NMHS Newsletter, February 2016
SPECIAL BICENTENNIAL ISSUE
Welcome to a
special issue of the North Manchester Historical Society Newsletter featuring
the 2016 Indiana Bicentennial. This
issue outlines some of the ways the State of Indiana is celebrating the
occasion, and includes plans for how Wabash County, North Manchester, and the
North Manchester Historical Society (NMHS) will take part.
Mary Chrastil, President, NMHS
NMHS Crowd Sourced Genealogy Project
The NMHS has been
inspired by the state Bicentennial to create a crowd sourced family tree of
North Manchester and Wabash County.
We have wanted to offer beginners an introduction to genealogy for some time,
and this is a fun way to do so. We
are very pleased to have the North Manchester Public Library collaborate with us
in this project. By helping create
a community family tree, we also hope to create a deeper sense of community
connection and pride.
The crowd sourced
genealogy project is near to our hearts because it is such a great way to build
community. Everyone and anyone
living in Wabash County (emphasis on North Manchester) from February 2016
through August 2016 is invited to participate.
The project has a multi-generational appeal — we hope children, parents
and grandparents will work together to fill out a family tree for each member.
Many groups that aren’t always included in community projects are
specifically being asked to participate:
school children, youth groups such as 4-H, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts,
university students, and retirement community members.
We hope YOU participate, and tell your friends and family about it.
Enclosed with this
newsletter is a family tree form going back five generations that we would like
you to fill out and return to the Center for History or the NM Public Library.
Feel free to make copies for as many individuals as you like.
If you can only go back two or three generations, that’s fine.
Turn in your family tree anyway.
If you can go back for hundreds of years, we’d love for you to share your
family information with us if you are willing.
Why crowd
sourced?
Crowd sourcing, a business term coined in 2005, is defined as the process
of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from
a large group of people. One of the best-known examples of crowd sourcing is
crowd-funding, the collection of funds from the crowd (e.g., Kickstarter).
Crowd sourcing involves the desire to solve a problem and then freely
share the answer with everyone.
The NMHS hopes
crowd sourcing will provide a boost to generating a genealogy data base that
would normally take years to create.
The results will then be shared with local residents and future
researchers. We also hope to
attract interest and participation from a new generation which turns to
electronic media first (rather than newsletters, newspapers, radio and even
television). We are very grateful
to the NM Public Library for taking the lead on the electronic communications.
Finally, we hope that by using crowd sourcing the NMHS will learn new
skills, and remind the community that history is connected to today, not just to
the past.
What will be
created?
The NMHS will create a data base of Wabash County families.
We anticipate creating hard copy files based on the actual family trees
submitted. We will also create an
electronic data base that will be searchable by name and will cross reference
the information collected. While we
will do our best to elicit accurate information, we are not requiring
documentation on each submission.
We recognize that some discrepancies will occur; but we also note that huge data
bases like Ancestry.com are also prone to error.
We will collect baseline data that can be further researched and refined
by interested parties.
NMHS already holds
many family records and documents.
They have always been available to researchers who want information about their
family history. The crowd sourced
genealogy project will greatly increase our ability to provide information.
The timeline
created as part of the project (see below) will be a tangible way for
individuals to find their place in Wabash County history, and should create a
deeper sense of community and connection.
How we can help
you.
Along with the family tree form, we will provide instructions on how to begin.
We can provide a list of resources on line and at the Center for History
and NM Public Library. We are
arranging to provide free access at the Center for History to Ancestry.com, the
most popular on-line data base. We
will hold several educational programs on getting started, and hold regular
hours when you can come in for assistance.
What NMHS seeks to
be is a portal that assists individuals interested in learning more about their
family histories and in taking the first steps in such research.
NMHS does NOT seek to be an in-depth genealogy research institution.
There are many well-developed resources that are already available.
For example, the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne is recognized
nationally as one of the premier genealogy research institutions in the United
States.
Timeline.
One off-shoot
of the project is to create and display a timeline showing when someone in your
family first moved to Wabash County.
You may be that first family person, or your family may go back to the
early 1800s. We are asking those
who turn in a family tree to submit information for the timeline.
Even if you don’t choose to do a family tree, let us know when your
earliest family member came to Wabash County, and we’ll include you.
More copies.
You are welcome to make as many copies of the family tree form as you like (each
individual needs to have his/her own form).
Extra copies are also available at the Thomas Marshall House, North
Manchester Public Library, Timbercrest and Peabody Retirement Communities, and
at the NMHS monthly dinner/lecture programs.
You can find copies and print them from our website
(nmanchesterhistory.org) and our Facebook page (North Manchester Center for
History).
