There was a time when Evansville’s west side was known as Independence and every corner on Franklin Street was home to a saloon. Originally part of the town of Lamasco platted in 1837, the neighborhood west of Pigeon Creek grew up independently after the rest of Lamasco was annexed by Evansville in 1857. Outside the city limits of Evansville, this area had its own shopping district on Franklin Street, an avenue of fine homes on Wabash, and churches to serve the various congregations. The area was populated by many German immigrants and a small section of African American families. Saw mills, furniture factories, coal mines, and textile mills provided most of the jobs and after work, there were plenty of corner taverns to stop at on the way home. Corners were prime real estate for taverns and saloons, with opportunities for multiple entrances and high foot traffic. The last of the original corner taverns was Hagadorn’s on Franklin and Tenth Streets. Mundo’s Tavern 1883-1925 Hagedorn’s tavern was originally Mundo’s Tavern, built for 21 year old German immigrant, Phillip Mundo around 1883. The building not only served as a saloon but was also home for Mundo’s family and borders that they took in. Mundo operated the tavern for 42 years. When he died in 1925, the tavern was bought by Carl Herke. Unable to serve beer or alcohol during Prohibition, Herke advertised the space as a Pool Room with candy, soft drinks, cigars, and cigarettes. Herke owned the establishment through the remainder of Prohibition, which was lifted in 1933. Hagedonrn's 1934-2018
In 1934, Herke sold the business to Henry Hagedorn. It carried the Hagedorn’s name after that, even after the last Hagedorn to operate the tavern, Bernie Hagedorn, sold it to Jim Mosby and Charlie Seibert in the late 1960s.
In the early 20th century, most businesses were racially segregated, even in Northern states like Indiana. Despite the African American community in Independence, it is unlikely that Hagedorn's would have admitted Black patrons before the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
After a fire caused extensive damage to the kitchen and family room in 1990, Mosby repaired and reopened the Franklin street fixture. What Mosby described as a “poor man’s country club,” Hagedorn’s crowd of regulars remained loyal through the repairs and were happy to return when the building reopened in July 1990. Serving traditional tavern food, plate lunches, brain sandwiches and beer, Hagedorn’s drew a loyal working class, mostly male crowd for lunch and afternoons as guys stopped on their way home from work. Hagedorn’s tavern closed in 2017, but may reopen in a new building.
]]>The Hornet’s Nest is located in Scott Township in an old community once called Earle, named after John Earle, an Englishman who had come to the area around 1828. Brant and Fuller’s 1889 History of Vanderburgh County said that the Earle community was “without importance except as a supply depot for a limited agricultural district.” They identified only one merchant in the town and noted a small store dating back to 1850. Lapsley’s Saloon in Gabtown 1870s
Local historian Ken McCutchan had a somewhat different take on the Earle community, also called Gabtown, and the saloon that is now the Hornet’s Nest. There has been a saloon or bar in this location since at least the 1870s. In 1877, the place was called Lapsley’s saloon, and Earle or Earlsville was a primarily Methodist community. However, religious sentiment against the evils of drinking did not stop the men in the community from seeking a social atmosphere and a good time at Lapsley’s. The good times sometimes ended up in the very problems that Prohibitionists warned about. For example, on Christmas Day 1877, a rowdy group of men in the saloon resulted in a fistfight between a Dr. Thomas Worral and James Grimwald. Saloon owner James Lapsley also happened to be the town constable, and arrested them both. Dr. Worral was charged with starting the fight and spent several days in jail. He wanted his side of the story to be known, and within a few months published a pamphlet entitled “The Gabtown Martyrdom.” Nine-Mile House 1910s -1920sAnother name for the Hornet's Nest tavern in Gabtown was the Nine-Mile Road House since the location was nine miles from the Vanderburgh County Courthouse. In 1910 the proprietor Eirc Demick was cited for operating the place without a liquor license. This citation resulted in a feud in which community members took sides and one faction even boycotted the local Republican Party meetings on Demick’s behalf. In 1913, Demick sold the Nine-Mile House to Adolph Schultz. Although Demick found another saloon to manage in Vanderburgh County, he still had business troubles and was severely depressed afterwards. He died of suicide in 1915. Just the next year, Demick’s successor at the Nine-Mile, Adolph Schultz, was divorced from his wife Eunice Schultz. It was Eunice who petitioned for the divorce, on the grounds that Adolph was “an habitual drunkard” and that she often had to tend bar for him. Newspapers even referred to her as the owner of the Nine-Mile. Although women were rarely welcome as customers in saloons before Prohibition, there were some women tavern owners and bartenders. One press account claimed that in 1904, there were 27 women saloon owners and 44 women bartenders in the state of Indiana. Hornet’s NestThe Hornet’s Nest that occupies this tavern space today was built after the original saloon and inn burned and was rebuilt sometime between 1926 and 1930 (accounts differ). The building was built by Oscar Sanders. In 1946 John Gerteisen bought the Hornet’s Nest from Sanders. John turned the tavern into a full-service restaurant. It was John Gerteisen who named the establishment the Hornet’s Nest because he had seen a restaurant with that name during his time in the military. (Current owner Derek Ungethiem prefers the story that locals named the Hornet’s Nest because the gathering place was visited annually by a swarm of hornets.) An intriguing article from the Evansville Press on April 5, 1951 states that defense attorney James D. Lopp subpoenaed gambling apparatus to Circuit Court to assist in his defense of Edward and Helen Reuter who ran the LaReno Tavern in Daylight, Indiana. It seems the sheriff’s department had charged the Reuters with selling lottery tickets. The Hornet’s Nest was included in the list of businesses subpoenaed to bring in gambling equipment. We have not been able to follow this story further, but it appears the Hornet’s Nest once offered some sort of gambling. John Gerteisen sold the Hornet’s Nest to his brother Joe in 1967. By 1990 Bob Schmitt and Wayne Moore took over the Hornet’s Nest. They expanded the enclosed waiting room, doubled the size of the kitchen and expanded the seating capacity from 89 to 200 guests. The pair also added Mondays to the days of the week the restaurant is open. Since then, the Hornet’s Nest has changed hands several times until it reached its current owner, Derek Ungethiem. The area around the Hornet’s Nest is generally subsumed into the area today known as McCutchanville, but now you know its fuller history as a little community called Earle.]]>The Darmstadt Inn has been a staple in Scott Township in northern Vanderburgh County since the early 20th century. Darmstadt Community The community around the inn, Darmstadt, was founded in 1822, shortly after the founding of Scott Township in 1821. According to author Shirley Nicholson, there is disagreement over how Darmstadt received its name. Some believe it was named for the large number of immigrants to the area coming from the Darmstadt-Hessen region of Germany. Others believe that the founder Michael Bauer named it for his wife Barbara, whose father and uncle came from Darmstadt-Hessen. In later research, Nicholson discovered that few settlers of Darmstadt came from this specific region, but were from many parts of Germany. When Darmstadt was incorporated in 1973, it became the second incorporated community—in addition to Evansville—in Vanderburgh County. Darmstadt Inn The Darmstadt Inn had several owners in its first years of its existence; however, beginning in the mid-1950s, and for over five decades, it was owned and operated by members of the Kissel family. In 1955, Norman Kissel purchased the Darmstadt Inn from Bertram Neuber. Subsequently, his son William Kissel and later his grandson Randy Kissel owned the establishment. Randy, a Central High School graduate, started helping at the inn at age five. Other members of the Kissel family also worked at this tavern where farmers parked their tractors outside and traded agricultural goods and livestock. Tragedy for Employee, 1966 A sad chapter in the life of the Darmstadt Inn occurred on Thursday, September 29, 1966. On this evening, waitress Martha Fritts was murdered while working at the inn by her estranged husband Harry Fritts. Moments after the murder, Harry Fritts took his own life. According to the September 30 Evansville Courier, Harry Fritts entered the tavern with an acquaintance and sat down at a table. Martha Fritts took their order, but then asked the bartender and co-owner William Kissel to serve them. Upon learning that his wife would not be their waitress, Harry Fritts proceeded to the tavern’s kitchen and after exchanging words with Mrs. Fritts, he opened fire upon her. Martha Fritts escaped to the barroom, but was shot again and died. Harry Fritts exited the inn and shot and killed himself in the parking lot. Today, the Darmstadt Inn is owned by Rick Kennedy, and it remains a community gathering spot and draws patrons from throughout the area.
