A page of photos with anything from car accidents and construction projects to family reunions and fishermen showing off their catch was published every Sunday in the early 1900s Journal Gazette newspapers. Several examples from the 1916s and 1917s are seen in the Early 1900s: Journal Gazette Picture Pages by Corey McMaken published April 11, 2019 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.
On page 37 in the book "Postcard History Series: Fort Wayne" by Randolph L. Harter "In 1910, at the time when the population of Fort Wayne was 63,000 people, there were 197 saloons, an amazing 39 of which were located on Calhoun Street alone. Most saloons, or as they were sometimes euphemistically called, sample rooms..." February 8, 2024 post on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook. See Fort Wayne by Randolph L. Harter · 2013 Google eBook .
On September 21, 1910, one of the deadliest interurban crashes occurred on the sharp curve of track near Kingsland. A car, empty except for crew members, collided with another car carrying passengers from Bluffton to the Fort Wayne County Fair. Upon impact, the emptier car rode atop the full car, ripping the top off of it.
Because of Kingsland's remoteness, no physician was available to treat the victims, and train cars could not transport doctors until an hour and a half after the crash that took the lives of over forty passengers. Survivor John Boyd recalled, "There was a splintering crush, a dull, grinding as wood and iron resolved themselves into a mass of wreckage and mingled themselves with human blood and flesh and bones." A 2014 Indy Star article noted that a crash investigation found that dispatchers failed to monitor the extra cars on the track that day.
On Oct. 23, 1910, Blanche Stuart Scott became the first American woman to make a solo public flight when she flew across the Fort Wayne Driving Association's field. On October 24, 1910, she made her debut as a member of the Curtiss exhibition team at an air meet in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She was the first woman to fly at a public event in America. Her exhibition flying earned her the nickname "Tomboy of the Air". Copied from Blanche Scott on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
HISTORY JOURNAL On Oct. 23, 1910, Blanche Stuart Scott became the first American woman to make a solo public flight when she sailed across the Fort Wayne Driving Association's field. Read more:
On October 23, 1910, the first woman to make a public flight, Blanche Stuart Scott, flew from Fort Wayne, Indiana. She flew a bi-plane similar to the one pictured below!
The First Christmas in Fort Wayne, When Land was New There Were Mutterings and Dis-Quiet Among the Defeated Red Men.
Much is left to the imagination in the now meager accounts of first winter spent by the troops in the new garrison of Fort Wayne, back in 1794 and 1795, and there are, no popular reports reminiscences at hand of that first Christmas. Yet the imagination does not have to search far for an idea, a word picture and a mind portrait of that first mid-winter holiday in the old blockhouse and stockades, with their Indians, their French, and American soldiers, battle-scarred veterans that they were.
Fortunately the page is fairly easy to read online by clicking and zooming the page online or reading the mostly accurate OCR at the bottom of the page.
A Trip Through New York City in 1911 by https://shir-man.com posted Feb 23, 2020 on YouTube
1911 New York footage taken by the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern on a trip to America. Colorized and sound added for the ambiance and do not represent real historical data. The film gives a visual look at what city life might have been like for people living during this time. Found in a comment for a shorter version of this video posted January 24, 2022 by Old Photos on Facebook and May 18, 2022 by Dead Fred's Genealogy Photo Archive on Facebook.
Restored footage of areas of New York City, United States filmed in 1911. See pedestrians of the past walking the streets of NYC. This footage was filmed by cameramen working for the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern, who were sent around the world to document notable cities and landmarks. Locations include the Flatiron building, Chinatown, City Hall Park, Battery Park, Broadway, and the New York Herald Building. Footage frame rate increased, upscaled and “colorized” by HistoryColored using AI technology. Please note the color added is not necessarily historically accurate. Footage originally from: New York 1911, Wikimedia Commons Music: Ever So Blue / Verses / Epidemic Sound #history #restored #nyc #newyorkcity
Restored footage of areas of New York City, United States filmed in 1911. See pedestrians of the past walking the streets of NYC. This footage was filmed by cameramen working for the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern, who were sent around the world to document notable cities and landmarks. Locations include the Flatiron building, Chinatown, City Hall Park, Battery Park, Broadway, and the New York Herald Building.
Footage frame rate increased, upscaled and “colorized” by HistoryColored using AI technology. Please note the color added is not necessarily historically accurate.
Footage originally from: New York 1911, Wikimedia Commons
8:55 minute video File:New York 1911.webm New York 1911. Documentary travelogue of New York City by a team of cameramen with the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern. Museum of Modern Art's restoration of New York 1911 is derived from the original nitrate print of the film. Silent. on Wikimedia Commons.org.
With the spring weather finally here and the birds chirping outside our windows, it’s the perfect time to remember ornithologist Jane L. (Brooks) Hine, “the bird woman of Indiana.” An early conservation advocate, Hine published a beautiful collection of articles on Indiana’s native bird species in 1911 at the age of eighty. Visit the Indiana History Blog to read about the impact of her late-in-life career, view her stunning images of Indiana birds, and learn how she became a widely respected ornithologist in an era when women were denied entry to most scientific programs and organizations: “If Even a Sparrow Should Fall:” The Conservation Work of Ornithologist Jane L. Hine.
Image citation: Jane L. Hine, “Game and Land Birds of an Indiana Farm,” 1911, GoogleBooks.
1911 - By 1911 doctors had recorded 193 Lysol poisonings and five deaths from uterine irrigation. Despite reports to the contrary, Lysol was aggressively marketed to women as safe and gentle. Once cresol was replaced with ortho-hydroxydiphenyl in the formula, Lysol was pushed as a germicide good for cleaning toilet bowls and treating ringworm, and Lehn & Fink’s, the company that made the disinfectant, continued to market it as safeguard for women’s “dainty feminine allure. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lysol isn’t even an effective contraceptive.”
These ads aren’t frightening women into thinking their genitals smell badly. According to historian Andrea Tone, “feminine hygiene” was a euphemism. Birth control was illegal in the U.S. until 1965 (for married couples) and 1972 (for single people). These Lysol ads are actually for contraception. The campaign made Lysol the best-selling method of contraception during the Great Depression.
1912 - the Star-Spangled Banner was gifted to the Smithsonian Institution formerly on loan since 1907 from New York stockbroker Eben Appleton who inherited it in 1878 upon his mother's death. From the Smithsonian National Museum of American History blog.
These 4 newspaper pages capture how the sinking of the Titanic was covered in the United States, Canada, England, and Australia in the days after it occurred on April 15, 1912.
1912, April - Less than a month after the sinking of the Titanic, Jay Henry Mowbray was selling his book "Sinking of The 'Titanic'"(1912) . It was heavy on sensational prose and light on fact.
On this day in 1912, the RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Less than a month later, Jay Henry Mowbray was selling his book "Sinking of The 'Titanic'"(1912) . It was heavy on sensational prose and light on fact. The book narrates a contemporaneous event through a collage of sources, like government hearings or embellished descriptions, coalesced by writers, then sold door-to-door as soon as possible.
1912, July 4 - ACCOUNT BY J. M. STOUDER. July 4, 1912, will hereafter be memorable to the citizens of Fort Wayne and Allen county. On that day Albert and Charles Loch- ner uncovered the grave of Little Turtle, the great Miami war chief. The brothers had contracted to build a house for Dr. George W. Gillie on Lawton place, and in digging the cellar uncovered several Indian graves. Noticing that whatever was in the graves was appropriated by the laborers, the contractors called off the crew and with the assistance of Dr. George W. Gillie dug the drain in which the grave of Little Turtle was found. The finders had no idea of the identity of the body. The skull was carefully kept and presented to Dr. M. W. Ivins, dentist at 1118 Rivermet avenue, who had requested the Lochner brothers to save a good specimen for him. The balance of the remains were scattered and carried away by the curious as mementos. Copied from 3-page article Stouder, J. M. (1912). The Grave of Little Turtle. Indiana Magazine of History. Retrieved from Stouder, J. M. (1912). The Grave of Little Turtle. Indiana Magazine of History. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/5813. At Indiana Magazine of History journal in the archives at Indiana University Scholarworks.
1912, September 1 - Carl G. Fisher announced his proposal for a transcontinental highway at a dinner party for automobile manufacturers, which took place at Indianapolis' Deutsche Haus. A proponent of the Good Roads movement, he proclaimed, “A road across the United States! Let’s build it before we’re too old to enjoy it!” The construction of U.S. transcontinental roads, including the east-west Lincoln Highway and north-south Dixie Highway, enabled long-distance travel by automobile. Learn more about the Good Roads MovementThey also included an image showing Fisher’s portrait from the Lincoln Highway Association, courtesy of the University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Copied from a September 1, 2022 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook.
1912, October 14 - Theodore Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The bullet tore through his overcoat, pierced the manuscript of his speech, flattened his steel spectacle case, and drove into his chest. Despite his wound, Roosevelt still insisted on making his scheduled speech. From October 14, 2014 post on American Experience on Facebook. See also The Speech That Saved Teddy Roosevelt's Life by Patricia O'Toole published in November 2012 on Smithsonian.com.
on and after January 1 [1913]. For on that date the parcels post law goes into effect and people are now waking up to the fact that they can send almost anything through the mails when this new postal department is in working order. Children weighing less than eleven pounds may be stamped and delivered by Uncle Sam at their nurseries and kittens may be sent back and forth between homes where children want the pussies to play with.
