, 1905-11-23
COMMERCIAL USE
/ FOR THE BRANDYWINE
Stream Riley Made Famous to
Be Changed Into a Ditch.
DRAINING ITS MARSHES PROPOSED

~syyimEnin' Hole" Not what Ii Used
to Ec-Old Rail Fences Gone.
They are going to commercializc the
Brandy wine-to marke the ripDles Of
The Old Swimmin' Hole ut so much
Il ripple. or, in other words, make the
stream earn its board and keep" says
Il Greenfield Qnd.) correspondent OF
The Indianapolis News. Instead Of Il
happy little wonderland wunderer it il
10 be Imprisoned and dcsecrated with
the name of ditch"
1t was james Whitcomb Riley thai
gave TIC world Il heart interest in the
Bran9ywinc. The poet of LockerbiG
street spent many days of Il happy
hoyhood on its tree bordered banks.
The Erandywinc is only Il creek, Il
wild, crooked, go as it plcases creek.
1t begins its journey toward the sea
somcvh here above the little town of
Maxwell, Hancock county, and winds
around toward Greenfield, passes there
on the eastern side of town and
#quirms and twists until the Blu river
.clnim. it some twenty miles below
G.&enDeld. Its bed Is of MOSES,
swamp grasses and is much more som.
Ter than any child of Africa. But the
&. II goblets of the gods could not
be clearer than the waters of the
Brundywine. 1t is one of natures mir.
rorS. The shadows of the Saplings and
the sycamores dance upon the ripp!es.
The water grasses wave to II fri
at the will of the varying currents, a-1
the whole family of woodland crcl.
lures seems to ~" constantly Il picnic
on the Brandywinc.
The creek has changed little i'll char.
aItcr since Riley was Il boy, although
there are those who say that the Cr.
ratio stream has changed its course
just enough to leave Tho Old Swim.
min Hole" of Rilcy's day forty feet
ashore. However, it is still the Bran.
dywinc, the trees still shade its wa.
tors IL; of yorc and altogether it ia
about the same as when they clllc'i
linn Jimmy" But the old rail fence
are gone. Instead there are long
strands of barbed wire, and along tho
Brandywine they seem as one of the
curse Of progress.
: Rilcy's "Old SWimmin' Hole wal
about Il quarter Of Il mile back of Kit
kirkpatrick's barn va landmark il
Greenfield and something like Il mile
cast of the Hancock county courthouse.
1t WAS marked by an old "sickamore'
that stood about Il hundred yards be.
low what is now the Park avenue ford.
In Iii!cy's day it was simply 1.-THE
ford Il t~rcacherouS spot Oh the Bran.
dywinc where more than one venture.
some youth has been east into Il swirl
ing torrent i'll attempting to drive
across the stream when it was out of
humoc.
The old Swimmin' Hole had only Il
local reputation prior to June Il, 1882.
ON that date Riley, writing under tho
homCly non dc plume Of BENZ. T..
johnson of Boone" gave to the Old In
diauapolis journal he poem that
brought the B~randywiuc to fame.
The B~randywinc flows for a consid.
crablc distance through Il marsh land.
Hundreds OF acres of ground that is in
its present state unit for agricultural
purpose; borders the creek on both
sides, and it is for I'll" purpose of re.
claiming This land that the farmers OF
Hancock county propose to deepen und
$traightcu its channel. Several months
- trn owners of property along The
Eraudywinc filed Il petition with the
COunt' commits toner's asking that the
creek be dccpcucd to drain the marsh
Lands. Immediately there was an ont
cry Of G~iSHpproyal. and thousands OF
lamcs were affixed 10 II rCmonStruncc.
The matter has gone through numerous
court procedures. lut ly virtue Of Il
trivial legal trohuicality the petitioners