To Be Hoosiers: Historic Stories of Character and Fortitude

by Ray E. Boomhower

Overview

Since Indiana joined the Union in 1816, residents and visitors alike have pondered the essential question: "What is a Hoosier?" The final answer may never be determined, but there are, at least, ways to understand the Hoosier character. It was African American pilots taking a stand for equal rights. It was a speech by a presidential candidate that helped keep peace on a tragic night. It was the triumph and near tragedy involving a Mercury Seven astronaut. And it was a sacrifice that ensured a crucial American victory in the Pacific during World War II. As Kurt Vonnegut once said, "I don't know what it is about Hoosiers, but wherever you go there is always a Hoosier doing something very important there." Award-winning biographer Ray E. Boomhower tells us why.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467145404
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	02/03/2020
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	1,103,759
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

A native Hoosier and former newspaper reporter, Ray E. Boomhower has worked at the Indiana Historical Society since 1987, serving as editor of the society's quarterly popular history magazine, Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, since 1999. He is the author of numerous articles and books on the nineteenth state, including biographies of such notable Hoosiers as Benjamin Harrison, Gus Grissom, Ernie Pyle, Lew Wallace, May Wright Sewall, John Bartlow Martin, Jim Jontz and Alex Vraciu. In 1998, he received the Hoosier Historian Award from the HIS, and in 2010, he was named winner of the Regional Author Award in the annual Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards.

Table of Contents

Preface. What Is a Hoosier? 7

Balloons Over the Speedway 13

Indiana's Favorite Son: Benjamin Harrison 18

Celebrating Statehood: Indiana at 100 31

"Old Faithful" on Lake Michigan 36

The Father of Indiana History and the Lake Monster 40

Amelia Earhart at Purdue University 47

"Nobody Wanted Us": Black Aviators at Freeman Field 57

The Other Hoosier Poet: William Herschell 65

John Huddleston and the National Road 72

Indiana and the Civil War 76

The American Diplomat: John Hay 81

The People's Choice: Congressman Jim Jontz 93

Swamped: Marquis de Lafayette on the Ohio River 103

Ring Lardner, South Bend and Baseball 109

Saving Washington: Lew Wallace and the Battle of Monocacy 118

"The Last Enemy Is Destroyed": May Wright Sewall and Spiritualism 129

The Speech: Robert F. Kennedy and Indianapolis 138

Gus Grissom and the Flight of Liberty Bell 7 150

The Hoosier Slide 159

Lost at Sea: Norman H. Vandivier and the Battle of Midway 164

A Gathering of Posey: The Western Association of Writers 178

Bibliography 187

About the Author 192