Visual arts are often the most prominent examples of culture, frequently overshadowing the written word. However, like its rich heritage in paint, Irvington has a significant literary tradition that has deep roots in journalism. Grace Julian Clarke, the daughter of former U. S. Congressman George W. Julian, came to Irvington as a girl when her father built their family home at 115 S. Audubon Rd. She wrote a weekly column for The Indianapolis Star often about Irvington’s past and authored a biography of her father. Another long-time Irvington columnist for The Star was art critic Lucille Morehouse. From the era of World War I through the post-World War II years, her authoritative weekly column, “In the World of Art,” was a review of the Indianapolis art scene.
Frank McKinney “Kin” Hubbard, long associated with The Indianapolis News, created the cracker barrel philosopher, Abe Martin and his humorous Brown County neighbors. The single-panel Abe Martin appeared on the back page of The News for a quarter of a century, and his sayings were published annually in Abe Martin’s Almanack. Hubbard also, as Abe Martin, wrote “Short Furrows,” a humorous weekly column that appeared in the Saturday edition of The News. Another long-time columnist with The News was Wayne Guthrie who wrote “Ringside in Hoosierland” for 30 years featuring stories of small towns and pioneer lore.
From the mid-1930s through the early years of World War II, Jane Hall Gable published The Irvington Review, a newspaper detailing life in The Classic Suburb and today Paula Nicewanger continues the Irvingtonian tradition of print journalism as one of the owners and Creative Director of the Weekly View, reporting the news and community events on the Indianapolis east side.
Irvingtonians have also been active in television journalism. Howard C. Caldwell, Jr was the long-time news anchor for WRTV (Channel 6) and author of Tony Hinkle: Coach for All Seasons and The Golden Age of Indianapolis Theaters. Debbie Knox also was active in broadcast journalism for 33 years as news anchor for WISH-TV (Channel 8).
One of the leading writers of non-fiction was Irvingtonian George Cottman, often called the “father of local history,” and founder of The Indiana Quarterly Magazine of History (now The Indiana Magazine of History). A contemporary of Cottman was Amos Butler, a noted ornithologist and author of Birds of Indiana. Today the local Audubon Society bears his name.
The adage “publish or perish” is well known in the world of academia and many Butler University professors did publish, but Katharine Merrill Graydon, professor of English Literature, devoted her writing in a tribute to Butler alumni who answered the call to the colors in the volume, Butler College in the World War, which also included “a briefer record of those who served in the Civil War and the War with Spain.”
Popular contemporary writers include Rev. Phillip Gulley, former pastor of Irvington Friends Church and author of Front Porch Tales: A Treasury of Stories Filled with Wit and Wisdom. In addition to this book, he has written over twenty other books about small town American life. Another, former Irvington resident, James Alexander Thom who began his literary career with The Indianapolis Star, is best known as author of Western genre and colonial American history.
An account of a dark chapter in Irvington’s past was written by M. William “Bill” Lutholtz who authored the definitive book Grand Dragon: D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. A fictional read of the Ku Klux Klan era can be found in the pages of Murder in Irvington by Robert “Bob” Fangmeier, a journalist who also contributed articles to The Christian Century. Completing the Irvington authors’ trilogy of this period in Indiana history is Madge: The life and times of Madge Oberholtzer, the young Irvington woman who brought down D. C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan by Charlotte “Char” Halsema Ottinger.
Irvington authors have also written children’s books. One of the most prolific was Wallace C. Wadsworth who wrote adaptations of Paul Bunyan and His Great Blue Ox; The Real Story Book, and Choo-Choo, the Little Switch Engine among others. When Indianapolis based Bobbs-Merrill Publishing Co. was searching for authors for its Childhoods of Famous Americans Series, Irvingtonian Augusta Stevenson wrote thirty books for this series that included Abe Lincoln: Frontier Boy. Other Irvington authors contributing to the series were Jean Brown Wagoner, daughter of Hilton U. Brown, who wrote eight books, including Abigail Adams, Girl of Colonial Days, and Gertrude Hecker Winders who wrote seven books that included Harriet Tubman, Freedom Girl.
Margaret Weymouth Jackson, “Author in an Apron,” wrote 200 short stories from 1925 to 1950 for periodicals American Magazine, American Mercury, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post, and Woman’s Home Companion. She also wrote six novels that included Elizabeth’s Tower, Beggars Can Choose, and Jennie Fowler. Her works were widely used in English composition classes as examples of excellent short story writing. Another Irvington author whose texts are used in classrooms was William Roy Krickenberger, a math teacher at Indianapolis Arsenal Technical “Tech” High School, who co-authored more than a dozen math textbooks used throughout the United States that included Algebra Book One.
Irvington’s literary tradition isn’t the last note in the cultural heritage of The Classic Suburb. It continues with a new score next month.