1913 - Fred W. Wolf of Fort Wayne, Indiana, invents the first refrigerator for home use, a small unit mounted on top of an old-fashioned icebox and requiring external plumbing connections. Copied from Household Appliances Timeline on greatachievements.org.
~Inexpensive for the period, these dress designs, made from the least Inexpensive of available fabrics, came about the period before dresses were alo being made from flour sacks.
~Flour sack dresses, also known as feed sack dresses, were a common clothing item in rural US and Canadian communities from the 19th century to the 1960s.
~Women would often make these dresses at home using cotton sacks that contained flour, sugar, animal feed, seeds, and other commodities. This trend began when women began using cotton flour sacks to make dresses and shirts for their children.
~Farm families were known for being creative and using what they had. Women would use feed sacks and flour bags to make dresses, underwear, towels, curtains, quilts, and other household necessities.
~Flour sack dresses were a way for rural women to show off their fashion sense while being frugal. Women continued to sew garments out of feed sacks through the 1930s until World War 2, when production of cotton feed sacks was largely converted to paper bags.
**I'll be posting some photos of dresses made with flour sacks in the near future.
Starting in 1953, Cotton Bag Sewing Contests were sponsored by the National Cotton Council and the Textile Bag Manufacturers Association. They awarded prizes for the best clothing made from feed sacks, These contests continued into the early 1960s.
When I was a boy, I remember my mother remarking that when she was growing up she wore dresses that her mother made out of feed sacks. I imagined her wearing burlap dresses with the name of our local feed store printed on them. The reality of feed sack fabric is more interesting.
In the mid to late 19th century cotton sacks began replacing barrels as feed containers. Homemakers weren’t going to let that cotton go to waste, so they used it to make quilts and undergarments. At that time the sacks were plain and usually had a brand name printed on them. They would not have made attractive dresses.
But manufacturers soon saw a marketing opportunity and in the mid-1920’s they began printing colorful designs on their sacks, making them attractive fabric for pillowcases, dresses and aprons. They pasted paper labels on the sacks, which could be easily removed. With women doing most of the shopping and sewing, fierce competition arose among manufacturers to produce the most desirable fabric for their bags and women buying sacks of flour or feed would have had many attractive options to choose from. People of that time may have wished they could afford “store-made” clothes, but being dressed in feed sack cloth wasn’t nearly as awful as it may sound today.
By the 1960’s paper bags were replacing cloth, and fewer women were making clothes at home. Thus, the days of feed-sack fabric came to an end.
Just a few weeks after Parcel Post began, an Ohio couple named Jesse and Mathilda Beagle “mailed” their 8-month-old son James to his grandmother, who lived just a few miles away in Batavia. See June 14, 1913 and February 19, 1914.
A comment to a similar post February 22, 2024 mentioned a Woody Guthrie song sung by Pete Seeger with the lyrics: "I'm gonna wrap myself in paper, I'm gonna spread some glue, put some stamps all over my fore-head, and I'm gonna mail myself to you!"
1913, February 3 - three-quarters of the states ratified the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Indiana ratified it January 30, 1911 from Wikipedia. It was certified by Secretary of State Philander C. Knox on February 25, 1913. In 1861, the Civil War prompted the first American income tax, a flat 3 percent on all incomes over $800. In 1894, Congress enacted a 2-percent tax on annual income over $4,000, but it was quickly struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. July 12, 1909, Congress passed a joint congressional resolution proposing an income tax amendment. The first Internal Revenue Bureau Form 1040, as provided by Public Law 63-16, was approved October 3, 1913. From The 16th Amendment and 100 years of Federal income taxes on the The National Archives Prologue: Pieces of History blog.
Feb. 10, 1913. Fort Wayne News - [ Smoke From Dump Fire Enveloped City - Fire on Clinton Street Dump Last Night - dump has been on fire for years - this location is now Headwaters Park ]
1913, February 25 - 16th Amendment to the Constitution adopted (graduated income tax).
1913, Februay 26
#OTD in 1913, after years of lobbying by Evansville reformer Albion Fellows Bacon, the Indiana General Assembly passed...
#OTD in 1913, after years of lobbying by Evansville reformer Albion Fellows Bacon, the Indiana General Assembly passed S.B. 118. The law applied specifically to tenement houses and required landlords to provide adequate ventilation, waste disposal, and fire protection. Bacon’s visits to Indiana slums alerted her to abhorrent housing conditions that facilitated the spread of disease and impacted the welfare of children. She then delivered lectures in nearly every city in Indiana about the need for “’a sanitary measure in the interest of public health, public morals and public safety.’”
Although her bill had been defeated twice by the Indiana General Assembly, she mounted a wave of support for the 1913 session. This coalition was comprised of suffragists and women’s clubs, the State Board of Heath, Commercial Club, Indianapolis News, Anti-Tuberculosis Society, Governor Ralston, prominent businessman Thomas Taggart, and the Housing Association of Indiana. At the height of the Progressive Era, Bacon’s bill inspired reformers in other American cities and Canada, who invited her to speak about housing regulation.
When Indianapolis News reporters at the statehouse asked her for a reaction to the bill’s passage she responded, “Just now I am so desperately tired that all I want is to get home and rest. . . . I just feel relief and gratitude.’” She noted the bill was “just the first step” and planned to turn her attention to suburban and industrial building conditions.
The image below of Bacon is courtesy of the Library of Congress.
1913, March 10 - the Indiana legislature passed a bill setting the third Friday of April as Arbor Day. Originally, April 11, 1884 was declared the first Arbor Day in Indiana. Between 1884 and 1912, Arbor Day was observed on various dates at the discretion of the governor. The most common date was the last Friday of October. It is not known why a fall date was chosen over a spring day. ... In 1929, an amendment was passed in the legislature changing the date to the second Friday in April. Due to frequent conflicts with school spring vacations and the fact that Arbor Day occasionally fell on Good Friday, the date was again changed in 1991 to the last Friday of April, corresponding to the official date of the National Arbor Day. Copied from Learn more about Indiana Arbor Day on the Indiana DNR - Indiana Department of Natural Resources web site.
#OTD in 1913, the Indiana General Assembly adopted Paul Dresser's "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" as the official state song [Indiana Code: IC 1-2-6-1]. It became the first official emblem adopted by the state, and even predated the adoption of the state flag. According to a 2013 resolution by the Indiana General Assembly, the song’s chorus “reflects Paul Dresser’s love for Indiana and reminds all who hear it of the beauty of our state.” Contrary to popular belief, “Back Home Again in Indiana” is not the state song, even though it is more familiar to many people due to annual performances of it before the Indianapolis 500. Learn more at: Indiana State Song
1913, March 21 - the heavy rains started leading to the Great 1913 Flood, a 100 year flood, when the Maumee River rose from seven feet to twenty-six feet overnight. 26.1 feet is the highest ever recorded flood stage for the Maumee River from Fort Wayne Indiana Climate at the National Weather Service. The worst flooding Fort Wayne has ever seen. Fifeteen thousand people fled their houses and six people died. That left 20% of the city homeless. What is now Headwaters Park the confluence of the three rivers was the epicenter of the flood. Some flooded streets were Wells, Eureka (now Clair), Spy Run, Columbia Street bridge, Clinton around Fourth, Superior, Calhoun. The Fort Wayne Baseball League Park, located in what is now Phase I or the western portion of Headwaters Park, flooded where famous baseball players Babe Ruth, Bobby Matthews, and Zane Grey played. The flood led to the city building flood walls around some neighborhoods. See the blog The City That Saved Itself--TWICE! March 6, 2013 by Nancy McCammon-Hansen on History Center Notes & Queries blog and 'Our National Calamity': The Great Easter 1913 Flood...2013 is the centennial... blog.
1913, March 23 - the Great Flood devastated much of Indiana, as the Ohio and Wabash rivers and their tributaries spilled over banks and levees across the state. For days, the flood swept through Indiana and proved to be one of the worst weather disasters in Midwest history, causing hundreds to lose their lives and thousands their homes. Film star Carole Lombard was one of thousands impacted and her Fort Wayne childhood home became a rescue center. Copied from a March 23, 2019 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook.
1913, April 8 - the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified establishing direct popular election of senators. Previously, members of the Senate were elected by each state's legislature.
1913, April 16 - Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel newspaper article about William Dawkins, age 91, the oldest resident in New Haven passed away. Born in England, he came to Fort Wayne in 1841, then the next year moved to Maples not far from New Haven. From several January 24, 2013 posts on the original Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana page on Facebook.
#OTD in 1913, the Indiana General Assembly adopted Paul Dresser's "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" as the official state song. It became the first official emblem adopted by the state, and even predated the adoption of the state flag.
According to a 2013 resolution by the Indiana General Assembly, the song’s chorus “reflects Paul Dresser’s love for Indiana and reminds all who hear it of the beauty of our state.” Contrary to popular belief, “Back Home Again in Indiana” is not the state song, even though it is
The image below is courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collections.
