A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 8

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 8

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The Indian scare which, as we have seen visited other parts of the county, now struck the little community of Kankakee. Runners came an- nouncing that the Indians had risen against the

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

settlers, and the terrified pioneers fled in dismay to Terre Coupee prairie in St. Joseph county, where a large number congregated at the house of a settler named Egbert. There they remained until the excitement subsided, and then returned to their homes. In a short time there was another alarm, and the settlers again went to the same prairie, and about forty of them took refuge in a school house, where they remained during the night. The next day they saw a company of sol- diers move westward on a reconnaissance, which restored confidence, and the settlers returned home in the rear of the command. In the follow- ing June the land sale at Lafayette took place; and though most of the men had gone to attend it, the women, who had become used to reports of Indian uprisings, felt no alarm. Here as else- where, after the Black Hawk war the county set- tled more rapidly, so that the settlers did not live so far apart. Hence they could befriend each other more readily. The prosperous shared with their less fortunate neighbors. There was game in the woods, fruit on the trees, honey in the forests.

In the words of another: "It was a wild, a free and in some respects a rich, a delightful life. The land, like the game, was free to all. Each one could go where he wished, locate wherever he chose, take whatever he could find on the prairie or in the woods, provided he interfered with no Indian and with no other settlers' rights. He could cut down trees, pasture his few cattle, cut grass for his winter's hay, plow and plant the soil anywhere, careful only not to infringe on any other who was a squatter like himself. Largely each man was a law to himself. It was a large freedom."

This is true, but it is not so large a freedom as there is in a populous and complicated civiliza- tion. In pioneer life there is more room but there is not more freedom. Cannot a person do more, live more, in a populous community? There his freedom is greater, his range of uses wider. The hermit is free only with respect to himself, but in a thickly settled country each person is free with respect to thousands of people himself included. In pioneer life there is perhaps only one person to enjoy freedom, but in a populous commun- ity there are thousands to enjoy it together, as a vast, aggregate organism, and to share it with

each other as individuals. In such a community the individual has his rights and they are pre- served to him. Each is free, his freedom limited only by the like freedom of others. This gives greater discipline and culture. Others have as strong personalities as ourselves-as strong likes and dislikes. All of these cannot be gratified. Every person must sacrifice some things for the sake of others, and in this way a higher manhood is developed, which in the true sense means a greater freedom.

The first settlers in Wills township were John Wills and his three sons, John, Daniel and Charles, who came in 1830 and settled on section six, where Boot Jack now is. This was the first settlement of a family, though Asa M. Warren claims to have been the first man in the township. This is explained above, and also by the fact that Hudson was originally a part of Wills. After them, in the same year, others came. Among them were Andrew Shaw, Joseph Lykins, John Cissne and John S. Garroute. In 1831 came James Mills, Matthias Dawson, Dr. Chapman and others.

In this year Mary, wife of John S. Garroute, went to visit the sick wife of a man named Gar- wood, living some miles east at Hamilton, in St. Joseph county. On her return the day was clear and cold. She stopped to rest and warm herself at the house of John Wills. When she resumed her journey the wind had risen and was driving the snow. For some reason she dismounted and was overcome by the cold, and her lifeless body was found the next morning in the timber near the bend of Plumb grove on the farm afterward occupied by John W. Zigler. The mail carrier, who was traveling on snowshoes, discovered the body and said that as he did so he frightened away a wolf which was making for it.

David Stoner and others came to Wills in 1832. . Besides the above there were settlements on or before 1832 in other townships. James Webster and his son-in-law, James Highley came. from Virginia and settled on section one, in the northeast corner of Pleasant township. Silas Hale and Oliver Classon soon after settled on section twenty-two. In 1830 Jacob Hackman came to Galena. In 1831 Judah Leaming built the first cabin in Springfield township, and after- wards became the first justice of the peace. He

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

also built and lived in the first frame house in the township, the building subsequently occupied by Benjamin Rhodes. Abram Cormac and Daniel Griffin were also early settlers, and in 1832 John Brown, Joseph Pagin and his sons, Erastus Qui- vey, John Hazelton and Charles Vail, settled in Springfield. In Clinton township Isham Camp- beli, in 1832, made his home on Hog creek, and in the fall of the same year Andrew and Edmond Richardson settled on section nine. Horace and Lane Markham came into Noble township in 1831 and claimed land near Union Mills; Horace a short distance north of the town, and Lane a little to the west, both being on section eight. Mill creek was originally called Markham creek. In 1832 John Wheaton became a resident. And in 1831 or '32, in Union township, Thomas Stillwell built a small cabin near what was afterwards the residence of D. H. Norton. Stillwell settled at a distance from the whites because he was a border man and preferred solitude, or contact only with the Indians. But the white settlers soon reached him. In 1832 also Joshua, John and Curtis Travis arrived and located in Union township. We will not refer to the early settlements of other town- ships, as they were not made until after the county was organized, and we shall have occasion to refer to them in treating of the organization and de- velopment of the county.

