All research has been completed for the T.C. Steele Historic Trail app. This has involved over four months of deep primary research on all seven sites of the trail.
current project status
- Back-end Progressive Web Application (PWA) development is in-progress and on-schedule.
- Copy written and photos/artwork selected and placed into respective trail passport sites.
- GPS testing is occurring and working well.
- Marketing material has been developed.
- Launch is expected for late spring.
primary research & activities to date
- Complete test drive of the trail (350 miles) to ensure GPS coordinates, directions and roads were accurate for each passport site.
- Significant amount of photo/image permissions and documentation registered.
- Interviews with key stakeholders, historians, and people knowledgeable in the counties where the trail passport sites are located: Owen, Putnam, Montgomery, Marion, Franklin, Brown and Monroe counties.
- Selection and image permission for use of T.C. Steele paintings in each county where there is a passport stop.
- Note: no painting available for Owen County as of this writing, we continue to pursue as we know T.C. Steele spent a summer painting at Ludlow Hall (Calvin Fletcher, Jr’s estate) in Spencer, Indiana.
- Establishment of contacts who own property with artifacts, or historical significance.
- Decision on Owen County passport site.
(L-R) Marker in background notes the first site of Bethany Presbyterian Church on the former 160-acre farm or Ninian McMahon Steele & Jane Brandon Steele (private property). The church was moved a short distance away from the original location with construction beginning in 1872.; James Armstrong Steele Property Record
We will use the Bethany Presbyterian Church, founded March 20, 1820 by Ninan McMahon Steele (1763-1831) and his wife Jane Brandon Steele (1763-1826) and five other charter members. Ninian McMahon Steele is T.C. Steele’s great grandfather. Historic trail visitors can worship in this church to this day, each Sunday morning at 10:30 am!
(L-R) Bethany Presbyterian Church today, February 2023; Original pews, stained glass windows and artifacts remain. Church services were held in the new Bethany Church for the first time over a three-day period, June 6-8 1873, with a formal dedication on June 8, 1873.
As we began the research on Owen County, which is the birthplace of T.C. Steele, it became clear we would need to develop a story using primary research which did not exist. While we were often told, you must include Gosport on the historic trail. The question to answer remained: “what is the story?”, beyond the fact T.C. Steele was born there and lived near Gosport until the age of five years old. Furthermore, what location would we select as a historic trail passport site that had relevance to Steele’s connection to Owen County.
Nancy Steele Westfall, Ninian McMahon Steele & Jane Brandon Seele’s daughter – one of six stained glass windows in the Bethany Presbyterian Church (3 on each side of the pews)
Two months were spent visiting and researching Owen County, which has become a key location for Steele family history, some of which will be used on the T.C. Steele Historic Trail App. Eleven key Owen County contacts were established, and relationships built. We now call them “Team Steele”. They are superb!
Our research time was spent in the genealogy section of the Owen County Library, lunches at the Gosport Tavern, reviewing notes over dinner and by the fireplace at Canyon Inn, located inside McCormick’s Creek State Park. Field trips included meetings with property owners, and hikes through their farm properties where Hester Ann Steele is buried (T.C. Steele’s only sibling buried in Owen County) and to the site of Ninian McMahon Steele’s headstone. We have also documented the plots of Samuel Hamilton Steele’s farm, James Armstrong Steele’s farm, and Ninian McMahon Steele’s farm. We listened, we learned!
We developed a story we believe is extraordinary and provides insight into T.C. Steele’s family and their life in Owen County.
We want to thank Linda, Laura, Jenny, Col. Fred, Ron, Dixie, Tony, Pat, Vic, Jason & Chris for access to properties, records, personal accounts, papers, and historical artifacts. You are an extraordinary group, and your work has contributed immensely to our historic trail. Lastly, we must provide special thanks to Tom and Carol Parker who own Bethany Presbyterian Church and could not be more supportive of the Steele history and passport site.
Note: It is important we honor the privacy of these folks who have helped immensely in our efforts, especially where private property was involved. We found and developed a story that was not present when we began our Owen County journey. It would not have been possible without them!