F 521 148 Vol6 N03 Indiana Historical Society

F 521 148 VOL6 N03 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES James J. Barnes, Crawfordsville DianneJ. Cartmel, Seymour William E. Ervin, Hartford City Ralph D. Gray, Indianapolis H. Roll McLaughlin, Carmel Thomas M. Miller, Carmel Ronald Morris, Greenwood Mary M. Mullin, Brookville Kathleen Stiso Mullins, South Bend Alan T. Nolan, Indianapolis, Chairman Larry K. Pitts, Indianapolis William G. Prime, Madison Evaline H. Rhodehamel, Indianapolis, Vice President Richard S. Simons, Marion, President John Martin Smith, Auburn Theodore L. Steele, Indianapolis P. R. Sweeney, Vincennes Stanley Warren, Indianapolis, Treasurer

ADMINISTRATION Peter T. Harstad, Executive Director Raymond L. Shoemaker, Assistant Executive Director and Business Manager Annabelle J. Jackson, Controller Susan P. Brown, Director Human Resources Carolyn S. Smith, Membership Secretary

DIVISION DIRECTORS Bruce L.Johnson, Library Thomas K. Krasean, Community Relations Thomas A. Mason, Publications Robert M. Taylor Jr., Education

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

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ray E. Boomhower Douglas E. Clanin Paula J. Corpuz Ruth Dorrel

PHOTOGRAPHY Stephen J. Fletcher, Curator Visual Collections Kim Charles Ferrill, Photographer Susan L. S. Sutton, Coordinator

EDITORIAL BOARD Richard J. M. Blackett, Indiana University, Bloomington Edward E. Breen, Marion Chronicle-Tribune Andrew R. L. Cayton, Miami University David E. Dawson, Indianapolis Robert L. Gildea, Indianapolis Ralph D. Gray, Indiana University, Indianapolis Monroe H. Little Jr., Indiana University, Indianapolis James H. Madison, Indiana University, Bloomington Richard S. Simons, Marion Emma Lou Thornbrough, Butler University

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PRINTING Shepard Poorman Communications Corp.

Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History (ISSN 1040-788X) is published quar- terly and distributed as a benefit of membership by the Indiana Historical Society; editorial and executive offices, 315 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-3299. Membership categories are Annual S20, Sustaining $30, Contributing $50, and I.ife $500. Single copies are $5. Second-class postage paid at Indianapolis, Indiana; USPS Number 003-275. Literary contributions: A brochure containing information for contributors 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 Society. The Society will refer requests from other publishers to the author. ©1994 Indiana His- torical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Postmastei-: Please send address changes to Traces of Indiana and Midwestern Histoiy, Indiana Historical Society, 315 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, Indi- ana 46202-3299. Traces is a member of the Conference of Historical Journals.

fiAlPRINTEDWlTHl IWISOYINK) VOLUME 6 N°3

SUMMER 1994

_2 Letters 26 The Statues Speak: In Search of Indiana Sculpture _3 Editors' Page Glory-June Greiff

Star Dust Memories: 28 Shade of the Raintree Hoagy Carmichael and Larry Lockridge Indiana's Gennett Records Rick Kennedy The Aviatrix and the University: 10 Mr. Weichmann and the Amelia Earhart at Purdue Ghost of Mrs. Surratt Ray Boomhower Erich L. Ewald Front cover: 42 Writer Jessamyn West: The painting is a detail 18 "The Ideal Sketching The Storyteller's Daughter Ground": The Early Art from Will Vawter's Catherine E Forrest Weber Colony of Brown County Sunshine and Hollyhocks,- Rachel Perry 48 FOCUS the quotation is'from Ross Lockrid^e Jr.'s Raintree County.

Back cover:

Hoa^y Carmichael, 4925. Courtesy of Duncan Schiedt. LETTERS

n all my ninety plus years, I have read Your Spring 1994 edition of Traces is agreatl y enjoyed, as many others undoubtedly Imany magazines, but none so beautiful as dandy which I have just read cover to Ihave, Ray E. Boomhower's good article your Spring 1994 issue of Traces. cover with delight. As a Hoosier, born in about Kin Hubbard and the sidebar accom- Being born in Indiana, raised there, Indiana in 1906 and reared there through panying it about some other Indiana car- and having lived there so many years, the 1920s—the time period covered most in toonists. But I was taken aback when I saw a I have fond memories of many parts this edition—I found many wonderful mem- reference to Chick Jackson in the latter of the state. Too, having worked at three ories stirred up and relished. piece. He had some Muncie ties, and I have of the automobile companies a number I hadn't realized the degree to which the written about him for the Muncie Star, of years, I know something of the cars Indiana automobile builders contributed to the where I retired in 1991 as executive editor. you mention. development of the vehicle although I knew all And it was always Chic; no "k." I think a First, I worked with Studebaker, in the the ones you wrote about and had some experi- close examination of his signature on the days of the wood wheels, for about nine ence with most. I always felt bad when one by Roger Bean strip shown at the bottom of months. Later, I worked for Marmon, or the one, they succumbed to be replaced by the page 46 will bear me out. industry as it developed around Detroit. Some Nordyke & Marmon company at the corner BILL SPURCEON of Kentucky Avenue and West Morris Street. of those early cars were developed well ahead Syracuse Later, in 1925 until the plant closed in 1929, of the industry. How well I remember the day I was with Stutz at lOth/llth and when a friend from Kokomo came visiting Capitol/Senate. and he let me look under the hood of his n Traces you have set a high standard of Apperson Jack Rabbit. It had a V-8 engine, Bill Swigert was plant manager. Edgar S. content and quality production. The Arts surely one of the first, and belt driven fan, I Gorrell, the flying ace from World War I, and Crafts issue was one of the most beauti- and I believe a generator instead of gears. I was head of sales. A Mr. Pottorf was floor ful and interesting to me. At my age I was so ignorant, I thought both of those were manager of the assembly line, and Carl should not be surprised that I have been pretty far out and not very wise. Fox was production manager in the office caught up in the historic fabric, but to meet building. I sat across from Mr. Fox and H. DlXON TRUEBLOOD personal associations in several of the arti- had the job of keeping track of all custom- Lacjuna Hills, California cles is disconcerting. built cars in the plant. This included the I was born and lived in a comfortable ordering of all special items not included house on Broadway with beamed ceilings, in the standard Stutz—wire wheels, side arilyn Irvin Holt's article "West to panels, and plate rails in the dining room mounts and mirrors, Goodyear Double Indiana on the Orphan Train" failed without ever knowing it was a "four-square Eagle tires, radios, special paints, lac- M to tell readers an organization was formed Arts and Crafts" house. quers, broadcloth and mohair upholstery, in 1986 to preserve the history of the Mrs. Bowies taught art at Shortridge and such. Too, some special bodies were orphan trains era, Orphan Train Heritage High School when I was there. My older sis- ordered, like the Weymann (made in Indi- Society of America, Inc. (OTHSA), P.O. Box ter had made a copper tie pin and a silver anapolis) and the Fleetwood and LeBaron 496, Johnson, AR 72741. The organization ring in Mrs. Bowles's jewelry class. of Detroit. It was a daily job to follow these holds meetings of surviving orphan train I was a member of the Indianapolis Cam- special cars through the plant and report riders, descendants, and interested persons era Club in the 1930s and have fond memo- to Mr. Gorrell. in eight locations across America. OTHSA ries of Brandt Steele as an accomplished So you can see, I find great joy in reading gathers and shares information located at fellow member. this issue of Traces. It all brings back fond the Orphan Train Riders Research Center GEORGE C. BURKERTJR. memories of my years in the Hoosier state. and Museum located in Springdale, Indianapolis GENE BRANSON Arkansas. For more information readers San Diego, California may call (501) 756-2780.

MARY ELLEN JOHNSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, Inc.

2 TRACES E D I T o R s' PAGE

B',eyond any other standard, I tend to judge the quality of the biographies I read by the sense of loss I feel at the death of the subject. In this vein, I have seldom been moved more deeply than I was by Shade of the Raintree, a biography left to us, with a hero who seemed like our Storyteller's Daughter," Catherine E of Ross Lockridge Jr. written by his son father—exuberant, ambitious, maybe all Forrest Weber tells how Grace West's Larry Lockridge. too good." It may have been a poor stories of life in Indiana not only Larry was five years old when his father substitute for a father, but it is still a encouraged her daughter to be a writer killed himself on 6 March 1948 in the garage good book. An attempt of his new Bloomington, Indiana, home. At at no less than "a com- the time, Ross Lockridge Jr.'s novel, Raintree plete embodiment of County, was the publishing sensation of the the American Myth," year. The book was a national best-seller, a the novel is in print main selection of the Book-of-the-Month again, thanks to Larry Club, and the winner of a $150,000 literary Lockridge's insistence prize. In Shade of the Raintree, excerpted in that the publisher of this issue, Larry Lockridge endeavors to Shade of the Raintree understand his father's desolate act, and in bring Raintree County so doing he tells a story that is at its roots back. Although Larry Hoosier and in its blossoming "an allegory of Lockridge does not the American writer." assume that his readers are familiar with his S Ross Jr. was steeped in Hoosier history o from an early age through his association father's book, he will t with the work of his father, populist measure his success by 5 historian Ross Lockridge Sr. Combining the extent to which he | public speaking, drama, and local history, arouses interest in his Q Ross Sr. made a name for himself in father's work. "We can Indiana by performing Historic Site search for lost fathers and mothers over The two Rosses, senior and junior, Recitals. Around great bonfires, the elder hard roads and wide," writes the son, "and around 1925. Lockridge would recite the words of the they won't be there. But I've found past in heroic tones for large audiences at enough for now." Larry Lockridge now the sites where the history was made, "on knows his father better than most of us but may in fact have saved her life. "Every the spot" he liked to call it. Ross Sr. will ever know ours. time I renounced the world she presented tutored his son in recitation, played Among the many subjects to be found it to me again," said Jessamyn, and she history-oriented games with him, and took in this issue—including jazz musicians, presented it in the form of homesick him on camping trips to look for painters, a famous female flier, and a descriptions of southern Indiana. arrowheads and shards, In time the son's haunted victim of the conspiracy to Mothers and daughters, fathers and sense of history would become deeper and assassinate President Lincoln—is the sons, we are all products of the mysterious more complex than the father's, and the story of another writer and her chemistry of history. For Hoosiers, son's writing would represent a rebellion relationship with a parent. In this case, perhaps, the most important by-product is of sorts against the father's one- the writer is Jessamyn West, author of a good story. dimensional interpretation. such Indiana classics as The Friendly J. KENT CALDER For Larry Lockridge, Raintree County Persuasion and Massacre at Fall Creek, and Managing Editor was "a haunting, ... an extended letter the parent is her mother, Grace. In "The

Summer 19 9 4 3

HO AG Y CARMICHAEL AND INDIANA'S GENN E TT RECORDS

SzmzSIlHoagy Carmichael, the l^db Hoosier jazz musi- M cian who became one E of America's greatest songwriters, professed the birthplace of MR O I jazz recording to be a drab warehouse "This obscure recording studio in a small Indiana city saw a history-making parade of musicians," along railroad tracks in a piano factory in Hoagy Carmichael once said of the Gennett studio, seen here in 1957. Richmond, Indiana. He was understand- ably biased. This makeshift studio, oper- But even before Gennett Records ated by Starr Piano's Gennett Records documented Carmichael's earliest works, division, recorded Carmichael's first com- E the incredible Indiana record label positions, including "Star Dust" as an was at the vanguard of jazz recording. instrumental dance stomp. S RICK KENNEDY Summer 19 9 4 5 STAR DUST 9H EMORIES

While Carmichael studied law and moon- pany in Richmond's Whitewater River lighted in jazz bands in the early 1920s at gorge in the heart of the city. After Henry EARL "FATHA" HINES Indiana University (IU) in Bloomington, Gennett assumed control of Starr Piano in the Gennett studio in Richmond debuted 1903, the Indiana company became one of Jelly Roll Morton on record many of America's greatest jazz the early twentieth century's largest piano pioneers, such as Earl "Fatha" Hines, Jelly manufacturers. Henry was a short, slightly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Leon Rop- built, tan-skinned Italian with a black mus- JOHNNY DODDS polo, Freddie Keppard, King Oliver, Louis tache. Employees recalled the colorful and Armstrong, and Johnny Dodds. dynamic Henry strolling through the mas- Bix Beiderbecke Little Gennett Records operated on the sive Starr Piano factory complex with a white Panama hat, white suit, cigar, and a fringe of America's 1920s cultural mainstream, LEON ROPPOLO but its modest-selling 78-rpm discs would fancy cane with a gold knob. have a profound impact on America's musical He operated Starr Piano stores in the Louis Armstrong

GENEAUTRY

"Uncle" Dave Macon

FREDDIE KEPPARD

King Oliver

choirs, vaudeville entertainers, military bands, pop singers, dance orchestras, and ethnic performers. Gennett Records also produced language records and custom pressed discs for the Ku Klux Klan. After Henry Gennett died in 1922, his three sons, Harry, Clarence, and Fred, assumed control of Starr Piano. The youngest, Fred, who was thirty-six at his father's death, managed the family record label. A thin man with receding black hair and horn-rimmed glasses, Fred looked more like a scholar than a small-town executive. Fred lacked his father's business acumen and evolution. For decades jazz The Gennett family major cities of Ohio and was notoriously receptive to new gimmicks or historians have been fasci- Indiana, as well as in New fads. "If it was something new, Pop would try in i 8 9 7. nated by the fact that a small York, Detroit, San Diego, it," recalled his son, the late Richard Gen- Indiana town produced Seated (left to rightJ.- and Los Angeles. The com- nett. "It drove the other family members at some of the music idiom's Rose, Alice, pany was producing fifteen Starr Piano half-crazy." Fred's willingness to experiment, in the end, provided jazz with a finest early recordings. Henry, and Fred. thousand pianos annually During the 1920s and by 1915 when the Gennetts thorough history of its early development. Standing (left to right): early 1930s, Gennett Records expanded into phono- In mid-1922 the youngest Gennett was also issued some of Amer- Harry and Clarence. graphs and records, a brash contacted by Fred Wiggins, manager of Starr ica's first blues and country new industry dominated by Piano's downtown Chicago store, concerning music records, by such artists New Jersey's Victor Talking a new band at the nearby Friars Inn night- as Gene Autry and "Uncle" Dave Macon. But Machine Company. They set up a recording club. The New Orleans Rhythm Kings, a few Gennett artists would prove as significant studio in Manhattan, above a Starr Piano young white jazz band led by New Orleans as Carmichael, a honky-tonk pianist who store, and soon opened a second studio in soloists, was causing a sensation with the new incorporated jazz rhythms and melodies into the Starr factory complex in Richmond in jazz music in the mob-controlled club. Wig- his lasting compositions. Carmichael's jazz the river gorge, an area known to Rich- gins and Gennett had grown up together at discs on the Gennett label in the late 1920s, mond citizens as "Starr Valley." Starr Piano and greatly trusted each other. while never commercially successful, helped Though dwarfed by the dominant Victor When Wiggins suggested the Richmond stu- to launch an amazing songwriting career. and Columbia record labels on the East dio record the band, Gennett agreed. Gennett Records was the brainchild of Coast, the Gennett label in Indiana pros- New York's Columbia and Victor labels pro- Henry Gennett and his three sons, owners pered during the post-World War I era by duced the first jazz records in America with of the once-prominent Starr Piano Com- recording symphonies, opera singers, 1917 releases by a white band, the Original

