Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article
Historic Treasure of the Week -
December 15, 2002
By Barbara Carney
Vigo County Historical Society
Forrest Sherer sought Christmas card tradition and got it
For more than 40 years, clients and friends of Forrest Sherer Inc. have eagerly awaited its annual holiday greeting. Through the years, many have saved each card and often framed them.
The tradition began in 1961 when community leader and insurance executive Forrest Sherer conceived the idea of sending a Christmas card with historical Wabash Valley significance. Meeting with well-known artist D. Omer “Salty” Seamon and Vigo County historian Dorothy Clark, the trio worked together to develop the idea for the first Forrest Sherer Insurance Agency card. The result was a greeting painted by Seamon called “Snow at the Narrow Bridge, Turkey Run State Park.”
Salty Seamon continued to create Christmas cards for the agency until his death in May 1997.
The Christmas series is a wealth of Terre Haute nostalgia as many of its memorable buildings and events have been pictured through Salty’s eyes and imagination.
Thankfully, the popular Sherer card did not end with Seamon’s death. Talented watercolorist Robert Follett approached John Dinkel, Forrest Sherer Inc. president, with the idea of painting Salty’s studio for the 1997 greeting as a tribute to his mentor.
The card was so well received that Follett, who has tried to keep the flavor consistent with Seamon’s style, has been commissioned to do the card each year.
Wishing to continue the theme of recreating places and events from the past, the subject chosen for the 1998 card was “Ice Cutting on the Wabash.” Since then, popular card covers have included the Terre Haute Brewing Co., the milkman on his rounds called “Couriers of Service,” and holiday shoppers on Wabash Avenue.
For his 2002 greeting for Forrest Sherer Inc., Follett has used as his inspiration the oil drilling craze which took place in Terre Haute in the late 1800s. The artist related that numerous oil wells were drilled in what is now the downtown area. Also, for the first time, a vertical card has been designed.
Follett credits Vigo County historian B. Michael McCormick for this year’s ideas and much of the historical research that went into the creation of the holiday greeting.
It can truly be said that the Forrest Sherer Inc. Christmas card has become a Terre Haute tradition. Receiving it evokes remembrances of times gone by.
The Vigo County Historical Society is pleased to have the Christmas card series as part of its collection at the museum.
The cards pictured are Seamon’s Union Depot and Follett’s Terre Haute Brewing Co. and shoppers on Wabash Avenue.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. The Web site: http://web.indstate.edu/community/vchs.