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this solemn injunction: “If this corner stone shall ever be displaced and these lines come before any human eyes in a coming generation, let whosoever may touch these memorials of those who have gone before them be assured that they inherit not only the toils but the prayers of many of the builders of this church.”
Dr. Coe was the founder of Union Sunday School, which the writer of the diary mentions as early as June 16, 1822. This school was held in the cabinet shop of Caleb Scudder, which adjoined his dwelling on West Washington street, opposite the State House. Mr. Scudder is one of the most interesting of the early characters. Specimens of his cabinet work are prized today in Indianapolis homes.
Again I open the diary and find that busy autumn days are spent in gathering fruits and vegetables for winter use, in spinning wool for socks, in making a quilted petticoat. On an idle Sunday Thompson’s Seasons was enjoyed and the Ladies’ Casket read from cover to cover. Winter brought cold and snow; the wife was anxious for her husband who rode the distant circuit with Judge Wick.
But spring came at last and the maple sugar camp was opened. His son Miles later described the sugar-making as follows:
“In our pasture maple trees abounded. These, with the first thaw of the opening year, were tapped and sugar making began. Mother was the factotum in this business, but she carried it on very differently from the careless manner of most Hoosiers. Instead of sugar troughs, which were liable to stain the sap, she had clean crocks placed under the spiles. The sugar water when collected was carried to a half-faced camp and poured into kettles suspended by the side of a huge oak log. There, when the boiling was going on, mother stood and stirred and tasted and added until all was reduced to a
