1860-1869 Timeline of Allen County, Indiana

Fort Wayne city directories start in 1858 with business and city resident addresses. Public domain copies before 1923 are listed on the City Directories page and embeded within the Timeline pages.

1861 - 1862 - 1863 - 1864 - 1865 - 1866 - 1867 - 1868 - 1869

1860

Fort Wayne, Indiana, city directory 1860 by R.L. Polk & Co. cn on Archive.org

1860, February 23

Hon. Abe Lincoln and wife

1860 Abe Lincoln and wife change cars at this city in Dawson's Fort Wayne Weekly TimesFort Wayne, Indiana, Wednesday, February 29, 1860, Page 2, StanFollisFW, May 6, 2022 on Newspapers.com.

Abraham Lincoln made a brief stop at the Pennsylvania Railroad station. While he was making his way to New York to deliver his famous Cooper Union Address - the speech that assured his nomination as the Republican candidate - Lincoln stopped in Fort Wayne in the dead of night to change trains. There is no evidence that he ever left the station - it was 1 a.m. - and only a brief notice in Dawson's Daily Times of Fort Wayne noted his passing: "Hon. Abe Lincoln and wife came from the west this morning at 1 o'clock, on the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad, and changing cars at this city, went east." Copied from 'Ole Abe' rides the rails Old train stations sadly reflect Fort Wayne's past by Michael Hawfield from the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper.

Lincoln came through a few days later for a second visit on his way back to Illinois. From Abe Lincoln's enduring Hoosier legacy at 150 years April 14, 2015 in The Journal Gazette newspaper archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

1860, April 3 - the first Pony Express riders left St. Joseph, Missouri, bound for California.

1860, June 1 - the census enumerator, started recording the 8th U.S. Federal Census in Washington Township.

1860, October 2 - Presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas running against Abraham Lincoln came to Fort Wayne. Formerly found on From 148 Years Ago Today… by Stephen Parker posted on October 2, 2008 on the Around Fort Wayne blog.

Stephen A. Douglas and the Presidential Campaign of 1860 in Fort Wayne published on October 25, 2018 on YouTube
Presented by the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library
This talk will discuss the presidential election of 1860 particularly as it relates to Fort Wayne, Indiana. It will focus especially on the appearance of Stephen Douglas in Fort Wayne on October 2, 1860, and the racial hatred that was expressed during that visit as well as the social divide that existed in the community at that time.

1861-1865 - the Civil War with the massive loss of 750,000 lives, whether killed in battle or death from disease were often buried in unknown locations, was the stimulus for realizing the need for government veteran cemeteries and keeping better government records.

1860-1865: Despite deep disagreements over slavery and the Civil War, Allen County sends 4,103 men to the Union Army, losing 489. Soldiers are mustered and trained at Camp Allen, on the northwest bank of the St. Marys River just south of Main Street. Copied from 1000 TO 1900 Millennium milestones in Fort Wayne in the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper.

1860, October 30 - The relations of the federal government to slavery. Speech of Joseph K. Edgerton. Delivered at Fort Wayne, Ind., October 30th 1860 .. - Edgerton, Joseph Ketchum, 1818-1893, Birney Anti-Slavery Collection Archive.org.

1860, December 20 - South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union. See posters posted December 20, 2016 on National Museum of American History on Facebook.

Back to top

1861

Fort Wayne, Indiana City Directory Year 1861-1862 R.L. Polk & Co. cn
Fort Wayne, Indiana, city directory (Volume 1861-1862)
- R.L. Polk & Co. cn - duplicate

1861: Construction begins on another brick courthouse, the county's third courthouse. Copied from 1000 TO 1900 Millennium milestones in Fort Wayne in the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper

1861, April 12 - Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina starting the Civil War. Read more Fort Sumter: The Civil War Begins on theSmithsonian National Museum of American History blog.

1861, April 15 - Governor Oliver P. Morton called for volunteers to join the Union Army. In a telegram to President Lincoln Governor Oliver offered to send 10,000 Indiana soldiers to help enforce the laws of the United States at the beginning of the Civil War. Posted April 15, 2016 on Twitter by Indiana Bicentennial Commission on Facebook.

1861, May 7 - Thomas Hubler, born in Fort Wayne, a Civil War Union Soldier was the youngest Civil War soldier to serve the longest amount of time in the Union army. He enlisted, at the age of 9, on as a drummer in the 12th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He later re-enlisted for three more years. At the end of his service young Tommy was not yet 14 years old. 

1861, July 21 - First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas in Prince William County, Virginia near the city of Manassas was the first major battle of the Civil War.

1861, October 24 - Transcontinental telegraph was completed. Three years later in 1864 a young Thomas Edison was a telegraph operator for a railroad in Fort Wayne!

October 24, 2022 post by The Founding of the United States on Facebook:

On This Day in History > October 24, 1861
Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line

"On October 24, 1861, workers of the Western Union Telegraph Company link the eastern and western telegraph networks of the nation at Salt Lake City, Utah, completing a transcontinental line that for the first time allows instantaneous communication between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. Stephen J. Field, chief justice of California, sent the first transcontinental telegram to President Abraham Lincoln, predicting that the new communication link would help ensure the loyalty of the western states to the Union during the Civil War.

The push to create a transcontinental telegraph line had begun only a little more than year before when Congress authorized a subsidy of $40,000 a year to any company building a telegraph line that would join the eastern and western networks. The Western Union Telegraph Company, as its name suggests, took up the challenge, and the company immediately began work on the critical link that would span the territory between the western edge of Missouri and Salt Lake City.

The obstacles to building the line over the sparsely populated and isolated western plains and mountains were huge. Wire and glass insulators had to be shipped by sea to San Francisco and carried eastward by horse-drawn wagons over the Sierra Nevada. Supplying the thousands of telegraph poles needed was an equally daunting challenge in the largely treeless Plains country, and these too had to be shipped from the western mountains. Indians also proved a problem. In the summer of 1861, a party of Sioux warriors cut part of the line that had been completed and took a long section of wire for making bracelets. Later, however, some of the Sioux wearing the telegraph-wire bracelets became sick, and a Sioux medicine man convinced them that the great spirit of the “talking wire” had avenged its desecration. Thereafter, the Sioux left the line alone, and the Western Union was able to connect the East and West Coasts of the nation much earlier than anyone had expected and a full eight years before the transcontinental railroad would be completed."