1913, May 31 - the 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution providing popular, or direct, election of senators by voters won approval by the required three-fourths of the state legislatures by April 8, 1913, and was declared part of the Constitution, the 17th Amendment, on May 31 by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. This changed Article I, Section 3, of the Constitution, which says: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one vote. Read more at The 17th Amendment Observes Its Centennial on The National Archives Prologue: Pieces of History blog.
#TBT Sells Brothers Circus parading north on Calhoun Street with elephants in Downtown Fort Wayne and met by crowds of locals. July, 1913.
1913, September 10 - the route of the Lincoln Highway, an idea by Indiana's Carl Fisher for the first coast-to-coast paved road, was revealed.
1913, October 3 - U.S. Income Tax was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson. The 16th Amendment, passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, was ratified February 3, 1913. See History of the US Income Tax on the Library of Congress web site. Indiana was the 15th state to ratify the 16th Amendment January 30, 1913. The United States Revenue Act of 1913 also known as the Tariff Act, Underwood Tariff, Underwood Tariff Act, or Underwood-Simmons Act re-imposed the federal income tax following the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment. See also Revenue Act of 1913 on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
1913, September 9 - the 100th Anniversary of First Annual Miller Family Reunion held September 4 at the home of Mrs. John Dawkins east of town from a photo in the
The News-Sentinel newspaper. Reprinted in the September 2013 Allen County Lines quarterly publication in the Membership section of the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana website, pages 16-17 with additional information.
1913, September 10 - the first coast-to-coast highway in the United States opened. Known as the Lincoln Highway, the road originally ran for almost 3,400 miles through 13 states. The original signage was a hodge podge mix and many signs were stolen by souvenir hunters or were not sturdy enough to last. In 1928 the Lincoln Highway Association working with Boy Scouts came up with a daring plan. They workd to place 3400 Concrete Markers across the country and secure The Lincoln Highway as a Living and Perputual Memorial to the Great Abraham Lincoln-All in one Day. From Accessible Archives on Facebook. See also The Lincoln Highway National Museum & Archives, 102 Old Lincoln Way West, Galion, Ohio 44833.
1913, October 31 - opening of the Lincoln Highway through New Haven and Fort Wayne, Allen County, as well as Churubusco, Whitley County was shown in the November 1, 1913
The News-Sentinel newspaper.
One hundred and five years ago, New Haven, Fort Wayne, and Churubusco, Indiana celebrated Halloween like never before and probably ever since. The dedication of the Lincoln Highway in this area included bands, motorcycles, and two motorcar parades from New Haven and Churubusco that met in Fort Wayne.
The marketing of the Lincoln Highway was contagious. Ladies, you are going to need a hat!
The building [castle-like Holderman Home] in the one photo, with ghosts and goblins present, still stands at an intersection of the original route of the Lincoln Highway (Old Maumee Rd.) and State Road 930. Today, it is a used car lot today but at the time of the dedication, it was known as Holter's Roost because of the "aristocrat" chickens raised there.
The view with the SUV in the forefront is the same view as the newspaper image. The porch overhand was added later. Recent road construction has created a dead end on Old Maumee requiring travelers to remain on SR 930 before getting back on the old LH.
The dedication image is from the Fort Wayne Sentinel, November 1, 1913. The ad is from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Oct. 31, 1913.
The Lincoln Highway was dedicated one hundred and five years ago today. Over the next few years, the nation’s first transcontinental highway would stretch from New York to San Francisco, crossing through Indiana and Allen County. Allen County’s section of the highway had its own dedication on June 22, 1915. The Hotel Anthony became a local control station for travelers starting in 1915, charging two dollars a night for a room including a bath. The reinforced concrete Lincoln Highway Bridge (today known as the Harrison Street Bridge), which cost $200,000 to construct, provided safe passage over the St. Mary’s River on the way out of town. In 1928, the Lincoln Highway Association erected concrete posts across the country with the aid of Boy Scouts of America to mark the route. The sections of highway in Allen County were later assigned numbers and became U.S. 30 and U.S. 33.
1914 - Fun Fact: In 1914, the Lincoln Highway came to New Haven while being laid between New York City and San Francisco as the first coast-to-coast highway. The road was conceived by Indiana automobile entrepreneur, Carl Fisher. As part of his idea, communities along the route would provide equipment in return for free materials and a place along America’s first transcontinental highway. Copied from a September 3, 2022 post by City of New Haven Indiana on Facebook.
Similar photos posted January 28, 2023 on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook .
1914, June 17 - the first transcontinental telephone line was completed near the border of the Nevada and Utah at Wendover joining East and West in voice communications for the first time. See photo on FamilySearch.org.
1914, July 31 - NYSE closes due to the outbreak of WWI. Does not reopen until December.
1914, August 5 - the first electric traffic light was installed in Cleveland, Ohio.
1814, August 24 - British soldiers marched on Washington, DC destroying the U.S. Capitol, The White House and and many other public buildings. Post included a photo with the caption: Scars from the 1814 #fire appeared 176 years later, in 1990, when white paint was removed from the walls in the course of #restoration. From August 24, 2022 post by Heritage Documentation Programs, NPSon Facebook.
1914, September 1 - Martha, the world's last Passenger Pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. The species lived in enormous migratory flocks until the early 20th century, when hunting and habitat destruction led to its demise. One flock in 1866 in southern Ontario was described as being 1 mi[le] (1.5 km) wide and 300 mi (500 km) long, took 14 hours to pass, and held in excess of 3.5 billion birds. That number, if accurate, would likely represent a large fraction of the entire population at the time. Some estimate 3 to 5 billion Passenger Pigeons were in the United States when Europeans arrived in North America. Others argue the species had not been common in the pre-Columbian period, but their numbers grew when devastation of the American Indian population by European diseases led to reduced competition for food. The species went from being one of the most abundant birds in the world during the 19th century to extinction early in the 20th century. At the time, Passenger Pigeons had one of the largest groups or flocks of any animal, second only to the Rocky Mountain locust. Read the rest of the article on Passenger Pigeon on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. The last verified passenger pigeon in Indiana was shot April 3, 1902 near Laurel, Indiana.
Passenger pigeons and other extinct or endangered birds posted June 28, 2014 on Archives of Hoosier History Live podcast on Saturdays, noon to 1 p.m. ET on WICR 88.7 FM. Passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets are long gone from the Hoosier state - as well as everywhere else. In fact, the last wild passenger pigeon was shot in the southeastern Indiana town of Laurel in 1902, according to one of our guests. Not only will Hoosier History Live! explore species of birds that once existed in Indiana, we also will look at some of the 26 bird species considered endangered in the state. Whooping cranes and cerulean warblers are among them. Nelson will be joined by three guests.
Passenger Pigeon published January 21, 2011 on IndianaStateMuseum on YouTube We are featuring an artifact of the month to share stories that only our curators know about the artifacts in their care. Enjoy listening to these little treasures of history
You can see 2 passenger pigeons at the Indiana State Museum from their August 15, 2014 photo Tweet. They also tweeted: DYK? 16 places in Indiana have “pigeon” in their name, most likely referring to the now-extinct passenger pigeon. The term “stool pigeon” came from hunting passenger pigeons, hunters would tie a live bird to a stick or stool. And the last wild passenger pigeon was shot in Laurel, Indiana on April 3, 1902.
As many of you know, this Labor Day marks the centennial anniversary of the the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon. Martha, the last of her kind, died on September 1, 1914 in her cage at the Cincinnati Zoo. She stands as a symbol of nature’s fragility and what has been lost. We can only imagine the huge flocks that darkened the skies for days. To honor this momentous anniversary, Fold the Flocks invites you to watch this animation.
March 28, 2017 notice on Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:
Passenger pigeons were once so abundant in Indiana that their flocks darkened the sky. In fact, they were the most abundant North American bird. So, how did they come to be extinct early in the 20th century?
This marker, dedicated on the 115th anniversary of the shooting of the last verified passenger pigion in the wild, will celebrate the passenger pigeon and examine the reasons why this once abundant species became extinct by the twentieth century. Join us at Gazebo Park at the Whitewater Canal State Historic Site, 19083 Clayborn St., in Metamora, Indiana as we dedicate this new Indiana Historical Marker. For more information, see the event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1264303887020715/. “Passenger Pigeon Extinction” Indiana State Historical Marker Will Be Dedicated in Metamora, Indiana dedication April 3, 2017 on IN.gov.
Today marks the 115th anniversary of the shooting of the last verified passenger pigeon in the wild. This species was...
Today marks the 115th anniversary of the shooting of the last verified passenger pigeon in the wild. This species was once the most abundant North American bird, but a population in the billions in the late 1860s was nearly zero by 1900.
We want to thank everyone who came out to the Whitewater Canal State Historic Site this afternoon to help commemorate our state's newest marker, which celebrates the passenger pigeon and examines the reasons why it became extinct by the twentieth century. It was a wonderful dedication! We hope to see more markers to our state's natural history in future years!
The epic story of why passenger pigeons became extinct and what that says about our current relationship with the natural world. When Europeans arrived in North America, 25 to 40 percent of the continent's birds were passenger pigeons, traveling in flocks so massive as to block out the sun for hours or even days. The downbeats of their wings would chill the air beneath and create a thundering roar that would drown out all other sound. John James Audubon, impressed by their speed and agility, said a lone passenger pigeon streaking through the forest “passes like a thought.” How prophetic-for although a billion pigeons crossed the skies 80 miles from Toronto in May of 1860, little more than fifty years later passenger pigeons were extinct. The last of the species, Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914. Copied from A Feathered River Across the Sky The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction by Joel Greenberg (Author) at Bloomsbury.com.
