A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 10

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273

USA > Indiana > LaPorte County > A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana > Part 10

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The commissioners appointed by the state to. fix the county seat, met and performed their duty in the latter part of September, or the first part of October, 1832. Not only so, but not all of them met even then, but only three of the original ones-Coleman, Craig and Thornton. Lewis and

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

Ingram were not there, but in their stead, or in the stead of one of them, was one Andrew W. Snodgrass.

The act incorporating LaPorte county was agreeably to another act entitled "An act to establish the seat of justice in new counties," approved January 14, 1824. In that other act no provision was made either for postponement or for filling vacancies; though it specified that "three or more" of the commissioners might act.

Notwithstanding that the commissioners met in the fall and fixed the seat. of justice instead of on the second Monday in May as the act of in- corporation specified, and notwithstanding that two of them were absent, and a new man present not specified in the act, the law of course must presume, until it is proved to the contrary, that the commissioners met according to requirements and performed their duties; or, if they departed from specifications, as they certainly did, that they acted with proper authority. But if it can be proved to the contrary, the very interesting questions arise, whether the seat of justice was ever legally fixed at LaPorte; and if not, what is the present status. This is a subject which is well worthy of being ferreted out, if possible, by the proper research.

It may be that the following proposition will shed some light on the subject, which is from "Gallup, Executor, versus Schmidt, Treasurer," in 154, Indiana State Reports, page 204: "Where a statute specifies the time within which a public officer is to perform an official act, it will be considered directory merely, unless the nature of the act to be performed, or the language used by the legislature, shows that the designation of time was intended as a limitation of the power of the officer."

It seems by this that the failure of public officers, such as commissioners, etc., to perform an official act at the specified time, does not re- lease them from performing that act; that they are still required to perform it at the earliest practicable subsequent time; and that when they do perform it the act is perfectly legal, of which, the writer is informed on good authority, there are numerous precedents. So then the county seat and substantial court house may abide in peace.

Of the commissioners to locate the county

seat, Levi Thornton of Tippecanoe county was a very early settler in the southeast part of that county. Andrew Ingram, of Clinton county, was one of the earliest settlers there. He was a law- yer and was admitted to the bar at the first term of the court, in 1830. Merritt S. Craig, of Ripley county, was a lawyer at Versailles as early as 1825, a son of George Craig, who in 1817 built a water mill on Longsberry creek, the first in the county, and in 1821 built the first court house in Versailles for $2,000. While a state senator he introduced a bill requiring convicts to be put to work on state roads; it was called the Rolling Penitentiary bill and failed to pass. It is diffi- cult to obtain information of Samuel Snodgrass. There were Snodgrasses among the early settlers in Ripley, but no Samuel is mentioned among them, and moreover Craig, not Snodgrass, was the commissioner from Ripley county. Snod- . grass therefore must have been a substitute from either Allen or Clinton county. The writer has not found any information concerning Lewis of Allen county, nor concerning Coleman of Foun- tain county, though doubtless it could be found by searching the records of those counties.

In 1859 an effort was made to form a new county, to be called Linn county, from territory taken from Porter and LaPorte counties. Michi- gan City was to be the county seat. Petitions were signed by more than two thousand citizens and presented to the Porter county commission- ers, requesting this setting off of a part of Porter county into a new county. This the commission- ers declined to do (See Porter and Lake, pp. 56, 57). The commissioners of LaPorte county were petitioned at the same time. At their De- cember term I. C. Evans, Henry Herrold and others petitioned, through Daniel Noyes their at- torney, that a certain part of LaPorte county be set off into a new county to be called Linn county. Remonstrance was presented by Charles . W. Cathcart, Irwin S. Jessup, Henry Harding and others, through Bradley and Woodward their at- torneys. The commissioners let the matter go over until the next term without decision. At the June term, 1860, the petitioners and remonstrants appeared again. There appeared also Az. Will- iams, Sr., Az. Williams, Jr., and one hundred and sixty-six others of said petitioners, and prayed

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

that this proceeding as to them might be dis- missed. The board found in favor of the remon- strants or objectors, and that the prayer of said petition ought not to be granted, and that the petitioners pay the cost of proceedings.

