ticket. Because of differing political philosophies, Roosevelt limited Fairbank’s role. Thomas R. Marshall served under Woodrow Wilson for two terms, 1913-1921. Like Fairbanks, Marshall didn’t get along with his boss. After a stroke limited Wilson, the president’s inner circle schemed to prevent Marshall from seizing power. Known for humor, Marshall originated the phrase, “What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.” Dan Quayle served with George H.W. Bush from 1989-1993. Youthfully exuberant, Quayle prompted humor, but mostly at his own expense. On his popular night-time talk show, Quayle’s fellow Hoosier, David Letterman, regularly used the vice president as a punchline before a national audience.

Amish have flourished in LaGrange County In 1844, the first settlement of members of the Amish Church occurred in the southwest portion of Newbury Township, according to the 1882 book “Counties of LaGrange and Noble, Indiana.” Daniel and Joseph Miller were the first to arrive horseback. They were on a prospecting tour, and had left Somerset County, Pennsylvania, two months prior to journeying to the township.

They stopped and decided to buy farms. They soon were joined by Christian and Joseph Bontrager. Amish settlers came first from Pennsylvania, and then from Holmes County, Ohio. Emanuel Miller and Philip Weirick also were among the earliest settlers. By 1881, the Amish occupied nearly all of Newbury Township, and were divided into three districts, according to

“Counties of LaGrange and Noble, Indiana.” The southern district had 161 members, the western district had 100, and the northern district, which included part of Van Buren Township, had 120. Each district had its own bishop and two ministers. The book goes on to describe the Old Order Amish settlers. “The Amish seem to conform their social lives especially to Paul’s instruc-

tions to the Corinthians, and renounce the world, even to the extent of casting out from among themselves all who have worldly failings. In avoiding the world, politics, of course, is somewhat neglected, but more formerly than of late. German is also spoken continually in their home life, and this is another ‘tie,’ and distinction from ‘the world.’ A marked degree of morality

pervades these people. The children are educated to read and write well, but higher studies are considered useless. Financially the are prudent, frugal and successful, and allow none of their members to depend upon the county for support.” The book goes on to state that in time, there developed a smaller group of New Order Amish, who favored going to water for baptism and and had more

freedom in their customs. A 2013 study by Molly Manns of the Indiana Business Research Center found that 19 percent of the United States’ Amish population lived in Indiana, based on 2010 Census data. Of Indiana’s 45,144 Amish adherents, 14,011 lived in LaGrange County, making it the most densely Amish-populated county in the state, at 37.7 percent, and second overall in the nation.

1880s: Family farms grow up in a hurry BY LEE SAUER

It would be folly to try to pinpoint when Indiana pioneer homesteads turned into family farms. Pioneering would continue, in one form or another, into the 20th century. But the transition was well underway by the 1880s. What made a family farm different from a pioneer farm? Family farms grew crops and animals specifically for sale; they depended on towns in which to sell their produce; they needed access to transportation to get that produce to market; they conducted business largely with money, rather INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY than barter; and they were MECHANIZATION — New inventions, such as the reaper, allowed Hoosier farmers to themselves consumers of produce more food than their families could consume. Farmers began to grow crops manufactured goods that specifically for sale. This marked the end of the pioneer farm and the beginning of came from afar. the family farm. *** Look at the great, old

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farmhouses that grace the Indiana countryside. Many of them date from the mid- to late 1800s. The size, complexity and style of the homes tell a story. First of all, the homes say that Midwest farming could be profitable. Certainly farmers of 140 years ago faced the same pitfalls that confront farmers today — and without crop insurance — but other financial factors lined up in their favor. Ironically, chief among them was the movement of population off farms and into cities. In other words, the urban throng provided a huge, growing market. Secondly, the complexity of these old homes indicate that farmers, like their city cousins, enjoyed access to manufactured goods. Look at the decorative brackets supporting the eaves. Think those were carved on site? Think again. Most likely they came from a factory in Chicago or some other big city. Finally, if time hasn’t worn them away, notice the porches, the orchards and gardens. These indicate Indiana farmers’ awareness of writers such as Andrew J. Downing and his thoughtful, nature-centered, organized approach to country living. Downing felt farms could benefit from knowledge. He called for creation of state agriculture schools. Perhaps that should be mentioned as another difference between pioneers and family farmers: Education. *** Pioneer farming methods depleted soil. In Indiana’s southern, hilly land, pioneers even referred to some areas as “10-year-land” — meaning a farmer could expect to use the land for only a decade. If family farms would be worked by generations, they needed a different approach.

In 1862, Lincoln signed the Morrill Land Grant Act. It provided land for state colleges that taught agriculture and mechanical arts. Purdue University in West Lafayette held its first classes in 1874. Indiana farming soon went far beyond climbing a tree to assess the year’s acorn crop. It became science. Farmers began to rotate crops and apply fertilizers to save soil. And farmers began to rely on technology. First came the reaper, then the thresher, then the steam engine, then the combine (both reaper and thresher), then the auto truck (forerunner of the pickup), then the tractor. Ways to showcase and share knowledge and technology developed. Individual counties began holding fairs. The Indiana State Fair began in 1852; 4-H came along in the early 1900s. From their pioneer infancy, Hoosier family farms grew up in a hurry. *** Single-family farming fit Indiana. The pace. The hard work. The self-determination. The state became a U.S. leader in corn and pork, and later soybeans. For 100 years, Indiana based its identity on the family farm. To pinpoint the era’s passing is also a fool’s errand. Yet look around. Monuments remain. Take a drive in the Indiana countryside. Notice the vacant houses, the sagging barns, the overgrown orchards. They provide a glimpse into the era’s vitality and former glory. But hurry. With each big storm, fewer of these monuments survive.

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Amos Kendall, was city’s namesake

The city of Kendallville obtained its name in an unusual way. It’s named after the U.S. Postmaster General Amos Kendall, who had no ties to Indiana. William Mitchell was the father of Kendallville. Born in Montgomery County, N.Y. in 1807, he and his wife and two children left New York in 1836 coming to the future

site of Kendallville. In 1840, Mitchell influenced federal authorities to establish a post office in his log cabin. Mitchell apparently was able to secure the post office by suggesting that the new post office be named after the current U.S. Postmaster General Amos Kendall. The future town then took the name of

its post office and became Kendallville. Amos Kendall was born in Dunstable, Massachusetts, on Aug. 16, 1789. He graduated at the top of his class from Dartmouth College in 1811. He studied law for two years but then moved to Kentucky and spent a year as tutor in the family of Henry Clay. In 1816, he became editor of

a newspaper in Frankfort, Kentucky. In 1828, Kendall switched allegiance from Clay to work for the election of Andrew Jackson. Following Jackson’s victory Kendall went to Washington, D.C., to become the fourth auditor of the Treasury. He also became an important adviser to President

Jackson. He wrote most of Jackson’s speeches and also produced much of the newspaper articles that appeared throughout the country in support of Jackson’s programs. In 1834, he became U.S. postmaster general, holding the office until 1840. Kendall made a fortune when he became engaged as business manager for

Samuel F. B. Morse, who invented the telegraph. He was affiliated with Morse for 15 years. He retired in 1860 and lived out his life as a philanthropist, contributing to churches and establishing an institution for the deaf and dumb. He remained a Democrat during the Civil War but supported the Union. He died on Nov. 12, 1869.

1890s: Boom, then bust in the economy

BY LEE SAUER

“Free silver!” became William Jennings Bryan’s battle cry in 1896, his first of three failed attempts for the presidency. The U.S. based its currency on gold. Wealthy Americans and big money businesses — such as railroads — favored gold. They wished for deflation. Advocates of silver believed a less-valuable money standard would help less-wealthy Americans. They wished for inflation. Their theory: inflation would increase crop prices and allow indebted farmers to pay back loans. President Benjamin Harrison took a middle road in 1890, giving silver advocates some of what they wanted. But wealthy investors ignored silver. Silver prices dropped. Panic ensued. *** Before financial regulation and federally insured savings accounts, a pattern emerged in the United States: Boom! went the economy as investment flowed into companies that profited from opening new land to settlement.

Bust! went the economy when the companies overbuilt into areas that would not provide enough customers (settlers) to pay back the investment. Usually some event triggered the bust: fiddling with the silver or gold standard, a big fire, or bankruptcy of a large company. Since losing their lives’ savings would be catastrophic, common folk withdrew their money from banks at the slightest whiff of trouble. Then the spiral began: Without capital, banks had no money to lend. Projects stopped. Unemployment rose. Demand for goods disappeared. Finally, banks collapsed and businesses failed. The nation suffered through financial “panics” in 1819, 1837, 1873, 1893 and 1896. *** Bryan is the best-remembered leader of revolt against the gold standard, but he was not the first. In Indiana, disgruntled farmers formed a third national political party. In 1874, they asked all “greenback men” to meet in

Indianapolis. The nickname “Greenbacks” referred to paper money not backed by any metal. Greenbacks had been first issued during the Civil War. Like silver, paper money promised to inflate prices and help farmers make loan payments. The group became known as the Greenback Party. *** In the innocence of the age, folks considered economic fluctuations to be a message from God, as inevitable as weather. Nothing could be done to stop a panic, they thought. But some very important lessons were being taught — if anyone cared to listen. The wealthy and lawmakers viewed downturns as warnings against speculation — investing in enterprises that carried the risk of loss. These people made adjustments and carried on, barely inconvenienced by the downturn. They felt the panic indirectly. Meanwhile, farmers, industrial employees and railroad workers confronted lower wages, job loss, declining produce prices.

These people felt the panic directly. Problems we might call “modern” began to appear: opium use; folks losing their land or homes; dislocated, homeless people (then called “tramps”) causing disruptions. The growing crisis pointed to a basic fact: benefits and misery meted out by the economy were distributed unevenly, most often in favor of the wealthy. Policy makers did not recognize that for the long-term health of the economy, inequalities in the American financial system needed to be corrected. *** Political leadership of the late 1800s failed to rise to the occasion. Or, perhaps, a case could be made that the voting public didn’t rise to the occasion. Americans generally believed that it didn’t matter who was in office, and that all politicians were corrupt. As a result, some voters put their ballots up for sale. Historians generally believe that Harrison won his home state of Indiana because Republicans paid for votes.

INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BRICK WALL — The grandson of William Henry Harrison — Benjamin Harrison — accomplished little as president. Harrison gained a reputation for a brick-like demeanor, which hurt his dealings with other politicians. But he also ran up against a wall-like Congress. Historians have dubbed the time “The Period of No Decision.”

Political parties, too, played a role. They focused on winning and staying in power, not on solving problems. Leadership suffered.

Deadlock ensued. Problems remained unsolved. Some historians refer to this time as “The Period of No Decision.”

