A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 13

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

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It was projected to unite Lake Erie and Lake Michigan by a great double track railroad, and then to extend the road on southwesterly to the head of steamboat navigation on the Illinois river. It was a grand project. The road was to start from a point on Lake Erie at the head of Maumee Bay, and connect with Lake Michigan at Michi- gan City. The harbor at Michigan City was naturally a better one than that at Chicago. In 1835 the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad Com- pany was granted a charter by the legislature of Indiana and the route surveyed.

"Among those interested in the project was Daniel Webster, the great senator of Massachu- setts. He came out to Indiana, when the work of building the road was begun with great cere- monies, he delivering an address on the occasion to a large concourse of people, gathered from all parts, and throwing up the first shovel of dirt. So confident were he and his fellow projectors that the work would be completed and Michigan City become a great city on the lake, that they pur- chased a great deal of property, and thus the little town experienced its first boom. There were three things they did not count on : The first stumbling block was the Illinois legislature. Un- fortunately for the Buffalo and Mississippi Rail- road, in those days it was necessary to get a charter in every state through which the road was to operate. Chicago was a little town in the swamps, but her citizens were active and far- seeing. They could readily see that if the pro- jected railroad was constructed Michigan City would be the great lake port, and they would be left to enjoy the swamps. They organized a lobby and prevented the Illinois legislature from granting the charter asked for. The second ob- stacle was the apathy on the part of the citizens of Indiana. They seemed to take but little inter- est in it and made no effort to overcome the oppo- sition of Chicago. The projectors, nor the people of Indiana, it seems, did not deem it possible to reach the Mississippi by any other route. Or, if they did, they must have thought the hills along the Ohio in southern Indiana could not be over- come by a railroad. for no effort was made to reach the Ohio wholly through Indiana territory. The third obstacle was the great panic of 1837. That put an end, for the time being, to all railroad and canal building.

"Chicago, having killed the Buffalo and Mis-

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sissippi Railroad, did not neglect to push its own interests, and when the effect of the financial panic was worn off, began agitating a road from that city to the Mississippi. Fortunately for Chi- cago, Illinois had Stephen A. Douglas in the senate, and after years of presistent work he in- duced Congress to grant millions of acres of public land to build the Illinois Central Railroad. Thus Chicago arose from her swamps and became the great city of the lake, and the wonder of the world, while Michigan City had only a few miles of railroad embankment to remind it of what it might have been." (Pages 669, 670.)

The Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad was a LaPorte affair. The incorporators, as they stand in the order of their names given in the act of incorporation, were the following: Gustavus A. Everts, Aaron Stanton, and John B. Miles, of the county of LaPorte ; Lathrope M. Taylor, Samuel C. Sample, and Horatio Chapin, of the county of St. Joseph; William Latta, Thomas Thomas, James R. McCord, John Violet, Aaron M. Per- ine, and John Rorrer, of the county of Elkhart; Ephraim Sealey, Luther Newton, Nehemiah Cold- ren, and Robert Latta, of LaGrange county. This railroad was incorporated by act of the Indiana legislature approved February 6, 1835. The act of incorporation is a long, elaborate and care- fully prepared document, covering nine royal octavo pages.

Notwithstanding the three causes of failure mentioned above, there was a very vigorous and persistent effort made to establish this road, and it was destined to supply two very important links in the chain of railroad communication which was eventually opened between the east and west. At their May term, in 1838, the commissioners of LaPorte county subscribed $100,000, of stock in the road, and appointed A. P. Andrew, Jr., their agent, who was also appointed agent of the railroad at a meeting of its directors held at its offices in LaPorte on June 6, 1838. Joseph Orr was president of the board of directors, and Ed- mund B. Woodson, of Michigan City, was clerk. LaGrange county subscribed $50,000 of stock, and appointed Selden Martin agent. Not long after this A. P. Andrew, Jr., went to New York to negotiate a sale of the bonds, and was there until he became quite well known in financial circles. The letters of advice which Joseph Orr wrote to him during his absence are interesting

