A PUBLICATION OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

OF INDIANA AND MIDWESTERN HISTORY SPRING 1993 $5

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY James J. Barnes, Crawfordsville Dianne J. Cartmel, Seymour MISSION STATEMENT William E. Ervin, Hartford City Ralph D. Gray, H. Roll McLaughlin, Indianapolis Ronald Morris, Greenwood N A SATURDAY NIGHT IN DECEMBER 1830 A GROUP OF THE MOST Mary M. Mullin, Brookville Kathleen Stiso Mullins, South Bend DISTINGUISHED FIGURES IN INDIANA'S EARLY HISTORY—INCLUDING Alan T. Nolan, Indianapolis, Chairman Larry K. Pitts, Indianapolis William G. Prime, Madison JOHN FARNHAM, CALVIN FLETCHER, WILLIAM CONNER, JOHN TIPTON, O Evaline H. Rhodehamel, Indianapolis, Vice President Richard S. Simons, Marion. President AND MORE THAN HALF OF THE INDIANA GENERAL ASSEMBLY—MET AT THE John Martin Smith, Auburn Theodore L. Steele, Indianapolis MARION COUNTY COURTHOUSE IN INDIANAPOLIS TO FORM WHAT BECAME P. R. Sweeney, Vincennes Stanley Warren, Greencastle THE INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. THAT GROUP COMPOSED THE ORGANIZATION'S Herman B Wells, Bloomington

CONSTITUTION AND DECLARED: ADMINISTRATION Peter T. Harstad, Executive Director Raymond L. Shoemaker, Assistant Executive Director and Business The objects of the Society shall be the collection of all Annabel le J. Jackson, Controller Susan P. Brown, Director Human Resources materials calculated to shed light on the natural, civil and Carolyn S. Smith, Membership Secretary political history of Indiana, the promotion of useful knowledge DIVISION DIRECTORS and the friendly and profitable in tercourse of such citizens of Bruce L.Johnson, Library Thomas K. Krasean, Community Relations the state as are disposed to promote the aforesaid objects. Thomas A. Mason, Publications Robert M. Taylor. Jr., Education

TRACES OF INDIANA AND MIDWESTERN HISTORY Thomas A. Mason, Executive Editor J. Kent Calder, Managing Editor Kathleen M. Breen, Editorial Assistant Megan L. McKee, Editorial Assistant

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ODAY, WITH MORE THAN 9,000 MEMBERS IN AND BEYOND INDIANA, Ray E. Boomhower Douglas E. Clanin Paula J. Corpuz Ruth Dorrel T PHOTOGRAPHY THE SOCIETY BUILDS ON THIS FOUNDATION. AS THE NEXT CENTURY Stephen J. Fletcher, Curator Visual Collections Kim Charles Ferrill, Photographer APPROACHES, IT REAFFIRMS ITS ORIGINAL "OBJECTS" WITHIN THE Susan L. S. Sutton, Coordinator

BROADER CONTEXTS OF REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND W7ORLD HISTORY AND EDITORIAI. BOARD Edward E. Breen, Marion Chronicle-Tribune Andrew R. L. Cayton, Miami University FOCUSES THEM AS FOLLOWS: David E. Dawson. Indianapolis To promote public awareness and appreciation of Indiana Ralph D. Gray, Indiana University, Indianapolis Monroe H. Little, Jr., Indiana University, Indianapolis history, the Indiana Historical Society collects, preserves, James H. Madison, Indiana University, Bloomington Richard S. Simons, Marion interprets, and disseminates documentary and visual John Martin Smith, Auburn Emma Lou Thornbrough, Butler University evidence and supports scholarly research. The Society fosters DESIGN excellence and leadership, historical inquiry, and pleasurable Dean Johnson Design Lloyd Brooks, Scott Johnson, Designers and informal exchanges, believing that an understanding of the past illu minates the present a nd gives vision for the fu ture. TYPESETTING Shepard Poorman Communications Corp.

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Iran's ojIndiana and Midwestern History (ISSN 1040-788X) is published quar- terly and distributed as a benefit of membership by the Indiana Historical Society; editorial and executive offices, 315 West Oflio Street. Indianapolis, APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, 25 APRIL 1991. Indiana 46202-3299. Membership categories are Annual $20, Sustaining $30, Contributing $50, and Life $500. copies are $5. Second-class postage paid at Indianapolis. Indiana: USPS Number 003-275. Literary rnnth butions: A brochure containing information for contributors is available upon request. Traces accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts submitted without return postage. The Indiana Historical Society assumes no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made bv contributors. Indiana newspaper publishers may obtain permission to reprint articles b\ written request to the Society. The Society will refer requests from other publishers to the author. ©1993 Indiana Historical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the of America. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. Indiana Historical Society, 315 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-3299. RECEIVED MAY 0 4 1993 INDIANA HISTORICAL TRACEOF INDIANA AND MIDWESTERN HISTORY VOLUME 5 NUMBESR 2 SOCIETY LIBRARY

PHOTOGRAPH BYDAVID HOPPK DEPARTMENTS FEATURES

2 26 Letters The Dunking of General Cass: : A Hoosier Myth Indiana's Dynamic Heritage George P. Clark Barbara Gregorich Editors' Page 12 36 24 The Hoosier Slide: Small Town U.S.A.: "Monument of Never Ending Sand' Alexandria Speaks for America Destination Indiana Ray Boomhower Nancy Norris 48 Focus 18 46 Moon Valley SOS! Above: David HOPPE Outdoor Sculpture David Hoppe Glory-June Greiff writes about what it means to lose a special place in his essay "Moon Valley." \ CONNER, KILTS, AND THE INDIANS

What a pleasure it was to receive thoroughly enjoy your publications, when the victim sat down" (the picture my copy of the Winter issue of Ibut I am confused by several ap- doesn't even include a pistol). Traces and see William Conner's picture parent discrepancies in the Winter On page twenty-one it is said that gracing the cover. Then, to turn to the 1993 issue: "Among the services rendered by inside and see the excellent William Conner were . . . job the editors have done with identifying the body of the three stories on Conner Tecumseh following the and the house restoration was Battle of the Thames." All of icing on the cake! the latest scholarly texts that I To be featured in Traces is have read indicate that very important to us, for it is Tecumseh's body was never read by those people who are positively identified and was most likely to take an interest probably removed to a secret in Conner Prairie and what burial spot by his compatriots. we do here. We are very excit- ed about the restoration and KEN MASSEY know that others who read of Indianapolis it in Traces w\\\ reflect our en- [The Muirs are father, sister, thusiasm and, it is hoped, will and mother, respectively—Ed.] visit to see in person this place Conner built in 1823. any thanks to Stewart POLLY JONTZ M Rafert for his splendid President, Conner Prairie article in the Spring 1992 issue: "Ozahshinquah: A Miami Woman's Life." I he Winter 1993 issue found it fascinating. So often Tof Traces was received yes- the story of treatment of the terday and congratulations on Indians is presented afar off, another fine publication. I Ozahshinquah. but he has brought it up close enjoyed each of the three with the focus on actual indi- main articles, especially the viduals and family members. one about John Muir. I had never Who were Daniel Muir, Sr., Mary Our country has still to come to terms known of his Indianapolis connection Muir Hand, and Anne Gilrye Muir? with the injustice done to the indige- before. All are referred to on page forty-one, nous Americans. Of course, even the I imagine that you will hear from along with pictures of two of them, descendants of the pioneer settlers of a number of people who wear the but there is no mention of them in the the Midwest and Far West do not feel kilts. People from Scotland are not story about John Muir! the wrong that has been done, since Scotch. Scotch is a whiskey. People Page forty-four shows a picture of they purchased the land after it had from Scotland are called Scots, or of John Muir's "Loafer's Chair," but it already been ceded to the federal gov- Scottish origin. Hoot mon, where was does not seem possible that this can ernment (under what duress and force your proofreader? be the same "Loafer's Chair" de- the record does not reveal). scribed on page forty-one as having ROBERT D. GRUEN "concealed a spring attached to a RODNEY T. HOOD Indianapolis pistol . . . that went off with a Bang! Franklin, Indiana

2 TRACES TRUST, BUT VERIFY

nformal discussions among during its dedication ceremony in historians usually turn Fort Wayne 150 years ago. The before very long to the extraordinary tenacity the author topic of the relationship displays in his search for the between myth and history. facts is rewarded with a few sur- In any area of research the two are prises. Nancy Norris, too, exhibits so thoroughly intermingled that great determination in her efforts only the most skeptical and dili- to discover why the Office of gent can keep them separated for War Information chose the town long. The reasons for their close of Alexandria, Indiana, to repre- affinity are profuse: pride, politics, sent the rest of America in the economics, love, envy, shame, pamphlet "Small Town U.S.A.," carelessness, and everything in be- which was distributed throughout tween. The diversity of mythologi- the world in 1944. Though Norris's cal origins is as various as the facets of own, and they played a good deal in work at the National Archives never human nature. Indiana, where many still live and revealed why the OWI picked If historians are seldom as happy as where much of the historical record Alexandria, it did dispel a number of when their labors in the archives bear can be found. misconceptions that have existed in fruit in the exposing of a myth, they Hoppe and Boomhower deal with the community for the last fifty years are almost as well pleased with a good the myth of the worthlessness of sand regarding the top-secret project. story. Ideally, this tension between art as it applies to the development and One of those myths involves the and evidence leads to readable and destruction of Indiana's dunes. "From poignant photograph that appears on truthful history. In reality, however, the turn of the century to the pres- this page. The editors of "Small Town the synthesis is often not fully real- ent," writes Hoppe, "duneland has U.S.A." reproduced it with the follow- ized, resulting in good research poorly looked like a hole waiting to be filled ing caption: "The flag is carried from presented or an interesting story that for a lot of people. Maybe it's the the coffin after the burial service of is not entirely true. The editor's task is sand." The myth of barren sand led Private Louis Oliver Reason, wounded to find and present stories that come directly to an almost unquestioning overseas and sent back home, where closest to the ideal, and those present- faith in development. As a result, he later died." The implication, of ed here come very close. All are well Hoppe's Moon Valley and places like it course, is that the private died from researched and well told, and each in are not long for this world. Witness the wounds he received in World War II. its own way tests the accuracy of fate of Hoosier Slide, at one time the At least that is what Traces' editors in- accepted truths. tallest of Indiana's dunes and Michi- ferred when we ran the picture in the Barbara Gregorich, David Hoppe, gan City's most prominent landmark magazine's World War II issue. Norris and Ray Boomhower write in opposi- and tourist attraction. As Boomhower discovered that Reason was actually a tion to broadly believed cultural relates, the dune was leveled by sand World War I veteran and that the notions. Gregorich, in a recent book mining. An electric generating plant grieving woman was his sister and not and in this article for Traces, corrects now stands in its place. his mother. The caption didn't exactly the commonly held belief that women The other two features in this issue lie, but story certainly got the better of can't play baseball. Though it is strictly dispose of less dangerous but no less truth in this case. Though we under- the realm of males nowadays, baseball interesting myths. George R Clark stand the temptation, Traces' editors was once played by women who could definitively denies the accuracy of a prefer to err on the side of accuracy. throw overhand, for power, and much loved and often repeated bases with the best. They played Hoosier story: that Gen. Lewis Cass J. KENT CALDER on men's teams and in leagues of their fell into the Wabash and Erie Canal Managing Editor

Spring 1993 THE DUNKING OF GENERAL CASS A. Hoosier Myth

George P. Clark h of Fort Wayne celebrate this coming Fourth of W en the CitizensJuly, they will be observing not only the 217th anniversary of the first Independence Day, but also, in the round figures that more commonly mark memorable events, the 150th anniversary of a day particularly relevant to their own local history. It was on 4 July 1843 that Fort Wayne hosted a great public reception, complete with sol- diers and Indians and free food and drink for all, to celebrate the opening of through service on the Wabash and Erie Canal, Indiana's great "internal improvement, " northward to Toledo, Ohio.

and their distinguished guests on An engraver's idealized image The town fathers that glorious Fourth of July in 1843 of travel by packets on the had high expectations for the contribution of the canal to the developing prosperity Old Erie Canal. of Fort Wayne, and they sought to embody them in an impressive celebration of American indepen- dence and frontier go-aheadativeness (to use a popular coinage of the time. The economic signifi- cance of the opening was clear to farmers and merchants and politicians alike: the people of the Wabash Valley could now exchange products on a great waterway extending from Lafayette clear to the port of New York. But all would surely have been surprised could they have known that the Wabash and Erie, now with most of its bed moldering beneath fields and streets and railroad tracks, would survive as a cultural icon long after its commercial significance had vanished. And they would have been surprised, as zvell, could they have known that future historians of the well-recorded festivities would describe with relish and in some detail a memorable incident of the occasion which in fact never happened. The eminent speaker of the day, Gen. Lewis Cass, as numerous more recent accounts would have it, arriving by canalboat from Toledo, slipped

Spring 1993 5 upon the gangplank as he stepped for- the completed canal for deportation to them. Gov. Cass was escorted from thence to ward to greet the welcoming commit- the West in keeping with the federal his lodging at Mr. Hamilton's by the Toledo tee, and fell into the waters he had resettlement policy. Most reassuring Guards and a large number of citizens. come to dedicate. The story of how was confirmation that the speaker of this canard arose and took wing illus- the day would be none other than And a correspondent of the New York trates how unsubstantiated myth can Lewis Cass, distinguished officer in Tribune reported in its pages on 15 July: pass for history if it achieves frequent the War of 1812 (the "late war"), secre- appearance in print. tary of war at the time of the Black I have just returned from attendance at the Hawk War, and former governor of celebration of the completion of the Wabash Michigan Territory, now recently re- and Erie Canal, at Fort Wayne, on the ever The Committee turned from service as minister to glorious 4th, and a visit to Lafayette, the of Arrangements on that festive day in France and intent on winning the western terminus of the Canal. The cele- 1843 planned a parade, of course, a Democratic presidential nomination bration was what the day and the importance patriotic address by a national figure, in 1844. In the Sentinel for 1 July the of the occasion called for. A beautiful, patri- and bountiful food and drink at Committee of Reception revealed otic and classical, although somewhat des- Colonel Swinney's shaded grove. Two its plans for impressive military hon- ultory address was delivered by Gen. Cass, leading newspapers of Fort Wayne, the ors to the general upon his arrival who was the Orator of the day. Sentinel and the Times, publicized the from Toledo: celebration well in advance, bringing details of planned events, speculation The committee, . . . attended by a band of about prominent national figures who music, and such volunteer military com- might attend, and identification of panies as may be in the city, will start from "bands of music" that would lead the the foot of Clinton street at 7 o'clock, and march of "Revolutionary soldiers and meet the General at the lock one mile below soldiers of the late war." With perhaps town. The arrival will be announced by the unconscious irony, the published order discharge of three minute guns. of the clay announced the participa- tion of "100 Miami Warriors in full Widespread reports from Indiana costume." These marchers, with their newspapers and beyond indicate that families, were soon to board boats on on the great day General Cass was received with fitting pomp and every- thing went as planned. The Indiana State Sentinel reported from Indianap- olis on 11 July:

