Barb Wood, the coordinator of the Friends of the Indiana State Archives and a long-time volunteer at the Archives, for several months processed the paperwork of the Indiana World War Memorial located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The paperwork consists of numerous plans and notes made by the Cleveland, Ohio architectural firm of Walker and Weeks, and are contained in 132 boxes and several roles. The paperwork dates from the early 1920s to the early 1930s.

Even though most of the exterior of the Memorial building had been finished by the time General John Pershing laid its corner stone in 1927, construction of its beautiful interior continued through the early 1930s.

The 132 boxes contain numerous artistic, detailed, hand-drawn plans for the exterior and interior of the Memorial structure and for the layout of the War Memorial Plaza. There are also many hand-written notes and instructions made by the firm’s architects, besides invoices for the material used and the work done.

by Robert F. Gilyeat, Indiana State Archives volunteer

Indianapolis, the capitol city of Indiana, was surveyed and designed in 1821 by Alexander Ralston, and Marion County was established on December 31, 1821.

The early Indianapolis/Marion County Indiana Commissioner Record books contain a detailed history of the county as recorded by the county commissioner. An interesting reference was a local law that a bounty would be paid to anyone who brought in a wolf’s scalp from a wolf killed in Marion County.

“September Session 1827, Ordered by the Board that the holder of any certificate for a grown wolf killed in the County under the law, approved Jan. 27, 1827 receive from the Clerk also an order on the County Treasury for one dollar for a grown wolf and for fifty cents for each one under six months old.”

This Order was amended in 1834 to say that a wolf’s scalp should be brought in to receive the bounty:

“It is ordered that for each wolf Scalp taken from a wolf hereafter killed, and which have heretofore been killed in this county and duly proved according to law and which have not been been paid for[,] an allowance of one dollar on each wolf over six months old, and on each wolf under six months old fifty cents is hereby allowed payable out of the County Treasury of this Board issue orders on the County Treasury to any person or persons producing said Scalps – and that the County Treasurer receive said orders as in any other case – and that the order heretofore made prohibiting such order be and the same is hereby repealed.”

It clumsily sounds like there was some confusion about how a hunter was to prove that he killed a wolf in Marion County to receive the bounty. So, the hunter was to bring in the wolf’s scalp. But, how prove that the wolf was over or under six months old?

Anyway, in 1840:

“Allowed Elias C. Baldwin for a wolf scalp taken from a wolf killed by him in Marion County & duly proved before the Clerk, on December 14, 1839 the sum of one dollar payable out of the County Treasury.”

There is also a list of men who were paid the bounty, available at the Indiana State Archives.

This bounty to kill wolves in Indianapolis/Marion County clearly shows that Indianapolis was literally planned and built in the midst of a forest.

A painting of Indianapolis in 1820:

Side note: early on the County paid to have a pen built around the sheep that were grazing on the State House grounds. I wonder if wolves were sneaking into the Capitol’s settlement and killing the County’s sheep.

by Robert F. Gilyeat, an Indiana State Archives volunteer

In 1926 Dr. Cloyd L. Snyder, a podiatrist from South Bend, Indiana, supposedly got the idea for a single-wing aircraft after noticing the shape and gliding ability of a shoe’s heel lift. So, with the help of others he developed a mono-wing glider which was successfully piloted in 1932 by Glen Doolittle, cousin of the well-known pilot Jimmy Doolittle.

Raul Hoffman, an experienced aircraft engineer, then added a motorcycle motor and stronger landing gear to the glider, which was successfully tested in 1933 by Glen Doolittle. They designated this single-wing aircraft the Arup S-2 for its quick take-off ability, or Air & Up.

“The purpose or purposes for which it is formed are as follows:

1. To engage or become engaged generally in the manufacture and sale of aeroplanes, dirigibles, and all other types of flying craft and all parts and accessories thereof including gas bags and balloons.
2. To manufacture, purchase, lease or otherwise acquire and/or  sell, mortgage, lease or otherwise dispose of any and all kinds of flying machines or motors; to export or import the same and to carry on any trade or business incidental thereto or connected therewith.
3. To apply for, purchase or otherwise acquire, hold, own, use, operate, sell, assign or grant or conduct licenses in respect to any and all inventions, improvements and processes used in connection with or secure under letters patent of the United States or elsewhere in the whole world.”

The 1932 investors in this unusual airplane were all South Bend, Indiana, residents. Francis J.Vurpillat was a doctor, Roland W. Goheen a banker, Forbes A. Hurcomb an automobile engineer, Otto H. Collmer, Jr. a tool maker shop owner, Harold A. McCollough a life insurance agent, Paul O.Kuehn a shoe store merchant and J. Clifford Potts an attorney. I couldn’t find anything about H. L. Stuart.

Photo from “365 Aircraft You Must Fly” by Robert F. Dorr

The Arup S-2 was shown off at events like the Indianapolis 500, the 1933 National Air Races, and for the Army, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and the Civil Aeronautics Authority.

Strangely enough, a modified version called the Arup S-3 was destroyed by arson. A re-engineered version, the Arup S-4, was built on a tight budget and again successfully tested by Glen Doolittle in 1935.

This new and improved model could not be sold to aircraft companies during the Depression. It was mainly flown to advertise the Sears & Roebuck Co., and then was grounded and abandoned during WWII.

Dr. Snyder’s mono-wing airplane was significant as a bold experiment. It later influenced the radical aeronautic designs of Charles H. Zimmerman who interested the U.S. Navy after WWII in his quick take-off mono-wing airplane. But his creative concepts were cancelled with the development of jet aircraft.

by Robert F. Gilyeat, an Indiana State Archives volunteer