Carmel Clay Historical Society

Carmel Clay Historical Society The Carmel Clay Historical Society collects, preserves, and interprets the history of Carmel. The Depot will soon be moving to a temporary location.
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The CCHS maintains the Monon Depot Museum located on the Monon Greenway one block south of Main Street. This decision was made to protect it from machines and materials needed for the construction of the new Carmel Clay History Museum. We will be thrilled when this new facility is close to completion and the Depot is returned to its spot along the Monon, where it will house an important exhibit fo

r the museum!In the meantime, we have temporarily moved our offices. You are welcome to make an appointment by phoning 317–846-7117 or emailing us at [email protected]. Our temporary mailing address is PO Box 4777 Carmel, IN 46082. The CCHS fulfills its mission by providing educational services in the following ways:

* Public Programs about local topics
* Tours of the Monon Railroad Depot Museum
* Curriculum materials to schools on local and county history
* Historic Home Tours highlighting local architecture and antiques
* Providing genealogical assistance to area researchers
* Maintaining an archives of letters, diaries, newspapers, documents, and artifacts that pertain to Carmel and Clay Township.

It was a beautiful weekend to create a mural masterpiece at the Carmel International Arts Festival! Nearly 230 young art...
09/26/2023

It was a beautiful weekend to create a mural masterpiece at the Carmel International Arts Festival! Nearly 230 young artists stopped by the booth to grab a brush and leave their mark. The mural will hang in the children's area of the new Carmel Clay History Museum when it opens next fall. Many thanks to project lead Jill Kniptash, the amazing volunteers, Regional Arts Partners, and each one of these future Picassos!

Drop by the Youth Area of the Carmel International Arts Festival this Saturday and Sunday! CCHS is coordinating a collab...
09/22/2023

Drop by the Youth Area of the Carmel International Arts Festival this Saturday and Sunday! CCHS is coordinating a collaborative mural painted by children that will hang in the new museum!

This photo of a float was from Carmel High School’s first homecoming parade in 1951. Carmel had revived the football pro...
09/20/2023

This photo of a float was from Carmel High School’s first homecoming parade in 1951. Carmel had revived the football program the year before and played some JV games. The 1951 season was Carmel’s first varsity season since 1934. The Greyhounds were coached by Waverly Myers and Dick Lamb. They had been teammates at Westfield and Ball State. In 1951, they put together a decent season and finished with a record of 4-2-1. In Myers’ third year, the Greyhounds were dominant. They outscored their county opponents 102-20 and won the school’s third county championship in the sport.

That year, quarterback Eric Clark led the undersized Greyhounds to a record of 8-1-1. The team’s only loss came in the final game, when the winless Beech Grove Hornets upset the undefeated Greyhounds, 20-7. Clark was named to the all-county football team along with five other Carmel players. Clark was also a basketball player at CHS and coached Carmel to its first state championship in the sport in 1977. You can find him in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and Waverly Myers in the Indiana Football Hall of Fame—both for coaching.

For those who are wondering, Carmel won its first ever homecoming game 60-0 against Edinburg. Hopefully the Greyhounds will put on as good a show this Friday!!

Our eNewsletter for the 3rd quarter of 2023 is linked below! Inside you'll find information about the Carmel Clay Histor...
09/20/2023

Our eNewsletter for the 3rd quarter of 2023 is linked below! Inside you'll find information about the Carmel Clay History Fair on November 12, our Annual Meeting on October 22, our booth at the Carmel International Arts Festival and more!
https://carmelclayhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/CCHS2303_v2.pdf

We had a terrific Squirrel Stampede today. The squirrels at OUR run/walk were of the really cute and friendly variety. T...
09/17/2023

We had a terrific Squirrel Stampede today. The squirrels at OUR run/walk were of the really cute and friendly variety. Thank you to all our sponsors, participants and volunteers for a successful event. We look forward to the 3rd Annual event next year.

Tomorrow (Sept 14) is the final date to record what you love about Carmel for the Carmel History Fair to be held at the ...
09/13/2023

Tomorrow (Sept 14) is the final date to record what you love about Carmel for the Carmel History Fair to be held at the Carmel Clay Public Library in November. We'll be filming these video snippets in the Main Library's Digital Media Lab tomorrow, 1:30-3:30 pm. You can register at the link below!