History.com Editors

October 24, 2023 post by The Library of Congress on Facebook:

Today in History: Transcontinental telegraph completed, 1861; United Nations charter ratified, 1945 #otd #tihToday in History - October 24

The Transcontinental Telegraph and the End of the Pony Express On October 24, 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph system was completed by Western Union, making it possible to transmit messages rapidly (by mid-nineteenth-century standards) from coast to coast. This technological advance, pioneered by inventor Samuel F. B. Morse, heralded the end of the Pony Express. Only two days later, on October 26, the horseback mail service that had previously provided the fastest means of communication between the eastern and western United States officially closed. Copied from Today in History - October 24 at The Library of Congress.

[Three years later in 1864 a young Thomas Edison was a telegraph operator for a railroad in Fort Wayne!]

1862

No separate city directory is a combined 1861-1862 volume.

1862 military taps written for funerals - need more information.

1862 - the Bureau of Internal Revenue, later renamed the Internal Revenue Service, was created to record tax assessments.

1862, February - The Battle Hymn of the Republic The lyrics to Julia Ward Howe’s patriotic classic premiered in the February 1862 issue of The Atlantic. By Julia Ward Howe. The Battle Hymn of the Republic on page 10, The Atlantic Monthly Vol. IX - February 1862 - No. LII. The Battle hymn of the republic lyrics at The Library of Congress.

1862, February 22

ON THIS DAY // On February 22, 1862, the first group of Confederate soldiers arrived at Camp Morton prison in...

Posted by Indiana Bicentennial Commission on Monday, February 22, 2016

February 22, 2016 post by the Indiana Bicentennial Commission on Facebook:

ON THIS DAY // On February 22, 1862, the first group of Confederate soldiers arrived at Camp Morton prison in Indianapolis, Indiana. The camp was located in the area bordered by 19th and 22nd Streets and Talbott Street and Central Avenue. You can learn more about the history of this Civil War prison by reading:

#OTD in 1862, railroad cars carrying Confederate soldiers captured during the Battle of Fort Donelson arrived in...

Posted by Indiana Historical Bureau on Thursday, February 22, 2024

February 22, 2024 post by the Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:

#OTD in 1862, railroad cars carrying Confederate soldiers captured during the Battle of Fort Donelson arrived in Indianapolis. The prisoners disembarked and marched under guard to Camp Morton. The location was originally the state’s fairgrounds before becoming a mobilization point for Indiana recruits for the Union Army. The anti-Republican Daily State Sentinel described the Confederate POWs as follows: “Some looked sorry, some looked sick, some looked as if they didn’t care and others appeared in good humor. . . They had gone through a battle and had traveled hundreds of miles . . . We noticed a great majority of them were young men, many of them in fact mere boys.” The camp reportedly could take 3,000 prisoners, but 3,700 arrived instead. Many prisoners died that first winter. Over 1,700 soldiers died at the camp before the last prisoners were paroled in 1865.

Learn more about Camp Morton here: Camp Morton 1861-65

Pictured are prisoners at Camp Morton circa 1863, courtesy of the Indiana State Archives.

1862, February 25 - Congress passed the Legal Tender Act making paper money the means of paying the government's considerable Civil War bills with something other than gold or silver. Greenbacks then became a means of exchange for all private transactions. Since 1690 paper money was promissory notes from some governing body to repay the value promised.

1862, March 10 - first issue of U.S. government paper money with $5, $10, and $20 bills. From March 10, 2015 Tweet by Ancestry.com.

1862, April 6

On April 6, 1862, the Battle of Shiloh began. The 44th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, comprised of soldiers from Steuben,...

Posted by Indiana Historical Bureau on Friday, April 6, 2018

April 7, 2018 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:

On April 6, 1862, the Battle of Shiloh began. The 44th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, comprised of soldiers from Steuben, Allen, Kosciusko, Noble, Whitley, DeKalb, LaGrange, and Elkhart counties, suffered the highest number of casualties among Indiana regiments in the two day battle. Of 478 men engaged, the regiment suffered 212 casualties including thirty-four killed, 177 wounded, and one missing. The regiment earned the nickname the “Iron Forty-four” as it engaged Confederates in some of the deadliest areas of the battlefield, including the Hornet’s Nest, the Peach Orchard, and the Bloody Pond.

Read more about the Battle of Shiloh at Hoosier State Chronicles newspapers.

Read more about the "Iron Forty-Four" at the Historical Marker Database.

1862, April 22 - Congress establishes the U.S. Mint in Denver, Colorado. Why Denver? That's where private companies already were minting gold coins and ingots out of the gold dust brought by miners during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. From WhatWasThere April 22, 2013 on Facebook.

1862, May 6 - poet Henry David Thoreau died at the age of 44.

1862, May 20 - President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law on May 20, 1862. The law provided for settlers to claim 160 acres of public land, and, if they lived on the property for five years and improved the land, they could own the property for a filing fee. Such a policy had been discussed in Congress for the preceding decade, but southern slaveholding states opposed the idea on the grounds that it would mean the eventual admission of additional free states into the Union. With the secession of slave states in 1861, Republicans in Congress were able to pass the bill. Copied from a May 20, 2022 post by the Lincoln Collection at the Allen County Public Libraryon Facebook.

1862, June 19 - Slavery is outlawed in U.S. territories.

1862, July 17 - Act US Congress allowed Union army veterans to become naturalized citizens after living in the United States for only 1 year, instead of the usual seven years before naturalizing. In Indiana, white men 18 to 45 years of age were subjected to the draft, however, those who could afford to pay a $200 commutation fee could get out of service. According to the Indiana Magazine of History, drafted men would be considered physically unfit for service under the following circumstances: "Loss or imperfect vision of the right eye. Loss of all the front teeth and enough of the molars to render mastication imperfect. Large or frequent attacks of hemorrhoids [sic]; or chronic diarrhea. Deformitites [sic] which impair free motion of the limbs. Loss of more than one finger of the right or more than two fingers of the left hand. Large varicose veins above the knee. Large or irreducible hernia. All organic or functional diseases causing marked debility - heart disease, or organic diseases of the lungs." In 3 drafts between 1862 and 1865, 44,161 Hoosiers were drafted into the army. After all exemptions, deserters, and substitutes, 10,822 men were sent to the war front as a result of these drafts. In comparison, the total number of Hoosiers who served in the Civil War was 208,348, meaning that 91.5 percent of Hoosiers who served volunteered for service. Learn more about conscription and the draft in Indiana during the Civil War with the Indiana Magazine of History: CONSCRIPTION AND DRAFT IN INUIANA DURING THE CIVIL WAR Copied from an October 3, 2018 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook. Which included an image showing a certificate of exemption from the Civil War and is courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute.