documents. Mr. Andrew was then a young man, and Mr. Orr a man of more years and greater experience. Among other things, General Orr writes that it may be necessary for Mr. Andrew to deposit the bonds for sale. On June 4, 1839, Mr. Andrew did so. The bonds, or trust certifi- cates, were as follows: Two hundred and ninety- two bonds of one thousand dollars each, issued by the county of LaPorte; fifty bonds of one thousand dollars each, issued by the county of LaGrange; and eighteen bonds of one thousand dollars each, issued by the county of Steuben. The bonds were all dated April 1, 1839, and made payable twenty years after date, to the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad Company or their assignees, in the city of New York, with coupons attached for the payment of interest semi-annually at the rate of seven per cent. per annum. These Mr. Andrew deposited for sale with the American Exchange Bank in New York city. In the winter of 1838 we find A. P. Andrew, as the authorized delegate of the directors, looking after the interests of the road in the lobbies of the state legislature. In March, 1839, by recent provision of the legislature, the commissioners of LaPorte county voted to become trustees on behalf of the railroad company of "stock secured by mortgage to the amount of three thousand shares, together with the mortgages on lands in said county, and in other counties in the state of Indiana adjacent to said railroad, securing the payment of said stock," the directors to give the commissioners "a bond to indemnify them and the county against all loss or damages in the premises." All this was at the proposal of the company and shows that business was still being transacted, though little was done toward building the road. In August, 1839, A. P. Andrew was appointed loan agent of the road. The matter of building the road, however, hung fire for years. Meantime the Michigan Central Railroad was making its way westward, and seeking to obtain right of way through the lake counties of the state. The peo- ple of LaPorte county, weary of waiting for the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad, began to favor the Central. It appears that many of the Buffalo and Mississippi stockholders in LaPorte county, and in other counties sympathizing with them, by virtue of holding a larger amount of stock, or by virtue of having kept their assessments paid up, had a controlling number of votes, and that

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they had transferred their stock to an individual in Chicago for the purpose, either of assisting the Central to obtain right of way around Lake Mich- igan through Indiana, or else to build the western end of the Buffalo and Mississippi, so as to con- nect with the Central where it entered the state. What the people of La Porte county wanted was a railroad, and if they could not get it in any other way they were willing to connect with a Michigan road and let the Indiana counties east of them take care of themselves. Hearing of this, the in- terested parties in those counties called a conven- tion to which, significantly, the people of La Porte county were not invited. The convention met in the Methodist church, in Mishawaka, on Wednes- day, September 1, 1847, and was largely attended and passed resolutions to pay up delinquent as- sessments, buy up stock, and obtain the requisite number of votes to elect directors who would checkmate the movement of LaPorte county to unite with the Central and leave the eastern coun- ties out in the cold. The convention voted that all efforts of resuscitating the old Buffalo and Mississippi road should be done in all particulars, under the provisions of the act for the amendment of the charter approved January 6, 1846.

In the controversy LaPorte county declared that her first choice was to complete the Buffalo and Mississippi road according to the original plan, but that if this could not be done, as seemed likely, they saw nothing wrong in seeking rail- road communications with the east by some other way. On Monday, October 4, 1847, the stock- holders met in LaPorte and elected a new board of directors, but the eastern counties did not carry their point; for the new board of directors at once adopted measures for the immediate com- pletion of the western end of the line; that is, from LaPorte county west to the Illinois state line. The citizens of LaPorte and vicinity soon subscribed $40,000 of stock for this purpose, and the work, or at least the preliminaries, went on. Agitation on the subject of railroads increased, and the matter was discussed far and wide.

It appears that all things in the board . of directors did not go to suit those interested in the western end of the line, for at the beginning of 1848 the legislature passed an act of amend- ment to the charter, providing that Chauncey B. Blair, of Michigan City, Andrew L. Osborn, A. P. Andrew, Jr., William C. Hannah and William

J. Walker, of LaPorte, be constituted a board of commissioners to take charge of all the road west of LaPorte, and to have all the powers as to that portion of the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad denominated in the amendment the western divi- sion, which were formerly vested in the board of directors. Thus was the western end, in a way, severed from the eastern; for it had become a separate interest.

