USA > Indiana > Lake County > Reports of the historical secretary of the Old settler and historical association of Lake County, Indiana from 1901 to 1905 > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02300 1610
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REPORTS
OF THE .
HISTORICAL SECRETARY
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OF THE
Old Settler and Historical
Association
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA
FROM
1901 TO 1905
CROWN POINT, INDIANA 1905
PRESS OF J J. WHEELER, CROWN POINT.
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REPORT, AUGUST 28, 1901.
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The year that closes with this August, which includes two-thirds of the first calendar year of the twentieth century of our reckoning, has had many events similar to those in the year before it. There have been 'mar- riages and births and deaths; there have been pleasant days and stormy days; there have been successes and disappointments; there have been joys and sorrows. Be- ing a part, although a small part, of the great civilized world, what affects that great world, to some extent, affects us. Yet we have not much to do with the affairs of our island possessions, or with Wall street panics in New York. We have cause to be grateful that so many of us yet live, and that so few of the greater calamities and discords of the world have touched us. We commence the second quarter of a century of our existence as an organization under the protection of that kind Providence that has so long watched over us. Every year protection and many other blessings call to us for fervent thanks to God.
Of special events, in the history which we are all mak- ing, there are not many to be to-day reviewed.
I. The mercury passed below zero a few times in the winter, and there was more than the usual amount of sleighing. The ice harvest commenced the last of Janu- ary. March 17th robins appeared. The spring was con- sidered backward, yet wild flowers were quite abundant the last of April, and some fruit trees were in bloom. In
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May the fruit trees were loaded with blossoms, peach, apple, and pear trees promising a large yield. May 13th a frost. June 8th a fire needed for comfort. May 23d a hail storm passed across the county and through Merrill- ville. A hot day. May 24th overcoats comfortable; 25th and 26th mercury down to 48 degrees. In June some very hot days. 24th 98 degrees; 25th at noon 99 degrees. 3:30 to 4, a fearful hail storm, one of the worst, if not the most severe ever visiting Crown Point. One very severe hail storm at Cedar Lake early in the season in 1845, was very destructive to window glass. But it is quite sure that one so destructive to vegetation and to all north windows was never before known in Crown Point. No accurate estimate of the amount of glass broken can be made, but the number of panes broken, large and small, would count into the thousands. The cost for repairing the glass was many hundreds of dollars. The area covered by the hail cloud, which also furnished a heavy rain fall, was not large, extending not far out of the town limits, but across the county, southward, there was a heavy wind storm, injuring some barns. Besides windows, roofs were in- jured by the hail and many new roofs were found to be needed, so that for many days the demand was large for glass and shingles. The hail stones, as observed on North Street, were not globular, but shaped like a watch, and some were an inch and a half to two inches across the face. All, however, were not the same in shape. In sheltered positions many remained until the next morn- ing. After the storm hot weather still continued. June 30th 96 degrees was reached. July commenced with heat and this continued, for the most part, through the month.
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On Wednesday, the 10th, the mercury on North Street, in a north shade reached 100 degrees, a strong breeze blowing through the day; and on Sunday, the 21st, the hottest day of the season, in the coolest north shade to be found the mercury on two thermometers reached 104 degrees. At 5:45 P. M. still 97 degrees, or nearly blood heat.
Leaving this record of a very hot and dry summer for Lake county, the following are the other records:
2. In the early spring there was little prospect in the central part of the county for new buildings, but as the season advanced houses were found to be needed, and a large one was built in May by Mr. J. M. Hack, a dairy- man, and Grange member; dimensions. 36 by 80 feet and 24 feet high. Others have been erected in various places.
3. Belonging to the improvement of last year and this is the dwelling house of Mr. M. J. Brown on the He- bron and Lowell road in Eagle Creek township. In all its equipments for comfort and convenience, with the ex- ception of electric lights, it is quite certainly the equal of any of our town and city homes, and no one going over it from cellar to attic will question the statement that it is first among the farm houses of the county.
4. An effort was made in the winter and a ,bill was before our General Assembly to secure some state aid for a canal from Lake Michigan to the Calumet, through East Chicago. A favorable report was made, but the bill failed to pass. Our representative from Brunswick, Mr. J. N. Beckman, voted for it, but the representive from Whiting worked and voted against it. The same division
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of votes took place on a temperance measure, the repre- sentative from Brunswick voting for it; the one from Whiting against it. .