Help us celebrate Hamilton County's bicentennial by taking part in a special short video compilation. Register for a time slot to share your perspective at our Digital Media Lab.

Time is running out to register for the Great Squirrel Stampede!! Join us for a morning fun-run at Coxhall Garden on Sat...
09/12/2023

Time is running out to register for the Great Squirrel Stampede!! Join us for a morning fun-run at Coxhall Garden on Saturday, September 16. Proceeds from this event will help fund the construction of the Carmel Clay History Museum! If you can't attend the race, consider donating to CCHS to help us make this project a landmark in Carmel!

Click the link below to register for the Great Squirrel Stampede.

Join us for a family and pet-friendly 1K/3K at Coxhall Gardens in Carmel, September 16, 2023!

Join us tomorrow at the Carmel Clay Public Library and tell us what you love about Carmel! We're filming short videos of...
09/11/2023

Join us tomorrow at the Carmel Clay Public Library and tell us what you love about Carmel! We're filming short videos of community members and families sharing what they love about our city. Then we'll share these video stories at the Carmel History Fair to be held at the Main Library in November.
We'll be filming these video snippets in the Main Library's Digital Media Lab tomorrow, 4–6pm, and September 14, 1:30–3:30pm. You can register at the link below!
https://carmelclaylibrary.org/event/8816196

https://carmelclaylibrary.org/event/8816196

Help us celebrate Hamilton County's bicentennial by taking part in a special short video compilation. Register for a time slot to share your perspective at our Digital Media Lab.

Join us Sept. 16 for a fun run/walk at Coxhall gardens! https://squirrelstampede.eventbrite.com. 200 yrs ago, Hamilton C...
09/03/2023

Join us Sept. 16 for a fun run/walk at Coxhall gardens! https://squirrelstampede.eventbrite.com. 200 yrs ago, Hamilton Cty. farmers probably didn’t find crop-thieving squirrels too funny, but we DO think they would approve of celebrating our amazing community. The new Carmel Clay History Museum will honor fascinating history, while encouraging citizens see how the past can shape the future. Have fun while you help us grow! Family and pet-friendly.

08/21/2023

The Squirrel Stampede Fun Run is back!! Join us on September 16 to commemorate the 201st anniversary of the Great Squirrel Stampede of 1822! Proceeds will help fund the new Carmel Clay History Museum, which broke ground near Midtown this year. Grab your friends & family and enjoy a beautiful morning walking or running the paths at Coxhall Gardens in Carmel, IN. Strollers and (friendly) furry friends are welcome for this low key 1K/3K!

For more information and to register, click the link below!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-great-squirrel-stampede-fun-run-registration-678958793027?aff=oddtdtcreator

The Squirrel Stampede Fun Run is back!! Join us on September 16 to commemorate the 201st anniversary of the Great Squirr...
08/21/2023

The Squirrel Stampede Fun Run is back!! Join us on September 16 to commemorate the 201st anniversary of the Great Squirrel Stampede of 1822! Proceeds will help fund the new Carmel Clay History Museum, which broke ground near Midtown this year. Grab your friends & family and enjoy a beautiful morning walking or running the paths at Coxhall Gardens in Carmel, IN. Strollers and (friendly) furry friends are welcome for this low key 1K/3K!

For more information and to register, click the link below!

Join us for a family and pet-friendly 1K/3K at Coxhall Gardens in Carmel, September 16, 2023!

The Carmel Clay Historical Society and the Carmel Clay Public Library have partnered to celebrate Hamilton County's bice...
08/07/2023

The Carmel Clay Historical Society and the Carmel Clay Public Library have partnered to celebrate Hamilton County's bicentennial with a video compilation, and we need your help! There's a lot to love about Carmel, and we want to hear what you and your family love best! We're filming short videos of community members and families sharing what they love about our city. Then we'll share these video stories at the Carmel History Fair to be held at the Main Library in November.

We'll be filming these video snippets in the Main Library's Digital Media Lab during three different time periods: August 22, 4–6pm, September 12, 4–6pm, and September 14, 1:30–3:30pm. You can register at the link below!

Help us celebrate Hamilton County's bicentennial by taking part in a special short video compilation. Register for a time slot to share your perspective at our Digital Media Lab.

