This week in Indiana’s history …
1862 – Near Frederick, Md., Sergeant John Bloss and Corporal Barton Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Civil War regiment found three cigars wrapped in paper. Further investigation revealed that the document was Special Order 191, containing valuable battle plans from Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The Indiana soldiers sent the paper through channels to Union General George B. McClellan who immediately saw its strategic value in the upcoming battles at South Mountain and Antietam.
1905 – Cornett Wood was born in Indianapolis. After graduating from Shortridge High School and attending the John Herron Art Institute, he went to California where he became an animator for Walt Disney. He helped create such classics as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Fantasia. He later went to the Warner Brothers studio where he joined the animation staff for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.
1927 – WOWO in Fort Wayne became one of the pioneer stations for the new CBS radio network. It was one of 16 high-powered broadcasters selected to unite a signal pattern which would cover most of the nation. The station, which went on the air in 1925, was started by Chester W. Keen, owner of the Main Auto Supply Company.
1943 – Governor Henry F. Schricker encouraged Hoosiers to participate in a statewide “Constitution Day.” He said that the document, signed in 1787, has endured “as the bulwark of national life” and that it was more precious at this time “because millions of Americans have taken up arms to defend it against destruction by Axis forces.” A special broadcast of the event was carried over 17 radio stations in the state. Over 75,000 copies of a special newspaper entitled We the People were distributed throughout the state.
1952 – General Dwight D. Eisenhower, campaigning for President, began a whistle-stop campaign at Indiana Harbor in Lake County. The tour, which included United States Senators William Jenner and Homer Capehart, traveled to Fort Wayne, Warsaw, Gary, La Porte, Plymouth, and South Bend.
2006 – Dorothy Stratton died in Lafayette at the age of 107. She had served as the first full-time Dean of Women at Purdue University and, during World War II, was the first female officer in the United States Coast Guard. In 2010, the Coast Guard Cutter Stratton was christened by First Lady Michelle Obama, who called Stratton “one of the most extraordinary women to serve our nation in uniform.”