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.