History of Crown Hill Cemetery Available

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, Crown Hill Cemetery has been a vital part of the Indianapolis community dating back to its first interment, Lucy Ann Seaton, on June 2, 1864. Since then, Crown Hill has grown from a “rural cemetery” into the nation’s third largest private cemetery and is a community treasure that serves a broad range of needs and stands as a monument to the memories of hundreds of famous Hoosiers and the thousands more who selected Crown Hill as their final resting place.

Published by the Indiana Historical Society Press in cooperation with the Crown Hill Heritage Foundation, Crown Hill: History, Spirit, and Sanctuary examines the cemetery’s complete history and places its story in a the larger historical context of the development and growth of American landscape architecture. In addition, the book includes vignettes of the famous families and individuals buried and/or entombed at Crown Hill and numerous photographs of the cemetery, its remarkable architecture, intricate sculptures memorializing the dead, and its lush landscape in every season. The cemetery is not only a place of memory, but it is also a place of contemplation for thousands of Indianapolis residents that pass through the site annually for such special events as Memorial Day, Benjamin Harrison’s birthday, Veterans Day, and other public and private group tours. Its rural setting also draws nature lovers to see deer, foxes, red-tailed hawks, and the more than 250 species of trees and shrubs on the grounds.

As far back as 1711, there were those who advocated for the development of landscaped cemeteries in rural settings. Since the founding of Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston, Massachusetts, in 1831, Americans had looked to bury their loved ones in these rural cemeteries located on the outskirts of cities and towns across the United States. These locations were civic institutions designed for use by the public as a place to enjoy refined outdoor recreation and be exposed to art and culture.

The first burial ground in Indianapolis was a five-acre tract on Kentucky Avenue near the White River. The 1821 graveyard became the nucleus of Greenlawn Cemetery (later known as City Cemetery). By the 1860s this cemetery was unable to meet the needs of the growing capital city. With the suggestion of a Fort Wayne businessman, Hugh McCullough, some of the leading citizens of Indianapolis called upon John Chislett, a landscape architect from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with the development of what came to be Crown Hill Cemetery, which began with 274 acres bought for $51,000. Over the years additional acreage has been added to Crown Hill, the last coming in 1911.

Today, the cemetery occupies a 555-acre plot of land in northwest Indianapolis, bordered in the south and north by Thirty-second and Forty-second Streets respectively. More than 200,000 individuals are buried there, including many notable native and adopted Hoosiers. 

Crown Hill: History, Spirit, and Sanctuary costs $39.95 and is available from the IHS's Basile History Market.

Interview with IHS Press Author Dan Carpenter

Dan Carpenter, author of the IHS Press book Indiana Out Loud: Dan Carpenter on the Heartland Beat, has been writing for the Indianapolis Star since 1979. In writing for the state's largest newspaper, Carpenter has covered the life and times of some notable Hoosiers, as well as serving as the voice for the disadvantaged. An Indianapolis native, Carpenter answers some questions about his work and career.

What influenced you to go into the journalism profession? 

I fell into writing not long after I learned to read, and fell in love with bylines and readers as a high school newspaper reporter. College in the 1960s, an era of explosive politics and social change, sealed the deal for one who yearned to be in on the action, or more precisely on the edge of it.

What were some of your early jobs with newspapers? 

First was the Greenfield (Ind.) Daily Reporter, where I covered police, fire, city hall and, on nights and weekends, high school sports. I also learned photography there by the sink-or-swim method. Next, 180 degrees removed, was the Milwaukee Courier, an African-American weekly where I practiced by straight and advocacy journalism and learned the priceless lesson that "straight" depends on where one stands.

How do you come up with the ideas for your columns? 

The general flow of news provides lots of ideas for spinoff features, further digging and commentary. Countless contacts accumulated over all these decades keep me supplied with possibilities and in touch with pursuits, people and causes that otherwise would be ignored or not given justice. My reading beyond the news, from history to poetry, often inspires themes and style turns.

Over the years, have you received regular comments from readers, both positive and negative, on your work? 

Many, but rarely a deluge on any single story. Gun control, religion, President Obama, marriage equality and Bob Knight (still) can be counted on to stir response. Rarely is there not a fair distribution of positive and negative.

With all the problems seemingly besetting the profession, would you encourage young people to pursue journalism as a career? 

Absolutely. But be nimble. The technology and market trends that have us multi-tasking and risking accuracy and nuance for speed and distribution will doubtless continue to accelerate and change. The writer who wishes to tell rich, humane, politically courageous, exhaustively researched stories will find his/her New Yorkers, Salons and even room in the daily "press." But he or she will need a closet full of hats to get established as an employee. Freelancers and bloggers likewise will have to be more resourceful than ever if they're to make a living. There's always PR and advertising, and more power to them. But we know what kind of word-and-picture-maker America needs. Desperately.