5. The railroad built in Jasper county by the enterprise of Mr. B. J. Gifford, seems certain to be extended in some direction across Lake county, entering the county near the southeastern corner, it will proceed in a westerly di- rection, but across what lands it will pass is at present uncertain.
The postoffice in Crown Point was removed to the building next south of the Schlemmer store in May, 1901 through the influence of the W. C. T. U. of Crown Point.
6. For a time this spring the prospect was quite bright for a sugar-beet factory to be built at Shelby. Many acres were planted with beet seed, and the beets are said to be growing well, but for some reason, not made public, no building was erected. It has been suggested that the capitalists concerned in the enterprise felt too uncertain in regard to the effect the revenue laws would have on importations from the Philippine Islands, to venture lay- ing out capital. Evidently they did not see a promising, paying investment.
7. I attended, June 20, 1901, as the Historical Secre- tary of our Association, the thirty-second annual meeting of the Old Settlers' Association of La Porte county. Six years older than our organization, in an older settled county, and organized and carried on by a larger and more wealthy community of citizens, I found it in some re- spects more advanced, perhaps, than ours; but in the ex- ercises of the day, for promoting the objects for which
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we meet, we seem to be well up in style and cultivation with the citizens of La Porte county. Their organization is much like ours, but their meetings are not open to the general public as are ours. Restricted at first rigidly to pioneers or early settlers and their families, they at length admitted editors and Gospel ministers; and they now ad- mit some visitors. I met the President, was very kindly received by him, and had a good seat on the platform. Greetings and conversation only were the exercises be- fore dinner. In the afternoon singing, somc addresses, and some papers. These quite interesting. The restrict- ive feature of the meeting was not to a visitor so pleasant as our freedom. There was a large attendance.
8. On Wednesday, July 31, 1901. I visited the location in the north part of East Chicago, where work had com- menced for a large, independent steel factory. I found the superintendent of the foundation work, Mr. Dickson, a young man from Franklin county, a native of Indiana, and learned that about one hundred and fifty men were then at work preparing the ground for the great structures that are to be erected. Work commenced the middle of June. There was in July quite a large building already up, a three story boarding-house, and near the shore of Lake Michigan there was soon to be, according to infor- mation given by Mr. McGrath from Muncie rolling mills, a hotel erected to cost thirty. perhaps forty thousand dol- lars. He said that the works, designed to be soon placed at that location, would employ from one thousand to fif- teen hundred men.
The men starting this enterprise, it is claimed have at their command one million of dollars, There seems to be
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no reasonable doubt of the completion of this proposed work. Men would hardly be laying out a thousand dol- lars and more each week without designing to get some returns, And if this enterprise continues to be indepen- dent, and is not swallowed up by that gigantic steel trust company at the head of which is J. P. Morgan with other heavy capitalists, it will certainly be for some hundreds of workmen and for East Chicago a grand enterprise.
It is understood that connected with this, as promising to be independent of that Trust Company, with which the Amalgamated Association of Steel Workers have lately been in conference, is Mr. R. J. Beaty, formerly in the Trust Mills at Muncie, and very popular with the Union men. The name, "INDIANA HARBOR," has been given to this locality which borders on Lake Michigan and is in the bounds of East Chicago, comprising the northeastern part of that growing young city. It is distant on the lake shore line, from the town of Whiting proper, about three miles. East Chicago seems now to have within its limits sections 22, 27, and a part of 34, extending eastward to the township line. This steel enterprise succeeding, the canal and harbor for East Chicago are likely to follow.
9. In all our large towns improvements and building have been going forward, among these improvements has been at Crown Point the erection by E. F. Schroeder of a grain elevator, capacity, 25,000 bushels, height accord- ing to the plan and drawings by the architect 84 feet to the top of the roof. It will be one of the four high points of buildings yet reached in Crown Point.
IO. We cannot expect a year to pass without our los-
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ing by the "scythe of time," or some unexpected death, some of our number.
