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1800
Glass F532 Book L3H6
·
١
HISTORY
OF
LA PORTE COUNTY,
INDIANA;
TOGETHER WITH SKETCHIES OF ITS CITIES, VILLAGES AND TOWNSHIPS, EDU- CATIONAL, RELIGIOUS, CIVIL, MILITARY, AND POLITICAL HISTORY; PORTRAITS OF PROMINENT PERSONS, AND BIOGRAPHIIES OF REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
HISTORY OF INDIANA,
EMBRACING ACCOUNTS OF TIIE PRE-IIISTORIC RACES, ABORIGINES, FRENCH, ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CONQUESTS, AND A GENERAL REVIEW OF ITS CIVIL, POLITICAL AND MILITARY HISTORY.
ILLUSTRATED.
CHICAGO: CHAS. C. CHAPMAN & CO., 1880.
F532 L3H6
16235
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1898. CITY OF WASHINGTON.
BLAKELY, BROWN & MARSH, PRINTERS, 155 & 157 DEARBORN ST., CHICAGO.
DONOHUE & HENNEBERRY, BOOKBINDERS, 105 & 109 MADISON STREET., CHICAGO
5092 4
AnTeegarden
PREFACE.
The history of La Porte county possesses features of unusual interest in comparison with those of other neighboring counties. Here the sturdy pioneer located and began to exert his civilizing influence long before other sections contained a settler. This being a delightful section of country, it was early occupied by those com- ing West in search of permanent homes.
In matters of general public interest and progress, La Porte county has ever taken a leading and prominent position. Here have lived men who have taken an important part in the affairs of State and in molding the political sentiments and destiny of the country. This county has been the scene of conflict between some of the giant intellects of the nation. Here the shrewd and enter- prising Easterner, the courtly Southerner and the sturdy, practical Westerner have met and mingled, have assimilated the better traits possessed by each other, and thus have formed a society, a people superior in many particulars to that of most localities. The origi- nal settlers, the earliest pilgrims, have nearly all passed away. Here and there we see the bended form and whitened head of some of these veterans, but they are not numerous; most of them have gone to that country which is always new, yet where the trials, struggles and hardships of pioneer life are never known.
Accurate and reliable history is most difficult to write. Those who have never experienced the difficulties incident to such labor cannot realize how nearly impossible it is, or can appreciate the earnest, honest and faithful labor of a historian. After the most careful and painstaking searches and inquiry upon any particular subject, or about any event, he will even then find many doubts as to its accuracy. Each individual will give a different account of the same events, though they be ever so honest and faithful. This fact is forcibly illustrated by Sir Walter Raleigh. While in prison in a tower of England, he engaged himself in writing the history of the world. One day a brawl occurred in the tower yard, and he desired to learn the particulars. Two of the principal actors came before him, and each related the account of the trouble; yet so
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PREFACE.
widely different were they that he found it utterly impossible to tell what the facts were. He then remarked, " Here I am engaged in writing the history of events that occurred 3,000 years ago, and yet I am unable to learn the facts of what happens at my win- dow." This has been the the channel of our experience, and that of all others who have attempted national or local history.
Besides mistakes on account of these causes, doubtless there are many others to be found within these pages. To suppose that a volume of this magnitude, and containing so many thousands of names and dates and brief statements would be wholly accurate, is - a supposition we presume no sane man will make. While we do not claim for this work critical accuracy or completeness, yet we are quite certain that it will be found measurably and practically so. Let it rest as the foundation for the future historian to build upon.
As one of the most interesting features of this work, we present the portraits of several representative citizens. It has been our aim to have the prominent men of the day, as well as the pioneers, rep- resented in this department; and we flatter ourselves on the uniform high character of the gentlemen whose portraits we present. They are in the strictest sense representative men. There are others, it is true, who claim equal prominence with those presented, but as a matter of course it was impossible for us to represent all the leading men of the county.
