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.

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.