of Indiana and Midwestern History

Summer 1991 Viol. 3, No. 3 A Publication pf the Indiana Historical Society $5.00

Painters of the Indiana Landscape

Abraham Lincoln’s Hoosier Home

Indiana’s 1916 Centennial

The Legacy of the WPA

F 521 148 VOL3 NQ3 Indiana Historical Society Board of Trustees INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY James J. Barnes, Crawfordsville Dianne J. Cartmel, Seymour William E. Ervin, Hartford City Bert R. Fenn, Tell City Ralph D. Gray, Indianapolis Ronald Morris, Greenwood Mission Statement Mary M. Mullin, Brookville Kathleen Stiso Mullins, South Bend Alan T. Nolan, Indianapolis, Chairman Larry K. Pitts, Indianapolis, Treasurer William G. Prime, Madison Evaline H. Rhodehamel, Indianapolis, ^ A SATURDAY NIGHT IN DECEMBER 1830 A GROUP OF THE MOST Vice President Richard O. Ristine, Crawfordsville DISTINGUISHED FIGURES IN INDIANA’S EARLY HISTORY—INCLUDING Richard S. Simons, Marion, President John Martin Smith, Auburn JOHN FARNHAM, CALVIN FLETCHER, WILLIAM CONNER, JOHN TIPTON, AND Theodore L. Steele, Indianapolis Stanley Warren, Greencastle Herman B Wells, Bloomington MORE THAN HALF OF THE INDIANA GENERAL ASSEMBLY—MET AT THE Administration MARION COUNTY COURTHOUSE IN INDIANAPOLIS TO FORM WHAT BECAME Peter T. Harstad, Executive Director Raymond L. Shoemaker, Assistant Executive THE INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY THAT GROUP COMPOSED THE Director and Business Manager Annabelle J. Jackson, Exec. Assist. Financial ORGANIZATION’S CONSTITUTION AND DECLARED: Administration Susan P. Brown, Exec. Assist. Personnel/Policy Carolyn S. Smith, Membership Secretary Division Directors The objects of the Society shall be the collection of all Bruce L. Johnson, Library materials calculated to shed light on the natural, civil and Thomas K. Krasean, Field Services Thomas A. Mason, Publications political history of Indiana, the promotion of useful knowledge Robert M. Taylor, Jr., Projects and the friendly and profitable intercourse of such citizens of Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History Thomas A. Mason, Executive Editor the state as are disposed to promote the aforesaid objects. J. Kent Calder, Managing Editor Tony Woodward, Art Editor Kathleen M. Breen, Editorial Assistant Megan L. McKee, Editorial Assistant Contributing Editors Ray E. Boomhower Douglas E. Clanin Paula J. Corpuz . ODAY, WITH MORE THAN 9,000 MEMBERS IN AND BEYOND INDIANA, Ruth Dorrel T Robert M. Taylor, Jr. THE SOCIETY BUILDS ON THIS FOUNDATION. AS THE NEXT CENTURY Visual Collections Stephen J. Fletcher, Curator APPROACHES, IT REAFFIRMS ITS ORIGINAL “OBJECTS” WITHIN THE Kim Ferrill, Photographer Susan L. S. Sutton, Coordinator BROADER CONTEXTS OF REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND WORLD HISTORY AND Lisa T. Lussier, Assistant Editorial Board FOCUSES THEM AS FOLLOWS: Edward E. Breen, Marion Chronicle-Tribune Andrew R. L. Cayton, Miami University David E. Dawson, Indianapolis To promote public awareness and appreciation of Indiana Ralph D. Gray, Indiana University, Indianapolis Monroe H. Little, Jr., Indiana University, history, the Indiana Historical Society collects, preserves, Indianapolis James H. Madison, Indiana University, interprets, and disseminates documentary and visual Bloomington Richard S. Simons, Marion evidence and supports scholarly research. The Society fosters John Martin Smith, Auburn Emma Lou Thornbrough, Butler University excellence and leadership, historical inquiry, and pleasurable Design and informal exchanges, believing that an understanding of Dean Johnson Design Lloyd Brooks, Designer the past illuminates the present and gives vision for the future. Typesetting Weimer Typesetting Co., Inc. Printing Shepard Poorman Communications Corp.

Traces o f Indiana and Midwestern History (ISSN 1040-788X) is published quarterly and distributed as a benefit of membership by the Indiana Histor­ ical Society: editorial and executive offices. 315 West Ohio Street, Indianap­ olis. Indiana 46202-3299. Membership categories are Annual $20, APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, 25 APRIL 1991. Sustaining $30. Contributing $50. and Life $500. Single copies are $5. Sec­ ond-class postage paid at Indianapolis. Indiana; USPS Number 003-275. Lit­ erary contributions: A brochure containing information for contributors is available upon request. TYaces accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts submitted without return postage. The Indiana Historical So­ ciety assumes no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by contributors. Indiana newspaper publishers may obtain permission to re­ print articles by written request to the Society. The Society will refer re­ quests from other publishers to the author. ©1991 Indiana Historical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States o f America. Post­ master: Please send address changes to 7Voces o f Indiana and Midwestern History, Indiana Historical Society, 315 West Ohio Street. Indianapolis. In­ diana 46202-3299. IHS. Bass Photo Collection 325 12K 48 Hoosiers in World War II War World in Hoosiers 27 3 etnto Indiana Destination Page Editors’ 2 Letters rn oe: Detail, Cover: Front GREIFF GLORY-JUNE RAY BOOMHOWER 40 Centennial 1916 Indiana’s Statehood: Celebrating 28 umr19 Volume3,Number 3 1991Summer od, ok,adRceto:Te eayo h P n Indiana in WPA the of Legacy The Recreation: and Rocks, Roads, 9 Age 1818, Youth, Lincoln’s pathy: A.LOUISSym and WARREN Sorrow 20 DON DAVENPORT KRAUSEMARTIN Landscape Indiana the of Painters V.Group: JUDITH NEWTONHoosier The 4 18 14 Pet icigTme” LnonsHoirHm, 1816-1830 Home, Hoosier Lincoln’s es”: Tim Pinching “Pretty Forums races t of Indiana and Midwestern History Midwestern Indianaand of h Seiner, The 90 Ot Sak Ol ncna, 27 canvas, on Oil Stark. Otto 1900. \ 2 n Caec n Mlrd Long. Mildred and Clarence in. % 22 x NIN HISTORICAL INDIANA RECEIVED S O C I F T YI I R R A R Y U 2 1991JUL 29 issue. inthis article Rayof subject thestatehood, Indianaof years hundredone governor Samuel Boomhower's celebrateBell E.mayorJoseph IndianaWilson, Woodrow Indianapolis Ralston,and President LETTERS

Mencken and Indiana or infamous article in the Mercury Nathan collaborated on called Eu­ that stirred up such an outcry rope after 8:15 or some such title. My read the article on Mencken with among the prudes. I can’t even re­ brother’s sure fire formula for mak­ I tremendous interest and it stirred member its name now. I never read ing sure I read something such as up a host of memories. Mencken in depth, but I read the Rabelais was to instruct me that I have little memory of the Klan in Mercury when I could get it as well said book or article was not to be Marion and never saw a Klansman as the old New York World with its read. But he never hid or removed in uniform. If they had parades in great stable of writers. Until I read anything from the book shelves. Marion, I don’t remember seeing one Holley’s article, I didn’t know I sense some truth in Mencken’s and have no doubt that my mother, Mencken had such an interest in In­ feeling that in many respects, Indi­ who despised the Klan, prevented diana and its booboisie, nor did I ana in the 1920s and 1930s was a me from seeing one, as she taught know that George Jean Nathan was sort of desert. I can’t remember any­ me to fear and distrust such people. a Hoosier of Ft. Wayne. But one of thing very exciting in the field of My single memory of the Klan’s days the books that stirred up my early thought, or anything that caught my there is the savage comment of my interest in the world outside the attention until I got out of school and Aunt Dode Sumption in Kokomo USA was a book Mencken and began to prowl my brother’s library that if you wanted to know who and and get infusions from my other what kind of people they were, just brother, another good newspaper look at their shoes. man in Cincinnati. And of course, We were a family of avid readers, Cincy was a city (and is) rich in food thanks to my mother’s influence, for the mind. I have always despised and my older brother, a first-class Gerald Smith as the worst kind of newspaper man, was a collector of shyster, but never knew he was from what I guess you would call avant Indiana. I have Ambrose Bierce’s garde writings of that time. These Devil’s Dictionary and never knew included Mencken and Nathan and he grew up in Warsaw, which I knew everything else that was new and rather well through a fraternity different and challenged the current brother. And Janet Flanner. The two “culture” of Victorian and reaction­ copies of Traces were rewarding and ary social outlooks. So I had access to I am going to use the application sta­ Mencken and Nathan at an early age pled in the current copy to join the and once owned a copy of the famous Indiana Historical Society.

H. Dixon Trueblood Laguna Hills, California

2 TRACES EDITORS’ PAGE

his issue of Traces focuses on Chicago architect Louis Sullivan Ralston, had called for an elabo­ T celebrations past and present: called them “the greatest group of rate celebration and a new state li­ the impending 175th anniversary of landscape artists in the country.” brary and historical building. But in Indiana’s statehood, the 1916 state­ This issue of Traces confirms Sulli­ a 1914 referendum, the taxpayers hood centennial celebration, and the van’s assessment of the Hoosier refused to fund such expensive traveling exhibition of Hoosier Group. “Forums” is excerpted from projects. Eighteen years passed Group paintings containing works Martin Krause’s The Passage, the before the proposed library was built that recently returned to Germany catalog of the exhibition that will be (a 1910 plan for an Indiana State for the first time since they were cre­ on display at the Indianapolis Mu­ Plaza has waited more than eighty ated there more than a century ago. seum of Art from 24 November 1991 years to be realized as the Indiana In “The Hoosier Group: Painters of to 2 February 1992. Government Center). But on a lim­ the Indiana Landscape,” Judith Vale The Indiana Historical Society ited budget the statehood centennial Newton provides an overview of five helped to celebrate the 175th anni­ produced a film and several his­ American Impressionists—Theodore versary of Indiana statehood by re­ torical pageants, published several C. Steele, J. Ottis Adams, William printing Louis A. Warren’s Lincoln’s historical works, and initiated Indi­ Forsyth, Otto Stark, and Richard B. Youth: Indiana Years, Seven to ana’s state park system. The Indiana Gruelle—who worked and taught in Twenty-one, 1816-1830, which the Historical Society has organized an Indiana at the turn of the century. Book-of-the-Month Club will offer as exhibition, “The Hoosier Centennial: During much of the 1880s Steele, a book dividend. In “Sorrow and A Look Back at the 1916 Cele­ Adams, and Forsyth studied at the Sympathy: Lincoln’s Youth, 1818, bration,” which will be on display Royal Academy of Munich. The stu­ Age 9,” an excerpt from that book, at the Society from 6 December 1991 dents sent back many of their works Warren discusses Lincoln’s early ed­ to 28 February 1992. painted in Germany to their patrons ucation, reading, and the harsh fron­ n “Roads, Rocks, and Recreation: in Indiana. Those works form the ba­ tier conditions of the pioneer era. IThe Legacy of the WPA in Indi­ sis of a major exhibition, “The Pas­ During his adolescence in Indiana, ana,” Glory-June Greiff surveys the sage: The Return of Indiana the future president endured the accomplishments of the Works Painters from Germany, 1880- death of his mother, his sister, and Progress Administration, one of the 1905,” which has traveled to Cologne other relatives. Don Davenport, in New Deal agencies created during and will soon open in Indianapolis. ‘“Pretty Pinching Times’: Lincoln’s President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Although the five Hoosier Group Hoosier Home, 1816-1830,” surveys first term. Its critics called the WPA painters exhibited their works to­ the Indiana years and the sites asso­ a make-work organization, but gether only once—at the 1894-95 ciated with the sixteenth president: many buildings and other public Central Art Association show in Chi­ the Lincoln Boyhood National Me­ works—such as the Fall Creek Park­ cago—they cooperated closely from morial and the Lincoln State Park, way, the Lockefield Gardens housing their student days through their ma­ both in Lincoln City, and the Lincoln project, and the State Fairgrounds ture years. Martin Krause, curator Museum in Fort Wayne. Coliseum in Indianapolis—survive of prints and drawings at the India­ ay Boomhower, the Indiana His­ as its legacy in Indiana. With these napolis Museum of Art, has pointed Rtorical Society’s public relations articles in hand, our readers are well out that an 1894 exhibition of four coordinator, chronicles an earlier an­ prepared for summer reading and out of five Hoosier Group painters in niversary in “Celebrating State­ celebrations. Indianapolis went unnoticed by the hood: Indiana’s 1916 Centennial.” Thomas A. Mason local press but drew rave reviews The Centennial Commission, Executive Editor when it moved to the Windy City. backed by Governor Samuel M.

