Blog post by Randi Richardson In the spring of 2019 a Bloomington resident who wished to remain anonymous donated five, small photos showing a large number of Ku Klux Klan members attending a burial ceremony. The photos had no identifying information and the donor didn’t even know how s/he came to have the photos in
Blog post by Randi Richardson The flood of March 1913 is without parallel in the history of Indiana. It occurred between March 23 and March 26 in the central and eastern part of the United State following several days of record-breaking rain onto already heavily saturated ground. On Tuesday, March 25, the Bloomington Daily Telephone provided a lengthy description
Blog post by Randi Richardson Johanna Bourke heard it without really listening. The whistle of a train on the Monon tracks near her home in Benton Township. Her husband, Mathias, worked on the railroad and frequently traveled on that particular train. Each time she heard the whistle it was a comfort to her as though
Blog post by Randi Richardson In 1898, Cuba was under the rule of the Spanish empire but had struggled a number of years for independence. When the U. S. learned that Spain was abusing and killing Cubans, they sent warships to Cuba’s aid. One of those warships, the USS Maine, mysteriously exploded on the evening
Blog post by Randi Richardson In 1881 an unnamed reporter for the Bloomington Hawkeye shared with the newspaper’s readers his recent experience in downtown Bloomington. He said he met a fashionably dressed young woman, perhaps 24 or 25 years of age, on the north side of the downtown square. She said she had just come from Indianapolis
Blog post by Hilary Fleck The women of Indiana began the year 1917 with high hopes and optimism – it looked as though their years of hard work lobbying the State legislature would come to fruition with the passage of the Maston-McKinley partial suffrage bill (SB 77) in February, which would allow women to vote
Blog post by Randi Richardson Many Monroe County genealogists are quite familiar with the INMONROE Rootsweb mailing list. The list became active in 1980 and was a place where members could share tidbits and trivia about Monroe County. In 2000, it was a list in need of an administrator. At that time I took responsibility
Blog post by Randi Richardson In 1877 a large number of Bloomington residents raised hogs as a supplemental means of livelihood and/or to provide meat for the family. Hogs roaming at large were a familiar sight in the city making themselves a nuisance even about the public square. Sometimes an errant porker, finding a door
Blog post by Randi Richardson On October 1, 1918, as nature dressed the trees in lovely autumn colors, many life-changing events were occurring within the Student Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.) on the IU campus. That morning, precisely at 11 AM, President William Lowe Bryan met with 1,200 inductees assembled on Jordan Field in an oath-taking
Blog post by Randi Richardson On April 6, 1917, more than two years after the beginning of World War I, the United States declared war on Germany. A military draft was instituted in the U. S. for all men between the ages of 21 and 30 and was soon amended to include all men from 18-45.