A Pioneering Librarian at Ball State

By: Melissa Gentry

In honor of Black History Month: Juanita Smith (1923-2006), the very first African American librarian at Ball State University

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Juanita Smith (1972)

Juanita graduated from Muncie Central High School in 1941. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Ball State, she taught in Indianapolis before returning to campus as a secretary in the dean’s and the director of graduation studies offices.

Juanita Smith (1948)

She earned a master’s degree in library science in 1951 (University of Michigan) and joined the Libraries, serving as the special collections librarian (archives) and associate professor of library services, retiring after over 30 years in 1983.

Juanita was the associate editor of the Steinbeck Quarterly and the Steinbeck Monograph and published articles for other scholarly publications. She curated a number of exhibits at the library, including a collection related to the works of Voltaire and rare copies of “Alice in Wonderland,” including a book signed by Alice Hargreaves, for whom the original story was written. 

Juanita Smith (1956)

She was actively involved in the community: a member of the League of Women Voters, the American Association of University Women, the Human Relations Council, the American Library Association, the Society of American Archivists, and Delta kappa Gamma Society. Juanita also served on the Muncie YWCA Youth Council and the Heart Association.

After retirement, Juanita worked as a volunteer with RSVP, the Children’s Clothing Center, and selected books for shut-ins for the Muncie Public Library. She also cataloged books for the Delaware County Historical Alliance (now Historical Society) Resource Center. Juanita was also actively involved with the Delaware County Retired Teachers Association and Muncie Matinee Musicale.

The Dunkirk & Moore Pike: There’s gold in that thar…gravel?

By: Ted Shideler

D.B. Moore was a Delaware County farmer and an early advocate for free public roads. A resident of rural Niles Township, Moore was deeply suspicious of big-city big-wigs and their big-time motives! That’s part of what makes his story -and the story of the Dunkirk & Moore Pike– interesting. That, and gold. Gold makes everything more intriguing.

The Dunkirk & Moore Pike, as it appeared in Griffing, Gordon, & Company’s 1887 atlas of Delaware County.

Early rural roads were terrible. Turnpikes -privately-owned toll roads that used their funds to pay for upkeep and maintenance- tried to solve that. A whopping eleven of them radiated out of Muncie by 1880! In 1883, fifteen of Delaware County’s turnpikes collected $83,714.68 in tolls, which was $53,000 more than it cost to maintain them. That tidy profit infuriated the farmers who used the turnpikes most, so a spirited debate erupted in the newspapers about their utility. Eventually, county officials began to buy up the old turnpike companies.

D.B. Moore’s writings on the topic were frequent components of the editorial pages. “When the people of Delaware County realize that they have some rights that Muncie lawyers and shysters are bound to respect,” he wrote, “we can then hope to improve our country and move on in the grand march of progression, but just as long as farmers will allow that class of men to think and act for them and dictate to them, just so long will enterprise be checked.”

D.B. Moore’s gravel pit, as it appeared on December 20, 2022.

D.B. Moore was not just a friend of the downtrodden farmer: he had a vested interest in building public roads, perhaps since he owned a quarry from which stone could be used to pave them. As local officials floated taking control of Delaware County’s turnpikes, Moore proposed that they pay for one that connected his property to nearby Dunkirk. After contentious debate towards the proper assessed value of Moore’s road, commissioners finally agreed to his pitch, paying Jon T. Gardner and John Linville to build Dunkirk & Moore Pike, sometimes known as the Moore Free Gravel Road, for $4,032.

Given the controversy surrounding the assessed value of the road he intended to use his gravel to build, it should come as no surprise that Moore later became a candidate for County Assessor in 1900. The following year, he sold 140 acres of his land to Edward Weinman for $7,000 but continued to operate the gravel quarry. That’s where the real intrigue starts.

Pyrite. Image courtesy Wikimedia user James Petts under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

In 1901, D.B. Moore raced to the big city with mineral specimens he’d found in the gravel from his pit: Moore was sure that the samples he found were gold, and needed Muncie’s highfalutin’ professionals to tell him if he had. So much for being suspicious of those big-city big-wigs!

A jeweler advised that what Moore had discovered was nothing but common pyrite- fool’s gold. Nevertheless, D.B. Moore was undeterred and took his samples to Congressman George Q. Cromer, who offered to send the minerals to the federal assay, or mineral-testing, office.

Eventually, a reporter from The Muncie Evening Times tracked Moore down. The two sprinted to Andrews Drug Store in downtown Muncie to perform some tests. The mineral samples were submerged in hydrochloric acid and acetic acid, chemicals which dissolved the rocks but left the metal embedded into them intact. Subsequent tests disintegrated silver, iron, and copper, but left the mystery materials undisturbed.

The Dunkirk & Moore Pike about two miles west of Dunkirk, as it appeared on December 20, 2022.