Any ideas for future writing projects? 

I'm fussing with a second book of poems for breathlessly waiting publishers out there. I also pine to write some intensive magazine-type stories from some of the locales I have observed from afar as a local newsie -- Haiti, Cameroon, the Middle East, etc. I am weighing the notion of teaching for a semester or so in a foreign country and writing about the experience, the place, the people.

Indiana Out Loud: Dan Carpenter Book

Since 1976, Dan Carpenter’s writing has appeared in the pages of the Indianapolis Star as a police reporter, book critic, and renowned op-ed columnist. In writing for the state’s largest newspaper, Carpenter has covered the life and times of some notable Hoosiers, as well as serving as a voice for the disadvantaged, sometimes exasperating the Star’s readership in central Indiana as the newspaper’s “house liberal.”

Indiana Out Loud, now available from the Indiana Historical Society Press, is a collection of the best of Carpenter’s work since 1993 and includes timely and engaging examinations of the lives of such intriguing people as wrestling announcer Sam Menacker, survivor of the James Jones People’s Temple massacre Catherine Hyacinth Thrash, Indianapolis African American leader Charles “Snookie” Hendricks, Atlas Grocery impresario Sid Maurer, and coaches James “Doc” Counsilman and Ray Crowe. The book also includes a healthy dose of literary figures, politicians, historians, knaves, crooks, and fools.

As Carpenter notes, the book “presumes to make itself heard as a distinct voice of this place in this time of economic struggle, political divisiveness, creative persistence, flammable faith, terror brought home and war, seemingly, without end or limit.

“The cumulative sound comprises the sweet and strident, the measured and manic, the deafening and the barely detectable. It is as sharp as the orchestrations of a legendary neighborhood grocer and as seductive as the baritone riffs of a celebrated junkie poet. It shrieks against arbitrary war and enforced poverty. It sings the pain of inevitable loss and the praises of improbable gift-bearers.”

Carpenter is an Indianapolis native and a graduate of Cathedral High School and Marquette University. In addition to his work for the Indianapolis Star, he has published poetry in Illuminations, Pearl, Poetry East, Flying Island , Tipton Poetry Journal , and Southern Indiana Review. Carpenter’s book Hard Pieces: Dan Carpenter’s Indiana, was published by Indiana University Press in 1993. He lives in Indianapolis’s Butler-Tarkington neighborhood with his wife, Mary, and children, Patrick and Erin.

Indiana Out Loud costs $16.95 and is available from the Indiana Historical Society's Basile History Market.

IHS Author Series Set

An Indiana politician and environmentalist, a Hollywood movie director, a mysterious totem pole, and a beloved Indianapolis store will all be featured in this summer's Indiana Historical Society Author Series. The programs, free and open to the public, begin at noon in the multipurpose room at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 450 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis. 

The Author Series schedule is as follows:

• Tuesday, June 18--Ray E. Boomhower, The People's Choice: Congressman Jim Jontz of Indiana
• Tuesday, July 16--Wes D. Gehring, Robert Wise: Shadowlands
• Tuesday, August 20--Richard D. Feldman, Home before the Raven Caws: The Mystery of a Totem Pole
• Tuesday, September 17--Kenneth L. Turchi, L. S. Ayres and Company: The Store at the Crossroads of America

L.S. Ayres, Immigration Books Honored

The IHS Press book L. S. Ayres and Company: The Store at the Crossroads of America, written by Kenneth L. Turchi, won first place in the Midwest Regional Interest: Text category at the 23rd annual Midwest Books Awards. Ray E. Boomhower, senior editor at the Press, was on hand at the event in Bloomington, Minnesota, to receive the award from Sherry Roberts, chair of the Midwest Independent Publishers Association, the group that sponsors the awards.

The competition attracted 187 books, entered in 44 categories, from 75 publishers in a 12-state Midwestern region. The Midwest Independent Publishers Association is a nonprofit professional association that serves the upper Midwest publishing community, advancing the understanding and appreciation of publishing production, promotion, and related technologies, professions, and trades.

Also, the IHS Press book Indianapolis: A City of Immigrants, written by M. Teresa Baer, is one of three finalists in the Teen: Nonfiction category in the 2013 Benjamin Franklin Awards competition sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association. Winners will be announced at a May 29 ceremony at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. 

Biography Wins SPJ Honor

The IHS Press book The People's Choice: Congressman Jim Jontz of Indiana captured first place in the non-fiction book category at the Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists' annual Best in Indiana journalism contest.

The judge for the category said of the book: "Ray E. Boomhower's thoroughly researched and documented biography of Jim Jontz is a touching story well told--an inspiring portrait of a man's passion for the environment."

