A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 39

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 39

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).

Digitized by Google

230

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

of Michigan City and LaPorte, and work was commenced in 1903 in New Durham township. Indications are that the good roads movement will spread over the county. An unhappy litiga- tion has interfered with this movement so that some of the roads remain unfinished and very difficult to travel, but on the whole a great im- provement has been wrought, and the difference this has made in the transportation of produce to market is wonderful. Now farmers living along or near the line of these roads can come to town with all that their wagons can hold up, with com- fort to their teams and themselves. These roads have been the means of opening many good farms where before was a wilderness, and the value of lands has greatly increased. Of course they have cost in the aggregate a good deal of money, but the increase of values by these improvements fully repays those who have to bear the expense. It was improved roads that made possible the change from ox teams to horses, and again from wagons to buggies; and how do we know but that in a few years the roads will be so hard and smooth in all weather, and automobiles will be so improved, that the farmers will go speeding into town with their crops loaded in a motor wagon? It certainly looks like it.

Good bridges are a part of good roads and the county has been careful to provide them. At first there were only ferries across the Kankakee, and rude bridges across the smaller streams; but gradually the ferries gave place to bridges, and the rude structures spanning the smaller streams gave place to better, safer and more beautiful ones; at first wooden bridges and latterly, in many cases, stone and iron ones. The first bridge is said to have been built by John Dunn in 1831 or 32. Major John M. Lemon rebuilt the bridge over the Kankakee river about 1846 and kept it as a toll bridge for many years. At the early ferries they also had canoes and made the horses swim longside.

In 1861 it was seen that a bridge at Chambers Landing on a line between Knox and LaPorte was a necessity, and the matter of building one was agitated. Both Starke and LaPorte coun- ties were mutually interested. Business transac- tions between the two places were almost entirely cut off, but if a bridge was built a large portion of the trade of Knox county would be turned to

LaPorte. To reach LaPorte the people of Knox must go by way of Walkerton, or else to Porter or other points west around by Burch's ferry. On the other hand if a thoroughfare was opened much of the travel to the west that entered the state at Fort Wayne and went to Chicago by way of Goshen and LaPorte, would take the nearer route by way of Knox and thence to Chicago by way of Valparaiso. And so it was argued that Hanna Station and Union Mills would receive much trade from the northern part of Knox county, and that Knox would receive an influx of people from the east. There was much agita- tion of the subject and the papers of both coun- ties strongly advocated the building of a bridge at Chambers Landing.

Funds were subscribed in both counties and the La Porte county commissioners at their March session, 1862, appropriated $100 and agreed to pay the balance not made up by subscription. An experienced man was appointed to view the site of the bridge which in due time was built. This is a fair type of the progress of bridge building across the Kankakee.

The spring of 1904 was a severe one for the bridges of the county. On account of the great mass of snow which melted, the water was very high and the currents strong. In February four bridges were washed away; including the Barnes bridge, one crossing Trail creek near the Gould farm, and two near LaCrosse. Others were rendered unsafe. On this account the county commissioners gave their attention to building several new bridges, and the work was soon in progress.

In a fair consideration of the means of com- munication which the county has employed, the stage-coach must be included-the old "twice-a- week" stage-coach. It was a slow mode of travel, but the passengers had a good time. The rate of speed in pleasant weather and with favor- able roads was perhaps seven or eight miles an hour and the average cost was perhaps five cents a mile. The vehicles have been forgotten as completely as the days they represented. When the steam horse which at first plowed the waters took to land in the east, the finest of the stages were taken west and some of them as far as "the Rockies." But what has become of the less pretentious ones which were not worth trans-

