Quick Links:  Abraham Lincoln    Boone Co REMC    Herman B Wells    Indian Cemetery    Michigan Road    Samuel L Ralston     Scotand Bridge    Sugar Creek Community 

BOONE COUNTY HISTORICAL MARKERS

Scotland Bridge Marker

Though the old Scotland Bridge is no more, we are proud to have partnered with the Boone County Highway Department
during the construction of a monument commemorating the former bridge.
We are honored to be a part of this project facilitated by the Boone County Highway Department. Thank you BCHD.
The monument has a QR code that links to the story of Scotland Bridge on the BCHS website.
Click here for story.

Location:  Mechanicsburg, IN - CR 200 E on the Boone-Clinton county line.

Abraham Lincoln Marker

En-route to Washington, D.C., to become the16th President of the United States,
Abraham Lincoln addressed citizens of Lebanon and Boone County from the rear of a
railroad passenger car on the evening of February 11, 1861.

Erected in 1966 by Indiana Sesquicentennial Committee of Boone County

Located: S.R. 39 in Lebanon just south of the S.R. 39-S.R. 32 interchange
Michigan Road Marker

With proceeds from the sale of 170, 580 acres of Indian land granted by the Federal Government, Indiana built its first north-south road. Surveyed 1829, passable by 1834, "completed" in 1837, its cost was $242, 000.00.
Erected by Indiana Sesquicentennial Commission, 1966

Location: West side of US 421, north of 121st Street, north & east of Zionsville, IN

Herman B. Wells Historical Marker

Thanks to the combined efforts of the Boone County Historical Society; Eric Spall, Boone County Historian;
and the many community supporters of the project; Boone County native Herman B. Wells was honored
on Saturday, August 1, 2020 with the dedication of an Indiana Historical Bureau State marker.
The state historical marker can be found on West Main Street, Jamestown, IN. 

The dedication ceremony began with opening remarks from Eric Spall about Wells’ connection
to Boone County. Casey Pfeiffer, manager of the state historical marker program at the
Indiana Historical Bureau, talked about the state marker program and then Justin Clark also of IHB,
spoke of Wells historical significance.  After the unveiling, the Jackson Township Historical Society
invited those present into their museum for an open house.
Herman B. Wells was born in Jamestown, IN and was the only son of Joseph Granville Wells.
Wells died at the age of 98 and is buried in his boyhood home of Jamestown.
He started his career in banking.  In the 1930s he oversaw research into the state of Indiana's banks
that was used to enact banking reforms during the Great Depression.  

Wells is probably most well known for his tenure as president of Indiana University (1938-1962).
He is generally credited with having transformed IU from a small state school into an
internationally renowned university.  He oversaw many building projects on the Bloomington campus,
and was influential in setting the tone for the campus's appearance and atmosphere.
He also worked hard to spread IU regional campuses around Indiana.

Wells was a strong advocate for academic freedom, making sure that
professors at IU could pursue their research free from interference from public opinion.
He remained steadfast in his support of IU’s faculty and students,
especially in the areas of academic freedom and civil rights.

Location: Main St park, W Main St, Jamestown, IN next to Tri-Area Library
Gov. Samuel M. Ralston Historical Marker

Although several years in the making, we are proud to announce the installation of the Gov. Samuel M. Ralston state historical marker. The required work towards gaining the marker in honor of Gov. Ralston began in 2017, one of the first projects of Boone County historian, Eric Spall. The marker was funded by the Boone County Bar Association (of which Ralston was a charter member).  Installation on the south side of the courthouse lawn was approved by the County Commissioners and was to be put up in 2018, but the courthouse square renovation project and the construction of the new courthouse entrance ramp delayed installation until August, 2020. The marker was dedicated at a small public ceremony in July 2019.

Samuel Moffett Ralston was born in Ohio in 1857 and moved to Indiana at an early age.  He graduated in law from Central Normal College in Danville, IN
and became a lawyer.  He opened a law office in Lebanon, IN in 1886 and became active in the Democratic Party at that time. 
He served a term as Lebanon’s school board president, the only elected position he held until he was elected Indiana governor in 1912. 
He occupied the office of governor from 1913-1917.  

In 1913, he oversaw Indiana's emergency response to the Great Flood of 1913. That same year he intervened in the tense Indianapolis Streetcar Strike,
bringing about a peaceful settlement. In the lead up to Indiana's centennial celebration in 1916.
Ralston helped organize the Indiana State Historical Commission
(now the State Historical Bureau), which coordinated the state's centennial commemoration.
​
One of the most enduring legacies of this effort was the creation of Indiana's state park system.  

In 1922, he was elected US senator from Indiana. 1924 brought strong support at the Democratic National Convention for the nomination for US President.
He later; however, withdrew from the race citing his declining health.  He died a year after on October 14, 1925
and is buried in Lebanon's Oak Hill Cemetery.