Project Summary:
What:
Wabash County Crowd Source Family Tree
Who:
Anyone living in Wabash County from Feb 2016 through Aug 2016
Emphasis on individuals living in North Manchester and Northern Wabash
County
Where:
Obtain family tree forms from Center for History, North Manchester Public
Library,online at our website or Facebook page.
Return family trees
to Center for History or North Manchester Public Library
When:
Family trees collected from February 2016 through August 2016.
Later submissions allowed.
Why:
To set up a baseline genealogy of Wabash County for future research;
To create an
interest in Wabash County/North Manchester history;
To introduce
individuals to genealogy, and assist them with basic research;
To celebrate
Indiana’s Bicentennial with a community-wide project that builds community
spirit.
Official
Endorsed Bicentennial Projects.
The 2016 Indiana Bicentennial Commission has encouraged communities throughout
the state to incorporate Bicentennial themes in already-existing community
celebrations. In addition,
organizations can apply to become an officially endorsed Legacy Project.
You can look up the Legacy Projects on the Indiana Bicentennial Website,
http://www.in.gov/ibc. The
commission-endorsed projects must be open and accessible to the public; relevant
to Indiana and the state’s bicentennial; fundable (without Commission support);
and achievable.
Projects or
programs must also meet at least one of the following recommended goals or
characteristics: culturally
inclusive; creating a legacy for the future; celebratory; and engaging and
inspiring to youth and young adults. Legacy Projects that are approved receive:
a listing on the 2016 Indiana Bicentennial website,
www.indiana2016.org; permission to use the official 2016 Indiana
Bicentennial logo on Indiana Bicentennial related promotional materials; and a
letter of endorsement from the 2016 Indiana Bicentennial Commission.
As of this writing,
there are 814 Legacy Projects listed on the Bicentennial website, five of them
in Wabash County. Three of the
Legacy projects are from North Manchester:
¨
Bisontennial.
A minimum of fifteen concrete statues of bison will be purchased. This
animal was chosen because it is featured on Indiana’s state seal. Young artists
at the Manchester Community Schools will be asked to create one-of-a-kind bison
masterpieces with themes related to local history and industry.
Local businesses and organizations will be asked to sponsor a bison.
Submitting organization:
North Manchester Chamber of Commerce.
¨
North Manchester
Video History, Yesterday and Today.
The video includes early history of North Manchester and interviews with
current residents about the state of arts and humanities, education, business
and agriculture, civic organizations and hopes for the future.
The interviews will also create hours of video history archives for
future research. Submitting
organization: North Manchester
Historical Society
¨
Harvest Festival
Celebrating 200 Years of History.
North Manchester’s Harvest Festival
offers a packed scheduled of events that celebrate the fall season and the
Bicentennial. This family friendly
event in downtown North Manchester will be held October 1, 2016, beginning
shortly after the torch passes through North Manchester.
Submitting organization: NM
Chamber of Commerce Tourism Committee.
There are two other
Legacy Projects in Wabash County.
¨
200 Years Along the
Wabash.
The Wabash River valley encompasses about 2/3 of Indiana’s land area and
was a key factor in both Native American and European settlement of the area.
This event highlights the rich historical and future significance
surrounding the Wabash River and its tributaries. Community events ranging from
walks and boat tours to historical re-enactments and poetry readings will create
an enduring appreciation for our rivers. Submitting organization: Banks of the
Wabash.
¨
Treaty Creek
Purchase.
Acquisition of 107 acres
subject to a life-estate, located in Wabash County.
The property is predominantly mature, upland hardwood forest with an area
of mature bottomland hardwoods along ½ mile of Treaty Creek.
Roughly 20 acres are in grasslands.
Submitting organization: DNR Division of Forestry
Two more North
Manchester projects are applying for Legacy status:
¨
Crowd Sourced
Genealogy of Wabash County
(see opening article). Submitting
organization: NM Historical Society
¨
Dedication of new
canoe launch
on the Eel River south of downtown North Manchester.
.
North Manchester
Bicentennial Activities.
A planning committee made up of Laura Rager, Karen Fawcett and Mary Chrastil
have been compiling a list of Bicentennial projects, including stand-alone
projects and those that are incorporating Bicentennial elements in
already-existing community celebrations.
Additional community organizations will certainly choose to be involved.
Here are ones that are known as of this writing:
January 21
Chamber of Commerce Dinner
February-November
Genealogy Family Tree Project - Proposed Legacy Project of
NMHS and NM Public Library
February 28
NMHS Newsletter devoted to
Bicentennial
March 14
NMHS program featuring Perry Hammock from Indiana Bicentennial Commission
Spring
Bisontennial; painted bison statues on display throughout the community.
