F- 521 - 148 -VOL25- N02 INDIANA Dt HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Since 1830, the Indiana Historical Society has been Indiana's Storyteller� connecting people to the past by collecting, preserving, interpreting, and sharing the state's history. A private, nonprofit membership organization, IHS maintains the nation's premier research library and archives on the history of Indiana and the Old Northwest and presents a unique set of visitor exhibitions called the Indiana Experience. IHS also provides support and assistance to local museums and historical groups; publishes books and periodicals; sponsors teacher workshops; and provides youth, adult, and family programming. ADMINISTRATION JOHN A.HERBST JEANNE SCHEETS Pres•d ent and CEO Vtce Pres•dent, Mark.etmg STEPHEN l. COX and Publ1c Relat1ons Execut•ve V�ee Pre·•dent ANDREW HALTER JEFF MATSUOKA V1ce Prestdent, Development VICe Presid ent. and Membership Business and Operat•ons JENNIFER HIATI Director, Annual Giving and Membeorsh•p

BOARD OF TRUSTEES JERRY 0. SEMLER CATHERINE KENNEDY IndianapoliS. Cho1r lnd•anapohs M.KRUSE SUSAN JONES-HUFFINE ��Ja����� Indianapolis, FirstV1ceChair DANIEL M. LECHLEITER MICHAEL A.BUCKMAN Indianapolis IndianapoliS, SecondV1ceChatr JAMES H. MADISON CHARLES A. LILES Bloomngton EDWARD S. MATIHEWS a Indianapolis,��������: ��:�u���Secrerary cKEE THOMAS G. HOBACK . Terre���� H��aute lndtanapohs, lmmed1ate Past Cha!f JAMES W. MERRm JR. NANCY AYRES Ind ianapolis lnd•anapol1s JAMES T. MORRIS WILLIAM E. BARTELT IndianapoliS Newburgh MICHAEL B.MURPHY FRANK M. BASILE Ind ianapoliS lnd1anapohs SAMUEL L. DOLE JOSEPH E. COSTANZA IndianapoliS Munster ERSAL OZDEMIR WlLUAM BRENT ECKHART IndianapoliS lnd1anapohs MARGARET COLE RUSSELL DAVID S. EVANS Indianapolis Indianapolis WILLIAM N. SALIN SR. RICHARD D. FELDMAN Carmel Indianapolis ROBERT E. SEXTON WANDA Y. FORTUNE Brownsburg Indianapolis JOSEPH A. SLASH JANIS B. FUNK lnd1anapohs Brownsburg DENNY SPONSEL GARY HENTSCHEL Greenwood Indianapolis LU CAROLE WEST Zionsvalle

TRACES OF !NOlANA ANO MIOWESTERN HISTORY RAY E. BOOMHOWER EDITORIAL BOARD Semor Ed1tor RICHARD D. FELDMAN lnchanapohs. Cha1r CONTRIBUTING EDITORS NANCY NIBLACK BAXTER Carmel M.TERESA BAER ALAN A. BOUWKAMP KATHLEEN M. BREEN Fashers DOUGLAS E. CLANIN EDWARD E. BREEN PAULAJ.CORPUZ Marion LEIGH OARBEE A'LELIA BUNDLES WILMA L. MOORE Wash•ngton, D.C JAMES A. COLES DESIGN ZIOnSVIlle ANITRA HELTON WILLIAM BRENT ECKHART Graph1c Des•gner lnd1anapol•s WANDA Y. FORTUNE PHOTOGRAPHY lnd1anapohs SUSAN L.S. SUTION RALPH D. GRAY Coordinator Indianapolis DAVID TURK P.MARTIN LAKE Photographer Manon JANE NOLAN PRINTING lnd1anapoh PRINTING PARTNERS NELSON PRICE� Indianapolis WORLD WIDE WEB ROBERT L. REID www.1nd1anahastoryorg Evansville ERIC T. SANDWEISS Bloomington

Traces ofJndtana and MtdwesternHistory (ISSN 1040-788X) IS pubt1shed quarterly and d1stnbuted as a benefit of membership by the Ind iana H•Stoncal Soc•ety Press; ed•tonal and executive offices, 450 West Ohio Street.lnd•anapohs, lnd•ana 46202-3269. Penochcals postage pa•d at lnd1anapohs, Indiana: USPS Number 003-275. L1terary contrtbuoons A brochure contaimng information for contnbut�ans is ava1\able upon request Traces accepts no respons1bil1ty for unsolicited manuscnpts subm•tted without return postage lnd1ana newspaper publishers may obtam permission to repnnt art1des byw ritten request to the press The Press w•ll refer requests from other publishers to the author C\2013 lnd•ana Histoncal SoCiety Press All nghts reserved Printed on aod-free pi!per1n the UMed States of Amenca Postmaster: Pleasesend address changes to Traces of IndianaiJnd M1dwesrern H1S· tory. lndtana HtstorKal Soctety Press, Eugene and Manlyn Ghck Indiana H1story Center. 450 West Oh•o Street. rnd•anapol1s, Indiana 46202- 3269. Traces ts a member of the Conference of Htstoncat journals SPRING 2013 CONTENTS TRACES OF INDIANA AND MIDWESTERN HISTORY VOLUME TWENTY-FIVE, NUMBER TWO

2 Front Cover: A man carefully carries his child through Editors' Page debris that filled his Coffey Street neighborhood after A Helping Hand the 1913 flood that devastated Indianapolis. JAY \MAt PQ<.TLAROCOLLECTION. INDIANA HI lRI(Al.SOt rv. l P 191 Ray E. Boomhower

4 Wulf's Hall Great Hope in the Midst of the 46 Great Flood The Woman's Press Club Eloise Batie and Angela Giacomelli of Indiana A Hundred Years and Still Writing 12 Ann Allen The Israelites, the Egyptians, and "Plain 56 Chicl

26 Black History News and Notes Everyday People A Neighborhood of Saturdays ''Posterity will yet do them Justice" Thomas Brown's Call to Military Duty in the Civil War A Christian Duty Misadventure along the Indiana Underground Railroad RAY E. BOOMHOWER

In December 1879 John H. Beadle, talent fo r literature and said she "should Over rhe years, Juliet, who married fe l­ the new ed itor of the weekly Rockville Tri­ have the opportunity of seeing her work in low Tribune employee Isaac Strouse (rak­ bune in Pa rke County, attended a literary print." At first, Susan was "rather shocked" ing fo r herself the Old Wo rld spelling of exercise at the local high school. In an ar­ at the idea of having one of her daughters the name as Strauss) and bought and ra n ticle on the ev ent he did fo r his newspaper, doing anything of a public nature, instead the newspaper with her husband, became Beadle saved his highest praise fo r an essay wishing only that they possess "good horse well known not only to her hometown tided "C hains" read by a young girl named sense and able to do something fo r a liv­ readers, bur also to Indiana readers. They Juliet Humphries. Thework, he wrote, ing." She finallyagr eed, however, to let fo llowed her common-sen e, down-to­ contained "many sterling truths" expressed Juliet contribute to the Tribune and also earth observations on life in her weekly in "a n easy, graceful style which is all her learn shorthand as a possible trade. On "Country Contributor" column in the own." The recipient of Beadle's praise well March 18, 1880, the newspaper's readers Indianapolis News, while approximately remembered his presence at the event, as were treated to an entertaining report on a one million women whom subscribed to early in her oral presentation she fe lt his roller-skating party that included mem­ the Ladies' Home journal read her co I umn gaze "fa irly boring a hole through me." bers of the community's elite society. The "The Ideas of a Plain Country Wo man" After the event, Beadle called upon article, which appeared on rhe front page, every month. Her doctrine, she once told Juliet's mother, Susan, and asked her if was signed "La Gitana," the nom de plume a reporter, consisted of getting happy and she rea lized that her daughter possessed a suggested fo r Juliet by Beadle. staying that way. "When trouble comes

2 I TRACES I Spring 2013 meet it," Strauss said, "get along with it as been." In the history of the world, Dunn its existence, the WPCI, whose history is best you can, and then let loose of it. r like went on to say of Strauss, "nobody ever explored in this issue of Traces,has worked to have fun, to play cards occasionally and wrote so much about the common things to bring women journalists in the state go to a party now and then. I'm not much of everyday life," and held the interest of into a "closer fe llowship of social and intel­ of a club woman and only a fa ir Presbyte­ their readers. lectual intercourse" by donating books to rian. Otherwise I'm all right." 1l1ework done by Strauss, and count­ libraries, sponsoring writing contests, and Strauss, who died on May 22, 1918, less other Hoosier women who often offering scholarships. Today, the WPCI won high praise fo r her writing from fo ught long odds to obtain jobs at local is open to all and includes professional Indiana historian Jacob Piatt Dunn Jr., newspapers as reporters and editors, was communicators in all media and continues who noted that Strauss's writing possessed aided over the years by an organiza- to investigate what one of its fo unding the Hoosier characteristic of "optimism tion that celebrated its centennial this members termed the "new methods and and wholesomeness," and claimed that year-the Wo ma n's Press Club oflndiana new traditions to be established in society the Rockville writer was "more widely (Strauss was one of the group's twenty­ and politics." read than any American essayist has ever eight fo unding members). Throughout

Above: Before her death in 1922, Juliet Strauss expressed satisfaction with her career. "I lived my own life," she said. "If I wished to ride a horse, or to play a game of cards, or to go wading in the creek with the children, I always did it. I never strained my eyesight or racked my nerves trying to arrive at small perfections. I avoided rivalries and emulations. In short, I lived."

TRACES I Spring2013 I 3

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I Left: With pitchfork in hand, Indianapolis mayor Samuel Shank helps cleanup flooddamage on the west side of town. Right: Damaged railroad tracks near the break in the White River levee reveal the power of the floodwaters.

Throughout the day, residents noticed and Srock Ya rds Company, and Eli Lilly ployees and their fa milies. By the 1890s, rising waters in not just the White River, and Company employing many down­ the area was the most densely populated but Fall Creek and Eagle Creek as well. As town residents. Since the late 1800s, Indi­ community in Indianapolis, and in 1897 the day wore on, sensing danger, people anapolis had built a reputation as a hub fo r the City of l ndianapolis annexed the sub­ began moving to the upper floorsof their major railroads, bringing travelers through urb. A working-class neighborhood, west homes. Once the water hit, people were the city via a nerwork of bridges and roads Indianapolis held on to its unique identity trapped in their neighborhoods. As water that defined the landscape. Nearby, the even as the city continued to grow. The came in through doors and windows, peo­ busy Wholesale District hosted a high area was divided by the landscape into rwo ple grabbed their belongings and headed concentration of businesses transporting separate sections, the "Hill" and the "Val­ to the attic. In response to the obvious hardware, groceries, saddles, candy, and ley." When the floodwaters passed through need of their neighbors, helpful residents much more to merchants throughout the this area, the low-lying valley flooded, secured boats to venture into the streets to Midwest. Hotels sprang up to house visi­ while homes on the hill did not. People save those they could hear crying fo r help. tors to the city, who traveled the streets in from the hill made up a large portion of In 1913 downtown Indianapolis was wagons and streetcars. The White River the rescue mission after the levee broke. the home of a thriving business commu­ flowedthr ough Indianapolis on the west Adeline Claghorn, a young girl during nity, with large companies such as Kingan side of the city, through a residential area the flood, accompanied her fa ther to the and Company, Indianapolis Belt Railroad that was home to the blue-collar workers White River to see how high the water employed in nearby businesses. Neighbor­ was rising. As they returned to their home Previous Page: Vo lunteers gather at the Wulf's hood grocery stores and saloons dotted the on Coffey Street, a line of people stood Hall Relief Station to distribute supplies fo r landscape. outside her house with the hopes of using victims of the 1913 floodin Indianapolis. West Indianapolis was considered an their telephone, one of only a fe w in the Opposite: Canoes became the standard industrial and residential suburb of down­ neighborhood. In the midst of this chaos, means of transportation on New York Street as residents abandoned their homes to the town, developed as an extension of the word of the levee's collapse spread, caus­ rising waters. Union Srock Yards and home to its em- ing everyone to flee fo r their homes. The

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 7 powerful storm front swept through the Midwest over the Easter holiday weekend in 1913, bringing death and destruction to cities and towns in its wake. After days of strong winds, a series of tornados ripped through Omaha, Nebraska, and parts of Iowa before passing through ATerre Haute, Indiana, late in the evening of Easter Sunday. Then the rain began. On Monday and Tues­ day, March 24 and 25, Indiana was deluged by rainwater. On Tuesday alone, Indianapolis received more than three inches of rain, while parts of southern Indiana received more than six inches. As temperatures dropped below freezing, Indianapolis residents braced for a chilly, wet night, and snuggled up in their homes to escape the cold. For many, particularly those living on the west side of downtown, their peace­ ful evening was shattered when the White River levee at Morris Street broke at 6:10p.m., sending flood­ waters from the White River through the area. Left: With pitchfork in hand, Indianapolis mayor Samuel Shank helps cleanup flooddamage on the west side of town. Right: Damaged railroad tracks near the break in the White River levee reveal the power of the floodwaters.

Throughout the day, residents noticed and Srock Yards Company, and Eli Lilly ployees and their fa milies. By the 1890s, rising waters in not just the White River, and Company employing many down- the area was the most densely populated but Fall Creek and Eagle Creek as well. As town residents. Since the late 1800s, lndi- community in Indianapolis, and in 1897 the day wore on, sensing danger, people anapolis had built a reputation as a hub for the City oflndianapolis annexed the sub- began moving to the upper floorsof their major railroads, bringing travelers through urb. A working-class neighborhood, west homes. Once the water hit, people were the city via a nerworkof bridges and roads Indianapolis held on to its unique identity trapped in their neighborhoods. As water that defined the landscape. Nearby, the ev en as the city continued to grow. The came in through doors and windows, peo­ busy Wholesale District hosted a high area was divided by the landscape into rwo ple grabbed their belongings and headed concentration of businesses transporting separate sections, the "Hill" and the "Val­ to the attic. In response to the obv ious hardware, groceries, saddles, candy, and ley." When the floodwaters passed through need of their neighbors, helpful residents much more to merchants throughout the this ar ea, the low-lying valley flooded, secured boats to venture into the streets to Midwest. Hotels sprang up to house visi­ while homes on the hill did not. People save those they could hear cr ying for help. tors to the city, who traveled the streets in fr om the hill made up a large portion of In 1913 downtown Indianapolis was wagons and streetcars. The White River the rescue mission after the levee broke. the home of a thriving business commu­ flowed through Indianapolis on the west Adeline Claghorn, a young girl during nity, with large companies such as Kingan side of the city, through a residential area the flood, accompanied her fa ther to the and Company, Indianapolis Belt Railroad that was home to the blue-collar workers White River to see how high the water employed in nearby businesses. Neighbor­ was rising. As they returned to their home Previous Page: Vo lunteers gather at the Wulf's hood gr ocery stores and saloons dotted the on Coffey Street, a line of people stood Hall Relief Station to distribute supplies fo r landscape. outside her house with the hopes of using victims of the 1913 floodin Indianapolis. West Indianapolis was considered an their telephone, one of only a few in the Opposite: Canoes became the standard industrial and residential suburb of down­ neighborhood. In the midst of this chaos, means of transportation on New York Street as residents abandoned their homes to the town, developed as an extension of the word of the levee's collapse spread, caus­ rising waters. Union Stock Yards and home to its em- ing everyone to flee fo r their homes. The

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 7 C.R EAT HOP TH£ MID ST OfT IE GREAT F� OOO

