Author: William Herschell (1873 – 1939)

Hoosier native William Miller Herschell worked primarily as a reporter for the Indianapolis News, but his poetry also graced the newspaper’s Saturday edition for years. He is best remembered for his poem “Ain’t God Good to Indiana,” which is featured in the Rotunda of the Indiana State House.

Born in southern Indiana, Herschell only attended school until 7th grade; he had to leave to work in the railroad machine shops to help support his family. After some years working in a machine shop, he started his career with newspapers in Huntingburg and Princeton, IN. By 1902, he was working in Indianapolis. After a long day of working to cover the happenings of the city, he and other employees like Kin Hubbard (buried in Crown Hill Cemetery) and Gaar Williams would work on their cartoons, drawings, and poetry. During WWI, Herschell took his writing skills and wrote a number of war songs. His popular song “Long Boy” contributed the doughboy refrain, “Goodbye Ma! Goodbye Pa! Goodbye mule with your old heehaw!” to the nation’s vocabulary. Four books of his poetry were published before his death in 1939.

Read “Ain’t God Good to Indiana” here.