Lincoln’s Youth WPA in Indiana

Five Painters from Indiana

Indiana's Centennial T l V5 H P£> ^I t f f painters OF tHE INDIANA LANDscape

Developing their own VARIANT OF IMPRESSIONISM, th e Hoooier Group paintern he elegance of late-nine- teenth-century Munich was a long way from the sweep­ openl their lives seeking the T ing farmlands of mid- western America, but for three arstistc esseence o f Indiana. artistically driven young men, the Bavarian capital was the place they With oil and watercolor, wanted to be. Theodore C. Steele, J. Ottis Adams, and William charcoal and pastel, they Forsyth felt they had little choice: if they wanted to increase their technical capabilities, broaden their gave pictorial expression horizons, and sharpen their sensi­ bilities as artists, study at the Royal to vistas as indigenous to Academy of Munich seemed almost a necessity. Indiana as were the dia- Born in sleepy crossroad towns— Steele, near Gosport, Indiana, on 11 The Art Jury, 1921. Wayman Adams. Oil on canvas, September 1847; Adams in Amity, lects of James Whitcomb 82V2 x 54% in. Left to right: T. C. Steele, Otto Stark, J. Ottis Adams, and William Forsyth. Indiana, on 8 July 1851; and Forsyth in the Ohio River town of California Riley's poetry. JUDITH V NEWTON on 15 October 1854—the youngsters

4 TRACES Indianapolis Bar Association, Inc. VernonBeeches, 1892. Theodore Clement Steele. Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in.30x 40canvas, onOil Steele. Clement1892. Theodore S U M M E R1 9 9 1 5 juggled schooling and chores while couple days. Every once in a while he else but study and paint, sending a looking for ways to express them­ goes through the whole school and parcel of rolled-up canvases to Hib­ selves creatively. They enlisted the regularly lays ’em out; everyone old ben every few months. help of available teachers, often lit­ and new, good and bad, no excep­ Leaving Richards in Munich, Ad­ tle more than an itinerant sign tions, and takes the conceit out of us ams, Forsyth, and Steele returned painter or a kindly schoolteacher in a way that is perfectly lovely.” from the Royal Academy and settled who saw talent lurking in their ama­ None of the young men had the in central Indiana during the late teurish efforts. But these half mea­ luxury of devoting themselves ex­ 1880s. Joining them were Otto sures weren’t enough for the boys; clusively to their studies, for all of Stark, an Indianapolis artist who they dreamed of getting a first-rate them were committed to paying off had been studying at the Academie art education. loans that had been guaranteed by Julian in Paris, and illustrator Rich­ f the three, Adams was generous patrons back home. Steele ard B. Gruelle. Active in their re­ the first to find a toehold had agreed “to repay the several spective communities, the artists in the world of art. After a amounts advanced in paintings from soon established themselves, devel­ O year of study at Wabash his own easel” as soon as he could af­ oping admirable reputations for College, he gained admittance to ter his return from abroad. Through­ their portraiture as well as for their London’s South Kensington School out his five-year stay in Munich, accomplished teaching. Steele kept up a The men were linked together for steady stream of all time after exhibiting their work They enlisted the help o f available correspondence in Five Hoosier Painters, a Central teacherj, often little more than an itinerant with his backers Art Association show held in Chi­ in Indianapolis. cago. Opening in December 1894, jign painter or a kindly schoolteacher who Grateful for their the exhibition surprised even the saw talent lurking in their amateurish help, he kept harshest of Windy City critics with them up-to-date its individuality, vitality, and fresh­ efforts. But these half measures weren’t on his progress, ness of approach. The reviewers looking forward praised this “Hoosier Group” of art­ enough for the boys; they dreamed of to the time when ists, proclaiming their paintings to he could deliver be a truly American expression getting a first-rate art education. the promised within the modern idiom. Thus was paintings. born the Hoosier Group, in a sense of Art in 1872. With high hopes, he Before and after classes, Adams created by critic Hamlin Garland, set out for England, only to discover could be found at the Alte Pina- who was the major spokesman for after enrolling that the institution kothek, busily copying the world-re­ the association. was more interested in training its nowned masterworks hanging in The five artists never formally as­ students for work in the “ornamen­ this famous Munich art gallery. To sociated as a group, though Steele, tal art” industries than in exposing help defray the expenses of his Adams, and Forsyth had begun the them to a classical “fine arts” curric­ schooling at the Academy, he had ac­ habit of painting in each other’s ulum. cepted commissions from several company in Munich and continued Perhaps encouraged by Hoosier families in Muncie to paint “a this practice after their return to William Merritt Chase and his suc­ Rubens” or “a Rembrandt” for ship­ Indiana. Nevertheless, each main­ cess as an art student in Munich, ment to them in the United States. tained his artistic independence, Steele, Adams, and Samuel Richards (One of his pieces, in fact, a copy of searching out his own style in his of Anderson enrolled at the Royal the massive The Lion Hunt by own fashion. Crisscrossing through Academy of Munich in October 1880. Rubens, is currently owned by the the years—first as fellow students, Forsyth joined them eighteen Muncie Public Library.) then as exhibitors at numerous art months later. The school’s profes­ Like Adams, Forsyth painted at shows, and finally as faculty mem­ sors, widely known through their ex­ all hours, both in and out of the bers at various schools—the five re­ hibition work, were reputed to be classroom. He had promised his mained professional, if not personal, some of the period’s most exacting. friend Thomas E. Hibben, part friends. According to Forsyth, that reputa­ owner of a wholesale dry goods store There was no mistak­ tion was well deserved. Complaining in Indianapolis, one-half of the work ing their unabashed en­ Evening Poplars, 1884. to a friend in Indianapolis about the produced during his stay in Ger­ thusiasm for Indiana Theodore demands of his drawing professor, he many in exchange for financial sup­ landscape, however; Clement wrote: “[Gyula Benczur] gives stun­ port. Forsyth was diligent about that they all shared. Steele. Munich-Vernon ning criticism, so stunning some­ working off his debt. During his four They were certain that Compositions times you don’t get over it for a years at the Academy, he did little their Hoosier habitat Sketchbook.

6 TRACES Dr. Brandt F. Steele and Theodore L. Steele was every bit as captivating as was Monet’s Giverny. “A single­ The Closing of ness of purpose has been the animating principle of this group an Autumn Day, 1901. J. Ottis of painters and their pupils,” Forsyth would later write of his Adams. Oil Hoosier Group colleagues. “To paint their pictures here at on canvas, home, to express themselves each in his own way and yet hold 19 x 28 in. closely to that local truth characteristic of our particular spot of earth and interpret it in all its varying moods that are its charm—this has held them faithful to their original intentions [and I has bound them together with a common purpose.” s much as the men wished to concentrate solely The Evansville Museum o f Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana; Gift upon landscape work, they o f the Art League, 66.136 were forced to acknowledge A that most of the late-nine- teenth-century art aficionados were re­ luctant to invest in their avant-garde out- of-doors pieces. Instead, the buying pub­ lic looked to these painters for more tradi­ tional fare. Faced with the financial realities of home and family, the Hoosier Group artists sought steady, income-pro­ ducing work that would allow them to maintain their creative flexibility. Steele applied his finely honed Acad­ emy techniques to portrait painting, soon becoming the premier portraitist in Indi­ anapolis. Despite his popularity, though, he viewed the studio work only as “his bread and butter,” much preferring to set up an easel in the midst of a clump of trees. His daughter Daisy remembered how much her father enjoyed his infre­ quent forays into the countryside. “Not a minute of these precious weeks was wasted,” she wrote. “Sometimes Father painted on four or five different subjects a day, changing the canvases as the light changed. . . . He was always happy in the country and came back to the city reluc­ tantly, bringing many unfinished can­ vases that he worked on later in his studio.” Through the years, the sometimes re­ luctant portraitist attracted a steady Bad Pasturage, 1896. Otto Stark. Oil on canvas, 20% x 36% in. stream of sitters to his studio: elected officials, well-known men and women from throughout the Midwest, social leaders, Gordon Hill, /J 1897‘ and even a poet—James Whitcomb Riley. Despite his predilec­ ^ Theodore tion for the spontaneity afforded by plein air painting, Steele ' ^j] Clement never lost sight of the artistic side of portraiture. In his jour­ H Steele. Oil on canvas, nal, he noted the challenges of defining a person’s spirit on 30 x 40 in. canvas. It’s a daunting task, he wrote, “to animate the head - with feeling and intellect. The eye and the mouth with the former, and the brow with the latter.” Such precision in thought—as well as brush—undoubtedly pleased the roll call of notables who patiently sat for Steele. Private Collection Over the years, he provided portraits for President Benjamin Harrison; Indiana governors Albert G. Porter, Isaac P. Gray, Claude Matthews, Alvin P. Hovey, and Ira J. Chase; and at

8 TRACES Toward the least four college presidents. In addition, he painted Col. Eli Close of an Autumn Day. Lilly, John H. Holliday, Charles W. Fairbanks, Albert J. Bev­ Richard B. eridge, Thomas A. Hendricks, and Catharine Merrill. They Gruelle. Oil were among the scores of famous and near famous who passed on canvas, 20 x 30 in. through his studio during the opening years of the twentieth century. Not comfortable with either the politics—or the con­ straints—of portrait work, Forsyth generally referred any such commissions to Steele. Instead, he supported his wife Al­ ice and their three daughters through teaching. During the de­ Mrs. Georgia Benner Douglass cade after his return from Germany, the short, wiry Forsyth taught with his former classmate J. Ottis Adams in art schools at both Fort Wayne and Muncie. Exhausted by riding circuit between the two schools, Forsyth quit in 1891 to teach with Steele at the Indiana School of Art in Indianapolis. n 1906, Forsyth replaced Adams as the principal drawing and painting instructor at the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis. Quickly earning the reputation for being a fiery, sometimes sarcastic teacher, he was leg­ endary among the art students for his temper. Beulah Hazelrigg Brown, who with her husband, Francis, was his stu­ dent in 1915, tied Forsyth’s brusqueness to his diminutive stature. “Mr. Forsyth was short, a lot shorter than most men, and I believe that is why he had that feisty way about him, to make up for his height,” she explained. Indianapolis printmaker Evelynne Mess Daily agreed, remembering how Forsyth would stalk “from easel to easel sharply pointing out problems and answering questions.” But, after class, the peppery teacher was approachable. He would grab his ever-present, roll-your-own cigarettes and join the students outside for a smoke. Together, they would line up along the Mr. and Mrs. Ray H. French back steps of Herron, where Forsyth would put aside his blustering to become a gruffly supportive A Rural Village. Corydon, 1896. friend. He continued to serve on the school’s faculty until his William retirement in 1933. Forsyth. Oil Unlike Forsyth, who enjoyed nothing more than a good ar­ on canvas, 30y2x42V8 gument, Adams preferred to live in the solitude of his in. thoughts. More comfortable competing with himself than with anyone else, the introverted artist was happiest in the se­ clusion of a wooded glen or camped beside a rock-strewn stream. He did marry, though, choosing Winifred Brady as his wife in 1898. He had known the young woman and her sister,

Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. W who had married one of the founders of Ball Corporation, since they had been students in his Muncie Art School nine years earlier. Some twenty years his junior, Winifred tended to the needs of their three young sons, freeing Adams to teach. Later

SUMMER 1991 9 William Forsyth and his daughter Dorothy at Shakertown. 1903.

10 TRACES he was able to immerse himself in of eleven Gruelle children, he sier Group painters were increas­ the intricacies of landscape painting had sacrificed formal art study in or­ ingly drawn to the peaceful without being unduly disturbed with der to help with the obligations of countryside of their youth. No longer the goings-on of his rambunctious his large childhood family. Gruelle did occasional jaunts to their tucked- boys. never gave up pursuing his art, away painting spots satisfy them; aced with the responsibili­ though. As a boy in Illinois, he had they wanted to live in the midst of ties of raising four children even apprenticed himself to a village the scenes that had been crowding alone, Stark—left a wid­ sign painter, “thinking that the use their canvases for decades. For this F ower after the death of his of paint and the mixing of colors purpose, in 1898, Steele and Adams Parisian wife Marie—also became a would be an advantage to him and, purchased a spacious old house on teacher. In 1899 he took over as the at the same time, enable him to earn the eastern fork of the Whitewater supervisor of art at Manual Training a living.” River near Brookville. Soon known High School in Indianapolis, and in An artistic jack-of-all-trades, as the “Hermitage,” it became Ad­ 1905 he joined the faculty at Herron Gruelle moved to Indianapolis in ams’s permanent residence as well as an instructor of composi­ as a seasonal studio for tion and illustration. Steele, Forsyth, Stark, and Stark was as steady in his other artist friends coming teaching methods as Forsyth down from Indianapolis or was mercurial. According to up from Cincinnati. several of his pupils, he was teele’s wife of patient and thorough while twenty-nine years, presenting the fundamen­ Libbie Lakin Steele, tals of art in a deceptively Sdied of tuberculosis simple manner. This soft- at the age of forty-nine in spoken teacher—who, ac­ 1899. Eight years later a sil­ cording to an Indianapolis ver-headed Steele sold his News writer, “had a real half interest in the Hermit­ artist’s thumb, the size of age to Adams, and, attracted a spatula, and knobby by the rugged terrain of hands”—required those in southern Indiana, he bought his classes to work carefully more than two hundred and accurately, and one ap­ acres in the heavily wooded preciative student remem­ hills of Brown County. High bered him as being gentle atop a windswept hill, he with his criticism. built a four-room cabin stu­ Indianapolis artist Elmer dio, fitting it out with all the Taflinger, a student at Man­ gear the sixty-year-old artist ual in the early 1900s, was would need. Before too many particularly impressed that months, the rustic bunga­ his teacher had an indepen­ low—built shortly before his dent reputation as an artist marriage to Selma Neu- on the East Coast. “Of all T. C. Steele. bacher in August 1907—had those who put a picture to­ earned its nickname as the gether, Otto Stark was the best com­ 1882, where he later received com­ “House of the Singing Winds.” poser,” Taflinger bragged. “We used missions to illustrate James Whit­ Beginning in 1922, Steele and his to get together in New York, some of comb Riley’s “When the Frost Is on wife escaped the harsh Brown us who had studied with Stark and the Punkin” and “The Old Swim- County winters by staying each year congratulate ourselves on the fact min’-Hole.” Despite his successes in the nearby college town of Bloom­ that we were so much better pre­ within the Hoosier state, he was for­ ington. The painter had been invited pared than people from all over the ever chasing the horizon, often for there as an honorary professor of art world.” months at a time. In addition to by Indiana University’s president The fifth member of the Hoosier working in and around the India­ William Lowe Bryan. In exchange Group, Richard B. Gruelle, was napolis area, he headed off to Wash­ for studio space on the top floor of the comfortable working as an illu­ ington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; school’s library, Steele had only to strator, a portraitist, or a land­ and Gloucester, Massachusetts, dur­ paint. During mild weather, IU’s fa­ scapist, depending on the needs of ing extended sketching trips. vorite artist-in-residence would set his patron. One of the youngest With the passing years, the Hoo­ up outside, encouraging passing stu-

