Proven Ancestors: 9,324 Total Members: Pioneer 1,022 These include: Life members: 188 Junior Members: 17 Times Associate Members: 28 Office phone number: Email: October 2019 317-441-8293 [email protected] Issue 21 A Note from the President Thank you to all of the members of SIP for your continued support. It is my belief that SIP has one of the hardest working and interesting Julie Newhouse boards with which I have had the privilege to serve. Please attend the annual meeting of our membership on November Greetings to fellow SIP Members, 2, 2019, at Meridian Hills Country Club in Indianapolis. This is an Thank you for such a successful and great year! opportunity to meet new members and for fellowship with other his- The State of Indiana is in its first full year of implementing tory aficionados. Indiana History as an elective in high schools throughout the Best regards and hope to see you in November. state. The Society has followed and encouraged the schools statewide to begin teaching Indiana History again. The Soci- ety also is supporting a project to engage a pilot group of 4th A Note from the Genealogist to 6th graders in five counties around the State in a study of Michele Kerr early pioneers in their respective communities. Additionally, our Vision Committee has recommended Hello to everyone! My call for pioneer photos in the last newsletter that the Society utilize our endowment fund to support the has brought in quite a few and I will be sharing the project as soon as mission and activities of SIP. A few of the recommendations I can. The one thing that is always evident is that we have a passion- that the Board voted to do are to increase the monetary ate group of members! awards for the master’s thesis fellowship, doctoral disserta- As some of you are aware, we have an ever-growing group on Fa- tion fellowship, and the SIP Junior History Award. Further- ceBook which include official SIP (Society of Indiana Pioneers) more, an application process will be established for five (5) Members and those who are interested in the Society or just have a fourth-grade field trip grants. Also, SIP will seek additional passion for their own Indiana ancestors. All are welcome and quite a partnerships with the Indiana Humanities Council, Indiana few of our newest members have joined the Society after joining our Landmarks, and the Indiana Historical Society. FaceBook group. It is a great place to ask questions about the applica- SIP continues to collaborate with Midwestern Roots. tion process and to find others with ancestors who are related or from Several members attended and monitored our booth at the the same county. If you have someone who might be interested in our Midwestern Roots Conference in July in Indianapolis. group, feel free to point them to this FaceBook group as well. I am the From July 25 through July 28, SIP had a full bus load of moderator and always willing to help a fellow Indiana pioneer de- members and other guests who traveled to the Cumberland scendant! (This FaceBook group is a private group, so prospective Gap area. There were many highlights of this trip. We visit- members will just need to do a Search for The Society of Indiana Pio- ed historic houses and Keeneland race track in Lexington, neers and then submit their request to join.) It’s also a great place to Kentucky, toured the Buffalo Trace Distillery and sipped share your own research stories or Indiana pioneer ancestor stories! bourbon. We donated a bench to the Pine Mountain State For anyone interested, I write a monthly article for a digital scrap- Park where we attended a commemoration ceremony in booking group called Scrapaneers Society about everything Heritage. memory of our ancestors who passed through the Cumber- It is a learning group that offers classes on digital scrapbooking and I land Gap. We stayed at the Pine Mountain State Park Hotel was originally asked to focus on helping digital scrapbookers to begin where Daniel Boone and Dr. Thomas Walker spoke to us. their journey into looking at their family history and I cover every- We walked the Cumberland Gap trail to the Cumberland thing from research to photos. I also share my own lifestory book I’m Gap where we were told one in eight of our ancestors passed making for my paternal grandparents as I describe the different re- through between the 1690s and 1810. We passed through search processes that I’m using to locate information. I will be re- the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia within an posting them to my own blog and then sharing in our FaceBook hour and a half, much less time than our ancestors. We group, so it can be used as a research resource