Moore was steadfast in his belief that he’d struck gold and was elated by his luck, just as you or I would be if we discovered that the ornamental pear tree out front seemed to bloom with winning Hoosier Lottery scratch-offs. Unfortunately, Moore’s fastidiousness in using his gravel to maintain the road that took his name may have actually decreased his wealth, if it was really gold he’d found: As The Muncie Evening Times put it, “How much gold, if gold it is, has been spread over the roads, cannot be estimated. There has been no previous mineral formation discovered in the county but this does not dampen the ardor of Mr. Moore.”

The Moore And Dunkirk Pike as it appeared on December 20, 2022.

Accounts of a palatial estate in Niles Township are absent from the newspaper, so it seems likely that he didn’t strike gold in his quarry after all. In fact, there’s little mention of Moore after his adventure. In 1905, he applied to receive black bass from the Indiana Fish Commission to stock what was, by that point, known as Moore’s Lake. He died three years later, at the age of 69 and was buried in Black Cemetery near the Muncie Drag Strip.

D.B. Moore’s free gravel road, now known as East County Road 1200-North, has outlived the man behind it for more than a century. Moore’s segment of the road is about 3.5 miles long and begins near his property at the corner of 1200 and North County Road 550-East. A drive along it is typical of traveling down any other county road.

Niles Township’s Huffman school on the Dunkirk & Moore Pike. Photo taken April 17, 2021.

Niles Township’s Hufman schoolhouse sits half a mile west of Moore’s gravel pit on the old pike. Samuel Selvey deeded the township a section of his land to build a schoolhouse there in 1879 after it was relocated from a plot on George Huffman’s property.

The school closed after the 1914-1915 term, and its students were probably sent to Dunkirk. Moore’s Pike extends another three miles past the schoolhouse as it makes its way towards Dunkirk. Unfortunately, none of my inspections of its pavement over the years have yielded any riches.

The entrance to Frank Merry Park. Photo taken December 20, 2022.

If you fancy yourself a modern-day forty-niner and want to see Moore’s Pike for yourself, start by taking IN-167 from Albany to the Family Dollar in Dunkirk and make a left onto what’s signed as Eaton Pike, or East County Road 1200-North in Delaware County. From there, dig your way west until you reach North County Road 550-East. Want to check Moore’s old quarry? Go a third of a mile south of the pike and prepare your pick-axe, scuba gear, and membership card: in 1955, Moore’s old pit became part of the privately-owned Frank Merry Park.

Dynamite & Falling Goats: Westside Park’s Balloon Ascensions

By: Chris Flook

One of my favorite photographs in the historical society’s Mike Mavis Collection is this one:

Balloon launch at Westside Park in the early 1900s. Photo: Delaware County Historical Society, Mike Mavis Collection

It shows a group of Munsonians gathered around an inflating hot air balloon at Westside Park. Aside from the park’s name written on the back, there’s no other information. The straw hats and clothing worn by those in the photo suggest an early 20th-century date.

Hot air balloon ‘ascensions’ like this were common at Westside Park in the summers between 1894 and World War I. We have a good record of them because boosters heavily promoted balloon launches in Muncie’s press before an ascent. 

Westside Park, early 20th century. Photo: Delaware County Historical Society, Mike Mavis Collection

Some aeronauts also performed stunts or included other gimmicks, drawing in large crowds. Launch reports published after the fact suggest that hundreds, sometimes even thousands of Munsonians made it out to watch. Spectators also helped as informal riggers, serving mostly as counterweights when the balloon inflated. I suspect that’s what we see in this photo.

Muncie Morning Star, June 10, 1910.

After launching, most aeronauts ascended into the sky, dangling beneath their balloon from a tether. Some used a controlled descent, but most didn’t. Instead, at a certain altitude, aeronauts would cut their ties, open a parachute and float down to earth. Assistants tracked the balloon as it lost altitude, retrieving it somewhere west of Muncie. 

One such launch occurred on the afternoon of Friday, July 26, 1895. At precisely 3pm, Professor Fred Royale conducted a “grand balloon ascension and parachute drop” in Westside Park.

Muncie Daily Herald, July 25, 1896.

As the fateful hour drew near, the professor began filling his airship, assisted by volunteer riggers from the crowd. When inflated, Royale’s balloon stood 60-feet tall. 

After a rough release, the balloon rose gently into the west Muncie sky, pulling aeronaut Royale up with it. At 500 feet, he cut the line, opened his chute and descended gracefully down into Riverside. The balloon floated northwest and dropped somewhere along the Lake Erie and Western Railroad (Norfolk Southern) tracks.

Westside Park from the 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

In 1895, as Royale’s balloon ascension captivated Munsonians, Westside Park was becoming one of Greater Muncie's ‘big three’ suburban weekend leisure areas along with Heekin and McCulloch parks. 