As we quit our long, tedious, yet nevertheless pleasant task of compiling the History of La Porte County, we wish to return the thanks of grateful hearts to those who have so freely aided us in collecting material. To the county officials, pastors of churches, officers of societies, pioneers, and particularly the editors of the press, we are particularly grateful for the many kindnesses and courtesies shown us while laboring in the county ; but most of all we wish to thank those who so liberally and materially aided the work by becoming subscribers to it. We feel that we have discharged our duties fully, have fulfilled all our promises, have earned the laborer's pay.
C. C. CHAPMAN & CO.
CHICAGO, October, 1880.
CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF INDIANA ..
FORMER OCCUPANTS 17
The First Immigration.
18
The Second Immigration.
20
The Tartars ..
23
Singing-School .. 167
Guarding against Indians. 168
The Bright Side.
171
What the Pioneers Have Done. 173
Military Drill .. 175
"Jack, the Philosopher of the 19th Cen- tury." 176
"Too Full for Utterance.' 177
Thieving and Lynch-Law 129
Curing the Drunken Husband. 180
The "Choke Trap." 181
British Policy.
American Policy 46
47
Indian Savagery ..
EXPEDITIONS OF COL. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.
52
Clark's Ingenious Ruse. . 64
Subsequent Career of Hamilton. 64
Gibault. 65
Vigo 66
GOVERNMENT OF THE NORTH - WEST
67
Ordinance of 1787.
Liquor and Gaming Laws 74
MILITARY HISTORY, 1790 TO 1800 75
Expeditions of Harmar, Scott and Wil- kinson .... 75
Expeditions of St. Clair and Wayne. 78 79
Wayne's Great Victory
TERRITORIAL HISTORY. 82
Organization of Indiana Territory First Territorial Legislature.
82 84
The Western Sun.
84
Indiana in 1810 .. 84 DIVORCE LAWS 250
GOVERNOR HARRISON AND THE INDIANS.
87
Harrison's Campaign. 92 98
Battle of Tippecanoe
WAR OF 1812 101
Expedition against the Indians. 103
Close of the War. 108
TECUMSEH .. 111
CIVIL MATTERS 1812-'5 116
Population in 1815. 118
General View. 118
ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE 121
BLACK HAWK WAR 123
LAST EXODUS OF INDIANS. 131
INDIAN TITLES 132
LAND SALES 133
HARMONY COMMUNITY 134
PIONEER LIFE. 136
The Log Cabin. 136
Sleeping Accommodations 138
Cooking .. 141
Women's Work 142
Dress and Manners 143
Family Worship. 145
Hospitality 147
Trade ..
148
Money
148
Milling 150 STATE CAPITOL .. 301
Agricultural Implements. 150 STATE OFFICERS. 302
Hog-Killing ..
151
Prairie Fires 152
Wild Hogs. 156 Native Animals 157
Wolf Hunts. 157
Bee-Hunting. 158
Snakes.