Location:  Boone County courthouse, 104 E Washington St, Lebanon, IN
The  Boone County REMC Marker

The Boone County REMC built Indiana's first electric cooperative line to the Clark Woody farm
5 miles west of this site with funds borrowed from the
Rural Electrification Administration, July 22, 1935. 
Indiana Statewide Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc. 1985

Location: I-65 northbound rest stop, 1 mile north of exit 146 & SR 47,
7.5 miles north of Lebanon, IN
Sugar Creek Community Marker

Starting in the 1840s, Black families began settling in Boone County, Indiana.* One of the first to immigrate here from North Carolina was patriarch Moody Gilliam and family, who were relatives of nearby Roberts Settlement resident. It is likely that this proximity to family and a community led by Black settlers influenced the Gilliam family’s decision to settle in Boone County (but not Sugar Creek Township). More families arrived in the county in the late 1840s and 1850s and began farming. Despite their accomplishments, these new Boone County residents were not allowed to vote and may have been forced to register with county authorities and post a $500 bond. In fact, Indiana made it clear that these hardworking Black farmers were not welcome at all. In 1851, the Hoosiers voted for Article XIII of the Indiana Constitution that stated, "No negro or mulatto shall come into, or settle in the State..." Despite racist legislation and prejudice, these Black Hoosiers established a successful farming community in Sugar Creek Township near Thorntown.
Some even owned land despite the constitutional prohibition against Black settlement.
By 1860, seventy-two Black settlers lived in Sugar Creek Township with eleven based in Thorntown proper. The census from that year, shows that they arrived mainly from North Carolina and Kentucky, that they were predominately farmers, and that most could not read and write. Many Black Southerners were prohibited from obtaining an education, as it was seen by white slaveholders as a threat to the slavery system. The mainly illiterate founders of the Sugar Creek settlement, however, broke this systematic oppression by making sure their children could read and write. By the late 1860s, Sugar Creek’s Black residents purchased land from local Quakers for the purpose of building a school. Around the same time, they also purchased a lot to build an African Methodist Episcopal church. The church established a Sabbath school around 1869. Thus, the children of the Sugar Creek founders received a primary education as well as a spiritual one. Also in 1869, residents purchased more Quaker land to establish a
“burying ground for the Colored people of Thorntown and vicinity.”
By the late 1860s, the Sugar Creek community also boasted a Masonic lodge. During the Civil War, at least one Sugar Creek son fought for the Union cause in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment of the United States Colored Troops.
It’s not clear when Elijah Derricks came to Sugar Creek, but he is buried in the “colored cemetery."
Derricks volunteered for service in 1863 when he was 38-years-old.
His regiment saw a great deal of action in Florida and South Carolina and he was injured in his arm at the Battle of Honey Hill. 
After the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment gave Northern Black men the right to vote in 1870, the Black men of the Sugar Creek community immediately joined the political efforts and causes of the time. The founded a political club in support of the Republican presidential ticket in 1872 and newspapers provide evidence that local politicians sought their votes and support. By 1870, 172 Black Hoosiers lived in Sugar Creek Township, seventy-seven of whom lived in Thorntown. The A.M.E. church had twenty-five adult congregants by 1874 and forty-five children in Sunday school. By 1879, Sugar Creek men served on juries and by the 1890s the A.M.E. church served as the local polling place. By the late 1890s, many in the Sugar Creek community had moved to Lebanon or surrounding towns for more employment opportunities. However, the Thorntown church stayed active for several more decades.
Today, the cemetery is the only physical remnant of this community,
established and led by Black Hoosiers who thrived in Thorntown and Sugar Creek for generations.

Installed 2019 Indiana Historical Bureau, Boone & Sugar Creek Historical Societies, Thorntown Library, BSA T350, Ball State University &
Support from the Indiana Historical Society & Community

Location: Colored Cemetery location, 6770 North 825 West, Thorntown, Indiana 46071
Henry C. Ulen Marker

Henry never got past a fifth-grade education and left Lebanon at the age of 16, opting to travel the country as a young man. As he said to John Monk Saunders of the American Magazine, Ulen traveled “from the time I was fourteen until I was eighteen. The moment the idea hit me to go somewhere—and it always did in the spring--
I was off. St. Louis, Denver, Chicago, Dodge City, Cincinnati—anywhere the next freight happened to be going.” A profile in the Muncie Star Press referred to him as a “hobo” during these years, completing odd jobs to survive. “I worked as a ‘hasher’ on the dining car, sold fruit and candy and magazines on the trains, and sold newspapers at the stations. But I made no attempt to stick to any of the jobs I had. I was always groping for something larger,” he said to the American.

With his years as a vagabond over, he came back to Indiana and endeavored many avenues of work, including railroad night operator, telegraph operator, and newspaper reporter, before settling on law. He was sworn into the Indiana Bar on May 26, 1897, according to the Indianapolis News, but had practiced law at least as early as 1894, a biography in Engineering World noted. However, his true calling, according to the American, was as a contractor,
the profession he pursued in 1900 and kept for the rest of his life.

Ulen co-founded the American Water & Light Company with Samuel V. Perrott. It was incorporated on August 5, 1901, as noted by the Indianapolis News. Newspaper articles record their collaborations on numerous water and electricity projects across the state, in cities such as Greenwood, Hartford, Union City, Indianapolis, Richmond, Peru, Bloomington, and Petersburg. The American Water & Light Company changed its name to the Ulen Contracting Company on March 20, 1914,
with a notice published in the Indianapolis Star. A public stock notice in the July 15, 1929 issue of the Indianapolis Star named
February 1922 as the date when the Ulen Contracting Company became Ulen & Company.

He was married twice. Ulen and his first wife, Matilda Mary Dutch, married on September 1, 1890 and were together until her death on March 17, 1951. As her obituary in the Indianapolis Times noted, “Mrs. Ulen was given much credit by her husband for the fame and fortune he earned in his worldwide construction projects.”
He married his second wife, Eloise Freund Moynahan (misidentified as “Moynaham” on the marriage record), on June 15, 1956.
They were together until his death in 1963. She died in 1993.

Installed 2021 Indiana Historical Bureau and the Henry C. Ulen Foundation

Location: Ulen Country Club, 100 Country Club Dr., Lebanon, IN