The mischief of the corset

This is a neat "article" from the Greensburg Standard, an early warning about the dangers of corsets with a strong visual element. I love looking at old pictures from the corset era, but I am so grateful that the fad has passed! 

3 February 1899

Greensburg Standard

This 1898 catalog illustration shows just how tiny a "fashionable" woman's waist was supposed to be.

From Dover's Victorian Fashions

The Pioneering Women of Greensburg Girls' Sports

By Lori Osting

The first photo we shared on Decatur County History was of an early girls' basketball team at Greensburg High School. Curiosity about this photo prompted me to do a little research on the history of girls' sports in Decatur County.

GHS yearbooks, which began in 1924, shed some light on an important milestone - the formation of the Girls Athletic Association (GAA). They also indicate that the variety and quality of early girls' athletic offerings at GHS was highly dependent on faculty leadership within the athletic program.

Goldie Howard, 1924

Goldie Howard led the program in the early 1920's. The following information from the 1924 GHS yearbook summarizes Goldie's influence:

"Since the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, a noticeable difference has been apparent among the members of the fair sex. Girls have come to the front in athletics, and have vied for honors with the boys in the world of sport. In Greensburg High School, the girls have adopted athletics and promise to make real athletes. Miss Goldie Howard, the efficient director of physical culture in Greensburg schools, has succeeded in developing an interest in the department heretofore unknown. Although the work is compulsory, the girls have not yet rebelled (as they often do), but have taken an insatiable interest in physical culture work. Class competition has led to the formation of class basketball teams. Series of games were played during the season with the result-scores all close. Several volley ball teams were organized during the latter part of the year and created much rivalry. Calisthenic drills revealed the fact that the girls are proficient in this branch of gymnasium work. Miss Howard is to be complimented on the efficiency of this department and the fine exhibition of the work given last year, and we hope that the same has been repeated this year."

By 1925 GHS girls were being awarded athletic letters. After Goldie left GHS, the program faltered for a few years. By 1932, there was no mention of girls' athletics in the yearbook at all.

The program was re-vitalized in 1933 when Ball State graduate Catherine Cloud took over as the Physical Education Director and organized a new Girls' Athletic Association (GAA). The 1936 Tower Tree gives this short bio of Catherine -

"A small, cute, and clever physical ed teacher - sponsors GAA and has charge of school library - hobbies, writing poetry and planning trips to Europe - secret desire, to take a trip to Europe."

Catherine Cloud, 1933

The first year, 32 girls participated in 5 GAA sports offerings: basketball, baseball, ring tennis, volleyball, and apparatus. In 1934, the program expanded to include track, tumbling, folk dancing, tap dancing, and swimming.

In 1938, Geneva Risk, a graduate of Hanover College, took over as the physical education instructor and GAA sponsor.

Geneva Risk, 1938

Geneva's bio from the 1938 Tower Tree yearbook:

Geneva reorganized the GAA, dividing the year into three sports seasons. She also organized numerous social events for the GAA, including a "hobo hike," Halloween party, formal initiation party, Christmas party, gypsy party, Valentine pie auction, barn dance, and a dinner dance honoring the seniors. In 1940, girls from all over the county participated in a "Play Day" and formed a County Council.

Geneva Risk continued to lead girls' athletics at GHS until 1951. She died at the age of 92 on 3 September 2002. Her obituary indicates that, in addition to her service at GHS, she was also chosen as the first director of the Greensburg Youth Center, known to most as "The Galley."

Women's History Month is a wonderful opportunity for us to remember Goldie, Catherine, Geneva, and all the other pioneers in girls' athletics and to thank them for the contributions they made to Decatur County history.

Sources: 

Schwomeyer, Herb. Hoosier Hersteria, Mitchell-Fleming Printing: Indianapolis, 1985.

Tower Tree, Greensburg High School Yearbooks, 1924-1946.

Elizabeth Finnern: A woman in the Civil War

By Greg Meyer

In honor of Women’s History Month, we turn our attention  to the story of Elizabeth Finnern.  Perhaps the reader has heard the story of Elizabeth, a Greensburg resident who supposedly went to the Civil War with her husband John Finnern, disguised as a man, and participated in combat until she was discovered to be a woman.  She then finished the war as a nurse in her husband’s regiment.  First of all, there is discrepancy about her last name.  Her tombstone has “Finnern,” but her obituary calls her “Finnan.”  A directory of the 81^st Ohio Regiment, her husband’s unit, lists him as “Finnan”  And according to the Decatur County Historian, Russell Wilhoit, no “official” evidence of Elizabeth’s service has ever been found.  

According to her lengthy obituary in the Greensburg News issue of July 19, 1907, her story is a bit different.  Elizabeth Cain Finnern and her husband John were born in Germany.  She was an orphan when she came to this country and settled in Rome, NY.  She couldn’t be understood, so John Finnern was called in to interpret.  This meeting led to romance, and they were later married in Rome.  They had no children, and “lived for one another.”  They ended up in Ohio by the time of the Civil War, when John enlisted.  Offering her service at Sandusky, OH, she was taken to Cincinnati, where she was examined and was accepted as a laundress for the Ohio 81^st Regiment, her husband’s unit. 

The post of laundress was soon abolished, and Mr. Finnern was informed by a General Dodge that Elizabeth must leave.  However, General John A. Logan “had observed the attachment between husband and wife and interfered in their behalf.”  Elizabeth was allowed to remain with the regiment and a little “A” tent was supplied to her.  Her obituary states that “She drew the government rations the same as any soldier and much of the time wore male attire.  In times of danger she carried a musket just as did the soldiers and in all respects shared the rough life of the men about her.”  It was further written that she had vivid remembrances of the battle of Shiloh, where she saw dead men piled in heaps.  She roamed the battlefield, seeking out wounded and helping where she could.  It was there where she was kicked by a mule, “and from this injury she never recovered.” The obituary never states that she actually engaged in combat herself at any time.

At every battle, Mrs. Finnern acted as a surgeon’s assistant, caring for the wounded and dying.  It is written that at the battle of Lookout Mountain, she was able to perform a service for General Grant, who later “took occasion to single her out for praise.  He also presented her with a towel, a very fine gift in those days of hardship.”  

After the end of the Civil War, John and Elizabeth moved to Laurel, IN, where they lived on a tiny farm.  A year later, they moved to Williamstown, on the northern border of Decatur County.  Later, they moved into Greensburg, until John’s death in November of 1905.  After his death Elizabeth was cared for by friends and members of the Women’s Relief Corps, who were responsible for getting her a widow’s pension from the government.   On July 15, 1907, she died at the home of James Parker, and was buried beside her beloved husband in the Soldiers Circle of South Park Cemetery in Greensburg.

Whether or not Elizabeth Finnern served as a combat soldier in the Civil War, her contributions to the effort appear to be undeniable, and she should be remembered for them. 

To learn more about women's roles in the Civil War, check out:

They fought like demons: women soldiers in the Civil War
by DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook

An uncommon soldier: the Civil War letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Private Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers

Stealing secrets: how a few daring women changed the fate of the Civil War
by H. Donald Winkler