158
Shakes 159
Education
160 -
"Past the Pictures." 164
Spelling-School 165
Relies of the Mound-Builders. 23
Indians 31
Manners and Customs 34
EXPLORATIONS BY THE WHITES 37
Earliest Explorers
37
Ouabache 39 Vincennes 99
NATIONAL POLICIES 41 The Great French Scheme 41 Pontiac's War .. 46 46
MICHIGAN BOUNDARY 185
MEXICAN WAR. 186
SLAVERY
194
15th Amendment. 197
THE WAR FOR THE UNION .. 198
Lincoln did not seek the Presidency 198
States Seceding 199
The Fall of Sumter. 200
A Vast Army Raised in 11 Days 201
Sherman's March to the Sea. 202
Character of Abraham Lincoln. 202
The War Ended-The Union Restored .. 204
The Morgan-Raid Regiments 2:27
Six Months' Regiments 229
The 100-Days' Volunteers. 233
234
The President's Call of July, 1864. Dec., 66
231
Independent Cavalry Company of Indi- ana Volunteers 238
Our Colored Troops. 239
239 Batteries of Light Artillery.
After the War 246
FINANCIAL
251
State Bank. 253
Wealth and Progress .. 254
Internal Improvements
256
GEOLOGY 262
COAL. 264
AGRICULTURE 266
State Board of Agriculture. 266
The Exposition .. 267
Indiana Horticultural Society. Pomological 270 269
EDUCATION
272
Public Schools
Indiana State University
Purdue University .. 281
Indiana State Normal School 285
Normal School, etc., at Valparaiso. 286
Denominational and Private Institutions 287
BENEVOLENT AND PENAL INSTI- TUTIONS 291
Institute for the Education of the Blind 291 Institute for the Deaf and Dumb .. 293 Hospital for the Insane ... 295
The State Prisou South .. ..
296
North 29~
Female Prison and Reformatory. 298
Indiana House of Refuge. 300
U. S. SENATORS FROM INDIANA. 806 REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS. 307 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES: Of Governors 310
Of U. S. Senators. 316
THE SUPREMACIES
319
STATES OF THE UNION.
319
1
CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF LA PORTE COUNTY.
INTRODUCTION
331
CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY ..
336
History as Connected with Time and Place. 336
Boundary .
337
Original Territory of Indlana.
338
Altitude.
338
Surface.
340
Lakes
3-10
Soil
341
Productions 3.12
Minerals 3.13
Theoretical Geology 3-14
Economical Geology
347
CHAPTER II.
BOTANY
348
CHAPTER III.
ZOOLOGY
377
CHAPTER IV.
ARCIIÆOLOGY 391
History Written in Mounds of Earth ... 391
The Remains as Found Elsewhere ... 391 Standing by the Mounds .. 297
CHAPTER V.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS 399 The Flood of Empire Taking its West-
ward Way. 399
CHAPTER VI.
PIONEER LIFE 413
Pioneer Homes-Log Cabins .. 113
The Benedict House-Raising. 413
Pioneer Work .. 416
Prairie Plowing by the Pioneers
417
Harvest-Time ..
419
Religious Meetings 420
School-Houses and Schools. 421
Socialties
423
CHAPTER VII.
INDIAN INCIDENTS 1:26
An Indian Legend. 429
Indian Advancements in Knowledge 430 Incident at Door Village .. 431 Henry Clyburn's Ox .. 432
The Sac Indian Horse-Thieves 432
The Black Hawk War .. 432
John Beatty and the indian 434
Miss Carter's School. 434 A Case of Indian Justice. 435 The Last of the Red Man. 435
CHAPTER VIII.
CIVIL ORGANIC HISTORY 437
Act of Legislature Establishing the
County .. 43. Organization of the County into Town-
ships
438
Detatchment from Starke County.
441
Further Acquisition of Territory .. 4-12
CHAPTER IX.
OLD SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION. 450 Tendency to Retrospection .. 450 Call for Old Settlers' Meeting. 451 Organization. 452
First Annual Reunion
455
The Dinner. 456
Second Annual Reunion 457
Third 459
Fourth 460
Fifth
66
66
462
Sixth
464
Seventh
467
Eighth
469
Ninth
66
470
Tenth
473
Eleventh
60
474
Death Roll .... 458, 460, 461, 463, 466, 468, 470,
472, 475
Old Settlers' Roll
476-507
CHIAPTER X.
THRILLING ACCOUNTS AND PER-
SONAL INCIDENTS ... 508
A Case of Accidental Drowning .. 509
Mary Garroutte ... 509
Was Freedom Dead ?.. 510
A School-House on a Rampage. 511
A Distressing Case of Poisoning 511
The Dangers of the Forest .. 51%
Daniel Webster's Estimate of Children. 513
The Spirit of the Devil in Politics 513
Murder of James F. Smith.
514
A Band of Counterfeiters.
515
He Died that His Boy Might Live ......
515
Minor Incidents.
516-'18
CHAPTER XI.
RECORD OF THE REBELLION
519
CHAPTER XII.
POLITICAL
536
The Issues of the Great Campaigns.
536
Election Returns.
540
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COURTS .
