Famous Indiana author Gene Stratton-Porter is set to visit Sheridan on Thursday, Feb 15. Well, sort of, that is. Actually, the real Stratton-Porter died 94 years ago but her fame lives on through her many writings including the famous “A Girl of the Limberlost”, a standard on any Hoosier reading list.
Glory-June Greiff portrays Indiana author and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter for the 2018 Boxley Lecture Series. (Photo provided)
Stratton-Porter will be portrayed by Glory-June Greiff. Greiff is a professional narrator, photographer and a performer of song and story. She is also a public historian and preservation activist who has written approximately 80 successful nominations to the National Register of Historic Places around the state. In the early 1990s she served as statewide director of Indiana’s Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) Survey. A native of Hudson Lake in northern Indiana, Glory earned a B.S. in Radio-Television/English from Butler University and worked several years on the air in radio; she holds a master’s degree in Public History from Indiana University.
Annually for the past 10 years, the Sheridan Historical Society has offered a cultural event honoring town founder George Boxley which features re-enactors of famous American personalities. In the past the Society has brought Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Harrison, Frederick Douglas, Buffalo Bill Cody, Teddy Roosevelt and many more well-known personalities to Sheridan. Many of them have been Hoosiers or had important Hoosier connections. This year will feature the great American and native Hoosier author and conservationist/naturalist, Gene Stratton-Porter. Stratton-Porter was born in Wabash County in 1863.
Greiff will present a program on Feb. 15 for the fourth graders at Sheridan Elementary School and then at 7 p.m. she will give a free public program at the Joyce Cline Auditorium at the middle school.
As in years past, the objective of the Boxley Lecture Series is to celebrate the heritage left to our community by our founder, George Boxley. Boxley was an early abolitionist who fled to the Indiana frontier in 1829 to escape a death sentence imposed in Virginia for inciting a failed slave rebellion. His restored log cabin home stands in Veterans Park in uptown Sheridan and is a monument to his life and worthy deeds.
For further information about this program please contact the Sheridan Historical Society at the museum at 308 S. Main St. or call 317-758-5054. You could also contact Society VP Steve Martin at the library at 103 W. First St. in Sheridan or by phone at 317-758-5201. We hope you will take time this Thursday to attend this most entertaining free evening program at the middle school.