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Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History (ISSN 1040-788X) is pub­ lished quarterly and distributed as a benefit of membership by the Indiana Historical Society Press; editorial and executive offices, 450 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-3269. Periodicals postage paid at Indianapolis, Indiana; USPS Number 003-275. Liter­ ary contributions: A brochure containing information for contribu­ tions is available upon request. Traces accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts submitted without return postage. Indiana newspaper publishers may obtain permission to reprint articles by written request to the press. The Press will refer requests from other publishers to the author. ©2012 Indiana Historical Society Press. All rights reserved. Printed on acid-free paper in the United States of America. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, Indiana Historical Society Press, Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 450 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-3269. Traces is a member of the Conference of Historical Journals. SPRING 2012 CONTENTS TRACES OF INDIANA AND MIDWESTERN HISTORY VOLUME TWENTY-FOUR, NUMBERTWO

2 Front Cover: A detail from Editors’ Page artist Rick Reeves’s painting of “Say Cheese” Thirty-eighth Infantry Division Ray E. Boomhower soldiers moving forward against Japanese opposition during the 4 Battle of Zig Zag Pass on the The Avengers of Bataan Bataan Peninsula, February 1945. The Thirty-Eighth Division in the COURTESY THIRTY-EIGHTH INFANTRY DIVISION ASSOCIATION Philippines During World War II John C. Shively 42 A Hoosier Love Story 14 The Courtship of “A Fair Collection of Josie Chafee and Salem Hammond Interesting Pictures” Frank A. Cassell Charles Cushmans Indiana, 1938-1966 50 Eric Sandweiss Indiana’s Pioneer Lumberwoman 26 Helen Pike Utter Black History Ann Allen News and Notes Art Intersects History: 56 Indiana African American Artists Images of Everyday People: Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. in Indiana Indiana Let the Records Show: Slavery and Involuntary Servitude in Vincennes, Indiana RAY E. BOOMHOWER

s a teenager growing up in Misha­ These early darkroom experiments nev­ Our high school’s journalism adviser, Awaka, Indiana, I quickly outgrew a er seemed to turn out as well, perhaps be­ Susan Mojak, however, took one look passing interest in hot rods (realizing I cause of my Soviet Union-made camera or at the photographic samples I showed possessed not even rudimentary mechani­ my inability to correctly read a light meter her and proceeded to do both me and cal skills) for another hobby— photog­ to obtain the proper exposure. I got used the world of photojournalism a favor by raphy. With a paintbrush, a can of black to having my human subjects tap their steering me into another field: writing, paint, and heavy rolls of black plastic, I feet in impatience as I fumbled to set the selecting me as news editor and eventu­ cordoned off a section of the basement proper dials on my camera. Nonetheless, ally editor for the Alltold. She certainly at our home on West Battell Street and in high school I eagerly sought to become, knew her stuff: both of my friends ended built and equipped a darkroom. When it like my two friends Dennis Chamberlin up as professional photographers, Dennis was complete, I attempted to develop and and Dominic Furore, a photographer for as a respected freelancer and contributor print the rolls of Kodak black-and-white the school’s newspaper, the Alltold, and to National Geographic, and Dom with film I had shot with a Kalimar 35mm yearbook, the Miskodeed. Who could resist several magazines over the years. I went on single lens reflex camera. I can still recall having a bird’s-eye view of the action on to a career as a reporter and eventually, as the sharp smell of the chemicals used to the football field or basketball court, or someone whose field is Indiana history. magically make images appear on what prowling the school’s hallways looking for had previously been blank pieces of paper. that unposed human interest shot for the newspaper’s front page? Almost no artifacts remain from my his travels throughout the United States, youthful hobby. The Kalimar is long gone, Mexico, Europe, and the Middle East. lost to memory, and the few photographs Sandweiss, whose article is based on his from that time period are buried away in book on Cushman, The Day in Its Color: boxes somewhere. Today, if I need to take Charles Cushmans Photographic Journey a few snapshots at family events or on through a Vanishing America, notes that vacation, I use a digital camera or even my in spite of his eventual removal from the iPhone. That intimate connection between state of his birth to his adopted home of photographer and the medium is missing; San Francisco, Cushman continued to be technology reigns supreme. All of these drawn back to Indiana, particularly his old memories of my failed photography career stomping grounds in Posey County. Ac­ came streaming back upon reading Eric cording to Sandweiss, Cushman displayed Sandweiss’s article in this issue on Hoosier a knack for capturing an idealized view of amateur photographer Charles Cushman. the Hoosier State that says much about In his lifetime, Cushman had created what his generation’s view of the past, and offers he called “a fair collection of interesting us a glimpse at a vanished landscape and pictures”—more than fourteen thousand what may be an obsolete pastime. • Kodachrome slide transparencies taken on

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 3

THE AVENGERS OF BATAAN

riving along Indiana 38 on the outskirts of Lafayette looks At the Arcadia Conference between Dlike any other road leading into and out of a typical midwest- Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, it was agreed ern town. There is an entrance to the Tippecanoe Mall, several strip that Adolf Hitler constituted the greater malls, fast-food restaurants, car dealerships, and many other of the threat to world peace. The combined Al­ usual small businesses that line such roads. I would imagine most lied war effort would, therefore, be focused people who drive along this stretch of road probably have never against Nazi Germany. Until Germany noticed an inconspicuous green sign near U.S. 52; it is easy to miss. could be defeated, a defensive posture would be maintained in the Pacific. There are just three words on it: Bataan Memorial Highway. I am In the evolving scheme of global war, sure those who happen to notice it do not even know that Bataan is coupled with the loss of the Pacific Fleet in a place, much less where it is, and almost certainly no idea why the Hawaii, this in effect rendered the forces road has been so named. The history behind naming Indiana 38 the in the Philippines a lost cause. Those in Bataan Memorial Highway is penned in blood—Hoosier blood. Washington could only hope that at best, the beleaguered defenders in the Philip­ pines could slow the inexorable Japanese Bataan is a province of the main island Within hours of the bombing of the advance across the Southwest and Central of Luzon in the Philippine archipelago. U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on Pacific. The consensus among the high­ The province is a peninsula that forms December 7, 1941, American and Filipino est echelons of the military was that the the western side of Manila Bay measur­ forces stationed in the Philippines were garrison was doomed; it was written off as ing thirty miles north to south and about also attacked. As at Pearl Harbor, Clark lost long before it surrendered in April and fifteen miles east to west. In the years Air Field, north of Manila, was bombed May 1942. leading up to the start of World War 11, without warning. Within minutes the During the first six months of the war American military planners realized that in only offensive capability General Douglas in the Pacific the Japanese were victori­ a theoretical, and an increasingly likely war MacArthur had to attack Japanese invad­ ous everywhere. One Allied position after with Japan, occupation of Bataan would ing forces poised on Formosa (Taiwan) another fell: Guam (December 10, 1941), be essential to controlling access to Manila was destroyed on the ground. A few days Wake Island (December 23, 1941), and Bay, the key to holding the Philippines. later the only American naval force in the Hong Kong (December 25, 1941). The Both Japanese and American war planners Philippines, the Asiatic Fleet, was either Japanese invaded Malaya a few hours be­ were not only well aware of this basic fact destroyed by subsequent aerial attacks or fore the bombs began falling on Battleship of military science, but also knew that its driven from the islands to safer waters near Row at Pearl Harbor. They quickly overran importance was only defensive; it simply Australia. the retreating British, who fled to their had to be occupied, defended, and denied The beleaguered American and Filipino island fortress of Singapore. Malaya fell at to the enemy. Because of its strategic loca­ army forces stationed in the Philippines the end of January 1942. Lieutenant Gen­ tion in relation to the bay with its highly were isolated and cut off. They were alone, eral Arthur Percival surrendered Singapore valued deepwater port facilities, Bataan expected to defend the Philippines from on February 15, 1942. was the sight of two fierce battles, one at an imminent Japanese invasion with only The only place where the Japanese the very beginning of the war, and one what they had at the time. Despite prom­ could not claim victory was in the Philip­ near its end. The Japanese won the first ises from President Franklin Roosevelt and pines. There, Americans and Filipinos, battle of Bataan in 1942. It was the second General George Marshall that reinforce­ with rapidly dwindling supplies of every­ battle, the one to retake Bataan in 1945, ments and supplies would eventually arrive thing, especially food, and despite many in that was the inspiration for naming Indi­ from the West Coast to drive the invaders their ranks suffering from malaria, held on ana 38 the Bataan Memorial Highway. from the islands, none ever came. to their shrinking position on the Bataan Peninsula and the fortified islands in Ma­ Previous Page: Soldiers of the Thirty-eighth Infantry Division slog across a water obstacle during nila Bay, including Corregidor. As long as operations against the Japanese in the Philippines. Opposite: After leaving the Philippines for they held them, the Japanese were denied Australia, General Douglas MacArthur scratched out a statement on the back of an envelope that read: “The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines ... for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, the primary object of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return."

TRACES I Spring 2012 | 7 Captured American and Filipino soldiers fall into line as they begin the infamous Bataan Death March. the prize: the valuable port facilities of rendered the next day. Thousands more James W. Duckworth of Martinsville, Manila Bay. The forces on Bataan held on became prisoners. It was the largest force Indiana, there were seven Hoosiers in the tenaciously for four months before exhaus­ to surrender in U.S. military history. camp. tion, starvation, and disease forced them The mostly American prisoners of war On January 9, 1945, the U.S. Sixth to surrender on April 9, 1942. Nearly languished in the camps in the Philippines Army under the command of Lieutenant 12,000 Americans and many thousands and elsewhere for nearly three years. Many General Walter Krueger landed on the more Filipinos went ignominiously into of the prisoners were eventually taken out shores of Lingayen Gulf. The Japanese put captivity as prisoners of war. The result of the Philippines on what came to be up minor resistance before retreating to was the infamous Bataan Death March called hellships to other prison camps in the hills in the north. In February 1945 in which thousands, including about Japan or conquered territory in Formosa, elements of the First Calvary Division, 650 Americans, were brutally murdered Korea, and China. When MacArthur known as the “Flying Column,” dashed by the Japanese simply because, in their fulfilled his promise and returned to retake down the alluvial plain of Luzon and exhausted and debilitated condition, they the Philippines in 1944—45, there were entered Manila. After initially liberating could not keep up the nearly impossible only a few hundred Americans remain­ 3,500 mostly civilian internees from the pace to prison camps set by the Japanese. ing in the camps. On January 30, 1945, a University of Santo Tomas, they sur­ Many thousands more were to die in the company of Sixth Rangers liberated 512 rounded Manila. American forces eventu­ camps from disease, starvation, beatings, prisoners in a dramatic raid on Camp Ca- ally killed nearly all of the Japanese troops or execution. Twenty-seven days later, on banatuan. Including the ranking American in Manila, who, rather than surrender, May 5, Corregidor was invaded and sur­ officer in the camp at the time, Colonel fought to the death. Manila had been

8 | TRACES | Spring 2012 THE AVENGERS OF BATAAN

liberated and was securely in American Once the Lingayen beachhead had the Thirty-eighth, nicknamed the Cyclone hands, but it came at a huge cost. The been established and consolidated in Janu­ Division, was composed of, among other Japanese’s scorched-earth policy resulted ary 1945, to prevent the Japanese from do­ attached units, three infantry regiments: in the deaths of 100,000 Filipino civilians. ing exactly what the Americans had done the 149th, 151st, and 152nd. Manila was a bombed and shelled pile three years before, MacArthur directed The 149th Regiment was composed of of rubble. Farther to the north, the Sixth that an additional force land on the west­ Kentucky National Guardsmen. The regi­ Army was pushing the retreating Japanese ern coast of Luzon northwest of Bataan. ment had a storied past, as it was originally into the last pockets of resistance. By Once ashore, it was to drive rapidly across the Second Kentucky Regiment under the now, most of Luzon was under American the base of Bataan over H ighway 7 to command of Lieutenant Colonel Daniel control. prevent any substantial Japanese with­ Boone. The 151st and 152nd regiments Although of great psychological and drawal into the peninsula. The Americans were composed of Indiana National political value, the seizure of Manila was in 1945 would be able to do exactly what Guardsmen and shared similar prewar not enough. The military value of Manila the Japanese had failed to do in 1942— cut histories. Originally designated the First lay not in the city itself, but in access to its off the retreat into Bataan. Once Bataan and Second Indiana Regiments in 1810, port facilities in Manila Bay. Even while was secure, the fortified islands in the bay the soldiers of the 151st came from north­ the First Cavalry was mopping up the last would inevitably fall one at a time. ern Indiana and those of the 152nd from of the Japanese resistance in Manila, plans were being put in place to secure the west­ ern shore of Manila Bay. For MacArthur to take full military advantage of the bay, he needed to control Bataan— the western shore of the bay—and the fortified islands guarding the entrance to the bay. Once the bay was secure, soldiers and military supplies could be off-loaded in Manila much closer to the front, thereby relieving the growing congestion at the Lingayen beachhead. The rapidity of the advance and bad weather were making it next to impossible to continue moving supplies over the Lingayen beaches and down the Central Plains of Luzon. It was necessary to take and control Manila Bay For the Americans in 1945, as it was A participant in the Bataan Death March, Private Leon Beck, never forgot what he experienced for the Japanese in 1942, Bataan and the on the long, hot march. “Anyone who made a break for water would be shot or bayoneted. Then they were left there. Finally, it got so bad further along the road that you never got away from fortified islands held the key to control­ the stench of death. There were bodies laying [sic] all along the road in various degrees of ling and using the bay’s port facilities. decomposition— black featureless corpses. And they stank!” But, in 1942, the Japanese were unable to prevent the brilliant strategic withdrawal The task of retaking Bataan and the southern Indiana. Both regiments fought of American and Filipino forces into the fortified islands guarding Manila Bay was with William Henry Harrison at the Battle Bataan Peninsula, there to wage a war of given to the XI Corps under the command of Tippecanoe while Indiana was still a attrition, a war that frustrated the Japanese of Major General Charles P. Hall. The territory. Both served in the Mexican- high command to no end. In Bataan, from XI Corps was composed of the Thirty- American War in 1846-47 and as militia prepared defensive positions, the garrison fourth Regimental Combat Team of the during the Civil War. They were activated held off repeated attacks by the Japanese to Twenty-fourth Infantry Division and the during the Spanish-American War, but take Bataan for four months. Thirty-eighth Infantry Division. Under the were not deployed overseas. As part of the command of Major General Henry Jones, Thirty-eighth during World War I, the