Meantime the Michigan Southern Railroad, still another line of possible connection with the east, had been laid and was in operation as far west as Hillsdale. The commissioners. of the western division of the Buffalo and Mississippi went to New York in the spring of 1849, and re- turned with the joyous intelligence that arrange- ments had been made which would probably re- sult not only in the construction of the western division but in building the road far enough east to connect with the Michigan Southern at Hills- dale. As this was to be consummated, the Buffalo and Mississippi would have no further use for its right of way from Michigan City to the Michi- gan state line, and therefore the commissioners made arrangements whereby the Michigan Cen- tral might extend their road, from New Buffalo to Michigan City. The Michigan Southern and the western extension of the Buffalo and Missis- sippi were now working together, they were prac- tically one road, they advertised under one head, and there was every prospect of building the line from the western terminus of the Michigan Southern to Illinois. But just at this time the Michigan legislature, instigated no doubt by the lobbying of the Michigan Central, blocked the Michigan Southern from building its road be- yond, or even up to the limits of its own state. But there is more than one way to accomplish an object. The last week in May, 1850, a part of the directors of the Michigan Southern met in LaPorte, and with certain citizens of LaPorte perfected the organization of a railroad company under an act of the legislature approved February II, 1843, providing for the construction of a rail- way in northern Indiana. George Bliss, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was elected presi- dent; A. P. Andrew, Jr., of LaPorte, vice presi- dent ; W. C. Hannah, of LaPorte, secretary ; Ed- win C. Litchfield, of New York, treasurer ; and Ezekiel Morrison, of LaPorte, assistant treasurer. The foregoing, and also the following, were

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

elected directors : Charles Butler and John B. Jervis, New York; John Stryker, Rome, New York; William L. Marcy, Albany, New York ; James Bradley and O. P. Ludlow, LaPorte; Thomas Stanfield, South Bend; and Havilla Beardsley, Elkhart. They adopted the name of the Northern Indiana Railroad Company, under which bylaws were passed, reports ordered upon surveys which had been made; and measures ". taken to put the work in progress as soon as right of way could be obtained. The charter authorized the construction of a road from Michigan City to LaPorte, and as much further eastward as the company might see fit to extend it. The same parties purposed to build the road from Michigan City to the Illinois state line, under lease of the Buffalo and Mississippi railroad charter. Thus was planned a through line with the following links: The Erie and Kalamazoo from Toledo to Adrian, the Michigan Southern from Monroe, via Adrian, to the Indiana state line in Elkhart county, the Northern Indiana from that point to Michigan City, the Buffalo and Mississippi from Michigan City to the Illinois state line, a link to be built under the general law of Illinois from that point to Chicago and another line from there to Galena on the Mississippi river. But there were yet obstacles in the way; rival interests opposed.

In February, 1851, the matter stood thus : The Michigan Central had power to build from Detroit to New Buffalo, and thence along the lake shore to the southern boundary of the state. The Michigan Southern had power to build to the Indiana state line in Elkhart county. The North- ern Indiana had power to build from that point to LaPorte and Michigan City, and the Buffalo and Mississippi had authority to build from Mich- igan City to the Illinois state line. There were several ways by which each road, the Central and the Michigan Southern, could manage to build a road from the state line to Chicago; but while the Michigan Southern line was complete, it seemed that the Central could not supply the link from Michigan City to the Illinois state line. But suddenly it was announced that the Central had arranged to accomplish its object. The charter of the New Albany and Salem road, starting from a point opposite Louisville, Kentucky, was an "open end charter;" that is, its track could be carried to any point in the state north of Logans-

port. It was to be built to Michigan City, and thence west to the Illinois state line, and join the Illinois Central road. The Michigan Central had made arrangements with these roads, to complete its line from Michigan City to Chicago. This led the builders of the Buffalo and Mississippi to deviate from the original plan of connecting with Michigan City, and to build almost directly west from LaPorte.

Such, in brief, is the history of the strife which resulted in the establishment of two east and west trunk lines instead of one, through the northern part of the county. From the first the people of Michigan City favored the Michigan Central road and often fought the other one; and when not only the Central but the Southern route was assured, they fought the cutting out of Michigan City by the Buffalo and Mississippi. They wanted both roads to pass through that town. They wanted that to be the great shipping center, as it thus far had been.