Digitized by Google

231

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

ferring? No one knows; they have simply dropped out of existence. But what memories cluster around them! How the people at the taverns, yes, and all the villagers, looked and longed for the coming of the stage-coach! What a bustle there was on its arrival ! what hand shak- ings! what greetings! what interchanges! what life! The stage brought the latest news from the outside world, brought the newspapers, brought the mails. But the uncertainty and ir- regularity connected with all this were very un- satisfactory. In 1844 there was but one mail each week between LaPorte and Union Mills. A LaPorte paper of February 5, 1848, says, "The stage from the south arrived last evening but we are still without the Indianapolis mail. We receive the Wabash valley papers regularly, not so those from Indianapolis." The same paper of February 19, 1848, says, "There was no mail last evening from the east or south, hence there is nothing from the legislature." In another issue the paper says. "We are compelled to go to press without our mail because the road be- tween Logansport and Indianapolis is almost im- passable for the stage. It should have been packed through on horseback. Such negligence is unpardonable." In its issue of January 6, 1849, the same paper says, "We are at a loss to know what has become of our southern mails. We have not received the Daily State Journal since the 22nd of December nor any thing else from Indianapolis. There are reports of great storms." All this gives us an idea of life in those days, which hardly seems real to us now when we have railroad trains, electric cars, frequent and fresh mails, the telegraph, and can stand in La- Porte and hear a watch tick in New York city.

As intimated in previous chapters, the time came when there were great efforts to improve the lines of travel, and as the most available means plank roads came into use. These sustained about the same relation to the roads of that day that our new macadamized roads do to those we have been using. There were plank roads from LaPorte to different points, and the same was true of Michigan City. Samuel B. Webster finished the plank road between LaPorte and Plymouth. These roads greatly facilitated com- munication.

LaPorte county has never been a region of

canals, but sometime it may be connected by a canal to the Wabash river. There is a low water shed between Lake Michigan and the headwaters of the Wabash river, and surveys have shown that the construction of a canal between them is both practical and feasible. In September, 1903, the Wabash River Improvement Association was formed. Fifteen hundred delegates assembled in Terre Haute, comprising some of the most promi- nent men of the valley, assembled to inaugurate the work of improvement. Among those in at- tendance were Congressmen James A. Hemen- way, Robert Williams, E. S. Holliday, Robert Miers, James Crawley, Messrs. Samuel Mur- dock, J. Frank Hanley, ex-Governor W. S. Hag- gard, Frank B. Posey, G. V. Menzies, Frank Havill, Manuel Cronbach, James W. Emison, T. H. Adams, Edward Watson and Mayor Rousch of Vincennes. Mr. A. R. Colborn, of Michigan City, is vice president of the associa- tion for LaPorte county. Already a commodious lock has been built by the government in the Wabash river at Mt. Carmel, Illinois, a splendid piece of work and large enough to accommodate any traffic for which it might be needed in the future. The Wabash River Improvement Asso- ciation was organized for the construction of a ship canal from Michigan City to the Wabash river, and is making a movement to interest peo- ple along the route in this great project. Maps of the canal and explanations of the objects of the improvement have been sent to leading men in the counties through which the canal will pass. The officers of the association are Frank O. Fitton, of New Harmony, Indiana; W. H. Dun- can of Terre Haute, and Charles Murdock, of Lafayette. The constitution of the association provides that there shall be one vice president of the association from each county traversed by the route of the proposed canal. The length of the proposed waterway is forty-five miles. The route begins at Michigan City and takes a diag- onal course through LaPorte and Starke counties to the Tippecanoe river at a point near the divid- ing line of Starke and Pulaski counties. This section of the course is a straight line passing near Wellsboro, the head of English lake and Knok in Starke county. Beginning at the Tippe- canoe the route passes down that river through Pulaski and White counties to the Wabash river

Digitized by Google

232

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

above Lafayette in Tippecanoe county. If the plans of the Wabash River Improvement Asso- ciation should be realized Lake Michigan would be connected by waterway with the Gulf of Mexico. This is not history, but it is history that these steps have been taken, and it is a great advantage to any nation, both in peace and in war, to have internal water ways so that it can move its shipping with the least inconvenience and danger.