We learn from private sources, that the celebration at Fort Wayne, on the 4th, passed off in glorious style. Eight or ten thousand persons were present, whose comfort was amply provided for by the hospitable inhabitants of the town and neighborhood. In his Pictorial History of Fort Wayne, The oration was delivered by Gen. Cass, Indiana, published in 1917, Bert J. and is highly spoken of as an eloquent and Griswold drew largely upon a report in able production. the Fort Wayne Sentinel of 15 July 1843 for his pages of description of the The Toledo Blade of 14 July, citing an "Great Canal Celebration," though, for item in the Fort Wayne Times, reported: an "interesting sidelight," he turned, rather curiously, to a much later source: The morning of the Fourth was calm and delightful, and was ushered in with the The arrival of Gen. Cass is thus described by discharge of artillery. About 6 o'clock, Gov. LeRoy Armstrong in the Lafayette (Indiana) Cass and suite with a great concourse of journal, of 25 September 1899: "A local poet citizens from either State arrived in the had written some grandiloquent lines and it Packet Ohio, and were welcomed by a large was part of the ceremony that these verses crowd assembled on the what^f to receive should be read to the statesman as he dis-

8 TRACES embarked. . . . The gangplank was not crowd greeted him with great enthusiasm. Mr. that it was altogether a Lockport, accurately stayed, and while General Cass Cass stepped on the gang plank and halted splendid affair." Erie Canal. stood listening to the phrases he could not there while a local poet recited some For her account of Cass's understand, the plank slipped and down verses written for the occasion. As the poet sliding "wildly into the canal," Mayhill went the thriftiest of trimmers. He came up "droned on his rythmic [sic] tribute", the drew liberally, as comparison shows, moist but fervid and won Indiana to his gang plank suddenly slipped, and the dis- upon a feature article about the his- presidential plans." tinguished general slid wildly into the canal. toric event which had appeared in the Indianapolis Star Sunday Magazine, 17 Mayhill did not specify a source, and July 1949. The author, (Alberta) Gene The anecdote the story is not to be found in the Berryhill, offered a rather enthusiastic of Lewis Cass and the effusive local Delphi Oracle, upon which she had depiction of how "an obscure local poet poet appeared again in Dora Thomas been drawing extensively for her chap- teamed with the general to extend Mayhill's Old Wabash and Erie Canal in ter, "Life along the Canal." The Oracle, [the celebration's] memory with one Carroll County (1953): in fact, reported on 8 July 1843 that of the most embarrassing, yet amus- "We have not heard the particulars of ing, incidents on record." Noteworthy The distinguished speaker of the day was to the celebration at Fort Wayne, but we in Berryhill's account of Cass's im- be Gen. Lewis Cass of Toledo [, in learn, verbally, that Gen. Cass was promptu immersion (which derives fact], who arrived on the packet, Ohio. The present and delivered the oration; and essentially from Griswold) is a charm-

Spring 199 3 ing detail not derived from Le Roy Cass that bears the blame. Unique to years? How, in fact, did memory of it Armstrong. "As the stunned crowd this version is the elaboration, not else- escape history for over half a century awaited the repercussions [of Cass's where found, that a 'joke on a nation- until Le Roy Armstrong came forward fall], the general rose, dripping, from wide scale" was made of the incident: with his tale in September 1899? the water, and with a ready smile let By 1899, the Lafayette Journal had the crowd know he held no malice." Senator Cass [sic; Cass had not yet served undergone numerous changes of name Griswold's tale of General Cass's in the Senate] arrived in Fort Wayne at 6 and ownership since its founding as dunking was repeated virtually verba- o'clock in the morning on an incoming the Tippecanoe Journal in 1840. There tim by Charles R. Poinsatte in his Fort canalboat from Toledo. The Senator, dis- were now both a daily Morning Journal Wayne during the Canal Era, 1828-1855 embarking, courteously acknowledged the and a Weekly Journal, which appeared (1969), crediting Armstrong's item in ovation of the crowd assembled to greet him. each Friday. There is no reference to the Lafayette Journal (but not naming In doing so, he stepped up the gangplank, Cass in the Morning Journal for him) and making no reference to lost his footing, and (Monday) 25 September 1899, nor Griswold's prior account. Historian any byline of Le Roy Armstrong. Paul Fatout also appar- He was, however, writing for the ently considered the Weekly Journal at this time, and it story too good to miss. is the Friday, 15 September, edi- The Indiana History Bul- tion that contains Griswold's letin for January 1971 gave misdated quotation. extracts from Fatout's The first appearance, then, "fascinating manuscript of the tale of Cass's ludicrous on The Canals of Indiana" fall into the canal occurs in a and cited his story of the long feature article by Leroy fall of "the aging general" (sic) Armstrong, captioned into the canal. Fatout pre- "The Wabash and Erie Canal: sented it as follows in his Historical Sketch of the Most Indiana Canals, published Important Engineering En- the following year, with no terprise in the New North- indication of source. The west." One can hardly imag- local poet was no longer im- ine a historical article more plicated in the disaster: inattentive to fact. Any Michigan or New York General Lewis Cass, orator of the readers, for example, were day, sailed in from Toledo on the surely surprised to learn packet Ohio, reception committee and that while Cass was gov- crowd at docks ide to welcome the dis- ernor of Michigan Ter- tinguished guest with proper acclaim. ritory (1813-31), he was Unfortunately the aging general, also "credited with in- attempting to step casually ashore while agurating [sic] the . . . acknowledging plaudits, missed his s Erie canal enterprise footing and fell into the canal. in New York state," an achievement commonly at- Perhaps Fatout had noticed the tumbled tributed to DeWitt Clinton. And account of Cass's unfortunate fall into the turbid canal waters. This Hoosiers familiar with the White in the Wabash-Erie Canal, a booklet unfortunate episode became a joke on a River, which is shared by Gibson and prepared by the staff of the Fort nation-wide scale and is said to have contrib- Knox counties as it flows into the Wayne public library and published uted to his defeat in his campaign for the Wabash, must have had their confi- in 1962 by the Board of Trustees of Presidency in 1848. dence in the article shaken by the rev- Fort Wayne Community Schools and How didelatio n that: the Public Library Board for Allen such a calam- County. Here also the local poet has itous accident In 1843 the canal was completed to the nav- disappeared from the story, though . fail to be noted igable waters of the Wabash, to a point below Fatout's "aging general" (he was sixty- by contemporary reporters of the cele- Terre Haute, and then was diverted south to one years old) has not yet appeared, bration? How did it elude numerous the banks of the White river, beside which it and it is the "footing" of "Senator" biographers of Cass in succeeding ran till it reached the Ohio at Jeffersonville.

TRACES It is a few sentences later that Arm- stood a little in advance of his notable [sic] is questionable," but concluded strong offers his description of Cass's friends on that extended forward deck, his that "The Outlazvs may fairly be com- fall into the canal. right hand in the breast of his splendid coat, mended as a welcome addition to our Brief biographical notices of Le Roy his towering form notable among the ten Indiana literature." Upon the same Armstrong appear in a number of thousand. He waited there the signal to page appeared a selection from an places, including R. E. Banta's Indiana land—for a local poet was reciting his autobiographical sketch by Armstrong Authors and Their Books, which notes glorious deeds, and at the same time in which he said of his novel, "The that Armstrong published, in 1902, painting in heroic verse the mission of the incidents related in that book never Theodore Roosevelt ... A Typical Amer- canal. At the conclusion of the poem the occurred, but that isn't my fault. They ican; Arthur Shumaker's Indiana Liter- general passed pompously up the plank just are possible, logical, and a million ature", and Robert C. Kriebel's 150 Years as some imp of chance moved the boat to things a million times more wonderful of Lafayette Newspapers. Born in 1854 at drift from shore. The plank fell short, and and more beautiful and of precisely Plymouth, Indiana, Armstrong studied law briefly at Indiana University but soon turned to journalism and the Stemma of Le Roy Asmestong's Story about General Lewis Cuss writing of fiction. In 1896, according to Shumaker, "he became editor of the Lafayette Morning Journal"-, Kriebel states that he "worked in Lafayette on the Journal 1899-1902" and refers, among other writings, to his first novel, The Outlazvs, published in 1902. It is The Outlaws: A Story of the Building of the West that brings us back to Armstrong's "historical sketch" in the Lafayette Weekly Journal. The novel is essentially the article supplied with a cast of characters and dialogue, for it deals with many of the same events and often uses the same language, as in the following passage. The hero, Dan Rank, who will wed Prudence Caruth after requisite vicissitudes, observes a canalboat rounding a curve:

"It's the Lewis Cass," said Dan to himself, for the packets were known by name. ... It had the general, primed for periods, threw up his like character did occur." If Cass, been designed for the bearing, on its initial arms like a common yokel, and fell into the "large with political importance," did trip, of the man whose name was bestowed muddy waters of the new canal. not come "pompously to mark the upon it, when he came—large with political occasion with a speech, and to build importance—to the West, and formally He came up moist but fervid. He was even higher his political fences," and if "opened" the canal. lifted out by friendly hands, and delivered he did not then slip and fall into the an oration that held Indiana for him in the canal "like a common yokel," then And an odd thing had happened on that next convention. poetic justice required at least that he distant clay. Fort Wayne, first station west of should have. And one cannot overlook the "portage," over which French and Saxon a possible political motive in the tale and Indian allies had dragged their canoes, "Moist but fervid - as well. Armstrong, from available evi- made a great event of the "opening." They dence a Republican, clearly took inor- we have read that before, and we know set apart the Fourth of July for the celebrat- dinate delight in imagining the humili- about that local poet. Indeed, by now ing. General Cass, the best known figure in ation of a great Jeffersonian Democrat. we are all too familiar with the details the West, came pompously to mark the of Armstrong's remarkable story. The Bert Griswold, born in 1873, was a occasion with a speech, and to build even reviewer of The Outlazvs in the India- printer, illustrator, and journalist by higher his political fences. . . . The bands napolis Sentinel for 20 April 1902 re- profession, highly respected, active in were playing, and the militia was drawn up marked that "there are points when the civic affairs of Fort Wayne, and in training-day formation. The great man [Armstrong's] historical accurracy zealous to preserve its history. It is dif- Spring 1993 9 -LE ROY ARMSTRONG

Cass actually ficult to understand and Erie Canal at Fort Wayne. Quite to have elsewhere strange, well docu- received a why he uncritically the contrary, there is ample evidence mented, encounters of the wet kind, dousing in repeated as an "in- that reporters of the celebration be- reported incidents from which 1857 during a ceremonial teresting sidelight" held no such dramatic event. (The tex- Armstrong may have taken inspira- demonstration an anecdote from a tual scholars, Jacques Barzun and tion. In his Life of Andrew Jackson, pub- of Cincinnati's single writer, first pub- Henry F. Graff, commenting in The lished in 1860 while Cass was still liv- fire engines. lished over half a cen- Modern Researcher [1970] on the flour- ing, James Parton describes an tury after the alleged event, in a con- ishing of legends, observe that "The unsettling experience of Cass, then text of remarkable misinformation. dissemination of historical knowledge secretary of war, as he accompanied But repeat it he did, and in so doing tends to be slow in proportion as the President Jackson to a reception at the lent the weight of his authority to the is dramatic and 'fitting.'") Battery on Manhattan Island in 1833: popularizing of a Hoosier myth. There But if we must reject so entertaining is simply no credible evidence that an anecdote in its Hoosier setting, it After receiving in Castle Garden the address Lewis Cass ever fell into the Wabash may be noted that Cass dicj indeed of the corporation, [Jackson] mounted his

12 TRACES horse and passed over the long wooden that General Cass "took the incident one conclude bridge which formerly connected that fort kindly, rising to let the water drip off, What canabou t the tale with the Battery, followed by his suite and a and returning the shout of the crowd that Bert Griswold mistakenly attrib- great concourse of officials. He had just with a good-natured smile." But wait— uted to the Lafayette Journal for 25 reached the land when the crowded bridge isn't this the language we found Gene September 1899, the variations on it gave way, and let the multitude down among Berryhill using to describe General offered by Poinsatte, Fatout, and nu- the rocks and into the shallow water below. Cass at Fort Wayne, who "rose, drip- merous others, and the version which Vice-President, Governor, Cabinet ministers, ping, from the water, and with a ready appeared in fictional context in The mayor, aldermen, military officers, and smile let the crowd know he held no Outlaws? For Le Roy Armstrong, it was citizens generally, were mingled in an in- malice"? Le Roy Armstrong's imagina- enough that Cass's fall was "possible," discriminate and struggling for "a million things . . . mass. The wildest confusion of precisely like character and alarm prevailed for did occur." Recounting it several minutes. Gradually, enlivened his piece of however, the crowd emerged popular journalism in from the ruins, and no one the unreserved spirit of was seriously hurt. Major the Hearst and Pulitzer Jack Downing tells us that press of the 1890s. One Governor Marcy tore his recalls the traditional pantaloons a second time, appreciation of a good and that Governor Cass lost story: "If it is not true, his wig. at least it is very well invented." The image of But there was to be an exalted figure on a more, as we learn from festive day ingloriously Seymour Dunbar's A disappearing into the History of Travel in America depths of a canal he had (1937). In 1857, Lewis come to dedicate is strik- Cass, now secretary of ing, to say the least. And state in James Buchan- it is probably because an's cabinet, was among Armstrong's scenario many dignitaries invited provides such a dramatic to make a railroad jour- metaphor for the fall of ney from to any erring politician, Cincinnati and St. Louis that his plausible fabrica- in celebration of the tion has found a place in opening of through ser- Hoosier annals. vice between these George P. Clark has prepared points the preceding an edition of the complete year. At Cincinnati, part travel journals of Charles H. of the official entertain- Titus, an early passenger on Lewis Cass. ment was a demonstra- NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION the Wabash and Erie Caned, to tion by city firemen of be published this fall by the Michigan State University the power of their new Press. He wishes to acknowl- steam fire engines, which threw tive tale of Cass's accident at Fort edge the help of the following in researching "torrents of water into the air for the Wayne may very well have had its this article: Willard C. Klunder, Wichita State University, Kansas; John Selch, Darrol Pierson, edification of the strangers from the inspiration in the embarrassing dous- East." And yes, "During the perfor- and Ron Sharp, Indiana State Library; ing that Cass did receive at Cincinnati. Nancy Weirich, Tippecanoe County Historical mance some firemen lost control of a In any event, Smith's account was Association; Randy Elliott, Allen County/ hose, and the powerful stream was rather mysteriously appropriated near- Fort Wayne Historical Society; Mary Berry, directed into a carriage containing ly a century later by Berryhill, an Indianapolis Star and News; Alfred Kleine- Kreutzmann, Public Library of Cincinnati, Secretary of State Cass and Governor Indianapolis librarian, to embellish Chase." Dunbar's source, The Book of Ohio; Robert Schmidt and Frances French, with further detail Griswold's "inter- Canal Society of Indiana; Thomas Mayhill, the Great Railway Celebration of 1857 by esting sidelight" on that memorable Knightstown; and Shirley Ellen Clark, William Prescott Smith (1858), notes Fourth of July. Louisville, Kentucky.

