Paula Dunn

From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn When I learned that the 2026 Herb of the Year was turmeric, my initial reaction was, “Oh. Great.” Not being into spicy food, I’ve never had occasion to use turmeric.  I do, however, know a few things about it. Turmeric comes from the rhizome of the plant, Curcuma…

From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn I know the term, “March Madness,” technically applies to the NCAA basketball tournament, but since this year’s IHSAA boys state basketball tournament is being held in March, too, I’m going to fudge a bit and call this a “Hamilton County March Madness Quiz” — In the spirit of…

From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn The idea for this Women’s History Month column has been percolating in my brain ever since last fall when I discovered that the first woman to serve on a Hamilton County jury didn’t do so until 1945. That’s 25 years AFTER other places in this state! (For the…

From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn When I wrote about the Neal family a few weeks ago, I deliberately included a mention of Reverend Jabez Neal, the first Neal to settle here, because even though he had nothing to do with the newspaper business, he left his own mark on this county. According to…

From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn Although Valentine’s Day is behind us, I recently ran across a story about a Valentine’s Day wedding in the February 15, 1926 Noblesville Daily Ledger that’s just too funny/weird to hold onto until next year. The bride, Ruby Buscher, was Noblesville’s City Clerk from 1922 to 1925, (She…

From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn Former State Senator Luke Kenley recently tipped me off to an alumni profile of Anne Neal Petri in the current issue of Harvard Magazine.  When Senator Kenley mentioned that Petri was Jim Neal’s daughter, I drew a blank for a moment. Then, it hit me that he was…

From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn This turned out to be another reader / this and that column. To begin, I have a correction to make. Larry Cloud pointed out that a person who’s celebrated their 90th birthday isn’t in their ninth decade. They’ve actually started on their tenth decade. He’s right. I checked.…

From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn Have you ever wondered why a couple of buildings on the south side of the courthouse square aren’t as tall as others on that block? The reason for that dates back to the year 1952. Seventy-four years ago last week, January 8, 1952, a contractor and his two…

From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn That recent spell of frigid temperatures took me back to my first experience working at Conner Prairie 50 years ago. (50 years? YIKES!) I was a volunteer during their 1975 Christmas celebration. I stood outside the Conner house and directed people toward the Village (aka Prairietown these days)…

This was supposed to be a reader column, but it’s really part reader and part “this and that.” After I wrote about Strawtown’s mounds, Ed Snyder emailed that he’d heard rumors other mounds had existed in this county at one time, but that they’d been lost to agriculture or used as levees along the river.…