Hon. C. W. Cathcart says, in his Reminis- cences, in speaking of the year 1831: "On Roll- ing Prairie I found the Wills family, Squire Nichols at the crossing of the little Kankakee, Philip Fail and Aaron Stanton between that and the Clear Lake, and the Pagin family on the bor- der of that piece of water, and then came a gap until I arrived at the neighborhood in which I pitched my tent. There I found the widow Bene- dict and her family, embracing, besides her own children, her son-in-law, Clyburn, the Garwoods, Eaharts, Morgans and a few others. Without exception I now, in the face of all my experience among men, wish to put it on record that, one and all, I never knew a more worthy, kind and honorable people."

It is very remarkable that, in the main, the early settlements of the county ran parallel with the high ridge which extends in an irregular way east and west across the county, and whose sum-

mit divides the watershed. For a long time this was the case, the most thickly settled belt of the county running parallel with the ridge, or in other words nearly parallel with the shore of Lake Michigan. Perhaps this may be accounted for by the fact that the prairie belt was considered the most eligible for settlement.

The settlers of this county had many hard- ships, but they had less to contend against than the settlers in most other sections of the country. Here, rich prairies covered with grass invited the plow of the husbandman, the groves furnished an abundance of timber for fencing, and large re- turns for labor were promised from the very first year of settlement. Mills were soon built and other conveniences came very rapidly.

We find here a reason why so large a propor- tion of our settlers became permanent residents. In other counties many families soon passed to regions further west. They were a restless, ad- venturesome class who loved frontier life. They followed the Indians and the deer toward the setting sun until the ocean .stopped them. They filled a gap between savagery and civiliza- tion, and helped prepare for the permanent set- tler.

But LaPorte county had comparatively few of these. Here the conditions were different. There was no such gap to be filled. The Indians were not so savage, and nature was not so wild. In general the settlers were of excellent stock and of sterling character-just such stuff as states and empires are made of. It has been said that most of our settlers were from the south. It would not make them any the worse if they were. But as a matter of fact our old settlers' roll shows 438 members from the eastern and middle states to III from the south.

Now, there is a law which is acknowledged by scientists, according to which the first perma- nent settlers impress themselves and their char- acter upon the future. Powerful influences in after years produce important modifications, but the earliest influences persist and are generally decisive. See how difficult it is to Anglo-Saxon- ize South America, which was settled by the Spanish. The difference between Massachusetts and Virginia to-day is the difference between the pilgrim and the cavalier, which was impressed

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

upon them by the early settlers. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, Mon- treal, and Quebec, are different because they have taken their character and bent from their first settlers. This is the law; and in the light of it,

as we consider the firm integrity and remarkable ability of our early settlers, we cannot but feel hopeful and confident for the future, as well as pleased for the past and present of LaPorte county.

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MAP OF LAPORTE COUNTY, INDIANA.

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CHAPTER V.

ORGANIZATION.

"The heavens themselves, the planets and this center Observe decree, priority and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office and custom, in all line of order." -Troilus and Cressida.

Thus far we have mentioned the county and townships of LaPorte as though they already ex- isted at that early day; but they did not. They were only in possibility, not in fact ; only in po- tentiality, not yet in actuality. During the years 1828 to 1832 many settlers had come, and there were more than a hundred families here, but they were a law unto themselves. And well was it that they possessed the Anglo-Saxon genius for law and order and "the enjoyment of mine with- out injury to thine ;" otherwise there would have been anarchy. But though the early settlers in a sense were without law they were not against law, and at the proper time steps were taken toward county organization. The prominent men among the early settlers were in touch with the state authorities, and by act approved January 9, 1832, the state legislature passed an act incor- porating the county of La Porte.