Spring 1993 11 THE HOOS "MONUMENT OF

At eleven o'clock on a Wednesday morning in 1930 government dignitaries and civic

leaders gathered to lay the cornerstone for a structure that represented, according to

an editorial writer for the Michigan City News, "a new industrial era" for the

A familiar Michigan City city—a $9 million generating plant for the Northern Indiana Public scene: people struggling up the sand dune's Service Company (NIPSCO). The writer envisioned the "location of steep slopes for the opportunity to stand on the summit. many splendid industries in Michigan City, " attracted by the avail-

12 TRACES I E R S L I D E OH, THOU STUPENDOUS HILL,

WONDROUS, SUBLIME AND GRAND ability of cheap YOU SEEM A MIGHTY MONUMENT

power, a good transportation OF NEVER ENDING SAND.

From "Old Hoosier Slide," 1003, system, and the city's central location in by David and Frances A. Moore

the United States. buried in the News descrip-

tion of the event was the information that the station

occupied a tract of land formerly home to one of the commu-

nity's most notable landmarks, the giant sand dune known as the

"Hoosier Slide." Today the NIPSCO generating station remains along

the west bank of Trail Creek, but nothing is left of the mountain of sand

that could be seen as far away as and managed, year after year,

to attract countless tourists to its slopes. The often spectacular view of Lake

Michigan offered by dunes like Hoosier Slide provided a powerful enticement

to early travelers. In 1836 Englishwoman Harriet Martineau, a writer travel-

ing from Detroit to Chicago, stopped in Michigan City to see Lake Michigan.

RAY BOOMHOWER Although she had to endure wet weather and bad

Spring 199 3 13 roads on her jour- along with the Indiana State Prison, attracted tourists from ney, when she final- HOOSIER SLIDE Chicago, Lafayette, Peru, Indianapolis, and other towns. ly made it into Michigan City what she saw impressed her, The Monon, Lake Erie & Western, and Michigan Central especially her splendid view of the lake. Upon arriving in railroad lines lured passengers to Michigan City by touting the city, Martineau and a traveling companion "were anx- the Hoosier Slide's beauty and its panoramic view of Lake ious to see the mighty fresh water sea." The two ran up a Michigan. Even those just passing through on trains were dune covered with peavine and beheld what they had trav- awed by the Hoosier Slide's size. Writing about the sand eled so far to see. Martineau noted: hill, the late Carter H. Manny, whose father William B. Manny would be one of the first to see the potential indus- The whole scene stands insulated in my memory, as absolutely trial uses for Hoosier Slide, noted that "some peo- singular; and, at this distance of time, scarcely credible. I was so well ple from afar who passed through in the winter aware on the spot that it would be so, that I made careful and copious time often inquired of the railroad men how such notes of what I saw; but memoranda have nothing to do with such a big pile of snow got there." emotions as were caused by the sight of that enormous body of A number of excursion steamers also made tumultuous waters, rolling in apparently upon the helpless forest,— Michigan City a main destination. Ships like the everywhere else so majestic. Theodore Roosevelt, United States, Indianapolis, Soo William Woodward, who had come to Michigan City in City, City of Grand Rapids, and Christopher Columbus the 1840s to work in a general store, painted a less flattering brought countless visitors to Michigan City's picture of the town. Writing back to his brother in Middle- shores. The Michigan City Neios announced on 17 town, Connecticut, Woodward complained that "M. City is the August 1887 that six hundred tourists, after work- homliest [SIC] place in the world, I suppose, or at least I never ing up an appetite while seeing the sights, had saw a worse looking one. It is built on the sand where nothing dined at Shultz's restaurant. Gladys Bull Nice- will grow and I have not seen such a thing as a garden here." warner, in her history of the city, reported that on Although all Woodward could see was sand, other more one day (25 July 1914) six steamers brought ap- enterprising merchants saw the gritty substance as some- proximately ten thousand people to see Michigan thing else—a gold mine. By the 1890s the Hoosier Slide, City's attractions.

Hoosier Slide, Michigan City, Ind

14 TRACES wrestling matches, and box- PANORAMIC VIEW ing matches. "There always To entice more and more tourists to their fair city, seemed to be human beings Michigan City merchants offered merchandise and cash here and there on its slopes prizes for races up the giant sand pile's slopes and even and top during all seasons of marriage ceremonies. An Indiana State Prison official, hop- the year," noted Carter Manny. ing to attract tourists from southern Indiana, offered a free Daredevil youngsters would marriage license, minister, and excursion to any couple use wooden toboggans and who would be willing to exchange their wedding vows on hand-fashioned metal sheets to Hoosier Slide. Mr. Plasterer, a southern Indiana farmer, slide down the hill during win- and his bride-to-be accepted the offer, and many Michigan ter and summer. The ship cap- City residents and excursionists trooped up the sandy tains who brought tourists and slopes to witness the happy occasion. freight to Michigan City also William B. Manny, Hoosier Slide Sand Company A local newspaper reported that after the ceremony was depended on the landmark. owner, was one of completed, the minister offered a poem to the newlyweds. The beginning of the end the first people to see He intoned: for Hoosier Slide came in the the giant sand dune's industrial potential. To you, roho now stand side by side, late 1890s. From time to time On this, the top of Hoosier Slide, the Monon Railroad, which Detail I have pronounced you man and wife, ran a switch track alongside the Hoosier Slide's eastern of the As long as you both shall live this life, slope, received requests from a downstate Monon agent for lakefront Now, Mr. and Mrs. Plasterer, from Michigan City sand. It was used to sand railroad tracks for an 1869 Shun the ivays which lead to disaster, better traction. This development caught the attention of bird's-eye And choose the path, tuhich Christ has given, William Manny, who worked for the line for a number of view of The path which leads from earth to heaven. years and grew up in Michigan City. Manny and I. I. Spiro, Michigan Along with marriages, the towering dune City, a local lawyer, began Indiana. hosted hill climbing contests, firework shows, purchasing large TOWERING DUNE

Spring 1993 15 amounts of lakefront land, believing that the region was ripe cores in iron foundries, and sand beaches for lakes for industrial development. Hoosier Slide was part of this and municipal bathing areas; it was even used as property, and in 1906 Manny incorporated the Hoosier Slide fill for sand traps at Hoosier humorist George Sand Company. Hoosier Slide's death warrant was signed. Ade's private course in Kentland, Indiana. Hoosier Slide's destruction was aided by the industrial In the beginning, workers known as dockwallop- boom that occurred after the discovery of extensive sup- ers loaded the sand into freight cars using wheel- plies of natural gas in central Indiana in the mid-1880s. barrows, planks, and shovels. Eventually, the sand Cities like Muncie, Anderson, Kokomo, Richmond, and oth- was loaded through a system using tracks and ers were soon besieged with new factories wanting to take small dump cars. The new system, however, did advantage of this cheap natural resource, especially glass create a problem. Although the dump cars were manufacturers. These glass companies, for example Ball chained down after work was over, youngsters Brothers in Muncie and the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Com- would sneak into the area, break the locks, and pany in Kokomo, sent north for Michigan City sand to help take joyrides down the tracks. "I recall that when I manufacture their products. visited this spot one Sunday afternoon with my Glass factories weren't the only concerns clamoring for father," said Manny, "we arrived just in time to see sand, according to Carter Manny, who upon his return one of these cars loaded with boys come barging from college in 1912 took over the sand business from his down the trestle and across its end to fall on the father. Manny, who faced competition from another firm, other side of the freight tracks below." Luckily, the the Pinkston Sand Company, which was served by the young daredevils escaped injury, but that was not Michigan Central Railroad, filled orders not only from always the case for the workers. Manny remem- Indiana firms, but also from businesses as far away as bered a particular dry stretch of weather when Massachusetts and Mexico. Hoosier Slide sand was used for sand became loose at the top and "came cascading making glass insulators for telephone and telegraph poles, down and caught one of the loaders, cover- The steamer ing him with tons of sand from which he John A. Dix ties up could not be dug before his life had been alongside the DEATH WARRANT smothered away." Hoosier Slide.

16 TRACES As the sand land. The leveled land was eventually sold by the operation grew, Pinkston and Hoosier Slide companies to NIP- the railroad tracks SCO as the site for its power generating station. GIANencompassed theT Hoosie DUNr Slide's northeasEt corner and trav- The amount of sand moved in the years since eled down around its north side, which faced Lake the first shovelful was taken from Hoosier Slide Michigan. Between the tracks and the lake a small village is a matter of conjecture. Some have estimated it of sand workers sprouted. "It was a hard life, but one seem- at approximately 13.5 million tons (based on 50 ingly enjoyed by these people," Manny noted. During the tons of sand per railroad car and three hundred winter, when frigid blasts whipped shoreward from Lake shipping days per year over a thirty-year period). Michigan carrying cutting sand particles, the dockwallop- Manny, however, who had years of on-site expe- ers' enjoyment of life perhaps lessened considerably. rience, believed that estimate was "exaggerated" Manny implemented more efficient mining methods and placed the total tonnage at 9 million, which when he took over the business from his father in 1912. was based on a twenty-year period of removal. Within two years, the Hoosier Slide Sand Company Whatever the total amount removed, the result was the became the first firm to purchase a small locomotive same—Hoosier Slide was gone. For today's visitors to crane to load the sand. Manny also experimented with a Michigan City's lakefront, all that remains are the photo- machine, powered by electricity, that tossed the sand back graphs and the memories. into the ends of the boxcars. The era of the dockwalloper Contributing Editor Ray Boomhower's research on the Hoosier Slide was Business and was coming to an end. supported in part by the IHS Staff Grants program. industry— By the early 1920s the Hoosier Slide Sand the eventual Company, in conjunction with the Pinkston winners— FOR FURTHER READING competed Sand Company, had managed to level what Munger, Elizabeth M. Michigan City's First Hundred Years. 1969. Reprint. with tourism had once been Michigan City's main land- [Michigan City, Ind.]: Michigan City Historical Society, 1990. to capitalize mark. With the demise of the giant dune, Nicewarner, Gladys Bull. Michigan City Indiana: The Life of a Town. on the Hoosier [Michigan City, Ind.]: G. B. Nicewarner, [1980], Slide's unique Manny moved his sand operation west of Oglesbee, Rollo B. and Albert Hale. History of Michigan City, Indiana. qualities. the former Hoosier Slide to virgin dune- [La Porte, Ind.]: E. J. Widdell, 1908.

