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INDIANA BICENTENNIAL
The Bicentennial Torch Relay will go through Jennings County on Friday, Sept. 16. The occasion will be marked by the Bicentennial Blast at the Stellar Plaza in North Vernon from 4 to 10 p.m. The Bicentennial Blast will include several short speeches and presentations, food, live music and a beer garden.

Jennings County Projects at the Library

    Each month we will have a Program featuring Jennings County as a part of Indiana History
In January & February we featured the people who were among some of our earliest settlers, we of course cannot cover everyone so I have chosen a few to highlight mainly because of their little known contributions to state history or because we have things such as pictures of the family that make their story more interesting. Each of these research projects will be kept, and put in binders to add to our collection at the Jennings County Public Library.

    Thus far we highlighted-
Rebecca Hammond Lard/Laird who is acknowledged as Indiana's first published woman poet, and who was among our earliest school teachers.

Phoebe Baker Zener and her sister Elizabeth Baker Wells who were daughters of Nicholas Baker the engineer on the first steamboat to travel the Ohio River all the way to New Orleans - which happened during the New Madrid earthquake. They both have descendants living in the area.

The family of Barney Krenning who were German immigrants.

Adam Brower who died in 1892 and is buried in Hopewell Methodist Cemetery, he had five sons who served in the civil war and left behind some interesting thoughts on life and war.

Our Program in March featured MSG Brad Staggs who gave a history of the Muscatatuck State Hospital and the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center - we featured the families who originally owned the land when these areas were/are located and those who owned it when it sold to the government.
Library Programs Planned
Free to the Public
Saturday,April 9 from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. We will be featuring our Quaker Families - C. Byron Buckley who wrote the book "Write from the Heart: The Jessamyn West Story." will be speaking from 1 to 2 pm. We will have special displays in the Local History & Genealogy room about the Grove & Hopewell meetings here in Jennings County and the Quaker families who worshiped there. I have been learning about my own misconceptions of the Society of Friends "Quakers".

Saturday, May 7 from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. We will be highlighting the 9th Indiana Legion, our Citizen Soldiers who were mustered many times during the Civil War - featured speakers from our local Civil War Reenactors The Vernon Greys and others, Uniforms and weapons on display, including an actual rifled musket carried during Morgan's Raid, Biographies and other histories of individual members of the 9th Legion.

Saturday, June 11 from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. Our programs will feature the Underground Railroad with Jeannie Regan-Dinius of Indiana Department of Natural Resources our speaker from 10:00 to 11:00 plus time to ask questions. Displays documenting Anti-Slavery activity and early African American settlers of Jennings County featuring the community of Richland just south of Vernon.

Saturday, July 9 from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. We will be talking about our Jennings County Pioneer cemeteries. The featured speaker from 1:00 to 2:00 will be Brad Manzenberger - Conservator with Stone Revival Historical Preservation, he will be discussing remair and cleaning of old headstones, plus the meaning of symbols found old the old stones. I will have listings of those buried in our local cemeteries and both Brad and I hope to get more people interested in preserving our local pioneer cemeteries.

Research for Bicentennial from the Jennings County Public Library
Adam Brower
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