Morgan County home to six Indiana Historical Bureau markers

Editor’s word: In 2022, each Morgan County and the town of Martinsville will have a good time their bicentennial. This 12 months, the Reporter-Occasions is publishing a sequence of tales in celebration of the two hundredth birthdays for each Morgan County and Martinsville. This story is the fifth half in that sequence.

MORGAN COUNTY — For greater than 200 years, Morgan County has been making its personal historical past from Morgantown to Eminence, and in every single place between.

One program that has helped honor the county’s historical past, and the historical past of a lot of Indiana’s 92 counties, is the Indiana Historic Bureau’s Historic Marker Program, which began almost 80 years in the past in 1946.

The markers acknowledge geographic options, vital places and historic residents all through Indiana.

Extra tales within the bicentennial sequence:

In Morgan County, six markers — together with 4 since 2016 — have been devoted via this system.

Whetzel Hint

The Whetzel Hint monument, positioned at 8465 Previous State Highway 37 close to Waverly, was devoted on Sept. 28, 1957.

It may be discovered close to the Whetzel Cemetery.

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The monument commemorates the Whetzel Hint path, which was lower in 1818 by Jacob Whetzel from the Whitewater River close to Laurel, Ind. to the bluffs of the White River.

In line with the plaque, Whetzel Hint “was the primary east-west street into central Indiana.”

Wisconsin Glacial Boundary

One other marker that has been devoted in Morgan County is the Wisconsin Glacial Boundary, which is not standing.

It was positioned on the eastside of State Highway 37, now I-69, simply north of the Morgan and Monroe county line.

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In line with textual content that was on the marker, the plaque “is on the location of the southern boundary of the final nice ice sheet which started to recede about 21,000 years in the past. Earlier glaciers, the Kansan and Illinoian, prolonged additional south.”

It’s unknown when this marker was put in.

Indiana State Flag

As a strategy to have a good time the state’s centennial, the Indiana Basic Meeting accepted a decision to undertake an official state flag.

That decision led Mooresville resident Paul Hadley to submit his design of what’s now the present Indiana State Flag.

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Hadley’s design was chosen over greater than 200 different submissions.

A historic marker was devoted in downtown Mooresville, close to the intersection of Indiana and Major streets, which commemorates each the flag and Paul Hadley.

The marker notes that, initially, the flag “was not well known by the general public.”

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“Troopers serving in WWII, Korea and Vietnam requested flags as a logo of dwelling,” the marker notes. “Celebration of Indiana’s sesquicentennial in 1966 additional established Hadley’s design because the official state flag and efficiently inspired its wider use and recognition.”

Department McCracken

Monrovia-native Department McCracken led the Indiana College Hoosiers males’s basketball workforce to its first two NCAA Championships in 1940 and 1953.

He was born in Monrovia in 1908 and was a star basketball participant for the Monrovia Excessive College basketball workforce within the Nineteen Twenties.

After highschool, McCracken performed for the IU Hoosiers from 1927 via 1930 the place he led the workforce in scoring for 3 years.

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McCracken briefly left IU to serve within the Navy throughout World Battle II, returning to the varsity in 1946.

In 1960, McCracken was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame and was a member of the primary class to be inducted into the Nationwide Collegiate Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2006.

A marker devoted to McCracken was unveiled in 2017 at 145 S. Chestnut St., Monrovia on the Monrovia Department of the Morgan County Public Library.

Emmett Forest Department

Born in Martinsville in 1874, Emmett Forest Department as Indiana’s 1st governor for lower than a 12 months from April 30, 1924 to Jan. 12, 1925.

A marker devoted to Department will be discovered on the web site of his former dwelling at 510 E. Washington St., Martinsville.

Previous to his service as governor, Department frolicked because the state’s lieutenant governor and a member of the Indiana Home of Representatives.

Department served as Speaker of the Indiana Home of Representatives from Nov. 7, 1906 to Nov. 4, 1908.

In 1920, Department was elected because the state’s lieutenant governor as a part of the ticket led by Warren McCray.

McCray resigned from workplace, and Department accomplished the time period.

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“Throughout his temporary time period, (Department) advocated for enhancements to roads, faculties and different essential state establishments,” the marker notes. “He additionally promoted youngsters’s well being and devoted the Riley Hospital for Youngsters.”

Department’s marker was devoted in 2018.

Glenn Curtis

Glenn Curtis was born in Morgan County in 1890 and would lead the Martinsville Excessive College Artesians to 3 IHSAA State Basketball Championships in 1924, 1927 and 1933.

Earlier than his stint with Martinsville, nevertheless, Curtis led the Lebanon Excessive College Tigers to a state championship in 1918.

After serving as a coach at the highschool stage, he would transfer to the collegiate stage — teaching at Indiana State College from 1938 till 1946.

The Martinsville Excessive College Gymnasium, now John R. Picket Center College, was named in his honor in 1959.

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A historic marker was in his honor was devoted in 2020 outdoors the Glenn Curtis Gymnasium, 109 E. Garfield Ave., Martinsville.

Curtis was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Corridor of Fame in 1964

Contact Reporter-Occasions editor Lance Gideon at lgideon@reporter-times.com or 765-342-1543. Observe him on Twitter: @LanceOGideon.