What We Did in 2010

Every year, the president of the Franklin Township Historical Society compiles a summary of the year's events. Here is this year's wrap-up from FTHS president Diana Stevenson.

Sages say that “time flies when you’re having fun,” and Franklin Township Historical Society has been having fun for 35 years! Our members and the community continue to astound us with their interest, their support, and their contributions in keeping and documenting the history of Franklin Township. Our Meeting House has welcomed over 200 guests during 2010, including Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Franklin Township 4-H club members, the 1960 graduating class of Franklin Township High School, and numerous visitors during Open Hours. Special activities during Open Hours were quite successful: two croquet tournaments, a cat demonstration, a post card exchange and tours of Big Run Cemetery.

Community participation efforts included our input in the planning of an Indy Parks recreation area near the Wanamaker Post Office, providing input for a proposed Historic Michigan Road Byway and judging student projects for National History Day. Presentations informing local groups about our historical society were given to the Four Corners Home Ec Club, Franklin Township Chamber of Commerce, Perry Township Historical Society, and Marion County Home Economics group. We provided an exhibit for the Wanamaker Branch Public Library and participated in the second annual Genealogy Fair at the Indiana State Library.

The “Remembrances” weekly column continues in popularity and provides a wealth of information to readers of the Informer. Sylvia Henricks is to be applauded for this important contribution and for her encouragement in recruiting other members to provide stories of interest.

The Christmas holidays provided an opportunity for walking in the annual Christmas Parade in conjunction with “Christmas in Wanamaker,” and we held our first Old Fashioned Christmas Party at the Meeting House, where we sang carols and enjoyed cookies and hot cider.

We published a new book, A Celebration of Learning, an updated history of Franklin Township Schools, and created new note cards this year. Our publications continue to be our most valuable funding source. Old Settlers’ Day, Christmas in Wanamaker, Acton Craft Fair and a Harvest Festival at the Moravian Church allow us to showcase our publications. Since the 2009 Annual Meeting, we have accepted 3 new lifetime members and 10 new regular members. A special thanks goes out to all those who renew their membership annually.

We continue to receive inquiries via the internet and our webmaster, Alena Van Arendonk, has moved us into the 21^st century with the addition of Facebook!

We continue to send quarterly newsletters to our members, have monthly board meetings, and have nearly completed a data base of our possessions. There are some new exhibits in the display cases at the Meeting House, some newly organized and indexed scrapbooks making them more user-friendly for our visitors and many new gifts received during the year from the community and our members. This year has been another opportunity for Franklin Township Historical Society to be the recipient of an Eagle Scout project. Josh Armentrout recently completed his project, which includes a lighted sign that once served to provide information about Big Run Baptist Church. We can now post information about upcoming events on our new sign and our American flag is lighted at dark.

As the year closes, it is a perfect time to thank the Board Members of the Franklin Township Historical Society. Their faithfulness in attending meetings, participating in events, sending press releases, cleaning the Meeting House, and baking cookies is greatly appreciated! Kudos to John Kanouse, Carolyn Kanouse, Dana Crapo, , Sylvia Henricks, Nancy Van Arendonk, Diana Hipple, Ginny Compton, Larry Stevenson, David Ostheimer, Alena Van Arendonk, Marlena Linne, Jim Winton, Evelyn Tandy and Ben Schuman.

Diana Stevenson, president

November 4, 2010

Croquet Competition at FTHS Meeting House

Franklin Township Historical Society invites one and all to participate in a croquet tournament at the Meeting House (6510 South Franklin Road) on Saturday, October 2. Sign-ups will begin at 1 p.m. with play starting at 1:45 p.m. This event is free and open to all ages. Light refreshments will be available.

For more information, contact Diana Stevenson at kimgada2004@yahoo.com.

Marjorie Main - Ma Kettle

Among Acton's many and varied claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of actress Marjorie Main. Although she appeared in more than 80 roles throughout her career, often opposite big-name stars such as Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and Judy Garland, she is best remembered as Ma Kettle from the popular series of Ma & Pa Kettle films.

On October 8 and 9, the Historic Artcraft Theatre in Franklin, Indiana will be showing one of these classic films, The Further Adventures of Ma & Pa Kettle. If you haven't seen this local girl on the big screen, now's your chance! You'll also be supporting historic preservation; the Artcraft is a 1920s-vintage movie palace in care of the non-profit organization Franklin Heritage, Inc., and all proceeds go to the restoration of the building.

