USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial history of Grant County, Indiana, 1812 to 1912 : compiled from records of the Grant county historical society, archives of the county, data of personal interviews, and other authentic sources of local information > Part 59
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
We realize that this was strenuous service when we recall that he was with General Israel Putnam, one of Washington's most intrepid officers, and the name "Putnam" is handed down in the genealogy of this Revolutionary soldier's descent in Grant county-Job Putnam Campbell's name appearing on the title page of the Centennial History. At the time of his enlistment, James Campbell lived at Nobletown, Luzerne county, New York. It is recorded that on July 30. 1832, he applied for a pension, at which time he lived at Richmond, Tioga county. Penn- sylvania. INs pension claim was allowed. In 1834 James Campbell was a resident of Green county, Ohio, but he died in Grant county in 1819, at the age of eighty-six years. "Life's fitfut fever o'er, " he rests in this open space where the winds sigh a requiem through the swaying boughs, the birds swirl and twitter in the free azure above, and the silent stars nightly watch over the lonely grave.
The local chapter, D. A. R., also fittingly observed the memorial of Mrs. Charles Warren Fairbanks ( Cornelia Cole), past commander of the national society D. A. R., on Sunday, October 26, and General Francis Marion Chapter is always alert as occasion demands it.
LAL LIBRARIES PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
A library is a place set apart for the keeping and use of books, or the word may mean a collection of books. One selects books as he selects his friends-those that please him -and in books one communes with the best minds of all ages. It is said that the best university in these days is a collection of books, and in a book the writer involuntarily gives something from the best of his life-and thus books have personality. The Bible is an entire library -- collection of the world's best books, so say enthusiasts about it, always something new to be found in it, and it always has been an inspiration to wider general reading. The room the carpenter called the "library" is now included in all house archi tecture.
There is no place where individuality may manifest itself more than in the library. There are chosen books and chosen friends, and the library is a sanctum sanctorum where none but chosen friends need enter. Some families fill up their shelves without improving their minds in the process, but others read the books as they add them. Book plates were the fashion along about the Century year, and many Grant county libraries are thus distinguished -- the book plate of the owner becoming part of the volume before it is placed on the shelves. Miss Olive Rush, of Fairmount, made many plates to order at the time they were so popular, and "Rolinda" published a number of them at the time.
The private library is the pride of many citizens, there being deluxe editions of the best anthors in many homes, and the magazines are finally bound and added to the shelves. There have been circulating libraries and magazine clubs in different communities, and in all the townships there have been book collections in care of the trustees, more or less wisely selected and in recent years small collections of books have
1.
FRANK.HALLOCK.RIGDON THIS. BOOKE
EX LIBRIS
J'TEd
Cora
Stephenson
500
SUB
SPECIF AETERNI
WILLIAM.ABEASLEY THIS IS ONE OF HIS BOOKS
Rolland Lewis Whitson Rélinda
Libris
EDGE
-
0
KNOWLE
POWER
1
Um Anfang War Die That.
EX LIBRIS
GEORGIA WHITSON
CARRIE
DUNN
Y
Er Vibris Milton sätter
JILLEW NHOI
HIS BOOK
E.L. GOLDTHWAIT
MARION. IND.
ON
BOOKS ARE
in
MEDICINE
101
BBESTER
109
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
accumulated in many school houses through a system of box sortals, class plays, efe,, and an occasional loan of books has been secured from the state library by clubs, schools, etc., some one being designated as custodian and held responsible for the books. In Isso there was a private libraty established by prominent Marion citizens who paid $o ammmity for its maintenance, the books stored in the old courthouse, and the library only open on Saturday to patrons. The law library is there today, only those who subscribe stock to it having the use of it-the library limited to legal documents.
In 1984, and at the suggestion of Professor Hamilton S. McRae, then superintendent of the Marion public schools. R. W. Bailey, Elkanah Hulley and Elijah Kitch who were then trustees of the town of Marion. decided to establish a free public library in conjunction with the public schools, and on June } the following entry was made in the record : "On motion it was decided to levy a fax of 1 % of a mill on the dollar of all taxable property in the school town of Marion for the purpose of establishing a free public library in connection with the commion schools of the town of Marion," and that was the beginning of the present city library. While the amount of the levy has varied. it has always been maintained, and when the Carnegie library was built it was seyen vents on each $100 of taxable property. While the first levy was made in Isst the library was not opened umtil IsSS, and in the meantime Professor MeRae had died and Prof. J. K. Waltz came into the man agement of library affairs in connection with the public schools. He became librarian when it opened in 1885, being succeeded by Mrs. Ida R. Gruwell, who was librarian when the Carnegie library was opened, and since then Miss Lyle Harter and Miss Edith Carlyle Baldwin have served in that capacity.
