July 5 show

Presidential visits to Indiana

As he traveled to Washington D.C. for his presidential inauguration in 1861, Abraham Lincoln stopped in Indianapolis and spoke from the balcony of a hotel.

Harry Truman got a speeding ticket near Greenfield during a road trip with his wife, Bess, in 1953 after they had left the White House.

Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the renowned French Lick Springs Hotel in 1931 for a key meeting with Democratic power brokers.

And Richard Nixon came to the Indiana University Medical Center in 1974 to visit his daughter Julie, who had been hospitalized suddenly while working for the Saturday Evening Post.

During this patriotic-themed weekend, Hoosier History Live! will explore the range of visits by American presidents (including future presidents, former presidents or their families) to the Hoosier state.
Nelson will be joined in-studio by two author/historians who have written about some of the POTUS visits:

• Ray Boomhower of the Indiana Historical Society, the editor of Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History magazine. An upcoming issue of Traces will describe future president FDR's pivotal visit to French Lick. (The article was written by Jim Fadely, an expert on the resort hotel and a popular guest on previous Hoosier History Live! shows.) In previous issues of Traces, Ray has written about other presidential visits; they include a scandal that unfolded in 1907 when cocktails were served at a soiree Teddy Roosevelt attended at the Indianapolis mansion of his vice president, Charles Fairbanks.
• And Al Hunter, a columnist for The Weekly View newspaper that serves the eastside of Indy and Greenfield. Al's mother was a patient at the IU Medical Center just a few rooms away from Julie Nixon Eisenhower when her father visited during the final year of his presidency. Al notes that, as vice president, Richard Nixon had visited Indy in connection with another hospital. Nixon came for the ground-breaking of Community Hospital (now known as Community East) in 1954.

Of course, Benjamin Harrison, the only president elected from Indiana, made several visits to his home state after he won the country's top office in 1888.

Abe Lincoln, who lived in southern Indiana from ages 7 to 21, spoke from the balcony of the Bates House in downtown Indy as he traveled in February 1861 from Springfield, Ill., to the nation's capital for his inaugural. His talk touched on the need to preserve the Union.

During the Centennial celebrations in 1916 of Indiana's statehood, Woodrow Wilson attended a parade on Monument Circle and spoke at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Our guest Al Hunter notes that two years earlier, when Wilson was president of Princeton, he visited Butler University, which then was located in Irvington.

Both Roosevelts - Teddy and FDR - also made multiple visits to the Hoosier state. In 1902, Teddy, who was suffering from a serious injury to his leg, spoke in Tipton and Noblesville during train stops. While in Indianapolis later on that trip, he was rushed to St. Vincent Hospital for treatment.

FDR visited Vincennes for the dedication of the George Rogers Clark Memorial in the 1930s. And in 1936, he opened the Indiana State Fair.

He stayed at the ornate French Lick Springs Hotel in 1931 when he was maneuvering to be the Democratic presidential nominee. The resort hotel became internationally known beginning in the early 1900s when it was purchased and lavishly enhanced by Thomas Taggart, a former Indianapolis mayor and nationally powerful Democratic power broker; the 1931 gathering attended by FDR was the National Governors Conference. Truman also visited French Lick in 1944.

But the best-known visit by Truman unfolded during June 1953 when the former president and his wife, Bess, took a road trip in their car - without Secret Service protection - to savor America. During the journey, which is the focus of the book Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of an American Road Trip by Matthew Algeo (Chicago Review Press, 2009), the Trumans were house guests at the North Meridian Street mansion of another nationally powerful Democrat, banker Frank McKinney Sr.

It was during this road trip that Truman received a speeding ticket near Greenfield.

So many presidents have visited Indiana during our nearly 200 years of statehood that we can't explore all of them. But here’s a sampling of others:

• In 1842, Martin Van Buren, by then a former president, tumbled out of his carriage in Plainfield while traveling on the National Road. According to folklore, the carriage was deliberately tipped into the mud because Van Buren, while president, had vetoed a bill to fund improvements for the National Road, now U.S. 40.
• Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower stayed at a home (on the northside of Indy) during the 1950s when it was owned by one of his former top military aides. The house now is owned by Emerson Houck, a retired Lilly executive and author who has been a Hoosier History Live! guest.
• Visits by John F. Kennedy include a speech at a Muncie factory when he was a presidential candidate in 1960, as well as at a rally at the Indianapolis airport two years later.
• Barack Obama has made several visits to Indiana, particularly during his Democratic primary battle with Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008. They included a visit by the entire future First Family - Obama, wife Michelle and their two daughters - to the Dunham House in Tipton County. The Dunham House, a historic farmhouse that was the home for several generations of Obama's maternal ancestors, has been the focus of Hoosier History Live! shows.

History Mystery

In October 1976, First Lady Betty Ford visited Indianapolis to celebrate the opening of a new building. It houses a cultural institution that, even then, had been a part of the community since the 1920s at various locations.

Its new building, though, was regarded as a major step forward in civic pride. Mrs. Ford received a guided tour the night before the new building opened to the public.

Question: What is the cultural institution?