IHS Press Books Nominated for Awards

A number of IHS Press books have been named as finalists in the annual Midwest Book Awards sponsored by the Midwest Independent Publishers Association. Winners will be announced on May 8 at the Bloomington Center for the Arts in Bloomington, Minnesota.

The IHS Press books named as finalists are:

• Robert Wise: Shadowlands by Wes D. Gehring in the Biography category
• L.S. Ayres and Company: The Store at the Crossroads of America by Ken Turchi in the Midwest Regional Interest, Text, category
• Indianapolis: A City of Immigrants by M. Teresa Baer in the Young Adult, Nonfiction category
• Paint and Canvas: A Life of T.C. Steele by Rachel Berenson Perry in the Young Adult, Nonfiction category

The Mystery of a Totem Pole

In 1903 Alaska governor John Brady collected fifteen old totem poles for preservation at Sitka National Historical Park, creating one of the most famous collections of totem poles in the world. One pole became separated, and its fate remained a mystery for nearly ninety years.

Written by Richard D. Feldman, Home before the Raven Caws: The Mystery of a Totem Pole, published by the IHS Press in cooperation with the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art

, unravels the mystery of that missing pole from the Brady collection. The old Alaskan pole found its way to Indiana more than a hundred years ago. A new version of the pole stands today at the Eiteljorg.

Feldman is a family physician who has a longtime interest in Native American religion, art, and culture, having studied with the renowned scholar Joseph Epes Brown at Indiana University, Bloomington. Feldman was adopted into the Haida nation by Mary Yeltazie Swanson in 1996. Feldman lectures frequently on a variety of medical as well as historical topics and has been the subject of several public television documentaries.

Home before the Raven Caws costs $15.95 and is available from the Indiana Historical Society's Basile History Market.

IHS Press Books Finalists for National Awards

Three IHS Press books have been named as finalists in ForeWord Reviews 2012 Book of the Year Awards. Those books nominated and their categories are:

• Robert Wise: Shadowlands by Wes D. Gehring in the biography category
• Indianapolis: A City of Immigrants by M. Teresa Baer in the young adult nonfiction category
• Paint and Canvas: A Life of T. C. Steele by Rachel Berenson Perry in the young adult nonfiction category

The finalists were selected from 1,300 entries covering sixty-two categories of books from independent and academic presses. These books represent some of the best produced by small publishing houses in 2012.

Over the next two months a panel of sixty judges, librarians and booksellers only, will determine the winners. Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards, as well as Editor's Choice Prizes for fiction and nonfiction, will be announced at the American Library Association's annual conference in Chicago on Friday, June 28. ForeWord's Book of the Year Awards program was created to highlight the years most distinguished books from independent publishers.

Poetry Book Wins Honor

The IHS Press book And Know This Place: Poetry of Indiana, has won the poetry category in the Indiana Center for the Book's 2012 Best Books of Indiana competition.

The poetry category judges called the book "an encapsulation of an essential part of our state's literary history," and noted it was "deserving of a place of honor in the personal library of any lover of things either poetic or Hoosier. As a resource for a connoisseur or novice, it would be well placed on a bookshelf next to Czeslaw Milosz's A Book of Luminous Things and Garrison Keillor's Good Poems."
Finalists in the poetry category included Airmail from the Airpoets and Rob Griffith's book The Moon from Every Window. 

Kander's poetry has appeared in Flying Island, California Quarterly, Bathtub Gin,Wind, Southern Indiana Review, and Shiver. Her chapbook Taboo was published by Finishing Line Press in 2004. She has compiled and edited two volumes of poetry, The Linen Weave of Bloomington Poets and Celebrating Seventy, both published under Wind’s logo. 

Greer’s poems have appeared in Streets Magazine, Flying Island, Wind, and other publications. He has been active with the Bloomington Free Verse Poets, and he coedited, with Kander, Say This of Horses: A Selection of Poems published by the University of Iowa Press in 2007.

Interview with Author of L. S. Ayres Book

Photo by Zach Hetrick

Kenneth L. Turchi developed an interest in retailing while working for a clothing store in his hometown of Crawfordsville, Indiana. He worked for L. S. Ayres and Company while in college and later earned a law degree. He has spent most of his career in marketing and strategic planning in the financial services industry. Currently Turchi is assistant dean at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington. Here he answers questions about his new book for the IHS Press, L. S. Ayres and Company: The Store at the Crossroads of America.

What inspired you to write a history of L.S. Ayres and Company?

I've always been interested in retailing. My first job in high school was as an errand runner at The Golden Rule, a small chain of now-defunct women's clothing stores in my hometown of Crawfordsville. Later I worked for Loeb's of Lafayette and for L. S. Ayres. Researching and writing this book was a way for me to explore an area of interest in depth and meet some great people. It was an easy topic to choose: Ayres enjoyed such respect for its integrity, both as a merchant as an employer.

