Growing Bolder Community

Indiana Botanic Gardens was founded in 1910 by Joseph F. Meyer in a small cottage in the rear of his home in Hammond, Indiana. The business barely made living expenses for the family which eventually consisted of seven sons and one daughter. His elder sons helped by gathering herbs from the nearby fields. They packed boxes, filled orders, fed the printing press, and folded circulars. In the evenings, the family put catalogs together and bound them with needle and thread.

In 1918, the 400-page book, The Herbalist was printed and business expanded from the tiny cottage to a large building. The Herbalist Almanac, an annual publication, was began in 1925, the same year Joseph purchased a wild tract of land on the Little Calumet River. The land held a profusion of medicinal plants and virgin forest. In 1926, a beautiful English gabled building was built. This became the home of the newly named Indiana Botanic Gardens.

During the next few years, Joseph traveled to all parts of North America to gather material and information on native plants and their uses. Mail poured in from all over the world including universities, libraries, botanists and people from all ranks of life. In 1932, he traveled to Europe to seek rare herbals.

In Joseph Meyer's time self-treatment with herbs was commonly practiced and often necessary due to economic conditions or the scarcity of professional medical help. Mr. Meyer devoted his life to providing herbs to people, and many grateful customers sent letters and recipes extolling the benefits. The Old Herb Doctor was compiled from this information to let other customers know how other customers had used herbs and the good results they obtained from them.

Eventually the business was passed on to his grandson David Meyer, who is still part of the organization, along with great-grandson Tim Cleland, current president of the company. In 1990, the company moved to nearby Hobart, Indiana and began selling vitamins and other nutritional supplements in addition to bulk herbals. The new Hobart location has a retail store and also sells wholesale products. The bulk of the business continues to be derived from catalogue mail order sales. Indiana Botanic Gardens is the largest seller of herbs by mail order in the world. In recent years, the company stopped growing its own herbs and began buying them from suppliers. With the addition of new items and product lines, the company has grown five fold since 1990.