The public library was quartered in turn in the Tharp block, Board of Trade building, Charles block, basement of the high school, Mather block. G. A. R. ball and finally in its present location. It is a matter of record that December 3, 1900, was when the first step was taken toward securing the present commodious structure. "The matter of location for a city library was taken up and it was finally decided that the Flinn lot, corner of Sixth and Washington streets, was the most desirable A report showing the growth of the library, and the need of a permanent home was adopted, and the consent of the city council was asked to pur chase the lot." It was the "happy thought " of Prof. B. F. Moor ;, then superintendent of the Marion city schools, to ask Andrew Carnegie for an appropriation. Letters were written and finally $50,000 was the sin given to Marion, the town providing the lot and promising to main- tain the institution.
The purchase price of the lot was $6,600, Poter G. Flinn donating $600 toward it, and the contract price of the building was $1. 121.27, with architect's fees amounting to $2,421.21 and furnished at a cost of $5,000. The total investment amounts to #62,445.18, and while the Marion monument lo the generosity of Andrew Carnegie may not have quite the imposing exterior that some of the libraries in surrounding cities have, visitors to the Marion library all agree that the interior arrangement surpasses anything in the local Carnegie library neighbor- hood, being admirably adapted to so many practical needs. Its lack of imposing columus about the front is more than offset in the convenient inside arrangement, and the art loans so successfully conducted in it are an impossibility in some of the neighboring libraries. Somebody- architect. building committee or donor, is entitled to a vote of lasting obligations from the public that the library was built with utility rather than appearance in mind. and the Marion school board at the time was
410
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
A. C. day, J. H. Forrest and George Webster, Jr., although later a sepa- rate library board composed of live members was created. and the 1912 board was as follows: David Blumenthal, James F. Hood. H. C. Clay- ton, J. E. Johnson and A. N. Wimpy. While the library owes its existence to the Marion school board, the library board is now responsible for its perpetuity, and like the school board the library board is subject to frequent changes.
The Marion library opened with 1,000 vohones, and now has more than 22,500 volumes on its shelves. While the library was open only on Saturdays for several years, it is now the reading room of many citizens and a resting place for persons denied the privilege of being in their own homes-is a benefaction to the entire community of interests. There are reference books in all the schools, and although the Marion Normal Institute was only organized in 1912 it started out with an excellent working library-the congressional records from 1833. complete reports of the National Educational Association From 1873, and all the eyelo-
1
Minion, Indiana. Carnegie 13:49
CARNEGIE LIBRARY, MAHON
pedias, and 400 volumes of miscellaneous reference books. It has the Harvard collection of fifty best books, a complete history section and 500 volumes of standard fiction.
The nucleus of the Fairmount Academy library was a bequest of 2,000 volumes by Iradell B. Rush, of Columbia City, and many volumes have since been added until it is now an excellent working library. Taylor University at Upland has a library of more than 6,000 yolunnes along the lines of science and general education, with special reference works on theology. Taylor students are usually nonresident, and, with Fairmount Academy and Marion Normal Institute students, make the same use of the Marion library reading rooms as do the public school students of the county. Some Sunday schools maintain extensive libraries, but the city library is so general that not much money is now expended in Sunday school libraries. There are collectors of rare volumes and many private libraries are well selveted. discriminating readers choosing their silent companions at leisure, and loan books- who has escaped loss from this source, volumes here and there. like ships at sea, that never return. Serap books are no small feature in many private libraries, and some Grant county families have made an effort
411
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
to collect all books by local authors, and some have included Indiana authors in their local collection.