SUMMER 1991 11 The men were linked together for all time after exhibiting their work in Five Hoosier Painters, a Central A rt Association show held in Chicago. Opening in December 189T, the exhibition surprised even the harshest of Windy City critics with its individuality, vitality, and freshness o f approach.

dents to look over his shoulder while he worked, as long as “they [didn’t] talk too much.” Unable to leave Indianapolis be­ cause of his teaching position at Her­ ron, the fifty-two-year-old Forsyth fulfilled his dream of open spaces by moving in 1906 with his wife and three daughters to the village of Irvington. There they bought a ram­ bling hillside house hidden by thick bramble bushes, overgrown trees, trailing vines, and lots of wild- flowers. The artist relished living in this tiny community of wooded, winding avenues on the outskirts of Indianapolis. It combined the neigh­ borly warmth of a small town with easy access—only a half-hour’s ride on the interurban—to the downtown area. With two grown children continu­ ing to live with him, Stark could ill afford to leave the economic security of teaching at Manual. Instead he dedicated his summer vacations from school to the out-of-doors paint­ ing he loved so well. A welcome visi­ tor to Steele’s House of the Singing Winds and a steady guest at Adams’s Hermitage, Stark continued his teaching days at Manual and Herron until his retirement from both in 1919. Like his four friends, Gruelle was drawn to the idea of stepping out his front door into a world of painting possibilities. In 1910 the fifty-nine- year-old artist and his wife moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, to share a six- teen-acre parcel of land with their three adult children. (His son, Johnny Gruelle, would later publish the first of his twenty-seven books for children about the adventures of Raggedy Ann and her friends in 1918. See Traces, vol. 2, no. 4.) In Pappyland, 1901. J. Ottis Adams. Oil on canvas, 22 x 32 in.

12 T R A C E S There wav no mistaking their unabavhed enthiiviavnifor Indiana landscape, however; that they all ohared They were certain that their Heavier habitat wav every bit av captivating ao wav Alone to Giverny.

The senior Gruelle never lost inter­ est in the city that had been his home for twenty-eight years, making periodic visits to Indianapolis until his death in 1914. Although trained in different schools and exposed to divergent in­ fluences, the Hoosier Group artists remained devoted to their state. Choosing to base their lives in Indi­ ana instead of locating along the more sophisticated East Coast, the five men focused on the common scenes, the everyday experiences, and the quiet beauty of the local landscape.*

Judith Vale Newton is the author of The Hoosier Group: Five American Painters (1985) and the editor o f You Be the Judge (1979). She is currently coauthoring A Grand Tradition: The Hoosier Salon, 1925-1990, with Carol Weiss. Former editor-in-chief of Arts Indiana and a monthly col­ umnist for The Saturday Evening Post, Ms. Newton has contributed features and reviews to numerous journals and newspapers. All the illustrations to this and the following article are from The Passage: Return of the Indiana Painters from Germany. 1880-1905, supplied courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Stephen Kovacik, photographer. Suggestions for Further Reading

Burnet, Mary Q. Art and Artists o f Indiana. New York: The Century Company, 1921. Forsyth, William. Art in Indiana. Indianapo­ lis: The H. Lieber Company, 1916. Krause, Martin F. The Passage: Return o f In­ diana Painters from Germany, 1880-1905. Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1990. Newton, Judith Vale. The Hoosier Group: Five American Painters. Indianapolis: Eckert Publications, 1985. Steele, Selma N., Theodore L. Steele, and Wilbur D. Peat. The House of the Singing Winds. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1966. Reprint, 1989.

SUMMER 1991 13 FORUMS

he generation o f Hoooier artists who studied together at the R oyal Brookville from the east side Academy o f Painting in Munich in the 1880s return ed to of the T Whitewater, ca. 1905. Indiana with a strong dee ire to capture their native land on can vac, an artiotic idea they encountered among their European contemporaries. Although economic realities would demand that ' they paint portraits or teach, their shared dream o f a new landscape art would MARTIN KRAUSE eventually he realized. By painting commonplace subjects in a truthful manner, they reacquainted American audiences with the beauty of their familiar surroundings and earned for themselves wide acclaim. In this excerptfrom Richard B. Gruelle. the catalog that documents the exhibition, The Passage: Return o f the

Indiana Painters from Germany, 1880—1905, Martin Krause chronicles the growth o f the reputations of the Indiana painters and the circumstances by which they came to be known as the “Hoosier Group. ”

hicago was a nineteenth-cen­ Within five years, Chicago rose like a C tury wonder. In the fifty years solid, towering phoenix—the birth­ between 1830 and 1880, the unincor­ place of the skyscraper in 1883— porated frontier settlement on the from the ashes of the city of wood. shores of Lake Michigan had grown With no particular historical legacy to preserve, Chicago was inclined to T. C. Steele at to a city of 500,000. In the the Hermitage, 1890s its population dou­ be the first modern city. This vision ca. 1900. bled, and in the next de­ was embodied in the complex of cade it rose to the rank buildings constructed of America’s second on landscaped grounds city, after New York, to house the world’s and the fifth largest fair, which Chicago in the world. The hosted in the summer calamitous fire of of 1893. 1871, which lev­ The World’s Co­ eled one-third of lumbian Exposi­ the city, could not tion, honoring the slow the momentum. four hundredth an­

This excerpt from The Passage: Return of niversary oT Christo­ Indiana Painters from Germany, 1880-1905 William Forsyth. (280 pages, 123 color illus., 50 black & white illus.) appears by permission o f the pher Columbus’s Indianapolis Museum of Art, cloth $39.95 ISBN 0-936260-53-X. Distributed by Indiana discovery of America, University Press (800) 842-6796. Artifacts from the collection of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites photographed by Dale A. Bernstein. 14 TRACE Indianapolis Museum of Art oeh M.Joseph 1890. Bowles,ca. J. Ottis AdamsOttis J. Inlibraryatthe Hermitage. from left.from OttisAdams J. sketching is secondis 1880s.party, Munich T. C. Steele.C. T. The old millsfromold The the east with thewitheast the Hermitage beyond.Hermitage J. OttisAdams. J. minded supervision of Hal­ and the strong solid group of artists sey C. Ives, Chief of the Art in Holland.” Department. Although the master Impression­ There was a new force in ists were overlooked in the official art at the fair: Impression­ sections, a representative selection ism. By 1893 its style was de­ of their works, borrowed from Amer­ finable and its leaders well ican private collectors, was to be recognized in America, even found in the Loan Exhibition in the though the Parisian dealer Art Palace. This exhibition of 126 Durand-Ruel had only begun paintings provided a nearly com­ importing French Impres­ plete retrospective of nineteenth- sionist paintings to the century French painting. There were United States in 1886. Pre­ Delacroixs and Gericaults. The dictably, the official French Barbizon school was represented selection committee had ig­ by Corot, Daubigny, Millet, and nored the new movement in Rousseau. The exhibition was up­ favor of academicism in dated with paintings by Manet, assembling its display for Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, Cazin, Zorn, Chicago, as had the German Degas, Renoir, and Besnard. Most of and English committees. But the Impressionist paintings were the importance of Impres­ lent by two individuals. One was Al­ sionism was well enough exander Cassatt, the brother of the known on this side of the American expatriate painter Mary Atlantic for the editor of Cassatt. The other was Mrs. Potter Modern Art, Joseph M. Palmer of Chicago, who, relying on Across the was one 0f the greatest Bowles, to lament its absence: Mary Cassatt for expert advice, was among the earliest American collec­ lows Adams. WOrld’S fairS' ° Ver England has sent a Royal Academy oil on canvas, twenty-seven million and France has sent a Champs tors of Impressionism. visitors entered the fair­ Elysees Salon. There are great names In the other galleries of the Art grounds in six months. Among the missing from the exhibits of both na­ Palace, there were contingents of crowd were the artists of Indiana, tions. This is not the fault of the outdoor painters, some directly in­ who made the pilgrimage from Indi­ World’s Fair Art Commissioners, but fluenced by the French and some, anapolis, 180 miles to the southeast. because the connections of art officials like Indiana’s artists, developing in­ illiam Forsyth, T. C. in those countries are with old institu­ dependently in a parallel direction. Steele, Harry Grant tions rather than with the new. How­ These paintings offered a refreshing Williamson, and Otto ever, no exhibit of English art can be airiness and lightness which con­ representative which ignores the New Stark are known to trasted with the heavy murkiness W gallery and the Grafton gallery groups that dominated many official galler­ have attended. They went primarily of artists, and no exhibit of French art to see the Art Palace, where 10,040 can be representative which ignores ies. In Forsyth’s opinion, published exhibits from fifteen nations consti­ the Champ-de-Mars. No exhibit of in Modern Art, Impressionism was tuted the largest assemblage of in­ French art can be representative from the most active influence at the fair. ternational art ever seen in the which are missing such men as Degas, He wrote: United States. It was comparable Cazin, Dagnan-Bouveret, Puvis de Although the great impressionists are Chavannes, Monet, Pissarro and only to the exhibitions they had seen but meagerly represented, there is no Renoir! in Europe, but from which they had lack of impressionism. In fact, one sees been isolated since their return Bowles’s lament repeated that of it on every hand in the French, Amer­ home. Just as Chicago hoped that its the Indiana artists, on whom he de­ ican and Scandinavian collections. fair would compare favorably with pended for a critique of the art at the Among these nations one feels it on ev­ European expositions, American art­ fair. He offered them the pages of his ery side. It is in the air, and the great ists wanted to gauge their artistic quarterly magazine because he bulk of pictures show its influence in progress, represented in the 1,075 shared their point of view. He knew varying degree. paintings in the American section, of their desire to encounter “the new Although the Indiana artists had against the standard of European schools of art today, the open air and not actually seen French Impres­ competition. This was of particular sunlight painters” and of their inter­ sionist paintings before the fair, they interest to Forsyth and Steele, who est “in the work and influence of were well enough versed in the new were represented in the exhibition of leaders like Monet and Cazin in movements in France, Germany, and paintings selected under the broad­ France, Fritz von Uhde in Germany, Holland to write thoughtful papers

16 TRACES on these subjects for Modern Art between 1893 and 1895. Forsyth of­ fered his random impressions of the fair and wrote an article on the German Secession. Steele and Otto Stark wrote defenses of Impression­ ism. Harry Grant Williamson gave an account of the Modern Dutch school, and Richard B. Gruelle described the important French paintings in the collection of W. T. Walters of Baltimore. These pub­ lished articles reached an inter­ national audience. Modern Art debuted in Indiana­ polis in January 1893. Its founder, Joseph M. Bowles, was an admirer of the English Arts and Crafts move­ ment, and from the moment that the finely crafted books began appearing Theodore L. Steele from William Morris’s Kelmscott lisher Louis Prang acquired the pub­ West. Garland found On the Oregon Coast, 1902. Press in 1891, Bowles became a col­ lication and moved it to Boston. With precisely what he was Theodore lector. These exemplars of the fine the exception of Otto Stark’s “Evolu­ looking for in the work Clement Steele. and ancient art of printing were the tion of Impressionism,” the thoughts of the Indiana artists. Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in. models for Modern Art. In opposition and pictures of Indiana’s artists no he Art Associa­ to the cheap and mass-produced pe­ longer appeared in the publication tion of Indianapolis had riodicals of the day, Bowles, like after its move East. But in the previ­ been in the habit of spon­ Morris, intended to produce a publi­ ous two years, they had reached a T soring minor exhibitions of cation that showed “the impress of broader public than they could have the summer work of Indianapolis’s as much art thought as any picture.” through their art alone. painters. In November 1894 the ex­ Like the Kelmscott Books, Modern One of the early admirers of Mod­ hibition happened to include the Art required the collaborative tal­ ern Art was the novelist Hamlin Gar­ work of Steele, Forsyth, the Paris- ents of the designer, the illustrator, land, who upon reading the first trained Stark, and the self-taught the printer, and the contributing art­ issue had written to Bowles, “Your Gruelle. The Central Art Associa­ ists and poets. Since Bowles had no beautiful magazine is a wonderfully tion, apprised by Steele of the exhibi­ previous publishing experience, he fine output; perilously fine.” Garland tion and inclined “to give our shared his enthusiasm and his had arrived in Chicago at the time of Chicago friends an object lesson in Kelmscott Books with his artist the world’s fair and participated in Western art,” transported the entire friends in Indianapolis and enlisted the debate over the emergence of a exhibition to Taft’s studio in Chicago their talents in his enterprise. Just national school of American art, in December. To the original sixty as Morris had published the writings which resurfaced at that time. Gar­ works, they added two works by the of Whistler, Bowles published those land took the position that a genuine emergent J. Ottis Adams and cham­ of Steele and Williamson; the inno­ American art would arise when pioned the group as a distinctive vative designs and decorations by American artists painted American school of painters. These five would Charles Shannon and Charles Rick­ subjects in a truthful and natural never again exhibit together this etts found their counterparts in manner that would be impressionis­ way, but they would henceforth be Bruce Rogers, Charles Nicoli, and tic without being imitative. He be­ identified as “The Hoosier Group.” * William Forsyth. The poems of Oscar lieved that this development would Wilde were replaced in Modern Art more likely occur in the West than in Martin Krause is curator of prints by those of James Whitcomb Riley the East, where foreign influence and drawings at the Indianapolis and Meredith Nicholson. By the end was more dominant. To encourage Museum o f Art. of its second year Modern Art had an this development, Garland, his international subscription list and brother-in-law the sculptor Lorado The Passage: Return of the Indiana was available in bookstores in six­ Taft, and other like-minded individ­ Painters from Germany, 1880-1905, teen American cities plus London, uals established the Central Art As­ will be on display at the Indianapolis Paris, Leipzig, and Florence. At the sociation in Chicago in 1894 for the Museum of Art from 24 November end of 1894 the important art pub­ purpose of promoting the art of the 1991 to 2 February 1992.