Clearly to understand this organizing process, it will be necessary to consult the map ; and indeed what is immediately to follow will be dull reading unless the map is used in connection with it. The county as at present constituted contains the three cornered piece of territory comprising Cass, Dewey, Hanna. and Prairie townships; it also contains certain lands in Wills and Lincoln town- ships, which jut out into St. Joseph county ; but originally it did not contain any of these. At first the county was very nearly square. From the southeast corner of what is now Johnson town- ship, its boundary line ran straight north twenty-

two miles to the Michigan state line, then straight west twenty-one miles extending into Lake Mich- igan, thence south twenty-two miles to the south- west corner of what is now Clinton township, and thence east twenty-one miles to the starting point. The county therefore was very nearly square; or in other words it was 22x21 miles, with its north- west corner some miles out in Lake Michigan. As at present constituted the county contains five hundred and sixty-two square miles, but origin- ally it contained a hundred square miles less. Such, then, was the tract of country which, by legislative act, was set apart as a county, "to be known and designated by the name and style of LaPorte county," and from and after the first clay of the following April the county was to "enjoy all the rights and privileges, benefits and jurisdictions, which belong and appertain to sep- arate and independent counties."

By the same act Samuel Lewis, of Allen coun- ty, Isaac Coleman, of Fountain county, Andrew Ingram, of Clinton county, Levi Thornton, of Tippecanoe county, and Merritt S. Craig, of Rip- ley county, were appointed commissioners, ac- cording to law, to fix the seat of justice in the new county ; and it was specified that they meet on the second Monday of the following May, at the house of David Pagin, in said county of LaPorte, and immediately proceed to the dis- charge of the duties assigned them by law. It was specified also that both the circuit court and the board doing county business hold their ses-

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

sions as near the center of the county as a con- venient place could be had, until the public build- ings were erected. Ten per cent. of the proceeds of the sale of lots at the county seat was to go for the use of a county library. The new county was to be attached to the county of St. Joseph for rep- resentative purposes. The board of county com- missioners after being qualified might hold special sessions not exceeding three during the first year after organization, and they were empowered to transact all the county business usually trans- acted by such boards. Such, in. substance, was the act to incorporate the county of LaPorte.

It is said that when this act was before the legislature a member from one of the older coun- ties asked what the outlandish name was which they proposed to give to the new county. He was informed that it was the French for "The Door," or "The Gateway," and had its origin in a natural opening in the timber, leading from one part of the prairie to another. "Then," said he, "why not call it the Door county and have done with it and let these high flown French names alone?" Nevertheless the county was called by the name of LaPorte, which is far more beautiful than the name of Gateville, Doorburg, or anything of the kind. A beautiful spot should be called by a beautiful name.

Under the act of incorporation a writ of elec- tion was issued, and Chapel W. Brown, Elijah H. Brown and Jesse Morgan were elected com- missioners; Benjamin McCarty, sheriff; and George Thomas, clerk. The commissioners met on May 28, 1832, at the house of George Thomas, and presented their certificates of election, which were signed by the sheriff of the county. On the back of each certificate is endorsed the oath of office, which was administered by the sheriff. The board organized by the election of Chapel W. Brown as president, and George Thomas, clerk. The first act of the board was to divide the coun- ty into three townships. These consisted of three strips running north and south through the county. Beginning at the west, the first consisted of what is now Michigan, Coolspring, New Dur- ham and Clinton townships ; the second consisted very nearly of what is now Springfield, Center, Scipio and Noble townships; and the third con- sisted approximately of the rest of the county. As her family was the first to settle in the county,

Mrs. Miriam Benedict was given the honor of naming the township in which she lived, and she immediately named it New Durham, after the town of Durham in Greene county, New York, from which town she came. The second strip was called Scipio township; though why it was given that old Roman name does not appear. The third and much the largest strip was called Kankakee township, undoubtedly because the Kankakee river ran through it. This, then, was the county as first organized-a region of 22x21 miles, with three strips running from north to south, which were called New Durham, Scipio and Kankakee townships.

. After establishing the three townships, the commissioners ordered that elections take place in each township on the 16th of the following June, that a justice of the peace be elected in and for each township, and that elections be held in New Durham township at the house of Elisha Newhall, with himself as inspector, in Scipio township at the house of Captain A. P. Andrew, with himself as inspector, and in Kankakee town- ship at the house of N. B. Nichols, with John Wills for inspector. Benjamin McCarty was ap- pointed commissioner of the three per cent. fund, William Clark county surveyor, Jesse Morgan assessor, and Aaron Stanton county treasurer.

It may be well at this point briefly to show how the present townships were carved from the original three, reducing those three to their pres- ent dimensions. The first new township was that of Michigan, which was formed September 4, 1833, by the board of county commissioners in regular session. It originally embraced what is now Coolspring township. This whole tract was set off from New Durham township. Why it was called Michigan township is obvious-a large part of it consists of the water of Lake Michigan.

