THE HOOSIER GENEALOGIST The Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s Home The 1999 Willard Heiss Memorial Lecture African American Genealogy Research Departments A Letter from the Editor Regional Sources & Stories Genealogy Across Indiana Family Records Notices & Queries Indiana on the Map Vol. 40, No. 1 March 2000 THG_2000-03_VOL40_NO1 The Hoosier Genealogist is published quarterly by the Indiana Historical Society and is available only through membership in the Society. Categories of membership are Annual, $30 and Sustaining, $50. In addition to The Hoosier Genealogist members may receive the quarterly magazines Black History News & Notes, Indiana Magazine of History, Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, and a bimonthly newsletter, The Bridge. Submissions for The Hoosier Genealogist should be sent to the editor, M.Teresa Baer. The Hoosier Genealogist Thomas A. Mason, Publications Director M. Teresa Baer, Editor Ruth Dorrel, Contributing Editor Kathleen M. Breen, Assistant Editor Photography Kim C. Ferrill, Photographer Susan L. S. Sutton, Coordinator Administration Peter T. Harstad, Executive Director Raymond L. Shoemaker, Administrative Director Annabelle J. Jackson, Controller Carolyn S. Smith, Membership Secretary Susan P. Brown, Human Resources Director Genealogy Publications Committee C. Lloyd Hosman, Chair Patricia Johnson Susan Miller Carter Mary M. Morgan Jane E. Darlington Beverly Oliver Sharon Howell Indiana Historical Society Board of Trustees Michael A. Blickman Janet C. Moran Frank A. Bracken Larry K. Pitts Edward E. Breen William G. Prime Lorene M. Burkhart Robert L. Reid Dianne J. Cartmel Bonnie A. Reilly Thomas H. Corson Evaline H. Rhodehamel Daniel M. Ent Ian M. Rolland R. Ray Hawkins John Martin Smith Larry S. Landis P. R. Sweeney Polly Jontz Lennon Marilyn Moran Townsend H. Roll McLaughlin Michael L. Westfall Mary Jane Meeker William H. Wiggins Jr. Printing Central Printing Group © 2000 Indiana Historical Society. All rights reserved. ISSN 1054-2175 450 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-3269 www.indianahistory.org THG_2000-03_VOL40_NO1 THE HOOSIER GENEALOGIST CONTENTS The Indiana Soldiers ’ and Sailors ’ Children’s Home: Index and History M. Teresa Baer and Alan January 4 Sandra H. Luebking and the Willard Heiss Memorial Lecture of 1999 M. Teresa Baer and Sandra H. Luebking 7 African American Genealogy Research Wilma L. Gibbs 10 DEPARTMENTS A Letter from the Editor Genealogy: The Road Back Home, M. Teresa Baer 2 Regional Sources & Stories Northern Indiana Missionary Society Notes, Delphi, 1926 & 1929 15 Lake County Old Settlers, 1947 17 Monterey Sun Items, 1901 18 Letters at Peru Post Office, 1839 19 Whitley County, 1800s 21 Central Indiana Cayuga News Items, 1902 24 Clay County Veterans, 1886 26 Land Grants, Montgomery & Fountain Counties, 1800s 27 Parke County Obituary, 1933 28 Union County News Items, 1874 29 Commencement at Fishers Switch, 1895 32 Southern Indiana Jackson County J. P. Notes, 1878-1883 34 Ohio County Gold Rushers, 1850 38 Eben C. Poole’s Vanderburgh County Marriages, 1908 40 Genealogy Across Indiana Indiana Korean War Casualties, Adams-Gibson Counties 43 Pioneer Ancestors Approved, 1998 49 Indiana State Medical Association Personals, 1908 51 Blind Institute Student Roster, 1861 53 Family Records Goodbar Family Bible Record, Robert Van Buskirk 56 Two Hoosier German Families, Barbara Wolfe 57 Dunham Family Genealogy, Scott F. Hosier Jr. 58 Notices & Queries Notices 60 Queries 64 Indiana on the Map A Steamboat Route and Canal Map of 1836, Leigh Darbee—inside back cover Front cover: Class of 1900, Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s Home (details page 6). THG_2000-03_VOL40_NO1 A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR j GENEALOGY: THE ROAD BACK HOME M. Teresa Baer When I was young, going home meant driving from the Hoosier capital to a storybook world—over a creek on a sandstone path, through dark woods that wound up a hillside until sunshine broke out over an ancient-looking clapboard house in Crawford County. Grandma and Grandpa appeared antique to me, too, she like a fairy godmother in her tidy apron and he like a stern old oak tree in his worn coveralls. How those two dear relatives, the last of my “forefathers,” fascinated me! Their farm seemed to me the last bastion of pioneer life—with no indoor plumbing, scant electricity, wood fuel, and the master bedroom in the front parlor. It was where I always wanted to be. Filled with Grandma’s delectable cooking, I settled into a routine as ancient as humans. “Tell me about the olden days,” I coaxed my own fairy godmother. And so, she wove a yarn back to yesteryears telling about the grandfathers who raised her when her parents died in an epidemic; about yearly visits from Canadian missionary nuns; about her Indian neighbors; about Dad and his siblings when they were young; about surviving the Great Depression; and about the harrowing days of the world wars. How I wish I had recorded my grandmother’s stories! But like most chil­ dren, I listened in a