If you’ve ever wondered what a “sagamore” is, the state of Indiana stands ready with an explanation.
The term “sagamore” was used by the American Indian Tribes of the northeastern
United States to describe a lesser chief or a great man among the tribe to whom the
true chief would look for wisdom and advice.
Concurrently, the Wabash River is a key Indiana tributary of the Ohio, and a place name intimately associated with the Hoosier State. The word is taken from the French language name for the river, which itself is an adaptation of a term from the Miami–Illinois variant of the indigenous Algonquian tongue.
The Wabash River /ˈwɔːbæʃ/ (French: Ouabache) is a 503-mile-long river that drains most of the state of Indiana, and a significant part of Illinois, in the United States. It flows from the headwaters in Ohio, near the Indiana border, then southwest across northern Indiana turning south near the Illinois border, where the southern portion forms the Indiana-Illinois border before flowing into the Ohio River.
From these two components, the Sagamore of the Wabash award came into being.
The Sagamore of the Wabash award was created during the term of Governor Ralph Gates, who served from 1945 to 1949. Governor Gates was to attend a tristate meeting in Louisville with officials from the states of Ohio and Kentucky.
Aides to the governor discovered that the governor of Kentucky was preparing a Kentucky Colonel certificates for Governor Gates and Senator Robert A. Taft, who to represent the State of Ohio.
The Hoosiers decided that Indiana should have an appropriate award to present in return. Each governor since Gates has presented the certificates in their own way.
Earlier this year, I was made aware of a secret gathering on a snowy Saturday afternoon at the home of Judge and Mrs. Terry Cody in Silver Hills.
Outgoing Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb was issuing the customary end-of-gubernatorial-tenure awards, reprieves and decrees, and among them was a Sagamore of the Wabash proclamation for my friend Scott Stewart, richly deserved, as advanced by State Representative Ed Clere.
The surprise party proved to be great fun, and Scott had no idea what was in store for him. Little did I know…
The following day, my wife Diana had arranged for us to make a social visit at the home of our friends Renee and Joe Cooper. I was cherishing these opportunities to exercise my new hip and get out in the open, as the previous few weeks I’d been sticking fairly close to home for the requisite recuperation from surgery.
Arriving at the Coopers, I discovered that I was next in line for the secret sagamore treatment, and never has the cliche “knock me over with a feather” been more appropriate.
Here is what the local newspaper, News and Tribune, had to say about it: Stewart, Baylor receive Sagamore of the Wabash awards (by Brooke McAfee).
Baylor said he had “no inkling” that he would receive the award, and the news came as a “total shock and surprise” when he was honored on Sunday, only a day after he attended Stewart’s award celebration.
Clere said he has known Baylor for more than 20 years. He praised his work as an entrepreneur, including his work owning and operating a brewpub for more than two decades.
Baylor was a co-owner of the New Albanian Brewing Company from 1990 through 2018, bringing craft beer to New Albany at a time when it was not common in the area.
“I always told people about those early days back in ‘92 or ‘93 when we were first starting all that, on weekends sometimes if we had a break, we’d walk out to the parking lot and look at all the Kentucky license plates,” he said.
“And that may not seem like much but there was a time when there was almost no reason for someone to come into Indiana for anything if they lived in Louisville.”
For years, he was involved in the Brewers of Indiana Guild. Clere said he “worked tirelessly to develop and promote the craft beer industry throughout Indiana.”
“He certainly didn’t get rich doing it, but his efforts have enriched Indiana both economically and culturally,” he said.
Clere applauded Baylor’s various forms of community involvement. In addition to his work in business, he has written for blogs and publications, and he was a candidate in the 2015 New Albany mayoral race.
He worked for six years as beer director at Pints & Union in New Albany, and he is currently the digital editor at Food & Dining Magazine.
This post is not intended as self-stroking, and it wouldn’t have occurred to me in several lifetimes that I qualified for such an honor, much less ever felt any need to lobby for it. The overarching point to me it that I’m simply grateful to have friends like Ed Clere who felt that I did deserve such recognition.
Whatever I’ve achieved as an adult, it has come because people helped me, believed in me, and supported me. It’s a community effort, the same as for anyone. Thanks to the caper’s organizers, who were in on the scheme: Diana Baylor, Ed Clere, Amy McCord Clere, Renee Cooper, Joe Cooper, Scott Stewart, Beth White, and David White.
Not that I’m a Sagamore of the Wabash, this wisdom needs an outlet. Maybe a book?
I’m set to write a book about beer, or so this impending contract suggests