We are so excited to see construction begin on the new museum! The project was featured yesterday in the IBJ.-----------...
08/05/2023

We are so excited to see construction begin on the new museum! The project was featured yesterday in the IBJ.
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History Museum planned as Carmel's latest attraction

Indiana Business Journal
August 4, 2023 | Daniel Bradley

A museum focused on Carmel’s past will soon rise in one of the city’s newest districts.

The Carmel Clay Historical Society broke ground in June on the Carmel Clay History Museum. The 10,000-square-foot museum will be at the southwest corner of First Street SW and Monon Boulevard, along the border between Midtown and the Arts & Design District.

Carmel-based Studio M Architecture & Planning designed the museum that is expected to open late next year or in early 2025.

“Carmel has more history than people give it credit for,” Carmel Clay Historical Society Executive Director Debbie Gangstad told IBJ. “We’ve evolved from that small, little rural town that really was one of the smallest in Hamilton County. It’s made a jump, and there were a lot of stories in between that place and where we are now.”

A big part of Carmel’s story is its growth in terms of population and wealth, and the museum will help document that.

The community had a population of only 1,442 in 1960, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. From 1995 to today, it has grown from about 30,000 residents to more than 100,000. The city is also home to more than 150 corporate headquarters.

The museum’s construction will be funded with a $4 million grant from Clay Township and $1.5 million from the Carmel Redevelopment Commission.

The Carmel Clay Historical Society is raising money to fund interior construction, including exhibit space, and has $1.5 million in pledges.

The three-story museum will include a bookstore/gift shop, cafe and exhibit space on the first floor, ticketed historical galleries and exhibits on the second floor, offices on the third floor, and a rooftop garden that can host events, including parties and wedding receptions.

Carmel’s city archives will be stored in a 1,750-square-foot, two-story structure on the south end of the museum with access from the museum’s first and second floors.

The Monon Depot, built in 1883 as Carmel’s stop on the Monon Railroad, will be attached to the museum and house a permanent train exhibit.

Dan McFeely
“We want people to really enjoy the experience. We want them to come into the museum and really embrace it,” said Dan McFeely, former president of the Carmel Clay Historical Society’s board and a city spokesman. “This is not going to be your typical small-town historical society museum. We plan to be open every day. We plan to offer something for every age level every day, and I think that’s important.”

The building’s exterior will be designed to look like a turn-of-the-20th-century brick and steel industrial building.

“That new building looks like it should be the home of a historical society. That’s purposeful,” Carmel Director of Redevelopment Henry Mestetsky said. “It fits the industrial vibe of Midtown while clearly being an incredibly distinct civic building.”

Henry Mestetsky
Midtown, a formerly blighted industrial area straddling the Monon Trail west of South Rangeline Road, was built to bridge development between Carmel’s Arts & Design District to the north and City Center to the south.

Over the past decade, the area has been transformed from abandoned buildings with surface parking lots into multistory apartment, office, retail and parking structures.

Carmel spent about $20 million to widen and transform the Monon through Midtown. The project converted the 12-foot-wide pedestrian-and-bike path into a 140-foot-wide corridor with parking spaces, green space, bike lanes, one-way streets, and a plaza near Sun King Taproom & Distillery (351 Monon Blvd.).

“We wanted very much to stay in that location, which hinders us a little bit on size, but we felt like the depot doesn’t need to be three blocks away,” Gangstad said. “It needs to be right where it was.”

The museum design is early 20th century, brick and steel industrial. The Monon Depot, temporarily removed, will be attached to the new building. (Rendering courtesy of Studio M Architecture & Planning)
Planning the museum

The Carmel Clay Historical Society was founded in 1975 as interest in history increased in the lead-up to the United States’ bicentennial. It was also a time when the Monon Depot was in disrepair with its railroad abandoned.

The city of Carmel gave the depot to the historical society, which used the building on property north of the current GOAT Tavern as a museum from 1980 until earlier this year. The Monon Depot is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

An adjacent ranch-style house built in the 1970s and since demolished in preparation for the new museum was used to store city archives. McFeely said the house was not an ideal place to store archives and was not temperature-controlled.

“We had mold. We had rats,” he said. “I mean, it was just not a good situation.”