Claghorn fa mily raced to move as many of rhe Indianapolis General Relief Commit­ make use of their significantconnections their belongings as possible to the second tee fo r Flood Sufferers with the hope of and resources. Frederic M. Ayres, president Boor. Adeline's fa ther and a brother put providing support, supplies, and shelter to of the L.S. Ayres and Company depart­ two-by-fours under the fa mily piano, one rhose affected by the Rood. Downtown's ment store and a local philanthropist, of their most precious treasures, in the To mlinson Hall was transformed into a served as the committee's treasurer and hopes of saving it. As the water filled the central relief command center under the chairman of the finance committee. This house's firstBoor , the fa mily abandoned control of the Guard. Flood victims were was a major responsibility, given the vol­ rhe lower level. From the attic, they began invited there to receive fo od, clothes, ume of donations made to the relief effort to hear the sounds of Roaring furniture blankets, and other supplies. By rhar Fri­ and rhe staggering number of people who hitting rhe ceiling below their fe et. Adeline day, To mlinson Hall had installed special contributed. The financecommi ttee was heard the distressed sounds of her neigh- phone lines residents could call to inquire charged with the allocation of fu nds fo r specificsupplies, including bedding, cloth­ AS THE WATER FILLED THE HOUSE'S FIRST FLOOR, THE ing, fo od, furniture, fuel, house repair, and FAMILY ABANDONED THE LOWER LEVEL FOR SAFETY. medical supplies. In all, the committee raised and oversaw $104,71 0.97. Samuel FROM THE ATTIC, THEY BEGAN TO HEAR THE SOUNDS Rauh, president of the Indianapolis Belt OF FLOATING FURNITURE HITTING THE CEILING BELOW Railroad and Stock Ya rds Company and THEIR FEET. a member of the general committee, was appointed as directing head ofWulf's Hall bors calling fo r help and saw the lights of about their loved ones, making use of a Relief Station. Rauh's business was nor fa r rescuers in canoes working throughout card system managed by an Information from the relief station itself, and he was the neighborhood. The Claghorns were Bureau established to track the status of a member of the community, adding to eventually rescued and stayed in the home each refugee. the grassroots fe eling of neighbors helping of one of Adeline's schoolteachers. Less than twenty-four hours after the neighbors. Eighteen-year-old Doris Hoppe was collapse of the Morris Street levee, Shank Churches and religious organizations one of many west Indianapolis residents assembled the committee and appointed played a crucial role in the relief effort who responded to the call fo r help. He a number of prominent businessmen to as well. Rabbi Morris Feuerlichr of rhe got into his skiff, fa shioned an oar from oversee its work. Hoosiers connected to Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation was a clothesline prop, and paddled through municipal government, the Chamber of appointed to the General Relief Commit­ the streets to save his neighbors. Around Commerce, the Board ofTrade, churches, ree. He served on the subcommittee on midnight, he pushed through rhe transom labor organizations, newspapers, children's Food, Fuel, and Clothing and the subcom­ window of a house to rescue a woman groups, and local businesses were divided mittee on Housing. Father Joseph We ber, he saw standing on top of a submerged into subcommittees to fa cilitate relief. pastor of Assumption Catholic Church piano. The woman was so panicked that Subcommittees included Food and Fuel, (present-day Saint Athanasius), opened she almost pulled Hoppe underwater Housing, House Repair, and Finance. the rectory on Blaine Av enue to serve as as he struggled to get her into the boar. A fe w days later, a women's committee military headquarters fo r Guard troops. To gether, they paddled to dry land, where fo rmed to bring women, including both We ber took charge of Station 1-A, set up they were eventually aided by the police. rhe governor's wife and the mayor's wife, in his church, where meals were served to Hoppe was taken to City Market, which into the relief effort. The women worked the public. Churches, such as the Bethel had been converted into an emergency alongside rhe men to ensure that supplies African Methodist Episcopal Church, took hospital staffed by the Indiana National were being collected and that the subcom­ active roles within their communities, Guard. mitrees fu nctioned effectively. hosting informational and organizational The fo llowing day, in addition to the The committee's membership read like meetings. urgent task of rescuing stranded people a who's who of rhe Indianapolis business The committee soon realized that relief from their homes, city officialsrecognized community, with names such as Vo nne­ stations needed to be closer to the neigh­ rhe need to create a system to address relief gut, Lilly, Hollweg, and Fletcher rounding borhoods affected by the Aood. Supply needs. Mayor Samuel Shank established out a list of businessmen clearly rapped to substations were established at schools,

8 I TRACES I Spring 2013 Mud and muck fzll much of Pearl Street on Indianapolis's west side. According to the US. We ather Bureau, the 1913 floodwas "unprecedented in the history of this portion of the United States, and it must fo llow that an occurrence so unusual must have been produced by extraordinary weather conditions." businesses, and churches throughout the Sissie fo rmed the Colored Wo men's Relief drives hosted throughout the city. The city and were placed under the manage­ Organization. Complete with a full list sold-out concert raised $1,686 fo r the Star ment of specificcommit tee members. On of officers and a financecom mittee, this relief fu nd and fe atured comedian Percival the west side of downtown, the General group created a designated relief station Knight, singer Gilbert Childs, young Relief Committee established nine sub­ at Indianapolis Public School Number 17 actresses Marion Bent and Clara Ing, and stations to distribute fo od, clothing, and on the corner ofWest and Eleventh Streets Miss Ina Claire of the Broadway musical blankets. Substation 1-B was set up under near the Ransom Place neighborhood. The Quaker GirL. The theater was decorated Raub's leadership at Wu lf's Hall, located at General Relief Committee helped to set up with flowers provided by local florists. All the cornerof Morris Street and Nordyke this relief station and saw that it received seats cost one dollar. Avenue, on the second floor of a building supplies. From its opening through April The fo llowing morning, the city shifted that normally operated as a saloon. Desig­ 2, the station fe d an average of 250 people from rescue and relief to cleanup. A sani­ nated as a soup station, the hall provided per day and provided shelter fo r between tary patrol began to clear debris. Residents clothing and fo od supplies that survivors twenty and twenty-five people per night. in the affected areas were advised to clear could pick up each morning. The substa­ George L. Hayes, the school principal put their homes of damaged materials in order tion received donations of canned goods in charge of this relief station, stated in an to prevent the spread of disease. Thecity from John Concannon and W. L. Brown, interview with the Indianapolis Recorder created large incinerators, circular with both grocers on Silver Aven ue, and meat that the station had no trouble receiving a cone in the center that used a constant from the Indianapolis Abattoir Company. supplies and fe lt no discrimination from fire maintained by red-hot stones. Crude The station was in the charge of Mrs. other parts of the relief effort. oil and rough timbers fu eled the flameto Harry Atkins, Mrs. Charles Dupree, Mrs. On Friday, March 28, the India­ keep it burning. Materials were taken to Henry Woollen, Mary E. Flanner, and napolis Star organized a concert at the the incinerators to be burned by police Major G. W Blain of the Guard. English Hotel and Opera House located and volunteers. Also on this day, the In­ To address the needs of lndianapolis's on Monument Circle as a fu nd-raiser fo r dianapolis Wa ter Company restored water African American community, Martha A. the relief effort, one of many events and services. Residents were provided with

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 9

Opposite: (Clockwise from bottom) Floodwaters swamp a streetcar on We st Michigan Street; houses moved from their fo undations on Kentucky Avenue; the scattered remains of the Wa shington Street Bridge; and workers attempting to salvage a railroad engine washed from its tracks. Above: A view of the Wa shington Street Bridge an hour before its collapse.

10,000 fe et of hose to clean their homes. incredible amount of property damage in research and development at the Indiana To address the growing concernof disease its wake. Neighborhoods experienced the Historical Society. Angela GiacomeLliis an and bacteria, the city fo rmed a Health fa llout from the flood fo r months, even exhibition researcher at the IHS. To step Board under the leadership of Herman G. years, after the levee broke. Stories of the back in time and join the action at Wulf's Morgan, the city sanitarian, and Doctor experience are now passed down through HaLLRelief Station, please visit Yo u Are E.] . Dubois, the city bacteriologist. The generations. Ye ars before disaster relief There 1913: A City Under Water, at the city was concerned about the spread of became a function of the fe deral govern­ Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History typhoid fev er and encouraged residents to ment, communities were left to their own Center,450 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, get vaccinated. Vo lunteers scattered lime dev ices to handle disaster response and Indiana. throughout the streets and alleys to dis­ relief. In 1913 Indianapolis responded infect the area. TI1eHealt h Board visited almost immediately with a coordinated affected areas to survey conditions and effort to save and provide fo r the vic- grant permission fo r residents to return to tims. For a state with a proud history of their homes. independence and self-reliance, the Hood The 1913 Hood claimed the lives of stands as an example of how Hoosiers eleven people from central Indiana and banded together in a time of crisis to res­ drove 4,000 people from their homes in cue one another from freezing floodwaters west Indianapolis. A six-square-mile area and comfort each other in times of need. was inundated with water, leaving an Eloise Batie is director, exhibition

Bell, Trudy E. The Great Dayton Flood of1913. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publications, 2008. I Bodenhamer, David J., and Robert G. Barrows, eds. The Encyclopedia ofindianapolis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994. f Williams, Geoff. Washed Away: How the Great Flood o(1913, America's Most Wide­ spread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever. New York: Pegasus Books, 2013.

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 11 : :. :- ?· -.;;.:�- - . < -·-::; -"�.- �-.::·-:�--=-� - :_� ..z= -. �-- � - ...... a.--.:_ -. _� - � . :_�:.....;.� . -

Tl:lE ISRAELITES, THE EGYPTIANS,AND "PLAIN CHICI

C. MATTHEW BALENSUELA n Easter Sunday 1934 Indianapolis witnessed the about the opening stressed the amazing new fe atures of the fa cility, including "one re-creation of the biblical struggle between the Israelites 0 of the finest Boors in the country" to dance and Egyptians. This contest took place not on the movie on, the starlight effects on the ballroom's screen or on the theater stage, but on the dance floor of the Indiana ceiling, and me ingenious ventilation Roof Ballroom when Joe Cappo and his Egyptian Serenaders battled mat promised to "send gentle and unfelt the Israelite House of David Band. Among the witnesses to this currents of delightfully tempered air into the room, keeping me dancers always in a epic battle were two stagehands who worked at the ballroom, John stimulating temperature, said to resemble Young and Tom Kelly. They were in the midst of recording their nights by the sea .... In summer it will evaluations of every band that played at the ballroom on the door be cooled and in winter warmed to the of a storage room. exact degree registered by thermometers in Madrid." Boasting a capacity of 4,000 The"Jazz Door," as it is currently day in 1934. Understanding the collision people over its two Boors, the ballroom known, now hangs behind a sheet of of Cappo, a dance band fr om a religious was presented in newspaper accounts as Plexiglas near the ballroom's backstage commune, and a pair of stagehands with me epitome of modern luxury. entrance. On it ar e 122 entries for the overdeveloped gr affiti habits is not just a As beautiful as the ballroom was at bands that played there fr om 1933 to matter of abstract musical judgment, but its opening, visitors and staffwer e not 1936, including some of the biggest names also requires the consideration of the var i­ immune to the long-standing theater tr a­ in music of the time, including Cab Cal­ ous musical styles, marketing strategies, dition of wr iting comments and testimoni­ loway, Benny Goodman, and Rudy Vallee. and personal ambitions that inter sected at als as gr affiti in backstage areas that were For each band the stagehands rated the the Roof in the 1930s. closed to the public. While the Jazz Door perfor mance with one to fo ur stars (poor The IndianaRoof Ballroom opened in is the more fa mous example of this at the to extraordinary). Their evaluation of the September 1927 as the crown jewel atop ballroom, a less-known, ear lier example Easter Sunday battle in 1934, however, the Indiana Theatre (now the Indiana still stands in its or iginal location behind br ought out an emphatic response beyond Repertory Theatre). The ballroom's inter ior a dr essing room on the second floor. In a simple star rating-"Plain Chicken­ echoes the Spanish-Baroque fa cade of d1e an impressive display ofcompetition for Shit." At first blush it may seem obvious building and re-creates the plaza of a Span­ memorial space, numerous people wr ote what Kelly and Yo ung mean-the House ish village of some earlier era with stucco or etched messages of their existence of David Band must have been exceed­ facades, balconies with ornate railings, and to the future-mostly just a name and ingly bad. But perhaps that is not the a ceiling depicting a gentle evening of glit­ date-star ting soon after the ballroom whole story of what happened on that tering stars. An IndianapoLis News ar ticle opened. But on the left side of the door is the first known attempt by two stage­ hands who worked at the ballroom to do THE INDIANA ROOF BALLROOM OPENED IN more than document their own existence; SEPTEMBER AS THE CROWN JEWEL ATOP they began an ear lier version of the more 1927 fatnous Jazz Door,what might be called THE INDIANA THEATRE (NOW THE INDIANA the·"First Door," which includes the same REPERTORY THEATRE). THE BALLROOM'S INTE­ rating system arranged in a pyramid as the RIOR ECHOES THE SPANISH-BAROQUE FACADE OF more famous Jazz Door. As reported in the local press, Yo ung worked as a por ter THE BUILDING AND RE-CREATES THE PLAZA OF A at the ballroom starting in October 1927, SPANISH VILLAGE OF SOME EARLIER ERA WITH and Kelly was a student at Buder Univer­ STUCCO FACADES, BALCONIES WITH ORNATE sity who worked as a stagehand starting in June 1928. Kelly went into business RAILINGS, AND A CEILING DEPICTING A GENTLE and wor ked in public relations for Inter ­ EVENING OF GLITTERING STARS. national Harvester, but nothing is known

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 13 Left: Publicity poster fo r Joe Cappo "Jimmy was here, 1934." TheJazz Door and His Egyptian Serenaders. does not just note the occasional fa mous Novrtrr D E IAQERt' Opposite: Detail of/eft-hand side of band that appears at the ballroom, but ENTERT second-floordressing room door at 0RC kfrtlrtG gives equal treatment to both the well HUL XEE the Indiana Roof Ballroom. .. known (Benny Goodman) and the un­ STR� known (Denny Dutton). While similar to the graffiti fo und in many theaters and movie houses, the patience and consisten­ fared no better as only ten musicians cy needed to create the Jazz Door results in are listed including Fletcher Hen­ something that is more than just a random derson c•. *), who is also listed collection of names and dates. Instead, it on the later Jazz Door. Whether it is like a historical document-it presents was the competition of other graffiti Kelly and Yo ung's version of what hap­ writers, the personal fr iction with band pened at the ballroom from 1933 to 1936. members who saw poor reviews of their Without any other evidence, it can be seen performances in their own dressing as the ballroom's "true" history, especially room, or the turmoil of the deepening when seen today with the brass plaque and Great Depression of the early 1930s, the museum-like presentation. repeated attempts to keep a record of per­ But the judgments of Kelly and Yo ung fo rmances at the ballroom on the dressing do not stand as the only record of the room door fa iled. events at the ballroom. Their evaluations of Yo ung's career after his time at the At the start of the 1933 season, Kelly can be compared to the printed advertise­ ballroom. and Yo ung took up their systematic evalu­ ments fo r the ballroom in the News and But in writing on a dressing room door ation of the bands in another, less-public Indianapolis Star, which give insight into where others were also fighting fo r space, space-they used the interior door of a expectations the ballroom's management Kelly and Yo ung's list became a mess­ storage room that only workers at the had of each band as seen in advertised other names and comments were added, ballroom had access to. On the Jazz Door, ticket prices. The advertisements and ar­ crowding out the order they sought to they used the same fo ur-star rating system ticles in the newspapers also give evidence establish. 1his First Door records several as they had on the First Door, but also to a wide range of nonmusical acts ap­ attempts at keeping a list of perform- consistently listed dates as well. Over the pearing at the ballroom, but almost all of ers in the same handwriting and system as the more fa mous Jazz Door. The first AT THE START OF THE 1933 SEASON, KELLY AND YOUNG list, which covers the 1929-30 season, TOOK UP THEIR SYSTEMATIC EVALUATION OF THE is the most derailed and cites thirty-four BANDS IN ANOTHER, LESS-PUBLIC SPACE- THEY USED different performances. Some are bands THE INTERIOR DOOR OF A STORAGE ROOM THAT ONLY that will appear later on the Jazz Door including McKinney's Cotton Pickers WORKERS AT THE BALLROOM HAD ACCESS TO. (****), AI Sky (***), and Chick Meyers C* or **). Others are acts that next three years they listed the bands that these were deleted from Kelly and Yo ung's do not appear on the Jazz Door, Jean performed at the ballroom and gave their view of history by being omitted from the Goldkette's Vagabonds (***) and local musical judgments of the music they Jazz Door. By fo cusing only on an abstract Indianapolis bandleader Charlie Davis heard. musical judgment of the bandleaders, the (**). Bur rhe fo llowing season, 1930- Kelly and Yo ung's systematic listing of Jazz Door presents a limited view of what 31, lists only a few names with no stars, the bands th at appeared at the ballroom occurred at the ballroom, and therefore of­ including the popular Corron Pickers and aspires to a greater sense of permanence fe rs only a limited view of what Kelly and the fa mous Paul Whiteman Orchestra. A than most graffiti writing, which is more Yo ung are reacting to in their judgments. final list, probably fo r the 193 1-32 season, often brief, spontaneous, and personal- At its opening, the ballroom was man-

