A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 12

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

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pedient to which the president finally resorted. This occasioned John Quincy Adams to say that the attorney general's decision "was perfumed with the thirty-five electoral votes of Ohio, Indi- ana and Illinois."

Acts for the admission of both states were approved June 15, 1836. Arkansas was admitted unconditionally, but Michigan on condition that she give the disputed district to Ohio, and receive as compensation the upper peninsula. In a con- vention at Ann Arbor on the fourth Monday in September, Michigan rejected these conditions by a strong majority. But her senators and repre- sentatives were anxious to take their seats in the national Congress, men at Washington feared losing money on lands sold in Michigan, the ad- ministration was anxious to have the state ratify the act for her admission, and all these interested parties brought pressure to bear. Arguments in favor of the state's yielding were put in circula- tion and after much shrewd management a popu- lar convention was held at Ann Arbor on Decem- ber 14th, which assented to the terms of the act of admission. This convention was not duly called, and it acted wholly without the proper authority ; but strange to say both houses of Congress by large majorities passed an act ap- proved January 26, 1837, accepting this conven- tion as meeting the requirements of the case, and so Michigan was admitted into the Union.

But for some years Michigan did not re- linquish her claim to her lost tracts of land. In 1838, and again in 1842, the question was brought up in the Michigan legislature, and eminent law- yers were consulted as to her right to the dis- puted tracts. And it is probable that she would have made a legal test of the question long ago but for the development of the immense wealth of her mines in the upper peninsula, which had been given her as a compensation for what she lost to Ohio. This development began about the year 1845, and soon convinced her that her lost strips bore no comparison in value to the rich mining region which she had acquired.

Such are the three northern boundary lines ; first, the ordinance line, the Fulton line, or as it is now called the old Indian boundary ; second, the Harris line; and third, the Hendricks' line; and such is the correct history of the boundary dispute, so far as we can give it in the present space. From the foregoing we may see that

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HISTORY OF . LAPORTE COUNTY.

the seemingly insignificant line just north of LaPorte, has been of exceeding great importance in the history of the Northwest, being the occa- sion of a dispute which lasted for forty-nine years, through twelve administrations, extending over the periods of seven presidents, and which occasioned great contention, employing much of the best talent of the country, engaging many of our strongest characters, and very nearly result- ing in a bloody war.

During the dispute Indiana had no occasion to act save through her representatives at Wash- ington. Her northern boundary had been fixed satisfactorily to herself. and she rested in the authority of the national government. She natur- ally sympathized with Ohio, and the matter was discussed more or less by her public men ; but that was all. Whatever struggles might have been had afterwards. the main dispute which actually existed was between Michigan and Ohio, and wholly with regard to the tract east of Indiana. The ten mile strip which had been given to Indi- ana was another matter, it was bounded by a dif-

ferent line. The matter was discussed in La Porte county, and a certain interest was taken in it here: for the citizens were intelligent people. Their influence was exerted through those who represented them in the state legislature and in the national Congress. But the scene of action was too remote for it to cause any great excitement here. Had there been the rapid means of com- munication which exist today, the case might have been different : but the telegraph was unknown in 'America, railroads had not invaded the west, mails moved slowly. and the news of the Toledo war, and of the strife at the national Congress. and of the agitation in the legislatures of the states which were interested in the matter, did not reach LaPorte county until it was too late to be- come excited over it. The county was more in- terested in her own development and prospects than in anything else, even politics were lost sight of in the united efforts of all parties to develop the resources of the county, her northern boundary had been fixed by Congress, and she rested' secure in her organization.

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CHAPTER VII.

DEVELOPMENT-THE COUNTRY.

"Hour after hour and day to day succeeds; Till every clod and deep-drawn furrow spreads To crumbling mould,-a level surface clear. And strewed with corn to crown the rising year." -ROBERT BLOOMFIELD.

The country about us is not what it was in a state of nature ; great improvement has been made. It is still beautiful. but its beauty is of a different kind. Then its voices sang of solitude, now they sing of usefulness. Then it had a wild beauty, and its atmosphere was laden with the poetry of an imagined past, when it teemed with the civili- zation of the mound builders, or when, later, the red man roamed through its forests and over its prairies. But its beauty has been chastened by human touch, and now it tells us of happy homes, and of the triumphs of human life; saddened of course by the thought of the hardships and sor- rows and final partings which its inhabitants have experienced.