]]>Transportation and trade routes often had a major impact on these small communities. They connected them to the wider world. When routes shifted, small communities just as easily were isolated. When the Evansville, Mt. Carmel, & Northern Railway was built in 1910, it passed through Armstrong Township, an agricultural area in the northwest corner of Vanderburgh County. The rail was operated by the Cleveland Cincinnati Chicago & St Louis Railway (CCC & StL RR), who were sometimes nicknamed the Big Four.
A log building stood near where the railroad crossed Nisbet Road. A small depot and a grain elevator operated by famous Evansville millers Iglehart Brothers were built soon after the railroad in the location that would eventually house the Nisbet Inn.
The present roadside tavern building was erected in 1912 by George Maurer. It contained a bar and a grocery store on the main floor. Upstairs were six big rooms that would be rented out to travelers. The building would rattle every time a train went by.
Nisbet Inn claims to have the second oldest liquor license in the State of Indiana. This would have been convenient for railroad workers to spend their money on drinks on payday. Stories exist that these men would drink, turn to fighting, and then lay down in the road to sleep off their drinking.
For many years, Nisbet Inn was the hub of Armstrong Township. Farmers from the nearby area would come in to check on how much rain everyone had, or what field was going to be planted or harvested that day. In the winter, the farmers would come to play cards. In addition to the bar, grocery store, and inn, it also served as a post office for the area.
Passenger rail on the Big Four stopped in 1942, and the last freight train ran in May 1971. Much of the old railroad tracks have since been removed, but sections still remain. Under the ownership of the Sunderman family, Nisbet’s grocery store was converted into a family room in the 1970s. Since individuals under 21 cannot enter a "bar" under Indiana state law, a "family room" is a an area of the establishment separated from the bar and able to admit patrons under 21 years of age.
During renovations, murals painted by a French traveler were rediscovered and are now proudly on display. In the 1990s, the hardware store was closed. It was converted into additional restaurant seating.
]]>St. Joseph Community 1820s -1840s In the early 1820s, that area that became home to t he St. Joe Inn was known as the Henson Settlement after early white settler-colonizers David and Jesse Henson.The Inn dates back to 1836 and is located in the community of St. Joseph, in the northwestern area Vanderburgh County. By 1845, it was incorporated as German township, with St. Joseph as the largest community in the township. St. Joseph was named after St. Joseph Catholic Church, which was founded in 1841 and served a German congregation. St. Joe Inn Serves Community 1836-1880s The land for the St. Joe Inn was acquired by a Mr. Elliott from the USA Land Grant Office in Vincennes in 1836. The St. Joe Inn and business was established by Nicholas Long who owned it from 1836 to 1840. Long was an early settler in the area who became quite wealthy. Over the course of time he built a store-house, and opened a general store, about which clustered the few houses and businesses which made up a country village — a post office, a smithy, a school building, and a church. Later, the inn was owned by Kron’s from about 1840 to the start of the Civil War when it was purchased by Joseph Hartlein. Hartlein, the most prominent person in the St. Joseph community, operated it from about 1860 to 1887. Hartlein ran much more than a tavern. The two-story log structure not only housed the inn and saloon but also served as a hardware goods store, Notary Public, Justice of Peace, and Post Master. Ater Hartlein’s death his son, Joseph M. Hartlein, Jr. succeeded his father in business and became the new Post Master. In 1888 the old inn building burned, and the new building, which stands today, was built to house a saloon and hotel. St. Joe Inn 1918-Today The St. Joe has had many different owners in the twentieth century. Bartel Bender secured ownership after the Hartleins died and operated it until Prohibition. In 1918 when Indiana outlawed alcohol, the Saloon closed and the building served as grocery store and notions shop operated by William Rexing Montgomery. In 1933, when Prohibition was repealed, the saloon reopened under the direction of Henry Niemeier and his wife. Two other couples owned the St Joe between 1945 and 1956. In 1956 it was purchased by Everett M. and Margaret Baylor, who started the famous dinners of fish, chicken, steak and homemade bread. The Baylor family operated the tavern and lived upstairs for over two decades, until they sold it in 1975 to Donald Henisen and his wife. Over the next few years, the business passed through several other operators. In January 1992 Darlene Young acquired and managed the Inn until her passing in June, 2014. Darlene’s son Michael and his wife Susan continued to operate the Inn with the help of dedicated employees and loyal customers. In recent years, the Inn was purchased and operated by Mike and Andrea Campbell.
]]>In the southwest corner of Vanderburgh County lies Union Township, a unique area of low lying river bottoms, sloughs and ridges. It is bordered on three sides by the Ohio River, which makes an 18-mile horseshoe around it. Historically, Union Township was made up of farms and Cypress sloughs, low swampy areas created by the river changing course over many years. The first permanent white settlers arrived around 1806. Throughout the 1800s, some residents sold wood for fuel and meat to passing steamboats.
In the early days, several small settlements developed including Fair Banks, Fair Play, and Cypress. By the early 1900s, the heart of this river-bottom agricultural area was Cypress, a community which became the closest thing to a town. At the intersection of Cypress Dale Road and Old Henderson Road, a two-story saloon and dry goods store was the hub of this community. Joseph Schenk’s Saloon and Dry Goods Store, 1880s According to the Brant and Fuller History of Vanderburgh County, Joseph Schenk opened a saloon and dry goods store at Cypress prior to 1889. Born in 1850, Shenk was prominent in the local Catholic community and leader of the Democratic Party in Union Township. His store was positioned along the newly constructed railroad bridge that spanned the Ohio River and connected Evansville with Henderson, Kentucky. Schenk’s saloon served the farm community of Union Township as well as the many travelers who used the Old Henderson Road ferry as one of the main routes to Henderson. By 1891, the saloon, as well as the community of Cypress, also became known as Dogtown. The exact reasons are unknown, but old stories said that hunters and trappers often tied their dogs up outside while they stopped in for a drink. Along with the saloon, Dogtown had a blacksmith shop and a post office (that for a time was housed in Schenk’s). Later it had a Mobile Gas station and telephone exchange that served as the operation hub for the landline telephones of the surrounding farm community. Dogtown Tavern, Community Gathering Place By the 1970s, all that remained in Cypress, Indiana was Schenk’s Saloon, which by this time was known as Dogtown Tavern. In the 1930s, the Old Henderson road ferry was replaced with the Henderson bridge which crossed the Ohio River more than ten miles upstream. By the 1950s, the blacksmith shop and post office were gone and eventually the gas station disappeared as well. The population of Union Township also declined as Americans in general left farms for opportunities in the city. For the residents that did remain, Dogtown Tavern was the gathering place. Ownership passed from Joe Schenk to his sons Lum and John prior to his death in 1928. In 1955 Hilary and Kate Carr purchased the tavern. Through the years, the Dogtown Tavern sponsored a baseball team that played on a ball diamond next to the tavern. It served as the polling location for the township and often held community meetings and land auctions. For example, according to the Land Ordinance of 1785, one square mile section in each 36-section township would be set aside and proceeds from that section would be used to support public education in the community. Through the centuries, that “school land” was sold in many townships, but Union Township still retains some. This land is auctioned every year and the rent supports education costs for the township. For many years, the auction to rent the land was held at the tavern on or near New Year’s Day. As the population of Union Township dwindled, Dogtown Tavern became a destination for Evansville residents looking for good food and perhaps a trip down memory lane. Remembered for its fried chicken dinners and fiddler platters (the local term for small catfish that are breaded and fried), people flocked to the tavern, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. Its proximity to the river and Dogtown Boat Ramp also made it a favorite stop for boaters after a long day on the river. Unfortunately, Dogtown Tavern closed in 2010. As of 2020, the building still stands at the intersection of Old Henderson and Cypress Dale Road and it remains a local landmark for Union Township.
