Local history buffs shared these stories at a âtalking museum,â so to speak.
The Kendallville Public Libraryâs history panel Wednesday night featured Bill Shultz, president of the Noble County Historical Society and in charge of Noble Countyâs Old Jail Museum; Terry Housholder, publisher of KPC Media Group and author of â150 Years: 1863-2013 Kendallville, Indiana;â Mike Mapes, owner of probably the largest collection of postcards featuring scenes from Kendallville history; and Amanda Blackman, president of the Kendallville Heritage Association.
Blackman â who is the No. 1 expert on the areaâs cemeteries â says people always say to her, âYou must know so many people in Kendallville.â She says, yes, she does know many, many people . but all of them are dead.
Mike Mapes grew up thinking everyoneâs dad wrote poetry.
âIt seemed natural to me. Thatâs what dads did,â he said when he and his siblings gathered in February for a video about their father â Arthur Franklin Mapes â author of Indianaâs state poem.
Arthur Franklin Mapes wrote âIndianaâ while sitting at the kitchen table . he would get something in his head and he would jot it right down, his children recalled, in various ways.
A machinist at Flint and Walling in Kendallville by day and a dad, nature enthusiast and poet at all other times â thatâs how his children remember him. During the day âheâd think about nature and the great outdoors and heâd come home with thoughts in his head, grab anything, a napkin or whatever, and heâd start writing out his poems .â