1915 - Governor Samuel M. Ralston created the Indiana Committee on Mental Defectives (ICMD) to determine the services and care afforded to “mental defectives” (diagnosed epileptics, the “feebleminded,” and the insane) throughout the state.
In 1915, Governor Samuel M. Ralston created the Indiana Committee on Mental Defectives (ICMD) to determine the services and care afforded to “mental defectives” (diagnosed epileptics, the “feebleminded,” and the insane) throughout the state. At this time, progressive reform and legislation in Indiana focused on dependency, prohibition, and public health, but lawmakers often viewed the care of populations considered mentally defective as burdens, with heavy social and financial costs. The ICMD, then, “appealed to legislators because it offered
potential methods to monitor public health efficiently, to decrease dependency scientifically, and to limit alcohol consumption.”
One of the ICMD’s goals was to survey the entire state by conducting interviews, administering intelligence tests, and assessing “mental ability.” The committee recruited trained field workers from the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, a research institution for eugenics and hereditary research, and from the Training School at Vineland, New Jersey, dedicated to the education of individuals with developmental disabilities. The commission conducted three surveys, publishing the final reports in 1916, 1918-19, and 1922. The field workers brought onto the project were almost entirely (except for one man) female.
Edna R. Jatho, one of the field workers, trained as an educator who taught incorrigible, feebleminded, and disabled students. She began working with Indiana populations in 1918 on the ICMD’s second survey. Upon its completion, Jatho returned to Philadelphia to pursue a career in the burgeoning field of psychology. She returned to Indiana in 1921 upon invitation to participate in the final survey for the ICMD. Jatho scored tests, wrote reports, and corresponded with the project administrator. She also spoke to prominent groups and organizations, including the Indiana Academy of Science and the Indiana Conference on Mental Hygiene. Jatho’s reports highlighted changing attitudes toward special education during the 1920s, which included the belief that individuals labeled “mentally defective” could still be productive members of society with training, and could even thrive if they engaged with “pedagogy appropriate for their age level and life experience.”
For more, see Kendra Clauser-Roemer’s “‘What Indiana Can Do’: The Influence of Female Field Workers on the Indiana Committee on Mental Defectives, 1915-1924” in the September 2010 issue of the Indiana Magazine of History, available online through IU ScholarWorks at https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/ journals/index.php/imh/ article/view/12559/18789.
Fort Wayne, circa 1915 - Young women cooking on gas burners in a training kitchen. This is probably a high school home economics class, but we're open to other suggestions. We suspect that this was a school yearbook photo, but there is no caption. (The Indiana Album: Scrogham Family Collection)
On September 29, 1903, the Auburn Automobile Company (AAC) filed articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State. Founded by the Eckhart family, who had established the Eckhart Carriage Company factory, AAC produced stylish car models that broke speed and endurance records.
In 1919, the owners sold the company to Chicago investors, including William Wrigley Jr. AAC acquired the Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company in 1926, and during the 1920s, the Duesenberg racing team won its third Indy 500 and a French Grand Prix. Production of the vehicles ended in 1936.
In reply to a question about the address, they replied: The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette reported on June 26, 1911 that the Fort Wayne-Auburn Auto company was accepting bids to construct a two-story brick garage on West Washington street, adjoining the Knights of Pythias home on the east side. On August 16, 1914, the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette reported that the Fort Wayne Overland Auto Company, the distributor for the Auburn automobile, signed a contract making them the distributor for the Overland automobile in the region and they took over the Auburn garage. Luckily, the newspaper also ran a photograph! You can see in the Journal-Gazette photo that the Overland garage listed as occupying the western end of the brick building at Washington Street is the same building as shown in the Auburn photo. The article states that the Overland manager Fred Gaskins began as sale manager for the Auburn company on East Columbia and then later became general manager for the new Auburn garage on West Washington Street. The 1915 Fort Wayne City Directory confirms that the Overland Auto Co was located at “124 Washington blvd. W. shown on page 1235 is Overland Auto at 124 Washington Blvd..
#OTD in 1915, the Indiana General Assembly established the Indiana Historical Commission to facilitate statewide commemorations of the centennial of Indiana's statehood in 1916. Under the commission's guidance, Hoosiers celebrated the anniversary with historical publications, pageants, monuments, creation of a state flag, and establishment of the state parks system. When the Indiana General Assembly ended the commission in 1925, its activities became the mandate of the Indiana Historical Bureau. Learn more at: History of the Bureau
The image below of the original historical commission is courtesy of Indiana Memory.
1915, March 24 - Sister Maria Henrica, 82, founder of the St. Joseph Hospital died. Born in Germany in 1833 as Josephine Siwecke, she came from to this country in 1868, then to Hessen Cassel with the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, then came to Fort Wayne with Sisters Rosa and M. Matrona to organize a hospital opening May 4, 1869. After four years she traveled around the country founding hospitals. She was survied by her only relative Sister Maria Bella, eight years younger. Internment in the Catholic Cemetery. From the Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel newspaper.
After all of those historical fritter recipes, you're probably pining for some historical fitness exercises. Your wish is our command! Check out these tidbits from April 1915 to see how Hoosier women creatively prepared for “the spring outing” by using home furnishings: https://bit.ly/3aglXTs
On This Day May 07, 1915 – World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many formerly pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire.
Remember Those Who Served
The Greatest Generations Foundation
The seventy-two faces on the above page represents the force that has charge of the city edition of the Sentinel after it leaves the press room each evening. Rain or shine these seventy boys who comprise the Sentinel carrier staff carry the evenings' issue of the paper to the homes in all parts of the city. Many of them have carried the paper for years and are well known to the people on their routes Do you receognize the boy who carries yours?
The large and smiling countenance at the top of the page is the property of Ray F. Corcoran, circulation manager of the Sentinel, and field marshal of the army of carrier and street boys. Miss Vera Nipper, whose picture appears at the bottom of the page is the Sentinel representative who each week transacts all the financial dealings with the boys, and who handles their accounts for them.
The following are the boys as they are numbered on the page:
Ray F. Corcoran, circulation manager.
Louis Mills.
Earl Virts.
Earl Thomson.
Nelson Milhouse.
George Donahue.
Edward Bushman.
George Dolan.
Marion Woenker.
Willis Noll.
George Klingenberger.
Warren Klopfenstein.
Donald Evans.
Paul Weber.
Miss Vera Nipper, stenographer.
Steward Cox.
Ross Harding.
Robert Bogenschuetz.
Newton Warriner.
Kenneth Campbell.
Eugene Root.
Mynhart Brueckner.
Calvin Stover.
Robert Romy.
Ervin Stocks.
Milo Wilkins.
Constant Gaffer.
Arthur Ackerman.
Edward Hobrock.
Leo Mooney.
Clayton Noll.
Fred Hall.
Anthony Kromer.
Alfred Figel.
Alfred Bogenschuetz.
William Soliday.
Killian Baker.
Gustave Rump.
William Poinsette.
Erwin Firestine.
Edward Houser.
Paul Hobrock.
Ralph Mecham(?).
Ray Grimme.
Joseph Neher.
Arnold Gerberding.
Alfred Rose.
Fred Tustison.
Hugh Tigges.
Wayne Bushman
Otis Borchett.
Lloyd Stocks.
Albert Rolf.
Herbert Horstmeyer.
Elmer Welklin.
Frank Brouwer.
Paul Horstmeyer.
Douglas Thomason.
Leon Miller.
Herbert Carter.
Maurice young.
Russel Cooper.
Roland McCudy.
Paul Sarver.
Harry Chandler.
Victor Guebard.
Serge Cunningham.
Carl Bronson.
Norman Cutshall.
Howard Boegli.
Maurice Archibold.
Calvin Price.
Through an error in making the cut the photograph of Ellis Hoagland was omitted.
The article says a parade of 600 automobiles with the horse troups from Culver and two bands was to go through Fort Wayne from the west and was to be filmed with a photographer on Court Street near the grandstand near the south entrance to the courthouse and will be distributed throughout the country.
6 photos titled:
1. Lincoln highway sign east of the city. A number of these have been erected along the highway in Allen county by the Wayne Oil Tank company. M. H. Luecke, highway booster, is in the machine.
2. The arch at the east entrance to the city. The arch is to be electrically lighted and rambler roses have been planted at both sides to twine up the sides. In the center of the arch is the inscription, "Fort Wayne, Population 80,000." There is a similar arch at the western entrance to the city.
3. The committe in charge of the celebration--Rear row, left to right, Ward L. Wilt, William M. Griffin, J. Herman Buert, Edgar H. Kilbourne, Joseph W. Bell, Charles L. Biederwolf, Edward C. Miller, Front row, Van B. Perrine, Martin H. Luecke, Alfred L. Randall, Dr. Edward W. Dodez, Frank E. Bond.
4. Curve at the Four-Mile house. By refusing the proprietor a license to sell liquor here the commissioners have made the road safer to travel, tourists no longer having to dodge drunk revelers and machines driven by the drink crazed chauffeurs.