For more information, visit the Artcraft's website.

Phillip Gulley at Harvest Dinner

The FTHS is proud to announce that Phillip Gulley, author of 16 books and Emmy-winning television personality, will be the speaker Nov. 4th at the Franklin Township Historical Society’s annual Harvest Dinner. The event is open to the public.

Gulley, best known for his “Harmony” series and other widely-acclaimed books, also hosts "Porch Talk with Phil Gulley" on the PBS/WFYI television show Across Indiana.
The Wall Street Journal has said of him, “Philip Gulley [has] a charming sense of small-town life and a shrewd sense of life in general. A self-deprecating narrator, he knows how to exaggerate in a witty way.”

The event will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday Nov. 4th at the New Bethel Baptist Church, 8936 Southeastern Avenue, Indianapolis. Tickets are $25 per person and include a full dinner. Attendees will also be able to speak with Phillip Gulley afterward and have books autographed, if desired. To reserve a place, mail payment to the Franklin Township Historical Society, P.O. Box 39015, Indianapolis, IN 46239. For more information, contact Diana Stevenson (317-862-8822 or kimgada2004@yahoo.com).

Post Cards on Display

Franklin Township Historical Society invites all those interested in post cards to come to Open Hours at the Meeting House (6510 South Franklin Road) on July 18, from 1-4 p.m. "It is interesting to see what cards are most valued by collectors," says Joe Seiter, long time post card enthusiast. FTHS has several collections that will be on display and some cards will be offered for sale.

Old Settlers Day

Join us Sunday, June 27 for Old Settlers Day, Wanamaker's annual summer street fair! We will again be hosting our popular used book sale -- books of every genre are only 50 cents each! -- as well as offering our publications, memberships, Instant Ancestors, and more at our booth.

For more information on Old Settlers Day, visit the FTCC's page.

Remembrances: Watercolor Cabin

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).

Open Hours at the Society's Meeting House -- 6510 S. Franklin Road, from 1 to 4 p.m., on the first Saturdays, and the third Sundays of March through October -- are almost always an interesting time. All members are invited to share the afternoons, greet visitors, and perhaps help answer their questions.

We never know what a visitor may ask for -- information on his family -- the history of an old house he may be remodeling -- the photo of a great-grandparent who may have attended one of the district schools. We have a variety of places to look: abstracts, files of photographs, our own publications, scrapbooks and family histories. Sometimes we can help, sometimes not, but we never fail to try.

When township resident Stanley Wise came on our first Open Hours of the season, he said, "My father, Donald Wise, who died a few years ago, told me you had a picture of the old house -- a log cabin -- that once stood on Maze Road where the house my parents, Don and Iona Wise, later lived, and where I now live. The old house, my father thought, had a dug well in front, and another in the back, with a few outbuildings."

Several of us looked through our Area Old Houses book, our 2009 Calendar of historic homes, and through our collection of old photographs. Nothing. And then I heard Stanley say, "Yes, that's it." Dave Ostheimer had found what we were looking for -- but in a form that I, at least, had not thought of. It was a small framed watercolor, one of three given to the Society by Leroy Compton many years ago, on display in one of our cases.

The paintings were done by a relative of Leroy's, Dale Hendrickson, who with his wife liked to come "from the city" and visit his wife's sister, Leroy's grandmother, Edith Rabourn Maze at their farm home on Knapp Road. Dale sometimes brought his paints along. The other two watercolors are also country scenes -- a house on Knapp Road, and a log barn.

A card taped to the bottom edge of the frame identified the scene. "This log house was located where the Donald Wise family now live at 9540 Maze Road. Leroy Compton commented: 'My grandfather, Roy Maze, had a brother, Erasmus, who returned to Indiana from one of the Dakotas where the had homesteaded. Erasmus moved into the house where the Chamberlains now live, down a lane by the west side of the house in the picture. In the 1930s Erasmus built a new house on the site of the log house. My folks tell me that they remember the last occupant of the log house, an elderly single fellow who did odd jobs and lived from his garden, which occupied most of his summer time. My mother thinks the man's name was Nixon. Before the house was torn down, my grandfather stored farm implements in it.'"