Living history by the minute

Paul W. Barada

The Indianapolis Star contains a “Timeline” section, usually on the same page as the funnies, that tells about notable events which took place on that same date in history. It’s an interesting little space-filler. The other day I was struck by the fact that what most would think of as “ancient history” actually took place during the lifetimes of real people like my two great-aunts, Cora and Nell Winship, and my grandfather, Will Winship. The three of them were born, respectively, in 1879, 1881, and 1883. Each of them lived fairly long lives. As some readers may recall, these were the three people who raised me from the time I was about two years old. Aunt Cora lived to be 88. Aunt Nell lived until she was 97 and my grandfather lived for 78 years. During their long lives, they saw so much that, today, it’s hard to imagine growing up with people who were actually alive when so much history was being made.

Here’s a partial list of the more notable things that happened during their lifetimes. The 19th President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, had been elected in 1877, just two years before my Aunt Cora was born. Victoria was still Queen of England – and would be until 1901. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879.

Less than a month after Aunt Nell was born the gunfight at the OK Corral took place in Tombstone in the Arizona Territory. In 1885 Louis Pasteur successfully administered the first rabies vaccination. In 1886, when my great aunts and grandfather were small children, the Apache, Geronimo, finally surrendered after 15 years of conflict during the Indian wars.

In 1889 the states of North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington were admitted to the Union. The Indian massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, took place in 1890 and Idaho and Wyoming were also admitted to the Union in that same year. In 1895 the author H.G. Wells wrote “The Time Machine.” In 1898 the Spanish-American War began. My Aunt Nell had a “beau” who served in the 161st Indiana Volunteers. She was just 17 years old at the time. He sent her a piece of the Battleship “Maine,” the destruction of which precipitated our declaration of war against the Spanish. And in 1899 Sigmund Freud wrote “The Interpretation of Dreams.”

In 1901 President William McKinley was assassinated. The Wright brothers successfully flew the first airplane in 1903. Aunt Cora was just 24. Aunt Nell was 22 and my grandfather was only 20 years old. Two years later, in 1905, Albert Einstein proposed his Special Theory of Relativity. Oklahoma was admitted to the Union in 1907.

Following the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt became president, serving from 1901 to 1909. In 1912 New Mexico and Arizona were admitted to the Union. Woodrow Wilson was elected president in 1913. The following year World War I began when Germany invaded Belgium. In 1917 the United States entered the war against the Central Powers – Germany, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria. My aunts did their part for the Red Cross by knitting socks and helping roll bandages in a room on the third floor of the local courthouse. The Russian Revolution happened in 1917 which ended the 300 year reign of the Romanov dynasty and created the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, ending what had become known at the time as “The Great War.”

In 1920 the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed prohibiting the production or consumption of alcohol. Aunt Cora was 41, Aunt Nell was 39, and my grandfather was 37. In Rush County alcohol could still be acquired – if one knew the right people! During the same year, the 19th Amendment was passed giving women the right to vote. In 1922 James Joyce wrote Ulysses, and in 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh became the first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, making him a national hero.

In 1929 Herbert Hoover was elected president and the stock market crashed bringing about The Great Depression. In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt began the “New Deal.” The next year Adolph Hitler became the “Fuehrer” of Germany. In 1935 the Social Security Act provided retirement insurance to Americans. In 1937 Dow Chemical Company developed plastic. Two years later, on September 1, 1939, World War II began when Germany invaded Poland. The next year Ernest Hemingway wrote, “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the next day President Roosevelt asked that the Congress declare the United States at war. My Aunt Cora was already 62 years old that year. Aunt Nell was 59 and my grandfather was 57.

Suffice it to say that my aunts and my grandfather were alive through one of the most dramatic periods of change our country has ever seen. Aunt Nell lived to see a man walk on the moon in 1968, living on for another decade after that. She was 22 when the Wright brothers flew the first airplane and 87 when the first man landed on the moon 65 years later.

What’s the point of all this?

Real people experience history. They live through it, just as we are experiencing history today, but seldom take time to really consider that we are.

That’s — 30 — for this week.



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