14 I TRACES I Spring 2013

PPO JOE CA otel, Peabody H wed at the (Revie his) eet Memp the sw * e to g rnor rlY for Caterin articula led p ers and sty k off tunes, s wor Cappo' erage higan ing, an-av nt, Mic danc etter-th fli n. ch b Pea· is, 'Ten s mu o the ens emph dancer rne t Gard ..... M Mo. and ca e}

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 17 THE 1934 BIBLICAL BATTLE OF THE BANDS AT THE INDIANA ROOF BALLR OOM

almost nothing is known a "sweet" sryle of dance music best known apart from his jobs in the today from bandleaders such as Guy Lom­ Indianapolis area. McKin­ bardo or Lawrence We lk-simple runes ney's Cotton Pickers were that were easy to dance to in uncomplicat­ a popular band in the ed arrangements. Of the bands appearing 1920s, but were in the in the spring of 1934, Art Kassel and his midst of a decline in the "Kassels in the Air" orchestra and Charlie 1930s that moved them Agnew best exemplified the sweet sryle. from one-night headliners Ticket prices fo r these nationally to weeklong duties. known bands were consistent throughout On Sundays the the spring of 1934 with advanced tickets ballroom usually hosted at fifry-five cents, bur rising ro eighry cents a big-name band fo r a on performance night, and table reserva­ one-night stand, and in tions of sevenry-five cents per couple the spring of 1934 these advertised throughout the week in local acts included Art Kas­ newspapers. When the ballroom could not sel, Henry Busse, and book a band with a national reputation, Indianapolis's own Noble the management did not mention the Sissel. The bands most Sunday performances in newspapers, and admired at rhe ballroom presumably there was little or no change during these years played from the weekday rates.

Above, Left:A 1951 portrait ofjazz composer and bandleader Noble Sissie, who teamed with Eubie Blake to produce such hit songs as "''m Just Wild About Harry" and "Love Will Find a Way." Above: Couples jam the 8, 700-square-foot circular dance floor at the Indiana Roof.circa 1940s.

18 I TRACES I Spring 2013 Above: Members of the House of David from Benton Harbor, Michigan, leave the White House in Apri/ 1920 aftera meeting with President Wo odrow Wilson. The president had issued an order that the religious beliefs of the House of David were not to be disturbed while they served in the army. Right: Poster promoting April 1, 1934, appearance by the House of David Band at the Indiana Roof

Although the management did not national prominence playing the raise prices on Easter Sunday as high as sweet style of dance music Kelly they had fo r the likes of Kassel, it did raise and Yo ung admired, even though the ticket prices higher than the usual he is relatively unknown today. In weekday rate. The ballroom promoted the contrast, the one-night appearance April 1 performance extensively, includ­ of the House of David was one of the ing posters fe aturing a distinctive aspect last public performances of a band of the House of David members-their most fa mous as a novelty act on the long hair and beards. The Sunday, one­ vaudeville circuit in the 1920s. night band should have been the superior Cappo was born in Herrin, Illinois, group when compared with the band that into a fa mily of Italian immigrants. played throughout the week, especially if Southern Illinois is also known as "Little it was promoted heavily and with higher Egypt," in part because of the importance ticket prices. But in 1934 Cappo, who was of the city of Cairo (pronounced locally as booked fo r a two-week engagement at the "KAY-ro," like the syrup) on the southern ballroom, was beginning a climb to greater border of the state at tl1e confluence of

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 19 THE 1934 BIBLICAL BATTLE OF THE BANOS AT THE INDIANA ROOF BALLROOM

Lombardo. MCA sought to transform the name Egyptian Serenaders from a regional name to a national one with the slogan, ''As famous than the pyramids!" Cappo appeared three times at the ballroom in 1934; each engagement was as a weekday band, rather than as a one­ night performance on Sunday. His first job was fo r a week in January 1934, and his engagement was worthy of a short note in the Indianapolis News that mentioned his early radio broadcasts and an engagement he had at the ballroom in 1929. He was brought back fo r a two-week engagement later in the spring of 1934, which included the Easter night battle with the House of David, and they were booked fo r a month­ long job the fo llowing fa ll. Ballroom man­ agement did little to promote any band that had weeklong bookings and the ticket prices fo r Cappo's band were unchanged from the normal weekday price. In the years fo llowing his work at the ballroom, however, Cappo made his way to bigger audiences and larger venues. By the early 1940s he had changed manage­ ment (MCA moved from Chicago to Cali­ fo rnia in 1939 and became more involved in movies) and his name appeared several times in Billboard magazine, including a fu ll-page advertisement in its July 22, 1944, issue. Cappo retired from touring in 1946 to spend more time with his fa mily. He settled near Lansing, Michigan, but passed away unexpectedly in 1951. His Top: A circa 1923 postcard advertising the House of David Sy ncopep Serenaders. Above: Mem­ wife continued to run the band in the bers of the House of David Ladies Band. Lansing area fo r several years. Cappo is relatively unknown today due to several fa ctors, not the least of which the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Another Egyptian Serenaders, attests to the local is his instrument-the accordion. How part of the Little Egypt name comes from aspirations he had when he began play­ many of us can name another important a drought in the 1830s that affected the ing music as a teenager around Herrin. accordion player of the 1930s? He ap­ northern part of the state. As result, people By 1927 Cappo had graduated from the pears to have not recorded at all, fo cusing had to travel south towards Cairo to buy Chicago Conservatory of Music and had instead on performances at large hotels grain and the biblical resonance of the become part of the Musical Corporation and dance halls. Finally, his style of sweet situation added to (or created) the area's of America, one of the first booking agen­ dance music was overshadowed by the rise nickname. The name of Cappo's band, cies in the country, which also fe atured of swing. The 1930s are characterized by

20 I TRACES I Spring 2013 The House of David baseball squad, circa 1930s. The team's publicity agent referred to its members as "bewhiskered, barberless, shaveless baseball­ ists and fo es of the barbers trust."

many historians of jazz and popular music the sweet style was preferred and even the time clearly knew about "KingBen" and as "rhe rise of swing," bur this histOrical most popular bandleaders of the sweet the "colony," bur perhaps modern readers narrative overlooks the fa ct that other style, such as Jan Garber, are not well need a fuller explanarion. styles of dance music continued ro be known roday. The Israelite House of David was a popular. For example, Goodman, one of In contrast ro growing popularity of Christian apocalyptic cult fo unded by the leaders of the swing style, appears at Cappo in the 1930s, the House of David, Benjamin Purnell and his wife, Mary, the ballroom fo r a one-night stand in rhe once popular on the vaudeville circuit, had around rhe rurn of rhe rwenrierh century. 1936, bur only earned ** *-the same rarely been heard outside of its Michigan 1hey setded in Benton Harbor, Michigan, rating as Cappo's band did during rhe home by 1934. Thearticle in the Star fo r in 1903 and by the 1920s the colony had week in the spring of 1934. Swing was not its appearance gives such scant informa­ more than 900 members. To day when the most popular style at the ballroom; tion about the group rhat readers of the a hallmark of religious fa naticism is the withdrawal from (and hostility roward) TODAY WHEN A HALLMARK OF RELIGIOUS FANATICISM modern society, it is difficultro imagine a rel igious movement fo cused on rhe immi­ IS THE WITHDRAWAL FROM (AND HOSTILITY TOWARD) nent rerurn of Jesus Christ that would also MODERN SOCIETY, IT IS DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE A RELI­ have rime fo r amusement parks, baseball, GIOUS MOVEMENT FOCUSED ON THE IMMINENT RETURN and popular music. Many of these projects were originally undertaken ro entertain d1e OF JESUS CHRIST THAT WOULD ALSO HAVE TIME FOR commune's members, bur grew in popu­ AMUSEMENT PARKS, BASEBALL, AND POPULAR MUSIC. larity wirh the general public ro become

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 21 ' THE 1934 BIBLICAL BATTLE OF THE BANOS AT THE INDIANA ROOF BALLROOM

important sources of revenue fo r the sect. In 1927 the House of David commune Yo ung obscured many of the performances The House of David established one of fo undered when Benjamin Purnell was by nonmusical entertainments at the ball­ the first amusement parks in the country, convicted of having sex with a number room. Two other examples from the season Eden Springs, with a zoo, a roller coaster, of young fe male members of the com­ may serve as examples. The Jazz Door re­ and train rides. Thesect took up baseball mune. Purnell died in 1927 and by 1930 cords cl1e appearance of Percy Carson fo r a firstas an entertainment and throughout cl1e movement splinted into two fa ctions. brief job on October 24-27, 1933 (* *). the firstpart of the twentieth century Many of the best musicians who toured in Carson led an orchestra at the Edgewater fieldeda popular barnstorming team. In the 1920s left the House of David to fo l­ Beach Hotel in Chicago, a major venue of music, the group created several different low Mary Purnell to a new commune (just jazz that regularly hosted Goodman and organizations from military bands to sing­ across the street from the original one) Wayne King ("The Wa ltz King"). Omitted ing groups and dance bands. or left the sect entirely. The bad publicity entirely fo rm the Jazz Door's entry is the The House of David did not embrace fo rced the bands to stop touring and to actual headliner fo r October 25, who is all aspects of worldly society. Among other perform only locally. clearly seen in the advertising. The main things, Purnell's community promoted When cl1e Chicago Century of Progress attraction of the evening was not a dance celibacy, vegetarianism, long hair, and (for Wo rld's Fair opened in the summer of band, but Rand. Her appearance at the males) beards. As a result, male commune 1933, the House of David perfo rmed ballroom on the night when every other members were easily identifiableby their there. Given the vaudeville fe el of the dance was a waltz may have altered many flowing hair and beards both on the base­ other entertainers at the fa ir and the people's perception of the traditionally ball field and the bandstand, which earned proximity of Benton Harbor to Chicago, staid and genteel dance. the band the promotional title of "The the House of David may have been well Another example of Kelly an� Yo ung Long-haired Sheiks of Jazz." received. Their appearance at the fa ir is omitting or hiding nonmusical acts at By 1920 the House of David had two important because Devine availed himself the ballroom occurred on February 2, different bands playing popular music of the popular acts at the fa ir fo r appear­ 1934 (two months before Easter) when in various vaudeville circuits. Each band ances in Indianapolis, even if they were they listed "Swing Gates" Jones as the fe atured coronets, saxophone/reed play­ not dance bands. bandleader with no stars. There are no ers, trombones, and a rhythm section The clearest reference to cl1e Chicago known references fo r any musician of that of banjo, piano, tuba, and drums. With fa ir appears on the Jazz Door in an entry name, but a comparison with the printed their distinctive hair, the publicity of fo r the "Streets of Paris" on December advertisements may explain the situation. the baseball team, and the growth of the 1-8. 1l1e listing is given in parentheses The band that Friday night was not led by commune, the bands were successful and without a star rating because the act was anyone named Jones, but by Zack White, popular novelty acts. Several members of not a band, but a re-creation of an exhibi­ a popular bandleader from Cincinnati, the bands in the 1920s were capable and tion at the fa ir in which actors played the Ohio, who appears elsewhere on the Jazz talented musicians, including trombonist roles of "everyday" Parisians. Ticket buyers Door. Appearing as a "Special Attraction," Ephraim "Cookie" Hannaford, who had could come and experience a highly sexu­ however, was Willie Vocalite, the Westing­ a successful career in music apart from his alized version of the French capital fe atur­ house Mechanical Man. Created in 1931, time with the House of David bands. In ing peep shows, artists drawing nude mod­ Willie was one of a series of robots created the late 1920s the House of David Band els, and burlesque dancers. The fa n dancer by Westinghouse (including the earlier Te l­ was under management with MCA-the Sally Rand made her debut in Chicago evox) to promote the company as a leader same group that managed Cappo's band. at this exhibit, although she did not tour in technology and innovation. The robots Unfortunately, no recordings of the House with the group that came to the ballroom. made promotional appearances around of David bands have survived so there is The extent of the connection between the the country at Westinghouse stores. no direct evidence of the quality of their fa ir and the ballroom's 1933-34 season has Willie Vocalite was fe atured at the Electri­ performances. not been easy to detect because Kelly and cal Pavilion at the fair. Kelly and Yo ung may have invented "Swing Gates" Jones as a pseudonym fo r Willie Vocalite, a me­ Opposite: A 1934 photograph of burlesque dancer and actress Sally Rand in her ostrich fe ather chanical man who probably did not "swing fa n-dance costume. "I haven't been out of work since the day I took my pants off," Randonce told like a gate." Racl1er than just list White a reporter.

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 23 THE 1934 BIBLICAL BATTLE OF THE BANDS AT THE INDIANA ROOF BALLROOM

by the 1970s. During the renovation of the ballroom in the early 1980s, the fa te of the Jazz Door became a major item of debate in the Indianapolis newspapers. The Indianapolis Jazz Club, a group of fa ns and record collectors, argued fo r mov­ ing it to the Indiana Historical Society, but eventually the decision was made to keep the Jazz Door at the ballroom, but move it from its obscure second-floor storage room down to the ground floor just offthe stage entrance. As befits a historical monument, the Jazz Door was encased in plastic and a commemorative bronze plaque was placed beside it citing Kelly and Yo ung as the equivalent to professional music critics and A 1972 exterior view of the Indiana Theatre. The building underwent extensive renovation from presenting their ratings as a fa ithful record 1979 to 1980 and became the home of the Indiana Repertory Theatre. In 1979 the building was of events at the ballroom. By the 1980s, listed on the US. Na tional Register of Historic Places. jazz was seen as a music worthy of study. The preservation of unknown or unusual (who actually performed that night, and The size of the group fo r the Owensboro documents that reinforced the narrative is clearly listed elsewhere on the Jazz Door venue indicates that the House of David that dance bands and the rise of swing are when he performed at the ballroom), Kelly in 1934 may have attempted to present a the essential fe atures of music history in and Jones sought to cover up Willie Vocal­ larger dance band than the 1920s Synco­ the 1930s was seen as an important histor­ ire's appearance with a fictitiouscreation pep groups, perhaps trying to play in the ic duty. Reading their judgment of April on the Jazz Door. newer dance styles. There is no evidence 1, 1934, standing next to a brass plaque Kelly and Yo ung couJd obscure the that the House of David Band's come­ that proclaims Kelly and Yo ung as histori­ appearance of nonmusical acts that ap­ back attempt went fu rther than these two cally important music critics, it is easy to peared at the ballroom, but if they wanted engagements. While Cappo's appearance understand why they used an expletive to the Jazz Door to record every band that at the ballroom in 1934 was a springboard describe the House of David-it did not appeared they would have to record the fo r a larger career in music, the appearance meet their exacting standards fo r dance fa ct that the House of David appeared as a of the House of David Band marked the music. fe atured act on a Sunday night-but they ending of a once famous novelty act. In reviewing the newspaper adver­ could judge the band harshly. According After the events of 1934, the rise of tisements of the time and in tracing the to the Star, the band's appearance at the swing helped make the ballroom the sort conflictingtrajectories of musical careers ballroom was its firstoutsid e of Benton of venue Kelly and Yo ung imagined it and personal ambitions, however, different Harbor since Purnell's death in 1927, should be-devoted to great bands and meanings of"Plain Chicken-Shit" might and that the band was led by trumpeter dancing. With the coming of Wo rld War be proposed. Faced with the need to fill Chic Bell, who was a coronet player and II, dancing to big bands achieved a patri­ a dance hall capable of holding 4,000 a popular entertainer at the commune's otic and iconic status in American culture people in the midst of the Great Depres­ Eden Springs amusement park. The band's that is impossible to imagine fo r dance sion, Devine, brought the widest possible appearance in Indianapolis may have been music of the Depression era. But with the entertainments to the ballroom during part of a comeback attempt. A poster fo r a subsequent rise of rock and roll and other the 1933-34 season, many drawn from May 4, 1934, performance in Owensboro, changes in musical entertainment, the the fa ir. Having the Egyptians battle the Kentucky, also listed Bell as the leader of ballroom fa ded as an important musical Israelites on Easter must have seemed like a band of fo urteen "bewhiskered Sheiks." center in Indianapolis and fe ll into disuse a clever gimmick to Devine-like booking

