1811     The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought at Prophetstown, near the junction of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers.  Native American forces, led by the “Prophet” Tenskwatawa, the brother of Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, attacked United States soldiers led by General William Henry Harrison.  The battle, which lasted two hours in the middle of the night, was a victory for Harrison’s army.  The defeat broke Tecumseh’s dream of a Native American Confederation.

1904     Charles W. Fairbanks was elected Vice President of the United States.  He served four years under President Theodore Roosevelt.  Born in a log cabin in Ohio, Fairbanks moved to Indiana to work as a lawyer for the railroads.  He represented the state as a United States Senator for eight years before his election as Vice President.  The city of Fairbanks, Alaska, was named for him in recognition of his service on a commission which settled the Alaska boundary dispute.

100 YEARS AGO 1921     Mayoral elections were held around the state.  In Indianapolis, Samuel L. Shank was elected to a second term (his first term was from 1909 to 1913.) William J. Hosey was elected mayor in Fort Wayne, Benjamin Bosse in Evansville, Dr. John C. Quick in Muncie, Blanchard J. Horne in Anderson, Ora Davis in Terre Haute, and R. O. Johnson in Gary.

1965     Newspapers reported that more Indiana men were being inducted into the Army.  The numbers in recent months had increased four times over the previous year.  The growing conflict in Vietnam had resulted in the need for more soldiers.  Many men as young as 19 were receiving letters from the 155 draft boards around the state.

1967     World War I “Flying Ace” Eddie Rickenbacker was in the book department at the L. S. Ayres Department Store in downtown Indianapolis.  He was signing copies of his autobiography, Rickenbacker.  Race cars and airplanes had been at the center of his long and adventurous life.  He owned the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1927 to 1945.

1986     Hoosiers premiered at the Circle Theater in Indianapolis.  Loosely based on the 1954 Milan High School basketball team, the movie was shot entirely in Indiana.  Film critic Roger Ebert awarded the picture a full five stars.  “Hoosiers works a magic,” he wrote, “in getting us to care about the fate of the team and the people depending on it.  It is a movie that is all heart.”

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ANSWERS:  1.  D    2. C     3.  B    4. A     5.  E

Indiana Statehouse Tour Office

Indiana Department of Administration

Visitors are welcome at the Indiana Statehouse Monday through Saturday.  For more information, please contact the tour office.

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

Indiana Quick Quiz

Match the mayor to the city

1.  Lloyd Winnecke  2.  Tom Henry  3.  Joe Hogsett  4.  Jerome Prince  5.  James Mueller

A.  Gary   B.  Indianapolis C.  Fort  Wayne   D.  Evansville   E.  South Bend

ANSWERS BELOW

Hoosier Quote of the Week

Nothing great is lightly won,
Nothing won is lost,
Every good deed nobly done,
Will repay the cost.
Leave to Heaven, in humble trust,
All you will to do:
But if you succeed you must
Paddle your own canoe.

– – – Sarah T. Bolton  (1814 – 1893)

The unofficial “Poet Laureate” of Indiana, Sarah T. Bolton was also a women’s rights activist who worked with Robert Dale Owen to gain property rights for women.  

Did You Know?

     The movie Hoosiers, filmed in the fall of 1985, employed many familiar Indiana locations.  The fictional town of Hickory, home to the local team, was represented by New Richmond, in Montgomery County.  Hickory High School was actually the old high school building in Ninevah.  The Hickory “home gym” was the old high school gymnasium in Knightstown.  As the Hickory “Huskers” advanced through the state tourney, they played the sectional game in the College Avenue Gym in Brownsburg.  The regional competition was filmed at the Memorial Gymnasium in Lebanon.  For the state finals, the movie crew went to Butler Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (now Hinkle Fieldhouse.)

ABE MARTIN SEZ: Life is full o’ surprises, but th’ worst of ’em all is runnin’ on t’ a pebble in a spoonful o’ beans.   (Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin’s ShortFurrows, Abe Martin Publishing Company, Indianapolis, 1912)