The first thing, of course, after the settler had . made his family as comfortable as possible temporarily, was to build the traditional log cabin. Trees must be selected which were not too large, or they could not be handled conveniently : not too small, or the cabin would be a house of sap- lings. The process of felling the trees, splitting the logs. hewing them so as to have flat walls inside. notching them at the ends to let them down upon each other, slanting the gables, riving out lapboards or shingles, putting on roof poles, binding the shingles to them, sawing out doors and windows, making the fire place, and many other things necessary in building a log cabin- this process is yet familiar to many of us: we remember it well. This knowledge and experi- ence stood our volunteers well in hand during the Civil war, for it enabled them to make them- selves comparatively comfortable during the long

winter of inactivity. After our settlers had housed their families they made a shelter for their stock, which was often done by setting posts in the ground, with crotches at the upper end; poles were laid from crotch to crotch, other poles laid across, and the roof covered with long prairie grass until it was thick enough to shed water. Poles were slanted against the sides, and grass piled on them in the same manner. The door could be left open, or closed by any means con- venient. This made an exceedingly warm shelter, though it was so dark that the animal's eyes sometimes suffered from it. Swine and other stock could be left to shelter themselves, and they usually found some sheltered nook in the groves and forests, or among the thick grass, where they made themselves comfortable, though some of them ran wild. Of course, in a country like LaPorte, where it was possible to obtain from the centers of civilization the necessary articles, these primitive methods were greatly modified and im- proved upon from the very first. Shingle nails were used instead of weight poles. window panes took the place of oiled paper or cloth, and so on. The first settlers brought with them the few tools necessary for their pioneer life, such as axes, adzes, iron wedges, hammers, saws, augers, g m- lets, frows for shaving shingles, planes. chisels, etc., and the women brought needles, scissors, thimbles, pins, thread. yarn, spinning wheels, and some brought looms. Mr. William Andrew of LaPorte has in his possession a grindstone which was owned by his father in the early thirties. The settlers within a radius of many miles used to

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

come and grind their tools on that stone. It was originally a very large disc, but by much grinding it has been worn down until it is very small.

After the primitive log cabin, came the frame building, and then the brick structure. For brick were made very early in the county. But it was the sawmill which marked the first move away from pioneer life. For as soon as a saw- mill was accessible to any community, frame buildings were practicable. Indeed, the county was so well wooded that they were within the reach of nearly all who would put forth the necessary labor to obtain them. All that was necessary was to cut the logs, haul them to mill, pay the toll, in whatever form, and haul the lum- ber home again. And this was an economy of time which was very precious in those days of subduing the virgin soil and making a settled home. It was no easy matter to hew timber, and split out boards with wedges, and then smooth them by hand. Hence it was that, as detailed in another chapter, sawmills were put up in every part of the county. Where nature provided the means they were run by water power, otherwise by steam. And at once frame buildings-mills and shops of different kinds, stores, hotels, churches, schoolhouses and dwelling houses be- gan to multiply, and the country put on the ap- pearance of advancing civilization. Many of those buildings are standing to-day, though most of them have long since vanished, or given place to others. In almost every large town, in almost every smaller center, and even in the country itself, may be found an occasional frame dwelling which was built in the thirties of forties, and many of those built at that time have been remodeled and modernized so that few traces of their original form remain. Slowly, as the years went by, im- provements were made. Gradually new, more beautiful and commodious buildings were put up for both families and dumb animals, and more and 'more conveniences were introduced into the former ones, until to-day, as one rides through any part of the county, he sees not only highly improved and well stocked farms but large, com- modious, and in many cases even artistic, build- ings which bespeak the thrift of the owners, and the vast progress which has been made since the first log buildings were made in Hudson and New Durham townships in 1828 and 1829. This is the case in every part of the county. Even in

riding over the northern sandhills, and in ap- parently the most unproductive portions, one is often surprised to find a large, white farm house burst upon his view, with its cluster of neat farm buildings and well kept grounds. And when we couple with all this, the rural mail delivery, that greatest of all modern civilizers, enabling us ef- fectually to assimilate our foreign population, what can our LaPorte county farmer ask besides ? He can receive and read his daily paper as though he were in the city.

And yet, as an instance of the fact that "man . never is but always to be blessed," in 1839 the subject was agitated of finding a better country. On Thursday, March 14th, of that year, a meeting was held at the schoolhouse in New Durham township, for the purpose of free expression of opinion upon the subject of the policy and pro- priety of emigrating to the Oregon territory. Daniel Jessup was called to the chair, and J. Simmons was appointed secretary. Much valu- able information relating to that country was laid before the meeting, and several resolutions of an inviting character adopted. The subject of the Oregon country was determined of sufficient in- terest to merit the consideration of all American citizens. The meeting finally crystallized into the recommendation that a county meeting be held at the court house in LaPorte, on Thursday, the 21 st; at II o'clock a. m., and that notice of the same be given. Notice was accordingly published in the . county papers by the chairman and secretary, that at the specified time and place a meeting would be held for the purpose of considering the policy 'and propriety of colonizing the Oregon territory. All who felt an interest in the Oregon country were invited to attend. Little ever came of it, 'the people were too well fixed in their own county. In the late forties also, as related else- where, there was an exodus from the county to California. But they who went through the ex- perience were constrained to acknowledge that they would have been better off if they had re- mained at home. And, indeed, it is difficult to see how anyone who is well fixed in as good a country as LaPorte county, and to whom the climate is suited, can better himself by going elsewhere.