Spring 1993 17 TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS MOON

There was a time when I would have been angry As I write this, on a rainy night in a landlocked city, I about what's happening in Moon Valley. I can would not be surprised to learn that in one or two kitchens remember many nights sitting up late with a friend, within walking distance of the valley rim people are sitting drinking and talking over what to do about it. We up, talking about this place. A Chicago developer has talked about defending it. bought most of Moon Valley and intends to build one hun- That was ten years ago, at least, when we talked dred houses there. Unless they are speaking of real estate, about how much we feared for Moon Valley's future. when people talk about Moon Valley now they are talking Even then we could see it coming: someone was about the past. Anger has given way to loss. bound to build on it. It was simply too much land to This is about how we understand history and how we pass leave alone. At times, we felt like the only ones who that understanding on. believed that the valley was worth saving. After all, it I was born and raised in Chicago—like my parents and was nothing but a sand mine. their parents before them. My grandparents worked their

18 TRACES BY DAVID HOPPE VALLEY

way from inner city to the residential north side; my par- ing oaks, this boy could easily believe that Indian time was ents moved on to the northwest suburbs. About this time not so long ago. my grandparents bought a cottage at Stop 16, outside With Lake Michigan not five minutes away, "the cottage" Michigan City, Indiana. as we called it—Grace Dieu the sisters named it—became The cottage, set on a dune amid oak trees and blueberry our family's summer place. My parents might bring me out bushes, had belonged to some Episcopalian sisters, on Saturday and I'd stay the week with my grandparents. former missionaries to China, who had left the tongue- There was a house next door. The boy who lived there and-groove walls bedecked with mementoes of their jour- had the same name as me. I wish I could remember how we ney to the East. met. I am sure of just one thing: it could not have been Although I never saw it, my grandfather used to say that long before David took me to Moon Valley. the deed to this place had names on it extending back to This would have been during the 1950s. In those days the Indians. Standing outside in the dappled light of sway- Michigan City had a bustling main street running north

Spring 1993 19 almost to the lake. There was the Spalding Hotel; two which the Indi- movie houses, the Tivoli and the Lido; Vail's candy-stripe ana dunes are painted hobby shop and the bookstore run by those dis- SAND MINE well known. creet bohemian types connected with the summer theater. A fine sugar sand that yelps underfoot when scuffed. Sand Visitors rented accommodations at Mother Goose cottages sought after for the making of glass. by Washington Park and on Saturday night rode the Ferris Oak trees came right to the edge of the sandy drop-off, wheel there, the merry-go-round, and the wild mouse. You branches and roots protruding over and through the could win prizes. One man sold baby alligators in red and escarpment in which cliff swallows made their homes. We green cardboard boxes. were perhaps 150 feet above the valley floor. It seemed like A bus took us from downtown to the beach road, then a mile. east out of Michigan City and into Long Beach. Bus stops We got down by leaping. Over the brink with one long were at numbered intervals: 14, 15, 16. . . . We got off at 16 stride, catching the slope on the way down, sinking ankle-

and followed the blacktop road over the hill that once was a deep in sand, gravity pulling us the rest of the way, sand sand dune, descending into an oak forest settled with cot- streaming down in daggers behind, our arms through the tages and bungalows. air like wings. he mailboxes for our stop were nailed in a row At the bottom we fell to our knees. Our shoes bulged along a horizontal beam. The one for David's fami- with warm sand, our feet were packed in it. We pulled off ly was there, and ours, and, at the end, one that was our shoes, laughing at the sand that poured out when we rusty and faded, with Moon Valley hand painted in tipped them sideways. black upon its side. There had been no sand mining in the valley for some TDavid and I got there by turning our backs on the lake, time. Things were wild again—it got that way if left alone climbing over one wooded dune, then pushing through the long enough. The valley could reclaim itself in as little as a underbrush and mounting another. Here the sand was dove couple of years when given the chance. grey with oak dust, flecks of bark, and acorns. Wild My first day in Moon Valley came during the course of a grapevines and blueberry brush caught our ankles. We long mining hiatus. We could tell this because railroad pulled ourselves forward, grabbing the slender trunks of tracks that had once been laid to help carry sand out in dogwood trees. As we approached the valley rim the sky steel dump cars looked a hundred years old. The sand's seemed to open overhead, suddenly blue, unobstructed by constant, subversive action had undermined and broken up the canopy of towering oaks. the rails. Black, creosote-stained ties were half buried and We reached the edge, breathing hard. Blue jays cawed, strewn at seasick angles down the course of the valley like "Thief, Thief." The white sand bottom of Moon Valley ran charred bones. As we walked we kicked up rusty iron east to west below. spikes. I picked the first one up, then a second and a third. That sand was a sight, so bright and hot beneath the There were more—too many to carry. I dropped the lot so afternoon sun. It was not until much later that I would as not to fall behind David. learn how the valley got its name. The sand reflected moon We followed the tracks into a tree-enshrouded bottle- glow as readily as sunlight; standing on it, cool and blue, neck. Although I did not notice them at the time, David was like standing on the moon. This was the same sand as and I wert passing occasional pear and apple trees; had we that found at the beach, the so-called "singing sand" for tried them that day, the wild grapes would have been sweet.

20 TRACES David pointed out a serpentine indentation, like a whisper, departed, then went down to uncouple cars and balance across the surface of the sand. Snake, he told me, probably stones on the rails. a puff adder. We returned the next day to find business as usual. Where I came from, the last snake had been driven off I asked my parents why these men mined the sand. They the last vacant lot before I was born. The thought of com- told me they had heard it was being used as fill for a build- ing upon one here, that this was a reptile's native habitat, ing project at Northwestern University in Evanston, . quickened my blood and chilled it at the same time. Over the years, David and I gradually drifted But we didn't find a puff adder that day. What David apart. I went to the valley by myself. I learned wanted to show me was the old railroad crane. things there: the names of plants like hore- It was as big as a brontosaurus. The cab was fixed to a hound and scouring rush; how, if I sat and flatcar; somehow the boom was frozen almost upright. A did nothing, the sounds of the forest could rusty chain of steel X's joined the boom's twin beams, enfold me like a cloak. I saw my first puff adder, grey fox,

ascending like a ladder to treetop height. We scrambled on salamander. Crouched by the edge of a pond, I listened as board. The cab door was gone, someone or something had the voices of frogs rose—singly at first, then in rampant gotten away with the operator's seat. I could move the shift chorus—f illing the air with primordial music. forward if I pressed with both hands. Mining continued in violent, seemingly random cycles. Supposedly there was a shack further up the line. David Where a pond and stand of cottonwoods were found one said an old hermit lived there; that mailbox with Moon summer, a stripped sand flat was the next. Acres were bull- Valley painted on it was his. He kept a pack of mangy dogs dozed at a time, leaving nothing but the broad tracks of around the place—going back there was not a good idea. earth-moving machines. Oak trees were uprooted and It would be years before I did. In the meantime, that end stacked at the margins of this work. Coming upon them was of the valley I had already seen was a feast of woods, marsh, like stumbling across an elephant's graveyard. and tall grasses. Frogs went silent and turtles slid into Then, unaccountably to us, the mining would ponds glistening with lilies and decomposing leaves when cease. Green shoots f lecked the barrens. In another David and I passed by. We sat on a dead stump at the foot year the cottonwood trees were back. There might of a blowout. Maybe David had never been in this place be a dense clump of marram grass, the tall spires of with someone who seemed to see it the same way he did. mullein, bulrushes where another brackish pond We became good friends that day. Our imaginations met in bled through. that landscape. Whenever I could, I took my friends to Moon The mining began again. A fresh set of railroad tracks Valley. Inevitably they said they had never seen a was hammered into the sand. David and I watched the place like it. We looked for remnants of the old workmen do it, the two of us flat on our bellies on top of man's shack. It was long gone, as was the crane. the dune. We watched through army field glasses brought But the search led us down pathways and out into back from the war in Europe, muttering back and forth parts of the valley I had never known before. about what right did they have to be digging up "our val- We walked westward almost a mile, finding ley." Ours was the righteous anger of boys raised on west- more plant life, ponds, and, all along the way, erns and recycled war movies like Objective Burma and A the rugged faces of sand dunes banked up against Walk in the Sun. We waited until dusk, when the men Lake Michigan's horizon.

Spring 1993 21 rn fmuB B_ _ We usually found fresh places, standing in that light and hearing those sounds wI jr mining sites as well. The made the long curves of our separate lives seem wholly per- cycles seemed to call for mining in one section of the valley ceptible and palpably intertwined. at a time, sometimes for a duration of two or three years. We talked about defending Moon Valley. About f ighting Then the section was given a rest. Another section was back. Ways of sabotaging earth movers, spreading rumors selected and stripped of whatever growth had taken hold. of old toxic waste. Elsewhere in the Midwest an ecological In recent years, residents in homes within walking dis- outlaw known only as the Fox had successfully played havoc tance and earshot of Moon Valley began complaining that with a variety of polluters, developers, and other assorted the vibration of machines was causing cracks in their eco-exploiters. We imagined ourselves playing that role in masonry and plaster. They claimed encroachment on the Moon Valley. In the kitchen, David's wife looked up—we valley's north wall was turning into "blowback," an erosion were beginning to sound serious. not just of dunecrest but also of adjacent property lines. But talking about direct action was really not so much

It was during this time that I moved to Michigan City. I about action as it was a way of expressing a depth of feeling. found a job there, working in the public library, that saw One afternoon we stood together in Moon Valley and me through for eight years—from 1980 to 1988. I lived on a agreed that neither of us would ever be rich or landed; we dune at the western end of Moon Valley. My old friend wouldn't be leaving our kids businesses or estates. What David lived not two blocks away. people like us left our children was history. We could bring A passing glance might have left you doubting that David our kids to this place, show it to them, share it. This was and I had anything in common but the happenstance of a not a history made of words, it was personal. Real. It was shared first name. He was a power company lineman, capa- all we had. ble of climbing several stories to the top of a steel pole; a he Chicago developer and his partners plan on man used to working in the elements, physical risk (with building as many as one hundred homes in Moon scars to prove it), and the exigencies of union politics. Valley. They call their project Beachwalk, after the I worked in a library. A lot of David's friends told me faux Victorian boardwalk they have built to connect they had seen the public library before, knew where to their development with the beach. Plans are also find it, had heard it was serviceable. I had as much to say Tafoot to accessorize Beachwalk with a gazebo or two to lend about things they waxed on about: stock car engines, elec- this ready-made neighborhood a certain air—the village in tronic appliances, bars. that eccentric TV series "The Prisoner" comes to mind. Nevertheless, David and I began hanging out together. A local attorney seems to express the official city Talking about Moon Valley. Soon we were hiking back position on the development when he raves in the local there, making our own assessments of damage done and newspaper: "This is a very exciting project. ... It will be taking heart where we found renewal. What that first very good for Michigan City. It provides a residential glance at David and I would have missed was the history we development in a more moderate bracket than we have shared—our knowledge of the valley. been seeing along Lake Shore Drive." Houses in this "mod- We knew the place was endangered. There had never erate bracket" are expected to cost between $150,000 and been a time when it wasn't. Stripped and plundered, it still $225,000 each. survived. In certain sections it remained almost exactly as it Environmentalists had been when we first explored it. Coming upon such have had little to say STRIPPED SAND FLAT

22 TRACES on the valley's behalf. Of interest are the comments of a dilapidated old neighborhood near the new outlet mall—a technical assistant for the Save the Dunes Council. In section that might have sheltered workers who helped to March 1990 this person told the Michigan City News-Dispatch haul the Slide away—sand, not grass, filters up through the that the developer's proposal might be all right because, uneven brick sidewalk. Sand blows across the street and according to the newspaper's report, "The homes would scrapes on bowed front steps. It is everywhere, like a vesti- almost certainly attract higher income, better educated res- gial memory of Lake Michigan's greatest dune. idents who . . . tend to be more knowledgeable about the Memory is all that will be left of Moon Valley. Children [environmental] issues." who play there will explore a world of subdivided lots, grass In the same article, Michigan City's mayor claimed he had seed, and paving that their counterparts living in truly not yet seen the developer's plans, but he called the develop- "moderate" housing further inland will only dream of and ment a good resent. My friend David will have no reason to bring his idea anyway. STRIPPED AND PLUNDERED offspring there. What, besides the latest model homes, will

iven its geographic context, Michigan City's he have to show them? No wonder we are so fascinated by history of environmental stewardship would oral histories. With the passing of entire landscapes—the have to be considered better than that of its disappearance of places—memories, and the words we other Northwest Indiana neighbors. The area, choose to convey them, are all that can be shared somehow, was spared the massive industrializa- across generations. Gtion of nearby Gary and Hammond. One cannot help but I have been told that the first dozen houses will mean $2 wonder why. From the turn of the century until the present, million worth of construction—a significant amount of duneland has looked like a hole waiting to be filled to a work for a community where good paying jobs have been lot of people. scarce for years. Michigan City's tax base has been eroding Maybe it's the sand. Some people seem to view it as an like the sand these houses will be built upon; Beachwalk almost hostile medium—shifty, colorless, intrusive, and nasty can help in that department, too. in the eyes. Sand must suggest the desert for these folks, Late at night, people I know in Michigan City will sit dying of thirst, disorientation, colonial fever. By such lights, together over Jack Daniels and canned beer. Maybe they sand is to be gotten rid of, shipped away and covered up. will talk about Moon Valley, about how it felt to How convenient that others are willing to pay for it. By spy a grey fox back there or to hear the songs of the train load or the acre. frogs. More likely, they will talk about the continu- Hoosier Slide, the tallest dune on the Lake Michigan ous present of money—who's making it, who's coast, stood as high as two hundred feet, overlooking spending it, and what it buys. This will go on for Michigan City's harbor. When markets for sand emerged at awhile, until everybody gets tired. The room the end of the nineteenth century, enterprising business- grows quiet. Then someone will stand up and say men followed their eyes to the biggest pile of sand in sight. so long. No matter that the Slide was the city's foremost landmark and attraction. In thirty years it was a memory, the future site of a power plant. David Hoppe is senior program officer for the Indiana Now, instead of a sand dune, a cooling stack is the most Humanities Council and editor of the hook Where We Live: prominent feature on Michigan City's skyline. But in a Essays about Indiana.