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 9 THE AVENGERS OF BATAAN

regiments arrived in France too late to participate in battle. By then, the ranks of the 151st and the 152nd were thoroughly Hoosier. Facing XI Corps in Bataan were 4,000 battle-tested Japa­ nese troops of the Tenth Divi­ sion’s Twenty-ninth Infantry under the command of Colonel Sanenobu Nagayoshi. This force, designated the Nagayoshi Detachment, was nominally under the command of General Rikichi Tsukada, the Kembu Group commander. The Kembu Group was given the task of defending the west side of the Luzon Central Plains, which included Clark Field, the Zambales Mountains, and Bataan. The jungle, ridges, and ravines, ideally suited the twists and turns of Zig Zag Pass. Each Nagayoshi Detachment’s main mission for defense. The strategic part of Highway hilltop defense provided interlocking fields was to block Highway 7, the road that 7 was a series of loops and hairpin turns of fire for mutual support making it very cuts across the top of the Bataan Peninsula winding through the ridges and ravines difficult to attack one position without from Olongapo to Dinalupihan, in order that came to be called Zig Zag Pass. It being exposed to the guns of a neighbor­ to protect the right rear of the Kembu was around the sides and on top of the ing position. It was an ideal killing field, Group from an American attack from the surrounding hills overlooking Zig Zag a static defense in depth that the Japanese north. Pass that the Japanese dug in and prepared had perfected. The only effective way to Nagayoshi, a good tactician, con­ their defenses. These defensive positions take out these positions was by a direct centrated the bulk of his force, about consisted of cleverly concealed fortified hit by an artillery shell or mortar, or more 2,750 men, in the area of northern foxholes, connecting trenches, pillboxes, often, by a frontal attack by individual Bataan, where he expected the brunt of the and dugouts bristling with preregistered riflemen armed with only what they could American attack to come, along Highway artillery, mortars, and machine guns carry—rifles, light machine guns, hand 7. The battlefield was a tangle of dense oriented to interdict any movement along grenades, and bayonets. The Japanese anticipated that one of the objectives of the American assault would be to retake Clark Field; it was an EACH HILLTOP DEFENSE PROVIDED INTERLOCKING obvious target. When the American XIV FIELDS OF FIRE FOR MUTUAL SUPPORT MAKING IT VERY Corps heading south from the beach­ DIFFICULT TO ATTACK ONE POSITION WITHOUT BEING head at Lingayen Gulf reached Clark EXPOSED TO THE GUNS OF A NEIGHBORING POSITION. Field, Nagayoshi was to pull his troops THE AVENGERS OF BATAAN

pared to move out along Highway 7. The mission assigned to the three regiments of the Thirty-eighth was to clear Highway 7 all the way from Olongapo to Dinalu- pihan, effectively cutting off the Japanese who remained in Bataan and preventing out of Bataan and into the main Kembu and then moved quickly inland against reinforcements from reaching them. Com­ lodgment. Before this order reached the virtually no resistance to their assigned pleting this task, they were then to link Nagayoshi Detachment, it was already un­ objectives. The 149th dashed inland to up with XIV Corps moving south from der attack by Hall’s XI Corps, and all op­ take the San Marcelino airfield. The two Lingayen. portunity to make an orderly withdrawal Hoosier regiments each secured their as­ To accomplish the mission, the divi­ was lost. The Japanese defenders in Bataan signed beachheads and set up a defensive sion directed the 152nd to move east were trapped. The second battle for Bataan perimeter. The entire XI Corps was ashore astride the highway, at the same time was about to be joined and it would be without firing a shot. Tactical surprise had seeking out both Japanese flanks, while spearheaded by Hoosiers of the 151 st and been complete. the 149th moved along an uncharted trail 152nd, and by Kentuckians of the 149th The following day, a battalion of the parallel to and north of the 152nd’s axis Regiment of the Thirty-eighth. 151st made an unopposed shore-to-shore of movement. When the 149th reached On the morning of January 29, 1945, landing on Grande Island, thus secur­ Dinalupihan it was to turn west along the the four regiments of the XI Corps landed ing the entrance to Subic Bay, making it highway and strike at the Japanese rear at unopposed on a beach north of Bataan available for base development in support Zig Zag Pass. This plan was a classic pincer with the 152nd on the right, the 149th in of ongoing operations. The San Marcelino movement designed to hit the Japanese the center, and the 151st on the left. The airfield was quickly prepared to receive from both sides. During this action, the Thirty-fourth Regimental Combat Team American fighter planes. The next step 151st remained in reserve, patrolling in of the Twenty-fourth Division landed was to drive across Bataan to cut Japanese the San Narciso-San Felipe area within the farther south and quickly moved inland routes of access into or out of the penin­ perimeter of the beachhead. against minor resistance to take its objec­ sula. Up until now things had gone unex­ From Olongapo, Highway 7 is flat for tive, Olongapo, on Subic Bay. The three pectedly well. That was about to change. about two miles before entering a nar­ regiments of the Thirty-eighth consoli­ On January 31 the 152nd relieved the row mountain valley. Over the next five dated their sectors of the Corps beachhead Thirty-fourth RCT at Olongapo and pre­ miles the road reaches an elevation of 800 feet by a series of loops and hairpin turns around and between the hills that com­ pletely dominate the highway. The Japa­ nese were firmly entrenched in these hills. They had no place to go and could expect no relief; they would fight to the death. It was the Japanese way of war. On February 1, after advancing steadily for three miles, the 152nd ran into determined Japanese resistance at Horseshoe Bend, the first of the known major Zig Zag Pass obstacles. From their commanding ground above the highway, the Japanese delivered extremely accu­ rate mortar and machine-gun fire on the exposed Hoosiers. In two days of heavy A con temporary overhead view of the twisting Zig Zag Pass showing the tough terrain American forces had to contend with as they attempted to wrest control of Bataan from dug-in and well- fighting with a high number of casualties, concealed Japanese troops. the 152nd’s eastward progress was stopped

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 11 THE AVENGERS OF BATAAN

A medic tends to a eighteen prisoners. Krueger now set in wounded GI in the motion the operation to clear the Japanese jungles of Bataan. out of Bataan. Ever since the humiliat­ Improved medica­ ing defeat and the brutal Death March in tions, the use of blood plasma, and April 1942, Bataan had been occupied by the availability of air the Japanese and the American defenders evacuation meant of Bataan and Corregidor had languished that those wounded in in squalid POW camps. The Ghosts of World War II stood a Bataan were about to be avenged, and better chance at sur­ Hoosiers of the Thirty-eighth led the way. vival than in previous conflicts. Commanding XI Corps, Hall divided his forces into two groups, the East Force and the South Force. The East Force, composed mostly of the First RCT of the dead in its tracks. The Thirty-fourth RCT fighting, while the 149th closed in, Sixth Infantry Division, reinforced later relieved the 152nd and resumed the attack, moving westward. The Japanese, essen­ by the 149th, was to proceed down the clearing the highway to Dinalupihan. De­ tially surrounded and with no place to East Road (Highway 110), the same route spite heavy fighting supported by artillery go, put up stiff resistance; they would not that the Japanese used to take Bataan in barrages and close-air support, after six surrender. But, in the end, they could not 1942, and the Death March route. It set days the Thirty-fourth RCT, too, bogged withstand the American attacks and were out from Dinalupihan on February 14 to down under heavy Japanese fire. Late in pushed back and eventually overrun on draw attention from the main thrust by the evening of February 4, the Thirty- February 8. Three days later, with the end the South Force, an amphibious land­ fourth RCT was administratively attached in sight, the 151st was pulled off the line ing by the 151st Infantry at Mariveles on to the Thirty-eighth. On February 5 Jones in preparation for another mission. The the southern tip of Bataan the next day. ordered the Thirty-fourth RCT to advance 152nd continued the eastward advance Opposing the XI Corps were only 1,400 along the south side of the highway and and, on February 14, 1945, linked up bedraggled Japanese, including Nagayoshi, the 152nd to resume the attack on the with the 149th. who had survived the battle of Zig Zag north side of the highway. The next day the two regiments began Pass. Most of the Japanese were scattered The same day, the 149th completed its mopping-up operations against the few in pockets between Highway 7 and the eastward march to Dinalupihan, estab­ remaining pockets of Japanese resistance. Pilar-Bagac Road running across the waist lished contact with the XIV Corps, and On February 16 the 149th was ordered of the peninsula. Mariveles was essentially set up a roadblock at Layac, the main back to Dinalupihan to begin prepara­ undefended. entrance to the Bataan Peninsula. They tion for action against the Japanese now The East Force moved out to virtu­ then turned west astride Highway 7 to trapped in Bataan. The 152nd continued ally no opposition and proceeded down link up with the rest of the Thirty-eighth, operations to secure Highway 7 from the the East Road. When it reached Pilar the still bogged down in heavy fighting in Zig coast at Olongapo to Dinalupihan. force split. The 149th drove west toward Zag Pass. In defeating the Japanese at Zig Zag Bagac, while the rest of the East Force On February 6 the Thirty-fourth RCT Pass and linking up with XIV Corps at continued south toward Mariveles. The was detached from the Thirty-eighth and Dinalupihan, the Thirty-eighth had sealed 151st left Subic Bay in landing craft and pulled off the line. It was replaced by the the Japanese in Bataan. As a testament moved quickly to Mariveles and went 151 st. The three infantry regiments of the to the ferocity of the battle, the division ashore without opposition. With control Thirty-eighth now converged on the stub­ had killed 1,846 enemy while taking only of Highway 7 firmly in American hands, born Japanese defenders hunkered down at Zig Zag Pass. In tandem, the 151st AS A TESTAMENT TO THE FEROCITY OF THE and the 152nd began making progress BATTLE, THE DIVISION HAD KILLED 1,846 ENEMY eastward through the pass, reducing one Japanese position after another in vicious WHILE TAKING ONLY EIGHTEEN PRISONERS.

12 | TRACES | Spring 2012 THE AVENGERS OF BATAAN

and the successful landing of the 151st, insula. Most died of starvation or disease. more important campaigns in the Philip­ the Japanese were truly trapped on Bataan. Those who managed to survive were even­ pines. The Thirty-eighth returned to the The 151 st did not meet any resistance tually hunted down and killed. During the United States on October 30, 1945, and until late in the evening of February 15 battle for Bataan, the Thirty-eighth lost was deactivated two weeks later. when the Japanese attacked the Third 270 men killed and 420 wounded. In 1976, to honor the Hoosier Na­ Battalion about three miles northeast of In their first engagement against the tional Guardsmen of the 151st and 152nd Mariveles. The battalion easily repelled Japanese, the Indiana National Guardsmen who fought against the Japanese to retake the attack, killing sixty or more Japanese. of the 151st and 152nd acquitted them­ the Bataan Peninsula in the battle of Zig The 151st sent patrols up the East Road to selves well, defeating a battle-hardened and Zag Pass and in the jungles of Bataan, make contact with the First RCT coming tenacious enemy. By securing H ighway 7 House Concurrent Resolution 36 urged south. This linkup was accomplished on in the battle of Zig Zag Pass, and clearing the State Highway Commission to name February 18. Another patrol proceeded out the last of the Japanese who remained Indiana 38 the Bataan Memorial High­ up the west side of the peninsula toward in Bataan, the Thirty-eighth enabled way. Bagac. American shipping full use of Manila Bay The next time you find yourself driv­ The 149th met a few Japanese strag­ and its deepwater port facilities. This de­ ing along Indiana 38 between Lafayette glers along the Pilar-Bagac Road and fin­ velopment subsequently allowed the easy and Richmond, look for the little green ished them off. On February 21 it linked resupply of American forces then engaged signs honoring the Thirty-eighth for its up with patrols of the 151st just south of in the bloody battle to retake Manila. contribution to the defeat of Japan in Bagac. Contact between the two regiments For its contribution in retaking the World War II, and for avenging the loss marked the end of the tactically signifi­ Bataan Peninsula, MacArthur gave the of Bataan and Corregidor and those who cant portion of the Bataan campaign of Thirty-eighth the appellation, “Avengers of were ordered to surrender and endured the 1945, during which they killed about two Bataan.” The men of the division accepted humiliating Bataan Death March in 1942. hundred Japanese. Roughly one thousand this honorific with pride and proclaimed The Indiana National Guardsmen of the dispirited Japanese remained scattered in it on signs leading into Bataan. It ap­ Thirty-eighth Division brought distinc­ the jungles in northern Bataan and posed peared in news articles, as an unofficial tion and honor to themselves and to their no threat to American control of the pen- tab above the Cyclone Division shoulder home state. We, who benefited from their MacArthur, who gave patch insignia, and sacrifices, can take great pride in their ac­ the Thirty-eighth it is frequently men­ complishments. It is fitting that Hoosiers Division its nick­ tioned in South­ honored them by naming Indiana 38 the name, “The Avengers west Pacific war Bataan Memorial Highway. of Bataan,’’ proudly histories. Although John C. Shively is a practicing physician displayed on this sign, the U.S. Defense with a longtime interest in World War II. He took a keen interest in the battle. Warned Department never lives in Lafayette, Indiana. His book Profiles on a visit to the front acknowledged it as in Survival: The Experiences of American about enemy fire, an official nick­ POWs in the Philippines during World MacArthur respond­ name, it is still used War II will be available from the Indiana ed: “I'm not under fire, unofficially in direct Historical Society Press this summer. He is Those bullets are not association with also the author of The Last Lieutenant: A intended for me.’’ the Thirty-eighth. Foxhole View of the Epic Battle for Iwo Before the war was Jima, published by Indiana University Press over, the division in 2006. • participated in three

FOR FURTHER READING ------

Astor, Gerald. The Battles for the Philippine Islands by the Men Who Fought for Them. New York: Dell, 1996. | Breuer, William B. America’s Return to Corregidor and Bataan: October 1944-March 1945. New York: Saint Martins Press, 1986. | Connaughton, Richard. MacArthur and Defeat in the Philippines. New York: Overlook Press, 2001. | Daws, Gavan. Prisoners o f the Japanese: POWs o f World War II in the Pacific. New York: Quill, 1994. | Falk, Stanley. Liberation of the Philippines. New York: Ballantine Books, 1971. | Kerr, Bartlett E. Surrender and Survival: The Experience of American POWs in the Pacific, 1941-1945. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1985. | McGovern, Terrance C., and Mark A. Berhow. American Defenses o f Corregidor and Manila Bay, 1898-1945. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2003.

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 13

CHARLES CUSHMAN’S INDIANA, 1938-1966

ERIC SANDWEISS

ALL IMAGES COURTESY INDIANA UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA

Writing late in his life, Charles W. spread of Evansville, a few miles east of They worked the land, plied the waters, Cushman recalled that he had been raised the county line, has brought a few more and built market towns for exchanging “pretty close to the soil,” and those who residents, but their numbers have never goods, commodities, and money on their have been to Posey County know that the risen above thirty thousand. As for visi­ way downstream from the Alleghenies or Hoosier salesman, financial analyst, and tors, those who find their way to Indiana’s upstream from the Gulf. It was in one of amateur photographer meant the phrase as “pocket” typically plan their stay around those towns— Poseyville, up the road from more than a figure of speech. a quiet day or two in New Harmony, New Harmony—that Cushman was born Approaching Posey County from the itself resurrected as a kind of monument in a comfortable frame house that still northeast, you can almost feel your car to contemplation and the recollection of stands on Second Street, a block from the tilting down toward the junction of the bygone days. stores of Main Street, around the corner Wabash and Ohio Rivers, where Indiana As the descendant of early Posey from the local Carnegie library, and up the reaches its lowest elevation. Despite the County settlers, Cushman knew that this street from the Methodist church. Cush­ county’s claim, in the words of chamber region was not meant to be the land that man’s father, Wilbur, operated the lumber of commerce officials, to being “rich in time forgot. Like others who traveled here mill and grain warehouse that stood along history, industry, natural beauty, and its from the Atlantic states or the upland Railroad (today’s Water) Street. Sunday people,” not many new arrivals find their South in the wake of the Indian land drives took the boy either south to Mount way here today. Having peaked in 1900, cessions of the early 1800s, his forebears Vernon (where his mother’s father, the the county’s population spent most of the had brought with them great ambitions county sheriff, lived with his wife beside twentieth century in gentle decline. In for the crucial meeting point of two of the county jail), or north to the Gibson more recent years, the continued suburban the Old Northwest’s principal waterways. County land that his paternal grandfather, Reuel Cushman, farmed after retiring Opposite: Photographic equipment used by Charles Cushman on his travels. The gear is now in the collection of the Indiana University Archives.