Legacy Project supported by the NM
Chamber of Commerce/Tourism Committee, NM Community Schools
March-July
Encourage N. Wabash County families
to apply to Hoosier Heritage Farms project
April
Relay for Life
May, October
NMHS will incorporate Bicentennial Themes when
2nd and
3rd grade
students visit in May and October
July 4
Town Fireworks hosted by Manchester University
August 11-14
Funfest; Bicentennial theme
July 12 – Aug 16
NMHS hosts Indiana Historical Exhibit on Indiana’s 1916 Centennial at
Center for History
September 12
NMHS program featuring Andrea Neal, Wabash columnist, on her new
Bicentennial book.
September 28
Torch relay event in Warvel Park
(Wed) 5-6:30
October 1
Harvest Festival Celebrating 200 Years of History
October 1
Dedication-kayak/canoe launch.
Proposed Legacy Project
December 11
Bicentennial Anniversary Day—Event TBA
TBA
Premier of North Manchester Video History
Legacy Project of the NMHS
Other Wabash
County Bicentennial Activities.
A Bicentennial
planning committee has been convened for Wabash County under the leadership of
Mitch Figert, Executive Director of the Wabash County Museum (WCM).
Committee members include Mary Chrastil, Karen Fawcett and Laura Rager
from North Manchester, and Christine Flohr, Howard Kaler, Jennifer Long-Dillon,
Beth Miller, Deanna Unger, Bev Vanderpool, Ware Wimberly and Tenille Zartman
from Wabash.
Initially the main
focus of the committee has been to arrange the Bicentennial Torch Relay for
Wabash County (see article below on Indiana State Bicentennial Activities).
The Bicentennial Torch will pass through Wabash County on September 28.
The route has been determined, and torch bearers and honorary torch
bearers have been nominated. The
torch will enter from Grant County on SR 15, make several brief stops in Wabash,
continue to North Manchester for a brief event in Warvel Park, and return to
Wabash for a community celebration at Paradise Springs Historic Park.
Several other
Bicentennial activities are planned for the Wabash area.
¨
The WCM will hold a
scan-a-thon when the public is invited to scan old family pictures, talk to a
preservationist, and make digital copies to share.
¨
The WCM will host
the Lincoln Funeral Train exhibit, date TBA.
¨
The Wabash Public
Library will host a series of lectures and book signings featuring contemporary
Hoosier authors in September and November
¨
WCM is publishing
the DePew Family album
¨
WCM will
incorporate Bicentennial themes in its History Hunter and monthly Family Fun
Days
¨
WC Convention and
Visitors Bureau will create a dedicated page in its county-wide activities
calendar highlighting Bicentennial Activities
¨
Wabash Relay for
Life will have a Bicentennial theme on August 13
Indiana
Bicentennial State-Wide Activities.
The state of
Indiana has created a Bicentennial Commission that is in charge of planning
state-wide activities. You can see
their work in detail on the Indiana Bicentennial Website,
http://www.in.gov/ibc. The
state is organizing several Signature Projects, including:
In 1916, the State
of Indiana authorized the creation of a state park system during the state’s
Centennial as a gift to the people of Indiana.
Bicentennial Nature Trust (BNT) was created to preserve and
protect important conservation and recreation areas throughout Indiana by
matching donations of land or dollars. Property acquired with this fund will
become part of the public trust to ensure that the land is protected for future
generations of Hoosiers to use and enjoy.
The state has identified $20 million in state funding to support the BNT
and the Lilly Endowment contributed an additional $10 million grant.
The Indiana
Bicentennial Torch Relay is designed to inspire and unify Hoosiers as one of
the major commemorative events of the 2016 Bicentennial celebration. Hoosiers
will also symbolically “pass the torch” connecting generations to IGNITE our
future. Patterned after the Olympic
Torch Relay, Indiana’s version will pass through all 92 of the state’s counties,
cover 2300 miles over a five week period, averaging 72 miles per day.
Festivities will vary from town to town, as communities celebrate the
torch in their own special way. A specialized Mobile Visitors Center will be
created to accompany the torch on its journey.
The relay will culminate in Indianapolis on the Statehouse Grounds, with
a special welcome ceremony and celebration.
Other projects
listed at the Indiana Bicenteenail Website: The Visioning Project;
Children’s Indiana Bicentennial Nature Park; a new building solution for the
Indiana State Archives; an outdoor Bicentennial Plaza; and
Statehouse Education and Welcome Center.