24 I TRACES I Spnng 2013 THE 1934 BIBLICAl BATTLE OF THE BANDS AT THE INDIANA ROOF BAllROOM

A busy Wa shington Street looking west from Illinois Street in downtown Indianapolis, 1927. The Indiana Theatre's marquee lists the Kings of Te mpo as performing at its ballroom. a fan dancer on Waltz Night or bringing a and Yo ung were creating an ideal of the like ro think that we know what "Plain robot to a dance. Devine may have hoped ballroom as a haven fo r the sweet dance Chicken-Shit" means, but perhaps we do that the Easter 1934 battle of the bands style they preferred, not a place of novelty not. would bring in people who remembered acts. Tired of Devine booking gimmicks C Matthew Balensuela is a professor of the House of David from its vaudeville or vaudeville routines, and fa ced with the music at DePauw University. He has pub­ days or those who were hooked by the reality of the House of David that they Lished articles and books on the earlyhistory clever biblical overtones of the two bands. could not dismiss, their expletive can be of music theory, including Music Theory The fa ct that Easter fe ll on April Fool's seen as an expression of frustration at their from Boethius ro Zarlino (2 007), and is Day in 1934 may have also encouraged situation as much as a judgment on the currently the editor-in-chiefof the Journal of Devine ro arrange a musical battle between music they heard. We should read what Music Hisrory Pedagogy. WOrkon this ar­ the Israelites an d the Egyptians. In their Kelly and Yo un g wrote on the Jazz Door ticle was supported by a grantfrom DeP auw's list on the Jazz Door, however, Kelly with some degree of caution-we would Professional Development Fund.

Caldwell, Howard. TheGolden Age ofIndian apolis Theaters. Bloomington: Quarry Books/Indiana University Press, 2010. I Gioia, Ted. History of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. I Shiedt, Duncan P. TheJazz State of Indiana. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1999. I Siriano, Christopher. TheHouse of David. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2007.

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 25

BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

EVERYDAY PEOPLE A NEIGHBORHOOD OF

SATUWILMAR L. MOOREDA YS

It was a sweet evening dedicated to history. Former neighbors came together to reminisce about a neighborhood that they had shared more than fifty years ago. Although it was cold and snowy outside, the tenderness of long-ago memories warmed the hearts of the scores of participants. This neighborhood was located on the near south side of Indianapolis. Now known as Babe Denny, the north/south and east/west street boundaries for the neighborhood were seen as South Street to Morris Street and Madison Avenue to West Street, respectively.

Theevent , held at the Jewish Com­ project that included oral history inter­ of the Jewish community moving fa rther munity Center, was a book launch fo r The views and scan-a-thons of photographs north in the city during the post-World Neighborhood of Saturdays: Memories of a and artifacts that belonged to the fo rmer Wa r II period. Tw o maps in the book Multi-Ethnic Community on Indianapolis' residents. Their voices shared stories about suggest the level of vitality of the area South Side. l11e book had grown our of a and recollections of the built environment before and after the addition of Interstate project coordinated by Susan B. Hyatt, an and their schools, religious institutions, 70. Many blacks relocated to other areas Indiana University-Purdue University at community centers, businesses, and rela­ of the city during the 1960s and 1970s. Indianapolis anthropology professor. She tionships berween the rwo groups. l11e title of the book also pays homage and her students, including editorial and A Neighborhood of Saturdays examines to the annual picnic reunion held every research assistants Benjamin Linder and the neighborhood from the 1920s to first Saturday in August by fo rmer African Margaret Baurley, had worked with fo rmer the 1970s. It acknowledges other groups American residents and the importance African American and Jewish residents to within the neighborhood, but the fo cus of Saturday as the Sabbath fo r the Jewish reconstruct the neighborhood. Hyatt also is on the Sephardic Jews and the African community. got acceptance fo r the project from her Americans. According to Hyatt, the great­ Participants in the project told of their university community and several orga­ est overlap berween the presence of the reconnection to people that they had not nizations with south-side ties. The affair rwo groups in the neighborhood occurred seen fo r decades. At a time when racial celebrated the culmination of a three-year during the 1930s and 1940s, with much segregation in Indianapolis schools and

TRACES J Spring 2013 J 27 Members of the Etz Chaim Sep­ hardic Congregation gather fo r the ceremonial moving of the To rah from the original synagogue on the south side ofindianapolis to Sixty­ fo urth Street and Hoover Road in 1964.

Above: Former south side residents at the Neighborhood of Satur­ days book launch in December 2002. From left to righ t: Becky Pro­ fe ta, Henry Dabney, William Levy, Arthur Dabney, Gladys Nisen­ baum, and Henrietta Mervis. Left: Indianapolis city councilor Je ff Miller (fa r left) presents copies of a special resolution to Arthur Dab­ ney, south-side picnic committee; Susan Hyatt, IUPUI anthropology professor; Alan Cohen, Etz Chaim Sephardic Congregation president; Hildermon Harris, Babe Denny Neighborhood Group president; Le­ tha Beverly, Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church representative; Niki Girls, Concord Neighborhood Cen­ ter executive director; and Reverend John W Wo odall Jr., South Calvary Baptist Church. A Sunday School class gathers outside at the South Calvary Baptist Church in Indianapolis, 1949.

housing patterns was the norm, black and to the old neighborhood to worship. The that they discussed. Those of us who had Jewish individuals recalled special fr iend­ Etz Chaim Sephardic synagogue moved not been neighborhood residents received ships that they had shared at school and in north with its congregants. the benefitof their reminiscences, taken their neighborhoods. Both communities During the evening of the book back to a time and place that mattered. identified continuity within their individ- launch, the project participants brought Wilma L. Moore is senior archivist, ual cultures through their religious institu- with them the compassion of their memo- African American History, forthe Indiana tions. South Cavalry Missionary Baptist ries. The early acts, as projected by those Historical Society William Henry Smith Church and Bethesda Missionary Baptist memories, set them on the path to con- Memorial Library. Church remain on the south side and con- struct their worldview and their life's work. tinue to serve their congregations. Many For that group of people that night what of the members of these two congregations was on stage was their humanity-the glue moved to other parts of the city, but return that brought together all of the structures

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 29

"Posterity will yet do them Justice" THO MAS BROWN'S CALL TO MILITARY DUTY IN THE CIVIL WAR

MARY ANTHROP

On December 3, 1872, the Lafayette behalf of Brown's minor children and the Indiana Democratic State Cdnvention DailyjournaL printed a small death notice challenges the hospital's diagnosis. These declared, "What General would go into fo r TI1omas Brown, a locally known documents reveal a fo rgotten sacrifice of a battle trusting to black regiments fo r his African American, identified as a cook and black Civil War veteran. Brown's combat strength? And what regiment, made up of whitewasher. TI1e reporting of his demise experience in the July 30, 1864, Battle of proud men of Indiana, would stand in a at the Indiana Hospital fo r the Insane in the Crater fo llowed him until his death. battle, where they must lean fo r support Indianapolis and subsequent burial there, Racial prejudice, prevalent at mid-century upon armed Negroes?" as authorities expected no one to claim his throughout the United States and Indiana, By the summer of 1862, large numbers body, appears to be just a curiosity. Perhaps almost denied Brown credit fo r his service of contrabands overwhelmed the invading Brown's community knew his life story and to his country. Union armies. Northern officersassigned local editors fe lt only compelled to report In April 1861 President Abraham Lin­ them to the drudgery of manual labor. its tragic end. The hospital had admitted coln called fo r 75,000 volunteers to restore Captain James B. Tullis of Lafayette, Indi­ him on May 17, 1872, with a diagnosis of the Union. Throughout the Northern ana, reported to his hometown newspaper mania. Doctors believed the fo rty-seven­ states whites enthusiastically responded. about his experiences near Memphis, Te n­ year-old black man to be homicidal and Recruiters, however, turned away the nessee: "There is nothing of importance the cause of his insanity to be bereavement African An1ericans who also gathered at re­ to communicate in regard to military on the recent death of his wife. No one cruiting centers. 1he debate about the re­ affairs at present, except a general stam­ had noted in his admission records his par­ cruitment of blacks continued into 1862. pede among the contrabands. Over fo ur ticipation in the U.S. armed fo rces from Some argued that the use of black troops hundred darkies came within our lines 1864 to 1865. would lead to demands fo r racial equality. yesterday, up to I 0 o'clock, and have gone Another explanation fo r his admit­ Others believed that African Americans to work on the fo rt now building at this tance to the hospital is hidden in 1888-89 would make unreliable and ineffective sol­ place." Like other Northern officers,Tu llis pension affidavits filed, retroactively, on diers. TI1omas Hendricks, speaking before comprehended the potentially demoral­ izing effect on the South of the eradication of slavery. "I think if we take those darkies Opposite: An 1864 recruitment poster from the fe deral government aimed at enticing African from them, they are a helpless, God fo r­ Americans to enlist fo r service in the Union Army. Theposter includes scenes ofslaves being freed and marching offto do battle in the background. saken people," he wrote.

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A drawing depicting Confederate fo rces establishing a camp on the site of the Battle of the Crater during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, in the summer of 1864.

War enthusiasm waned in the North to ensure fu ll rights of citizenship. "Once but acknowledged that black volunteers as battle casualties mounted. Lincoln now let the black man get upon his person the reduced the number of conscripts needed believed that Northerners might be more brass letters, U.S., let him get an eagle on from their respective states. Furthermore, receptive to an additional war objec­ his button, and a musket on his shoulder they believed that the employment of tive-the abolition of slavery. He also and bullets in his pockets, and there is no ex-slaves weakened the enemy. Efforts to argued that Northern whites would be power on earth which can deny that he recruit blacks accelerated. more accepting of black soldiers. Congress has earned the right tocitizenship in the In late November 1863 fe deral authori­ authorized Lincoln to employ blacks in United States," Douglass said. Recruiters ties granted Indiana governor Oliver P. the military or naval service as "they may fo r the Fifty-fourth canvassed the western Morton's request to organize a black regi­ be fo und competent." With the issuance of states and Canada enlisting free blacks and ment. By mid-December recruiting agents the Emancipation Proclamation the North ex-slaves. Nearly a hundred black Hoosiers traveled throughout Indiana in hopes of began earnest recruitment of African served with the regiment. fillingcounty quotas with African Alneri­ Americans. In January 1863, shortly after TheWa r Department General Order can men fo r the Twenty-eighth USCT. the proclamation had taken effect, the 143 created the bureau of Colored Troops On December 29, 1863, the Lafayette fe deral governmentauthorized Governor in May 1863. Thebureau secured officers Daily Courier reported that the local black John Andrews of Massachusetts to raise and supervised the recruitment and orga­ population showed considerable interest in a black regiment, the Fifty-fourth Regi­ nization of black volunteers into regiments the visit of a Union recruiter, Captain Suit ment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. of U.S. Colored Troops. Most of these of Frankfo rt, Indiana. At a meeting in the Frederick Douglass encouraged black new recruits were ex-slaves from seceding African Church, Doctor Luther Jewett, an men, including two of his sons, to join states. Many Northerners remained ap­ abolitionist, addressed the crowd. Jewett the ranks of the Union army as a means prehensive about accepting black recruits, promised an additional fifty-dollar bounty

32 I TRACES I Spring 2013 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

fo r each enlistment. Six men, including "THE ASSURANCE THAT THEY HAVE RIGHTS WHICH EVEN Brown, stepped fo rward. Others appeared SLAVE DRIVERS MAY RESPECT AND THE WELL EARNED enthusiastic as well and the Daily Courier LAURELS OF THE CORPS D'AFRIQUE IN THE FIELD HAS expected there would be an organization of a fu ll company from the district. "The STIMULATED THEM WITH A NEW BORN PATRIOTISM." assurance that they have rights which even slave drivers may respect and the well isrs such as Elizur Deming, the Liberty population was small, slightly over 11,400 earned laurels of the Corps d'Afrique in candidate fo r governor in 1843, may have in 1860, more than a thousand free blacks the field has stimulated them with a new lured rhe fa mily ro this growing western volunteered. Marion County received the born patriotism," the newspaper reported. community. most credit ro irs county quotas by luring Eventually about twenty black men en­ While there is no written testimony as inductees with bounties raised by private listed from the Lafayette African American ro Brown's motives fo r enlisting, his fa ther, subscriptions. Escaped slaves from Ken­ community ofless than rwo hundred a whirewasher by trade, played an active tucky, Maryland, and Delaware also filled citizens. civic and religious role in the Lafayette the regimenr's ranks, and it eventually According ro his muster roll, the community. In 1843 Daniel chaired the reached irs fu ll strength of six companies. recruit Brown was born in Vincennes, Colored People's Convention in Lafayette The regiment trained at Camp Indiana, about 1825. While Brown was that drafted a resolution promoting com­ Fremont sourheasr of Indianapolis in the born free, it is likely that his parents, mon school education fo r black children. winter of 1863-64 and left fo r Washing­ Daniel from Maryland and Mallissa from Then, as a trustee of the African Methodist ron, D.C., in late April 1864. In Virginia Virginia, had been slaves. In rhe 1830s Episcopal Church, Daniel was entrusted additional instruction in battle tactics Daniel and Mallissa moved the fa mily ro by the congregation to purchase land and were given. Brown's conduct earnedhim Lafayette from Knox County. The Afri­ solicit fu nds fo r the building of irs first a promotion ro second sergeant and by can American community in Lafayette church. Daniel also performed duties as a June 1864 rhe Twenty-eighth engaged the was small, only fo rty households and 180 sexton at Saint John Episcopal Church in enemy in frequent skirmishes. At Prince people by 1846. Employment opporruni- Lafayette fo r many years. The first minister George's Court House the regiment be­ ties and the support of sympathetic white of this congregation, Reverend Samuel came a part of General Ambrose E. Burn­ Lafayette residents that included abolition- Johnson from New Yo rk, an alleged aboli­ side's Ninth Army Corps in the Army of tionist, considered Daniel and his wife ro the Potomac, raising the African American be confidants. troop strength ro more than 4,000. As the In June 1850 Brown married Martha Union fo rces moved near Appomattox, the Indicutt, a free-born black from India­ black troops joined the campaign against napolis; the couple had three daughters, Petersburg, Virginia. In the bloody Bartle Emma, Eliza, and Clara. Brown attempted of the Crater in the siege of Petersburg, several differenr occupations ro provide fo r Brown's life changed fo rever. his growing fa mily. A newspaper advertise­ Petersburg served as a major supply ment announced his opening of a Shaving center fo r Richmond, the nearby capital of and Hair Dressing Saloon on Main Street the Confederacy. A ten-mile long defensive in 1851 and the Lafayette City Directory line of trenches and batteries protected listed Brown as a butcher in 1859 and both cities. The initial attacks in early June whitewasher in 1863. By enlisting on De­ brought Union fo rces within fo ur hundred cember 28, 1863, the thirty-eight-year-old fe et of a well-fortified Confederate posi­ Brown changed his occupation ro soldier. tion, Elliott's Salient. Recruiting agents fo r the Tw enty­ Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasant, eighth appealed ro free blacks as fa r north commander of the Forty-eighth Regiment Abolitionist Frederick Douglass urged African as Lafayette, bur concentrated their efforts Pennsylvania Vo lunteer Infantry, proposed Americans to "fly to arms and smite to death in Indianapolis, Te rre Haute, New AJbany, that Elliott's Salient provided an excel­ the power that would bury the Government and Evansville. AJrhough the Indiana black lent place fo r an unusual mode of attack. and your liberty in the same hopeless grave."

