Paula Dunn

By Paula Dunn A Glorious 1836 Fourth In 1976 With Hamilton County marking its bicentennial in 2023, I thought it would make an interesting column to describe how the Fourth of July was celebrated during the county’s centennial in 1923. I quickly discovered one big problem with my “brilliant idea.” Nothing special happened. No organized…

By Paula Dunn Why Did The Surveyor Dig A Hole In The Road? After I mentioned the Public Land Survey System or PLSS (actually, I’m told that should be USPLSS) recently, I heard from surveyor Gary Kent, who offered to answer some common questions related to the USPLSS. I have a slight acquaintance with that…

By Paula Dunn Washington Township Quiz As I noted a couple of weeks ago, the Hamilton County Bicentennial Commission is featuring Washington Township this month. Are you ready to test your knowledge of Washington Township history? 1. Who were Washington Township’s first settlers? 2. During World War I, Westfield’s George Van Camp and Sons canning…

By Paula Dunn Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines I was trying to come up with a topic for this week when I noticed the two biplanes flying over Noblesville and Cicero during the holiday weekend. They reminded me of an old newspaper article I’d run across a while back and filed away for an…

By Paula Dunn Memorial Day, 1963 With the Powers That Be seemingly intent on replacing most of the Noblesville I knew when I was growing up here in the 1960s and ‘70s, I’ve been feeling more than a little nostalgic lately. As a result, I decided this week to rev up the old time machine…

I often see stories in the old newspapers that remind me of something I learned a long time ago in my history classes — although circumstances are always changing, human nature never does. In other words, people in the past could be just as mischievous as anybody in 2023. I offer Exhibit A: The August…

By Paula Dunn Hamilton County Quiz, Adam Township Adams Township is the Hamilton County Bicentennial Commission’s featured township in May. That means it’s time for the Adams Township quiz! Here’s another chance to test your knowledge of Hamilton County history . . . 1. Sheridan wasn’t always known as Sheridan. What was it originally called?…

By Paula Dunn Continuing Hamilton County’s Early Quaker History . . . As might be expected, the county’s greatest concentration of Friends was in Washington Township, with Westfield at the center of the “Rainbow of Peace.” Founded by Quakers, Westfield held its first organized Friends meeting in 1834. The website quakermeetings.com shows three entries for…