1900s: Industrialization brings changes

BY LEE SAUER

In 1906, 25 miles southeast of Chicago, the United States Steel Corp. founded the city of Gary, Indiana, and began work on its gigantic Gary Works industrial complex. Workers poured in. Just two years later, in 1908, when the mill began operation, the sleepy sand dunes on the south end of Lake Michigan had been completely transformed. Although immense, Gary Works serves as a microcosm of changes in the United States and in Indiana in the first part of the 20th century. The underlying cause of this sea change? Industrialization. *** Indiana’s industrialization fed on the state’s location and natural resources. Railroads came first. The Crossroads State lay in the path to elsewhere. This created a market for anything connected to trains. Between 1867 and 1917, Fort Wayne’s Pennsylvania Railroad shop built more than 12,000 freight cars. Trains spurred population growth, which created more markets. In the pioneer era, Hoosiers made their own food, clothing, shoes and soap. After railroads arrived, families bought these items in town or from mail-order catalogs, such as Sears & Roebuck. Both steel and trains needed coal, which southern Hoosier mines provided. Hoosiers also acted entrepreneurially. In 1870, William Wooten of Indianapolis created the Wooten Desk for growing throngs of office workers. And in 1899, Hoosier Manufacturing Co. gave housewives a kitchen helper, the Hoosier Cabinet. But both the Wooten Desk and the Hoosier Cabinet would be short-lived — about 20

INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

UP IN SMOKE — During Indiana’s gas boom, well operators set natural gas that seeped out of the earth on fire — a process known as flaring. Experts estimate that as much as 90 percent of the resource was wasted, and the gas boom was soon extinguished.

years each. They pre-saged the greatest boom/bust Indiana industry of all: Natural gas. *** Cracks in the earth in central Indiana sometimes let loose a foul smell and caught on fire. Native Americans believed the land haunted with spirits. The first settlers similarly misunderstood. In 1876, while drilling for coal, workers heard a rushing sound and smelled something awful. Their conclusion: they had broken through the ceiling of hell. They plugged the hole. When Ohio discovered natural gas in 1884, Indiana residents realized what they had. They redrilled the hell hole. When gas erupted, they lit it on fire. Flames jumped 12 feet into the air. The gas craze was on! With the promise See 1900s page A8

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1900S From page A7

of inexpensive energy, Hoosiers lured out-of-state companies to set up shop. Ball Brothers Co., which would become the world’s largest fruit-jar producer, answered the call. But bounty invites abuse. Continually

burning flames — known as flambeaus — marked thousands of wells. Towns showed off energy wealth by burning street lamps day and night. Geologists warned the gas would run out. The state tried to ban open burning. But local leaders opposed state intervention. They denied gas would run out. By the early 1900s,

the natural gas supply dwindled. Gas boom companies converted to coal, closed or moved away. Experts estimate that 90 percent of Indiana’s natural gas had been wasted. *** In 1908, photos by Lewis Hines put faces on this fact: Indiana ranked third among states in proportion of children in the workforce.

Hines’ photos caused a sensation. One Indiana glass factory owner proclaimed he would fight legislation banning children under 16 from working at night. “(Work) was better for them than running in the streets and did not hurt them anyway,” he said. Workers of all ages faced long hours and low pay. Indiana lawmakers, ever conservative and

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reluctant to interfere with business, did not act. Workers’ unions stepped into the void. Eugene Debs of Terre Haute knew the workers’ plight. He began work on the railroad at age 14. In 1893, at age 38, Debs started the American Railway Union. When train workers in Chicago were forced to take a 25 percent pay cut, Debs organized a strike of

50,000 workers and shut down the city’s railroads. Debs received national attention — and a jail sentence. The crusader who promised a revolution ran for president five times as a Socialist. Although Debs’ ideas seemed outlandish at the time, many have been realized: pension plans, medical benefits, sick leave and women’s suffrage.

1910s: Artists capture heart and soul of Indiana Other notable early Indiana writers:

BY LOU ANN HOMAN

On the cusp of the Indiana prairie, James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) once wrote, “Speaking o’ art, I know a feller over t’ Terry Haute ‘kin spit clean over a box car.” This statement in 1883 sums up the arts community in Indiana, but things would soon change. Partly due to the arts community in Cincinnati becoming such a strong influence at the turn of the century and the beauty of Indiana, it wasn’t long before Indiana began looking toward the arts. Owing his early interest in art to a traveling huckster, T.C. Steele (1847-1926) bought his first art supplies in the 1860s and an artist was born. Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) began documenting the swamps around Geneva through drawings and photographs with an early edge of preservation. We are indebted to all three of these Indiana artists

Booth Tarkington, 1869-1945 Theodore Dreiser, 1871-1945 George Ade, 1866-1944 Lew Wallace, 1827-1905

Stratton-Porter

Riley

Steele

for capturing the heart and soul of Indiana at the turn of the century and beyond. Riley became known as the “Hoosier Poet” as he began writing poetry from the heart of his own childhood and observations of early Indiana life. He captured the dialect that is all but gone from our landscape today. Folks were drawn to his wit and style as he toured other Eastern cities in the United States taking these Hoosier poems with him.

Steele began as a portrait painter and soon joined up with a group of men (William Forsyth, Otto Stark, John Ottis Adams and Richard Gruelle) who became known as “The Hoosier Group.” These men traveled to Munich, Germany, to study portrait painting, but became interested in impressionism while in Germany. Steele came home to carry out his obligations to paint portraits in order to pay back those who supported him financially while he

was gone, yet felt compelled to paint “plein air” and bring home impressionism to Indiana. His landscape paintings began to filter out to cities such as Cincinnati, and as far away as New York. During the state’s centennial year, he became known as the Brown County painter. Stratton-Porter faced opposition as a writer and photographer as a woman. Her first writings were sent back to her, but she became known in the region and

eventually in the United States and beyond with her book, “Freckles.” In the first year, the book sold 90,000 copies. She was approached by Doubleday, who asked her for a book a year. She would not agree until Doubleday accepted her proposal. She firmly spoke up saying she would write a novel every other year and the in-between years they were to publish her nature books. They took up her offer, which left us years later with detailed descriptions, drawings and photographs of an earlier Indiana.

These three artists still hold our attention with home sites open to the public: The T.C. Steele State Historic Site is in Nashville, Indiana. The James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home and Visitor Center is in Indianapolis. The Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site is in Rome City and the Limberlost State Historic Site is in Geneva, Indiana. As T.C. Steele once said in the Indianapolis News, “Indiana has beauties which are just as worthy of study as landscapes elsewhere.”

The LaGrange Courthouse was completed in 1879 courthouse were drawn by Samuel Shepardson, County Auditor. Charles Bosseker and John Begue, of Fort Wayne, received the contract for the construction work with a low bid of $46,700. The cornerstone was laid August 15, 1878. Work was interrupted in March 1879 due to financial difficulties of the contractors. Andrew Ellison, a local lawyer who had gained a grudging public esteem during the Regulator period for defending some accused counterfeiters and horsethieves, was appointed an agent by the County to manage the contractors’ finances until the work was finished in November 1879. Total cost of the building was $71,675 including a Seth Thomas clock, which still operates. There are many details which give the courthouse architectural significance. The stairs connecting the main floors of the building are of iron case made in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Many of them are curved, the one from the Clerk’s Office to the Court Room being a complete spiral … While a number of nineteenth century Indiana courthouses remain, few are as well preserved on the interior as is the LaGrange County Courthouse.

(Editor’s note: The following is adapted from the nomination form submitted in 1978 for the LaGrange County Courthouse’s entry on the National Register of Historic Places.)

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

The LaGrange County Courthouse.

The LaGrange County Courthouse stands on a tree covered square in LaGrange, Indiana. The 1878 structure is a rectangular mass, aligned east and west, with a central clocktower flanked by square corner pavilions. A low hipped-roof covers the main portion of the building. There are mansard roofs with straight sides over the square corner pavilions. The central pavilion on all four facades are capped with pediments. The clocktower has a gold painted domical roof, with roof cresting and a smaller bell tower. The peak of the bell tower is 125 feet above the ground … The architecture of the LaGrange County Courthouse has local significance. The architect was T.J. Tolan and Sons, of Fort Wayne, a firm that was prolific in the design of Indiana courthouses of which only about half of a dozen still exist. The design is of Georgian and French Second Empire inspiration. Basic plans for the

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Noble & LaGrange Counties’

Bicentennial Salute

1920s: Ethnicity creates social tensions BY LEE SAUER

Gary Works attracted workers like a magnet. Its pull extended across the United States, as well as overseas. According to the 1920 census, 60 percent of Gary’s population had either been born overseas, or had at least one parent born overseas. But northern industry needed more workers than immigration could supply. Facing discrimination in their native states, and drawn by jobs, southern blacks moved north into big cities. They moved in such numbers that historians gave it a name: The Great Migration. Blacks’ travels took them through the Crossroads State. Many took jobs or settled along the way. The face of Indiana was changing. *** Seeking commerce with Native Americans (Indiana’s first ethnic group), French traders migrated south from the Great Lakes. Cities such as Terre Haute and Vincennes still exhibit their influence. After statehood, the majority of Indiana settlers came north from the South. Poor and uneducated, they descended from ScotchIrish, Protestant, Appalachian hill folk. In smaller numbers, settlers from New England (mainly of British descent) came to Indiana by way of Fort Dearborn (Chicago), or along the Maumee-Wabash river system, through Fort Wayne. As transportation improved, the number of settlers grew.

PHOTO CREDIT: INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER COLLECTION, INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

INTIMIDATION — In response to overseas immigrants and southern Blacks moving to Indiana for industrial jobs, the Ku Klux Klan grew strong roots in the state. At one point, one-third of the state’s white men belonged to the organization.

*** In the early 1800s, political and economic conditions forced many western Germans to emigrate to America. With agricultural opportunity aplenty in the west, the Ohio river port of Cincinnati became a popular destination for new arrivals. From Cincinnati, agrarian Germans spread into Indiana. In 1848, after a failed revolution, another wave of west Germans came to America. These educated, liberal, middle class people became known as Forty-Eighters. This class of Germans held tightly to their culture

and language. Many cities still retain reminders of German heritage — most especially Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. Between 1870 and 1890, a flood of eastern Germans washed into America. Mainly poor and uneducated, they looked for jobs in factories. To help these newcomers, Germans already settled in Indiana pushed for manual-labor training schools, and advocated for labor reform. *** At the end of the Civil War, fewer than 10 percent of the United States’ African-Americans lived north of the Ohio River.

With the Great Migration, that number quickly grew. Indiana remained conflicted about freedmen. Its soldiers fought for the Union, not to free the slaves. And Indiana laws made it clear that Hoosiers did not want its population of blacks to grow: after 1831, to settle in Indiana, African-Americans had to register with county authorities and post a $500 bond to guarantee good behavior. Over the years, the state’s southern roots became apparent. Uneducated Hoosiers with southern roots resented blacks: slaves, after all, had taken poor whites’ jobs in the south. It didn’t help that,

when Indiana steelworkers or coal workers struck, companies recruited blacks to serve as strikebreakers. Ethnic tensions often boiled over into violence. *** In 1925, fully half of Indiana’s General Assembly, plus the governor, Republican Edward Jackson, belonged to the Ku Klux Klan. In all, about 30 percent of the state’s nativeborn white men counted themselves as Klan members. The Klan used intimidation to terrorize blacks, Catholics and recent immigrants. Scandal in the late 1920s

stripped the Klan of much of its influence. But attitudes that fueled the organization remained. *** On August 7, 1930, a mob broke into a Marion, Indiana, jail and dragged three prisoners from their cell. The mob hung two of the men; the third escaped. The men, all African Americans, had been charged with robbing and murdering a white man, and with raping the man’s girlfriend. (The woman later recanted the rape charge.) As a result, Indiana holds the distinction of being the last state north of the Mason-Dixon Line to be the site of a lynching.