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 15 16 | TRACES | Spring 2012 CHARLES CUSHMAN

from his Methodist ministry. Back in Cushman ultimately A circa 1898 photograph of town, the census taker who passed through achieved lasting a young Cushman. The Cushmans, Poseyville in 1900 needed only seven pages fame: Kodachrome according to Bradley Cook, Indiana University Archives photography of his ledger to record the name of every slide transparencies, curator, appeared to he an “above one of Wilbur and Mabel’s neighbors; more than fourteen average... cultural family’’ surely the Cushmans knew them all. thousand of them. and were “leaders of the town.” Family photographs tempt a viewer It is not that they to consider the young Cushman as the were a secret— not coddled only child of small-town gentry exactly. Cushman began to plumb their contents. (a sister, Dorothy, died at the age of two). had mentioned What the two found inside He was the cherished offspring of ambi­ his “fair collection astonished them: a pictorial tious parents who must have considered of interesting pictures” in a 1966 letter record of thirty years of near-constant their little community a pleasant enough sent to Claude Rich, IU Alumni Associa­ driving— from Tijuana, Mexico, to Skow- place, but not the mercantile or cultural tion secretary. He added them to a list of hegan, Maine, from Vancouver to Miami, center that their Tennessee and Massachu­ items, including some RCA Gold Seal totaling more than a half-million miles on setts ancestors might have foreseen in their opera recordings, that he hoped some­ the road (in three cars whose oil changes early flights of entrepreneurial fantasy. It is one at his alma mater might appreciate and tire-pressure checks were recorded in hard to believe that his ambitious rela­ after his death. Cushman’s investments the notebooks), not to mention several tives would not have encouraged him to and inheritances had, by this time, made trips to Europe and the Middle East. On imagine a life for himself beyond the Posey him relatively wealthy, and it was the the crowded pages of other notebooks County line. prospect of an accompanying financial they found notations of the shutter speed, In 1914 Cushman packed his trunk donation— more than a gift of his prized aperture, and location of each image. and left for Indiana University; he never possessions— that no doubt piqued IU’s Comparing Cushman’s notations to his returned to live in Poseyville. And yet, interest. Accepting the offer, the university slides, Remsberg and Cook could see that this small-town childhood, spent “close to guaranteed its fate as the inheritor not he had not culled the best from among a the soil” in turn-of-the-century Indiana, just of a generous monetary gift but of larger set, discarding the rest. Every picture figured surprisingly large in the life’s work boxes filled with tiny framed images— im­ was still in its original order— and there of a man whose subsequent career appears, ages whose previous audiences had been was barely a wasted image in the lot. on the surface, to have grown increasingly limited, perhaps, to drowsy after-dinner What became increasingly clear, as cosmopolitan, urbane, and distant from guests politely deigning to sit with their the pictures came out of their trays, was his Hoosier roots. In the decades that fol­ host as he projected them upon a living that this obsessive Hoosier photographer, lowed, as he made his home in Chicago, room wall. who began his project just two years after New York, and San Francisco, Cushman The boxes, accompanied by Cush­ Kodachrome film first became available earned growing professional recogni­ man’s camera equipment and dozens of and continued it until the death of his tion for his success in selling business densely scribbled, pocket-sized note­ wife, Jean, in 1969, had captured a dying machines, forecasting economic trends, books, arrived at the IU Archives after his world in living color. Through his lens, the analyzing foreign-owned manufacturing death. There they stayed— well cared for United States that we thought we knew assets, even running a prominent brewery. but unseen— until 1999, when archives with photographic certainty—whether But until long after his death in 1972, the photography curator Bradley D. Cook and through the self-conscious artfulness of world knew little of the product for which photographic historian Rich Remsberg professional photographers such as Berenice Abbott and Walker Evans, or through the prosaic footage of recycled newsreels— reveals itself as being but the gray shadow cast by a world no less full Opposite, Top: The Grant Chain farm, Posey County, Indiana, 1938. Opposite, Left: Farming in and tangible than our own. Ordinary Marts Township, Posey County, 1941. Opposite, Right: Student Building and Maxwell Hall on subjects take on unaccustomed beauty, and the Indiana University campus, Bloomington, 1966. beautiful colors are rendered surprisingly

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 17 CHARLES CUSHMAN ordinary, as our eyes open onto places I FOUND MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THE WORLD THAT we might even think we know from our own lives, until we see the tailfins of the HE SAW-AWORLD OF FAMILY FARMS,TWO-LANE car parked at the curb, notice the odd cut HIGHWAYS, SMALL-TOWN MAIN STREETS, URBAN of a passing woman’s dress, or recognize a building’s location as the site we have NEIGHBORHOODS, SKIDS ROWS ON THE BRINK OF known only as a parking lot. DISAPPEARANCE OR UNALTERABLE CHANGE-BUT Looking at Cushman’s photographs FRUSTRATINGLY LITTLE ABOUT THE MAN HIMSELE confounds the unspoken visual grammar that teaches us to recognize in black-and- white images something “past” and in color something familiar and accessible. In his work the past, free of its customary scrapbook, a letter outlining the family about the man himself. Yet to see through gray scrim, becomes impossibly present. genealogy—these are the fragments from his eyes, I came to understand, was in­ The foreignness of his subjects is almost which historians must piece together a creasingly to see him. And to see more of negated by the familiarity of his medium. clearer picture. After IU digitized the Cushman, I had to come back to Indiana, His camera captures a vanished America, Cushman collection and gave it a special the place whence he came and to which, a place lit for one moment by a brilliant website (http://webappl .dlib.indiana.edu again and again, he returned. flash of recall, only to fade once again into /cushman/index.jsp) in 2003, I had an Similar to his slightly younger con­ the obscurity to which we as a society have opportunity to add a few words about the temporaries Hoagy Carmichael and Ernie since consigned it. photographs’ significance for our under­ Pyle, Cushman arrived at IU as a small­ What do we know of the Indiana standing of the history of the everyday town Hoosier with big-time ambitions; native who stood, unseen, behind the American landscape. In the course of like them, he too found at the college rangefinder of a Contax IIA camera? The drafting that essay, I found much to say the opportunity to develop those ambi­ materials that Cushman donated to IU about the world that he saw—a world of tions in a setting that exposed him to contain barely any testimony to his life family farms, two-lane highways, small­ ideas not easily accessible to the resident beyond the photographs that comprise, in town Main Streets, urban neighborhoods, of the farmlands and small towns of early their way, his indirect autobiography. An skid rows on the brink of disappearance or twentieth-century Indiana. Not yet the employment history summary, a college unalterable change—but frustratingly little center of international learning that it became under the leadership of President Herman B Wells, IU had nonetheless begun to fashion itself as the training ground where students preparing for a range of increasingly well-defined and exclusive professions— law, medicine, business— could draw both on technical training and on a traditional liberal arts education. Alongside classes on rhetoric and Elizabethan prose, Cushman pursued coursework in commercial law, journal­ ism, and advertising— all of which, as he later wrote, proved vital to his professional choices in life. The rise of professional training at IU accompanied the state’s rise as an indus­ trial powerhouse, ever more closely tied to, and indistinguishable from, other

18 | TRACES | Spring 2012 Top: A New Harmony street scene, 1941. Above, Left: Strip mining south of Perrysville, Indiana, 1946. Above, Right: Along the LaPorte-Michi- gan City Road, 1949. urbanizing states. U.S. Steel’s Elbert Gary centers such as South Bend, Fort Wayne, artistic careers. That image was crafted in established his new company town on the and Evansville helped to elevate the value the voices of writers such as James W hit­ shores of Lake Michigan when Cushman of the state’s industrial output to nearly $2 comb Riley, who affected his vernacular was nine years old; immigration and man­ billion— ninth in the nation— by 1920. Hoosier style in prose and poetry; in the ufacturing growth catalyzed a more-than- Yet under the shadow of rising smoke­ passion for “pioneer” culture evident in the twofold increase in Indianapolis’s popula­ stacks, the image of a simpler, more pages of the fledgling Indiana Magazine tion from 1890 and 1920; and production peaceful time shone surprisingly bright as o f History, which the Indiana Historical in the capital as well as in other urban Cushman set off on his professional and Society first sent to its members in 1905;

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 19 CHARLES CUSHMAN

and in the images of artists such as IN YEARS TO COME, AS CUSHMAN TRAV­ Theodore C. Steele, many of them working from studios in rural Brown ELED THE COUNTRY AND THEN THE WORLD, County, who made a study of Indiana’s distinctive rustic scenery. Cushman, a THE LARGELY UNALTERED BACKROADS OF child of the industrial age, absorbed this POSEY COUNTY REMAINED A TOUCHSTONE image like many other twentieth-century Hoosiers (one thinks, again, of Pyle and OF HIS VIEW OF AMERICAN LIFE. Carmichael) with similar worldly experi­ ences. In years to come, as Cushman ing at the rank of seaman second class at landed him a job as a researcher for the traveled the country and then the world, Great Lakes Naval Base and “never [going] LaSalle Business Bulletin, an economic the largely unaltered backroads of Posey further east than Buffalo, New York.” forecasting sheet published by the LaSalle County remained a touchstone of his view Cushman’s father had passed away a short Extension University, a business training of American life. time earlier, and Cushman and his mother institute located on the South Side. The Most of Cushman’s pictures show his settled into a South Side apartment while Bulletins “original Douglas Condition adopted city of Chicago. He had moved he searched for work. After a short career Map, in use over thirty years for business there with his mother, Mabel, in 1918 as a traveling salesman, his business train­ purposes,” which drew on Cushman’s after his discharge from “about as unpoetic ing and journalism skills (honed at the research, represented in graphic form the a military career as any of the war”— serv­ sporting desk of the Indiana Daily Student) condition of one or another market sec-

A 1963 Cushman photograph of the Johnson County Courthouse in Franklin, Indiana. Designed by architect George W. Buenting, the courthouse opened in 1882. Today it is on the National Register of Historic Places.

20 \ TRACES | Spring 2012 CHARLES CUSHMAN

Left: A 1945 Cushman photograph of Poseyville, Indiana. Named for Thomas Posey, the governor of the Indiana Territory, the community was called Palestine until 1852. Below: Near the old dam on the Wabash River in Posey County, Indiana.

tor (housing, mining, grains, automotive manufacture, and the like) as it existed at that moment in different parts of the nation. To read the Bulletin of the 1920s is to see the fulfillment—through economies of scale, improved communications, and mechanical innovation—of the promise of modern culture as it was pioneered by families such as the Cushmans in places like Posey County a hundred years earlier. Farming still undergirds the economy, but now, reports Bulletin editor Archer Wall Douglas, “the farmer no longer determines the nature and acreage of his products merely by local happenings, but he is being more and more influenced by the world-wide story of agricultural events.” Not far from those farm fields, “in the Central West and in the South, the small ers to invest in small and moderate-sized In 1929 Cushman’s talents for high­ towns are becoming more and more the homes on the fringes and in the suburbs of lighting these trends won him the edi­ sites of manufacturing plants” operated by the great cities.” In all its salient features— torship of Your Money, a new magazine big-city companies in search of cheaper la­ communication, transportation, technol­ introduced by the Standard Statistics bor and more efficient distribution. Wide­ ogy, and trade— the economy described in Company (not yet merged with Poor’s, spread automobile ownership contributes the Bulletin represented the improvement another forecasting firm). The job took to the “increasing tendency of wage earn­ and refinement of trends evident for a Cushman to New York City, where he af­ century or more. fected a light touch in his approach to the

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 21 CHARLES CUSHMAN

task of helping investors to manage their money in the midst of the U.S. economy’s THE BUSINESSMAN AND THE SOCIAL ongoing boom years. “Probably it weakens DOCUMENTARIAN ... HAD FOUND A one’s strategic position to offer an apology before one makes a bow,” he wrote in his COMMON MEDIUM THROUGH WHICH first editor’s note, before going on to estab­ TO CHANNEL THEIR INTERESTS. lish his own intent of putting a more per­ sonal stamp (including, if the whim suited him, “a description of the floral life of the unsentimental facts of the statistician or himself as an idiosyncratic but trustworthy Amazon Valley”) than readers customarily the banker into the reassuring language of observer of the American scene. expected from a market newsletter. In a a trusted brother or a college roommate. It was that space that Cushman set out manner at once professionally contrived Your Money continued the premise of the to fill in his pictures. When he returned and innately suited to his own disposition, Bulletin— that the American economy to Chicago after less than a year at Your Cushman spoke familiarly to the everyday could be explained in simple, compre­ Money, he brought something with him: a investor— the physician, the attorney, the hensive terms— but the newer publica­ black-and-white photograph of the desert­ store owner, the insurance executive— a tion reflected its editor’s affinity for those ed streets beside the Manhattan anchorage man more concerned, ultimately, with personal, quirky, and particular stories of the Brooklyn Bridge. Common sense his own and his family’s well-being than that lay within the bigger abstractions of suggests that the street scene was only one with the minutiae of the market. To this the statistician. In his opening apology, of a number of photographs he must have ideal reader, Cushman translated the Cushman tried to carve out a space for taken in his brief New York sojourn, but this image is the only print to have sur­ vived his moves of the subsequent decades. The picture’s contrasts—of human and monumental scale, of light and shadow, of closely-packed buildings facing near-emp­ ty streets— offer a dynamic visual compo­ sition, but they serve at the same time to document a pregnant moment in the life of the city. Not only do we see a neighbor­ hood momentarily stripped of the move­ ment and the noise that will animate it during the coming working week, but we also feel, with Cushman, a deeper sense of quiet—the hush of a neighborhood, and of a way of life, soon to be abandoned to changing ways of conducting commerce. An eye naturally attuned to detail—an eye that Cushman had threatened to turn toward “the floral life of the Amazon Val­ ley” if the spirit moved him—had found much closer at hand a subject worthy of its Inland Steel, Indiana Harbor, 1946. attention. The businessman and the social documentarian, both of whom had coex­ isted in Cushman from early in his career, had found a common medium through which to channel their interests.

