Friday, May 24 – Mercer County
On Friday, May 24, at 7:00 p.m. the Hopewell Valley Historical Society president and local historian Larry Kidder will present a heavily illustrated program about the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and the students it placed with Hopewell Township farm families for either a summer or a full year as part of the controversial government effort to remove their Indian culture, and hopefully eliminate the all too popular belief that the only good Indian was a dead Indian.
Over 200 young Indian men, mostly teenagers, from about 50 different tribes, spent time living in Hopewell during the 1880-1918 period this "outing" program was active. Mr. Kidder's presentation includes the stories of several individual Hopewell farm families and the Indians they sponsored. Those stories will also include information about the lives of the Indians before and after their time spent in Hopewell. This will be HVHS’s contribution to the Hopewell Valley Heritage Weekend. The program will be held at the Hopewell Museum, 28 East Broad Street, Hopewell NJ.
Larry Kidder is a retired history teacher who is president of the Hopewell Valley Historical Society and has volunteered as a historian and interpreter for Howell Living History Farm for the past 30 years. He is the author of two books dealing with the history of education and farming in Pleasant Valley in Hopewell Township and three books on the American Revolution in the Mercer County area. His most recent book is Ten Crucial Days: Washington’s Vision for Victory Unfolds.