1862, July 18 - Confederate Brigadier General Adam R. "Stovepipe" Johnson led a band of men across the Ohio River from Kentucky to Newburgh, Indiana. The raid, resulting in the seizure of Union weapons and the release of Confederate POWs, shocked Hoosiers. Disappointed with the performance of his militia, Governor Oliver Morton returned to Indianapolis and devoted much time to improving militia equipment and training, and extending the telegraph network along the exposed Ohio River.  Learn more in  Adam Johnson’s Raid On Newburgh by George Geib published July 18, 2018 on the Indiana Historical Bureaublog. Copied from July 18, 2018 Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook.

1862, September 22 - President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.

1862, November 4 - Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling a medical doctor patented his Gatling gun. He was living in Indianapolis and was better known for inventing planting machines which greatly increased crop yields. His first practical machine gun was built in 1861. It was based on his wheat drill. Read more in the November 4, 2015 Facebook post by the Indiana Bicentennial Commission on Facebook.

1862, December 31 - President Lincoln officially signed the bill into law that West Virginia was to be created as a state. 

Back to top

1863

No 1863 Fort Wayne city directory

1863, January 1 -the Emancipation Proclamation brought freedom to the slaves in the Confederacy. See our Slavery and African American information.

December 30, 2012 post by the US National Archives on Facebook:

Starting today, the Emancipation Proclamation will be on display until Tuesday, January 1, at the National Archives. www.EP150.com

But the Emancipation Proclamation did not free all the slaves.

On April 25, 1864, Annie Davis, an enslaved woman living in Maryland, wrote a brief but touching letter to President Abraham Lincoln, asking if she was free.

"Mr. President It is my Desire to be free. to go to see my people on the eastern shore. my mistress wont let me you will please let me know if we are free. and what I can do. I write to you for advice. please send me word this[?] week. or as soon as possible. and oblidge. Annie Davis"Despite the expansive wording of the proclamation, which stated ”that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious areas ”are, and henceforward shall be free,” the Emancipation Proclamation was limited. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union and it excused parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most importantly, the freedom it promised depended upon a Union military victory.

The Emancipation Proclamation also failed to apply to the slave-holding border states that had remained loyal to the Union, such as Maryland.

No reply from the President has been located. The answer to Davis’s question, however, would have been ”no.” Since Maryland was a border state loyal to the Union, slavery existed there until November 1, 1864.

The following year, however, the 13th Amendment finished the work of freeing the slaves by abolishing slavery.

Also on the Prologue blog.

Read more at About The Emancipation Proclamation at the National Archives and The Emancipation Proclamation An Act of Justice and an essay by John Hope Franklin in the Summer of 1993 in The Prologue.

December 2, 2022 post by The Library of Congress on Facebook:

"Emancipation," starring Will Smith, arrives in theaters today. The film was inspired by a story published in Harper's Weekly magazine in 1863, the same year the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

The article featured illustrations (based on photographs) of a man identified as Gordon, who was said to have reached a Union Army encampment in Baton Rouge in March 1863 after escaping the custody of his enslaver in Mississippi and running for days on end. "In order to foil the scent of the bloodhounds who were chasing him he took from his plantation onions, which he carried in his pockets," the article states. "After crossing each creek or swamp he rubbed his body freely with these onions, and thus, no doubt frequently threw the dogs off the scent."

The most widely circulated of these images, which shows the scarring on Gordon's back from being whipped, helped illustrate the brutality of slavery to the masses, which historians say fueled a growing public opposition to it. The article goes on to say that Gordon (sometimes referred to as Peter, Smith's character's name in the new film) later joined the Union Army himself. The film follows Peter's journey from his escape to his enlistment.

There are many more Civil War-era photos & documents to explore in the Library's Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs & President Lincoln papers (Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress).

See this issue of Harper's Weekly in our Slavery section.

January 2, 2024 post by the US National Archives on Facebook:

On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

The original Emancipation Proclamation is part of the holdings of the National Archives. The document was originally kept in a volume of proclamations and transferred in 1936 from the Department of State.

The proclamation had its national public debut in 1947 when it was included in the Freedom Train exhibit, which traveled across the United States from September 1947 until January 1949.

The Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the United States, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states and expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most importantly, the freedom it promised depended upon the Union’s military victory.

But as a milestone along the road to slavery's final destruction, the Emancipation Proclamation has assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom. The Emancipation Proclamation will be on permanent display in the Rotunda of the National Archives Building soon.

Shogan Announces Plans for Permanent Emancipation Proclamation Display

Learn more about the Emancipation Proclamation on our Featured Documents page:

The Emancipation Proclamation

Image 1: Page one of the Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863. National Archives Identifier 299998.

#EmancipationProclamtion #CivilWar #archives #SallyFickland #FreedomTrain #History #Lincoln

1863 - The peace party and its policy. Speech of Isaac Jenkinson, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, March 16, 1863 - Jenkinson, Isaac. [from old catalog] Archive.org.

1863: The city's first police force and first labor unions are organized. Copied from 1000 TO 1900 Millennium milestones in Fort Wayne in the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper

1863, May 2 - The Journal Gazette newspaper was founded to support Abraham Lincoln and oppose slavery. 150 years later in 2013 The Journal Gazette newspaper celebrated 150 Years of News with historic front pages and a special pull-out section of the newspaper.

1863, June 20 - West Virginia is admitted to the Union as the 35th state after splitting off from Virginia during the Civil War.

1863, July 1 - the Battle of Gettysburg commenced and lasted 3 days. More than 165,000 Union and Confederate troops fought on that ground, and by July 3rd more than 50,000 of them were casualties, including as many as 9,000 dead. The Union victory at Gettysburg reinvigorated the North’s war effort, and the Confederate defeat demoralized the South. Copied from a July 2, 2013 post and similar November 19, 2022 post by the Lincoln Collection on Facebook.