What made Ayres different from other department stores?

At least two things: Ayres was among the first department stores to anticipate the shift from dressmaking to ready-to-wear after World War I. To help customers make that transition, they came up with "That Ayres Look"--a slogan that signaled to its customers that ready-made fashions were just as desirable as custom-made ones, regardless of price. The slogan served them well for more than fifty years and set the pace for the store's commitment to quality, from the designer salon to the downstairs store.

Second, Ayres saw itself as being in the merchandising business, not the department store business. This broad strategy took them into new lines of business: discount stores, trade sources, specialty stores, all of which anticipated market trends years in advance. I believe that if the company hadn't made a couple of strategic errors in the early 1970s (and the economy had cooperated), they would occupy the space now owned by Target Corporation, which followed a similar growth path to Ayres. (Target was the discount-store arm of Dayton's, a Minneapolis department store similar to Ayres.)

Is there one individual from Ayres that stood out to you while you were doing your research as a person who typified the best of Ayres?

I would name two: Ted Griffith, who married into the Ayres family and guided its growth from the 1920s until about 1960. He was a master merchandiser and by all accounts an exemplary leader. Jim Gloin also comes to mind: he was the store's numbers man who kept things going during World War II and set the stage for its growth and diversification in the 1960s. Other names come to mind, too: Dan Evans, John Peacock, and Elizabeth Patrick.

Looking back, was there a way for Ayres to have survived into the twenty-first century?

As mentioned, Ayres made a critical decision in the late 1960s to continue building its department store franchise, which impeded growth of its Ayr-Way discount stores. If they had cast their lot with discount and specialty retailing, we quite probably would all be shopping at Ayr-Way rather than Target, and at Sycamore Shops rather than The Limited.

But other than that, Ayres as a traditional department store, where you could spend the day browsing for everything from furniture to sheet music to sewing notions to typewriters, could not survive today. Shopping habits have changed, and customers aren't as willing to pay for service over price. A few specialty retailers--Nordstrom, Crate and Barrel--have taken over the high-end general merchandise market. Macy's does a good job as a department store, but not in the traditional sense, and its results depend heavily on promotional pricing.

Are you working on another book?

Yes! Watch this space.

New History of L.S. Ayres and Company Released

In 1872 Lyman Ayres acquired a controlling interest in the Trade Palace, a dry-goods store in Indianapolis. Two ears later, he bought out his partners and renamed the establishment L. S. Ayres and Company. For the next century, Ayres was as much a part of Indianapolis as Monument Circle or the Indianapolis 500. Generations of midwestern families visited the vast store to shop for everything from furs to television sets, to see the animated Christmas windows, and, of course, to visit Santa Claus and enjoy lunch in the Tea Room.

As Kenneth L. Turchi highlights in his new IHS Press book L. S. Ayres and Company: The Store at the Crossroads of America, Ayres was more than just a department store. At its helm across three generations was a team of visionary retailers who took the store from its early silk-and-calico days to a diversified company with interests in specialty stores, discount stores (before Target and Wal-Mart), and even grocery stores. At the same time, Ayres never lost sight of its commitment to women's fashion that gave the store the same cachet as its largest competitors in New York and Chicago.

What was the secret of Ayres's success? In the book, Turchi traces the store's history through three wars, the Great Depression, and the changing tastes and shopping habits of America in the 1960s and 1970s. Examining Ayres's hundred years of management decisions, he offers strategic takeaways that explain not only the store's success, but that also apply to anyone who wants to be successful in business. Along the way, he describes the store's phenomenal growth while offering a behind-the-scenes look at this beloved and trusted institution.

Turchi developed an interest in retailing while working for a clothing store in his hometown of Crawfordsville, Indiana. He worked for L. S. Ayres and Company while in college and later earned a law degree. He has spent most of his career in marketing and strategic planning in the financial services industry. Currently Turchi is assistant dean at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington. This is his first book.

L. S. Ayres and Company: The Store at the Crossroads of America costs $29.95 and is available from the IHS's Basile History Market.

Cassell Wins Dunn Award

Frank A. Cassell of Sarasota, Florida, is the winner of the annual Jacob P. Dunn Jr. Award for the best article to appear in Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. His article, "A Hoosier Love Story: The Courtship of Josie Chafee and Salem Hammond," appeared in the the magazine's spring 2012 issue.

In his article, Cassell explored the love affair between Chafee and Hammond of Petersburg, Indiana, in the hundreds of letters the two wrote one another. The letters also reveal details of everyday life in Petersburg during the turbulent decades between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War.

Cassell is emeritus professor of history and emeritus president of the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. He earned his bachelor's degree from Wabash College and his master's degree and doctorate from Northwestern University.

