Santa Claus at Ball Memorial HospitalIn 2004, Ball Memorial Hospital donated more than 80 boxes of archival material to the Minnetrista Heritage Collection. The photographs, documents, brochures, and other material document the hospital from its beginnings in the 1920s to the time of the donation. Read More>
Vice Presidents and Campaign ButtonsBelow are just a few of the campaign buttons in the Minnetrista Heritage Collection.
Women voted for president for the first time in 1920, choosing Republicans Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. When Harding died in office, Vice President Coolidge was visiting his family in Vermont. His father, a notary public, swore him in. Read More>
Polio Epidemic
In 1949, poliomyelitis struck Muncie and East Central Indiana. The highly infectious disease which often attacked children and which usually occurred in the summer is caused by a virus. At the time of the 1949 epidemic, treatment was limited to rest and assistance in breathing through mechanical respirators, commonly known as iron lungs. There was no cure and no preventative.Read More>
Cooling Coca-Cola
It's a hot summer day, and you want a cold Coke. In the early years, you had to buy that frosty Coca-Cola at the soda fountain or in a bottle from the store clerk. That all changed in January, 1929, when the Glascock Brothers Manufacturing Company of Muncie unveiled their new coke cooler at the annual bottlers convention in Indianapolis. You could now serve yourself from the open top cooler – the first cooler sanctioned by the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia.Read More>
Oscar Conley Pickett
He was described as "the strange little man who came and went in a shadowy world." Oscar Conley Pickett was born in Osgood, Indiana, on May 11, 1886 and spent his early years in Ripley and Decatur counties. His family may have moved to Kansas or Oklahoma in the 1890s, but, by 1917, Pickett was living in Greensburg, Indiana. Read More>
The Discovery of Natural Gas Changes the Face of East Central Indiana
Before the discovery of the Trenton Gas Belt in the late 19th century, East Central Indiana was almost exclusively an agricultural area. The Gas Boom became a defining moment in the development of the region. Natural gas had an enormous impact on the history, culture and life of the region and produced a period of economic growth, marked by a dramatic surge in the number of energy-dependent industries that took advantage of the relatively cheap source of fuel to build new factories in the area. Principal among these industries was the manufacturing of glass. Read More>
Lucina Amelia Ball
Lucina Ball did not hesitate to offer sisterly advice to her younger brothers – Lucius, William, Edmund, Frank and George. In a letter written in 1892, she suggested that the brothers "… get up a 'syndicate' to buy a whole square and build it all equally good, and so make your own surroundings." They took her advice then, as they so often did, and purchased a thirty-three acre tract on the White River. Read More>
After the Fire
About a week after fire destroyed the Frank C. Ball home, two of his daughters started talking about the best uses of the land that the house had occupied. In her diary entry of March 6, Rosemary Ball Bracken said that, "Margaret (Ball Petty) stopped by in morning to talk about ideas and possibilities of what to do with 'ruins' of Mother's and Father's house. Do hope something can be done." Read More>
Fire at Minnetrista
"A most heartbreaking thing happened this evening," wrote Rosemary Ball Bracken in her diary entry of Tuesday, February 28, 1967. That event was the fire that destroyed Rosemary's childhood home. Read More>
Wooten Desk
These beautiful desks were designed and patented by William S. Wooton (1835-1907). Wooton formed the Wooton Desk Company after winning a $5 first prize at the Indiana State Fair for a school house desk (1868 U.S. patent). Read More>
Recording History: The Grand Pianos and Diverse Sounds of Starr Gennett
In 1849, a skilled piano maker named George M. Trayser moved from Germany to Indianapolis to establish the first piano factory in the Midwest. He opened the Trayser Piano Company in Richmond in 1872 with backing from local businessmen Richard Jackson and James Starr.
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1913 Flood
It rained and rained and rained in March 1913. By the time the heaviest rains of the month began, the ground was saturated and creeks and rivers were nearing flood stage.
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Drey Fruit Jar Mystery
Dick unearthed, researched and solved many mysteries in his years of working on fruit jars. One that he was not able to answer before his death involves the Drey jars. Read More >
Muncie PotteryAfter World War I, Gill Clay Pot Company, maker of clay pots used by glass factories to melt glass, created a subsidiary company called Muncie Clay Products. After several years of experimentation and formulation, the first pieces were produced. Read More >
Wizard of Oz
If you look very, very closely when Dorothy encounters the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz, you'll see a green straw bonnet on one of the Munchkin ladies.
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