Such is a brief account of the organization of LaPorte county. Like all living organisms it has

been subject to disintegrating or destructive forces; but it has maintained the equilibrium, disintegrating forces have not prevailed over those which give unity, the county is still a living organism, with a sound constitution and robust health, and every promise of growth and pros- perity.

Digitized by Google

CHAPTER VI.

THE THREE NORTHERN BOUNDARY LINES.

No :- men, high-minded men, With powers as far above dull brutes endued In forest, brake, or den, As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude,- Men who their duties know,

But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain, Prevent the long-aimed blow,

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain ; These constitute a state; And sovereign law, that states collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate, Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. -SIR WILLIAM JONES.

There are three northern boundary lines which have to do with LaPorte county, and there has been much confusion concerning them; con- fusion as recorded in history and confusion still remaining in the minds of many of our people. It is not likely that there would have been such confusion but for a faulty map of the locality; which the United States Congress used in its deliberations. "Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth." A slight mistake in topography may plunge nations into war.

If any one will take a map covering the area of Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, he will see that the northern boundary of Ohio is not on a line with the northern boundary of Indiana. The northwest corner of Ohio does not join the corner of Indiana, but is farther down and runs a little upward, or north of due east, and terminates at the most northern cape of Maumee bay, leaving that bay within the bounds of Ohio. The ques- tion is, What has made this difference in the boundary lines? and the answer involves the his- tory of three different boundary lines which have to do intimately with the area of LaPorte county.

· In 1778-9 George Rogers Clark, a young Vir- ginian of extraordinary character, who has well been called the Hannibal of the west, captured Kaskaskia and Vincennes, thus cutting off the supplies of the Indians. He had been sent out by the government of Virginia, and that state there- fore laid claim to all the territory northwest of the Ohio river, which was the same territory ceded to Great Britian by France in the treaty of 1763. On March 1, 1784, through her authorized dele- gates in Congress, Virginia ceded this territory to the United States. She stipulated that it be divided into states but specified no boundaries. By virtue of ancient royal charters, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut also claimed large territories north of the Ohio river, but these claims were all transferred to the United States, Connecticut alone reserving a tract which was called the Western Reserve until May 30, 1800, when she surrendered her jurisdictional claim over this tract to the United States. Thus the general government obtained the jurisdiction over the Northwest Territory, and of the lands, subject however to the proprietary rights of the Indians.

Digitized by Google

SUPERIOR

LAKE

LAKE HURON

MississiDA

INDIANA

LAKE MICHIGAN

NORTHWEST TERR

ERIE

Ordinance Live

RITORY

TERRITORY

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

When Congress assumed the jurisdiction there was no established government anywhere in the territory. The French commandants of the posts had administered the laws dictated by France, the British succeeded them and pro- claimed the Common Law of England to be in force, Virginia also had extended her laws, but there were no courts to enforce any of them. The question of forming some kind of government for the newly acquired territory at once attracted the attention of Congress.

At first a report was made providing for the formation of the territory into ten states with fanciful names, but no action was taken upon it. This was Thomas Jefferson's scheme. From the time of its acquirement by the Government until 1787, there was no organized control over the Northwest Territory. The people who were settling in it were left to struggle along as best they could. But on April 23, 1787, a committee consisting of Mr. Johnson of Connecticut, Mr. Pinckney of South Carolina, Mr. Smith of New York, Mr. Dane of Massachusetts, and Mr. Henry of Maryland, reported an ordinance for the gov- ernment of the new territory. It was discussed from time to time and very greatly amended, and finally, on the 13th of July, it passed Congress .. This is the celebrated ordinance of 1787, a docu- ment which, next to the Constitution of the United States, perhaps has occasioned more dis- cussion than any other, on account of its sound principles, statesmanlike qualities, and wise pro- visions.

