Weekly View » Steven R. Barnett

100 Years Ago: July 3-9

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 05:08:36 +0000

From The Indianapolis Times, Monday, July 5, 1926: Although the Fourth of July was observed yesterday with varied festivities, the usual patriotic observances were reserved for today. Business stood still and public buildings were closed while fireworks boomed throughout the city amid sporadic rain showers which tempered the traditional Independence Day gaudiness. The streetcar strike partially crippled attendance at the principal patriotic program at the Circle Theater. Held under the auspices of the Seventh District Federation of Women’s Clubs, more than 5,000 children and veterans of foreign wars enjoyed a program that included viewing the photoplay, Barbara Fitchie. Indiana Spanish War Veterans held a picnic at Brookside Park while Grand Army of the Republic veterans held a reunion at their hall, Ft. Friendly, 512 N. Illinois. Celebrations ended with the night sky over Riverside Park ablaze with a fireworks display.

Strike!

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 05:09:53 +0000

American prosperity for 250 years since the founding of the Republic has been built upon an entrepreneurial spirit and by the sweat of the brow of working men and women. Sadly, for many years enslaved and child labor also contributed to this economic success. Natural tensions between employers and free labor over wages and working conditions led workers to form unions and disputes often were resolved only after militant work stoppages — strikes. In Indianapolis artisans formed the Mechanics Mutual Protection in 1850 and two years later a Typographical Union was organized by journeymen printers that became Local No. 1.
The first documented strike in Indianapolis began on Saturday, April 11, 1863, when members of the local Typographical Union Local No. 1 walked off the job at The Indianapolis Daily Journal and The Indianapolis Daily Sentinel after failing to receive a 20 per cent wage increase. To replace the striking printers, the papers hired workers from out of town who were “dogged along the streets, cursed, abused, and threatened,” by the strikers. The following Wednesday, the union called off the strike and “allowed any member to go to work at the old prices if he wanted to, or if the proprietors would take him.” However, the papers were “full of good, sober, steady workmen, who are glad to get employment at the profitable wages the [union] threw away so contemptuously.”
While the printers failed to achieve their wage goals, the blacksmiths and machinists went on strike the following year “with regard to hours and to wages.” The Machinists’ and Blacksmiths’ Union had a fund of $25,000 (2025: $524,086) “to pay the wages of needy brethren who may be thrown out of employment by the strike.” Other workers — journeymen boot and shoemakers, plasterers, and bricklayers — also went on strike for better wages during the Civil War era.
In March 1866, Indianapolis workers were confronted with their first strike related lock-out when local owners shut the foundry doors to members of the Iron Moulder’s and Stove Moulder’s Unions. This was part of a national action by foundry owners in response to strikes in Albany and Troy, New York. The strike lasted two months, ending with “the employers having compromised with the men.” Locally in the fall of 1870, 140 workers of Sinker & Davis at the Western Machine Works walked off the job when their wages were cut by ten percent. The Machinists’ and Blacksmiths’ Union supported the workers and the strike ended after a couple of days when the employers “discovered that they were paying but a trifle, if any, more than other proprietors.”
By the 1870s, railroad interests were so important to Indianapolis that any national rail event could severely affect the city’s business. When the financial Panic of 1873 occurred, the Pan Handle Road — Pittsburg, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad — (Pennsylvania Railroad) responded quickly with an abrupt announcement of a ten percent wage reduction. This violated a previous agreement with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers “that no reduction of wages should be made, and in case the company felt constrained to reduce pay, due notice should be given the Brotherhood, that the matter might be amply discussed and the conflicting interests, if possible, adjusted by negotiation” thereby precipitating, what the newspapers called the Great Strike, which began at noon on Christmas Day, 1873 when engineers on the railroad and its seventeen related lines walked off the job. Passenger and freight trains came to a standstill and in Indianapolis an attempt by a conductor to move an engine from the yards was met by a large number of strikers who gathered at a crossing and “jeered to such an extent, although no violence was offered, that he…ran the engine back to the round house.” By early January, most of the railroads were back operating with “scab engineers” — “unskilled and unreliable men” — running the engines; “the railroad companies…for the time being, are the victors.” While railroad companies continued to reduce the wages of laborers by ten percent, further attempts to reduce the pay of engineers remained unsettled. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers resolved to resist any additional wage cuts “by all means in their power.”
As the economy continued to struggle with the effects of the Panic, the corporate officers of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) devised a scheme to cut worker wages by ten percent so dividends to its shareholders could be increased by the same percentage. B&O workers at Martinsburg, West Virginia refused to accept the wage cut and, on July 14, 1877, initiated what would be known as The Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Five days later, Pennsylvania Railroad workers in Pittsburg refused to go out with their trains and demanded restoring a prior wage schedule and the reinstatement of every worker dismissed for participating in the strike. Additional strikes stopped traffic on the Erie Railroad and the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, & Chicago Railroad. By July 23, in Indianapolis “the strike is the all-absorbing theme of conversation” and by evening 500 local workers of the Vandalia Railroad, the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad, the Bee Line (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railroad), and the Pan Handle, had joined the strike over wages. Later yardmen of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad, the Indianapolis, Cincinnati. & Lafayette Railroad, the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad, the Indianapolis & Vincennes Railroad, the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago Railroad, and the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis Railroad stopped work along with 125 switchmen and baggage men. Only mail cars were permitted to leave the depot as nearly 100 travelers were stranded in the waiting rooms.
Two thousand workingmen gathered on the state house grounds to show solidarity with the railroad strikers and to urge them to refrain from violence. The Indianapolis strike caused a suspension of business on all Indiana railroads and combined with strikes in Ohio and Illinois 2,100 miles of track was affected. Declaring, “It is now or never with us. We can never have a stronger organization, and the country was never so ripe for a movement of this description,” locomotive engineers, firemen, conductors, and brakemen from the several railroads formed a committee to discuss the situation with the management of the different lines and at a citizens meeting a committee of arbitration was established. Mayor John Caven issued a call for the formation of a committee of safety in each city ward to protect property if mob violence should break out. Federal troops from the South arrived and together with the Indiana Legion of citizen soldiers were available if needed.
After a week of unrest in Indianapolis, the city’s role in The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was over with the strikers resuming work after accepting the report of the committee on arbitration which called “for the sake of the workmen and for the ultimate good of the companies” a speedy redress of “the lowness of wages and…irregularities in the payment thereof.”

