Indiana trees

Today, we bring you one of Sylvia Henricks' "Remembrances." You can read more of Sylvia's columns weekly in The Franklin Township Informer, or in her book From The Ash Grove (available directly from the FTHS, and via the web site). 

“A hundred years ago fully seven-eighths of the State of Indiana was covered with forests.” Since I’m quoting from a book (Indiana, a Guide to the Hoosier State, written in 1941), I had better make that “200 years ago”. 

The early settlers were mostly farmers, hoping to make homes in which to raise and feed their families. They found their tracts of land covered with trees. Historians described the trees, growing so large and close together, that light could hardly reach the forest floor. Charles Deam in his Trees of Indiana (1931), reported 134 species, 124 native to Indiana, the other ten having been successfully introduced. Deam identified 17 species of oak, the black walnut and many species of maple tree. he also described “the beech, lovingly painted by Indiana artists for its mottled trunk and rich autumn colors, the massive sycamore, gleaming white along the banks of streams, and the majestic tulip tree, or yellow poplar, the State tree.”

But as beautiful as the trees were, the early settlers saw them not as adornment, but as something to be removed from the land, so that they could plant their crops. They spent much energy and time in clearing their farms. “Deadening” the trees was one method, removing the bark from an area surrounding the trunk, causing the tree to die. It was a slow process, but as the branches withered, light fell on the ground and made it possible to plow and plant underneath the tree.

“Log-rollings” were popular as community projects, where groups of men and women gathered. The men cut the trees down with their axes, cut and burned the underbrush, then chopped the trees into 10 to 20 foot lengths. These were piled up and burned. The women prepared a big meal to be enjoyed at the close of the day. Many of the best logs of oak, poplar, walnut and ash were left at the rollings to be split into rails for fences.

But some trees survived the land-clearing, perhaps by their location in a farmyard or by their size or beauty. One such tree stands along Shelbyville Road on a curve near Edgewood Avenue. It is, I believe, a kind of oak tree (a chestnut oak?) for an acorn was forming in the clump of leaves we picked up. The leaves are oval in shape, not lobed as are the leaves of many oaks. I once asked a man standing by his mailbox across the road from the tree if it had a special history was a landmark, an early campsite, a boundary. No, he said, not that he knew of. ‘‘It’s just a big ole tree,” he said. If anyone knows more than that, please let me know.

Liberty Magazine, 1926

Earlier this month, the Franklin Township Historical Society received a donation of antique books and magazines from board member Ben Schuman. One of these was an issue of Liberty magazine from May, 1926.  You can view this and other magazines at the Meeting House, but here are some highlights!

Magazines in the early 20th century were a major media source for both news and entertainment.  In 1926, radio broadcasting had only been in use for five or six years and was not yet ubiquitous, and the mysterious new technology known as "television" was still in development (the first experimental cathode ray tube was introduced about six months after this issue was published, but most Americans would not discover in-home television until after World War II).  Magazines were large-format periodicals packed with articles, illustrations, news and fictional stories.

Like modern magazines, periodicals relied heavily on advertising for revenue, and often sold full-page ads inside the front and back covers. This issue of Liberty features a full-page ad (at right) for a familiar product -- Lysol -- which was originally marketed for a very different use than the household cleaning products we know.

Magazines also regularly featured serialized fiction, poetry and short stories. This suspense novella, Flying Death (at left) is very typical of the era.  Before television or multiplex cinemas, reading fiction was one of the primary forms of entertainment, and escapist stories of romance and adventure were in particularly high demand.  Many famous authors such as Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Johnston McCulley, Dashiell Hammett and Leslie Charteris established their writing careers by having their stories serialized in popular magazines.

As we head into election season, we're reminded that some things don't change at all: Editorial cartoons and political satire have been published in periodicals for hundreds of years!  Here are a few topical cartoons from 1926 (at right).


The Meeting House is open from 1 to 4PM on the first Saturday and third Sunday of each month from March through October. If you liked these photos, stop by and check out our collection of books, magazines newspapers and other vintage reading material!