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Pleasant, a mining engineer by profession, Union artillery commenced firing, their Reverend Garland H. White, chaplain of reportedly overheard some of his enlisted comrades struggled to advance in the con­ the Tw enty-eigth, described the last tense men, many of them coal miners, suggest fusion. Explosion debris, Union parapets moments before their advance: "By this that they could blow up the fo rt if they and abatis lay directly in their path. The time the colored troops had seen suf­ could dig a mine shaft under it. After first troops could only manage to create a ficient tO convince them of the mighty blowing up the tunnel at its end, Union line of men rwo or three abreast. Within struggle which would soon fo llow, and troops could advance through the gap cre­ the hour Union leaders recognized that the many began to make preparation ac­ ated by the explosion. men in the Crater would not advance, but cordingly, some by saying to me: 'I want For three weeks Pleasant and his they continued tO order troops in. Addi­ you, brother White, to write to my father soldier-miners improvised cools and ap­ tional men only led to confusion and dis­ and mother,' in New Yo rk, Philadelphia, paratus to dig a tunnel nearly 586 fe et order. By 6:00 a.m. Burnside ordered the Chicago, BostOn, Cincinnati, Cleveland, long. In the early morning hours of July Fourth Division's black troops of the First and other places that George, (Thomas, 30, volunteers set out tO ignite 328 kegs Brigade, under Lieutenant Colonel Joshua John, or Peter, as we call each other out of powder weighing 8,000 pounds in the K. Sigfried, and the Second Brigade, under here) died like a man; and, when pay day tunnel galleries. At 4:45 a.m. the earth Colonel Henry Goddard Thomas, into the comes, if it ever does, come, send what rumbled like an earthquake and then battle. money is due me to my wife, and tell her spewed red clay, men, military equipment, The Twenty-eighth of the Second to raise Sally and Mary in the fe ar of the and timbers high into the air. The blast Brigade, which included Brown, waited Lord."' killed or wounded at least 278 Confeder­ rwo hours in the covered way (a sunken When the 7:30 a.m. order came in ate soldiers and created a crater more than road) before receiving orders to advance. to lead an assault, the Twenty-eighth fo l­ 170 fe et long, sixty tO eighty fe et wide, While they could not see out, the anxious lowed Sigfried's First Brigade. Although and thirty fe et deep. black troops heard and fe lt the explosions there was no way to organize a solid At first both the Union and Confeder­ overhead. A constant stream of wounded charge, observers noted that the untested ate troops stood shocked in front of the soldiers carried through the covered way black troops began a gallant advance. crater in awe of the devastation. While the added tO the crowding and the confusion. White wrote: "The Colonel gave the

Muster roll fo r Company D of the Twenty-eighth USCT Thomas Brown is listed as being fzvefe et, ten and a half inches tall with the occupation in civilian life as a butcher.

34 I TRACES I Spring 2013 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

order: 'Fix bayonets; charge bayonets!' The the stomach of the poor negro, fired, at rescue the trapped soldiers fa ced a rwo­ last words to me were: 'Brother White, which the latter fe ll limp and lifeless." and-a-half day impractical task. Diversion­ good-by. Ta ke care of yourself; fo r today The soldiers of the Twenty-eighth had ary attacks also appeared fu tile, as only the somebody must die, and, if it be me, I no experience in rallying after a defeat and artillery could continue to fire. The men in hope our people will get the benefitof it."' no one to reorganize them. Russell later rwos and threes frantically retreated back Out of the covered way, as the black testifiedto the Wa r Department's Court to Union lines. troops became entangled in the white of Inquiry that Confederates killed seven The white and black troops that troops, the trenches, and parapets, the of his eleven officers in the assault. In the remained in the Crater and the ruined Confederates fired on them from three Crater up to 1,100 men, with rwo square fo rt fa ced one final attack. Shortly after sides. Like the white troops, some drifted yards of space per man to squeeze in, were 1:00 p.m. Rebels charged the slopes of the toward the Crater. About rwo hundred under constant attack by rifle fire, and Crater and the combat turned to a fierce men from the Tw enty-eighth and Tw enty­ artillery of mortar, canister and case shot. fa ce-to-face struggle that displayed the vi­ ninth marched toward Cemetery Hill. Of the men alive in the Crater, some were cious characteristics of a race riot. Official White continued his description of the wounded and others too fatigued to fight. Confederate policy autl1orized the death of advance: "they charged over the First Thoseat the bottom of the "horrid pit" any black soldier as a prisoner of war and [Brigade] and carried rwo lines of rifle discovered that the sides were too high any white officerswho led them. Once pits. They made no stop there; fo r our and too steep to allow them to fireat the engaged both sides reportedly heard cries Colonel [Charles S. Russell of lndiana] enemy. Only those along the rim defended of "Remember Fort Pillow," a reference who led the gallant Tw enty-eighth, told themselves. The open north end of the to the alleged slaughter of black troops, the boys that he intended leading them to Crater was the most vulnerable. The black and "No Quarter," meaning kill defeated Petersburg that day.... When I saw our soldiers rolled clay boulders in the open­ troops rather than allow surrender. , colors waving over the enemy's works, I, ing, but Rebel mortars shattered them. In the Crater some of the weary and with numbers of others, said: 'Boys, the Desperate to close the gap, the soldiers disorganized white troops turned on the day is ours, and Petersburg is sure."' The rolled dead men into the opening to ab­ black soldiers, fearing their own death fighting, however, turned quickly against sorb the fire, but the bodies also eventually by association with their black comrades. the Union fo rce's thin and wavering blew apart. Rebels killed wounded black soldiers and line. Brigadier General William Mahone By midday officersin the Crater real­ refused to accept the surrender of many of organized a counterattack and the Rebels ized the hopelessness of their situation as the black troops. Later Rebels reportedly drove the disorganized Tw enty-eighth back the Rebel soldiers closed in. One survivor killed many of the black prisoners of war toward the Crater and the ruined fo rt. recalled that: "The white troops were now on their way to Confederate lines. In the labyrinth of the crowded exhausted and discouraged. Leaving the Brown left no personal testimony as trenches the black soldiers were at the line they sat down, fa cing inwards and nei­ to his role in the battle. The Daily Co u­ mercy of the Confederate fire from above. ther threats nor entreaties could get them rier, however, reported on August 12 a 1he fightingwas often face to fa ce and in­ up into line again." Efforts to organize high number of casualties among Jewett's tense. George Bernard, a Virginia soldier, the soldiers at the bottom of the Crater to recruits, implying that the Lafayette men witnessed the brutal killing of one of the reload weapons and pass them to soldiers were in the thick of the battle. Ve terans black soldiers: "begging fo r his life [from] on the rim fa iled. From the Union lines of the Twenty-eighth in pension affidavits rwo Confederate soldiers, who stood by soldiers attempting to dig a covered way to later reported that Brown made a charge him, one of them striking the poor wretch with a steel ramrod, the other holding a WHITE WROTE:"THE COLONEL GAVE THE ORDER: gun in his hand with which he seemed to 'FIX BAYONETS; CHARGE BAYONETS!' THE LAST be trying to get a shot at the negro. The man with the gun firedit at the negro, but WORDS TO ME WERE: 'BROTHER WHITE, GOOD-BY. did not seem to seriously injure him ... TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF ; FOR TODAY SOMEBODY the fellow with the gun deliberately reload­ MUST DIE, AND, IF IT BE ME, I HOPE OUR PEOPLE ed it, and, placing its muzzle close against WILL GET THE BENEFIT OF IT."'

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upon Crater Hill and was "exposed to the the defeat and subsequently deafening explosions and noises of battle relieved Burnside of his and heavy cannonading from 5 a.m. to 11 command. Brigadier General a.m." Edward Ferrero testified that The impact of the horrificviolence of the untested black troops the battle on Brown exemplifies how often entered the attack bravely, overlooked are the sacrificesof soldiers in captured Confederate prison­ combat. The "mania" diagnosis in 1872 by ers and a stand of colors, the doctors of the Indiana Hospital fo r the then the Rebels fo rced a re­ Insane was likely what future wars called treat. Burnside and Thomas shell shock, combat fa tigue, or posw·au­ further testified that some of maric stress disorder. His fo rmer comrades rhe black troops remained agreed that they knew Brown to be before in the pits, where they had rhe barrie popular among rhe men and a advanced and fo ught until "sound able bodied man, stout, robust and their death. They notedthat hearty and in fu ll possession of his mental the "colored troops" behaved fa culties." Theyconcluded that the men as would be expected of in­ in the regiment believed that the "excite­ experienced troops in battle ment" of battle caused him to lose his and that white troops were mind. According to rhe sworntestimo ny, running back ahead of them. after the battle Brown "did nor seem to The public, and even the be in his right mind and at one time he soldiers in the field, re­ ThomasA. Hendricks, who served as Indiana governor from imagined that he was colonel of the Regi­ mained divided about rhe 1873 to 1877, had opposed what he saw as radical changes ment. He became greatly reduced in flesh, effectiveness of black troops. in the Constitution during the Civil Wa r and offered the view became very morose, and at times very One soldier in the Te nth that "this is a white man's Government, made by the white man, fo r the white man." irritable." Furthermore, General To otle, Corps wrote home, "all we a Lafayette black barber and a longtime had gained friend, claimed rhar Brown came out of was lost by the cowardice of rhe black daughters. In 1868 he became the fa ther the army in 1865 "laboring with a trouble scorpions .... But fo r them I might now of a son, Thomas, and in 1870 Martha in his head," and, "gradually growing be writing in Petersburg." Theblack gave birth to a second son, James. Brown worse, was sent to the Indiana Asylum fo r troops suffered great losses in the battle fo und work as a cook in the popular rhe Insane where he died." with more than 1,300 casualties. 1l1elist Bramble House on the corner ofThird and The military records are unclear as to included 209 killed, 697 wounded, and South Streets in Lafayette. No accounts whether Brown received any acknowledge­ 421 missing. explain how he coped in daily life from ment or treatment fo r his instability after 1l1e Twenty-eighth, which had lost his war experience and whether or not his the battle. The Union army had rigorous nearly half of its number, recruited fo ur community recognized his sacrifice. standards fo r identifyinginsanit y, limited more companies from Indiana to re-form In rhe years after the Civil Wa r debate resources fo r treatment, and a skeptical a complete regiment. Next assigned to ensued over granting the right to vote to attitude toward terrified enlisted men. the Twenty-Fifth Corps, Army of the African Americans. Many white Union Union doctors' main purpose in treating James, the black troops continued to veterans concurred with the resolution mental disorders was to return men to serve in Virginia and on April 4, 1865, passed by the black delegates at a conven­ combat and maintain the military fo rce. marched into Richmond. After the war the tion near Richmond, Indiana, in August After the Confederates reclaimed the Twenty-eighth kept order in Te xas until its 1865. In an address to the legislatures of breach in the line, rhe Union fo rces settled troopers were mustered out on November Ohio and Indiana, rhe delegates resolved in fo r eight months of trench warfare. 8, 1865, returning to Indianapolis in "rhat colored soldiers have acquitted TheU.S. Army Court of Inquiry into the January 1866. themselves honorably on every barrie field Bartle of the Crater blamed the leader­ Brown returned to Lafayette as a first where they have fo ught; and as it became ship and planning as the key fa ctors in sergeant and reunited with his wife and a military necessity to place them in the

36 I TRACES I Spring 2013 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

army, it also becomes a political neces­ three hundred, organized a celebration of of the celebration does not explain why sity to extend to them the right of fran­ the ratification of the Fifteenth Amend­ the black community honored Brown. chise." The ratification of the Fifteenth ment. The ratification exercises began with Perhaps they recognized his status as first Amendment in 1870 resolved the debate a parade that marched throughout the city. sergeant, the highest rank among enlisted by granting the right to vote to African The Lafayette Silver Cornet Band started men in Company D of the Tw enty-eighth, American men. offthe procession from the new African or his horrificexperience in the Bartle of On April 21, 1870, the Lafayette Methodist Episcopal Church on Ferry the Crater. Tw o years before his death in African American population, which had Street. Brown was selected as marshal Indianapolis, during that day's celebration, doubled since midcentury to more than fo r the parade. The newspaper account Brown's thoughts may have turned back to the night of his recruitment or to his nightmare in the "horrid pit." The tribute to "colored soldiers" from the day's orator, an ex-slave, Reverend J. M. Williams of Indianapolis, certainly may have reminded him of his sacrifice. "It was once thought to let the war be a white man's war, as it had been called a white man's government, but it would not do," Williams said. "The call to the Negro went our and soon the echo from 100,000 Negro mouths was heard from Maine to Georgia, 'We are coming.' They kept pouring in, and fo ught as only men who have justice on their side can fight. The Government did not treat them as they should have done. They put them in the worst of the fight, fo r much less money; but they stayed and did their duty to their country.... Br ave men. Posterity will yet do them justice." Mary Anthrop, a History Day sponsor, is a social studies teacher at Central Catho­ lic junior/Senior High School in Lafayette, Indiana. She is the recipient of the following awards: Indiana Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award, 2012; Indiana Teacher of the Year, Indiana Historical Society, 2011; Save Our History, History Channel Award,

Although popular with his troops, General Ambrose Burnside nonetheless was re lieved from his 2006; and the Richard M. Fa rrellTeacher of command fo llowing the disaster at the Battle of the Crater. Civil Wa r historian Bruce Catton Merit Award, National History Day, 2000. described Burnside as "a simple, honest, loyal soldier, doing his best even if that best was not very good, never scheming or conniving or backbiting."

Axelrod,Alan. The Horrid Pit: The Battle of the Crater: The Civil War's Cruelest Mission. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2007. I Clark, George P. , and Clark, Shirley E. "Heroes Carved in Ebony: Indiana's Black Civil War Regiment, the Twenty-eighth USCT." Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History 7 (Summer 1995): 4-17. I Dean, Eric T.,Jr. Shook over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress, Vi etnam, and the Civil War. Cambridge, MA: Howard University Press, 1997. I Hager, Christopher. "The Freedman and the Politician: Emancipation and the Letters of Garland H. White." Traces o(Indiana and Midwestern History 22 (Summer 2010): 26-31. I Thornbrough, Emma Lou. The Negro in Indiana before 1900: A Study of a Minority. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1993.

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 37

Misadventure along the Indiana Underground Railroad

ROXANNE AND RANDY MILLS

In August 1850 Peter Friedman, a recently freed man who was from the Florence, Alabama, area, cau­ tiously peeked into the Philadelphia office of William Still at the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. The meeting that was about to take place between these two men was destined to set offa chain of events that led to one of the most interesting and sad stories in Underground Railroad history. Being illiterate, and so lately bound in slavery in rural Alabama, Friedman found the exotic big-city environ­ ment of Philadelphia difficult to discern. His knowledge concerning abolitionists, for example, had been greatly informed by the negative comments of whites in Alabama. Perhaps he was leery of the poised and accomplished looking black gentleman sitting at a desk absorbed in writing.

