Once the lights dim at the American Legion's Palmer Room, the chatter over cheeseburgers and grilled cheese falls silent. A projector screen fills the wall with the title of the presentation: "The Mill Murders: A True Tale of Race, Sex and Murder."
It's a typical afternoon at the Monroe County History Club's monthly meeting, where locals have gathered for 13 years to dig into the county’s history over lunch.
The club started small. Director Michael Carter visited the Monroe County Library in 2013, and librarian Christine Friesel approached his table after he and his friends were too loud chatting over old newspaper clippings and photos.
“I finally told them to get a room,” she said. “... And they said, ‘How do we get a room?’ And I said, ‘You need to be a club or you need to be an organization.’”
On a rainy day in February 2013, Carter said he got together with his friends in the basement of the library. He quickly realized it was too cramped, so the next month the club moved to the American Legion building.
Since then, the club has seen momentum.
In 2013, the club claimed six members. Now, Carter said he frequently sees between 80-120 people in the audience in recent meetings. Its most popular presentation about the old Bloomington High School drew closer to 200.
“That was a pretty big crowd,” Carter said. “That’s about as much as will fit in there.”
Carter credits the club’s growth to structured programming, making presentations more accessible online and the interesting stories presenters bring to audiences.
With the growth of the history club came a desire to contribute to the preservation of local history. CATS TV began recording the club’s presentations in 2015 to upload on its YouTube channel.
“We decided, you know, the main thing is to record history and try and save it,” Carter said.
Learning about Monroe County and Bloomington’s history conveniently is the attraction for attendees like Frank Lester.
“It’s hard to find that without actually having to dig,” Lester said.
Indiana University Director of Enterprise Risk and Incident Management John Summerlot said he has presented at least five times at history club meetings – covering topics from IU and the Civil War to Vietnam War stories.
For him, telling stories and seeing people connect over local history is part of what keeps him coming back.
“I like people that come up afterwards, and they’re like, ‘I’ve lived here my whole life. I never knew that,’” he said. “Or they say, ‘You were talking about so and so, he was my great grandfather’s neighbor.’”
Daniel Schlegel, director of the Monroe County History Center, has been active with the club for five years after moving to Bloomington from Colorado. He said Carter, then a board member of the history center, recruited him to the club, telling him to watch some of the presentations online.
“I joked I learned a lot about Monroe County history before I even arrived here,” he said.
As he’s watched more presentations, Schlegel said it encourages people to dig into their own family history and share memories with one another.
“People are bringing history out into life, and it'll encourage them to save it or share it with their family,” Schlegel said. “And I just think that's great. I just think if people can appreciate it, it goes all the further to help everyone in the community.”
The history club meets next on July 28.