Spring 199 3 23 DESTINATION INDIANA

HILLFOREST The Mansion on the Hill

On a late spring afternoon in 1853 the steam- er Forest Qiieen out of Cincin- nati glided to a stop at a dock in the Hoosier river town of Aurora. Among its passen- gers that day was Isaiah Rogers, a Boston architect known as the "father of the modern hotel." Just three years earlier he had complet- ed Cincinnati's famed Burnet House. He had not come to Aurora, however, to design a new Left: The palatial width frontal porch Thomas Gaff was born near Edin- hotel; rather he had come to meet Hillforest Mansion is reminiscent of a burgh, Scotland, on 8 July 1808. Gaff with Thomas Gaff, a prominent overlooking the deck. The interior came to the United States with his par- city of Aurora. Aurora financier and industrialist, and of the house fea- ents, James and Margaret Gaff, at the to examine a plot of land on which Right: Hillforest's tures a flying stair- age of three, settling in Springfield, Gaff wished to build a new home. In central staircase case in the entrance . As a young man Gaff reflects the man- the two days Rogers was in the town, hall that is typical of learned papermaking from his father he not only reviewed the proposed sion's steamboat- influenced design. the better steam- and the distilling business from a homesite with Gaff but was also "well boats of the period. Brooklyn uncle, Charles Wilson. In entertained," taking a walk with his In September 1992 the United partnership with his brothers, James new client and discussing with him a States Department of the Interior des- and John, Thomas Gaff opened a dis- number of subjects. "Had a very pleas- ignated the mansion a National Histor- tillery in Philadelphia that was soon a ant day," Rogers noted in his daybook. ic Landmark, much to the delight of success. The Panic of 1837, however, The magnificent mansion that the Hillforest Historical Foundation, had the brothers looking for new oppor- Rogers designed for Gaff's ten acres of Inc., which has owned and operated tunities elsewhere. Reportedly offered land overlooking the Ohio River came the home since 1956. The designation tax incentives and land, the brothers to be known as Hillforest. Gaff and his makes Hillforest one of only 2,015 decided to move their business to family called it home from 1855 to National Historic Landmarks in the Aurora. James arrived in 1841; Thomas, 1891. The design of the Italianate two- United States. Indiana contains 21 in 1843; and John followed in 1845. story home was influenced by Gaff's such sites. The architect of the house In 1843 Thomas and James estab- involvement in the shipping industry. was unknown until April 1991, when lished the T. & J. W. Gaff & Co. dis- Thomas Gaff and his brothers, James architectural historian Denys Peter tillery on the banks of Hogan Creek, and John, owned a fleet of steamboats Myers of Alexandria, Virginia, attrib- one block north of downtown Aurora. that facilitated their business interests. uted the house to Rogers (1800-1869). The distillery produced bourbon, rye, Steamboat aspects of the home's According to Myers, "Hillforest is the and Thistle Dew scotch whiskey. The design include the circular porches, only remaining building of any type by Gaffs also owned the Crescent Brew- colonnades, curved doors and win- Rogers that has undergone no signifi- ing Company, which featured Aurora dows, and circular rooftop belvedere cant alteration. Hillforest is an abso- Lager Beer. The beer's quality was so that resembles a pilothouse. The full- lutely pristine example of Rogers' work." high that it was even exported to

24 TRACES Germany. Along with their brewing Thomas was not the first Gaff brother was purchased by Will Stark, a local interests, the brothers were involved in to build a home in Aurora. James had furniture manufacturer. The home a number of other businesses, includ- that distinction, constructing a home eventually became the clubhouse for ing farming, Nevada silver mines, a on the southwest corner of Fourth and the local Veterans of Foreign Wars, Cincinnati jewelry store, foundry and Main streets known as Linden Terrace who used it for that purpose from the machine works, turnpike and canal for the Linden trees he imported from late 1940s to the mid-1950s. In late construction, and two planta- Germany for landscaping. Thomas, 1955, when the VFW decided the tions. Their mill in Columbus, Indiana, however, would more than match his home did not meet its needs, a group produced "Cerealine," of local citizens, fear- which was touted as ing the home would the first ready-made meet the same fate cereal in the world. as Linden Terrace The Gaff brothers' (which had fallen steamboats trans- into disrepair and ported distillery and had been torn down), brewery products. banded together to During the Civil War, purchase the man- the Gaffs furnished sion. They formed these steamboats the Hillforest His- and other supplies to torical Foundation as a nonprofit organiza- the Union cause. One tion dedicated to the of their steamboats, home's restoration the Forest Queen, be- and preservation. came headquarters Hillforest has been for Maj. Gen. William open to the public as Tecumseh Sherman a historic property during the Siege of museum since 1956. Vicksburg. The steam- boat, under the com- Located at the top mand of Capt. C. D. of Main Street at Conway of Aurora, Fifth Street in Au- successfully ran the rora off of U.S. 50, Vicksburg blockade Hillforest is open but was burned to from 1 P.M. to 5 P.M. the water by Confed- Tuesday through Sun- erates in St. Louis, day, 1 April through . 23 December. Admis- The Gaff brothers sion fees are $3.50 were also active in for adults, $1.50 for civic affairs, backing students ages seven the town's first util- through eighteen. ity company, the Children under sev- Aurora Gas and Coke en are admitted free Company, and found- when accompanied ing in 1856 the First National Bank of Engraving of brother's efforts with by a paying adult. For more informa- Aurora, which Thomas served as presi- Hillforest and Hillforest, which was tion, contact the museum at Hillforest dent. He also helped to organize its grounds. built into a hillside in Historical Foundation, RO. Box 127, Aurora's school system, served on the the manner in which Renaissance villas Aurora, IN 47001; (812) 926-0087. city council with his brother James in Italy were built into the mountains. ( John was mayor), incorporated River- Thomas Gaff enjoyed the comforts RAY BOOMHOWER view Cemetery, and, with his brothers, of his stately mansion until his death Contributing Editor bought for Aurora a fire engine and on 25 April 1884. The home remained town clock. in the Gaff family until 1926, when it

Spring 1 993 25 INDIANA'S DYNAMIC HERITAGE

The overwhelming ma- But baseball fever struck middle- jority of women who class women, too. According to the played baseball came Cincinnati Enquirer of 19 August 1904 from the farms, factories, the ladies of Shelbyville, Indiana, and offices of the Mid- put together two teams, Marrieds west, and when it comes and Singles, and played each other. to the history of these Enthusing about the excellent pitch- female ballplayers, Indi- ing, catching, batting, base-stealing, ana ranks as one of the and running, the article concluded five most important that these women "would have put states, in company with the men to shame." Such local groups Michigan, Ohio, Pennsyl- of middle-class women playing base- vania, and New York. ball were a novelty that didn't last.

Above: The . is the second from the left in the back row. , , ca.1950 loomer Girl teams, on the other hand, thrived for Western Bloomer Girls started their first season in April. more than forty years, from approximately 1890 Playing in Hammond, Indiana, the Bloomer Girls lost, 3-1. through 1935. Composed of good ballplayers—usu- The next day they played in Indiana Harbor to a crowd of ally seven women and two men—they stormed into nearly two thousand paid admissions. "All around in the town to challenge local clubs. The prospect of seeing boxes and the grand stand the people were saying they a Bloomer team take on an all-men's team excited were the best girls' team they had seen and hoped they the American public, particularly in the small towns would come again," wrote a Mrs. Coughlin who attended anBd midsize cities where town and semipro ball flourished. the games. "Every player is first class and they certainly put When teams such as the Western Bloomer Girls hit town, up a good game." the games usually set season attendance records. The following year the Western Bloomer Girls again The most renowned of all Bloomer Girls was Maud invaded Indiana from the north. In May they defeated the Nelson (sometimes spelled Maude, sometimes Nielson), who Ligonier team by a score of 5-3, with bloomer pitcher Ruth started as a pitcher in 1897. After Woods hitting a . hurling the first several innings of With so many women playing each game (sometimes this meant baseball, it was inevitable that a two hundred starts in a season), woman would play for an otherwise she then played third base. all-male team. The first such case From 1899 through 1905, Maud to make national headlines came Nelson barnstormed the Kentucky- from Indiana, where thirteen-year- Ohio-Indiana area. On 23 August old Margaret Gisolo of Blanford 1903 the Bloomer Girls played played second base for an Amer- Union City, Indiana. Titling its arti- ican Legion Junior team. cle "Gals Win B'Gosh," the Cincin- Situated just west of the Wabash nati Enquirer informed readers: "The River and northwest of Terre bloomer girls defeated the Union Haute, Blanford was a small, close- City team [3-1] here to-day in a ly knit community of coal miners. well-played game. The feature was There Margaret Gisolo, daughter the pitching of the Misses Maude of Italian immigrants who owned a Nelson and Edith Lindsay, only general store, was taught to play three hits being made off them." baseball by her oldest brother, So popular was baseball in the Toney, himself a semipro ballplayer. tri-state region that a 1903 issue of In 1928 the American Legion the Hoosier Democrat recounted the (headquartered in Indianapolis) story of Miss M. E. Phelan of established a nationwide baseball Cincinnati, who wrote a letter to program in which teams participat- the Flora, Indiana, baseball club ed in regional, state, and national offering her services as a center playoffs that culminated in an fielder at sixty dollars a month. American Legion Junior World Phelan explained that she had Series funded by a fifty thousand heard much about the Flora Regulars of the previous sea- Toney and dollar contribution from the American sons and wanted to be on the team. "Nearly every day my Margaret Gisolo, and National Leagues. So Margaret brother and I play catch," she wrote, "and although he is a 1928. Fourteen- signed up for the Blanford Cubs and was year-old Margaret boy and I am a girl, I can throw a ball farther, harder and readily accepted. helped lead the higher than he can. Throwing is simply natural for me. The Blanford Cubs to By mid-June tournament play had greatest distance I ever threw a ball was 184 feet, and I the Indiana state begun, and on 18 June the Blanford Cubs believe that I could do better. I want to sign with some championship in faced the rival Clinton Baptists in a best- American Legion good team and am willing to travel or to play at home." of-three series to determine the champi- Junior Baseball. What happened to Miss Phelan is not known, but what onship of Vermillion County. The teams happened to Maud Nelson is. Around the turn of the centu- were evenly matched on the field, the first game going ry she married and settled in Watervliet, Michigan. In 1911 extra innings with the score tied, 7-7. Then, in the top of she helped form the Western Bloomer Girls and toured the twelfth, Margaret Gisolo singled to short right to drive with them as pitcher, manager, and part owner. in the winning run. In previous years Nelson had entered Indiana from the After Blanford's victory, Clinton officials protested the south and east, playing against teams in that corner of the game because a girl had played. Such a protest drew com- state. In 1911 she stormed through from the north as the ment from the Indianapolis Times. "Apparently it was [okay]

28 TRACES Members of the 1944 South Bend Blue Sox in the locker room during , held in Peru, Illinois, due to wartime conditions.

Spring I 99 3 29 The 1945 South Bend Blue Sox. is in the middle row, fourth from the left, and Betsy Jochum is in the back row, sixth from the left.

Managed by (back row, far right), the 1950 Fort Wayne Daisies faced the in the Shaughnessy Series, the AAGBL equiv- alent of the World Series. Kate Vondereau is in the back row, second from the left, and Dottie Wiltse Collins is in the back row, fifth from the left.

NORTHERN INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The Fort Wayne Daisies cele- brate a win as fans watch.

NORTHERN INDIANA HISTORICAL SOtlETY with Clinton for Margaret to play second base for the oppo- Margaret. Although her brother was unable to go, from sition until she got too good," chided the newspaper. 1930 through 1934 Margaret toured with the All Star While officials pondered, tournament play continued, Ranger Girls through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, , and on 24 June the Cubs defeated the Baptists a second New York, and parts of New England. During the off- time, thus winning the first round of tournament play. At season, she went to school, graduating from Clinton High this point Robert Bushee, Indiana state athletic officer, School and Indiana State University. stepped in to suspend Margaret Gisolo for six days. During When her barnstorming days were over, Margaret Gisolo the suspension, Bushee met with national director of the went on to a wide and varied career. Among other things, tournament Dan Sowers, who met with Baseball Com- she was supervisor of physical education for the public missioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Ultimately ruling that school system of Paris, Indiana; attended the University of Margaret was eligible to play, Bushee then forfeited the California and New York University; served in the WAVES; first Blanford victory to Clinton because one of the other and helped create the Department of Dance at Arizona Blanford players was over the age limit. In the deciding State University. In 1982 she was honored by Indiana State game, the Cubs turned back the Baptists a third time, 5-2. University as one of its distinguished graduates. t was an unusually good team," says Margaret Gisolo of In the 1930s, as the Bloomer Girl era was ending, the Cubs and her teammates such as John was beginning its climb to popularity. Well aware of soft- Nelson and pitcher Pauley Foltz. "We worked so well ball's growing popularity, Philip K. Wrigley intended to together. There was a feeling of cooperation." Because build on it and draw people to the ballparks during World the Blanford Cubs were small-town underdogs and War II, when many major leaguers were in the armed because their was a girl, the eyes of the forces. Thus in 1943 he founded the All-American Girls state and the nation followed them. Softball League. IOn 6 July the Cubs faced the Terre Haute Blue Devils in a Wrigley's game was played on a diamond with sixty-five- one-game playoff. When the game had ended, the Terre foot base paths, a mound forty feet from the plate, a twelve- Haute Spectator philosophized that "the sand lots and the inch ball, and underhand pitching. From the beginning the commons where all the real ball players come from had game was coached by former major leaguers who loved their innings at the stadium Wednesday afternoon." Aided baseball—men such as Terre Haute native Max Carey, by a Gisolo hit that drove in two runs, the Cubs defeated famed center fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates who at vari- the Blue Devils, 6-5. ous times led the in , assists, The next step up the tournament ladder for the "kids triples, and stolen bases. from the mining camp" was a game against the Evansville Carey, who would be elected to the Hall of Fame in 1961, West Side Nuts. With little effort the Cubs shelled their agreed to head Wrigley's new league. With major leaguers opponents, 26-7, with Margaret "accepting six chances such as Bill Wambsganss and managing, the at second and scoring several of her team's runs." women of the AAGSL played softball with one big differ- Two days later, Blanford faced the highly favored Gary ence: aggressive base stealing. The first four teams were the Yanks at Indianapolis's Riverside Park: at stake was the , , Rockford Peaches, and state championship. South Bend Blue Sox. Only the Peaches and Blue Sox At Riverside the lead see-sawed back and forth, with would go the distance: 1943 to 1954. many of the Cubs' runs coming from the stickwork of Dimensions and name changes came to the league almost Gisolo. Finally, in the top of the sixth the Cubs took a one- yearly, and by 1949 the women of the All American Girls run lead and proceeded to shut down the Yanks' hitting. Base Ball League were pitching overhand with a ten-inch After pushing an insurance run across the plate, Blanford ball from a mound fifty-five feet from home plate and run- won the Indiana American Legion Junior championship by ning seventy-two-foot base paths. After baseball became one a score of 14-12. In seven games of tournament play word the abbreviation for the league shortened accordingly. Margaret Gisolo pounded out nine hits in twenty-one at The early years of the AAGBL were dominated by the bats (.429) and made ten putouts and twenty-eight assists Racine Belles and Rockford Peaches. The South Bend Blue with no errors. Sox, it seemed, always finished near the bottom, despite Traveling to Illinois for the first round of interstate play, having outstanding players such as Betsy "Sockum" the Cubs lost to the Chicago Marine Post team in Comiskey Jochum, who won the 1944 batting crown with a .296 aver- Field. Welcomed back to Blanford as heroes, the team was age. A native of Cincinnati, Jochum settled in as feted at an end-of-season banquet. It was there that for the Blue Sox and settled into the town as well, becom- American Legion officials announced that girls would ing a high school in the South Bend school system. henceforth be excluded from Junior Baseball. Elizabeth "Lib" Mahon, a teacher from , Enter Maud Nelson, still going strong with her new team, gave up education to become a professional baseball player, the All Star Ranger Girls. Early in 1929 Nelson wrote to starring for the Blue Sox from 1945 to 1952. In 1946 she Toney Gisolo to arrange a tryout for both him and was the team's leading run scorer, crossing the plate ninety

Spring 1993 31 in his Indianapo- lis ABCs uniform, 1915. Nicknamed "The Black Babe Ruth," Charleston is recognized as one of the best all-around players in Negro League history.