July 2, 2023 post by the Lincoln Collection on Facebook:

The Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 was the largest landmark battle fought in the Civil War. Confederate General Robert E. Lee hoped to change Northern politics by moving his troops out of war-ravaged Virginia into bountiful Pennsylvania farm country. As a countermeasure, Union General George Meade commanded a 90,000-man army to prevent Lee's troops from entering Washington, D.C. Anticipating Confederate movements, Union troops set up hasty lines of defense northwest of Gettysburg, but retreated south after intense assaults broke out July 1st. They regrouped on July 2nd with a fuller army and held their defensive line through a series of bitter confrontations with Confederate forces. On July 3rd, after weathering a 150-gun bombardment, Union troops repulsed a charge of 12,500 Confederate infantrymen. Union victory forced Lee to retreat back into Virginia, but the victory was costly. With 8,000 deaths and 46,000 to 51,000 casualties, the Battle of Gettysburg became the deadliest battle in U.S. history.

From the Collection:

The Battle of Gettysburg: https://www.lincolncollection.org/search/results/item/...

George G. Meade: http://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/.../p15155.../id/4373/rec/20

Robert E. Lee: http://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/.../p15155.../id/1464/rec/18

Battle of Gettysburg; Union Square Panorama Company: https://www.lincolncollection.org/search/results/item/...

For three hot days, from July 1 to July 3, 1863, more than 150,000 soldiers from the armies of the United States of America and the Confederate States of America slashed at each other in the hills and through the fields around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

When the battered armies limped out of town after the brutal battle, they left scattered behind them more than seven thousand corpses in a town with fewer than 2500 inhabitants. With the heat of a summer sun beating down, the townspeople had to get the dead soldiers into the ground as quickly as they possibly could, marking the hasty graves with nothing more than pencil on wooden boards.

A local lawyer, David Wills, who had huddled in his cellar with his family and their neighbors during the battle, called for the creation of a national cemetery in the town, where the bodies of the United States soldiers who had died in the battle could be interred with dignity. Officials agreed, and Wills and an organizing committee planned an elaborate dedication ceremony to be held a few weeks after workers began moving remains into the new national cemetery. Partial copy from a longer November 19, 2022 post by political historican Heather Cox Richardson on Facebook.

1863, July 3

July 3, 2023 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:

#OTD in 1863, the bloody three-day Battle of Gettysburg ended, effectively halting Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the North. The Iron Brigade, originally composed of the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin and 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiments, suffered such massive casualties that army command was forced to brigade other regiments with these veterans to make up for their severe lack of numbers. These new regiments were composed of easterners from Pennsylvania and New York, and the Iron Brigade’s western identity was no more. The brigade’s original regiments continued to fight through the end of the conflict in 1865, and their reputation remained intact. Learn more through the National Park Service: UNION INDIANA VOLUNTEERS 19th Regiment, Indiana Infantry

The image below of the 19th Indiana Iron Brigade by Don Troiani is courtesy of gettysburgframeandgallery.com.

1863, July 9 - over 2,000 Confederate soldiers under command of John Hunt Morgan attacked about 400 Indiana militia and citizen volunteers outside Corydon, Indiana. The "Battle of Corydon" was the only Civil War clash on Indiana soil. Morgan and his raiders were captured July 26 near Salineville, Ohio. Held in the Ohio Penitentiary, Morgan and six of his officers escaped in late November, and he was killed by Union troops in 1864 in Tennessee. See newspaper article posted July 9, 2017 and following days on Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebookwith links to July 11, 1863 Jasper Weekly Courier newspaper in Hoosier State Chronicles  and Margrette Boyer's article Morgan's Raid in Indiana in Volume 8 Issue 4 of the December 1912  Indiana Magazine of History. July 10, 1863 raid through Salem as reported by the Evansville Daily Journal in Hoosier State Chronicles. July 11, 1863 the Jasper Weekly Courier newspaper in Hoosier State Chronicles about a raid at Vernon. July 12, 1863 300 militamen were captured at Vincennes reported in the Indiana Daily State Sentinel in Hoosier State Chronicles.

1863, July 16 - woman tarred and feathered near Leo from Dawson's Daily Times and Union newspaper.

Woman tarred and feathered near Leo

1863, September 28

November 28, 2019 post by Lincoln Collection on Facebook:

Sarah J. Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the "day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival." Before this, each state scheduled its own Thanksgiving holiday at different times. Lincoln responded to Mrs. Hale's request immediately, making the last Thursday in November a day of Thanksgiving and Praise. Happy Thanksgiving from the Lincoln Collection!

1863, October 3

November 22, 2012 post by The National Civil War Museum on Facebook:

President Lincoln Proclaimed Thanksgiving a National Holiday on October 3rd, 1863. The proclamation stated that the fourth Thursday in November "set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of "Thanksgiving." Enjoy this day wherever you are and give “Thanks”

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pages 776-777 of Volume 8 of the Harper's Weekly at Archive.org
This is also online as Harper's weekly. v.8 18 at HathiTrust.org. This image was posted November 24, 2022 by the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection where they stated: We here at the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! Did you know that Thanksgiving was not a national holiday until 1863, meaning that there wasn’t a set date for the observance? Each state scheduled its own Thanksgiving holiday on different dates, especially those in New England and the Northern States. Lincoln was not the first president to declare a day of Thanksgiving. In 1789, George Washington proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving, which was issued on October 3, exactly 74 years before Lincoln declared his own proclamation. Lincoln declared that the last Thursday of November was to be “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” By selecting a determined day and month, Lincoln hoped that this would be an opportunity to normalize the differences across states, especially during the time of war and chaos. Lincoln had hoped that this would be a wholly united day of thanks.

The Myth of Thanksgiving: Native American Perspectives on The Pilgrims | Past Forward by American Experience | PBS Streamed live on Nov 18, 2020 on YouTube
Inspired by the 2015 film The Pilgrims, American Experience presents a special discussion sharing Native American perspectives on the arrival of European settlers in New England 400 years ago. The conversation will examine the experiences of Native populations at the time of the settlers’ arrival, what is actually known about the first Thanksgiving, and how native tribes see themselves in today’s construction of the United States.
The discussion will be moderated by Yvonne Russo, a filmmaker and member of the Sicangu Lakota Tribal Nation.
Featuring:
Linda Coombs, Aquinnah Wampanoag, historian and independent scholar
Cassius Spears, a Knowledge Keeper and Narragansett Tribal Member.