Dean Swift exclaims: "Books, the children of the brain;" while the sacred writer says: "Of making many books there is no end ; " and Bulwer-Lytton adds: "There is no past so long as books shall live," and quoting the finale Trom an address by W. H. Sanders when the library was formally dedicated, the following thought is reproduced : "Here are riches, infinite riches. Here the ruby, the sapphire and the diamond lose their lustre in the 'white light of the intellect,' for here are the jewels of the mind, the jewels of thought and imagination, jewels in profusion, jewels for every one, not by the handful but the heartful and the headful, which is better, and the glory of it all is that what we take robs no one else, but enriches us the more only that we may enrich others the more. For these things, in behalf of all the Marion public, I want again to thank every one that has contributed to this movement; and for another thing-for the inspiration of this hour-for here tonight we rewind the coiled springs of determination ; here tonight, every mind in this presence --- I see it in these faces plights unto itself this faith-that in the days that are to come, cach day shall add a degree to the intellectual stature, and cach day shall mark an advance toward the complete development of all that is God like in man."
LAH. ORIGINAL ART IN GRANT COUNTY By Milton Matter
Although with slight exception Grant county has produced no artists of outstanding merit, nevertheless she shares in common with the rest of the state of Indiana's glory in her "Hoosier Group" of painters. Messes. Steele, Forsythe. Adams and Stark are all graduates of the world's best schools of painting, and these men have justified their European training by winning recognition for Indiana's artistic claims in many an exhibition and art center at home and abroad. To this quartet should be added another name, a sort of fifth wheel to the wagon. as Mr. Bundy is sometimes called. Though he is largely self-instructed. Mr. Bundy's brush has been the means of conveying enjoyment to many an art lover both within and out of the state. The members of this school of painting number many friends in Grant county, and their work is properly admired in the homes which are so fortunate as to possess examples of their handicraft.
With such an array of active talent, there need be little fear For the cause of painting in Indiana. Moreover, a new generation of younger artists is rapidly pressing to the front: and no one can prediet when a second William M. Chase or another George Grey Barnard may arise. It must be confessed to our shame, however, that these last two celebrities are examples of the ancient adage that "A prophet is not without honor save in his own country."
At the beginning of this modest chronicle a qualification was made to the statement that there had been little artistic achievement in Grant county. The notable exception to this charge is found in the person of Miss Olive Rush, formerly of Fairmount. Miss Rush bas perhaps made her widest and most popular appeal through the medium of illustration In this line her Christmas covers and special illustrations for a number of the leading magazines have received a general and a laudatory rerog-
41:
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
nition. When the opportunity was presented to Miss Rush a few years ago, she entered the studio of the late Howard Pyle, one of America's leading illustrators. It is interesting to record a recent revival of interest in this artist's work by reason of the attention that has lately been bestowed upon Woodrow Wilson's " History of the American People,' the illustrations for which were largely drawn by Mr. Pyle.
After her noted instructor's death, Miss Rush continued to occupy his studio in Wilmington, Delaware. Since then she has also maintained an atelier in Boston, besides studying for a time in Europe. Miss Rush is now inelining more towards creative work in oil and in water-color, although devoting some attention still to illustration. Her paintings have been hung in the principle exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Phila- delphia, Boston, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, where they have received high praise. Within the last year Miss Rush bas completed portraits for the Dupont family of Delaware and the Edmund Ball family of Muncie, Indiana. It is to be hoped that Grant county will some day avail itself of the opportunity for similar commissions. Although still a youthful artist. Miss Rush's work, in the writer's opinion, gives great promise for the future.
Another Grant county artist who has attained to no inconsiderable local fame is Lawrence Walter Green, of Greenhaven. His student days were spent at the National Academy of Design in New York. Since then he has devoted himself to the mediums of oil and of water-color. with an occasional black and white. His preference is for landscape subjects, although he sometimes produces an animal piece or a still life study. Quite recently two of his landscapes were the occasion for much commendation from Mr. Forsythe, who combines with his creative powers the gift of critic as well. The author would like to be able to mention further Grant county artists, but if such there are, he is ande quainted with any serions work of theirs. He prefers to believe, how over. that this apparent limitation in numbers is due rather to the restriction of his own experience than to any lack of artistic talent in the county.
It is not the province of this article to determine that much debated question as to where creative art leaves off and photography begins. Suffice it to say that the artistic achievement of Mr. Larrimer in the photographie line has received a worthy recognition by his election to the Presidency of the Photographers' Association of America. The same association bas placed its mark of approval upon the efficient work of another Marion photographer, Mr. Dexheimer, who is largely moved by a spirit of research and experimentation. Carlos Rigdon is one of the younger photographers whose camera has discovered much beauty in the country-side and way-side of Grant county.
