Bebout Family Shines in Basketball Industrial League
In the 1920s, a family of brothers and their cousin ruled the basketball Industrial League in Muncie. This league, part of the YMCA program, was comprised of teams of workers from many of the prominent businesses in town. The Bebout family…were the driving force behind the Ball Brothers Factory team winning numerous city championships.
Mosquitos!
Summer is the time for that dreaded biting creature known as the mosquito. One hundred years ago the pests were thriving in central Indiana causing cities and towns to take action and attempt to control and/or destroy them.
A Brief History of Ball Aerospace
Check out this blog for a brief history of Ball Company’s involvement in the aerospace industry.
A Tale of Two (or Three?) Inter-State Automobiles
Learn about The Inter-State Automobile Company’s start in Muncie, how the Ball Brothers were included, and how many interstate automobiles George Ball actually owned!
Lincoln Sites Saved by Ball
Learn about how members of the Ball family took a keen interest in saving sites historically connected to President Lincoln’s family and childhood.
Collections Online
We are excited to announce that there is a new web interface to access the Minnetrista Heritage Collection! Learn more about it here!
News Travels Fast … Sometimes
The letters of Elizabeth “Lizzie” E. Spencer and Robert B. Kersey span the years of 1886 to 1892 and documents their friendship which evolves into a courtship –through their correspondence - and finally marriage.
Shall We Dance?
The holiday season is a time for all kinds of festive parties and gatherings. Back in the day, Muncie was the scene of a whirlwind of holiday parties and dances over an approximately three-week period in December.
Ball Legacy at Ball State University, Part One
Have you ever wondered about the names of the buildings on the Ball State University Campus and the people for which they were named? Many bear the names of former presidents of the university, college deans, and other prominent faculty, however, a large percentage of the buildings are named after Ball family members who supported the ideals of higher education and wished to contribute to the advancement of the East Central Indiana region.
Soapbox Derby
Have you ever seen the paved hill in McCulloch Park and wondered what it was? For several decades that was the site of the soapbox derby races.
Summer Fun
Summer is the time for vacations, road trips, picnics, family reunions, and all types of outdoor fun. These activities are well represented in the Heritage Collection and tell a variety of stories along the way.
Home Movies
Most people cringe when they hear the phrase “home movies”, imagining hours of boring vacation footage taken by relatives who think they had the most unique and interesting adventures ever experienced.
Horseless Vehicles Part Two
As horseless vehicles became popular in the early 1900’s many carriage manufacturers simply switched from horse-drawn conveyances to engine power, keeping the same chassis and body designs. Often small shops used these components to design their own versions of the horseless carriage.
Horseless Vehicles Part One
Electric cars are not a new concept. Manufacturers were producing electric-powered cars in the late 1800’s as an alternative to gasoline powered engines. Like other early cars, many small companies built their own versions. Each claimed that the batteries they used were the most efficient and would last 60, 80, or 100 miles before recharging.
Ball Ledger Collection
Recently one of our Archives volunteers, Norm Beck, agreed to take on the task of reviewing the collection of Ball family and company financial ledgers to determine type of content (investments, sales, income, etc.) and how they are set up to find the information contained within. Although just getting started with the collection, he has made some interesting discoveries.
Hot Weather and Water Supplies
Hot weather is not a new phenomenon. While it currently may be hotter for longer periods of time and in places that do not normally experience high temperatures, extreme heat conditions made an impact on people’s lives and livelihood more than 100 years ago.
Baur Window Glass
Emil Baur started the Baur Window Glass Company in Eaton in 1897. The factory was located just east of the Standard Washboard factory, bounded by Perry Street on the west (known today as Meridian) and Washington Street on the south.
Delaware County Airports
Aviation excitement caught on early in Delaware County. On September 27, 1912, nine years after the Wright brothers’ first successful flight, the Muncie Aero Club was established. According to a Star Press news article that day, it was thought that “Muncie, the Magic City, should occupy a prominent space in the annals American Aviation. It possesses the intellectual, mechanical and financial ability to make it an excellent aviation center.”
Muncie Transient Camp
In May 1934, it was announced that a camp for transients would be established on 35 acres north of the Indiana Steel & Wire factory site. The camp was a Depression era project through FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) to relieve the burden of local agencies trying to deal with transient and homeless men. It was expected that the cost of housing men at the camp would be less than paying relief money to individuals.