549
Criminal Record. 553
The Penalty of Death. 554
The Divorce Record. 555
Marriage Record.
558
County Officers
556-8
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SCHOOLS. 562
List of County Examiners and Superin-
tendents.
565
Course ot Study for the County Schools. 568
Statistics ..
571
Course of Study for the Westville High
School
578
CHAPTER XV.
LITERARY RECORD 580
John B. Niles 580
Mrs. Emma F. Malloy. 584
Welcome to the 87th. 586
Hon. Jasper Packard
589
Benj. F. Taylor ..
591
CHAPTER XVI.
THE RESOURCES OF THE COUNTY. 593
The Natural Resources.
593
The Railroads of the County.
796
CHAPTER XVII.
RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES
599
CONTENTS.
TOWNSHIP HISTORIES :
Michigan. 745
New Durham 775
Noble.
807
Centre
614
Clinton
669
Cool Spring.
680
Dewey.
691
Galena
693
Hanna
709
Hudson.
714
Kankakee.
725
Lincoln and Johnson ..
742
THE PRESS ..
898
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Scene on the Ohio River. 25
Trapping 169
Hieroglyphics of the Mound Builders
29
Pontiac .. 183
LaSalle Landing at the Month of the
The Shawnee Prophet .. 195
43 Lincoln Monument at Springfield. 204 St. Joseph's River.
Gen. George Rogers Clark 53
Opening an Indiana Forest ... 235
Gen. Arthur St. Clair
89
View on the Wabash River 247
Tecumseh ..
109
Surrender of Indians to Wilkinson 289
Indians Attacking Frontiersmen 123
A Western Lake Shore Residence. 321
A Pioneer Dwelling. 139
A Pottawatomie Indian.
427
Hunting Prairie Wolves
153
Lilley, A. P. 881
Brand, L. D. .
871
Low, Daniel. 685
Buck, Dexter A.
631
Mclellan, Andrew 845
Burner, J. O.
675-
Teegarden, A. Frontispiece.
Davis, Samuel S
793
Travis, Wm. W 891
Downing, Samuel.
735 Willson, Jeremiah 605
Pleasant 825
Scipio 837
Springfield. 859
Union ..
864
Wills.
884
Biography of Hon. Wm. H. Calkins 897
CHAPTER XVIII.
PORTRAITS.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA:
FORMER OCCUPANTS.
PREIIISTORIC RACES.
Scientists have ascribed to the Mound Builders varied origins, and though their divergence of opinion may fer a time seem incom- patible with a thorough investigation of the subject, and tend to a confusion of ideas, no doubt whatever can exist as to the compar- ative accuracy of conclusions arrived at by some of them. Like the vexed question of the Pillar Towers of Ireland, it has caused much speculation, and elicited the opinions of so many learned antiquarians, ethnologists and travelers, that it will not be found beyond the range of possibility to make deductions that may suffice to solve the problem who were the prehistoric settlers of America. To achieve this it will not be necessary to go beyond the period over which Scripture history extends, or to indulge in those airy flights of imagination so sadly identified with occasional writers of even the Christian school, and all the accepted literary exponents of modern paganism.
That this continent is co-existent with the world of the ancients cannot be questioned. Every investigation, instituted under the auspices of modern civilization, confirms the fact and leaves no channel open through which the skeptic can escape the thorough refutation of his opinions. China, with its numerous living testi- monials of antiquity, with its ancient, though limited literature and its Babelish superstitions, claims a continuous history from antediluvian times; but although its continuity may be denied with every just reason, there is nothing to prevent the transmission of a hieroglyphic record of its history prior to 1656 anno mundi, since many traces of its early settlement survived the Deluge, and became sacred objects of the first historical epoch. This very sur- vival of a record, such as that of which the Chinese boast, is not at variance with the designs of a God who made and ruled the universe; but that an antediluvian people inhabited this continent,
18
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
will not be claimed; because it is not probable, though it may be possible, that a settlement in a land which may be considered a portion of the Asiatic continent, was effected by the immediate' followers of the first progenitors of the human race. Therefore, on entering the study of the ancient people who raised these tumu- lus monuments over large tracts of the country, it will be just sufficient to wander back to that time when the flood-gates of heaven were swung open to hurl destruction on a wicked world; and in doing so the inquiry must be based on legendary, or rather upon many circumstantial evidences; for, so far as written narra- tive extends, there is nothing to show that a movement of people too far east resulted in a Western settlement.
