ARTSCULTURE · HISTORICAL MARKER
Long Live La Porte
La Porte, Indiana
· A Mural by Tom Torluemke, 2019
Arts & Culture
5
La Porte's history is presented through scenes and people that include Potawatomi Indian women, the first log cabin, early mail carrier Paul Bowman, views of Pine Lake, Holmes Island, and the city, a girl riding a Crown Bicycle, the Door Prairie Barn in 1876, a cart from the Belle Gunness farm, and a 1921 girl reading a scary biography of Belle Gunness. It also includes the Rumely Oil Pull Thresher, Stone Lake Beach, Hallet H. Kessler of Kessler's Furniture in 1906, Edward A. Rumely of the Advance-Rumely Company in 1853, Herbert W. Fox of the Woolen Mills in 1858 making World War I peacoats, the National Waterskiing Championships in 1956, James Burden as director for 45 years of the oldest continuously operating city band in the US, Frederick C. Mennen inventing Jiffy Pop Popcorn in 1958, Fern Eddy Schultz as La Porte County historian, Ken Schreiber as a three-time national and nine-time state Baseball Coach of the Year, a home economics display, Karl P. Link as inventor of Coumadin and Warfarin, the office of Dr. Collins as inventor of opium treatment, the La Porte Theater from 1923 to 1977, Hazel Harrison as an international concert pianist, James Andrew as a founding father of La Porte who built the first 15 miles of Michigan Road, a union organizer, Frederic A. Craven as a local artisan who built wooden ships for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Kate Annette Hosmer as an early schoolteacher for over 37 years, Captain A.P. Andrew as a founding father of La Porte who donated land for the courthouse, Dr. Abraham Teegarden as the first resident physician and founder of Teegarden Hotel, the home of Captain A.P. Andrew, former mayor Mark Krentz, landscape architect Don Bowman, mural artist Tom Torluemke in 2019, a Fourth of July parade during Indiana's Capital for the Day, the Deluxe Drive-In Theater showing Unbroken about Russel Allen Phillips, a prisoner of war and local teacher, the automobile collection of Dr. Peter C. Kesling, Dr. H.D. Kesling building the Yare electric car in 1976, mail carrier Mike Kabacinski carrying love letters in his pocket to the city, a football state championship pep rally honoring Jake West in 2014, Slicer Baseball state championships in 1967, 1971, 1976, 1982, 1987, 1990, 1992, and 2000, Jane Goad founding the Slicer Bat Girls and pom-pons, passing the torch for the Indiana Bicentennial in 2016, and Bullseye as a symbol of La Porte heading toward a winning future.
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La Porte, Indiana
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