Our Town

New HarmonyIndiana

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. 1840 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 - 1907

Covered bridge over Gresham Creek - 1891

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 - 1913

Head of Old River - 1916

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 - 1927

Horse Power – Charles Chadwick Ferry

Let’s go down to the river to play . . . Winter 1918

River Park - 1925

At home on the river - 1926

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 - 1912

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 - 1913

Future site of Old Mill Mart - 1913

Tavern St. - 1913

Main St. – Ribeyre House - 1913

Ice, flood and eating the occasional vehicle

Finally a bridge - 1929

Taken from Indian Mound Hill - 1931

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 - 1854

Always a river … Moonlight on the Wabash - 1907