THE FIRST IMMIGRATION.
The first and most probable sources in which the origin of the Builders must be sought, are those countries lying along the east- ern coast of Asia, which doubtless at that time stretched far beyond its present limits, and presented a continuous shore from Lopatka to Point Cambodia, holding a population comparatively civilized, and all professing some elementary form of the Boodliism of later days. Those peoples, like the Chinese of the present, were bound to live at home, and probably observed that law until after the con- fusion of languages and the dispersion of the builders of Babel in 1757, A. M .; but subsequently, within the following century, the old Mongolians, like the new, crossed the great ocean in the very pathis taken by the present representatives of the race, arrived on the same shores, which now extend a very questionable hospitality to them, and entered at once upon the colonization of the country south and east, while the Caucasian race engaged in a similar move- ment of exploration and colonization over what may be justly termed the western extension of Asia, and both peoples growing stalwart under the change, attained a moral and physical eminence to which they never could lay claim under the tropical sun which shed its beams upon the cradle of the human race.
That mysterious people who, like the Brahmins of to-day, wor- shiped some transitory deity, and in after years, evidently embraced the idealization of Boodhism, as preached in Mongolia early in the 35th century of the world, together with acquiring the learning of the Confucian and Pythagorean schools of the same period, spread all over the land, and in their numerous settlements erected these raths, or inounds, and sacrificial altars whereon they received their
19
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
periodical visiting gods, surrendered their bodies to natural absorp- tion or annihilation, and watched for the return of some transmi- · grated soul, the while adoring the universe, which with all beings they believed would be eternally existent. They possessed religious orders corresponding in external show at least with the Essenes or Theraputæ of the pre-Christian and Christian epochs, and to the reformed Theraputæ or monks of the present. Every memento of their coming and their stay which has descended to us is an evi- dence of their civilized condition. The free copper found within the tnmuli; the open veins of the Superior and Iron Mountain copper-mines, with all the modus operandi of ancient mining, such as ladders, levers, chisels, and hammer-heads, discovered by the French explorers of the Northwest and the Mississippi, are conclu- sive proofs that those prehistoric people were highly civilized, and that many flourishing colonies were spread throughout the Missis- sippi valley, while yet the mammoth, the mastodon, and a hundred other animals, now only known by their gigantic fossil remains, guarded the eastern shore of the continent as it were against sup- posed invasions of the Tower Builders who went west from Babel; while yet the beautiful isles of the Antilles formed an integral portion of this continent, long years before the European Northman dreamed of setting forth to the discovery of Greenland and the northern isles, and certainly at a time when all that portion of America north of latitude 45° was an ice-incumbered waste.
Within the last few years great advances have been made toward the discovery of antiquities whether pertaining to remains of organic or inorganic nature. Together with many small, but telling relics of the early inhabitants of the country, the fossils of pre- historic animals have been unearthed from end to end of the land, and in districts, too, long pronounced by geologists of some repute to be withont even a vestige of vertebrate fossils. Among the collected souvenirs of an age about which so very little is known, are twenty-five vertebræ averaging thirteen inches in diameter, and three vertebræ ossified together measure nine cubical feet; a thigh-bone five feet long by twenty-eight, by twelve inches in diameter, and the shaft fourteen by eight inches thick, the entire lot weighing 600 lbs. These fossils are presumed to belong to the cretaceous period, when the Dinosaur roamed over the country from East to West, desolating the villages of the people. This animal is said to have been sixty feet long, and when feeding in cypress and palın forests, to extend himself eighty-five feet, so that he may
20
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
devour the budding tops of those great trees. Other efforts in this direction may lead to great results, and culininate probably in the discovery of a tablet engraven by some learned Mound Builder, describing in the ancient hieroglyphics of China all these men and beasts whose history excites so much speculation. The identity of the Mound Builders with the Mongolians might lead us to hope for such a consummation; nor is it beyond the range of probability, particularly in this practical age, to find the future labors of some industrious antiquarian requited by the upheaval of a tablet, written in the Tartar characters of 1700 years ago, bearing on a subject which can now be treated only on a purely circumstantial basis.
