The widow Harding and several sons came to this place in the spring of 1820.  Her cabin stood on the bank of the river, on the north side of the ravine, near where the woolen factory of Merritt & Coughlen now stands.

Eleakem, Samuel, Israel, and Laban, were single, and lived with their mother.  Robert was married, and lived on the bluff bank, just north of the east end of the National Road bridge.  Ede Harding did not come to this place for several years after the rest.

Robert Harding's second son, Mordecai, was the first white child born on the Donation, and is still living four miles west of town, on the National Road.

The elder Hardings are all dead, except Ede and Samuel.  Samuel lives at his old homestead, about a mile north-west of the Insane Asylum, on Eagle Creek.

The Hardings were all industrious and energetic farmers, having the opportunity as they did of selecting the best land in the New Purchase, and improved their farms in fine style.

Noah, the eldest and only other son of Robert Harding, lives about three miles west of the city, and is one of our most respectable farmers.

Laban, the son of Ede, owns and lives on one of the best farms in the county, about six miles from town, north of thr Crawfordsville State Road.

It was Samuel Harding who gave the writer his first lesson in horsemanship, allowing him to ride one of this plow-horses to and from the corn-field, morning, noon and evening.

Samuel and Israel Harding were brothers-in-law as well as brothers, having married two sisters, daughter of Jeremiah Johnson, and sisters of Jerry, spoken of on another page.


Nowland, John H. B., “Early Reminiscences of Indianapolis, with Short Biographical Sketches of Its Early Citizens, and of a Few of the Prominent Business Men of the Present Day,” 1870, pp. 24-25