  1. Library of Congress Happy Thanksgiving November 25, 2012 blog by Kelly Buchanan.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau History: Thanksgiving - November 19
  3. 74 years earlier, in 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation designating November 26 of that year as a national day of thanksgiving to recognize the role of providence in creating the new United States and the new federal Constitution. From Thanksgiving on George Washington's Mount Vernon.
  4. Thanksgiving in the News- Periodically Speaking by Jennifer Harbster published November 25, 2014 at the The Library of Congress.
  5. Rethinking Thanksgiving: Restorative ways to process a complicated holiday in Fort Wayne by Lauren Caggiano | Wednesday, November 16, 2022 in Input Fort Wayne. For more see Indians - Native Americans of Allen County, Indiana.
  6. November 17, 2022 a long post with several photos by Input Fort Wayne on Facebook begins with: As Thanksgiving approaches, some Americans might have mixed feelings about the holiday. While it can be an occasion to gather and reflect with family and friends, some find themselves grappling with inaccurate and harmful folklore of “pilgrims and Indians,” masking the harsh reality of U.S. history. referencing the Rethinging article above.
  7. The Myths of the Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage They Imbue In truth, massacres, disease and American Indian tribal politics are what shaped the Pilgrim-Indian alliance at the root of the holiday by Claire Bugos posted November 26, 2019 on Smithsonian Magazine and shared November 19, 2022 by Smithsonian Magazine on Facebook.
  8. In the November 23, 2022 (Wednesday) by political historian Heather Cox Richardson in Letters from an American , and November 23, 2022 post on Facebook, she writes how Thanksgiving itself came from a time of violence: the Civil War. She states: In 1841 a book that reprinted the early diaries and letters from the Plymouth colony recovered the story of that three-day celebration in which ninety Indigenous Americans and the English settlers shared fowl and deer. This references Chronicles of the Pilgrim fathers of the colony of Plymouth, from 1602-1625 by Young, Alexander, 1800-1854, Publication date 1841 which is online at Archive.org and Chronicles of the Pilgrim fathers of the colony of Plymouth, from 1602-1625. Now first collected from original records and contemporaneous printed documents, and illustrated with notes at The Library of Congress.
  9. November 24, 2022 post by Myaamia Center on Facebook: · nahi wiihsiniko pileewa akiišikomi, ‘eat well on Turkey Day!’ The staff at the Myaamia Center hopes everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend. Check out this post on Aacimotaatiiyankwi to learn terms for talking about Turkey Day in Myaamiaataweenki, the ‘Miami language’ and access additional resources about the Thanksgiving holiday. pileewa akiišikomi (Turkey’s Day) posted by George Ironstrack on November 25, 2015 at Aacimotaatiiyankwi. For more see Indians - Native Americans of Allen County, Indiana.
  10. November 22, 2023 post by Smithsonian Magazine on Facebook:

    Certain turkeys are native to this country, but the holiday bird commonly eaten today is typically American in a way many people don't suspect—it's descended from immigrants.

    Your Thanksgiving Turkey Is a Quintessentially American Bird: An Immigrant The turkeys common on U.S. tables descended from a Mexican species and were originally bred for Maya rituals, Brian Handwerk, Science Correspondent, November 24, 2015

1863, November 19 - Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Addressat the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

1863, December 12 - beginning of the Fort Wayne Police Department. Fort Wayne's police force was first organized when Conrad Penn was appointed over a night watch of three men. They patrolled from sundown to dawn. At this time the population was 12,000. The The Fort Wayne Daily Sentinel commended the Night Watch on December 12, 1863 when it stated, "Well done thou good and faithful servants for their fine work in the community." From Department History - Fort Wayne Police Department.

Back to top

1864

Fort Wayne, Indiana, city directory (Volume yr.1864-65) - R.L. Polk & Co. cn
Williams' Fort Wayne Directory, city guide and business mirror, for 1864-1865 (Volume yr.1864-1865)
Williams' Fort Wayne Directory, city guide and business mirror, for 1864-1865 (Volume yr.1864-1865) - duplicate

1864 - newspaper ad for Orphans Home and Fort Wayne Hospital northwest corner Wayne and Webster - Bernard Rekers proprietor from Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1864

March 9, 2017 post by Allen County Public Library on Facebook.

Did you know Thomas Edison lived in Fort Wayne? He lived on the Landing at Columbia and Calhoun streets in 1864 when he was 17 years old while working as a telegraph operator for the railroad. That building was torn down in 1980.

Thomas Edison in Fort Wayne published July 12, 2016 and The Landing and Columbia Street published April 11, 2013 both by Tom Castaldi, local historianin the History Center Notes & Queries blog.

 

1864, April 22 - Congress passed The Coinage Act of 1864, a United States federal law, changing the composition of coins and adding the phrase In God We Trust. Read the story Liberty – In God We Trust on Coins on the Accessible Archives blog April 22, 2013 by JD THOMAS.

1864, June

June 15, 2022 post by Fold3 on Facebook:

In June 1864, a new military burial ground opened on the grounds of Robert E. Lee's estate in Arlington. Today, some 400,000 veterans and their eligible dependents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington National Cemetery opens - June 1864from Newspapers.com.

1864, August 2

August 2, 2023 post by the Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:

#OTD in 1864, Civil War Major General Henry Ware Lawton commanded Company A of the 30th Indiana Infantry during the Battle of Atlanta. He was awarded a Medal of Honor for leading a “charge of skirmishers against enemy rifle pits and… successfully resisted two determined attacks of the enemy to retake the works.” After the Civil War, Lawton continued serving in the US military until his death in 1899 during the Philippine-American War.

Read more about General Lawton here: Henry Ware Lawton Flawed Giant and Hero of Four Wars by Steven L. Ossad

Pictured below is General Lawton, courtesy of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

1864, September 19 - President Lincoln wrote a letter to Gen. William T. Sherman requesting the temporary release of Indiana soldiers so that the men could return home to vote in the upcoming state election on the 11th of October, which Lincoln believed was crucial to the war effort. See the letter posted September 19, 2018 by Lincoln Collection on Facebook.