s u M M E R 19 9 1 17 This article is adapted by permission from a chapter in Don Davenport's In Lincoln's Footsteps: A Historical Guide to the Lincoln Sites in Illinois. Indiana, and Kentucky. 1991. Prairie Oak Press. 2577 University Avenue. Madison, Wisconsin 53705. ISBN 1-879483-00-9, Paper $12.95. Lincoln’s Hoosier Home So strongly tied to Illinois is Abraham Lincolns image that the fourteen years Lincoln spent in the forests of southern Indiana are often overlooked. They were among the most difficult years of his life—“pretty pinching times,” as he later put it—and he buried both his mother and sister in the Indiana soil. Yet, they were also the formative years during which developed the character, intellect, and spirit that would lead a nation. Don Davenport

18 TRACES Lincoln

Illustrations by Bruce Dean

THE LINCOLNS with the open side protected by a fire kept blazing (parents Thomas and twenty-four hours a day. The nearest water was some Nancy and children distance away. Panthers and wildcats screamed in the Abraham and Sarah) forest, and wolves howled at night. reached the Ohio River at a Thomas filled the family’s meager larder with what point opposite Troy, Indiana, the land had to offer—raccoons, squirrels, deer, and and, after crossing the river on bear from the forest, wild turkey, quail, and grouse a rude ferry, started northward from the underbrush, geese and ducks from the through a forest undergrowth so dense marshes. The family existed almost entirely on wild that Thomas Lincoln had to go ahead and game until spring. Abraham remembered that first hack a trail. Sixteen miles north of the winter in Indiana as one of the bleakest times in his Ohio, Thomas chose a homesite, on a knoll a life. mile from Little Pigeon Creek. By February, when Abraham turned eight, Thomas It was December when the Lincolns arrived in Indi­ had a new one-room log cabin ready. Barely eighteen ana. Thomas quickly threw up a “half-faced camp” to feet square, it had a packed dirt floor, a stick-and-mud protect his family from the damp and cold. A brush and chimney, and a stone fireplace used for both cooking log lean-to, the shelter was closed on only three sides, and heating. Abraham slept in the cabin’s unheated "pretty pinching times"

S U M ME R 19 9 1 19 loft, which he reached by climbing pegs driven into the cabin wall. T hat spring his father L I N C OLN'S handed Abraham an ax and set him to work—clear- sorrow fields, chopping wood, splitting fence rails. For an 1860 campaign biography, written in the third person, Lincoln wrote, “Abra­ ham, though very young, was large of his age, and had an ax put into his hands at once; and from that till his excerpt from Warren’s classic within his twentythird year, he was almost constantly handling that study of Lincoln’s Indiana most useful instrument—less, of childhood, Lincoln’s Youth: Indiana course, in plowing and harvesting T seasons.” Life in the “unbroken wil­ derness,” he later said, was a fight Years, 1816-1830, reflects the hook’s “with the trees and logs and grubs.” reputation as the most comprehensive In the autumn of 1817, Nancy Lin­ coln’s relatives, Thomas and Eliza­ discussion of the future president’s beth Sparrow, and her cousin, Dennis Hanks, joined the family at education ever offered. At the age of nine, Pigeon Creek and spent the winter in the half-faced camp the Lincolns Lincoln was not only influenced by his had abandoned. Although Dennis Hanks was ten years older than reading and work, he was also forever Abraham, the two became close friends. In his later years, Hanks of­ changed by his first confrontation with fered many insights into Lincoln’s early years, although his tales did inexplicable and heartbreaking loss. not always have the solid ring of truth. ntering the second number of immigrants though Thomas Lincoln Tragedy—the first of many in year of their resi­ coming into the sparsely established his home in Abraham Lincoln’s life—struck the dence in the In­ settled part of the state Hurricane Township of Lincoln household in the autumn of Ediana wilderness where they lived. Al- Perry County, by 1818 the 1818, as an epidemic of the “milk the Lincolns were pleased General Assembly of the sick” swept southwestern Indiana. It to notice the increasing LoUis A. Warren state voted to divide the is now known that the illness was caused by drinking milk from cows poisoned by the white snakeroot Then Nancy Lincoln became ill. they ate and slept. They buried her plant. But all the pioneers knew She died on 5 October, at the age of on the knoll beside the Sparrows, on about milk sick was that it struck thirty-five. Once again a sorrowful a brilliant autumn day when the In­ quickly and usually brought death. Thomas Lincoln built a coffin. Some diana hills were ablaze with color. Dennis Hanks moved in with the Lincolns and, while twelve-year- Tragedy... the first of many in Abraham Lincoln's life...struck the old Sarah took over the cabin lincoln househould in the autumn of 1818, as an epidemic of the "milk sick" swept southwestern indiana chores and kept house for the three In September, Thomas and Betsy accounts say that nine-year-old men, Thomas, Abraham, and Hanks Sparrow fell ill and died within a few Abraham whittled the pegs that held hacked away at the forest and days. Thomas Lincoln built two the boards together. As the family tended their meager crops. It was a rough coffins and buried his neigh­ made preparations for burial, the black, dismal time for the Lincoln bors on a nearby knoll. body lay in the same room where family, the worst of many lean years

20 T R A C E S love and hard work, she made the rough frontier cabin a home. At her Y 0 U T H, 1818, Age 9 insistence, Thomas put a floor in the cabin, built some decent beds and sympathy chairs, and made other improve­ ments. Though illiterate herself, Sally saw to it that Abraham got what lit­ tle education the Indiana frontier had to offer. Schools operated infre­ quently, opening whenever a teacher arrived in the region and closing when the teacher left. Between his eleventh and fifteenth years, Lincoln spent time at “blab” schools run by Andrew Crawford, James Swaney, and Azel Dorsey, attending brief ses­ sions between the autumn harvest and the spring plowing. Dorsey was well trained, and under his direction Lincoln probably received his best education. Years later Dorsey could still remember Abraham as “marked for the diligence and eagerness with which he pursued his studies, [he] came to the log-cabin schoolhouse arrayed in buckskin clothes, a rac- coonskin cap and provided with an old arithmetic.” * Abraham could outspell all the other pupils in school and did all of the counties of Perry and county seat was estab- One of the ways young writing for his family Warrick and create a new lished at Rockport. The Abraham was able to see and much of it for his county to be called Spen- Lincoln farm now lay what was happening in neighbors. At home he ciphered on cer after Spier Spencer within the bounds of the surrounding country boards, then shaved them clean with who had lost his life at the Spencer County, in Carter was by going on the a hunting knife to start the next les­ Battle of Tippecanoe. The Township. Continued on next page ► son. In a homemade copy book he wrote a boyish poem:

rah Elizabeth (thirteen), Matilda Abraham Lincoln of poverty, hard times, and isolation. his hand and pen Of their Indiana years Dennis (ten), and John D. Johnston (nine)— he will be good but Hanks later said, “We lived the same into a borrowed wagon, and they set god knows when as Indians, ‘ceptin’ we took an inter­ out for Indiana. est in politics and religion.” In 1865 Sally recalled Indiana as Lincoln was also a voracious In late 1819, Thomas returned “wild and desolate,” the Lincoln reader, and, while books were scarce briefly to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, cabin as “good . . . tolerably comfort­ on the frontier, he read and reread and proposed to Sarah Bush able.” The Lincoln children, she re­ those he could find—Weems’s Life of Johnston, a widow he had known for membered, had to be dressed up to Washington, Robinson Crusoe, Pil­ a decade. There were apparently few look “more human.” Of Abraham, grim’s Progress, Aesop’s Fables, formalities. Sally, as the widow she said, “He was the best boy I ever Grimshaw’s History of the United Johnston was known, is said to have saw.” States. Tradition says rain coming replied, “I’ve got a few little debts,” Eight people now lived in the tiny through cracks in the cabin ruined a and Thomas took her list and paid cabin, but the Lincolns’ fortunes copy of the Life of Washington he had them. They were married on 2 De­ were much improved. Sally was a borrowed from Josiah Crawford, and cember. Thomas piled Sally, her kind stepmother who raised Abra­ Lincoln pulled fodder on Crawford’s household goods, and children—Sa­ ham and Sarah as her own. Through farm for three days to pay for it.

SUM M E R 19 9 1 21 LINCOLN’S YOUTH Sorrow & Sympathy

periodic treks that had to was their nearest trading and tell his own. Henry be made to the nearest center, and it had a grist­ Brooner marveled at gristmill. “Going to mill” mill. Somewhat closer Abraham’s great memory was an essential part of was a mill which was op­ and how well he could re­ pioneer life. As soon as a erated by George Huff­ late what he had read boy was big enough to ride man on Anderson River while they rode along. a horse, which would be at ten miles north of Troy hat were the a fairly early age, he and almost directly west tales with which would go with his father of the Lincoln farm. The Abraham enter­ or some other older man. spot eventually became tained his com­ Then when he had known as Huffman’s Mill. W panions on the road and learned the proper paths It was “a tub-wheel mill with which he helped pass to take and could manage with wooden gearing,” the time for the cluster of the heavy sack of corn and and buhrs fashioned from farmers’ boys while they the unwieldy bag of meal, “flinty rocks from the sur­ waited their turns to he would be sent alone. rounding country.” It was grind their grain? The Bi­ In all, Abraham Lincoln The only alternative to go­ housed in an unhewed log ble and Dilworth’s Speller had less than a year of for­ ing to mill was to grind structure. provided some stories, but mal education, picked up the corn at home, Indian Abraham may have ac­ how his fund of tales was “by littles.” “There was ab­ fashion, by pestle and companied his father to increased when a copy of solutely nothing to excite ambition mortar, and it is supposed the mill at Troy, and Aesop’s Fables came into for education,” Lincoln said of his the Lincolns had to resort Henry Brooner, a neigh­ his hands. One of the schooling in Indiana. Still, he could to this method sometimes bor boy four years older playmates of Abraham during their first years in than Abraham, often went stated, “He kept the Bible read, write, and cipher to the rule of Indiana. with him “on horseback to and Aesop’s always within three by the time his family left the Troy on the Ohio River, Huffman’s Mills, on reach, and read them over state. kin Perry County, Anderson Creek, a dis­ and over again.” By the 1820s, a rough settlement tance of sixteen miles.” In an early and rather had grown up at Little Pigeon Creek, These expeditions, es­ scarce American edition of with some thirty families home­ capes from the mo­ the Fables, there was a steading in a four-by-six-mile region. notony and confines biographical sketch of But conditions remained primitive. of the farm, were Aesop which depicted him Sanitation was little understood, treats greatly antic­ as having been a slave and people went for seasons without ipated and thor­ in his youth and then baths. Farming required back­ oughly enjoyed. through wisdom and vir­ They meant new breaking labor, and the superstitious tue finally rising to gain faces, news, and the esteem of his fellow- pioneers planted and harvested by chances for the men. In a prefatory state­ the phases of the moon. Women and t boy to hear ment the purpose of a children went barefoot most of the stories fable is set forth, and the time. Epidemics wiped out entire following, from Joseph families. Almost everyone drank Addison, is quoted: “Read­ heavily. Nearly all frontier social ing is to the mind, what 11 events revolved around work—cabin >exercise is to the body, raisings, corn-shuckings, quilting and by the one health is pre­ bees. > As the widespread settlement served, strength­ ened, and grew, the Baptists chose Thomas invigorated; Lincoln to build the log Pigeon Creek by the other, Baptist Church, which he and Sally joined. James Gentry opened a store in his farmhouse, a mile and a half from the Lincoln cabin. Gentry’s place soon became the local trading