8 TRACES STAR DUST 911 EMORIES

Dixieland Jazz Band. By the early 1920s, how- important composer. Gennett also teamed ever, Chicago, with the nation's largest black Morton with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings population, had become the center of the in what historians believe was the first interra- jazz universe. And yet Chicago was ignored by cial jazz recording session. the record labels until Gennett Records During a college break in the became the city's primary aural diary. Several early 1920s Carmichael visited New Orleans Rhythm Kings' releases on Gen- Chicago's Friars Inn to hear nett in 1922 and 1923 marked the beginning firsthand (he New Orleans of an amazing run for the Indiana label. Over Rhythm Kings. While there he the next two years Gennett Records intro- first met Bix Beiderbecke, a talented white MARCH OF THE duced America to authentic, Chicago-based jazz cornetist from Iowa who soon led the HOODLUMS Wolverine Orche- (Carmichael) Carmichael's CollegianB stra, a fledgling jazz GENNETT RECORDS band that barn- RICHMOND, IND. stormed the Mid- west and recorded in Richmond in early 1924. Carmichael became one of Bei- and together they headed for Richmond, derbecke's most where Carmichael joined the band on piano serious followers for his first recording session at Gennett. and hired the Wolver- Down along the Whitewater River gorge, ines for engagements past the long row of Starr manufacturing at the IU campus. buildings, Carmichael entered the studio by The two men the tracks. The single-story, gray wooden became spiritual studio was situated on a concrete flood wall brothers in the near the river, next to the factory's flood pursuit of musical pump house. A secondary railroad spur, for understanding. One slow-moving cars hauling freight through drunken morning the crowded factory, ran about three feet at IU's Kappa Sigma Hoatjy Carmichael (in bow tie) joins Curtis Hitch from the studio's front door. The freight house, Carmichael at the piano as Hitch's Happy Harmonists record confessed to Beider- Carmichael's "Washboard Blues" in Richmond, 1925. becke his desire The other band members are (left to right) to compose. Beider- "Back there in Haskell Simpson, Maurice May, Harry Wright, becke provided the necessary, if some- Early "Buddy" McDowell, Arnold Habbe, and Fred Rollison. what incoherent, the old ratty

jazz from New Orleans originals and their encouragement before he passed out. midwestern followers. In the spring of 1924 Carmichael gathered RECORDING STUDIO, Ironically Fred Gennett had no personal the Wolverines around the piano to hear his interest in jazz. Prohibition Chicago's explod- first composition, "Free Wheeling." The I was vacjue ing jazz scene, sparked by the migration of Wolverines took the song to their next record- black and white musicians from New Orleans, ing session in Richmond. To Carmichael's in MOOD as the contrasted sharply to Richmond's composed, amazement, Gennett released the Wolverines' small-town environment. However, Gennett rendition of his New Orleans-style song, viewed jazz as a viable market, particularly which they renamed "Riverboat Shuffle." The strains hung in the with black consumers, for the small family record encouraged Carmichael to continue label. Gennett was the first label to record composing. In the spring of 1925 he played a RAFTERS of the King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, a legendary new song, "Washboard Blues," for an area black group of New Orleans musicians based bandleader named Curtis Hitch, whose in Chicago, headed by Oliver and Louis Arm- Hitch's Happy Harmonists performed in place. I wanted to strong on cornets. Oliver's band recorded sev- southern Indiana. Hitch had recorded several landmark discs in April 1923 between the eral sides for Gennett, which routinely SHOUT, 'Maybe five-hour train rides from Chicago to Rich- released discs by area bands. Hitch asked Car- mond and back. The Gennett release of michael to compose an additional number I didn't write you, Oliver's "Chimes Blues" contains Armstrong's and proposed the band record both songs at first recorded cornet solo. That same year the next Gennett recording session. Car- Gennett produced the first solo piano records michael responded with "Boneyard Shuff le." but I FOUND you.'" by Jelly Roll Morton, arguably jazz music's first Carmichael loaded Hitch's band into his car,

Summer 19 9 4 7 STAR DUST 9H EMORIES cars could generate enough commotion to shifting tempos and time signatures, unusual Whiteman Orchestra performing in Indi- interrupt recording sessions, so the studio modulations and chord progressions. anapolis, Carmichael rounded up six mem- was generally aware of the freight train Carmichael's improvised piano solo resur- bers of the group, including Tommy and schedule. A greater problem was the thun- faced years later as the framework for his hit Jimmy Dorsey, and headed east to Richmond. dering steam locomotives of the main tune "Lazybones." In the early morning the band recorded on Chesapeake & Ohio railroad line, which Despite Carmichael's ability to get the Gennett "One Night in Havana," a rhythmi- passed above the Starr Piano factory along Wolverines and Hitch's band to record his cally bizarre number that Carmichael had the ridge of the gorge. This line, about fifty compositions, he wasn't successful in con- composed during a Florida cruise. yards from the recording studio, produced vincing Gennett staffers that his own col- Around the same time, Carmichael wres- noise and vibrations at unpredictable times. lege band, Carmichael's Collegians, could tled with a new melody that he claimed was Musicians had to contend with more than just the railroad rumblings; they had to face Factories of The Starr Piano Co., Richmond, Ind, the heat. With the studio situated in the bottom of a humid river gorge, recording during the summer was inherently difficult. But in order to maintain the soft consistency of the blank wax discs used for recording, the nonventilated studio was kept uncomfort- ably hot year-round. Before the advent of electronic recording in 1926, recording companies engaged in "acoustic recording." The process required musicians to gather around and play into a couple of large mega- phone-like horns. The horns transferred the sound, via a crystal, to the recording stylus, which engraved the sound vibration straight onto a polished, soft-wax master disc. What the studio lacked in location and climate, it also lacked in atmosphere. Monk's cloth draperies that hung from the ceiling to the floor deadened the Richmond studio. On one wall hung a large Mohawk rug which had been on a floor in Harry Gennett's home. 'The studio was a dreary looking Rube Goldberg place with lily-shaped horns sticking oddly from produce acceptable music. By 1915 the Starr inspired by an old romance the walls," Carmichael wrote years later. "It Even by Carmichael's own on the IU campus. He orga- Piano Company Factory didn't have the effect of soothing me. . . . admission, the Collegians nized the tune in a ragtime The horns sticking from the walls looked had a difficult time keeping sprawled across more style, and a student called spooky and I was pretty upset by the time up with its leader's antics on than thirty-five acres the melody "Star Dust." On we were ready to make test records." the piano. In early 1926 Car- 31 October 1927 Car- along the Whitewater As the band settled into work, the Gennett michael finished law school michael recruited an Indi- River gorge. engineer agreed to record "Boneyard Shuf- and accepted a job as an anapolis bandleader named fle" but claimed "Washboard Blues" was attorney in Florida. Before Approximately 750 Emil Seidel, along with twenty seconds short of the required dura- leaving he arranged for a people worked in the seven members of his band, tion. After a protest by Hitch and Car- recording session for his Col- and headed again for Rich- factory, which was michael, it was decided Carmichael would legians as a farewell gift. mond for the first record- fill in the necessary twenty seconds with an After the session, however, hailed as a model of ing of "Star Dust." Recalled improvised piano solo. The Gennett release Gennett technicians appar- scientific efficiency Gennett recording engineer ently destroyed the band's Harold Soule: "They [Car- of "Washboard Blues," saved by Carmichael's by trade magazines. impromptu performance, provides a sketchy master disc in a technical michael and the gang] instrumental rendition that was developed mishap before the first 78-rpm record could called me at 3 a.m. and told me, 'We've got into the more-refined, subsequent recording be pressed. "Three years of musical sweat a band over here for you to record.' So I got by Paul Whiteman's Orchestra on Victor and friendship melted away into a blob of out of bed and went down to record them. I Records the following year. Although Hitch's twisted copper," Carmichael bemoaned. got the first take at 5 o'clock in the morn- version is somewhat tenuous and lacking in Soon dissatisfied with the legal profession, ing. Old Hoagy fell backwards off his piano clarity (common problems with Gennett Carmichael returned to the Bloomington- stool and says, 'My masterpiece,' and it was." recordings), the song's memorable character- Indianapolis area to establish a music career. Not quite. As Carmichael later admitted, istics are all present: dramatic orchestration, In October 1927, with the famous Paul the recorded performance was far from

8 TRACES STAR DUST 9H EMORIES perfect. Identified on the Gennett release released back-to-back on a disc. "March of New York. Around this time Irving Mills as "Hoagy Carmichael and His Pals," the the Hoodlums" was nothing short of well- hired lyricist Mitchell Parish to provide band would have benefited from more orchestrated bedlam, in which the com- lyrics for "Stardust," changed to a one-word rehearsal and formally arranged scores, and poser's simple melody line quickly clears title. Almost two years after the Gennett perhaps, from some rest before making the the way for brief, hypersonic solos by the recording date, "Stardust" was finally pub- seventy-mile drive in the middle of the young band. "Walkin' the Dog" features lished and getting played as part of the night to Richmond. Carmichael on scat vocal and cornet. He repertoire at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Still, Carmichael's original up-tempo "Star later admitted his cornet solo was fine Journalist Walter Winchell tirelessly pro- Dust" on Gennett, despite the performance unless one appreciated good tone. In reality, moted the song. In 1930 Isham Jones and imperfections, is fascinating. Later record- His Orchestra had a hit with a slower, bal- ings of this standard would benefit from lad rendition of "Stardust." The floodgates opened. The song would be recorded more Mitchell Parish's lyrics, gorgeous orchestral "STAR DUST" refinements, and pristine recording technol- than one thousand times over the decades. ogy. But the rough Gennett version, thrown Ironically Carmichael's career in New together by Carmichael and friends at the "Chimes Blues" York took off in the 1930s just as Starr piano factory, is truest to the composer's Piano and its Gennett Records label in Indi- original conception and inspiration. ana fell on hard times. Gennett Records was Carmichael was troubled by the inspi- "WASHBOARD BLUES" marginally profitable at best by the late ration behind "Star Dust," which is 1920s and focused on producing country reminiscent of a Beiderbecke impro- and old-time recordings for the discount visation and contains a line from "Boneyard Shuffle" market. Swept up in the chaos of the Great "Potato Head Blues" by Armstrong. Depression, the Gennett label was discon- "I got a queer sensation as we recorded," he tinued in December 1930. The Gennett wrote later, recalling the Gennett session. "POTATO HEAD BLUES" family operated a discount label, Champion "Back there in the old ratty recording studio, I Records, which closed down in 1934. Starr was vague in mood as the strains hung in the Piano was badly shaken by the depression, rafters of the place. I wanted to shout, 'Maybe "March of the Hoodlums" which led to lasting dissent among Gennett I didn't write you, but I found you.'" family members. Starr Piano, a leading "Star Dust" was released back-to-back manufacturer in Richmond for generations, "WALKIN' THE DOG" with "One Night in Havana" on Gennett's finally shut down in 1952. "Electrobeam" series, which began in 1927 With Carmichael's prolific songwriting after the studio installed electronic record- activities in the 1930s, his first Gennett ing equipment. Gennett paid Carmichael the cornet solo, despite some rough edges, recordings soon represented a tiny fraction the standard one penny per side in royal- isn't all bad. "Hoagy really got up for that of his overall recorded output. But they ties. Judging from the rarity of this disc one," Dant recalled. didn't diminish in importance. These today, Carmichael's royalties from the Unfortunately the Gennett studio extremely rare releases preserve Car- release were meager. rejected the four other master discs cut by michael's first inspirations in jazz, as well Carmichael was not, however, discour- the band that night, including Carmichael's as his aspirations to become a bandleader. aged from attempting additional recordings second effort at "Star Dust," complete with for Gennett. He made his last trip to the vocals and lyrics by the composer. Fred Wig- Rick Kennedy is a former journalist who Richmond studio in May 1928 with a pickup gins, who was managing the Richmond stu- reported on business and entertainment for the band of Indianapolis- and Bloomington-area dio for Fred Gennett, reviewed the band's Richmond-Palladium-Item and the Cincin- musicians. Bud Dant, an IU freshman and a recorded efforts and scribbled on the nati Post. He is the author of Jelly Roll, Bix, & horn player for the session, had never heard recording information record next to the Hoagy: Gennett Studios and the Birth of of Gennett. "We never really thought much "Star Dust" take: "Reject. Already on Gen- Recorded Jazz, which chronicles the legendary about cutting a record," he said. 'Jazz was so nett. Poor seller." Clayton Jackson, assistant Gennett label along with the music and recording new in those days and we just thought going to Wiggins, later pointed out that Gennett industry of the 1920s. over to Richmond with Hoagy would be a Records never had a great reputation for kick." Once in the studio, Dant and the the overall accommodation of its recording FOR FURTHER READING band were impressed with the technical artists. "Hoagy [and his band] came down Carmichael, Hoagy. The Stardust Road. Reissue, equipment. "I remember seeing those large to the studio at their own expense," Jackson Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983. single-sided platters of beeswax that were said. "They bought their own meals. Hell, Carmichael, Hoagy, with Stephen Longstreet. used for recording," Dant said. "We knew we didn't even buy them a sandwich." Sometimes I Wonder. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965. that if you made a mistake, a new platter had Carmichael never showed animosity, as Davis, Charlie. That Band from Indiana. Oswego, to be used. It was a fun night, but we were he owed much to Gennett Records. While pretty serious about what we were doing." N.Y.: Mathom Publishing Co., 1982. "Star Dust" on Gennett never sold to the Kennedy, Rick-Jetly Roll, Bix & Hoagy: Gennett The band attempted six songs during the company's satisfaction, the disc still gave Studios and the Birth of Recorded Jazz. Blooming- late-night session, with two numbers, Car- the struggling composer a promotional tool. ton: Indiana University Press, 1994. michael's "March of the Hoodlums" and After Carmichael left Indiana in 1928 he Schiedt, Duncan. The Jazz State of Indiana, Shelton Brooks's "Walkin' the Dog," began promoting songs for Mills Music in Pittsboro, Ind.: by author, 1977.

Summer 19 9 4 9 MR. WEICHMANN AND THE

hey stood, from the their captive, Abraham Lincoln, observer's right to left, over to the rebel bank on the first in the following order: leg of the journey to the Confed- Atzerodt, Herold, Pow- erate capital at Richmond. In the ell, and Mrs. Surratt. end, however, John Wilkes Booth TUnder the oppressively hot July sun gave him the assignment of kill- the executioner fitted the canvas ing the vice president of the hoods upon those about to die. As United States. Atzerodt lost his he worked it might have occurred nerve at the critical moment, got to the assembled witnesses, as it has drunk instead, and now pro- to several generations of historians claimed miserably to those gath- since, that this was one of the odd- ered around the base of the est groups to ever step up to an scaffold, "Good-bye, shentalmans!" American gallows. David Herold rode with Booth to George Atzerodt was the German the very end. Historians describe with the heavy accent. Women the boy as a half-wit, a starstruck thought him a most pathetic dupe in the employ of one of the character. His stooped frame and Louis J. Weichmann. most famous figures of the Ameri- disheveled appearance combined can stage. If his pretrial examina- with the strong smell of alcohol, tion is any indication, little Davy causing the ladies to laugh at him Herold was a studied fool, a man behind their sleeves. Men regarded whose worth to the conspiracy con- him with contempt, wrote him off sisted of his intimate familiarity as a meaningless cipher, and nick- with the byroads and backwater named him "Port Tobacco" after the trails of lower Maryland. After the small Maryland town from which original plan was abandoned, he hailed. His worth to the conspir- Herold accompanied Powell to the acy was that he operated a boat, house of the secretary of state. Pow- painted lead-gray, hidden along ell botched the job of killing Mr. the weed-infested shores of the Seward; Herold rendezvoused with Potomac. In the original plan he Booth below the Navy Yard bridge; was to ferry the conspirators and and the two horsemen gave the

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE LINCOLN MUSEUM, FORT WAYNE, WEICHMANN PORTRAIT BY PERMISSION OF FLOYD E. RISVOLD GHOST OF MRS. SURRATT

authorities a merry chase until cor- devout Catholic who could not have nered finally in Mr. Garrett's barn. had anything to do with the conspir- Booth had died there; now Heroic! acy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. was about to rendezvous with his At the very real risk of public con- idol for all eternity. demnation in those hysterical times Lewis Powell (alias "Payne") her defense attorneys had loudly stood next to Herold on the plat- and steadfastly proclaimed her inno- form. The former Mosby ranger cence. Even the members of the Mil- caused much comment during the itary Commission who had found trial, some of which was whispered her guilty petitioned the president in low undertones by female to reduce her sentence to life observers mesmerized by his stun- imprisonment. By design or hap- ning masculinity and powerful penstance, President Andrew John- build. His value to the conspiracy son never saw the petition while he was that he was a killer, pure and signed the death warrants. simple. He liked his jailers as much Hoods and nooses in place and as they respected his manly bearing prayers said, the trap was sprung in the face of death. On the walk to Mrs. Mary Surratt. and the conspirators hanged. the gallows he had playfully lifted Despite their different backgrounds, the straw hat from Colonel McCall's all four who writhed at the ends of head and put it on his own. For their respective ropes had one thing Lewis Powell, a man who had wit- in common: they all knew and nessed and distributed so much had some kind of relationship with death during his lifetime, it was just Louis J. Weichmann. In particular, another day. Mrs. Surratt had treated him like Not standing but more held up, another son and could not under- actually, to the noose was Mrs. Mary stand how he could have given such Surratt. Her son John, number two damaging, distorted evidence against man in the conspiracy, remained at her. One thing was certain: when large in Canada. The priests who Weichmann died in Anderson, Indi- escorted John's mother to the gal- ana, in 1902, the ghost of Mrs. Sur- lows testified that she was a simple, ratt had haunted him without end. ERICH L. E W A L D "10 E I C H M A N N AND SLJRRATT

Once bailed by the New York Herald as "the actor of the century/' John Wilkes Booth is today remembered as Abraham Lincoln's assassin.

Once there had been a moment when Louis Weichmann was one of America's most controversial figures. Public opinion divided sharply when it came to the twenty-three-year-old government clerk. Those who took up his cause, including Maj. Gen. Lew Wal- lace of the Military Commission, thought him to be a young patriot persecuted for turning evidence against the nest of conspirators in which he had lived. Others, including some of his closest acquaintances, claimed that his testimony was nothing less than outright perjury. Weichmann, they said, was a man who had flirted with treason, one who had played a dangerous both-ends-against-the- middle game with the conspirators. Historians of this century have not yet discovered his true role in the events of 1865. Whether or not the young man actually furnished confidential government information to Booth, the consensus among scholars is that at the very least Weichmann was coerced by the authorities into giving damaging testimony against the accused. The question is no longer whether or not Louis Weichmann lied during the conspiracy trials of 1865 and 1867, but rather how much he lied. In Mrs. Surratt's case, those lies had fatal consequences. Patriot or perjurer, it is doubtful that Louis Weichmann ever intended to be controversial. He intended to be a priest. Tragedy befell all who were present in the president's box on e was born in Baltimore in 1842, the eldest son of the night of 14 April 1865. Maj. Henry Rathbone blamed respectable German immigrants. The Weichmann family eventually gravitated to Philadelphia where himself for not saving the president, and in 1883 he shot and Louis graduated from high school in 1859. As the killed his wife, Clara Harris (his fiancee on the night of the country moved toward civil war, Louis entered St. assassination], and then slashed himself as John Wilkes Booth HCharles preparatory seminary near Baltimore to begin training for the priesthood. A few months after his arrival Weichmann met had slashed him years earlier. He survived six wounds, another new seminarian, a handsome southern firebrand by the but lived out his days in a madhouse.

12 TRACES TO E I C H M A N N AND S U R R A T T

name of John Harrison Surratt Jr. Surratt's father ran a government post office at Surrattsville in Prince Georges County, Maryland. Surrattsville served as an inflated title for the ramshackle residue of a family farm consisting primarily of abandoned slave quarters and a tavern in which all kinds of business was conducted. A few miles southeast of the federal capital, Surrattsville (now Clinton, Maryland) was strategically located for reasons quite unrelated to the dispensing of alcohol. It is reasonably certain that during the Civil War the tavern served as a way station for blockade-runners, spies, and rebel couriers traveling from Richmond to the secret Confederate mission in Canada. Weichmann and Surratt became fast friends at St. Charles. Both excelled in their studies, and young Surratt in particular became a favorite with teachers and students alike. During the summer break in 1862 John left the seminary because his father had died and family finances were in turmoil. Returning home, Surratt served out his father's term as postmaster and at some point became a secret courier for Confederate secretary of state Judah Benjamin. Mrs. Surratt leased out the farm in 1864 and moved herself and twenty-one-year-old daughter Annie to a house on H Street in Washington city, just a few blocks away from Ford's Theater. Mrs. Surratt converted the residence into a boardinghouse and with some difficulty managed to eke out a slender income. John lived with the family, using the house as a convenient base of operations during his frequent trips from Richmond to Canada. It is possible that Mrs. Surratt was unaware ofJohn' s covert occupation. Meanwhile, and for reasons that remain unclear, Weichmann was refused entry to the major seminary in Baltimore. Still hoping for acceptance into the priesthood, Weichmann taught in various

At his civil trial in 18 67 the jurors ruled eight to Jour in John H. Surratt's favor, and the murder charge against him was dropped in 1868.

Summer 19 9 4 13 Mrs. Surratt is said to haunt the building where her trial took place. Wearing a heavy black dress and Recognized in April 1866 while a dark veil, her ghost serving as a private in the walks through what is Papal guard at the Vatican, now a housing unit at John Surratt escaped capture Fort Lesley McNair. until November 1866.

Convicted by a military court as an accessory after the fact in Lincoln's death, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was sentenced to life in prison. President Andrew Johnson pardoned him in 1 869.

tnj* AjlRitchte CHMANN AND CI U I 1 A T T

Catholic schools near and in Washington until he secured a clerk's devout Catholic testifying reluctantly and truthfully against traitors position in the War Department's Commissary of Prisoners in Janu- who had pulled the wool over his patriotic eyes. Despite the govern- ary 1864. Weichmann moved into Mrs. Surratt's boardinghouse ment's best efforts, Weichmann's credibility became increasingly that November and shared a room and bed with John. suspect. For instance, a blockade runner caught up in the govern- Sometime late in 1864 Surratt and Weichmann struck up an ment's dragnet testified that he had taught Weichmann a secret acquaintance with John Wilkes Booth, the dashing scion of the Confederate cipher identical to the one found among Booth's per- great American theatrical family. Booth and Surratt, both clandes- sonal effects. Though harboring doubts about the truthfulness of tine rebels, looked with dismay at the military situation facing the its prime witness, the prosecution glossed over that incriminating South and decided that radical measures were necessary to secure item in its zeal to convict the accused. Confederate independence. During the great Northern offensive of Only a few days after Mrs. Surratt's execution, one of Weichmann's that year Grant pinned clown Lee's army in a long, grueling siege acquaintances, John Brophy, published a lengthy affidavit in the near Petersburg, Virginia, while Sherman drove through the heart Washington Constitutional Union. Among many other things, Brophy of the Confederacy, reaching Savannah by Christmas. Obviously, claimed that Weichmann had admitted to him that he had testified the Confederacy was dying, and the conspirators determined upon under duress and that Mrs. Surratt was innocent. Despite his cloudy a bold plan designed to retrieve its fortunes. and evasive denial of Brophy's charges, a storm of controversy arose Originally, the conspirators' scheme to save the Confederacy did around Weichmann's testimony, causing Mrs. Surratt's many defend- not embrace the idea of assassination. Booth and Surratt recruited ers to pillory Louis's name from one end of the country to the other. a small coterie of followers with the concept of kidnapping Presi- Weichmann returned to Philadelphia under a cloud, eventually dent Lincoln and spiriting him down the infrequently patrolled securing a clerkship in the government customhouse. Much evi- byroads of lower Maryland, through Surrattsville, across the dence exists that Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt and Secretary Potomac near Port Tobacco, and then on to Richmond. Once there, of War Edwin Stanton were instrumental in granting this favor. Lincoln could be held hostage for the exchange of thousands of Apprehended in Egypt in 1866, John Surratt returned in chains rebel prisoners held in such places as Johnson's Island, Ohio, and to the United States, and Weichmann was called once again to the Elmira, New York. With such hardened veterans back into Confed- witness stand. The trial, this time conducted in civil court, resulted erate ranks, Booth reasoned that Lee could hold his own against in a hung jury, with Surratt eventually released from confinement. Grant. The actor apparently believed that war weariness, already During Surratt's trial Weichmann testified with elaborations never running rampant, would force the North to sue for peace. mentioned in 1865, including suddenly remembered conversations Knowing the numbers and locations of the Confederate prison- further incriminating John and his mother. Louis's testimony only ers was important to Booth's plan, and Louis Weichmann held a served to raise additional questions about his credibility. position in which those facts were readily available. In the early During the next twenty years Weichmann tried unsuccessfully to months of 1865, Booth and Surratt visited Weichmann several maintain a normal life. He married an older woman, separated from times after hours in his government office. Surratt claimed later her for unknown "domestic troubles," and was removed from his that Weichmann readily furnished much vital information to the customhouse position in 1886 as a result of the Democratic presi- conspirators, a charge Weichmann denied to the end of his life. dential victory. Unemployed, his political benefactors out of power, The conspirators made at least one attempt to capture Lincoln in Weichmann sought refuge in Anderson, Indiana, where his parents March of 1865, but failed miserably. Some of Booth's followers had moved in with his sisters and his younger brother, Father Freder- drifted away when it became increasingly clear that the actor's plans ick Weichmann, assistant pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church. held little promise of success. By mid-April, Richmond fell to Union The surviving Madison County tax records, while incomplete, forces, Lee's army surrendered, and the Confederacy went up in suggest that Weichmann arrived in Indiana nearly penniless. flame and ruin. The cause lost, Booth coerced or shamed his remain- Unable to secure any lasting employment, Louis eventually created ing followers into a wild scheme that called for the assassination of one of the first business colleges in central Indiana. His mastery of Lincoln and other top government officials. As it turned out, Booth typing, stenography, and foreign languages was sufficient to keep a was the only one to successfully complete his part of the mission. small but steady flow of students passing through his classroom. In the hysteria following Lincoln's assassination, many suspected eichmann's dark past remained virtually unknown accomplices were rounded up and incarcerated, including Louis mong his Anderson neighbors for ten long years. Weichmann. Much circumstantial evidence exists that the authori- Attempts to draw him into society proved unavailing. ties threatened Weichmann with an appointment at the gallows unless he cooperated with the prosecution. Cooperate Weichmann did, with detailed testimony of conversa-W He remained aloof and secretive, venturing outdoors tions and alleged observations that could be neither verified nor only when necessary and usually only then with members disproved. His bearing before the Military Commission stood in of his immediate family. fine counterpoint to that of many other government witnesses, This is where the complex and previously almost unresearched some of whom were exposed subsequently as perjurers. Contribut- story of Louis Weichmann's life in Indiana begins, a story filled ing to Weichmann's value to the prosecution was the fact that he with mystery and intrigue. Weichmann's existence in Anderson was was Catholic, his testimony serving to deflect both contemporary anything but happy in the years before 1896. In 1894 he suffered and subsequent charges of governmental bigotry. what would be regarded today as a nervous breakdown, which forced him to close the business school for six months. He lived Weichmann impressed the commission members, especially alone for the most part, exiling himself from all contact with the Generals Lew Wallace and T. M. Harris. He held up well under vig- church despite his brother's prominence in the Catholic commu- orous, searing cross-examination by Mrs. Surratt's defense attor- nity. Alone, mentally fragile, Weichmann became obsessed with neys. The prosecution painted the picture of Weichmann as a defending his name whenever books or articles appeared about the

Summer 199 i assassination. He devoted more and more time to writing his mem15- oirs, begun during his Philadelphia years. Once in place on the gallows, the and contained the damning statement: "He He would not or could not publish these conspirators listen to their death orders. [Weichmann] wove the thread of testi- memoirs during his lifetime for reasons mony which closed upon Mrs. Surratt, and Witnesses to the hanging judged that known only to himself. in doing so escaped the gallows himself." One thing that might have been trou- Mrs. Surratt (jar left) was the first to die. The cloak of anonymity no longer cov- bling to Mr. Weichmann was the knowl- ered Weichmann in the Anderson com- edge that distant members of the Surratt family were living in the munity. Efforts by local newspapermen to interview Louis for a reply Anderson community. Gorrell and Spencer Locker Surratt, two to Mason's article gave rise to his short and uninstructive repetition brothers from a branch of the Maryland Surratts that migrated to that he had testified truthfully in 1865 and 1867. Indiana from North Carolina, had moved to Anderson in 1888 and Weichmann's already odd behavior became more pronounced. 1896, respectively. It is a tradition of the surviving Anderson Sur- Many community observers, some hostile, testified later that the ratts that their family was definitely aware of Mr. Weichmann and "professor" would never stand with his back to a door or open win- his connection with the assassination trials. For his part, it is almost dow for fear of reprisal by John Surratt. Louis suspected that the certain that in such a small community Weichmann knew of the local Catholic community was united against him, an assumption Surratts, and this awareness might help explain his continual fear of taken at face value by many historians. What little evidence retaliation from John Surratt or other members of the Surratt fam- remains, though, indicates that the Catholics in Anderson bore him ily. It has not yet been determined whether or not the Anderson no ill will and regarded the entire Weichmann family with respect. Surratts had any communication with John Surratt, then living out A mere nine months after the appearance of Mason's article his days in Baltimore. However, the mere existence of Surratts in came the strangest, most mysterious event of Louis Weichmann's the community had to have given pause to the aging witness, a man troubled life. A German butcher going by the name of Chris Ritter, desperately trying to forget the past. recently arrived in town, gave an interview to an Anderson Herald Weichmann's precarious existence in Anderson became shakier in reporter claiming that John Wilkes Booth had not died, but had April 1896, when Century magazine published a lengthy article on the escaped in company with the butcher to South America. Typical of assassination written by Victor Louis Mason. Mason's article many such "Booth Escapes" stories that grew like weeds at the turn recounted in detail Weichmann's involvement with the conspirators of the century, Ritter's was embellished with minute, convincing

16 TRACES detail of major and minor figures of the assassination. Printed on Dating from the publication of Mason's article and the appear- the front page of the 31 January 1897 edition, the story received ance of Chris Ritter, Weichmann was a broken man. As a very much circulation and some believers in the little town. young boy growing up in Pendleton, future historian Lloyd Lewis But Ritter's story was different from many such others in one sig- remembered seeing the troubled man walking the streets of Ander- nificant respect. Woven carefully into the butcher's tale, almost as son. Aged beyond his years, the witness walked furtively and wraith- an aside, was the description of Ritter's chance encounter with and like through the town, periodically glancing behind him as if purported mutual recognition of Louis Weichmann in an Ander- pursued by legions of unseen enemies. son restaurant. In the newspaper article Ritter implied that he and After receiving last rites by his brother and allegedly becoming Weichmann had been brothers in a secret pro-Confederate Knights reconciled to the church, Weichmann died in June 1902. When of the Golden Circle lodge in Washington at the time of Lincoln's interviewed by Lloyd Lewis in 1926, the Weichmann sisters testi- assassination. Since Ritter claimed that Booth had been a member fied that before he breathed his last, Louis called for pen and of the same clandestine order, the inference was clear that Weich- paper and wrote a deathbed statement. The statement, quite possi- mann had been a part of the conspiracy. bly a fiction on the part of a family wanting to put to rest the con- Weichmann denied knowing Ritter, a denial that spurred the troversy surrounding Weichmann, has never been found. butcher to become more specific. After reading Weichmann's According to the sisters, Weichmann wrote: "This is to certify that short newspaper rebuttal, Ritter elaborated more to the point. "I every word I gave in evidence at the assassination trial was see Weichman is trying to say what I say is not true. Just wait till I absolutely true; and now I am about to die and with love I recom- show you. Weichman belonged to us. He told me he threw his mend myself to all truth-loving people." [Knights of the Golden Circle] badge away because it gave him too Many were not convinced, especially members of the clergy much trouble." serving at St. Mary's. Basing his remarks upon the testimony of The butcher would not go away. For several months the Ander- a priest who had served St. Mary's with Father Weichmann, son papers reported that both Ritter and Weichmann were hard at Msgr. Thomas Conroy wrote to Louis Warren of the Lincoln work preparing their respective accounts of Lincoln's assassination. Library, "The ghost of Mrs. Surratt was on the wing and Lou Weichmann's manuscript was discovered by businessman Floyd Wichman was pursued to the end by fear of retribution or Risvold in the mid-1970s and published by Alfred Knopf. Titled A vengeance." As for Weichmann's conspicuous absence from True History of the Assassination oj"Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspir- church, Conroy stated: acy of 1865, Weichmann's manuscript contributed little new information regarding the conspiracy. In it, Louis simply repeated his He knew of the inevitable judgment that he must face .... This candidate claims that he had testified truthfully during the trials. Ritter's for the priesthood turned his back on the altar of his early ambitions for manuscript, if it ever existed, has never come to light. One Ander- one reason, and one reason only: every candle burning on the altar would son newspaperman, however, reported the arrival of an express box from Ritter's sister in Cincinnati containing old letters and pho- have revealed to Wichman's conscience the picture of Mrs. Surratt in tographs of the conspirators that Ritter claimed constituted the infamy and desperation on the scaffold in the jail yard at Washington, a vic- documentary proof of his story. tim of the perfidy and dishonor of a Lou Wichman who had broken bread Whether or not Ritter and Weichmann knew each other, the in her house many times as a guest and then turned against her with the butcher's continued presence in Anderson served as a nagging open, flaming mouth of a hyena at the trial before the military tribunal. reminder to the witness of a dark past he was desperately trying to bury. Weichmann could never achieve peace as long as Ritter con- Be that as it may, Louis J. Weichmann is interred in Anderson's tinued his accusations. Catholic cemetery. He had been driven there by his past—and by Finally, in August the Anderson Bulletin reported that Ritter had the ghost of Mrs. Surratt. left town, moving on to peddle meat in Muncie. Thereafter, Chris Ritter dropped from history as quickly and mysteriously as he had Erich L. Eutald is a freelance writer with degrees in history from Wittenberg come into it. University and Ball State University. He is a labor relations representative Later that same year a student enrolled in one of Weichmann's for Inland Fisher Guide Division, General Molars, in Anderson. night classes had a strange experience with his professor. Young Joe Abel, a fifteen-year-old day laborer, was the only one to attend Weich- mann's class during a severe storm. According to Abel's account, written many years after the event, Weichmann began to talk to him of FOR FURTHER READING the Lincoln assassination and loaned the boy a manuscript on the Chamlee, Roy Z. Lincoln's Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, conspiracy that he had been working on. Abel took the draft home and Punishment. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 1990. with him and read it, returning it to his teacher at a later time. George, Joseph. "Nature's First Law: Louis J. Weichmann and Mrs. Surratt." According to Abel, Weichmann claimed (both verbally and in the Civil War History 28 (June 1982): 101-127. written reminiscences) that he had been coerced into testifying Hanchett, William. The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies. Urbana: University of against Mrs. Surratt and that she had been innocent. Abel's typewrit- Illinois Press, 1983. ten account of the episode was discovered in the archives of St. Lewis, Lloyd. Myths after Lincoln. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, Mary's Church where he had filed it in 1972. Despite his confused 1929. Tidwell, William, et al. Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the and inadequate grasp of Lincoln assassination events, a few of Abel's Assassination of Lincoln. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1988. main points correspond strikingly with those contained in John Bro- Weichmann, Louis J. A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and phy's 1865 affidavit. It is possible that Abel had read a first and much of the. Conspiracy of1865. Edited by Floyd E. Risvold. New York: Alfred more truthful draft of what Risvold uncovered many years later. Knopf, 1975.

Summer 1994 17

IDEAL SKETCHING CROUND

etween 1907 and 1920 tation via the Illinois Central 1890s, opening the floodgates hundreds of artists Railroad to Helmsburg begin- to artists searching for the pas- cheerfully tolerated ning in 1905, the opening of toral existence in outer Suffolk long rides in sooty the hospitable Pittman Inn County. New York painters trains and bumpy in Nashville, and enticing word- also escaped from the city to Bwagons, or endured marathon of-mouth advertising in the Cos Cob and Old Lyme, Con- hikes, to reach Nash- necticut, and eventu- ville in Brown County, ally colonized Wood- home of the largest T h e E a r L y stock, New York, and and best-known art Provincetown, Glouces- colony in the Midwest. ART COLONY ter, and Cape Ann, Cut off from the more oj Br own County Massachusetts, as well civilized world by a as Ogunquit, Maine, combination of mar- and the New Hope and ginal roads and a lack Brandywine regions of marketable natural of Pennsylvania. Large resources, Brown County numbers of artists seemed frozen in an were attracted to the earlier time. The rugged desert beauty of Taos hills and hollows were and Santa Fe, New inhabited by fiercely Mexico, and others independent pioneer settled in Carmel and descendants who used the Monterey Penin- hunting and fishing The Old Ogle Homestead, Adolph Shulz, sula in California to oil on canvas. skills to survive on paint the Pacific Coast. barely tillable land. Opposite page: Filling the Loft, Georges LaChance The artists who dis- oil on canvas. Many of the natives covered the rugged were less than enthusi- beauty of Brown astic about the invasion of artists Chicago art world attracted County came predominantly tramping along the trails and seasonal painters from urban from Chicago. Neither amateurs painting pictures of their rustic centers throughout the Midwest. nor dilettantes, they had received cabins, but the soft atmospheric The years between 1890 and excellent training, and many had haze enveloping a charming vari- 1910 saw the formation of art distinguished reputations before ety of vistas, forests, and creeks colonies all across America. arriving in southern Indiana. attracted increasing numbers of William Merritt Chase taught Although T. C. Steele (1847- landscape painters. The combi- summer art classes at Shinne- 1926) was the first to purchase nation of improved transpor- cock, on Long Island, in the property and build a home in 2 l Summer 19 9 4

IDEAL SKETCHING CROUND

Artists gather at the Art Gallery in Brown County, artists had been painting only on the floor and walls but also on any- Nashville, 16 October 192 7. Front row, there since the late 1800s. Adolph Shulz one who happened to be standing .nearby. (1869-1963), who is generally credited with The resulting Indiana landscapes revealed left to right: Homer Davisson, L. O. the initial growth and vitality of the colony, bold strokes and heavy paint texture. A Griffith, V J. Cariani, C. Curry became enamored of the area as early as review of his work in the 1 December 1929 Bohm, Charles Dahlgreen, George 1900 and began regular summer visits with edition of the Indianapolis Star placed him his wife, Ada Walter Shulz (1870-1928), and "near the top, if not at the very top, as Indi- Mock. Second row, left to right-. Edward K. son, Walter, in 1908. Of his first visit to ana's painter of landscapes." Williams, Ada Walter Shulz, Musette Brown County, Shulz wrote: "Never before Word spread quickly among the Chicago Stoddard, Marie Goth, Lucie Hartrath, had I been so thrilled by a region; it seemed artists about the picturesque scenery, inex- Robert Root, Adolph Shulz. Third row, like a fairyland with its narrow winding pensive lodgings, and camaraderie to be roads leading the traveler down into the found in Brown County. During the sum- left to right: Will Vawter, Paul Sargent, creek beds, through the water pools and up mer of 1908 at least twenty-five artists were Carl Graf. The blurred figure is over the hills. Everywhere there were rail painting in and around Nashville. Con- believed to be Oscar Erickson. fences almost hidden by Queen Anne's lace, tributing to the growth of the colony was the seemingly inexhaustible hospitality of hotel owners Bill and Mandy Pittman. They encouraged the artists by keeping their lodging prices reasonable and by expanding the business to include a hotel annex in a nearby house. "When the hotel and annex were filled to capacity, Bill trudged around Nashville and rented every available room in every house for the overflow," according to History and Families: Brown County, Indi- ana, 1836-1990. Joining the group of permanent residents, Gustave Baumann (1881-1971) settled in the village of Nashville in 1910 for a change of pace from city life and from his commercial art livelihood. He later told a reporter: "I went to investigate art possibili- ties. Brown County was easy to commute to [from Chicago] and I found that restful something we all yearn for. Life was simple; I could stay two months for $100." Baumann developed his nationally recog- goldenrod and other interesting weeds and nized process of color wood-block printing during his seven-year stay in the Indiana They did what bushes. Picturesque cabins here and there seemed to belong to the landscape as did artist colony. the people who lived in them. . . . All this In 1914 artist Dale R Bessire (1892-1974) ARTISTS have always country was enveloped in a soft, opalescent defied his father's wishes and moved his wife haze. A sense of peace and loveliness never and young son to Nashville from Indianapo- found it natural to do. before experienced came over me and I felt lis. With virtually no knowledge of the apple that at last that I had found the ideal sketch- business, he purchased an orchard to pro- ing ground." vide income while he established himself as EMBRACED They a Another couple enchanted with a painter. When a late spring frost destroyed Brown County, Will Vawter (1871- his entire apple crop one year, he devoted region, discovered the 1941) and his wife Mary (1871- every day of the summer to his art. "No mat- 1950), bought a fifty-seven-acre ter what the weather, no matter how I felt or farm on Town Hill in 1908. how uninspiring the subject, I resolved to BEAUTY that existed in Already a well-known illustrator, Vawter paint every day," he told the magazine writer employed Brown County natives as rural Benjamin Wallace Douglass. the misty hills, Indiana models for depiction in a popular Over the years, Bessire became skillful in series of books by James Whitcomb Riley. both the orchard business and in painting. and CAPTURED IT The artist's tight and orderly style evident in His handling of atmospheric effects and the his illustrations and prints was completely difficult colors of autumn were his forte. A in art form. abandoned when he worked with oil paint. 1929 article in the Indianapolis Star Vawter became known for his fast and furi- described the typical evolution of a ous painting style which spattered paint not painter's sensibilities regarding fall colors:

Summer 19 9 4 2 l Above: Jogging Along, "It has been observed that when out-of-the- became attuned to its most subtle drama." state artists first go to the Hoosier hills to While her husband, like most of the Carl Graf, oil on canvas. paint autumn landscapes, their pictures Brown County artists, pursued landscape fairly flame with masses of red and orange. painting, Ada Walter Shulz built her work Opposite, Sunshine and Hollyhocks, But after they have studied the color there, around the mother and child theme, paint- Will Vawter, 1925, oil on canvas. year after year, they like to paint the hills ing local madonnas. Her later work and valleys just at the time the frost takes its depicted children and their farmyard pets. first nip, or, better still, after many leaves Ada befriended the local women and chil- "All this country have fallen and there are only a few brilliant dren, and her sensitivity to their individual spots here and there, to enliven the more character radiates from her paintings, sober tints and shades that afford deeper, which are now rare and highly valued. was ENVELOPED in a richer color masses for the artist's picture." A native of Bedford, Indiana, Carl Graf soft, opalescent haze. Adolph Shulz became a permanent resi- (1892-1947) arrived in Brown County in dent when he and Ada built a home on a 1918 and spent most of the next seven years hill north of Nashville in 1917. A native of living in a tent before building a home and A sense of peace and Delavan, Wisconsin, Adolph possessed a studio. Columnist Lester Nagley Sr. reported deep knowledge and respect for nature and that he once visited Graf west of Nashville in LOVELINESS never thought nothing of hiking several miles Von's Hollow. In a small clearing, the six foot simply for pleasure. His approach to art was six artist had erected two tents, "one serving before experienced similarly patient. The catalog from A Retro- to store his paintings and the other in which spective Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings he kept house and slept at night He by Adolph Robert Shulz at the Indiana State cooked over an open fire." CAME OVER ME and Museum in 1971 gives the following Especially admired for his adept handling description of Shulz's work: "He could of spring and summer greens, Graf was I felt that at last that make the breathless summer heat simmer, attracted to old cabins, rail fences, flowers, the spring green glisten, the clouds climb and vines for his subjects. "Vine-clad trees I had found the ideal in endless majesty, and garlands of moss offer an infinite variety of pattern," he said swish with a murmur of motion. Through in 1939. "Sometimes I lay the pattern in meticulous observation of color equivalent very simply and then play with the edges in SKETCHING GROUND." to the moods and forms of nature, he order to develop the character of forms."

22 TRACES [DEAL SKETCHING GROUND

Lena McCauley, from the staff of the Cariani does, he must be painting in the 1937, the Indianapolis Star called his exhibition Chicago Evening Post, wrote in 1926, "Louis celestial gardens." at the H. Lieber Company gallery "one of the O. Griffith (1875-1956), wisely deciding The daily life of the art colony was simple finest watercolor exhibitions by an individual that Chicago was too crowded for the art of and convivial. The artists respected the vil- artist that has ever been held in Indianapolis." living, carried away his wife and baby and lagers, and the peace and tranquillity of the In the early 1930s artists continued to founded a home at Nashville, from which it small town were conducive to the creative make their homes in and around Nashville. is a short walk down the road to Salt Creek, appreciation of nature. Regular spaghetti Georges LaChance (1888-1964) bought a where whippoorwills call in early summer." dinners at Cariani's, weekly Sunday pancake cabin on Cheerful Hill in 1931 and was a The year of his defection was 1922. Already breakfasts, night hikes, and long technical common sight in the village, simultaneously well respected for his color etching, Grif- discussions on the porch of the Pittman Inn painting and entertaining tourists. C. Curry fith, inspired and surrounded by landscape were all part of the artists' lives. artists, also mastered oil painting tech- Although considered to be methodical and niques while in Brown County. rigid in his work, Edward K. Williams West Main Street, Nashville, Indiana, A year after Griffith's arrival, portrait (1870-1950) stayed at the Pittman Inn a October 4 927. artist Marie Goth (1887-1975) and her sis- few times and enjoyed the ter Genevieve (1890-1961), who later mar- Brown County ambiance so ried Carl Graf, acquired the last cabin much that, at age fifty-six, accessible by car on Three Notch Road he gave up his commercial north of Nashville. Marie convinced long- art career in Chicago and time friend and fellow artist V. J. Cariani brought his wife, Effie, to (1891-1969) to move from Massachusetts Nashville in 1926. They to Brown County, where he spent the rest of remained in the village for his life. Although landscapes featuring wide the rest of their lives. open skies and occasional faraway clouds Equally skilled with oil paint were Cariani's trademark, his skill at paint- or watercolors, he became ing flowers was well recognized. Lucille E. known for his winter treks Morehouse, art reviewer for the Indianapolis to Door County, Wisconsin, Star, wrote in 1938, "If there's anybody that where he painted snow can paint peonies more skillfully than scenes. On 26 September [DEAL SKETCHING GROUND

Bohm (1894-1971) and his wife, Lillian, canvases and caravan to the annual show. enthusiast William Wilkes, into a respectable became permanent residents "despite drastic But annual shows could not support artists showroom. When the new gallery opened six economic conditions" in 1932. A prolific who were trying to earn a living from their weeks later, no fewer than a thousand visitors painter, Bohm won esteem for his landscapes work. At the same time, Indiana art lovers viewed the inaugural exhibit, a show of fifty on the East Coast as well as in Indiana. His were becoming increasingly inter- flexible delicate style gives the illusion of ested in the Brown County colony. effortless spontaneity, in spite of Bohm's self- With the popularity of the auto- admitted agonizing over technical problems. mobile and the gradual improve- Many important artists regularly visited ment of roads, tourists and art Brown County but did not establish perma- buyers flocked to the county on nent residences. Some of the better known weekends in the early 1920s to visiting Chicago artists were Lucie Hartrath breathe the fresh country air and (1868-1962), Adam Emory Albright to visit the artists' studios. Hos- (1862-1957), and Charles Dahlgreen pitable artists would be besieged (1864-1956). Seasonal artists lured to on weekends by a constant flow of Brown County from areas other than visitors. The opening of a perma- Chicago included Alexis Fournier (1865— nent gallery in a central Brown 1948), Homer Davisson (1866-1957), Paul County location seemed desir- Turner Sargent (1880-1946), and Frederick able. Thus, the Brown County Art Pol ley (1875-1957), among others. Gallery Association was organized Although the Brown County artists indi- in 1926 to provide a place for vidually exhibited in galleries in Indianapo- semi-annual group exhibitions lis and Chicago, the main event each year and a year-round outlet for sales. became the Hoosier Salon exhibit. This The first meeting of the association, held at Sudden Blizzard, C. Curry Bohm, display of Indiana artists' work was held in the home of Will Vawter on 3 September oil on canvas. the Marshall Field Galleries in Chicago 1926, was attended by, among others, L. O. from 1925 until its relocation after the Griffith, Adolph Shulz, Ada Walter Shulz, V J. 1941 exhibition to the William H. Block Cariani, Marie Goth, Carl Graf, and Dale paintings and several etchings. The gallery Company in downtown Indianapolis. Mem- Bessire. The group wasted no time in decid- soon established a tradition of changing the bers of the Brown County colony would ing to convert a deserted grocery store on exhibit three times between 10 April and cheerfully pile into cars with their choice West Main Street, graciously donated by art 20 November each year. As many as 2,500 people visited the gallery in a single day dur- character and reassuring sense of authenticity Above-. Grandma Battin's Cabin, ing the autumn of 1931. that these Hoosiers, some native, some adop- Gustave Baumann, wood-block print. The colony's influence started to decline tive, brought to (heir endeavors. While these in the late 1940s with the passing of members men and women did not address the burning of the original generation of artists. Although issues of their day, or spend much time solicit- OppositeBrown County Cabin, some reputable artists, such as Glen Cooper ing the favor of the art world's intelligentsia, l.O. Griffith, oil on canvas. Henshaw (1884-1946) and George Jo Mess they did what artists have always found it nat- (1898-1962) and Evelyn Mess (b. 1903) con- ural to do. They embraced a region, discov- tinued to move to Brown County in the first ered the beauty that existed in the misty hills, years of that decade, newcomers may have and captured it in art form. Separately, and FOR FURTHER READING been discouraged by Brown County's efforts yet curiously bonded together, these Brown Judd, Barbara, comp. Broxvn County's Art Colony: to "catch up" with the rest of the world follow- County artists created a body of work that has The Early Years. Edited by M. Joanne Nesbit. ing the conclusion of World War II. Curry endured and continues to inspire viewers. Nashville, Indiana: Nana's Books, 1993. Bohm, onetime president of the Brown . Those Broxun County Artists: The Ones Who County Art Gallery Association, lamented the Rachel Perry is assistant curator at the T. C. Came, the Ones Who Stayed, the Ones Who Moved change. "It's getting harder and harder to Steele State Historic Site near Nashville. She On, 1900-1950. Edited by M. Joanne Nesbit. find a place to paint. . . . Country roads are curated an exhibit titled Strokes of Genius: Nashville, Indiana: Nana's Books, 1993. so full of traffic, and more and more places The Brown County Art Colony 1907-1937, Newton, Judith Vale, and Carol-Weiss. A Grand are being posted against trespassing." which will appear from 5 August through 16 Tradition: The Art and Artists of the Hoosier Salon, 1925-1990. Indianapolis: Hoosier Salon Patrons The last few years have seen a renewal of October 1994 at the Indiana State Museum. She Assoc., 1993. also has written a foreword to The Artists of interest in the work of the members of the Steele, Selma N., Theodore L. Steele, and Wilbur Brown County art colony. This interest is not Brown County, a book by Lyn Letsinger-Miller, D. Peat. The House of the Singing Winds: The Life only directed toward the artists' works, but it to be published by Indiana University Press in and Work ofT. C. Steele. Indianapolis: Indiana also encompasses the palpable strength of September 1994. Historical Society, 1966. Reprint, 1989.

Summer 19 9 4 25 THE IN SEARCH of INDIANA SCULPTURE GLORY-JUNE GREIFF

After eighteen months of seeking to docu- ment all the public outdoor sculpture in the state, statues haunt my dreams. Indiana's Save Outdoor Sculpture! survey, funded through the National

Museum of American Art (Smithsonian fall into the often overlapping categories detailed) to the many abstract works often Institution) and the National Institute of commemorative, aesthetic ("art for found on campuses, both collegiate and for the Conservation of Cultural Property, art's sake"), and, for want of a belter term, corporate. As for whimsy, Indiana has Joe documented twelve hundred sculptures. whimsical. The majority of commemora- Palooka in Oolitic and the Mentone Egg The documentation is available through a tive pieces deal with wars, but some are just for starters. national database in Washington, D.C., and devoted to local and national movers and The search was arduous, often frustrat- a permanent archive open to Indiana shakers. A number of others celebrate ing, but the survey trips through all ninety- researchers at Historic Landmarks Founda- anonymous heroic figures, such as two counties revealed a number of tion in Indianapolis. Undoubtedly there are The Pioneer Family by Myra Reynolds fascinating pieces. The following are just a more statues than the project recorded. Richards in Indianapolis, or the similarly few of these: New works are under way, and I am certain, themed Madonna of the Irail in Richmond. if nothing else, we missed some saints, for Aesthetic pieces range from the few VOLUNTEER FIREMEN MEMORIAL. In a run- there were hundreds. remaining historic fountains and exuber- down Arcadian cemetery in New Albany Indeed, well over half the sculptures in antly decorated buildings (the Allen stands a poignant monument to the vol- Indiana are religious in nature. The rest County Courthouse is by far the most unteer firemen of the town. Erected in

26 TRACES Virgin Mary, The Lion, Volunteer Firemen Memorial, Santa Claus, Ancilla. Salem. Netp Albany. Santa Claus. 1902, the pewter statue depicts a fireman anapolis, and even a set of four in North the depression, and many of them were put in traditional garb cradling a rescued Vernon. But the one that gazes upon the to work developing and beautifying the child in his arm. Various examples of fire- courthouse square in Salem stands alone, city's Thornton Park. Subsequent expan- fighting equipment are carved around and his expression suggests he knows sions and alterations have removed much of the base, making this work a wonderful something we do not. This limestone the WPAs legacy, and its most exquisite rem- historic record. feline has had considerable time to con- nant lies greatly endangered. Carved template. Collins fames Morgan carved directly onto stone blocks are six scenes of

VIRGIN MARY. As one approaches the back of the sculpture in 1882. children at play. The backgrounds of these Ancilla College in Marshall County, the Vir- scenes are significant. Each one shows a

gin Mary suddenly materializes around a THE PATRICKSBURG DOUGHBOY. Throughout contemporary wall or gate or building, doc- bend in the road. This is no apparition but the state there are a fair number of uni- umenting in stone what Thornton Park rather an eighteen-foot white marble statue. formed portrait statues beneath which are once looked like. Unfortunately they are It is the same image depicted in thousands buried young men killed in World War I. sadly neglected. of backyard shrines: Mary stands upon a This statue is in a little-known cemetery in

sphere pierced by a crescent, her foot tread- the rugged hillsides outside Patricksburg, a THE ABANDONED SANTA CLAUS. On an ing hard upon a serpent, her hands clasped once-prosperous town in Owen County. overgrown hilltop overlooking what was in prayer. The only difference is that this When I sought help in the hamlet's general once the town of Santa Claus (little statue is huge. Carved in 1938, it originally store in locating the doughboy, no one remains) is a concrete Santa more than stood in Fort Wayne at St. Vincent Villa, a knew of it. It was one of those unseasonably twenty feet high. Rotund and jolly, proffer- Catholic orphanage. The institution closed, lovely February days, and when I finally ing a huge sack stuffed with toys, Santa and Mary was transported to her present found Carl H. Kaiser's grave his life-size once was the focal point of a small amuse- bucolic location in 1978. statue was silhouetted against a backdrop of ment park and tourist attraction that began bare trees and sunset. in the 1930s to take advantage of the town's

THE LAND BARON One does not expect to name. In the early 1970s many of the attrac- find something like this memorial in the SKYWATCH MEMORIAL.. A bicentennial proj- tions moved into the new Holiday World

sparsely populated prairies of Benton ect, the Skywatch Memorial commemorates theme park across the highway, leaving County. A granite pedestal more than the volunteer families who scanned the Santa behind. twenty feet high, topped with the heroic skies over rural Tippecanoe County during Each of Indiana's sculptures no doubt has figure of Edward Sumner, dominates a the Korean War. The four-story wooden a story to tell. Perhaps other researchers will small cemetery outside the hamlet of Earl tower from which they watched remains at uncover new tales. The sculpture files are Park. At his death in 1882 Sumner owned the site. Carved of limestone, the statue available during regular business hours at about thirty thousand acres south of the depicts a farmer, his wife, and their son, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, cemetery, upon which his likeness gazes. A each looking up from the flat treeless 340 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis, portrait medallion of his wife is halfway up prairie in a different direction. Indiana 46202. For more information call the pedestal. 317-639-4534.

CHILDREN AT PLAY. The Works Progress

THE LION The SOS! survey documented Administration attempted to use the spe- several sculptures of lions in Indiana, cific skills of the unemployed who applied A consulting historian, Gbry-Juiw, Greiff most often in pairs, such as those in Tell for jobs through this New Deal agency. Bed- received an IHS Clio grant to research and City or Crown Hill Cemetery in Indi- ford had many stonecarvers idled during write a history of Indiana's state parks.

Summer 19 9 4 27 Kaiser Monument, Skywatch Memorial, Children at Play, detail Sumner Monument, Owen County. Cairo. Bedford. Benton County. Larry LOCKRIDGE

Shade

o F

The

LARRY LOCKRIDGE, SON OF AUTHOR ROSS LOCKRIDGE JR., GREW UP WITH A NOVEL INSTEAD OF A FATHER. IN HIS NEW BIOGRAPHY,

EXCERPTED HERE, HE OFFERS A STUNNING PORTRAIT OF HIS FATHER'S LIFE AND WORK.

28 TRACES Ross Junior sits on the banks of the Eel River, summer 19 46. UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTE® |LL PHOTOS COURTESY LARRY LOCKHCE

Now briefly the river lay again across his life,

opaque and green, a serpent water. . .

He would be that dreamer,

and he would have perhaps again

his ancient and eternal dream. . . . Of a quest for

the sacred Tree of Life. Of a happy valley and a

face of stone — and of the coming of a hero. . . .

Of beauty risen from the river and seen through

rushes at the river's edge. . . . And of all its

summers when the days were long." SHADE OF THE RAINTREE

Ernest screamed and fell sobbing on the floor and I, aged five, Dr. Lyons said that relatives told him Mr. Lockridge appeared to was puzzled and a little embarrassed, for Mom and Grandma didn't be in good spirits yesterday. . . . Mr. Lockridge left no letters or make it sound so bad. Our father had been tired, he needed a rest, notes indicating he was despondent or ill. . . . Mrs. Lockridge he was now in a warm and sunny land, but no, he wouldn't be com- became alarmed last night when her husband failed to return ing home soon. after a reasonable time from a trip to the post office. She went to I tried to see my father in a space above my own, walking care- the garage shortly before midnight to see if the car was back and free amid trees and flowers, and hoped he'd soon be rested up. found the doors locked and the garage lights on. The car was Later that morning Ernest still lay on the floor. He'd stopped inside. She summoned neighbors, who smashed in the doors. crying but hoped his mother would come in and find him lying They found the car's motor running and Mr. Lockridge sprawled there—then she would know how much he had loved his father in the driver's seat. The door was open and his legs were hanging and how dead with grief he was. But she was busy with funeral over the running board. The garage was filled with carbon preparations, and he was tired of lying on the cold floorboards monoxide fumes." and got up and dressed. This account permitted many of his friends to think it an acci- The death of fathers is a common theme, but the suicide on Sat- dent. Maybe he was listening to the regional high school basketball urday evening, March 6, 1948, of Ross Lockridge Jr., author of the tournament over the car radio and passed out, maybe he hit his novel Raintree County, was improbable enough to be the subject of head when exiting. Here was an exuberant writer known for thor- many editorials. At his death his novel was first on the New York oughness in all matters who hadn't left a note, who hadn't made out Herald Tribune's best-seller list, had won the enormous MGM a will, who, in a letter to his lawyer on the day he died, alluded to Novel Award, had been excerpted in Life, and had recently been future books. But our mother, years later, didn't encourage us to the Main Selection of Book-of-the-Month Club. He left a wife and think it an accident. And I'd come to dislike the idea that it could four children. have been. However bleak, suicide is a willed act invested with "The death, apparently by suicide, of Ross Lockridge, Jr., human meaning. author of Raintree County, has stirred a wave of shocked specula- But if it was suicide, it seemed less premeditated than impulsive. tion among his countrymen," noted the Washington Evening Star. Those legs exiting the Kaiser's front door even hinted at a last- "What more, they wonder, could a man ask of life than had been minute change of mind. Somehow I wanted my father to have done granted this 33-year-old writer, whose first book, an unabashed what he fully intended to do. attempt at the great American novel, brought him wealth and Confident that we would learn in our own time and way what fame and recognition. . . . Curiously enough, one of the book's we needed to know, our mother set no agenda for discussing the most notable aspects was its staunch repudiation, through its dead father, but would narrate luminous moments of their life hero, of materialism, its repeated affirmation of faith in the together. We children didn't much discuss him or ask many ques- American dream and the American destiny. How did the author tions of our mother, though she answered what little we asked. lose the hope and optimism expressed by the hero who was pre- Rather we began private dialogues with him that continued over sumably his spokesman? . . . We shall never know, since evidently the years. We had been thrown into a story so rich in vital the only testament he left is his questing, vital, sprawling book. promise that to allude to our father and his novel was to mourn a He seems to have gained the whole world and then to have won- bright universe lost. We couldn't speak casually about this found- dered what it profited a man. We can only pity (he desolation and ing catastrophe. confusion of his going." The house at 817 South Stull Avenue, Bloomington, Indiana, My book is a quest, four decades later, to overcome confusion contained a number of relics that prompted these dialogues. His and lay bare this desolate act—and, more so, the life and work that dress shoes were in our mother's closet, his shaving mug and eye- preceded it. Pablo Neruda wrote that, in death, Ross Lockridge had wash cup in the bathroom medicine chest. We'd take our family pic- joined Melville, Whitman, Poe, Dreiser, and Wolfe as American nics on his cream-and-crimson varsity blanket. On the walls there writers who were like "fresh wounds of our own absence." They hung a drawing of the novel's hero, John Shawnessy, struggling to were all "bound to the depths" and "to the darkness," were pull himself by a root out of the Great Swamp, a silkscreen of Sena- "checked in their work by joy and by mourning"—and yet over tor Garwood B.Jones arriving at Waycross Station, and a painting of them "the same dawn of the hemisphere burns." I'll tell the story of the book jacket after my father's design. Only when I reached my father's life, from dawn to darkness, for the intensities of will puberty did I see that the green map of the county disclosed in its and creative intellect we might find there. A full measure of them contours a woman's naked body. has not yet been taken. His was an American life of great aspiration, I learned to play the piano with two pictures of him, one seri- a life of prodigious labors ending in a sense of dead enormous fail- ous and one smiling, staring at me from atop the Acrosonic. ure even before the applause began. Few driven spirits give way to And at the foot of the wooden staircase was a large publicity darkness so irrevocably, but I believe that in some ways Ross Lock- photograph—a handsome man seeming to smile with the ridge's life is an allegory of the American writer. self-assurance of a movie star, with FDR's posthumous always took pride in the New York Times giving him a front- Nothing to Fear cradled on his lap. When we went upstairs to our page obit. The circumstances of the death were chronicled rooms for serious tasks or sleep, his eyes followed us as if in there. "Dr. Robert E. Lyons, Jr., Monroe County Coroner, who ghostly encouragement. returned the suicide verdict, said he had not been able to From time to time our mother would take us through the many determine a motive. Mr. Lockridge was found unconscious in photo albums of their marriage, including one of great poignancy Ihis car in the gas-filled garage of the new home he built with part he made shortly after his novel was accepted. The visionary land- of a .$150,000 movie studio award for the book. He wrote the scape of Raintree County, sketched in pencil, merges with photo- novel in seven lean years of trying to break into the writing field. graphs of familiar Indiana pastoral scenes, and Ross and Vernice

30 TRACES SHADE OF THE ® A I NT RE E

Ross Lockridge Jr. and his family visit the Indiana University campus in Bloomington, August 1946, shortly after Raintree County had been accepted for publication.

Ross Lockridge Jr. holds his son Larry on the child's third birthday, South Byfield, Massachusetts.

Summer 1 9 9 4 31 SHADE OF THE RAINTREE are smiling together in photos going back to their courtship days. "Your daddy killed himself! Your daddy killed himself!" My mother "'Tis summer and the days are long!" As my sister would write, his brought me into the room with Jeanne to say yes, the neighbor girl memory "has been carefully preserved for us by our mother and was right and it was time for us to know. He'd had a nervous break- others, like a rare and beautiful life-form, long since extinct, pre- down and felt he would never be well again. Jeanne cried, but once served in translucent amber." again I silently wondered what this meant. Once a year, on Memorial Day, we'd visit his grave at Rose It still seems remarkable that there could have been so uniform a Hill Cemetery in Bloomington, taking peonies, pulling weeds, silence among Bloomington children and adults. I hadn't learned and cleaning spider eggs out from his name on the simple lime- for six years what most townsfolk already knew and what Ernest stone marker. We'd watch the parade and the DAR ladies read- knew instinctively from the beginning. We all know that silences are ing poetry—"Ain't God good to Indiana? Ain't he, fellers, ain't as compelling as words spoken—and suicide, insanity, sex, and he though?"—and adjourn to the radio broadcast of the Indy unorthodoxy are matters that families and larger communities 500, which compounded our domestic tragedy with fresh deaths often decline to make more real through talk. 1 suppose the silence of its own. in Bloomington came out of cautious respect for family privacy. Jeanne and I didn't find out our father was a suicide until she was Amid genuine sympathies, people often presume that suicide sur- ten, I eleven. A neighbor girl taunted her after school one day— vivors must feel some shame, and what good comes anyway from reminding others of their tragedies? The most sacred relic around the house was the novel itself, which was anything but silent about sex and unorthodoxy. Raintree County had been prominently denounced as obscene and blasphe- mous, and to this clay some Indiana folk think he "got what he deserved for writing that dirty book." A small portion of the original manuscript, which he wrapped up with a belt while burning the rest, was left untouched on top of Ernest's and my bookcase. The novel has gold antique lettering on a green cover, and a book jacket blurb that ends, "Through all vicissitudes of residence and travel, the Lockridges have considered Bloomington their home town." Shortly before he died he signed copies for each of us—with his signature only, no personal message. ven so, the novel spoke to us like a testament from the grave and resuscitated its author in every reading. He left no instructions as to how we should carry on, and I recall my puzzlement as to how I was to fill in this fatherless future. But he left a novel that some critics would read as the incar- nation of an enormous vitality, with all sorts of implicit imperatives. EOthers would read it as an unusually gaseous suicide note. Thus we grew up with a novel instead of a father—a novel attempting "no less than a complete embodiment of the American Myth," not just a chunk of it. So driven by the quest for ultimate meaning, so warmed by eroticism, so full of its own search for origins and fatherhood—ending with "a signature of father and preserver, of some young hero and endlessly courageous dreamer"—and so suffused with a sense of loss, Raintree County was to us a haunting. It was an extended letter left to us, with a hero who seemed like our father—exuberant, ambitious, maybe all too good—except that Shawnessy survives in the end. In 1979 a critic said of Raintree County that it was "an ecological novel written before its time, and its time has finally come." He noted its impassioned evocation of this biological planet and its lament at industrial rape. In the Great Swamp, John Shawnessy sees the astonishing beauty of plants and insects as he searches for an Asian tree said to have been planted by Johnny Appleseed. Though I never warmed to bugs, I felt a similar biological imper- ative and a sense of the land's pagan antiquity whenever the southern Indiana spring arrived. A few times as a young adolescent I set out on solitary journeys through river goo and poison ivy, reenact- ing the feverish pastoralism of the novel. In northern Indiana for their • It is written like a decipherment, with parchment maps and an honeymoon, Ross Junior and Vernice Baker Lockridtje old county atlas and aboriginal swamp sounds that hint of generous pose with their fishing poles, summer 1937. meaning. These beckon its hero to return to origins in a landscape that wears a human face and has imprinted in the contours of its

32 TRACES SHADE OF THE RAINTREE

river his own initials. 1 suppose my adolescent reenactment was an culture—plus that Eastern tree. Yet the novel's principal character attempt to find the signature of my father in the Indiana wilder- is an idealist, in both popular and philosophical senses. This com- ness, and perhaps his blessing, but I knew at the time that this was pounded the temptation for us to idealize our dead father, from his too literal-minded a search for symbols. personality to his novel to his final act. It's as if Ross Lockridge Jr. I'd feel a rebuff whenever we drove through Henry County, Indi- stepped out of a script for the ideal hero, and from his brains to his ana—the prototype of the novel's county and ancestral home of my morals to his good looks he seemed far beyond anything his homely father's mother. Signs on the old National Road still inform con- kids could ever be. We took some kidding because both our parents fused drivers that they are entering "Raintree County." You will look were better looking than any of us. hard and wide for the Shawmucky River, Paradise Lake, and the Our father had excelled in most things—junior and senior class Great Swamp, and they won't be there in this unarresting farmland president in high school, state champ in shorthand and typing, some twenty-five miles east of Indianapolis. member of Indiana University's championship cross-country team

