Stories of Salem: An Introduction

When I decided to found The Washington County Times, several desires for the publication became my driving force. First, I wanted to make sure Salem and its surrounding area had a high-quality, unbiased source of news and journalism. Second, as a husband and a father, I had to be able to put food on the table and keep the lights on while doing it (and thank you to our growing list of wonderful subscribers for helping with that!)… and third, I wanted to write a historical column.

The original art for the historic Salem courthouse as it appeared in local publications. Courtesy of the John Hay Center.

History is a profound concept. Wherever you are, at this moment, reading these words, you are standing, or sitting, or lying down in an area of the world that has been around for eons before you were there. Have you ever stopped to ponder what might have happened in that exact spot a hundred years ago? A thousand years ago?

I have. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked around the Salem square, looking at the historic buildings, and wondered what it must have been like back in 1886, witnessing our now-iconic courthouse being built in the middle of town. Or when I’ve found an arrowhead in the creek outside my house, and wondered if a Native American family once lived nearby. 

Most of those stories will never be told. They died with those who lived them, leaving behind only the occasional tangible hint of a person, an event, a society, or even entire nations.

Recent history is a different story — literally. With the invention of the printing press, suddenly the ability to record societal events became integrated with society itself. Suddenly, you didn’t have to be a king, a conquerer, or a hero of the faith for your story to be told. Suddenly, every story could be told. Not that every story was, unfortunately. It would still be centuries before some demographics were reached with the technology, or even given the “right” to use the platform of the written word. Nonetheless, it was a major step forward.

Although a few accounts of the Miami, Shawnee, and Delaware peoples that occupied the Ohio River Valley long before us have survived, the ability to successfully record the majority of Washington County history began a little over 200 years ago, around the time the county itself was established and settled.

These stories — the Stories of Salem, will be the subject of this column. They are available elsewhere if you know where to find them, in collections of books and various archives around the Stevens Memorial Museum, and a few of them can even be found at johnhaycenter.org, but with those exceptions, they are difficult to find — especially in convenient, at-your-fingertips formats.

The goal of this column is to bring the history of our little community, the stories of the places you and I walk past every day, to your phone, tablet, or computer for you to read during your morning coffee. Stories like:

• The murderer who killed a man, married his widow, killed another man, then was lynched off the railroad bridge over Brock Creek less than 100 yards from where Dollar Tree stands today...

• That man’s older brother, editor of a well-known local newspaper who presided over the local chapter of the Knights of the Golden Circle (the Civil War-era precursors of the Ku Klux Klan)...

• The life of the first licensed female pharmacist in Indiana...

• The horrific accident just outside of where Thai Lotus stands today that claimed the life of a young woman, and nearly also that of our elementary school’s namesake...

• The gruesome murder of a deputy sheriff on Cox Ferry Road, whose headless apparition has been “glimpsed” numerous times by passersby for nearly two centuries since…

• The dark, taboo tale of politics and racism in Washington County that resulted in Salem becoming a “sundown town”…

• The “lady of the evening” who was rumored to be a mistress of none other than P.T. Barnum…

…and many, many more.

When people talk about places with a rich history, we typically think of cities like London, Paris, Rome, D.C., or New York. But history doesn’t have to be in a huge city to be rich. Sometimes, it can be in your own backyard.

The stories just have to be told.

Subscribe below to follow along as we tell the Stories of Salem, presented with the cooperation and assistance of the John Hay Center. Open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 10 to 5, The John Hay Center (home of the Pioneer Village and the Stevens Memorial Museum) is a must-visit for anyone in Washington County interested in learning more about their local history.