Terre Haute in the Nation's CapitolIn September 1924, Robert Debs Heinl was asked to head a membership drive for the Washington-Indiana Society.

Participation in the organization was restricted to transplanted Hoosiers residing in Washington, D.C., and their families.

Born in 1880, Heinl was the son of pioneer Terre Haute florist John G. Heinl and his wife, the former Mary Debs, sister of socialist leader Eugene V. Debs.

Robert's older brother, Fred, assumed responsibility for the family's florist business at 129 S. Seventh St. in 1901 while Robert became a reporter for the Terre Haute Star.

Before leaving Indiana to join the New York News Association in 1905, Heinl worked for the Indianapolis Star. After a stint with the New York Sun, he became the Washington correspondent for "Leslie's Weekly" in 1910.

During World War I, Heinl was publicity director for the U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corp. headed by Director-General Charles M. Schwab, then chairman of the board of Bethlehem Steel.

In 1918, Heinl joined the National Geographic editorial staff. Three years later, he organized Heinl News Service, supplying newspapers and magazines nationwide with news and inside information about political activities in Washington.

At the request of the Terre Haute Tribune in October 1925, Heinl wrote an extensive report identifying former Vigo County residents then residing in the nation's capitol.

Not surpisingly, the most conspicuous former Terre Haute resident was Everett Sanders, the four-term congressman who became President Calvin Coolidge's private secretary in March 1925. Sanders was named honorary chairman of the Washington Indiana Society and declared the leader of the "Terre Haute colony."

Sanders, a Clay County native who taught school and practiced law in Terre Haute before defeating incumbent Ralph Moss in the 1916 election, was partly responsible for the increasing number of Vigo County residents holding key government jobs.

Lula A. Metcalfe, Sanders' personal secretary in Terre Haute, joined his Washington staff in 1918 and soon was named a congressional assistant. Noble Johnson, Sanders' successor in Congress, retained her as his top assistant. Lula's sisters, Lelia and Nina Metcalfe, were secretaries with the office of the Alien Property Custodian.

Fred A. Ballard closed Ballard's Typewriter Exchange at 1138 Wabash Ave. to become deputy director in the Alien Property office.

Terre Haute lawyer Herman Galloway was appointed the chief assistant to Attorney General Henry M. Daugherty, largely based upon Sanders' recommendation. Mary Yeager Creighton of Terre Haute was one of Daugherty's staff assistants.

Long before Coolidge became president, Arthur D. Kidder -- son of prominent Terre Haute miller Willard Kidder -- was the top associate chief surveyor for the U.S. Land Office. Kidder earned national renown for establishing the boundary between the states Texas and Oklahoma, as well as the boundary between Colorado and New Mexico.

Rose Polytechnic Institute, Kidder's alma mater, presented him with an honorary doctorate in engineering in 1949.

Several Terre Haute men with Rose Poly degrees held important government posts unrelated to politics. George R. Putnam, class of 1890, was U.S. Commissioner of Lighthouses. C. Owen Fairchild, class of 1912, was section chief in the U.S. Bureau of Standards while Charles H. Jumper, class of 1902, was a chemist at the bureau.

Arthur F. Gordon, Rose Poly class of 1897, was chief highway bridge engineer for the Bureau of Public Roads; Ozni P. Hood, class of 1885, was chief engineer for the Bureau of Mines; Shelby S. Roberts, class of 1898, was assistant director of the Interstate Commerce Commission; and Samuel M. Rock, class of 1892, was lieutenant commander of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Terre Haute native Edward Mancourt was vice president of the Consolidated Coal Co. of Washington in 1925. His sister Martha, a St. Mary-of-the-Woods alumna, conceived an innovative bus motorcade plan for tourists visiting Washington which was adopted. They were the children of Terre Haute merchant Constantin Mancourt.

After an impressive career with the Chicago Daily News, Providence Journal and the Associated Press, former Terre Haute journalist William A. Crawford was general manager of the Central News Association. Grafton Wilcox, nephew of former Terre Haute mayor Grafton Cookerly, was head of the Washington Bureau of the New York Herald Tribune. U.S. Navy Lt. Robert Nowland of Terre Haute, the official photographer at Washington's Bolling Field, compiled and published an airphoto mosaic of the city.

The Rev. James Ryan, formerly pastor at St. Mary-of-the-Woods, was on the administrative staff of the National Catholic Welfare Council in Washington.

Woman's suffragist author Ida Husted Harper, formerly of Terre Haute, was a frequent visitor if not a permanent District of Columbia resident. Prominent Terre Haute businessman Charles Minshall retired to Nantucket. However, the Minshalls visited Washington often, retaining a suite at the Wardman Park Hotel.

In 1926, the Washington Post absorbed Heinl News Service. Heinl worked at the Post until he retired in 1934. For awhile he was the associate editor of "Nation's Business," the official U.S. Chamber of Commerce magazine.

Heinl died on Nov. 26, 1950. His son, Col. Robert Debs Heinl Jr., became a career Marine and an award-winning author. His prominent works include "Victory at High Tide: The Inchon-Seoul Campaign," "Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations," "Soldiers of the Sea: The U.S. Marine Corps 1775-1962," an official history, and the acclaimed "Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People."

The Colonel Robert Debs Heinl Jr. Memorial Award is given annually by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation to the best published work on Marine Corps history.