Bierly’s Bit in Building Bloomington First Horseless Carriage
Blog post by Randi Richardson In 2017, in a blog item on this website, Joshua O. Howe was credited with assembling the first horseless carriage to run on the streets of Bloomington. But there seems to be another side to the story. Mary Loftin, in an article published in the Bloomington Daily Herald Telephone on
Rev. Moses M. Porter: A Man of God, Beloved by the People
Rev. Moses M. Porter, who for 50 plus years was pastor of the Second Baptist Church, was during his lifetime one of the best known blacks in Bloomington. He was the best known preacher this town ever had, according to Howard “Doc” Lewis in a newspaper article from the Bloomington Sunday Tribune and Star Courier
GRANT STREET INN: A HOUSE HISTORY
Blog post by Randi Richardson The Grant Street Inn at 310 N. Grant Street, Bloomington, Indiana, wasn’t always an inn. And it wasn’t always on Grant Street. It is a house with an interesting history wrapped around the various people who lived there and some interesting events. It isn’t quite certain when the house was built. Originally
A LOOK BACK AT THE ROXY THEATRE
Blog post by Randi Richardson Tim Rea, a resident of Evansville, Indiana, stopped by the Monroe County History Center a few weeks ago after learning that his mother, Mary (Steen) Rea, had been featured in one of the History Center’s blogs. He was eager to learn whatever he could about the Roxy Theatre which was at the
Lest We Forget
Blog post by Randi Richardson I met Charles Gromer at the Monroe County History Center garage sale in June 2019. He was thumbing through a thick stack of orphan photographs, those pictures abandoned by their families without identification. “It’s sad,” I said “to see photos of people discarded without identification and separated from the families
The Bratton/Hudson Funeral Home in Downtown Ellettsville
Blog post by Randi Richardson There once was a funeral home in downtown Ellettsville. If you didn’t live in Ellettsville during the 1940s and 50s, you probably have no memory of it. In the span of history, it existed only briefly. The two-story building at 112 N. Sale Street is believed to have been built
Lucille Skirvin’s Diploma and the Research It Inspired
Blog post by Randi Richardson Every year at the MCHC annual garage sale I find, without much effort, an artifact or two from Bloomington. This year it was a large, framed picture of the Showers Furniture Factory taken sometime in the 1930s, a June 1929 diploma from Bloomington High School made out to Lucille (variously
The Bloomington Attorney Who Became Indiana’s Governor
Blog post by Randi Richardson Two men with deep roots in Monroe County served as governor of Indiana. Paris Chipman Dunning was one of those two. He came to Bloomington with his mother when he was quite a young man and studied law under Gen. Howard and James A. Whitcomb. He obtained his law degree
Home Deliveries
Blog post by Randi Richardson Lots of people from Monroe County had kin that lived in Brown County located adjacent to Monroe County on the east. Some of those kin may be among those noted in the June 2019 issue of the Brown County Journal dedicated exclusively to hucksters—the vehicle operators and the families and communities they
JOSEPH HENDERSON HONORED AS A REVOLUTIONARY WAR VETERAN
Blog post by Randi Richardson A number of Revolutionary War veterans are buried in Monroe County including Joseph Henderson and his wife, Elizabeth, in the White Oak Cemetery. On May 11, 2019, the Daniel Guthrie SAR Chapter of Bedford and the Bloomington DAR Chapter co-hosted a grave marking and re-dedication ceremony at Henderson’s gravesite. April