22 T R A C E S virtue is kept alive and THE APE AND THE It is difficult for us in confirmed.” FOX—A weak man should this day to appreciate One of the features of not aspire to be a king. To fully how religious themes the American edition is be qualified for such an of­ dominated the conversa­ the preachments which fice, an office of the last im­ tion and the reading of the follow each fable. These portance to mankind, the pioneers. If books were morals may have influ­ person should be of a dis­ found in a pioneer home, enced the growing child tinguished, prudent, and they could be expected to more than the Fables of most unblemished integ­ include first the Bible, themselves. A few of the rity, too honest to impose and then very likely The fables of Aesop are here­ upon others, and too pene­ Pilgrim’s Progress. The with presented with trating to be imposed story it related had a spe­ merely the title of the fa­ upon. Thoroughly ac­ cial appeal to children, its ble noted and the moral quainted with the laws theme found approval drawn: and genius of the realm he among parents, and its is to govern; grave but not high literary quality made THE OLD MAN AND HIS passionate; good natured it a good volume for SONS—Nothing is more but not soft, aspiring at youngsters to read. necessary towards com­ just esteem; despising vain Whether read to the pleting and continuing the glory; without supersti­ Lincoln children by their well-being of mankind tion; without hypocrisy. mother, or read out loud to than their entering into each other, they would and preserving friend­ ohn Bunyan’s The never forget the Slough of ships and alliances. The center and grew into the village of Pilgrim’s Progress Despond, the Wicket safety of government de­ Gentryville. Abraham spent much of was the fourth book Gate, the Cross, Hill Diffi­ pends chiefly upon this; his spare time there, listening and which came into culty, Death, Delectable and therefore it is weak­ swapping yarns and stories with the JAbraham’s hands, and it Mountain, Enchanted ened and exposed to its en­ proved to be a significant Ground, Beulah Land, neighborhood farmers. He could be a emies, in proportion as it is acquisition. His father is and finally The City of jovial storyteller and companion, but divided by parties. A king­ supposed to have noticed God. The many striking he could also be moody, serious, and dom divided against itself an old copy at a friend’s characters they read withdrawn. is brought to desolation. house, and immediately about, whom Abraham Thomas Lincoln occasionally hired And the same holds good thought how Abraham and Sarah would tend to his son out to other homesteaders. among all societies and would enjoy it. He ac­ associate with people they corporations of men, from While Abraham disliked farm work, quired it for the boy who knew, would stay with the great constitution of he could be counted on to deliver a was so delighted that “his them throughout their the nation, down to every day’s work for a day’s wages, al­ eyes sparkled, and that lives. little parochial vestry. though farmers sometimes found day he could not eat, and It cannot be known for THE LION AND THE him reading a book at the end of a that night he could not sure that Abraham had FOUR BULLS—A king­ sleep.” read Aesop’s Fables and plow furrow while allowing the horse dom divided against itself The Pilgrim’s Progress to “breathe.” “My father taught me cannot stand and as un­ by the fall of 1818. to work,” Lincoln once said, “but he disputed a maxim as it is, didn’t teach me to like it.” He turned it was however thought We hope that he had, because whatever he made, usually about necessary to be urged to the twenty-five cents a day, over to his attention of mankind by Continued on the best man that ever next page ► father, who legally commanded his lived. wages until Abraham became of age. THE CROW AND THE Work-hardened, Abraham grew PITCHER—-A man of sa­ tall and angular, strong in his arms, gacity and penetration legs, and chest, like his father. As a upon encountering a diffi­ teenager he could grasp an ax by the culty or two does not im­ handle and hold it at arm’s length mediately despair, but if he with little effort. His skill with an ax cannot succeed one way, became legendary. “If you heard him employs his wit and inge­ felling trees in a clearing,” said a nuity another, and to avoid neighbor, “you would say there were or get over an impediment makes no scruple of step­ three men at work, the way the trees ping out of the path of his fell.” forefathers. At age seventeen Abraham left home for about nine months and

SUM M E R 1991 23 for his three-month labors; he duti­ Mrs. Brooner, and did n 5 October, just one taminated in some way. It fully handed the money over to his was thought that perhaps what she could to ease week after Thomas father. arsenic, cobalt, copper, or their last days. But the re­ Sparrow’s death, even lead were somehow sources at her command Nancy died. Death But there was now an estrange­ O ment between father and son. Some poisoning the streams and to assuage their suffering in a one-room cabin in the springs. Still clinging to were meager indeed. The wilderness was a grim ex­ blamed it on Thomas, saying he the moisture theory, the community was without a perience for the survivors. thought Abraham was ruining him­ people surmised that min­ physician, but no doctor in The body was prepared self with education and that he beat erals through evaporation that day could have saved for burial in the very room his son for reading books. Others in the night contaminated the victims. By the time in which the family lived. said Abraham was openly hostile, the morning dew. Mrs. Brooner succumbed, For the three lonely Lin­ with a great deal of it aimed at his While its cause was un­ Nancy herself was show­ colns there was no near father’s intellectual limitations. For known, the symptoms of ing the symp­ whatever reasons, Thomas and the disease were easily toms of the Abraham drew far apart in Indiana recognized. Dizziness, disease. It be­ nausea, vomiting, stom­ came evident and seldom saw each other after the ach pains, intense thirst, to Thomas early 1830s. and a sickening odor of Lincoln and young Lincoln now began the breath were positive Abraham and spending time at the log indications. The realiza­ Sarah that courthouses at Rockport and tion that it was almost she, too, was Boonville, watching the law­ certain to prove fatal to its going to die. yers argue cases and listening victim produced panic in Dennis Hanks to speculation on how various trials the community. If a case related the pa­ might turn out. The law intrigued ran true to form, the res­ thetic scene him, and he borrowed and read the piration of the patient be­ many years came irregular, the pulse later: “She Revised Statutes of Indiana. He also showed variations, tem­ I Nancy] knew studied the Declaration of Indepen­ perature was subnormal, she was going dence and the Constitution and and eventually prostra­ to die & called closely watched how lawyers used tion was followed by a up the chil­ them in the courtroom. semi- to complete coma. dren to her dy­ Like most places he lived, Indiana The malady ran its course ing side and told them to relative to offer sympa­ did not meet Thomas Lincoln’s ex­ in a week or even less. be good & kind to their fa­ thetic help and to assume pectations. After fourteen years he In the fall of 1818 it was ther—to one another and responsibility. After the was no better off than when he ar­ discovered that one of to the world, expressing a death of the Sparrows, rived. The milk sick was a constant Thomas Lincoln’s cows Thomas Lincoln had hope that they might live threat. When John Hanks, a cousin had the trembles. Then as they had been taught whipsawed logs into of Nancy’s who had lived on and off Thomas Sparrow was by her to live . . . love— planks, then planed them, stricken with the dread reverence and worship and with wooden pegs with the Lincolns in Little Pigeon disease. He failed very God.” No doubt she im­ which young Abe had Creek, sent word from Illinois that rapidly. On 21 September pressed upon Sarah the fashioned, he fastened the the land there was fertile and there he made his will, be­ great measure of respon­ boards together into rude was no milk sick, Thomas once again queathing all his property sibility that would now coffins. When Mrs. caught “moving fever.” In February to his wife, an indication rest upon her shoulders, Brooner died he made 1830 he and Sally sold the Little Pi­ that she was still living. and the care and atten­ hers. “Tom was always geon Creek farm for $125. One of the witnesses was tion she should give to her making a coffin for some By now the Lincoln clan had Nancy Lincoln, which young brother. Her talk one” that fall, one of his grown considerably. In 1821 Dennis would imply that she was with Abraham centered neighbors recalled. And Hanks had married Sally’s daughter, in good health at that primarily on his charac­ with Nancy’s death he Sarah Elizabeth (fifteen years old at time. One week later Tho­ ter. Her final admonition again fell to the task. Per­ mas Sparrow was dead. was reported as “I am go­ haps he found some solace the time), and the union had quickly Shortly after Thomas ing away from you, Abra­ in the physical labor. Af­ produced four children. Sally’s other Sparrow died, his wife fol­ ham, and I shall not ter the body of “the angel daughter, Matilda, was married to a lowed, a victim of the return. I know that you mother” was properly pre­ man named Squire Hall, and they same sickness. will be a good boy that you pared and dressed by the had one child. Counting Sally’s son, Another was the Lin­ will be kind to Sarah and neighbor women, it was John Johnston, and the three Lin­ colns’ neighbor, Mrs. to your father. I want you lowered into the casket colns, the extended family now to­ Peter Brooner. Nancy Lin­ to live as I have taught and the cover put in place. taled thirteen. coln nursed and comforted you, and to love your The wooden pegs which On 1 March 1830 they piled their Continued on next page ► the Sparrows and visited Heavenly Father.” belongings into three wagons and set

SUM M E R 1 9 9 1 25 out for Illinois. Abraham was twenty-one, legally free of his father and entitled to keep his wages. But LINCOLN’S YOUTH he chose to go along, perhaps hoping, sorrow & Sympathy like the elder Lincoln, that Illinois would provide a brighter future. f braham Lincoln returned M to the Little Pigeon Creek Abe had whittled were others came in wagons Ifj/l settlement only once, in placed in the auger holes drawn by oxen, and still f 1844, when as a successful of the cover and driven others came on foot. Tak­ y lawyer and politician he gently in, to secure the ing his stand at the foot of campaigned in Indiana for Henry lid. The coffin was then the grave Parson Elkin Clay. The visit evoked such strong put on a primitive sled lifted his voice in prayer feelings that Lincoln later wrote po­ and drawn by the family’s and sacred song and then etry about it. Yet he was never nos­ old farm horse to the preached a sermon. He talgic for the hard years in Indiana, burial plot on a crest spoke of the precious and he allowed his mother’s grave to of a hill fifteen Christian woman go unmarked for all of his years. hundred feet south who had gone, with of the cabin site. the warm praise In the late nineteenth century, a Nancy’s grave had which she had deserved, railroad town called Lincoln City been dug next to and held her up as an grew up on the Lincoln farm, but a the ones prepared ample of true woman­ disastrous fire in 1911 and the de­ for the Sparrows such a hood. mise of rail passenger service spelled short time before. Close The practice of the pio­ its doom. by was Mrs. Brooner’s neers of burying their It was well after Lincoln’s death grave. Her son recalled loved ones in a family plot years later: “I remember before the importance of his Indiana near their home had a very distinctly that when years were fully recognized. Nancy tendency to keep alive Mrs. Lincoln’s grave was Hanks Lincoln’s weed-choked grave vivid memories of those filled, my father, Peter rest there through that went unmarked until 1879, when who had passed away. Brooner, extended his winter and other winters South Bend industrialist P. E. Stude- Each morning as the hand to Thomas Lincoln to come. But the Lincoln baker had a stone placed there. A members of the Lincoln and said, ‘We are brothers family would not be satis­ household stepped out of small county park created near the now,’ meaning that they fied until David Elkin, the cabin door, they faced pioneer cemetery around the turn of were brothers in the same pastor of the Little Mount the knoll that must have the century was a popular picnic kind of sorrow.” Young Church in Kentucky, of appeared to be a huge spot for many years. Lincoln State Lamar, an elder of the which Nancy was a mem­ burial mound. If the de­ Park and the adjoining Nancy Little Pigeon Baptist ber, came to Indiana and parted mother could have Church, was present and at Nancy’s grave spoke of Hanks Lincoln State Memorial were listened, she would have conducted the simple in­ her staunch Christian built at Little Pigeon Creek in the been able to distinguish terment rites. Following a faith and the virtues she 1930s. The memorial to Lincoln’s the voices of those she had custom used in Kentucky, exemplified as a faithful mother, acquired by the National loved and cherished as Thomas probably placed wife and revered mother. Park Service in 1962, has since be­ they called to each other field stones at the head An eyewitness account come the Lincoln Boyhood National in the near-by clearing.« and foot of the grave and of the little ceremony re­ Memorial.* carved the letters N. L. called: Louis A. Warren (1885- Don Davenport, an award-winning in the headstone. 1983) served as director of travel writer and photographer, is the he autumnal frost As the appointed day ap­ the Louis A. Warren Lin­ author of three other books. His had already col­ proached notice was given coln Library and Museum Fodor’s Michigan, Wisconsin, Min­ ored the foliage of the entire neighborhood. in Fort Wayne from 1928 nesota won the 1989 Mark Twain the huge trees of On a bright sabbath until his retirement in Toak, maple, and walnut morning the settlers of the Award, presented by the Midwest 1956. He published the into a brilliantly painted neighborhood gathered in. weekly bulletin, Lincoln Travel Writers Association for the canopy, which soon would Some came in carts of the Lore, edited the Lincoln year’s best travel book. He is a con­ gently drop its patchwork rudest construction, their Kinsman, and wrote sev­ tributing editor to the Fodor’s USA creation, piece by piece, wheels consisting of huge eral books on the presi­ series and has written for a wide to cover the unlovely boles of forest trees and the dent, including Lincoln: variety of magazines and news­ mounds of earth with a product of axe and auger; Parentage and Childhood papers. Davenport, who grew up in beauty and warmth suit­ some came on horseback, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Lincoln country, in Freeport, Illinois, able for those who were to two or three upon a horse, Declaration. now lives in Verona, Wisconsin.

26 T R A C E S DESTINATION INDIANA L incoln Sites I n I ndiana

Lincoln Boyhood National While not original to the site, the buried. Portions of the church are Memorial, Lincoln City homestead farm cabin is from the original. The park is open year- Located two miles east of Gen- nineteenth century, moved here from round. Additional information: Lin­ tryville, Indiana, on Route 162 in a nearby location and reconstructed coln State Park, P.O. Box 216, Lin­ Spencer County, the memorial visi­ from parts of several period cabins. coln City, IN 47552 (812-937-4710). tor center has a museum, two memo­ It stands on, or very near, the loca­ “Young Abe Lincoln,” a musical rial halls, and a bookshop with a tion of the original Lincoln home. drama on Lincoln’s life, is presented good selection of publications related Close by is a curious and strangely in a roofed outdoor amphitheater to Lincoln and the National Parks. moving Lincoln memorial—replicas nightly (except Monday) at 8:15 p.m ., The building exterior features five of the sill logs and hearthstones from late June through late August. Addi­ large sculpted limestone panels by an old, old cabin, unearthed in 1934 tional information: Young Abe Indiana artist E. H. Daniels depict­ when the Nancy Hanks Lincoln Lincoln, P.O. Box 7-21, Lincoln City, ing important IN 47552 (812- events in Lin­ 937-4493) coln’s life. Hall­ way galleries The Lincoln offer permanent Museum, Fort and changing ex­ Wayne hibits on period Formerly the clothing, pioneer Louis A. Warren crafts, tools, and Lincoln Library the town of Lin­ and Museum, the coln City. library is the The Nancy largest private Hanks Lincoln collection of orga­ Hall, in one wing nized informa­ of the memorial, tion on Abraham holds a tiny U.S. Lincoln. The mu­ post office which seum has sixty keeps the Lincoln exhibits ar­ City, Indiana, ranged in chrono­ postmark alive. logical order to Another wing, tell the story of called Abraham Lincoln’s life. Ex­ Lincoln Hall, hibits include houses a beauti­ Lincoln manu­ ful limestone- scripts and docu­ walled chapel. Memorial was begun. The bronze ments, the flag that draped Lincoln’s Nancy Hanks Lincoln’s grave lies castings of the sill and hearth mark box at Ford’s Theatre, one of the on a knoll rising above a parklike “the traditional site of a log cabin President’s shawls, and several mall, an easy, 250-yard walk from home built by Thomas Lincoln and pieces of china from the Lincoln the visitor center. The Lincoln cabin his son, Abraham.” White House. site memorial and Living History Additional information: Lincoln Three period rooms—the Indiana Farm are a quarter-mile north of the Boyhood National Memorial, Lin­ log cabin, the Springfield law office, cemetery and can be reached by auto coln City, IN 47552 (812-937-4541). and the War Department telegraph from the visitor center, by a direct room—offer the flavor of life of the foot trail from the cemetery, or by the Lincoln State Park mid-nineteenth century. half-mile Trail of Twelve Stones. Adjacent to the Lincoln Boyhood Na­ Additional information: The Lin­ Both trails cross the Lincoln Trace, tional Memorial, the 1,747-acre park coln Museum, 1300 S. Clinton the route the Lincolns followed to holds the Little Pigeon Creek Bap­ Street, Fort Wayne, IN 46801 (219- their Little Pigeon Creek homestead tist Church and the cemetery where 455-3864). from the Ohio. Abraham Lincoln’s sister, Sarah, is Don Davenport

SUM M E R 19 9 1 27 ★ R A Y * B 0 0 M

on 11 Decem ber 1981 Indiana will celebrate its 175tth anniversary of statehood. to heolp honor the nineteenth state's birthday, Traces looks back to 1916 and the commemoration of Indiana's centennial, an effort conducted w ith great energy and little funding that w ould have a lasting im pact on the state and aw aken in its citizens a new appreciation of their heritage.