In preparation for the new museum, the Monon Depot was moved two blocks north to an empty property on Third Avenue SW. The depot will return to the museum site where it will sit behind a raised platform meant to evoke a railroad stop.

The Carmel Clay Historical Society began brainstorming plans for the museum in 2021. Leadership started with a wish list on a large white sheet of paper. Those ideas then went to Studio M Architecture & Planning, which got to work turning ideas into designs.

Historical society leadership traveled to history museums in the region, including the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, which Mayor Jim Brainard suggested could be a model for Carmel’s history museum.

“This Historical Society Museum will hopefully become a destination place for people to come learn about not just the history of Carmel, [but also] the history of Hamilton County, the history of north central Indiana, and we want to be a complement to other historic societies who also do things like this,” McFeely said.

Teaching history

Exhibit space inside the museum will include both permanent and special displays. Studio M is working with Chicago-based Cardosi Kiper Design Group Inc. and Indianapolis-based Hamilton Displays to design the interior.

Dan Moriarity
“I think it’s important for a community like this to keep a link with the root of the community, and hopefully this facility will help achieve those goals,” Studio M founding principal Dan Moriarity said. “There’s a number of things going on in the small building on a small footprint that we’re trying to accommodate.”

David Heighway, a Hamilton County historian at Hamilton East Public Library in Noblesville, said the county’s bicentennial this year boosted residents’ curiousity in the past.

Along with Carmel, Hamilton County communities with historical societies include Arcadia, Fishers, Sheridan and Westfield. The Hamilton County Historical Society in Noblesville is at the county’s former courthouse that was built in 1876 and was the site of Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson’s murder trial in 1925.

David Heighway
While communities try to be good stewards of their history, Heighway said a city or town’s history museum “tends to be just an old building with lots of old stuff jammed in it.”

“[Carmel is] really upgrading things and trying to organize sort of a professional kind of place,” he said. “And now Carmel is kind of saying, ‘Let’s treat it like a real museum and use the train depot.’”

Gangstad said she is looking forward to exhibits that will educate people about some of Carmel’s historic figures, such as Franklin Booth, an artist who became one of the most prominent illustrators of the first half of the 20th century.

She is also excited about the opportunity to highlight the impact of Quakers in Carmel and cultures taking root more recently.

“We want to also include the new cultures that are coming into our community,” Gangstad said. “We want to learn about them, so I think it’s a place for us to share ideas and give some background, but at the same time, learn, as we’ll all be learning.”

This clipping from the Hamilton County Register in 1871 highlights an issue we're glad is no longer a problem! The White...
07/17/2023

This clipping from the Hamilton County Register in 1871 highlights an issue we're glad is no longer a problem! The White Chapel church was built in 1853 and is still standing along 116th Street opposite Flowing Well Park. I'm sure you'll find the floors are clean today!

07/04/2023
What a wonderful Parade! Thank you CarmelFest!! CCHS was proud to help organize Clay Township pioneer descendants to ser...
07/04/2023

What a wonderful Parade! Thank you CarmelFest!! CCHS was proud to help organize Clay Township pioneer descendants to serve as grand marshals for this year’s parade to commemorate the county’s bicentennial!! Thank you to the families both local and out of state who joined us in the trolley!! Thank you also to Clay Township Trustee Paul Hensel and former Clay Township Trustee Doug Callahan for leading our group!

Special thanks Hamilton County Commissioner Christine Altman for providing candy and decorations for our parade vehicles. We also appreciated our energetic Bicentennial Ambassadors, Libby Parkins and Sophia Stephens, for handing out the treats along the route.

Our community can be proud of the contributions made by both its historic and present-day citizens.

As this is the county’s bicentennial year, the CarmelFest parade will feature pioneer descendants of Clay Township as th...
06/28/2023

As this is the county’s bicentennial year, the CarmelFest parade will feature pioneer descendants of Clay Township as the grand marshals! CCHS is proud to play a part in this year’s parade, and in honor of this event, here is some history on Fourth of July parades in our city.