Other railroads had been incorporated but had come to nothing. By act approved February 7, 1835, the Michigan City and Kankakee Rail- road Company was incorporated. The incorpor- ators were David Sprague, William Teall, Jacob Bigelow, Joshua Hobart, and David Burr, all of Michigan City. The object of the corporation was to construct a canal or railroad from the na- vigable waters of the Kankakee river to Michigan City. This was not accomplished, but it shows the enterprise which from the beginning has characterized Michigan City ; her leading citizens have always been on the alert for her interests.

Other railroads, however, were built and their objects accomplished, a more particular account of which will be given elsewhere. And their effect upon the development of the county has been immense. Said a LaPorte county writer in June, 1849 :

"There is no reason under the blue heavens why our beautiful and well cultivated prairie farms should not at this moment be worth $45 per acre. In western New York, the northeast portion of Ohio, and that portion of Pennsylva- nia which lies contiguous to Lake Erie, improved farms much less prolific than ours are worth and daily selling at from $50 to $75 per acre. Look at it, people of LaPorte. You can raise a bushel of wheat at much less cost than they can, and this same wheat can be transported to Buffalo,

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New York, for from three to four cents per bushel. What, then, should cause this vast differ- ence in the value of the land? I answer, no rea- son excepting the fact that our country is com- paratively unknown, for the want of a direct travel communication. As soon as we are in pos- session of this great national thoroughfare, per- mit me now to make the prediction which will be fulfilled to the very letter within three years : Our productive farms in this county which are now regarded as worth from $12 to $20 per acre, will be snatched at with the greatest avidity and sold at from $35 to $50 per acre. The hand of

agricultural industry will be encouraged, and re- ceive an impetus hitherto not known in the county and enterprise and business of all kinds will be doubled."

All of which has proved true and much more. We are now prepared to consider the development of townships and the formation of centers, the decay of old centers and the establishment and growth of new ones, which is very largely the result of the location of the railroads. But before entering into this subject, it may be well to devote . a chapter to the development of the Kankakee region as a part of the country.

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THE MACHLER DITCH .

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CHAPTER VIII.

DEVELOPMENT - KANKAKEE REGION.

A song for the plant of my own native west, Where nature and freedom reside, By plenty still crowned, and by peace ever blest, To the corn! the green corn of her pride! In climes of the East has the olive been sung, And the grape been the theme of their lays, But for thee shall a harp of the backwoods be strung, Thou bright, ever beautiful maize!

WILLIAM W. FOSDICK.

Of late years no part of the county has de- veloped so rapidly and so promisingly as the Kankakee region. As mentioned elsewhere, that region until within a few years has been covered with water during a large part of each year. Hunters have waded over the country with hip boots on. The water has been over the railroad tracks so that people have had to enter the cars on planks laid from the station platform to the car steps. The water covered those lowland prai- ries to a depth of from one to three feet and but a small portion of the country was timbered. It looked like a sea. In most places the wide ex- panse of country was so wet and soggy that it was impossible to drive across it, though the authorities had succeeded in making roads in some places. But even these were frequently covered with water, sometimes as high as a wagon bottom, resulting in great discomfort and often danger to travelers. To give an idea of what this region was in many places, even in a dry time, we will let Mr. Charles G. Powell tell of a little journey which he made from Bigelows Mills to Porter county, in 1843. He says :

"In going to Tassanong I went south across Hog prairie to Mr. Miller's, about six miles south of where Wanatah is now located, where I stop- ped for an hour or so and then continued on south about a mile, where I took an Indian trail westerly across the big marsh and Crooked creek,

which was spanned by a pole bridge, and reached Mr. Stoddard's house near noon. Several of the boys and girls were at home and unmarried. Soon after my arrival dinner was announced. They had on the bill of fare a large plate of beans. Mr. Stoddard asked me if 'I knew beans?'

