Community to mark Riley statue’s 100th anniversary

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GREENFIELD — The statue of James Whitcomb Riley, from its prominent place outside the Hancock County Courthouse, has watched, strong and stoic, as 100 years of history has unfolded.

It stands in the heart of the city, on “a street that once knew him before greatness,” as one newspaper put it. A tall effigy, overlooking the hustle and bustle of countless days; observing the world around it as the writer it immortalizes surely did in life.

To mark the centennial anniversary of the statue’s installation, local history buffs, the Riley Festival Board and city leaders will gather at 2 p.m. Sunday at the courthouse to rededicate the Riley statue, and they’re inviting the community to join in the fun.

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Organizers of the re-dedication say they’ve tried their best to make Sunday’s ceremony as much like the original celebration as possible. Local dignitaries will speak; a choir will sing; and those community members whose relatives were instrumental in bringing Riley’s statue to Greenfield will tell those gathered of memories from that day that their families have passed down through the generations.

Their goal, they say, is to renew Greenfield’s sense of pride, honor and gratitude for the Hoosier poet, who through his words and imagination brought so many into the city.

A setting in stone

By many accounts, the idea to place a statue of Riley in Greenfield came from a group of his boyhood friends, said Terry Beagle, who sits on the Riley Festival board and is helping organize the re-dedication.

In 1912 — four years before Riley died in 1916 — George Carr, the mayor of Greenfield at the time and a childhood playmate of Riley’s, first voiced the idea at Riley’s birthday party: The town, he suggested, should put a statue of Riley outside the courthouse.

Others agreed and got to work, Beagle said.

Greenfield residents G. Beamer Davis and Perry A. Davis, brothers who were part of the Greenfield Arts Association, began fundraising for the statue, which was to be “a life-size standard on a granite base,” according to newspaper clippings from the time.

They put together a package of “Riley art treasures,” Beagle said, that could be gifted to schools in exchange for a contribution toward the statue project.

Teachers who sent word to Greenfield that they wanted to participate in the fundraiser were given 125 pins with Riley’s picture on them to sell to their students for 10 cents each. As a reward for the sales, they were sent the art treasures package, which included a copy of the painting “The Ole Swimmin’ Hole,” which was inspired by the Riley poem of the same name; a small bust of the poet; and a book of poems.

Donations came in from schools in every state and U.S. territory, in additional to several schools in other countries. According to an article printed in the Hancock County Democrat just before the statue’s unveiling, an estimated 3,400 schools participated in the fundraiser. The donations were in varied amounts, large and small.

“It is believed that more than a million children have contributed in one way or another to the monument,” the article reads. “Nathan Bufford, cashier of the Capitol State Bank of Greenfield, acted as the custodian of the funds and accepted everything from pennies to dollars.”

William Bixler, the Anderson, Indiana, painter who created “The Ole Swimmin’ Hole,” made more than 5,000 copies of his painting, each done by hand in an assembly-line style, in order to meet the demand.

Indiana sculptor Myra Reynolds Richards was hired to complete the statue. She sculpted him standing, wearing a scholarly robe and holding a book. The monument and its pedestal together weigh about 10,000 pounds.

Richards had completed a bust of Riley prior to his death; she used that same head and shoulders mold to complete the statue’s head and shoulders. Someone needed to be hired to stand in to model the rest, since the full statue wasn’t completed until after the poet’s death.

The statue was cast at a bronze-work in Brooklyn, New York. The granite pedestal on which the statue was placed came from a company in Quincy, Massachusetts. So, the creation of the Riley’s effigy truly spanned the country, Beagle said.

The pedestal was inscribed with the message “Erected by American School Children” — a fitting honor, since kids of the day were responsible for bringing the Davises’ plans to fruition.

From what records the Riley Festival can find, board members believe the cost of making the pedestal for the statue and delivering it to Greenfield was about $700, Beagle said; but they’ve never found record of what Richards might have been paid for her work to know the total cost of the statue. That $700 equates to about $12,600 today.

If all 5,000 paintings were given to classrooms in exchange for the $12.50 raised by pin sales, the fundraiser would have collected $62,500. Adjusted, that would equal about $1.1 million today.