1865

No separate city directory was a combined 1864-1865 directory

The life of Mason Long, the converted gambler : being a record of his experience as a white slave, a soldier in the Union Army, a professional gambler, a patron of the turf, a variety theater and minstrel manager, and, finally, a convert to the Murphy cause, and to the gospel of Christ (1887) - Long, Mason, 1842-1903, of Fort Wayne, Indiana on Archive.org.
Dozens of references to memories from 1865 in Fort Wayne.

1865: The Kekiongas baseball team is organized. By 1871, it has become state champion and begun playing in the National League. City residents are said to have gone baseball crazy. Copied from 1000 TO 1900 Millennium milestones in Fort Wayne in the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper.

1865: Three blocks on Columbia Street and three on Calhoun become the city's first paved streets. Copied from 1000 TO 1900 Millennium milestones in Fort Wayne in the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper.

1865 - The Indiana State Fair was held on the north bank of the St. Marys in Lawton Park, and for many years, the Allen County Fair was also held on this river just west of downtown in what is now Swinney Park. Copied from September 24, 2018 Tweet by Riverfront Fort Wayne. After the Civil War ended in 1865 into the 1870's Fort Wayne was home to sixty saloons which thought to be the root of the growth of a criminal underworld in the city. One big player in that criminal underworld was Ed Ryan. Ryan and his gang set up shop at a saloon situated on Railroad Street. From this saloon, the gang members would prey upon the unsuspecting travelers who were new to the city. Read the rest of the story copied from an April 25, 2017 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook. Read more in Crime and Crinoline by Bessie K. Roberts published in Volume 41, Issue 4, December 1945 Indiana Magazine of History published online by the Indiana University Department of History.

1865 - Our national and financial future (1865) - McCulloch, Hugh, 1808-1895, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Address at Fort Wayne, Indiana October 11, 1865 on Archive.org.

1865, January 31 - the 13th Amendment to the Constitution formally abolished slavery in the United States.

1865, March 5 - Indiana accepted the provisions of the Morrill Land Act, which turned public lands over to any state that agreed to use the land sale proceeds to maintain a college teaching agriculture and the "mechanic arts." Read more posted March 5, 2015 on Indiana Bicentennial Commission on Facebook.

1865, March 6 - President Abraham Lincoln nominated Hugh McCulloch of Fort Wayne to become secretary of the Treasury. He continued to serve in the cabinet after Lincoln's assassination and throughout President Andrew Johnson’s administration. As secretary, McCulloch "maintained a policy of reducing the federal war debt and the careful reintroduction of federal taxation in the South" (according to the U.S. Treasury Dept.). McCulloch also fought a losing battle to conquer Reconstruction era inflation by returning U.S. currency to the gold standard. In 1884, President Chester Arthur tapped McCulloch again to serve as secretary for the final four months of his administration. Copied from the March 6, 2018 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook

1865, April 9 - Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, effectively ending the American Civil War. See Ulysses S. Grant's chair from Appomattox at Smithsonian National Museum of American History blog

1865, April 14 - Good Friday - President Abraham Lincoln and his wife were enjoying a performance at Ford’s Theatre when prominent Southern actor John Wilkes Booth entered the President’s box and shot him in the back of the head. Lincoln was brought across the street to a house owned by the Petersen family, where he lay unconscious in a back room until passing away at 7:22 a.m. the following morning. From Biography of Abraham Lincoln on FordsTheatre.org. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. Read more in Life and Death in the White House on Smithsonian National Museum of American History blog. Today in History - April 14 wanted poster and more at The Library of Congress.

1865, April 14 - President Abraham Lincoln assassination images.

April 14, 2023 post by the Lincoln Collection on Facebook:

On April 14, 1865, around 9 p.m., President Lincoln, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, and their guests, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée, Clara Harris, arrived at Ford’s Theatre to watch the play Our American Cousin. The presidential box was supposed to be guarded by John Parker, a Washington, D.C., police officer, but he left his post to watch the play.

At 10 p.m. Booth rushed into the presidential box and shot the President in the back of the head. Booth then jumped onto the stage and shouted, “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” meaning “thus always to tyrants,” before fleeing from the theatre.

Lincoln was carried across the street to the Petersen House and at 7:22 a.m. the next day, President Lincoln was pronounced dead. Friends, politicians, and doctors attended him throughout the night while Mary was inconsolable in an adjoining room. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton remarked, “Now he belongs to the ages.” 

Read “The assassination and Death of Abraham Lincoln” here: https://www.lincolncollection.org/search/results/item/...

View more documents from the Assassination:

http://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/.../mode/exact/conn/and

View more photographs about the Assassination:

http://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/.../mode/exact/conn/and

Fold3 posted a photo of the private box April 14, 2023 on Facebook.

1865, April 15 - President Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 am in the Petersen House.

April 15, 2023 post by Heritage Documentation Programs, NPS on Facebook:

On this day in history, April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 am in the Petersen House. At his bedside, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton remarks, "Now he belongs to the ages."

SIGNIFICANCE

The Petersen House was built by William A. Petersen in 1849. The home was the scene of President Lincoln's death on April 15, 1865. Lincoln was brought to a small bedroom on the first floor after being shot by John Wilkes Booth while across the street at Ford's theater. The U.S. Government purchased the house in 1896 and placed it under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service thirty years later. Today it is known as the House Where Lincoln Died.

William A. Petersen House

516 Tenth Street Northwest

Washington, District of Columbia, DC

Jack E. Boucher, Photographer May 1968

Other Title: Ford's Theatre National Historic Site, House Where Lincoln Died

LEARN MORE

See the rest of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documentation of the house where Lincoln died in The Library of Congress at https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/dc0148/

#OTD #onthisdayinhistory #nationalparks #historichousemuseum #abrahamlincoln #habsphotograph #fordstheater #presevationthroughdocumentation #USPresidents

Newark Woman to Tell Nation of Witnessing Lincoln Shooting is on page 12 of Reminiscences about Abraham Lincoln by  Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection Publication date 1909 on Archive.org.

1865, April 15 - Fort Wayne Mayor Franklin P. Randall and city leaders gathered together to draft a series of resolutions and plans to honor President Lincoln and his family. Photos April 15, 2015, 150 years after the date, posted on Facebook by The History Center.

