The summer of 1952 wasn’t just another summer. Swimming pools and movie theaters closed. Children were kept inside their homes by frightened parents. No doubt about it, people were scared. They had every right to be. It was an epidemic year for polio. According to one study, the only thing they feared more than polio in 1952 was
Blog post by Randi Richardson Several months ago I watched an Oscar-winning movie, Green Book, from the comfort of my home with ear phones and captions so I didn’t miss a word. The move is based on the true story of two men, an Italian-American named Anthony Vallelonga aka Tony Lip, and an African American, Don Shirley, a gifted
Blog Post by Randi Richardson Bill Griffy, the watchman at the engine house on the northeast corner of the square, sat outside as he often did on hot summer nights catching what little breeze he could. It was Wednesday, June 14, 1899, a few minutes after 1 AM. Other than an attack by a hungry
Blog post by Randi Richardson It was mid-August 1923. The people of Stinesville were alarmed when a number of dogs living in the neighborhood went mad. One of those dogs belonged to R. M. Snooks who lived half mile east of Stinesville. When R. M. noticed his dog had symptoms of the disease, he tried
Blog post by Randi Richardson Tony, a slave from Kentucky sometime in the years before the Civil War, escaped from his master and made his way north. He got as far as Monroe County before he was captured on a Saturday night by the Corsaws who were prominent among Bloomington slave catchers. The following morning
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
