Moment of Indiana History
shows Archive
May 21, 2007
![]()
Billy Sunday
During the last century, a preacher named Billy emerged as a world-renowned evangelist. But it’s not the Billy one might imagine. As if predestined by his surname, Billy Sunday brought “old time religion” to an estimated 100 million people without the benefit of television or electric amplification. Sunday’s career was intertwined with that of Winona Lake, in Kosciusko County, a mecca of religious and cultural activity from the 1890s through the 1930s.
May 14, 2007
![]()
Winona Lake
The turn-of-the-century phenomenon known as Chautauqua was uniquely American in its blend of religion and entertainment, politics and culture, and the bucolic enjoyment provided by the booming railroad industry. The Winona Lake Chautauqua was no exception.
May 7, 2007
![]()
Letterman Scholarship
For the last twenty years, students with so-so grades have taken heart in a rumor involving Ball State University and a certain gap-toothed late-night talk show host. According to urban legend, Hoosier native David Letterman established a scholarship at his alma mater for students with nothing better, or worse, than a “C” average. The rumor has insinuated itself so thoroughly into reality that the apocryphal “C”- average scholarship has been listed on the Internet and discussed at college financial aid sessions.
April 23, 2007
![]()
Island Park Assembly
President Theodore Roosevelt called it “the most American thing in America.” With its passing, it’s been said, “the American middle class in the interior lost something valuable.” The Chautauqua movement brought religion, politics, culture and entertainment to small towns and rural outposts across the United States from the 1870s through the 1920s.
April 16, 2007
![]()
Rhoda Coffin
Though her likeness has never graced a coin, a Quaker woman who made significant advances for women’s rights spent much of her adult life in Indiana. An Orthodox Quaker belonging to Richmond, Indiana’s upper crust, Rhoda Coffin devoted herself to the improvement of less fortunate women’s lives. Born in Ohio in 1826, Rhoda came to Indiana at age 18 to attend the Whitewater Monthly Meeting School in Richmond, at that time the center of Quaker activity in the Midwest.
April 9, 2007
![]()
Trail of Death
Many are acquainted with the Trail of Tears, the forced migration of 15,000 Cherokees from the Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma in 1838. But another deadly exodus of Native Americans began in Indiana that same year. Part of the Algonquian group of Indians, Potawatomi people were living in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana at the start of the nineteenth century.
April 2, 2007
![]()
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
![]()
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
![]()
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
![]()
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.
