Outing program | Tom Benjey's Weblog

Posts Tagged ‘Outing program’

Adeline Boutang

November 17, 2025

In September of this year, 2025, I wrote about an investigation of ineligible students a Carlisle Indian School and about one of them, Addie Hovermale, an orphan, was allowed to stay at Carlisle in spite of being less than ¼ blood. Jim Gerencser, Dickson College Archivist, has informed me that Carlisle students went on outings to a Craighead family in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. A little research revealed that the host in question, James Barrett Craighead Jr., was a cousin of some sort to the local Craigheads. His grandfather, Rev. James Geddes Craighead, a brother of John Weakley Craighead, grew up on the Mansion Farm before embarking on a career as a minister and writer. John Weakley Craighead and two of his sons, Richard Reynolds Craighead and Charles Cooper Craighead, hosted a number of Carlisle students on outings over a few decades.

One of the students hosted by the Lansdowne Craigheads in 1911 was also on Charles F. Peirce’s list of ineligible students. Adeline Boutang spent her time with the Craigheads working for Mrs. Craighead, the former Marie Anthony, nursing her paralyzed mother,

Adeline first arrived at Carlisle on September 23, 1906 at 15 years of age, 5’¼” tall, and weighing 87 pounds. She claimed to be ¼ blood Chippewa through a half-blood father. After completing her three-year term of enrollment, she reenrolled for a second three-year term in 1909. It was during this term of enrollment and when she was on outing with the Lansdowne Craigheads that Adeline’s eligibility came into question. Peirce had determined that Adeline’s father was French and her mother was “…a mixed breed Chippewa, possibly ¼ Indian blood.” Adeline was listed on censuses as white. Being one 1/8 blood meant Adeline was ineligible to obtain education at a government Indian school and she would have to be returned to her home near Cass Lake, Minnesota.

Dependent on Adeline to care for her mother, Marie Craighead wrote Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs, pleading for Adeline to be allowed to stay with her. Considerable correspondence up and down the chain of command ensued, with Adeline being allowed to stay in Lansdowne until the end of her enrollment. She then returned home and got a job as a seamstress at Cass Lake. While working there, she requested a reference from Carlisle for the time spent studying nursing there. Friedman gave her a strong recommendation. She apparently competed her nurse’s training because she was working as a nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital in Minneapolis in 1915.

She married a white man, Samuel H. McNutt in Cass County, Minnesota on June 27, 1917 shortly after his graduation from Iowa State University in veterinarian medicine. How they met isn’t known. When he registered for the WWI draft three weeks before his wedding, he claimed an exemption for an unstated physical disability. However, the 1950 Federal Census lists him as a WWI veteran. He later taught at the Universities of Wisconsin and Iowa. He and Adeline had a son and three daughters. She died in 1963 and is buried in Ames, Iowa and was always listed on censuses as white. After Adeline’s death, he worked on a Fulbright Fellowship in Egypt.

Tags:Adeline Boutang, Craighead, Outing program, Samuel McNutt
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Place where Indian School children played may be saved

February 28, 2013

Something Carlisle Indian School students surely played on over a hundred years ago may be rescued from the demolition ball. The Craigheads living at Craighead Station were strong supporters of the school almost from its inception and took students into their homes on outing periods to live and work in the majority culture. But all their waking hours weren’t spent working. They surely spent some of their time playing with the Craighead children along the creek and on the ever-beckoning bridges over the creek. Students from the earlier years of the school would not have played on the iron bridge because it wasn’t built until 1899. But those, like Emma Strong, who came after the turn of the 20^th century surely did as did children of that and later generations. Now there is hope for the bridge to become a dedicated recreational facility for children and adults alike.

The fate of the historic iron bridge across the Yellow Breeches Creek at Craighead Station may be determined at tonight’s township supervisors meeting. It has been in peril for quite some time but its chances for survival look better. Some years ago, Cumberland County, owner of the bridge, determined that the one-lane bridge is unsatisfactory to handle all the vehicular traffic that would like to take that route. In addition to the bridge being narrow, its intersection with Old York Road is dangerous. The state and county developed a plan for a new concrete span a bit upstream from the iron bridge. That plan also calls for bending Zion Road south of the iron bridge to meet with the new bridge, eliminating the need to remove the iron bridge to make room for the new one. South Middleton Township officials offered to take ownership of the iron bridge if they could use the money budgeted by the state for its demolition to put it in better condition for use by walkers, bicyclists, and fishermen. Last fall, the state told the township demolition funds couldn’t be used to preserve the bridge. Many locals thought it absurd that the government would rather spend taxpayers’ money to destroy something of historical and recreational value than to use that money to continue using the structure for the current and future generations.

Yesterday’s Carlisle Sentinel reported that the state may have given erroneous guidance regarding the allowable usage of demolition funds. http://cumberlink.com/news/local/craighead-bridge-may-be-restored/article_a66d6442-806d-11e2-af92-0019bb2963f4.html It’s far from certain yet, but the iron lady that has served us well for over a century may not fall to an ignominious end.