22 | TRACES | Spring 2012 Barefoot children along the roadside, Posey County, Indiana, 1941

Cushman had married into comfort, crossed America seeking to capture— as known was the narrative work of the writ­ if not quite fortune, and therefore had Cushman himself once had in statistics er John Steinbeck, who became a national the free time to pursue his new passion. and business forecasts— the essence of the sensation with the 1939 publication of His father-in-law, Joseph R. Hamilton, a country. Some of those photographers (in­ his novel The Grapes o f Wrath— itself a fic­ prominent Chicago advertising executive, cluding Evans, Ben Shahn, and Dorothea tional adaptation of Steinbeck’s reportorial helped the younger man at various times Lange) worked for the Historical Section photodocumentary on the lives of migrant in the coming Depression years, allowing of the Farm Security Administration, workers in California’s Central Valley. Cushman and his wife, Jean, to begin their which sought to distribute photographic Cushman was aware of Steinbeck too— a habit of taking lengthy road trips. The images representing the effects both of fact that we know because the scant paper­ “minicamera” accompanied them—as it the Depression and of the New Deal’s work at IU reveals that Hamilton was the did many middle-class American travel­ efforts to speed recovery. Cushman must novelist’s uncle, and subsequent searches ers at the time. In his combined passion have known of the FSA work— Hamilton reveal that Steinbeck visited the Hamilton for driving and for documenting what he would be called to Washington to serve as family in both Chicago and Washington. found along the way, he doubtless knew director of information of the Works Prog­ Uncle Joe himself would later appear, in of the example set by a growing number ress Administration, the federal agency barely fictionalized form, in Steinbeck’s of photographers and writers who criss­ overseeing the FSA’s activities. Equally 1952 family saga, East o f Eden.

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 23 Cushman had amassed a good collec­ tion of road pictures before he happened upon the product that changed his life and ensured his legacy. In 1936 the Eastman Kodak Company began marketing its breakthrough in “living color”: a layered acetate film that selectively filtered, and then recombined, the three basic elements (red, green, and blue) of the color spec­ trum. Expensive to own, difficult to print, Kodachrome film quickly became known as a medium for serious amateurs— people with the time and the means to deal with its demanding conditions. For two years, photographers who received their film back from Kodak’s labs had to cut the in­ dividual 35-millimeter exposures by hand and place them into cardboard sleeves for protection. In 1938 the company began returning developed film in the form of Top and Above: Dunes in Porter County, Indiana, 1939. Ready Mount slides, which obviated the need for the tedious process of cutting and mounting. It was in the autumn of that CHARLES CUSHMAN

year that Cushman bought a roll on a trip to California, where he took his first color picture—of the recently opened Golden Gate Bridge. At work and out of work, in Chicago or in his adopted (after 1951) home of San Francisco, Cushman continued his twin habits of driving and picture taking for the next three decades. Chicago and San Francisco remained his most-often pho­ tographed cities; California and the desert Southwest provided the backdrop for the majority of his rural and landscape scenes. But his home state continued to draw him back, whether on weekend drives home to Posey County or passing through on longer trips south and east. Cushman’s Indiana is heavily filtered looming stacks of Gary and East Chicago. graphic palette, Cushman’s modern views through nostalgic eyes. Just as his urban In Porter County he visited the miniature of bygone Indiana scenes mixed past and views in Chicago, New York, Los Ange­ town of Littleton, while his trips back to present, sentiment and analysis in a way les, and San Francisco focused on sites of towns such as Poseyville proved that the that captured the paradoxes of progress in decay, demolition, and imminent disap­ tourist attraction’s idealized small-town a state that has always moved forward with pearance, his 300-image collection of world still existed, at full scale, around one eye on its past. As his pictures made home-state photographs leaned heavily on the state. County courthouses, flowering clear, even a savvy investment adviser rural settings and small-town scenes whose trees, historic homes— the Indiana scenes could remain, until the end of his days, survival was threatened by the industrial are, curiously, more cautious and more heavily invested— like so many of his fel­ economy that he documented in his daily predictable than his images taken else­ low Hoosiers— in the past. work. Cushman still demonstrated an where in the country. They suggest either Eric Sandweiss is associate professor o f understanding of what it meant to live one shrewd businessman’s determined history at Indiana University, where he is “pretty close to the soil”—whether that effort to go along with the increasingly also editor o f the Indiana Magazine of His­ involved preparing the autumn wheat har­ idealized, even commercialized image tory. His article is based on his new book vest or piling the waste left by coal mining. of “pioneer” Indiana that persevered The Day in Its Color: Charles Cushman’s By the banks of the Ohio River, he found throughout the economic and cultural Photographic Journey through a Vanish­ small farms that looked much the same changes of the twentieth century or, on ing America, published by Oxford Univer­ as those he had left behind as a young the other hand, a lingering blind spot in sity Press. Sandweiss is also the author o f man—and children and old people whose the otherwise acute hindsight of an aging St. Louis: The Evolution of an American families he may have known from his own H oosier, unable quite to turn his back on Urban Landscape (2001) and, with David childhood. At IU, he walked the campus the world of his parents and grandparents. Harris, Eadweard Muybridge and the paths of the Old Crescent. At the dunes Well before Kodachrome’s living color had Photographic Panorama of San Francisco he sought out views unmarked by the supplemented shades of gray in the photo­ (1993). •

FOR FURTHER READING ------

Brown, Elspeth H. The Corporate Eye: Photography and the Rationalization of American Commercial Culture, 1884-1929. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. | Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection, Indiana University Archives, http://webappl.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/index.jsp/. | Macleish, Archibald. Land of the Free. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1938. | Newhall, Beaumont. The History o f Photography from 1839 to the Present Day. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1964. | Rijper, Els, ed. Kodachrome: The American Invention o f Our World, 1939-1959. New York: Delano Greenridge, 2002. | Stewart, George Rippey. U.S. 40: Cross Section o f the United States o f America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1953.

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 25 m il\7

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frican American art often provides a visual interpretation of American artists in Indianapolis. They note Holiday as a source of education and history. Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series depicting the A encouragement. He received training at movement of African Americans from the South to the North, the Herron, having known from an early age historically themed murals and paintings of Hale Woodruff, and the that he wanted to be an artist. Holiday was an art teacher and inspiration to aspiring jazz-inspired sculptures of Indianapolis native John Spaulding all artists; his art captured the beauty of black provide a sense of black history and culture through art. culture1. “People call me a black artist,” Holiday was quoted in the Indianapolis Star, “but I’m really not. I’m a painter of Hale Woodruff (1900-1980) is one John Wesley Hardrick (1891-1968) people, that’s all. I paint people because of the more recognized African American and William Edouard Scott (1884-1964), people are the most important thing. If artists with Indiana roots. He trained at who were also featured in Shared Heritage, I paint black, it’s because I know black the Herron Art Institute and taught art emphasized African Americans and his­ best.” at Atlanta University from 1931 to 1946. tory in their work. Born in Indianapolis, Concerns about the lack of institution­ He is best known for his murals detailing Scott was one of the preeminent artists of al representation and artistic outlets have African American experiences. Perhaps his time, often described as the “dean of been echoed by many African American his most famous works are the Amistad Negro artists.” George Washington Carver, artists. This concern prompted artist Murals: The Revolt, The Court Scene, Booker T. Washington, and Frederick Anthony Radford to establish Meet the and Back to Africa located at the Savery Douglass were subjects in his paintings. Artists (an annual art exhibition presented Library at Talladega College in Alabama. Like Scott, Hardrick also an India­ by the Indianapolis-Marion County The murals depict the events of the napolis native, painted portraits Public Library’s African-American Amistad Mutiny by Africans following of African Americans, many History Committee that celebrates their kidnapping in 1839. It focuses on prominent, during his their seizure of the ship that transported career. Both also painted them, their vindication in court, and their scenes that reflected the return home. Woodruff was one of the daily life experiences of subjects covered in Shared Heritage: Art black people. by Four African Americans, an exhibition Joseph Holiday (1928 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1990) is praised among 1996. contemporary African

Opposite: I Ain’t Got Long to Stay Here by Michele Wood. Right: Cupdripsplash by Malcolm Mobutu Smith.

Spring 2012 | 27 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

twenty-four years in 2012.) “The city needs to know more about its talented black artists and also needs to do more to encourage them,” asserted a 1992 Indianapolis Star article. The article also featured a comment by jewelry artist and maker Carol White, who noted, “African- American artists are excluded a lot from major exhibitions.” When recently asked if her feelings had changed, White responded:

So much has changed in the artist community since the Star article was written. I think the reality is that the economy has had an enormous ef­ fect on what is happening in the “art world” and African American artists and mediums. It will be at the ISM until Indianapolis native Michele Wood cre­ (particularly more seasoned artists) October 14, 2012, and includes some ates scenes pertaining to African Ameri­ continue to face difficulties as collec­ historical pieces to give context for current can history. She has illustrated children’s tors, supporters and/or large institu­ art trends. The exhibition is part of the books, including I See the Rhythm (1998) tions tighten their belts. museum’s long-term collecting strategy to and I See the Rhythm o f Gospel (2010). Tuliza Fleming, former associate acquire works by African Americans and Regarding her children’s books illustra­ curator of American art at the Dayton artists of color throughout the state. tions, she commented to the Indianapolis Art Institute and museum curator at the The exhibition is presented in two Star in 2011: National Museum of African American interconnected sections: Artistic Style and What I do is not just art; it’s African- History and Culture, Smithsonian Institu­ Life Experiences. Artistic styles range from American history. It’s teaching them tion, said in the article, “The Museum the abstract expressionism of Felrath Hines [children] about our culture. Despite Baby Grows Up: Being a Curator of Color to the digital manipulation of photogra­ our situation, we still had our pride in a Monochromatic Art Museum World,” phy by William Rasdell. It also includes and self-respect, and I want to tell our featured in Museum News in 2005, “art the quilts and poetry of Linda Gray. The tale with dignity and pride. Not only is museums must move out of their comfort Life Experiences section provides artis­ it our history, but it’s America’s history. zones and reflect the full diversity of our tic interpretation of scenes from African I think it’s important to tell kids our story. I’m very proud to be able to do communities on multiple levels.” American history. Roderic Trabue embrac­ that; that’s what I’m interested in. It’s In an effort to es the emboldened more than just painting. further incorporate spirit of the Black “full diversity of our Power Move­ Wood’s I See the Rhythm o f Gospel solo communities” into ment in Panthers exhibition was featured in the Lanham its collections and (1967) and White’s Gallery of the Indiana Historical Society exhibitions, the In­ Surviving the Past, in late 2011. diana State Museum Creating the Future Indianapolis artist Jay Parnell is skilled mounted REPRE­ (2008) expresses at creating profound depictions of African SENT: Celebrating In­ the hopefulness that Americans that go beyond the familiar, as diana's African-Amer­ many felt with the in Utterance #1. The viewer is provoked ican Artists, a group election of the first and challenged to determine the thoughts art show with a focus African American as hidden in the eyes of the lone man. Parnell on contemporary president in 2008. is inspired by African American literature artists, techniques,

Utterance #1 by Jay Parnell.

28 | TRACES | Spring 2012 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

and the works of such writers as Toni Mor­ Kisha Tandy is an assistant curator of curator, served as curators for REPRESENT: rison and James Baldwin. He is a 2007 social history at the Indiana State Museum. Celebrating Indiana’s African-American Arts Council of Indianapolis Creative She and Rachel Perry, former ISM fine arts Artists. • Renewal Fellowship recipient. Wayne Manns remixes an iconic painting to reflect contemporary politi­ cal history and the musical contributions of African Americans to this country in The Crossing, an artistic interpretation of Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s Washing­ ton Crossing the Delaware. With Barack Obama replacing George Washington, two very important presidential firsts in Ameri­ can history are depicted, with Washington as the first person to serve as president, and Obama as the first African Ameri­ can to serve as president. John Coltrane, saxophonist, and Ray Brown, bassist, are incorporated into the work to represent “We the People.” Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen are also featured to symbolize “blind faith” and “American values.” Malcolm Mobutu Smith, a ceram­ ics artist and professor of fine art, often looks to hip-hop culture and graffiti as he creates. Seeing the Style Wars documentary about hip-hop as a teenager had a great impact on his artistic career. He said that graffiti informs his ceramic art and is the inspiration for all his work. Like many artists, African Americans tell stories with their work. They are il­ lustrated stories of experiences that have captured their community, country, and world. Often they include personal jour­ neys that are significant to their individual lives. This work provides a record of the past as art intersects history.

Panthers (1967) by Roderic Trabue.

FOR FURTHER READING ------

Lewis, Samella. African American Art and Artists. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. | Reynolds, Gary A., Beryl J. Wright, and David C Driskell. Against the Odds: African-American Artists and the Harmon Foundation. Newark, NJ: Newark Museum, 1989. | Taylor, William Edward, Harriet Garcia Warkel, and Margaret Taylor Burroughs. A Shared Heritage: Art by Four African Americans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 29 30 | TRACES | Spring 2012 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

Opposite: Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. leans on the podium during a March 26,1964, press conference. Right: Ministers’ service for King on Monument Circle in Indianapolis on April 13,1968. King died from an assassin’s bullet on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had been campaigning on behalf of striking sanitation workers.

The son of a pastor, Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929. At the age of fifteen, he entered Morehouse College. By the time he was twenty-six, he had degrees (including a doctorate) from Morehouse, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University. A pastor and a civil rights ac­ tivist and leader, King was thrust into the national limelight when he led the Mont­ gomery Bus Boycott in 1955. Two years later, he helped establish the Southern accommodations, an end to racial dis­ to the black-and-white television set. It Christian Leadership Conference. He trav­ crimination, school desegregation, and fair was a transformative moment. The event eled throughout the country passionately practices in employment. In a seventeen- was carried on live television around the advocating for civil rights for all Americans minute speech, declaring the importance country, with many foreign journalists using the nonviolent resistance methods of equality, King brought attention to the reporting back to their homelands. aligned with the teachings of Mahatma centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s signing Indianapolis attorney Henry J. Gandhi. King visited Indiana many times, of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Richardson corresponded with King mostly speaking in Indianapolis and Gary. lack of racial progress. The Lincoln Memo­ before and after the 1963 March on He came to Indianapolis in December rial served as the backdrop as he spoke elo­ Washington. On the day of the march, he 1958 to address the Senate Avenue Young quently about the ideals espoused by the wrote King a heartfelt letter commend­ Men’s Christian Association’s Monster Declaration of Independence and the U.S. ing him on his speech. Racially motivated Meeting. Anticipating a large crowd, the Constitution. The speech commanded in­ murders; King’s orations and work, along group held its meeting at the Cadle Tab­ clusiveness with the usage of theme words with the work of various civil rights orga­ ernacle. More than four thousand people such as we, justice, and freedom. Laced nization; the assassination of John F. Ken­ attended the speech. Local cardiologist with extremely descriptive and engag­ nedy; escalating violations of civil rights; Harvey N. Middleton was so impressed ing metaphors, it also made references to and the rise of increased militancy in civil by King’s speech that he penned a letter specific states and geographical locations rights groups galvanized the country and to Benjamin Mays, longtime president of within the country. laid the foundation for the passage of the Morehouse College and a mentor to King. I was a preteen in 1963. Listening 1964 Civil Rights Bill and a Voting Rights Five years later, King captivated the intently to King’s “I Have a Dream” Bill in 1965. nation when more than two hundred speech, I watched the emotion that In 1964 King, at age thirty-five, be­ thousand people gathered for the March mounted in my father’s eyes as we sat in came the youngest man to be awarded the on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. our living room with our attention fixed Nobel Peace Prize. He continued to log People throughout the country traveled by foot, train, bus, plane, and automobile to I WATCHED THE EMOTION THAT MOUNTED IN MY get to the march. The Indianapolis Social Council sponsored three buses. A national FATHER’S EYES AS WE SAT IN OUR LIVING ROOM WITH coalition of several civil rights organiza­ OUR ATTENTION FIXED TO THE BLACK-AND-WHITE tions came together to advocate for public TELEVISION SET. IT WAS A TRANSFORMATIVE MOMENT.