It is Article 5 of this ordinance that has most intimately to do with our present subject. That article provided for the formation in said terri- tory of not less than three nor more than five states, it fixed the western, the southern, and the eastern boundaries of what became Illinois, Indi- ana and Ohio, and then the ordinance said, "If Congress shall find it hereafter expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." We call special attention to this line, for it is the first northern boundary line with which we have to do, and has been of exceeding great importance in the so called boundary line dispute. It is now known as the old Indian boundary line. It used to mark the northern limits of LaPorte before certain ad-

ditions were made. It runs along North street westward, crosses the Lake Shore Railroad tracks diagonally at the foot of Tipton street, runs through the King and Fildes woolen mill and across Clear Lake, crosses Pine Lake road at the junction of Weller avenue, and continues across Stone Lake due west to the most southern point of Lake Michigan near where Millers Station now is. It runs due east and west without end. But for a strange combination of circumstances and long continued strife, this would have been the northern boundary of Indiana, and of LaPorte county. It is called the ordinance line because it was specified in the great Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory.

On May 7, 1800, Congress divided the North- west Territory by a line running from the mouth of the Kentucky river to Fort Recovery, and thence due north to the Canadian line. It will be seen that this line is not the same as that prescribed in the ordinance, which was a line from the mouth of the Miami river to Fort Recovery and thence due north, making the boundary line due north and south all the way, from Canada to the Ohio river where the Miami empties into it. The mouth of the Kentucky river is several miles west of the mouth of the Miami, and a line from the mouth of the Kentucky to Fort Recovery runs east of north. This threw a three-cornered piece of territory, shaped like a church spire with its base resting on the Ohio river, into Ohio, which, when the states were organized, was included in Indiana according to the ordinance, and afterwards Ohio from time to time set up claims to this tract.

All the region east of this line was still to be the Northwest Territory, and that on the west was erected into the Indiana Territory, of which latter General William Henry Harrison was ap- pointed governor, and his administration com- menced on July 4, 1800, with Vincennes as the capital. It will be seen that this division threw about one half of the Michigan country into Indi- ana and left the other half in the Northwest Territory.

And now for the first time the line which runs along the north of LaPorte, the ordinance line, the east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, comes into prominence ; for all that portion of the east Michigan country which lay north of this

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

line was organized as Wayne county of the North- be seen in Senate Documents No. 211, XXIVth west Territory, and its settlers supposed that their Congress, Ist Session, Volume III. fortunes were thenceforth identified with those of Ohio.

The ordinance of 1787 had provided for the admission into the Union of the prospective states of the Northwest Territory as follows: "When- ever any of the said states shall have sixty thou- sand free inhabitants therein, such states shall be admitted by its delegates into the Congress of the United States on an equal footing with the origi- nal states in all respects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and state government, provided the constitution and gov- ernment so to be formed shall be republican and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles ; and so far as can be consistent with the general interests of the confederacy, such ad- mission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabi- tants in the state than sixty thousand" (Article 5).

The Northwest Territory was rapidly filling with settlers, and in accordance with the above provision the whole population, including Wayne county, were agitating the question of statehood. On April 30, 1802, Congress passed an enabling act, the first of its kind, according to which Ohio might frame a constitution and establish a state government, if it was deemed expedient. In that act the old ordinance line running due east and west "through to the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan" was specified as her northern bound- ary. The ordinance of 1787 seemed to prescribe this as the dividing line between the three states south of it and the two which might be formed north of it, and so it seems to have been regarded and accepted at the time. In harmony with the enabling act, a convention met at Chillicothe, Ohio, on November Ist, to frame a constitution for the new state. It is related in the "Historical Transactions of Ohio" that while the convention was thus engaged an old .hunter whose curiosity led him thither appeared on the scene, and, learn- ing of the prescribed boundaries, informed the delegates that the southern extreme of Lake Mich- igan lay much farther south than they supposed, or than the maps in use indicated. This statement at once awakened great interest and was the sub- ject of careful deliberation. The map used by Con- gress in prescribing the ordinance line of 1787, was the one made by Mitchell in 1755, as may

