Hoosier History Live

During a show five years ago, Hoosier History Live explored the connections between Indiana and Ellis Island, the gateway to America for generations of immigrants. The receiving center for aspiring Americans in New York Harbor opened in 1892 during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison, the only president elected from Indiana.

As a kind of prequel to that show, in this encore of a program broadcast in July 2022, we delve into the immigration scenario that led the federal government to open Ellis Island, including controversies at its predecessor, Castle Garden on lower Manhattan in New York City. The country's first official immigration center, Castle Garden, was operated by New York officials.

We also will explore the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which Harrison opposed as a U.S. senator from Indiana. The Chinese Exclusion Act, which suspended the immigration of skilled and unskilled Chinese laborers, passed without Harrison's support. According to Nelson's guest, Harrison was labeled the "pro-Chinese candidate" of the Republican Party in his presidential campaign of 1888.

For a deep dive into the histories of Geist Reservoir and Morse Reservoir, which supply much of the water for residents of the greater Indianapolis area, Hoosier History Live will plunge into several questions. Were you aware that a historic village called Germantown, which was founded during the 1830s and flourished for more than 100 years, was subsumed to create Geist?

Do some of Germantown's structures, which included houses, a post office and a mill, remain underwater in the reservoir located in northeastern Marion County and southern Hamilton County? Geist Reservoir was created in the 1940s, although the Indianapolis Water Company began a push to develop it more than 20 years earlier.

Construction of Morse Reservoir, which is located northwest of Noblesville and south of Cicero in Hamilton County, began later, in the 1950s. Both reservoirs were named in honor of executives of the water company, now part of Citizens Energy Group. Beginning in the early 1960s, a crusade to build luxury homes around Geist came to public attention and was quickly controversial.

or a deep dive into the histories of Geist Reservoir and Morse Reservoir, which supply much of the water for residents of the greater Indianapolis area, Hoosier History Live will plunge into several questions. Were you aware that a historic village called Germantown, which was founded during the 1830s and flourished for more than 100 years, was subsumed to create Geist?

Do some of Germantown's structures, which included houses, a post office and a mill, remain underwater in the reservoir located in northeastern Marion County and southern Hamilton County? Geist Reservoir was created in the 1940s, although the Indianapolis Water Company began a push to develop it more than 20 years earlier.

Construction of Morse Reservoir, which is located northwest of Noblesville and south of Cicero in Hamilton County, began later, in the 1950s. Both reservoirs were named in honor of executives of the water company, now part of Citizens Energy Group. Beginning in the early 1960s, a crusade to build luxury homes around Geist came to public attention and was quickly controversial.

Feast on this: His name is Chadwick Gillenwater. But children across Indiana know him as bow-tied Professor Watermelon, the performance name he uses when he travels to schools, libraries, museums, summer camps and historic sites for presentations about history and writing. At various historic sites, Chadwick, a veteran teacher and school librarian, also offers workshops for children called Watermelon University.

The historic sites include the James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home in the Lockerbie neighborhood of Indianapolis. It's also the setting for one of Chadwick's books for children, George and the Goblin Hole, in which he uses a real historical figure (the butler at the home when Riley was in residence) along with a fictional character, a contemporary boy, to inspire interest in the Hoosier poet. In addition to his presentations as Professor Watermelon, Chadwick is a history reenactor who frequently portrays James Whitcomb Riley (in costume) at civic events and presentations to children.

So why not tap Chadwick a k a Professor Watermelon for tips about how to excite children in history, and insights about what turns them off? When he joins Nelson as a studio guest, Professor Watermelon also will suggest some do's and don'ts about sparking an interest in writing among young Hoosiers.

From the small city of Ligonier in northeastern Indiana to major cities including Indianapolis and South Bend, waves of Jewish immigration had, in a range of ways, an impact between 1840 and the 1920s on their communities. Immigrants came to the Hoosier state from various homelands, with a Jewish teenager who fled the Austro-Hungarian empire eventually becoming one of the founders of the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation and a brigadier general for the Union Army during the Civil War.

Our guide for a statewide exploration of Jewish immigration in this encore of a show originally broadcast in 2022 will be Michael J. Brown, executive director of the Indiana Jewish Historical Society. Michael is the host of IN-Jewish History Podcast, a series that delves into the Hoosier state's Jewish heritage. He has worked for Israeli start-ups and is a board member of Sinai Synagogue in South Bend.

The differences in Jewish immigration patterns between South Bend and Indianapolis are among the topics Michael discusses when he is Nelson's guest for a show focusing on the 1840 to the 1920s. In Ligonier for much of that era, a multi-generational, German-speaking Jewish community flourished; a similar scenario unfolded in LaPorte and other, smaller Indiana cities.

