Did you know that 2% milk was invented by Roy Robertson while working at the Salem Maid Dairy/Creamery in Salem Indiana? In the 1940s, Audra Qualkinbush, one of the owners of the creamery and a home economics teacher, complained about the chubbiness of some of her students. Robertson was asked by his boss to perfect a new product that had less butterfat. Skim milk had already been invented, but consumers had no choice between the 3.5 percent milk and the virtually tasteless skim, nicknamed “Blue John” by many country folks because of its watery blue tint. Robertson worked for more than a year tinkering with how to remove the fat and then repl ...
Christopher Harrison the first Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, was one of Salem’s earliest citizens. His story is a sad one. Early in the nineteenth century he became engaged to Miss Elizabeth Patterson, of Baltimore (Pictured). In 1803, while Christopher was in England on business for his prospective father-in-law, Jerome Bonaparte entered the New York harbor in command of a French frigate. Jerome Bonaparte was Napoleon's younger brother. Later at the home of Samuel Close of Baltimore, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Jerome Bonaparte was introduced to Miss Patterson. Though not yet eighteen she was a reigning belle, ...
Oliver Perry (O.P) Link at one time worked for Turner Day & Woolworth in their handle factory in Nashville, Tennessee before starting his own handle factory in Salem in 1923. The company manufactured hickory handles for tools such as axes, blades, mallets and hammers. Link handle also had manufacturing facilities in London, Monticello and Princeton Kentucky. In their marketing materials they mention "Each handle is manufactured from immaculate white hand split hickory grown in the famous limestone regions of Indiana and Kentucky. Order the stronger, safer more resilient Link Handle today. " Timber operations for O.P Link Handle company exten ...
Salem's progressive institutions of learning attracted students from all over Indiana and made Salem a notable center in the early years of the state. Salem was once called the "Athens of the West," a designation attributed due to the number of reputed academies and seminaries within the town. John I. Morrison was the principal architect of this nomination. John was associated with the Hay-Morrison House as the principal of a grammar school located there, he later created the Salem Female Institute and the Washington County Seminary. He was joined by Barnabus Hobbs, a renowned educator and Dr. Benjamin Trueblood, who lectured nationally on world peac ...
The firm of Platt, Martin & Gordon was established in the year of 1803 in Salem. It was an establishment that increased in magnitude rapidly, employing many workmen. From the start they put out finished wagons, buggies and carriages of the latest improved patters. using up-to-date, modern machinery. They also supplied foreign orders for wagon hubs, fellows, shafts, spokes etc. thereby putting money in circulation from the sale of articles of home production. This manufacturing plant was a great acquisition to our town. They were rapidly gaining prestige, favor and patronage in new districts, holding with firmness, by fair dealing, old customers. Ord ...
Washington County citizens were living peacefully, and apparently enjoying life In plain simple contentment until, unexpectedly, in the year 1833, without the slightest premonition, a dreadful scourge Asiatic cholera pounced upon the town, seized its victims by the dozens, making fatal work without discrimination or relenting its hold for weeks. Scarcely a family wasn't visited by the deadly scourge. Several families being discouraged soon scattered to other towns and places and never returned. That was the first and severest affliction visited upon the people of Salem and Washington County. Cholera appeared again in 1853 and 1862, but not in s ...
Everett Dean was born in Livonia, Indiana in 1898. Dean became the head baseball and basketball coach at his alma mater, Indiana University, from 1924 to 1938. In 1938, Dean was named head basketball coach at Stanford University, where he coached the team to the 1942 NCAA championship. Dean was named baseball coach at Stanford in 1950, and led Stanford's baseball team to the 1953 College World Series. Dean is the only coach named to both the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Baseball Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1965. He also has the distinction of being the first basketball All-American ...
Lee W. Sinclair, principal among the leading citizens of his time, was a Washington County businessman and banker. Sinclair's fascination for the French Lick, West Baden area of Orange County inspired the creation of a grand resort. Taking advantage of the recently connected rail lines, Sinclair bought controlling interest in the West Baden Spring Hotel in 1888. A devastating fire in 1901, allowed him to rebuild the Hotel in its current configuration. Architect, Harrison Albright and engineer Moses Shrum collaborated in it construction. This striking and monumental structure is considered one of the most important historic buildings in Indiana, ...
Construction of the New Albany and Salem Railroad gives testimony to Salem's stature within Indiana at the time and an expectation of its status in the future. The railroad was organized in Salem in 1846, and was completed five years later. It was the first attempt to link the Ohio River with the Great Lakes by rail. Well into the twentieth century it was known as the Monon Line. Several other competing lines were completed by 1900, including the Baltimore and Ohio which created direct routes to the Eastern trading centers. The economic benefit of the railroad line in Salem was most obvious during and after the Civil War. By 1851 the New Albany ...
Lee W. Sinclair (1836-1916), principal among the leading citizens of his time, was a Washington County businessman and owned a large woolen mill in Salem from 1866-1884. The arrival of the mill created a local market for sheep farmers and at the height of production the mill employed 75-80 employees. Sinclair's massive three story factory, located on the same parcel as the former Armory, burned on December 5th 1883. The Salem mill developed a kind of cloth which was sold to Levi's Company. Some contemporary advertisements refer to the business as the "Salem Jean Factory."
In the early days of Washington County, three generations of the Shrum family, whose professional work is found in buildings in Washington D.C. as well as San Francisco, helped lend to Salem the atmosphere of a larger more sophisticated town. Owner of a brick yard, the scion of the family, Alfred Shrum came to Salem from Virginia. He had worked as a mason on construction of the east wing of the White House. Through the years, Alfred worked on the Sinclair Woolen Mill, the Washington County Courthouse, the Lyon Block, the streets and sidewalks of Salem, and his own Second Empire style home on Hackberry. Guy, his son, was involved in construction ...
John was a free man and a blacksmith living in Louisville in the 1810's, when Thomas & William Lindley (Quakers) were operating a freight wagon service, from Salem to Louisville, and back, when they first encountered each other. At some point John Williams assisted the Lindley brothers with wagon repairs and he quickly gained their trust and friendship. Sometime before the 1820 Census, the Lindley brothers convinced John to move to their father’s and become the blacksmith of the Blue River Quaker Community. John lived approximately six years in the home of Samuel Lindley, before purchasing 160 acres of land for himself, from his friend, Thomas L ...
Thomas Jackson Rodman (1816 – 1871) was born on a farm northeast of Salem Indiana. He was an American artillerist, inventor, ordnance specialist, and career United States Army officer. He served as a Union Army officer during the American Civil War, in which he was noted for his many improvements and innovations concerning the artillery used by the Union forces. Thomas Jackson Rodman designed the largest cannon of the Civil War. It was a monstrous 20-inch caliber ship killer referred to as "the strongest cast iron cannon ever made". General Rodman also discovered the use of shaped gunpowder grains, in which properly compressing and shaping the ...
DePauw was born in Salem, Indiana in 1822. He was the grandson of Charles DePauw, who came to the Americas with the Marquis de La Fayette, and the son of John and Elizabeth Battist DePauw. John DePauw had been a lawyer, judge, and a member of the Indiana Constitutional Convention. In 1838, when Washington was just 16, he was elected for the first of four times to the Indiana legislature. Throughout his lifetime, Washington amassed a fortune by investing in ventures such as grain, steel and glass, and during the American Civil War, government supplies. At one time, he was considered the wealthiest man in Indiana. In 1881 he made provisions to ...