"It was near night when I started back and quite dark when I arrived at the west side of the marsh. Because of the darkness I undertook to cross the marsh in the wrong place, and before I had proceeded far my horse mired down in an iron ore bed that I was attempting to cross. The result was I was forced to dismount, and after a series of struggles the horse reached the hard ground from which we had just departed. Be- cause of this incident I remember the date of this occurrence. The next day was the Fourth of July and I was going to the celebration at La- Porte that day, and hence when I found my white pants all covered with the iron ore that the horse in his struggles had bespattered me with I thought I would have to forego that anticipated pleasure.

* * *

"After I had reached hard ground again I went along the west side of the marsh for about half a mile south and came to the road I had crossed over on that forenoon and recrossed to the east without further trouble. It was near mid- night when I reached Mr. William's on my re-

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turn. I managed some way to go to the celebra- tion, but I do not recall how I settled the pants business."

But lo, what a transformation! That region is becoming exceedingly productive. It is now as fine farming land as can be found in northern Indiana. It is traversed with hard, smooth roads, dotted with painted farm houses, spacious barns and corn cribs, and has an appearance of great thrift and enterprise.

What has wrought the change? Simply com- mon sense with capital, nerve and energy to back it. The Kankakee valley is low only relatively to the lands which surround it. It is ninety feet above Lake Michigan, one hundred and sixty- eight feet above the Wabash river, and at the Porter county line it is seventy feet above its own river bed at Momence, which is less than fifty miles away. Drainage therefore was possible by straightening its own channel; and as this ele- vated valley lies at the very door of the greatest stock and grain market in the world, it was not likely that the opportunities for profitable im- provement would be forever neglected.

As long ago as 1852, Congress passed an act granting certain swamp lands to the several states, and Kankakee lands were sold by the state of Indiana to private parties, for constructing ditches which were never constructed. In 1869 Judge William C. Hannah, of LaPorte, prepared a bill for state ditching, which he succeeded in getting through the legislature. This act is known as the State Ditching Law. Mr. Hannah had in view ditching, reclaiming and bringing under cultivation the thousands of acres in the Kankakee region .of his own county; but under the state constitution all laws have to be general, affecting all portions of the state alike, and other localities derived far greater benefit from this law than did LaPorte county. In Jasper county the immense region known as Beaver Lake land was ditched and reclaimed.

In preparing and engineering this act through the legislature, Judge Hannah evidently acted from honorable and public-spirited motives and did no more than his duty to his county. But no sooner was a company organized under the state ditching law to drain the great Kankakee region, than the tax-payers on this side of the river rose in their might and fought it most bitterly. Public meetings were held in Valparaiso, Kouts, Wana-

tah, LaPorte and elsewhere, in which this com- pany was attacked in the most ferocious and un- merciful manner. The irate citizens carried the matter into the courts, and several of these organ- izations for ditching were broken up, or made to see that it was useless to attempt to carry out their purpose and so dissolved. The members of the legislature from this end of the state- Church, of Porter county, Bradley, of LaPorte, and Reynolds, of St. Joseph, in the senate, and Colonel G. A. Pierce, of Porter county, and Si- mon Wile, of LaPorte, members of the house, who voted for the obnoxious bill, were bitterly denounced; and for many years their political prospects were ruined and not one of them could have been elected to any office which depended upon the suffrages of the angry farmers. But the treatment of Judge Hannah was especially acrimonious. The most extremely bitter things were said against him. In reading the articles which these opposers published in the papers at that time one is surprised to find "how sharper than a serpent's tooth" can be the spite of man. LaPorte was no home for Judge Hannah after that and in good time he sought and found another. It was the same old spirit of bigotry and intoler- ant conservatism which, from the time of Galileo to the present and always, has opposed progress in science, religion and civilization. When the sawmill was first introducted into England, in 1663, the public drove it out. In 1760 an enter- prising timber merchant hoped that the preju- dice had gone, and he attempted to build a saw- mill; but the guardians of the public welfare were on the alert and the mill was wrecked by a con- scientious mob. The opposers of the Kankakee ditching should have driven out the sawmill. In June, 1874, the last meeting of the opposers in those years was held in LaPorte, and for the time the project of draining the Kankakee region was killed.

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A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 13

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