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Aug. 31, 2013 show

Winona Lake, Warsaw, orthopedics and Grace College

A scenic county in far-northern Indiana includes a city known as the "orthopedics capital of the country," a lakeside community with a long heritage as a spiritual retreat (one of the country's best-known evangelists of the early 1900s had deep connections to the region) and an evangelical Christian college.

We will explore the rich history of Winona Lake, the orthopedics industry and its impact on Warsaw, the heritage of Grace College & Seminary and other aspects related to Kosciusko County, including links to the Potawatomi Indians, colorful evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935) and a Bible conference internationally known as the Second Wave.

Nelson will be joined in studio by three guests:

• Terry White, co-author of Winona Lake at 100: Third Wave Rising (BMH Books), a book published in connection with the centennial of the resort town of Winona Lake's incorporation in 1913.
• Brad Bishop, executive director of OrthoWorx, a non-profit devoted to ensuring the Warsaw area remains the country's "orthopedics capital." In the 1890s, Warsaw-based DePuy Manufacturing became the world's first manufacturer of orthopedics appliances. Since then, major businesses such as Zimmer and Biomet have been founded in Warsaw, making the city a hub for devices associated with hip and knee replacements.
• And Bill Katip, the president of Grace College & Seminary, which describes itself as "an evangelical Christian community of higher education."

According to Terry's book, the "first wave" of flourishing activity around Winona Lake began during the 1800s with the Potawatomi culture. This wave also included early white settlement and, from 1896 through the 1930s, a Chautauqua Days festival that included secular programs of lectures, recitals and plays often featuring famous Americans. Booker T. Washington spoke at Winona Lake in 1897, as did Helen Keller in 1915 and humorist Will Rogers in 1928.

The Chautauqua concept - derived from an ongoing cultural festival every summer in western New York - has been revived at Winona Lake in recent years.

Although Billy Sunday grew up in Iowa and primarily was based in Chicago during most of his preaching years (he first achieved fame as a Chicago baseball player), he settled for part of each year in Winona Lake at a home he called Mount Hood. Built in 1911, the restored home is known today as the Billy Sunday Home Museum.

The first Bible conference in the area started in 1895, according to Winona Lake at 100; it was begun by Presbyterians. Brethren Church groups also began having general conferences in the resort town in the 1890s.

Subsequently, a corporation was formed to manage Winona Lake's summer Bible conference, which exploded in growth; it was overseen by a board that included household names such as politician William Jennings Bryan and wagon and auto-maker John Studebaker of South Bend. In 1944, Winona Lake also was the setting for the launch of Youth for Christ, an early employer of evangelist Billy Graham. (Historians now often describe Billy Sunday as "the Billy Graham of his era.")

Just like the Bible conference, the orthopedics industry in the region dates to 1895. According to an article in The Indianapolis Star in 2004, entrepreneur Revra DePuy, the founder of DePuy Manufacturing, began a splint-making business "with one key innovation: He used metal instead of wood." One of the company's top employees, J.O. Zimmer, left in the 1920s to form a competing medical device manufacturing company in Warsaw. Our guest Brad Bishop formerly served as Zimmer's director of public affairs.

According to Winona Lake at 100, Biomet was founded in 1977 by four young entrepreneurs in the orthopedics industry and began pioneering technological advances early on; within three years, it achieved $1.1 million in net sales.

The orthopedics industry now employs more than 6,800 workers in the region, accounting for nearly one in four jobs in Kosciusko County, according to a video on the OrthoWorx website.

For several decades, many students at Grace College in Winona Lake have had internships in the orthopedics industry, according to the Star article. A four-year liberal arts and sciences college with a seminary for masters and doctoral study, Grace College is Brethren-affiliated and began in 1937.

Our guest Bill Katip will share details about Grace College's early days, as well as its recent expansion, through the college's Weber School, to sites in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and other cities. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Grace College, its history department will sponsor a seminar Sept. 10 at Westminster Hall on the Winona Lake campus. And as part of Winona Lake's centennial celebrations, our guest Terry White will be among the speakers at a community appreciation dinner Nov. 14, also in Westminster Hall.

According to Terry's book, Winona Lake in the 1960s and '70s was a far cry from its earlier heyday. The resort village, he writes, had "declined remarkably, with much of the summer seasonal housing now ramshackle and unsightly."

That era of decline, though, was followed by a resurgence that Terry describes as a "metamorphosis." When he moved back to Winona Lake in 2003 after 26 years away, he discovered a "third wave" that included flourishing arts and culture. The town's historic street, Park Avenue, had become "lined with solid, quaint shops inhabited by artists, photographers, glass blowers, potters and woodworkers."

Roadtrip: Glory-June's northern adventure

We’re just going to go with public historian Glory-June Greiff's words here for a few notes about her Roadtrip this Saturday:

"I always love a chance to go to the northern part of our state where the glaciers left behind lots of lakes and rolling terrain. Pokagon State Park in Steuben County is a good excuse. It offers all the activities you'd expect in a state park, but swimming in a real lake is a plus. All this and history, too: The park is listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its many examples of the work of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps).