On November 5, 1833, Center township was formed, which originally comprised not only Cen- ter, but also Springfield township; though it did not contain those two sections which jut down into Scipio township, and in which a part of the city of LaPorte is situated. These have been added since. Aaron Stanton was appointed in- spector of elections, and John Stanton and Will- iam Bond overseers of the poor, in the new town- ship. Center township probably took its name from the fact that it was situated so near the cen-

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

ter of the county, as the county was then con- stituted.

The next township to be carved out was that of Pleasant, which on motion of William Holmes was ordered on March 3, 1834. At first it com- prised nearly all that tract of country now em- braced by Pleasant, Union, Lincoln and Johnson townships; though since then certain changes have been made on the western boundary line. The house of Oliver Classon was the place ap- pointed at which to hold elections, and James Webster was appointed inspector of elections un- til the April annual election, or until his successor be elected and qualified. This was one of the most beautiful and attractive parts of the county, hence the name of Pleasant township.

Pleasant township was formed from Kanka- kee township, thereby dividing that original township nearly in two haives; and on the same date, out of what remained of Kankakee town- ship, Wills township was formed. This was on motion of Henry F. Janes. As first formed Wills township included all of what is now Hudson township, and a strip of six sections on the east of Galena; but it did not include the six sections which it now has, and which came from St. Jo- seph county. The house of William West was designated as the place for holding elections in the new township, and Henry F. Janes was ap- pointed inspector of elections. The township took its name from John Wills, the first man who with his family settled in the locality.

On January 6, 1835, on petition of Judah Leaming and others, Springfield township was formed. It will be remembered that until now this was a part of Center township, having be- come so when that township was cut off from Scipio; but now it is cut off from Center to form Springfield. Originally Springfield township con- tained the northern tier of sections now in Center township, but it has since been diminished to its present boundaries. It was ordered that an elec- tion be held at the house of Judah Leaming on the last Saturday of the current month for the pur- pose of electing a justice of the peace for the new township, and that Judah Leaming "be and is hereby appointed inspector of elections."

No new townships were formed for over a year, and then five were constituted. This was on March 9, 1836, a year when the new county seat

was improving rapidly. On that date what re- mained of Kankakee township was again divided, and the township of Galena was formed as it now appears on the map. An election was ordered to be held on the first Monday of the following April for the purpose of electing two justices of the peace for the new township. It was ordered that elections be held at the house of George W. Barnes and that Joshua Jordan be inspector of elections.

A piece had been taken from New Durham township on the north to form Michigan township, and now a piece was taken from New Durham on the south to form Clinton township. An election was ordered to be held on the first Monday of the following April for the purpose of electing two justices of the peace, and that the elections be held at Charles Eaton's shop. No change has been made in the limits of this township since it was created. Its southern side was then the boundary of the county.

Again, Scipio had been divided on the north to form Center and Springfield townships, and now it was divided on the south to form Noble township. When it was formed, its eastern boun- dary ran straight north and south on the range line; but since then certain of its sections and half sections have been given to Union township. Ef- forts have been made to restore the boundary to its former line, and in at least two instances the board of commissioners acceded thereto; but there was dissatisfaction, the orders were vacated and the boundary between Noble and Union townships was allowed to remain as it appears at present on the map. An election was ordered to be held on the first Monday of the following April for the purpose of electing justices of the peace for Noble township, and Arthur McClure was appointed inspector of elections, which were to be held at the house of John McLane.

At this time also Michigan township, which since its formation had included all the territory directly north of New Durham, was divided, and the southern part of it was formed into Cool- spring township. An election to choose two jus- tices of the peace was ordered for the first Monday of the following April, to be held at the house of Nathan Johnson, who was appointed inspector of elections.

On the same date an order was made by the

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HISTORY OF LAPORTE COUNTY.

board of commissioners dividing Pleasant town- ship, which as yet comprised also Union, Lincoln, and Johnson townships, by a line drawn from the northwest corner of section one straight south- ward to the county line, the territory east of this to be known and designated as Madison township. This, however, was not satisfactory to the people, and at the ensuing term of the commissioner's court the order was rescinded. Thus for a short time the county had a township of Madison, oc- cupying what is now Lincoln and Johnson town- ships and one tier of sections west of it.

We have seen how Wills township was formed from Kankakee township and originally included all the territory directly north of Wills to the Michigan state line. Wills was now di- vided and all the north part of it which had not been given to Galena was formed into Hudson township. This was done by act of the commis- sioner's court on May 11, 1836. This, as will be seen by the map, is the smallest township of the county, containing only twelve sections and three half sections. It was ordered that elections for said township be held at the house of James F. Smith, that John L. Ross be and is hereby ap- pointed inspector of elections, and that John Baker be and is hereby appointed constable.

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A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 8

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