Moment of Indiana History
podcasts Archive
April 2, 2007
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Monon Railroad
Those who follow college football know that the Monon Bell represents the long-time rivalry between DePauw and Wabash Colleges. The 300-pound locomotive bell, first awarded as a trophy in 1932, was a gift from the Monon Railroad. Founded in 1847 as the New Albany and Salem Railroad, the Monon provided service from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River by 1853.
March 26, 2007
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Vigo Bioweapons Plant
Current events have reacquainted Hoosiers with the state’s role in the history of US manufacture of chemical weapons. Since 2005, the Army has been neutralizing a stockpile of V-X nerve agent that had been made and stored at the Newport Chemical Depot since the 60s.
March 19, 2007
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Decatur Courthouse
In June 2006, the Honda Corporation gave Indiana history buffs—not to mention economic forecasters—something to talk about. When officials at the Japan-based car manufacturer announced plans for the construction of a new vehicle assembly plant in Greensburg, Indiana, their promotions team produced a distinctive image.
March 12, 2007
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Henry Ferguson
As it turns out, Colonel Sanders’ life story shares some fascinating parallels with that of a different colonel, for whom Sanders’ hometown was named. A one-time colonel of a regiment of Pennsylvania militia, Henry Ferguson came to Indiana in 1840, purchasing land in the vicinity of present-day Henryville.
March 5, 2007
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Colonel Sanders
Drivers pulling off the Interstate for a quick meal might be induced to make it KFC, or Kentucky Fried Chicken, in the hopes of savoring a home-style Southern dinner. Although its name might inspire nostalgia for the Bluegrass State, Kentucky Fried Chicken first opened its doors in South Salt Lake, Utah in 1952. That restaurant was a franchise sold by Harland Sanders, a 62-year-old native of Henryville, Indiana.
February 26, 2007
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Studebaker
The Studebaker Manufacturing Company may be considered the godfather of Indiana auto makers, a cadre that once included such names as Stutz, Cord, and Duesenberg. The company was started by a family of Pennsylvania Germans, who set up a blacksmithing shop at the corner of Michigan and Jefferson Streets in downtown South Bend in 1852. Soon, the company was producing the horse-drawn carriages that delivered a nation of pioneers to their new life out West.
February 19, 2007
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Jessamyn West
A Californian from the age of six, writer Jessamyn West answered to a Hoosier muse. Having left Vernon, Indiana with her family in 1908 to resettle in southern California, West is best remembered for her fictional accounts of pioneer life in Indiana.
February 12, 2007
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Charlestown Powder Plant
Even before the U.S. officially entered the second world war, Congress authorized increased spending for the manufacture of arms for sale to the allied forces. The passage of the first national defense appropriations act in June 1940 quickly resulted in the construction of the world’s largest smokeless powder plant near Charlestown, Indiana.
February 5, 2007
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Edward Eggleston: The Hoosier Schoolmaster
The eldest son of a prominent Virginian, Edward Eggleston was born in Vevay, Indiana on the Ohio River in 1837. Eggleston’s novel The Hoosier Schoolmaster is recognized as a flagship of the regionalist literature that flourished in the United States after the Civil War.
February 5, 2007
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Breaking Away
Bloomington, Indiana provided not only the setting for the film Breaking Away, but its subject matter as well.
