Indiana - Day 17 - Vincennes

Shakamak State Park, Jasonville
Monday, 17 June 2019

today's route

As I drove through Crawfordsville this morning, I thought you'd never know it's summer from looking at the town.  Despite being situated on a river, with people in the campground carrying around canoes and so forth, I saw no businesses at all that catered to that sort of tourist activity, or in fact any kind of tourist focus in the town.  Maybe they aren't interested. 

Crawfordsville is a small pleasant-looking town that's got a steel manufacturing plant and a printing plant and (unusually) 2 daily newspapers, and it's the home of Wabash College, designated in 2008 by Forbes as #12 in the US in undergraduate studies (I'd never have guessed it).  Aside from the Ben Hur connection I mentioned before, Crawfordsville has been the home of Will Shortz (NYT puzzle editor), the "Steve Roper" and "Mary Worth" cartoonist, and Dick Van Dyke (briefly).  So I guess they think they've already got enough going for them.

I drove for quite a while through fog, covering a broad area.

I heard on the radio that the rate of smoking is increasing in Indiana.  It's surely one of the few states in the Union where that's happening.

I passed through the small town of Brazil and saw a sign on the Eagles Lodge talking about Highered Guns.  I swear.  I'm really really hoping it's just a whole town that can't spell, rather than some religious statement.

The farms in this area appear to specialize in peaches and apples and corn.  Or at least that's what the roadside markets say they would be selling if it were the right season.

As I drove into Vincennes (pronounced vin-SEHNS) I saw a sign telling me it's the home of Dan Beery, Olympic Gold Medalist in 2004 for rowing.  I've been interested this whole trip by the number of Olympians who come from very small towns.  To me it shows that what's really needed to succeed is talent and perseverance, and that outside assets are only assists.

State Historical Sites

I came to town for its history as being the capital of the Indiana Territory, which was created July 4, 1800, out of the western part of the Northwest Territory.  It included part or all of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota (much of which I'll be traveling through for the next few months).  Vincennes was designated the capital, and there are still several of the original territorial buildings there.

territorial capitol building

Elihu Stout's print shop

The print shop, the first in the Northwest Territory, wasn't set up as a business but to service the territorial government.

The historical folks have rescued a number of other buildings from that era and moved them all together in a row facing a green area.  They're open for tours every day except, of course, Mondays (today).  Right behind this lineup is Grouseland, the name Gov. Harrison gave the house he built, which is open every day including Monday.

Grouseland

Grouseland

explains the house

William Henry Harrison, appointed territorial governor by Pres. John Adams, served here 1800-1812 (he left when the War of 1812 broke out).

The sign (at right) says the house was built as a fortress, and I learned during the tour that the walls are 4 bricks thick.

I came here partly to learn more about Indiana and its history, and partly because I hadn't been able to make it to Wm. H. Harrison's primary home in Ohio and wanted to know more about him.  I was partly satisfied on both counts.  This historical site has two problems: it wasn't Harrison's primary home so it doesn't have many of his artifacts, and it fell into disrepair over the years and was about to be demolished when the Daughters of the American Revolution rescued it in 1911.  The museum now displays what you might call a mixed bag.

** They have 3 portraits of Harrison.

1) he was 41 at this time

2) painted 3 months later by Rembrandt Peale

3) official presidential portrait

from wikipedia, this is how he's usually shown

Just shows if you want your portrait painted, be careful who you ask to do the painting.

** In 1828 Harrison was the US Ambassador to Colombia, at the time of Simón Bolívar.  While he was there he was given a Macaw (the museum has a picture of it) he named Charlie who lived more than 100 years and was passed down to various owners via their wills. 

** Harrison was president for only a month, dying of pneumonia complications.  He was the first president to die in office and had the shortest tenure in US history.  The museum has a few exhibits about campaign politics of the time, which sound pretty familiar.

"let's keep the ball rolling" started here

free hard cider at campaign rallies!

In 1836, Van Buren beat Harrison; in the 1840 rematch, Harrison won.  Van Buren probably wished the election results had been the other way around.  He won in 1836 but the Panic of 1837 - a stock market crash - defined much of his presidency and gave him the nickname Martin Van Ruin.  He also continued Andrew Jackson's inhumane Indian policies, and the Trail of Tears was carried out during his one term.

Van Buren, by the way, was the first president born a US citizen, not a British subject.  He was the only president who spoke English as a 2nd language; another of his nicknames was Old Kinderhook, from which we get the word okay (OK).  I visited Van Buren's home in New York - this is just a refresher, based on info at this museum.

** Probably because Harrison's term was almost nonexistent, little is heard about his wife Anna.  According to the museum, this obscurity is undeserved.

a quilt Anna worked on, c. 1840s

info re: Anna

** As I've said boringly frequently, I'm not much for seeing ancient personal items, and this museum mostly has of-the-period stuff, rather than their actual things.  But I thought these items were noteworthy.

I just thought it was beautifully made

why do we no longer have such an item?

this quilt dates to the 1840 presidential campaign

I didn't take a photo of it, but the museum displays a shoe that was found in one of the walls during renovations; there was a superstition at the time that putting a shoe in the wall of a house being built would bring good luck.

The wheel with the thread on it is called a weasel.  At the museum they told us when it gets too full, the thread pops off it; however, internet sources say the machine makes a popping sound when enough yarn has been spun for a length of cloth.  Take your pick.  We all know what this has led to.

** The one other oddball piece of information I got at this museum came from the cracks in several of the walls that hadn't been covered over during renovations.  The cracks came from the earthquakes in New Madrid (pronounced, here at least, as MAD-rid).  One of the people in the tour group mentioned that quake caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards.

These earthquakes aren't something I ever remember hearing about so I looked it up.  New Madrid is in Missouri and was the epicenter of a series of earthquakes between Dec. 1811 and Feb. 1812 that still hold the record for most powerful US quakes east of the Rockies.  For a more technical, and probably accurate, account, try this link.   en.wikipedia.org/New_Madrid_earthquakes  And for a more colorful, and certainly parochial, account, try this link.   www.new-madrid.mo.us/Strange-Happenings-during-the-Earthquake

** And as a final piece of Vincennes information, I offer these:

the millstones in person

re: upper and nether millstones

I've heard that our expression "like having a millstone around the neck" should actually be "like the upper and nether milestones" referring to distance markers.  This sign tells me, though, that millstones is most likely the correct word.

Continuing the drive
It's lucky I was able to walk the dogs a couple of times at the historical sites because it started raining just as we were leaving. 

I was lucky enough to hear a song that was new to me called Texas (When I Die), with these immortal lyrics:
   When I die I may not go to Heaven
   I don't know if they let cowboys in
   If they don't just let me go to Texas
   Texas is as close as I've been

The farther north I drove, the more it rained, which made it harder to find the next campground I was going to.  What made it even more difficult was the road closure about 5 miles from the campground and no indication of where a detour route might be.  I was making a U-turn to go back and find a general store or something when a nice man in a pickup pulled over and said I could follow him if I wanted to get around the closure.  Which I did, barely squeaking down the little streets in the little community he led me through and, sure enough, there we were on the other side of the closure.  Nice guy.