County reaches goal for trail signs

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April 26, 2008

By SHIRLEY WILLARD Pharos-Tribune Sat Apr 26, 2008, 10:57 PM EDT

The week of April 14-19 was one of the busiest and best weeks of my life. I gave six speeches/programs in six days about the Potawatomi Trail of Death.

Three of the programs were to Rochester High School freshman English classes. The other three were to counties on the Trail of Death: Delphi in Carroll County, Williamsport in Warren County and Logansport in Cass County.

Fortunately I was able to show pictures of the historical markers from a CD of our web site www.potawatomi-tda.org. The RHS freshmen are making Powerpoint programs about American Indian tribes. The counties are helping us raise money to erect Potawatomi Trail of Death historic highway signs on the Trail of Death route through Indiana.

The bad news is that I nearly lost my voice. With a mike I was able to be heard, but it was hard on me. By Sunday I was sick and on Monday I went tothe doctor. Dr. Sanders said I had pneumonia and to stay home and rest. So I did but typing on the computer is resting, isn't it? Well maybe not, so I will keep this short.

The Delphi program was attended by about 100 people at the Wabash and Erie Canal Center. They presented us with a check for $500 for signs.

Included in that total was $100 from the Carroll County DAR and White County DAR.

The Williamsport program had about 25 people in attendance. One of them was a former Kewanna student of mine, Don Metzger, who promptly donated $114.70 to pay for two sings and two arrows. Two ladies bought nearly all the different Trail of Death books I had brought to sell.

The Cass County program had only seven attendees, but here is the good news: One woman asked how many more sponsors did I need to reach the goal for Cass County? When I told her four, she paid the $229.40 for four signs and four arrows. She is Mary Brady, who has Delaware Indian ancestry.

Denise Forsberg, reporter for Pharos Tribune, was there to interview people.

I thank Richard Copeland, Cass County historian and president of Cass County Historical Society, for helping with the project.

Donors for the highway signs to be erected in Cass County are Barbara Neff Craig of Toledo, Ohio, Linda Ruhl of Star City, professor Mark R. Schurr of Notre Dame and Becki Harris, Dee A. Fiedler, Carol Miller, Barrie and Richard McClain, Richard Copeland, Thelma Conrad, Ken Lawrence, Robert J. Barr, Denise Vinyard and Scott and Mary Brady, all of Logansport.

We have mapped and figured how many signs are needed to mark the turns on the Trail of Death route. Cass County needs 13 signs and 9 arrows for $716.15, Carroll County needs 15 signs and 11 arrows for $830.85. Tippecanoe County needs 21 signs and 14 arrows for $1,152.90. Warren County needs 17 signs and 13 arrows for $935.55.

We hope to get them all up before the Trail of Death Caravan from Indiana to Kansas Sept. 22-28.

I don’t know how it happened that all those speeches were in one week.

The rest of my Trail of Death speeches are spread out:

• May 21 at 7 p.m. at Tippecanoe County Library, 627 South Street, Lafayette, co-sponsored by Tippecanoe County Historical Association. George Godfrey, a Potawatomi who had ancestors on the Trail of Death, will be there to speak, too.

• June 9 at Indiana Veterans Home, 3851 North River Road, West Lafayette. It will be 1:30 p.m. in the McArthur Building in the auditorium.

• Aug. 24 at Rochester in the Fulton County Museum at 2 p.m. George Godfrey and Tom Hamilton, Citizen Potawatomi Nation members, will be there to speak, too.

As you may recall, Trail of Death highway signs were erected across Fulton County in 2006 by Manitou Chapter DAR and in 2007 across Marshall County by Marshall County Tourism. Much research has been done and we find out new details about history all the time. So even though you have heard the story of the Trail of Death many times, please do come to hear us relate new discoveries and see the pictures.

Shirley Willard is the Fulton County Historian.

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County reaches goal for trail signs

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