Riley’s impact

What people today don’t fully appreciate is the magnitude of Riley’s popularity at the time, said Brigette Cook Jones, a local historian.

Riley was required reading then for children across the country, and the adults who read his works would have found them relatable, she said.

Everyone swam at an “ole swimmin’ hole,” Jones said. If you were fairly well-off, a raggedy man came ‘round the house to do yard work and chores. It also was commonplace to see children wandering the town, like Riley’s character, little orphant Annie.

Riley’s writings pulled from his own middle-American childhood experience — one that was repeated in towns across the country. So, many would have identified with the scenes he painted, Jones said.

And Riley’s writing came at a time when the world needed a bit of wistfulness.

The poet was at his most popular in an era when the country was changing rapidly.

Spanish influenza was taking lives at a rapid pace. Horse-drawn buggies were regularly being replaced with automobiles. And the roaring ‘20s, which would usher in many cultural changes, was quickly approaching.

Many alive at the time had lived through the Civil War and watched how it had ripped the country apart; or were born into the reconstruction era that followed the five-year war. Across the Atlantic Ocean, World War I was just coming to an end.

Readers would have looked at Riley’s work with nostalgia in their hearts, Jones said. And that made Riley incredibly famous.

He was one of the most popular figures of the day, putting him beside the likes of Mark Twain and other celebrities.

When Riley died, 35,000 people attended his funeral, Jones said. To compare, about 20,000 people packed into the Staples Center in Los Angeles for Michael Jackson’s funeral in 2009.

So, Greenfield’s celebration of Riley’s successes with a statue downtown was fitting, Jones said.

She compared him to John Mellencamp in the 1980s. Greenfield’s celebration of Riley would be akin to one celebrating Mellencamp at the height of his music career in Seymour, his hometown.

Riley, through his words, brought people to Greenfield, Jones said; and in that way, he put Greenfield on the map. Not many communities have a famous son to thank for that, she added.

For posterity

On the day of its original unveiling — Nov. 26, 1918 — dignitaries from across the state attended. The town was “in holiday attire,” according to the Hancock County Democrat, meaning everyone who came out wore their best clothes in a sign of respect and admiration for the moment.

G. Beamer Davis, Jr. — who grew up to be a well-loved and celebrated Hancock County judge — was 4 years old and was given the task of pulling the tassel that would cause the drapery covering the statue to fall away.

Nancy Alldredge, another Riley Festival board member helping organize the re-dedication, said the events planning committee has tried hard to recreate the original dedication ceremony.

Speakers will discuss Riley’s legacy and impact in Greenfield and the greater world. The choir they’ve asked to sing will serenade the crowd with the same tunes the choir of 100 years ago sang.

And they’ve documented their progress and plans in the same manner as the original planning committee, Alldredge said. They hope that 100 years from now, a planning committee formed for the statue’s 200th anniversary will be able to look back on them to see how Riley was celebrated in 2018.

After all, what is a statue but a way to preserve history? To ensure that the person or event featured in stone is remembered for generations?

An editorial, written by the Indianapolis News and reprinted in the Hancock County Democrat after the statue was first unveiled, captured that sentiment this way:

“Greenfield did not need a statue of James Whitcomb Riley in order to be reminded that the beloved poet began his career there, but there is a realization of the fitness of things in the unveiling of its Riley statue yesterday.

“The poet still lives in the hearts of those who have read his work and have loved his personality. For them, no physical likeness is necessary, yet Greenfield honored herself in preserving (Riley) … There in Greenfield, in a street that once knew him before greatness and fame came, the statue stands and will stand.

“James Whitcomb Riley is not dead; he is just away.”

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The Riley Festival Board of Directors Sunday will re-dedicate the statue of James Whitcomb Riley that sits in front of the Hancock County Courthouse. The monument was first installed 100 years ago, on Nov. 26, 1918.

The community is invited to gather on the courthouse lawn at 2 p.m. Sunday for a brief ceremony that will feature speeches, memories and songs. A reception will follow immediately at the Greenfield Christian Church Fellowship Hall, 23 N. East St.

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“There in Greenfield, in a street that once knew him before greatness and fame came, the statue stands and will stand.”

The Indianapolis News, November 1918

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