During the past couple days I have thought of Crawfordsville, Indiana a few times.

The first thoughts came from a Facebook reminder that I had posted a picture from Crawfordsville 10 years ago. This started bringing back memories from the trip I took there at that time.

Then last night I used a picture that I took in Crawfordsville in my post Leaves on Sidewalks.

The picture with the leaves was taken on the steps of the Lew Wallace Study in Crawfordsville.

General Lew Wallace served in the Mexican-American war, became a lawyer and was also a general for the Union in the Civil War.

After the end of the Civil War he returned to Crawfordsville where he wrote most of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ while sitting under a beech tree near his house.

Wallace finished the novel in 1880 while serving as the territorial governor of the New Mexico Territory. He then served as the U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire from 1881 – 1885.

After returning to Indiana he had his study built so that he would have a place of solitude where he could spend time alone while studying or writing. He also needed a place to keep his small library of more than 1,000 books.

I also thought of the Crawfordsville Carnegie Library this evening during a meeting I was in at our library. We were talking about new libraries and I remembered visiting the new library in Crawfordsville. They had turned the old Carnegie Library into a museum.

I also thought of this old voting machine that was in the museum as we were talking about making sure that candidates for the next local election are aware of the library needs of our community.

Some good memories tonight.

Steven