Paul Dresser Birthplace

Paul Dresser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana in eighteen fifty-seven, the older brother of novelist Theodore Dreiser, and he would write the song that defines his state to this day. With almost no formal music training, Dresser composed over a hundred and fifty ballads across a twenty-year career. In eighteen ninety-seven he published "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away," a nostalgic tribute to the river running through his hometown.

It became the best-selling song of its time. Indiana made it the official state song in nineteen thirteen, a designation it still holds. Dresser died in nineteen oh-six, but his birthplace in Terre Haute stands as a state shrine and memorial, a small house that gave the world one of the most enduring regional songs in American history.