Starting in the 1890s, Heekin developed as an informal greenspace in Muncie’s southside Industry suburb. It became a city park in 1913. McCulloch began as Wood’s Park in 1892 on the city’s northeast side. It was located west of Muncie’s new Whitely suburb. In 1893, interurban magnate and publisher George McCulloch donated an adjacent 83 acres to the city. Councilors combined both tracts of land into ‘McCulloch Park’ in George’s honor.

1907 map of Muncie’s west side. The red-dashed line was Union Traction’s (Citizens Street Railway Company) Grasshopper Run route into the Westside Suburb. The park is shaded green. Image courtesy: Ball State University Libraries’ Bracken Archive.

Westside Park is historically unique as it was privately established in 1893 by the Citizen’s Street Electric Railway Company, Muncie’s metropolitan electric mass-transit operator. Citizen’s built the park as a leisure destination to attract visitors and subsequently, paying transit riders. During the 1890s and early 1900s, Westside Park is best understood as a kind of summertime afternoon resort for Munsonians. The new Westside suburb was developed just north of the park at the same time.

Up through World War 1, Munsonians flocked to Westside Park on summer weekends via streetcars. Citizen’s line into Westside and Normal City was known informally at the time as the ‘Grasshopper Run.’ The route ran west out of downtown on Jackson Street Pike. The trolley track split at Calvert, with one line heading north into Normal City. A second line continued down Celia Avenue into Westside, terminating in the park at a turnaround.

Westside Park straddled both sides of the White River, between Nichols and Tillotson avenues. Most of the original park was undeveloped rolling greenspace, broken occasionally by clumps of trees. The area flooded often during heavy spring rains. 

Westside Park’s roller skating rink, circa 1905. Photo courtesy: Ball State University Libraries’ Bracken Archives.

Between 1894 and 1917, the park featured a roller skating rink, open air theater, dance hall, vaudeville and concert stage, bath house, refreshment stand and merry-go-round. In 1910, boosters added a roller coaster named the Triple-8. 

In addition to balloon ascensions, park visitors could travel up and down the White River on a small steamboat. The Muncie Daily Herald reported in late June of 1894 that the “new pleasure boat ‘Delaware’ will leave Pier 35 every thirty minutes and go down the beautiful White River for quite a distance.”

Westside Park’s Triple-8 Roller Coaster, circa 1910. Photo: Delaware County Historical Society, Mike Mavis Collection.

The pier was located “near the street railway suspension bridge.” The bridge was built to bring patrons to Westside’s less reputable, unofficial section across the river. The park’s seedier southside featured a baseball field, small casino, and Sherman Crolley’s beer garden and saloon. The latter included a ramshackle arena for prizefights, cockfights and the occasional bullfight.

The balloon ascents at Westside Park happened  north of the river. In mid-July of 1894, the Muncie Daily Herald reported that another balloonist named George Delmont “ascended to a height of 300 feet.” Delmont cut free and released his parachute, but became tangled in the trees along the White River near Beech Grove Cemetery. The Herald wrote that “the professor was held suspended over the water in full view of hundreds of spectators.” The line snapped and Delmont fell into the river unharmed.

A year later in August of 1895, Ira N. Fisk launched a balloon from Westside park, rigged with an attachment that carried two goats and a cage of pigeons. At a certain altitude, a rigged sandbag would release the goats from the balloon and open a parachute, simultaneously freeing the birds from their cage. The animals were to dangle 123 feet below a giant, 65-foot hot air balloon on the way up.

Muncie Daily Herald, August 16, 1895.

In front of a crowd of 2,000 Munsonians at Westside Park on the afternoon of Friday, August 16, Fisk began inflating his balloon for the grand ascent. He made a mistake filling the sandbags, resulting in a poor launch. As soon as the balloon filled, the volunteer handlers couldn’t hold the rig and let go, launching the balloon fast into the atmosphere, pulling the poor birds and screaming goats up into the clouds with it.

When the balloon reached an altitude of several hundred feet, a mechanism released the birds. The Muncie Morning News reported that, because of the distance, the crowd saw the pigeons as “specks against the azure of the western sky.” Some were later recovered.

The goats weren’t so lucky. They remained tethered to the balloon as it descended. The parachute had failed to release. “The result,” the News wrote, “was that the goats and the balloon floated down to earth together.” The sight was “pretty and one that could not fail to please,” though probably not for the goats who died when the balloon crashed on James Umbarger’s farm, northwest of the park.

Muncie Morning News, July 25, 1910

The most outrageous balloon ascensions at Westside Park occurred in the summer of 1910. In that year, an aeronaut named Jimmie Bedwell routinely ascended with a stick of dynamite. Once aloft, Jimmie lit the explosive’s long fuse and detached from the balloon, parachuting back down to the park. After a moment, the dynamite detonated in the air. 

Jimmie Bedwell’s balloon ascension at Westside Park. Muncie Morning News, July 25, 1910

After one such over-the-top balloon ascension in mid-July, the Muncie Star reported that after Bedwell had reached a great height, the assembled crowd was “surprised at the terrific explosion of a dynamite bomb…the aeronaut then cut loose with the parachute and left the balloon, which had traveled high and far to the north.”