Still looked up from his work with rhe last name of Freidman. After listen­ narios fo r securing Peter's family.William raised eyebrows and let out a slight sigh. ing to the tale fo r a time, and after asking declared from rhe beginning that no one He had much to do, but as the head of a fe w questions, Still came tO a startling should ever buy a fa mily member from the Society's Vigilance Committee, inter­ realization. He abruptly stopped rhe bash­ slavery, since slavery itself was immoral. ruptions from fe llow blacks needing help fu l Alabama visitor's story in midsentence, He argued instead fo r stealing them away of one sort or another was common. He stood up, and rold the young man rhar he from the McKiernan plantation. Peter waved the anxious stranger into his office. was his brother. fe ared this was a perilous long shot rhat Unsure of whether or not he should trust Friedman was dumbfounded when he would greatly endanger his fa mily, espe- Still, Freidman carefully began explain­ was told that his mother was still alive and cially since they would have to transverse ing that he had been directed to the office living in the area, as were several of his the Deep South. Getting through the to inquire about how he might begin to siblings. Although an emotional bur happy southern portion of one of the northern search fo r his long-lost parents, who came reunion with surviving fa mily members border states would be dangerous as well, from the Philadelphia area. Still, his curi­ brought Freidman much joy, he reported given the strong proslavery attitude pres- osity piqued, settled at his desk in a more tO his brother of his great grief and sorrow ent along the lower Ohio River valley. relaxed manner, an encouraging sign fo r in leaving his wife, Lavinia, two teenage William, however, was convincing in his Friedman to continue speaking. Friedman sons, and a ten-year-old daughter behind argument, and Peter desperately wanted to related that he had only a vague notion of in slavery in Alabama. Freidman went on be with his fa mily in a free state. his early life. He remembered his parents' tO explain tO his brother rhar before he had Meanwhile, a fo rty-nine-year-old names and the experience of living near left Alaban1aas a free man, he had unsuc­ radical abolitionist and adventurer, Seth

Philadelphia along the Delaware River. He cessfully attempted tO buy his fa mily from · Concklin, was living in the Philadelphia fu rther knew he had been kidnapped as a their owner, a man named McKiernan, area. Concklin, an upstate New Yo rker, young child and sold intO slavery in Ken­ leaving Freidman to trudge north in great had been reading newspaper accounts of tucky. He ended up in Alabama, where he despair. Peter and William's happy and unexpected was eventually able to secretly purchase his As things settled down in Philadelphia, reunion and of the hopelessness that soon freedom from two Jewish brothers with Freidman began to think about his fu ture. grew from Peter's attempt to buy the rest He quickly rook his brother's surname, of the fa mily our of slavery. Concklin was Opposite, Above: A sketch typically used in Still, fo r his own. Soon the two broth- at the radical end of the slavery ques- handbills and newspaper advertisements ers began tO run through possible see- tion, calling fo r its roral abolition. He was concerning runaway slaves.

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Levi Coffin's two­ roadways where they would draw the most story house in attention. TheTe nnessee River escape Newport (today route would eventually place rhe Concklin Fo untain City), party on the Ohio River, near Paducah, Indiana. During the twenty years Kentucky, and opposite the free state of Il­ Levi and his wife, linois. Here the journey would grow more Catharine, lived precarious. in Newport, they At firstConcldin had planned simply helped more than to go all the way up the Ohio River and 2,000 slaves then "through Pennsylvania." After much reach freedom. thought, however, he wrote William and told him "the risk of going up the Ohio" was much too dangerous. The most sensible plan seemed to be, once the five fugitives got near Paducah, fo r the Conck­ lin party to enter the southern portion of Illinois and proceed northwest to Alton, also something of an adventurer, having escape. Peter pretended to be a slave and Illinois, near Saint Louis. From Alton participated in the Seminole Wa r. The traveled with a written pass from his sup­ north the rest of the state harbored many fieryabolitionist soon made contact with posed master. Once near his fa mily, Peter Underground Railroad stations. However, Peter and William, offering to rescue the fo und a place to stay and began tal

40 I TRACES I Spring 2013 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

Concklin wrote to William, "Our fr iends DURING THESE HIGHLY CHARGED TIMES STORMONT OFTEN in Cincinnati have fa iled findinganybody CARRIED "A GUN ALONG WITH HIS BIBLE WHEN HE WENT TO [in eastern Indiana] to assist me on my CHURC H." MEANWHILE, HIS WIFE "KEPT A TEA-POT OF BOIL· return." Concklin was further fr ustrated by the lack of financialsupport. "Levi ING WATER AT HAND CONSTANTLY," WHICH SHE INTENDED TO Coffin," he complained to William, "had USE TO BLIND ANY THREATENING SLAVE CATCHER "WHO AT­ no money fo r me. I paid rwenry dollars fo r TEMPTED TO ENTER THEIR HOME." the skiff. [I have] no money to get back to Philadelphia." Perhaps Coffinhad fo und adventurous. However, both men shared nent fe ature in the area after the law's the adventurous Concklin and his plan one profound characteristic-a total and passage, as would their sad and dejected to go to Alabama and steal Peter's fa m- fe arless commitment to what tl1ey under­ captives. Furthermore, the law had the ily away too daring. In this regard, after stood to be moral principles, especially support of fe deral enforcement and the Concklin's death, Coffin wrote William, concerning the institution of slavery. fe rvor of eager proslavery law officers in "We that became acquainted with Seth Stormont also belonged to a religious the area, such as Marshal John Smith Concklin and his hazardous enterprises group, the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Gavitt . . . . have fe lt intense and inexpressible whose members (sometimes called cov­ Stormont's work on the Underground anxiery about them." enanters) were often heavily involved in Railroad, given the strong pro-South Once Concklin calculated that going Underground Railroad activities. Many sentiment of locals, brought great danger any fa rther east oflndiana up the Ohio covenanter fa milies left the South in the to him and his fa mily. Just speaking out as River with Peter's fa mily would be too early 1800s over the presence of slavery, an an abolitionist made Stormont an anomaly dangerous, he considered a third route, institution they believed defiedChristian in the area. During these highly charged one through southwest Indiana. This last principles. Among this group were several times Stormont often carried "a gun along region, however, was almost as proslavery, Stormont fa mily members who began set­ with his Bible when he went to church." and therefore as inhospitable, as southern tling in Gibson Counry, Indiana, close to Meanwhile, his wife "kept a tea-pot of Illinois. Eventually, a bit of fo rtune smiled the Princeton counry seat. boiling water at hand constantly," which upon Concklin's efforts. According to a As a covenanter, Stormont refused to she intended to use to blind any threaten­ letter Concklin wrote William in Febru­ serve on any jury, since he would have to ing slave catcher "who attempted to enter ary 1851, he had at long last discovered a take an oath to vote or hold any public their home." Many locals verbally threat­ committed and highly successful aboli­ office. Church services and home prayer ened anyone harboring abolitionist ideas. tionist on the southwest Indiana route, a services were a central part of the hard­ One of Stormont's sons, fo r example, man named David Stormont. (1he name working Stormont clan. Other Reformed remembered overhearing a local say be was often misspelled as Stormon in several Presbyterians in the area helped to fo rm wanted to "cut out the heart" of David letters). Concklin declared confidently in a communiry of like-minded people. But Stormont. Wisely, Stormont remained a letter to William that although "Some if the Stormont clan and other Reformed closemouthed about his work, and locals, have been lost berween Stormont's and Presbyterians who came to Gibson Counry other than those from the covenanter the Ohio [River] ....No one has ever and southwest Indiana thought they were congregation who might occasionally help been lost from Stormont's to Canada." escaping the unchristian culture of slavery him, could never be sure if he was actually As it would turnout, Concklin's bold in the South, they were partially disap­ harboring and helping runaways. For his pronouncement regarding Stormont's suc­ pointed. Thisregion of the state, long part Concklin was especially happy when cesses ended up being tragically ironic. called the "Pocket" had been settled by he learnedof Stormont's perfect success It is of some interest that Stormont's upland southerners, a great many of whom rate. With the southwest Indiana course role in the story of the attempt to steal were supporters of slavery. now set, Concklin could travel to Alabama Peter's fa mily from slavery has been mostly The situation fo r Stormont and other and begin the firstphase of the escape fo rgotten. Perhaps much of this is due to operatives on the Underground Railroad plan. his quiet and unassuming manner. He was grew worse with the passing of the Federal When Concklin arrived in Alabama, he the same age as Concklin but was as peace­ Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. Disheveled, posed as a miller looking fo r employment. fu l and meek as Concklin was brash and hard-riding slave hunters became a promi- He quickly made contact with Peter's

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 41 BLACK HISTORY NEWS ANO NOTES

family and worked out the details of the a free black, was a successful fa rmer. He of fugitive slaves." Thiswas the last rime escape. On March 16, 1851, the fo ur Still kept them one night then led the band Concklin would "ever sleep in an ordinary fa mily members slipped offwith Concklin the next day on a sixteen-mile trip to near bed." and started on their journey. Rowing the Princeton, where the worried and worn­ The next morning Stormont started the skiff, even though the boat moved down­ out band was greeted by Stormont late in party on the next leg of irs journey, raking stream, proved extremely difficultas the the evening. the group thirty-some miles north ro a party fa ced a constant and cold headwind. Stormont would guide the band to point near Vincennes. Once there, Stor­ Much of the time it rained, further adding near Vincennes, Indiana, the very next mont wished the fivetravelers Godspeed, discomfort fo r the travelers. During one day, to a place called Sugar Loaf Hill. The giving Concklin a firm handshake. By all difficult episode, written ofby Concklin, short stay at rhe Stormont house, however, accounts, Stormont probably thought the "a squall of wind came near dashing our was not without some interesting conver­ party reasonably safe. As noted, no fugi­ craft to pieces against the large trees, but sations. Another covenanter and supporter tives that he had gotten to the Vincennes by good management I succeeded in of abolition, a Reformed Presbyterian min­ area had fa iled to make it to freedom. getting between the trees to shore, and ister named N. R. Johnston, was preaching After Concklin and the Still fa mily there remained one hour before we could in the Princeton area and staying with a left Stormont near Sugar Loaf Hill, they start." Once on the Ohio River, the party Stormont relative. David Stormont sought traveled on fo ot by night fo r rhe next three fa ced new problems. "It was so dark, that Johnston out and invited him to visit days. On the fo urth day, Concklin made a I could not navigate," wrote Concklin, Peter's wife and children and Concklin. fa teful decision. He decided the party was and the fu gitives were fo rced to travel by Johnston had earlier met Concklin at the fa r enough north that they could safely day. Concklin also told of being stopped Coffins' home. At this meeting, Coffinhad travel by day. Doing so would allow them a couple of times by curious whites while asked the minister to help Concklin find, ro make better rime and get Vina Still and going down the Te nnessee River but being "Some [Covenanter] fa mily nor too fa r her children away from the area where able to bluffhis way from the Ohio River to runaway slave hunters were most active. through. which he might bring Vina strongly objected to the daytime It took seven long fugitives." Johnston travel arrangement. In the end, however, days before the bone­ told Concklin "of the she conceded to fo llow the plans of rhe weary group arrived at Princeton Congrega­ bolder and more-confidentConckl in. their stopping place a tion" in Gibson Coun­ Thedaylight hours offered hardly bet­ short distance up the ty. This eventually led ter circumstances than nighttime walking. Wa bash River near Concklin to Stormont, Thefive travelers trudged along with their New Harmony. Here who, in turn, may have heads down in a light but constant drizzle. Concklin put on new brought Grier into the Tw ice they came upon white strangers, in and better clothes picture. one case helping a man catch his spotted and the fo ur fu gitives Johnston spent the horse. Both episodes greatly worried Vina. dressed themselves in night in the Srormonr As twilight thickened, Concklin left Vina less shabby homespun household, sleeping and her children to mal

42 I TRACES I Spring 2013 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

them his name was tO do with them. Concklin was freed. John Miller and He quicldy visited Vina in jail, where she that the fo ur blacks begged him to escape before her owner had been property showed up. Instead Concklin hurried tO of his brother's in hire a lawyer tO try tO get Vina and her Kentucky. He children out of jail. Meanwhile, a tele­ added that they graph message was sent tO the city marshal had been recently at Evansville, Gavitt, to see if he had any freed and were now news of runaways fitting the description of on their way with the fo ur in the Vincennes jail. Miller to work on The twenty-five-year-old Gavitt was the Miller fa rm a fe arless and bold man. That he should near Springfield, hold the high position of city marshal at Illinois. Vina and such an early age may have indicated both her children had his political savvy and his status among his been well versed to peers. Gavitt also carried a notorious repu­ tell the same story. tation as a successful antagonist tO Under­ The seven slave ground Railroad efforts. The marshal sent catchers responded telegraph inquiries south and promptly to Concklin's bold heard from McKiernan. The slave owner claim, however, by promised he was on his way up north with rying his hands and a thousand dollars-four hundred dollars roughly throwing of which would be given as a reward fo r him into the crowd­ his slaves' return and six hundred dollars ed wagon. When toward the thief's return to Alabama to Concklin continued stand trial. to loudly assert Gavitt rushed tO Vincennes, riding A portrait of abolitionist William Still from his book The Underground his story was true, fifty-five miles in six hours, and fo und Railroad. the slave catchers Emison. He pledged to serve the warrant grew worried about fo r Concklin's arrest if Emison promised spotted horse her sons had helped to catch binding a white man and possibly break­ tO split the reward money. This was agreed earlier that day. Another horse carried a ing a law. They untied him and let him to and Concklin, still claiming tO be John man who had spoken to Vina at a sawmill go. Freed, the courageous and determined Miller, was arrested under the law fo r de­ they had passed. Five other men rode with Concklin continued tO fo llow the wagon taining fugitives from their lawful owners. the rough looking group. The seven armed THE TWENTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD GAVITT WAS A FEARLESS men were led by John Emison, a Vin­ cennes man who had apparently decided to AND BOLD MAN. THAT HE SHOULD HOLD THE HIGH POSI­ go into the slave-catching business. They TION OF CITY MARSHAL AT SUCH AN EARLY AGE MAY came boldly through the door and con­ HAVE INDICATED BOTH HIS POLITICAL SAVVY AND HIS fronted the fo ur Stills. After a short conver­ STATUS AMONG HIS PEERS. sation, the men quickly bound and put the fo ur fugitives in a wagon and headed to in the dark. He eventually sneaked back Another account claimed Concklin asked Vincennes to place their catch in jail. into the wagon and attempted to free the tO be placed in jail because of the mob When Concklin returned and learned fo ur captives. This time he was caught and that now fo rmed in town tO deal with the of his charges' horrible fa te, he was beside retied and taken to Vincennes. "damn abolitionist." himself. He rashly hurried after the wagon, At Vincennes, the black runaways were Reasonably sure that Concklin would flagged the seven men down, and told placed in jail until it was decided what be put to death in some fo rm or fa shion

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 43 BLACK HISTORY NEWS ANO NOTES

Evansville, where a steamboat would then transport them to the McKiernan planta­ THE tion. Just before the stage left Vincennes, Concklin was brought out of the jail in irons and also placed inside the coach with UNDERGROUND RAIL ROAD. the Still fa mily. While in jail at Vincennes, Concklin had been able to get in touch with A RECORD Stormont in Princeton. In his message, he 01' pleaded fo r help to make bail. Stormont fACTS, . jtUTHENTIC }'fARRATIVES, J.-ETTERS, �C., quickly sought out Johnston and together they climbed into Stormont's buggy to Narrating the Hardships Hair-breadth Escapes and Death Struggles make the thirty-mile trip to Vincennes.