In 1944, Marge Dawson and her husband organized a parade for the neighborhood children. The kids dressed up in patriotic costumes and decorated their bikes, trikes and wagons. The parade headed for ice cream at the drug store and then back to the neighborhood for contests and refreshments. The parade became an annual event and was sponsored by the Carmel School Mothers Club in 1946. That year, prizes were awarded for the best costumes. In 1951, the newly established high school band led the parade. The parade ceased to be an annual feature of the holiday in Carmel from 1954 to 1974.

In 1975, the Bicentennial Steering Committee organized a horse and buggy parade that included patriotic floats. The bicentennial parade the following year was large and well attended. The picture included in this post was from 1976. Parades from late 70s to the early 80s were smaller, but Carmel's sesquicentennial anniversary gave momentum for larger parades in 1986 and 1987. In 1988, CarmelFest was born! We here at CCHS love a good parade, and we look forward to seeing familiar faces along the route this year!

Katherine Dill has been helping us catalog some donations and came across this great picture of Jack Graves and his son ...
06/20/2023

Katherine Dill has been helping us catalog some donations and came across this great picture of Jack Graves and his son John Graves III, who donated the photo. The Graves’ house is now Bub’s Burgers, and this picture was taken in their yard looking east towards the Monon tracks. The house on the other side of the tracks was the old Peele house, which many of you will remember as The Little Shop, a consignment shop. The Peele house was moved off the lot in 2009, but it still exists. Today it is a residence on 4th Street NE.

Scenes like this are a distant memory in Carmel, but they give an important glimpse of what small-town life was like in our city’s past.

Today, we broke ground on the Carmel Clay History Museum! And what a turn out! Thank you to the members of our community...
06/14/2023

Today, we broke ground on the Carmel Clay History Museum! And what a turn out! Thank you to the members of our community who came out to support us. We are also grateful to Clay Township and the City of Carmel for their partnership in this project.

We are so excited to have the space to collect and exhibit our city's fascinating history! Stay tuned for updates on the building's progress.

Our eNewsletter for the 2nd quarter of 2023 is linked below! Inside you'll find information about the groundbreaking for...
06/09/2023

Our eNewsletter for the 2nd quarter of 2023 is linked below! Inside you'll find information about the groundbreaking for the Carmel Clay History Museum on June 14, our role in the CarmelFest parade, a preview of the Great Squirrel Stampede fun run and more!

http://carmelclayhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CCHS2302.pdf

This is a picture of Alfred Cross. Cross was one of several hucksters who drove through the countryside in covered wagon...
12/21/2022

This is a picture of Alfred Cross. Cross was one of several hucksters who drove through the countryside in covered wagons selling overstock from the general stores to the farmers and residents in the rural neighborhoods. In winter, a stove kept the interior of the wagon comfortable and kept the merchandise from freezing. There were often chicken coups underneath the wagon bed.

The hucksters sold staples like work clothes, red handkerchiefs, socks, gloves, sugar, salt, pepper, rice, prunes, dried peaches, coffee, matches and to***co. People had little money back then and often traded for these items with farm goods, like poultry, eggs, butter, lard, hides, game, fruits and vegetables, cider molasses and nuts.

At the end of the week, the hucksters drove their wagons to the Gates & Pray livery stable across the street from a large market on North Alabama Street in Indianapolis, where they sold their stock of farm goods to merchants, wholesalers and consumers. Then, they loaded up their wagons with merchandise and headed north to restock the general stores and drive their routes once again.

Our eNewsletter for the 4th quarter of 2022 is linked below! Inside you'll find an update on our new museum building, re...
12/15/2022

Our eNewsletter for the 4th quarter of 2022 is linked below! Inside you'll find an update on our new museum building, reviews of the holiday home tour and our Annual Meeting, information about our new book, an introduction to our new city archivist and more.

http://carmelclayhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/CCHS2204.pdf

Just dropped off copies of our new book at All Things Carmel on West Main Street! Save on shipping costs and purchase a ...
12/11/2022

Just dropped off copies of our new book at All Things Carmel on West Main Street! Save on shipping costs and purchase a copy in the store!

Thank you to all who attended the VIP opening night of our Holiday Home Tour. Your attendance supports the preservation ...
12/04/2022

Thank you to all who attended the VIP opening night of our Holiday Home Tour. Your attendance supports the preservation of Carmel History. And just attending this party and having your picture here makes you part of Carmel history. The houses were a huge hit with our visitors and the VIP party was terrific fun.

