of Indiana and Midwestern History Summer 1991 Viol. 3, No. 3 A Publication pf the Indiana Historical Society $5.00 Painters of the Indiana Landscape Abraham Lincoln’s Hoosier Home Indiana’s 1916 Centennial The Legacy of the WPA F 521 148 VOL3 NQ3 Indiana Historical Society Board of Trustees INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY James J. Barnes, Crawfordsville Dianne J. Cartmel, Seymour William E. Ervin, Hartford City Bert R. Fenn, Tell City Ralph D. Gray, Indianapolis Ronald Morris, Greenwood Mission Statement Mary M. Mullin, Brookville Kathleen Stiso Mullins, South Bend Alan T. Nolan, Indianapolis, Chairman Larry K. Pitts, Indianapolis, Treasurer William G. Prime, Madison Evaline H. Rhodehamel, Indianapolis, ^ A SATURDAY NIGHT IN DECEMBER 1830 A GROUP OF THE MOST Vice President Richard O. Ristine, Crawfordsville DISTINGUISHED FIGURES IN INDIANA’S EARLY HISTORY—INCLUDING Richard S. Simons, Marion, President John Martin Smith, Auburn JOHN FARNHAM, CALVIN FLETCHER, WILLIAM CONNER, JOHN TIPTON, AND Theodore L. Steele, Indianapolis Stanley Warren, Greencastle Herman B Wells, Bloomington MORE THAN HALF OF THE INDIANA GENERAL ASSEMBLY—MET AT THE Administration MARION COUNTY COURTHOUSE IN INDIANAPOLIS TO FORM WHAT BECAME Peter T. Harstad, Executive Director Raymond L. Shoemaker, Assistant Executive THE INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY THAT GROUP COMPOSED THE Director and Business Manager Annabelle J. Jackson, Exec. Assist. Financial ORGANIZATION’S CONSTITUTION AND DECLARED: Administration Susan P. Brown, Exec. Assist. Personnel/Policy Carolyn S. Smith, Membership Secretary Division Directors The objects of the Society shall be the collection of all Bruce L. Johnson, Library materials calculated to shed light on the natural, civil and Thomas K. Krasean, Field Services Thomas A. Mason, Publications political history of Indiana, the promotion of useful knowledge Robert M. Taylor, Jr., Projects and the friendly and profitable intercourse of such citizens of Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History Thomas A. Mason, Executive Editor the state as are disposed to promote the aforesaid objects. J. Kent Calder, Managing Editor Tony Woodward, Art Editor Kathleen M. Breen, Editorial Assistant Megan L. McKee, Editorial Assistant Contributing Editors Ray E. Boomhower Douglas E. Clanin Paula J. Corpuz . ODAY, WITH MORE THAN 9,000 MEMBERS IN AND BEYOND INDIANA, Ruth Dorrel T Robert M. Taylor, Jr. THE SOCIETY BUILDS ON THIS FOUNDATION. AS THE NEXT CENTURY Visual Collections Stephen J. Fletcher, Curator APPROACHES, IT REAFFIRMS ITS ORIGINAL “OBJECTS” WITHIN THE Kim Ferrill, Photographer Susan L. S. Sutton, Coordinator BROADER CONTEXTS OF REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND WORLD HISTORY AND Lisa T. Lussier, Assistant Editorial Board FOCUSES THEM AS FOLLOWS: Edward E. Breen, Marion Chronicle-Tribune Andrew R. L. Cayton, Miami University David E. Dawson, Indianapolis To promote public awareness and appreciation of Indiana Ralph D. Gray, Indiana University, Indianapolis Monroe H. Little, Jr., Indiana University, history, the Indiana Historical Society collects, preserves, Indianapolis James H. Madison, Indiana University, interprets, and disseminates documentary and visual Bloomington Richard S. Simons, Marion evidence and supports scholarly research. The Society fosters John Martin Smith, Auburn Emma Lou Thornbrough, Butler University excellence and leadership, historical inquiry, and pleasurable Design and informal exchanges, believing that an understanding of Dean Johnson Design Lloyd Brooks, Designer the past illuminates the present and gives vision for the future. Typesetting Weimer Typesetting Co., Inc. Printing Shepard Poorman Communications Corp. Traces o f Indiana and Midwestern History (ISSN 1040-788X) is published quarterly and distributed as a benefit of membership by the Indiana Histor­ ical Society: editorial and executive offices. 315 West Ohio Street, Indianap­ olis. Indiana 46202-3299. Membership categories are Annual $20, APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, 25 APRIL 1991. Sustaining $30. Contributing $50. and Life $500. Single copies are $5. Sec­ ond-class postage paid at Indianapolis. Indiana; USPS Number 003-275. Lit­ erary contributions: A brochure containing information for contributors is available upon request. TYaces accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts submitted without return postage. The Indiana Historical So­ ciety assumes no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by contributors. Indiana newspaper publishers may obtain permission to re­ print articles by written request to the Society. The Society will refer re­ quests from other publishers to the author. ©1991 Indiana Historical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States o f America. Post­ master: Please send address changes to 7Voces o f Indiana and Midwestern History, Indiana Historical Society, 315 West Ohio Street. Indianapolis. In­ diana 46202-3299. of Indiana and Midwestern History t races RECEIVED Summer 1991 Volume 