Chapter I: Preface

These pages represent an effort to give some hint of the forces that have made for cultivation in Indiana. While the immediate purpose has been an examination of the State’s performance in literature, it has seemed proper to approach the subject with a slight review of Indiana’s political and social history. Owing to limitations of space, much is suggested merely which it would be profitable to discuss at length. It is hoped that such matters as racial influences, folk-speech, etc., which are but lightly touched here, may appeal to others who will make them the subject of more searching inquiry. Only names that have seemed most significant are included; many creditable writers are necessarily omitted.

I take pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to Dr. Edward Eggleston, Miss Anna Nicholas, and Mr. Merrill Moores for their courteous responses to many requests for information. Miss May Louise Shipp gave me access to papers relating to her kinswoman, Mrs. Dumont, which I could not have seen but for her kindness. Miss Eliza G. Browning, the Public Librarian of Indianapolis, Mr. H. S. Wedding, the Librarian of Wabash College, and Mr. Charles R. Dudley, of the Denver Library, were most generous and indulgent on my behalf.

M. N.

DENVER, July, 1900.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE

INDIANA AND HER PEOPLE 1

CHAPTER II

THE RURAL TYPE AND THE DIALECT

The Word “Hoosier” 29

Pioneer Difficulties 36

The Dialect 45

CHAPTER III

BRINGERS OF THE LIGHT

Religious Influences 63

Early Illiteracy 70

Caleb Mills 79

Julia L. Dumont and Catharine Merrill 89

CHAPTER IV

AN EXPERIMENT IN SOCIALISM

New Harmony 98

Robert Dale Owen and William Maclure 101

Thomas Say and the Scientists 104

CHAPTER V

THE HOOSIER INTERPRETED

Edward Eggleston 134

James Whitcomb Riley 156

CHAPTER VI

CRAWFORDSVILLE

“The Hoosier Athens” 177

Lew Wallace 180

Maurice Thompson 199

Mary H. Krout and Caroline V. Krout 212

CHAPTER VII

“OF MAKING MANY BOOKS THERE IS NO END”

Indiana a Point of Departure 214

Fiction 217

History and Politics 226

Miscellaneous 237

CHAPTER VIII

AN INDIANA CHOIR

Early Writers 244

Forceythe Willson and Elizabeth Conwell Willson 256

Later Poets 265

The Hoosier Landscape 269

INDEX 273

THE HOOSIERS