After the county was incorporated, it settled rapidly. It was a land of promise, and probably no other county in the state gained so many in-

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

habitants during the first few years of its exist- ence. In some of the townships nearly all the government land was taken by 1835. It was felt that there could not be a better land, that the fertility of the soil could not be surpassed, and that for salubrity of climate the west had not produced its equal. The prairies afforded to the farmer the ready opportunity of making the soil subject to his wishes, and the woods afforded an abundance of timber of the kind best adapted to the wants of the people. By 1836 the county population was above ten thousand, whereas three years before it was the journey of a mile from house to house. The whole land which but a short time before was owned by the government on every hand presented the most thriving farms, overflowing granaries, and an agricultural popu- lation rising rapidly in wealth and comfort. The county did not present the opportunity for profit- able speculation that some other regions presented but no country held forth more solid inducements for investment.

In 1838 travelers through the county were en- thusiastic in their descriptions of its inland lakes and beautiful scenery, declaring that it stood un- equalled for agricultural and commercial advant- ages, and that it could maintain a greater popula- tion than any other of the same size in the west. The farmers seemed more liberal and appeared more intelligent than in most other places. Visit- ors saw that there was an abundance of water power in the county, which could be applied to all manufacturing purposes, and they looked forward to the not far distant day when the song of the forge and the busy hum of industry and enterprise would resound throughout the whole county, when each little brook should be made to run the mill or ply the spindle, and when this then remote region of the west should be far east to other set- tlements yet more remote. The strides of the past eight years seemed marvelous, fancy . could not picture the great things to come, and LaPorte county must occupy a prominent and enviable sta- tion. Such was the picture presented in 1838, and time has enabled us to see with how much correct- ness it was drawn.

And yet that very year is known in history as the sickly season, throughout what is now the middle west. Sickness prevailed to an alarming extent throughout the whole northern part of In- diana. There was a long continued season of dry,

sultry weather. The little brooks were dried up, the lakes, which the spring before had in some places overflowed the roads for rods to a depth of two or three feet, had now fallen much below their usual level, leaving on their margin an im- mense quantity of vegetable matter to be decom- posed by the action of the sun, creating sickening effluvia to float about in the atmosphere, and add to the occasion of sickness and distress which prevailed throughout the county. But the deaths were few, considering the vast number of cases. At that time there were marshes about LaPorte and in many other places, which have since been drained out or filled up, but which then probably added to the occasion of sickness. Disease was so prevalent, widespread and alarming, that the religious people suggested the idea of a day set apart for humiliation and prayer, which was not opposed nor ridiculed by the non-religious, who said that they could not cry that all was well when it was directly contrary to the truth.

Wheat and produce were so plenty in the late thirties and early forties that it was often difficult to get them hauled to market. It was before rail- roads had come to the county. It was no uncom- mon thing to see such advertisements as the fol- lowing : "Wanted, twenty teams to haul wheat to Michigan City by Wheeler and Traver." But human nature was very much the same .then as now. On Friday, November 1, 1839, there was a meeting of farmers at the house of Henly Cly- burn, in New Durham township, to take into con- sideration their own interests which they resolved to sustain "in spite of the common wheat specu- lator or his mercenary agents." What would they have said if they had known our present day corners in wheat and other necessities of life? Can we not imagine those farmers turning over in their graves? In that meeting they resolved to maintain a fair and equitable price for wheat, and to fix that price themselves; that they dep- recated the disposition of many merchants of the county to palm upon the farmers their goods at one hundred per cent. above eastern prices; and that, rather than be thus defrauded, the farmers would be their own merchants as well as their own exporters. They resolved also to advise that all farmers meet in their several townships pre- vious to the first Monday in the following January, for the purpose of choosing five delegates to rep- resent each township in a county convention to be

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

held at the court house in LaPorte on the first Monday in January, at II o'clock a. m., to take into consideration such measures as may seem most advisable for the carrying out of the fore- going resolutions. Of this New Durham meeting James Haskell was chairman, and A. D. Heaton. secretary. A similar meeting was held at the house of Mr. Cears, in Scipio township, on the 30th of November. At several different times in the history of the county similar movements were set on foot, and we may see in them the precur- sors of the Grange and later organizations. But they were not successful. There are economic laws which the resolutions of men cannot control and which are not the effects but the causes of those resolutions-laws by which the Almighty is evolving a social order which the movements of men can neither hasten nor retard.

