This is a newspaper article from the “Bloomington Daily Telephone” from December 16, 1929 by Blaine W. Bradfute. Four and five decades ago the boys of the north end of Bloomington found amusement at the Showers pond and the Hunter pond. How many people of today can recall the sites of these two ponds? The
Many students and alumni are looking forward to the start of the 2022 IU football season. Let’s hope they have a better start than the 1889 team. Below is an undated article about Old Bloomington found in a donated scrapbook. All photos are of early IU football teams. As soon as I.U. organized its first football
Blog post by Rod Spaw Tales of the H-T: stories taken from or inspired by the archives of The Herald-Times at the Monroe County History Center. For more than 40 years, the limestone sculpture of a newsboy has graced a corner of the yard at the home of Chris Kohler and Sherry Rouse in Monroe
“Looking Back” article by Rose McIlveen 6/25/83 Bear hunting was a challenge engaged in by the earliest Monroe County settlers for practical rather than sporting reasons. Before the supply wagons carrying goods for sale began to find their way to the county, settlers were obliged to live on a combination of the corn they could
Blog post by Dave Nord In 1815 Arthur Henrie, a surveyor employed by the U.S. government, drew a set of maps of a part of Indiana Territory lying between the watersheds of the west and east forks of the White River. Those maps, based on systematic, on-the-ground surveys, were the first professional maps of
Blog by Rod Spaw “On January 27, the basketball girls won the first trophy which Unionville ever possessed. They accomplished this feat by defeating both the Gosport girls and the referees. …” Or so declared the Unionville High School yearbook of 1934. As much a part of adolescence as roller rinks and puppy love, the
Blog post by Hilary Fleck While looking through our postcard collection, I found this photo postcard of Whetsell’s Shoe Store with an amazing reflection in the store window of the County Courthouse. I looked through the directories in our Research Library and discovered that the store was located on the south side of the square
By Wayne Hastings My perception of my great grandfather Charles Ervin Wall has always been intricately tied to fishing. According to family lore, he was an expert fisherman who was commonly seen frying a dozen or two panfish even before the sun fully came up. If bluegills could talk, I am sure they too would
Blog post by Randi Richardson “It was heart rending,” according to her obituary, “one of the most pitiable sights witnessed in the south part of the county.” Mary Chambers, noted only as “Mrs. James Chambers” in her obituary, about 44 years age and a resident of Smithville, reportedly had been sick and running a fever
Blog post by Wayne Hastings Within the last one hundred years there has been a vast number of inventions that have permanently changed how people cook and prepare meals. Modern kitchen appliances have progressively made cooking more convenient and has created gadgets we cannot imagine living without today. However, equally important are the inventions that