This map had been accepted as accurate by the Ohio state-makers, until the statement of the old hunter occasioned them to pause and consider. According to this map a line due east from the southern bend of Lake Michigan would strike the Detroit river a little south of Detroit; if, how- ever, the old hunter's statement were true and the line were further south, Ohio would be deprived of much of her territory. Accordingly, after much deliberation, the convention embodied in the constitution the boundaries prescribed in the enabling act, but with the following proviso: "If the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan should extend so far south that a line drawn due east from it should not intersect Lake Erie east of the Miami (now the Maumee) river of the lakes, then * *

* with the assent of Con- gress of the United States, the northern boundary of this state shall be established by, and extend to a line running from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Miami (now the Maumee) bay, thence northeast, etc.," or straight on through Lake Erie and Ohio to Pennsylvania. With this proviso the constitu- tion was adopted on November 29th.

The congressional committee on the admission of Ohio refused to consider this proviso, because, first, it depended on a fact not yet ascertained, and, second, it was not submitted as were other propositions of the constitutional convention. Congress therefore, ignoring the proviso, received Ohio into the Union.

The inhabitants of Wayne county were very indignant that Congress should specify the ordi- nance line as the northern boundary of the new state. More indignant stili were they when Con- gress received Ohio into the Union and left Wayne county out in the cold. They contended that it was illegal to treat them thus, that the ordinance of 1787 forbade the further division of the Northwest Territory, until the northern part of it could be made a state, that to exclude the county from Ohio would ruin it. But all their protests were in vain. The reason was a political one. The Democrats, or as they were then called, the Republicans, had just secured the presidency in the election of Thomas Jefferson. Ohio as ad- mitted into the Union was on their side; but if Wayne county were a part of the state it might

Digitized by Google

LAKE MICHIGAN

LAKE HURON

Huron R

DETROIT

Supposed Ordinance Line

Ilinois R.

LAKE ERIE

Rover

RELATIVE POSITION OF LAKE MICHIGAN AND LAKE ERIE, ACCORDING TO MITCHELL'S MAP OF 1755. From Senate Documents, No. 211, XXIVth Cong., Ist Sess. Vol. III.

Digitized by

Google

Digitized by

Google

LAKE SUPERIOR

CANADA

LAKE HURON

1 LAKE MICHIGAN 1803-1805

WAYNE COUNTY

ADA

CAN

RTE

Chicago

LAKEEP

Digitized by Google

Digitized by

Google

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

be thrown into the ranks of their opponents the Federalists. Governor St. Clair declared that to win a Democratic state the people of Wayne coun- ty had been "bartered away like sheep in a market."

The act enabling the people of Ohio to form a state provided that Wayne county might be at- tached to the new state if Congress saw fit. Congress did not see fit, but on the contrary attached it to Indiana Territory, and in 1803 Governor Harrison formed new Wayne county which comprised almost all of what is now Michigan. North and east it was bounded by Canada, but on the other sides it was bounded by a "north and south line through the western extreme of Lake Michigan" and "an east and west line through the southern extreme of the same." Here the same old ordinance line appears again, as the southern boundary of what is now Michigan. Just beyond where North street, or the King and Fildes woolen mill, or the junction of Weller avenue and the Pine Lake road is now, was Wayne county. But the Michigan country thus united was too strong to remain long a part of a territory, and hence, on January 1I, 1805, Michigan Territory was formed by act of Con- gress. It was bounded on the west by a line ex- tending through the center of Lake Michigan, and on the south by a line running due east from the southern extreme of the same.

