Lafayette Man's Body is Horribly Mangled by Train Cars

This story from the November 5, 1901, edition of The Call (Lafayette, Indiana) is personal, because it involves the tragic death of my 3x great-grandfather, Joseph Denis Egan. Grandpa Joe immigrated from Limerick Ireland in 1872 after his own parents died under tragic circumstances. This particular train accident occurred at the train depot in Fowler, Indiana. Whenever I travel through that area, I think of how the death of Joseph Egan, Sr. changed the course of history for my local Irish family.

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Colonel DeHart's Ancestry Connected to 1775 Continental Congress

Judge DeHart’s Connection to the Daughters of the American Revolution By Diana Vice It seems that whenever I engage in historical research of a Tippecanoe County, Indiana, subject there is a connection to the General de Lafayette Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, which is why I frequently declare that, “All roads lead to the DAR.” Such is the case for Judge Colonel Richard Patten DeHart. In 1905, the Lafayette Sunday Times reported that the Oliver Ellsworth Chapter and the General de Lafayette Chapter of the DAR held their annual outing at DeHart’s Lookout Lodge in West Lafayette. “The event was held in commemoration of Flag Day,” the article stated. “The trip was made in a special car and about twenty-five of the Daughters attended. A basket lunch was served on the lawn in front of the cottage, and the husbands of the members were invited to partake. It was a most enjoyable affair and will be repeated each year by the D.A.R. chapters who are indebted to Colon...

St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum Was Home to Native American Royalty

Fred, Gabriel & John Aveline, Orphans of Royal Native American Lineage St. Joseph’s Orphan Asylum Home to Native American Princes By Diana Vice & Karen Brand Vice and Brand are Historians with the General de Lafayette Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution in Lafayette, Indiana. My friend and co- DAR Historian, Karen Brand, and I have been researching orphans who had once lived at the St. Joseph’s Orphanage Asylum in Lafayette, Indiana. The orphanage was founded in 1876 by the local Catholic Church and ran until 1938 when it closed. Our goal is to capture as many personal stories as we can. [For previous orphan stories, you can read about this writer’s grandfather , Roy Hanthorn , and Con Kennedy , known as the Carnival King.] Karen recently came across an interesting story about three brothers who had lived there at the turn of the 20 th century who were famous for their genealogical heritage. In fact, they were considered to be of royal Native ...

The Armitage Papers: A Rare Find of Historical Significance for Wabash & Erie Canal History

Valerius Armitage, Canal Builder By Diana Vice Vice is an honorary regent and historian for the General de Lafayette Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Valerius Armitage first arrived in Indiana in 1830 to work on the Wabash & Erie Canal. Who was Valerius Armitage? That was a question I asked myself after being asked to look through a large collection of canal-era artifacts bearing his name. The collection contains dozens of various legal documents, letters, and diary notes from the collection of Judge Cyrus Ball, a prominent attorney and pioneer from Lafayette’s earliest days. Judge Ball had served as an attorney for Armitage and handled his final estate. For nearly 200 years, the Armitage papers have been in possession of the Ball Family, and since it was constructed in 1876, the collection has been stored in a closet of the notorious Ball House that was built by Judge Ball for his wife, Rebecca. The papers include historical artifacts from For...

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