Over the years I have sold many postcards over Ebay.  One day while sorting through a stack I came upon 2 versions of the same card.  Both of them were showing a commemoration of “the center of the U.S. population in 1900.  I found this to be so interesting that a mere 109 years ago that pinpointing and giving this hypothetical spot would be worthy of placing a large limestone marker.  Now, we just create a flag on a Google map!  Does anyone really care where the center of population existed in 2000?  Apparently so, as you can find them listed and mapped on Wikipedia.

Since this was seemingly only about a 30 minute drive from home I decided that I was going to find this big marker AND find the other marker that is mentioned on it.  Would it still be there?  Would it be crumbling away or tipped over into a ditch.  Using the long/lat provided on the stone itself, I ran it through Google Maps and took off to find out.  Needless to say, where Google said the stone was was not accurate.  I was lucky enough to find a couple of residents nearby that actually knew of the marker and pointed me in the right direction - about a mile away.  There at the intersection of State Road 7 & County Road S 450 E was the marker!  It is showing its’ age, but is in remarkably good shape.

The marker actually commemorates the location of the actual center of population - about 3/4 of a mile up the road on the farm of Henry Marr.  I was hoping that I could then find the census stone, if the farm was still there or had not been sold, abandoned or turned into a subdivision.  Amazingly enough, the mailbox out front of the place said “Marr” - I was in luck!  I drove down the long drive towards a beautiful 2-1/2 story white home fronting several barns of what looked like a working farm.  I drove around the back and parked, hoping to find someone who might know of the census stone.

What I did find was a relative of the Marr’s who lived on another part of the property and was keeping the farm up.  Henry Marr’s grandson, the “Marr” listed on the mailbox, had died the past December.  I was told that he could have related more stories about the stone - about how McCormick gave his grandfather a new reaper to show their enthusiasm for the census marker being located on the farm.  But all they had now was a framed newspaper story from 30 years ago.  They had no idea that there had been postcards produced or that anyone really knew of the stone itself. any longer.

The family member said that, yes, the stone was still there behind the big barn where they kept cattle.  I jumped on the back of a small ATV with the family dog and rode around to the back of the barn.  There among the numerous cow plops was what I had come searching for - The Census Stone!   Fortunately, the cows had managed to miss dropping on the stone recently and it was easy to find.  The stone, not much bigger than 12” by 8” was still there and for where it was, in pretty good shape.

I left thanking the family for having time for a stranger who was looking for an old stone on some corner of their property.  As I was heading back down the drive to the main road it struck me on how much everything has changed in those 109 years, but also how little.  The stone began to become this keystone in my mind to how I would hope to show myself how the things that we love today about Indiana are shaped so much by the things that are now disappearing or are soon to be gone.  The Marr family is determined to keep the family farm going and not let it become a subdivision or to become a hollow shell of what it once was.

Before I turned on the main road, I wrote down the address on the mailbox.  I got home, addressed an envelope and sent them the postcards.