The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-17

finest variety. There was. however toward
the northeastern part, large swamp land.
right n place b b where of fb 00d v bt fb
strange part of it was the land around
where my house stands was never cult
waited
This reminds me of a little incident that
happened the other day. / was walking
along Capitol avenue and there were two
men following along behind me- When
L discovered that their conversation was
about the early days of Indianapolis
slackened my pace to hear what they were
saying and one of the men was telling the
other how he could remember when all OF
this neighborhood was nothing but corn
field.
Il stepped up and, excusing myself, told
him that he was mistaken, and that there
were never any corn fields above st. Clair
street. He turned me and asked me
how L knew there We're not any corn nelds
here, and when | told him that l had
lived right here for forty-six years he
backed out without saying a word.
AT the upper end of Riverside PARK,
continued Mr.. Mccormick, there is sun
standing a dam, part OF a milldam winch
was built by my uncle in 1922. i have a
piece of the timber from it, and last year
at the old settlers meeting we were going
to try to get the whole thing out, but Tor
some reason or other we let 1T go.
"Since my residence in this city COM
monced / have seen two StatehouSeS erect
ed and also the old wooden bridge over
Washington street. That was built in 1892,
and the reason that il stood for so many
years in such excellent condition was that
the timbers in it were of yellow poplar,
and every one of them was hand-sawed by
a process which in those days was called
whips awning, and it was exceedingly hard
work.
HAULING FREIGHT.
Mr.. Mccormick was asked to relate some
Of his experiences in wagoning.
81 hauled freight to Cincinnati. Lawrence
burg and Madison. In those days there were
no roads like we have now and after driv-
ing all day one could not tell what the
original color of his horses was on account
of the mud, and from four to six horses
were used il was no small task to clean
them.
Lawrenceburg which was called by the
teamsters Dutch Soup. because the near
est settlement TO il was composed OF Dutch
This place was a regular m1re ana we al
ways dreaded lcoming To it, but when 1t
was frozen over il was perfectly smooth
and we could go over it very fast.
This wagOning kept up for number OF
years; in fact. until 1917 when the old j. Nj.
& l. railroad was built-the first road that
came into the city. | never Will forget the
day the first train over it arrived. 1t was
a number of hours late, but that made
little difference. The people came in here
from everywhere and the roads were
throngcd with farmers and their families
who had come in TO see the train.
"All of the city people were as curious
as the farmers about seeing this new thing
run by steam. and when il did finally get
here the track was lined with people on
both sides for a long distance IL beat
anything they had ever seen. and ii was
a long time before they could be made 10
understand how ii was run.
After the road had been thoroughly es-
tabished, and began carrying freight, it
practically put stop To wagoning, because
the j. NJ. & /. was soon followed by others
and before many years all parts of the
State could be reached with little trouble
WONDERFUL TRANSFORMATION
when 1 look at the city now" said Mr..
! Mccormick. land think what it was not