28 T R A C E S S

President Woodrow Wilson, Indiana governor Samuel Ralston, and Indianapolis mayor Joseph E. Bell view an automobile parade around Monument Circle as part of activities for Centennial Highway Day, 12 October 1916.

Indiana played the election game,” wrote Cedric C. statewide road system, the creation of permanent me­ Cummins in his book, Indiana Public Opinion and the morials in numerous communities, the publication of World War, 1914-1917. the first four volumes of the Indiana Historical Collec­ In addition to the usual candidates on the ballot, tions, and an overall awakening of interest in the nine­ Hoosier voters had the chance to register their teenth state’s heritage that continues to this day. opinions on two special issues: whether to call for The movement for the observance of Indiana’s cen­ a convention to alter, revise, or amend the state’s tennial in 1916 had its beginnings nine years earlier constitution; and whether to celebrate Indiana’s cen­ when a proposal was made to the state by the History tennial by appropriating two million dollars for the con­ Club at Indiana University. By 1911 the legislature had struction of a memorial building to house the State created a Centennial Commission and charged it to rec­ Library and other historical agencies. Both measures ommend “a site and suggest plans for a permanent me­ suffered defeat at the polls, with the voters rejecting morial.” A year later, the commission issued a 140-page the call for a constitutional convention by more than report, Suggestive Plans for a Historical and Educa­ 100,000 votes and torpedoing the centennial proposal tional Celebration in Indiana in 1916. Along with its by an overwhelming margin (466,700 to 97,718). call to establish a State Historical Library and Mu­ Democratic governor Samuel M. Ralston, who would seum building, the commission outlined possible become a leading force behind the state’s eventual cen­ events for such areas as agriculture, art, education, tennial observance, believed the memorial plan was de­ law, literature, and religion.

"Hoosier Poet” Encouraging James former Whitcomb Riley residents to tells the story "come on of Indiana to a home” was group of part of the plan schoolchildren. for the centennial celebration.

IHS C4681

feated not because Hoosiers were against celebrating However, with the General Assembly’s deci­ the event, but because they objected “to the amount of sion to turn the question of a new memorial money sought to be appropriated therefor.” Historian building over to the voters in the 1914 elec­ Jacob R Dunn agreed with Ralston’s view and also tion, and its crushing defeat there, a new pointed to the hostility of the Liquor League, which plan had to be developed. At Governor Ralston’s re­ fought the constitutional convention on the grounds of quest, the General Assembly in 1915 agreed to appro­ its cost, $500,000 according to the league, and opposed priate $25,000 and create a nine-member Indiana His­ the centennial memorial “as evidence of good faith in torical Commission (IHC) to promote the centennial its pretense of economy, and as an evidence of the wild celebration. The legislature’s financial support of the extravagance to which sentiment led.” IHC was the first notable state commitment of funds to Defeat at the polls did not derail the hopes of Gover­ history in Indiana. Of the $25,000 supplied by the nor Ralston and others that the one hundredth anni­ state, $20,000 was earmarked for the promotion of cen­ versary of Indiana’s admission into the Union would tennial activities, with the remaining $5,000 (called a “be given proper recognition.” In just two years, backed “beggarly amount” by Dunn) for collecting, editing, and by the efforts of the Indiana Historical Commission and publishing Indiana’s history. thousands of volunteers, Hoosiers would see the estab­ The IHC first met on 23 and 24 April 1915 in Gover­ lishment of state parks, the beginnings of an improved nor Ralston’s Statehouse office. An illustrious group

32 TRACES 33 In­ An An actress portrays the Earlham pageant commemorating Indiana’s spirit of Freedom of spirit Freedom as of part College's centennial. 19 9 1 1 9 19 She also organized a statewide letter the m em orial plan was in addition in to her marathon schedule of appear­ ances before Indiana organizations,peted the glories of Dye the centennial trum­ observance a in regular column called “The Centennial Story SUMMER The commission also turnedfilmtoto get its message To To encourage former Indiana residents to return to and historical societies (Dye alone gave 152 talks). Hour,” which appeared in the Sunday edition ofthe exchange among Hoosier schoolchildren.different sections ofthe Pupilsstate wrote to each other from about the history of their particular area and what life was dianapolis Star. like in their own neighborhoods. across to the public. Realizing it had neither the neces­ sary funds nor skills needed to undertake such an en­ terprise, the IHC Citizens called soon upon responded theHistorical by Pictures public forming Corporation. for the The tracted Inter-State with help. corporation the SeligPolyscope Company con­ofChicago to produce the film, titled “Indiana,” on the basis of a sce­ nario the IHC approved. tured The seven-reel James picture WhitcombIndiana’s fea­ development to groupa ofchildren. Riley Although filming telling was delayed the by bad story weather, the of commission suitable and commendable picture show.” the state forthe centennial celebration, the commission was pleased with the results, noting that “it presents a m oney sought to be appropriated therefor." Back row, to left W. Back row, right: Charles Moores, Harlow John Lindley. Cavanaugh, Lew O'Bannon. Front row, left to right: James A. JamesA. to right: O'Bannon. left row, Front Gov. Wynn, M. Samuel B. Frank Woodburn, Ralston, Charity Samuel Dye, Foster. The Indiana Historical Commission, 1916. The Indiana Historical Commission, 1916. its report on its activities, the group admitted arouse the State over the comparatively unex­ The commission’s workThe was not easy. Later, in that it was “no little task to educate and ing Frank B. Wynn, former chairman ofthe 1911 cen­ tennial committee; Harlowdepartment ofIndiana Lindley, History and Archives director ofdianathe In­ of State Library; the James A. Woodburn, director of D em ocratic G overnor Sam uel M . Ralston, w ho w ould becom e a leading farce the Indiana Historical Survey of Indiana University; defeated not because H oosiers w ere against celebrating the event, but because behind the state's eventual centennial observance, believed they objected " to the am ount of the Reverend John Cavanaugh, president of the Uni­ president of the Indiana Foster, Historical Fort Society; Wayne; Samuel Lew O’Bannon, Corydon; and joined Ralston on the nonsalaried commission, includ­ Charity Dye, an Indianapolis schoolteacher. mission The also com­employed Professor Walter C. Woodward, Earlham College, to direct the and Lucy centennial M. Elliott as celebrationassistant director. versity of Notre Dame; Charles W. Moores, first vice array ofpublicity and education. Special bulletins were dressed various clubs, civic organizations, churches, citing . . . subjectterred by ofthe apparentCentennial indifference observance.”to the the celebration, IHC Unde­ set out to blitz the state with a wide-ranging sent to county school superintendents askingcooperation; for their direct appeals were made to teachers in the summer and fall of 1915; a weekly IHC newsletterbegan publication; and commission members ad­ 189*3 SHI The Indiana State IHS, Bass Photo Collection 48878F Capitol decorated with bunting and flags in honor of the state's one hundredth birthday. Indianapolis's pageant was held at Riverside Park.

34 TRA CES used the services of noted humorist and author George Langdon’s main duties were to write and direct three Ade. Honored, or “burdened,” Ade joked in speeches pageants, one at Indiana University, held 16-18 May touting the centennial, with the chairmanship of the 1916; another at the old state capital of Corydon, per­ committee to “sound the call and bring all the wander­ formed 2-3 June 1916; and the culmination of the cen­ ing Hoosiers back into the fold,” he set about recruiting tennial, the Indianapolis pageant, presented 2-7 contributions from a veritable who’s who of Hoosiers for October 1916. a book. An Invitation to You and Your Folks from Jim Langdon considered the pageant as “a distinct and and Some More of the Home Folks, published in two individual art form, having its own laws and its own editions by the Bobbs-Merrill Company, contained mes­ technique.” Historical studies were made, music was sages from Governor Ralston, Vice President Thomas specially composed, and costumes were designed “for Marshall, former Vice President Charles W. Fair­ the sole purpose of producing in the sequence of its var­ banks, Meredith Nicholson, and Booth Tarkington. ious scenes a clear, beautiful and inspiring drama and Gene Stratton-Porter contributed the poem, “A Lim- a truthful impression of the development of the State of berlost Invitation,” and Indiana.” James Whitcomb Riley These same ideas were the poem, “The Hoosier used by local communities in Exile.” Kin Hubbard’s in developing their own Brown County philosopher, pageants. The commission Abe Martin, also made an gave what help it could, se­ appearance with the follow­ curing centennial chairmen ing appeal “To All Former in all but three of Indiana’s Brown Countyers”: counties, with each respon­ sible for selecting a county If you’re married an’ livin' in committee to plan the work. Iowa, or doin’ well in Young- Dye once again contributed town, Ohio; if you’re hangin’ her talents with a special on in New York, or livin’ in bulletin on “Pageant Sug­ Minnesota; if you’re workin’ in a automobile factory in gestions for the Indiana Detroit, or stayin’ in Kan­ Statehood Centennial Cele­ sas; if you’re teachin’ school bration.” The result was in the Philippines, or solic­ impressive. Commission itin’ fer a vacuum cleaner in Director Woodward re­ Illinois; if you’re jest doin’ ported that the forty-five fine in Texas or on th’ hum­ county or local pageants mer in Oregon; if you’re presented in 1916 were high up in th’ councils o’ th’ seen by an estimated nation, or a rear admiral 250,000 people, and any- on a busy bee coffee urn— I where from 30,000 to no matter where you are or what you’re doin’ come home | 40,000 Hoosiers partici­ fer a visit. Come home an’ William Chauncy Langdon. pageant master. pated in the performances. see all th’ new cement work, Most counties used inci­ th’ new verandas, th’ railroad at Helmsburg an’ th' side­ dents from their past as the basis for their pageants. burns of your early playmates, th’ reclaimed table lands an’ Miami County, for example, used the story of Frances perpendicular apple farms. Hotel an’ nickel theater accom­ Slocum, who was abducted at the age of five from her modations fer all. home in Pennsylvania by Delaware Indians. She was ith the success of its publicity campaign, discovered fifty years later in Miami County, Indiana, the commission had to turn its sights to the wife of an Indian chief. Titled “Ma-con-a-quah,” the how best to stage the actual celebration; pageant opened with the following: keeping in mind the scarcity of funds available, it was clear that such events would have to Miami! What wealth of history be financed locally. The commission soon had an an­ This name suggests! Here in years swer: historical pageants. These dramas appealed A hundred past and more, strongly to the IHC because they could both focus at­ The red forbears of your possessions tention on Indiana’s history and bring communities to­ Roamed the virgin wood, and called it Home. gether. William Chauncy Langdon, former first Here, in primal glory, ere white man’s craft president of the American Pageant Association, was Had fashioned this, your city, lived we, the hired by the commission as the State Pageant Master. Miamis.

SUMMER 19 9 1 35 When the last nates of music from the various pageants faded away and centennial celebrants packed their costumes, the commission looked to take advantage of the new opportunities presented by the observance " from the

Richard Lieber looks over the scenery at Turkey Run in Parke County. Lieber served as chairman of the IHC’s park committee and was a tireless advocate on behalf of Indiana’s first two state parks—McCormick’s Creek in Owen County and Turkey Run.

Walter C. A scene from the Woodward, Indianapolis pageant at centennial Riverside Park. The pageant celebration had performances daily director. during the first week in October. Tickets sold for as little as $.50 and as much as $2.00 for box seats.

36 TRACES bluffs of the O hio to the sand dunes of Lake M ichigan there has been a general outburst of patriotic interest in Indiana and its history, " the IH C noted in its report on the centennial observance. IHS. Bass Photo Collection

Lucy M. Elliott, assistant director.

