THE INDIANAPOLIS
STAR/THE INDIANAPOLIS NEWS Family farm keeps
Hoosier legacy alive My family farm is a place I have
called home for 70 years. It was the only place I ever really
called home because my father was a minister and we lived in
parsonages. We lived in three different states before I was
in junior high school. Birds of a feather
My grandfather's sister, Martha Johnson, is Larry
Bird's great- great- grandmother. We are sentimental about
this farm, which I have named Heritage Acres. The house sits high on a hill on the George Rogers
Clark Trail, U.S. 150, and overlooks the Lost River, just west of
West Baden.
In 1902, my grandfather opened Johnson's Fishing Camp on the river and ran it in conjuction with the famous West Baden Hotel. The guests rode horseback from the hotel to fish and eat a chicken dinner cooked by my grandmother. The price was $1.00. My mother, Zeta Johnson Cleaver, lived on the farm until she was 90; she was a widow and lived on her own for 25 vears. Now I am the grandmother of the farm. Esther Cox and her husband John live in Paoli. They have 4 children and five grandchildren They are tour volunteers at the West Baden Hotel restoration project. |