As to railroads, some were given right of way long before they came, and some which never came. The coming of the Michigan Central and of the Northern Indiana, now the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, has been described in another chapter. The former, which is a great trunk line of the Vanderbilt system, affording the best of service east and west, was completed to Michigan City in the year 1850. It has ten miles of track in the county. The latter road reached LaPorte in 1852. It was then called the Michi- gan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad. This is also a great trunk line and one of the best of roads in every respect. It was not completed through the county until the year 1853. It has twenty-five miles of road in the county.

The Lake Shore has purchased a large tract of land four miles west of LaPorte for the estab- lishment of yards for the coaling and watering of engines. Houses will be built by the company for the quartering of employes and their families, and with the opening of these facilities the coal- ing and watering of engines in this city will be abandoned. This move is one of the most im- portant steps taken by the Lake Shore in this vicinity in many years. That it will result in the growth of a fair-sized town is unquestioned.

The next railroad to come was the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago, now the Chicago, Indiana and Louisville, or the Monon. It runs north and south through the county, connecting with the Michigan Central at Michigan City, with the Lake Shore at Otis, and with all the roads which run east and west until it reaches the Kankakee river. This, until the Pere Mar- quette was built, was the longest road in the county, having thirty-one miles of track.

The next road that was successfully com- pleted was the Cincinnati, Louisville and Chicago,

later called the Indianapolis, Peru and Chicago, now the Lake Erie and Western; though within a few years it has been bought by the Lake Shore. This road was built between La Porte and Plymouth in 1856, and a great celebration occurred at both ends of the line on the opening of the road. There were gaps between Plymouth and Rochester, between Rochester and Peru, and between LaPorte and Michigan City. One by one those gaps were filled, the last being com- pleted in 1871, giving LaPorte communication north and south. This road has twenty-one miles of track in the county.

In 1857 the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago road was completed, which runs nearly east and west through Wanatah and Hanna. This is a part of the Pennsylvania System, and has one of the finest road beds in the country.

In 1860 the Chicago and Great Eastern road was built through the southern corner of the county. It intersected with the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne at Valparaiso, but in the year 1868 the company tore up its track from Valparaiso to section 15, township 33, range 4 west, and built the road upon its present line, entering Chicago on its own track. LaCrosse is the only station it has in the county. It is now called the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, and belongs to the Pennsylvania sys- tem. It has eight miles of track in the county.

In 1873 the Chicago and Lake Huron road was built through the county. It was sometimes called the Peninsula road. Its eastern terminus was Port Huron and its western Valparaiso. At first it did not prosper, but in 1879 it passed into the hands of the Grand Trunk Company of Can- ada and afterwards extended its line to Chicago and took the name of the Chicago and Grand Trunk. The line is constantly improving. It has twenty-eight miles of track in the county, running through Mill Creek, Stillwell, Kings- bury, and Union Mills.

The next road built in the county was the Baltimore and Ohio, which was completed in 1874. This road takes a straight line through the entire county, entering at section twenty-one in Johnson township and leaving at section six in Clinton township. It runs through Union Center, Tracy Station, Wellsboro, and Alida Sta-

Digitized by Google

233

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

tion, and has twenty-two miles of track in the county. All these roads make a total of about one hundred and fifty miles.

Since 1874 six railroads have been built in the county, seven if we consider the new line of the Pere Marquette into Chicago, but just com- pleted as a separate road. There is the New York, Chicago and St. Louis, known as the Nickel Plate, running nearly east and west through Hanna and Cass townships; the New York. Lake Erie and Western, commonly called the Erie, which cuts across Dewey township in the southwest corner of the county ; the Chicago and Eastern Illinois, built as a coal road, running up to LaCrosse from the southwest corner of the county, and the Wabash which runs nearly east and west through the middle of the county, tak- ing in Westville. There is also the Chicago, Cin- cinnati and Louisville, which has only just begun to run through trains. This road runs through LaCrosse and the southern part of the county. And lastly there is the Pere Marquette, formerly called .the West Michigan, the first line of which was built several years ago, and enters the county on the west half of section ten in Spring- field township, and takes a crooked southerly course to LaCrosse, running through Springville, LaPorte. Wellsboro, Hanna, and Thomaston Sta- tion. It does a large freight business and is the iongest road in the county, having about forty miles of track. Quite recently this company has extended its line from New Buffalo to Porter, so as to run into Chicago, excepting terminal facili- ties, over its own line from Grand Rapids and the north. A fine station and freight house have been erected on the west side of Franklin street in the southern part of Michigan City, and for some months trains have been running on schedule time. As the two cities are connected by an electric line, this gives Michigan City and LaPorte another line of communication with Chicago. These later railroads aggregate about one hundred miles of track, making a total of about two hundred and fifty miles in the county. Few counties are so well supplied with railroads. Two of them are main lines to the south, the most of the remainder are trunk lines from Chicago to the cities of the east. Chicago is and will remain the great mart of the west where are gathered vast productions, and LaPorte county lies across