01' 'I'B.B Johnston later wrote, "Early on Monday

Slavt'8 in their etrorts fo r Freedom, morning Mr. Stormont and I were seated in the buggy and the lines in hand, ready to set out from Princeton on our errand of BY THEMsELVES AND OTHERS, OR WITNESSED BY THE AUTHOR ; rescue ...when a friend can1e hurriedly '1"08aTUB Wl'I'B to inform us that we need not go as, on SKETCHES OF SOME OF THE LARGEST ·STOCK HOLDERS, AND

MOST LIBERAL AlDERS AND ADVISERS, the day before, the captured party had all

OF THE ROAD. been taken through town, going south in charge of the United States Marshal from BY Evansville, and accompanied by the slave WILLIAM STILL, owner." Johnston then took a stage from For mauy yean oonneoted with the Anti-Slavery Offiooin Philadelphia, and Ohaitman Princeton to Evansville to try and save or tho Aeilng VIgilant Committeeof tho Philadelphia Branohof ' tho Ulldorground Rail Road. the day, but arrived just after a steamboat, the PauL Anderson, had left with Vina and IDutralodwith 70 !no Engrav!Dgo by BODJoll, Soholl ud othora. and Portrait&from Photoppha from Ll!o. her children, Concklin, the slave owner, Gavitt, and Emison fo r the long journey south. Theev ening before the Pa uL Anderson SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION. pushed offfr om the Evansville wharf, Concklin and the Still fa mily had stayed PHILADELPHIA : at the home of a relative of Gavitt's. Here & -�. PORT�R COATES, the marshal brought in his mother to � d o 8221 CHESTNUT STREET. :;; talk to the captured abolitionist. She, � 1872. � · �------�too, begged the abolitionist to turn state's Front inside cover fo r William Still's book The Underground Railroad. The book included several evidence, which he again refused to do. letters written among Still, Seth Concklin, and Levi Coffm rega rding Conck/in's bold attempt to Concklin told the woman "he had done steal the Still fa mily out of slavery. his duty--a Christian duty--and felt if he went south, Gavitt offered Concklin had assisted him, refused to give up those a clear conscience." Later that night, a deal while Concklin huddled in jail in names. He then offered the marshal a however, Concklin grew agitated about Vincennes. If Concklin would turn state's thousand dollars to let him go. Neither his plight and considered jumping our an evidence and give up the names of those man got what he wanted. Soon McKier­ upper-story window. The ever level-headed who had worked with him in the fa iled nan arrived in Vincennes and identified Vina warned him not to do so, lest he be rescue attempt, Gavitt would let him go. the fo ur prisoners as his slaves. TheStills severely hurt or killed. Concklin, after admitting fo ur others were placed in a coach fo r a ride back to Concklin may have had one brief mo-

44 I TRACES I Spring 2013 BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES

ment of weakness. According ro Gavitt, was soon discovered in the muddy river, age of eighty-four. Gavitt died leading a just before the party boarded the boat on still in chains with his head crushed on brave, bur reckless charge against a heavily rhe Evansville wharf ro travel ro Alabama, one side. The injury was thought by most fo nified Confederate position during rhe Concklin pulled the marshal aside and to have been inflicted by Concklin's head Civil War. offered ro give up the fo ur names if Gavitt hitting the side of rhe Paul Anderson as he Concklin became a martyr ro the would let him go. Sadly, Gavitt told him attempted ro either escape or to take his antislavery cause. Coffin,in a letter ro it was roo late. Concklin rhen "became a own life. William, especially lamented his fr iend's perfect picture of despair." Several na­ Concklin's body was quickly and death: "Poor Seth, after all his roil, and tional newspaper accounts offered stories without ceremony buried on the riverbank dangerous, shrewd and wise management, about what happened next. One narrative in an unmarked grave. He was wearing the and almost unheard of adventures, the suggested Concklin had one last chance clothes he had on and was still in chains. narrow and almost miraculous escapes." at freedom while on the steam boat. The Later, antislavery supponers claimed Thefe arless abolitionist left little in terms Cape Girardeau Eagle reported the boat McKiernan had likely bashed in Conck­ of worldly goods. Coffin reported that held "a lot of emigrants from Ohio, many lin's head and then thrown him overboard. Concklin had "left his carpet sack and of whom were ranting abolitionists, and With Concklin gone, the slave owner clothes here with me, except a shin or who raised a perfect srorm ....The men could continue ro his plantation without two he rook with him." He sadly asked William a question about these few earthy IRONICALLY, THE SPREADING STORY ABOUT THE UNSUC­ possessions, the same kind of question that CESSFUL RESCUE ATTEMPT HELPED PETER'S CAUSE IN many people have had to ask over the years RAISING MONEY TO BUY BACK HIS FAMILY. when suddenly losing a fr iend or loved one: "What shall I do with them?" did all they could ro get the captain to paying Gavitt any reward. 1he marshal, Roxanne Miffs is assistant professor of put to shore in order ro have [Concklin] once Concklin's body was fo und, could English at Oakland City Universityin released, which he ...refused to do." only return empty handed ro Indiana. Oakland City, Indiana. A descendant of Once rhe steamboat pulled away from Ironically, the spreading story about the Stormont family, she is the author of Evansville, Concldin and the Still fa mily rhe unsuccessful rescue attempt helped numerous professional articles on English were kept on the boat's hurricane deck, Peter's cause in raising money to buy education and regional Indiana history. with Concklin in chains. Gavitt was in back his fa mily. By October 1854 he had Her recent work, "The Court Martial of an charge of guarding the hapless group. It reached his goal, and by January of the Indiana Marine in Vietnam, "appears in a was nightfall by the time the boat reached next year the fa mily was reunited in Phila­ special militaryhistor y issue of the Journal Smithland, Kentucky, at the mouth of delphia. Peter moved his fa mily to New fo r the Liberal Arts and Sciences. Randy the Cumberland River. Here, the steamer Jersey, where he operated a truck fa rm K Miffs is professor of the social sciences at pulled up to the village's wharf fo r the until his death in 1868. William stayed Oakland City University. He is the author of night. Gavitt, fa tigued from keeping in Philadelphia. The notes he maintained numerous books and articles on Indiana and a constant vigil on the captives, asked while assisting in antislavery efforts be­ Midwest history, including, Jonathan Jen­ McKiernan if he would stand watch while came sources fo r his important book, The nings: Indiana's First Governor, published he got some rest. When Gavitt returned Underground Railroad. Stormont main­ by the Indiana Historical Society. the next morning,he received rhe shock tained his Underground Railroad activity. of his life. 1he slave owner claimed he had After the Civil Wa r, he continued ro fa rm, fallen asleep and had discovered Concklin raised a fa mily, and did church work in missing when he awoke. Concklin's body Gibson County. He died in 1886 at the

Bordewich, Fergus. Bound fo r Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War fo r the Soul ofAmerica. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005. I Elliott, Joseph. P A History of Evansville and Va nderburgh County, Indiana. Evansville, IN: Keller Printing Company, 1897. I Johnston, Nathan Robinson. Looking Back from the Sunset Land. Oakland, CA: n.p., 1898. I Pickard, Kate. The Kidnapped and the Ransomed: Being the Personal Recollections of Peter Still and His Wife "Vina" afterForty Ye ars of Slavery. Syracuse, NY: William T. Hamilton, 1856. J Still, William. The Underground Railroad. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1872. I Stormont, Gilbert. History of Gibson County, Indiana. Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen, 1914.

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 45

The WOMAN'S PRESS CLUB of INDIANA A Hundred Years and Still Writing ANN ALLEN The fzrstoffzcers of the Wo man's Press Club of Indiana included: (top, left to right) Dora E. Budenz, third vice president; Blanche Foster. fzrstvice president; Anna McKenzie, historian; Laurel Thayer, secretary; and Helen Ernestinoff. second vice president. Also serving in offzce were (left, left to right) Hester Alverson Moffett, president, and Mindwell Wilson, treasurer.

48 I TRACES I Spring 2013 A HUNDRED YEARS AND STILL WRITING

barter members of the Woman's Press Club of Indiana, now woman without means" and attended thirty-seven churches in New Yo rk, Brook­ celebrating its centennial, were bound by the tie that unites lyn, and Boston while living in New Yo rk. its members today : an ability to write. They could neither vote "J wanted to see what was meant by the norC stand for state or national office, but they wrote for their term 'strangers cordially welcome,"' she hometown newspapers, often at far lower salaries than their male said. Her findings, published in the Ladies colleagues. Some were journalists because their husbands owned Home journal, were bleak-she had been totally ignored in thirty-two churches. weekly newspapers; others could think of no higher calling than the By 1913 Smith had begun writing a daily one that created mental images with words. Those who championed column fo r the Indianapolis Star. She the poor or campaigned for women's suffrage, better housing, and also worked on the staffs of the News, rl1e improved child-care laws were frequently frustrated by legislators Indianapolis Sentinel, and the Indianapolis seemingly more concerned about passing bills to encourage healthy Press. In giving her support fo r the pro­ posed organization, she said it should have pigs than bills to aid their fellow citizens. one distinction-a total absence of fo rmal "papers." Barred from the all-male Indianapo­ women. Only the latter assumption had Anna McKenzie, music critic and lis Press Club, the women fe lt isolated. any merit. The women had mixed views reporter fo r the News and a fo rmer staff Harriet Henton, a staffmember of the about suffrage, bur most were members of member of both the Press and Indianapolis Peru Republican and chair of the Indiana the Indiana Federation of Clubs, a group journal, was of a more delicate nature. Her Federation of Clubs' press committee, comprised of fa rmers' wives, wealthy Indianapolis Blue and Red books were summed up their fr ustrations when she women, and practical women who valued filledwith names and addresses of city said, "We need a means by which we can home, family, and citizenship and that, residents, plus members of every organiza­ communicate with one another." firstand fo remost, taught its members tion and a compilation of days on which And that was exacrly what they how to organize. various matrons received guests. The books intended to do when, on February 18, No one had mastered organizational also offered etiquette advice: "No genrle­ 1913, the day the firstchild-labor law was skills more ably than Luella Frances Smith man should ever be introduced to a lady to be introduced to the Indiana legisla­ McWhirter. Preferring to be known as without her permission. No lady should ture, thirteen women took advantage of Mrs. Felix T. McWhirter, she belonged be too thoughtless or neglectful to write the noon recess to meet in the L.S. Ayres to nearly thirty clubs and in a fe w years notes. A card will not take the place of a Te a Room to discuss fo rming their own became the first woman bank director in note." The list was long and interspersed organization. With fa ir weather and tem­ Indiana. On that February day, however, with advertisements fo r sealskin garments, peratures expected to range between 36 she listened quierly as others shared their fine fu rs, and cut glass. and 46 degrees, the day seemed auspicious concerns. Blanche Foster (later Boruff) Laurel Conwell Thayer, descended fo r new beginnings, although some wished had worked on the Ypsilanti Press in from Betsy Ross and daughter of a it would get cold enough to freeze all the Michigan and belonged to a women's press newspaper editor, had done social work germs afflicting the city with colds and club there. A staffcorres pondent fo r the in Washington, D.C., before investigat­ influenza. Indianapolis News, she missed her associa­ ing social problems in Indianapolis. Her Unlike members a century later, who tion with fe llow writers and wholeheart­ survey of women's working conditions in often attend meetings clad in jeans and edly endorsed the idea of lndiana women the city's downtown department stores, blue and white "Press Wo men Make having an organization of their own. made fo r the National Consumers' League Headlines" sweatshirts, these journal­ Sympathetic to suffrage, prohibition, and of New Yo rk, received wide publicity. ists looked so sedate in their long dresses other humanitarian movements, she said, As a member of the editorial staffof the and towering hats of fe lt and velvet that "Man has not necessarily deteriorated but Indianapolis Sun, she wrote a series of other diners brushed them offas "soci­ woman has advanced." illustrated articles on housing conditions ety women," suffragettes demanding a Laura A. Smith, an early investigative that resulted in reform. Other investiga­ role in a man's world, or a group of club reporter, had dressed as "an average young tive reporting led to the establishment of a

TRACES I Spring 2013 149 A HUNDRED YEARS AND STILL WRITIN G

psychiatric ward in a city hospital. Florence We bster Long, a fe ature writer fo r the News, stated adamantly, "Our aim in organizing is to provide a means of communication among women writers and to secure the benefits of orga­ nized effort." Discussion at the table was lively and, as one journalistnoted, done in an atmosphere scintillating with enthusiasm. Everyone agreed that there was a distinct place fo r newswomen in the world because "it is a woman who can give color and life to plain black and white stories written by men." By the time they returned to the legislative sessions, the women had decid­ ed their organization would be called the Wo man's Press Club of lndiana. Emphasis was placed on "Woman," singular. Hester Alverson Moffett, who as- sisted her husband, Alonzo Dale Moffett, in publishing the Elwood DaiLyRecord, became the group's president. A strong­ willed woman who favored women's suffrage, she pushed fo r a state housing bill to assist those living in slums and tene­ ments and fo r a state library bill. Of the Known by her fa ns nationwide as "The Country Contributor," Juliet V Strauss of Rockville, new press club, she said, "We have a group Indiana, advocated in her writings the simple joy and worth of being a homemaker. "Being a plain of women who have an opportunity to home woman is one of the greatest successes in life," Strauss said, "if to plainness you add kind­ voice the new demands and purposes of ness, tolerance, and interest, real interest, in simple things." She was posthumously inducted into women in a fa r-reaching way. What body the Indiana Jo urnalism Hall of Fame in 2001. of women is more in the public eye or has the public ear more than the Press Club?" daily in Indiana-the Star-to establish bur ir ruffled editorial fe athers all over the Other officers included Foster, firstvice a department fo r news of women's clubs. stare. With militant English suffragettes president; Helen Ernestinoffof the Star, She filled the entire center of her page throwing rocks at the prime minister's second vice president; Dora E. Budenz, with a story about the WPCI's fo unding home, editors were fe arful their employees city editor of the Martinsville DaiLy Report­ and photographs of the group's seven of­ would fo llow suit if they "got ideas" from er, third vice president; TI1ayer, secretary, ficers. Sharing the space were items about the new press club. Many WPCI members and Mindwell Wilson, editor of the DeLphi a woman hiker en route to Washington were called on the editorial green carpet to Citizen Ti mes, treasurer. McKenzie was who tripped at the New Jersey state line determine exactly what they had in mind. named historian. and fe ll into Delaware, the governor's The new organization was undeterred. Apparently ignoring Smith's suggestion wife attending a spring flower luncheon, By the time it met again on March 18, fif­ to fo rego "papers," McWhirter, McKenzie a euchre game, and a slander lawsuit. The teen more women, as diverse in interests as and Grace Julian Clarke were appointed front page contained news of poet Joaquin the first thirteen, joined and were counted to a committee to draw up bylaws. Clarke, Miller's death, white slavery, and of the as charter members. one of Indiana's first advocates fo r suffrage United States rushing marines to Cuba. Juliet V. Strauss, considered the most and the author of three books, had the dis­ News of the new woman's organiza­ widely read fe male journalistin America tinction of being the firsteditor of the first tion may have been buried inside the Star, from 1905 until 1918, had never belonged

50 I TRACES I Spnng 2013 A HUNDRED YEARS AND STILL WRITING

to a club. "I am not much of a suffrag- legislation to improve the state's housing them fo r lunch. Delighted that they shared ist, possibly because I have always had so conditions than in voting. Having had a her passion, she quickly learned the bene­ many more rights than I knew what to do sheltered childhood and a happy mar- firsof networking, an informal system that with," she said. "One more duty of citizen- riage, she wrote that becoming a housing continues to unite twenty-firstcentury ship would be the last straw." A woman reformer was "like cutting a suit of armor writers. Bacon was fu rther heartened when of strong ideas that often contradicted out of a piece of chiffon." By 1913, after McWhirter declared, "Housing reform is themselves, she wrote columns fo r her unsuccessful battles in the 1909 and 1911 our big fight fo r this year." husband's Rockville Tr ibune, the News, and legislative sessions, she was weary of fight­ It was a fightthey won. "1he women, the Ladies' Home journal while remaining ing but as determined as ever to see reform the home of lndiana, were honored that fiercely independent. "Husbands are all accomplished. She had never fo und time day by the men of our legislature," Bacon right," Strauss once said," if you have to go somewhere and all the other women have "HUSBANDS ARE ALL RIGHT," STRAUSS ONCE them." Her all-consuming interest was the fa te ofTurkey Run, a fo rested area near her SAID, "IF YOU HAVE TO GO SOMEWHERE AND home. As a result of her dedication, the ALL THE OTHER WOMEN HAVE THEM." area became Indiana's second state park. 1he WPCI honored her with a monument fo r clubs but after an earlier meeting with wrote in Beautyfor Ashes, a book describ­ erected in the park fo ur years after Strauss Harriet Henton, Mrs. J. D. Foor, Mrs. ing her long struggle. died in 1918. Virgil Lockwood, Stella C. Stimson, Mc­ Not all the men agreed with her as­ Albion Fellows Bacon, an Evansville Whirter, Clarke, and Mrs. W E. Miller, a sessment. "Themen elected us, and as writer and reformer later dubbed "In­ South Bend writer named to Lockwood's soon as we get here the women tell us diana's Municipal Housekeeper," was committee to investigate conditions of how to vote," one legislator grumbled. more interested in tenement reform and working women, she made time to join Another defended his vote by saying, "It

Approximately 4,000 people attended the July 2, 1922, ceremony unveiling the statue honoring Juliet Strauss at Turkey Run State Pa rk. Designed by Myra Reynolds Richard, the statue, titled Subjugation, is today located near Turkey Run Inn at the park.

