Finding future home for hidden history
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (THE REPORTER) — Steve and Lori Schwartz are avid history buffs and collectors of artifacts from Hamilton County. Among the more than 10,000 pieces in their personal collection is a wallet from nearly 200 years ago containing receipts and IOUs payable to Conner & Stephenson.
Yes, THAT Conner and Stephenson.
The Schwartzes purchased the wallet and its contents in 2020 and now they are seeking our readers’ help in finding a new, more permanent home for these fascinating items.
William Conner and John D. Stephenson were business partners in the 1800s, often investing in the businesses of others, and this wallet and receipt collection contains names of clients, items purchased, and in some instances amounts owed to the pair by families who had and still have deep ties to this community.
“You can go through here and look at the price of eggs back then,” Steve Schwartz told The Reporter. “I have the receipts from when they built Boxley. The actual receipts for the products that build it. Lori and I have read through these I don’t know how many times and it’s just fascinating.”
The wallet itself bears a handwritten note reading “J. D. Stephenson, Noblesville, Indiana, March 10, 1848” but the receipts and IOUs written clearly to “Conner & Stephenson” date back to the 1830s.
“To think that William Conner touched that,” Lori Schwartz said while showing The Reporter the wallet itself.
According to Steve, there are 93 receipts in the collection, some of which you can see photographed in this article.
“I was just talking to someone about how Hamilton County desperately needs a museum,” Lori said. “A centralized museum that would handle the legalities, the planning and the acquiring of all of these pieces that are still here. We have enough elderly people here with their families that still have this knowledge.”
While Steve would also like to see a county museum, he’s not waiting for that in order to find a home for the Conner & Stephenson wallet.
“Keep in mind that she and I together for 40-some years have collected Noblesville and Hamilton County history and artifacts,” Steve said. “We do have a bottle of wine from a winery that was here in Noblesville in the 1850s. The bottle is still full. We have somewhere between ten and fifteen thousand artifacts. Some are tickets to the Rainbo Roller Rink. Some are tickets to the drive-in. Some are to Diana Theater. The old Noblesville. I have a steam whistle that eventually somebody made a lamp out of from one of the old factories here in Noblesville. I would love to donate all that stuff. But first I want to get this to the right home.”
Both Steve and Lori Schwartz say they want to donate the wallet and contents to somewhere in in the county where the public could enjoy it.
“I think this is a part of Hamilton County’s core,” Steve said. “Noblesville is the county seat and this all started in Noblesville. This guy is the one who started everything. This is the beginning and I think it should be shared somewhere. Whether it’s in a big showcase in downtown
Noblesville City Hall or a place in the county or the Sheridan Historical Society. Whomever would want to take the responsibility and share it with the community is what we want.”
They want to donate it so people can go and enjoy it and learn about the history.
“There are a lot of people who are still here generations later,” Lori said. “I’m still here. My family was here. My great-grandparents were here.”
Steve agreed, saying, “Families that live here ought to be able to go look and find their family’s name and see a piece of their life from almost 200 years ago.”
Since this is a piece of history that the Schwartzs believe belongs to the community as a whole, they are asking the community where it should go.
“In reality, Lori and I would just like to have our name at the bottom saying the Schwartzs donated this,” Steve said. “We just want it displayed in a prominent place where people can go see it. And we want the Reporter’s readers to find its home.”
So, we are asking you, our readers, where should the Conner & Stephenson wallet be donated?
Maybe it’s a display at City Hall? Maybe it is the Courthouse or the Government and Judicial Center? Maybe it belongs somewhere else.
You tell us, Hamilton County.
Whether you are a member of an organization that would like to be the home for this piece, or you just have an idea for a place where you think it should go, let us know. Email News@ReadTheReporter.com, post your comments on this article on our website, ReadTheRepoter.com, and tell us on social media at Facebook.com/HamiltonCountyReporter.
How the wallet was discovered
Schwartz bought the wallet in late 2020 from Richard Listenberger.
A letter from Listenberger explaining its more recent history reads in part as follows:
A dozen or so years ago I came into ownership of the grouping by way of a very good friend who has since passed away. Tony Clevenger was a commercial photographer in Indianapolis, currently living on a small street of old houses near the Marion Co. Library. When they annexed the surrounding property for expansion, he was forced to sell. While cleaning out the cellar of this house, he was gathering all of the old home-canned food off the foundation shelf, which had been there for ages, when reaching deep he felt something soft and wet. The billfold was quite damp, and of course shows evidence of that damage. I was probably one of the first he showed it to, as he knew of my collecting interests. It’s remarkable that it survived at all under such conditions. Conner Prairie was interested in it but wanted him to donate it. They did borrow it for a while to copy and document.
I thought the current history would be important to future owners of this collection. If nothing more, the mystery that goes with it as to how it ever ended up where it did after so many years. In the Sunblest housing development of Fishers is the old gravesite with markers listing some of the people listed on the receipts/documents.
Click here to see photos of the contents of the wallet and wallet itself on The Reporter website.