The term "pioneer" is rarely associated with a 20th Century venture. Larry and Kristopher Ligget of Terre Haute are modern pioneers.

The Indiana Historical Society's board of trustees will officially recognize their joint achievement on Jan. 23, during ceremonies at the society's new museum in Indianapolis. The Liggets -- father and son -- will receive the prestigious Dorothy Riker Award for innovation in the field of history.

The honor acknowledges their "innovative methods in the field of history, including presentation, use of materials, and preservation." Only three Hoosiers have been honored previously.

Riker, who died in 1994, dedicated 50 years to researching, writing, editing and compiling source books on Indiana history.

As co-author of "Coburn's Brigade: The 85th Indiana, 33rd Indiana, 19th Michigan, and 22nd Wisconsin in the Western Civil War," published by Guild Press of Indiana in 2000, the elder Ligget already has earned accolades for his work.

The Riker Award, however, is presented for establishing the trailblazing and encyclopedic Web site, "Indiana in the Civil War," which can be accessed at http://www.indianainthecivilwar.com.

As a Purdue University student in the Spring of 1995, Kris Ligget established the Web site prototype. His father joined the not-for-profit venture the following summer.

At the time "Indiana in the Civil War" was inaugurated, few Web sites of its ilk were in existence. Now, historians in other states try to emulate the Liggets' work.

The Web site addresses the activities of every Indiana unit -- infantry, cavalry and artillery -- as well as the 28th U.S. Colored Troops, engagements in which each participated, biographies, diaries, letters, stories, photos and more.

All together, as the site's Home Page asserts, "Indiana provided over 196,000 Union soldiers for the war. A total of 7,243 Hoosiers were killed or mortally wounded in combat during the war, and roughly 17,500 Indiana troops perished of disease or accidents."

"Working with the Web site has been extremely gratifying," Larry reflected recently. "We have been contacted by people, including student and scholars, from all over the world. Many have donated material we have published on the Web."

Larry's passion for history blossomed in the early 1970s. As an editor for The Bobbs-Merrill Company in Indianapolis, he was introduced to books by historians Glenn Tucker, Henry Steele Commager, Robert Selph Henry, Bell Irvin Wiley and others.

Soon, he found great fascination visiting the battlefields he read about. Kris, then a small child, joined his father on the exploratory ventures.

While Kris, now working on a master's degree in library science at Indiana University, continues to pursue his education, Larry is managing editor of a law journal and owns Ligget Graphics and Research. The Civil War is his avocation.

A member of the Louisville Civil War Round Table, he is past president of the Civil War Round Table of Western Indiana, which meets monthly in Greencastle. When Dr. Frank J. Welcher of Indiana University embarked upon a study of Coburn's Brigade several years ago, he asked Larry to assist him. Ligget's diligent research and writing skills became the foundation for the successful book.

Ligget now is working on another book, tentatively titled "Civil War Indianapolis."

Recently Larry designed the official logo for the John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. Morgan earned a reputation in the North and the South in 1862 for his daring Confederate guerrilla tactics. During July 1963, Morgan's raiders invaded Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, causing considerable panic. The legendary general was captured near New Lisbon, Ohio, on July 26.

When future Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa was born in Brazil on Feb.14, 1913, Eugene V. Debs and American socialism were thriving.

Debs, of course, made Terre Haute his home and chief headquarters. The communities are a mere 15 miles apart.

That coincidence forms the theme of "Out of the Jungle: Jimmy Hoffa and the Remaking of the American Working Class," a biography by Dr. Thaddeus Russell, published recently by Alfred A. Knopf.

A history professor at Barnard College, Russell explores the motivating factors that influenced Hoffa to become America's most feared union man, commencing with his youthful days in Brazil and Clinton.

Jimmy's father, coal mine prospector John Cleveland Hoffa, died suddenly in 1920 before he was 40 years old. Violet (Riddle) Hoffa relocated with her four children -- Jenetta, William, Jimmy and Nancy -- to a bungalow near her sister's home on North Third Street in Clinton.

She tried to support the family with housekeeping and by washing and ironing for coal miners. Meanwhile, Clinton became a bootleg center. After eking out an existence for more than four years, she moved once again in 1924. This time the destination was Detroit.

Well written with extensive footnotes, Russell's biography adds understanding to life in the metropolitan Terre Haute area when it was a coal mining center. And it offers an objective view of the forces which motivated Hoffa, one of the most controversial men of the 20th Century.

Mike McCormick is the Vigo County historian. His column appears Sunday.