1930s: Automobiles exhibit Hoosier ingenuity BY LEE SAUER

In the late 1800’s, Indiana fairly burst with ambitious citizens brimming with engineering knowledge, capacity for hard work, and a desire to make the most of their democratic — and capitalistic —opportunities. It is not surprising that the Hoosier state became a leader in the quest to invent andmanufacture a practical automobile. With access to the transportation advantages of the Great Lakes, Michigan would eventually win the crown of automobile capital of America. And by 1936, Indiana’s run in the race was virtually over. But by then, cars had begun to reshape America the way trains had 80 years earlier. *** While working out

problems on a gas pipeline between two Indiana boom towns, Elwood Haynes regularly had to change horses. Ever the inventor, Haynes imagined an automobile that would be both faster than horses, and cheaper to operate. When, at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Haynes saw an internal combustion engine, his vision took shape. Depending on which opinion you choose, Haynes developed either the first or second gasoline-powered vehicle to be road tested. Reporters covered the event, which took place July 4, 1894, in Kokomo. Other Hoosier inventors read about Haynes’ success and joined the automobile race. See 1930S page B2

BASS PHOTO CO. COLLECTION, INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

AUTO INVENTOR — Some historians give credit for the first successful gasoline-powered automobile road test to Hoosier Elwood Haynes. The test took place in 1894. This 1922 photo shows Haynes posing by a plaque commemorating the event.

Since 1928 Parkview Noble Hospital is a mission based, not for profit organization dedicated to improving the health of people in the communities we serve. On May, 6, 1928, Lakeside Hospital, located on Bixler Lake was dedicated. Ambitious entrepreneur E. E. McCray started McCray Refrigerator Company in 1890 that grew into the largest company in the area. Between McCray, his wife, Ella, and his brother, Homer, the McCray family donated a total of $100,000 to the hospital during the 1930s and 1940s. The McCray’s generous financial support prompted the hospital’s board of governors to change the name to McCray Memorial Hospital. Overcrowding in the 1950s led the local leaders to call for an expansion plan for a 72-bed hospital. On September 13, 1962, the hospital’s new wing was dedicated. The expanded McCray Hospital was relatively high-tech. After 57 years as McCray Memorial Hospital, the hospital was ready for change. Parkview Health System purchased McCray Memorial Hospital on April 28, 2000, renaming it Parkview Noble. Parkview Health System decided to build a new Parkview Noble Hospital on U.S. 6, construction began in April 2002. Better technology reduced the number of inpatients at the hospital, so the new hospital houses about half as many beds as the old McCray Hospital. Parkview Noble Hospital has managed to build a long list of accomplishments since it opened on July 1, 2014. A new 3,800-square-foot Endoscopy Center opened at Parkview Noble in September of 2013.

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Most recently Parkview Noble has opened a Wound Clinic and the Center for Healthy Living.

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1930S From page B1

*** Two brothers moved to South Bend in 1852. They, their brothers, their descendants and in-laws would build the company that bore their name: Studebaker. The family made a fortune manufacturing horsedrawn wagons — at first for pioneers headed west, then for the Union army. By 1895, the company had begun work on an automobile. Studebaker manufactured electric-pow-

ered vehicles from 1902 to 1911; then, in conjunction with another company, began manufacture of gasoline-powered vehicles in 1904. The first autos to bear the Studebaker brand appeared in 1911. After dealing with quality issues caused by a partner company — and correcting the problems with a then-astronomical $1 million parts replacement policy — Studebaker built its reputation on quality, dependable vehicles. The company owns the distinction of being

Indiana’s most durable car company. If 1902 is used as the starting date, Studebaker manufactured automobiles for 64 years — the last in 1966. *** Like dozens of Indiana’s early automakers, the Auburn Automobile Co. was headed down the road to an early demise. Founded by the Eckhart family of Auburn in 1903, the company was an offshoot — like Studebaker — of a company that made horsedrawn vehicles: the Eckhart Carriage Co. Auburn Auto enjoyed

early success, but competition grew stiff as other car companies merged and benefitted from economy of scale. By 1924, the Chicago financiers who’d bought Auburn Auto from the Eckharts were ready to give up. Then E.L. Cord arrived. A dynamic auto salesman from Chicago bursting with both marketing and design ideas, Cord took control of the company in a unique coup: he convinced the financiers that, if he could turn the company around and pay back their original investment, the company

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

would be his. Cord accomplished the feat in two years. Under Cord, Auburnbrand automobiles gained a reputation for style and power. He further. burnished his reputation by acquiring Indianapolis carmaker Duesenberg and creating a third company under his own brand, Cord. But Cord’s brightly burning ambition involved him in businesses far removed from autos and took him into questionable legal territory. When The Great Depression hit, problems besieged Cord on several fronts.

Auburn Automobile Co. closed its doors in 1937. *** Indiana’s automobile legacy continues. Tourists flock to see the old cars at the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend and the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in Auburn. Vestiges of the early auto manufacturing quest remain in the many auto-related industries in the state. And early inventors tested their automobiles in long, difficult races. One of these races continues today: The Indianapolis 500.

Kneipp Springs offered cold-water cure (Editor’s note: This is from The News Sun files of the late columnist and Noble County historian Bob Gagen.) Effective and lasting cures have long been sought for our many ills. Over the centuries many have been brought forth. No doubt many more will be offered in the future. A reminder of one such pseudo-medicinal curative sits on well-groomed grounds overlooking the western end of Sylvan Lake at Rome City in Noble County — formerly known as Kneipp Springs Sanitarium. There for many years the essential treatment provided seekers of relief was what amounted to a cold-water cure. This path to improved health was popularized by German priest Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1887). In the winter of 1849, he is said to have successfully overcome then-incurable tuberculosis by plunging several times

weekly into the Danube River. His 1886 book, ‘‘My Water Cure,’’ became an international best seller. Since Father Kneipp lived to be what was then the ripe old age of 76, these frequent immersions would seem to have contributed to his longevity. Later promoted to monsignor, he went on to devise a number of other forms of therapy — some based on water, others not. Among these was a strengthening concept of wading on wet grass or in cold water, which apparently was considered ‘‘successful’’ since it was continued at Kneipp Springs for many years. Kneipp also encouraged use of herbal therapies with water techniques, recommending hayflower or oakstraw for detoxification, as well as hot apple cider vinegar to divert blood flow and thereby ‘‘relieve pressure on the chest,’’ and for asthma ‘‘a hot vinegar compress to the stomach.’’ In addition

he recommended several preventive water therapy measures for bedwetting children and adults. The approximately 200-acre location later occupied by Kneipp Springs was, in 1882, owned by F.M. Buker. He built a three-story structure on the side of the hill of old Northport, started celery gardens and discovered new mineral springs. He also installed an extensive trout hatchery south and east of the large building, not far from where S.R. 9 passes by the property today. He continued in this business for a while but there was no money in it. It was then acquired by Dr. W.C. Geiermann, who had studied Kneipp’s methods at his institution at Woerishofen, Bavaria, and attended a number of medical schools in the United States. He established the Kneipp Sanitarium in 1895. Sylvan Lake, four miles long and three-fourths of a

mile wide (on the average) was formed behind a dam built in the 1830s as part of Indiana’s unsuccessful Fort Wayne to Michigan City canal project. But it did create a beautiful body of water, attracting thousands of visitors annually and became site of the annual gathering of the Western Chautauqua Assembly. Surrounded by a number of hotels and resorts, it was well-stocked with fish and became one of the best fishing grounds in northern Indiana. When the sanitarium opened in 1859, it had accommodations for only 10 guests. By 1920 it had experienced a growth that spotted the grounds with permanent buildings of elaborate architecture (that may still be seen today) and accommodations for 250 guests. Sanitarium grounds covered 80 acres by that time, with extensive lawns, walks and gardens, and a

large amount of land used for farming. In addition numerous springs dotted the lawn south of the main buildings, all adapted to the special feature of the Kneipp water cure method. This was largely that of allowing nature to work its cure with the supervision of surgeons and their assistants. By 1920, the sanitarium had come to be owned and operated by the Sisters of Most Precious Blood, a Catholic order based in Celina, Ohio. As defined in its official booklet, the Kneipp treatment was ‘‘to overcome causes of disease by wholesome diet, hygienic clothing, and systematic regular exercise,’’ and by the use of ‘‘baths, packs and compresses and the internal use of teas made from native herbs (grown on sanitarium grounds).’’ In lowlands south of the buildings were 12 magnetic springs … where the institu-

tion claimed ‘‘a great many invalids were annually cured of chronic ailments by drinking waters from these springs.’’ Monsignor Kneipp’s treatment was essentially summarized as ‘‘the principals of hydrotherapy — treatment of disease or disability by external application of water — united with a gospel of simple living, wholesome exercise and regulated rest.’’ Since the 1999 departure of The Way International, a religious training and biblical research center that occupied the grounds for many years, the former Kneipp site was briefly occupied by a couple of different groups. (In 2014, Mother of Mercy Foundation began to restore the property, renaming it Our Lady, Mother of Mercy Center. Also in 2014, Sylvan Cellars Event Center opened in a portion of the farm.)