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 pack includes a gift certificate to Dick's Last Resort restaurant, courtesy of Visit Indy, four passes to the Indiana Experience, courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society, and two passes to Conner Prairie Interactive History Park, courtesy of Conner Prairie.

Roadtrip: Auto heritage mecca in Auburn and Dekalb County

Guest Roadtripper and public historian Glory-June Greiff asks, "How about a trip to Auburn? It really doesn't take long from Indianapolis via I-69, and you can stop in downtown Fort Wayne at the Pembroke Cafe for yummy bakery treats or an early lunch of soup, salad or sandwiches. Or catch them on the way back for supper."

The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum is only one of the many intriguing places to visit in Auburn and the surrounding area, way up in the northeast corner of Indiana. The museum is an Art Deco delight, filled not only with a myriad of examples (all restored and runable!) of the three cars of its name, but numerous others, including many one-offs made in Indiana (and some cool Studebakers - Glory is from the South Bend area).

Indiana once was second only to Michigan in automobile production, and though many have closed in recent years, it remains home to a variety of auto parts manufacturers.

The A-C-D Museum focuses on the cars - and also on the men who designed and built them. The office of E.L. Cord looks as if he just stepped out for lunch, for example. Over the years, the museum has added several interactive exhibits incorporating materials from the extensive archives.

An amazing number of museums are located in and around Auburn. Adjacent to the A-C-D Museum is the National Auto and Truck Museum, located in adjacent historic buildings, containing trucks spanning several decades, as well as numerous postwar classic cars. The museum also houses a huge collection of model trucks and automobiles.

Other museums include the Hoosier Air Museum at the DeKalb County Airport on County Road 62.

And then just outside Auburn off I-69 are two separate museums funded by the Kruse Foundation, the National Military History Center and the Kruse Automotive and Carriage Museum. There are even more museums in the DeKalb County towns of Garrett and Butler.

But Auburn itself is a nice county-seat town fill of beautiful old buildings if, like Glory, you enjoy walking amidst such treasures. Don't miss the courthouse, built in 1911, and the Eckhart Library on South Jackson Street, also opened in 1911.

All this walking might leave you wanting ice cream or a little snack, and there's a great little drive-in in the 1400 block north of Main Street, the old highway going north out of town. It has just been remodeled, so it doesn't have that wonderful '60s look anymore, but, says Glory, "I can vouch for the fact that their shakes are still great!"

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

Joan Hostetler, Michele Goodrich, Jed Duvall, Dana Waddell, advisors

www.hoosierhistorylive.org

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July 12 show

Judge Sarah Evans Barker, history-maker in Indiana courts

Even before becoming Indiana's first woman federal judge, Sarah Evans Barker was making history. More than 40 years ago, she became the first woman in the Hoosier state to be an assistant U.S. attorney.

Now, as U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker shifts to "senior status" - that is, a reduced caseload (only by 20 percent, though) - she will be Nelson's in-studio guest, as Hoosier History Live! focuses on her pioneering life and career.

Known for her keen insights, eloquence and wit, Judge Barker also, for more than 20 years, has been a top civic leader in her home state, a distinction that has been noted in her raft of honors. They have included being named a Living Legend in 2010 by the Indiana Historical Society and, most recently, the Lifetime Achievement honoree of the 2014 Cultural Vision Awards.

She also is renowned, every July 4 season, for presiding at the naturalization ceremonies for hundreds of immigrants as they become new U.S. citizens.

A native of Mishawaka, Judge Barker has said she was a "late bloomer" and did not set out to become a judicial pioneer - or even, necessarily, a lawyer. In a recent interview with Nuvo Newsweekly, which presents the Cultural Vision Awards, Judge Barker attributed her decision to attend law school to a pivotal piece of advice she received at Indiana University.

Years later, after her marriage to Ken Barker, then a partner at Bose McKinney & Evans in Indianapolis, the couple made another major decision. More than 35 years ago, they decided Ken Barker would be a stay-at-home dad (with their three children) while she pursued her legal career.

"There were no patterns," Judge Barker once told the Indianapolis Business Journal. "We had to make it up as we went."

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan nominated her at age 40 to be U.S. judge of the southern district of Indiana, with the result that she became the first woman on the federal bench in the Hoosier state.

Since then, Judge Barker has presided over several of the most high-profile federal cases in the state, including those involving overcrowding at the Marion County Jail, a proposed ban in Indianapolis on pornographic material, the sale of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple and class-action lawsuits involving Firestone tire.

She has served on national panels on judicial ethics and on the boards of history-focused organizations, including the Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana Bicentennial Commission that's overseeing celebrations for the state's 200th birthday in 2016.

Last month, Judge Barker served as the emcee for an Indiana State Museum Foundation gala that honored another trail-blazing woman, Rabbi Sandy Sasso of Indianapolis. Rabbi Sasso was the first woman in the country to be ordained as a rabbi in the Jewish reconstructionist movement; her pioneering role was the focus of a Hoosier History Live! show last October.

For our show with Judge Barker, we will have a special format and won't be taking call-in questions and comments from listeners.

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