5. A straightaway east of the city. This is an excellent stretch for speed, but is within the jurisdiction of the motorcycle cops and the twenty-mile-an-hour limit is strictly enforced.
6. Three modes of travel. The Lincoln highway on the left, a section of the old Wabash & Erie canal in the center, and the Nickel Plate tracks on the right.
View of several women, members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, dedicating one mile of pavement of the Lincoln Highway in Fort Wayne, Indiana. American flag displayed on flagpole; onlookers in background. Typed on back: Official Lincoln Highway trip, New York to San Francisco, Summer, 1915." Handwritten on back: "D.A.R., Fort Wayne, Ind., dedicate one mile of L.H. pavement, June 1915. D.A.R. (Daughters of the American Revolution) Ft. Wayne, Ind., dedicate one mile of Lincoln Highway pavement, June, 1915." - From the National Automotive History Collection of the Detroit Public Library:
The Lincoln Highway was dedicated one hundred and five years ago today [October 31, 1913 opened through New Haven and Fort Wayne - coast to coast opened September 10, 1913]. Over the next few years, the nation’s first transcontinental highway would stretch from New York to San Francisco, crossing through Indiana and Allen County. Allen County’s section of the highway had its own dedication on June 22, 1915. The Hotel Anthony became a local control station for travelers starting in 1915, charging two dollars a night for a room including a bath. The reinforced concrete Lincoln Highway Bridge (today known as the Harrison Street Bridge), which cost $200,000 to construct, provided safe passage over the St. Mary’s River on the way out of town. In 1928, the Lincoln Highway Association erected concrete posts across the country with the aid of Boy Scouts of America to mark the route. The sections of highway in Allen County were later assigned numbers and became U.S. 30 and U.S. 33.
One comment by Bruce Butgereit on the archway shown in image four: There were two of these illuminated arches in Fort Wayne. They were erected in 1915. According to newspaper accounts, one was at Maumee and Edsall Ave. (when the Lincoln Highway followed Maumee into town (pre-one way streets) and the other was on Wells just south of State. No record has been found as to how long they existed or what happened to them.
On July 6, 1915, Fort Wayne residents had a once in a lifetime opportunity to view the Liberty Bell outside of its home in Independence Hall. The bell left Philadelphia on July 5th, beginning a journey across the country to San Francisco and the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915. A special railroad train was custom built to ensure the bell’s safety, and a lighting system was designed to show it off at night. The trip covered 17 states and 105 cities. It stopped in Fort Wayne for just under an hour. Huge crowds followed the bell, with people hanging out windows and off utility poles in order to get a better look. Every building the bell passed was decorated with red, white, and blue bunting. When the Liberty Bell returned to Philadelphia, it was re-hung in Independence Hall, and the city has refused any tour requests since.
Fort Wayne - On the back of this snapshot is written "Liberty Bell last trip from East to Chicago World Fair, Fort Wayne."
According to a blog post by the Fort Wayne and Allen County History Center, the Liberty Bell visited Ft. Wayne for 45 minutes on July 6, 1915. It was on its way to the Panama-Pacific Exposition - Worlds Fair in California. Their photos look similar to this image, so we think the caption writer confused the two World Fairs.
Do you buy interesting photos at antique shops just to rescue them? Scan your Indiana images to share with us and we'll make them available to the whole world. See www.indianaalbum.com for details.
One comment stated: This event coincided with the Lincoln Highway Association's 1915 film of their journey from New York to San Francisco for the PPIE. Fort Wayne was highlighted prominently in the film. Unfortunately, the film did not survive over the years.
Kiilhsookhkwa (also spelled Kilsoquah) died in Huntington County at the age of 105. According to Fort Wayne's The History Center, she was the granddaughter of Little Turtle. Born in 1810, "she saw unprecedented change in her 105 years of life.
From growing up in a traditional Native woodland culture to the removal of her people from Indiana in 1846 to the industrialization of America, Kiilhsoohkwa experienced a changing of worlds during her lifetime. Throughout her life she spoke only the Miami language and her son Anthony Revarre acted as her interpreter. She and her son were allowed to stay in Indiana because of a resolution passed by Congress in 1850 exempting Miami who held treaty reserves, and their descendants, from removal."
Edwin Denby, president of the Hupmobile factory, who was chief speaker at the Lincoln Life banquet: A. E. A Sleeper, of Bad Axe, Mich., one of the guests at the banquet; Dan H. Ninde, chief counsel for the company, and A. L. Randall viewed Fort Wayne from the soft cushions of a Hup during the brief visit of the Michigan men, and the accompanying picture shows them under the arch, marking the entrance to the city of the Lincoln highway Mr Randall is at the wheel with Mr Denby seated with him. In the rear seat are Mr. Sleeper and Mr. Ninde.
On November 16, 1915, the U.S. Patent Office issued a patent for the Coca-Cola bottle, based on a design by Chapman J. Root, of the Root Glass Company in Terre Haute. The Coca-Cola Company sought a manufacturer to design a "bottle which a person will recognize even when he feels it in the dark." Root's bottle imitated the ridges in a cocoa pod. He made prototypes of the classic bottle out of wood and iron.
Circuit-rider days in Indiana by Sweet, William Warren, 1881-1959; Publication date 1916; Topics Circuit riders, Methodist Church; Publisher Indianapolis : W. K. Stewart co on Archive.org
1916, January 24 - a Fort Wayne News newspaper article by B. J. Griswold describing the book he was working on The Pictorial History of Fort Wayne, Indiana was requesting assistance getting it printed. His book was published in 1917. From January 24, 1916 post on the original Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana page on Facebook.
1916, February 11
On February 11th, 1916, anarchist, feminist and free speech advocate Emma Goldman was arrested for violation of the...
On February 11th, 1916, anarchist, feminist and free speech advocate Emma Goldman was arrested for violation of the Comstock Act, a law which banned the distribution of "obscene" materials. Her crime? Delivering a lecture on birth control.
1916, April 16 - In celebration of the state's centennial in 1916, The Journal Gazette solicited proposals in a competition to design Fort Wayne's first flag.
In celebration of the state's centennial in 1916, The Journal Gazette solicited proposals in a competition to design Fort Wayne's first flag. The contest was inspired by city council's creation of a flag commission, and the winning design was announced 103 years ago today on April 16, 1916. The winner, Guy P. Drewett, received $50 for his submission of a flag with plain symbolism and two colors. More elaborate flags which received consideration are pictured in the background of an article about the contest. Colors cannot be discerned in the image, but some designs used common symbols and locally-relevant imagery. Stars were popular, as well as the Y-shaped bars. Symbols with historical significance included the head of a bear, possibly symbolizing Indiana's frontier roots; and corn or grain symbolizing Northeast Indiana's agricultural roots. Drewett's design included two stars, symbolizing Fort Wayne's status as "the second city in the state," and a bold Y, representing the confluence of the city's three rivers. To learn more about our first city flag, stop by the History Center to pick up the latest issue of the Old Fort News. #sociallyhistory
This week marks 100 years since Fort Wayne's celebration of the Indiana Centennial in 1916. Check out this video of the Centennial parade - including the debut of the Fort Wayne flag (it may look a little different than ours does today)! #indiana100#indiana200#fwhistory
1916, May 30
🇺🇸 On May 30, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed June 14 “Flag Day” as a yearly observance of the...
On May 30, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed June 14 “Flag Day” as a yearly observance of the importance of the American flag.
The Flag Act of 1777 adopted the “Stars and Stripes” as the national flag on June 14 of that year. At the time, the design featured 13 stars representing the original 13 states. Two additional “Flag Acts” would pass in 1794 and 1818, each adding additional design choices for newer states admitted into the United States.
The Still Picture Branch at the National Archives has a large selection of photographs of the US Flag. Learn more in this Unwritten Record blog post: Celebrating Flag Day The Unwritten Record blog.
1916, June 1 - Telephone Directory- The Home Telephone & Telegraph Company
The glorious gateway of the West : an historic pageant of the story of Fort Wayne, commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of Indiana's admission to the sisterhood of states by Rice, Wallace de Groot Cecil, 1859-; Goodman, Kenneth Sawyer, Publication date 1916 on Archive.org
Feb. 25, 1916 Fort Wayne News (Fort Wayne, Indiana)
Indiana's Centennial Celebration 1916About this collection In 1916 Indiana commemorated its one hundredth anniversary of admission to the Union as the nineteenth state. Backed by efforts of the newly created Indiana Historical Commission and the work of thousands of volunteers, the centennial observance saw the establishment of state parks, the creation of permanent memorials in numerous communities, the publication of historical volumes, local production of pageants, and an overall awakening of interest in the history of the Hoosier State's heritage. At We Do History digital collection by the Indiana Historical Society.