THE SECOND IMMIGRATION
may have begun a few centuries prior to the Christian era, and unlike the former expedition or expeditions, to have traversed north- castern Asia to its Arctic confines, and then east to the narrow channel now known as Behring's Straits, which they crossed, and sailing up the unchanging Yukon, settled under the shadow of Mount St. Elias for many years, and pushing South commingled with their countrymen, soon acquiring the characteristics of the descendants of the first colonists. Chinese chronicles tell of such a people, who went Northi and were never heard of more. Circum- stances conspire to render that particular colony the carriers of a new religious faith and of an alphabetic system of a representative character to the old colonists, and they, doubtless, exercised a most beneficial influence in other respects ; because the influx of immi- grants of such culture as were the Chinese, even of that remote period, must necessarily bear very favorable results, not only in bringing in reports of their travels, but also accounts from the fatherland bearing on the latest events.
With the idea of a second and important exodus there are many theorists united, one of whom says: "It is now the generally received opinion that the first inhabitants of America passed over from Asia through these straits. The number of small islands lying between both continents renders this opinion still more probable; and it is yet farther confirmed by some remarkable traces of similarity in the physical conformation of the northern natives of both continents. The Esquimaux of North America, the Samoieds of Asia, and the Laplanders of Europe, are supposed to be of the same family; and this supposition is strengthened by the affinity which exists in their languages. The researches of Hum-
21
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
boldt have traced the Mexicans to the vicinity of Behring's Straits; whence it is conjectured that they, as well as the Peruvians and other tribes, came originally from Asia, and were the Hiongnoos, who are, in the Chinese annals, said to have emigrated under Puno, and to have been lost in the North of Siberia."
Since this theory is accepted by most antiquaries, there is every reason to believe that from the discovery of what may be called an overland route to what was then considered an eastern extension of that country which is now known as the " Celestial Empire," many caravans of emigrants passed to their new homes in the land of illimitable possibilities until the way became a well-marked trail over which the Asiatic might travel forward, and having once entered the Elysian fields never entertained an idea of returning. Thus from generation to generation the tide of immigration poured in until the slopes of the Pacific and the banks of the great inland ' rivers became hives of busy industry. Magnificent cities and monuments were raised at the bidding of the tribal leaders and populous settlements centered with happy villages sprung up everywhere in manifestation of the power and wealth and knowl- edge of the people. The colonizing Caucasian of the historic period walked over this great country on the very ruins of a civil- ization which a thousand years before eclipsed all that of which he could boast. He walked through the wilderness of the West over buried treasures hidden under the accumulated growth of nature, nor rested until he saw, with great surprise, the remains of ancient pyramids and temples and cities, larger and evidently more beauti- ful than ancient Egypt could bring forth after its long years of uninterrupted history. The pyramids resemble those of Egypt in exterior form, and in some instances are of larger dimensions. The pyramid of Cholula is square, having each side of its base 1,335 feet in length, and its height about 172 feet. Another pyramid, situated in the north of Vera Cruz, is formed of large blocks of highly-polished porphyry, and bears upon its front hiero- glyphic inscriptions and curious sculpture .. Eich side of its square base is 82 feet in length, and a flight of 57 steps conducts to its summit, which is 65 feet in height. The ruins of Palenque are said to extend 20 miles along the ridge of a mountain, and the remains of an Aztec city, near the banks of the river Gila, are spread over more than a square league. Their literature consisted of hieroglyphics; but their arithmetical knowledge did not extend farther than their calculations by the aid of grains of corn. Yet,
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