archive of sorts! (My stayed at Boone Tavern in Berea, visited the old State Capitol articles focus on the family history research side only.) at Richmond, Kentucky, Martin’s Station, Shaker Village, My goal is to eventually get this type of information located on our and Boonesborough. Needless to say, we had a wonderful SIP website and available to our members. As I am working on both trip! the photo project and the research help project, I am open to sugges- Many thanks to Sue Thomson of Thomson Travel, Nelson tions on what you would love to see available in a member-only area. Price, and Board member, Dr. Ron Morris, who regaled us Are there any of you, our members, who might be interested in writ- with the history of our ancestors. Thanks Dr. Bob and Jill ing short articles on your pioneer ancestor’s counties or might you Clements for your many hours of coordination and out of have an idea of other articles that you might like to suggest be writ- state travel to implement the bench commemoration. Thanks ten? I can’t guarantee anything, but I would love to be able to do to Bob Everitt for suggesting this trip! It was remarkable. some brainstorming to make sure that our members fully enjoy their Thank you Sally Fadely and Michele Kerr for everything membership. The Society ofThe Society Pioneers Indiana you do for SIP. A while back I also mentioned that it would be a good thing to submit your own resume or lifestory so that it could be added to your application for those descendants to discover Nathan, Joan Graham neighbors with idea about education, religion, possibly in another 100 years (more or less!) Medford, NY gender, and race. These were all powerful We have had a few take me up on this and I Petry, Catherine Ann themes that we still wrestle with in our com- do hope that we all take the time to get some Lakewood, CO munities. highlights of each of our lives written down. Richter, Tedra Rochelle In Kentucky the SIP members found multi- I’m not going to put a structure on this so feel Fishers, IN ple connections that helped us understand our free to make it like a resume, more like a trip Ross, Dennis Hamilton theme of Becoming Hoosiers. One example down memory lane or simply a timeline. (And Spring Valley, CA was in Lexington’s Gratz Park where we stood feel free to either handwrite it or type it out.) Ross, Linda Click in the shadow of John Hunt Morgan’s home. You can send it to me via email to genealo- Orlando, FL Morgan, “the Thunderbolt of the Confedera- [email protected] or mail it to our Schnarr, Ann Blueher cy” would terrorize Tennessee, Kentucky, office. I will happily add it to your application Indianapolis, IN Indiana, and Ohio on his wild raid during the file. (If you are not sure about why this is a Speer, Dennis Lee summer of 1863. good thing, just think of how much you would Ottumwa, IA The SIP members learned about Becoming love to find a hand-written personal history of Spencer, David Allen Kentuckians in Danville, Kentucky, where your own Indiana Pioneer ancestor!) Greenfield, IN they explored the surgery, apothecary, and Good hunting! - Stokes, Anita Junken residence of Dr. Ephraim McDowell who con- Indianapolis, IN ducted the first successful open abdominal Welcome New Members Stultz, Janet Youngblood surgery recorded in American history. Not Greenfield, IN only were the citizens of Kentucky learning The Society of Indiana Pioneers would like to Waggoner, Shannon Skiles how to create a civic society they were also welcome the following new members who Knightstown, IN making strides to provide community mem- have joined from 15 Jan 2019 through 15 Sep Wood, PhD, Michelle Zewari bers with services that would improve their 2019. Columbia, MD lives. Located on the edge of the wilderness, Youngblood, Carol Elaine Danville was also the location of the Kentucky Regular Members: Monrovia, IN Constitutional Convention attended by the leaders of the Commonwealth, including Rev- Zewari, Janis Woody olutionary War Hero Isaac Shelby. Ackley, Nancy Sue Allen Columbia, MD Isaac Shelby brought a group of frontiers- Carmel, IN men over the Appalachian Mountains into Benedict, Richard Lee 2019 Society of Indiana Pioneers North Carolina to participate in the pivotal Carmel, IN Pilgrimage to the Cumberland Gap Battle of King’s Mountain. It was a needed Buchanan, Bruce Warren victory in the American Revolution in the Indianapolis, IN In June a Society of Indiana Pioneer delega- South and a story that helped the SIP members Burrow, Michael Robert tion traveled to the Cumberland Gap to retrace learn about the trip theme of Becoming Ameri- Greenfield, IN the physical or metaphorical journey our an- cans.