General Lew Wallace Study & Museum

A few days ago, I had the privilege of making a special tour of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum in Crawfordsville, IN, an easy morning's drive west of Indianapolis. If you have not had a chance to learn about this great American hero and author, I encourage you to make the trip!

Lew Wallace fought in two American wars (most notably in the Civil War, where he successfully defended both Washington, D.C. and Cincinnati, OH from major Confederate attacks), served as governor of the New Mexico territory -- where he famously made a plea bargain with Billy the Kid, who later violated the agreement by breaking out of prison -- and served as the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. He presided over the trial of the conspirators who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. He was also an artist, a musician, an inventor and technological enthusiast. But he is best known as the author of the best-selling novel of the 19th century, a Biblical epic titled Ben-Hur. The book has been made into four motion pictures -- one of which is still tied for the record of most Academy Awards ever won by a single film -- an equally groundbreaking Broadway stage play, two stage musicals, and more.

The study, an exotic building of Wallace's own design and decorated with carved faces of characters from his books, is a delightful tour for those interested in history or architecture. It has been preserved in an almost undisturbed state -- it still contains Wallace's furniture, library and personal effects -- and is currently undergoing restoration on the interior to restore the original paint and intricate murals that were covered at some point in the past.

Also open is the visitor's center, originally the site's carriage house -- the gift shop is located in the stall belonging to the horse Wallace rode in the Civil War -- which houses an informative exhibit on historic preservation. For tour information, please visit the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum website.

Special Events

For Civil War enthusiasts, the museum is hosting a number of lectures and reenactments throughout the month of July, including lectures on the Underground Railroad, Civil War photographer Matthew Brady, and Mary Todd Lincoln. For more information, please visit http://ben-hur.com/aboutus/newsevents.html.

Lunch at the Propylaeum

Join us Wednesday, July 6 for an exclusive FTHS Membership event! We'll have a private tour of the historic Propylaeum, followed by a delicious lunch. (A donation of $1 is requested for the tour, and the full menu can be viewed here.)

For more information on the Propylaeum, visit thepropylaeum.org.

If your FTHS membership is not current, don't worry -- an annual membership is only $10, and you can renew it at any time! Visit our website's membership page for more information.

To RSVP to this event, email Nancy at nanvana@gmail.com.

IHS "Grave Matters" Cemetery Trip

The Franklin Township Historical Society is not affiliated with the Indiana Historical Society, but the members of both organizations have similar interests. For that reason, you might be interested in this recent press release from the IHS:

On June 9 join IHS Membership and Local History Services staff for an exciting day-trip to Spring Grove in Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the Midwest’s oldest historic cemeteries!

Founded in 1845, Spring Grove boasts over 400 acres of beautifully maintained gardens and cemetery spaces. The tour group will be treated to an in-depth, one hour walking tour by Spring Grove’s chief horticulturalist. The trip will include stops at two additional cemeteries in Indiana for brief walking tours.

Indiana cemetery experts Jeannie Regan-Dinius of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Sheila Riley of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis will accompany the group and make presentations throughout the day. Lunch, snacks and transportation via coach will be provided.

Space is limited, so register now! To secure your spot, please contact Jennifer Hiatt at (317) 234-2670 or jhiatt@indianahistory.org. The registration fee is $40 for IHS members and $60 for non-members (includes Individual membership).

Please note: for the purposes of the walking tours, guests should be able to stand and walk for up to an hour at a time.

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).

Beech Grove, our neighbor community to the north west, is the subject of a new book. being sold by the Beech Grove Library. Produced by Arcadia Publishing, as one of their Images of America Series, the 127 page book is well-written, interesting and full of new and old black and white photographs. Eleven of the photos are of postcards from the collection of our own society member, Joe Seiter. The text is written by Jim Hillman and John Murphy, “with the Beech Grove Public Library.”

The Foreword by former Beech Grove Mayor Donald Joe Wright gives an overview of the earliest days of the area, when the prominent families were the Churchmans, McGregors, Boltons and Cottmans. The Churchman property was then in Franklin Township, and George Cottman, who became a historian, wrote at one time of attending school at “No.9,” the one-room Franklin Township district school known as Poplar Grove.

In 1904 construction began on a large repair facility by the Big Four Railroad (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St.Louis Railway). Beech Grove as a town also had its beginning, at first only four homes and two businesses. But as the repair facility for engines and passenger cars grew, so did the town. Beech Grove was incorporated in 1906. The Shops were completed in 1908.. “Of the original 2400 acres the railroad had acquired, 640 acres were reserved for the Shops and rail operations, and the balance formed the original land for the town itself,” the authors wrote.

The name of the facility has changed over the years. In 1923 it took the name of its parent Company, the New York Central Shops. During World War II, it had its busiest years with 5000 men and women employed, but after the war railroad traffic declined, and in 1968 the NYC Railroad merged with Penn Central, and the facility became the Penn Central Shops.

The Federal Government created the Amtrak passenger rail system, which used the repair facilities of the Penn Central Shops in1975. In 1986 Amtrak took control of the facility, renaming it Amtrak Shops.

