The year 1889 brought prosperous times to Winchester and Randolph County. It seemed as if the good times never would end. Few imagined the Panic of 1893 and its consequences lasting clear into 1897.
But national pride was everywhere in 1889. Inventors went wild with money-making schemes to reach mass markets of people. The screw cap was patented. Coin-operated phones were born. The Wall Street Journal began publication. An electrical Inter-Urban tram-train commenced operations Back East, and starry-eyed Indiana dreamers predicted these low-cost electrical would someday connect all Indiana hamlets to Indianapolis.
On August 15, 1889, patriots from the cities, farms, and adjoining counties gathered with dozens of aging Union soldiers in Winchester on the lawn of the courthouse (then 14 years old). The throng came to lay the cornerstone of a Soldiers and Sailors monument intended to symbolize the heroism of Randolph County citizen-soldiers during the Civil War (and for some, that of their ancestors of the War of 1812).
Ironically, peaceful Quaker John Moorman made the monument possible with a $2,000 donation. Supporters chipped in, declaring it would serve as a work of art for time immemorial.
The commissioners of Randolph County accepted submissions for the monument’s design from competitors as far away as Vermont and Alabama. On May 9, 1889, a local newspaper declared A. A. McCain of Indianapolis the winning entrant.
“His design is a complete departure from most established rules, being neither a pyramid nor a shaft, but rather a combination of modern and feudal architecture. . . The four branches of service are represented by statues, which are also out of the ordinary in their pose,” noted the Indianapolis Journal.
“The monument is to be 67 feet high, a model in beauty of style and architecture, replete with historic scenes and replete with historic scenes and crowned with a noble statue of the war god, Mars, with an Americanized face and features,” the Indianapolis Journal proclaimed.
Charles M. Travis, the Grand Army of the Republic performed the cornerstone laying. He enlisted at 16 and ended his service with General Sherman in the destructive march from Atlantic to the sea. A bushy-bearded attorney based much of his life in Crawfordsville, he also was a political appointee as ambassador to Paris and later Brazil under President and former General U.S. Grant.
That evening, the celebration featured a brilliant electric light display, as well as grand arches on central streets illuminated by natural gas from newly opened gas wells. The result deafened the crowd.
“The flames leaped upward with a roar and vindictiveness that drowned all attempts at conversation while their power fairly shook the earth,” noted the Indianapolis Journal.
The memorial was completed and unveiled with even more crowds and ceremonies and speeches on July 21, 1892.
(First published in the Winchester News-Gazette, Aug. 8, 2024)