Bloomington Fading

By: derekandjenrichey

Jan 29 2013

Tags: 1900s, 1930s, 7th Street, Bloomington, Bloomington Fading, Bloomington Then and Now, Dunn Meadow, Historic

Category: 7th Street, Bloomington, Bloomington Fading, Dunn Meadow, IN, Then and Now, Uncategorized

1 Comment

Between 1911 and 1930, Dunn Meadow was put to use for many different activities. In 1911, it was a temporary airfield for a Curtis aviator attempting to take off, and then land his bi-plane (the landing part didn’t go so well). In the mid-to late teens of the 1900s, the field was used as troops prepared to enter WW1 as a parade field and training field. Finally, in 1930, Dunn Meadow was used as a golf course for the Dunn Meadow Gold Club. While this was short-lived, the articles below are certainly an interesting read! ————————————————-

When Dunn Meadow was a Golf Course

Bloomington (Monroe County, Indiana) Telephone, April 5, 1930, p. 5

Looking Back On Old Bloomington by Louis Huff

Fore! the familiar cry of the links hound who chases the little white pellet over acres and acres of excellent pasture land is already heard in Bloomington this season.

As Bloomington’s golfing 500 prepares to make 1930 a bigger and better year in the gutta percha mart, we harken back to the beginning of the century when the grand old game had its beginning in Bloomington. The following account taken from the Arbutus of 1900 relates the organization of the Dunn Meadow Golf club at Indiana University.

To Indiana University belongs the honor of having organized the first college golf club in this state. It is known as the Dunn Meadows Golf Club, taking its name from the Dunn Meadow north of the campus on which the links have been laid out.

As early as 1897, attempts were made to organize a golf club at Indiana, but there were not enough patrons of the game at that time to realize the end. Matters drifted along until one rainy morning in October of 1899, a dozen enthusiasts, most of them uninitiated in the mysteries of the game, met and successfully organized the Dunn Meadow club. A limit of fifty was originally placed on the membership and it was feared that the number might not easily be filled; but since that time the membership has been successfully increased to seventy-five.

Grounds were secured at once and the links were laid out under the direction of E.L. Bogart, the club’s president. Nine holes varying in distance from 125 to 400 yards constitute the course, which covers a total of 2,105 yards or something over a mile in length. Nature has provided the meadow with all sorts of obstructions so that the club was spared the trouble of making artificial hazards. No permanent improvements have been made on the links, for it is feared that the club will not be able to play over them longer than the present season.

Very few of the Dunn Meadows players have had much experience with the game but they are all applying themselves to its principals faithfully. Tradition has it that two years are necessary to develop a golfer, but that does not discourage the enthusiast. Let the novice “foozle” once and he will be willing to try again and again, until he can make a good drive. And when once he learns to send the ball away far over the green, he will want to keep on doing so for the rest of his days. Such is the irresistible charm of golfing.”

Accompanying the article is a picture of a group of players on one of the tees of the Dunn Meadows course. None are dressed in the conventional garb of the modern golfer – knickers and sweater, but affect rather the conventional street style of the day. Some coats are in evidence while others of the players are in shirt sleeves. All wear hats – considered rather passé on a modern course.

Bloomington (Monroe County, Indiana) Weekly Courier, October 13, 1911, p. 1, second edition

Aviator Falls 100 Feet, And Biplane Wrecked On Dunn Meadow

Kearney Was Stunned By the Fall, But Escaped With Only Slight Injuries To His Neck

Machine Had To Rise Too Quickly To Escape Tree, Which Caused the Accident

While a crowd of more than 5000 people stood on the Dunn meadow at 11:15 today awaiting the attempted flight of Howard Kearney, a Curtis aviator, the bi-plane in which the young bird man was seated suddenly careened and fell, landing Kearney in the little stream known as “Spanker’s Branch,” and badly wrenching his neck. No bones were broken and he was not otherwise seriously injured.

The accident was due to the fact that the machine had to rise too quickly in order to escape running into a barbed wire fence which would have wrecked it. The aviator was about 100 feet in the air and he probably would have been killed if his descent had not been slowed up by the machine striking the top of a tree.

When the crowd reached Kearney, he was lying in the mud and water and told those nearest to him that he was not badly hurt. He suffered a badly wrenched neck, but otherwise he was suffering no pain. He was placed in the automobile of Dr. Frank Holland and brought to the office of Dr. C.E. Harris.

As was stated yesterday in The World Kearney was already compelled to walk on crutches by reason of an accident that befell him in St. Louis last spring when his machine was out of gasoline suddenly dropped to the ground. The bones in his ankle were shattered and he was compelled to stay in a hospital for several weeks.