100 Years Ago: June 26-July 2

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 05:08:25 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Monday, June 28, 1926: The Lincoln Square Co will erect a theater to be known as the Indiana, at 128 to 142 W. Washington St immediately west of the Claypool Hotel, at an approximate cost of $1,252,456 (2025: $23,262,053). The Indiana Theater will be a six-story fireproof building featuring old Spanish style architecture throughout with a front exterior characterized by a gigantic and richly carved terra cotta motif. The entertainment house will contain a beautiful, modern and luxurious motion picture theater, seating nearly 3,500 people at one time, and a magnificent ballroom on the top floor, which, it is believed, will be the largest ballroom of its kind in the Middle West. Lounging and smoking rooms and a children’s playroom will be available on the ballroom and mezzanine floors. The basement will have a bowling alley.

100 Years Ago: June 19-25

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 05:08:50 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Wednesday, June 23, 1926: “The Crossroads of America” as the slogan for Indianapolis was officially adopted yesterday by the publicity committee of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce. The slogan conveys a definite idea telling the world that Indianapolis stands at the intersection of the great east-west and north-south national highways and major railway systems which radiate from the center of distribution which demonstrates Indianapolis is not merely watching the world go by but playing an important part in the nation’s activities. An effort will be made immediately to persuade the Hoosier Motor Club to work with the Chamber of Commerce in revamping and standardizing all road signage around Indianapolis to incorporate, as a part of each sign, the new slogan and an arrow pointing toward Indianapolis. The previous slogan, “No mean city,” while flattering, was meaningless.

100 Years Ago: June 12-18

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 05:08:54 +0000

From The Indianapolis Star, Sunday, June 13, 1926: “From producer to consumer” is the slogan of the new producers’ market (farmers’ market) at South and New Jersey Streets which was dedicated yesterday afternoon with a parade over downtown streets. Led by a brass band, twenty-five decorated floats and trucks began the parade at the new market site, looping their way through downtown streets before returning to the market where speeches were delivered by officers of the producers’ association and city and state officials. Covering nearly a city block, the market is being financed and built by the Vegetable Growers’ Association of Indianapolis. It will officially open at 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday with ninety-three producers and twelve retailers with stands offering vegetables. Fruits, berries, poultry, eggs, and butter will be sold by stand holders beginning the latter part of the week.

100 Years Ago: June 5-11

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 05:08:39 +0000

From The Indianapolis Times, Tuesday, June 8, 1926: Thousands of Indianapolis citizens who thought they were registered to vote in the fall election by having voted in May’s primary election were mistaken, according to an opinion issued today by Indiana Attorney General Arthur Gillion. Despite Republican county leaders, in striving to bring out a large primary vote, asserting voting in the primary would automatically mean registration for the November general election, Gillion wrote the law clearly states only those who entered their names on the poll books by voting at the last general election and had not moved shall be eligible to cast a ballot. Those having not voted in November 1924 or having since moved must register from Aug 1 to Sept 1 at the county auditor’s office or through political party workers who are authorized to register voters.