Named for the noted Indiana historian and author, the $500 award honors the article that in the opinion of the Traces editorial board and staff best serves the magazine’s mission. This mission involves presenting thoughtful, research-based articles on Indiana history in an attractive format to a broad audience of readers.

Dunn, who helped revitalize the Society in the 1880s, produced such standard works as the two-volume Greater Indianapolis (1910) and his five-volume Indiana and Indianans (1919). In his remarkable career, Dunn also worked on a variety of Indianapolis newspapers, campaigned to establish free public libraries, endeavored to preserve the language of the Miami Indians, and prospected for minerals in Haiti.

Annual Holiday Author Fair December 1

A host of IHS Press authors will be among the approximately 80 authors at the Indiana Historical Society's annual Holiday Author Fair from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 1, at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 450 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis. The Author Fair is free with paid admission to the Indiana Experience and for IHS members. Those IHS Press authors at the event and their books are:

 * Ray E. Boomhower, The People's Choice: Congressman Jim Jontz of Indiana

* Linda C. Gugin and James E. St. Clair, Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court

* M. Teresa Baer, Indianapolis: A City of Immigrants

* John A. Beineke, Going over all the Hurdles: A Life of Oatess Archey (special appearance by Oatess Archey. The two men will discuss the book in a program at 2 p.m.)

* Rachel Berenson Perry, Paint and Canvas: A Life of T. C. Steele

* Rita Kohn, Full Steam Ahead: Reflections on the Impact of the First Steamboat on the Ohio River, 1811-2011

* David Thomas Murphy, Murder in Their Hearts: The Fall Creek Massacre

* John C. Shively, Profiles in Survival: The Experiences of American POWs in the Philippines during World War II

Other notable Indiana authors scheduled to be at the Author Fair include Dan Wakefield, Dick Wolfsie, Nelson Price, Helen Frost, Mike Mullin, Rabbi Sandy Sasso, Norbert Krapf, Michael Martone, Barbara Shoup, David Hoppe, and James Alexander Thom and Dark Rain Thom.

Gift wrapping (and caroling) will be provided by members of the Butler University Chorale.

The Author Fair is presented by Lorene Burkhart and an anonymous donor in memory of Margot Lacy Eccles.

IHS Press Author at Brown County Library

Rachel Perry, retired curator of fine arts at the Indiana State Museum and author of the IHS Press book Paint and Canvas: A Life of T. C. Steele, will lecture on Steele and the other Hoosier Group artists of Indiana at 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 13, in the lower meeting room at the Brown County Public Library, 205 Locust Lane, Nashville, Indiana. The program is free and open to the public.

Featuring photographs and paintings by Indiana artists, the talk by Perry will also include a discussion of the original Indiana impressionists in the context of their times; their studies in Munich, Germany; their favorite landscape painting places in Indiana; and why these artists are important to us today.

Copies of Paint and Canvas will be available for sale. For more information, call the library at (812) 988-2850.

Interview with Jontz Biography Author

Ray E. Boomhower is senior editor with the Indiana Historical Society Press, where is is responsible for the quarterly popular history magazine Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. Winner of the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award, Boomhower has written biographies of Civil War general and author Lew Wallace, famed Hoosier World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, astronaut Gus Grissom, suffragette and peace activist May Wright Sewall, and U.S. Navy ace Alex Vraciu. Here he answers questions about his new biography published by the IHS Press, The People's Choice: Congressman Jim Jontz of Indiana.

How did Jim Jontz come to your attention?

After graduating from Indiana University in 1982 with degrees in journalism and political science, I got a job as a reporter on the Rensselaer Republican, a daily newspaper in Jasper County, Indiana. Jontz served as a state representative in that area, and I came across him while reporting on a variety of stories, including a water crisis in the small community of Parr, Indiana.

My interactions with Jontz during my days at the Republican left me impressed with how hard he worked on behalf of his constituents and his dedication to understanding the complex issues facing government. Before meeting him, I had been inclined to agree with a quote by famed journalist H. L. Mencken that the "only way for a reporter to look at a politician is down." After dealing with Jontz on a variety of issues, my view of politicians changed for the better (it returned to Mencken's opinion in later years as I realized not every politician was like Jontz).

Jontz's services to the citizens of Indiana inspired me to write about his life and career in the pages of Traces magazine. My article on him appeared in the fall 2010 issue and provoked a positive response from his friends, relatives, and former staff members. Realizing there was more to be said, I worked with his mother, Polly Jontz Lennon, and his sister, Mary Lee Turk, to produce this biography.

Is there a moment during his lifetime that typifies Jontz's political life?