The Fort Wayne Daisies in 1945. Formerly the , the team played in Fort Wayne from 1945 to 1954.

Max George "Scoops" Carey (nicknamed for his outstanding defensive play) batted .458 for the triumphant 6 Pittsburgh 'i Pirates in the 1 1925 World I Series against the Washington Senators.

Dottie Wiltse (later 1 Collins) in 1945, the year 5 she went 29-10 and struck out 293 batters. Cover of the 1945 Blue Sox yearbook. times that season. After the 1952 season Mahon quit play- National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1988 and ing. Like Jochum, she made South Bend her home and in helping to establish an AAGBL repository at the taught in the school system. Northern Indiana Historical Society in South Bend. When the AAGBL switched to overhand pitching, the But did South Bend get all the glory, and Fort Wayne none? Blue Sox came into their own, largely due to an experi- Far from it. The team that would come to Fort Wayne enced group of players and an outstanding pitching staff started out in Minneapolis in 1944. Although the Min- that included Jean Faut. In 1946 Pennsylvania-born Faut neapolis Millerettes played in the same park as the minor was a rookie, drafted by the low-standing Sox straight out league Minneapolis Millers, AAGBL ball never won fans in of the league's training camp in Pascagoula, . the Twin Cities, particularly with the Millerettes falling to Because she grew up playing hardball and was unable to the basement their first year. In July the team actually left pitch underhand, Faut started out as a . Late town for good, playing the rest of its games on the road. in the season, the League introduced sidearm pitching. n 1945 Fort Wayne became the Millerettes' new home. That was when Sox manager Chet Grant, former Notre There the team was idolized by citizens, who held a Dame quarterback and later backfield coach, asked his contest to rename it. The name that won was Daisies, third baseman to pitch. She did, posting an 8-3 record. In and that's the name that remained—as did the team 1947 Grant sent his sophomore to the mound more often; itself until the end of the league in 1954. At first the she won 19, lost 13, and had a 1.15 ERA. Daisies played on a high school football field, then in By 1949 Faut had given birth to her first child and, as she the new Memorial Park. says, "matured as a pitcher." That year she racked up a 24-8 IOne of the players who came with the Millerettes was record. Her most impressive feats were yet to come. On 21 California native Dottie Wiltse. Taught to pitch by her July 1951 she made league history by pitching the first per- father, Wiltse was recruited to the AAGBL in 1944. Despite fect game of the AAGBL's overhand era. The next morn- the fact that the Millerettes landed in the basement, ing's South Bend Tribune reported that 'Jean Faut, a sturdy Wiltse's record was 20-16 that year, and she led the league gal with a lot of heart, a fast ball that hops and a curve that in with 205. She had the makings of a great breaks off like a country road, pitched a perfect no-hit, no- pitcher, and in Fort Wayne she fulfilled that destiny, going run game to subdue the Rockford Peaches, 2-0, at Playland 29-10 with a 0.83 ERA in 1945 and 22-20 the next year. Park Saturday night." Seeing Wiltse pitch and win both ends of a head- Chosen Player of the Year, Faut helped lead the South er, Fort Wayne native Harvey Collins asked her out for a Bend Blue Sox to their first Shaughnessy Series victory in date. Wiltse accepted, but the Daisies were leaving on a 1951, and to their second in 1952. In 1953 she pitched her road trip that night, so it would be two weeks before she second , this one against the Kalamazoo could make the date. In 1946 Harvey and Dottie were mar- Lassies. Faut, like Jochum and Mahon, became an Indi- ried, and Dottie continued to play as Dottie Wiltse Collins, ana resident. hurling 17 shutouts in 1947. The Daisies and Collins were While many players from other states settled in South so popular that after Dottie pitched a shutout, a florist Bend after playing baseball there, what about Indiana- would send her roses. born players? Among Hoosiers who joined the All- After taking a year off after the birth of her first child, American Girls Baseball League were , Collins made a 1950 comeback, going 13-8. But the job of Naomi Meier, June Peppas, and Kate Vonderau, all of Fort raising a family and playing professional baseball became Wayne. Also Fran Janssen of Remington and too much and she retired when the season ended. She got a of Greensburg. job working for the Baseball Blue Book, then published in June Peppas joined the league in 1948 as a pitcher and Fort Wayne, and later took up golf, winning the Fort Wayne actually played for her hometown team, the Daisies. city title in 1971. Today she is editor of the Players Asso- Struggling with overhand hurling, she converted to first ciation newsletter. Articulate and analytical, Dottie Collins base and was eventually traded to the , brings to her work for the association the same dedication playing for the Michigan team from 1951 to 1954. On the she brought to pitching. last day of the last AAGBL season, June Peppas took the When the AAGBL ended in 1954, it wasn't the only base- mound again to upset the highly favored Fort Wayne ball league severely affected by declining attendance at Daisies and win the Shaughnessy Series. games. As Americans sat indoors and watched television, It was Indiana native Peppas who in 1981 wrote the very the minor leagues also suffered economically, as did the first newsletter for former AAGBL players. From this spark Negro Leagues. Founded in 1920, the Negro Leagues former players built a reunion in Chicago, and from there enjoyed four decades of popularity before dwindling atten- formed an organization. Today the Ail-American Girls dance led to their demise in 1960. It was under declining Professional Baseball League Players Association represents economic circumstances that the , a and promotes the interests of the players. The association major league team of the Negro American League, signed was instrumental in women receiving a display case in the in 1953. Stone, whose real name was Marcenia

Spring I 99 3 33 Lyle, had grown up far from Indiana in aged the Clowns, says Stone, "He was the greatest, he was St. Paul, Minnesota. She played base- fair. He'd let me get up there and hit." ball there with the House of David, a In 1954, Pollack sold Stone's contract to the Kansas City barnstorming team whose members Monarchs. There Stone felt she wasn't being played were distinguished by their long enough, so at the end of the 1954 season she quit baseball beards, and attended Gabby Street's and returned to Oakland, where she worked as a nurse. baseball school. During World War II, When in 1991 the Baseball Hall of Fame honored the play- Lyle moved to Oakland, California, ers of the Negro Leagues in a ceremony, presenting each where she took the "playing name" of with a medallion, Toni Stone was included. Toni Stone and earned a position with Although the story of women who played baseball is not Fort Wayne native the renowned black barnstormers, the well known, their lives and playing skills were never isolat- June Peppas San Francisco Sea Lions. ed from men who played baseball. Girls did not grow up of the Kalamazoo In her first for the Sea Lions, Lassies, 1953. Stone drove in two runs. From there she moved to the Black Pelicans of New Orleans, then to the New Orleans Creoles, a long-estab- lished team that was part of the Negro League minors. Playing second base for the Creoles, she received a fair share of publicity, hitting mainly singles. She batted .265 in her last year in the minors. he Indianapolis Clowns who would sign Stone were originally the Ethiopian Clowns, barnstorming out of Miami, . Their original reputation was built on "clowning"—burlesque baseball in which players sometimes wore grass skirts or took names such as "Wahoo" and "Selassie." When they moved to Indiana in 1939 and later joined the Negro TLeagues, the Clowns toned down the antics and stuck more to playing baseball straight. During the late 1940s they drew standing room only crowds in Victoria Field. Young Henry Aaron played second base for the team in 1951, batting .380 before his contract was purchased by the Boston Braves. When Clowns owner and general manager Syd Pollack signed Toni Stone to play second base for his team in 1953, he maintained that he was not doing it for publicity or as a gimmick, but because she played a good brand of baseball. The truth probably resides somewhere between the publici- ty and the good baseball. Appearing in fifty games that year, Stone batted .243, but generated

Toni Stone, second tremendous publicity. Her picture baseman for the appeared on the Clowns' program, Indianapolis Clowns, and magazines such as Ebony carried played in fifty games articles on her. Pollack even signed in 1953. two other women, and playing the game alone. They learned from their brothers, , but they never friends, and fathers. Toney Gisolo taught his sister Margaret received the playing time or publicity how to play and Max Carey taught the women of the that Stone did. AAGBL how to become better players. In Indiana, the While Toni Stone remembers some intertwining history of men and women who play ball takes of her playing days as difficult because on a special dimension with John Kovach. she was a woman, she lights up when When John Kovach was growing up in South Bend, his she mentions Oscar Charleston, eighth-grade counselor was Lib Mahon. All that John knew Indianapolis-born Negro League star about Miss Mahon was, "Boy, she sure knew a lot about who was later elected to the Baseball baseball!" Another teacher, Betsy Jochum, also knew a lot Hall of Fame. When Charleston man- about baseball. It wasn't until he was in tenth grade, work-

34 TRACES ing on a history project for the year 1944, that John learned amateur team that featured a strong about the All American Girls Baseball League and the summer program for college-bound South Bend Blue Sox. Right there, on the microfilm in the players. For fifteen seasons, Kovach library, he saw the name of Lib Mahon in Blue Sox box played in the Michiana Amateur Base- scores. Kovach remembers thinking: "Oh. I wonder if that's ball League, one year starting thirty- the same person." So he asked her, and Mahon replied, two of the Yankees' thirty-six games, "Yes, I played." going almost one hundred innings. After graduation from college, Kovach went to work for While playing for the Yankees, the Northern Indiana Historical Society. When Stanley Kovach also coached girls softball in Coveleski Regional Stadium opened, Kovach wrote articles grade school. As a result, he watched about it, and when the Chicago White Sox came to town in several promising girls come up who Elizabeth "Lib" 1988, he became affiliated with them as the team historian. really wanted to play hardball. When Mahon of the South Kovach left the Michiana League and Bend Blue Sox. joined the Mexican-American League to help form the South Bend Falcons, he was aware that the Mexican-American League did not bar women. In 1990, he brought two female players onto the Falcons—Christine Spychalski and Lisa Miner. Kovach remembers that in one game of tournament play, the opposing team's infield and saw Spychalski come to the plate and moved in. "Chris got around on a and hit it over the left fielder's head," explains Kovach. "You could see his eyes get as big as saucers." Belted 330 feet, the ball hooked foul. On the next pitch, the fielders moved into their regular positions. In his work at the Northern Indiana Historical Society, Kovach learned more and more about the AAGBL and met more of the players. As a result, he helped set tip the NIHS as the repository of AAGBL photos, scrapbooks, uni- forms—whatever the players and fans want to contribute. Today he works as the Executive Director of the New York Central Railroad Museum in Elkhart, is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, and belongs to its Women in Baseball Committee. John and his wife Lisa travel to minor league games whenever they can, and daughter Emily goes with them. Although only three-and-a-half years old, Emily shows a ground-level interest in baseball—she particularly enjoys helping her father drag an infield. Emily has batted in the Field of Jean Faut of the Dreams in , where Kovach took South Bend Blue the mound and threw her a knuckle- Sox hurled two ball—which she hit. She has also been perfect games to Cooperstown. Clearly she will grow during the AAGBL's overhand era. A mini reunion of the He has written and published up loving baseball. Maybe even play- All American Girls Benders, a collection of vignettes ing it, for John has already taught her Professional Baseball about South Bend baseball histo- the proper grip to throw a . League at the 1985 ry. Naturally the book includes Run, Jane, Run event in Fort Wayne. Fran Janssen players from the Blue Sox. of Remington, Indiana, Like millions, John Kovach Barbara Gregorich, a member of the Authors' is in the front row, far played Little League baseball. Guild, is the author of Women at Play: The right. June Peppas is Unlike many, he went on to play Story of Women in Baseball, published by third from the left, back after high school. A knuckleball Harcourt Brace Company. She lives not far from row. Dottie Wiltse Collins is the second from the pitcher, he earned a spot with Indiana, in a city where she frequents Comiskey right, back row. the South Bend Yankees, a local Park and .

Spring I 99 3 35

ALEXANDRIA SPEAKS FOR AMERICA

In early 1943 the policy- To dispel these impressions, makers in the Office of the story of small-town Amer- War Information (OWI) ica, where most Americans lived .decided to tell the world and worked, needed to be told. the story of small-town Every small town had contributed America. War-ravaged Al- to the national effort that World lied and occupied nations of War II demanded through its local Europe and Asia were dubi- draft board, its civil defense council, ous of American commitment or its scrap drive committee, but one to the war and suspect of the small town would be chosen to speak American way of life. People in these for thousands. One small town, countries generally believed that Americans through the pictures and the lives of were too rich and too comfortable and that its people, would show the world the they were not making significant sacrifices to the contributions that most Americans were making to the war effort. war. The town chosen to do this was Alexandria, Indiana.

