HOOSIER HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS: REMC Turns on the Lights in the Country

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Hoosier History Highlights

March 7 - March 13

The Week in Indiana History


hog

150 YEARS AGO

1871     Indianapolis Mayor Daniel McCauley announced that City Marshall George Taffe would be rigidly enforcing the hog ordinance.  Swine of all description would be prohibited from roaming at large in the city "no matter whether they have rings in their noses or not."  A notice in the Evening News stated that "owners are hereby notified that the authorities are in earnest and if they would 'save their bacon' they must shut up their hogs or Marshall Taffe will save them the trouble."


stamp

100 YEARS AGO

1921     Burglars used nitroglycerin to blow open the safe at the Rushville Post Office.  Postmaster G. P. Hunt  found that the crooks had taken $10,000 worth of stamps.  Newspaper accounts said that detectives had few clues, other than a soft felt hat and some tools left behind by the "yeggmen."  A citizen reported hearing an explosion between midnight and 1:00 am the night before.  Pictured:  The 2-cent first class stamp in 1921.


White

MARCH IS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

1926     Esther Griffin White, Richmond, Indiana, filed papers with the Secretary of State to run for election as Representative in the Sixth Congressional District.  Active in the political arena, she had been a delegate at the 1920 Republican State Convention.  When she ran for the Congressional seat, she was the first Indiana woman to do so.  She ran for Congress again in 1928.  Twice a candidate for mayor of Richmond, she never won a political office, although she worked hard to encourage the involvement of women in governmental affairs.  A long-time journalist, she wrote for several local newspapers and sometimes published her own,The Little Paper.   An energetic social activist, suffragist, and defender of minorities and the downtrodden, Esther Griffin White was inducted posthumously into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1992.


power

1935     The Rural Electric Membership Corporation (REMC) was created by the Indiana General Assembly.  At the time, less than 10 percent of rural America had access to electrical power.  The legislation, signed by Governor Paul V. McNutt, made it possible, in conjunction with the federal government, to provide loans to utility companies which would enable them to extend power lines to farms and homes "out in the country."


quill

1963     The Indiana General Assembly voted to adopt "Indiana," by Arthur Franklin Mapes, as the official state poem.  Mapes, a long-time resident of Kendallville, was a machinist whose hobby was writing poetry.  During his career, he was honored with numerous awards on the state, national, and international level.  He often wrote about his hometown and state and the beauty of nature.  


Dick Gregory

50 YEARS AGO

1971     Comedian, author, and social activist Dick Gregory was on stage at the Murat Theater in Indianapolis.  He was part of a program sponsored by the Black Student Union at Indiana-Purdue University in the city.  Joking and serious at the same time about current events and racism in America, he praised the new generation, calling them "the most morally honest, dedicated group of young people this country has ever seen."


abe

 

Abe Martin Sez:  It's what we learn after we think we know it all that counts.  (Kin Hubbard, Indianapolis News, March 7, 1923)


HHH

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Indiana Statehouse Tour Office

Indiana Department of Administration

Guided Tours of the Statehouse will resume on April 5.  Please call or e-mail the tour office for more information.

(317) 233-5293
touroffice@idoa.in.gov  


Indiana Quick Quiz

Match the poets to their poems

1.  James Whitcomb Riley

2.  Sarah Bolton

3.  William Herschell

4.  Mari Evans

A.  When in Rome   B.  Ain't God Good to Indiana?  C.  Paddle Your Own Canoe  D.  The Raggedy Man

Answers Below 


Hoosier Quote of the Week

quote

"If you wish to get into the limelight and attract more attention than a circus parade, deck yourself out in a knee-length skirt and a khaki coat, annex a cane, and start out to exercise natural locomotion."

- - - Esther Griffin White (1869-1954)

In 1923, she walked the National Road (Highway 40) from Richmond to Indianapolis and back and  wrote newspaper articles about the journey. 


mask

Did You Know?

The Official State Poem is "Indiana" by Arthur Franklin Mapes

God crowned her hills with beauty,
Gave her lakes and winding streams,
Then He edged them all with woodlands
As the setting for our dreams.
Lovely are her moonlit rivers,
Shadowed by the sycamores,
Where the fragrant winds of Summer
Play along the willowed shores.
I must roam those wooded hillsides,
I must heed the native call,
For a pagan voice within me
Seems to answer to it all.
I must walk where squirrels scamper
Down a rustic old rail fence,
Where a choir of birds is singing
In the woodland . . . green and dense.
I must learn more of my homeland
For it's paradise to me,
There's no haven quite as peaceful,
There's no place I'd rather be.
Indiana . . . is a garden
Where the seeds of peace have grown,
Where each tree, and vine, and flower
Has a beauty . . . all its own.
Lovely are the fields and meadows,
That reach out to hills that rise
Where the dreamy Wabash River
Wanders on . . . through paradise.

 


Statehouse Virtual Tour

Answers:  1. D   2. C   3. B   4. A