1940s: Hoosiers go to war — and come home changed BY LEE SAUER

World War II changed Indiana. Shrugging off the Great Depression, Hoosier factories came to life. Employment jumped. Population movement off farms and into towns increased. Returning soldiers created markets for housing, cars, household and baby goods. Blacks, called to serve their country or work in war industries, felt justified in calling for equality. Veterans took advantage of the government’s offer of education through the GI Bill. Many Hoosiers who would not have gone to college otherwise enrolled. From traveling around the U.S. and the world, GI’s brought back tastes for different kinds of food and entertainment. War marked the end of Indiana’s secluded innocence. And the beginning of globalization. *** Indiana remained indifferent when war clouds gathered in Europe. Ever conservative, Hoosiers voted for Republican — and Indiana

native son — Wendell Willkie in 1940. Although not an isolationist, Willkie more closely followed the Republican Party’s view: Let Europe solve its own problems. “Cautious” or “resistant to change” might be more accurate terms for Hoosiers’ attitude. As photographer Lewis Hine’s colleague, Edward Clopper, was quoted as saying, “The people of Indiana are slow to take hold of any movement.” *** Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, exploded America’s remaining isolationism Previously, Indiana watched demand for the type of household articles made in its factories — such as washing machines — drop, weakening the state’s economy. Hoosier business grew even more alarmed when war-preparation contracts went to other states. Fearful of being left out, when America declared war, Indiana desperately sought to catch up. With its central location, the Crossroads State proved perfect for military posts. Over the course of the war, the number of major

PHOTO CREDIT: INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MIDDLE OF THE ACTION — Hoosier-born Ernie Pyle reported on World War II by sharing its deprivations and danger with soldiers. In this photo, he poses with a bombing crew. Pyle died at the very end of the conflict — shot while on a patrol.

military installations in the state jumped from two to 31. The Allison Corp. in Indianapolis (named for a

founding member of the Indianapolis 500) manufactured 70,000 liquid-cooled aircraft engines. Studebaker, based in South Bend, began

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making 10 B-17 engines a month. It eventually increased production to 2,300 engines a month. When the Army asked Kaufman T. Keller if an Evansville plant could produce billions of .45 cartridges, Keller replied: “I still can’t imagine what a billion is like, so I’d like to make billions of something and find out.” Over the war, the plant produced over 3 billion bullets — 96 percent of .45 ammunition made for American forces. *** Ernie Pyle brought war into American homes. Born near Dana, Indiana, in 1900, Pyle attended Indiana University, but quit a month before graduation. Pyle built a reputation writing eclectic stories from backroads locations around the country. Later he wrote about the emergence of aviation. When America entered the war, Pyle headed overseas. Rather than writing from information provided by the military, Pyle traveled with the troops and spoke with regular soldiers — the beginning of what we now

call embedded journalism. Eleanor Roosevelt read from Pyle’s stories on her popular national radio show. Then, on April 17, 1945, just as the war was ending, Pyle raised his head from the ditch where he had taken cover for a look around. An enemy bullet killed him instantly. *** More than 363,000 Hoosiers served in the armed forces during World War II. When these men and women returned home (minus the nearly 12,000 who died in service), they were changed people. And their influence changed Indiana. In general, Hoosiers broadened their scope to areas beyond the state’s border. They became more educated, more sophisticated, more worldly. They also grew more confident. American innovation soared during the war, and the country trusted scientists to tackle problems at home. The hope: A quality of life never before imagined.

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1950s: Basketball makes Hoosiers hysterical BY LEE SAUER

In the mid-1950s, Indiana basketball reached the apex of its arc. Despite enrollment of just 161, Milan High School won the 1954 Indiana state championship, realizing the dreams of small schools across the state. On its way to the title, Milan beat Crispus Attucks, an all-black school in Indianapolis. Attucks’ leader: future NBA Hall-of-Famer Oscar Robertson. In the 1956 NCAA tournament, UCLA had a winning streak of 17 games broken. UCLA’s young coach: John Wooden. Just over the state line, in Ohio, Bobby Knight gained a reputation as a hard-nosed high school player. And, just before time in 1956 ran out, in a small Indiana town — West Baden — another NBA Hall-of-Famer was born: Larry Bird. *** On March 16, 1894, two YMCA teams played a recently invented sport on the second floor of a building in Crawfordsville. The next day, the Crawfordsville Journal Review reported: “Basket ball is a new game, but if the interest taken in the contest last night is any criterion, it is bound to be popular.” Baseball and football never caught on in Indiana. Why? Schools were small. They didn’t have enough players, or money for equipment. But basketball! All a school needed: five players, two hoops and a ball. As a winter sport, basketball didn’t interfere with a farm boy’s summer chores. And even a farm boy who lived far from his schoolmates could practice on his own. With a hoop nailed to a barn, he could shoot, and shoot, and shoot … ***

INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER COLLECTION, INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER COLLECTION, INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

HOOPS HERO — Of all the players to come from hoops-crazy Hoosierland, Oscar Robertson of Indianapolis may be the best. In one poll, he ranks sixth on a list of all-time-great players in the National Basketball Association. Here, he cuts down a net after leading Indianapolis Crispus Attucks to a high school state championship.

In the fourth quarter of the 1954 state championship game, Milan found itself tied 30-30 with powerhouse Muncie Central. Under Coach Marvin Woods’ direction, Bobby Plump held the ball for four minutes. Muncie players stayed back. Despite the lack of action, tension reached a fever pitch. Then, with the clock running down, Plump dribbled to the right side of the basket and hit a 14-foot shot for the win. The 1986 movie “Hoosiers” recreated the scene by having an actor shoot from the same spot, on the same floor, in the same building — Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse. *** As a player for Purdue University, John Wooden

earned All-American honors three times. But Wooden built his lasting legacy as a coach. At UCLA, Wooden won 10 NCAA championships. Despite Wooden’s sports success, players such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton credited the coach even more for his positive influence on their lives outside basketball. *** Hoosiers loved Indiana University coach Bobby Knight, despite his sometimes boorish behavior. Why? He won basketball games. Knight ranks second in NCAA Division I wins. He won three national championships and 11 Big Ten titles during his tenure (1971-2000). Although he didn’t like

referees’ interpretation of rules, Knight ran his program within NCAA guidelines. He made sure players attended class and saw a high percentage graduate. *** For basketball purists, Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird rank high on any list of all-time greats. Both excelled at all aspects of the game. Both made their teammates better. From 1957-1960, Robertson was the best college player in America. When he ended his career at the University of Cincinnati, he held the NCAA record for points. As a pro, Robertson won Rookie of the Year, was a league MVP and appeared in 12 consecutive All-Star games. In 1971, he led the Milwaukee Bucks to an

COLOR BARRIER BREAKER — Bill Garrett won all-around acclaim as the Big Ten’s and Indiana University’s first player of color, yet just days after his final game, a Hoosier restaurant refused to serve him.

NBA championship. Bird led tiny Indiana State to the NCAA championship game in 1979. As a pro, Bird appeared in 12 NBA All-Star games and was named MVP three times. He led the Boston Celtics to three championships — 1981, 1984 and 1986. In its most recent listing, Sports Illustrated ranked Robertson No. 6 on its list of all-time best NBA players. Bird ranks No. 7. *** In 1947, the Big Ten operated under a gentleman’s agreement: No black players. But Jackie Robinson had just broken Major League Baseball’s color barrier. Times were changing. William Garrett, the consensus best high school player in Indiana, received no college offers. But, under heavy pressure from YMCA official Faburn DeFrantz, Indiana University

allowed Garrett a chance to join its team — if he was good enough. Garrett became IU’s best all-time player. He set school records in points and rebounds. He made the All-Big Ten team and was named an All-American. When Garrett went to the bench his final game as a senior in 1951, the IU crowd gave him a two-minute standing ovation. Two days later, on the drive home from Bloomington, Garrett and two white teammates stopped at a restaurant. The waiter declared he would only serve the white men. During his playing days, Garrett endured taunts, opponents’ elbows and biased referees with humor and grace. But the waiter’s snub got to him. Back in the car, as his friends tried to console him, the man who broke the Big Ten’s color barrier wept.

Tamarack was haven for variety of pioneers (Editor’s note: This is from The News Sun files of the late columnist and Noble County historian Bob Gagen.) In the 1830s and 1840s, a region on the Noble-LaGrange county line was a melting pot of three cultures that interacted during the area’s earliest days of settlement. These were the French-Canadian traders sent out from Fort Wayne, the local Potawatomi Indians whose furs they sought, and pioneers from our eastern states. The latter group was made up mostly of hard-working settlers seeking affordable land, but also included a handful of counterfeiters (makers of bogus money) and horse thieves who took advantage of the absence of any effective law enforcement. These were known by the generic term of blacklegs. All three could be found in an area that came to be known as the Tamarack, so named for the pine tree member of the larch family, which was found in abundance in the locality. This they used in construction of their log cabins, taverns, houses or hotels. This Tamarack community, if it could be so described, was concentrated near two lakes — Tamarack, largely in Noble County, and Nauvoo in LaGrange, about midway between what would become the settlements of Wolcottville and South Milford. For a time there was a large millpond between them, which provided a source of waterpower for a

sawmill built there in 1836 by the firm of Burris & Hitchcock. A few years earlier the Fort Wayne trading house of French Canadians Comparet & Bourie opened a store where trade goods and whiskey were exchanged for fur from the Indians. Just south of the sawmill a tavern-hotel was built of tamarack poles 6 to 8 inches in diameter, which was conducted by Comparet’s sister. It was widely known as the Tamarack House, providing the small settlement and lake with their names. Downstream from this lake was Nauvoo, entirely in LaGrange County and a source of the north branch of the Elkhart River. William Grannis, son of Otis P. Grannis, an Ohio native who acquired considerable acreage in the area, told how this lake acquired its name. Near the bridge east of the lake was a double log cabin occupied by two Mormon families, followers of the denomination founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. They apparently were members of Smith’s wandering group (formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) that later settled in Illinois at a location on the Mississippi River known as Nauvoo. This town became headquarters of the Mormon Church from 1839 to 1846. It was named by Smith, meaning, he said, “a beautiful location, a place of rest.” Otis Grannis was the son of Palmer Grannis, a native of Connecticut

and a fifth-generation member of that family who came to this country from Scotland in 1644. In the fall of 1834, he entered land a few miles south of Howe. Two years later the Grannis family moved one mile west of Howe where Palmer established Lima Mill, which he operated until his death. It was there that son Otis learned the milling trade, which he later conducted at Union Mills (Mongo), Fawn River in Michigan, Jamestown in Steuben County, the Minot Mill in Kendallville, and later the Tamarack. In the spring of 1852 he went to Rome

City and fitted up the burr grindstones for the flourmill powered by the reservoir there, and ground the first grain at that mill. In 1856, Otis moved to the Tamarack and was business manager of the two mills there until 1880. In the fall of that year he sold them, drained the millpond (which had created a swampy area south of Adams Lake which had become a nuisance to nearby residents), thereby removing one of the landmarks of northeastern Indiana. In addition to his decades as one of the

best-known master millers in the area, Otis Grannis played a significant part in bringing a halt to the activities of a number of desperadoes who had long terrorized early settlers. He was secretary of the Tamarack’s first organized company of regulators and made some important arrests. Among the blacklegs with whose capture he was involved were Malcolm Burnham, Miles Payne and Gregory McDougle. Present at the lynching of the latter at Diamond Lake in Noble County, Jan. 26, 1858, he was also Payne’s guard at Ligonier.

He drew a full confession from Payne, it is said, by briefly lifting him from the floor with a rope around his neck. For all practical purposes this put an end to the unlawful blackleg era. For a quarter century Otis Grannis was also a prominent stock dealer and for many years shipped more stock than any other dealer on the Lake Shore Railroad between Chicago and Buffalo. His last days were spent as a widower at the home of his son William, on the old farm overlooking Tamarack Lake, where he passed away May 12, 1903, at the age of 78.

