To the Memory of
CALEB MILLS
SOMETIME PROFESSOR IN WABASH COLLEGE
THE FRUITS OF WHOSE ENLIGHTENMENT, FORESIGHT
AND COURAGE
ARE AN ENDURING HERITAGE
TO THE PEOPLE OF INDIANA
PREFACE
These pages represent an effort to give some hint of the forces that have made for cultivation in Indiana. While the immediate purpose has been an examination of the State’s performance in literature, it has seemed proper to approach the subject with a slight review of Indiana’s political and social history. Owing to limitations of space, much is suggested merely which it would be profitable to discuss at length. It is hoped that such matters as racial influences, folk-speech, etc., which are but lightly touched here, may appeal to others who will make them the subject of more searching inquiry. Only names that have seemed most significant are included; many creditable writers are necessarily omitted.
I take pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to Dr. Edward Eggleston, Miss Anna Nicholas, and Mr. Merrill Moores for their courteous responses to many requests for information. Miss May Louise Shipp gave me access to papers relating to her kinswoman, Mrs. Dumont, which I could not have seen but for her kindness. Miss Eliza G. Browning, the Public Librarian of Indianapolis, Mr. H. S. Wedding, the Librarian of Wabash College, and Mr. Charles R. Dudley, of the Denver Library, were most generous and indulgent on my behalf.
M. N.
Denver, July, 1900.
CONTENTS
| [CHAPTER I] | |
| PAGE | |
| Indiana and her People | [ 1] |
| [CHAPTER II] | |
| The Rural Type and the Dialect | |
| The Word “Hoosier” | [ 29] |
| Pioneer Difficulties | [ 36] |
| The Dialect | [ 45] |
| [CHAPTER III] | |
| Bringers of the Light | |
| Religious Influences | [ 63] |
| Early Illiteracy | [ 70] |
| Caleb Mills | [ 79] |
| Julia L. Dumont and Catharine Merrill | [ 89] |
| [ CHAPTER IV] | |
| An Experiment in Socialism | |
| New Harmony | [ 98] |
| Robert Dale Owen and William Maclure | [ 101] |
| Thomas Say and the Scientists | [ 104] |
| [CHAPTER V] | |
| The Hoosier Interpreted | |
| Edward Eggleston | [ 134] |
| James Whitcomb Riley | [ 156] |
| [CHAPTER VI] | |
| Crawfordsville | |
| “The Hoosier Athens” | [ 177] |
| Lew Wallace | [ 180] |
| Maurice Thompson | [ 199] |
| Mary H. Krout and Caroline V. Krout | [ 212] |
| [CHAPTER VII] | |
| “Of making Many Books there is no End” | |
| Indiana a Point of Departure | [ 214] |
| Fiction | [ 217] |
| History and Politics | [ 226] |
| Miscellaneous | [ 237] |
| [CHAPTER VIII] | |
| An Indiana Choir | |
| Early Writers | [ 244] |
| Forceythe Willson and Elizabeth Conwell Willson | [ 256] |
| Later Poets | [ 265] |
| The Hoosier Landscape | [ 269] |
| Index | [ 273] |
THE HOOSIERS