In a history of the art of the community some mention of the collee- tions of the county might properly be included. Unfortunately there is ahnost as lamentable a dearth of material in this case as in that of the native artists. The public library, however, has made a laudable begin- ning towards a collection. As this is the only collection accessible to the public, it is proper to speak of it first. The library displays some dozen paintings which have been either purchased by subscription or donated by generous patrons. Not the least fascinating of the group is the subdued color harmony by the Japanese artist, Nakagawa. It is interesting to recall that this artist studied for a time with Mr. Steele, the dean of the Hoosier Group : nor is it difficult to discover the influence of the Occident in the work of this artist From the Orient. Still another trace of Occidental influener is revealed on this canvas by Nakagawa's adaptation of James MacNeil Whistler's enrions butterfly signature.
1
113
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
Strange that Whistler, who was more influenced by Japanese art than any other American artist, should in turn have proven a sofrer of inspiration to an Oriental painter !
Turning next to the Indiana artists. J. Otis Adams is represented by a meritorious painting. entitled the " Mill Pond." To the writer the composition of this picture recalls those happy river effects of the famous Scandinavian. Fritz Thaulow. The collection also includes a stately beech interior by J. E. Bundy. With its rich impasto of browns and reds. the painting exhibits a somewhat bolder brushwork than is customary with the artist. The note of local association is struck in the canvas by IL. G. Davison depicting a familiar scene along the Missis sinewa. D. E. Berninghaus illustrates in oil an incident from the early frontier life of the western plains, after the manner of the late Frederick Remington. Other artists represented in the collection are: Moretti, Finisterre, English and Green. The remaining members of the Hoosier Group, Stark, Steele and Forsythe, are conspicnons by their absence. In the same hall with the pictures, a reduced plaster model of the "Winged Victory of Samothrace" fittingly occupies the post of honor at the head of the flight of marble stairs. as does the original in the Louvre at Paris. The writer understands that it is the worthy purpose of the Marion Art Club to angment both the collection of paintings and of sculpture.
The Art Club was organized in the year 1903, with a limited member- ship of twenty-five. It now meets fortnightly at the public library, and pursues each year a prescribed course of study. In this way many of its members have been prepared for European travel and study in the Continental museums. Its work, however, has not been confined entirely to study, as is evidenced by its purchase and gift to the library of the painting by Bundy. The club has also been of assistance to the librarian. Miss Baldwin, in promoting the success of the various loan exhibitions that are held from time to time in the library. The officers for the present year are: Miss Frone Case, president : Mrs. Frank Lenfesty. vice-president : and Miss Mary Hiatt, secretary.
Another organization which has generously patronized the library exhibits is the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In the halls of this society has been gathered the nucleus for a collection of paintings. including an example of the well-known sheep and corn painter, .A. Montgomery. The prevalence of these life-like corn pictures in Marion homes is unmistakable evidence of the artist's popularity.
Even to art students, it might well prove a source of considerabh surprise to learn that in private collections in Marion are to be found examples of the seventeenth century school of pamting in the Nether lands, and of the Italian school of the late Renaissance. The one, a canvas attributed to Rembrandt, is in the possession of Mrs. T. C. Hawkins: the other, a "Madonna and Child" by Sassoferrato forms the clon for the collection of Mrs. Philip Matter. In the home of Mrs. Jason Willson are to be Found examples of the work of A. Ofis Adams. to whom Mrs. Willson is related. Other collections known to the writer are those of Mrs. James V. Sweetser and of Mrs. George Webster, Ir.
No history of art in Grant conuty would be complete withont some mention of the instruction in the public schools. For the past decade Marion has been fortunate in having the services of Prof. J. L .. Massena The Germans have a saying to the effect that if you wish any national trait to appear in the character of a people, you must cultivate it in the schools. It would seem that Marion has been sowing good seed on soil that had formerly remained barren.
In conchiding this brief survey, the author would like to quote from
414
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
the writings of Prof. Denman Ross, of Harvard University : Apprecia tion and enjoyment |of art| are the rewards of hard thinking with hard work. In order to appreciate the masterpiece, we must have some knowledge of the terms which the artist has used and the principles which he has followed. We know the terms only when we have our selves used them, and the principles when we have tried to follow them. The reason why the appreciation of excellence in speech and in writing is so widespread is due to the Fact that we all speak and write, con- stantly, and try, so many of us, to speak and write well. The reason why there is so little appreciation of excellence in other forms of art is due to the fact that the terms are not in general use and the principles are not understood, as they should be, in the light of personal experience and effort."