The last ‘balloon ascension’ at Westside Park on record occurred in July of 1917. The park was eventually abandoned in the 1920s. Westside’s northeast end reopened as a city-park in 1937 and expanded west toward Tillotson in the mid-20th century.

Find more goodies at the DCHS’ Heritage Collection.

Sources:

Muncie Daily Herald, 7-12-1894.

Muncie Morning News, 7-26-1895.

Muncie Morning News, 8-17-1895.

Muncie Morning Star, 7-13-1910.

Muncie Evening Press, 7-27-1909.

Muncie Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from 1911. Image courtesy: Library of Congress

THE CAPTURE OF GERALD CHAPMAN

Delaware County Historical Society Presentation by David Bailey, Saturday January 18, 2025 at 3:00pm

Join DCHS historian David Bailey at the DCHS Resource Center (120 East Washington Street) for a presentation and discussion: Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 3:00pm.

On January 18, 1925, Gerald Chapman was captured on the sidewalk between 312 and 322 East Charles Street in Muncie. This came as a great surprise because at that time Chapman was being sought all over the country by federal agents but was expected to be in some large city. He was a New York gangster with a national reputation and had been a fugitive since his escape from custody in Athens, Georgia, on April 6, 1923.

The next day hundreds of newspapers all over the country picked up the story and Muncie became famous. In 1925 Chapman was a very hot topic and his capture, trial and later the tragic death of Ben and Mary Hance, dominated the news throughout that year. Chapman and his criminal cohort, Dutch Anderson, stayed at the Hance farm near Eaton during the spring and summer of 1924 and Ben Hance was thought to have been responsible for Chapman’s capture. His death was viewed as revenge for having betrayed Chapman.

After Chapman was executed for the murder of a Connecticut policeman, James Skelly, his name gradually faded from the news. So, by 1930 he was basically forgotten.

About ten years ago Sinuard Castelo, a member of the Blackford County Historical Society was involved in writing a story about Charlie “One Arm” Wolf. Since Charlie had been a resident of Hartford City and Eaton, Sinuard was including Wolf’s association with Chapman and Anderson in a book about criminals in Blackford County. Charlie was convicted of being an accomplice of Dutch Anderson in the murders of Ben and Mary Hance.

Sinuard asked me to do some research on a book she wanted to use as a reference. The book is called The Count of Gramercy Park by Robert Hayden Alcorn. Robert Alcorn was the son of Hugh Alcorn, the prosecutor of Chapman in the 1925 Connecticut murder trial. This book was advertised as the “true story” of Gerald Chapman. It wasn’t, it contained some truth but much of it was sensationalized fiction. A second book about Chapman, Gentleman Gerald by Paul Jeffers, was comparable. Both men were good authors, but the subject of Gerald Chapman is complex and at the time these books were written the information needed to realistically portray this complexity was not readily available. 

Because of the vast amount of information available on the Internet I’ve been able put together a clearer, more accurate version of Chapman’s life story. In this presentation I primarily focus on the last seven years of his abbreviated life. The time between March 20, 1919, when Chapman left Auburn Prison in New York and April 6, 1926, when he was executed in Connecticut.

What were the circumstances that brought Chapman to Muncie? How did the police force in Muncie find him when so many others couldn’t?

It took some time to answer these questions.

Muncie’s Emancipation Day Celebration in 1900

By: Chris Flook

In Muncie around the time of the gas boom, the city’s Black community often observed Emancipation in September. On August 18 1900, for instance, the Muncie Evening Press reported that “the colored people of this city are planning a mammoth demonstration here on September 22, when the anniversary of the signing of the emancipation proclamation will be celebrated.”

Charles Conway was engaged to provide “general supervision of the festivities and John H. Jones will assist.” Conway was the turnkey (jailer) for the Delaware County Jail at the time. Jones was the co-proprietor of Jones and Adams, a Black-owned grocery at 210 S. Vine Street. Both men were active civic leaders from the city’s African American community.

Conway and Jones selected Westside Park as the venue. Westside was the best of the big parks in greater Muncie in 1900. Built by Citizens Street Electric Railway Company (Union Traction) in 1892, the greenspace was a go-to retreat on the weekends for working Munsonians. Around this time, the park featured a baseball diamond, band stand, pony track, and bowling alley. Westside could also accommodate thousands and was easily accessible by trolley and interurban.

Conway sent invitations out across East Central Indiana. The Press reported that “posters giving an idea of the magnitude of the affair have been posted in various towns over the gas belt and several thousand people are expected here.” Union Traction even offered special runs on the 22nd for those coming into the city.

For his part, Jones added a military drill competition by involving the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 210. It was a likely partnership, given that Jones was the lodge’s Worshipful Grand Master. No. 210 was one of two Black Odd Fellows lodges in Muncie during the gas boom, the other being Gas Belt Lodge No. 3012. 

