Switzerland County has its origins in the original wine making Swiss immigrants that migrated into the Ohio River Valley in the early Nineteenth Century. These families were an important part of United States wine making history, as they produced the first commercial wines in the nation. New Switzerland The immigrants named their principal town Vevay, after the Swiss town from which most of them originated. The industrious settlers soon turned the hills and valleys of their new settlement, often called New Switzerland, into productive farms and vineyards. Hay Farming Blight ruined the vines and as wine making declined, Switzerland County became a major hay farming region. Hay presses turned out huge quantities of hay to feed the horses that were vital to the agriculture and transportation needs of the era. Switzerland county indiana, vevay indiana, wine making history, new switzerland, indiana history, hay farming, hay press machine

During one of the most tumultuous decades in Swiss history, a small group of Vaudois republicans chose to secure their children's familial, cultural and spiritual patrimony by relocating to the New World. In April 1800, at Le Chenit in the Vall?e de Joux, five families framed a compact to organize a communal settlement in the Northwest Territory. Recently discovered, their pact is presented here in its original French and in English translation, along with an accompanying letter; additionally, another letter and an English translation of the compact as prepared by Jean Jaques Dufour in 1801 is supplied. Dufour is considered a founding father of American viticulture, and the Swiss settlers at Vevay, Indiana the first to succeed as commercial winemakers in the territorial United States. Scholars interested in founding documents, early American communes, commercial enterprises, cultural assimilation, and Swiss history in the Napoleonic era may find these documents intriguing.

"During election years in the early 1800s, touring politicians would often stop at Vevay in an effort to gather votes. On one such occasion the governor, Jonathan Jennings, was visiting Vevay with his entourage. They all stopped at Father Morerod's home to taste some of his wine. The governor and one or two others from abroad, being unaccustomed to wine, became considerably befuddled, as did some of the 'Vevay boys.' The way back to town was blocked by a large growth of dog fennel, a yellow flowering weed. The politicians passed through this field wearing white trousers and shirts. In their confused condition they soon emerged and presented to the townsfolk an amusing spectacle of the governor and fellow dignitaries wearing yellow pants and yellow spotted vests." -- From Indiana Wine: A History John James Dufour arrived in America in 1796, looking for land for a colony of 'vinedressers.' They first settled in Kentucky, but then purchased land in the Indiana Territory on the north bank of the Ohio River. Here, in the town they called Vevay, the Swiss winegrowers successfully produced America's first commercial wines. In Indiana Wine, a richly anecdotal history of wine production in Indiana, James L. and John J. Butler relate a vintage story of early triumph, followed by precipitous decline, and ending in present-day success. Though the economic decline of the 1820s ended the first flowering of Indiana vineyards, John James Dufour continued his work, and in 1826 he published the first book written about American grape growing and winemaking. Thereafter the heart of America's wine production was centered near Cincinnati, Ohio. That industry collapsed in the 1870s, but small wineries could still be found scattered across southern Indiana. With the coming of Prohibition, the idea of Indiana wine was lost. It was not until the passing of the "Small Winery" law in 1971 that winemaking began anew in the state. Today some 25 wineries, large and small, produce a wide variety of Indiana wine.

American Historical Review is the oldest scholarly journal of history in the United States and the largest in the world. Published by the American Historical Association, it covers all areas of historical research.

A bold and original retelling of the story of race in America Why has a nation founded upon precepts of freedom and universal humanity continually produced, through its preoccupation with race, a divided and constrained populace? This question is the starting point for Scott Malcomson's riveting and deeply researched account, which amplifies history with memoir and reportage. From the beginning, Malcomson shows, a nation obsessed with invention began to create a new idea of race, investing it with unprecedented moral and social meaning. A succession of visionaries and opportunists, self-promoters and would-be reformers carried on the process, helping to define "black," "white," and "Indian" in opposition to one another, and in service to the aspirations and anxieties of each era. But the people who had to live within those definitions found them constraining. They sought to escape the limits of race imposed by escaping from other races or by controlling, confining, eliminating, or absorbing them, in a sad, absurd parade of events. Such efforts have never truly succeeded, yet their legacy haunts us, as we unhappily re-enact the drama of separatism in our schools, workplaces, and communities. By not only recounting the shared American tragicomedy of race but helping us to own, even to embrace it, this important book offers us a way at last to move beyond it.