The Orphan Train in Tippecanoe County By Amy Harbor, Research Library Coordinator The Children’s Aid Society of New York City was founded in 1853 with the purpose of improving the living conditions of some 10,000 vagrant children in the city. Its first Secretary, Charles Loring Brace, developed programs to provide education, housing, food, clothing and […]
Indiana’s Second State Fair In 1936, Tippecanoe County physician and historian, William M. Reser, wrote about the second state fair held in Indiana for the Indiana Magazine of History. Why would he research this topic? This 2nd state fair was held in Tippecanoe County! Held in October, 1853, the 2nd Indiana State Fair was held […]
Heinz Company 1891-1901 & 1914-1916 By William J. Dichtl Originally published in TCHA’s membership newsletter, Weatenotes, Vol. 25, No. 4, April 1992. The Heinz Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the early 1890’s became interested in establishing a plant in Indiana. On February 14, 1891, a committee chaired by Jonathan H. Heinz was appointed to locate […]
Musings from the museum: Sixty years later By Henry C. Pollock Editors Note: This article is reprinted from an original article written in the 1980s by the son of TCHA’s first curator, Bird Pollock. Moving Day used to be the first of May every year. Leases were made to start and end on this day. […]
Helen Gougar From the Women’s Suffrage exhibit presented by TCHA in 2020 and 2021. Text prepared by Hannah Craddock Mossman. Helen Jackson Gougar (1843-1907) worked tirelessly for women’s rights. After graduating from Hillsdale College, Gougar moved to Lafayette in 1860 to take a job as an assistant teacher. She eventually became the principal of Jenks […]
Second Baptist Church A Cultural Contribution from Southern Freedmen By guest blogger, Mary Anthrop “I didn’t even catch cold….” John Fields describing his baptism in the old canal at the foot of Salem Street in the 1870s Lafayette Journal and Courier, March 27, 1941 When recently emancipated enslaved people after the Civil War […]