hamilton county

David Heighway is back once again to explore the intricacies of our country’s constructed memory! It finds its way into nearly every American home; lingering memories of a sparsely populated frontier and the rugged pioneer. Many family histories have followed this line of thinking for generations. It even shows up at our own “Pioneer museum” of Conner Prairie. And yet, while not necessarily fabricated, we can use new information to see what the world would have truly looked like. As historians ourselves-just like David, that’s the best we can hope to share!

 

Show Notes:

Guest: David Heighway- Hamilton County Historian at the Hamilton East Public Library.

 

Library Website website: 

https://www.hepl.lib.in.us/ 

He has written a book regarding strange local lore/ historical topics much akin to what we talk about in this episode- Hidden History of Hamilton County, Indiana

Linked Here: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-History-Hamilton-County-Indiana/dp/1467150177#:~:text=all%202%20images-,Hidden%20History%20of%20Hamilton%20County%2C%20Indiana,-Paperback%20%E2%80%93%20August%209 

Also, Special thanks to Dylan Rawles- Our Conner Prairie Curatorial Assistant, for giving us the gift of reveling in the presence of his great historical skills.

Our sources:

A Pageant In/At Hamilton County: Stage setting for all episodes (Noblesville Southeastern Public Library 1923.

Hamilton County’s first Centennial Celebration held at Noblesville, Hamilton County, Indiana, on October 3 and 4, 1923 (Source Library (Noblesville Southeastern Public Library, 1923)

Rogers, Carol O. “Black and White in Indiana.” Indiana Business Review, Vol. 80, No. 2 (Summer 2005).

 

Dive with us into the first of our three part series about the history of the land that Conner Prairie sits on today. Our first episode is about William Conner, the namesake of the William Conner House here at the Prairie. We are joined by Hamilton County Historian to dive into all areas of his life-the good, the bad and the ugly!

 

David Heighway:

 

You can find more about Hamilton East Public Library’s work in history (County Historian David Heighway’s organization) here: https://www.hepl.lib.in.us/indiana-room/

 

Order your copy of David’s book “Hidden History of Hamilton County, Indiana” here: https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467150170

 

The Conner House (come see where some of it went down!): https://www.connerprairie.org/explore/experiences/william-conner-house/ 

Sources:

 

228. F. Shirts. A Primitive History of Indiana. P. 228.

 

Charles B Lasselle, “Old Indian Traders of Indiana” in Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (March 1906), pp. 1-13. Accessible at:  https://www.jstor.org/stable/27785428. 

 

David Zeisberger, Diary of the Moravian mission at Lichtenau, Ohio. 1777-1778.

Box 37, Reel 9.  Moravian Church Archives, Bethlehem, PA. (Copy of notes accessed at Conner Prairie Archive)

 

Denissen Volumes. Detroit Society for Genealogical Research, Detroit, Michigan. (Copy accessed at Conner Prairie Archive)

 

Dylan Rawles. “William Conner and the War of 1812”. Accessed at https://www.connerprairie.org/william-conner-and-the-war-of-1812/. 

 

“Early Days” by Rev. J. C. Fletcher in “The Indianapolis Daily News”, May 11th 1881, p. 2. Accessed at Newspapers.com.

 

Eli Lilly Map tracing and Letter October 2, 1934. Accessible on the F Drive: 

 

Indianapolis Gazette December 30th 1823

 

Indiana DNR, “Indigenous Peoples in Indiana”, accessed at https://www.in.gov/dnr/state-parks/cultural-resources-and-history/native-americans/#:~:text=William%20Henry%20Harrison%2C%20governor%20of,Fox%2C%20Sauk%2C%20and%20Creek.

 

Indiana State Library, “Treaty of St Mary’s”, accessed at https://blog.library.in.gov/treaty-of-st-marys/.

 

John F. Haines, History of Hamilton County, IN, p. 161.

 

Larson and Vanderstal, “Agent of Empire: William Conner on the Indiana Frontier, 1800-1855”, in Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 80, Issue 4, December 1984, p. 327-328.

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54507152/william-h.-conner

 

LEIGH DARBEE, “Fall Creek Massacre,” Encyclopedia of Indianapolis 1994,

(Revised March 2021)

https://indyencyclopedia.org/fall-creek-massacre-1824/ 

 

Robert F. Eldredge, Past and Present of Macomb County, Michigan. P.567-568.

 

Official website of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, “Removal History of the Delaware Tribe”, accessed at https://delawaretribe.org/services-and-programs/historic-preservation/removal-history-of-the-delaware-tribe/. 

 

Western Censor, June 18th 1823, page 58. Accessible online at https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/IH/

 

https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/Hoosiers-and-the-American-Story-ch-02.pdf 

 

William Conner, Indiana, U.S., Compiled Marriages 1802-1892, 30 Nov. 1820, Fayette, Indiana, accessed at Ancestry.com.

 

William Conner, 1840 Census, Accessed on Ancestry.com.