Spring 1993 ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ARK FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES. 37 Alexandria was chosen from among many towns asTh e veteran journalist accepted the assignment of the subject for an Office of War Information directing the newly created agency containing close to booklet, Small Town U.S.A., which was intended three thousand employees though he had no administra- for distribution overseas. It lies in the heart of tive experience. Indiana in Madison County, less than fifty Robert Sherwood, former head of the Foreign Informa- miles north and east of Indianapolis. During the war, as tion Service and new head of the Overseas Branch of the now, approximately five thousand people lived there, mak- Office of War Information, established his operations in ing their livelihoods in farming, industry, or in small retail New York City. Among the various activities of the Overseas businesses. They devoted free time to family and church, Branch was its Bureau of Publications (BOP), directed in but the war increasingly intruded upon everyday lives. 1942 and early 1943 by magazine editors Ed Stanley and Alexandria had sent six hundred men and women, who Wadsworth "Moon" Mullen. The primary purpose of the were sorely missed by their families, to the armed forces. bureau was to disseminate abroad, through printed mate- Area farm work had stepped up as production rose to meet rial, information about the United States, its war effort, and the nation's need for food at home and overseas. Defense its way of life. Stanley and Mullen were charged with the jobs had become plentiful for both men and women at creation of "books, booklets, magazines, posters, pam- local Aladdin Industries, National Gypsum, Johns-Manville phlets, leaflets and other propaganda material prepared by (which manufactured glass and rock wool products), or in the Bureau for distribution overseas in allied, enemy, and the massive General Motors automotive plants, Delco Remy neutral countries." and Guide Lamp, in nearby Anderson. A picture of American small-town life figured early and significantly in the objectives of the Overseas Branch. Di- rector Sherwood issued a directive in January 1943 naming "THE BOOK WILE STRESS NEIGHBORLINESS, the supreme considerations that would govern the produc- tion of media for overseas distribution. These included MIDDLE-CLASS COMFORT, RELIGION AND demonstrations of the good faith of the American people, MORALS, AND WILL COUNTERACT THE their determination to win the war, and their common in- terests with other nations of the world. Within this direc- IMPRESSION GIVEN BY THE MOVIES THAT MOST tive, Sherwood mentioned Small Town U.S.A. as one publi- cation that could help "convince the people of the world of AMERICANS ARE GANGSTERS, COWBOYS, OR the overwhelming power and incontestable good faith of PENTHOUSE-DWELLING MILLIONAIRES." the USA by informing them of the nature of our country, our people, and our way of life." The original outline proposal for the Small Town U.S.A. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Office of publication describes it as follows: War Information in June 1942 with Executive Order Num- ber 9182. The order consolidated a number of information A pocket-size booklet, describing with photographs and text the daily gathering agencies that already existed within the national life of an American small town. It will give people abroad some idea of government when war was declared in 1941. These in- American living habits in rural areas which are more likely to resemble cluded the Office of Government Reports, the Office of their own than those of our vast city areas. The book will stress Facts and Figures, the information division of the Office of neighborliness, middle-class comfort, religion and morals, and will Emergency Management, and the offices of the Co-ordina- counteract the impression given by the movies that most Americans are tor of Information. Roosevelt chose Hoosier-born CBS gangsters, cowboys, or penthouse-dwelling millionaires. ... It will be a Radio commentator Elmer Davis to direct this conglomera- picture of its citizens' daily life, who they are, what they do, how they tion of diverse opinions and perspectives. His lieutenants live, what their homes are like inside and out. included poet Archibald MacLeish; educator Milton S. Eisenhower, brother of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower; play- There is no concrete evidence among Bureau of Publica- wright and presidential speechwriter Robert E. Sherwood; tions files to explain the choice of Alexandria for Small and Col. William J. Donovan, future director of the Office Town U.S.A.. Many documents, however, suggest that the of Strategic Services. Davis's primary responsibility was to BOP screened several other towns. The original choice for the subject of the booklet was apparently Mount Carmel, formulate and carry out, through the use of press, radio, motion Illinois. That town was described in the booklet proposal as pictures, and other facilities, information programs designed to "in the middle of a farming area . . . [with] several factories facilitate the development of an informed and intelligent which have been converted to defense manufacturing, 14 understanding, at home and abroad, of the status and progress of churches, tlie usual Main Street . . . [and] small town do- the war effort and of the war policies, activities and aims of ings." Best-selling author Howard Fast, who was one of the the Government. original writers assigned to the Small Town project, claims

38 TRACES Ruth Blake and Propaganda, Elmer Davis believed, daughter Rosemary attend to the wash out.tide "is only an auxiliary weapon; it never their farmhouse. With its electric lights won a war by itself." As propaganda throughout, hut indoor plumbing only in the kitchen, the house Small Town U.S.A. was actually a minor is a hybrid of the old-fashioned and publications weapon compared to the modern. the entire arsenal.... It was only one simple story told among thousands of complex ones.

Spring 19 9 3 39 he suggested Mount Carmel because his sister lived there, Hutchinson, but memories of the writer and photographer and he had made notes on the town for a magazine article remain vivid today. he was doing. Other towns mentioned in the OWI records he children of the Blake family in Alexandria as potential subjects were Prophetstown, Illinois, and Red ' remember Betsy Emmons as "fancy." She was Oak, Iowa. quite unlike the women the Blake children knew By May 1943, when the New York office sent writer Betsy around home. Phil Blake recalls that she wore Emmons and photographer David Eisendrath to Alexan- large pieces of jewelry; his younger brother, dria to collect photographs and interviews, the decision TWayne, remembers that she painted her legs brown to look had been made. According to an article that appeared in a like she was wearing nylons. Besides the New York accent, magazine supplement to the Detroit News in 1944, entitled Rosemary Blake Williams still remembers "the lady from "Who Ever Heard of Alexandria?," the OWI chose the city New York remarking to my mother, 'You seem so happy.' I

Left: Ad an example of the after a survey of many possible suppose she was amazed that we seemed to lack so many simple pleasure,! of rural towns. It was chosen because "it is 'things' they had in New York and yet appear happy to her. I life, Eisendrath snapped a supported equally by agriculture remember my mother telling the writer that her (my shot of the Williams family and industry, because nearly all its mother's) spiritual life made her happy." gathering; three generations are present. 5000 persons were born here and During a recent telephone interview, Betsy Emmons, now because it has 600 men in the ser- Dr. Elizabeth Mintz, of Hastings, New York, a retired psy- Center: During the war, vice and 1000 adults in war indus- chologist, told the author that she remembers Alexandrians the Johns-Manville plant employed men and women try." Alexandrians were indeed as the "most cordial, hospitable people" she ever knew. She in defense jobs; it was the doing their part to service the feels her experiences in Alexandria were among the best first factory in the world needs of a country at war. The she had during her work with the Office of War Informa- to make rock woolfor local Red Cross was rolling ban- tion. She came to the OWI at the request of Ken Purdy, insulation purposes. dages, and the public library was chief of the Victory Magazine section in the Bureau of Publi- Right: High school students collecting books to be sent to ser- cations. Purdy knew Emmons before the war as a frequent receive practical training in vicemen overseas. The Civilian contributor to the "big slicks," Life and Look magazines. Em- operating power machinery. Defense Council had adopted pro- mons was a busy lady around OWI from its earliest days, posals for air raid signals and a makeshift hospital in case and she remained there until the war was nearly over. Her of enemy attack. The ration board was keeping track of the salary in 1943 was $3,800.00, which was a good salary. sale of meat at the local Hoosier Meat Market or confront- Purdy assigned Emmons and Eisendrath, both of whom ing the long lines of gasoline card seekers at the high school worked on Victory, to Alexandria. gymnasium. It was this portrait of American wartime life Although Alexandrians would describe OWI personnel as that the OWI wanted to present to the rest of the world. friendly and respectful, at least one local resident had reser- Emmons and Eisendrath arrived in Alexandria on 21 vations about cooperating with them. Joe Blake, who hosted May. Local newspaper accounts state that Louis Hutchinson Emmons and Eisendrath for two days at his family farm, was of the "Indiana division of the Office of War Information" not "entirely at ease during this whole process." His son, was to accompany Miss Emmons and several writers to Phil, reports that his father "wondered if Nazi Germany the city. Hutchinson was actually information officer from might have something to do with it. The man and woman the Indianapolis field office of OWI's Domestic Branch, were of German descent and he didn't entirely trust them." which often assisted the Overseas Branch on special sto- Emmons disputes the "New York accent" and the German ries. No one from Alexandria recently interviewed recalled background; she went to New York from Minnesota before

40 TRACES the war. She does not know Eisendrath's heritage. He came Records reveal that the photographer took more than to the OWI as a graduate of the University of Chicago and two hundred photographs of Alexandrians engaged in as photographer for the Chicago Times. Eisendrath was an ac- every facet of daily life. He depicted them working, play- credited war correspondent who received security clearance ing, studying, and worshipping. A 7 June letter from from the Army and Navy to do war reporting overseas. Emmons and Eisendrath's boss in New York, Herbert Emmons does not remember if she and Eisendrath trav- Brucker, repeated an earlier request for the duo to return, eled to Alexandria by plane or by train, but it was certainly imploring "you have got to stop somewhere because there not by car. Nor does she have any recollections of anyone in will not be room for all of the good items and pictures you Indianapolis accompanying them to Alexandria. Local press can get on Alexandria." releases mention that arrangements for the visit had been co- Eisendrath portrayed the majority of his subjects in ordinated with the city authorities and the Civilian Defense natural everyday situations. Ernie and Carolyn Phillips

Council, and she does remember were working in their Victory Garden when the OWI folks that their contact person in Alex- happened by. Many of the subjects were not aware that they andria was local funeral director were being photographed; others encountered the photog- and Civilian Defense Council rapher by chance. The photographer carefully contrived chairman Dahl Stricler. Others re- some of the scenes, however, to evoke a mood or create an call Stricler's role as the Alexandria impression. The Blake children remember distinctly that liaison with the OWI staff. Accord- the picnic basket in their family scene is empty. The emo- ing to Stricler's nephew, Jack Davis, tional shot of a grieving family leaving the burial site of a Emmons and Eisendrath stayed at wounded soldier implies that the soldier was recently killed the Stricler home during their two- in action. Actually the soldier had been a veteran of World week stay in Alexandria. Joyce Wil- War I. The poignant good-bye kiss at the railroad station liams Richardson and her brother, was real, however, as the Elwood resident leaving for ser- Paul, said that Stricler contacted vice, Pernod Van Ness, has verif ied. their parents about photo sessions As a photo essay the booklet is potent in its messages. Its with their family. The Blakes, fea- primary theme is the war, of course, and the individual tured as the farm family in the contributions and sacrifices of the townspeople. A sec- booklet, were personal friends of the Williamses. ondary theme emphasizes the roles of women in the war The base of operations for Emmons and Eisendrath was effort, apparently a favorite topic of Emmons. Although the Old English Hotel on Harrison Street, now Broyles Furni- traditional roles are much in evidence, Emmons and ture Store. Mary Jo Laws Klingerman was interviewed in Eisendrath included many depictions of women in special their hotel rooms. "In retrospect that room was somewhat situations. Lillian Orme Sullivan believes she was photo- grim," she recalled; "Certainly the bath was down the hall." graphed because it was unusual for a woman to be manag- isendrath took pictures everywhere around ing a park swimming pool in 1943. The shot of the high town. The local 'Times-Tribune reported on 24 school girls in machine shop was no exaggeration; teacher May: "Scores of pictures were made on the John Hinds recalls that the class of all girls was one of his street Saturday and Saturday night. During the "pride and joys of teaching." John Wilson, then a high evening a picture was made of the session of the school student, feels sure that the OM I would have used Ecity court, a party at the Eagles home, a dance at the Em- his family as the farm family except they wanted both boys bassy Club, and of shopping scenes in various stores." and girls in the pictures. Wilson's family had only boys.

Spring 1993 41 The Blake family gathers around an empty picnic basket for this posed photograph.

mam

There was no need to stage this photo as Ernest and Carolyn Phillips were tending their Victory Garden when Eisendrath \came by. In accordance with common OWI pro- tions, sent to the secretary of the editor- cedure, Emmons and Eisendrath told ial board the following memorandum: local people as little as possible. Virtually everyone knew that this job was a classi- Attached is a copy of a cable from [Victor] fied activity. According to Jack Davis, "not Weybright in London that shipments of too many people knew about the purpose of CHILDREN OF THE WORLD and SMALL their visit." When Sara Culbertson Fox was TOWN USA to Britain be abandoned: that asked to pose for a photo in a crowded bowl- these booklets are counter to OWI publi- ing alley, she saw no photographers and had a cations policy in the United Kingdom. sense that "everything was hush hush. No Attached also is memorandum evidence questions asked." It did not occur to those that both booklets were ordered for London participating in the project to question the by Mr. Kuhn. government's motives. With all politeness, may I inquire what | inished copies of Small Town the hell? U.S.A. rolled off the presses in Will the Board inform us which is the November 1943—a ninety-day correct OWI publications policy for the United project that ultimately took Kingdom? Meanwhile, Unless otherwise eleven months to complete! instructed by the Board, this Bureau will no FCopies in English appeared on 18 Novem- longer propose or consider publications projects ber, and those in Afrikaans arrived nine for the United Kingdom, with the exception of days later. Afrikaans is a localized ver- material for London stockpiling. sion of Dutch spoken by the descen- Shipment of 25,000 copies of SMALL TOWN dants of Dutch settlers of South Africa. USA ordered for England has been stopped as a Distribution plans for Small Town took result of this cable. shape at this time. On 30 October Ben Candland, assistant chief of the Bureau of No evidence exists to indicate that this Publications, issued this shipping order for decision was ever changed. The OWI Small Toxun: apparently sent no copies of the booklets to the United Kingdom nations for dis- Copies in English Afrikaans tribution to civilians. Alexandria resi- dents, however, report that they had JOHANNESBURG 5,000 5,000 pen pals in England after the war as a LONDON 25,000 result of Small Town U.S.A., so issues REYKJAVIK 1,000 must have ended up there. SYDNEY 15,000 Nevertheless, copies saw service in NEW DELHI 5,000 most other corners of the world. Small DUBLIN 1,000 Toxun followed Allied invading armies MISCELLANEOUS in both theaters of war. Small limn was AND RESERVE 8,000 on a list of long-range projects for the TOTAL 60,000 5,000 invaded areas of North Africa and Italy. Those campaigns were successful for the The bureau anticipated further distrib- Allies by the end of 1943. Five thousand ution when at this time Algiers requested copies in English were ordered to be 100,000 copies in French. shipped to Cairo in March 1944. In mid-December the shipping sched- Just before D-Day, Small Toxun was in de- ule for Small Toxun encountered a major mand by the State Department in a lim- snag. Ben Candland instructed the ited if somewhat spectacular form. In early warehouse manager to cancel the ship- May, Tom Sears, chief of the Overseas ment of 25,000 issues to London he had Branch Pictures Division, directed the ordered in October. shipment of Exhibit #140, "Small Town On 16 December a U.S.A.," consisting of forty-two 11 x 14 certainly perturbed display prints to sixteen Allied cities: Al- Samuel Williamson, giers, Cairo, Honolulu (headquarters of acting chief of the Allied Pacific operations), Istanbul, Jo- Bureau of Publica- hannesburg, Lisbon, London, Madrid,