SUMMER 1991 At G overnor R alston's request, the G eneral Assem bly in 1915 agreed to appropriate $25,000 and create a nine-m em ber Indiana H istorical Com m ission (IH C) to prom ote the centennial celebration. The legislature's financial support of the IH C w as the first notable state com m itm ent of funds to history of Indiana

Along with the week-long pageant in Indianapolis, park was the only plan that would serve as a statewide capital residents had the chance to hear from President centennial memorial. Woodrow Wilson as part of activities for Centennial A special parks committee was formed by the com­ Highway Day on 12 October 1916. Invited to speak by mission, with Richard Lieber, who would become the Governor Ralston, a vigorous supporter of roadway im­ first director of the Indiana Department of Conserva­ provements, Wilson arrived in the city by presidential tion, as chairman. Lieber, a strong conservationist, be­ train (which was late). While in Indianapolis, the pres­ lieved that the “chief purpose of the state parks is to ident reviewed an automobile parade before delivering refresh and strengthen and renew tired people, and fit a speech on the need for good roads to 10,000 people at them for the common round of daily life.” IHS C4674

Front of the special Indian dance as Centennial Medal performed at the designed by Terre Irvington pageant. Haute artist Janet Scudder. the Fairgrounds Coliseum. The commission reported But, as in other areas regarding the centennial ob­ that the event should go down in history “as an epoch- servance, the IHC was hampered by a lack of money. making occasion that gave a new impetus to scientific The first attempt to buy the Turkey Run property, at a road building in this country.” public auction, failed. The Hoosier Veneer Company of Perhaps the commission’s crowning achievement Indianapolis managed a successful bid of $30,200 and in observance of the centennial was the develop­ announced plans to remove “all the merchantable ment of Indiana’s first state parks. The move­ trees.” Negotiations, however, continued, and with the ment began in April 1915 when Governor support of public and private contributions, in particu­ Ralston received a letter from Juliet V. Strauss, a lar a donation from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway writer for the Ladies’ Home Journal and contributor to Association board of directors, Turkey Run was ac­ the Indianapolis News. She appealed for help in saving quired from the Hoosier Veneer firm for $40,200 on 11 the Turkey Run area in Parke County, which the IHC November 1916. described in a later report as a “paradise of rocky While talks were still under way on the Turkey Run gorges, glens, bathing beaches and waterfalls,” from property, the commission was given the opportunity to sale to the timber industry. The commission acted on purchase the rugged area of McCormick’s Creek in Strauss’s concern, realizing that the idea for a state Owen County. A total of $5,250 was raised, one-fourth

38 TRACES Indiana State Library. Indiana Division st calSoci y organi t exhi ton, n itio ib h x e e th d e iz n a g r o s a h ty ie c o S l a ic r to is H at 1916 which on ay the Soci f m o fr y t ie c o S e h t r a y la p s i d n o e b l l i w h c i h w " , n o i t a r b e l e C 6 1 9 1 e h t t a k c a B centennial observance. Local historical societies were were societies historical Local observance. centennial In­ in interest patriotic of outburst there general aMichigan been Lake has of dunes sand the to Ohio the of diana and its history,” the IHC noted in its report on the on report its in noted IHC the its history,” and diana forming or reactivating across Indiana. The Indiana Indiana The Indiana. across reactivating or forming bluffs the “From observance. the by presented tunities ties, stressed the importance of these new recreational recreational new these of importance the stressed ties, fwih a rie b Oe Cut rsdns and park. state residents, first Indiana’s County became Creek Owen McCormick’s by raised was which of 1991, ber ecem D 6 y, a rid F ebr wo a “outee t tk a active an take to “volunteered members— new had of who influx an members saw Society Historical areas: for settlers—a scene at the pageant produced atproducedpageant atthe scene settlers—a for Indiana University in Bloomington.inUniversityIndiana Indianaoflandnew the Performerswayto point the amn wt te prt f h tm, rges ad the and progress, time, Indiana’sneedsof newcentury. the of spirit the with harmony of out is treasures and beauties nature’s of wastefulness and conservation in lesson public great a be constantly distinctlyThey wouldpointdesirabilitythe out preserv­ of resources. They would impress upon the public mind that mindpublic theupon impress would Theyresources. showthe folly of prodigal waste of Indiana’s superb natural would They life. animal and birds protecting of trees,ing conservation. practical by future the for build would but activi­ committee’s parks the on report his in Lieber, Indiana State Parks would not only memorialize the past,thememorializeonlynot Indiana wouldParksState cel e ndi s h versary ssi t t Uni he ana a n ia d n I e th , n io n U e th to n io s is m d a f o y r a s r e iv n n a th 5 7 1 's a n ia d In te a r b le e c o T ous pageants faded away and celebrants celebrants and away faded pageants ous packed their costumes, the commission commission oppor­ new the the of advantage take to looked costumes, their packed vari­ the from When music of notes last the hr Frday,28 br y .. 2 9 9 1 ry a ru eb F 8 2 , y a rid F h g u ro th Ray Boomhower is the public relations coordinator for coordinator relations public the is Boomhower Ray A number of programs from the various pageants presented around around presented pageants various the from programs of number A Society. Historical Indiana the body that pushed and prodded the state to take a real a take to state the prodded and pushed that body interest in organizing the centennial celebration.” centennial the organizing in interest Ruegamer, Lana. Lana. Ruegamer, J. Clifton Phillips, ed. Harlow, Lindley, Centenni­ Indiana’s and Ralston M. Samuel “Governor Suellen. Hoy, Suggestionsfor FurtherReading interest in its own past.* own its in nine-member interest the of legacy lasting the of know may few but Bureau, Historical Indiana the of activities the historical a funded consistently has Indiana time, that World Since history. war following acounty-by-county Iorganize War to resurrected was commission the bill, a of establishment the for called commission the tory, gny Te omsins prt s oa ebde in embodied today is spirit commission’s The agency. 1917 a of failure the Despite agency. state permanent ra omnelh 1880-1920. Commonwealth. trial the state are in the pamphlet collection of the Indiana Historical Historical Indiana the of collection pamphlet the in are state the in itrcl olcin, 1919. Collections, Historical diana Celebration.” al Society Library. Society ueuadIdaaHsoia oit, 1968. Society, Historical Indiana and Bureau 1980. o ep atr ti nwon etuis fr his­ for enthusiasm newfound this capture help To SUMMER ninpls IdaaHsoia Scey 1980. Society, Historical Indiana Indianapolis: Hoosi Cent al l k o lo A l: ia n n te n e C r ie s o o H e h T " itr h nin itrclScey 1830- Society, Historical Indiana f the o History A Indiana Magazine o f f History o Magazine Indiana Indiana in Transition: The Emergence o f f Indus­ an o Emergence The Transition: in Indiana centennial observance.centennial thefor state the returnto residentsto former for Hoosierhumorist Georgepenned Ade aninvitation h nin etnil 1916. Centennial, Indiana The Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Historical Indiana Indianapolis: 19 9 1 71 (1975): 245-66. (1975): 71 ninpls In­ Indianapolis: 39

THE LEGACY_OF_ THE_ WPA i N i NDiANA

opular history has not always Opposite: WPA been kind to the Works Progress workers build Administration. Standard jokes of those Fall Creek Parkway in Pwho critidzed the federal relief program Indianapolis. in the latter 1930s centered around WPA Inset: Sidewalk, workers who earned their wases by downtown leaning on theirshovels, and some senior Lafayette. citizens might recall the WPA as a "boon­ doggle” that provided only "make- work."Yet, WPA muralist Edward Laning called the 1930s 'bur Golden Age, the only humane era in our history the one brief period where we permitted our­ selves to be good.” For all its controver­ sy the WPA has left a substantial, visible record of its accomplishments, especially in the state of Indiana. Glory-June Greiff

40

The Great Depression gripped the by the Works Progress Administra­ lated industries it created jobs. The United States during the years fol­ tion. Fall Creek Parkway in India­ PWA provided grants of up to forty- lowing the stock market crash of napolis was one such long-term, five percent of the costs of large-scale 1929. By 1932, the American people multiphased project. construction projects costing more eagerly listened to a man who ap­ Two other federal agencies having than $25,000 (a hefty sum then) of peared to have some answers and to do with work programs came into public works such as hospitals, swept Franklin D. Roosevelt into the existence during Roosevelt’s first schools, courthouses, dams, bridges, presidency. He wasted no time in ef­ Hundred Days: the Civilian Conser­ waterworks, and also slum clearance fecting his innovative battle plans. vation Corps (CCC) and the Public and public housing. In urban areas Roosevelt and his advisors created Works Administration (PWA). The around the country PWA-funded numerous “alphabet agencies” to latter was frequently confused with projects created fifty-one modern, launch an amazing number of pro­ the WPA because of the similar ini­ humane apartment complexes that grams during the administration’s tials and because on occasion they replaced slums. Indianapolis first hundred days. Among them was dealt with similar sorts of projects. boasted perhaps the most beauti­ the Federal Employment Relief Ad­ PWA, however, was not a work pro­ fully designed project, Lockefield ministration (FERA) to aid the un­ gram as such; rather, its purpose Gardens. employed. So great was the was to stimulate the economy The CCC possibly was Roosevelt’s emergency that a large portion of through a sort of trickle-down pro­ most successful New Deal innova­ FERA money had to be doled out as cess. By prodding construction-re­ tion and his personal favorite. The The administration of direct relief— the dole— was to return to the states and local governments. But the federal government now offered an alternative to handouts— the Works Progress Administration, which began in the summer of 1935 with Harry Hopkins in charge. Its mission was to provide work to employable persons in need, and by so doing reduce the relief rolls.

direct relief, but Harry Hopkins, a former social worker whom Roosevelt had appointed director, had other ideas. He believed from the start that the government had a responsibility to provide jobs to those who were unemployed through no fault of their own, and so FERA included a rudimentary work relief program. By the fall of 1933 it was clear the government was not get­ ting men back to work fast enough, so Hopkins convinced Roosevelt to establish the temporary Civil Works Administration (CWA), designed to carry the unemployed through the winter with work programs. CWA was criticized by some as make- work, although its mission was sim­ ply to get a lot of men working in a short time. Others labeled CWA as insufficient because the program ended in March 1934. FERA, still in Color photographs by Glory-June Greiff effect, established a stronger work relief program after the CWA exper­ iment ended. Several major projects begun under FERA or CWA, espe­ cially those concerned with parks and roads, would later be continued

42 TRACES Opposite page, top left: idea was to conserve our natural re­ The development of the sources while simultaneously saving new Baker Park in New Castle was a major our unemployed youth from moral WPA project that began decay. The CCC trained jobless in 1935. Top right: An young men from the ages of eighteen attractive band shell in Gregg Park in to twenty-five and put them to work Vincennes. Bottom: in parks and forests throughout the Sign on shelter in country. They lived in camps and Wilson Park, Bedford. This page: WPA worker, were required to send a portion of White River. their monthly earnings to their fam­ Indianapolis. ilies. Few critics condemned a pro­ gram that had young men growing healthy and strong in the Great Out­ doors while channeling their ener­ gies into restoring the countryside. Besides conservation efforts such as reforestation and flood control, park development carried on by the CCC provided recreational opportunities to families with little income. Cer­ tainly Roosevelt’s “Tree Army” was a great help in keeping restless youth off the streets in already troubled ur­ ban areas. In the same election in which they helped elevate Roosevelt to the pres­ idency, the people of Indiana had elected Paul V. McNutt governor. Taking office in January 1933, more than two months before his national counterpart, McNutt immediately set out to restructure the state gov­ ernment. As part of this effort, he created the Governor’s Commission on Unemployment Relief (GCUR), which established a framework in which the federal New Deal pro­ grams could be set up and their ben­ efits distributed throughout Indiana. Roosevelt in 1935 was ready to put Hopkins’s work-relief program into effect. In his State of the Union Ad­ dress Roosevelt told Congress that the dole was “a narcotic, a subtle de­ stroyer of the human spirit” and added the following: “I am not will­ ing that the vitality of our people be further sapped by the giving of cash, of market baskets, of a few hours of weekly work cutting grass, raking leaves, or picking up papers in the public parks. The federal govern­ ment must and shall quit this busi­ ness of relief.” In other words, the administration of direct relief—the dole—was to return to the states and

m m . The largest expenditure of WPA money and manpower in Indiana went to roads in the farm- to-market program, state highway expansion and improvement, and streets and sidewalks in the towns. Today one may still find stretches of pavement stamped “ Built by WPA.” local governments. But the federal improved or expanded to accommo­ conducted classes in arts and crafts government now offered an alterna­ date the larger crowds that now as well as training programs in vari­ tive to handouts-—the Works could attend from outlying areas. All ous vocational skills. The WPA Wom­ Progress Administration, which be­ the roads the WPA built suggested en’s Division employed thousands in gan in the summer of 1935 with the need for a new concept, the road­ their sewing projects, and the fruits Harry Hopkins in of their labor went to charge. Its mission was those on relief who were to provide work to em­ needier still. Most coun­ ployable persons in ties set up canning pro­ need, and by so doing grams that employed reduce the relief rolls. women. WPA workers Whenever possible the re-bound books in li­ skills of the jobless per­ braries that had been son were matched to the unable to buy new vol­ job. With Governor Mc­ umes because of lack of Nutt’s New Deal-style funds. Those unem­ state agencies already ployed with clerical in place, Indiana’s WPA skills collected county program took off imme­ records and organized diately with projects them into more usable sponsored by local gov­ files, a boon to latter- ernments. Indiana was day genealogists. No the first state in the skills were ignored; nation to fill its quota, actors, directors, and and soon the number theater technicians of formerly unemployed produced plays and took workers who now them on the road to peo­ earned wages greatly ple who had never be­ reduced the county re­ fore seen live theatrical lief rolls. performances. Musi­ So widespread was cians, too, were em­ WPA activity that it is ployed in this manner. difficult to comprehend (The WPA built the that large segments of stages and bandstands the public were appar­ for their performances ently unaware of its im­ as well.) Music and the­ pact even as it was ater also played a large going on all around part in the WPA’s recre­ them, although nega­ ation program. Writers tive or silent press must worked in public rela­ have played a part. The largest ex­ side park. Indiana was among the tions jobs in the WPA programs and penditure of WPA money and man­ nation’s leaders in developing this in every state produced a guidebook. power in Indiana went to roads in type of facility, largely with WPA or Indiana: A Guide to the Hoosier the farm-to-market program, state CCC labor, or with workers from the State is among the best of these, over highway expansion and improve­ National Youth Administration. five hundred pages of still fascinat­ ment, and streets and sidewalks in The Works Progress Administra­ ing reading. Researchers went into the towns. Today one may still find tion in Indiana built or improved wa­ the field to collect folklore that likely stretches of pavement stamped terworks and sewer systems, fire would have been lost without the “Built by WPA,” in downtown Lafay­ stations, school buildings, armories WPA. For perhaps the first time, the ette or Terre Haute, for example. (several fine Art Deco examples re­ government supported art for the Fairgrounds, including the State main), city halls, airfields—all man­ masses; art about the people came to Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, were ner of public buildings. They the people in murals painted in pub-