3, Number 3 JUL 29 1991 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIFTY IIRRARY President Woodrow Wilson, Indiana governor Samuel Ralston, and Indianapolis mayor Joseph E. Bell celebrate one hundred years of Indiana statehood, the subject of Ray Boomhower's article in this issue. IHS. Bass Photo Collection 325 12K 2 4 Letters The Hoosier Group: Painters of the Indiana Landscape JUDITH V. NEWTON 3 Editors’ Page 14 Forums 27 MARTIN KRAUSE Destination Indiana 18 “Pretty Pinching Times”: Lincoln’s Hoosier Home, 1816-1830 48 DON DAVENPORT Hoosiers in World War II 20 Sorrow and Sympathy: Lincoln’s Youth, 1818, Age 9 LOUIS A. WARREN 28 Celebrating Statehood: Indiana’s 1916 Centennial RAY BOOMHOWER 40 Roads, Rocks, and Recreation: The Legacy of the WPA in Indiana GLORY-JUNE GREIFF Front Cover: Detail, The Seiner, 1900. Otto Stark. Oil on canvas, 27 \ x 22 % in. Clarence and Mildred Long. LETTERS Mencken and Indiana or infamous article in the Mercury Nathan collaborated on called Eu­ that stirred up such an outcry rope after 8:15 or some such title. My read the article on Mencken with among the prudes. I can’t even re­ brother’s sure fire formula for mak­ I tremendous interest and it stirred member its name now. I never read ing sure I read something such as up a host of memories. Mencken in depth, but I read the Rabelais was to instruct me that I have little memory of the Klan in Mercury when I could get it as well said book or article was not to be Marion and never saw a Klansman as the old New York World with its read. But he never hid or removed in uniform. If they had parades in great stable of writers. Until I read anything from the book shelves. Marion, I don’t remember seeing one Holley’s article, I didn’t know I sense some truth in Mencken’s and have no doubt that my mother, Mencken had such an interest in In­ feeling that in many respects, Indi­ who despised the Klan, prevented diana and its booboisie, nor did I ana in the 1920s and 1930s was a me from seeing one, as she taught know that George Jean Nathan was sort of desert. I can’t remember any­ me to fear and distrust such people. a Hoosier of Ft. Wayne. But one of thing very exciting in the field of My single memory of the Klan’s days the books that stirred up my early thought, or anything that caught my there is the savage comment of my interest in the world outside the attention until I got out of school and Aunt Dode Sumption in Kokomo USA was a book Mencken and began to prowl my brother’s library that if you wanted to know who and and get infusions from my other what kind of people they were, just brother, another good newspaper look at their shoes. man in Cincinnati. And of course, We were a family of avid readers, Cincy was a city (and is) rich in food thanks to my mother’s influence, for the mind. I have always despised and my older brother, a first-class Gerald Smith as the worst kind of newspaper man, was a collector of shyster, but never knew he was from what I guess you would call avant Indiana. I have Ambrose Bierce’s garde writings of that time. These Devil’s Dictionary and never knew included Mencken and Nathan and he grew up in Warsaw, which I knew everything else that was new and rather well through a fraternity different and challenged the current brother. And Janet Flanner. The two “culture” of Victorian and reaction­ copies of Traces were rewarding and ary social outlooks. So I had access to I am going to use the application sta­ Mencken and Nathan at an early age pled in the current copy to join the and once owned a copy of the famous Indiana Historical Society. H. Dixon Trueblood Laguna Hills, California 2 TRACES EDITORS’ PAGE his issue of Traces focuses on Chicago architect Louis Sullivan Ralston, had called for an elabo­ T celebrations past and present: called them “the greatest group of rate celebration and a new state li­ the impending 175th anniversary of landscape artists in the country.” brary and historical building. But in Indiana’s statehood, the 1916 state­ This issue of Traces confirms Sulli­ a 1914 referendum, the taxpayers hood centennial celebration, and the van’s assessment of the Hoosier refused to fund such expensive traveling exhibition of Hoosier Group. “Forums” is excerpted from projects. Eighteen years passed Group paintings containing works Martin Krause’s The Passage, the before the proposed library was built that recently returned to Germany catalog of the exhibition that will be (a 1910 plan for an Indiana State for the first time since they were cre­ on display at the Indianapolis Mu­ Plaza has waited more than eighty ated there more than a century ago. seum of Art from 24 November 1991 years to be realized as the Indiana In “The Hoosier Group: Painters of to 2 February 1992. Government Center). But on a lim­ the Indiana Landscape,” Judith Vale The Indiana Historical Society ited budget the statehood centennial Newton provides an overview of five helped to celebrate the 175th anni­ produced a film and several his­ American Impressionists—Theodore versary of Indiana statehood by re­ torical pageants, published several C.