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Traveling the historic Lima Plank Road (Editor’s note: This is from The News Sun files of the late columnist and Noble County historian Bob Gagen.) Lack of adequate transportation for pioneer settlers and their supplies and produce was a significant handicap to the advance of the American frontier in the first half of the 19th century. To none was that more apparent than to the trickle of new arrivals that made their homes in northeastern Indiana during that time. In 1836, at the urging of then-Gov. Noah Noble and other enterprising types at the forefront of new settlement and development, the state passed a ‘‘mammoth’’ internal improvements bill. It was intended to stimulate trade by construction of a network of canals and new and improved roads. Transportation routes in those early times included trails, both of Indians and early settlers, wagon roads, stage lines, plank roads and,

finally, railroads. Among the most ambitious of these prior to the first railroad entering Fort Wayne in 1854 was the Lima Plank Road. In 1843, Judge Samuel Hanna, enterprising Fort Wayne capitalist and judicial figure, chaired a meeting at which interest was shown in constructing new roads to connect Fort Wayne, the area’s center of commerce, to such promising outlying towns as Lima, Goshen, Yellow River, Kendallville, Piqua and Van Wert, Ohio, Winchester and Huntington. As a result, an improved road of sorts was put through from Fort Wayne to Kendallville and then straight north to Milford and Union Mills (Mongo) in LaGrange County, and then west to Ontario — so called because many of its early settlers were from Ontario County in western New York. About 1847, another group of entrepreneurs, including John Mitchell of Kendallville, organized the Fort Wayne & Lima

Turnpike Road that would transform the old road into a plank road. It would consist of 3-year-old oak planks laid down on sills at right angles to the road. This work was done in 1847-49 with toll gates established six to 10 miles apart along the route. A few small dividends were paid, but income did not meet maintenance and operating costs and the route was turned over to the Noble County Commissioners, who abandoned it. As Samuel Alvord, later Noble County historian and officeholder, wondered while trudging from Fort Wayne to Northport (Rome City) in 1849, ‘‘how such a road through such a region could be profitable.’’ Passing through Huntertown, LaOtto, Swan, Avilla and Lisbon, some of its signposts still reading Lima Road, it ends at U.S. 6 in Kendallville. There it becomes Angling Road and its 16-mile northward route winds along the same right of way, as

did the Lima Plank Road of some 158 years ago. It should be noted that Lima was designated as the road’s northern terminus because from 1832 to 1844 it was the LaGrange County seat. While that capital was later moved to LaGrange, the plank road never went any further than Ontario, three miles east of Lima (now Howe). In any event, wondering how time has dealt with the 16-mile stretch of the former Lima Plank, my daughter Sarah and I followed its course one recent cloudy day. Making way around and through the road construction disarray at U.S. 6 and S.R. 3, we turned onto Angling Road at the site of the former C.P. Waterhouse mansion. From there it follows modest curves through gently rolling hills — the most prominent of which is just east of Latta Lake — to the Northport Road turnoff for those taking the back way to Rome City. From there the next few

miles, crops far outnumber dwellings and at the county line the road bends slightly around what once were marshy areas at Nauvoo Lake (where two Mormon families were said to reside before moving westward) and Tamarack Lake. In the 1850s, its swampy shores harbored the blacklegs and counterfeiters who plagued the area before being brought to justice by the Regulators. Upon entering LaGrange County the road became rougher. We found ourselves in a light fog while continuing through Woodruff, formerly Wright’s Corners, and along the east shore of Adams Lake, lined with many substantial new cottages, although that term hardly seems to fit their opulence. U.S. 20 is crossed at Plato, whose name replaced Hill’s Corners for some reason unknown to us. In the final few miles before reaching Ontario, a number of mostly tidy Amish homesteads and

farms are evident. The best was saved for last — Ontario, the plank road’s final destination. At its center are still discernible vestiges of a village green with a weatherbeaten wooden sign reading ‘‘Welcome to Ontario Park — Founded in 1837.’’ And the opposite corner of the park’s open space looms the 153-year-old classic Greek revival frame church with three 36-pane windows on either side and a modest steeple. On the park’s south side is a two-story well-maintained 1885 brick schoolhouse converted to apartments. To the north the surging Pigeon River flows over a dam where once races were diverted to power flourishing woolen and flower mills. A 1937 plat of Lima Township shows Calumet Gas & Electric as owner of riverside property above the dam, indicating that perhaps hydroelectric power in modest amounts was generated there.

1960s: Highways connect Indiana to the nation BY LEE SAUER

Indiana’s position between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, and its crossroads location between destinations east and west, made one fact abundantly clear: Roads are important. With the advent of the automobile, that importance revved up exponentially. *** In 1811, with states rapidly joining the Union in the “West,” America began work on the first federally funded highway — the National Road. Planners intended this highway to stretch from the East Coast to the Mississippi River. By 1834, workers completed the portion of the National Road across the Hoosier state. It ran through Indianapolis and Terre Haute. The road used new technology: macadamization, named for Scottish inventor John MacAdam. Workers macadamized a road by carefully shoveling rocks of specific sizes to predetermined depths. After the Panic of 1837, Congress pulled funding for the project, so it never quite made it to the Mississippi. Today, U.S. 40 follows the path of the old National Road. *** Around 1826, Indiana began work on a north-south highway: The Michigan Road. Although mandated by the state, construction of the road fell to county governments. The state authorized counties to draft local labor. In the same way Indiana expects citizens to pay taxes today, early in its history, the state expected citizens to provide labor for public projects. Then, as now, some Hoosiers steadfastly refused any imposition by government. Because of its disjointed work force, construction of

PHOTO CREDIT: INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

TRANSCONTINENTAL ROAD — The Lincoln Highway became the nation’s first transcontinental road in 1913. Not a completely new road, the highway stitched together stretches of existing roads.

the Michigan Road went in fits and starts — and parts were never completed. Today, the path of the Michigan Road is followed by several Hoosier highways, including State Roads 29, 25 and U.S. 31. *** Carl G. Fisher of Indianapolis was a promoter. To bring attention to his and his brothers’ bicycle shop, he dropped a bike from a building. The stunt gained plenty of notice: From police. Later, to advertise his auto dealership, Fisher flew a hot-air balloon with a car dangling beneath over downtown Indianapolis. Fisher invested in auto racing. The first Indianapolis

500 at the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway took place in 1909. But organizers stopped the race halfway through. Why? Too many crashes. Instead of giving up, Fisher convinced his fellow investors to pave the track. From material used, the speedway gained a nickname: The Brickyard. *** Fisher next turned his skills to building a transcontinental highway. He named the road after the president who signed the order for America’s first transcontinental railway. The Lincoln Highway. At the time, paved roads ended at each town’s border. Maintenance of country roads

Hoosier motorists relied on markers — such as this one in Elkhart — to navigate. Today, U.S. 30 most closely follows the path of the Lincoln Highway.

fell to the folks who lived along them. Many states passed laws prohibiting use of public funds for roads. So Fisher and associates raised private funds. Each significant contribution warranted a press release: money from famous Americans, such as Thomas Edison, Teddy Roosevelt and President Woodrow Wilson; or 14 pennies from native children in Alaska. Workers completed the first section of the highway in 1913. (The 1928 segment of the Lincoln Highway that runs through Indiana now follows U.S. 30, but a portion of the 1913 route can be traced on U.S. 33, passing through Ligonier and Elkhart.) In 1919, a U.S. Army convoy started from the White

House on a well publicized cross-country convoy to San Francisco. The trip took 56 days, at an average speed of 5.65 miles per hour. Among the nearly 300 Army convoy personnel: Brevet Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower. *** As president, Eisenhower remembered the 1919 convoy. He also remembered how Germany moved military equipment quickly on its autobahn system during World War II. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which created an interstate highway system. That same year, the Hoosier state completed the Indiana Toll Road. Today, the Toll Road is known as

Interstate 80/90 and has been incorporated into the interstate system. With renaming, renumbering and rerouting over the years, original highways have been lost. But I-80 is America’s transcontinental highway that most closely follows the route of the Lincoln Highway. *** The portion of Interstate 69 that links Indianapolis with Michigan was completed in 1971. As part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), I-69 will eventually be transcontinental — connecting Mexico and Canada. But funding has been withheld, and progress on completing I-69 remains slow.

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Early Jewish settlers put Ligonier on map A thriving Jewish community existed in the city of Ligonier in the 19th and early 20th century, thanks to two young Prussian immigrant peddlers, Frederick Straus and Solomon Mier. Ligonier was a quiet little community of 300 when Straus and Mier arrived in 1854, carrying their peddlers’ backpacks. The two young Jews landed in Ligonier on the advice of a fellow German friend who thought the town would soon prosper with the arrival of the Lake Shore and

Michigan Southern Railroad. The railroad never came to Ligonier, but the Straus and Mier prospered anyway. They became business partners, opening a general store in 1860 and a bank in 1868. But a bitter quarrel turned them into enemies and competitors. Straus formed Straus Brothers Company when his two brothers came to Ligonier. By the turn of the 20th century, it grew into the largest real estate brokerage firms in America. The Straus family also manufactured buggies.

Mier, like the Straus family, was successful in the banking and carriagemaking industries. The Mier Carriage and Buggy Company later manufactured automobiles called the Runabout. The Jewish community in Ligonier grew to over 200 in 1880, about 15 percent of the town, making it one of the largest Jewish communities in the state. Over the next quarterof-a-century, Jews were the leading employers and civic leaders in Ligonier, serving as mayor and city

councilmen. They formed a Jewish congregation in 1865 and built the first synagogue in 1871. It originally was an Orthodox congregation, but in 1876, it became affiliated with the Reform Judaism movement. A new house of worship, the Ahavath Shalom Reform Temple, was built in 1889 to serve the congregation. The whole town seemed to celebrate the dedication with a parade up Main Street led by the Ligonier Military Band, and Jews and Gentiles alike joined an all-night celebration at City Hall.

The Jewish community dwindled in the coming decades with the older generation dying off and the younger generation moving to bigger communities, including Chicago and New York. (The last surviving Ligonier Jew was Durbin Mier, who died in 1982 at the age of 79.) By 1904, the congregation only had a part-time rabbi and by 1932, the congregation only held services on high holy days. By the late 1940s, the congregation declined to only 14 members.

The congregation later disbanded and the temple, at 503 Main St., Ligonier, and was sold several times in the second half of the 20th century. In 1989, the Ligonier Public Library purchased the building, moving the Ligonier Historical Society Museum there. Later it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2014, the library no longer could afford to financially handle the needed renovations, and put it up for sale. It remains on the real estate market with its future uncertain.