Gazette-Extra Lincoln announcement
Lincoln Collection image

1864, April 20 - a Gazette-Extra in the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette newspaper stated President Lincoln's Remains to stop at Fort Wayne. It said the remains were going to pass through Fort Wayne on their way to Springfield, Illinois via the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad that cannot stop only for a few minutes. Fort Wayne was to be the only prominent town in this State that was thus honored. From an August 15, 2022 post showing an original newspaper item titled: President Lincoln's Remains to Stop at Fort Wayne at the Lincoln Collection at the Allen County Public Library. Apparently the plan changed as the Lincoln Funeral Train did not go through Fort Wayne, but did go through Indianapolis on April 30, 1865 as discussed in The Lincoln Funeral Train in Indiana article by Jill Weiss Simins posted April 30, 2016 and remembered with a 2009 historical marker in Indianapolis titled The Lincoln Funeral Train both posted on the Indiana History Blog by the Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library.

1865, April 26 - John Wilkes Booth was killed when Union soldiers track him down at the Garrett farm in Virginia, 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater, Washington, DC. and a 12 day manhunt for Linoln's assassin came to an end when John Wilkes Booth refused to surrender and was shot by Sgt. Boston Corbett. Booth didn't die immediately from his wound and suffered an agonizing death. Davey Herold surrendered to authorities a moment before Booth was shot. See drawing and some of this information posted April 27, 2013 by the Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society on Facebook.

1865, April 30 - the Lincoln funeral train arrived in Indianapolis. His body lay in state in the rotunda of the old Capitol. An estimated 100,000 people passed by the funeral bier. See more at The Lincoln Funeral Train marker by the Indiana History Blog by the Indiana Historical Bureau of the Indiana State Library.

1865, May 9 - Civil War nurse Eliza "Mother" George, of Fort Wayne, died from a typhoid outbreak scarcely a month after the war ended.

1865, June 19 - Union troops under General Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced that the war was over and that slaves were free as a result of The Emancipation Proclamation that freed all enslaved people in the states and areas still active in the Confederacy as of January 1, 1863. Is now celebrated as Juneteenth. See History of Juneteenth on Juneteenth.com.

1865, October 24

October 25, 2023 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:

#OTD in 1865, 150 African American delegates, representing most Indiana counties, met at the African Methodist Church in Indianapolis to form the State Convention of the Colored People of Indiana. Their goal was to advance Black rights in the antebellum period. Convention delegates formed a Committee on Business and a Committee on Resolutions which pledged to “do all in our limited power to secure that intellectual and moral worth necessary to sustain a republican form of government, and for the encouragement of our race. We will petition the Legislature of this State, at its next session, to grant us access to the public school funds, and that we be permitted, with other men of other races, to testify in all cases before the courts of justice in this State."

Learn more about Black organizing and statewide conventions before and after the Civil War in Indiana: Colored Conventions Project

The Harper’s Weekly illustration is courtesy of the Indiana State Museum.

See our African Americans page.

1865, December 6 - the 13th Amendment that formally abolished slavery in the United States was passed by the Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865. See 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution web guide at The Library of Congress. neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. From Constitution (archives.gov) on Facebook and seen on OurDocuments.gov or 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery at the The National Archives. Is also Article 1, Section 37 of the Indiana Constitution which originated from Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. From Forth by Northwest Legacy of state's founding document in evidence today published March 17, 2017 in Democracy’s Primer The Journal Gazette newspaperand How the Northwest Ordinance Shaped Indiana both by Susan L. Firestone published March 16, 2017 by the Indiana Bar Foundation. See Current Indiana Constitution as amended 2016 on IN.gov.

Back to top

1866

1866, May 16 - Congress authorized minting of the nickel coin. Read A Brief History of the Nickel In honor of the coin’s 150th anniversary, read up on how the nickel came to be minted by Daniel A. Gross published April 28, 2016 on Smithsonian.com.

1866, June 13 - Honorable Judge Samuel Hanna’s funeral was held in Fort Wayne in the Hanna Homestead. The funeral was one of the largest ever seen in the region and was estimated by the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette to be attended by 4,000 people. Following the funeral, 1,200 people proceeded from the home to the family burial plot at Lindenwood Cemetery. Copied from a June 13, 2022 post with photos by The History Center  on Facebook.

1867

1867, January 23 - Indiana ratifies the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” including former slaves recently freed. It passed Congress June 13, 1866, and was ratified July 9, 1868. See 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution a Library of Congress Web Guide and read XIV Amendment on Archive.gov. Stephen Neal of Boone County, Indiana is given credit for writing the original draft of the document. Read  Stephen Neal AUTHOR OF THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE 14TH AMENDMENT by Indiana Department of Administration on in.gov.

1867: A disastrous spring flood inundates the city, covering the Nebraska neighborhood and going all the way north and east to Spy Run Creek. Copied from 1000 TO 1900 Millennium milestones in Fort Wayne in the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper.

The First ball team

1867 - the first baseball team played in Fort Wayne told by George Mayer in the July 17, 1899 Fort Wayne News newspaper posted July 16, 2013 onthe original Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana page on Facebook.

1876, March 30 - the U.S. signed a treaty with Russis to buy Alaska for $7 million

1867, June 3 - House Committee on the Judiciary, by a vote of 5 to 4, refused to send impeachment articles against President Andrew Johnson to the full House. Radical Republicans in the 40th Congress (1867–1869) were pitted in a power struggle with President Johnson over the shape of Reconstruction policy in the South. Copied from Impeachment efforts against President Andrew Johnson Historical Highlights on History, Art & Archives United States House of Representatives blog.

1867, March 30 - Secretary of State William Seward signed the Alaska Treaty buying Alaska for $7.2 million or 2 cents per acres. The 3rd of three big land grabs by the young United States, following the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Adams–Onís Treaty (1819). See Purchase of Alaska at U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.

1867, October 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 - Indiana State Fair at Terre Haute

August 21, 2017 post by the Indiana Genealogical Society on Facebook:

TREASURES AT THE STATE ARCHIVES // The Indiana State Archives holds records produced by the Indiana State Fair Commission as well as ephemera about the fair collected through the years. This full page print and accompanying article in Harper’s Weekly features the 1867 Indiana State Fair.

Harper’s Weekly, was an American political magazine based in NYC and known as “"A journal of civilization.”

The print features views of the fair, held in October in Terre Haute, Indiana, which was “the most successful ever held in that State,” with the Board of Agriculture clearing over $6,000, according to the article. Additionally, “real live Hoosiers” are pictured in the print.