After Rome had conquered a nation she made roads to that nation. So she was in easy commu- nication with the remotest parts of her empire, and they with her. The settlers of La Porte coun- ty instinctively saw the necessity of this. Through their proper representatives, they at once began to make roads so that the people could get some- where. The example had been set them in the case of the old Michigan road, which was very useful. The old Sac trail also had made the coun- ty a thoroughfare. Almost at their first session the county commissioners began to provide for roads, and so it was year after year until the county was well traversed with them, and there was communication in every direction. This greatly helped in the development of the county, for it provided a way by which the crops might be carried to market. One can have little appre- ciation of the civilizing influence of roads, until he has lived in a country where they do not ex- ist. and where one must open and close gates and go across his neighbors' farms continually.

George Washington was the first to suggest that the great lakes and the Mississippi river be connected. His suggestion was for canals, as railroads were then unknown. The suggestion did not bear fruit in his day, though it did after- wards. But it did not touch LaPorte county. Reports came from time to time of the progress of the Wabash and Erie canal, but that was all. The people waited for canals, but they did not come. They waited until the late forties for rail- roads, but the railroads did not come. Then the

people went to making plank roads, as the next best thing. It was not long before the principal points in the county were connected by plank roads. Companies were formed, and these roads were laid to other counties. Turnouts were laid so that the lightly loaded teams coming out of the towns might use them and leave the main track for the heavily loaded teams going into town. There was much discussion concerning them, directions for their proper construction were published far and near, and they were thought to be a great thing. But in 1852, and thereafter, the railroads came and the plank roads gradually fell into disuse. One by one the com- panies abandoned their lines, but some of them did not take this step until well into the sixties, and even now in some places the old planks re- main. At a meeting of the stockholders of the Union Plank Road Company, held at their office in Michigan City, on the third day of August. 1863, it was ordered that all of the line of the road of said Union Plank Road Company lying between the intersection of Michigan and Pine streets in Michigan City and the city of La Porte which had not before been abandoned, be and was thereby abandoned by said company. C. B. Blair was president, and D. J. Baldwin, secretary. So ended a useful institution. Much heavier loads could be hauled over the plank roads than over the soil roads, and they helped greatly in the de- velopment of the county. After the railroads came, all was changed; old centers were aban- doned, new centers were formed, the markets were brought nearer the farmer's home, distances were shortened, marketing made easier, and the devel- opment of the country was wonderfully acceler- ated.

It must not besupposed that nature yielded her empire at once and without a struggle. Wild- ness overlapped civilization. Improvement in many respects was very gradual. As we saw in chapter first, the last of the Indians did not leave until 1838, and as late as (October. 1847, three bears were killed in one week near Kingsbury. So numerous were the wolves, and so great the dam- age done by them to the farmer's flocks and herds that the board of county commissioners increased the bounty on wolf scalps to $5 each, and Mr. Samuel Treat offered $2 more. And so far as game is concerned, it was plenty for many years. In 1842, so the report goes, a citizen managed

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

to catch forty wild geese when their wings were so completely frozen that they could not spread a feather. In November, 1861, Dr. Jessup of La- Porte made a four days' trip to Kankakee river, and returned with one hundred and sixty-five ducks, eighteen snipes, two large geese, twenty- four quails, and sixteen prairie chickens. In Feb- ruary, 1904, Daniel Holandsworth, a Westville fur buyer, bought three otter skins. The animals were caught by trappers along the Kankakee river and were very valuable, each skin being worth about $13. This excited comment in the local papers, but once there were plenty of otter in that part of the country, though they have been scarce for many years.

Strictly speaking the settlers of LaPorte county were not pioneers. The majority of them were people of more or less education and culture, trained and accustomed to the usages of civiliza- tion. In the settling of the county there was no interim between savagery and civilization. The pioneers did not come and build their cabins, and defend them with their rifles for some years until the civil officers, courts, schools and churches made their appearance. This was nec- essary in some settlements, but not here. In La- Porte county civil government sprang into being at once, as if by magic. The settlers brought civilization with them. They brought the com- mon law with them, and, in harmony with the legislative statutes, they saw to it at once that the community should be governed thereby. They provided at once for courts, for public buildings, for roads, and for every possible institution nec- essary to a civilized community. And the result was that in the fifties, land which in the thirties had been bought for $1.25 per acre, was worth from $50 to $100 per acre. The productiveness of the soil was the main element of strength. The cheapness of water transportation was another, for the roads made the lake port accessible.

But the chief developer and rearranger of cen- ters, and redistributor of civilization, was the railroad. Says William Henry Smith's History of Indiana : "The Erie canal had been completed and the fever of railroad building had taken pos- session of the public mind. There was an abund- ance of idle capital, both in this country and in England, all seeking investment, and the Ohio valley presented the most enticing inducements. It was then that Indiana lost her opportunity.

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A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 12

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