1970s: Manufacturing makes use of Indiana’s advantages BY LEE SAUER

By the 1970s, a trend that had stayed in the background came to the fore: Family farms were dying. Their replacement? Large agribusinesses that made use of new technologies — and needed far fewer workers. From this point on, Hoosiers would rely more and more on manufacturing to provide the state’s economic thrust. *** The trend from farm to factory took shape over decades. It started when gas boom companies set up shop in Indiana and continued when electricity reached Hoosier homes in the 1920s and 1930s. Indiana manufacturers began to churn out electrical appliances: washers, refrigerators, stoves and radios. Family farms even helped create demand for more manufacturing: they boosted markets for farm equipment made in the state, and they produced fruits and vegetables used in Indiana’s expanding canning industry. Right after World War I, Indiana reached a tipping point:

More Hoosiers now worked in manufacturing than on farms. *** With the end of World War II, America found itself with a dynamic infrastructure for innovation. Scientists who had previously worked on military problems turned their sights on domestic challenges. One result: farm production took off like a rocket. Suddenly, food surpluses and wildly fluctuating markets became problems. The federal government, building on Great Depression-era programs, responded with subsidies and food relief. But these were short-term fixes. The long-term problem seemed clear: There were simply more farms— and farmers — than needed. Many farmers began the transition by taking a second job in a factory. *** While Indiana lost the race to become America’s automotive-making center, it emerged with several important manufacturing advantages: mechanical expertise, factory facilities,

access to major highways and close proximity to the auto-manufacturing winner — Detroit. Beginning in the early 1900s, the Hoosier state became home to factories for “upstream” vehicle parts and components. Other Hoosier-made products budded off auto-related manufacturers: trailers, mobile homes and recreational vehicles. Indiana continues to lead in auto-related products. Plus, the manufacture of complete vehicles (at least the assembly of component parts into vehicles) has come back to the state with the Fort Wayne Assembly plant (trucks), and plants for Honda, Toyota and Subaru. *** Revra DePuy began DePuy Manufacturing in Warsaw. The company made orthopedic appliances. Today, Warsaw is known as the “orthopedic capital of the world.” Col. Eli Lilly, a veteran of the Union army, started Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis, in 1876. Today the company is a worldwide leader in pharmaceuticals. Both orthopedics and

pharmaceuticals belong in a soft category of Indiana manufacturing known as “life sciences.” Currently, life sciences trail automotive-related manufacturers — but not by much. *** Indiana still profits from its central location. The state’s third-leading industry is “transportation.” This includes trucking, warehousing, and distribution. WalMart, Dollar General, Target, SuperValu and Kroger are among the large companies with distribution centers in the state. *** Relying on manufacturing presents problems for Hoosiers. Automotive and recreational-vehicle manufacturers ride the national economy like a bucking bronco. When money is tight, new-vehicle sales are the first to drop. Manufacturing and large-scale farming can cause environmental challenges. As more Hoosiers become aware of health risks and quality-oflife issues, they become less willing to accept pollution, climate change and habitat destruction.

INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MANUFACTURING LIFE — Eli Lilly started the company that bears his name in Indianapolis in 1876. Along with DuPuy Manufacturing in Warsaw, Lilly falls into a new category of businesses — life sciences — that help make Indiana a U.S. leader in manufacturing.

Some manufacturing jobs can be low-paying. Workers who fill these positions pay less in taxes and need more social services, putting a strain on state resources.

And, finally, many manufacturing jobs are headed to other countries. The future for Indiana manufacturing remains unclear.

1980s: Pop culture flows from Hoosier artists BY LEE SAUER

Despite its conservative nature — or, perhaps, because of it — Indiana has produced unique individuals of great impact on American pop culture. If such people were capable of being generalized, an outside observer might say that Hoosiers tend toward acerbic wit. Or a longing to escape through music … *** In 1982, Michael Jackson released “Thriller.” It remains the best-selling music album of all time. Jackson was born in Gary in 1958. His father, Joe, worked at U.S. Steel. Along with four brothers, Jackson burst onto the music scene as the youngest member of the Jackson 5. But it was as a solo artist that Jackson will be remembered. America swooned at his physics-defying dance step, the Moonwalk.

But Joe’s tough love permanently marked Michael. By any standard, the performer’s personal life seemed strange. Known as “Wacko Jacko,” he became the object of endless fascination. In 2009, while preparing for a comeback tour, Jackson died from an overdose of drugs prescribed by his personal physician. Jackson’s influence will be appreciated in his other nickname: The King of Pop. *** Two Indiana songwriters hit the national scene virtually simultaneously, lived in the same time period, and shared similarities. But their Hoosier roots couldn’t be different. Cole Porter was born into wealth in Peru in 1891. During World War I, Porter moved to Paris See 1980S, page B6

INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

LIVING LARGE — Cole Porter, right, grew up in Peru. Born in wealth, the songwriter continued to live high after a string of hit Broadway musicals in the 1920s and 1930s. He is the composer of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”

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1980s From page B5

and developed a talent for living extravagantly. Although homosexual, he married. His wife knew his sexual preference, but they both benefited from the union, and it lasted until her death in 1954. Porter made his name in Broadway musicals. His best known songs include, “What is This Thing Called Love?”; “You’re the Top,” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” He died in 1964. Howard “Hoagie” Carmichael was born in Bloomington in 1899. His mother played piano during

silent movies, and Hoagie absorbed her lessons. The family struggled financially. When Hoagie’s toddler sister died, he blamed her passing on a lack of money and vowed never to be broke. Carmichael attended Indiana University and its law school. He passed the bar and joined a law firm in 1927. But he spent his time making music. Along with composing tunes, Carmichael performed on radio and acted in both movies and television. Carmichael’s best-known songs include “Stardust,” “Georgia on My Mind,” and “Heart and

Soul.” He died in 1981. *** Remember the Forty Eighters? They were educated Germans who emigrated to America in 1848. One Forty Eighter, Clemens Vonnegut, settled in Indianapolis and started a successful hardware business. His grandson, Kurt Vonnegut, was born in 1922 into wealth and privilege. But tragedy followed Kurt like a shadow. His family lost its wealth. Despondent, his mother took her life. Sent overseas during World War II, Vonnegut

was taken prisoner. He spent the bombardment of Dresden in a meat locker. Afterward, he was put to work pulling bodies from the rubble. Vonnegut wrote about his experiences in “Slaughterhouse 5,” published in 1969 — in synch with America’s growing disillusionment with the Vietnam War. Vonnegut’s macabre humor and pacifism made him a hero of America’s counterculture youth. Vonnegut’s writing style — short bursts of thought between abrupt punctuation — influenced a generation of writers. He died in 2007 ***

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

David Letterman was born in 1947 in Indianapolis — not far from the Motor Speedway. He graduated from Ball State University in 1969. As an Indianapolis TV weatherman and newscaster, Letterman kept audiences on guard with his offbeat humor. Letterman found work as a comedy writer. His sarcastic style got him noticed. Johnny Carson, then the king of late night comedy, invited him as a regular guest. Later, Letterman hosted the show as Carson wound down his career. Letterman went on to host his own late shows for 33 years.

Although Letterman never matched Carson’s broad appeal, he caught on with certain demographics — especially young people. His bits included prank phone calls, a segment titled “Stupid Pet Tricks,” and regular interviews with his mother. *** No short list of Indiana pop culture celebrities could be complete, but here are a few more notables: Teen-idol actor James Dean; “Garfield” cartoonist Jim Davis; Janet Jackson, Michael’s sister and a singing sensation herself; Guns ‘N Roses lead singer Axl Rose; and author of “The Fault in Our Stars,” John Green.

William Mitchell, ‘father’ of Kendallville BY TERRY HOUSHOLDER

No person is more responsible for Kendallville’s existence today than pioneer visionary William Mitchell. A native of Montgomery County, N.Y., Mitchell, born in 1807, was raised on a farm. He married Nancy Keller in 1829, and in 1836, the couple and their young family left New York for northeast Indiana. They went via the Erie Canal to Buffalo, then by streamer to Monroe, Mich. From there they came by horse and wagon to the deep forest beside a lake, later named Bixler, the future site of Kendallville. Mitchell cleared 200 acres of land, built a log cabin and planted crops. He saw the need for a trading center and in 1849, he platted 20 lots, which would become the west side of the Main Street business district. He sought to sell the plots or give them away to anyone who would live on them and improve the land. Each lot was 22 feet wide. The uniform width is still evident in adjoining Main Street buildings today. Mitchell was successful in attracting people to the area and he then laid out another block of 20 lots and then another addition. In 1849, there were

about a dozen families living in the village. By 1857, the number grew to more the 300. To help grow the community, Mitchell sought to establish a post office, which was granted, possibly in part because he agreed to name the post office and the future town Kendallville, in honor of U.S. Postmaster General Amos Kendall. The post office was established in Mitchell’s log cabin, at the corner of West Diamond Street and South Main Street, and Mitchell became the first postmaster. Mitchell was elected to the Indiana General Assembly, representing Noble and LaGrange counties, in 1848. He helped initiate the construction of the plank road from Fort Wayne to northeastern LaGrange County, and establish the first railroad in northeast Indiana that laid track in the future city of Kendallville. Mitchell also established the First National Bank of Kendallville. In 1860, Mitchell was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican, representing the 10th District, and became a personal friend of President Abraham Lincoln. While on a business trip to Macon, Ga., to buy cotton, Mitchell died on Sept. 11, 1865. He was 58.

Mitchell’s son, John Mitchell, carried on his father’s work in Kendallville, and was a leading citizen of the city. He donated the land for the city’s cemetery, the fairgrounds and for many of the city’s churches. While the Mitchell family played a major role in the establishment of Kendallville, they were not the first pioneers to settle there. The first white man was David Bindle who built the first home, a round log cabin on Gold Street in 1832. Five years later, a widow with eight children, Frances Dingman, built Kendallville’s first wood-frame home on Gold Street, near the old log cabin. Other pioneers soon followed, including businessmen George Ulmer, Ezra Isbell, Hiram Iddings, and Daniel Bixler, who owned land around the lake that later bore his name. Samuel Minot had the first store in Kendallville, near the intersection of South Main Street and East Diamond Street. He also built a sawmill and furnished lumber for the plant road. Around 1848, Luke Diggins built the first hotel called the Calico House. Four years later, Jesse Kime built the first Kelly House on the northeast corner

of the Flint & Walling building site. The second Kelly House, at the corner of Mitchell and Main streets, was built later. The railroad was completed through Kendallville in 1857, bringing more growth to the community. There was a major German influence in the establishment and growth of Kendallville, similar to most northeastern Indiana communities. By the late 1800s, the 80 percent of the nearby city of Fort Wayne’s population was made up German natives or German descendants. A similar strong Germanic influence was felt in Kendallville and neighboring towns. Among the early influential German businessmen in Kendallville were John Gappinger, the first merchant to build a brick business downtown; Jewish-German mercantile businessmen Moses Jacobs and Jacob Keller; baker Casper Vetter; cabinet and coffin maker Joseph Berhalter; jewelry store owners Julius Gotch and Louis Beckman; drug store owner Paul Klinkenberg; manufacturer John Deibele; banker Jacob Fetter; businessman and city official Charles Aichele; and grocery store owner John Kaiser. There were many others. Some of the churches in the city had

German-language services for decades, most notably the German Methodist Church and St. John Lutheran Church, affiliated with the German-dominated Missouri Synod. St. John Lutheran discontinued its German services in the 1950s. Kendallville was incorporated as a town in 1863, and on Oct. 6, 1866, it was incorporated as a city, with Tim Baker elected the first mayor. Kendallville grew quickly, thanks in part by the growth of two major industries — Flint & Walling Manufacturing Co., and McCray Refrigerator Co. Flint & Walling started operations in 1866, originally making windmills and hand-operated water pumps. In 1891, F&W produced 15,688 pumps and windmills, employed an average of 164 workers, and maintained a staff of 10 traveling salesmen. By 1902, the company employed about 400 workers. McCray was founded in 1890 and grew into one of the largest refrigeration companies in the country. For many years, one-third of the families of Kendallville earned their primary income from the factory. Main Street was the retail center of Kendallville

for decades. In 1887, Main Street was lighted with oil lamps on wooden posts. Lamps were lighted with a portable ladder. Kendallville’s population grew slowly, but steadily over the years. The population was 2,960 in the 1890 census. It grew to 5,439 in the 1930 census and then to 6,765 by 1960. In the late 1940s, a migration of people from Kentucky to Noble County began as former coal miners took foundry jobs in Kendallville. Claude Lane, manager of Newnam Foundry, Kendallville, and Lane Foundry, Lisbon, was instrumental in bringing many of the men from Kentucky. He sent emissaries to Kentucky to find workers. The U.S. Census Bureau statistics showed that in the late 1980s, more than 10 percent of Noble County — 4,000 people — were born or could trace their roots to southeastern Kentucky. The percentage of residents of Kendallville with Southern roots is unknown, but estimated at the same time to be closer to 20 percent. Kendallville’s population jumped from 7,773 in 1990 to 9,862 in 2010. But the true population with the nearby housing developments just outside the city boundaries is closer to 12,000 today.