CELEBRATING INDIANA’S BISON-TENNIAL
by John Knarr
1. The Buffalo Trace was a well-trodden, historic travelway used by migrating
buffalo between the Falls of the Ohio River near Louisville and Vincennes. The
Buffalo Trace became a Native American trail between Kentucky and the prairies
of Illinois.
2. Early Jesuit missionaries observed buffalo in abundance along the Kaskaskia
and Kankakee Rivers and further southward. Father Hennepin: “The Miamis hunt
them towards the latter end of Autumn….They change their Country according to
the Seasons of the Year; for upon the approach of the Winter, they leave the
North, and go to the Southern Parts. They follow one another, so that you may
see a Drove of them for above a league together, and stop all at the same
place….Their Ways are as beaten as our great Roads, and no Herb grows therein.
They swim over the Rivers they meet in their Way, to go and graze in other
Meadows.” Buffalo were abundant over large portions of Ohio and Indiana, for
Charlevoix wrote in 1720: “All the Country that is watered by the Ouabache, and
by the Ohio which runs into it, is very fruitful: It consists of vast Meadows,
well-watered, where the wild Buffaloes feed by Thousands.” Vandreuil described
in 1718, “Thirty leagues up the [Maumee] river is a place called La Glaise
[Defiance, OH], where buffaloes are always to be found…” The Journal of George
Croghan stated in 1765 that buffaloes, bears, turkeys and other game abounded on
the prairies bordering the “Ouabache.” Daniel Boone in the 1760s-1770s observed,
“The buffaloes were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements,
browsing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on those extensive
plains, fearless, because ignorant, of the violence of man. Sometimes we saw
hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt springs were amazing” The
buffalo had mostly been extirpated or disappeared from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky
and Illinois by the year 1800. Audubon (Quadrupeds, II, 36) wrote, “In the days
of our boyhood and youth, buffaloes roamed over the small and beautiful prairies
of Indiana and Illinois, and herds of them stalked through the open woods of
Kentucky and Tennessee; but they had dwindled down to a few stragglers, which
resorted chiefly to the ‘barrens’, towards the years 1808 and 1809, and soon
after entirely disappeared.”
3. George Rogers Clark used the Buffalo Trace in 1786 for military purposes when
he and 1,000 men marched from Louisville to the forts at Vincennes, for the
Battle of Vincennes.
4. Early records and travelers’ accounts also referred to the Buffalo Trace as
Vincennes Trace, Harrison’s Road, Louisville Trace, Old Indian Trail, the Old
Indian Road, Clarksville Trace, and Trace to the Falls.
5. Kentucky had salt licks and pastures to graze. The bison could swim or walk
across the shallower water of the Ohio River at the Falls of the Ohio. Present
day French Lick (Indiana) with its natural salt licks also drew wildlife from
all over South Central Indiana.
French Lick was historically identified as Buffalo Salt Lick.
6. In 1800 the route between Vincennes and Louisville was designated as a post
road, and mail was carried every four weeks over this route. The earliest
reference to a tavern with overnight accommodations on the Buffalo Trace was in
1812, four years before Indiana became a state.
7. By 1820 travelers utilized the Buffalo Trace enroute to Illinois and
Missouri. According to early travelers’ journals, the journey from Clarksville
to the Wabash River was a distance of 114 miles, taking about three days by
horseback. 1n 1820 a stagecoach line was set up between New Albany and Vincennes
following the Buffalo Trace.
8. The official Seal of the State of Indiana depicts a bison (buffalo) leaping
over a log. Indiana was admitted into the union as the nineteenth state on
December 11, 1816.
2015 Annual Fund and Façade Contributors
Thank you to the people who supported the North Manchester Historical Society
and the North Manchester Center for History with cash gifts made in
2015 to our Annual Fund and the Façade Restoration Fund.
The Annual Fund pays our on-going
operating expenses each year.
Façade Gifts help us with our special one-time façade restoration project.
We appreciate this assistance, because as a not-for-profit with no
regular governmental support we need your help to serve this community with our
museum, educational programs, research, and artifact collecting.
Please be aware that gifts to the Annual Fund and Façade Project are different
from membership, which provides specific benefits to the members such as free
museum admission and newsletters.
If you recently renewed your membership, you will be listed as a member in our
May newsletter.
We are sorry if there are any errors in this list.
Please let us know if there are any corrections to be made, and we will
be happy to make them.
And thank you again for your support!