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 31 Many institutions and organizations had memorial services shortly after King’s assassination and services were held at ___ — ■— ' several area schools and churches. Local ministers held a public service at Monu­ People learned of King’s death in vari­ ment Circle in Indianapolis. miles and speak widely. In addition to his ous ways— most commonly by radio and Throughout the country various places advocacy for civil rights, voter registration, television. In Indianapolis many people at­ (including schools, parks, buildings, roads, and the plight of poor people, he extended tending a campaign speech by Democratic bridges, and streets) have been named or his concern to include the Vietnam War, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy renamed to honor King’s memory. Many advocating for an end to that conflict. were surprised when he announced King’s Indiana cities including Anderson, East On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated assassination. Following King’s death, riots Chicago, Evansville, Gary, Indianapolis, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had erupted in more than a hundred cities Muncie, South Bend, and Terre Haute participated in a protest march for striking across the country. The reaction of local have christened streets with the name of sanitation workers. black leadership and Kennedy’s words the civil rights leader. Annual tributes, have been credited for the tranquility in ecumenical services, memorial services, Indianapolis.

32 | TRACES | Spring 2012

President Ronald Reagan signs House Resolution 3706 designating the third Monday in January as a national holiday honoring King. Behind the president, left to right, are: Coretta Scott King, widow of King; Representative Katie Hall of Indiana; Samuel Pierce, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; J. Steven Rhodes, domestic policy assistant for Vice President George Bush; and Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee. and other events are held in many of these signed legislation (proposed by Katie American history, King has evolved from cities and others, including Corydon, Jef­ Hall, a congresswoman from Indiana) a civil rights leader to become a symbol of fersonville, and Richmond. There are Mar­ establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day the American civil rights movement. tin Luther King community or recreation as a federal holiday. Throughout Indiana Wilma L. Moore is senior archivist, centers in Indianapolis, East Chicago, in January 2012 there were commissions, African American history, for the Indiana and South Bend; a Martin Luther King exhibitions, and programming, and service Historical Society’s William Henry Smith Montessori School in Fort Wayne; and a activities used to mark King’s life and Memorial Library. • Martin Luther King Elementary School in work. One of the most celebrated men in Richmond. In 1983 President Ronald Reagan

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 33 ■ ■ Slavery and Involuntary Servitude in Vincennes, Indiana

DANI PFAFF

“THE CONSTITUTION... DECLARES.. .THAT ALL MEN ARE FREE; BUT IF THEIR SKINS BE BLACK,THEY ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS DECLARATION, SLAVES BEING NECESSARY FOR THE EASE AND COMFORT OF THE FREEMEN OF INDIANA.” ENEAS MACKENZIE,TRAVELING IN INDIANA IN 1820 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

History textbooks reveal that Article sixty years old; Price also claimed Millie’s VI of the Northwest Ordinance prohibited eight-year-old son. In September 1807 the slavery and involuntary servitude in the general assembly passed legislation, signed territory north of the Ohio River. Indiana by Indiana Territory governor William history and social studies textbooks also Henry Harrison, that allowed owners to quote Indiana’s 1816 Constitution, Article sell or gift the terms of service of their XI, Section 7, “There shall be neither indentured servants. slavery nor involuntary servitude,” to A number of travelers who visited demonstrate that Indiana was a free state. Indiana left a record of their impressions But how did these mandates actually affect about the territory and state, including African Americans living in Indiana? The their views on slavery and involuntary ser­ historical records and sources that remain vitude. In 1812 John Melish, an English for an Indiana community can provide a merchant traveling in the territory, wrote ing was required of the associates and a more complex and more accurate under­ “Slavery was originally prohibited but the simple majority vote ruled. In Julia’s case, standing of that community’s past. Such law has been relaxed in favor of the new the two Knox County associate judges, explorations of local history can also bring settlers who have slaves, and there are now John Ewing and John Drennon, ruled new meaning and facts to assumed and 237 slaves in this territory.” In 1816 David that Julia should be returned to Shelby; often-repeated Indiana history. Court Thomas, another traveler through Indiana, presiding judge Jonathan Doty dissented. records and other public and private docu­ stated: “slaves were so convenient that in­ The majority opinion stated: “If any Act of ments from Vincennes, Knox County, dentures were employed, though ‘it is now Congress could invalidate contracts made dated from approximately 1805 through generally understood that these articles under this territorial act [the 1805 act 1823, reveal a more complex history con­ must be declared nugatory whenever a mentioned earlier], they would not have cerning slavery and involuntary servitude legal investigation shall be made.’” sanctioned the Constitution of the state in Indiana. The information in these docu­ A careful examination of the Knox of Illinois who was equally bound by the ments provokes new questions that may County, Indiana, Circuit Court Order ordinance; yet we find they have legalized lead others to undertake further research Book provides details of the legal system such contracts in her constitution made about this topic in Vincennes and in other that better explains Thomas’s statement. under precisely the same by her citizens.” areas of the state. Under the 1816 Indiana Constitution, The opinion concluded: “the sixth article In 1805 the Indiana Territory General African Americans attempted to gain their of the ordinance is and was at the period Assembly passed a law that allowed slave freedom in the Knox County Circuit the Territorial Legislature enacted the law owners to bring enslaved African Ameri­ Court beginning at the May Term 1817, ‘concerning the introduction of negroes cans into the territory, determine terms in which the venue of two habeas cor­ and mulattoes into this territory’ incom­ of service, and record the terms with the pus cases originating in Clark County, patible with the constitution of the U. clerks of the court. Dated November 25, Indiana, were changed to Knox County. States, and void and of none effect, and 1805, the first record in the Knox County Julia, a mulatto girl, and Lucy, a woman that all agreements and indentures made Register of Negro Slaves lists Elli Hawkins of color, sought freedom from their Clark under and conformable to that Territorial as the owner of “a negro lad of the age County owners, Evan and Isaac Shelby. Act before the adoption of our constitu­ of 16 years being a slave named Jacob.” By July 1817 the venue for Lucy v. Isaac tion are binding and valid.” In compliance with the 1805 law, Jacob Shelby had changed again, this time to the Ironically, in June 1818, the Mississip­ agreed to serve Hawkins and his assignees Harrison County Circuit Court. pi Supreme Court freed three slaves who for ninety years, “From and after the the In Knox County, the circuit court had been taken to Mississippi from Indi­ [sic] expiration of which said Term the continued Julia’s case against Evan Shelby ana by their owner because he was afraid said Jacob shall be free to all intents and through five terms from May 1817 until the 1816 Indiana Constitution would purposes,” at the age of 106. In one of the September 14, 1819. At this time, Indiana force him to free them. The Mississippi last entries in the register, on February 10, circuit courts were composed of a presid­ Supreme Court determined the slaves were 1807, Benjamin Price arranged for twenty- ing judge, who had some legal experience, free because the Northwest Ordinance year-old Millie to serve him until she was and two associate judges. No legal train­ and the Indiana Constitution prohibited

36 | TRACES | Spring 2012 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

slavery and made it possible for slaves to Knox County Circuit Court presid­ Orleans in the state of Louisiana,” and in assert their freedom in Mississippi. ing judge Thomas H. Blake issued a writ Polly’s case “to other places beyond the African Americans living in Vincennes that same day commanding Hyacinthe high seas.” Tabbs asked the court to con­ also made application to the county legal Lasselle to bring Polly and James to his sider how Polly and James could legally be system to gain their freedom. In Septem­ chambers on August 4, 1818. Lasselle did bound to service due to the “involuntary” ber 1817 the Knox County Circuit Court not acknowledge receipt of the July 15 nature of their indentures. Lasselle asked heard at least six new habeas corpus peti­ document until July 17 at 9:30 am. Curi­ the judge for dismissal. No record of the tions involving more than fifteen persons ously, on July 16, James and Polly signed judge’s ruling has been located. of color. Several of the cases were post­ their marks on indentures that read: “I African Americans continued to peti­ poned to the April 1818 term and then to have remained quietedly & contentedly tion for their freedom. The Knox County the July 1818 term and beyond. in the employment [of] . . . Hyacinthe Circuit Court Order Book for the Octo­ On July 11, 1818, in the case of Katy, a Lasselle until the present time when I ber 1818 Term of Court lists four habeas girl o f color vs. Jean Bte Laplant, the Knox am taught and induced to believe that I corpus suits, all of which were postponed County Circuit Court, after consider­ am free— but in as much as I conceive it to the February 1819 term. On December ation, ordered the girl to be discharged would be the height of ingratitude not to 16, 1818, Vincennes resident, General from Laplant’s custody. Katy appears to be make a just retribution & compensation Washington Johnston, was commissioned the first person of color discharged from by my services for the care & attention he presiding judge of the Knox County Cir­ service as a slave or indentured servant in has bestowed on me in my infancy and cuit Court by Indiana governor Jonathan Knox County after Indiana became a state. minority.” James agreed to serve four years Jennings. Unfortunately, the Knox County Circuit and Polly agreed to serve twelve years. For the February 1819 term of the Court Order Book offers no additional On August 4, Lasselle could tell the judge Knox County Circuit Court, the order information about her prior status or the that before the writ was served, James and book lists four habeas corpus cases, includ­ cause for her discharge. Polly had appeared before a Knox County ing the case for James and Polly. At their At this same term of court, on July 15, Justice of the Peace and “acknowledged the hearing, the court order stated: “The pre­ 1818, attorney Moses Tabbs petitioned the indentures to be their voluntary acts and siding judge [General Washington John­ court for a habeas corpus writ on behalf deeds.” ston] of this court having heretofore been of an enslaved African American woman Tabbs responded that Polly and James engaged and therefore feeling an interest named Jenny and her two children, James, should not be held in service by the above in the cause, ordered that the same be seventeen, and Polly (Strong), twenty two. indentures because “Lasselle and others . . . continued to the next term.” In the next According to her petition, Jenny had been detained [Polly and James] in prison until case on the docket, Hannah, a girl o f color kidnapped by Indians and held captive by the force and duress of imprisonment” v. John B. Drennon, “Parties appeared by until after the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, each signed the indenture. On July 16 their counsel and argument had thereon, when she was sold to French trader An­ “and oftentimes before . . . [Lasselle] men­ the Court were divided in opinion and toine Lasselle. Jenny’s two children, James aced and threatened [Polly and James] to the action abates of course.” The judges and Polly belonged to Antoine’s nephew— take and carry them by force and without disagreed; Hannah’s case was dismissed. a Vincennes resident named Hyacinthe consent and to sell and convey them out The 1820 U.S. Census for Knox Lasselle. of the State of Indiana to the city of New County listed Presiding Judge Johnston as the owner of three slaves. Before the next term of court began in May 1819, Johnston and William R. McCall, one of “ LASSELLE AND OTHERS... the two associate judges, resigned. Jen­ DETAINED [POLLY AND JAMES] IN nings commissioned Jonathan Doty as presiding judge. John B. Drennon, the PRISON UNTIL BYTHE FORCE AND defendant in the case in which Hannah brought suit, filled the associate judge DURESS OF IMPRISONMENT” EACH vacancy. The 1820 census lists one free SIGNED THE INDENTURE. colored female, aged fourteen or younger,

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 37 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

in Drennon’s household, and no slaves in Doty’s household. At the Knox County Circuit Court on May 11, 1819, in the case ofJames and Polly v. Lasselle, “The parties appeared in the case by their counsel and on motion of the deft by his counsel, the cause is dis­ missed it appearing that this case . . . was placed irregularly upon the docket.” After this, James disappeared from the habeas corpus suits in Knox County. Polly’s name did not appear in Knox County court re­ cords again until January 27, 1820, when attorney Amory Kinney sought a writ commanding Hyacinthe Lasselle to bring Polly to court the next day. “I hold her by purchase as my slave,” Lasselle explained, “the said Polly being the issue of a colored woman who was purchased from the Indi­ ans in the territory north west of the river Ohio, previous to the Treaty of Grenville \sic\, and cession of said Territory to the U.S. and who in common with many other colored persons in this state have been recognized as slaves by the compact between the two governments or the laws of the country.” Polly’s counsel replied: “al­ though her mother may have been taken by Indians and sold as a slave, yet by the laws of nature & nations, she could not be held by them as Slaves much less her offsprings and although her mother might have been purchased of Indians, and liable to be held as a Slave yet she the said Polly was born since the Ordinance of Congress passed in the year 1787, to wit in the year 1796, and therefore she is entitled to freedom.” Polly’s case was heard February 12, 1820; Lasselle asked for a continuance to obtain testimony at Fort Wayne and Detroit, which was granted. Earlier in January Polly may have taken a more forceful path to free herself from Lasselle. She apparently took up residence Above and Opposite: On July 22,1820, the Indiana Supreme Court freed Polly from Hyacinthe with Joseph Huffman, an African Ameri­ Lasselle’s custody. Lasselle soon began preparations to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme can barber also living in Vincennes. Las­ Court. selle filed a suit against Huffman demand-

38 | TRACES | Spring 2012 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

ing $ 1 per day for every day that Polly’s services were withheld from him. He asked for $100 in damages as well. Doty issued a warrant for Huffman’s arrest. Lasselle explained to the judge that he had legally owned Polly as his slave for fourteen years and that Huffman “did harbor said Polly without her having any certificate [from any court granting her freedom] . . . com­ mencing on the 9th day of January . . . and ending on the 27th day.” On February 10, the Knox County Grand Jury indicted Huffman “for harboring a servant girl,” stating that Huffman’s actions “were of evil example to others in like cases.” The civil and criminal cases were postponed to the next term of court in May. Perhaps Polly’s legal status needed to be determined before the charges against Huffman could be pursued. On February 19,1820, a new habeas corpus case was heard in the Knox County Circuit Court and “held for consideration until next term.” Francis Jackson, a man of color, sought freedom from his mistress, Francoise Tisdale. The court ordered the Knox County sheriff to hire out Jackson “for the benefit of the party who may have judgment in their favor.” While Jackson waited for his trial, the sheriff hired him out to work; whoever won the case was to receive Jackson’s earnings. The Circuit Court Order Book shows that both Polly and Jackson appeared in the Knox County Circuit Court on May 1, 1820. The court stated: “Both cases as­ suming the same aspect, and involving the same question— after some argument by counsel, it was agreed on both sides that the two cases should be submitted to and decided by the court upon the following facts”: 1. The mothers were legally held as slaves in territory claimed by Virginia prior to its 1783 Ces­ sion to the United States and the 1787 Northwest Ordinance.