A HUGE "THANK YOU" to our generous sponsors: Sun King Brewery, Studio M, Home Living Team, Bussell Family Funerals, The Barrington of Carmel, Meg & Associates, Old Town Design Group, Rangeline Self Storage, Engledow Group, and Church Church Hittle + Antrim attorneys at law. Please support those who support us.

Thank you to the homeowners who shared their homes.

It's here! Mid-Century Modern Holiday Home Tour, this Friday and Saturday. Visit holidayhometour.eventbrite.com for info...
12/02/2022

It's here! Mid-Century Modern Holiday Home Tour, this Friday and Saturday. Visit holidayhometour.eventbrite.com for info/tickets, or tickets available at the door.

12/01/2022

WISH-TV All Indiana with George Mallet and Donna Gollmer Deborah Gangstad

So today at WISH-TV Life Style Live Deborah Gangstad and Priscilla Bell talked about the 26th Annual Holiday Home Tour w...
12/01/2022

So today at WISH-TV Life Style Live Deborah Gangstad and Priscilla Bell talked about the 26th Annual Holiday Home Tour with George Mallet

Plus….they for to meet Olympic Diver Greg Louganis!

We are excited to announce that our new book From Bethlehem to Carmel is now available, and that it and all of the books...
11/25/2022

We are excited to announce that our new book From Bethlehem to Carmel is now available, and that it and all of the books in our Carmel History Series are 30% off for Black Friday! Just use the code JOYFUL30 at checkout!

From Bethlehem to Carmel covers the time period 1822–1899. It begins with a chapter on Carmel’s Quaker roots. The Quakers’ advocacy for education, abolitionism, peace and temperance largely shaped the culture in town for much of the nineteenth century.

This book also discusses the impact of the Civil War, tells the stories of the freedmen and freedwomen who made their home here after emancipation—including Joseph Duffy who we posted about a couple weeks ago—and tells how the town developed during the Gilded Age. The book concludes with the history of three forgotten towns—Mattsville, Sockum/Eldorado, and East Branch/Gray—and a history of the nineteenth century churches.

You can order copies of our books by visiting https://carmelclayhistory.org/carmel-books

Check out Grace Vermillion’s YouTube channel! Grace is from Carmel and she used to volunteer at Conner Prairie when she ...
11/23/2022

Check out Grace Vermillion’s YouTube channel! Grace is from Carmel and she used to volunteer at Conner Prairie when she was a teen. Now she makes videos testing out pioneer methods of doing things. We love these videos, Grace!!! She also writes historical fiction and is basing some of her stories in Bethlehem (the original name of Carmel)!

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

Visit holidayhometour.eventbrite.com for tickets! Dec. 2 and 3.
11/18/2022

Visit holidayhometour.eventbrite.com for tickets! Dec. 2 and 3.

The Carmel Clay Historical Society’s 25th annual Holiday Home Tour will have a mid-century modern flavor. “It should have been the 26th tour, but we were canceled last year due to unforeseen circumstances,” CCHS executive director Debbie Gangstad said. The 2020 tour was virtual because of the ...

Let's talk about how Carmel got its name because we believe the story that's been shared for several generations (includ...
11/16/2022

Let's talk about how Carmel got its name because we believe the story that's been shared for several generations (including by CCHS) is wrong. The story went that the town of Bethlehem was granted a post office in 1846, but there was already a post office called Bethlehem in Clarke County. That part is true. According to town lore, William Peele came home after attending a town meeting and told his wife Elizabeth about the struggle to come up with a name for the post office. Elizabeth had been working her loom and thinking about a Biblical city called Carmel that was known for its fertile land. She suggested the name to her husband, and William took the name to a town meeting, and the rest is history... except it didn’t happen this way.

Last week, we looked into the story and discovered that Elizabeth Peele could not have suggested the name. In 1846, she was a teenager living in North Carolina. She didn't marry William until 1850, and they didn't come to Carmel until 1862.

John F. Haines was a county historian and the county’s preeminent educator for several decades. He claimed in his Hamilton County history book and in several newspaper articles that his grandfather, Levi Haines Sr., came up with the name. Levi Haines was the town merchant and a prominent figure in Bethlehem. He ran the general store where the post office was located from 1839 to 1850, and in 1847, he became the postmaster. It is much more likely that he came up with the name. Though we might never know the specifics about how Carmel became Carmel, it seems Elizabeth Peele was not part of the equation.

