Remember Me When…

weekly columns

Almost all of us have them…a small collection of yearbooks from our school years that sparks nostalgia in our hearts every time we browse through them. For some Montgomery County students in the 1880s, they did not receive yearbooks but might have received an autograph book for their birthday or a holiday if they were […]

The Mystery of the Missing Grocer

weekly columns

True crime stories, both fictional and nonfictional, are popular at the Crawfordsville District Public Library, but my interest was snagged by a real “whodunit” I came across in a Crawfordsville letter. During the third week of March in 1857, a young man named William N. Organ received a letter from his childhood friend, Robert Rhea […]

Crawfordsville’s Greatest Showman | Lew Graham’s Private Life (Part 2)

The “fannnnntastic and marrrrvelous” Lew Graham, Crawfordsville’s greatest showman, built an impressive resume in the circus world but his private life was a little tumultuous. In between tours, he slipped back to Crawfordsville occasionally to visit his three sisters and two brothers-in-law. In 1894, he returned to Crawfordsville for a family emergency. His brother-in-law, John […]

Crawfordsville’s Greatest Showman | A Star is Born (Part 1)

The tale of Crawfordsville’s greatest showman begins on a warm day in 1875 when the John Robinson Circus wended its way through Crawfordsville in a splendid procession through the streets. An eight-year-old boy, Lew Graham, stood on the curb near his father’s dry goods store at the corner of Washington and Main streets to watch […]

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