You find human testimonials, though: Ross Lockridge Jr. wrote a 400-page and holder of the highest grade point aver- "Raintree Auto Sales," "Raintree Bait and epic poem, Dream of the Flesh age ever recorded there, president of the Tackle," "Raintree County Dairy," "Rain- Chess Club, winner of a Harvard fellow- of Iron, at the writing desk in the tree Barber and Styling Shop," "Raintree ship, favorite teacher at Simmons College, Industries," and "Raintree Muffler Shop." basement of the old Lockridge house author of one of the heaviest unsolicited My father enhanced Henry County with the on High Street in Bloomington. manuscripts ever lugged into a publisher's Eel River, lifted from Miami County where office, winner of the biggest movie prize, his father had grown up, and with the rain- et cetera. He had also been of exemplary tree itself, lifted from the Utopian community of New Harmony in character—even-tempered, witty, helpful, nonsmoking, faithful to the southwest corner of the state. But beyond this he transplanted his wife, hard-working, once described as "an unusually affable the great Occidental myths and the great literary texts, from genius," who befriended the blind and in passing rescued at least Homer, Virgil, and Shakespeare to Emerson, Hawthorne, Stowe, three people, one drowning, one fainting, one marooned. Except and Whitman—and the prophets Jesus and John Brown—into this for the small wrinkle of self-murder—to which one may add a improbable Hoosier landscape. To visit Henry County was to feel an writer's egomania—there was little to say against him. uncanny nostalgia for a locale that never really existed. And he isn't a candidate for the conventional moral demythologiz- Raintree County is not so much an idealization as a distillation of ing that underwrites modern biography. Our interest in him won't what Ross Lockridge thought worth acknowledging about Western be found in revelations that he was a bad boy after all. His earlier

Summer \ 9 9 4 33 SHADE OF THE FJI, A 1 N T R E E

a petulant, small-minded, or selfish exit, and hoped he had silently said good-bye to us in his suffering. Oddly, the suicide So driven by the quest seemed to teach us sympathy. uicide survivors often feel unexpressed resentment, for ULTIMATE MEANING, so warmed rejection, and guilt, as well as grief. Therapists today look for such feelings, often obscured by denial. The by eroticism, so full therapeutic ideal is that suicide survivors should express all negative feelings openly within the family setting. Resentment toward the deserting family member is then less of its own SEARCH for origins Slikely to turn inward. Many therapists believe the fact of a par- and fatherhood—ending with

"a signature of father and

preserver, of some YOUNG HERO and

endlessly courageous dreamer"—

and so suffused

with a SENSE OF LOSS,

Raintree County was to us a

haunting. It was an extended

letter left to us, with a hero who Ross Lockridge Sr. and Ross Lockridge Jr. seemed like our FATHER— camp on the Eel River near Paw Paw, Indiana, in the summer of 194 2. exuberant, ambitious, maybe Ernest Lockridge, age three, took the photograph.

all too good—except that

Shawnessy SURVIVES in the end. ent's suicide should no longer be withheld even from small children. Ideally, widows work through their grief within a year or so and become once again eligible, the pictures of the deceased and other relics tucked away. To the point of numbness in the popular media, we're all supposed to be "getting on with our lives." Fami- biographer wrote that he had his sexual initiation at the age of lies that do not talk it all out openly are declared more or less twenty while in Paris. I was sorry to conclude that he probably came dysfunctional. home a virgin! I quarrel with this thinking only insofar as it seems ideal in the It wasn't lost on us that our father had died at Christ's age and extreme. How often can families talk everything out? And is it that his birthday, April 25, is one possible date for Shakespeare's. sometimes lost sight of that tragedies are tragic? In our protracted Had his death been a martyrdom—for art and for the philosophical mourning, we didn't grow up with these enlightened interventions. and religious vision of his novel? Had he undergone a crucifixion in We coped as best we knew how, within a broad range of survivors' the press, denounced by the blind mouths of zealots and responses. If we were dysfunctional, we somehow functioned. My philistines? A literary New Testament is dangerous in more ways siblings and I feel our mother did well by us. than the aesthetic—and though I've long since discarded the Christ And I enjoy the irony that had I resolved all the mourning and and Shakespeare analogies, I haven't changed my mind that in a melancholy early on, this book would not exist. My father might real sense he died for a book. have said something similar about his own book, because Raintree We all regretted not having this particular father about the County is a meditation on time and loss in which protracted mourn- house over the years. But we never morally blamed him for killing ing has a creative as well as pathological dimension. himself. We felt the motives and circumstances must have been Just as Ross Lockridge searched through his grandfather's papers compelling, even if we could never hope to dispel the dark sublim- for the makings of a national myth, and just as the fictitious Shawnessy ity that surrounded the night of March 6, 1948. We sensed it wasn't searches amid antiquities for aboriginal meaning, so I've searched for

34 TRACES SHADE OF THE DT A 1 N T R E E

my father in faded envelopes, dusty manuscripts, and memories. Such the dislocations of sudden fame, wealth, and critical recognition. searches must always fail if one has an absolutist's demand for the And then also the disparagement and misreadings, the shame, whole. We can search for lost fathers and mothers over hard roads and guilt, and impoverishment of spirit, and the question that dogs the wide, and they won't be there. But I've found enough, for now. writer, "What next?" What I've gathered are the many voices of an American Much of this is the experience of serious writers everywhere. But archive—voices of my father and mother, their ancestors, their Ross Lockridge Jr. is an American writer and his story has much of friends, neighbors, teachers, students, preachers, and doctors. I've the American literary experience about it—the midwest writer who, sifted through farm journals, old newspapers, report cards, class- through regional attachments, challenges the authority of the East room notes, high school and college yearbooks, blue books, essays Coast as well as Europe, the nervy ambition, hope, and a special (historical, philosophical, kind of vital innocence, literary, theological), epic the wish to answer while poems, lyrical poems, young to a young coun- short stories, plays, the- try's need for a great liter- ses, rough drafts, family ature of its own, the lure Bibles, marginalia, hospi- and curse of Hollywood, tal records, city registers, and a national press that county atlases, common- shapes seasonal celebrities place books, memory according to some very books, notebooks, diaries, trite scripts. There is risk memoirs, notes on read- in all this, and John ing, reviews, gossip Updike remarks that there columns, trash journal- have been "very few ism, old photograph American writers who albums, checkbook stubs, haven't fallen apart from autopsies, and obituaries. the age of about 35." But especially letters— Not many writers personal letters, profes- decide on their careers sional letters, love letters, at the age of seven, not and sympathy letters. many draft a 400-page In exploring an Ameri- epic poem in their early can archive, I've had in twenties or discard a mind the many voices of my father's novel, itself Ross Lockridge Jr. stands 2,000-page novel a few years later. Not many attempt a novel as "a complete embodiment of an American archive of love, tragedy, and near the ham of the old visionary ambition. While writing one story, he the American Myth." Not many kill themselves home place of the Shockley was living another just as astonishing and even at the height of their acclaim. But Ross Lock- more resolute—for, unlike his fictional hero family, Henry County, ridge was as extreme as he was thorough. If John Wickliff Shawnessy, he finished what he summer i946. thank god he doesn't typify the American set out to do and gained a larger measure of writer's life, he may in some ways epitomize it. recognition than he ever allotted his own hero. Larry Lockridge stands The circuitous journey of leaving home, giv- oss Lockridge's life isn't just a moral- ing postwar America what he hoped was a beneath a raintree in ity tale about the perils of success in visionary testament of beauty and meaning, America, from which those of us who Washington Sc/uare Park, and then returning home in a triumph turned don't try so hard may take some Manhattan. nightmare lends his story an implacable tragic comfort. (I'm sure it contains this structure. But its daily texture is a blend of moral.) Nor is it an isolated pathology with lit- humor and spirited satire, affection, and a Rtle implication for those of us who have more successfully vitality that announces itself as clearly in Ross Lockridge's life as resolved our Oedipal conflicts or pre-Oedipal disorders—about in his prose. If his experience is unusual in the degree of its which there's much to say. Nor merely a check list of everything aspirations and devastations, I think it speaks in kind to many of that an aspiring writer should not do—though again it contains us—and it's a story that even those who never open the green this. If there's a premise in this biography, it's that my father's and golden covers of Raintree County may find compelling. experience differs only in degree from that of many dedicated writers—for whom writing is life-blood. In its relentless course, his life realizes so many of a writer's aspi- A Guggenheim Fellow, Larry Lockridge teaches Romantic literature at New rations and fates. It moves from the decision to be a writer, to an York University and is the author of severed books of literary criticism. apprenticeship both repressive and enabling, to the sudden vision Lockridge lives in Manhattan and thinks of his father whenever he passes of a work that might answer to ambition. It continues through the golden raintrees of Washington Square Park. This excerpt was taken delays, false starts, and the resolve to abandon it all and start over. It from his Shade of the Raintree: The Life and Death of Ross Lock- entails the egoism that this work shall be great, yet the generosity of ridge Jr., Author of Raintree County (Viking Penguin, April 1994). the work itself offered to a public. Then the perilous mediation of All rights reserved. Long unavailable, Raintree County was reissued by editors and publisher, the temptation to compromise and sell out, Penguin Rooks on the eightieth anniversary of its author's birth.

Summer i 9 9 4 35 THE AVIATRIX And THE UNIVERSITY

R D U E

n his twenty-three years as Purdue University's president, Dr. Edward Charles Elliott wrought many changes to the West Lafayette campus, making it one of the country's leading technical and engineering institutions. As the university's leader, Elliott had a different way of thinking from the ordinary administrator, operating under what he called a "doctrine of chance." He told his biographer, Frank Burrin, that "chance meetings, unexpected conversations, all play a more important part in an individual's life than do most planned and carefully executed Iexperiences." One of the "chance meetings" Elliott described resulted in a major coup for Purdue when, in June 1935, the president announced the appointment of a visiting faculty member as a career counselor for the institution's female students. The new addition to the staff had already achieved worldwide fame, but would pass into legend following her stint at the Hoosier school. Purdue had landed Amelia Earhart.

RAY B O O M HOWER

36 TRACES THE AVIATRIX

Amelia Earhart and Dr. Elliott inspect one of the engines on the twin-motored, ten-passenger Lockheed Electra aircraft she would fly on her ill-fated around-the-world flight in 1937. The plane was built at the Lockheed factory in Burbank, California.

Purdue University President Edward C. Elliott proudly poses with Amelia Earhart and a model of the flying laboratory built for her through the auspices of the Purdue Research Foundation. Elliott was responsible for bringing the famed flier to the university as a counselor for Purdue's female students.

George P. Putnam checks out the progress his wife, Amelia Earhart, is making on a training device at Purdue University's airport, which was expanded for the aviatrix's work at the West Lafayette institution.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY PURDUE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS Summer i 9 9 4 THE AVIATRIX

Although Earhart, dubbed "Lady Lindy" for both her resemblance fourth annual "Women and the Changing World" conference spon- to Charles Lindbergh and her accomplishments as a flier in the 1920s sored by the New York Herald Tribune. Present at the conference to and 1930s, spent only a short time at Purdue, both she and the univer- speak on "New Frontiers for Youth," Elliott stayed to hear Earhart's sity benefited from the relationship. Along with the mountains of remarks on aviation's future and the role women might play in its publicity garnered from her presence on the faculty, Purdue also advancement. Intrigued by her speech, the Purdue administrator became the beneficiary of Earhart's person-to-person talents as she arranged a meeting with Earhart and Putnam. A born promoter encouraged female students to embark on careers normally reserved and a person who regularly hobnobbed with the decade's elite, Put- for men. In Earhart's case, the rewards were more concrete. Her hus- nam was immediately impressed with Elliott's style. "He [Elliott] is a band, George P. Putnam, a publishing and public relations marvel, lean, powerful man who combines the brisk attributes of a dynamo convinced Elliott and the university to help fund a "flying laboratory" with the important qualities of scholarship and human vision. He for his wife's use. Through the Purdue Research Foundation, and has a habit of referring to himself, with humorous deprecation, as donations from Hoosier businessmen David Ross, J. K. Lilly Sr., and just a Hoosier schoolmaster, but no gentleman from Indiana ever others, the university established in April 1936 an Amelia Earhart knew his way about more competently than he," said Putnam. Fund for Aeronautical Research that aided the aviatrix in purchasing After the trio dined at the Coffee House Club in New York, Elliott the twin-motored Lockheed Electra airplane Earhart used on her ill- came straight to the point. According to Putnam's version of the fated "Round-the-World" flight, from which she vanished in July 1937. Already famous for her daring aerial exploits, including being the first woman passenger on a transatlantic flight and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Earhart and Purdue's paths first crossed in September 1934 when the flier addressed the

EARHART, the Purdue scholar believed, . . . could help the

university successfully ATTACK the "most important modern

UNSOLVED PROBLEM of higher education — the effective

EDUCATION of young women."

meeting, Elliott informed Earhart: "We want you at Purdue." His wife expressed little surprise at the offer, merely replying, "I'd like that if it can be arranged. What would you think I should do?" The university president replied that he envisioned Earhart's role as passing along to Purdue's approximately eight hundred female students "the inspirational opportunities" open to them in America's changing society. "I think you could supply some spark which would help to take up the lag between the swift eddying of the world around modern women and the tardier echoes of the schoolroom," Elliott (Left to right) George Putnam, Dr. Edward C. Elliott' remarked to Earhart. Amelia Earhart, Stanley Meikle (Purdue Research With the offer made, the trio spent the next two hours develop- Foundation director), and Capt. L. I. Arett ing the idea into a workable plan. With her busy schedule, Earhart could not be a full-time faculty member but would attempt to (Purdue Airport operator) smile for the camera spend at least a month at the university during the school year as a in a publicity photograph featuring career consultant for women. For her efforts she received from the Lockheed Electra aircraft the PRF financed Purdue a $2,000 salary. Along with guiding women students for Earhart's last flight. toward new careers, she also served as a technical adviser in aero-

38 TRACES THE AVIATRIZ nautics to Purdue, which was, at that lime, the only university in the country equipped with its own airport. o Earhart, however, the "problems and opportunities of these girls [at Purdue] were quite as much my concern as aviation matters" when she agreed to take the job. Writing about her time at the Hoosier institution of higher learning in her posthumously published book, Last Flight (1937), Earhart admitted that she had "something of a chip on my shoulder when it comes to modern feminine education." She noted that women, especially those whose tastes are outside the normal routine, often did not get a fair chance to develop their talents. "Often young- sters are sadly miscast," Earhart said. "I have known girls who should be tinkering with mechanical things instead of making dresses, and boys who would do better at cooking than engineering." Purdue, which she called "my kind of school, a technical school where all instruction has practicality," offered her a chance to test her beliefs. Amelia Earhart, a.k.a. Lady Lindy, smiles down on In announcing Earhart's appointment on 2 June 1935, a group of Purdue University students at Elliott termed her acceptance that institution's airport. The women students are as "gratifying to the univer- (left to right): Virginia Gardner, Fort Wayne, sity and significant to educa- Rufinia Sexson, Jasonville, Barbara Sweeney, Chicago, tion." Emphasizing the flier's Illinois/ Betty Spillman, Rusbville, Barbara Cook, interest in educating women Jeffersonville,- Louise Schickler, Lakewood, Ohio, Mary Ed Johnston, Knox, Mary L. Hinchman, Rushville, Amelia Earhart, Dorothy Hewitt, Cincinnati, Ohio,- and the fi rst woman Gaby D. Roe, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, reporter's prediction quickly came to pass. In her first few days at Pur- relaxes on her due, Earhart attended a luncheon for the home economics depart- Lockheed Electra aircraft ment, served as guest of honor at a Mortar Board luncheon, met the at the Purdue Airport. student body at an afternoon tea in the Memorial Union building, and spoke at a special convocation at the Memorial gymnasium. The plane included such Given work space in the dean of women's office and living in special features as South Hall (now known as Duhme Hall), Earhart became a familiar extra gasoline tanks sight on campus. Students flocked to the flier's side, especially at din- for extended flight, nertime, and tried not only to imitate her style of dress (which was an automatic pilot, casual, to say the least), but her mannerisms as well. 'These were the days when table manners were considered somewhat important," and a radio homing device. noted Helen Schleman, in charge of the dormitory where Earhart stayed. "Amelia's posture at table, when she was deep in conversation for the future, he added that Earhart represented "better than any was apt to be sitting forward on the edge of her chair—both elbows young woman of this generation the spirit and the courageous skill on the table—and chin cupped in hands. Naturally, the question was of what may be called the new pioneering. At no other point in our 'If Miss Earhart can do it why can't we?' The stock reply was As soon educational system is there greater need for courageous pioneering as you fly the Atlantic, you may!'" The female students' hero worship and constructive planning than woman's education." Earhart, the also extended to Earhart's beverage of choice, buttermilk, which Purdue scholar believed, as what he called "a creative artist in the soon became their favorite too after seeing her drink it at meals. great art of human adventure," could help the university successfully Despite being a heroine to thousands of American women, attack the "most important modern unsolved problem of higher Earhart managed to fit in well with dormitory life. Marian Frazier, education—the effective education of young women." who lived in the same dorm as the aviatrix, remembered that it Five months after Elliott's announcement, Earhart, fresh from a lec- seemed as though Earhart was always "terribly busy," noting that she ture tour that saw her give twenty-nine speeches in one month, finally heard Earhart working away at her typewriter aS late as midnight. arrived on campus to assume her new duties on 6 November 1935. Frazier also recalled studying one night when Earhart suddenly The Lafayette Journal and Courier heralded the famous flier's arrival in "stuck her head in I he door and asked if she could borrow my pen. Indiana with a page one headline declaring "Amelia Earhart I .eaves She said, 'I'll bring it back in just a sec.'" The excited Frazier could Air to Guide Purdue Girls in Careers." Scheduled to be at the univer- not keep the news to herself so, when her celebrity neighbor sity for three weeks, the newspaper noted that Earhart "will have little returned the borrowed pen, she was greeted by a roomful of coeds, opportunity for leisure during her sojourn on the campus." The all wanting to catch another glimpse of the flier.