2015 Combined Annual Fund and Façade Gifts
Covered Bridge Guild
$2,500+
Community Foundation of Wabash County
Ralph and Becky Naragon
The Paul L. Speicher Foundation
Titus Todd Chili for Charity Cook Off
Thomas Marshall Circle
$1,000+
Anonymous Donor
Beacon Credit Union
Tom and Eloise Brown
Mary Chrastil
Jim and Debbie Chinworth
Florence Dahlstrom, Chester Township
Eloise Eberly
Ford Meter Box Foundation
Art and Ellen Gilbert
Jeanette Lahman
Dan and Susan Manwaring
Ed and Martha Miller
Viv Simmons
Connie Vinton
Benefactor $500+
Ferne Baldwin
Joan Fahs
John and Bea Knarr
Bonnie Dee Merritt
History Sponsor $250+
Barry and Arlene Deardorff
Bernie and Vicki Ferringer
Ron and Harriet Finney
John and Gayle Forrester
Judy Glasgow
Joyce Joy
Donn Kesler
Manchester Veterinary Clinic
Mary Miller
Jim and Shirley Mishler
Daniel and Tracy Myers
Dan and Barbara Speicher
Nancy Sensibaugh
Tim and Jenny Taylor
Nancy Tiger
Mary Katherine Uhrig
Joe and Mary Vogel
Patron $100+
Dan and Jeanne Andersen
Ruthann Angle
David and Margaret Bagwell
Steve Batzka
Leland and Angilee Beery
Charles and Dagney Boebel
Martha Bowman
Dennis and Rosemary Butler
Drs. J.R. and Barbara Damron
Gary and Karen Eberly
Richard and Sheila Eisenstein
Michael and Marsha Flora
John and Gayle Forrester
Richard and Nancy Frantz
Rita Gable
Jim and Evelyn Garman
Ruth Hauser
Carol Haw
HF Group LLC
Tim and Roberta Hoffman
Indiana Humanities Council
Bob and Stephanie Jones
Kappa, Kappa, Kappa
Sam and Carol Leckrone
Manchester Main Street
Mike McLaughlin
Metzger Landscaping and Design
Jane Middlekauff
Roger and Jill Morphew
Jim Myer
North Manchester Moose 1518
Phil and Mary Orpurt
Walter Penrod
Rosemary Pletcher
Roger and Kathy Presl
Jolene Reiff
Jean Renschler
Gary Runkel
Jo Ann Schall
Graydon and Lois Snyder
Bill and Rebekah Steele
Larry and Mary Ann Swihart
Tri-Oaks Realty
Kent and Lisa Ulrey
Doretta Urschel
David and Becky Waas
Dorothy Weldy
Robert Weimer
Donor $50+
Kay Batdorf
Jane Bellinger
John Bollinger
Mary Louise Briner-Reist
Mary Lou Brown
Paula Dee
Joan Deeter
Diane Dewey-Norvell
Anita Dunlavy Family
Anne Garber
Robert Garman Family
Wilda Gene Garman Marcus Family
Warren and Helen Garner
Betty Hamlin
Kris Hand Property Services
Laketon Lions Club
Main View Inn
Scott and Deb Manges
Dorotha Mason
Dan and Weebe Naragon
Sandra Orn
Laura Rager
Eric and Jennifer Reichenbach
Todd and Linda Richards
Barbara Shoemaker
Lorraine Slifer
Carolyn Underwood
Dannie Wible
Don Willoughby
Contributor
Gladys Airgood
David and Kay Barnett
Ernie and Cleona Barr
Ida Cripe
Alberta Giegold
Karen and Terry Hewitt
Julia Hoover
Elaine Leonard
Avonne Lee Knecht
Don Olinger
Todd and Linda Richards
David and Shirley Rogers
Marjorie Sincroft
Jack and Deb Vineyard
Grace Voorheis
Helga Walsh
Allan White
Bruce and Amy Wiitala
Dorotha Williams
Memorial Gifts
In Memory of Jim Garman:
Tom Brown
Mary Chrastil
The Anita Garman Dunlavy Family
Robert Garman Family
The Wilda Gene Garman Marcus Family
Ralph and Becky Naragon
Bruce and Amy Wiitala
In Memory of Karl Merritt:
David and Margaret Bagwell
In-Kind Gifts
In-Kind Gifts are non-cash goods or services provided to the Historical Society
in lieu of payment or other obligations.
James R C Adams
Barb Amiss
Jeanne Andersen
Martin Andersen
Steve Batzka
Charles Boebel
Mary Chrastil
Joyce Joy
Brenda Ramseier
Endowment Fund Contributors
Gifts to our endowment funds at the Community Foundation of Wabash County are
invested to provide perpetual income for the Center for History, Historical
Society, and Thomas Marshall House.
Estate of Richard Livingston