Some Odd Fellows of the era had a uniformed branch called Patriarchs Militant. These Odd Fellows, often veterans, ceremonially performed public drills and marched in parades. Jones invited regional Patriarchs Militant groups to perform in Muncie’s Emancipation Day celebration. The Press wrote that “the Colored Patriarchs Militant will give a series of drills for which there will be prizes of $75, $50 and $25 offered.” The chapters from Indianapolis, Louisville, and Springfield, Ohio all entered the contest.

Given the outsized role that Black Munsonians played in municipal and regional elections, Conway and Jones also sought to politicize the event. Historians Hurley Goodall and Elizabeth Campbell wrote in The Other Side of Middletown that “by 1900, Muncie’s African American community numbered 739 people, and had grown strong, vibrant, and visible.” This growth had also translated into political power, which at the time centered around Republican Party politics. Many Black Hoosiers in 1900 supported the GOP, in recognition of the party’s role in the fight against slavery. As such, Conway and Jones had no problem soliciting Republican party leaders to speak at Westside Park on September 22. The Muncie Morning Star wrote on September 9 that “Invitations have been sent to Co. W.T. Durbin, Congressman Cromer, Mayor Tuhey, Judge Leffler, Senator Ball and others.”

George Cromer, Muncie and Delaware County’s U.S. Representative to Congress in 1900. Photo courtesy of Ball State University Libraries’ Bracken Archive and Special Collections.

Colonel Winfield Durbin was the Republican nominee for Indiana’s governor in the 1900 election. He’d go on to win that November and served one term. George Cromer was the U.S. Representative to Congress from Indiana’s 8th District, which at the time included Delaware County. Cromer had also been mayor of Muncie from 1894-1898. Edward Tuhey was Muncie’s mayor in 1900, while Joseph Leffler, a former Delaware County Prosecutor, was the county’s circuit court judge. Walter Ball (no relation to the glass bros.) was a lawyer from Muncie and represented Delaware and Randolph counties in the Indiana General Assembly. Although Mayor Tuhey was a Democrat, everyone else was a Republican. All five politicians agreed to speak.

Conway and Jones also invited Gurley Brewer, an Indianapolis lawyer and publisher prominent in state Republican party politics. Raised in Vincennes, Brewer was the first African American to be admitted to the bar in Southern Indiana. His career included stints as a teacher, lawyer, historian, and editor of the Black newspaper, Indianapolis World. Upon his death in 1919, the Princeton Daily Clarion called Brewer “an orator of marketability. Mr. Brewer was influential, and his talent along this line was called into play in every campaign.”

Gurley Brewer, prominent Indianapolis lawyer and editor, was the keynote speaker.

Brewer was selected as the keynote speaker for Muncie’s September 22, 1900 Emancipation celebration in Westside Park. The day, however, began in downtown Muncie with a parade. Participants lined up mid-morning on High Street, facing south. The procession was led by twelve mounted Muncie Police Department officers, with Chief Samuel Cashmore riding point. The MPD was followed by a Muncie Fire Department engine and the Rough Riders, an all-Black drum corps from Louisville, whose members “wore blue army shirts and McKinley-Roosevelt caps.” The Patriarchs Militant from Louisville’s Fall City Patriots Odd Fellows lodge marched behind. 

The day’s speakers followed in fancy carriages. They sat alongside pastors from Muncie’s Black churches, including, reverends M. Coleman of Bethel A.M.E., D.S. Slaughter of Second Baptist, and George M. Bailey of Trinity M.E. Church on First Street. The parade ran south on High to Seymour, east on Seymour to Walnut, north on Walnut to Main, east on Main to Plum, north on Plum to Washington, then back west to High Street where trollies sat parked at the corner on Main. Parade participants piled into the cars and headed out to Westside Park.

A roast ox was waiting for them when the crowd arrived around noon. After the picnic, the speakers gave short speeches, mostly about the year’s upcoming election. Gurley Brewer’s speech included deep criticism of “the action of the North Carolina Legislature in disenfranchising 80,000 colored votes.” Southern states were passing Jim Crow laws and North Carolina had just instituted a literacy test targeting Blacks, though it grandfathered in illiterate whites. 

Once the speeches ended, the Indiana Band performed a few tunes followed by the Patriarchs Militant competition on the baseball diamond. The papers never reported the winner, but they did write that the day ended with a cake walk, grand march, and an evening ball. The Morning Star concluded that “the weather was favorable and the program excellent.” An excellent program indeed. Happy Juneteenth!

The Magic City’s Grand Emancipation Day in 1895

By: Chris Flook

Juneteenth is an old American tradition dating back to the Civil War. The day has been set apart since 1866 to recognize Black freedom in the United States. In that year, African Americans in Texas first commemorated Emancipation, which was announced in the Lone Star state on June 19, 1865.

