The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-09
RECOLLECTIONS OF A PIONEER.
indianapolis in the Early Days, When Wild
Fruits Grew Where Factories Now Stand.

The death or Narnold Williams, says
pioneer citizen, carries the memory of old resi-
dents back to the time when his fathers farm
vas on the south line of the donatiOn'-the
four sections assigned by Congress for the site of
acapital-and cut out of solid block of dense
woods. The, bottom aud the creek
bottom on this side of the donation were thickets
Of iron weeds, nettles and underbrush, paw
paw patches and scattering black haw' and
hazel bushes, through which the barefooted
boy, who idly followed the tinkle of a missing
cows bell that he was sent to fetch home, made
his way with much deviation for big elms and
sycamores and frequent stopping to scratch the
red marks left by the nettles. In the fall, after
Che first frost or two, paw-paws six to
eight or ten inches long, and bigger than
o big mans wrist, could be found
IN heaps under the clustering groups of big
leaved saplings, golden, soft and luscious AS any
Of the costly tropical fruits We get now, and
aespised by half the Nation as the only thing
that hog won't eat Nobody brought them to
town to sell in those days. Wild grapes were
more than abundant all through these same bot
toms, and when frosted a little were better
worth eating than half of the cultivated grapes
seeds were sof;, like the European wine grapes
and they made the very best of pies and pre-
serves Black haws' were as black as the wild
grapes, and grew in clusters something after the
same fashion, but smaller. They were the most
thoroughly sugared fruit that ever grew wild in
any country, fit only to be eaten from the bush,
as useless for cooking or ordinary table use as
watermelons Big apple haws, twice the size OF
the little, tough, hard hog haw-the fruit of
the common haw bush-were common, also.
They melowed in the fall, like an apple-hence
the name-and were very nice fruit, except
that they were too inviting for worms.
'Ir these same bottoms" says the same old
resident, lust along the Williams farm, and the
lower line of the donation, ginseng grew thickly
AS 1T did over large part of the county-and
was frequently made an article OF country trade
with drug stores and groceries There was al
ways market for it, for the Chinese used it
then, now, as most precious drug, as well as
indispensable condiment of food, and large trade
IN it was carried at Philadelphia The earl
fest manufacture in our city, except horse
power grinding Machines was sang fac
tory as it was called, near the present corner
of Alabama and South streets, established by
Nicholas McCarty and James Blake to Clarity
as the country boys called it, or prepare for the
Philadelphia market the ginseng dug outOf the
woods and traded about in the village. So import
ant was this trade thought, that little hoes made
purposely to dig the tender, easily broken roots,
bly,, imported from the East, called sang hoes.
Some of our old time blacksmiths, ex-Alderman
Sibert, or his brother Samuel, Dan Noe, have
probably made sang hoes in their time. They
had little cutting edge like an ordinary hoe,
but hardly half as large, with two pronged
fork, about three inches long, on the upper side
of the socket. The hoe and the Sang and the
trade it have all have disappeared as wholly as
Johnny cakes and lie hominy.' Another
queer growth of the bottoms in those days,
now gone, was the Indian turnip.' 1t had
some suggestion of tropical growth about it.
The leaves gathered in queer clusters. and the
forked stalk bore a standing racine or stem,
thiekly covered with little round berries
hundred or more, as big as poke berries, and
as red as blood The biting burning sensation
left by the onion-looking bulb of this turnip is
an unfragrant memory in many bald head that
recalls the experiences of its school days.
Something like forty years ago James L. Drake
got tho Williams farm, and built the brick house
that still stands among the trees at the south
west corner of Morris and Meridian streets.
William J. Brown afterwards lived there and
some dozen or fifteen years ago Mr.. Gimbar, a
councilman, lived there. It was during his resi-
dence that his daughter and another girl were
killed and thrown into the ditch that emptied the
canal into the river, just below Pogues creek
q very mysterious crime to which no clew was
ever discovered The old maxim that murder
will out has been falsifed by this tragedy. This
ditch lay directly west of the old Williams farm.
and ran through what was then called Palmers
Glade or swamp a wet prairie patch between
South Meridian street bluff and the woods along
the river, through which the canal ran to Pleas
ant run, the farthest limit to which the water
In that costly work ever extended.
"West of the Williams residence, on the barn
yard, mound, since plowed down and eff
faced, which stood very near the present site of
the crossing of Morris and Maple streets. A lit
Gle further west was another mound, through
which the canal was cut, unearthing consider
able quantity Of human bones and specimens of
nPQ.h hist Tlr n Il
pastor of the Baptist Church, got these and
kont tbapo