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 39 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

2. Both Polly and Francis were born at which time Lasselle asked the Court to duration of the appeal if it were signed after the cession and the ordinance. dismiss Polly’s suit, but the Court over­ by Indiana Supreme Court Justice John 3. Their mothers were never liberated ruled the motion. On July 20 counsel Scott, living in Charlestown, Indiana. “unless that was effected [sic] by the pas­ for Polly and for Lasselle appeared at the Unfortunately, research efforts to date have sage of the sixth article of the Ordinance Court “and after argument had, but the not located much additional informa­ of Congress.” court not being sufficiently advised of and tion concerning this cause. According to The Knox County court asked the concerning the premises give the parties documents in the collection, the messen­ following questions: were the mothers further day in the present term to hear ger traveled to Corydon and returned to liberated by the passage of the Northwest their judgment thereafter.” On July 22, Vincennes by August 7, 1820, when he Ordinance, Article VI, prohibiting slavery? 1820, the Court upheld Article XI, Sec­ delivered a bill for $13.75 for his services If the mothers were not liberated, were the tion 7 of the state’s 1816 constitution with to Lasselle. A search of some U.S. Supreme children born free because of the North­ its decision in the case of Polly v. Lasselle, Court records and sources at the Indiana west Ordinance? ruling: “under our present form of govern­ State Archives has yielded no additional In its opinion, the Knox County court ment, slavery can have no existence in the information. agreed that slavery was legal in Virginia State of Indiana.” The Court discharged Henry P. Coburn, Clerk of the Indiana and its territories before the Northwest Polly from Lasselle’s custody, and ordered Supreme Court issued orders to the Har­ Ordinance, and it agreed that the ordi­ him to pay the costs and charges incurred rison County, Indiana, sheriff to collect nance could not affect a legal claim that by Polly in her suit. $26.12 from Lasselle— the costs and existed before its passage. Destroying that The common interpretation of those charges expended by Polly in her suit— claim “would be not only contrary to the familiar with the Polly case is that it ended three different times from September 1820 spirit of all our laws but would be in open slavery in Indiana. According to the online through August 1821. On October 11, violation of the Constitution of the United Wikipedia entry for Polly v. Lasselle: “The 1821, Amory Kinney, one of Polly’s law­ States which makes private property case resulted in the court ordering all yers, received $10, the fee for counsel. The inviolable.” To the question of “whether slaves held within Indiana to be freed.” Court did not make any monetary award the child inherits the fate of its mother,” However, the order of the Court in the to Polly in its decision to free her. the court answered in the affirmative, case only discharged Polly from Lasselle’s Earlier, in April 1821, Polly, with stating that if the Northwest Ordinance custody. Again, Knox County documents Kinney as counsel, went back to the Knox could not affect the claim of a master to and records provide a better understand­ County Circuit Court to sue Lasselle for his slave, then it also could not affect the ing of the actions following the order $500 in damages. On April 9 Kinney claim of the master to the offspring of his freeing Polly. On July 24, 1820, just two produced a transcript of the written deci­ legal slave. The court’s opinion went on days after Polly was freed, Jackson’s appeal sion of the Court in Polly’s case and asked to note “that the present applicants were was heard; his case was postponed until for it to be copied into the record of the born slaves, that the present claimants can the November 1820 term of the Court. Knox County court. It was so ordered, and hold them as such. It is therefore ordered Jackson was not freed at that time despite Polly’s suit was continued. Finally, on Oc­ by the court that the said Polly be restored the decision in Polly v. Lasselle. tober 10, 1821, a jury awarded Polly dam­ to the said Hyacinth Lasselle her master, Lasselle was unwilling to release Polly. ages of $25.16 2/3 plus costs and charges. and that the said Francis, alias Mulee, be On July 27, 1820, five days after the On April 9, 1822, Polly received $25.16 restored [sic] to the said Francois Tisdale Court ordered Polly to be freed, Lasselle 2/3. She signed the receipt with her mark, his mistress.” sent an express messenger to Corydon, it “being the amount of the judgment ob­ Polly filed her appeal bond to the the state capital, with papers drawn up by tained by me of him for services rendered Indiana Supreme Court on May 12, Johnston, his attorney and former presid­ him & while judgment I obtained in the 1820. Huffman, put up the $200 bond ing judge of Knox County Circuit Court, Knox Circuit Court.” Sources located to for Polly’s release from Lasselle. Jackson to appeal the Indiana decision to the U.S. date reveal little more about Polly from also appealed the Knox County decision, Supreme Court. Among the documents in this time forward. a record of which appears in the Indiana the Lasselle Collection at the Indiana State Habeas corpus cases continued to be Supreme Court Order Book on July 11, Library is an unsigned writ that would filed in Knox County. In April 1821 the 1820. Polly’s appeal is recorded on July 17, return Polly to Lasselle’s custody for the Knox County Court docket listed five

40 TRACES | | Spring 2012 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

THE 1820 CENSUS LISTED 190 SLAVES IN order to free Polly did not remove the bonds of all slaves, nor did that same INDIANA; MORE THAN HALF, 118, WERE LIST­ Court’s decision in Mary Clark, a woman o f color v. General Washington Johnston end ED IN KNOX COUNTY. IN 1830, ACCORDING TO involuntary servitude in Indiana. THE U.S. CENSUS, ONLY THREE SLAVES WERE It is not known how long slavery and involuntary servitude continued in LISTED IN INDIANA-ONE EACH IN DECATUR, Vincennes, in Knox County, and in other ORANGE, AND WARRICK COUNTIES. counties in Indiana. The 1820 census list­ ed 190 slaves in Indiana; more than half, 118, were listed in Knox County. In 1830, such cases involving slavery or involuntary ued to seek freedom, and the Order Book according to the U.S. Census, only three servitude. When Mary Clark, a woman of of the Knox County Circuit Court records slaves were listed in Indiana— one each in color, with attorney Kinney, petitioned to their habeas corpus suits. In April 1821 Decatur, Orange, and Warrick Counties. be discharged from her indenture to John­ Prince, Sylvia Hawkins, and Frank and That same year in Vincennes, however, ston, the Knox County court remanded Rose Early, all persons of color, submitted trustees ordered the marshal to conduct a her back to Johnston, but also granted petitions. Two of these cases were “dis­ town census; he recorded thirty-two slaves. her appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court. missed because sheriff returned the writ, Although the 1816 Indiana Constitu­ The high court heard the appeal at its May defendant not found.” By October 1821 tion prohibited slavery and involuntary 1821 term and postponed the case until all the petitions were dismissed; none of servitude, in practice Indiana residents had the November term. On November 6, the the applicants were discharged. In March to defend the constitution. They had to Court ruled that Mary’s application to 1822 the Knox County court heard a peti­ fight laws and policies that circumvented be discharged from service indicated that tion from a man named Nero, and he was the constitution. Narratives, varying from she was not willing to serve, and that the discharged from the custody of his master. town to town and from county to county, Indiana Constitution prohibited involun­ In June 1822 the court heard the petition cannot accurately be written without look­ tary servitude. Mary was discharged from of Charles Vulcan, who served Lasselle by ing at the local history provided by county Johnston’s custody. Johnston, by this time, indenture. Charles was discharged, but records and legal documents— including had been elected by Knox County voters in September Lasselle sued Vulcan for wills and personal papers. All too often to represent them in the Indiana General damages and “broken covenant.” At the we have attributed the absence of accurate Assembly. September 1822 term of court, Fanny information about African Americans’ Jackson’s Indiana Supreme Court ap­ and Rhody Taylor and her three children, participation in Indiana’s early statehood peal that was based on the same points as Charlotte, George, and Charles, submit­ history to a dearth of primary sources, Polly’s was postponed until May 8, 1821, ted petitions to be free. Fanny’s case was when there are, in fact, many available when the Court realized that “this was postponed. The court discharged Rhody legal records. It is the research using those an agreed case, involving the same points from her master’s custody, but returned records and other sources that remains to which were decided at the last July term Charlotte and George to the master. The be done. . . . in the case of Polly against Lasselle.” petition for Charles was postponed to Dani B. Pfajf is the manager o f the state Jackson was finally freed— almost one year the next term. At the court’s March 1823 historical marker program for the Indiana after the Polly v. Lasselle decision. term, Fanny was freed. However, Rhody’s Historical Bureau. • Enslaved and indentured African son, Charles, was returned to his master. Americans living in Knox County contin­ Obviously, the Indiana Supreme Court’s

for further reading ------Cayton, Andrew R. L. Frontier Indiana. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1996. | Hammond, John Craig. Slavery, Freedom, and Expansion in the Early Ameri­ can West. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2007. | Madison, James H. “Race, Law, and the Burdens of Indiana History, in David J. Bodenhamer and Randall T. Shepard, eds. The History o f Indiana Law. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2006. | Thornbrough, Emma Lou. The Negro in Indiana before 1900. Indianapo­ lis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1957.

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 41 A HOOSIER LOVE STORY

FRANK A. CASSELL he letters sat in cardboard boxes, some bound in bundles by- in Brookville, Indiana, a town much like Tribbons, some in their original envelopes, but many more Petersburg in the 1860s and early 1870s. separated and the pages scattered. A few were written in pen Both were county seats, located near major rivers, and had populations of about two on fine stationery while others were scribbled in pencil on lined thousand. Her family had strong roots in school paper. Some envelopes contained samples of fabrics Darien, Genesee County, New York. Josie’s from home-sewn dresses or locks of hair from children. They mother, Cynthia, had been born there are crumbling and the ink is fading, yet these hundreds of mis­ in 1821, the youngest of six children. In 1841 Cynthia’s father, Benjamin Swan, sives throb with life and passion and reveal details of everyday bought land in Brookville and directed his life in the small Indiana town of Petersburg during the turbulent children to join him. Within months of decades between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. arriving in Brookville, Cynthia met and married David Chafee. For a few years The letters are part of the Hammond There he became a major landowner and they seemed happy, but their first two Family Archive, preserved by several gener­ a county judge. Salem’s father served as an children, both boys, died soon after birth. ations as a treasured memento of their his­ officer in the Union army. Although she gave birth to three other tory. While some touch on the great events Beyond this proud history, little is children— Mina, Alice, and Josephine— shaping America after the Civil War, most known of Salem’s early life. He was born Cynthia began to show signs of mental deal with the more personal events that in 1854 on his father’s farm not far from instability. After Josie’s arrival her father affected individual’s lives. Taken together, Petersburg, the seat of Pike County. Dur­ abandoned the family and left town with the letters offer many insights into small­ ing the Civil War the boy helped with the another woman. In June 1853 Cynthia town life, the changing role of women, farm work while his father fought with was sent to the Indiana Hospital for the health care in the nineteenth century, and Indiana’s Sixty-fifth Volunteer Infantry Insane in Indianapolis, the first of three the surprising amount of physical mobil­ Regiment in East Tennessee, where he was such commitments. In 1862, after the last ity as people sought better employment in badly wounded. After the war the fam­ stint in the state asylum, Cynthia divorced hard times. ily moved to a home in Petersburg at the Chafee and married Ephraim Bennett, a Many of the letters were written during corner o f Tenth and Cherry Streets. At much older man who owned a farm near the courtship of Josie Chafee and Salem age twenty-five Salem was a handsome, en­ Brookville. Even before Ephraim’s death Hammond, who met in 1879 and married ergetic man, about five feet, seven inches in 1873, Cynthia’s continuing mental in 1882. The couple spelled out their pas­ tall with intense eyes. He worked as a clerk problems caused her to be placed in the sionate love affair in notes scribbled during the workday, as well as lengthy letters care­ fully composed by kerosene lamplight late THE COUPLE SPELLED OUTTHEIR PASSIONATE LOVE at night. In addition the couple kept the AFFAIR IN NOTES SCRIBBLED DURING THE WORKDAY, letters they received from friends and fam­ ily, a backdrop of additional information AS WELL AS LENGTHY LETTERS CAREFULLY COM­ about the couple’s relationship. Their story POSED BY KEROSENE LAMPLIGHT LATE AT NIGHT. is one of intense love, daunting challenges, and eventual triumph. Josie and Salem’s families were very in a shop owned by Moses Hess on Main Franklin County Poor Farm and Asylum, much part of America’s westward expan­ Street. He seems to have had no serious where she spent most of the remainder of sion. The Hammond family arrived in relationships before meeting Josie, and he her life. Massachusetts in 1634, and one of Salem’s still lived at home with his parents and Cynthia’s three daughters were of ancestors fought in the Revolution. His siblings. His life, while not unpleasant, necessity raised by others. Baby Josie was great-grandfather, a merchant, led the fam­ lacked focus and direction. taken in by a Brookville widow, Amanda ily from Philadelphia to southern Indiana Josephine Chafee was born on April Winans Knight, who had two other chil­ in 1819 only a few years after statehood. 29, 1853, in Harmon, Ohio, and raised dren, William and Mary. Josie was fully

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 43 JOSIE CHAFEE AND SALEM HAMMOND

accepted by the Knights and had a reason­ ably happy childhood. She was nine years old before she met her sister Alice, who told her for the first time that her parents were still alive. For the rest of her life, as she wrote many years later, she suffered a recurring nightmare of being abandoned. In 1873 Josie was twenty years old with thick dark hair and seductive, deep- set eyes. Men certainly considered her beautiful and desirable. Her letters show that she was a physically and intellectually vigorous woman. The 1870 U.S. Census recorded that Josie, then seventeen, was a printer. Her foster brother, William, had worked as a printer before he left for the Civil War, and she followed in his foot­ steps setting type at one of Brookville’s two newspaper print shops. Typesetting was hard, demanding work, and those who spent years in poorly ventilated shops with clouds of metal filings everywhere often died young of lung disease. By 1873 William had moved to Pe­ newspaper and needed her typesetting but not ended. In early May 1879 Josie tersburg, married, and purchased the Pike skills. In February 1877 William sold the joined a group of young men and women County Democrat. He had achieved enough faltering Tell City newspaper and returned on a fishing outing to the nearby White success to purchase a home and invite his to Petersburg in his old position of owner River. There she and Salem met and fell mother and Josie to live with him. Dur­ and editor of the Democrat. Josie accompa­ hopelessly in love and stayed that way for ing this one-year stay in Petersburg, Josie nied him and again worked as a typesetter. the rest of their lives. worked as a typesetter at the Democrat but Her dislike of Ella had, if anything, inten­ Josie and Salem lived a block apart, found herself in conflict with Williams sified; she bitterly resented her position in close enough to see the windows of each wife, Ella. Their constant fighting about Williams household. other’s bedrooms. And they both worked household matters finally led William in During the fall of 1878 Josie began in Main Street establishments located so 1874 to send Josie back to Brookville to writing relatives that she had met a man close to each other that the lovers could live with an aunt. About two years later, named Oscar Parker and was seriously regularly pop in for visits. Most days they William asked Josie to rejoin him in Tell thinking of marrying him. By spring of also exchanged brief notes, hand delivered City, where he had purchased another the next year their relationship had cooled “by boy,” to set up dates. Sometimes the couple attended religious services. At other times they would agree to attend a play or JOSIE AND SALEM LIVED A BLOCK APART, a dance. On many occasions they spent CLOSE ENOUGH TO SEE THE WINDOWS OF EACH an evening together at the home of Kate Adams or Belle Stuckey, Josie’s two closest OTHER’S BEDROOMS. AND THEY BOTH WORKED girlfriends. In summer Salem, Josie, and IN MAIN STREET ESTABLISHMENTS LOCATED their friends organized picnics and fishing outings along the White River. They found SO CLOSE TO EACH OTHER THAT THE LOVERS it easy to slip into the woods for a kiss and COULD REGULARLY POP IN FOR VISITS. an embrace.

