Crawfordsville & Delphi, INOct 8, 2011
|
|
| We had a very full Saturday today! First, we enjoyed a docent led tour ($5 each admission) of the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum in Crawfordsville. I admit I had no idea who General Lew Wallace was but learned that, in addition to writing the world renown book, Ben-Hur, he was an attorney; served in the Civil War as a Major General commanding Union military divisions in the Tennessee battles of Forts Henry and Donelson and Shiloh as well as saved Washington, D.C. from Confederate assault at the battle of Monocacy; and then served as a judge in the military trial for the men who conspired to kill President Abraham Lincoln. His study is situated on the grounds where he wrote his masterwork and celebrates Wallace's fascinating legacy. We found the Lew Wallace Study and Museum very interesting and well worth our time and expense. We then toured the nearby Henry S. (Smith) Lane House ($3 each admission). The house was originally built onto an existing three-room brick cottage, which is currently part of the dining room. The cottage was Federal style dating back to the early 1830s. Lane purchased this cottage and the four acres surrounding it from Isaac Elston in 1844; 85%-90% of all of the furnishings are either original to the house or belonged to the Elston Family. What we found interesting is that Susan Wallace, sister of Joanna Lane, met her future husband Lew Wallace (whose Study we had just visited) in the house's formal parlor. Henry S. Lane was a very important man of his time as he was a U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, 13th Governor of the State of Indiana, and a delegate from Indiana at President Lincoln's funeral. The house was bequeathed to the Lanes' niece, Helen Elston Smith, who died in 1939 and who willed the house and its contents to the Montgomery County Historical Society. The house has been a museum since Helen's death. We then toured the third of four museums in Crawfordsville - the Old Jail Museum ($3 each admission). This jail and sheriff's residence was built in 1882 and was the first of nine rotary jails constructed in the U.S. Builders William H. Brown and Benjamin F. Haugh of Indianapolis believed their patented design would help maintain strict Victorian social order by limiting personal contact between inmate and jailer. The museum director was our tour guide and showed us how, by rotating a hand crank on which the two-tiered turntable pivoted, a jailer could bring one of sixteen pie-shaped cells to the opening, allowing one prisoner in or out. It was fascinating to see one person move the 16-ton machine/rotators. We learned that the jail was in actual use until 1973 and is currently the only rotary jail structure in operating condition. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Historic American Engineering Record. Afterwards we drove to Delphi, IN to walk along the Wabash & Erie Canal (we arrived too late to ride a boat down the canal, the largest manmade waterway in the United States). We also arrived too late to view the Interpretive Center or enter the reconstructed pioneer village (Sundays-Fridays 1-4 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m.) Oh well, something to remember for our next visit to this area...but we enjoyed our walk on this beautiful late Saturday afternoon. On the drive back to Crawfordsville (@ 1 hour), we stopped in Pittsburg (IN) and had dinner at Bresnahan's (an Irish pub)! Both of us enjoyed a Blarney Burger, a burger atop toasted buttered garlic bread and covered with mushrooms and bleu cheese. I also ordered the special house cheese potato which is deep fried hash browns which were balled around a scoop of velveeta cheese-yum! |
Advertisement 
|