African Americans celebrated Emancipation across the United States in the late 19th century, but not always on the same day. Texans celebrated on June 19, but some Black communities held ceremonies on January 1, the date when Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in 1863. Others recognized it on September 22, when Lincoln issued his preliminary proclamation in 1862. Along with Juneteenth, such observances were known as Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, Black Independence Day, and Emancipation Day.

Munsonians often ceremonially recognized Emancipation Day in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, usually around September 22. For instance, Black Munsonians organized a city-wide celebration IN 1895. The Muncie Evening Press reported on September 10 that “the colored people of Delaware county are arranging for a celebration such as has never before been held in this county.” The steering committee included Reverend John Broyles, the pastor at Calvary Baptist (then known as Second Baptist), Reverend H.E. Stewart, Dover Yocum, Susie Poindexter, Jean Lewis, Harry Burnham, George Strong, and W.H. Stokes. The boosters planned “speeches, music, athletic exhibitions, and the entire day will be devoted to commemorating the anniversary of the day upon which the emancipation of the slaves occured.” 

In fall of 1895, the city’s newspapers encouraged all Munsonians to support Emancipation Day. The Daily Herald told readers that the steering committee “should be assisted in every way possible.” The Morning News encouraged citizens "to assist the colored people as much as possible in observing this."

On September 22, the News wrote an editorial proudly proclaiming that Emancipation “made good the declaration of independence that all men are created free and equal,” but warned of the “political marplots who have perversely and mischievously continued their hostility to the government, delaying the full fruition of the proclamation of emancipation.” The News hoped that those blocking full freedom for Black Americans “will at least see the error of their wicked ways and accord to the colored people…the rights of citizenship which have been denied them.”

It’s not clear in the newspaper record as to why, but the Emancipation Day celebration was moved to Thursday, September 26. The steering committee secured the Delaware County Fairgrounds as the venue for festivities.

When the day arrived, Munsonians woke to heavy rain, but “as the morning hours wore on, the leaden sky grew brighter and long before noon old Sol shone brightly upon the city.” Around 11:30 a.m., as the skies cleared, hundreds of Black Munsonians gathered at the Second Baptist Church (Calvary Baptist) on East Jackson Street. A small drum corps consisting of Ben Broyles, Tom and Chester White, Oscar Plain, and Arthur McCray led those assembled in a procession to the fairgrounds.

George Cromer, the 9th mayor of Muncie, spoke at the event. Public domain photo courtesy of Wikicommons

Around 1:30 p.m., Reverend Broyles began the celebration with a prayer, invoking “the divine blessing upon the exercises.” Muncie's mayor George Cromer followed with a short speech greeting everyone. The mayor “was in his usual strain in his welcome address and won frequent applause.” 

“A beautiful song rendered by a well drilled chorus” followed. Reverend George Hill then delivered an “address full of thought and good points, giving in general the accomplishments of the colored race.” Reverend H.E. Stewart spoke next, giving a speech entitled, "The Progress of the Race." Stewart told the assembled Munsonians that “no race had ever advanced as rapidly as the colored race. No bounds could be put upon its growth.” The program ended with addresses from Anna Truitt and Harry Burnham.

400 people had gathered at the fairgrounds for the event. After the speeches, “the crowd repaired to the race course and witnessed three very spirited bicycle races and a 100 yard foot race.” William Guthrie won the first bicycle race, receiving a fine assortment of clothing as a prize. Grant Frazier won the half-mile race, clocking in at 90 seconds. His prize was a hat and some fancy gloves. W. Richardson won the three mile race and received a pair of $5 shoes. According to the Muncie Morning News, “the prizes to the second, third and fourth man were a silk umbrella, a sweater and a bicycle lantern, respectively.” The final competition was a 100-yard dash. Lawrence White won, his “prize being a fine cap.” When the games finished, “the bicycle racers presented Rev. Broyles with a fine cane.” Muncie retailers had donated all prizes.

Muncie Morning News, September 25, 1895.

The Morning News concluded that the day “was most pleasantly spent, dinner being eaten picnic fashion beneath the trees. The races were interesting, the crowd large and the speeches of excellent order,” The Daily Times thought the same, “there was lots of fun and patriotism at the fair grounds yesterday afternoon where Emancipation day was celebrated by the colored folks of Muncie. Everybody wore flags with pictures of Abraham Lincoln.” As old Sol set, “Mrs. Abbie Morin entertained several friends last evening in a pleasant manner. It was a happy final to the Emancipation Day celebration.”

This article first appeared in Flook’s ByGone Muncie column in the Star Press on June 15, 2022.

Muncie’s Emancipation Day in 1887

By: Chris Flook

Many African Americans across our great nation celebrate Juneteenth, a holiday in recognition of emancipation from slavery. Specifically, Juneteenth commemorates the arrival of Union troops into Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. On that date, General Gordon Granger entered the Oleander City to announce the end of the Civil War and proclaim freedom for the state’s enslaved population. In the ensuing years, the freed women and men of Texas celebrated the date as Jubilee Day. In time, the holiday became known as Juneteenth and its observance spread across the United States during the 20th century.