TRACES I Spnng 2013 I 51 A HUNDRED YEARS AND STILL WRITING

was something the women wanted." That, ment platform," Stimson replied, and the a story that would mobilize the state-the along with bills fo r teachers' and mothers' interview ended. Roberts won me election Great Flood of 1913. Major cities and pensions, suffrage and shorter hours fo r and immediately began plans to run fo r small towns alike were inundated by Hood­ women workers caused some to call the governor. Stimson, however, rallied other waters along the major rivers and their year's legislative action "a woman's ses­ women to help fight ilie city's corruption tributaries. The women wrote stories of life sion." and eventually saw Roberts and many of and death, determination and despair. Thatdid not prevent a man named Terre Haute's elected officials sentenced to Still, all was not gloom and doom. Donn Roberts from applying political the fe deral prison at Leavenworth. Scrapbooks of the club's first few years muscle on Stella C. Stimson. Once de­ Few WPCI charter members were contain accounts of meetings with such scribed by the Chicago Tr ibune as Indiana's more colorful than Esther GriffinWhite, a speakers as Carrie Chapman Catt, brainiest woman, Stimson was active in woman of many talents and eccentricities. Meredith Nicholson, Frank McKinney the Wo men's Christian Te mperance Union In a fifty-year journalistic career marked "Kin" Hubbard, Elizabeth Miller Hack, and a staunch supporter of Bacon's crusade by frequent firings and resignations, she Mrs. Booth Ta rkington Jamison, and Anna fo r housing reform. While serving as act­ crusaded fo r women's rights and political Nicholas. Hailed as the dean of Indiana ing chairman of the legislative committee reforms. Between jobs, she published lhe newspaperwomen, Nicholas told WPCI of the state fe deration of clubs, she re­ Little Paper, doing all rhe work herself. She members what they already knew: Wo men ceived a message that a gentleman desired became a candidate fo r a delegate's seat were gradually gaining a fo omold in news­ an interview on a matter of business. The at the 1920 Republican state convention paper work but their advance was slow. man was Roberts, who led Stimson into before she could legally vote. After telling "Women are not telegraph editors, city tl1e lieutenant governor's private room GovernorJames P. Goodrich, "I know I editors, exchange editors, copy readers, and announced, "I intend to be a candi­ cannot vote but I am asking people to vote dran1atic critics or editors-in-chie£ 1hey date fo r mayor ofTerre Haute. I want the fo r me," she fileda writ of mandamus, rarely are editorial writers and only oc­ supporr of you women, and if elected I fo rcing her name to be placed on the bal­ casionally general reporters. I am prepared will be the best mayor me city ever had." lot. She won, becoming the only fe male to assert iliere is no work on a newspaper When Stimson asked if he would sup- among 1,500 delegates at ilie convention that intelligent, serious-minded women port tl1e law if elected, he replied, "Not as and the first woman in Indiana to have her might not perfect as well as their brothers. you church women want, but as most of name appear on an officialelection ballot. I do not even except police reporting or Te rre Haute citizens think they should be Some WPCI charter members have ilieconducting of a sports page, although I enforced." When she replied that women been difficultto trace, thanks in part to might not recommend those departments wanted good schools, good courrs, and their having employed the custom of the to women," Nicholas said. streets free from gamblers, wicked women, day by relying on their husbands' names, She might as well have thrown down and drunken men, and that most of the such as Miller or Mrs. Virgil Lockwood. It a gauntlet and dared club members to men wanted law enforcement, Roberts was a trait that fo llowed club women into change that status because iliat was what snapped, "The vote does not show it." the mid-twentieth century. Lockwood, they began doing in a hundred different Stimson, describing the interview in an who represented the News during the 1893 ways. Before, during and after An1erica's article published in the NationaL Review, Chicago Wo rld's Fair, was remembered involvement in Wo rld War I, Smith, the wrote that Roberts said me majority of fo ndly by Bacon fo r the hospitality she woman who once disguised herself to visit Te rre Haute citizens wanted all-night and showed the women working on the hous­ churches, went to France to work with Sunday saloons, a segregated district, and ing issue. Likewise, Foor would remain the American Committee fo r Devastated gambling. On her suggestion that tl1ere anonymous save fo r the assistance she France. While fe llow WPCI members might possibly be something wrong with gave Bacon. By whatever name they were were supporting the French Relief Fund, the election returns and that in any event called, those rwen ty-eight women set the Smith was writing articles fo r the Star that there was something wrong with a mayor bar high fo r succeeding members. described living conditions in France. "I deciding which laws to enforce or not to Back in their hometowns and wirh used every effort in press work to relieve enforce, Roberts retorted that he intended their editors satisfied there would be every war situation that could be relieved to be mayor and the women might as well no rock throwing, members of ilie new wiilioutactually shouldering a gun and support him. "Not on a lax law enforce- organization did not have to wait long fo r marching against the Hun," she wrote.

52 I TRACES I Spring 2013 A HUNDRED YEARS AND STILL WRITING

There are no records of any other silver-badge credentials that allowed her going into overtime, her battery pack members serving as war correspondents, access to the pits and garages, she wrote in blew up. Thatwas bad enough bur when but at least two worked overseas fo llow­ the News rhat an Indy-car manufacturer she tried to remove the shoulder strap it ing Wo rld War II. Jane Ford was based in had threatened, ''I'll run over the first caught in her necklace. "Beads flewall Japan, where she sent articles to the damn woman I see." At her death in 2002, over the place," she said. "It was awful. I Louisville Courier-jo urnaL and became Cadou was praised as a professional who yelled fo r the other photographers to help interested in women's political rights. created opportunities fo r others through me pick them up." Chin got her shot, but Dorothy "Dotty" Steinmeier wrote fo r sheer fo rce of talent and will. she vowed she would never wear beads to a variety of publications before going to Ruth Chin, a fifty-year WPCI mem­ another game. "All in all," she said, "it was Germany to work with the U.S. ber and a Muncie photojournalist fo r a fa ntastic day. I worked from 7:00 a.m. Constabulary, the occupation and security more than sixty years, broke into sports until 1:00 a.m. and was paid $7 overtime. reporting with a bang. Thefirst woman Photographers today don't know what "A GUARD TOLD ME I photographer to cover rhe state high overwork is. With digital cameras, they COULDN'T GO IN BECAUSE school basketball championship, she can shoot hundreds of photographs in NO WOMAN HAD EVER COV­ lugged fifty-five pounds of camera equip­ nothing flat withoutdr agging around all ment into Hinkle Fieldhouse, then Buder that heavy equipment." ERED THE GAME. I TOLD Fieldhouse. "A guard told me I couldn't Cameras are nor the only things that HIM I WAS GOING TO COVER go in because no woman had ever covered have changed. Originally intended as a IT AND I HAD CREDENTIALS the game. I told him I was going to cover common ground fo r newspaper writers, TO PROVE IT." it and I had credentials to prove it," she re­ current WPCI members are involved in called. We aring an alpaca wool suit set off public relations, radio, television, vyeb fo rce in West Germany and Austria. She by a single strand of beads, she stood with design, photography, speeches, and more wrote fo r the Lightning Bolt, a publication the other photographers because there was categories of newspaper writing than then larger than Stars and Stripes. no sear. "The gym was really hot," she said. fo unding members dreamed possible. In 1972 Rose A. "Pat" Cline spent a "I couldn't wait fo r the game to end, bur Wo rkshops fo cus on social media such as thirty-day tour in Vietnam on assignment it wound up being a tie." With the game Facebook and Tw itter. fo r the CrawfordsviLLejo urnal­ Review. Traveling as a lone reporter, she would say only that she encountered a variety of hair-raising experiences while writing fe ature stories about local boys serving there. Although Berrie Cadou was a member ofWPCI fo r only a short time, she blazed a trail that would have shocked Nicholas by break­ ing rhe Indianapolis Motor Speedway's sixty-year ban on women reporters. Gaining

Muncie photographer and WPCI member Ruth Chin.

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 53 A HUNDRED YEARS AND STILL WRITING

Since 1937 the club has been affili­ MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED COMMUNICATORS ated with the National Federation of Press HAVE BEEN INDUCTED INTO THE INDIANA JOUR­ Wo men, organized that year in Chicago. Tw o WPCI members became NFPW of­ NALISM HALL OF FAME SINCE ITS FORMATION IN ficers at the first national convention: Ve ra 1966. OF THESE, TWENTY-FIVE HAVE BEEN WOMEN, Hall, Danville, vice president, and Louise SOME OF THEM WPCI MEMBERS. Eleanor Ross Kleinhenz, Indianapolis, recording secretary and editor of the Myers began her long journalism career More than rwo hundred communica­ Bulletin, a monthly newsletter that kept in 1942 when she imerrupted college to tors have been inducted into the Indiana members apprised of their peers. cover the Indiana Statehouse fo r the Inter­ Journalism Hall of Fame since its fo rma­ Committed to professional excellence national News Service. She completed her tion in 1966. Of these, rwenty-five have and promotion of the highest ethical degree in 1953 while working fu ll time. been women, some of them WPCI mem­ standards in communication fields, to When she retired from United Press In­ bers. One of the latest was Kate Milner equal opportunity in these fields and to ternational in 1981, she had spent nearly Rabb, author of a number of books and the rights and responsibilities of the First fo ur decades as the state's first woman wire "TheHoosier Listening Post," a column Amendment, NFPW continues to host service reporter and earned a reputation that appeared in the Star from 1920 until annual conferences at which awards are fo r honest and fa ir reporting. She became her death in 1937. A coed residential hall given in every area of communication. the first WPCI member inducted into at Indiana University is named in her In addition, each affiliate nominates a Indiana's Journalism Hall of Fame and the honor as well as WPCI's highest honor, member as Communicator of Achieve­ firstwoman president of the Indianapolis the Kate Milner Rabb Award, presented ment from which one is chosen as national Press Club after that fo rmerly male-only annually to a member who has made sig­ winner. To date, Indiana has had rwo stronghold opened its doors to women. nificantcontributions to the club's efforts. winners-Hortense Myers and Dorothy WPCI annually awards a $500 scholarship 1he firstaward, in 1962, went to Florence Steinmeier. Three Indiana members have in her honor to college juniors interested Hertz Stone, editor of the Hoosier Motorist served as national president-Myers, in pursuing a journalism career. fo r eighteen years. Naomi Whitesell, and Donna Douglas Penticuff. The memory of Louise Eleanor Ross Kleinhenz, a fo rty-five-year WPCI member and one of thirty-nine fo unding NFPW members, is kept alive through a scholarship fu nd that awards $500 sti­ pends to mature Indiana women interested in upgrading their skills in order to reenter the journalism job market or to upgrade positions in that field. Joan Bey, a sixty-year WPCI member and fo rmer Ti mes staffer, has fo nd recollec­ tions of Kleinhenz. "She always positioned herself at the door and made sure a new member was introduced to a table of members," Bey said. Kleinhenz once baked cookies shaped like the state of lndiana to give members at a luncheon because she fe lt dessert might be too costly fo r some.

"She was our mother hen," said another Retired Indianapolis Star reporter Marion Garmel (right) presents the WPCI's 2011 Kate member. Milner Rabb Award fo r continuing excellence and professional service in journalism to Margaret Nelson.

54 I TRACES I Spring 2013 The club no longer is limited to women, although Fred Granger, husband ofWPCI president Elizabeth Granger, is currently rhe only male member. Dann Denny of Bloomington was active long enough to earn five Honeycomb Awards-the honor bestowed each year on the club member scoring the highest number of points in the communication contest. Gene Slaymaker, rhe second male member, died December 15, 2012, after amassing more than rwo hundred awards during his broadcasting career. A Julie and Gene Slaymaker Scholarship Fund will be administered by WPCI's education fu nd. Incorporated in 1981 and fu nded by an­ nual auctions, the education fu nd offers scholarships to communicators and incen­ tives fo r high school and college students interested in careers in communication. In addition, WPCI sponsors annual writ- ing contests fo r high school students and prison inmates. WPCI's roster of current and fo rmer members reads like a Who's Who in

Indiana Journalism with names such as � � Mary Benedict, Marie Fraser, Jeannette § Nolan, Margaret Moore Post, and hun- � dreds of others who gained stature in their i � communities fo r the tie that continues to � unite them: an ability to write. Members � 8 ------�----�------observed the club's hundredth anniversary TheCull sisters, Betty (/eft) and MaryLee, both Rabb Award winners, endowed WPCI with on February 18, 2013, by having lunch $5,000. in the restored L. S. Ayres Te a Room at the Indiana State Museum. Therewill be a more fo rmal celebration on May 18 at intimidate the rwenry-eight women who she currentlyis an award-winning correspon- Hollyhock Hill Restaurant in Indianapo­ paved the way fo r them. dentfor the Rochester Sentinel and Farm lis. Those attending may or may not wear A WPCImember since 1969 and a past Wo rld and the author of six books. She has plumed hats, but they will be equipped president, Ann Allen was the group's201 1 written several articles forTr aces, one of with recorders, notebooks, cameras, cell Communicator of Achievement nominee. which received the 2008 ja cob P Dunn Jr. phones, and electronic devices that might Former editor of the Akron/Mentone News, Award.

Bacon, Albion Fellows. Beauty fo r Ashes. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1914. I Bodenhamer, David J., and Robert G. Barrows, eds. The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994. I Boomhower, Ray E. The Country Contributor: The Life and Times ofJuliet V Strauss. Indianapolis: Guild Press of Indiana, 1998. I Boruff, Blanche Foster. Women of Indiana: A Work fo r Newspaper and Library Reference. Indianapolis: Indiana Women's Biography Association; M. Farson, 1941. I Harris, Betty C. The Role ofWomen on Indiana Newspapers and Other Media. Muncie: Woman's Press Club of Indiana, 1977. I Woman's Press Club of Indiana Collection, M 373, William Henry Smith Memorial Library, Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis.

TRACES I Spring 2013 I 55 IMAGES OF INDIANA

he steamboats R. Dunbar (above, left) and TeLl City on the 1he William Henry Smith Memorial Library at the Eugene TOhio River were a draw fo r these young boys at the New and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center houses a large Albany Landing in New Albany, Indiana. Theriver was easily collection of steamboat images; all are available fo r research accessible when this photograph was taken around 1900. A later from I 0 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tu esday through Saturday. flood wall and levee system protected communities, but limited access to the river. To day, the Ohio River Greenway provides Image submitted by Susan L. S. Sutton, IHS coordinator of visual recreational trails and links among New Albany, Clarksville, and reference services. Jeffersonville.

56 I TRACES I Sprmg 2013 INDIANA Dt SOCHISTOIETYRICAL EUGENE AND MARILYN GLICK INDIANA HISTORY CENTER 450 WEST OHIO STREET, INDIANAPOliS,INDIANA 46202.-3269

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