County historians play vital role in preserving past

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - A unique state resource can help link Hoosiers to their community's past.

The state's county historians provide residents with a local contact for inquiries on ancestors, notable events and other topics. They volunteer for three-year renewable terms, and those representing the Wabash Valley have devoted years to preserving local stories.

"Every week, I probably learn something new," said Mike McCormick, explaining the passion for his 20 years as Vigo County's historian.

The program is one of the few of its kind in the U.S., according to the state. It was launched in 1981 by the Indiana Historical Society and the state's historical bureau.

Historians also coordinate information services and hold community presentations. Candidates are recommended to the historical society and bureau for nomination.

"The county historians know where the resources are, and they know the stories that are often forgotten in the community," said Jeannette Rooney, the program's assistant director of local history services.

McCormick doesn't remember how his opportunity to serve came about. But his research into the county's early days has turned up surprising local connections to famous Americans.

Elizabeth Key was the widow of U.S. diplomat Thomas Henry Nelson, and the couple moved to Terre Haute after their marriage.

Key grew up in Kentucky, but attended school in Cincinnati - where one of her teachers was the future Harriet Beecher Stowe.

It's well-documented in the author's biographies that Key invited Stowe and another teacher to spend a week with her family in the Bluegrass State. Key's father, a local clerk of the court, took them to watch a slave auction.

Here's the part McCormick can't definitively nail down. Later, Stowe apparently said the auction inspired her to write the anti-slavery classic "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

McCormick reached out to a museum on the site where Stowe is believed to have witnessed the slave transactions. The museum, he said, hasn't replied to requests for further documentation.

"There's so many other stories like that," he said. "Some of them are not quite that spectacular."

A professional background in history is not required to serve as county historian, according to program guidelines. The position is open to anyone well-versed in their community's past.

McCormick is a longtime Terre Haute attorney and writes a weekly history column for the Tribune-Star. Sullivan County's Donna Adams oversees the public library's genealogy and local history department. Marsha Cline of Greene County volunteers for the local historical society as does Vermillion County's Dail Henry.

Randy Wright, who was recently re-appointed in Parke County, is a Rockville library trustee.

The Valley's libraries are a key source of knowledge for the historians.

After Adams was appointed in 1996, she tapped into the collection of Dr. James Maple, a local physician. Maple compiled more than 40 scrapbooks of early newspaper clippings from Vincennes and Sullivan.

The collection has since been digitized through Wabash Valley Visions and Voices.

"Sometimes it leads me to the answers and sometimes it doesn't, but that's one of the main sources that I use," she said.

Newspapers helped Wright's family learn more about a relative who fought in the Civil War. Wright's wife's great-grandfather, Capt. John Dowd, served in the 85th Indiana Infantry.

Paging through issues of the Rockville Republican, he came across letters Dowd wrote home from Tennessee and made copies for his wife's family.

"They got to read and see things about him that were forgotten in the family because it was so long ago," said Wright, who became Parke County's historian in 2003.

Old copies of Terre Haute dailies also assisted McCormick with his research endeavors.

In the early 1980s, he purchased 250 volumes of newspapers dating from the 1890s to the early 1970s. The papers had been cleaned out of the Tribune-Star's old press room, he said.

Busy with his law practice, McCormick couldn't spend much time browsing through the pages. After purchasing Ambrosini's restaurant, he decided to make some of them into table place mats.

"That force-fed me to read them," he said. "And, you know, all of a sudden, I go, 'Oh, my God, this is amazing.'"

Henry had a similar realization when she researched a cemetery in Eugene, northwest of Cayuga. The stories behind the gravestones help fuel her interest in studying local history.

"I believe it's about learning about other people," Henry said. "I think that's what really got me when I started doing research about the people in the cemetery."

Historians can't always find the answers to patrons' questions.

Adams was once asked to research a car supposedly used for transporting liquor during Prohibition. The owner planned to sell the vehicle and wanted to capitalize on that quirk.

"I could not find an article on that at all, but I found it interesting that that went along with the car when he bought it," she said.

Adams is one of the area historians helping organize events celebrating the state's bicentennial.

This spring, two gravestones marking the resting spot of two pioneering dignitaries will be dedicated.

The first, Pennsylvania-born James Scott, served as a general court judge in the Indiana Territory for 18 years. He's buried in Carlisle Cemetery.

Scott's tombstone was listed in a historical society survey, but Adams couldn't find it when she canvassed the cemetery. She soon discovered the marker had been knocked over.

The Sullivan County Cemetery Commission, which Adams belongs to, paid to reset the stone.

John Benefiel, a frontier ranger who served in the War of 1812, is the other dignitary. He was a framer of Indiana's original Constitution in 1816 and served in the state legislature. He's buried in Johnson Cemetery, near Carlisle.

Adams is also working with a planning committee for celebrations of Sullivan County's bicentennial next year.

McCormick and Wright are on their county's bicentennial steering committees.

Cline has helped arrange window displays at the Greene County Historical Society's Bloomfield office, capturing daily living from the past 200 years.

After showcasing a spinning wheel and skeinwinder (a yarn measuring device), the window now features an assortment of quilts.

"We're just trying to get people to know how different things are now than they used to be," Cline said.

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Source: (Terre Haute) Tribune-Star, http://bit.ly/1SgaEyU

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Information from: Tribune-Star, http://www.tribstar.com