Our Town New Harmony Indiana Church St. looking toward Main in 1893
A River Runs By It – Harmonie, 1825 Done by a Harmonist. Harmonist land shaded. Given to Robert Owen.
Ca Drawn by Robert Dale Owen
The intersection of the two yellow lines is Church and Main Streets. Notice that Main St. extends north to the Wabash River. This is where boats landed in the 1800’s. Notice also that West St. extends north to the Wabash. This extension was called Fretageot Lane. The road to the Cut-off ferry is today Woods Ave. It does not extend to the river today.
Down Fretageot Lane to the ferry
Fretageot Sawmill
Hand drawn map of Fretageot Lane showing location of the sawmill.
Rosebank – Home of the Fretageots
Old Episcopal Church
North Main St. – Lane to Wabash
Covered bridge over Gresham Creek
The Cut-Off and Cut-Off Mill
By the 1850’s the cut-off was becoming the main channel. As the old river channel dried up, so did commercial traffic on the Wabash. As a stronger current flowed through the cut-off, it washed away sediment leaving rock. The shoals that was formed made commercial traffic on the Wabash impossible. The shoals is called the “Old Dam” by locals.
The Old Dam
Attempts to dam the cut-off and redirect the water to the old channel failed.
Old River
Head of Old River
Rollin’ on the River – before the cut-off became the main channel.
Eugene pushing barge
Tugboat Laura moving gravel digger
No bridge over troubled water
Ferry Mary Jane
Horse Power – Charles Chadwick Ferry
Let’s go down to the river to play... Winter 1918
River Park
At home on the river
An unruly neighbor – Ice on the Wabash – postcard 1912
To Miss Caroline Pelham, Los Angeles, CA Just see how badly the Wabash has been behaving. Damaging almost every boat on the river. Down shore big gravel barges and boats over the willow trees. It certainly looked bad for a while. The U. S. Army boats were damaged the most. I think of you 17 degrees below zero. Laugh now. Jan. 29, 1912
Breaking ice around boats with dynamite
Ice on sandbar above Chadwick’s ferry in 1898
You can’t hold back the river – from Indian Mound Hill
Flood on Fretageot Lane
House torn town to build Roofless Church
Maclure Park under water
Future site of Old Mill Mart
Tavern St
Main St. – Ribeyre House
Ice, flood and eating the occasional vehicle
Finally a bridge
Taken from Indian Mound Hill What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn’t have any doubt – it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere else. Hal Boyle There is no rushing a river. When you go there, you go at the pace of the water and that pace ties you into a flow that is older than life on this planet. Acceptance of that pace, even for a day, changes us, reminds us of other rhythms beyond the sound of our own heartbeats. Jeff Rennicke
The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes, and feed our children. If we sell your our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would any brother. Chief Seattle
Always a river … Moonlight on the Wabash