One anecdote immediately springs to mind told by Kathy Altman, a key member of his congressional staff. On the eve of Election Day in November 1974, Altman and her husband were driving back to their home in Monticello, Indiana, after a long day on the campaign trail working on behalf of a Democratic congressional candidate. They came upon Jontz, who himself was finishing up a long day campaigning for a seat in the Indiana House of Representatives. They offered him a ride, but he responded, "No, it's late, but there's a laundromat up there that's still open I think I'll hit before I quit for the night." The next day Jontz defeated his heavily favored GOP opponent by just two votes. ("One more vote than I needed to win," Jontz proclaimed after the election.) Jontz believed in working as hard as possible not only during a campaign, but afterwards on behalf of his constituents. He was the hardest-working man in politics.

Is there one issue in particular that Jontz focused on during his political career?

Jontz always seemed to be on the side of average, working people during his days in the Indiana legislature and as a congressman--working for the "public interest, not special interests," as he called it. His passion, however, was protecting the environment. Jontz first ran for office because of his interest in the environment, running for state representative to stop a proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dam/reservoir project on Big Pine Creek in Warren County, Indiana--an effort supported by powerful business interests in the state. As he noted, "I gave a damn about a dam." Due to the pressure exerted by Jontz and the citizens of the country, the project was abandoned. 

For years afterward, Jontz used this victory of average citizens against politically powerful foes as an important lesson to young and old alike "who see injustice and want to believe that you can make a difference--you can make a difference.

Ironically, the issue that had sparked his political career—the environment—became one of the issues that lead to Jontz’s defeat to his Republican challenger Steve Buyer in the 1992 general election. His stand against allowing private companies leases at below market value to cut logs from portions of national forest lands owned by the federal government so inflamed western carpenter unions—worried about losing their jobs if firms could no longer harvest the timber—that they traveled to Indiana to campaign against Jontz’s re-election. Still, he never regretted his stand.

Are you working on a new book?

I hope one day to do a biographer of another political-minded Hoosier, John Bartlow Martin. Martin was one of America's best freelance journalists in the 1950s, writing for such notable publications as the Saturday Evening Post, Harper's, and Collier's. "When I hit my stride," he once noted, "I was writing a million words a year." He turned from journalism to politics in the 1952 presidential election, working for Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson. From that point, he worked for every Democratic presidential candidate until his death in 1987. 

As a former reporter myself, and someone who has always been interested in politics, Martin is the perfect subject.

Interview with POW Book Author

John C. Shively (seen in the photograph at left on a visit to Tarawa) is a practicing physician with a longtime interest in World War II. He lives in Lafayette, Indiana. He is the author of The Last Lieutenant: A Foxhole View of the Epic Battle for Iwo Jima, published by Indiana University Press in 2006. Here he answers questions about his new book from the IHS Press, Profiles in Survival: The Experiences of American POWs in the Philippines during World War II.

What inspired you to write about Indiana POWs of the Japanese in the Philippines during World War II?

A few years ago a colleague of mine mentioned that her uncle had been on the Bataan Death March. I told her that I would be interested in meeting him to hear about his experience. Over the course of the next couple of years I interviewed Bill Clark of Sullivan, Indiana, and wrote his story that served as the basis for the chapter about him in my book, Profiles in Survival.  I met Hugh Sims through another colleague and wrote about his experience. This served as the basis for the chapter about him. 

During my research about the fall of the Philippines, the Death March, and the POW experience I learned about other Hoosiers who had survived the war as POWs of the Japanese. The common thread through the descriptions of their experiences as POWs was their dogged determination to survive no matter what the Japanese did to them. After hearing and reading what they went through I decided that these stories needed to be preserved so that future generations would not forget that during some of the darkest days of World War II in the Pacific, when it seemed that their situation was hopeless, they refused to give up. They may have been ordered to surrender and lay down their arms and submit themselves as prisoners to the Japanese, but they did not surrender their humanity or their dignity. America may have seemingly forgotten them, but they did not waver in their love for and belief in America. They tenaciously held on to their ability to overcome their predicament and never lost faith in themselves or their cause. The Japanese beat and abused them, but they could not extinguish the flames that fuel the human spirit and the innate survival instinct. It is a lesson for us all. 

  

Have you always been interested in the Pacific theater of operations?

I have been interested in World War II since I was in high school, but it was not until I began talking with my Uncle Jim Craig about his experience in the battle of Iwo Jima that I began to narrow my interest to the Pacific theater. My interest in the Pacific theater was almost by default. Nearly all of the Hoosiers I have interviewed fought in the Pacific. World War II was a very complicated war. I thought it would be too much try to become an expert on both the European and the Pacific theaters. Early on, I remember making the conscious decision to limit my study to just the Pacific theater. Only until the last few years does it seems that it has gotten its due recognition that the European theater has enjoyed for many years. I don't pretend to understand the reasons for this apparent bias toward the European theater. But, to me the Pacific war is far more interesting and dramatic. 