the pathway from this great storehouse of the eastern markets. The county is in line of a great commerce.

As to electric lines, the Lake Cities Electric Railway Company operates a line in Michigan City and gives excellent service. In 1903 its Eastport branch was opened, since which time its business has increased. In December, 1902, there was a sale under the order of the Federal court, after which the company was reorganized, with better facilities for interior transportation. In March, 1904, the company purchased and put in place a new generator of 250 K. M. capacity, and a new Porter-Allen engine to generate power to operate the cars of its system, since which time the cars have been run with ease. Near the be- ginning of 1903 the Chicago and South Shore electric line was opened between LaPorte and Michigan City and did a satisfactory business, exceeding expectations. This is one of the great- est benefits the county, especially the two cities, ever received. It has stimulated business, pro- moted cordiality between the two cities, and has become a convenience in many respects. It is passing through financial troubles and is now in the hands of Hon. Lemuel Darrow and Fred H. Fitch, receivers ; but in March, 1904, Judge An- derson of the Federal court granted an order authorizing them to issue receivers certificates to the amount of $35,000, and the money has been used to obtain additional power, new cars, and other improvements. The business of the com- pany is increasing, and there is no reason why the road should not be a good investment. Many a new road has to go through this process before it recovers from the burden of building and is placed on a paying basis. The road has fallen into the hands of receivers who will build it up.

It is too early to speak of the electric lines projected to connect Michigan City, LaPorte and other centers in the county with Chicago and eastern and southern towns, but it appears likely that the next few years will witness the opening of several such lines.

The Indians on the war path or on the trail had a way of bending twigs to let their tribes- men who followed them know the direction in which they had gone. There was danger of their enemies also reading the sign, but so there is danger of the enemy catching the wireless mess-

Digitized by Google

234

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

age of to-day. The Indians had many signs and secret ways of communication by which they overcame time and distance, and which were harbingers of the modern telegraph and tele- phone. Time runs in circles, the human race always comes around to the same point again, only higher up; in other words progress is a spiral and not a circle on a dead level.

In the forties when Mr. Samuel F. Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph, was trying to introduce his system and interest capital on is behalf, he made several tours and among other places he visited LaPorte. He set up his ap- paratus and miniature telegraph in the old court house and gave a lecture on the electric telegraph, and a practical demonstration of his system. By 1848 the telegraph was completed to Chicago, and then LaPorte received the earliest eastern news by the Chicago Daily Tribune. In April, 1849, the poles were erected to connect LaPorte by telegraph with Chicago, and the people paid their installments to the enterprise. September came and the wires were not strung. This oc- casioned no little complaint, but after a time the line was completed and the county was connected with the rest of the world. That marked the end of depending upon the stage coach and heavy roads for the news. From that time onward we find the people, especially on all important oc- casions such as political elections, gathering around the telegraph for their news. The right was granted to the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company to erect poles and fixtures in the county as early as 1847. In 1856 the Western Union Telegraph Company was organized by Hiram Sibley and Ezra Cornell, and this company gradually absorbed others, even the extensive Baltimore and Ohio system. The Western Union has offices at every railroad station of importance in the county.