It's a Wrap!Thank you Jillian Deam and Ryan Ahlwardt for hosting Carmel Clay Historical Society on Indy Now!Abby, the Pr...
11/14/2022

It's a Wrap!
Thank you Jillian Deam and Ryan Ahlwardt for hosting Carmel Clay Historical Society on Indy Now!
Abby, the Producer, you were great too!
Hope you can join us at our Mid-Century Modern Holiday Home Tour.

We're so excited to be on FOX59 News Indy Now. Carmel Clay Historical Society gets to share our upcoming Mid-Century Mod...
11/14/2022

We're so excited to be on FOX59 News Indy Now. Carmel Clay Historical Society gets to share our upcoming Mid-Century Modern Holiday Home Tour.
Deborah Gangstad, Priscilla Ball, Meg Gates Osborne l

Joseph Duffy’s tombstone shows that he was a veteran of the Civil War, but it does not give a hint of the remarkable lif...
11/11/2022

Joseph Duffy’s tombstone shows that he was a veteran of the Civil War, but it does not give a hint of the remarkable life he lived or how he came to enlist in the Union Army. Duffy was born into slavery in 1841. He was twenty-three when Gen. William T. Sherman began his March to the Sea from Atlanta to Savannah. When the army reached McDonough, Georgia, on November 18, 1864, Joseph left his master’s property and entered the camp of the Twelfth Illinois Infantry. He enlisted and became a free man. Over the next six months, he marched a thousand miles all over the South with the Union Army until the war’s end.

The Twelfth Illinois mustered out in 1865 in Louisville. There, Joseph met a woman who had also been enslaved. Her name was Sibbie Ann Richardson. They married in 1869 and moved to the Nora area the following year. In 1882, the Duffy’s moved to Carmel’s east side, where Joseph and Sibbie Ann lived the remainder of their lives. Both are buried in the Farley Cemetery at 106th and Keystone.

This Veteran’s Day, we recognize Joseph Duffy’s service and are honored that he made his home here in Carmel. We will share more about the Duffys in the coming weeks.

Francis McShane was the first person to enter land west of Range Line Road, which was the original border between Clay a...
11/03/2022

Francis McShane was the first person to enter land west of Range Line Road, which was the original border between Clay and Delaware Township. He purchased 80 acres on the southwest corner of 106th Street and Westfield Blvd in 1824. In time, the McShanes owned land on all four corners. Francis’s son James built a two-story log cabin in the late 1840s or early 1850s. The cabin had four large rooms, each with a fireplace. He later added two more rooms to the back of the cabin. One was a “meal” room, and the other was the “travelers” room. Farmers and drovers heading to the state capital on the Indianapolis-Westfield Road often spent the night at the cabin. McShane looked after their stock and horses, and his wife Martha cooked them breakfast in the morning.

A small community grew around the McShanes to include several residences, a blacksmith shop and a saw and gristmill built in 1865. A large mulberry tree stood near the intersection, and the tiny village came to be called Mulberry Corner. James McShane’s 1886 Italianate home (shown here) is the only remnant of Mulberry Corner still standing.

Thank you to all who attended our Annual Meeting this week! We were happy to present Julie Kingston with our Volunteer o...
10/28/2022

Thank you to all who attended our Annual Meeting this week! We were happy to present Julie Kingston with our Volunteer of the Year award and Jim and Ginny Steckley our Heritage Award! Thank you for all you do for CCHS and our Carmel community!

Such fun connecting with our community! Thank you for supporting these county-wide events, Visit Hamilton County, Indian...
10/08/2022

Such fun connecting with our community! Thank you for supporting these county-wide events, Visit Hamilton County, Indiana!

Our beloved Depot turns 140 this week!! Carmel wouldn’t have had a depot to celebrate if some industrious citizens had n...
10/06/2022

Our beloved Depot turns 140 this week!!

