His Death Started a Bloody War by Quentin Robinson, County Historian Benjamin Franklin Tolby was born 26 Sept 1841 in Hendricks County, Indiana. He was the son of Thomas and Nancy Tolby who were natives of North Carolina and Kentucky respectively. Thomas Tolby brought his family from Kentucky to Hendricks County about 1828 along with […]
“Lafayette’s First Bridge Over the Wabash” By George E. Gould [This article first appeared in the TCHA membership newsletter “Weatenotes”, Nol. 18, No. 3, March 1985] As early as the 1830’s the merchants of Lafayette realized that a bridge across the Wabash River was necessary for the growth of the town. Thus in 1837, 1841, […]
Lafayette, Indiana- Star City of the West by Alameda McCollough [Editor’s note: the opening sentence of this article is as true today as it was when Miss McCollough wrote this piece in 1974 for her Weatenotes column, “Let’s Go See.” Just recently we used this reference in response to a request from a local radio […]
James F. Alexander by Quentin Robinson I recently received a letter from a historic preservation consultant working on a history and assessment of two houses in Moline, Illinois, which were owned by members of the John Deere family. She was hoping I might be able to help her track down some information. She wrote: “We […]
The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps were donated to the Alameda McCollough Library/Archives in the early 1990s. Included is a very rare 1875 edition of Lafayette, plus city maps of 1880, 1885, 1907 and 1915, featuring “paste-overs” which record changes and additions until ca. 1941. A recent addition to the collection includes edits through the 1970s. […]
The Artesian Well By George Gould Reprinted from the Weatenotes, Vol. XI, No. 6, August-September 1982 One hundred years ago the Lafayette Courthouse Square was noted for its smell – a vile, pungent, rotten-egg odor that filled the air for several block. The odor came from a fountain of artesian water located on the northeast […]