44 | TRACES | Spring 2012 JOSIE CHAFEE AND SALEM HAMMOND

By the end of May 1879 the couple recently.” A few days later Josie pledged all the details. Eventually, to put an end began to write each other lengthy letters, her love to Salem, noting that “my heart to the affair, Josie was forced to write a often late at night or during break times does respond to your sweet declarations letter to Parker, though there is no record in their workplaces. The letters contain of the Holiest purest passion of which of the contents. Most importantly, Salem pledges of love and loyalty, discussions mortal is capable.” Not to be outdone stood firmly in support of Josie. “Don’t about the future, comments on friends Salem responded, “You have aroused and think that Salem will desert you in your and family, and references to books they sounded to the very depths, a heart that time of trouble,” he wrote her, “for Salem were reading. Josie and Salem usually was dormant, but is now . . . a mad raging will cling to you, Dear, and let come what responded to each other’s letters paragraph turbulent reckless tide of strange, sweet, will.” by paragraph, thus creating a fascinating uncontrollable emotions.” In the aftermath of the episode, Josie literary dialogue. They had already fallen By mid-July Salem and Josie began to found she did not have to leave town as in love; now they had to learn about each discover that the course of true love could she feared, nor abandon Salem, nor see her other and decide what to do next. be as winding as the White River. On July reputation in Petersburg hopelessly com­ The couple’s letters to each other were 27 Parker, Josie’s former beau, provoked a promised. But in September 1879 she was frequently exercises in emotional hyper­ major crisis. Josie related “with an aching, still living unhappily under the same roof bole. “You can’t have the faintest idea how almost breaking heart” that she had been with Ella. She was also twenty-six years much I love you” wrote Salem on June 9, publically humiliated by Parker when they old and most of her friends had already 1879. “I try to demonstrate it, but what a accidently met on Main Street. It appears married and were raising families. Salem poor effort.” He added that their date the that Parker had been telling anyone who clearly wished to wed her, but he remained previous night was particularly memorable would listen that Josie had broken off their a lowly clerk at Hess’s with no prospects “for I believe you threw your whole soul relationship because of Salem’s interfer­ and no savings. “I promise that I will make into your lips to make me happy.” Writing ence. “He claims,” Josie wrote, “that he is you my wife as soon as I have sufficient hours later from the Democrat offices, Josie willing to face all parties concerned and means to put a house in decent order,” he responded in kind: “Heaven bless you for face everything and anything that should wrote Josie on September 14. “I am will­ your devotion my darling and I sincerely have been said by him concerning yours ing to do anything under the heavens” he trust that you will never regret giving your truly.’” Josie was devastated. It probably continued, “that will bring you to me.” pure strong love to a heart that has never did not help her morale when Salem Besides these pressures on Salem and known aught of real happiness until very reported that various people had told him Josie, they also faced other romantic dif­ ficulties. First, their physical attraction for one another created dangerous tempta­ tions. In addition, Salem’s father had taken a great dislike to Josie and thought the relationship should end. John Hammond was a chronic alcoholic and he may also have been a snob, feeling that Josie’s family background made her unsuitable as a wife for his eldest son. His hostility caused Salem and Josie problems for years to come. By the middle of September, Salem and Josie had reached a point where their relationship could possibly have come to an end. Salem and Josie tried to patch up their disagreements, but Salem contin­ A postcard view of Main Street, Petersburg, Indiana, circa 1900. The community serves as the ued to manifest jealousy and mistrust of county seat for Pike County, known for its coal deposits. Josie’s loyalty. Ironically, it was Salem who Josie caught flirting with another young

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 45 JOSIE CHAFEE AND SALEM HAMMOND

woman. “In the first place,” she wrote awful sight for me to do.” Salem wrote her knew “I slept in the arms of my devoted Salem, “I will begin by begging pardon for back this time although he remained in and beloved wife.” He said all his doubts interrupting this morning a very pleas­ a bleak mood. He wailed, “O God—just about her were resolved. In one of the five ant tete-a-tete between yourself and Miss to think I am nothing more to you. Lost. postscripts he asked: “How do you feel M. at the store.” There followed pages of Lost.” now? Any effects from last night? The first incandescent prose repeatedly making As the couple slowly reestablished con­ with your H [usban] d.” Josie responded the point that there had better not be any tact, hints appeared in Salem’s letters about with a note addressing Salem as “My own more such meetings. She reserved some the immediate cause of this breakup. He Darling: My new made [husband] O of her best verbal shots for Miss M. “It may well have suspected that Josie had a Salem!” She said her thoughts the previous is well for her miserable mite of a soul,” sexual relationship with Parker before she night were “as guileless and pure as if an one passage read, “that it did not feel the met Salem. At one point he demanded to angel hovered over me.” withering contemptuous glance I gave her, know her “hidden secret,” saying “I will Both Salem and Josie viewed their or she would be much nearer related to the think none the less of you. It makes no lovemaking as a mutual pledge of faith and animal kingdom than she already is.” difference what it is.” What Josie told him now regarded themselves as husband and Salem recognized that he was in consid­ about this subject cannot be known, but wife. Josie, of course, had taken a terrible erable trouble, but turned the situation the important thing was that they were risk, for out-of-wedlock pregnancies were around to his advantage. He apologized back together and committed to finding a not tolerated in small towns such as Peters­ for his foolishness but cheered Josie’s way to marry and raise a family. burg. Her own letters had occasionally jealousy as proof she truly loved him. “I What happened next on the night of gossiped about young women she knew doubted whether you ever gave me a sec­ Friday, October 2, in the woods some­ who were “ruined” and forced to leave ond thought then,” he told her, “but now I where near the cabin on the White River town or marry quickly. Fortunately, Josie am confident you do and O how inexpres­ was perhaps inevitable. Salem stumbled did not become pregnant, but they did sively happy it makes me.” out of the woods before dawn on Saturday not sleep together again until they were Despite his cleverness, Salem was hard­ morning and walked several miles to Hess’s married in 1882, a situation that often ly cured of his own jealousy, which contin­ shop in Petersburg, where he immediately frustrated Salem. ued to eat away at the foundations of the wrote Josie. He told her he had not couple’s relationship. In mid-September been late for work and that no one everything came apart again although the letters provide no detail on what hap­ pened. Salem wrote that he thought Josie saw him as a “superficial fool” and said “we should never meet again.” He signed his letter “Farewell forever.” A heartbro­ ken Josie responded that Salem for some reason wanted to “crush the heart of one of the most wretched creatures that ever existed— and you have succeeded.” When Salem did not answer, she left Petersburg to stay at a cabin on the banks of the White River. Josie simply would not give up on Sa­ lem and continued to write him even after he returned one of her letters unopened. In one missive she observed, “I trust that Fortune will favor us as she never has be­ fore—at least I feel hopeful and this is an Above: Portraits of Josie and Salem, 1882. Opposite: One of the many letters Salem wrote to his future wife, Josie.

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JOSIE CHAFEE AND SALEM HAMMOND

Through October and November 1879 on the well-established themes of love, barely missed crushing him, and the im­ the couple carried on an earnest conver­ jealousy, and frustration. But the couple pact tossed him high in the air. Salem was sation about their future plans. Salem also focused on finding solutions to their thrown ten to twelve feet but suffered only pledged to devote all his efforts to finding problems, including what it would take to scrapes and bruises. On Saturday nights a better job and earning enough money to establish and maintain a household. Also he walked ten miles from the construction support them. Josie, for her part, agreed in 1881 Josie reestablished contact with site to Petersburg and a date with Josie. “to wait an indefinite period of time” to her sisters, various relatives, and many When the railroad job ended in Decem­ wed Salem. With the understandings in old friends whom she had largely ignored ber, Salem was left without a job. place the couple cemented their union on since he met Salem. This was a fortunate The winter of 1881 must have been November 2, 1879, in a private ceremony development since letters from friends and one of the darkest periods of the couple’s that they always considered their true relatives supply much of the information lives. Rather than progressing toward their wedding. After they “plighted their troth,” about the months before and the years goal they were now seemingly farther Salem presented Josie with a gold ring after Josie and Salem finally wed. from it than ever before. In May 1882 inscribed on the inside with the date of Salem and Josie did not make much the situation brightened when Salem the engagement. It was all quite romantic, progress toward marriage in 1880 and found employment as a clerk in the shop but the real facts of their situation had not 1881. Both of them suffered severe bouts of H. C. Gordon, which made, sold, and changed. Indeed, three long years were to of malaria, or the “hard chill” as they repaired jewelry. Salem quickly learned pass before the couple legally wed. THEY HAD MET AND FALLEN IN LOVE THREE YEARS AND FIVE MONTHS In the early fall of 1880 Knight once BEFORE, AND THEIR PASSION FOR EACH OTHER HAD NEVER DIMINISHED. again ordered Josie to return to Brookville FINALLY, AFTER ALL THE FRUSTRATIONS,THEY HAD WHAT THEY MOST to restore peace to his home. There she DESIRED-A LIFE TOGETHER OF “ CONTINUOUS CARESSES.” remained until January 1880, living with an aunt and pining for Salem. The lovers called it. Josie particularly was hit hard by the necessary skills and was soon mak­ wrote to each other three or four times the disease, which kept her bedridden for ing more money that he ever had before. a week. Salem now had a first-name weeks at a time. Salem tried various jobs Moreover, he appears to have received relationship with the postmistress in but could not seem to find one that was some of his pay from the railroad that had Petersburg since he spent so much time in both steady and paid him enough to sup­ been held back, and an uncle made him the post office waiting for Josie’s letters to port a family. Josie began talking about a a gift that was likely cash. These resources arrive. Their letters in this period expressed dream she had of being a mother to a little finally made marriage possible, and the the pain they felt at their separation. But girl: “I dreamed about Sweety last night ceremony took place on the evening of they also provided substantial amounts and her presence seemed to hover near me September 19, 1882, in Knight’s home. of information on life in these two small all day— the yearning for her presence has Reverend J. B. Madden, a Methodist, Indiana towns. Josie wrote of fires she increased tenfold and I felt her little arms presided, but there are no records indicat­ rushed out to see and dances she attended O so vividly.” Salem had never heard of ing who attended. For the occasion, Josie without dancing with another man. She a woman’s biological clock, but he could used her true maiden name, Chafee, rather spoke of visiting her birth mother at the hardly fail to grasp what Josie was saying than Knight as she had most of her life. poor farm and beginning to better under­ to him. Salem did not give Josie a wedding ring. stand her mother’s affliction. Salem wrote There is a break in the couple’s cor­ He simply slipped the engagement ring on of becoming politically active in the local respondence between April and July of her finger again. They had met and fallen Republican Party and meeting Benjamin 1881. Salem had signed on to a construc­ in love three years and five months before, Harrison, a future president of the United tion crew building the Evansville and Terre and their passion for each other had never States. Haute rail line. By August the line had diminished. Finally, after all the frustra­ Finally, in early January 1881, Salem reached Oakland City south of Petersburg. tions, they had what they most desired— a took the train to Brookville, where he Salem’s energy and intelligence earned him life together of “continuous caresses.” met Josie’s family and friends. Together promotion to foreman. The work was hot, Since the couple was now living they returned to Petersburg and resumed dirty, and dangerous. On August 11a one- together they had less need to write letters the life they had led before Josie left. The ton piece of equipment crashed down on and notes to each other, but some have letters that survive from this period carry a platform upon which he was standing. It survived and show they made a good life

48 | TRACES | Spring 2012 JOSIE CHAFEE AND SALEM HAMMOND

for themselves. Salem eventually estab­ Before long Salem and Josie knew she woman he would or could love. He had, lished his own store, where he sold and was dying, and her family and friends ral­ of course, carefully kept all of their letters repaired clocks as well as jewelry, and also lied around her. In late 1897 or early 1898 to each other although no one knows if sold insurance. They bought a house at the she wrote Salem a letter he did not see un­ he ever looked through them to refresh south end of Main Street. Josie soon gave til after her death. She addressed it to “Sa­ his memories of Josie. Only through these birth to a baby boy, who lived only a day, lem— that sweetest of all names to me, the letters could the toothless old man lying a bitter tragedy for his parents. But there very sound of which calls forth a thousand on his deathbed be resurrected as the followed the successful births of three girls: tender thoughts and recollections.” Time, dashing, passionate, articulate young lover Elizabeth, Nuna, and Aura. Both parents she said, would “hide forever the wreck who transformed his life so that he could doted on the children and perhaps spoiled of our lives.” She wrote of her feelings of marry his “good angel” and dedicate his them. During 1884 Salem’s mother, abandonment as a child and the shock of life to her. He died on January 29, 1952. Elizabeth, became very ill. She and her learning about her father’s perfidy and her A newspaper friend wrote a column about husband moved in with Salem and Josie. mother’s madness. She also talked about him that ended: “Salem Hammond was a Josie cared for her mother-in-law until her her unending grief over the early death of great man. To know him was to love him death. On November 4, 1884, John Ham­ her son. But most of all she emphasized and his fine charity.” The funeral was held mond wrote to Josie thanking her for her her gratitude to Salem for promising to on January 31, and he was buried in the kindness. More importantly he apologized keep their three young daughters together family plot at Walnut Hill Cemetery next at length for his treatment of her over the so they would not suffer as she had as a to Josie. years. He talked of the “imaginary dislike child. Josie died at home on February 12, Neither Josie nor Salem nor any of I had manifested against you.” He said it 1898, and her obituary had a prominent their friends and relations was rich or “was manufactured by myself” and blamed place in the Democrat. She was buried in famous. For the most part they were quite his alcoholism and begged her forgiveness. Walnut Hill Cemetery following a well- ordinary people living quiet lives as busi­ John’s attitude had troubled her relation­ attended service. There are no letters from nessmen, farmers, teachers, housewives, ship with Salem for years and caused her Salem describing his feelings, but friends and professionals of various sorts. Thanks great pain. But apparently Josie felt it was noted he was grief stricken. to the documents in the Hammond Ar­ best to forget the past. Josie was not yet forty-five years old chive, however, there is a window in time As the years went by Josie and Salem when she died. Salem soon gave up the through which can be seen the rich array lived comfortably and happily. Both jewelry store and in the early twentieth of characters surrounding Josie and Salem. joined the Knights of Pythias. Salem was century developed and managed coal mine Through the letters we come to know a Mason while Josie became a member of operations in and around Petersburg. He them personally and learn of their chal­ the women’s auxiliary, the Eastern Star. kept his promise to Josie by raising his lenges and aspirations. All of this makes In letters written in mid-1890 the first three daughters on his own. As the girls the Hammond Archive an important asset indications of Josie’s health problems are grew and married, Salem gave them many in understanding Indiana’s social history. mentioned. On April 29, 1897, her cousin gifts, including houses. After 1910 he al­ But beyond that there is the compelling Molly Mains wrote: “How it grieved me to ternated living with the families of his two love story of Josie and Salem. And that think what had befallen you. But we must youngest daughters, Nuna and Aura. By story has a universal appeal. live in hopes of a bright ending. I sincerely the end of World War II Salem was the re­ Frank A. Cassell is emeritus profes­ hope that you will go through the opera­ vered head of an extensive family and was sor o f history and emeritus president o f the tion alright.” Josie had breast cancer, and known to the children as Grandpa Daddy. University o f Pittsburgh at Greensburg. He in 1897 the prognosis for women with Josie would undoubtedly have been proud earned his bachelor's degree from Wabash that condition was bleak. On Friday, July of his family loyalty although less pleased College and his master’s degree and doctor­ 30, three doctors came to the Hammond with his use of alcohol and tobacco in ate in history from Northwestern University. home, where according to a remarkably violation of his pledges to her. C assell’s scholarly interests include American detailed account in the Democrat, the In 1952 Salem was ninety-seven colonial and early national history and physicians removed two large cancers. The years old, and it had been fifty-four years late-nineteenth-century cultural history. His paper said the operation was a success and since he buried Josie. He could well have article for Traces is based on his book Josie “skillfully done.” remarried after her death, but, as he and Salem: An Indiana Love Story (2011), had always said to her, she was the only available from Amazon.com/. •