The start to the place of flight today was began at 10:30 but there was a delay of nearly an hour in the take off. The sudden chugging of the engine told the thousands of spectators that the start was about to be made. The machine was seen running in almost a direct easterly direction and toward the Thomas E. Nicholson house, when it began to rise and barely cleared the wire fence at that point. About 100 feet in the air it quickly dipped, and with a thud shot toward the earth. Women screamed, and it was the general remark that the aviator was surely killed. Hundreds of people rushed across the field running through mud and water to get to where the man was lying. Chief Hensley and his deputies were prepared for such an emergency, however, and kept the crowd from getting too near the helpless man. Dr. B.D. Myers, head of the medical department of Indiana University, was one of the first to reach Kearney as he lay in the mud and water and assisted in placing him in the automobile.

The machine was left in the water and a squad of police were detailed to watch it. It was stated that the bi-plane was not badly injured.

Kearney kept his nerve and when the machine turned over stopped the engine and stuck to his seat.

Kearney is 26 years old, in unmarried and his home is in Kansas City. He has been making flights for the Curtis people for many years and made his first ascension in an old dilapidated monoplane years ago. After his injury last spring his friends advised him to give up the flying machine business but he told them it had a fascination for him and that he would stick with it until a fatal accident befell him.

To the World-Courier this morning Kearney chatted pleasantly in his room at the Bowles hotel. He stated that his ambition had always been to be an aviator and that when he steps into his machine to make a flight he never has a sign of fear. He is a strickly(sic) temperate man, not only in regard to the use of liquor, but in other things and is never bothered with “nerves.”

He made flights last Saturday at St. Louis in competion(sic) with noted aviators from all parts of the country and carried off the honors.

When it came time for the flight, the Dunn meadow was thronged with the biggest crowd ever seen there. Hundreds of people were also crowding north Indiana Avenue, and the north side of the campus of the University. The tops of all the surrounding residences were also filled with people. The city schools adjourned at ten o’clock and the school children helped to swell the crowds. Every country school in the county was dismissed today in order to give them chance to witness the flight.

Kearney received the World-Courier man as he comfortably lay in bed in a room on the second floor of the Dr, Harris residence today, and talked concerning the accident. “I am not badly hurt, and my only regret is that I had to disappoint the people of Bloomington in not giving them a flight,” said the aviator.” “I am simply heartbroken over it,” he continued.

An examination of the bi-plane showed that it was injured more than first thought, and Kearney says it will have to be rebuilt. A machine like the one Kearney uses costs $5,000.

Kearney stated that after his machine struck the top of the tree he was thrown from the seat and landed 15 feet from where the machine was found. Kearney will leave tonight for St. Louis where he is entered to fly next Saturday and Sunday in an open meet.

With the dawn of a clear bright day, the success of Bloomington’s First Big Booster Day was assured, and the two flights by aviator Kearney were also made possible.

By eight o’clock this morning the country people began to arrive for miles around, and when the Monon’s 8:15 accommodation train pulled in, 500 persons came from Bedford, Guthrie, Harrodsburg, Clear Creek and Smithville. The 10:10 train brought in as many more and about 200 came in over the Indianapolis Southern. Many people from Brown county came in vehicles and there were several automobiles parties from Spencer and Bedford. The crowd proved to be orderly and good natured in the forepart of the day, but for fear of trouble late this evening, five extra policemen were added, making ten men on the force today.

The bi-plane was on exhibition until the hour of the first flight at 10:30 this morning in Kirkwood Avenue in front of Annex store. The street was first swept clean and was then roped off and two policemen stood to keep the crowds back. The least tampering with the bi-plane might have got the machine out of order and no one was allowed to approach it except the aviator himself and the two mechanicians(sic). At 10:20 it was hitched on to an automobile and pulled down Seventh street to the old circus grounds on the Dunn meadow where the first flight took place.

It is more than likely that the Booster’s Club committee of the Commercial Club will not have to pay anything to the Curtis Company as they guaranteed two successful flights for $750, and neither one of them was delivered. How ever, this point has not been decided upon, but will be taken up in a special meeting of the Booster’s Club committee this afternoon.

LATER – The Commercial Club gave Kearney $350.

The Boosters celebration brought an immense crowd of people to the city and the merchants all enjoyed a good trade. The bargains they offered for the day were real ones and were eagerly snapped up by people from the country and city.

Many of the visitors today took a occasion while in the city to visit the center of population and they were courteously shown through the immense Showers plant.