Summer f 9 9 4 39 THE Cl V I A T R I X

Earhart's casual style and dress (slacks instead of skirts) may have The flier discussed with Purdue administrators the possibility of been the envy of Purdue's coeds, but it raised others' eyebrows. creating a "household engineering" course for I hose women who Robert Topping, in his history of the university, reported that some wanted to remain homemakers. "Many a stay-at-home girl," said faculty wives—the "local guardians of mores and morals in the con- Earhart, "would welcome practical training in what to do when the servative 1930s atmosphere of West Lafayette"—were scandalized doorbell fails to function, the plumbing clogs . . . and the thousand- by one incident where Earhart, dressed in her usual slacks, went and-one other mechanical indispositions that can occur about the into town one afternoon and visited Bartlett's Drug Store. Not only house, often easily enough fixed if one has rudimentary knowledge did Earhart have the temerity to wear improper clothing, but she how to fix them." Disliking discriminations between men's work further shocked the wives by sitting (unescorted) at a stool, order- and women's work, she also pointed out the need for male students ing a cola, and smoking a cigarette. "Such hussy behavior was barely to gather some experience in homemaking, noting that most men tolerable in a conservative campus town," wrote Topping, "enter into marriage with little training in domestic economy, know Along with facing the faculty little about food and how it should wives' wrath, Earhart also be prepared, little about child train- had to endure questions ing and their duties as parents. £rom some faculty mem- What, I wonder, is going to be done aers about whether she was about all that." qualified for her job. A. A. Potter, In her personal dealings with stu- Purdue's dean of engineering, com- dents, Earhart, utilizing her own mented that he did not think Earhart experiences as a trendsetter, painted belonged at the university because no rosy picture of instant acceptance she lacked the proper education for women entering new careers. Mar- (although she had enrolled at Colum- guerite Coll, who studied electrical bia University as a premed student, engineering at Purdue, recalled Earhart never graduated). Acknowl- Earhart clearly explaining to her and edging Earhart's courage, Potter nev- two other female students "what some ertheless told a reporter that the flier of the obstacles are in the way of "had too poor an educational founda- women who want to go into what's tion to utilize her courage and that always been known as a man's field. was her disadvantage." Another faculty She was encouraging though. She member, a woman, had an answer didn't see why, if a woman had special ready for Potter: "The dean is a talents along that line, she couldn't go scholar and he doesn't understand out and show 'em!" This kind of that you have to motivate kids before advice worried some people. Accord- you can get them to be scholars." ing to Putnam, one Purdue profes- Despite these difficulties, Earhart sor—a "Donald Meek-ish kind of man"—declared that if Earhart kept stuck to her main task—counseling A confident George Putnam and Amelia Earhart on encouraging the university's coeds Purdue's women students about stride across the tarmac at Purdue Airport. potential careers. Toward that end, to pursue careers they "won't be will- she prepared a questionnaire seeking A public relations whiz, Putnam convinced ing to get married and lead the quiet answers from them about such issues Dr. Charles Elliott and the university to help life for which Nature intended them." In one regard the male professor as why they were in college, if they fund a flying laboratory for his wife's use. wanted a career, how marriage might might have been right. As an uniden- affect their choices, and what part a tified female student proclaimed after husband might play in their life. The survey's final query—what do Earhart's stay at the university ended: "No one ever pepped us up so." you think a married man's part in the running of the household In talks with students, Earhart developed what she called "surface should be?—offered students a wide range of possible answers, impressions" about the university, which she shared with the col- including: he should not have to do anything; he should do a few lege's administrators. She noted that there appeared to exist at Pur- simple things (like keeping his own bureau in order); he should do due rigid boundary lines between different disciplines. "It seems to all the things he had time for; he should have a real interest in the me there should be much more interchange of instructors and sub- running of the household, no matter how much or how little he jects between these, which would lead to the education of people actually takes part; and if the wife is employed, both husband and rather than to the education of selected specimens numbered and wife should take an equal part in the running of the household. tagged Home Ec[onomics] or EE [Electrical Engineering] or what- Of those responding to the questionnaire, Earhart found th'at not," said Earhart. She added that lowering the walls between approximately 92 percent indicated that they wanted a career. schools might help eliminate the "condescending attitude" on the According to Putnam, his wife wanted to find out about the stu- part of male students toward their female counterparts. "Today," dents' after-college plans to help university officials in reconstruct- said Earhart, "it is almost as if the subjects themselves had sex so ing courses so that they might be more beneficial. "She thought too firm is the line drawn between what girls and boys should study." that such exploration might help the students themselves to clarify Although she spent only a short time at Purdue, Earhart's ties to the their own thinking, to agree with themselves on a general objective, institution played a key role in securing for the flier the money and perhaps even a specific one," Putnam noted. equipment necessary for attempting what became her final flight. For

40 TRACES THE (JVIATRIX about a year, Earhart, Putnam, and Elliott had been discussing the round-the-world flight. The trip proceeded smoothly until the dif- flier's dream for women's role in aviation. The dream became reality ficult 2,570-mile flight from Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island. on 19 April 1936 when the university announced the establishment of The two never reached their destination. Despite a massive air-sea the Amelia Earhart Fund for Aeronautical Research, which was made search, no trace could be found of the plane and its pilot. On the possible by the Purdue Research Foundation. With contributions total- day she disappeared (2 July 1937) Earhart had been scheduled to ing $50,000 from such philanthropists as J. K. Lilly Sr. and David Ross, deliver a lecture at Purdue on (lie subject, "What Next in the Air?" and later donations of cash and equipment from such companies as Fourteen days after Earhart vanished from the skies, and with hope Bendix, Western Electric, Goodrich, and Goodyear, Earhart pur- for the flier's rescue dim, Elliott telegraphed Putnam the following chased a "flying laboratory"—a twin-motored, ten-passenger Lock- message: "George, she would not want us to grieve or weep; she heed Electra aircraft. The plane, constructed at the Lockheed factory would have been a heroine in any age." in Burbank, Cali- In the years following her disappearance, Earhart has passed fornia, included such from mere celebrity to legend. Countless theories about special features as what happened to her have been bandied about, including extra gasoline tanks one that had Earhart making the fatal flight as a spy mission for extended flight, on behalf of, and funded by, the United States government an automatic pilot, in order to gain information about a growing Pacific Ocean threat: deicing equipment, Japan. According to those supporting this theory, Purdue had merely a radio homing been used to cover up the flight's true purpose. This theory, how- device, and a two- ever, has been met with derision by Purdue officials. R. B. Stewart, way radio. Purdue's controller and a leading force behind the PRF's establish- The announcement, told Earhart biographer Mary S. Lovell that contrary to what ment received nation- had become popular belief, the money for the flier's plane "was not wide attention, as supplied by the newspapers from United States gov- New York to Los ernment and Pur- Angeles trumpeted With Capt. L. I. Aretz looking on, due University was Earhart's "flying Amelia Earhart discusses work on her not used as a smoke- laboratory" to their screen to disguise Lockheed Electra aircraft with a readers. Noting that any association with "aviation is a busi- Purdue Airport mechanic. this mission." ness to me and my Although Purdue's ambition is that the Purdue University Professor George investment had project shall provide Haskins and Amelia Earhart conduct crashed somewhere practical results," in the Pacific, the tests on an airplane supercharger Earhart planned first university did receive to use the plane for in preparation for the famous flier's some tangible bene- a year to gather re- around-the-world flight. fits from its associa- search material on tion with Earhart, namely, nationwide publicity in such newspapers such areas as speed and fuel consumption, oxygen use, radio com- as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles 'Times, Boston Post, munication and navigation, and the effect of prolonged flight on and Chicago 'tribune. Also, Purdue's female students had a unique humans. After completing her research work, Earhart then planned opportunity to interact with a person who typified women's chang- to make an "interesting" flight in the all-metal Electra. "But circum- ing role in modern American society. As for Earhart, her time at stances," she said, "made it appear wiser to postpone the research the Hoosier university offered her a chance to test both her skills as and attempt the flight first." a flier and educator. Looking back at that short period in his wife's The flight Earhart so offhandedly mentioned turned into a mon- career, Putnam said that Earhart's job at Purdue provided her with umental undertaking; an attempt to become the first woman to fly "one of the most satisfying adventures of her life." around the world. Once that feat had been accomplished, the plane Contributing Editor Ray Boomhower writes frequently for Traces. He would would become the PRF's property. Royalties from a book Earhart like to thank Helen Q. Schroyer, Purdue University Special Collections Librar- planned to write about the experience and moneys from exhibiting ian, for her assistance in obtaining information ami illustrations for this article. the aircraft were to have been used by the foundation to further pure and applied scientific research in aeronautics. As preparations FOR FURTHER READINC for the flight were being made, Earhart was asked time and time Burrin, Frank K. Edward Charles Elliott, Educator. West Lafayette: Purdue again why she decided to attempt this particular flight. Her answer Research Foundation, 1970. came right to the point: "Because I want to." She called the trip a Earhart, Amelia. Last Flight. New York: Harcourt, Brace &-Company, 1937. "shining adventure, beckoning with new experiences, added knowl- Lovell, Mary S. The Sound of Wings: 'The Life, of Amelia Earhart. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. edge of flying, of peoples—of myself." Also, Earhart noted that with Purdue University's Special Collections Library has an extensive Amelia the flight behind her, she would become more useful to herself and Earhart Collection including letters, photographs, and other documents to the aeronautical program at Purdue. connected wilh the flier's life. On 1 June 1937 Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off Putnam, George E Soaring Wings: A Biography of Amelia Earhart. New York: from Miami in the "flying laboratory" on the first leg of their Harcourt, Brace 8c Company, 1939.

Summer 19 9 4 41 STORY Daughter TELLER's

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v {.< Jessamyn West nternationally acclaimed author Jessamyn West wrote extensively about her profound nostalgia for her birthplace in southern Indiana's Jennings County. Her masterpiece, The Friendly Persuasion, and approximately half her novels and short stories are set in Indiana. Since she moved to California when she was a child, Ithe question may be asked: How much of the homesick longing that proved so fruitful in Jessamyn West's life and art was secondhand, not actually lived, but deeply imagined?

CATHERINE E FORREST WEBER

42 TRACES STORYTELLER'S DAUGHTER

In a memoir, The Woman Said Yes, was wrong with her. Finally in 1931 she was Once upon a time, Grace said, "The sky Jessamyn described her knowledge of south- diagnosed with bilateral tuberculosis. She whispered. And yet it was a whisper you ern Indiana as a gift from Grace, her story- was only twenty-nine years old, but the dis- could see." Jessamyn wanted to hear about telling mother. The Woman Said Yes is also ease was too advanced to leave much hope snow—it cooled her fever. Snow tasted Grace Milhous West's biography and an for a cure. Three days later she entered a good, Grace said. Mixed with cream and absorbing chronicle of a rescue. When sanatorium, spending her first night there sugar, snow made winter ice cream. Jessamyn was a graduate student, she was on the terminal ward. At the end of Jessa- Grace was eloquent. Where she grew up, diagnosed as terminally ill, a fact Grace myn's second year of deteriorating health, you could eat your way through the sea- regarded as a challenge. She had no inten- the doctors told her mother, 'Take her home sons. Fall papaws were juicier than bananas; tion of letting her daughter die. "Every time and let her die amongst her loved ones." wild orange persimmons were sweet and I renounced the world she presented it to In her parents' sunny hillside home in smoother than butter. Fox grapes fes- me again,"Jessamyn said later. Yorba Linda, California, Jessamyn was given tooned the banks of the creek (she pro-

The Muscatatuck River, near whose an upstairs bedroom with a view of swaying nounced it "crick"). Before the pretty wild palms and orange groves. She would not, strawberries ripened red, children ate the banks Grace Milhous West grew up could not, look out the windows, not even to new oak leaves ("the size of mouse's ears") and started a family, runs through see the Pacific Ocean. Convinced that she sprinkled with salt. Jessamyn West's writing, thanks to was fated to die young (in fact, she was the Springhouse, carriage house, corncrib, the true-life stories of her mother. only one of her fellow eighteen patients alive smokehouse, privy, cowshed, and farrowing at the end of ten years), confined to the nar- pen, Jessamyn listened and learned the uses of Southern Indiana at the turn of the cen- row space of a single bed, insomniac, too sick buildings she had never before heard named. tury may seem an odd gift for a dying daugh- to read or enjoy food, she lay, hopeless, inert. In the stone troughs in the springhouse, ter. Yet with Grace West's true-life tales of her Aware that her daughter did not have springwater kept fresh the jugs of milk, Hoosier childhood as inspiration, Jessamyn the strength to face her own past, pre- cream, and sweet cider, and apple butter, pic- not only recovered from a deadly disease, but sent, or future, Grace began telling the calilli, and the sausage for the "gravy timber." was empowered at last to take the first step stories of her own life as a Hoosier When a cyclone or twister threatened, toward fulfilling her dream of being a writer. farmer's daughter, descendant of Quak- Grace said, her voice rising, thrilling, "Head The reason Jessamyn felt so sick while she ers, herself a birthright Quaker. Listening for the springhouse!" This was high drama, was a graduate student at the University of to her mother's "once upon a time," Jessa- for Jessamyn could not remember ever hav- California was discovered only after she had myn was drawn back to the "strange, ing been in a thunderstorm, let alone a tor- been trying for two years to find out what haunting land where Grace grew up." nado. Her mother conjured up the flash and