Carmel wouldn’t have had a depot to celebrate if some industrious citizens had not taken it upon themselves to convince the railroad company to locate the line through Hamilton County rather than Boone County. Thanks to their efforts, work teams arrived in town in the summer of 1882 to graded the roadbed between Westfield and Indianapolis. The first work train rolled through Carmel on September 21, and the tracks were completed through Clay Township by the end of the month.

In October, the railroad company built a depot south of Water Street, now 1st Street SW, on the west side of the tracks. A telegraph line was installed the following month. The rail line between Indianapolis and Delphi opened on March 26, 1883. Initially, a train ran north and south through town each day. After the Carmel depot opened, a newspaper dispatch reported: “Some men came one day last week and gave our depot a nice double coat of paint with a finish of graining on the inside. It’s a neat structure, and Charley Buchanan, our jolly station agent, is a model of neatness. Charley is making many friends here. There have been two car-loads of wheat and one of hogs shipped from this place.”

We are looking forward to returning the Depot to its rightful place along the Monon once the Carmel Clay History Museum is built! If you’d like to learn more about the railroad, you can find it in our book “A Century of the Railroad in Carmel.”

Address

211 1st Street SW
Carmel, IN
46032

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George W Hinshaw's photo and house... The man is GW his wife Hannah Head son Glen and daughter Blanche this was taken around 1907 the land was the old James F Haines property who was George's grandfather from the collection of photo's taken by GWHinshaw owned by Kim Midkiff Shepherd
My daughter was showing her college roommates around Carmel today. They decided to stop in the museum and read up on some Carmel history.
Today and tomorrow, December 3 and 4, the Carmel Clay Historical Society will be hosting Polar Express Evenings at the Monon Depot with readings of the classic holiday tale, snacks, and a few surprises!

http://www.carmelclayhistory.org/polar-express-evenings
These two evergreens were planted during the construction of the 1921 Carmel High School building known as "Old North." On Saturday, September 11th at 11am, Carmel Clay Historical Society along with members of the CHS Class of 1971 will celebrate the centennial of the two evergreens. The public is cordially invited to join the celebration and share memories of "Old North."
There is so much interesting history in Carmel ... you should check out the Carmel Clay Historical Society ... their historians are top notch and they help tell the story of where we once were, which often informs us of where we are today! Carmel Clay Historical Society
Have you ever walked around Carmel and wished you could honor your family with an engraved brick? The Carmel Clay Historical Society will be with us tomorrow in our Community Booth, near the Palladium steps, and available to show you how to get one of your very own bricks. Of course, our 70 vendors will be there to bring you FRESH food and flowers. See you between 8 and 11:30!
We are so excited to *officially* celebrate the 117th anniversary of the discovery of Flowing Well! 🥳

Did you know that the well's actual date of discovery has been a longtime mystery? Our friends over at the Carmel Clay Historical Society recently found the missing puzzle pieces and determined that today is the day!
Also Digital Indiana will be scanning my great grandpas photos taken on the old James FHaines / George W Hinshaw farm in early 1900 ( 1908-14 ) Photos taken by George W Hinshaw (1861-1935)
Rescued my Grandpa Hinshaw's diplomas today! 1926 Elementary school 1930 Carmel HS
In Hamilton County, this two-story concrete and steel corn crib is one of the few still-standing remnants of Lynnwood Farm, a site that once spanned more than 600 acres owned by Eli Lilly and Company executive Charles Lynn from 1932-1942. Indiana Landmarks has been pleased to partner with the Carmel Historic Preservation Commission, the Plum Creek Farms Homeowners Association, and the Carmel Clay Historical Society to aid its preservation, recommending grants and supporting its designation as a conservation district in 2019.
I am the webmaster for a site that covers the history of the IHSAA State T&F meet. I'm currently trying to locate the grades for all athletes who medaled at the state meet. I've had success at locating most of the Carmel medalists' grades (both boys and girls), but have not been able to find the grades for the following from Carmel...the year in parentheses is the year the athlete medaled at state which is note necessarily the year they graduated).

Joseph Roberts, 2nd in 120 yard hurdles (1910)
? Hoskins (first name unknown), 2nd in 120 hurdles (1913)
Fred Roeder, 3rd in high jump (1924)

It's a long shot being almost 100 years ago and more, but thought I'd see if anyone here might know or have some leads on where to find out (I tried searching for online yearbooks from that era with no luck) Any help is appreciated!
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