1916 marked the 100th anniversary of Indiana’s admission to statehood. Fort Wayne celebrated this auspicious year with a week full of festivities, including a Sacred Concert, Industrial Exposition and historical pageant. Our Centennial festivities began on Sunday, June 4th, when a large union concert of music was held at Reservoir Park. During this concert, a choir of six hundred voices, representing the various city churches, presented various songs. One of the selections chosen for the Sacred Concert was the Fort Wayne Centennial Hymn. The Centennial Hymn was composed by D. Parsons Goodrich and the lyrics written by Wallace Rice. The Industrial Exposition took place the entire week and featured the various items produced by Fort Wayne industry. The grandest portion of the celebration featured the historical pageant. The pageant was presented at Reservoir Park every evening on a lighted island stage. Today we celebrate the beginning of Fort Wayne’s Indiana Centennial Celebration by sharing a portion of the Centennial Hymn (piano: Jaala Wright). #sociallyhistory
The Fort Wayne pageant was held in June 1916. Like the Corydon and Bloomington pageants, local milestones were the focus of the festivities. The following events were depicted in the pageant:
French trappers trading with the Indians
Fort Miami at the end of the French-Indian War
The Eve of the Battle of Fallen Timbers
The dedication of Fort Wayne and renaming of Fort Miami
War of 1812
Arrival of William Henry Harrison
Decommission of the Fort
Canal Building
The Civil War
1916, June 6, 7, 8, 9 - Fort Wayne's Indiana Centennial Celebration.
1916, June 9 - as part of the Centennial celebration, the Mary Penrose Wayne Chapter of Fort Wayne unveiled a memorial marker in the park strip at the foot of Dearborn Street in the Lakeside neighborhood. It was to mark the Harmar Ford battlefield in commeration of the American soldiers who lost their lives at this ford along the Maumee River, when Chief Little Turtle defeated the troops under the command of General Josiah Harmar October 22, 1790. See Google map Street view. See April 5, 2017 photo by RiverFrontFW on Instagram. The inscription:
To the Memory of Major John Wyllys
And His Brave Soldiers Who
Were Killed Near this Spot
In The Battle of
Harmar's Ford
Oct. 22, 1790
With the Indians Under
Chief Little Turtle
Erected by Mary Penrose Wayne Chapter, D.A.R. in the centennial year 1916.
Read more on page 86 in United States Congressional serial set, Issue 7119, also page 86 in different titled Report of the National Society of the Daughters of the ..., Volumes 18-20. See photo posted on Harmers Ford Burial Site and Maj John Palsgrave Wyllys pages on Find A Grave. See map location at The Battle of Harmar's Ford on the Historical Marker Project which includes links to other nearby markers.
The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River by Griswold, B. J. (Bert Joseph), 1873-1927; Taylor, Samuel R., Mrs, Publication date 1917 on Archive.org.
Indiana's Centennial starts on page 555 in The Pictorial History of Fort Wayne, Indiana: A Review of Two ..., Volume 1 by Bert Joseph Griswold, Mrs. Samuel R. Taylor with information on the marker to the Memory of Major John Wyllys on page 558 shown above.
1916, June 9 - newspaper article posted March 29, 2019 by Mitch Harper on Twitter. At one time, it was proposed to channelize the #MaumeeRiver from #Toledo to #FortWayne. Early in the 20th Century it was even proposed the waterway extend to Chicago for passage of #GreatLakes ships. The environmentally unsound idea did not meet with favor in 1916. However . . . For more read The Toledo to Chicago Canal. A Dream Never Dug by Lou Herbert published November 17, 2014 in the Toldeo Gazette WordPress blog.
1916, June 10 - video of Fort Wayne's celebration parade of the 1916 Indiana Centennial including the debut of the Fort Wayne flag that may look a little different than ours does today was posted June 10, 2016 by The History Centeron Facebook.
1916, July 8 - Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel mentions the Tuberculosis Hospital is called Fort Recovery.
1916, July 11 - race horse Dan Patch died at the age of 20. One of the most famous horses in history, he was born in Oxford, Indiana, and as a pacer broke world speed records at least 14 times in the early 1900s. Read more on Dan Patch at Indiana Historical Bureau.
#FWEWHistoryOn this day in 1916, the Elex Club was founded by plant superintendent E.A. Barnes for a group of women employed by General Electric. Today, there's a bench memorial dedicated to the Elex Club and its trailblazers next to our campus in McCulloch Park.
Published by the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company in 1917, this little book's pages are entirely blank. More on it here: Why Women Should Not Vote (1917)
1917, January 22 - a letter reached the Allen County Chapter House formally decreeing them a Chapter of the American Red Cross. Read their history The American Red Cross: A Light That Never Fades June 1, 2013 by Jamie Black on the American Red Cross of Indiana blog.
1917, February 3 - President Woodrow Wilson announces the break in official relations with Germany before Congress. See Today's Document at The National Archives.
1917, February 5 - 1917 Immigration Act (An act to regulate the immigration of aliens to, and the residence of aliens in, the United States) at The University of Washington-Bothell Library.
1917, April 2 - President Woodrow Wilson addressed a joint session of Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Germany. Congress granted the request on April 6 and launched the United States into what was known as The Great War and later, World War I. Photos and discusison April 2, 2017 on Today's Document on Facebook.
1917, April 6 - the United States declared war on Germany officially entering World War I. Over 150,000 people from Indiana answered the call to serve when the United States entered the Great War. Posted November 16, 2017 by Indiana State Library on Facebook.
Visit the Indiana State Library on Monday, Nov. 20, 2017, from 4:30 to 7 p.m., for a special open-house reception to coincide with the “Hoosiers at War! From the Homefront to the Battlefield” exhibit that is currently on display throughout the library. Over 150,000 people from Indiana answered the call to serve when the United States entered the Great War on April 6, 1917. “Hoosiers at War! From the Homefront to the Battlefield” showcases publications, correspondence, diaries, photographs and other materials detailing the experiences of Hoosiers during World War I, both at home and abroad.
“…the state of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government which has been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared…”
A Joint Resolution of April 6, 1917, Public Resolution 65-1, 40 STAT 1, Declaring that a State of War Exists Between the Imperial German Government and the Government and the People of the United States and Making Provision to Prosecute the Same, 4/6/1917
Series: Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789 - 2011 Record Group 11: General Records of the United States Government, 1778 - 2006 https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5916620
Two and a half years of American neutrality in the ongoing war in Europe came to an end 100 years ago on April 6, 1917, when Congress passed a resolution declaring war on Germany, thus pushing the U.S. into World War I.
Four days earlier, on April 2, President Woodrow Wilson addressed a joint session of Congress to request a declaration of war on Imperial Germany.
Among his reasons for war was Germany’s failure to comply with its promise to halt unrestricted submarine warfare in the North Atlantic. Still fresh in the nation’s memory was the May 1915 sinking of the RMS Lusitania, and the ensuing loss of 131 Americans, as evidence of the chaos German submarines could cause.
Wilson also cited the intercepted Zimmerman telegram as evidence that peace had been compromised. The telegram proved that Germany was a real security threat to the United States and sparked anger that was instrumental in altering American public opinion towards war.
Congress concurred with the President’s reasoning and passed the resolution to declare war against Germany. On April 6, Wilson signed the resolution, and issued a Presidential Proclamation declaring war against Germany. The United States had entered the Great War.
1917, May 18 - the Selective Service Act passed authorizing the president to increase the military establishment of the United States. Every male living within the United States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five was required to register for the draft.
1917, May 31 - Indiana State Flag - The blue and gold state banner was adopted by the 1917 General Assembly as part of the commemoration of the state's 1916 Centennial celebration, after a competition sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The winning design was by Paul Hadley of Mooresville, Indiana. The name was changed to flag by the 1955 General Assembly. The dimensions were changed to standard usage. The torch stands for liberty and enlightenment; the rays represent their far-reaching influence. The thirteen stars in a circle represent the original thirteen states; the five stars in the circle represent the next five states; the large star is Indiana, the nineteenth state. The state flag is always displayed on the observer's right of the American flag. See Indiana State Flag Indiana Code: IC 1-2-2-1 and “A Permanent Emblem of Its Own:” The Indiana State Flag & Its Designer by the Indiana Historical Bureau. Read more about the Indiana State Bannerand Paul Hadley, Designer of the Indiana State Flag (1916, adopted 1917) and Mooresvillian posted April 7, 2010 (2014 update) on the Mooresville Public Library Indiana Room blog.
1917, June 15 - lawmakers passed the Espionage Act
Happy women’s history month! Learn more about Hoosier women through state historical markers. On July 27, 1917, Anna Marie Ridge of Irvington filed registration for the first Girl Scouts troop in Marion County. The troop was registered as Indianapolis Troop 1 by Girl Scouts, Incorporated. The following year, Troop 1 was awarded a flag for selling over $6,000 in bonds during a Liberty Loan drive for World War I.
The Indianapolis Marion County Girl Scout Council was chartered in 1921, with the goals of community service, ideals of conduct, patriotism, and diversity in membership. #WomensHistoryMonthIndiana Commission for Women
In 2004, IHB installed a marker commemorating the Marion County Girl Scouts’ history in front of the Irvington Presbyterian Church, where Troop 1 originally met.
OTD // On October 26, 1917, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled the state's woman's suffrage law unconstitutional. The court argued that the question of women's suffrage must be left to a constitutional change by the people, rather than by a law from the General Assembly. Three years later, in 1920, Indiana ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution that guaranteed women's suffrage.
On October 26, 1917, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled the state’s women’s suffrage law unconstitutional. The law, called the Maston-McKinley Partial Suffrage Act, granted Hoosier women the right to vote in municipal, school and special elections.
Between its passage and the ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court, between 30,000 and 40,000 women registered to vote in Indianapolis alone. The decision shocked the women of the state but they soon rallied and began to work again for their right to vote.
