Happy Birthday, Beatrice Schenk de Regniers!

Caldecott award-winning author Beatrice Schenk de Regniers was born Beatrice Freedman August 16, 1914, in Lafayette, Indiana. As a young girl she moved to Crawfordsville, the town she claimed as her hometown. She graduated from Crawfordsville High School in 1931, left Crawfordsville to study in Chicago, and eventually moved to New York. She wrote over 49 books, primarily for children, over the course of her celebrated career (she died in 2000). Recently, the Crawfordsville District Public Library received a donation of a number of original photographs, yearbooks, and papers relating to the Freedman family, including several photographs of Mrs. de Regniers. The Library is thankful for the generous gift that allows our community to preserve the memory of our talented local author and her family. Happy 97th Birthday, Beatrice Schenk de Regniers!

Courthouse Cornerstone: 1875

The first Montgomery County courthouse was a log structure 26 by 20 feet wide, erected in 1823 on the same site where the current courthouse stands (on the corner of Main and Washington streets). This cabin was replaced by a brick structure by 1833 and lasted some 40 years before it was no longer sufficient for the county needs. Construction began on the third courthouse in 1874 -- the structure that still stands today -- and on May 6, 1875, the community participated in a large cornerstone ceremony, complete with parade and speech by General Lew Wallace. Into the cornerstone were placed photos, business cards, club membership lists, newspapers, pamphlets, advertisements, and so on -- anything that the late 19th-century dignitaries considered to be of interest for future citizens of Montgomery County. This cornerstone was carefully opened in 1986 and its contents revealed after more than 100 years of obscurity. You can look at most of these documents online now on our CDPL Image Database!

How to view these documents?


Go to the Image database and . . .

In the ID# field, put  20110708-*

OR

in the keyword search field type:  courthouse cornerstone