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Formed just before the Civil War, the Brazil Concert Band is the oldest continuously performing concert band in Indiana. The collection of amateur and professional musicians that brings the Forest Park Bandshell to life Sunday evenings each summer got its start in 1858.
A philanthropic campaign undertaken a century ago left a permanent mark on the American urban landscape. From 1890 to1917, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie donated funds for the construction of 1679 public libraries in towns and cities across the country—not to mention 830 others around the world.
The anti-communist climate that prevailed during the post-war period in the United States may be most vividly represented by the investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee. A somewhat less familiar manifestation of Cold War uneasiness was the John Birch Society. The still-active conservative political advocacy group had its start in Indiana.
A family graveyard in the northwest corner of Monroe County, Indiana serves as the final resting place for two veterans of the American Revolution. While their legacy endures, their physical presence would almost certainly have been overshadowed by that of a Civil War soldier also buried in the Buskirk/Abel/Wampler cemetery. David Van Buskirk, better known as “Big Dave” or the “Big Lieutenant,” was reportedly the tallest man in the Union Army.