Shortridge
FundMe to raise $5,000 for a new stone that will give him his due.
A pioneer who expanded education
The journey to finding the error began about four years ago when the family hired Butsch Freeland to research their lineage. Brother and sister Tom and Liz Shortridge and their cousins John Shortridge and Barbara Shortridge Cooper wanted to take the records and photos floating around family collections and gather them into a more complete history. Abraham’s life, of course, would be a large part.
“We certainly knew Shortridge High School was named for him, but we really didn’t know much and didn’t hear much growing up about him,” said Tom Shortridge, who is Abraham’s great-greatgrandson.
Abraham was born in New Lisbon and valued education early, even selling his horse to raise money to attend a school near Richmond, Butsch Freeland wrote in a history of his life that she shared with IndyStar. He went on to help found the Indiana State Teachers Association and teach at North Western Christian University — now known as Butler University.
Abraham became the first superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools in 1863, advocated for Black students to attend and reopened Indianapolis High School — which would later be named after him, according to the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. He also helped start the Indianapolis Public Library.
Suffering from failing eyesight, Abraham gave up his superintendent position but was recruited to become the second president of Purdue University. Later in his 85 years of life, he sat for a portrait by renowned Hoosier artist T.C. Steele, owned a farm near Irvington and — in a major accident — lost his leg below the knee after an interurban car struck him.
“He has retained splendid courage and has borne it all with a patience that is nothing short of remarkable,” the Indianapolis Star reported after the accident in 1906.