Gold Star Heroes

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 21 May 2026 05:09:19 +0000

While young schoolchildren are awarded a “gold star” for their achievements, a more poignant “gold star” holds a hallowed place on banners marking the loss and sacrifice of soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen in service to our country. Since America’s entry into World War I, over 1,800 sons and daughters from Marion County/Indianapolis have been memorialized with a Gold Star on their family’s service banner.
In the early days following the declaration of war on Germany by the United States in April 1917, recruiting offices distributed “great posters to be hung from the windows of the homes” of those men who had entered service showing the American Flag and carrying the words across the bottom, “A Son of This Home is Defending This Flag For You.” The month following America’s entry into the war, Indianapolis native Captain Robert L. Queisser, who at the time was residing in Cleveland, Ohio, proposed designating the homes “from which men had gone into military service” with a flag consisting of a red border and white field, upon which “should be placed blue stars or a blue star, one star for every member of the family who is called to the colors.” The Blue Star Service Flag was approved by the War Department as a “Badge of Honor” and was soon being placed in windows and flown from businesses. Tragically, in war lives are lost and to show a family’s sacrifice the Blue Star on a service banner was replaced by a Gold Star.
According to the Indiana Gold Star Honor Roll, Corporal Ralph R. Flora, Company L, 28th Infantry, 1st Division, was the first soldier from Indianapolis to be killed in France. He died in action on March 8, 1918, in the Toul Sector. A telegram arrived at the home of Elias and Rebecca Flora, 1616 E. Washington St, informing them of their son’s death. Elias Flora said, “I have other sons who no doubt will see service soon, and I am glad that it is so” and Rebecca Flora said, “It was something to be expected…I am proud to have given a son in service of his country, and two of my other sons are expecting soon to see service against the German forces.”
Twenty-three years later, Amelia South, a widow living at 3437 Guilford Ave., became the first Indianapolis Gold Star Mother of World War II when she received a message in the early morning hours of December 10, 1941, that her son Private Elmer W. South, 13th Air Base Squadron, Army Air Force, had been killed in the defense of his country at Hickam Field during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Sadly, the war would see over one thousand Gold Stars affixed to the service banners displayed in the windows of Indianapolis homes.
A photo spread in the November 20, 1944, issue of Life Magazine, “Families Speak for Their War Dead,” featured eight Indianapolis Gold Star families from the suburb of Irvington who all expressed harsh words for the post-war reconstruction of Germany and Japan. Louis W. and Olma Buck, 52 S. Audubon Rd., lost their son, First Lieutenant Louis William Buck, Jr, 8th Field Artillery, when he was killed in France on July 22, 1944. World War I Captain John Paul Ragsdale, Sr and his wife Mary Ragsdale, 345 N. Ritter Ave., displayed two Gold Stars on their window service banner for the loss of their sons, Second Lieutenant John Paul Ragsdale, Jr, a navigator on a B-17 Flying Fortress that went down during a raid over Germany on May 21, 1943, and Sergeant Edward M. Ragsdale, a radio gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress, who was killed on June 14, 1944, while on maneuvers near Salina, Kansas when his parachute failed to open after bailing out of his plane when it developed engine trouble. Irene Burgess, 804 N. Audubon Rd., was also a double Gold Star holder. Her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Milo David Burgess, Inspector General, 4th Armored Division, died on August 20, 1943, in his quarters at Camp Bowie, Texas, and less than two months later her son, First Lieutenant Bruce Burgess, a P-40 Warhawk pilot with the American Flying Circus, Army Air Force, was killed in action over Italy on October 14, 1943. Gold Star mother Bertha Courtney, 63 N. Irvington Ave., lost her son, Master Sergeant Harold J. Courtney, an army bombsight specialist, who was killed July 16, 1942, near Shreveport, Louisiana during a training exercise when the medium bomber he was on crashed and burned. Henry E. and Grace Morgan, 76 Whittier Pl., became Gold Star parents when their son, Private Murray Warren Morgan, Army Infantry, died on May 7, 1943, of wounds received as a result of actions in North Africa. Jeanette McPheeters, 46 S. Ritter Ave., lost her husband, Lieutenant Colonel John Williams McPheeters, 1st Armored Division, when he died on March 25, 1944, of wounds received while directing an artillery barrage on the Italian beachhead at Anzio. Frances Virt Schulz, 385 S. Audubon Rd., lost her husband, Electricians Mate 2nd class Ronald Herman Schulz, 29th Naval Construction Battalion (Seabees), died February 6, 1944, in southern England from injuries received in an accident. He also left behind a young son. Samuel and Eva Ottenbacher, 120 S. Emerson Ave., lost their son, Radioman 3rd class Samuel Ottenbacher, 23rd Patrol Squadron, United States Navy Air Corps, on the night of November 12, 1942 when he went missing after the PBY-5A Catalina on which he was a crew member crashed at sea while on routine patrol north of Oahu, Hawaii.
Another Indianapolis Gold Star was my wife’s uncle, Sergeant Donald Commodore Byers. A top turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress, Sgt. Byers was on his second mission when he was killed August 24, 1944, when his plane was lost over Weimar, Germany due to fighter action.
The constellation of Marion County/Indianapolis Gold Stars sadly continued to expand with 171 casualties of the Korean War and 216 casualties of the Vietnam War. When Joseph and Catherine Frantz, 750 N. Ketcham St., in Haughville opened a telegram from the Department of Defense on the afternoon on August 14, 1950, they learned that their son, Private George Arthur Frankz, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Division, was missing in action on July 11, 1950. Fifteen years later, Raymond and Edythe Smith of Spencer, Indiana, formerly of 318 N. Mount St., Indianapolis, were notified of the death of their son, Marine Private First-Class Ivan Ray Smith, who died of a chest wound on May 12, 1965, that he had received the previous day from a sniper while he was on patrol near Chu Lai, Vietnam. These servicemen were the first from Indianapolis to be killed in these conflicts.
Lieutenant General Timothy J. Maude was the first Indianapolis native killed in what would become the Global War on Terror. He lost his life on September 11, 2001, when hijacked American Airline Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon. The war would add four more Gold Stars to the Marion County/Indianapolis Banner of Honor.
In May 2021, the Indiana Gold Star Families Memorial Monument was dedicated in Indianapolis on the north end of the American Legion Mall. It “honors, recognizes, and serves Gold Star Families and the legacy of their Loved Ones who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for their service in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.”

