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Author Biography
Steven R. Barnett is Executive Director at the Irvington Historical Society.
Steve Barnett was raised in Irvington. Steve attended School #57, Howe High School (’63), and received a degree from Purdue University (’70). He served in the Indiana National Guard. After a brief hiatus from Irvington, Steve returned to his home town in 1977 with his wife Sue so their three children could grow up in a family friendly environment.
Steve had the good fortune of working with U. S. Representative Andy Jacobs, Jr. and U. S. Representative Julia Carson in the Indianapolis Congressional District Office helping constituents.
After his retirement, Steve became the executive director of the Irvington Historical Society and curator of the Bona Thompson Memorial Center until 2025. Steve was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel by Gov. Wallace G. Wilkinson for service to veterans, and he was appointed a Sagamore of the Wabash by Gov. Joseph Kernan for service to Indiana. In 2016, Steve was named Marion County Historian.
Steven R. Barnett’s Story Archive
100 Years Ago: Sept. 5-11
From The Indianapolis News, Tuesday, September 15, 1925: Twenty-five crippled children, whose physical impairments are so severe that their education has been in the hands of parents and private tutors, attended public school for the first time yesterday in a specially adapted, sun-filled room in Indianapolis Oscar C. McCulloch School … Read More
100 Years Ago: Aug. 29-Sept. 4
From The Indianapolis Times, Tuesday, September 1, 1925: Income tax payments of Indiana citizens were opened to public inspection today at the Indiana office of internal revenue collector. The last revenue act allows anyone to see the amount of tax paid by each person in 1925 on 1924 income. Approximately … Read More
Excluded and Unwelcome
Two hundred years ago, Indianapolis was a village where English, German, French, and native Lenape was spoken in the log cabins and among the trees of the dark forest. Eighty years later, a daily worker “Parade of All Nations” — Serbs and Syrians, Hungarians and Romanians, Irish and Germans, Lithuanians … Read More
100 Years Ago: Aug. 22-28
From The Indianapolis News, Thursday, August 27, 1925: The official count in the Better Babies Contest has found 1,120 babies eligible for participation in the event to name the best baby boy and the best baby girl in Indiana. This year’s number of eligible entrants is more than 200 babies … Read More
100 Years Ago: Aug. 15-21
From The Indianapolis News, Wednesday, August 19, 1925: The main spectacle of Greater Indianapolis Week was this afternoon’s parade witnessed by thousands of residents and visitors. The largest parade in the city’s history included approximately 18,000 participants riding or marching along behind 1,400 elaborately decorated floats, and hundreds of automobiles, … Read More