More autumn photos

Old Pleasant Hill Cemetery Website

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Most would agree that one of the crown jewels in our TPAN area is the Old Pleasant Hill Cemetery on Moore Road. We are frequently asked if the cemetery can accept new residents. Until very recently the answer was no. Thanks to a generous donation we will soon have individual graves and family lots for sale. On behalf of the board I am pleased to announce that we will be opening the new section in 2008. We are now accepting reservations. (Graves are $850.00 each). The cemetery is non-denominational, not for profit and unaffiliated with any other entity. It is maintained by lot sales, donations, a treasury and a volunteer board.

Please visit our website for more information.

http://www.ophc.info/

Autumn comes to Traders Point Farm

Traders Point Farm on an Autumn Sunday

Traders Point Gateway Project Nov. 17

We're on!

Friends, we've just learned that the liability and maintenance issues with the State have been resolved and our project is a GO! Our thanks to Rep. Phil Hinkle and Sen. Mike Delph for pulling some strings on our behalf.

Our new planting date is Saturday, November 17, 9:00 a.m. to noon.

We hoped for cooler weather, and we're certain to have it then! Get out your long underwear and fleece jackets, and prepare to join us for an adventure in planting. We count on many hands to make light work of installing 100 native trees and shrubs that will enhance the gateway to our neighborhoods.

Please watch your email for a bulletin from Sarah Grain of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful Inc. Sarah is asking you to sign up with her so she can track how many additional volunteers to recruit from outside Traders Point.

To meet our commitments to INDOT, you will be asked to sign a waiver of liability to participate in planting on State property.

Though the planting date and some process details have changed, our aim of surrounding the INDOT facility with a pleasing landscape remains the same. When Sarah Grain emails you, please say yes to joining us on planting day.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Wendy FordTraders Point Gateway Committee

rainbow at traders point farms

Lafayette Road Bridge

The name “Traders Point” refers to an old Indian Trail
crossing where Eagle Creek meets Lafayette Road.
The first parcel purchased
in Pike Township
was a small 80 acre parcel
and it included this
crossing.
• The parcel was first purchased by a speculator. He
neither settled nor farmed the site, (at a time when most
parcels in central Indiana were being purchased by
settlers and farmers).
• The year was 1823.
The speculator was William Conner; a fur trader, husband of an Indian
Chief’s daughter, and namesake of Indiana History museum Conner
Prairie.
William Conner would have known this route as an
Indian trail
• Miami Indians lived throughout this area at the time of Mr. Conner’s
purchase. Conner worked first for Canadian fur traders establishing
commerce with Indians, and later with William Henry Harrison, first
governor of the Indiana Territory, negotiating treaties with the
Indians.
Painting by Traders Point artist Cassilly Adams (1920)
• This 80 acre parcel was Conner’s first land
patent and his only land purchase in
Marion County. (He later acquired, by
patent, over 1000 acres in many other
counties throughout Indiana.)
• Lafayette Road was the first public road
through Pike Township, (followed a year
later by Michigan Road).
• Lafayette Road was surveyed and cleared
in 1831. The commissioners chose the
route because it was the most traveled
horse trail between Indianapolis and
Lafayette.
• Lafayette Road’s construction was funded
by tolls collected at a tollhouse located
one mile south of the bridge
The toll house is still standing today
at 6475 ½ Lafayette Road
• The original bridge over Eagle Creek at
Lafayette Road was likely the first public
bridge in Pike Township.
A small hamlet of homes and businesses
was platted a few feet north of this crossing
in 1864 by the operators of a grist mill
located on the west bank of Eagle Creek.
. . . they named it Traders Point
They named it Traders Point.
• The founder’s three story grist mill would
have been visible from the bridge.
Photo of similar mill
An iron bridge preceded the current concrete
structure.
( A similar iron bridge to the Lafayette Road iron bridge is located over Eagle Creek near Girl’s School Road in Wayne Township.)
A new bridge over Eagle Creek is
An opportunity to celebrate the
Historic Traders Point area.
As the gateway to our
neighborhood, we welcome the
Improvement, and will work to insure
that it is
Complementary to its heritage.
• Source materials available upon request.
• Ross Reller is a resident of the area and has been compiling its history for over five
years. He is the Vice President of TPAN, Traders Point Association of
Neighborhoods.