Filthy Creeks Cause Protest

From The Indianapolis Star, Friday, August 27, 1920: An indignation meeting was held last evening at Shelby and Hervey Streets, with over one hundred South Side citizens attending, to protest against the pollution of Pleasant Run and Bean Creek. One protester said that a man fell into Pleasant Run recently and died later from the poisoned water. Carl Neiger, 1434 Cottage Av, said he had to close the doors and windows of his home three times within the year because of the odor from the stream. A resolution adopted citing the Indianapolis board of public health having called attention to the deplorable and unsanitary conditions of the streams caused by the waste from industrial plants, called upon the local and state boards of health “to stop this condition, by use of the ample power vested in them by state laws.”