On this necrologic roll the first name to be recorded is that of Mrs. Bartlett Woods, who was in youth Eliza Sig- ler. She was born April 21, 1827, and died October 6, 1900, soon after our last anniversary, being 72 years of age. Always present at these meetings and spreading each year a hospitable table, she is very much missed here to-day as well as, at what was her home, among her kin- dred and her many special friends.
The second name here is that of Mrs. Philip Stuppy, born in 1841, married March 1, 1871, for many years a resi- dent south of Creston where she died November 9, 1900, in the sixtieth year of her age, a faithful member of that large denomination of Christian people known as Baptists.
The third name is that of Hon. J. W. Youche, who was born March 4, 1848, was admitted to the bar in Crown Point March 20, 1871, and who died January 2, 1901, near- ly 53 years of age. Attending the burial services, besides the lawyers of Crown Point, were Judge Gillett of Ham- mond and Judge Field of Chicago. Lake county and Indiana sustained at his death a great loss.
The fourth name of this record is that of Charles Ed- ward Schroeder, born June 28, 1830, who became an inhab- itant of Lake county in 1852, of Crown Point in 1854, and died January 23, 1901, over 70 years of age.
The fifth name is of William Pettibone, a brother of .Dr. Harvey and D. K. Pettibone, a resident for many years in Crown Point, who died early in February, 1901, 78 years of age.
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The sixth is the name of John Mills, born Feb. 6, 1832, in New York State, married in Detroit May 17, 1855, to Miss Olive Granger, a soldier in the war for the Union, a resident for many years in Crown Point, who died March 21, 1901, 69 years of age.
The next, the seventh in this list, is the name of Ches- ter Guernsey, who came as a child to Porter county in 1836, who came many years ago into Lake county as a citizen, and who died also March 21, 1901, nearly 77 years of age.
The eighth name is that of Samuel N. Witherell, who was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, January 6, 1825, came to Lake county in 1853, and died March 24, 1901, 76 years of age.
The ninth name is of John Knoedler, a member of this Association, for several years Superintendent of the Ger- man Methodist Sunday School, who died on Sunday after- noon, May 25, 1901, in the 80th year of his age.
And there is one more name, the tenth, that of Mrs. Eliza Jones, who was born in Perry county, Ohio, Nov. I. 1827, whose father was an early settler in Porter county, who resided for a number of years with her husband and . daughters on East Street in Crown Point, and who died early Thursday morning, July 25, 1901, nearly 74 years of age.
In closing this part of this report it may be added that James H. Biggs. connected for years with the Hart fam- ily, a son-in-law of A. N. Hart, was found dead in his room in the city of Chicago Monday morning, May 20, 1901. He had passed the age of 60 years. He was for many years a dealer in real estate, a refined, gentlemanly man
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in appearance and in manners, and had been connected with business matters in this county for some thirty-five years.
Five of the wealthy Hart family have passed from carth in the last few years, leaving one son and one daughter and three daughters-in-law to represent the family in the affairs of life, all but one of these living in Crown Point.
11. Among the social events of the year, very fully connected with early settlers and their reminiscences, may be mentioned a Golden Wedding Anniversary. At mid- day of Wednesday, May 22, of this same year, 1901, guests began to assemble at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Brown in Crown Point, until in a short time about fifty were present. The marriage had taken place in South East Grove May 22, 1851. Among those present at this anniversary, Miss Mabel Crawford, a granddaughter re- ceiving the guests at the door, were the three daughters and the two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Brown, and several grandchildren; also Mrs. Brown's two sisters, Mrs. John Dinwiddie and her daughter from LaPorte and Mrs. Alon- zo Starr and her daughter from Winamac. Old neighbors and friends of South East Grove and Eagle Creek were among the other guests. It was a delightful reunion. As it was the flowery month of May, flowers, always so beau- tiful, were abundant. There were pinks from friends in Michigan, rich carnations from members of the Black family in Illinois, fifty gold colored tulips from Mrs. Peter- son, a fine display from Mrs. Fisher, Easter and lemon lilies from Mrs. Biggs, lilies of the valley from Mrs. Vil- mer, and a variety of flowers from Mrs. Dinwiddie of La- Porte. Iris blossoms added their rich color to the May
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beauty of the rooms. The table was bordered with smi- lax set off with golden lilies and golden ribbon .. Age and youth alike love and ought to love true beauty. Let us ever welcome golden wedding anniversaries. Only a few reach them.