Today, these areas are mostly cleared and tilled for farming.
]]>The Robertson Genealogy Library is an important space at the Jackson County History Center. It has collections of books and pamphlets, maps and pictures, journals and genealogical records, and relics which illustrate the social, religious, political, educational and industrial history of Jackson County. By preserving and making these records accessible, the Genealogy Library helps JCHC carry out their mission of enabling “the investigation, discovery, collection, preservation and publication of data pertaining to the history of Jackson County, Indiana.”
If you are interested in learning about your family history or the history of Jackson County, the Robertson Genealogy Library is a great starting point for your research. JCHC volunteers have also helped many local 4th grade classes research their family history at the Genealogy Library.
]]>Franklin Booth (1874-1948) was the Hamilton County artist who probably had the widest impact on the world of illustration. He developed a unique style based on hundreds of pen strokes that made the finished drawing look like an engraving. Three books have been written about Booth and his style, which became an important influence on modern comic book artists.
Booth grew up on a farm on the other side of the county near Clarksville before his family moved to Carmel. He eventually moved to New York where, at one point in time, ran an art school with George and Worth Brehm. He would return to Carmel from New York on regular occasions. He eventually built a studio behind his family’s home at 321 North Rangeline Road. In 1916, he took a road trip around the state with Theodore Dreiser. Dreiser turned the trip into a book titled A Hoosier Holiday with illustrations by Booth, including an image of Carmel.
Booth would occasionally do artworks for people and places in Hamilton County. One notable Booth work is at Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Noblesville, created for friends who attended the church. It is a variation on a common image of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Because of Booth’s popularity and unique style, originals of his work are difficult to find. Most local exhibits have been done with prints from books and magazines.
Booth passed on his artistic knowledge to protégés such as his nephew Grant Christian. Christian would become known for creating Works Progress Association post-office murals during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Another student who became well-known locally was Carmel resident Ralph Applegate. When Booth died, his ashes were scattered at his parents’ grave at the Old Carmel Cemetery.
The Carmel Clay Historical Society has completed research on Booth, including much of the information included in this stop. They have also organized exhibits of his work.
]]>A spot with a strong connection to the Hamilton County group of illustrators is the former site of the Noblesville High School (NHS) building at 1448 Conner Street. It was attended by George Brehm, who graduated in the 1898 class, Worth Brehm and Thomas Stanley in the 1902 class, and Hanson Booth in the 1907 class.
Thomas B. Stanley (1884-1965)
Thomas B. Stanley was born in Noblesville, where his father ran the telegraph office. At NHS, among other things, he was business manager of the school magazine in 1901. Although there are references to his artwork in the magazine, there are no actual illustrations by him. Stanley attended Herron Art Institute in 1902. From 1906 to 1908, he was listed in the Noblesville city directory as an illustrator.
After 1908, Stanley earned a B.A. and an M.A. in English and then was hired by New York University (NYU) in 1916 to teach Business English. By 1940, Business English had become Marketing. Eventually, Stanley became a Professor Emeritus of Marketing at NYU. He wrote two books on the subject – A Manual of Advertising Typography (1935), and Techniques of Advertising Production (1940).
Throughout his career, he kept his hand in the art world. In 1920, he created a business-oriented cartoon series for the magazine Advertising and Selling. It ran weekly from March to November and the public reaction was enthusiastic. Businessmen wrote to the magazine asking for copies of the strip to post in the office and send to their employees. The reaction was similar to the modern comic strip Dilbert.
Hanson Booth (1886-1944)
Hanson Booth was born on the family farm in Wayne Township and was the brother of a more famous artist, Franklin Booth. The Noblesville High School Annual is where Hanson’s artwork first appeared. He did caricatures of his classmates and teachers very much in the style of the era. His art was used for the cover for several years.
Hanson Booth served overseas after the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917. He was honorably discharged in July 1919 as a Second Lieutenant. He was the only one of the Hamilton County School of illustrators to have served in World War I.
Like his brother Franklin, Hanson would go on to become a successful professional artist in New York. He did illustrations for books and for a variety of magazines, including Boy’s Life, Harper’s, and Popular Science.
]]>The Hamilton County Historical Society (HCHS) has many local artworks in its collection, including several Brehm works. George Brehm’s easel is on display on the first floor of the museum. Among the significant Brehm pieces is a portrait George did of his daughter June Brehm Tabor, who donated the collection to HCHS. Another artwork is believed to be a self-portrait of Worth Brehm that was done a few years before his untimely death.
The HCHS museum is in the old sheriff’s residence and jail built in 1875-1876, which was used as the Hamilto County jail for a century. The HCHS was founded in 1963. It moved into the old jail building soon after the county left.
A notable effort of the Historical Society that combined history and illustration was a series of calendars produced between 1966 and 1989 showing historic buildings as interpreted by local artists. The calendars were a joint project between HCHS and the Hamilton County Artists Association.
The courthouse square, where HCHS is located, was a central point for the artists of the Hamilton County School of Illustration. George Brehm’s first public artwork was hung in the window of Truitt’s drugstore on the east side of the square. Truitt’s, now the Noblesville Antique Mall, was a place to purchase artist’s supplies like paint and brushes. A drawing in the HCSC collection by Worth Brehm shows the north side of the square. An illustration by Hanson Booth for a civics textbook was clearly based on his memories of the courthouse square.
]]>The northwest section of the Noblesville City Hall is the former Carnegie Library building built in 1912. It was used as the city library until 1986.
Carnegie libraries were funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie across the United States between 1883-1929, with 164 built in Indiana. This was the location of the library when it received donations of artwork from the Brehm brothers, Francis Brown, Lee Offutt, and Floyd Hopper.
Two of the donated artworks were created as part of a Depression-era New Deal program -- the Civil Works Administration (CWA). The CWA was a job-creation program to assist out of work Americans in finding employment during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The first CWA artwork is a painting originally created by Francis Brown (1908-1992) for the library in 1934 called Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. The Civil Works Administration's Indiana Artist’s Association paid for it. Brown also taught CWA art classes. The painting is presently hanging in the new Boys and Girls Club building at 1700 Conner Street.