The attractive paperback, which sells for $23.50 at the Beech Grove Library also records the growth of Beech Grove, its businesses, schools, homes and celebrations. Beech Grove opted, in 1970, not to join UNIGOV, the county-wide consolidation with Indianapolis, and maintains its own government and municipal services. The Society has added a copy of the book to our collection of local histories, and you may look at it at our Meeting House.

2011 Quilt Show

We had quite a turnout for our 7th Quilt Show! If you missed the event, here are a few detail pictures highlighting the gorgeous pieces that were entered. You can view the full gallery at https://picasaweb.google.com/FranklinTownshipHistory/7thQuiltShowApr162011#.

Remembrances - Poetry

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).

Brenda Lempp of Madison, Wisconsin, has been writing poetry, she says, since she was 13 year old. She was born and grew up in Acton, the third oldest of Clifford and Betty Kight’s nine children. Now married to her high school pen-pal from Germany, Steffan , who is a mathematics professor at UW-Madison, she is the mother of three children, and has recently published her second collection of poems about her childhood.

Brenda and I became acquainted several years ago when she worked for the Informer. After graduating from Franklin Central, she attended Franklin College, earning a degree in journalism. Brenda has worked for newspapers in Indiana, Florida, and Illinois. She has also taught, substituted, supervised a school lunch room, volunteered in school libraries, edited school yearbooks, and “clowned around as Buzzy the Clown with Happy’s Clown Club.”

Poetry has always been a big part of her life, she admits. She has led a poetry group for 20 years, and is a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and the Wisconsin Regional Writers’ Association and. She published her first chapbook, Yellow Smiles, in 2000, and her poems have appeared in several publications.

Last year she produced her second book, Collecting Memories, Childhood Poems, dedicating it to her parents. So large a family provided Brenda with countless images and memories of the life they shared in Acton., images of home-made fun and happy times.

Brenda signed and sent two copies of her latest book, one for the Historical Society and one to me. In a note she said that she recently shared in a reading for the Wisconsin Festival of Poets. “I dedicated my reading to Mildred Mahler, and I read two of her poems,” Brenda wrote, “and several from my chapbook.” (Mrs. Mahler, named by some “Acton’s Poet Laureate” wrote many poems from which Olga Woolman and I chose some for a Township Historical Society’s publication, Apron Pocket Poems, printed in 1980.)

Collecting Memories contains 41 of Brenda’s poems, with the title poem on the back cover.

Being a poet, is a meaningful part of her life, Brenda Kight Lempp says, although she admits “I sometimes am too busy to write.” “But,” she adds, “I can’t stop writing.”

Brenda’s first chapbook, Yellow Smiles, Family Poems, about her three children, Kiki, Kari, and Kevin, was published in 2000. Her latest book, Collecting Memories was completed last year. Both books are in the Township Historical Society’s collection of local authors.

In Collecting Memories, Brenda writes about her own childhood in Acton where she grew up, one of nine children of Clifford and the late Betty Kight. She dedicated the book to her parents. Her poems reflect a happy, if sometimes crowded household, family fun, and many of the small-town pleasures of life in Acton.

The first one in the book is “Mom’s Favorites.”

I miss my childhood days
when mom cooked peppery sausage, biscuits and gravy,
or hot French toast topped with grape jelly.

For a snack after school,
we loved hot buttered sugar and cinnamon toast,
Those cold Indiana winters were warm
with Mom’s special home-canned vegetable soup.

For dinner, cornbread crumbled with white navy beans
or garden green beans cooked with potatoes and ham.
And oh, I could never resist smothered liver
or a rhubarb crisp cooked in Mom’s old iron skillet.

(three holiday meals omitted)

When I get homesick, there’s nothing
like cooking Mom’s favorites,
Just the smell of a bacon and egg sandwich at breakfast
takes me back home.

There’s only room for the two final verses of “My Special Place.”

Sometimes I look back,/ and I see the little girl/sitting by the lamp.
I hear the refrigerator murmur,/ the clock tick on the wall.
I feel the thirst for knowledge/ and the flow of words on paper.

Years later,/ I still want that corner in my life.
There is my special place/ the lamp warmed me/ the bench hugged me
The clock listened to me, / the refrigerator soothed me,/And words flowed from my pen.

The next best thing to writing poetry is to read it. Thank you, Brenda.

2011 Events

2011 promises to be busy! You can always check our online events calendar to see what's happening, but here's a quick reference of dates to save for this year's special events:

April 16 - 7th Quilt Show at Zion Education Building

May 15 - Croquet Tournament during Open Hours at Meeting House

June 4 - Postcard Exhibit during Open Hours at Meeting House

June 26 - Old Settlers Day in Wanamaker

July 6 - FTHS Members Tour and Lunch at the Propylaeum

July 17 - Vintage Toy Exhibit during Open Hours at Meeting House

September 18 - Big Run Cemetery Walk during Open Hours

October 16 - Ghost Stories during Open Hours at Meeting House

October 29 - Membership Harvest Dinner

December 18 - Old Fashioned Christmas Celebration at Meeting House

We're always adding more events to the calendar, so be sure to subscribe to our email list and check back for updates. If there's an event or topic you would like us to cover, be sure and let us know! You can visit us in person during Open Hours (the first Saturday and third Sunday of every month from 1 to 4 p.m., May through October) at the Meeting House, 6510 S. Franklin Rd., or contact us through our website.