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 49 HELEN PIKE UTTER INDIANA’S PIONEER LUMBERWOMAN

ANN ALLEN

IMAGES COURTESY PIKE LUMBER COMPANY AND CHANNING UTTER In 1933 a gallon of milk cost forty-one D. A., who had relocated his family, a reporter: “I’ve been in the woods all my cents, a loaf of bread sold for seven cents, which included two other daughters, to life. My mill is the slickest thing you ever gasoline was ten cents a gallon, and a new Akron, Indiana, from his native Wabash saw. I’m mighty proud of it and of my car could be had for five hundred dol­ a few years earlier, quickly helped Helen men. They work like beavers for me when lars. “Easter Parade” topped the charts as purchase a $300-portable sawmill, a there’s wood to saw up.” In response to America’s favorite song, Prohibition was Rumley steam engine, and even managed the question that inevitably followed, she in the process of being repealed, the Great to acquire a stand of timber near Hanna, replied, “There’s no particular man in my Depression was deepening, and President Indiana. By the time she had completed life right now, and I’m not of the opinion Franklin D. Roosevelt promised to create her sophomore year at Manchester Col­ there ever will be.” a New Deal for Americans looking for lege, he had the mill running, cutting ties Five months later, she married Howard work. “The only thing we have to fear is, for the Erie Railroad. M. Utter, a lumberjack her father hired to fear itself,” Roosevelt said in his inaugu­ After that, Helen took over, soon “look after my little girl.” The two, accom­ ral address. A fearless woman in Akron, employing more than twenty men. Prob­ panied by a hardworking crew, transported Indiana, Helen Pike Utter, however, was ably the first woman in Indiana to have a the portable mill and its accompanying ahead of the president, ready to tackle timber buyer’s license, she became known bunkhouses around northern Indiana the male-dominated forest industry as a around Akron as “that Pike girl who looks and southern Michigan until 1935, when lumberwoman. like a boy in breeches and leather boots.” they moved back to Akron to form the “I told my daddy I wanted a sawmill of To residents of the areas in which her D. A. Pike Lumber Company on the site my own, and I no sooner said it than I got crews operated, she was “the woman who of a long-abandoned sawmill. Howard it— just like that,” Utter told a reporter, drives her yellow roadster so fast dirt flies was president, Eva Pike (D. A.’s wife and whose story hailing her as “The Woman in for a mile.” Helen’s mother) was vice president, and the Woods” was published in newspapers “Those boots weren’t for color,” she lat­ Helen was secretary-treasurer. D. A. was throughout Indiana. Although the article er recalled. “They were practical. Right af­ connected to the firm in a managerial made her sound like a pampered only ter I got my sawmill, a rattlesnake bit me. position while continuing to operate his child, there was more to it than that. The Fortunately, the bite was directly on the own company, Akron Saw Mill, a retail Pike family had been harvesting Hoosier shin bone and the poison didn’t spread, operation. forests since 1853 when Helen’s great­ but it scared me into wearing leather A cadre of employees made the move grandfather, John S. Pike, established a boots.” While Helen looked like a tomboy, with the couple. Helen’s yellow roadster, sawmill near New Holland, Indiana, at her battered cap could not conceal what however, did not. It had been replaced a time when the supply of native timber newspapers called “the type of wholesome by a pickup, because, in Howard’s words, seemed inexhaustible. Her grandfather, young woman typifying American life at “We needed a truck a damned sight more Albert, began working at Pike’s sawmill at its finest, the kind of neat personage to than we needed a roadster.” Forever practi­ the age of sixteen. Her father, the indomi­ be found in no other country.” She told cal and often outspoken, he liked to tell table D. A. (an abbreviation for Dur- ward A. so commonly used that even his obituary listed him as D. A.), established a “THOSE BOOTS WEREN’T FOR COLOR,” sawmill of his own in 1904. Over the next thirty years, he experienced floods, fires SHE LATER RECALLED.“THEY WERE and bankruptcy, but nothing could deter PRACTICAL. RIGHT AFTER I GOT MY him from his love of the lumber industry except, possibly, the lack of a son to carry FIRST SAWMILL, A RATTLESNAKE BIT on the family tradition. Confident she ME. FORTUNATELY THE BITE WAS DI­ could fill that void, young Helen found her father more than receptive to the idea RECTLY ON THE SHIN BONE AND THE of her going into the woods on her own. POISON DIDN’T SPREAD, BUT IT SCARED ME INTO WEARING LEATHER BOOTS.”

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 51 friends, “Marrying the boss’s daughter seemed like the best way to get into the lumber business.” Still, he had no difficulty inscribing, “Helen Pike, the Boss Woman, circa 1933, New Buffalo, Michigan area,” on a photograph of Helen astride a horse at one of her portable tie mills. Business was slow at first, and Helen often managed the Akron mill alone while Howard went out with a portable sawmill and a small crew to bolster the fledg­ ling company’s finances. A consummate professional dedicated to her chosen field, she told colleagues, “You can put a floor on people, but you can’t put a ceiling on them. A woman can do anything in this field and go anywhere she wants to go.” A stickler for proper terminology, she also could have reminded the condescending reporter that she never would have referred to timber as wood to cut up. She continu­ ally admonished employees, “Standing trees in the forest are timber. Once they’re cut, they become logs, which are then sawed into boards. The scrap, or waste, is wood.” After being childless for several years, the Utters welcomed their first child, daughter Kay Joan, in 1938, followed by a son, Jon Channing, in 1940 and another daughter, Marcia Lynne, in 1949. Moth­ erhood brought conflict for Helen. A feminist long before equal rights became a buzzword, she wanted her children to enjoy life as she had with a stay-at-home mother but she could not relinquish her role at the mill. She compromised by tak­ ing her toddlers to the office, where they cut their teeth on lumber rules and played around her desk that bore a sign reading Helen Pike Utter in her “It isn’t being busy that counts— it’s what trademark leather hoots you get done.” and breeches. Helen worked constantly. While recovering from an appendectomy she had a telephone installed in her hospital room and by the time she went home had negotiated a handful of wholesale lumber HELEN PIKE UTTER

Helen was described by Howard Utter in this 1933 photo­ graph as “The Boss Woman.”Ever the entrepreneur, she had installed a miniature golf course behind her parents’ home while still in her teens. In her spare time, she built onion crates from scrap lumber.

the family, both at “The Pike reputation is worth more to me home and in the than having my name on the smokestack.” office. He would Often at odds on details, the couple forever be president, found themselves in administrative while she assumed positions far removed from the woods the combined role they both loved. Known to their staff as of vice president HU and HMU, they continued to work and secretary-trea­ together with Howard sometimes sur­ surer. “Our business prising his wife and office personnel by orders. During World War II, when is one of checks and balances,” she said. bursting into a lively rendition of “Easter Howard’s membership on the War Produc­ “My role is balance.” Parade” before resuming his usually serious tion Board took him away from home for If her role was balance, Howard’s was demeanor. long periods of time, Helen managed both tradition. He never yielded to suggestions On more substantive matters, however, the mill and their growing family. When that the firm be named the Utter Lumber they werp in perfect agreement. By the she decided to complete her interrupted Company. “The Pike name has been asso­ mid-1950s, nearly a century after John S. college education by getting a degree in ciated with quality lumber since 1853,” he Pike thought the supply of native timber business from Indiana University, she took said in tribute to Helen’s ancestors when could never be exhausted, they began her youngest daughter along and enrolled in 1949 D. A. Pike Lumber Company an aggressive planting program that has her in the Bloomington school system. officially became Pike Lumber Company. grown into more than a hundred Pike for- “Combining motherhood with an ac­ tive career takes hard work and sacrifice,” Helen said. In a 1973 letter congratulating her for her forty years in the lumber industry, Indiana governor Otis R. Bowen wrote, “Your multi-faceted and busy life in what traditionally has been considered a man’s world certainly proves that intelligent, hard-working women with a tenacity to self-established goals can most certainly succeed in whatever career they select without detrimental sacrifice to the family unit.” In spite of that reassurance, Helen’s role was complicated by her perception of the need to defer to her husband, much as her mother had done with her father. From cutting ties in the woods, the company Helen established evolved into a sawmill in Akron, While she had gone to the woods alone Indiana, that while primitive, was much improved over the one in the woods. and was capable of running the mill alone, Helen felt Howard should be the man of

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 53 Although the Utters’ first sawmill in Akron was crude, it was enlarged and revamped over the years. Howard Utter always told his staff, “A new mill has been approved; it hasn’t been funded." In 1996 a new sawmill was built and this antiquated building was razed.

ests throughout Indiana, southern Michi­ pany has evolved from its mom-and-pop daughter, Lynne Northrop, is corporate gan and western Ohio. “Trees are our only tradition into one of the finest hardwood secretary. Channing’s daughter, Nancee, is renewable resource,” Helen reminded any lumber operations in Indiana. Its strong receptionist. Lynne’s son, J. H. Northrop, who questioned the couple. “We can­ emphasis on selective harvesting, reforesta­ the sixth generation of the family to take not, we dare not, let our forestlands be tion, global marketing, and computerized to the woods, recently left the company stripped.” In addition to planting new equipment earned it the coveted National to further his education. The rest of the forestlands, the Utters instituted selective Hardwood Lumberman’s Association For­ company’s more than two hundred officers harvesting, which allows a healthy forest est Stewardship Award in 2006. and employees are unrelated to either the to regenerate itself after mature trees have Unfortunately, neither Helen nor Pike or Utter families. been cut. The company once planted more Howard lived to see their company, which By the time Howard died on January trees every year than it harvested and now now has sawmills in Akron, Carbon and 10, 1995, the Utters’ home had become a takes pride in growing at least 20 percent Milan, Indiana, and satellite operations hospital with round-the-clock nurses. Hel­ of its annual harvest. in Auburn, achieve the prominence they en, wheelchair-bound, her mind fogged Thanks to the Utters’ foresightedness envisioned. Their oldest daughter, Kay, by Alzheimer’s, seldom saw or recognized in establishing new programs and hiring is deceased, and their son, Channing, her husband of more than sixty years. On trained foresters, Pike Lumber Com­ has retired from the business. Youngest one of her better days, nurses took her to Howard’s room, where they watched in amazement as the silver-haired saw­ “TREES ARE OUR ONLY RENEWABLE mill man put his arms around “The Boss RESOURCE,” HELEN REMINDED ANY Woman” and began to sing. When Helen heard the words of “Easter Parade,” the WHO QUESTIONED THE C0UPLE.“WE years slipped away and it was 1933 again. CANNOT,WE DARE NOT, LET OUR “Howard!” she exclaimed with delight as the shadows temporarily lifted and they FORESTLANDS BE STRIPPED.” embraced for the final time.

54 | TRACES I Spring 2012 HELEN PIKE UTTER

By then, bread was selling for $1.69 convinced that there were no barriers interview. “I wish I still had that Rumley a loaf, gasoline for $1.29 a gallon and women in the lumber business. By that steam engine,” she said wistfully. “What a an economy car for $14,000 and the site time, she had outlived the lumberjack sent conversation piece it would be!” of John S. Pike’s first sawmill had been to look after her and all twenty of her first Ann Allen is the former editor o f the buried under the waters of the Salamonie employees. Recalling those Depression-era Akron/Mentone News and a frequent Reservoir. But the motto Howard scrawled days in the woods, she wrote in a 1975 contributor to Traces. Her article on avia­ on a plank continued— and still does— to note to a friend, “If I had the option of tion pioneer Lawrence B ell appeared in the drive the company: “We permit no one to re-doing that early part of my life, I’d do winter 2010 issue o f Traces. She worked at make better lumber than ours. Pike Brand it exactly the same as I did. I loved every Pike Lumber Company briefly in the 1950s is our mark of excellence. When better minute of it and have many fond memo­ and came to appreciate both o f the Utters for lumber is made, Pike will make it.” Helen ries of those experiences.” She had only their compassion to their employees. • lived until November 8, 2000, forever one regret, which she admitted in a 1975

Today’s sawmill in Akron sprawls over many acres and utilizes state-of-the-art computerized equipment that reduces the backbreaking labor of yesteryear. Equally modern sawmills are also located in Carbon and Milan, Indiana.

TRACES | Spring 2012 | 55 IMAGES OF INDIANA

During the first half of the twentieth century, the Indianapo­ Aline_____ , Herbert Nelson, and Dora Oma Atkins learn how lis Public Schools maintained at least a dozen elementary schools to crochet at IPS, John Hope School Number 26, in 1910. The that had an all-black student body. These institutions became image can be found in the Dora Atkins Blackburn Collection feeder schools for Crispus Attucks High School that opened (M 634) at the Indiana Historical Society’s William Henry in 1927. Many of the schools had domestic science classes that Smith Memorial Library. taught cooking and sewing. From left to right, Sophronia Dyer, Image submitted by Wilma L. Moore, IHS senior archivist, African American history

56 | TRACES | Spring 2012