44 T R A C E S lie buildings and in sculptures that of Conservation (the present Depart­ 1960s. But these lakes and the other graced their lobbies and courtyards. ment of Natural Resources). The Department of Conservation devel­ And the Works Progress Adminis­ state praised the Works Progress opment projects undertaken by the tration met the recently voiced needs Administration for helping to ad­ WPA made the simple pleasures of of the people for a more satisfying vance Indiana’s conservation pro­ the outdoors—fishing, boating, life through recreation. Because of grams in soil erosion control, bird swimming, camping, hiking—avail­ labor laws that had created shorter and game preserves, fish hatcheries, able to thousands of Hoosiers, espe­ hours, even those who were em­ and flood control. The WPA built cially in the southern half of the ployed now had more leisure time thousands of low dams; larger dams, state where natural lakes are virtu­ than ever before. A burgeoning the vast majority of them earthen, ally unknown. recreation movement The WPA fulfilled urged that this time be people’s need to play. used “advantageously.” Recreational projects The WPA complied with were among the most this notion, converting successful of their ef­ old buildings or con­ forts because, as Joseph structing new commu- Baker, head of the WPA nity/recreation centers Recreation Section de­ where classes for all clared, “recreation ages were offered, plays projects are flexible and and concerts performed, can offer employment and indoor sports en­ where there is greatest joyed. These buildings need; most of their ex­ ranged from purely penditures go directly to functional gymnasiums local unemployed labor; to attractive structures they do not compete in contemporary styles. with private enterprise, Imaginative uses of and most important of native materials were all, they make perma­ frequent, for the bulk nent contributions to of the federal money better living conditions granted to projects and increased opportu­ under the WPA was to nities for more abun­ be used for wages; the dant living.” The WPA sponsor generally pro­ constructed every possi­ vided the land, tools, ble kind of recreational and materials. There­ facility, even such de­ fore, around Blooming­ lights as skating ponds, ton and Bedford one ski slopes, and snow finds abundant lime­ slides for children’s stone and sandstone sledding (one is still construction; native used in North Judson.) timber was used exten­ WPA workers expanded sively as well through­ zoo facilities; many out southern Indiana. The pride of Washington Park in Michigan City, parks sported new duck Up north in the rolling prairies, recently nominated to the National Register, is this ponds or monkey islands. Commu­ four-story observation tower, built entirely of salvaged glacial fieldstone walls and buildings materials. nity centers nearly always in­ are common in WPA construction. cluded—or were little more than— The CCC had been developing and created over four hundred new lakes gymnasiums, especially if they were expanding Indiana’s state parks and in Indiana. These varied in size from attached to schools. The WPA built forests from its inception in 1933, small farm ponds to substantial bod­ hundreds of athletic fields in Indiana building park roads and trails, ies of water of three or four hundred for softball, baseball, and football, planting trees, creating artificial acres. Many still exist but most are from simple graded spaces to elabo­ lakes, and constructing picnic and now privately owned. Others disap­ rate stadiums, frequently, but not camping facilities. WPA workers peared over the years; some were necessarily, adjacent to high schools. joined them in these sorts of projects swallowed by the Army Corps of En­ Some sports previously considered sponsored by the state’s Department gineers vast reservoir projects of the the domain of the country club set

SUM M E R 19 9 1 45 gained wide public access as WPA workers built or expanded tennis courts, golf courses, and swimming pools in towns all across the state. Many of the bath houses erected for these were quite attractive and still stand. Unfortunately many are abandoned and subject to vandal­ ism. South Bend’s Walker Field pa­ vilion is one of the finest, and particularly handsome structures still serve Connersville and New Castle. Most WPA park develop­ ments included a concrete wading pool for children, but these are diffi­ cult to find today. The polio scare of the early 1950s caused most to be closed; subsequently they were torn out. A few abandoned examples re­ main in Indianapolis, Mishawaka, and New Albany. All these increased recreational opportunities and facili­ Bottom left: Bedford's ties combined to make parks for the unemployed people—as opposed to the more for­ stonecutters mal green spaces of previous years— created this whimsical frog that were great sources of commu­ that sits in nity pride. Thornton Park. Many city parks were showcases Top: Fall Creek Parkway, for the imaginative use of native ma­ Indianapolis. terials. Cascades Park in Blooming­ Left: Sign at ton contains drinking fountains, Anderson Lake in rural shelters, and picnic tables of scrap Lawrence limestone slabs. Battell Park in County. Mishawaka may well represent the Bottom: Duck pond in Leeper epitome of fieldstone creativity with Park. South its cascading rock gardens, foun­ Bend. tains, love seats, and urns. WPA workers were frequently called upon to demolish old public buildings, carefully saving the bricks and stone and anything else possible for future reuse. Michigan City’s Washington Park, recently nominated to the National Register of Historic Places,

46 T R A C E S The Works Progress Administration in Indiana built or improved waterworks and sewer systems, fire stations, school buildings, armories (several fine Art Deco examples remain), city halls, airfields— all manner of public buildings. They conducted classes in arts and crafts as well as training programs in various vocational skills. is filled with fences, walks, benches, Unlike the dole, the WPA program In Indiana, the WPA contributed and shelters, all of salvaged mate­ provided the government with a re­ extensively to the built environment. rial. The park is crowned with a turn in labor for its investment; the The many structures that remain magnificent limestone-faced tower local community benefited directly are sturdily built, often designed in whose framework is a discarded rail­ and indirectly; money was circu­ the attractive styles of the 1930s. In­ road structure from the nearby lated, and some returned to the gov­ deed, it is unlikely that any Hoosier South Shore interurban line. In ernment via taxes; and the workers’ throughout the course of the day Oolitic a deserted train depot was pride remained intact. Nothing else does not enter, use, or pass a struc­ moved about three blocks to the fulfilled all those needs so well. As ture built by the Works Progress Ad­ grounds of the high school, where WPA director Harry Hopkins enthu­ ministration.*!' WPA workers faced it with limestone siastically maintained, “Only a work and converted it to a band room. In program can answer . . . all aspects Mishawaka and South Bend, the WPA Glory-June Greiffis a fdled in swampy mos­ community historian quito-ridden sections and preservation ad­ of the St. Joseph River with discarded vocate in Indianapo­ chunks of concrete, lis. She offers a slide / forming island parks tape program on the surrounded by re­ taining walls. Varia­ WPA to interested tions of this idea were groups around the used for erosion and state. Presently Greiff flood control along rivers throughout In­ is completing a study diana. Economic ne­ of the legacy of the cessity required this New Deal work pro­ inventive use of ma­ terials, yet it is obvi­ grams in Indiana ous that practicality state parks. did not preclude cre­ ativity. Suggestions for All in all, it is diffi­ Further Reading cult to comprehend the intensity of some Allen, Frederick Lewis. Since Yesterday: The of the criticism lev­ Top: WPA workers dredged the St. Joseph River at Leeper Park in South Bend and used the resulting Nineteen Thirties in eled against the fill to form an island. Bottom: This fantasy in fieldstone still delights residents of Mishawaka in Battell Park along the St. Joseph River. America. New York: Works Progress Ad­ Harper, 1940. ministration, especially in Indiana of the unemployment problem. Only Hopkins, Harry Lloyd. Spending to Save: The where it was generally—and visi­ a job can answer the problem of a Complete Story of Relief. New York: W. W. bly—so successful. The Fort Wayne jobless man; only a wage will in­ Norton and Company, Inc., 1936. crease purchasing power, for a bas­ Lynd, Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd. Mid­ Sentinel, for example, consistently dletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural printed anti-New Deal political car­ ket of groceries starts no dollars Conflicts. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and toons, yet that city today boasts a circulating; only through work can Company, 1937. beautiful park and boulevard system these people make their contribution Madison, James H. Indiana through Tradi­ that was constructed by the WPA. to our national well-being.” Cer­ tion and Change: A History o f the Hoosier tainly one may argue points of ad­ State and Its People, 1920-1945. Indianap­ While it is true that compared to di­ olis: Indiana Historical Society, 1982. rect relief the WPA cost more per un­ ministration, wages, hours, and Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur. The Coming o f the employed person in actual cash eligibility, but the logic behind such New Deal. Vol. 2 of The Age of Roosevelt. outlay, there is really no comparison. a program was sound. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959.

SUMMER 1991 47 HOOSIERS IN WORLD WAR II

The War That Changed Everything Photograph courtesy oWilbur f L. Meyer

n commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of World War II, the Indiana Historical Society has spent the last year and a half collecting stories and photographs from Hoosiers who served in the war at home and abroad. The response has been al­ Two Indiana most overwhelming. From 7 December 1941 natives, Wilbur L. Meyer (third to the surrender ceremonies on board the row, far left) U.S.S. Missouri on 2 September 1945, and Alfred H. Hoosiers participated in all phases of the Rosetta (last row, far right), war. More than three hundred thousand men served in the and women from the state joined the armed Pacific aboard forces, and more than ten thousand died as a the submarine result. Many thousands more were signifi­ USS Catfish. cantly affected by the absence and loss of loved ones. Their stories are sometimes dramatic, sometimes humor­ ous, sometimes heartbreaking. The next issue of Traces is a special issue dedicated to presenting a selection of these stories. Don’t miss it.

48 T R A C E S Abraham Lincoln and the CIVIL W A R IN INDIANA

New! the people he knew, the places he visited, his physical de­ velopment, and the tragedies he suffered. Perhaps most Indiana Quakers Confront the Civil War revealing is Warren s treatment of Lincoln’s education, both Jacquelyn S. Nelson in the schools he briefly attended and in the books he read, When members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, first and the influence of Tom Lincoln in forming the character arrived in the Indiana Territory during the earliest years of of his son. the nineteenth century, they could not have envisioned the “With fine writing style, Warren traces the growth and struggle which would engulf the nation when the American development of the gifted’ boy and precocious, gangly Civil War began in 1861. Although repeatedly reminded of youth.... Noteworthy is author Warren’s description of the their religious heritage in regard to war, a variety of reasons lush southern Indiana wilderness where Abraham Lincoln impelled Quakers actively to take up arms in the hostilities. grew up,” South Bend Tribune. They fought to preserve the Union and justified their combat as a compromise of their long-standing testimony against “[Warren’s] book will be valued most of all for the new and war to fight for another belief— the abolition of slavery. This certain light it gives on the one period of Lincoln’s life that book chronicles for the first time the military activities of has been dimly understood these many years,” Indianapolis Quakers during America’s bloodiest war and explores the Star. motivation behind the abandonment, at least temporarily, of xxii, 298 pp. 1959, reprint 1991. Illustrations, notes, index. the peace testimony. Based on extensive research in here­ Cloth ISBN 0-87195-062-6, $19.95 / $15.96 members tofore unused resources including soldiers’ letters, a pic­ Paper ISBN 0-87195-063-4, $9.95 / $7.96 members ture of Quakers as combatants emerges and weakens considerably the popular myth that Friends refused to par­ ticipate in battle. A revealing narration of patriotism shown by a religious group which advocated noninvolvement in Now in paperback! wartime actions, this book will compel historians to reex­ Indiana in the Civil War Era, 1850—1880 amine Quaker participation in war. Emma Lou Thornbrough 324 pp. 1991. Tables, notes, bibliography, appendixes, index. As part of a multivolume series on the history of Indiana, Cloth ISBN 0-87195-064-2, $27.95 / $22.36 members this study explores the political, economic, social, and cul­ tural developments of the pre- and post-Civil War years. The author draws on scholarly and primary source material New Printing, Now in Paper! to provide a view of mid-nineteenth-century Indiana life, dealing not only with the political turmoil of the era but also Lincoln’s Youth with changes in education, agriculture, transportation, re­ Indiana Years, Seven to Twenty-one, 1816-1830 ligion, and industrialization. Louis A. Warren ‘‘Skillfully organized, carefully researched, and clearly writ­ First published in 1959 to mark the 105th anniversary of ten,” American Historical Review. Abraham Lincoln’s birth and reissued now in paperback for the first time, Louis A. Warren’s classic study of Lincoln's xii, 758 pp. 1965, reprint 1990. Illustrations, map, biblio­ formative years in Indiana tracks his growth from awkward graphical essay, index. boy to serious young man poised on the brink of a brilliant Cloth ISBN 0-253-37020-5, $29.95 / $23.96 members career. Here are fascinating glimpses of Lincoln’s family life, Paper ISBN 0-87195-064-2, $14.95 / $11.96 members

Books are available from area bookstores; the Indiana University Press, 10th and Morton Streets, Bloomington, IN 47405 (1-800-842-6796); or at the offices of the Indiana Historical Society, 315 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-3299 (317-232-1882) Created by the Indiana General Assembly in 1915. the Indiana Historical Commission promoted a centennial celebration that brought Hoosiers together and led to an awakening of interest in state and local history that continues to this day. Ray Boomhower recounts that effort as part of this year’s commemoration of the state's 175th anniversary of statehood in this issue of Traces.