LXIII. MUSIC-ITS RELATION TO THE COMMUNITY By Mrs. Flora Morrow Baldwin
One day the postman brought me a little folder, or booklet. It looked much like an advertisement, and was such, in truth. It is a wonder I did not throw it away unopened. The little book was an announcement of leading musical artists who were fitted for concert work, and in the front page was this beautiful tribute to music: "Servant and master am 1; servant of those dead and master of those living. I am the incense upon which prayers float to heaven. I am the smoke which palls over the fields where men lie dying with me on their lips. I am close to the marriage altar, and when the grave opens I stand nearby. One I serve as I serve all, and the king I make my slave as easily as I subject his slave. I speak through the birds of the air, the insects of the field, the crash of waters on rock-ribbed shores, the sighing of wind in the trees, and I am even heard by the soul that knows me in the clatter of wheels on city streets. I know no brother, yet all men are my brothers; I am the father of the best that is in them, and they are the fathers of the best that is in me; I am of them and they are of me. I am Music!" These words, a symphony within themselves, I send again into print. hoping they may be a pleasure and inspiration to others as they were to me.
It is a sale guess that over the hills and dales, and along the rivers and ereeks of that part of Indiana called since 1831, Grant connity, there has been plenty of activity in the musical line. The first stillness. the blending of Nature's sounds, is musie with a mesmerism all its own. To catch the song of the meadow-lark or the note of the first robin of spring; to keep forever in the heart the thrill awakened, - if we only could, would lighten our hardest task. To me the call of the Jaybird is suggestive of cool days and gray skies. He is a restless bird, and it seems natural for him to be on the wing calling: "Jay! day!" The frog, the locust, the Katy-did and the cricket, each sounded their peculiar note-begging pardon of all the other "beasties" and insects that contributed to the first grand chorus, for I am only mentioning the "leading musicians." The Indians who inhabited this county before us made their own kind of music, and danved around their camp fires to weird strains. I see that a recent magazine is trying to revive more interest in old Indian music, and recall as much of it as possible, say- ing, also, that we should have encouraged the Indian more in his mus- ical taste.
115
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
One old time music teacher to whom I talked, said: "Do not forget to mention, and put it forcibly, that the people of long ago who were not opposed to music were intensely interested in it and showed great appreciation. " The situation years ago was this: prejudice, ignorance, intolerance on the one hand ; and a hunger for music, an enthusiasm that stopped at no hardship on the other. Music has won the day and we are a musical nation, even if we are somewhat given to ragtime. But I stoutly maintain that there is good ragtime. This old-time teacher to whom I have referred said that a committee waited on her one day to see if she would bring her melodeon and furnish music for a Lincoln memorial to be held at one of the school houses. Of course she was to do this for the honor of the occasion-no mention was made of pay. They were greatly concerned to know if she could get the melodeon stopped at certain intervals, while some one lined the hymms from the one song book; and, they asked, "Can you start it again at the right time?" They evidently thought it as uncontrollable as a run-away horse. I think the melodeon had much to do in assisting musical devel opment, for being lighter and smaller than the organ it could be trans ported from place to place over corduroy roads and through inud hub deep. One man asked this teacher: "How many times can you teach Johnny for so much ?" and one school trustee, being a lover of music, in his erude way wanted to introduce it into the school and church of his neighborhood, but was opposed by all the other trustees. Finally, he got a grudging consent to have a little music at a school exhibition ; so, knowing this teacher and that she had a melodeon which on oreasion she took about with her, he made a long trip to her home to see if she would come on this day of days. She consented and offered to bring with her a sister who sang sweetly, and an unele who, also, was a singer. The man went home leaving them to arrange the program, butt became so worried that he came back to suggest that they sing religions songs first. proposing: "The Lord is My Shepherd." as a kind of starter to pro- dure a good impression upon the anti-musical andience. It is safe to say that if they had opened the program with "Drink to Me only with Thine Eyes," there would have been a scandalized protest, and the intro- duction of music in that community put back a step. As it was, when the girl in her white dress, with her yellow curls about her shoulders, began singing " The Lord is My Shepherd," assisted by her unele, men with bowed heads, reluctant to give up their honest prejudice, raised their faces and murmured: "Surely it is good; it is an angel from heaven singing. "
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.