Brown was also commissioned through this program to create a painting for the Hamilton County Courthouse, although it is unlikely that it still exists. Another 1934 CWA painting titled Rip Van Winkle was done by Lee Offutt (1908-1966) and given to the library, but its whereabouts are unknown.
Another artist who donated artwork to the library was Floyd Hopper. Hopper (1909-1984) was a noted Indiana watercolor artist who also did wall murals and illustrations for local projects. He did the illustrations for the history of Hamilton County published in 1976, titled Remembrances.
Presently, there is a Floyd Hopper mural created in 1967 hanging in the atrium of Noblesville City Hall. It is of an autumn scene looking toward the city from the hill at Forest Park. It is 6 feet, 4 inches high and 26 feet long and originally hung in the American National Bank, then at Forest Hill School, before being moved to City Hall.There are several other Hopper murals around Noblesville. One was created in 1967 for Riverview Hospital (now Riverview Health). It was 5 feet high by 23 feet long and a version of it still hangs today. The largest local Hopper mural is on the exterior of Arbuckle’s Railroad Place (1151 Vine Street) and shows the trains that used to run by the store on the Midland Railroad. Hopper is buried at Oaklawn Cemetery in Fishers.
]]>Granville Bishop (1831-1902) could be considered the patriarch of the Hamilton County illustrator group. Bishop was born in Fayette County, Indiana. His family moved to Hamilton County in 1836.
Bishop was a self-taught artist who taught penmanship, painted decorations on wagons, and drew advertising signs on buildings to supplement his income from painting. He did well enough to support his wife and five children despite suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and not having full use of his legs.
Bishop is discussed in Wilbur D. Peat’s book Pioneer Painters of Indiana (1954). Peat says that Bishop was, “incapable of doing any manual labor but finding that he had a natural aptitude for drawing, he turned to art and carried on a rather lively business with his landscapes, portraits in oils and crayon, store signs, and theatrical scenery.”This house on Mulberry Street was where he spent his final years.
There are two paintings of Bishop’s at the Indiana State Museum. The first, Oak Hill Farm, was completed sometime in the 1850s. The owner of the farm commissioned Bishop to paint his farm in Alto, Indiana in return for room, board, and a small commission. The agricultural landscape painting could be considered “primitive art” or folk art style. The second painting, Thayl Island, is very different in style. Painted sometime in the 1880s, it depicts a landscape with a river in the middle, large overhanging trees, and two deer on the right side. George Brehm described Bishop’s work as similar to the Hudson River School, and that influence is clearly seen in this painting.
A third painting, of the Oglala Lakota Native American Chief Red Cloud, was commissioned in 1891 to hang in the Noblesville lodge room of the fraternal organization the Improved Order of Red Men. The painting's location today is unknown.
Unfortunately, few other examples of his work exist today.
Upon his death, Granville Bishop was buried in Riverside Cemetery. Two institutions near Riverside Cemetery today help maintain Hamilton County’s connection to the arts. The Birdie Gallery is a former African American church that has been preserved as an art gallery. Nickel Plate Arts is an arts incubator campus that encourages modern illustrators and has hosted exhibits about Hamilton County illustrators.
]]>The Hamilton East Public Library has acquired an interesting collection of artwork over the last eighty years. Beginning with its first Brehm works donated in the 1930s, the Hamilton East Public Library now has a number of works by the Brehm brothers as well as Floyd Hopper. Several of the Brehm works can be seen hanging in the Indiana Room today.
Brothers George Brehm (1878-1966) and Worth Brehm (1883-1928) grew up in Noblesville, Indiana. Living for a time at 1384 Maple Avenue, they ultimately left Indiana to establish careers as nationally famous artists. The Brehms created iconic images for national magazine covers and classic novels by drawing upon their memories of their Noblesville childhood.
George Brehm
After graduating from Noblesville High School in 1898, George took lessons from William Forsyth, attended Indiana University, and worked as an illustrator for the Indianapolis Star before moving to New York in 1905. He became a regular contributor to several magazines, including the Saturday Evening Post, American Magazine, Colliers, and Ladies Home Journal. He did illustrations for authors like James Whitcomb Riley, Booth Tarkington, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and William Faulkner. His friends and colleagues were people like Frederic Remington, Thomas Hart Benton, and Norman Rockwell. He continued doing illustrations until the 1950s and died in 1966. George was the first illustrator of the Hamilton County School to be nationally successful and could be considered the New York “anchor” for the group.
Worth Brehm
Worth Brehm graduated from Noblesville High School in 1902, attended Herron Art Institute, and eventually followed his brother to New York. There, he became known for his illustrations of children. His first success was a series of drawings published in Outing Magazine in 1907-1909. The series was based on his memories of growing up in Noblesville and was titled When I Was a Boy. His first Saturday Evening Post cover was in June of 1908. He followed this up with the illustrations for a 1910 edition of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, a 1912 edition of Huckleberry Finn, and original illustrations for Booth Tarkington’s Penrod stories. At the urging of his friend Johnny Gruelle, (the creator of Raggedy Ann), Worth joined the Silvermine art colony in Connecticut in 1912. He took a trip to Europe in 1914 to do more study, but returned just as World War I broke out in August. He was widely recognized for his work before his untimely death at age 45 in 1928 from blood poisoning due to an abscess.
You can listen below to a story about some of George Brehm's earliest drawings.
For more (including 9 images & 1 audio file) view the original article
]]>Hoagy Carmichael's songs and musical style were heavily influenced by the Black musicians he heard in the jazz clubs of Indianapolis and at the socials he frequented at the homes of Black friends in Bloomington. One was the 1920s home of Collett Johnson and Vertis Hunter Johnson, a Black couple who owned a piano, which Hoagy played at parties. “We liked to dance and he played the piano for us,” said African American Bloomington resident Mary Cardell Johnson said in a 1982 reminiscence.
Despite Hoagy being welcomed, present-day African American Bloomingtonian Betty Bridgwaters says that many believe Hoagy stole tunes, including “Star Dust,” from the Black community without crediting his sources. The lyrics to a number of his songs, such as “Lazybones,” convey stereotypical depictions of African Americans that render the works offensive today.
If Hoagy was not completely free from the prejudices of his era, however, his friendships and musical collaborations across racial lines were still notable for the time. One such friendship was with the great Black jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who in 1970 insisted that Hoagy be the host for his 70th birthday celebratory concert in Los Angeles. As Hoagy’s eldest son reported, “There was a lot of pressure on Louis to get a black guy in there instead . . . but Louis stood his ground: said this wasn’t about race, it was about music. He wanted Hoagy, and if it wasn’t Hoagy he wasn’t gonna do this thing.” Hoagy’s musical style was heavily influenced by Black Indianapolis orchestra leader Reginald DuValle, who instructed Hoagy in improvisation and musical techniques. Hoagy credits DuValle with career advice that he never forgot, saying: "Never play anything that ain't right. You may not make any money, but you'll never get mad at yourself."
In his autobiography, The Stardust Road, Hoagy describes himself as a “jazz maniac” whose judgement was “thrown out of kilter” after hearing a jazz cornetist play. He went on to stardom and wealth in Hollywood, but Bloomington always meant home to him. He was exposed to many different cultural milieus in Bloomington—his extended family, the Black community, Indiana University academic and social life—all of which contributed to his development as a songwriter and unique musical style.
]]>In addition to these locations, the Jackson County History Center has many other things to see.
There are two museums on the campus. The Ball Museum is housed in a building that was once the blacksmith shop of a man named James Bland. It is now set up to show scenes of home and community life from historical periods. The Heller Museum is designed to preserve delicate historical artifacts like documents and clothing. It has a large display of military uniforms as well as a collection of American Indian artifacts found in the county. Another resource on the campus is the Robertson Genealogy Library, where visitors can research the county and their own family history.
Around the campus, there are many other historical artifacts that have been preserved, like the ticket booth of the Stardust Drive-In Theatre and signs and information about events that have taken place in the county.
]]>Adjacent to the Jackson County History Center campus is the Old Brownstown City Cemetery. According to the 1991 History of Jackson County Indiana, John Milroy established the Brownstown Cemetery when he platted Brownstown on April 8, 1816. In 1836 the cemetery was surveyed again which revealed that over thirty graves were outside of the eastern boundary line. Consequently, the eastern boundary line was moved 14 feet to the east.
Many of the early burials were not marked. Instead, most families recorded the births, deaths and marriage dates in their family Bibles which were passed down from generation to generation. Among the 240 burials in this cemetery we find six Civil War soldiers, a daughter of a Revolutionary War soldier, several members of the Masons, numerous children and infants, and last, but not least, is Dr. Samuel Wort and his 5 wives.
Dr. Wort died on August 15, 1863. Born in Pennsylvania on July 20, 1791, Samuel Wort was married 5 times (and possibly 6). His first wife likely died in Pennsylvania. He had 8 children, and one of them became a Doctor. In addition to Wort and several of his wives, his mother is also buried in the Old Brownstown City Cemetery.
]]>The Clark and Walters circus wagon was built during the 1930s. It was owned by the Timberlake family, who had performed in circuses for three generations. During the winter months the family lived in Jackson County, and the rest of the year they traveled with the circus in this wagon. Myrna Timberlake Ratcliff grew up in the circus and still tells stories about her experience to visitors at the Jackson County History Center.
Life on the Road
The wagon was specially made with living quarters in the front and a ticket booth in the back. The front living quarters could accommodate two people with two bunks, a small closet, and a tiny dresser. There was no bathroom in the wagon, so while traveling you would have to take a bath in a small bucket.
Circus tickets were sold from the back of the wagon. Outside the back of the wagon two doors folded out and there was a window that opened. The person selling tickets had to sit on the floor (hopefully with a pillow or blanket) and place their feet in the small space provided. This was not a comfortable place to sit. Setting Up and Moving OutAround the top of the wagon are several light bulbs that would light up once the wagon was hooked up to electricity. The circus had a huge generator that furnished lights for the big tent, the office, and concessions. Some days it was turned on by 9am so that the performers and workers could get everything ready for the show. Moving the whole circus from town to town was hard work. Circus people always prayed for sunny days. If it rained overnight, some of the vehicles would get stuck in the mud. For performers, it was very helpful to be part of a circus with an elephant or two because the strong elephants could easily pull the wagons out of the mud! Staying In Touch while TravelingFor the people who traveled with the circus, staying in touch with loved ones was difficult – there were no cell phones back then. It was not easy to find a working phone or enough quarters to call home. If there was a pay phone nearby where they stopped, it was always busy with the circus performers making calls. If someone from home needed to talk to someone in the circus, they would have to call the police station in the town where the circus was stopped and ask them to have the person call home. Many performers tried to make calls on Sunday, their day off, rather than wait for those emergency calls. One Day Off a WeekSunday was the day to catch up on sewing and washing clothes and painting props for the people and animals to use in their performances. Washing clothes was a big deal. Laundromats were few and far between before 1950. It was not unusual to find a woman in town who had two or three washing machines in her backyard and a clothes line. Sometimes the woman would do the laundry for members of the circus, but it was cheaper for them to do it themselves. A lot of times, there was a movie theater in the town where the circus was stopped so everyone was happy to see a movie on their day off.For more (including 5 images & 1 video) view the original article
]]>Conflict between white settlers and Shawnee, Delaware, Kickapoo, and Miami Indians was a common occurrence in what is now Jackson County, Indiana in the 19th century. Natives in the area saw settlers who cleared lands, built forts, and tried to enforce rules as encroaching on their families and communities. Settlers, on the other hand, believed that they were improving the land and bringing civilization to the frontier.
Eight forts were built on a line from just south of Vallonia through Brownstown and on towards the East to shelter white colonizers and traders. Forts supported militias who traveled as far as a hundred miles to attack Delaware Indian villages north of what is now Indianapolis. Forts also were easily defensible against Native raiding parties who sought access to European goods including guns.
Most strongholds were built between 1809 and 1812. According to Joe Robertson, local historian, this was called the “String Fort System” because it consisted of a string of forts leading toward the much larger Fort Vallonia. These small structures were often within a half hour running distance of the next “fort,” and had an unobstructed view of the neighboring homestead. This allowed settlers to signal the next fort to warn them of conflicts and attacks.
Building the Replica String Fort
In the 1940s, Jim and Millie Heller hired the Wayman Builders to construct a log playhouse for their children Randy and Sally. The logs for this building were cut by John O. Shelton. This approximate one-third scale model of a string fort stood on the Heller property in Brownstown for more than 60 years, long after the Heller children and their friends were grown and many had moved away. In 2011, Joe Peters purchased the Heller property and was generous enough to donate the replica of the String Fort to the Jackson County History Center. In September of 2012, Carl Shake and the crew from Brownstown Electric Company moved the log structure to the pioneer village.]]>The Nentrup trading post served as an economic center for Jackson County in the early 19th century. It has been tentatively dated to around 1827 and was in use until 1857.
Its owner, who we believe was either named Joseph Henry or Joseph Herman Nentrup, was reported to have fled Hanover, Germany as a young man. He traveled to America via the tobacco schooner, The Caroline, which landed at Wilmington, North Carolina, in the fall of 1819 after having dropped its cargo in Europe and replaced it with passengers like Nentrup. With other immigrants like himself, Nentrup is reported to have walked more than 700 miles to Cincinnati, Ohio, arriving in early winter 1819. There he likely worked as a meat cutter before migrating west to Jackson County, Indiana. Upon his arrival, he camped out as a squatter on 160 acres in Driftwood Township, southwest of Brownstown in Jackson County.
The story goes that a party of travelers planning to settle further north stopped by Nentrup’s cabin. With the help of these travelers and other local residents, the Nentrup trading post was built. A now-lost diary is said to have described the trading post as made up of one room, 20 by 16 feet, with a stick and clay fireplace at one end, and shelves built around the walls to hold trading goods. Trading posts like these were very important as one of the only places in rural areas where goods could be acquired during this time period. What kind of goods would it have been important for such a place to keep in stock?
Moving the Trading Post
Much more research needs to be done to document the early history of this trading post. At some point before 1861 the structure was purchased by William Shoemaker and moved northward two miles where a second story of beech logs was added to the original poplar logs. The building later was moved a mile west of the Millport Road, possibly near the Muscatatuck River, and used as a grain and stock barn by the Turmail family. The Jackson County Historical Society purchased it in 1990, dismantled the logs, and reassembled the structure in Brownstown. This was the first building to be moved to the JCHC campus. ]]>The Pioneer Village that comprises the nucleus of the History Center Campus is named for Colonel John Ketcham (1782-1865). John Ketcham was born in Maryland in 1782. His family moved to northern Kentucky when he was a small child.
Although Ketcham only spent about seven years in the Jackson County area, he was influential in the establishment of Brownstown. In 1811, Ketcham, his wife Elizabeth, and their children built a fortified residence on White River, about five miles northeast of the fort at Vallonia, Indiana, in what is now Brownstown. From 1813-1815, he served with the Indiana Territorial Mounted Rangers, a militia whites organized to defend themselves from Miami, Delaware, Winnebago, and Kickapoo Indians who were being threatened by white settlers moving into the area and encroaching on Native lands.
For his service in the militia, Ketcham was named a Colonel of the militia by Governor (later U.S. President) William Henry Harrison. In 1816 he was appointed a judge. As a judge, he sold his private lands to the government to become the county seat. In 1818 he moved to Monroe County, Indiana, where he served in the State Legislature. Ketcham died in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1865.
The Ketcham Pioneer Village includes the Nentrup Trading Post, the String Fort Replica, a log cabin, and a meeting house. In the center there is a memorial to Revolutionary War soldiers from Jackson County.
]]>Initially built as a horse stable, the Livery Barn at the Jackson County History Center, has been used for a variety of purposes for more than a hundred years. In this stop, you'll learn a bit about the uses of the Barn throughout its history.
The Original Livery Barn
By the 1860s, visitors traveled to Brownstown, Jackson’s county seat, to conduct business. Many arrived via train which was an important method of travel into Brownstown. The train made its final stop in Ewing and people were brought the final mile into town by a horse-drawn trolley. Other visitors completed the whole journey by horse. The corner diagonally northeast of the Jackson County Courthouse had a livery barn before 1876 to care for the many horses that brought people into Brownstown.
Ownership of the livery barn changed hands several times in the late nineteenth century until Andrew F. and Charles F. Robertson bought it in 1895 for $1,975. Fire destroyed the Robertson & Robertson Livery Barn in 1899. The Robertsons, probably cousins, rebuilt within months. The new building was 70x80 feet, almost twice as large as the old one, The Brownstown Banner reported. The size suggests that demand for the livery’s services were high. The property changed ownership within the family several times and by 1904, Charles F. Robertson was the sole owner.
From Horse Stable to Automobile Sales and Repair Shop
Although people would continue to travel to Brownstown by horse as well, the arrival of the automobile in the early 20th century meant that people who drove cars to town needed access to repair services there. Robertson announced in 1912 that a 38 x 80 garage would be built between the stable and Thomas Barnum's blacksmithing and wagon-making shop on the alley north of the stable. As the Jackson County Banner observed in 1912, “With the number of automobiles owned in this vicinity and so many passing through here, the need for an up-to-date garage has been felt for some time." In early 1913, the opening of the Hackendorf and Robertson Garage was announced with Ford automobiles available for sale. The name of "Richards" was added to the garage in 1914 as an "elegant new Overland" was offered for sale. The Overland was a car produced in the early twentieth century in Indianapolis. The garage also offered "skilled mechanics." The building was used at this time for other purposes as well. Elmer N. Kestner offered his veterinarian services from the livery stable. The night policeman, William Shutts, made the barn his headquarters. An ad at the close of 1914 advertised "Automobile Repairing and Plumbing" services from the garage. The garage business was sold around 1916 and the business moved to Main Street.
From County Fair to Basketball Arena
With the garage moved to Main Street, by 1919 the livery was being used for cattle, horse, and mule exhibitions for the county fair. Calves were distributed from there late in 1919 for the Boys and Girls Calf Club. Baby chicks were sold on the corner in 1939. An announcement was made by Charles and Claude Robertson in the fall of 1921 that the garage building would be remodeled into "the best basketball floor" in the county. This would solve the need for a "basketball hall" that also could host district tournaments. There would be a 35 x 70 area for bleachers to seat a thousand as well as a playing floor. The roof was to be raised higher above the 12 foot high walls to accommodate basketball games. What is unknown today is whether basketball games were ever actually played here--hopefully one day we will be able to answer this question!
]]>Howard Hoagland Carmichael died in Rancho Mirage, California, on December 27, 1981. Although he had lived first in New York City and then in California since 1929, he chose to be buried next to his mother, father, and little sister Joanne in Bloomington.
Hoagy remained fond of his hometown and alma mater throughout his illustrious career. He frequently visited, donated money, and wrote commemorative songs. In 1937 he presented his “Chimes of Indiana” to Indiana University. When the football team won a place at the Rose Bowl in 1968, he wrote “To the Team,” which was performed by the IU Singing Hoosiers choir at several pre-game events. An accomplished amateur painter as well as a musician, Hoagy in the early 1970s executed a 5 foot by 7 foot painting of the “Constitution Elm” tree in Corydon, Indiana, a work that now hangs in the IU Memorial Union. His alma mater conveyed its appreciation of Hoagy’s achievements and loyalty by awarding him an honorary doctorate of music. That 1972 ceremony coincided with the dedication of the university’s new Musical Arts Center, which his donations had helped fund.
After Hoagy’s death, the Musical Arts Center became the site of the January 4, 1982 memorial service for Bloomington’s favorite son. Hundreds of people attended the event. Hoagy’s coffin was surrounded by flowers sent by President Ronald Reagan, Senator Barry Goldwater, and his college fraternity, Kappa Sigma, among others. Former classmate, band member, and fellow Bent Eagle Howard “Wad” Allen spoke of their formative years playing hot jazz and carousing at the Book Nook, and a faculty band played a medley of Carmichael songs. The climax came when soprano Sylvia McNair sang a single chorus of “Star Dust,” with Charles H. Webb, Dean of the School of Music, accompanying her at the piano.
According to biographer Richard Sudhalter, many of Hoagy’s songs express the “idea of home, a place where wandering ceases and the heart comes to rest.” When Hoagy Carmichael returned to Bloomington in 1982 to lie beside his parents and little sister, he finally found that resting place.
]]>Hoagy learned of Black life through socializing with Black communities in Indianapolis and Bloomington. He told a story in his autobiography The Stardust Road about spending many of those spring afternoons with friends out at Granny Campbell’s “drinking the home brew she dispensed.” Hoagy wrote, “Granny… had a sure touch with the malt and the hops and the yeast that went into the dark-brown potent home brew that she dispensed. But Granny had a misery; a misery or two and she used to sit in her old rocker and asked to be handed her own bottle. That old rockin’ chair had her.”
He claimed that after one such afternoon the lyrics to the song “Rockin Chair” began forming in his brain. The song later became a theme song for Native American (Couer d’Alene) musician Mildred Bailey, who sang it, and African American trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who played it. The 1925 Bloomington City Directory shows Irene and Harry Campbell living on the west side of Bloomington. In her younger days Irene worked as a laundress. By 1920, the Federal Census for Bloomington shows she was no longer working outside the home. The Bloomington City Directories show that Irene’s husband, Harry, changed jobs frequently in the 1920s. The downtown Bloomington business district and Indiana University expanded in the early 1900s, which put pressure on the existing east-side African-American neighborhood. Black renters were evicted as real estate developers bought out African-American property owners. African-Americans found themselves redlined into the newly developing neighborhood west of Rogers Street, now known as the West Side Historic District. The neighborhood consisted of small lots with vernacular home styles often available through catalogues like Sears and Roebuck. “There was not a realtor in town who’d show us anywhere else but there,” says Betty Bridgwaters. “People think that was the Dark Ages, but that wasn’t so long ago.” A member of the prominent Eagleson-Bridgwaters family, she knows the long, complex history of the Monroe County Black community. Despite the redlining, Black Bloomington residents created community in their new west-side neighborhood. Many men worked at the nearby Showers Brothers Furniture Factory, which relocated from the east side after a fire in 1884 to be near the Monon Railroad line. The Showers factory was one of the few businesses that employed Black residents at the time. They also worked in construction, at the Monon Railroad yards, and in service and retail jobs. The West Side District was and remains highly racially integrated. However, it became known as the home of Bloomington’s Black community and the location of many of its most important landmarks including the Banneker School, now a community center, Second Baptist Church, and Bethel AME church. Bloomington’s Black churches — Bethel AME Church, founded in 1870, and Second Baptist Church, founded in 1872 — were the anchors of the Black community. The Second Baptist Church, designed by Black architect Samuel Plato, was built in its current location at 8th and Rogers streets in 1913. It was the first stone church built by Black people in Indiana. In the 1920s, Bethel AME moved from its original church on East 6th Street to its new Art Deco–style limestone church at 7th and Rogers streets.
]]>Hoagy attended Indiana University from 1920-1926. His mother and grandmother encouraged him to study law as a more practical and reliable career than music. Hoagy obliged, but as a student at IU he put most of his time and energy into playing at dances, movie theatres, and other venues with his band Carmichael’s Collegians. Encouraged by the virtuoso cornetist Bix Beiderbeck, who first visited Bloomington in spring 1924 and became a close friend and important influence, Hoagy began to compose tunes. In May 1925, he and others recorded two of his songs, ”Washboard Blues” and “Boneyard Shuffle,” at the Gennett studio in Richmond, Indiana. Still, Hoagy kept to his legal studies, and after graduation in June 1926 he headed to Florida to practice law.
He found a job in the collections department of a Palm Beach law office, though he continued to play music gigs, including a ten-day cruise to Nassau and Havana, where he was excited by the rhumba music he heard there. When he failed the Florida bar exam he also lost his job, and 1927 found him back in Bloomington, once again living at his old fraternity house (Kappa Sigma), playing music and booking bands. He gave the law one more shot when he joined the firm of Bingham, Mendenhall & Bingham in Indianapolis, and he passed the Indiana bar exam in November 1927. By early 1929, however, he and the firm agreed that his destiny was not as a lawyer, and he was let go. Hoagy spent a few months in Los Angeles. Then in August of 1929 he traveled to New York City with the renowned Paul Whiteman orchestra (whose members included the crooner Bing Crosby). It was here in New York City over the next few years that Hoagy’s career as a composer and performer began to take off. He loved his student days at IU, but his musical extra-curricular activities, rather than his formal studies, were what prepared him for his life’s work.
]]>The Book Nook played a major role in Hoagy’s social life and musical career. A soda and sandwich shop popular among Indiana University students, the Book Nook was frequented by campus musicians who kept strict control over who was allowed to play the piano on site. When he was still in high school, Hoagy, who was already performing at local dances, began to spend time at the Book Nook as a “townie” outsider. One night he was invited to play the piano alongside Big Man on Campus Batty DeMarcus on saxophone. Hoagy’s performance won Batty’s approval, and he thereafter became an accepted member of the Book Nook inner circle. He became even more ensconced in the Book Nook community after he enrolled at IU in fall 1920. One influential friend of these years was William Moenkhaus. Moenkhaus had spent much of his childhood in Germany and Switzerland where he was exposed to the Dadaist art movement, with its rejection of bourgeois values and embrace of the absurd. Moenkhaus was a serious student of classical music and composition at IU, but outside of his formal studies he wrote whimsical, avant-garde pieces for The Vagabond campus magazine (under the pseudonym Wolfgang Beethoven Bunkhouse). He became the leader of a group of like-minded pranksters and rebels against conformity known as the Bent Eagles. Hot jazz, with its avant-garde, cross-racial overtones, fit in with Moenkhaus’s aesthetic, and Hoagy (a.k.a. Hogwash McCorkle) became a core member of the group, whose home base was the Book Nook. In June 1928, the Bent Eagles staged a Mock Graduation ceremony at the Book Nook, during which Hoagy was awarded a D.D. or "Doctor of Discord" degree. Hoagy, wearing a bathrobe and playing the cornet, participated in the “commencement” parade.
Hoagy spent many hours playing the Book Nook piano. According to legend, some of his first tunes were composed on it, including “Star Dust.” In his memoir Sometimes I Wonder, Hoagy claims that he was sitting on the “spooning wall” on the edge of campus one night in 1926, nursing a bruised heart after being jilted by Kathryn Moore, when the tune suddenly came to him. He ran to the Book Nook to work out the melody on the piano. Biographer Richard Sudhalter notes discrepancies in Hoagy’s and other people’s varying accounts of the composition and evolution of “Star Dust,” but he says that the Book Nook piano may well have been one of several Hoagy employed in developing his signature tune. When asked how to write a song, Hoagy said, “If you knew how to compose you wouldn’t be a composer. You don’t write the melodies. You find them. They lie there on the keys waiting for you. They have been there for centuries, and you are a composer or a writer if you know when you’ve found one.”Despite the importance of jazz for these noncomformists, Hoagy Carmichael and the other musicians playing at the Book Nook were playing for an all-white audience. Like most establishments of the time, it was racially segregated and did not permit Black customers. It would remain segregated until 1947, when Black IU student and football player George Taliaferro integrated the restaurant. ]]>Robert Harris’s Princess Theatre opened on June 23, 1913, with the photoplay Mlle. Coquette accompanied by a six piece orchestra. The program also featured chimes playing Ethelbert Nevin’s “The Rosary.” As the first built-from-the-ground-up-movie theatre in Bloomington, it featured a 400-seat auditorium which sloped in a semi-circle to the screen. During these early days the Princess was the only theatre to feature Edison Talking Pictures, the original “talkies,” along with popular silent films. In his autobiography Sometimes I Wonder, Hoagy described how his mother Lida helped supplement his father’s income by playing piano in the local movie theatres including the Princess, the Indiana, and the Wonderland. His mother, he said, “was dreamy, musical, and could rattle the eighty-eight keys of a piano with a speed and expertise that showed she wasn’t fooling. She accompanied the flickering celluloid epics of the day, busting out in fragments of Wagner for train wrecks and fires, bringing in the sobbing notes for Way Down East and giving the Indian Love Call its most cloying chords whenever the plot hinted of outdoor men enmeshed in turn-of-the-century sex.” When vaudeville acts, French girlie shows, and tramp comics came to play at town theatres, Lida Carmichael played accompaniment, knocking out the zoom, zam, boffs, and socks on the theatre piano. Hoagy reminisced that, because she played picture-show music, he was admitted free and considered himself the most important kid in town. Renovations to the Princess 1923-Present An enlarged and remodeled Princess Theatre reopened in 1923. The new theatre doubled the size of the auditorium and began featuring Indiana University jazz orchestras that performed in the evenings. A variety of notable musicians, including Hoagy Carmichael, headed those orchestras. In 1929, sound systems for Vitaphone and Movietone were installed and the Princess became a “talkie” theatre. The stock market crash and depression closed many theatres throughout the country, but the Princess remained open. The façade of the theatre was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The front half of the auditorium and stage walls collapsed in 1985. This area was razed and condominiums and commercial storeroom facilities were constructed in their place. The area that once contained the foyer and lobby has been renovated throughout the years for use as a variety of restaurants and was most recently home to a restaurant called the Village Pub.
]]>In his unpublished memoir Jazzbanders, Hoagy said of his hometown, “Bloomington offered everything. Creeks, ponds, rabbits, circuses and wide open spaces. I could cross a dusty street here in my bare feet without the aid of a traffic cop.” The Carmichaels lived close to the IU campus. As a boy Hoagy played baseball in the summer and football in autumn on Dunn Meadow.
According to his account (as reported in Sudhalter’s Stardust Melody), Hoagy's breakthrough as a pianist came one rainy summer day. He was home in the family parlor after his baseball game on Dunn Meadow had been cancelled. The sound of the bells in the IU clock tower playing “Hail to Old I.U.” struck his ears. Suddenly he began to pick out the tune on his mother’s piano. Although he had heard his mother play all of his young life, this was the first time it occurred to him to try playing it himself. His mother had not wanted to impose her interest on the boy. However, when she discovered his own passion and aptitude for the instrument she was thrilled and began teaching him the keyboard. From this point on, Hoagy’s love of music grew apace. The rained-out baseball game on Dunn Meadow proved to be a blessing in disguise!
]]>The house on Dunn Street is one of several homes where the Carmichael family lived during Hoagy’s childhood. Born in Bloomington on November 22, 1899, Howard Hoagland was the first child and only son of Howard Clyde (“Cyclone”) and Mary Lida Robison Carmichael. Three girls were to follow. The youngest of them, Joanne, died when she was three, much to her brother’s distress. He blamed her death on the family’s poverty and wrote on the back of a photo of her that her loss made him vow, “I would never be broke again in my lifetime.”
Cyclone Carmichael held a number of jobs, none of which seemed to last long or pay well. He periodically uprooted the family in pursuit of better opportunities. In 1904 they moved to Indianapolis but were back in Bloomington two years later. A more dramatic move came in 1910 when Cyclone transported the family to Missoula, Montana. It was a vast, cold, and sparsely populated area that ten-year-old Hoagy found bleak and forbidding. As his eldest son Hoagy Bix later recounted, however, the boy discovered that Black musicians played hot ragtime on pianos in local brothels. Hoagy would steal there to listen to them, without his mother’s knowledge. By spring 1911, much to Hoagy’s relief, his father’s Montana dream had ended. The family was back in Bloomington, first at the Dunn Street house again and then at 325 South Fess Avenue, just two blocks away.
Hoagy’s mother Lida was a skilled pianist. She supplemented the family income by playing at silent movie theaters as well as fraternity and sorority parties on the IU campus, frequently accompanied by her son. Hoagy didn’t reveal a special interest in music, however, until he was eleven years old. He claims he became fascinated with the song “Little Boy Blue” and asked his mother to teach him to sing it. She later taught him to play the piano as well. Their mutual love of music became a lifelong bond between Hoagy and Lida.
In 1916 Cyclone Carmichael once again moved the family to Indianapolis. This disrupted the social and musical life Hoagy, now in high school, had begun to enjoy. He dropped out of Manual High School in Indianapolis when he was sixteen. He then worked a series of jobs on a construction crew, assembly line, and, most grimly, in a slaughterhouse. In early 1919, at the age of eighteen, Hoagy returned to Bloomington. He lived with his Robison grandparents at 907 Atwater St., and re-entered high school, from which he finally graduated in 1920.
]]>Independent Invention
Mishawaka-born Wallace Harlow Dodge earned his reputation as an inventor when he patented the Magic Jack in 1878, which became the leading jack for performing wagon maintenance. With the help of his younger brother, William, they incorporated the Dodge Manufacturing Company in 1880 (not to be confused with Dodge automobiles). The brothers continued making jacks and other wood hardware tools, until they patented the Independence Pulley on July 4th, 1882. This wood pulley introduced a new efficient method of making pulleys, becoming Dodge’s signature product.
Most companies made pulleys to order with cast iron molds. But, Dodge set themselves apart when their factory was struck by lightning and burned down in 1881. During its reconstruction, Wallace Dodge made new pulleys out of wood to aid the process. In the new factory, he decided to make wooden pulleys that came in universal sizes. Having standard sizes allowed Dodge to produce stock and speed up turnover on orders. Trusting his invention, Wallace decided that Dodge Manufacturing would solely produce the wood Independence Pulley. The decision proved favorable, and the pulley’s success gave their products a place in global markets.
1893 World’s Fair and Other Opportunities
The first World’s Fair to have electricity was the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, held in Chicago. For the fair, Dodge Manufacturing made the largest rope engine to date. It powered the fair by generating more electricity in one day than was usually used in the entire city. The engine used Independence Pulleys to accomplish the feat.
Dodge’s ongoing success allowed them to expand their location in Mishawaka. By 1902, the Dodge Manufacturing plant consisted of 40 buildings across 65 acres of land. Yet, the company did not limit themselves to Mishawaka, they also established branches throughout the United States.
Construction on the final Dodge building in Mishawaka finished in 1965, but soon after, the Dodge company was on the decline. Reliance Electric Company purchased Dodge Manufacturing in 1967. They operated under Reliance and continued to use its Mishawaka factory until 1999. The Reliance Electric Company was purchased by different firms until finding its current home with the Swiss-Swedish technological company ABB. Even today, ABB continues the production of transmission equipment, carrying Wallace H. Dodge’s name and innovation into the 21st century.
]]>Sitting just south of downtown South Bend, the Bowman Creek area has been a business magnet since the 1860s. The creek supplying water and proximity to the river and rail lines made it an attractive location for local entrepreneurs including a power company, a toy factory, furniture manufacturing, and bait production.
South Bend Gas and Light 1868-Today
The oldest company located at Bowman Creek is the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), which has provided natural gas and electric service to northern Indiana for over 150 years. It was originally established by the Studebaker Brothers as the South Bend Gas Light Company in 1868. It was reorganized as NIPSCO in 1912 and still operates today.
South Bend Toy Company 1888-1985
The South Bend Toy Company began operating under that name in 1888. Founded by Frederick Badet and John Teel in 1874, the company found early success manufacturing croquet sets, an activity which was gaining popularity at the time. Other hits were child-sized copies of the famous Studebaker wagons. The company took on military contracts to produce tent poles and packaging during WWII, but baby carriages were considered “essential” and their production continued during the war. In 1968, the company was acquired by Milton Bradley who moved production further from downtown in 1973. Unable to compete with inexpensive toys imported from China, it ultimately closed in 1985.
Shidler Brothers Furniture 1896-1963
Founded in 1896 by Adam and Willard Shidler, the Shidler Brothers Furniture Company began by manufacturing furniture, but in 1924 a portion of the space was devoted to retail. In 1937 manufacturing was discontinued to focus on retail. A massive four-floor 600,000 square foot establishment was opened one mile north in downtown South Bend. Shidler Brothers Furniture went out of business in 1963. Today, the former warehouse at Bowman Creek houses the LangLab facility.
South Bend Bait 1901-1965
One of the latest additions to Bowman Creek was South Bend Bait, founded in 1901 as the Worden Bait Company. Founder Frank G. Worden’s innovative designs incorporated spinners at the front and rear of his wooden lures. In 1908, the company changed hands and was renamed the South Bend Bait Company, eventually moving to Bowman Creek. In the late 1920s the factory employed 400 people. In 1955, the name changed again to South Bend Tackle to dispel the connection with live bait. 10 years later, production ceased in South Bend, however, even today a variety of fishing tackle products are sold under the same name by a Chicago company.
Bowman Creek Today
After years of decline and neglect, the area is experiencing a revival anchored by a multi-use office and entertainment space called LangLab, sparking a new generation of entrepreneurship at Bowman Creek.
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