DID YOU KNOW?
… that Gallaudet was a planned town along the route of the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Railroad tracks laid in 1852? Henry Brown, who owned land along Franklin Road, allowed the railroad to go through his property provided they made a siding. He built a sawmill (which was never used) and a house east of the Franklin Road crossing, where mail for New Bethel was picked up and dropped off.
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, pioneer in deaf education, for whom the town was named.
Henry Brown was the director of the Indiana School for the Deaf in Indianapolis, and named his hoped-for town after Thomas Gallaudet, the first teacher for the deaf in the United States. The Franklin Road Gallaudet post office, small as it was, appears on early township maps, up to the point at which New Bethel obtained its own post office. (As the name New Bethel had already been claimed by another Indiana town, Franklin Township’s New Bethel chose Wanamaker for its official postal designation, adopting the name of then-U.S. Postmaster General John Wanamaker.)
The site of Gallaudet is now the property of Grace Church, across the street from the Franklin Road Library. Up until around 2006, the remains of a foundation — likely that of the former coal yard — was still visible next to the tracks, but the city removed it when utility work required digging along Franklin Road.
Want to explore the former Gallaudet site? Grace Church is holding an Open House on March 14, 2015 from 11AM to 2PM. For more information, click here.
Hello.,
So excited to see this story. Several months ago I asked about this on our local township page. I find this very interesting and am excited that the history is being shared. Thanks for the info!
This should actually be James S(medley) Brown (not Henry Brown) and his family: wife Terrissa (Theresa) Park Brown, and daughters Emily S. and Elizabeth H. I am currently writing a biography of James and his work as an influential educator of the Deaf and publisher in the mid-19th century.
(You can read about James’ work at https://medium.com/19th-century-deaf-people/a-language-of-action-72c59cd8de4f; the historical bits are at the beginning, the rest of the article is about his dictionary development work.)
The Browns actually moved to Franklin Township in 1845 from Columbus, Ohio when James was hired to be the second superintendent of the Indiana School for the Deaf. Before he was lured away seven years later to become the superintendent of the Louisiana School in 1852, he bought 350 acres in southeastern Marion County (Franklin Township) and renamed it Gallaudet Station (in honor of influential educator Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet). When the Browns unexpectedly were forced back to Indiana, they returned to their land, where he served as the Gallaudet Station postmaster from 1861–1862, and taught one more semester at the Indiana School in early 1862. Brown died on 10 June 1863 at Gallaudet Station. Fun fact: the Browns appear *twice* in the 1860 Federal Census, once in Baton Rouge, LA and then three weeks later in Franklin Township!
I have done significant genealogical research into the Brown and Park families to trace their whereabouts after James’ death. One daughter (Emily) preceded James in death and his older daughter Emily remained in Indiana until her death in 1899; Terrissa/Theresa’s whereabouts are scant until a brief mention of death in 1897. She actually bought family plots and removed the family to Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
If anyone has more information about the Browns, please contact me. Your help is appreciated. Thank you, Township residents.
Doug Stringham
American Sign Language and Deaf Studies
Utah Valley University, Orem UT
dstringham (at) gmail.com