100 Years Ago: May 22-June 4

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 21 May 2026 05:08:44 +0000

One Hundred Years Ago — From The Indianapolis News, Tuesday, May 25, 1926: The Indianapolis Park Board has taken the first steps toward converting Brown’s Triangle, northwest corner of Emerson Ave. and Washington St., into a beauty spot and memorial garden. Trees have been trimmed, underbrush cleared away, an outdated transit shelter has been removed, and the grass has been cut. A memorial stone, a granite boulder that once stood at the entrance to the Butler University athletic field, Butler and University avenues, and was known to a generation of students as a meeting spot, has been placed on this site with a bronze plaque imbedded in its surface commemorating the life and death of Lieutenant Hilton U. Brown, Jr. The memorial stone inscription will be unveiled in ceremonies Sunday afternoon under the auspices of the Hilton U. Brown, Jr and Irvington American Legion Posts.

One Hundred Years Ago — From The Indianapolis News, Saturday, May 29, 1926: The Indianapolis city council, in special session today, passed a daylight-saving time ordinance by a vote of 6 to 1 and transmitted it to Mayor John Duvall who has ten days to consider it. Should the mayor sign the ordinance, it would become effective on the first Sunday in June and continue until the last Sunday in October. Thereafter, daylight-saving time would become effective on the first Sunday in May. Republican councilor Otis Bartholomew proposed the ordinance, and Republican councilor Claude Negley cast the only “nay” vote. Petitions with several thousand names supporting the daylight-saving plan were presented to the council and several employers told the council their employees favored it. Dr. William H. Foreman, a former city health board member, said daylight-saving time was “vicious to the health of the community.”

100 Years Ago: May 15-21

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 14 May 2026 05:08:00 +0000

From The Indianapolis News, Friday, May 21, 1926: All Butler University classes were dismissed today so students could attend the annual May Day exercises, which were held this year at Fairview Park, the future site of Butler. Many alumni, former students, and friends thronged to the park to witness the morning athletic events and then joined in to enjoy the noon luncheon. The afternoon program saw young men and women students pulling a plow, the handles held by Hilton U. Brown, chair of the board of directors, breaking ground within lines drawn for the first proposed new campus building. The day’s activities at the park concluded with a flag raising, community sing, a pageant consisting of 350 students, and the crowning of Mary Miles Coate, the May Queen. Festivities closed with an evening dance in the Claypool Hotel’s Riley Room.

100 Years Ago: May 8-14

Steven R. Barnett — Thu, 07 May 2026 05:08:40 +0000

From The Indianapolis News, Saturday, May 8, 1926: “Ethiopia at the Bar of Justice,” a pageant depicting the achievement of Negroes, will be presented at Caleb Mills Hall on Thursday. A large audience is expected to see 150 performers portray a cross section of Negro life in America with emphasis on the difficulties in the struggle to reach citizenship. The principal characters are Ethiopia, Opposition, Justice, Miss Indianapolis, Prophecy, Love, History, and Mercy. One of the most interesting features will be impersonations of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. The colored Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., the Indianapolis N.A.A.C.P. chapter, the National Federation of Club Women, and the National Musicians Association will be part of the production. The performance benefits the Elizabeth Carter Council of Federated Clubs which is raising funds for the Frederick Douglass Home, a colored women of America shrine.