The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-05
THE OLD SWIMMIN' HOLE
Where the Boys of Indianapolis Forty
and Fifty Years Ago Had Great Sport.
Disappearance Of Some of the Notable Old
Land Marks That Are Well Remembered
by Pioneer Citizens Of the City.


ate Of Indiananolis was diversified by few
obvious and apparently permanent natural feat
ures that can now be recalled only by bnld-
headed residents with tenacious memories. One
of these. and the most troublesome, were
ssbayous. OF 'ravnes" they were usually
called. that entered the town in the northeast
and passed to the southwest and the river by
different channels They were filled by the
winter or spring freshets from the overlooking
svamps az the head of Pogue's creek, into
which the overlooking Fall creek also found
entrance. One ran diagonally through the
northwest section Of the town site.
crossing Mississippi street the
northwest corner OF the State-house
SQUARE and passing along Missouri street, Mary
land and Georgia, turned westward through the
site of the Soldiers Home, and entered the
river at the present site Of the water-works-
The other ran through the southeast part of the
town, crossing Washin gton street at New Jer
sey, where a brick culvert gave il passage under
the National Road embankment- some of the re-
mains were found when the Washingt street
sewer was built-and thence entered the creek
near Alabama street. Every vestiee of both
disappeared loae ago. The canal used up part
of Missouri street, and the canal trace" took up
the lower end at the river. Thus one prominent
The valley of Poeue's run another. more
prominent still This has been effaced more
slowly by building, filing and changing, and
walling the creek-bed, and by grading from the
Hopes and bluffs that bordered IT But it is all
gone now, except the little stretch from Morris
street to the river And even this, for a consd-
cradle distance, runs through artificial chan
mel. From the Union Depot to Morris street the
creek does not follow foot of it's old bed; and
eastward from the depot it has cut off all the
bends and bars to Washington street Shifted
about and walled in through most of its
course, south OF Clifford avenue. it is little
more than an open sewer. and no more like the
old fishing and 'swimmin hole" than a street
gutter is like trout stream. All the high places
have been eveIed aud all the low ones filed
and the valley is uniform with the general sur
face of the town site. AT the southern side of
the old Union Depot, about where the arches
under McNabb street end. was for many years
the favorits ''swimmin' hole" of the South 81 ie
boys, though il was occasionally invaded by
those above 'Main street. as Washington was
then called. Here. one Sunday morning., James
Blake corallod some balf-dozen pupils of the
Union Sunday school-held In the old Presby-
terrain Church on Pennsylvania street a square
east of the Journal ofice-and with the help of
his colored attendant marched them up street
in body .pusn then, s.boo duby f rn,s
Miss clicks school, on Maryland street near Me-
ridiap. Hills on the north west corner of Della
ware and Market, wasscailed the Morris hole,'
Morris, on the bill or bluff down which Meridian
street or the 'Bluff road" ran to tumble-down
Point Here DIR. John Il. Mcclure built the big
frame residence recently torn down, and the old
Madison stage road diyerged eastward on what is
now Madison avenue The east side of this
BOTTOM" road was corn field, the west cow
pasture, South street a country lane lined with
willows about the crossing of the creek where
Hetherington q Berner's machine shop stands.
A third conspicuous landmark was Govern
or's Island" lying little off from the east bank
OF the river at the old cemetery. this latter
located in 1921, by Matthias Nowland-fatner IF
our local historian, John H. Band Danisl
Shaffer the first merchant, and the first CORPSE
who filed the first grave in his own graveyard.
within n month after it's location. A little
'chute' from the river between this island
and the graveyard hank, sometimes dried up,
sometimes furious flood At the head of The
island, which contained some four OF i've acres
of land, set thick with Iron weeds and nettles.
with few large sycamore trees and emS scat
tered about was the big drift the best fishing place
for Hredeyes" and catfish anywhere in the
river. On the west bank, a low weed-grown,
heavily timberered bottom. the upper
mouth OF the ''old bayou" the most noted
natural feature of the topography of the whole
region. The stakes of a wing-dam that turned
she river current into il for the use OF the
Yandes e. Wilson mill. just west of the line of
che Vincennes railway, remained visible for
many years after the mill had 'gone the way of
all the earth" The only the island
ever put to furnish sand and gravel MIR.
Ely Woods was said to have been the enterpris-
ing gentleman who first made the break
On the idle solitude of the big sand
bar. In the great food of 1923 Nathaniel
Cox told the writer that he
padded his canoe through the forks of
a big sycamore the island. and it might have
been done in the equal food of lS47 that cut up
the National Road and flooded Strlngtown clear
over to the west bluff of the river bottom. The
effect OF successive floods and an eastern trend
of the river current has been to cut away the
east bank. and this island with it. and carry the
sand to the other side, where broad bar has
been formed about the ''old bayou" mouth, 500
IL
bed Of that extent TO the east. and into the linn
it's of the cid cemetery. Portions of collins and
buried bones have been seen protruding from
the bank after food has gone down. The
island all gone by the time the broke
out
little way above it. about the present line
of the St Louis railway bridge. there was a
snag in the river that made the spot the most
noted river ''swimmin' hole about the town. A
tree had lodged by its roots in the sand where
the water was eight or ten feet deep. Some
forty feet from the east bank one of the large
limbs. forks, appeared above the water
couple of feet, and lay bare and parallel with
the surface for probably twenty feet The fork
of summer evening, and often away in the
night, would be covered by ''old Seminary bows"
and other boys and young men, like turtles sun
ming on swamp log thick rhey could
SQUAT. while all the water between the snac and
the bank would be full of heads ducking, diving
and dartipg about and keeping up incessant
clatter, worse than any hocks of wild geese in
Dakotah. The writer has seen fully fifty swim
mers In this hole at one time. And this crowd
Ing and noise was the cause, in rart. of de-
adorable calamity in 1912 or '43. young dentist
by the name of Brown-a very estimabe gentle
man-who had Office on the west side Of
Meridian street, next to the Wesley Chapel lot
came down to this favorite ''hole" for bath-he
couldn't swIm-one particularly pleasant even
ing when the crowd of school boys and workmen
clear of the days job was unusually large. He
ventured out on n tongue of sand swept into the
river by q shallow rain-rill that had cut a
hollow in the bank-and was amusing
him self safely enough till he carelessly slipped
shallow deep q
In the midst of scores OF shouting laughing
splashing, scuf1ipg. diving boys, any OF
whom could have saved him easily be
could have got ashore, but in the general con-
fusion his short cry for help was unheard, or
taken for joke, like many cries were, and
he drowned. Discovery came when all were
put and dressed. add his clothes were found
where he had left them. 1t was then dusk A
FIRE was made the bank and several noted
divers searched for the body till bed time. but
to no purpose. 1t was found the next morning