WPA Outhouses: Humble But Historic

It might seem strange to write a book about outhouses -- those rustic shacks that our forebears used instead of the indoor porcelain plumbing we're used to -- but there is a lot of history in those little wooden buildings!  During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) were created to provide jobs for out-of-work citizens, and one of those unglamorous jobs was building outhouses.  The Indiana Community Sanitation Program reported in January, 1943 that 125,791 “Sanitary Privies” had been built since the program began in December, 1933, providing more than $4 million dollars in WPA wages to otherwise-unemployed workers during the 1930s.

A few of these WPA constructions still remain standing in Franklin Township.  Our latest publication, Humble but Historic, The Surviving WPA Outhouses of Franklin Township, Marion County, Indiana, includes a brief history and photograph of each of the 10 remaining outhouse buildings, as well as a copy of the “Indiana Community Sanitation Program Regulation Manual, Sponsored By United States Public Health Service, Indiana Division of Public Health Works Progress Administration,” which directed the workers in building the structures and a copy of the “Maintenance Rules” to be tacked to the wall of each finished outhouse. (One of the township’s outhouses still has these rules fastened to the wall!)

The stapled book was designed and printed by Faulkenberg Printing in Indianapolis. The Society has priced it at $7.00.  You can purchase a copy in person at the Meeting House during Open Hours, or order one by mail via our website.

Shelbyville Road Farm History, part II

Today, we bring you one of Sylvia Henricks' "Remembrances." You can read more of Sylvia's columns weekly in The Franklin Township Informer, or in her book From The Ash Grove (available directly from the FTHS, and via the web site).


The hilltop farm home of Christian and Sophia Klasing on Shelbyville Road, which I wrote about in the September 5 “Remembrances,” is shown in another, later photo (at left), which appeared in the Township Historical Society’s publication The History of Franklin Township Area Old Houses (1982). By then, Christian and Sophia were deceased, the brick house abandoned, and the property sold. The new owners would develop the farm during the next several years into Franklin Parke Estates. The hilltop site now holds two houses, one of them the home of Scott and Mary Verbarg, who are interested in the history of their property.

The hilltop remains. That there was a wide view from the hilltop was never in dispute. But just how high was the elevation? Historical Society member Dana Crapo solved the question, by going downtown to the State Office Building and -- in spite of parking difficulties, and confusion in locating the right office -- buying a topographical map of the area which includes that part of Shelbyville Road where the Klasing farm lay. The map, 22” by 27”, printed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, is a U.S. Geological Survey, covers “the Beech Grove quadrangle.”(Topography, 1966; Roads, 1998.)

The map does record the height of the hill on which the farm house stood, slightly north of Shelbyville Road, at 900 feet. My six acres next door to the Franklin Parke Estates, are shown with two tiny black squares (one the garage) close to Shelbyville Road, east and somewhat south of the hilltop as 870 feet. I was surprised at this, as I always thought we lived “down in a hollow.” The Society Meeting House is 843 feet.

Indiana, A Guide to the Hoosier State, (1941) states on p.7 “About two thirds of Indiana is prevailingly level or rolling, while a smaller portion, largely in the south, is hilly. The average altitude is 700 feet above sea level. The greatest height, 1,285 feet is in Randolph County, near the eastern border; the lowest point, 313 feet, is in Vanderburgh County on the Ohio River.

(To be continued in a future "Remembrances.")

Got your FCHS yearbook?

Hey, Franklin Central High School grads... It's Homecoming season!  Do you need to brush up on the names of your classmates?  Maybe pick up a few signatures that you missed way back when?

The Franklin Township Historical Society has a stash of vintage FCHS yearbooks for sale for just $20 each!  We have most years in stock from 1951 through 1987.  You can order them along with our other publications here, or email mlinne@hrtc.net to arrange to pick one up at the Meeting House.

Cemetery Talk September 16

Love cemeteries? Love local history? Or just want to learn about those strange symbols that mark the places of the dead? Join us September 16 at 1 p.m. for an informative tour of the Big Run Cemetery, led by our resident expert (and FTHS board member) Dana Crapo. Parking is available at the Meeting House (6510 S. Franklin Rd.); the cemetery is just across the street.

While you're there, step across the street and visit our Meeting House during Open Hours, which last from 1 to 4 p.m.