dreamy fog, unaware that someday soon my magical story­ teller would be gone forever. Years later, however, my fascination with the past led me to study global history to satiate my curiosity about how the world came to be the way it is. In international studies I learned the characteristics that make all people human and those that distinguish different groups. My master’s program added discipline and analytic and research skills. Internships and as- sistantships gave me experience as a documentary editor, as a historic bridge survey coordinator, as a teaching assistant, and as a lecturer and published author. Finally, I landed a job doing what I love most—working as a historical editor. As editor of The Hoosier Genealogist (THG), I meet and work with many of the 6,600 THG readers, who enjoy learning about the “olden days” through research into genealogy and family and local history. They are curious about their bloodlines and about the communities that their ancestors built. Ultimately, they crave a clearer window into the past in order to understand more deeply themselves, Hoosiers, and who Americans can be in the twenty-first century. This collective curiosity and the unending research that fuels it can inform the social history that today’s academics are writing. In turn, social history can provide the clues and context by which genealogists can break through their 2 THG_2000-03_VOL40_NO1 A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR research blocks. The spectrum of interests revealed to me by genealogists necessitates a wide range of articles in THG. Thus, the journal will continue to publish an abun­ dance of source materials, with the addition of explanatory introductions re­ garding them. Leigh Darbee, curator of printed collections at the Indiana His­ torical Society (IHS) library will reproduce a rare Indiana map in each issue. The Hoosier Genealogist will report on IHS genealogy workshops and family history programs and contain how-to pieces and research bibliographies. It will also feature articles about the migration patterns and settlement histories of ethnic groups across Indiana throughout its history. I need your input. With your questions and concerns, wishes and interests, document copies, and completed articles, THG can nurture Hoosiers’ love of family and history and encourage new genealogists. Please send your com­ ments to me at the IHS address on the back cover, by E-mail at tbaer@ indianahistory.org. or by phone at (317) 234-0071. Help The Hoosier Genealogist be your partner in genealogy and family and Indiana history re­ search. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A Note of Thanks Several Society staff members have assisted me in my fledgling days as an editor. Thanks to Ruth Dorrel, the consummate genealogist and former THG editor, for mentoring me patiently and thoroughly; to Kathy Breen, the most capable assistant editor anyone could ever hope to in­ herit; and to the staff of Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History for their guidance as I redesigned THG. I am also grateful to the Library staff for their ongoing efforts to help me find source material and place it in historical context and to the Education Division, which graciously in­ cludes me in all genealogy programming plans. A Good-bye to Former Colleagues The last year of the century was a sad one at the Indiana Historical Society. We lost three staff members, each a legend and a friend to those who knew them. The Hoosier Genealogist salutes the decades of schol­ arship and service performed by the former executive secretary Gayle Thornbrough, Education Division director and long-time THG editorial adviser Robert M. Taylor Jr., and editor Shirley McCord. Thanks. We miss you. M. Teresa Baer 3 THG_2000-03_VOL40_NO1 THE INDIANA SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ CHILDREN’S HOME: INDEX AND HISTORY M. Teresa Baer and Alan January On 31 October 1999, the Indiana Historical Society hosted a reception for its two most recently published genealogy reference books. One of these is volume 2 of the series Abstracts of the Records of the Society of Friends in Indiana, edited by Ruth Dorrel and Thomas D. Hamm. The other is An Index to Records of the Indiana Soldiers ’ and Sailors ’ Children’s Home in the Indiana State Archives, edited by Ruth Dorrel. The latter book drew quite a crowd of alumni from the children’s home—folks who were excited and proud at the publication of a book in which they felt ownership and who were just plain glad for the opportunity to visit with one another. One of the highlights of the reception was an exhibit created by Alan January, Division Head of the Indiana State Archives. It featured photographs from the earliest days of the children’s home accompanied by a brief history of the home. In celebration of the publication of the index of the records of the children’s home, The Hoosier Genealogist is publishing on this issue’s cover a photograph of the home’s graduating class from one hundred years ago and the following excerpts from January’s history.