The legislation’s defeat was short- lived and the Indiana General Assembly would subsequently ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in January 1920, which granted millions of Americans the right to vote, but not all Americans. Asian Americans, Native people, and African Americans still faced legal and societal barriers to voting.
The image showing Hoosier suffragists on tour in 1920, is from the Indiana State Library Rare Books and Manuscripts collection.
1917, November 16 - Presidential Proclamation of November 16, 1917, registration of “[a]ll alien enemies,” women included, was required. ... in response to ... Section 4067 of the U.S. Revised Statutes, in effect when the United States entered World War I, provided that “all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of a hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies.” Quotes copied from The forms of 1918: Hoosier-style posted on May 21, 2015 by Judy G. Russell on her blog The Legal Genealogist blog. An Index is online for Genealogical Records of German Families of Allen County, Indiana, 1918 Source: Bloomfield, Virginia F. Jordan. Genealogical Records of German Families in Allen County, Indiana, 1918. Fort Wayne, IN: Fort Wayne Public Library, 1974 on The Genealogy Center web site. The Alien Enemies Act of 1917
A disturbing chapter in the history of Allen County nearly wiped out the city’s rich German heritage by Jim Sack published August 8, 2016 on Fort Wayne Reader. America's long history of restricting immigrants an Opinion published February 5, 2017 on Philly.com.
In Allen County, the development of our young people into responsible citizens has long been the goal of several area organizations. One such organization is the Girl Scouts of USA. Girl Scouting in our country began exactly 112 years ago today on March 12, 1912, when Juliette Gordon Low organized the first Girl Scout troop meeting. At this first troop meeting in Savannah, Georgia, there were 18 girls present. The stated mission of the Girl Scouts is to "[build] girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place" through activities involving camping, community service, and practical skills such as first aid. Since the time of the first meeting, Girl Scouts has grown to over 3.7 million members. In Fort Wayne the first Girl Scout Troop was established in 1918 and the first chartered council in April 1926. Since the 1920s Girl Scouts have been a constant presence in our community. Today on National Girl Scouts Day, celebrated annually on the date of its founding in the United States, the History Center shares Girl Scout items from our collection. #sociallyhistory
1918, January 12 - 24° below zero is the lowest recorded temperature in Fort Wayne. From Fort Wayne Indiana Climate at the National Weather Service Weather.gov. Storms and cold caused four days of “unprecedented suffering,” according to The News-Sentinel, and it could have been worse if the city's fuel supplies hadn't been replenished by the arrival of 20 rail cars of coal on the morning of Jan. 16. Copied from The cold old days published February 2, 2019 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.
Extinction in Two Acts: The Life and Death of the Carolina Parakeet video posted May 10, 2021 by New York City Audubon on YouTube
On Thursday, May 6th, NYC Audubon's new Director of Conservation and Science Dr. Kevin Burgio gave a virtual talk highlighting his research on the extinction of the Carolina Parakeet. America's only endemic parrot, the Carolina Parakeet went from being widespread at around 1800, when John J. Audubon first noted a decline, to being isolated into small, remnant populations by 1900. These iconic birds hung on until the 1930s or 1940s, before blinking out entirely. Despite all of the research on this species, especially over the last 50 years, there is no still clear explanation for their loss.
In the midst of World War I, the United States government attempted to eliminate the wasting of energy, in particular coal. On January 30, 1918, exactly 106 years ago today, the country observed National “Tag Your Shovel” Day. Created by the Federal Fuel Administrator, the day was expected to be carried out by the 21,000,000 schoolchildren, who would tag the coal shovels in American homes. The tags were printed on the front with “Save that shovelful of coal a day for Uncle Sam’ and the reverse had hints for reducing the amount of coal homes used. Some of them were: “Keep your rooms at 68˚ (best heat for health),” Cover furnaces and pipes with asbestos, or other insulations,” and Save gas and electric light as much as possible.” In commemoration of this day, the History Center shares some of the shovels in our collection. #sociallyhistory
1918, February 21 - the last Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. It was the only parrot species native to the eastern United States. It was found from southern New York and Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico, and lived in old forests along rivers. The Carolina Parakeet is believed to have died out because of a number of different threats. Habitat destruction was a large part since they were beneficial to farmers eating cocklburs, but were also hunted by some, their brightly covered feathers were used in womens hats, but the most likely cause was death due to poultry disease. From Carolina Parakeet on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. See Carolina parakeet page.
1918, March 11 - On the morning of March 11, 1918, Private Albert Gitchell reported to the infirmary with complaints of a "bad cold." By noon, over 100 men at the military camp were suffering from the same sickness. These were the first signs of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Copied from a March 11, 2019 post by American Experience on Facebook. Read more about what happened at Fort Riley, Kansas in The First Wave an INFLUENZA 1918 ARTICLE at American Experience.
1918, March 31
For all of you who think Daylight Savings time is a new thing...blame Ben Franklin. Thanks Writers Almanac. Daylight...
For all of you who think Daylight Savings time is a new thing...blame Ben Franklin. Thanks Writers Almanac.
Daylight Saving Time went into effect in the United States for the first time on this date. Benjamin Franklin was the first person to come up with the idea of changing our clocks to take advantage of the longer days. He was serving as a delegate in Paris in 1784, and noticed that Parisians tended to sleep late in the mornings. He wrote a tongue-in-cheek essay arguing that sunlight was going to waste in the mornings and would be much more appreciated in the evenings. By changing the clocks and shifting the daylight hours later, he wrote, people could take advantage of more natural light and save money on candles and lamp oil.
1918, April 2 - Indiana prohibition law went into effect at midnight, nearly two years before the 18th Amendment, ratified by Indiana on January 14, 1919, made it illegal to produce, transport, and sell alcohol in the United States. Over 3,500 bars and taverns ceased the sale of alcohol. The state ratified the national prohibition amendment the following January. Learn more at PROHIBITION AND TEMPERENCE at the Indiana State Library. Since the consumption of alcohol was not actually illegal, the customers of speakeasies were rarely arrested during raids. #ISMSpiritsOctober 1, 2014 tweet by Indiana State Museum on Twitter. See January 14, 1919. See photo posted April 2, 2018 by Indiana Historical Bureau on Twitter. Prohibition would end December 5, 1933.
ON THIS DAY // On April 2, 1918, the Indiana prohibition law went into effect at midnight. Over 3,500 bars and taverns ceased the sale of alcohol. The state ratified the national prohibition amendment the following January. You can learn more about Indiana's road to prohibition by reading this great article: Essay The Road to Prohibition in Indiana via the Indiana Historical Society on Facebook.
#OTDin 1918, Prohibition went into effect in Indiana, nearly two years before the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution made it illegal to produce, transport, and sell alcohol in the United States. The Indianapolis News reported that unlike other states that celebrated Prohibition with statewide parties, Hoosiers "were focused on the more important things of war [World War I] in this serious time in the nation's history and that they deemed revelries of the Bacchanalian variety to be improper and not in accord with the meaning of the times." The paper reported that all 3,520 bars in the state and 547 in Indianapolis ceased to stop selling liquor and that many saloon owners had already sold most of their stock before midnight. In June 1933, Hoosiers voted to repeal the Amendment and by December of that year the 21st Amendment was ratified, which ended Prohibition in the U.S. Learn more at: A Look Back: Prohibition came early to Indiana
The image below is courtesy of the South Bend Tribune.
Throwback Thursday: A.K. Hofer prepared the Plat of Southwood Park Section "C" and it was recorded on April 12, 1918. Here is a picture he took of a steam shovel digging for the sewers later that year.
1918, April 23 - Fort Wayne native 1st Lt. Paul Frank Baer of the U.S. Army Air Service got a fifth kill of an enemy pilot in World War I, which qualified him as the second American flying ace. He became the first Hoosier to do so. Copied from an April 23, 2019 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook based on 23 April 1918 on ThisDayInAviation.com.
1918, May 16 - The Sedition Act was signed into law establishing penalties for speaking against American institutions.
1918, May 31 - the German American National Bank became Lincoln National Bank from Lincoln Bank Tower on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
1918, May 16 - U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act, designed to protect America in World War I. The Act harshly penalized those who insulted the U.S. government, Constitution, flag, and/or military, as well as anyone making false statements that interfered with war. It was orchestrated largely by A. Mitchell Palmer, the United States attorney general under President Woodrow Wilson. Read more on May 16, 2016 Facebook post by Indiana Historical Bureau.
1918, June - Gossip That Costs Human Lives! was the back-cover announcement of Hearst Magazine's June 1918 issue about German propaganda posted November 29, 2017 by the National Archives at Philadelphia on Facebook.
100 years ago today, on September 26, 1918, the Indianapolis News reported the first case of Spanish Influenza at military training detachments in and around Indianapolis. The city would be infected with over 6,000 cases of the flu that swept the globe during World War I. With a makeshift hospital, outfitted with 300 beds, Fort Benjamin Harrison cared for over 3,000 patients.
Indianapolis leaders presented a united front in halting the flu's spread, shop and theater owners complied despite personal loss, and men and women volunteered their services at risk to their own lives. From this first report until the end of November, Indiana lost 3,266 Hoosiers to the illness.