As Hoosier History Live salutes spring, we will have another in our periodic series of call-in shows. During these shows, listeners are invited to call in with questions or insights about any aspects of Indiana's heritage. As a bonus, our host, Nelson Price, is joined by a co-host; they interview each other in between fielding the phone calls.

To celebrate spring, who better to join Nelson than our favorite gardening expert, Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, the Indianapolis-based writer, editor and speaker known as the "Hoosier Gardener''. Jo Ellen also is a garden coach and the past president of Garden Comm: Garden Communicators International. Jo Ellen has a free, award-winning newsletter; to subscribe, visit hoosiergardener.com.

Nelson and Jo Ellen will branch out beyond garden-related topics, but those also are planned for the show. Jo Ellen will share insights about an aspect of Indianapolis city history in which she has deep ancestral roots: the concentration of German heritage growers, florists, nursery owners and gardeners on the southside for more than 100 years beginning in the late 1800s.

Nearly 120 generals during the Civil War had connections to the Hoosier state. They include some who were courageous, others who were colorful, and some who were controversial.

One of the generals, Solomon Meredith, was a Quaker who commanded the legendary Iron Brigade during the bloody Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Another general, Jefferson Columbus Davis from Clark County in southern Indiana, murdered his commanding officer at a hotel.

Yet another general, Ambrose Burnside, a native of Union County in eastern Indiana, oversaw the capture of Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan, who had led Southern troops on a rampage through Indiana. Despite some successes as a commander, Burnside's leadership was disastrous during the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia.

As we varoom toward racing festivities, Hoosier History Live will shift into reverse gear for an exploration of the rapid construction of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909. We also will spotlight early auto races at the Speedway that year, including some tragedies that preceded the successful inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911.

It took Speedway founder Carl Fisher and his partners about three years to acquire the property for the racetrack, according to our guest. Then, several factors resulted in a rush to get the Speedway built quickly. Beginning in March 1909, construction involved a total of 500 laborers and 300 mules.

Nelson's guest will be Mark Dill, an acclaimed historian of early auto racing and the creator of FirstSuperSpeedway.com, an extensive online archive about pre-1920 auto racing. An Indy native and former vice president for marketing and public relations at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Mark is based in Cary, N.C., and is the author of books about the early era of auto racing, including The Legend of the First Super Speedway: The Battle for the Soul of American Auto Racing.

Before the dust settles on the holiday season, Hoosier History Live will explore the impact of a man who, during a Christmas Eve visit to Monument Circle in the 1930s, found the center of Indianapolis "dark and depressing". So Edward Pierre, an influential architect, crusaded for the first ornaments to be placed on trees at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in 1947. This was decades before what's now called the "Circle of Lights", which began in 1962.

The impact of Edward Pierre (1890-1971) on Monument Circle during the holiday season is just one of the aspects of his career and life that we will spotlight during the show. Pierre, who co-founded the architectural firm of Pierre & Wright and served as president of the Indiana Society of Architects, also designed dozens of other buildings, including the Indiana State Library; Bush Stadium (the former home of the Indianapolis Indians, which opened in 1931 as Perry Stadium), storefronts in Broad Ripple and residential homes in such northside Indianapolis neighborhoods as Meridian-Kessler and Williams Creek Estates. Nelson will be joined by two guests:

• Lisa Hendrickson, the granddaughter of Edward Pierre and an Indianapolis-based author, editor and owner of a public relations business, Lisa Hendrickson Communications. She wrote about the distinguished architect (whom Lisa called 'Grandpa Ed') in the spring 2022 issue of Traces, the magazine published by the Indiana Historical Society.

• And Carol Street, the undergraduate research archivist at the University of Kentucky. Carol formerly was the archivist for the Ball State University Architectural Archives, where the architectural records of Pierre & Wright are housed; she says she "fell in love" with Pierre's designs while working on the archives.

Like clockwork every yuletide season, the town of Santa Claus in far-southwestern Indiana is in the national spotlight. Ever wonder about the history of the town in Spencer County that claims it has the only post office in the world with the Santa Claus name?

Our host, Nelson Price, will share insights about that during one of our periodic call-in shows. And it so happens that Nelson's co-host, our WICR-FM colleague Charles Braun, has visited the Santa Claus Museum & Village, which is located within the town.

In between phone calls from listeners, who are invited to call with questions about any aspect of Indiana's heritage, Nelson and Charles will interview each other about Santa Claus, Ind., and other topics. A distinguished attorney, Charles is the host of "Legally Speaking", which airs at 11 a.m. on WICR and is the longest-running call-in legal advice show in the country.