But his positive work in education was built upon a negative: Hoosier illiteracy appalled Mills. After seminary, Mills moved to Crawfordsville in 1833 and started a school. (Today’s Wabash College.) Then he began a campaign to establish a statewide public school system. Mills served as state superintendent of schools from 1852-1857. During his term, he helped create the Indiana State Teachers Association. Mills died in 1880, but by then other educators had picked up his torch. Today, the Caleb Mills Teaching Award remains the highest university

honor a Hoosier faculty member can attain. *** In The Enabling Act, 1816 (which “enabled” Indiana to join the union), Congress stated that one township “shall be reserved for the use of a seminary of learning.” In 1822 construction on the State Seminary began in Bloomington — in what is now Seminary Square Park. In 1838, the state changed the name to Indiana University. IU has always been a leader. In 1867, it became the fourth public university in America to enroll a female student. In 1960, IU students elected

an African-American president of the student body. (Some students protested by parading with Confederate flags.) Today, the main campus in Bloomington serves more than 40,000 students; combining all campuses, IU serves 100,000 students. *** In the mid-1800s, America needed educated farmers, engineers, scientists and soldiers. But the abstract liberal arts approach of universities ignored practical skills. Beginning in 1862, Congress gave federal land to states; the land was to be sold and proceeds used to establish univer-

sities that taught practical subjects. The schools became known as land grant universities. In 1869, Purdue University in West Lafayette started as a land grant project. It got its name from John Purdue, a Lafayette businessman and the school’s main benefactor. Today Purdue offers degrees of all kind, but its land grant roots are still apparent. Such as in its sports teams’ nickname: The Boilermakers. *** In the late 1800s, normal schools prepared high school graduates to become teachers. (The schools taught educational

standards or “norms.”) Since 1876, Muncie had hosted a normal school. But the school struggled and eventually failed. In 1917, the gas-boom Ball brothers bought the school and donated it to the state. It was casually called “Ball State” or “Fruit Jar Tech.” Indiana officially changed the name to Ball Teachers College in 1922, and Ball State University in 1965. Currently, Ball State is a pioneer in creating an environmentally sustainable campus. *** Hoosier lawmakers chartered Indiana State Normal School in Terre See 1990S, page B7

1990s: Education took root early in Indiana

BY LEE SAUER

When Indiana became a state in 1816, founders based the Hoosier constitution almost word-for-word on the constitutions of Ohio and Kentucky. But one clause proved unique. It provided for a “general system of education, ascending in regular gradation from township schools to a state university wherein tuition shall be gratis and equally open to all.” Although eventually known for conservatism, Indiana took a liberal and leading role in education. *** Caleb Mills is remembered as “Father of Indiana’s Public Schools.”

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BASS PHOTO CO COLLECTION, INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

EDUCATION FOREBEARER — Appalled by Hoosier literacy rates, the founder of Wabash College in Crawfordsville began a push for free education for all. As a result, Caleb Mills is known as the “Father of Indiana’s Public Schools.”

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1990s From page B6

Haute in 1865. It became Indiana State University in 1965. Many Hoosiers connect Indiana State with Larry Bird, the basketball player. That’s good, because the school’s sports teams have

struggled with identity. At first, ISU athletes were called the Fighting Teachers. The next nickname: The Sycamores — referring to trees rooted along the Wabash River. In 1969, the school created Chief Quabachi, intending to honor the area’s former residents. He lasted until 1989.

Frustrated, Indiana State did not use a mascot for six years. In 1995, the school introduced Sycamore Sam, a woodland animal of indeterminate parentage. As of publishing, Sam remains the mascot. *** Begun in 1801 as Jefferson Academy,

Vincennes University existed before Indiana became a state. For a while, Vincennes competed with Indiana University to be the “State Seminary,” but its decentralized location (south and west, along the Wabash River), hurt. In 1989, Vincennes became a two-year school.

It and Ivy Tech remain state-funded schools that provide technical training. *** The Catholic bishop of Vincennes donated land in the south bend of the St. Joseph River to be used for a school. In 1842, it offered classes in a log chapel. Two years later, the school received a state

charter as a college. Known officially as University of Notre Dame du lac (Our Lady of the Lake), Notre Dame ranks as the largest of Indiana’s 31 private universities. Although it gets most of its attention today from football, ND enjoys a reputation for top academic programs.

Immigrant overcame numerous obstacles (Editor’s note: This is from The News Sun files of the late columnist and Noble County historian Bob Gagen.) As with most immigrants to the United States in the mid-19th century, Thomas Storey overcame obstacles with absolutely no means to succeed except his hands, brain and determination. A native of Yorkshire, England, when Storey arrived alone in Noble County at the age of 27, he had already endured a setback that might have discouraged a less determined individual. Having reached Lockport, N.Y., in 1893 at the age of 23 (very likely via the Erie Canal), he found his meager savings exhausted and his trip westward was subsequently delayed. In Lockport he found work in a stone quarry and in three years earned enough to look

forward to buying government land in Noble County. The morning of his planned departure, his old employer sought his help to help load a canal boat with some large blocks of stone. Storey agreed and while engaged in this operation a large section of rock fell on him and crushed his hip. Fortunately he was able to retain a position with his former employer and in the spring of 1843 he moved on to Noble County and purchased 80 acres in the southeast corner of Section 17 in Jefferson Township. There he and his brother Matthew built a 12-by-14-foot cabin on high ground west of a swamp valley of the Lewis Branch (now known as Croft Ditch, draining the waters of Skinner Lake in a southwesterly direction to Albion and connecting with the south branch of the

Elkhart River). In 1844, Storey returned to Lockport and took a bride - Miss Mary Southworth, a native of Lancaster, England. During their ‘‘bridal trip,’’ that portion from Fort Wayne to the camp on the banks of the Lewis swamp, they traveled on foot carrying all household goods on their backs. Shortly thereafter, Storey and his brother undertook to clear and fence 20 acres of heavily-timbered ground for neighbor Alex Edwards. They were paid $100 and immediately invested it in land. Following this task, Storey and some neighbors undertook the job of reclaiming some land by ditching. In this way a large willow swamp was turned into rich meadows and productive cornfields. In 1853, Storey traded his farm to Nelson Prentiss

for land in Green Township, which he subsequently expanded to 300 acres and managed with ‘excellent judgment and wise economy.’ Within the next 20 years he became one of the township’s wealthiest citizens - serving as its trustee and a strong advocate of education. In 1856, he and his wife were childless, moved to Avilla, where they paid Peter Weimer $12,000 for a farm of 240 acres. During his remaining 30 years he made significant contributions to the town of Avilla, was principal founder of the Old People’s Home there (later Sacred Heart Home, now Provena Sacred Heart), which was built on his land. Relocation to the United States of the Sisters of Saint Francis and other Catholic groups of that time was the result of a religious upheaval taking place in

Germany. Otto von Bismarck, newly-installed first chancellor of Germany, upon taking office in 1870, engaged in a bitter struggle to subject Roman Catholics to state controls. Bismarck never fully trusted the loyalty of Catholics and became particularly disturbed by the 1870 proclamation of the infallibility of the pope. As a result he dissolved all Catholic religious order in the country, leading some of them to depart for the United States. Among these was the Order of St. Francis and in 1876 four sisters of this order — Anastasia, Brigetta, Barbara, and Zilla — came to the country seeking a site in which to relocate. They were referred to Father Dominic Duehmig, a native of Germany, who at the time was pastor of

a small congregation in a frame church about a mile north of Avilla. In the spring of 1881 they purchased four acres from Peter Weimer for $2,000 and built there a house to serve as a home for the aged, unfortunate, crippled and orphans. At one time these sisters had branch missions in Swan Township, Hessen Cassel in Allen County, Crown Point and Dyer, Ind., Joliet, Ill., and St. Joseph, Michigan. Among the prominent members of the congregation at that time were: Monroe Bender, from the Swiss Republic; Matthias Blust, whose parents were from Germany; John Kreienbrink, Hanover, Germany; Andrew Lash, Alsace, France; Father Duehmig, Baden, Germany; Albin and Ignatius Meyer, Strasbourg, France; Henry Vogeding, Prussia, Germany, and John Morehouse, England.

2006: Indianapolis grows with sports at the center BY LEE SAUER

When the Colts won Super Bowl XLI, the Indianapolis team became champions of the National Football League’s 2006 season. Five years later, Indianapolis won kudos for its family-oriented, gracious hosting of Super Bowl LXVI. But, wait. Isn’t basketball Indiana’s game? Or auto racing? Yes, but the football contests proved something: that Indianapolis had grown beyond its Hoosier roots. *** Indianapolis began as a planned city. In other words, it was not located, nor did it grow, organically. In 1820, state leaders looked at a map, located the center of the state, and determined to build the Hoosier capital city on the X. (If the location skews to the south, that’s due to the early importance of the Ohio River.) Planning is apparent in the city’s design: one mile square, streets that radiate out of a central hub. Planning paid off. After the National Road reached the city in 1827, and when railroads arrived 20 years later, Indianapolis became a crossroads for the Midwest. And the entire nation. *** Events outside the mile square helped Indy grow. When the Civil War began in 1860, railroads proclaimed Indianapolis an important center for moving troops and supplies. In 10 years, the city’s population doubled. With the gas boom of the late 1800s, business in Indianapolis boomed again. Events inside the mile spurred growth as well. During the race to produce successful automobiles, Indianapolis boasted 60 automakers. With its transportation infrastructure, the city rivaled Detroit in auto manufacturing — until eventually falling back. But Indianapolis kept one trophy from the contest. The Indianapolis 500 features 33 cars going around a 2.5-mile track 200 times.

INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SELECTING SITE — In this 1880s drawing, an artist envisions the work done by state officials in selecting the site of Indianapolis in 1820 in what was then virgin forest.

With more than 300,000 on-site spectators annually, promoters bill the race as the largest sporting event in the world. *** Indianapolis could never forget basketball. A group of Indy investors pooled resources to bring the Indiana Pacers — named for the pace car of the race — to town in 1967. As part of the upstart American Basketball Association, the Pacers featured a red-white-and-blue ball and a novelty shot: The 3-pointer. In 1970, the Pacers made their No. 1 draft pick Rick Mount — a high school legend and Purdue star who personified the Hoosier pure shooter. Coached by Bob “Slick” Leonard (who had starred at IU and hit two late free throws to win the 1953 national championship), the Pacers dominated the ABA, winning championships in 1970, 1972 and 1973. After joining the NBA

in 1976, the Pacers again enjoyed success under coach Larry Bird and 3-point sharpshooter Reggie Miller. Miller grew up in California, played for UCLA, and the Pacers drafted him ahead of IU star (and Hoosier-born) Steve Alford — all facts heavy enough to sink any player’s popularity. But Hoosiers adopted Miller for his passionate play over 18 years — all with the Indy team. *** Speaking of adopted sports figures, no article on Indianapolis could forgo mention of Peyton Manning. The Colts had been a mildly successful football team after moving to the city in 1984. But with Manning’s arrival in 1998, that changed. Over his 12-year stint with the team, Manning turned the Colts into perennial winners. He was MVP of the Colts’ Super Bowl win. By the time he left in 2011, hobbled by injury and uncertainty, Manning had become the face of Indianapolis.

*** In the early 1900s, young men were dying to play college football. Literally. In 1905, 18 players died. Colleges began to drop football programs. Then an important fan stepped in: Theodore Roosevelt. The president initiated a meeting among colleges to agree to rules governing the sport. That meeting led to the formation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910. At first, the NCAA only set rules for competition. Then, in 1921 with track and field, the NCAA conducted its first national championship. Over the years (and not fast enough for female athletes), the NCAA expanded its reach to include women’s sports. In 1997, touting location and excellent facilities for hosting competitions, the NCAA moved its headquarters to a vibrant, up-andcoming city: Indianapolis.

Since 2013

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910 S. Poplar St. • LaGrange, IN 46761 Craig and Tina Burgi met eating ice cream at ATZ Ice Cream and 33 years later they continued to serve the residents of LaGrange County and surrounding communities by buying Schlemmer Hardware. This business is an established part of our county. By providing a comprehensive hardware store to meet any and all kinds of needs, we hope to make it easy to get paints, tools, and any kind of products to fix anything in your home or business. If you need it and we don’t have it, we can order it. We have a courteous staff and big parking lot. After Craig passed away, we made it our job to do everything he wanted to continue on with his dream of having the best hardware store in NE Indiana. It is our strongest mission to make our community a better place to live, raise a family, and improve your life by giving you top products in a high quality hardware store that is well-stocked, well-maintained, friendly, knowledgeable and at affordable prices. Today, Tina and her son, Jeremy and daughter-in-law, Allyson, along with a dedicated and loyal staff continue to provide the same quality you would like with the answers you want when you need it. With our granddaughters Gwendolyn and Keyera, the Burgi’s may have another generation to service our remarkable county.

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Kendallville graduate was Nobel Prize winner No Kendallville High School graduate received more acclaim for his work than Dr. Harold Clayton Urey. A member of the Class of 1911, Urey became a renowned scientist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1934. He later took part in the research leading to the production of the atomic bomb in World War II. Born April 29, 1893, in Walkerton, he was the son of the Rev. Samuel Clayton and Cora Rebecca (Reinoehl) Urey. His father, a teacher and minister, died when he was 6 years old. After attending an Amish grade school, Urey attended four years of high school in Kendallville. According to a high school classmate, the late Marguerite Cramer, as a boy Urey lived in the country near Corunna, but came to live with his uncle in Kendallville for a time so he could attend high school. Urey had a knack for learning, Cramer said in a 1981 interview. His only academic honor prior to attending college was winning a $5 gold piece while attending Kendallville High School,

for a speech about his boyhood idol, Theodore Roosevelt. After high school, Urey taught grade school in Noble County and rural Montana for three years before entering the University of Montana in 1914. He graduated from the University of Montana with a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology in 1917. He spent two years as a research chemist in industry before returning to Montana as an instructor in chemistry. In 1921, Urey entered the University of California to work under Professor Lewis and he earned a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1923. He spent the following year in Copenhagen at Professor Niels Bohr’s Institute for Theoretical Physics as an American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow to Denmark. On his return to the United States he became an associate professor of chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. In 1929, he was appointed associate professor of chemistry at Columbia University, New York City, and he became professor in 1934. During the period

1940-1945 he was also director of war research, and the Atomic Bomb Project, Columbia University. He moved to the Institute for Nuclear Studies, University of Chicago, in 1945 as distinguished service professor of chemistry and became a Martin A. Ryerson Professor in 1952. Urey was a visiting professor at the University of Oxford, in England, during 1956-1957 and in 1958 he took a post as professor-at-large, University of California. He held that position until his death in January 1981. Urey broke into prominence in December 1931, when he announced that in collaboration with two other investigators, research assistant George Murphy and a friend, Ferdinand Brickwedde, he had discovered the existence of heavy hydrogen. This discovery is considered one of the most important in the history of modern science, and it was for this discovery that he became a Nobel laureate, which earned him a monetary award of $50,000. He was teaching at Columbia University at the time. He continued to study the problem

of isotope separation and developed the gas distillation process that was successfully used in the creation of the first atomic bomb when the United States and Nazi Germany were in a race for development of the weapon. A lifelong scientific researcher, Urey served as one of the three program chiefs of the wartime Manhattan Project, which developed the bomb. President Harry Truman, who presented him the Medal of Merit, rewarded his efforts as head of the special alloy materials program of the Manhattan Project. At the end of World War II, Urey joined other scientists in developing theories attempting to explain the way in which the world’s original chemical elements united to form the universe. Among his other significant contributions to science were an oxygen thermometer that makes possible the measure of temperatures in the ancient seas. He also was an adviser to the national space effort and lectured on the subject. Urey retired in the beautiful Pacific coastal community of La Jolla,

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

1911 Kendallville High School student Harold Ulrey.

Calif., north of San Diego. At the time of his death at the age of 87, he maintained an office on the nearby campus of the University of California,

but spent much of his later years at home writing. His wife, the former Frieda Daum, along with three daughters and a son, survived him.

2016: Past meets present in bicentennial year COMMENTARY BY LEE SAUER

Two hundred years. It’s a long time. And, it’s a blink of an eye. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Wise words. Hoosiers could learn much from their state’s past. But first, some introductions are in order … *** Pioneers and gas boomers: meet climate change deniers. To pioneers, the forest seemed endless. There would always be more virgin forest; game would always be plentiful. During the gas boom, Hoosiers scoffed at experts who warned the gas would run out if not conserved. Both the virgin forest and gas disappeared, and in much shorter time than anyone anticipated. Today, climate change deniers ignore warnings from an overwhelming majority of scientists who say we are doing irreparable harm to our planet. *** Canals: meet coal. When trains arrived, Hoosiers replaced canals. Canal workers lost jobs. Some folks — forgetting the slow pace, the endless maintenance, the constant money outlays, and the mosquitoes — waxed nostalgic for canals. But advantages of the new technology overwhelmed all

arguments. Today, America has largely moved on from coal as an energy source, yet some leaders shout to bring coal back. *** Bigotry: meet xenophobia. Pioneers (or their proxies, soldiers) shoved Indians aside. The Ku Klux Klan intimidated African-Americans, Jews, Catholics and immigrants. Today, some Hoosiers decry allowing Middle Easterners and Mexicans access to the state. And Hoosier laws that allow discrimination against gays and transgender create classes of Americans. *** Railroads and automobiles: meet computers and alternative energy. Railroads and automobiles completely remade America — physically, socially, and economically. Indiana didn’t make the transformative products, but in each case it benefitted from spinoff opportunities. Computers and alternative energy are this generation’s wonder technology. *** Family farmers: meet organic farmers. Family farms produced fresh, tasty food. Often farmers knew the people who bought their produce. Industrialization of America’s food supply produces food that is often tasteless and which must travel thousands of miles

INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

PROPHETIC? — Terre Haute native Eugene Debs called for worker reforms that once seemed radical, but today are accepted as standard practice. Debs ran — unsuccessfully — for president five times as a Socialist

to consumers. Today, organic farms reincarnate family farms. They produce food that

tastes good, is nutritious, and doesn’t need abundant fossil fuel to get it to its point of sale.

Since 2016 Call our office to set up an appointment 260-463-7005 Dr. Krystle King opened King Veterinary Clinic in April 2016. Dr. Krystle is originally from LaGrange and has recently returned after working in Nashville, TN for four years after graduating from Purdue’s School of Veterinary Medicine. She practiced at an equine only facility for a couple of years, and then went on to practice at a small animal clinic for her remaining two years in Tennessee. She is a third generation veterinarian. Her grandfather, Roger King (now retired) and father, Jeff King, have both practiced in the area. Dr. Krystle looks forward to being back home and serving the local community. 800 N. Detroit St., LaGrange, IN 46761 info@kingvetclinic.com www.kingvetclinic.com Phone: 260-463-7005 • Fax: 260-463-4900 Hours: M-F 8:00-5:00; Sat. 8:00-12:00

*** Union: meet Brexit. Abraham Lincoln warned that if states could leave the United States at will, then the union no longer existed. The experiment in democratic government would have failed. Britain’s recent exit from the European Union shocked the world. Already other nations have begun to question whether they should stay in the union. *** Caleb Mills: meet online learning. Hoosier illiteracy horrified Mills. He worked hard to eliminate it. All a democracy holds dear — innovation, critical thinking, fairness, opportunity for all, good leaders— rely on one thing: Education. *** Eugene Debs: meet Bernie Sanders. Debs went to jail for “radical” ideas. Yet those ideas are now woven into the American fabric. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders advocates revolution. But a majority

of his party’s voters were not ready for his ideas in 2016. *** In researching Indiana history, one Hoosier quality pops up again and again: Reluctance to change. People tend to wear blinders that allow them to see only their own time. They believe aspects of their life are the way things have always been. They resist change because of the blinders: they can’t imagine life beyond what they know. But even a cursory study of history points out the error in that view. Change is continual. It’s going on now. Lots of it. Hoosiers don’t like change? That’s pretty ironic. Consider this: a mere 200 years ago, the land on which we live was virgin forest. Special thanks to Jim Zimmerman, retired professor of history at Tri-State University (now Trine University) for his research assistance.