Learn more about the Spanish Influenza in Indianapolis with Talking Hoosier History: http://bit.ly/2zsj1E5
1918, October 1 - a newspaper article says Fireman William Rudolph Hilgeman U.S. Navy was Fort Wayne's first victim of the Spanish Influenza while at the Great Lakes naval training station. He was laid to rest in Lindenwood Cemetery with full military honors. See more about Influenza.
100 years ago today, on October 7,1918, due to an influenza epidemic, the Indiana Board of Health issued an order banning all public gatherings in the state until October 20, 1918. By the end of November, Indiana had lost 3,266 residents to the disease.
However, according to the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine, Indianapolis "had an epidemic death rate of 290 per 100,000 people, one of the lowest in the nation," due to “how well Indianapolis as well as state officials worked together to implement community mitigation measures against influenza.”
On this day in Indiana history, 1918, State health officials believed that the worst of the 1918 influenza epidemic was over. There were an estimated 350,000 cases resulting in over 10,000 deaths. All public gatherings were banned during the month.
For information, documents, and photos about the influenza epidemic on a national and international level, see The Influenza Epidemic of 1918 on Archives.gov
History of Veterans Day: World War I—known at the time as “The Great War”—officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, Nov. 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”
1919 - future US President Dwight D. Eisenhower skinny-dipped in Lawton Park! A Lieutenant Colonel in the 1919 Transcontinental Motor Transport Corps Convoy they followed the Lincoln Highway from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco testing military equipment, and procedures for cross-country travel. On a warm night in July, the group camped for the night in Fort Wayne's Lawton Park. Few of them had packed swimsuits. Paraphrased from Riverfront Fort WayneFAQs! Based on the History timeline of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health (http://www.allencountyhealth.com/about-us/history/) that was probably not a wise idea then, and certainly not by our standards for health now!
1919 - Construction began in Memorial Park in 1919 with the renovation of an extant two-story brick house for use as a refectory and included an apartment for the park caretaker’s family. The structure is identified on the Jaenicke plan as “Rest House”. The commemorative landscape began to take form with the initial planting of the memorial grove. Other work accomplished that year included the removal of two or more extant barns and the addition of two tennis courts, a ball diamond and a drinking fountain. 6 The playground was completed the following year, and a cannon taken during the war was placed in the park (its location was not identified) In 1921 an extensive planting effort was undertaken, when 1,500 trees were planted in the park in an attempt to provide shade “as soon as possible for the otherwise bare grounds”. Construction on park drives was underway in 1923, when the playground was enlarged and put under supervision. By 1923 Memorial Park had established itself as a popular picnicking location. Copied from pages I.2 and I.3 in MEMORIAL PARK Cultural Landscape Report History, Existing Conditions, Analysis & Rehabilitation Plan with photos, drawings and more at FortWayneParks.org. The park is now 42 acres. History: Memorial Park is a tribute to the men and women of Fort Wayne and Allen County who gave their lives in service of their country during World War I. The land that was formerly known as the "golf grounds" and that would later be Memorial Park was acquired from Ms. Minnie Hill White on November 29, 1918, only eighteen days after the signing of the armistice that ended the conflict. Known for several beautifully sculpted monuments commemorating various participants and events in the conflict, it also includes a monument to aviation pioneer, originator of skywriting and Fort Wayne resident Art Smith. Smith Field Airport would later be renamed in his honor. Copied from Memorial Park at FortWayneParks.org.
TBT Here is another picture of the sewer being built in Southwood Park Section "C". We estimate the picture was taken around 1919. History shows the more things change, the more they stay the same. We count 7 people standing outside the trench watching 1 guy in the mud working!
The singing sheep commercial seems to be a hit this Super Bowl. During World War I, Woodrow and Edith Wilson kept a flock of sheep on the White House grounds to save costs to cut the grass. The wool was also auctioned off to raise money for the Red Cross.
We aren't sure if the White House sheep could sing or not, but 1919 offered some great songs to pick from. Listen to a few tunes on the National Jukebox from The Library of Congress and let us know what you think the "Somebody to Love" equivalent would have been: National Jukebox
1919, January 14 - Indiana ratifies the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution also called the Prohibition Act. It was passed by Congress December 18, 1917 and ratified January 16, 1919. The ban defined the types of alcoholic beverages prohibited. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol was not illegal. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment, ratified on December 5, 1933. The 18th amendment is the only amendment to ever be repealed. Prohibition in the United States on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia states Anti-prohibitionists ("wets") criticized the alcohol ban as an intrusion of mainly rural Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant and Catholic everyday life. The Senate proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 18, 1917. Having been approved by 36 states, the 18th Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919 and effected on January 16, 1920.
ON THIS DAY // On January 14, 1919, Indiana ratified the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 18th Amendment prohibited the making, transporting, and selling of alcoholic beverages.
But merely outlawing the use and possession of alcohol was not enough for the Indiana branch of the Anti-Saloon League — in 1925, thanks in large part to the lobbying efforts of the League’s influential leader, the Rev. Edward S. Shumaker, the General Assembly passed one of the toughest Prohibition laws in the nation, the Wright “Bone Dry” Law.
You can learn more about the prohibition and the temperance movement in Indiana by reading: Prohibition in “Bone Dry” Indiana By THE STAFF OF THE INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY posted December 19, 2011
On January 14, 1919, Indiana ratified the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol.
In June 1933, Hoosiers voted to repeal the amendment and by December of that year the 21st Amendment was ratified, ending Prohibition in the United States.
The image below, showing an illustration from “Why Dry? Briefs for prohibition, local, state, national and international,” from ca. 1918.
200@200 published October 8, 2016 by WANE 15 News on YouTube
History Center Executive Director Todd Pelfrey stopped by First News Saturday shows a homemade still by George Hebner a furnace HVAC businessman.
1919, February 17 - three months after the armistice that ended World War I, the Hoosier State became one of fourteen states to ban the teaching of German to children, a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment. WHEN INDIANA BANNED THE GERMAN LANGUAGE IN 1919 by Stephen J. Taylor published August 26, 2015 in the Indiana Historic Newspaper Digitization, Labor History, World War I on
Hoosier State Chronicles Indiana's Digital Historic Newspaper Program.
1919, February 25 - Indiana Governor James P. Goodrich signed into law State Senator Franklin McCray's anti-German language act, which forbade elementary schools from teaching the language. The statute also prohibited correctional schools, parochial schools, and benevolent organizations from teaching German. Indiana became one of fourteen states to ban the teaching of German to children. The legislation was a reflection of the strong anti-German sentiment stemming from World War I. Many Americans considered retention of German language and culture in the midst of war as un-American. During this time, German-language newspapers folded, German names of streets or places changed (e.g Das Deutsche Haus became the Athenaeum), German surnames were Anglicized, churches were pressured to conduct their services in English, and even dachshunds came under attack because of their German origins. Learn more about the anti-German language act here: WHEN INDIANA BANNED THE GERMAN LANGUAGE IN 1919 by Stephen J. Taylor published August 26, 2015 on
Hoosier State Chronicles Indiana's Digital Historic Newspaper Program. For more see our German Heritage page.
1919, February 26 - President Woodrow Wilson established the Grand Canyon National Park on this date in 1919, after a 30-year opposition from ranchers, miners, and entrepreneurs. Today, the Grand Canyon National Park covers more than 1,900 square miles; the canyon itself is 277 river miles long, 10 miles wide, and a mile deep. The park receives 5 million visitors every year. From The History Center quote from 2013 The Writer's Almanac.
#OTD in 1919, farmers founded the Indiana Federation of Farmers' Associations, now known as the Indiana Farm Bureau. Low commodity prices and a depleted labor force due to World War I conscription impelled farmers to organize. The grassroots, member-led organization presented farmers' issues before local, state, and federal governmental agencies. The Bureau's purpose, as of 2018, is "'to be an effective advocate for farmers and through its policies and programs, promote agriculture and improve the economic and social welfare of member families.'"
On this day in 1919, the famous Motor Transport Corps convoy was underway, driving over 3,000 miles on the historic Lincoln Highway to study & observe the terrain and the standard army vehicles that traversed it. Notes from July 17th, 1919 indicate the convoy was in Delphos, Ohio making its way to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The weather was fair & warm, the roads good but dusty. The convoy was escorted through Ft. Wayne by the mayor and, as was often the case during the voyage, served lunch by the local motor service corps and the red cross.#MotorTransportCorpsConvoy
1919, November 11 - President Woodrow Wilson established Armistice Day to commemorate the end of World War I. Armistice Day was made a national holiday in 1938, and in 1954 was changed to Veterans Day to honor all American veterans of all wars.Veterans Day The Allied powers signed a ceasefire agreement with Germany at Compiégne, France, at 11:00 a.m. on November 11, 1918, bringing the war now known as World War I to a close. President Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day the following year on November 11, 1919, with these words:“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…” Originally, the celebration included parades and public meetings following a two-minute suspension of business at 11:00 a.m. Copied from Today in History - November 11 at The Library of Congress. See our World War I page.
On 11 November 1919, a year after the end of World War I, Allied nations commemorated the first Armistice Day. Visit our blog to learn how the press reported on that moving day of shared commemoration, reflection, and grieving.
On May 30, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed June 14 “Flag Day” as a yearly observance of the importance of the American flag.