However, in the first few decades after the Civil War, many African American communities outside of Texas memorialized Emancipation on either September 22 or January 1. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which legally freed slaves in all Confederate states on January 1, 1863. The order read, in part, that “on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

Muncie was no exception. In the summer of 1887, the city’s Black leaders laid plans for an Emancipation Day celebration in September to observe the 25th anniversary of the proclamation.

Muncie was undergoing a remarkable transformation due to the prior year’s discovery of natural gas. The soon-to-be Magic City was rapidly evolving from an agricultural center into the industrial capital of east-central Indiana. Hundreds of people were pouring into the city to work on gas wells and in new factories. Muncie's population grew a staggering 117% in the 1880s and the city's African American population more than doubled in the same decade.

Delaware County at the time was also predominantly a Republican stronghold, with many Union veterans, both white and Black, assuming leadership roles in the transitioning city. Muncie certainly wasn’t a bastion of racial harmony during this era and Black Munsonians faced ongoing discrimination. Yet, Civil War and Emancipation commemorations were often celebrated in a manner that transcended race.

As such, the 25th anniversary of Emancipation was designed by boosters as a city-wide celebration. Planning for the day was spearheaded by a steering committee consisting of several prominent leaders from Muncie’s growing Black community including Reverend N.L. Bray, Al Shoecraft, Charles Guy, Foster Fry, John Williams, and Felix Herrold. The committee organized a parade, speeches, concerts, and dinner styled as an “old Virginia Supper.”

In the days leading up to September 22, the city’s Republican-leaning newspapers provided a near daily countdown, heralding the arrival of Emancipation Day. So too did many residents. A September 5, 1887 birth announcement in the Muncie Daily Times read, “Born: to Mr. and Mrs. John Sea this morning a great big bouncing 11¼ pound boy. Mother and babe both doing well. John says son is a reliable Republican and will in all probability take part in the Emancipation celebration that will be held in this city Sept. 22.” Twelve days later, the Times encouraged its readers to “do what you can to make the Emancipation Proclamation Celebration a grand success.”

In the evening of the 21st, an all-Black band arrived via train from Marion to serve as the musical centerpiece for the next day. The Muncie Morning News reported that a large crowd met the band when they arrived around 7:45 PM. An impromptu procession then made its way to the corner of Walnut and Main for a concert. Under the shadow of the newly finished grand third courthouse, “the street was soon filled with listeners and the excellent music was much enjoyed. After rendering several pieces the band was escorted to the Tremont (hotel) where the committee” entertained them.

The Cowan Band arrived the following morning around 10:00 AM. Both bands made their way to the Bee Line railroad station to play medleys as prominent Hoosier African Americans arrived in the city for the day’s festivities.

An hour later, the parade participants assembled at the Royal Rink, a roller skating and assembly hall establishment on the northeast corner of Jackson and Elm streets. The papers reported that the parade consisted of several bands, including the ensembles from Marion and Cowan, followed by a speakers’ carriage and residents on foot and in additional horse drawn carriages. Led by Marshal Al Shoecraft, the parade first went east on Jackson Street to Beacon, turned north onto Main, then headed west to the new courthouse. From there, they went south on Walnut, turned west on Charles, north on High, then east on Washington, and finally north on Walnut Street.

The planners intended the procession to end at the Delaware County Fairgrounds, where several prominent speakers were slated to deliver orations. However around noon, the skies opened up and soaked the participants, prompting an early end to the outside revelry.

Undaunted, the steering committee arranged for the speeches to take place that afternoon back at the Royal Rink. The venue could accommodate several thousand people; plus, the evening dinner party was booked at that location. The extant newspaper reports aren’t exactly clear as to who all spoke, but the published names included O. Mason, Solomon Woods, Ken Brown, Lemuel Stokes, Charles Smothers, and J.W. Ryan. Graham Duewell of Ohio gave the official oration.

Around 7:00 PM, according to the Muncie Daily Times, “the tables were spread, and placed thereon everything that was good to eat. The audience were favored by good music by the choir and band. Several speeches were made fitting to the occasion. At 11 o’clock, the floor was cleared for the purpose of tripping the light fantastic...They danced until the wee small hours. A general good time was had, and everybody left satisfied with the day, as being well spent on a good cause.” A fitting end to a grand day indeed.

Post first appeared in Chris Flook’s ByGone Muncie column in the Star Press on February 4, 2021.

Beech Grove Cemetery: A Primer

By: Chris Flook

During Muncie’s earliest years, when the settlement was still known as Munseytown, many residents buried their dead in one of three public cemeteries. The first of which existed in what is now the Old West End, approximately where the Friends Memorial Church sits today. The second was east of town along Main Street, at what is now the Center Township Trustee’s office and a third was at the corner of Elm and Willard streets.