43 Moscow, New Delhi, Bombay, Reykjavik, Pretoria, Stock- English or for 20,000 stockpiled copies. (A 1945 report holm, Sydney, and Wellington. Though no description re- states that printings in English were done in both Decem- mains to explain how the exhibition of photos was to be ber 1943 and September 1944.) An October 1944 Bureau of used, this excerpt from Elmer Davis's final report to the Publications weekly report suggests another printing of president explaining OWI's role in the D-Day preparations 25,000 copies in English was in preparation, but a Novem- provides a plausible indication: ber distribution report does not mention any more than the original 60,000 copies produced in 1943. [Approximately 1,000 men and women in London] were engaged by The size of the printing of the Spanish version reached all means possible in propaganda to confuse and discourage the 30,000 copies. In June 1944 they were shipped on the enemy, to hearten the following schedule: Las populations of the allied Palmas, Canary Islands, countries, and to prepare 500 copies; Tenerife, Ca- the underground forces to nary Islands, 500 copies; in the liberation. Madrid, 28,000 copies; They transmitted news to Tangiers, 1,000 copies. the neutral capitals of The Bureau of Publica- Europe; they prepared tions overall publications newspapers and leaflets plan for the Far East dropped from American mentioned Small Town airplanes on the occupied U.S.A. among seven pam- nations and on Germany, phlets basic to propa- and books, pamphlets and ganda needs in that part magazines to be distributed of the world. If this plan among liberated popula- for Small Toxun had been tions; they sent newsreels implemented, editions of and documentary pictures the booklet in fourteen to all parts of Europe where additional languages— they could be shown; and Javanese, three Filipino they intensified the radio dialects, Malay, Dutch, broadcasting which now . . . Annamese, French, Chi- covered virtually all of nese, Tamil, Burmese, Europe. Thai, Korean, and Japa- nese—would have been The booklet printed. The war in the was suggest- Pacific ended more ed for other uses. quickly than expected, .Candland indi- and there is no BOP cated on 7 January 1944, record that any distribu- in answer to a request tion of Small Town U.S.A. from a group wanting occurred in the Far East. to use Small Town in The finished Small a War Bond exhibit, Town booklet that was that only 2,775 issues were on hand and those were being During the war, being sent around the world was distributed. In August it was listed among publications pro- Small Town U.S.A. described by the Bureau of Publications posed by Williamson to fill informational needs of Polish contributed to the as "a 36-page, extra and cover booklet, refugees in settlement camps in Oran, Palestine, India, and cause on a limited scale, but the 8/2 x 1114, with photographic illustra- East Africa. No plans were in mind to produce Small Toxun booklet remains tions, describing life in a typical small in Polish, said Williamson, but, by sending copies in Eng- a testament town during wartime." It was printed lish, "the pictures themselves should largely convey the to the vitality on glossy paper, with color covers. of Alexandria. story thereby making it intelligible to the reader even Attached to every cover was a sticker though he may not understand the language." that read: "RESTRICTED: This publication is not for The editorial board approved a Spanish edition of Small distribution in the United States or to American civilian or Town for Madrid on 4 March 1944. The initial printing military personnel overseas." There have remained ques- order indicated 20,000 copies in Spanish and 20,000 in tions among Alexandria residents about why this restriction English. It is unclear if the order is for 20,000 new copies in was applied.

44 TRACES The answer lies in the controversy surrounding the abol- mention that Small Town U.S.A. was distributed to cities in ishment of OWI domestic publications by Congress in June allied or neutral countries only. 1943. Congress neither wanted nor felt the American peo- Propaganda, Elmer Davis believed, "is only an auxiliary ple needed to have the war propagandized for them. There- weapon; it never won a war by itself." As propaganda Small fore, the National War Agencies Appropriations Act of 1944 Town U.S.A. was actually a minor publications weapon com- was passed and provided: "No part of this or any other ap- pared to the entire arsenal. Some publications were pro- propriation shall be expended by the Off ice of War Infor- duced by the millions, but Small Toivn U.S.A. was not one of mation for the preparation or publication of any pamphlet them. Many were controversial, but Small Town was not one or other literature for distribution to the public within the of these either. It was only one simple story told among United States." thousands of complex ffice of War ones. Its real importance Information lies in the pride that its ex- records dis- istence has given to one pel many of small Indiana community. the myths Ambitions for all Office Oabout Small Town U.S.A. of War Information activi- that have grown up ties were diminished by through the years in bureaucratic and political Alexandria. What Alex- struggles throughout the andrians knew of the war. Even though the uses of the booklet they hopes for the wider use of learned largely from the Small Town U.S.A. were newspaper supplement never realized, it was a article, "Who Ever Heard success for the OWTI. A re- of Alexandria?," by gional director in charge Clarence Woodbury, of Office of War Informa- that circulated around tion activities in the Unit- the country in 1944. ed Kingdom called Small It makes the claim Town U.S.A. "the best sug- that Small Toivn U.S.A. gestion for our purposes reached 400 million that has come out of the readers around the Bureau of Publications." world, including both The sincerity of Alexan- Europeans and Orien- dria's people and the rich- tals. The records dis- ness of their lives told a prove this claim. Evi- truly American story. Fifty dence suggests that years later and with much the booklet was sent to that has changed in the only ten countries, and world, Alexandria still feels the photos, to another it can speak for what is en- six countries. Perhaps during in American life. copies found their way into other nations from these cities. Except on Saturday Still, for this claim to be true, each issue printed would have night, Alexandrians Nancy Norris is the director of the Alexandria- had to have been shared by 6,154 persons! Also, the publica- abandoned Harrison Monroe Public Library in Alexandria, Indiana. tion was not printed in several languages, as claimed, but in Street by midnight. An Indiana Heritage Research Grant provided only three—English, Spanish, and Afrikaans. support for her research in Office of War Information files in the National Archives. Alexandrians have always believed that Small Toron U.S.A. was dropped by airplane to populations within enemy and occupied nations. Again the records do not support this be- FOR FURTHER READING lief. The only activities mentioned in the OWI files relating to materials being dropped from airplanes is a plan to dis- Burlingame, Roger. Don't Let Them Scare You: The Life and Times of Elmer tribute four-page leaflets from airplanes via London. Mate- Davis. New York: Lippincott, 1961. Fast, Howard. Being Red: A Memoir. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1990. rials were stockpiled in New York and flown by the military Houseman, John. Front and Center. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979. to distribution points in other countries, usually under the Office of War Information. Records of the Bureau of Overseas supervision of the State Department. Shipping reports Publications. Record Group 208. National Archives.

Spring 19 9 3 45 SAVE OUTDOOR SCULPTURE

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY GLORYJUNE GREIFF

lunny thing about outdoor they think of outdoor sculpture. In Schwarz and Lorado Left: SOS! Little Liberty, sculpture. With a few excep- Indiana the first great wave of public Taft, respectively). The Madison. tions it tends to blend into sculpture came after the Civil War. last memorial of this the landscape, and within a Indeed, one of the earliest Civil War type, funded by the citi- Center: few decades or less after its monuments in the country, dedicated zens of Steuben County, Seated Lincoln, Fdedication, most people simply don't 4 July 1865, still stands in the court- was erected in 1917 in Wabash, by see it anymore. Yet outdoor sculpture is house square in Princeton. Surviving the middle of Angola. Charles Keck. another feature in the rich texture of members of the Fifty-eighth Indiana After that, there was Right: our built environment that warrants a Regiment raised the funds. The num- a new war to commem- Soldiers second look. Why is a particular statue ber of these monuments, which most orate, and doughboy and Sailors placed where it is? Whom does it often consist of a Union soldier in sen- statues proliferated. Monument, honor, and why? Who was the artist, try stance surmounting a pedestal or Bronze and stone ren- Madison. and how was the artist chosen? How obelisk, peaked around the turn of the derings of doughboys was the sculpture funded? Answers to century. Certainly the state's most in various military poses appear these questions reflect cultural values celebrated structure of this type is the throughout the state; one stands bat- prevalent at the time the work was gargantuan Soldiers and Sailors tered by the winds off Lake Michigan erected and can provide rich historical Monument in the center of Indi- in Michigan City but seems to be sur- insight. Although outdoor sculpture is anapolis, dedicated in 1902. But many viving well. One particular type of among the most accessible forms of impressive monuments in Indiana World War I monument has spread history and art, it has become a severe- share the name, including ornate cre- beyond the borders of the Hoosier ly endangered cultural resource. ations with multiple bronze figures in state. Spencer native Ernest Moore Commemorative statues are proba- Mount Vernon and Winchester (featur- Viquesney fashioned an infantryman bly what most people visualize when ing the work of sculptors Rudolph on the run through stumps and

46 TRACES Left: barbed wire, grenade today, at least five of these still stand of Cultural Property, is conducting a Spirit of the at the ready and rifle in Indiana; Jefferson County even comprehensive survey of all public out- American in hand, and called boasts two! door sculpture in Indiana. Volunteers Doughboy, it Spirit of the Ameri- Winchester, Although they certainly appear to are combing the state in search of pub- by Ernest Moore can Doughboy. Cast in dominate the scene, war memorials licly accessible outdoor sculpture as Viquesney. bronze, a score of are not the only form of commemora- part of a nationwide undertaking these dot Indiana Center: tive sculpture. Outside Indianapolis, called Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!). Subjugation, courthouse lawns and with its wealth of bronze luminaries The SOS! project seeks to identify such Juliet V. Strauss other public places in, ranging from Benjamin Harrison to sculpture and to establish a record of Memorial, among other cities, Schuyler Colfax, Abraham Lincoln each work and its artist. The informa- Ttirkey Run Hobart, Peru, Win- seems the odds-on favorite to be tion is being entered into a national State Park, by chester, Greencastle, memorialized. Fort Wayne has several data base in Washington, D.C., that is Myra Reynolds Richards. Evansville, and, of Lincoln figures, but one of Indiana's available to researchers all across the course, Spencer. The best, sculpted by Charles Keck, is country. Of perhaps even greater inter- Right: majority of these seated, deep in contemplation, in front est to Indiana researchers is the perma- Detail from war memorials were the Soldiers of the Wabash County courthouse. nent file being created for the Historic and Sailors funded with the nick- James Whitcomb Riley stands in Landmarks library at the Heritage Monument, els and dollars of bronze academic robes at the court- Center in Indianapolis. Available to the Washington. public subscription. house in Greenfield, sculpted by Myra public, the file will include everything Many list the names of the communi- Reynolds Richards. She also created in the Washington files along with neg- ty's World War I dead, and often the one of the few works celebrating a atives and contact prints, field notes, casualties of later wars have been woman, Juliet V Strauss, who was instru- and supplemental information. added onto the sides of the pedestal. mental in the campaign to preserve After the completion of the survey, Even the Cold War is remembered the Turkey Run area in Parke County, Historic Landmarks Foundation will with a set of memorials, of a sort. In which became Turkey Run State Park. sponsor a series of regional workshops the McCarthy era of the late 1940s and The sculpture appropriately stands in this fall that will bring together history early 1950s, community proclamations the park. groups, arts organizations, public of patriotism became especially impor- In an effort to create public aware- administrators, and interested people tant. The Boy Scouts of America ness and stem the tide of neglect, for sessions on history, conservation and began a nationwide campaign in 1949 Historic Landmarks Foundation of maintenance, and grass roots efforts to, called the "Crusade to Strengthen Indiana, in cooperation with the indeed, Save Outdoor Sculpture! Liberty" to erect replicas of the Statue National Museum of American Art Gloryjune Greiffis a consulting historian and of Liberty (about eight feet high) (Smithsonian Institution) and the project coordinatorfor SOS! Call (317) 639-4534 throughout the land. Largely ignored National Institute for the Conservation for more information about the project.

Spring 19 9 3 47 FOCUS

INDIANA THROUGH THE MAPMAKER'S EYE

ast year's Columbian quincentenary focused attention on the power of maps to shape our perceptions of the world. Curators from some of the best known map collections in the United States Lassembled the traveling exhibition "Maps and the Columbian Encounter," and the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design in New York City mounted an exhibition late last year entitled "The Power of Maps." "Indiana through the Mapmaker's Eye," the Indiana Historical Society's newest travel- ing exhibition, takes a historical look at how maps of Indiana and the Midwest reflect differing per- spectives and uses. The twenty-six maps displayed in the exhibition reveal the utilitarian, artistic, and political aspects of maps. The exhibition includes maps that show the expansion of European settlement and the simultaneous decrease in the presence of Native Americans; maps that document legal boundary lines and show increasingly complex road, canal, and railroad networks; bird's-eye-view maps that reflect nineteenth-century civic boosterism; Eng- lish and French eighteenth-century maps that reveal divergent politics; and seventeenth- century maps of America that contain beautiful and exotic artwork. The exhibition is based on the IHS Library's collection of approximately fifteen hundred maps and atlases that date from 1588 to the present. The map collection enables researchers to trace the development of cartography and to place the mapping of Indiana in a larger context. It also aug- ments and complements the book and manuscript holdings. The research potential Top: Bird's-Eye of the IHS map collection has View of Mt. barely been explored; "Indiana Vernon, Ind., 1881. Middle: John through the Mapmaker's Eye" Mitchell, A Map of suggests ways in which research- the British and ers can use historical informa- French Dominions tion on maps. in North America, 1755. Bottom: Jodocus Hondius, LEIGH DARBEE America, ca. 1609. Curator of Printed Collections

48 TRACES

When the Office of War Information needed a small town to represent to the world the kind of values that Americans fought for in World War II, it chose Alexandria, Indiana. Nancy Norris tells the story of "Small Town U.S.A." in this issue.