It will be seen that even at this time Michigan was deprived of a strip of land on the west shore of Lake Michigan, which as Wayne county Con- gress had given her. Had she contended for that as persistently as she did for the strip in Ohio, she would have sought something more valuable, for Chicago is situated in that very strip. That spot was comparatively worthless then, and the future is hidden from states as from individuals. It is interesting, however, to think what would have been the result if Michigan had retained the boundary lines which she had as Wayne county.

But the fact which concerns us here is, that the ordinance line appears again. After January II, 1805, and until 1816, north of King and Fildes woolen mill, north of Clear Lake, north of Stone Lake, was not Indi- ana at all but Michigan Territory, whose southern boundary was a line running due east and west from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan ; and though it had not yet been ascer-

tained accurately just where that line would come out in Ohio, enough was known about it to make not only Ohio but the people of Indiana object very strongly to the southern boundary of Michi- gan Territory, as public documents abundantly show.

The boundary dispute was now transferred to Ohio. No sooner had the Ohio congressmen taken their seats after her admission into the Union, than they began working to secure formal congressional assent to their proviso about the boundary line. Senator Worthington secured the chairmanship of a committee to consider the ques- tion, but to no purpose; both houses of Congress were unmoved. The boundary of so distant a state was an unimportant matter. When the terri- tory of Michigan was organized, effort to have the neglected proviso confirmed was again made, but in vain; and the southern line of the territory was described precisely as Ohio did not wish. Then Ohio, in session after session of her legis- lature, instructed her Congressmen to endeavor to secure the passage of a law defining the northern boundary line of their state. It was certainly quite necessary that this be done. The lands near the Rapids of the Miami (now the Maumee) had recently been ceded to the govern- ment by the Indians and were rapidly filling with settlers. Michigan magistrates exercised author- ity over the district, while the president had ap- pointed a collector to reside at the Rapids, de- scribing the place as in Ohio.

The 'appeals of Ohio became so urgent that Congress was willing to consider the matter. Representative Morrow of Ohio proposed a bill confirming the northern boundary as specified in the constitution of his state, and was made chair- man of a committee to consider the question. But the bill which passed provided for surveying the boundary as established by the enabling act of 1802, the ordinance line. Congress had not sufficient knowledge of the country to venture to change the line, and it is probable that the line prescribed in the ordinance of 1787 was regarded as inviolable. The bill to survey the boundary was passed in 1812, when the government was engaged with hostile Indians, and with the war against England, and hence nothing was done for three years, or until 1815, and even then but little was accomplished. Had the survey been made at once, before the disputed strip became

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

more populous, the question might have been settled; but during the delay the tide of immi- gration was pouring into the Miami region, and the question of jurisdiction was becoming more and more important. Again the Ohio authorities urged the survey of the state line, and the presi- dent complied with the request, and ordered it to be done according to the act of 1812. The survey was made in 1816. The surveyor general of Ohio employed a Mr. Harris to run the line ; not, however, according to the president's direc- tion but according to the proviso of the Ohio state constitution, from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan to the northernmost cape of Maumee bay. The Harris line is the second of these two northern boundaries.

The third soon appeared. On April 19, 1816, Congress passed the enabling act for the admis- sion of Indiana as a state, fixing the northern boundary by a line drawn due east and west "ten miles north of the southern extreme of Lake Michigan." Indiana was required to ratify this boundary, which she did by a duly elected conven- tion which sat at Corydon, June 10 to 29, 1816, and framed a constitution, and she was formally admitted into the Union on December 1Ith. Mov- ing the boundary to the north, cut off from Michi- gan a strip ten miles wide and one hundred miles long, which she claimed had been guaranteed to her by the ordinance of 1787, and by several other acts of Congress : but she allowed the act to pass unchallenged at the time, probably because she was engaged in her contention with Ohio, and be- cause the strip thus taken away from her was sparsely settled and little known.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 10

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1273

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273