"The park inn is a fine place to eat," says Glory-June, "but I strongly recommend Clay's Family Restaurant (7815 N Old 27, Fremont) just a few miles north of the park, just south of the Michigan state line. Their food is just darned good and their pies are heavenly! Clay's is, after all, the home of the annual Pie Day in June, when, for a fixed price, they offer unlimited samples of every pie they make.

"The area is lovely to explore, what with its lakes, small farms, and small towns. Orland is a very small village, about 10 miles west of Clay's on SR120, but boasts a fish hatchery constructed by the WPA (Works Progress Administration). It, too, is listed in the National Register If you're there on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday, check out the Joyce Library in downtown Orland. It's charming, but ask to see the second floor, where the library first started. Many of us remember when most public libraries looked like this.

"If you’re going up from central Indiana, it's a goodly drive, although you can make Pokagon in less than three hours on I-69. I'd recommend going at least part of the way on the old highways, however, and if you get hungry, stop for a bite at Pembroke Bakery in downtown Fort Wayne.

"Don't let the fact that they offer healthy food deter you - it's really good! But if you’re not convinced, you can always go back in time to Powers Hamburgers at 1402 South Harrison, which was built around 1940. Don't confuse their hamburgers with a certain long-lived chain's sliders. These are meaty and loaded with onions grilled fresh. They also usually have a goodly supply of sweet rolls and doughnuts from the New Haven Bakery (or visit the bakery itself on the old Lincoln Highway! It's at 915 East Lincoln Highway. Enjoy!"

History Mystery

To commemorate the Potawatomi heritage across much of northern Indiana, a Hoosier city hosts a Trail of Courage Living History Festival every September. Like Warsaw and Winona Lake, this "mystery" city has a deep, historic connection with the Potawatomi.

When the tribe was forcibly removed from northern Indiana in 1838 by the forces of Gen. John Tipton, the Potawatomi were marched, single-file, down the city's Main Street. In what became known as the Trail of Death, the Potawatomi were led 900 miles to Kansas.

The Trail of Courage Living History Festival in the "mystery" Indiana city includes Native American music and dance, canoe rides, crafts, historic re-enactments and pioneer food cooked over wood fires.

Question: What city in northern Indiana hosts the festival?

The call-in number is (317) 788-3314. Please do not call into the show until you hear Nelson pose the question on the air, and please do not try to win the prize if you have won any other prize on WICR during the last two months. The prize is a gift certificate to Dick's Bodacious Bar-B-Q and two tickets to the NCAA Hall of Champions, courtesy of Visit Indy, and admission for four to the Indiana Experience at the Indiana History Center, courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society.

Your Hoosier History Live! team,

Nelson Price, host and creative director
Molly Head, producer, (317) 927-9101
Richard Sullivan, webmaster and tech director
Pam Fraizer, graphic designer

Garry Chilluffo, creative consultant
Michele Goodrich, Jed Duvall, grant consultants
Joan Hostetler, photo historian
Dana Waddell, volunteer-at-large

www.hoosierhistorylive.org

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Sept. 7 show - encore presentation

Pioneer music in early Indiana

The jaw harp was popular. So were the fiddle and dulcimer. Community bands played flutes, whistles and drums.

There even were pianos before 1840 in Indiana, despite the significant challenges of transporting them to frontier communities via horse-drawn vehicles and river boats.

Musical instruments that weren't widely seen (or, in some cases, not present at all) in the Hoosier state of the 1820s, '30s and '40s: the guitar, banjo, harmonica, mandolin, ukulele and accordion.

To explore all aspects of the music played by pioneer families in Indiana, Nelson is joined in studio by Erik Peterson, an Indianapolis-based musician and historian, on this encore show. (The original air date was Jan. 26, 2013.) Erik has performed at Prairietown at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park and at other history-focused sites.

"Keep in mind that, during the pioneer era, Mozart had not been dead for as long as Buddy Holly has been gone today," Erik says.

He has researched pre-1840 music of central Indiana for a postgraduate degree, thanks in part to a fellowship from the Society of Indiana Pioneers. Adept at various instruments, Erik often performs traditional Irish, American folk and Celtic music with various ensembles, including Hogeye Navvy, an Indy-based band known for sea chanteys.

During our show, he performs a few musical interludes to convey a flavor of the music heard in pioneer Indiana. He has gained insights by tracking down diaries, letters and journals of pioneer families.

"People in that era were incredibly musical," he says. "Music was a daily part of their lives, and it served as a way to build community among neighbors."

The jaw harp, a hand-held instrument about the size of a harmonica, was played frequently. Erik performs a tune on the instrument during our show, a rare opportunity to hear it. He notes the jaw harp primarily is relegated today to the soundtracks of cartoons.

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