Beech Grove Cemetery was on the edge of Muncie in 1887. Image: Delaware County Historical Society Heritage Collection.

As Munseytown grew in both size and population, these cemeteries proved inadequate to meet the needs of the expanding community. To rectify the situation, Center Township Trustees purchased one and a half acres of land from Moses Elby in 1841 to build a large, public cemetery at the edge of town. At the time, Elby’s property was on the western outskirts of Munseytown, sandwiched between Kilgore Avenue, then known as Illinois Avenue, and the White River. After the establishment of the new burial grounds, most families disinterred their departed loved ones from the original graveyards and reburied them in the new cemetery.

Beech Grove Cemetery around 1900 from Kilgore Avenue. Image: Delaware County Historical Society, Mike Mavis Collection.

A local judge by the name of Thomas Sample christened the new grounds as Beech Grove in recognition of a large knoll of Beech trees that once hugged the river in the area. Prior to the cemetery’s creation, this beech grove served as an informal Center Township park. Residents from all over Delaware County picnicked and attended political rallies on the grounds during election season.

Munseytown became Muncie in 1845, an incorporated town in 1854, and a city in 1865. In the ensuing decades, the city expanded Beech Grove Cemetery southwest along the river to accommodate the needs of the growing community. In the latter half of the 19th century, the Muncie City Council purchased large tracts of land from the Kirby, Gilbert, and Willson families, which more than doubled the size of the cemetery. Then in 1902, the city purchased the immense 51-acre Galbraith Farm from John Moore for $12,000. By 1906, after the city had acquired a few more acres, Beech Grove Cemetery’s boundaries became as we know them today.

In its earliest years and within the original grounds, Beech Grove was little more than a spartan stretch of lawn, punctuated by non-descript grave markers. This is evidenced still in the Old Part of the cemetery. Early Munsonians, like many other Americans, sought practicality when interring the dead. Yet, expectations changed in the latter half of the 19th century. The Civil War had brought a heightened sense of awareness about death. The Second Industrial Revolution had also radically altered the municipal landscape - Americans no longer lived in picturesque frontier settlements, but in rapidly industrializing cities of smog, poor sanitation, overcrowded tenement housing, and infectious disease.

In such a climate, Gilded-Age Americans desired municipal spaces that offered a respite from these industrialization byproducts. Landscape architects responded with the City Beautiful Movement, which sought to beautify urban centers with elaborate parks, monuments, and civic architecture. 

Flowers on display at Beech Grove, circa 1900. Image: Delaware County Historical Society, Mike Mavis Collection.

Cemeteries also underwent significant changes in this period. Improving on the Rural Garden Cemetery style found in New England and Europe, Adolph Strauch, the superintendent of Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery, pioneered a new style known as a “lawn-park.” Strauch’s concept featured beautifully landscaped terrain designed to convey a pastoral atmosphere. Strauch encouraged families to build a single family monument, with smaller markers for individual members. Relatives were expected to plant memorial vegetation and maintain the family plot indefinitely.

In Muncie, a landscape architect by the name of O.W. Crabbs implemented City Beautiful designs into the civic landscape and transformed much of Beech Grove Cemetery into the handsomely designed lawn-park cemetery we know today.

O.W. Crabbs. Image: Delaware County Historical Society, Mike Mavis Collection.

Crabbs is arguably the father of Muncie’s City Beautiful movement. His career spanned several decades and included stints as a city councilman, park superintendent, director of the Ball State’s buildings and grounds, superintendent of Ball Memorial Hospital’s grounds, and was instrumental in managing the landscape of the county fairgrounds. Crabbs was also hired by several Ball families as a landscape designer.

From 1896 through 1915, Crabbs served as the superintendent of Beech Grove Cemetery. During his tenure, he commissioned the building of several iconic features found in the cemetery including the grand arch, the administration building, and the now lost chapel. Crabbs also designed the general rolling landscape features, planted five-hundred shrubs, thirteen-hundred peonies, and several hundred trees - some of which still stand today. He also built curving boulevards, lagoons and other water features, and the surrounding fence.

Marshall Mahurin’s grand entrance arch, 1904. Image: Delaware County Historical Society, Mike Mavis Collection.

His efforts proved successful. For many Munsonians, Beech Grove Cemetery became the place to bury loved ones. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the cemetery also remained an informal park, a place to not only bury the dead, but a space for picnics and leisurely strolls as well.

Beech Grove remained one of the city’s prominent cemeteries throughout the 20th century, even as new burial grounds appeared across our civic landscape. Over 44,000 people have been laid to rest within the cemetery’s gates - rich and poor, Black and white, titans of industry, teachers, factory workers, soldiers, politicians, and religious leaders - Muncie’s history is quite literally buried at Beech Grove Cemetery.