The Harper’s staff attendance at the fair and complimentary article was prompted by the public response to a previous Harper’s Weekly issue that contained a caricature of Hoosiers received poorly: “Many were the indignant letters which we received from Hoosierdom…The real live Hoosier is a gentleman of taste, and culture, and refinement, and the women are beautiful and charming beyond description…”

This resource is also available online, digitized by The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection (Lincoln Library, Allen County Public Library) and hosted by the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/harpersweeklyv11bonn

Page 696, Indiana State Fair at Terre Haute in Harper's weekly 1867 at Archive.org

Back to top

1868

Fort Wayne, Indiana, city directory (Volume yr. 1868-69) - R.L. Polk & Co. cn
Fort Wayne, Indiana, city directory (Volume yr.1868-1869) - R.L. Polk & Co. cn- duplicate

1868-69: The city's first three hospitals, Hope, St. Joseph and Lutheran, are organized. Copied from 1000 TO 1900 Millennium milestones in Fort Wayne in the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper.

1868, July 9 - the 14th Amendment passed, giving full citizenship to African Americans. See African American Odyssey at The Library of Congress.

1868, May 30 - first observance of Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day in memory of those killed during the Civil War. Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land." The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. See Today in History - May 30 at The Library of Congress. You asked, we answered: Why do we celebrate Memorial Day? by Ryan Lintelman, publlished May 24, 2013 on National Museum of American History blog a Smithsonian Institution. We know you're curious. A Civil War military history researcher explains where Memorial Day celebrations came from. Memorial Day on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

May 29, 2023 post by The Library of Congress on Facebook:

Memorial Day, now a federal holiday observed on the final Monday of May, used to be known as Decoration Day, and was observed on May 30.

The tradition of gathering in cemeteries to decorate the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags began in the years following the Civil War, with many communities doing so independently of each other.

The first national observation of the holiday took place on May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery. At the turn of the century, it was designated as Memorial Day. In 1971, federal law changed the observance of the holiday to the last Monday in May and extended the honor to all soldiers who died in American wars. Today in History - May 30

Image: Daisies gathered for Decoration Day, May 30, 1899. Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

May 27, 2023 post by Fold3 on Facebook:

The GAR established Decoration Day in 1868 (though local celebrations were held earlier). Maj. Gen. John Logan chose May 30th because flowers were blooming across the country. The first large observance was held at Arlington National Cemetery. This Memorial Day weekend, we honor all Americans who gave their lives in sacrifice for our nation. (Photo from Arlington Cemetery in 1929).

May 31, 2021 post by Lincoln Collection on Facebook:

Originally known as "Decoration Day," Memorial Day went into affect after 1865. General John A. Logan called for a national day of remembrance for all the lives that the Civil War had claimed. The original date, May 30, was selected because it wasn't the anniversary of any particular battle. In 1971, Memorial Day was recognized as a federal holiday.

1868, June 23 - the typewriter was patented, by Christopher Sholes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1873, he sold the patent to the Remington Arms Co., a famous gun maker, for $12,000. The first commercial typewriter based on Sholes' design went on the market in 1874. For more information read Treasures of American History Industrial Change (page 2 of 2) on theSmithsonian National Museum of American History blog.

1868 July 9 or July 28 - 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratfied extending equal protection to all citizens including full citizenship to African Americans. See Wikipedia

1868, August 1 - the United States buys Alaska from Russia.

1869

There was no 1869 directory, it was a combined 1868-1869 directory

1869: The city's first African Methodist Episcopal Church is organized. Copied from 1000 TO 1900 Millennium milestones in Fort Wayne in the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper.

1869, May 6 - the Indiana General Assembly, under the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 for the creation of land-grant colleges accepted land and money from John Purdue to establish a school for the study of science, technology, and agriculture now known as Purdue University.

1869, May 10 - completion of the Transcontinental Railroad - four ceremonial gold and silver spikes were driven into a laurel wood railroad tie at Promontory Summit, northwest of Salt Lake City, Utah. See History of the Transcontinental Railroad This act joined 1,776 miles of rail belonging to the Union and Central Pacific railroads from The Golden Spike in the Transcontinental Railroad by Stephanie published June 20, 2013 on the The National Archivesblog.

1869, May 11 - Six years after the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), Governor Conrad Baker ... approved a law proclaiming all children of proper age, without regard to race or color, could attend segregated public schools. Laws of Indiana (special session), 1869, 41. from page 4 of African-American Education in Indiana State of Indiana by Researcher: John Taylor. Originally from a May 11, 2014 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook.

1869, May 13 - at a special session called by Governor Conrad Baker, and after much deliberation the Indiana General Assembly approved a law that admitted African American children to public schools. In a 1912 article for the Indiana Magazine of History, Professor Abram C. Shortridge noted that around 1862 the Indiana State Teachers' Association began to lobby for "colored schools," but lawmakers failed to take on the issue until 1867. Shortridge lamented that until the 1869 special session it looked as if “the black children were doomed to run the streets for another term of two years while their fathers and mothers continued to pay their taxes, by the aid of which the children of the more favored race were kept in school ten months of the year." He noted that shortly after the amendment passed, Indianapolis prepared to accommodate these students and reported, "[S]ome of the buildings already abandoned were repaired and refurnished; others were rented, properly seated and made quite comfortable. By the first of September we were ready for all who might apply." Posted May 13, 2019 by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook.

1869, May 14 - Indiana ratified the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which prohibits the denial of voting rights based upon race or color of skin. It became law in 1870. See The Controversial Fifteenth Amendment by the staff of the Indiana Magazine of History posted August 8, 2011. See May 14, 2019 post by the Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook.

1869, June 7 - Ives McGaffey patents the vacuum cleaner, a "sweeping machine." Sales of vacuum cleaners did not take off until the economic boom that followed the decade after the First World War (1914-1918). Read more and see a photo of a Hoover vacuum model 700A 1927 model at Vacuum on theSmithsonian National Museum of American History blog.

1869, October 4 - Fort Wayne Maennerchor/Damenchor the first German male chorus, established by German immigrants, was organized in Fort Wayne under the name of the Fort Wayne Sangerbund. Since its origin the chorus has been dedicated to the preservation and promotion of their German heritage as expressed in choral music. Read more of their History on their Website: https://fortwaynemaennerchor.us/

Back to top

Page updated: