All Stories: 443
Stories
Bethel Jeff (Jeffersonville)
Jeffersonville AME was organized in Claysburg by 1842, where the Black ‘Claysburg settlement’ was founded around the same time. Bethel Jeffersonville is on the ‘Paul Quinn Circuit,’ named after Bishop William Paul Quinn one of Indiana’s AME…
Bethel AME (Franklin)
Franklin AME was organized in 1867 by Pastor W.S. Lankford from the Indianapolis congregation. However, Franklin is also recorded as having around four congregants from 1840-45. Despite this, the majority of Franklin’s Black residents came after…
Bethel AME (Lafayette)
Lafayette AME Congregation was organized around the 1840s. Their trustees, including Daniel Brown, David Mitchell, Charles Sprangler, John Homes, Hazel Cummins, Robert Burt, and Jacob Skipworth purchased a half lot on Cincinnati Street. By the next…
Allen Chapel AME (Terre Haute)
Terre Haute’s Allen Chapel of the AME Church has stood at Third and Crawford Streets since 1870. However, the Terre Haute Congregation goes back to 1837, being housed in a small white church. Founding congregants enlisted the help of Rev. William…
Bethel AME (Corydon)
St. Paul AME has stood at the corner of Maple and High Streets since 1975. Yet, the history of AME in Corydon goes back to 1843, when free Blacks and former slaves established the congregation. From 1840-45, Corydon was recorded as having around 12…
The Beech Church (Carthage)
The Blue River Congregation of Rush County goes back to 1832 when the early congregants resolved to adopt the AME Church as their denomination. Early leaders included Bishop Morris Brown and Rev. William Paul Quinn. The Blue River Church initially…
Bethel AME (Richmond)
Founded in 1836 by traveling Bishop William Paul Quinn, Bethel Richmond’s Church has served the community for almost two centuries. Early church leaders include Cornelius Overman and George Black. After receiving a lot from Gardner Mendenhall, Quinn…
The Old Dam
The Wabash River has been integral part of life in New Harmony for hundreds of years. In 1815, the Harmonists, New Harmony’s first utopian society, built a dam on the river to power their grist mill. They also transported their goods to be sold…
Super Gage and the History of Floods in New Harmony
At over 500 miles long and spanning the entire length of Indiana, the Wabash River is the largest river in the state. More than 65% of Hoosiers live within its watershed and the Wabash and its tributaries provide drinking water for 72% of counties…
Twelve Points
The Twelve Points story is an epic tale of courage and tragedy. It compels us into its journey through days of decline and ruin into triumphant rebirth. It’s the story of hope every small town or sinking neighborhood dreams of. Through a series of…
Birthplace of the Coca-Cola Contour Bottle
In 1915, Earl R. Dean of the Root Glass Company sketched out his idea for a Coca-Cola bottle design contest. His design was inspired by an image of a cocoa pod, which he found in a book at the Emeline Fairbanks Library. Dean managed to create a…
Memorial Stadium
Originally the location of Terre Haute’s famous annual 4th of July mile race, the old four-corner track had been the ideal racing center for harness racing in this part of the Midwest. Surely one of the proudest moments in Terre Haute history was…
State Normal School/Indiana State University
Indiana State University was established in 1865 as Indiana State Normal School. As a “normal school,” its purpose was training elementary and high school teachers. Teaching methods reflected those used in a real-life classroom. Some of Terre…
7th & Wabash Crossroads of America
7th and Wabash in Terre Haute is known as the Crossroads of America because it is where two historically important roadways, U.S. Highway 41 and U.S. Highway 40, intersect. Highway 40 is the Old National Road, built in the 1800s to provide fast and…
Wabash River
At 503 miles long, the Wabash River originates in Ohio and flows westward through Indiana. It travels south along the Illinois border, eventually meeting the Ohio River. The river’s natural flow made it the easiest way to travel for early settlers.…
Vigo County Courthouse
With its stately limestone and use of both Ionic and Corinthian columns, the County Courthouse is a superb example of neo-Baroque architecture. The Courthouse was designed by Samuel Hannaford, who was born in England in the spring of 1835, but…
If These Walls Could Talk: City Hall, Lake County Courthouse, and Gary’s Colorful Political History
Both Gary’s City Hall and the nearby Lake County Courthouse building, whose Grecian-Doric designs can seem identical to those driving on the Indiana Toll Road, were part of Gary’s Gateway Development Project, which began in 1924. These two buildings…
5th Avenue Apartments
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), the West 5th Avenue Apartments Historic District is located west of Broadway and includes over 11 blocks of approximately 40 brick apartment structures, most standing at least four stories…
Memorial Auditorium
Memorial Auditorium, located in Gary’s downtown, was built in 1927 and for 43 years, it served as the city’s only convention and social center, gymnasium, art gallery, music, and performing arts center. The Auditorium represents Gary’s building…
The Emerson School Strike of 1927 in Gary
School strikes by students for any reason are rare in the history of the United States. Gary is unique in that it has had two school strikes, both motivated by white racism, in its history. Gary had one of the highest percentages of African American…
The Experience of Manual Laborers: At the Bottom of the Rail in Gary
In 1910, 49.1% of Gary’s population was born outside the U.S. 71% of the population was either foreign-born or born in the U.S. with at least one parent who was born outside the U.S. Most of the manual workers at Gary Works were immigrants from…
The Steel Strike of 1919 in Gary
On September 22, 1919, workers employed by the US Steel Corporation laid down their tools and abandoned their jobs in the steel factories. Stretching from Chicago and St. Louis to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the strikers would ultimately include…
Building a City for Workers
The Gary Land Company’s First Subdivision covered the area from just south of the Steel Mill Entrance south to the Wabash tracks (9th Avenue), and from Tennessee Street west to Fillmore Street. In the First Subdivision, restrictions and controls…
Construction of the Town
US Steel needed laborers to build its steel mill and the city of Gary. A subsidiary of the steel mills, the Gary Land Company was tasked with constructing the town as well as housing for its workers. The Gary Land Company hired engineers such as…
Construction of the Mill
Unlike other well-known centers of industry, such as Pittsburgh or Detroit, where the cities significantly predated the beginning of industrial development in those areas, Gary’s history as a city begins with US Steel. In the early twentieth…
Crothersville Depot
Crothersville is a small town on the edge of Jackson County. Its name was originally Haysville but after being offered the opportunity to have a depot built if the town’s name was changed, it became Crothersville after the Jeffersonville Railroad…
Reno Gang Graves
The Reno Gang of Seymour, Indiana began with brothers John, Frank, William, and Simeon Reno. When Seymour founder Meedy Shields authored a legislative bill ensuring that all trains using the Ohio and Mississippi Railway should stop in Seymour for…
Blish Milling Company Grain Silos
All that remains today of the Blish Milling Company are the towering 109-foot tall grain silos at Tipton Street and the north-south railroad tracks in Seymour, Indiana. Built in May of 1939 of steel-reinforced concrete, the silos which can hold…
Eisenhower Funeral Train
The crowd began to gather early on April 1, 1969, waiting for a train bound west to Abilene, Kansas. It was cold and drizzly, but that didn’t prevent thousands of people from paying their final respects to World War II General and former President…
Fitch's Tolu Chewing Gum Factory
Asa M. Fitch was a multi-patented inventor. Among his inventions were a wheeled plow whose depth could be adjusted, a box, and a children’s educational card game which included various bird and animal species. In Seymour, Indiana, his major…