Is there one portion of the POWs story that had the greatest effect on you while you were writing the book?

The one part of the POW experience that most moved me was the sheer brutality and disregard for human life and suffering perpetrated by the Japanese guards on their American and Filipino captives. This was most vividly demonstrated during the immediate post-surrender period and more graphically during the Bataan Death March. After the surrender, the POWs were subjected to the most humiliating and degrading treatment even before the Death March began. The treatment of defenseless POWs during the Death March defies understanding and comprehension. Along the Death March route, Japanese guards routinely murdered prisoners for the most trifling offenses or for mere sport. They had absolutely no regard for the pain and suffering of their captives. And, this brutal treatment was not limited to American and Filipino combatants.  Philippine civilians caught throwing food to the prisoners or otherwise demonstrating solidarity with them were singled out by the Japanese guards and routinely beaten, raped, and murdered. It was very disturbing to hear and read about these events, but I included them in the book without withholding any details. I thought it necessary to set the unvarnished record straight.

  

How did these POWs survive the horrible treatment they received during their captivity?

This is a very good question and one I am not entirely sure I have an adequate answer to. Given what I have heard from ex-POWs and an understanding of the conditions in the camps and aboard the hellships, the brutal and inhumane treatment by the guards, the rampant disease, both infectious and nutritional, in the camps, and the psychological trauma brought on by a sense of utter hopelessness and despondency that the prisoners experienced, I don't see how any of them survived. I think most people subjected to these conditions for any length of time would have given up and just crawled into a hole to die as a way to end their misery. Some in the camps did, but many did not. What personality traits separated those who would survive from those who gave up and died? There had to be something else that some had that others did not.

I got to know quite well two ex-POWs having spent much time with them over the years. Both are now deceased, but while I knew them I had a chance to look into their psyches. Both were obstinate, bullheaded, and stubborn almost to a fault. I believe it was these traits that saw them through the most trying time in their lives and allowed them to survive nearly three years as POWs. In some cases such as on the hellships, an unquestionable degree of luck was important. But, it took more than luck to survive three years of hell under the Japanese. It is my conviction that the only way these two ex-POWs would not survive the war was if the Japanese simply murdered them. They made up their minds early during their captivity that they were going to survive. I think this kind of an attitude was essential to surviving. 

Do you have another book project in mind?

Yes, I have a couple ides for another book. I know another ex-POW who has a compelling story about his experience in the war. He survived the Death March and was in Camp Cabanatuan when it was liberated by 6th Rangers on January 30, 1945. I also have interviewed two principle participants who played pivotal roles in the success of the raid to liberate the POWs in the camp. I would like to write a book that would include the POW story, and the stories of these two other warriors' experiences in the war that ultimately brought these three together in the climactic raid on Cabanatuan. One of these was a Ranger who planned and led the raid. The other one was an Alamo Scouts who reconnoitered the camp the day before the raid to gather intelligence about the Japanese disposition in the camp. This intelligence was invaluable to the Rangers in their final plans for the raid. Little is known of the Rangers and the Alamo Scouts and their contribution to the war effort in the Pacific other than the raid on the camp. The book I have in mind would include all three of these stories. They would be told separately until the night of January 30, 1945, when they converge at Camp Cabanatuan for the liberation of the camp.

The other idea is for a book about a general history of the Pacific war that would include the stories I have collected over the past ten years from interviewing Hoosier vets of the war. I plan to insert these stories into the various chapters about the war that cover the iconic battles in which these Hoosiers participated. In this way, the reader would learn about the war in broad strokes, but would also learn about it from the personal perspective by those who fought it. I think this is a more compelling and interesting way to learn history  It might well serve as a textbook for young Hoosier students who want to learn more about not only the war, but about the contribution to the war effort by Hoosiers who went before them.

Biography of Indiana Congressman Published

On the eve of Election Day in November 1974, a lonely figure trudged down the road in Monticello, Indiana. Jim Jontz, a young, first-time candidate for the Indiana House of Representatives, was finishing up a long day of campaigning. Offered a ride by a local Democratic Party volunteer at whose house he had been staying, Jontz answered: “No, it’s late, but there’s a laundromat up there that’s still open I think I’ll go hit before I quit for the night.”

The next day Jontz, a twenty-two-year-old Indiana University graduate with an unpaid job as a caretaker for a local nature preserve, defeated his heavily favored Republican opponent, John M. “Jack” Guy, Indiana House Majority Leader by a razor-thin two-vote margin. “One more vote than I needed to win!” he later exclaimed. The unexpected result stunned election officials, with one deputy clerk in Warren County marveling, “I never before realized just how important that one vote can be.”

