By Patrick F. Chase
Author of Jonathan Knight – Pathfinder of American Roads


In the 1930’s and 40’s over 37 murals were painted on the walls of Indiana post offices. The project was funded by the New Deal. As new post offices were being built there was a budget item to provide enhancement of these new buildings. Henry Morgenthau Jr. was the Secretary of the Treasury, and his department established the Section of Painting and Sculpture “to secure suitable and the best quality for the embellishment of public buildings”.

Edward Bruce oversaw the Section, and it was his department that approved of the artistic projects. There are two murals that exist on the Indiana National Road in eastern Indiana. One is in Cambridge City and the other is in Knightstown. The artists of the murals were supposed to depict scenes that exemplified the local community. Eighty plus years since their creation you can still visit and see these murals today, during normal business hours.

Pride of Cambridge City, Cambridge City post office

The mural in Cambridge City is titled Pride of Cambridge City. It measures 9’6” x 4’6” and was done in 1941 by Samuel F. Hershey. He was paid $750.00. Cambridge City postmaster I.J. L Harmeier responded to Hershey’s request in a full-page letter of information about the city. “We are located on national Highway US 40, the old National Road, which is historically and actually at present, one of the most important highways of the nation”. The Cambridge City post office is located at 227 West Main Street.

Among the many scenes within the mural, there is a car and truck going down the National Road, hogs are being fed ear corn and the most dominant image is the horse in the middle of the picture. The horse is the famous Single G. He was one of the greatest racehorses of the first half of the 1900’s. Harmeier wrote that the horse was “rather a light bay, almost a red bay, as horsemen term it… darker that a light sorrel, rather between a light sorrel and a brown”.

As you can see from the painting Hershey got the color correct. Single G was a Standardbred pacer who was born in Wayne County in 1910 and died in 1940. When not at the racetracks, he was at the Cambridge City farm of his owner W. B. Barefoot. He started in 434 heats and won 262 with lifetime earnings $121,125. Single G retired at 17 years of age. Cambridge City was well known for its Standardbred sulky horses and Single G was its most famous citizen.

The Evening Mail, Knightstown post office

The mural on the wall of the post office of Knightstown also depicts a National Road scene. This painting was done in 1937 by Raymond L. Morris and is titled The Evening Mail. It measures 12’ x 5’. Morris was paid $560.00 for his work. Knightstown was named for Jonathan Knight in 1827 who was the federal surveyor/commissioner of the National Road through Indiana. The Knightstown post office is located at 37 North Jefferson Street.

The scene of the mural is full of action, dominated by the arrival of the stagecoach. No doubt the coach is carrying the mail in addition to its passengers. The man in the middle is holding the lead horse’s bridle to help get him under control. A young boy and his dog are running, and passengers and citizens are standing by. In the background to the left is a church and to the right there are two men fighting in front of a bar.

The Knightstown postmaster wrote shortly after the installation of the painting that “the scene is characteristic of Knightstown as might have well appeared one hundred years ago on the arrival of the stagecoach, which was at that time our only contact with the outside and for this reason is particularly appropriate to be displayed in the post office”.

My thanks to the authors and publishers of the book The Story of the Indiana Post Office Murals by John C. Carlisle, author, and Darryl Jones, photographer. The book was published by Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis 1995.


About the author:

Pat Chase was raised in Knightstown, Indiana, which is located on the historic National Road. The town was named for Jonathan Knight in 1827, who was instrumental in the early civil engineering of the National Road and of the B&O Railroad. Pat has spent the last six years researching the life of Jonathan Knight and has rediscovered Knight’s substantial contribution to the development of the earliest days of the National Road and B&O Railroad. This work has led to the recently published biography Jonathan Knight – Pathfinder of American Roads, now available on Amazon.

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