Traveling Weather
“I have, of course, honored your wishes…making no public statement concerning the thing this weather vane stands for in my mind.”
President Louis Hopkins
Few knew the inspiration for the man on horseback that decorates the Pioneer Chapel bell tower weather vane when it was made.
If not for a letter from President Hopkins to College Trustee Ike Elston in 1929, no one would know today.
Elston donated money for the Chapel’s construction, among many projects, but, perhaps out of modesty, did not want what today we would call “a naming opportunity.”
Hopkins felt strongly the new Chapel should have something “of significance” dedicated in memory of Elston’s grandfather, Isaac, the man who built Elston Homestead, today the home of Wabash presidents. Hopkins recalled conversations with Ike about his grandfather “and his trips throughout Indiana on horseback and of his riding around Lake Michigan and picking out the present site of Michigan City.” With those journeys in mind, he asked the architect to fashion a weather vane so that “a most respectable looking gentleman” would be seen “riding above the tower on a thoroughbred.”
Perhaps fearing that some fuss would be made over his contribution, Ike didn’t show up for the Chapel dedication. In accordance with his wishes, Hopkins made no mention of the Elston family, noting only that the man on horseback atop the Chapel “was symbolic of the early pioneers of Indiana.”
But in a letter to Elston in January 1929, Hopkins explained that he had told a few trustees and intimate acquaintances about Ike’s grandfather’s journeys on horseback.
“I hope you will forgive me for telling the story,” Hopkins wrote, “and I hope also that when you see the weather vane you may get something of the thrill that comes to me daily as I look up to it.”
Special thanks to Wabash Archivist Beth Swift, who passed along to us President Hopkins’ letter when we naively asked, “Do you know if there’s a story behind that man on the Chapel weather vane?”