In the spring of 1892 the Postal Telegraph Cable Company constructed a line through the extreme northern portion of the county, parallel- ing the Michigan Central Railroad. On June 6th of that year an office was opened at Michigan City with E. D. Keys as manager. On July 1, 1894, D. M. Farnsworth relieved Mr. Keys, and he in turn was relieved by J. H. Keown on June I, 1898. On November Ist of the same year Miss Belle Rowland took charge of the company's

business, being relieved June 1, 1899, by R. M. Robinson, who is the manager at the time of this writing. The Postal also has an office in La- Porte, and thus the county has excellent tele- graphic communication with the whole world. In the spring of 1903 the Postal was able to an- nounce that it would take messages for the wire- less telegraph.

One of the most interesting and valuable in- ventions of the age is that of the telephone, de- vised by Mr. A. Graham Bell and first put to business use in 1877, after ten years of experi- ment culminating in the first public exhibition of the instrument at the Centennial Exposition. Un- like their treatment of the telegraph-perhaps they had learned wisdom-the public immediately saw the utility of the new method of communica- tion and the business grew with incredible rapid- ity. At the close of the first decade of its history the mileage of telephone lines in the United States was nearly equal to that of the telegraph. Five years later it was more than double that of the telegraph.

About 1888 or 89 the Cushman Telephone Company established an exchange in LaPorte, one, probably the Bell, having been operated a short time before. J. E. Putnam was the Cush- man manager, succeeded by W. W. Hans. In 1890 suit for infringement was brought by the Bell company against all subscribers in La- Laporte before Judge Blodgett, Chicago, who ordered all the phones to be burned. Mr. Hans shipped them all to Chicago for the purpose. The Stowager Automatic Telephone Company then established an experimental station in La Porte. While it was in operation an excursion of inter- ested people was brought here from Chicago and banqueted. This company after a few years was merged in the present company which is now owned entirely by local capital.

The Merchants Mutual Telephone Company of Michigan City was given a franchise on Au- gust 27, 1894. The Central Union or Bell Tele- phone Company was given a franchise in Michi- gan City, December 14, 1891. The LaPorte company has a long distance contract with the Bell to all points, and also has toll stations at Westville, Otis, Condonville, Dewey, Kingsbury, Wellsboro, Union Mills, Hanna, Wanatah, Tracy, Mill Creek, Stillwell, Union Center, Rolling

Digitized by Google

235

HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

Prairie, and Michigan City. It has about fifty farmers on its line, and applications for new phones come in faster than they can be supplied. Thus Michigan City and LaPorte have communi- cation with nearly every village in the county. There is another company at Wanatah having an exchange in that town, with a line to LaCrosse. This company connectes with the exchange at Valparaiso and at LaPorte, and is for the ac- commodation of local business. Besides these, Henry Cathcart and Henry Smith are about con- structing a farmer's line between LaPorte and Dewey, which will be under the management of the LaPorte company. The farmers in the coun- try can talk with their neighbors, or with per- sons in their homes in the different towns, and enjoy the benefit of a personal visit. This closes our general view of the subject of communica-

tion. The wireless telegraph has not come yet.

From the foregoing it appears that the world is coming to be all of a piece. Once every little community could live by itself, make its own clothes, wagons, tools, and all the articles neces- sary for its existence. But with the coming of the railroad, telegraph, telephone, etc., closer re- lations were established, and communities and states became dependent upon each other. The same is true in larger form. Once our nation could live by itself and avoid entangling alliances with other nations, but that time is past. Ocean greyhounds and cables have made it impossible. To-day the United States can no more be a na- tion by herself than South Carolina could be a state by herself. She must perform her proper part of right and justice among the nations of the earth.

Digitized by Google

CHAPTER XXIII.

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY.

"All the inventions that the world contains Were not by reason first found out, nor brains, But pass for theirs who had the luck to light Upon them by mistake or oversight."-

BUTLER.

1 "Invention is activity of mind, as fire is air in motion; A sharpening of the spiritual sight to discern hidden aptitudes."-

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 39

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