In the spring of 1872, Lew Wallace travelled about 100 miles north to the Allegheny House on Lake Maxinkuckee to fish and to put the finishing touches on his first major novel, The Fair God. Wallace had been working on the book intermittently for almost 30 years. He had the time […]
Lew Wallace
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The citizens of Crawfordsville have been fighting fire for almost 200 years—both professionally and with volunteers. After Lew Wallace completed his service on the military tribunals that handled the Lincoln conspirators and Commander Wirz in 1865, he headed south to Mexico. He had been in Mexico just prior to the […]
Edward Allen Hannegan was one of the most prominent and charismatic politicians in Indiana from the 1830s through the 1850s. He was born in Hamilton County, Ohio in 1807 and moved to Bourbon County, Kentucky as an infant with his family. He was admitted to the bar in 1827 after […]
In honor of the MotoCross of Nations race in Crawfordsville this weekend, we thought it appropriate to note that Lew Wallace may be given credit for the first motorized race in Crawfordsville, between him and his new car—it was a race he lost. For all of the research that has […]
Writing from Constantinople to his wife Susan in 1885 about his homecoming plans, Lew Wallace said, “I am not to be driven to the law again, that most detestable of human occupations. I look for better employment.” In his mature years Wallace made it abundantly clear that his employment as attorney […]
In his Autobiography Lew Wallace says very little about his law practice. He humbly dismissed it as an “an experimental period of my life.” He enjoyed a couple “triumphs,” made a few mistakes that were “not admirable,” and accomplished one or two things that were “smart,” but mostly, he says, I pigeon-hole those years to my “defeat.” Yet he did include a […]
When World War I ended in November 1918, Henry Wallace (son of Lew and Susan) and his wife Margaret Noble Wallace were still in mourning. Just weeks earlier they lost their youngest son to the war. Lew and Susan Wallace had one son Henry. Henry and his wife, Margaret Noble […]
On the grounds of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum there is a large bronze statue of Lew Wallace in his Civil War attire. Lew was selected to be the second of two Hoosiers recognized with statues in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol and a committee was formed […]
In the development of the 1925 epic film of Ben-Hur, June Mathis, played a critical role until she was removed from the project early in the filming. After the replacement of Ms. Mathis women did not play a significant role in upper management in the film industry for almost 30 years. […]
In March of 1898, Lew Wallace was quoted in the Crawfordsville Weekly Journal when it picked up a story printed in the Indianapolis Journal where the author declared: “Won’t Dramatize It. Gen. Wallace Tells Why He Won’t Have Ben-Hur Put on the Stage. “This evening,” said General Wallace, “I received a letter from a […]