12. Among the events called accidents which are of daily occurrence somewhere, there have been some in the county this year peculiarly sad.
I. A young woman of Crown Point, Miss Julia Popp, was burned severely the 5th day of July by means of fire crackers which ought to have been used up the day be- fore. After severe suffering she died Friday noon Aug- ust 2, 1901, at the home of her mother on Ridge Street. 2. Garley Siegel, said to be a sober, steady young man. was on the 10:45 train in the evening on the Erie road, coming from Chicago to spend Sunday at his home, not far eastward from the Erie station in Crown Point. By some means he left the train a few rods before it reached the station, and as a result lost both of his feet. How he left that train is not understood by the railroad officials or the surgeon, only that he "fell off." Of course he was not where a passenger should have been, or he could not have been injured. He may have been too eager to reach home. He was found on the side of the train towards his home. 3. At Leroy on Tuesday morning July 16th about 9 o'clock, some boys were playing in the new grain elevator, and Charles Love, thirteen years of age, jumped into the large pile of descending corn at the bottom of which men were filling a car. He was drawn down and suffocated before the flow of grain could be stopped and his body extricated. Efforts to resuscitate were vain af-
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ter his form was brought again into the air. While there are places in this world for all persons at all times, and while danger is everywhere and always, the lesson from thousands of accidents is this: that those are the most se- cure who are at all times doing the proper things in prop- cr places. Nature, as such, shows little mercy to those who experiment with her laws.
The three accidents recorded here are similar to many others, but, so far as known, Charles Love of Leroy, is the first boy in our county to meet death in this peculiar way.
13. Fire at Hammond. In the night following Friday, August 2nd, a fire started in what are called the Simplex Works at Hammond, which extended to the buildings of the Rawhide and Belting Company and the Hammond Buggy Company. Loss estimated at one hundred thou- sand dollars. Some insurance.
14. There have been some other smaller fires in the county, and especially one at Creston on Sunday night of August 18th, which destroyed an old landmark, the store building for twenty-six years occupied by A. D. Palmer.
15. A long distance telephone line has this summer been in process of construction, it is said from Chicago to New York. Forty men have gone out daily from Crown Point during a part of this month to work on this line, which passes northeast of town and then eastward on the line of North Street. Ten wires are put up on very solid poles. Two miles of this line is considered a day's work.
16. The Crown Point Telephone Company have in-the town this summer 300 instruments among 600 families.
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17. Among visitors this year have been Mr. William Hill of Colorado, absent for thirteen years; Judge James H. Ball of Scott county, Kansas, whose last visit was in 1890; Mr. Charles P. Fuller, absent for nine years, and Mr. Z. P. Farley who visits here occasionally. There were probably some others.
18. Quite a number from this county have this sum- mer visited the Pan American Exposition at Buffalo. It is reported as far from equaling the great Columbus Ex- position, and yet as Pan American being deserving of large interest.
19. On August 20th I made some examination of that spot north of Cedar Lake where the Monon line of rail- road lately gave way. It was worth seeing. The road crossed a part of the once very productive cranberry marsh owned by Mr. Van Hollen. The road had gone down along some thirty rods of this marsh, and in width probably four or five rods. An immense quantity of clay and some rocks had been put in to fill up the depression, but the black masses of crumbly muck remaining on each side, on which I soon found it was not prudent to walk, gave the appearance of a yawning gulf down into the earth. Evidently some of our marshes were not designed to hold up railroad tracks, and where once there is a break made through the late formed sod above the muck a solid foundation is not easily reached.
20. On the same day I visited Mrs. Van Hollen, tbe last surviving pioneer in all that part of the county. She was born in 1816, came to the home where she still re- sides, in 1838, a young wife, twenty-two years of age, and is now, although eighty-five years of age this year, in
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good possession of her mental faculties, but with dim eyesight and in some other respects quite feeble. She has been, through her long life at Cedar Lake, an excel- lent friend and neighbor and citizen, and is one of the wealthy women of the county.
