This week in Indiana’s history …
1865 – President Abraham Lincoln presented Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton with a Confederate Battle Flag. It had been captured by the Indiana 140th Regiment at Fort Anderson, N.C. The ceremony took place at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C. The band played “Hail to the Chief” as the President entered the room. Several Union officers from Indiana accompanied the Governor. Lincoln’s last-minute decision to attend the event disappointed John Wilkes Booth. *Read more below.
1877 – The Indiana Legislature authorized $2,000,000 for the construction of a new State House. The new structure would replace the existing building in Indianapolis. Governor James D. Williams began the job of appointing commissioners for the project. According to the Indianapolis Daily News, the new State House was “the hearty desire of fully nine-tenths of the people of the state.”
1890 – Fire destroyed the Bowen-Merrill bookstore on West Washington Street in Indianapolis. What began as a small blaze became an inferno when all four floors of the frame building collapsed, trapping many firemen. Thirteen died in the disaster. It was the deadliest fire in history for city firefighters.
1923 – Movie Actor Rudolph Valentino was married to actress Winifred Hudnut in the office of the Justice of the Peace in Crown Point. According to the press, they arrived there after “leading newspapermen on a merry chase since they left the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago.” The happy couple “rambled up and down the main street, hunting souvenir postal cards and dining in a little country restaurant.”
1962 – The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame was launched with a dinner in the Riley Room of the Claypool Hotel in Indianapolis. The first inductees were John R. Wooden, Robert P. “Fuzzy” Vandivier, Homer Stonebraker, Ernest B. “Griz” Wagner, and Ward “Piggy” Lambert. The first annual Silver Medallion was awarded to William F. Fox, sports editor of the Indianapolis News. He had covered high school basketball since 1925.
2001 – 79-year-old Margaret Ray Ringenberg piloted a plane in an international air race from London to Sydney, Australia. It was just the latest in many adventures for the aviator who grew up on a farm in Allen County. During World War II, as a WASP (Women’s Airforce Service Pilot), she flew all types of military aircraft. After the war, she was a commercial pilot and flight instructor. An active participant in air races around the world, she won more than 150 trophies. She was the subject of an entire chapter in Tom Brokaw’s book The Greatest Generation.
*It was March 17, 1865. John Wilkes Booth had been devising plans to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln and hold him in exchange for Confederate soldiers locked up in Union prisons. Booth had received word that the President that afternoon was going to attend the play, Still Waters Run Deep. It was being staged at Campbell Hospital near the Old Soldiers’ Home on the Seventh Street Road on the outskirts of Washington. The road ran through an isolated area, perfect for carrying out the kidnap plot. Booth quickly decided to act. He and three fellow conspirators saddled up and rode out to a lonely spot along the road. Another man was to bring Booth’s carriage, loaded with weapons. Their plans were well-founded. Lincoln, indeed, had planned to attend the play. However, at the last minute, he had decided to go to the National Hotel to present a battle flag to Indiana Governor Morton. Booth and his men waited in vain. The Presidential carriage did not come down the road that day.