Homer E. Capehart, born into an Indiana farming family in 1897, manufactured and pioneered sales of automatic phonographs, creating the Capehart Corporation, and served as an executive of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company from 1933 to 1944. He organized the 1938 Republican Party Cornfield Conference on his farmland across the road, and the rally took place August 26-27, 1938 on the Capehart farm. Thousands from Indiana and other states attended, and the event received significant national news coverage. It sparked a revival of the Republican Party in Indiana and nationally, launched Capehart's political career, made him influential in the party, and he later served as a U.S. senator from 1945 to 1963. He died in 1979.