21. In 1898 a record was made of ministers of the Gos- pel who had died in the county. Two other names are now.to be added to that list. Rev. Ferdinand Kopelke, who was born December 29, 1816, died in Crown Point August 16, 1899, nearly 83 years of age.
Rev. William L. Archer, pastor of the Free Methodist church at Crown Point, died at the parsonage January 14, 1900. He was between 40 and 45 years of age, in the very prime of life.
22. An unpleasant item for record is this: One of our newspapers reports that the boys of Crown Point, some of them, no particular ones named, have this summer robbed a large number of bird's nests, taking out of those wonderful bird structures scores and even hundreds of beautiful eggs. To thus lessen the number of song birds is surely a shame and a wrong, and it seems strange that our advanced humane and scientific education, with nat- ural history taught in the reading courses, meets with no better results. It is to be feared that a spirit of kindness and consideration for the brute creation is not increasing among the children.
23. Two new church buildings have this year been ad- ded to the sixty-six reported in 1897. They are both at Highland, one a Hollander Reformed, the other unde- nominational. They contribute much to the village ap- pearance and life of Highland.
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24. The rural mail delivery system seems to be giving great satisfaction. The first line established in the coun- ty is the one going out from Hobart, which has been in operation for more than a year. The second line is one going out from Lowell, established last year. The third goes out from Crown Point. Its work of delivery com- menced on Thursday, November 1, 1900, and it now sup- plies about 140 boxes, enabling about six hundred people to receive the benefits of a daily mail. Packages are also delivered and small wants are thus supplied.
25. And now I come to the last item for the report of 1901, the prospect before us in this present:
The value of the gentle rain of Sunday, August 18th, with the showers of Saturday and Monday, no one can estimate as connected with all the material interests of the county; and that we have been favored above many portions of the world and of our own land is certain, so that the year closes with abundant cause for gratitude. In the meantime, in this month of August, a great conflict has been going on between concentrated capital and or- ganized labor, and while the members of our association are mostly connected with the farming industry, the con- flict affects us as a part, however small, of the large busi- ness and commercial world. We are therefore face to face with the question, what is our duty as citizens of Lake county and of Indiana, in respect to the shape which, in the near future, this conflict must take in con- - nection with our Government? Says one of the truly grand men of our county , now seventy-eight years of age: "There was never a greater need of good men in our country and the world than to-day." And to this answer
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to the question of our duty no one can object, (whatever view he may take of strikes, and of trusts, and of labor unions, and of concentrated capital, and of foreign pos- sessions), that it is our duty to increase the number of good men of the future by increasing if possible the love and practice of virtue among the young men and boys of to-day. Much barbarity is taught and practiced in the noted institutions of the land, and they send out some fearful specimens of cruel, selfish humanity. From our farms should go forth young men who will never be guilty of inflicting wrong on fellow beings or on our fellow crea- tures of the brute creation. If the virtues of integrity and kindness, of purity and love, were to leave this earth, surely some of their last resting places would be in the quiet villages and in the country homes.
Sometimes, with a little disdain in the tone, some young people are said to be "countrified." A late writer, dealing in noble sentiment as well as producing forms of beauty, has well said:
"Do they call you 'countrified?' Let it be your joy and pride,
You who love the birds and bees, And the whispers of the trees! Trust me friend of flower and grass, Little brown-faced lad or lass,
Naught in all the world beside, Equals being 'countrified.'"
It has been declared, and who will question the state- ment, that "the moral backbone of the nation is to be found in the rural districts." And when farmers come to demand the removal, from places which they frequent, of demoralizing influences these will be removed. May the time be far distant when the immorality of towns and cities shall invade our prosperous country homes.
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REPORT, AUGUST 27, 1902.
. As the years glide by there is much in each that is like the past; there is something also not quite like the past. Each year is quite sure to have some characteristic. There will be new experiences for some, new joys and new sor- rows. Each year, and this not less than those that have gone before it, furnishes abundant cause for gratitude to God. We should be grateful that so few calamities have come upon us, that so many aged ones yet remain among us, and especially that our late President and Treasurer are spared to see another anniversary day, and that so many of us, enjoying health and home comforts, can greet the opening of our twenty-eighth year as an organization. Twenty-seven full years have passed.
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