Summer 19 9 4 43 STORYTELLERS 1 A U C H X E

TRACES STORYTELLER'S 2)AUCHTER glare of lightning and showed her the sur- one lived in southern Indiana, speak of hav- hous, Richard Nixon's grandfather), Eldo prise escape route: climb into a feather bed. ing Irish blood. The Irish were then thought took his family west to manage his father-in- Through Grace's homesick descriptions to be shiftless, hard drinkers. . . . An Irish law's ranch. Soon Eldo was able to. buy a (remembered and transformed into a liter- Quaker was a contradiction in terms: overly lemon grove in nearby Yorba Linda. There ary work in The Woman Said Yes), Jessamyn thrifty, of the wrong religion, living in a neat he built the house where Jessamyn had grew familiar with her mother's Indiana farmhouse and spurning drink." been brought home, as her mother kept childhood. She too could smell wood smoke, Jesse and Doll's daughter Grace was born telling her, to get well again. lilacs in the dooryard, and Gold of Ophir in 1884. In September 1901 Grace married Day after day, month after month, roses. When Grace sang, "I won't have none tall, dark, and handsome Eldo West. The Grace coaxed her dying daugh- of your weevily wheat," Jessamyn could watch Milhouses disapproved because the young ter back to life. She fed her the young people, denied dancing by their groom was a non-Quaker, a tenant farmer, orange juice secretly rewed-up religion, bounding happily about at a play- and his mother was a Clark, rumored to be with egg yolks, gave her a radio, party. In her mind's eye, Old Pedro, the dog descended from a Comanche "blanket wife" and let her keep a calico kitten, her first pet. woven into the rug in front of the organ in of George Rogers Clark. Grace had picked All this time Jessamyn had been too ill to the parlor, was as real as the live cal- read or write. Now at last she slowly ico kitten sharpening its claws on her began to make lists of words, as she had bedpost. "I could have walked into once collected substitutes for "he said." either house (Grace's or her grand- (At the age of ten, her favorite alterna- father's) in the dead of night," West tive was "he belched.") wrote, "and found the spare bed- Worh-hrickel meaning energetic; fine- room in pitch-darkness." haired, priggish, snobbish; dauncey, 'This other endurable life" in Jen- nauseated; clever, hospitable; feather nings County, Indiana, was peopled into, start a fight; woodscolt, illegitimate with colorful friends and relatives. child: the dialect of southern Indiana, Sympathetic Henry took to bed with the words her mother used, Jessamyn his wife whenever she was ailing. listed on a pad attached to a clip- Knowing Henry's habits, the neigh- board. She was so weak that she was bors brought extra chicken soup; able to record only six words a day. neighbor midwives let him stay in the Since she was twelve, Jessamyn had bed when the babies were being deliv- been keeping notebooks of story ideas, ered. One of Grace's uncles housed but she had not written a story. Forever his antique collections in sheds which planning to be a writer one day, she he visited one after another on set kept on advancing the day. "I was wait- days: "like a Mormon's schedule for ing like George Fox [founder of the visiting his wives." Jessamyn, who Society of Friends] for a voice," she said. enjoyed housekeeping—"Is there any- She also spoke of the "writer's risk"— thing more beautiful than a room she lacked the courage to expose her- you have cleaned yourself?"—was self in print. No longer dying now, beguiled by the compulsively tidy "unable to do anything else except per- aunt who swept, dusted, and haps crochet," she decided to make a scrubbed the tree stumps in her yard. stab at writing. Revulsed at recalling the Encouraged byjessamyn's awak- past years' experience of illness, she ening interest, Grace talked about thought of Grace's tales of her Hoosier their ancestors, their family history, girlhood and her knowledge of the and their Quaker heritage. Jessamyn Jessamyn West. spirit of Quakerism. Here was timber for stories, as sausage was gravy timber. too was a birthright Quaker. In 1729 COURTESY ADA PUTTER her ancestors on her mother's side Propped up in bed, she began writ- had emigrated from Ireland to Penn's Eldo out for herself, even proposed mar- ing on a lined yellow legal pad the first of Woods. Generation after generation kept to riage, and probably chose the honeymoon the stories that became the chapters of her the Quaker faith, wherever they settled. The trip to Clifty Falls. masterpiece, The Friendly Persuasion. Deep into the past she went, back to the 1850s, first of the family to settle in Indiana, Daughter Jessamyn was born on 18 July back to southern Indiana. Her fictional preacher Elizabeth Griffith Milhous and 1902, the first of the three children to be Quaker family would live on the banks of her nurseryman husband, Joshua Milhous, born in the farmhouse near North Vernon. the Muscatatuck River in southern Indiana moved to Jennings County in 1854. Eldo, a tenant on land now covered by the where she herself had lived under the Their son Jesse, who ran the Maple Grove Jefferson Proving Ground, taught school enchantment of her mother's talk. For her Nursery near Butlerville, married school- at Brewersville. Hoosier hero, Jess Birdwell, she drew on her teacher Doll McManaman, characterized When Grace's father bought an orange great-grandfather's "hearsay love of music later by granddaughter Jessamyn as "Irish grove near Whittier, California, a Quaker and fast horses." An artist, she made up "out and Hoosier before she was Quaker." Never- community where Indiana relatives had of whole cloth "Jess's anguish over the neces- theless, "One did not in the early 1900's, if already settled (notably uncle Franklin Mil-

Summer 19 9 4 45 STORYTELLERS DAUGHTER

new book, she rented a room for $3.50 a week at Rosa Toole Gordon's, 106 Jennings Street. Every afternoon she hired a driver to take her out to the country—to Graham Creek, Sand Creek, Rush Branch, and the Muscatatuck River. Lugging pens, pencils, notebook, and The Flora of Indiana, she explored. She saw with her own eyes Grace's beloved sumac, papaw, goldenrod, purple ironweed, farewell-summer, shag- bark hickory, and sassafras. She saw too what she had half expected, that her homesick mother had over-romanti- cized the countryside. The resulting novel, The Witch Diggers, portrayed an impoverished, backward region of southern Indiana. Eudora Welty, reviewing the novel favorably, com- mented: "Indiana, 1899, Breughel." Certainly the book was more realistic than The Friendly Persuasion. West, although she remained a life- Three of Grace's children were born in long member of the Society of Friends, was time in his life when he didn't know whether Indiana—Carmen (left), Myron struggling already against being typed as or not he would be able to hang on to those "merely" a Quaker writer. She planned to (right), and Jessamyn. beliefs." When the actor famous for portray- transcend the stereotype. She did not believe ing gunslingers was chosen for the hero's sity of right action in the Civil War. Would fiction needed to be morally improving. Pleas- role, West said, "If Gary Cooper had been he compromise "one Quaker principle (anti- ing herself as well as her readers, she would born a hundred years ago, a Quaker Hoosier, war testimony) to fight for another (aboli- encompass whatever was relevant, whatever he would have looked like Jess Birdwell." tion of slavery)"? She wondered. She wrote. interested her, including sexuality. The first of West's four memoirs, To See To Jess's wife, Eliza, Jessamyn gave some A decade after the book appeared, the Dream, records her Hollywood year with of her great-grandmother's traits. Mattie, William Wyler made a film of The Friendly Wyler. Anxious for accuracy, hoping to re- the spunky, independent daughter, bears a Persuasion, focusing the movie action on the create a world for the film, West consulted striking resemblance to Jessamyn's own chapter "The Battle of Finney's Ford." West older relatives who told her that in southern mother, Grace. Eventually West was well was hired as technical adviser and collabora- Indiana around 1860, Quaker women wore enough to research her material. She based tor on the script, "the story of a man who blue-gray, snuff brown, or black to meeting, the trial over the stolen goose on an actual believed it was wrong to fight . . . and of a but oil-red was popular, red-black "like a case recorded in Oliver Hampton Smith's red rose that is beginning to wither." The Early Indiana Trials and Sketches. (Smith's "The best happenstance of all white apron, trimmed with embroidery or book also provided the seed and back- crocheted edging, was where Quaker for me was finding Max," ground material for West's only historical women "got in their fashionable licks." novel, the best-selling Massacre at Fall Creek.) Jessamyn West noted of her husband Almost a century later, Quaker Jessamyn After the publication of The Friendly Per- Harry Maxwell McPherson. West set out for a gala movie premiere wear- suasion in 1945, Jessamyn returned to North ing fashionable sandals, "a sole, a heel, and Vernon, to the scene of her mother's youth. about two straps," revealing her daringly Boarding the train in Indianapolis, she was "reddened" toenails. With her customary agog with excitement and apprehension. good humor, West described herself as a She had written the book, her "love poem to plain woman. Tall (five feet, seven inches), Indiana," with no substantive information she had inherited the frame of her Indian but her mother's stories and her own imagi- ancestors—"like my West grandmother, [I] nation. Had she got southern Indiana right? could hoist a 100-pound grain sack." In mid- The house where Jessamyn had lived as a dle age, she examined her face in the mirror child was gone. She stared at the high wire (Eldo's high cheekbones and coppery skin, fence, the sign: KEEP OUT. JEFFERSON Grace's reddish hair, lively hazel eyes), and PROVING GROUND. What was being concluded: "it looks to me like that of a proved where the nurseryman's straw- pleasant, hearty barmaid in an Irish pub." berries, peaches, apples, and grapes had In 1960 West took her sister Carmen to flourished? she asked herself. Mortars, Europe with her. Jessamyn had always bombs, and explosives were being tested; it admired her younger sister's beauty and was like a blow against her grandmother. vivacity, and besides, Carmen was the only Since she was going to be in town for sibling who liked poetry. Her responsibility awhile, collecting background material for a for Carmen began, Jessamyn believed, on

46 TRACES STORYTELLERS DAUGHTER the morning in Greensburg, Indiana, when screenplays, essays, and articles for maga- have been published. What is certain is that she reached up from her little rocking chair zines, including the New Yorker. She edited her enthusiastic readers will keep her name and took the newborn baby into her arms. and wrote a thoughtful introductory essay to alive, her works in circulation. Ironically, In 1963 Jessamyn was out East when she The Quaker Reader. About half her novels and because she was determined not to be remem- received Carmen's summons: "Sister, dear some short stories are set in Indiana: The bered as "merely" a Quaker writer, it is likely sister, come home and help me die." Car- Friendly Persuasion, Except for Me and Thee, The that The Friendly Persuasion and Except for Me men had been diagnosed with inoperable Wifch Diggers, Leafy Rivers, The Massacre at Fall and. Thee will be the most lasting and beloved cancer. Aware that both grandmothers had Creek, and the first part of The Life I Really of her works. Jessamyn West, however, would "died screaming" of cancer and determined Lived. Her short stories and extracts from not be sorry to know that it was the Hoosier to choose her own death before the pain novels and memoirs have appeared in more Quaker stories that blossomed from her became unbearable, she could not carry out than one hundred anthologies; her books, mother's tales that will survive the longest. her plan alone. translated into at least nineteen foreign lan- Grace Milhous West died in 1959. Jessa- Jessamyn agonized. Carmen was so lovely, myn's loving tribute in The Woman Said so full of life still. The nurse explained that Yes reveals the poignant lifelong relation- the patient could not be cured and her ship of mother and daughter. A series of suffering would increase: "For her it's like strokes had seriously damaged Grace's being killed in a torture chamber. "Jessamyn memory. The week before Grace died, made the grim decision not to fail Carmen. Jessamyn tried to explain her identity to Jessamyn went to stay in her sister's her bewildered mother, "I'm the oldest of home, sharing her last few weeks. Carmen's your four children. . . . The one who husband was too ill himself and too dis- wrote those Quaker stories." traught to help, so Jessamyn moved into Grace misunderstood, or understood the twin bed. When Carmen could not at a deeper level. I didn't remember that I sleep, they talked, entertaining each other, wrote those stories, she said. "I thought I assessing their lives. Assisting suicide meant just dreamed I did it." breaking the law; Jessamyn collected the It wasn't a dream, Jessamyn generously necessary pills. She stayed by her side the reassured her. You did it! Grace thanked night Carmen knew she could no longer her daughter—she never could have writ- bear to live: it was time to swallow the ten down the stories, she said, "except lethal dose. From Grace, her daughters had that you encouraged me by listening." Jessamyn West. inherited the strength to say "yes" to life, Jessamyn had listened and had written "yes" to death. Softly Jessamyn spoke to HARCOURT KRACE JOVANOVICI the books her mother could not write. In Carmen, "It was a great gift to all of us. . . . - Jess's happy little speech in Except for Me \bu did not linger to cause us all to suffer." and Thee, the second book of Birdwell At the funeral in the Quaker meetinghouse, guages, have sold more than six million family stories, we seem to be listening to the Jessamyn gazed at her beautiful sister in her copies. In 1994 six of her books are in print. blended voices of a remarkable Hoosier green dress, "like a leaf, fallen early." he taught at writers' conferences mother and daughter. Three years later West published A Mailer at Indiana University and the Uni- 'The world suits me to a T. . . . Sometimes of Time (1966), the story of the controversial versity of Notre Dame; she was I think the Lord made it especially for me. I act of euthanasia disguised as fiction. The Wellesley College's first writer-in- like its colors. I don't see how the flavor of book was reviewed most favorably, but the residence. Her lectures attracted spring water could be improved on. I'd hate author received "some letters from ladies who enthusiastic audiences. (Alfred S. Shivers, to have to try to invent a better fruit than a said they hoped I rotted in hell." Ten years Sauthor of the critical study Jessamyn West, Grimes Golden. Yellow lamplight on white later, when the statute of limitations had run mentions her charisma and her delightful snow. Thee ever seen anything prettier?" out, she presented the facts in a gripping voice, intense, animated, "with a faint deli- Previous contributions to Traces by Catherine memoir, The. Woman Said Yes, part two. cious warble to it.") In 1975 she spoke at E Forrest Weber include articles on John Muir the Indiana State Library's 150th anniver- Jessamyn West lived for eighty-one years. and Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson. "Born to write," she was satisfied that she had sary. In 1977 she received the Indiana used her life productively. Tuberculosis had Authors' Day Award; in 1980 she was gutted a decade from her working years and inducted into the Indiana Academy. During FOR FURTHER READING made her vigilant of her health ever after- her lifetime, West's contributions to Ameri- Flanagan, John T. 'The Fiction of Jessamyn West." ward. ("I live a very outdoors kind of life," she can literature were recognized with nine Indiana Magazine of History 67 (Dec. 1971): said. "I'm a Quaker and the first Quakers honorary doctorates. The citation of Indi- 299-316. were hippies.") The seriousness of her disease ana University's 1959 degree was warm: Shivers, Alfred S. Jessamyn West. Rev. ed. New in a time when TB was usually fatal had given "You are sincerely beloved in Hoosierdom York: Twayne Publishers, 1992. West, Jessamyn. The Friendly Persuasion. New York: her a late start—she was thirty-seven when for your loyalty to the state of your birth." Harcourt, Brace 8c Company, 1940. she published her first short story, forty-three A decade after her death, it would be pre- . The Massacre at Fall Creek. New York: Har- when her first novel appeared. \fct she pub- mature to assign her a rank in American liter- court Brace Jovanovich, 1975. lished nineteen books (novels, collected short ary history. To date, neither a full-length . The Woman Said Yes. New York: Harcourt stories, memoirs, poetry, an opera libretto), biography nor extracts from her fifty journals Brace Jovanovich, 1976.

Summer 19 9 4 47 Focus THE LIFE And Confession of James HUDSON

One of the books for which Jessamyn West is I sincerely exhort every person, into whose hands this, my confession, may fall, to take best known is The Massacre at Fall Creek, warning from the fate that awaits me—Let first published in 1975. While most of West's job to have been rushed onto the market to them resist the temptations of the Devil, and novels draw heavily on Indiana's past—much capitalize on curiosity about the landmark avoid the machinations of the wicked; and, oh gleaned from her own family's history—this case and about Hudson's role in the crime. God! may they never permit their passions to 1975 book is based on a well-known incident The pamphlet purports to be in Hudson's have unrestrained sway over their judgement. in early Indiana state history. The case was own words, but the text was likely written also a landmark in relations between white by Woodworth. Judging from the text, if settlers and Native Americans on the frontier. Hudson were standing trial today his In March 1824, along Fall Creek near plea would probably be temporary insan- Pendleton in Madison County, nine Seneca ity. He is quoted at one point about his and Miami men, women, and children were feelings on the evening before the crime: killed, apparently with no provocation "It occurred to me that the Indians were beyond their presence, by six white men about—I felt alarmed, and was fearful resident in the area. One of the alleged that they might come under cover of the murderers escaped capture, and another, a night and destroy my family—my feel- young boy, was determined not to have par- ings were unusually strange—I was prob- ticipated in the massacre. The other four ably under the impulsive power of were ultimately convicted of murder, and partial derangement." three of them were executed by hanging. Current viewers of this event must This was the first time in United States his- keep in mind the atmosphere on the tory that the killing of Indians had been frontier in 1825. Before this case came to treated as a punishable offense. trial, the view of many settlers was that the Following the massacre at Fall Creek, Jessamyn West uses fictional characters to killing of Indians was not a crime, though many settlers feared Indian retaliation represent the accused men, but historical according to United States law it was. Many if justice were not served in the case. information about the case can be found in settlers—or at least their forebears—had Federal Indian agent John Johnston's both Oliver H. Smith's Early Indiana Trials experienced conflict with Native Americans, support helped the prosecution to win a and Sketches (1858) and Jacob Piatt Dunn's and indeed the defense attorneys attempted conviction against the four white men, True Indian Stories (1909). While Smith's to arouse anti-Indian feeling by trying to which eased the minds of the settlers. account has the advantage of having been remind the jury and the court audience of written by a participant in the trial—Smith previous hostilities. In this case, however, The library's copy of The Life and Confession was one of the prosecuting attorneys—it suf- the Miami and Seneca families had been of James Hudson, purchased from Indianapo- fers from Smith's tendency to glorify his own killed with no provocation; the two men lis's Hoosier Book Shop in 1938, is apparently role in the proceedings. Dunn's is probably killed, Logan and Ludlow, had shown con- one of a very few to have survived. The first the first good factual account, and West obvi- siderable friendliness toward white settlers; eighteen of the pamphlet's twenty-four pages ously depended heavily on it for her back- the other victims were all women and chil- comprise Hudson's confession. This section is ground. By far the most poignant piece about dren; and the killings were gratuitously bru- followed by a narrative of his imprisonment, the case, however, is a rare pamphlet pub- tal. In addition, the locals greatly feared escape from jail, recapture, and execution. lished in Indianapolis in 1825, The Life and Indian retaliation if the accused were not An appendix on the last two pages gives the Confession of James Hudson, which deals with brought to justice.' text of Phebe Hudson's farewell letter to her the case of one of the perpetrators. Hudson, a We will never know to what extent Hud- husband on 7 January 1825, and that of his 11 trapper, was the first of the convicted men to son's published confession expressed his January reply, the day before his execution. be executed, on 12January 1825. true feelings about his role in the massacre Compiled by Samuel Woodworth for the at Fall Creek. It fulfills its role as didactic lit- proprietors of the Indianapolis Gazette, the erature, however, by admonishing its audi- LEIGH DARBEE pamphlet appears from the crude printing ence not to follow the path that Hudson did: Curator of Printed Collections

48 TRACES