Pictured here is the old City Hall which was located on the east side of North 5th Street just north of Main. It was built in 1886 and, like its…
Anyone who has done any study of local history knows that the current system of naming streets wasn’t always in place. We can thank Mayor Thomas Bennett for establishing…
Part One – Traveling the National Road The origins of the National Road (also known then as the Cumberland Road) go back well before the birth of our nation. Other roads…
The beautiful stone arch in Hayes Arboretum on the west side of the park and visible from Elks Country Club Road is one of those little mysteries around Richmond. The arch…
A recent request to the reference team at MRL led to a woman I had forgotten about but who frequently was seen around Richmond in the past – Ethel Gibson, AKA…
Richmond in 1916 celebrated 300 years since the Bard’s death with an all-day sampling of his works. As the cover states, it was “Presented by ALL OF RICHMOND for ALL OF RICHMOND” and…
“…co-owner of a shoe store” read a small section of the obituary, but, as many of us know, there is often much more to a story than meets the eye. Violet…
Part IV – Clothing the Family Among the many responsibilities an Indiana pioneer woman had, one of the most continuous, next to feeding her growing family, was keeping them clothed. Clothing…
Part III – Health and Childbirth For a woman in early Indiana, childbirth was a very real part of her life. More births were attended by female midwives than male doctors…
Part II – Cooking There can be no argument that the bulk of the household chores on the frontier was the domain of the women and chief among these was the…