Written by award-winning author Ray E. Boomhower, The People's Choice: Congressman Jim Jontz of Indiana, is the first-ever biography of Jontz. The book examines his remarkable long shot political career and lifetime involvement in local, state, and national environmental issues. As a liberal Democrat (he preferred the terms progressive or populist) usually running in conservative districts, Jontz had political pundits predicting his defeat in every election only to see him celebrating another victory with his happy supporters, always clad in a scruffy plaid jacket with a hood from high school that he wore for good luck. “I always hope for the best and fight for the worst,” said Jontz. He won five terms as state representative for the Twentieth District (Benton, Newton, Warren, and White Counties), served two years in the Indiana Senate, and captured three terms in the U.S. Congress representing the sprawling Fifth Congressional District in northwestern Indiana that stretched from Lake County in the north to Grant County in the south. Jontz told a reporter that his political career had always “been based on my willingness and role as a spokesman for the average citizen.”

From his first campaign for elective office until his death from colon cancer in 2007, Jontz had an abiding passion for protecting the environment. A dam project that threatened to destroy the scenic Fall Creek Gorge area in Warren County inspired Jontz to enter the political fray, and he continued his conservation efforts in Washington, D.C., sponsoring legislation to help protect old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest—an attempt that made him a hero to many environmentalists, but enraged timber-industry supporters and fellow congressmen. Although it might sound too grandiose to say that Jontz wanted to save the planet, his former wife, Elaine Caldwell Emmi, noted “that was his ultimate goal, to be a spokesman for those that couldn’t speak—the trees, the animals, the air, the water.”

            

Boomhower is senior editor with the Indiana Historical Society Press, where he edits the quarterly popular history magazine Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. His previous books have included biographies of author and Civil War general Lew Wallace, famed Hoosier war correspondent Ernie Pyle, suffragette and peace activist May Wright Sewall, World War II photographer John A. Bushemi, astronaut Gus Grissom, and U.S. Navy ace Alex Vraciu.

The People's Choice costs $24.95 and is available from the IHS Basile History Market, http://shop.indianahistory.org. 

Book Examines POWs during World War II

The stories of seven men and one woman from Indiana who survived the horrors of captivity under the Japanese in the Pacific during World War II are captured in vivid detail by author John Shively in his book Profiles in Survival: The Experiences of American POWs in the Philippines during World War II. These Hoosiers stationed in the Philippines were ordered to surrender following the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in 1942. It was the largest surrender of American armed forces in U.S. history. For many, it was the beginning of three years of hell starting with the infamous Bataan Death March, facing brutal conditions in POW camps in the Philippines, and horrific journeys to Japan for some onboard what came to be known as “hellships.”

            

Former Indiana governor Edgar D. Whitcomb, one of those featured in the book, notes that the American prisoners had to endure “unimaginable misery and brutality at the hands of sadistic Japanese guards,” as they were routinely beaten and many were executed for the most minor offenses, or for mere sport. Shively, said Whitcomb, has “done a masterful job of recounting the realities of life as a Japanese prisoner. These poignant stories attest to the innate enduring human struggle and drive to survive, tenacity in the face of adversity, and the dogged determination and unwillingness to give up when all seemed lost and hopeless.”

            

In addition to Whitcomb, those profiled include Irvin Alexander, Harry Brown, William Clark, James Duckworth, Eleanor Garen, Melvin McCoy, and Hugh Sims.

Shively is a practicing physician with a longtime interest in World War II. He lives in Lafayette, Indiana. He is the author of The Last Lieutenant: A Foxhole View of the Epic Battle for Iwo Jima, published by Indiana University Press in 2006.

Profiles in Survival costs $27.95 and is available from the  IHS Basile History Market, http://shop.indiananhistory.org

Interview with Robert Wise Author

Wes D. Gehring is a professor of film at Ball State University and an associated media editor for USA Today Magazine, for which he also writes the column “Reel World.” The award-winning author of twenty-eight books, Gehring has written biographies of such screen legends as Charlie Chaplin, W. C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard, James Dean, Steve McQueen, and Red Skelton. Here he answers some questions about his new biography of Hoosier film director Robert Wise:

What drew you to write about Wise?
I was drawn to Wise because of his neglect as an auteur. He was always getting the left-handed compliment of being a "craftsman," but somehow critics missed his consistent themes & character types. Also, he is fascinating because he made classic films in multiple genres.

How important were Wise’s Indiana roots to his subsequent career in films?
Of all the Hoosiers in Hollywood I've written about, other than Red Skelton, his Hoosier/depression era roots were most central to Wise's film career.

Is there one element that makes Wise’s films immediately identifiable to film fans?
The key element of a Wise picture is his passion for painful stories about the disenfranchised, exasperated by age, gender, and/or racial prejudice.

What is your favorite Wise film?
My favorite Wise film varies between The Set-Up and The Day the Earth Stood Still.