USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume I > Part 12
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
"TOILING FOR THE GOOD OF ALL"
In another group are placed the following: Mrs. John Wood, also from Massachusetts, a cousin of the noted missionary, Mrs. Sarah B. Judson. She was born October 13, 1802, married November 16, 1824, and became the mother of eight children. Her death occurred Septem- ber 27, 1873. A fine granite monument, about fifteen feet in height, marks her burial place, on which is inscribed: "A true, faithful, lov- ing wife; a kind and affectionate mother; ever toiling for the good of all; and this is her memorial." Mrs. Wood was another of those superior New England women, like Mrs. Holton and Mrs. Farwell of Vermont, and others, yet to be named, with native endowments and a moral train- ing which fit their possessors so well for frontier life and for laying the foundations for an enduring civilization. The comfort and hospitality of her home were not excelled by any in those early years. She was one
93
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
ยท of our unselfish women, and well does her memorial say "toiling for the good of all."
In this group, though living in another part of the county, may be fittingly named Mrs. Augustine Humphrey, one of the very early resi- dents on Eagle Creek Prairie, now called Palmer. She was also from New England and besides earing for her children and attending to home duties was much interested in church work, a devoted Presbyterian.
MRS. GEORGE A. WOODBRIDGE
Mrs. Woodbridge was yet another of these well trained New Eng- landers, an early resident also at Palmer, the wife of Rev. George A. Woodbridge and near neighbor to Mrs. Humphrey, the two families be- ing connected by ties of kindred as well as by a common religious faith. At their homes was Presbyterian preaching by Rev. J. C. Brown and by Rev. W. Townley. After some years the Woodbridge family moved to Ross and there Mrs. Woodbridge became the superintendent of the Sun- day school. An active, truly noble, intelligent Christian woman, she spent part of the later years of her life with her son at Ross and a portion at Joliet. She died in August, 1902, eighty-eight years of age.
MRS. NANCY AGNEW, STANCHI WIDOW
The name of Mrs. Nancy Agnew may be placed by itself here, as be- longing to a resolute, earnest woman. A sister of those Bryants who found and bore baek to her in Porter County for burial the body of her husband, who perished from exhaustion and exposure in the stormy night hours of April 4, 1835, she did not yield to her bitter trial, but soon came herself to the new settlement, and on the Register for that year stands among the claimants the name of Nancy Agnew, widow. To her son, born not long after her husband's death, she gave his father's name, David Agnew.
MARGARET JANE DINWIDDIE, COOL AND COURAGEOUS
Mrs. Margaret Pearce, who was Margaret Jane Dinwiddie, sister of J. W. Dinwiddie, of Plum Grove, manifested some heroic qualities in her girlhood experiences with the Indians, then living near her cabin home. Two of the young Indians about her own age were sometimes quite annoying. One day, seizing an opportunity to frighten her, at least, they sprung from the roadside and threatened her with their toma- hawks. Instead of crying out, as they perhaps expected, or turning
94
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
pale with fright, she simply stood still and laughed at them. It may be they became ashamed at the idea of injuring that bold, defenseless, laughing white girl, and let her pass on unharmed. Well they knew that a blow inflicted upon her would bring upon themselves swift punishment. Born June 5, 1818, she was married to Michael Pearce in 1840, and be- came the mother of ten children. She was a worthy member of the United Presbyterian Church, and exemplified many excellent qualities, besides courage, in her long home life in Eagle Creek Township.
MRS. MARGARET DINWIDDIE (NEE PERKINS), EDUCATOR
The name of Mrs. Margaret Jeannette Dinwiddie comes next. A member of the Perkins family, she was born near Rome, New York, May 5, 1818, was married to J. W. Dinwiddie August 19, 1844, and died March 15, 1888. She was one of the true and successful Sunday school workers of the county. Educated at Rome, New York, and an experienced teacher, for about twenty-five years she conducted, with others, the Plum Grove school, herself generally the superintendent. To her, more than to any other woman in the county, that organization, for twenty-five years, was indebted for its success. She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Lake County, and was identified with the North Street Baptist Church of Crown Point at the time of her death.
CHRISTIAN AND METHODIST CHURCH WORKERS.
Some names are again grouped. Mrs. Sarah Beadle, Mrs. Sarah Wells, Mrs. Sarah Childers-these three Sarahs, with their husbands and J. L. Worley, were the constituent members of the first church in the county called Christian Church, or Church of the Disciples. This pio- neer society is now located at Lowell.
The pioneer Methodist women were Mrs. E. W. Bryant, Mrs. Ephraim Cleveland, Mrs. Kitchel, Mrs. Taylor (mother of Mrs. S. G. Wood), Mrs. Wood (wife of Dr. James A. Wood), and Mrs. Viant-all of character and note.
Other women among the early and useful residents of the county were Mrs. Wallace, born in Vermont and the mother of Mrs. W. Brown, of Crown Point; Mrs. Brown, of Southeast Grove, mother of John Brown and W. B. Brown; Mrs. Crawford, mother of Mrs. Matt Brown and Mrs. - E. Hixon; Mrs. McCann, of Plum Grove and Mrs. Hale; Mrs. E. M. Robertson, mother of Mrs. O. Dinwiddie; Mrs. "Ruth Barney, widow," whose name stands thus as a claimant on the Register for the year 1836; Mrs. Sigler, the mother of several sons; Mrs. Servis, mother of O. V.
95
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Servis, and Mrs. George Earle. Most of these women were Presbyterians, although the Methodists and Baptists were represented.
There are yet other names. Five earnest Christian women of West Creek Township for a time, who did much to make the central part of Lake County, that gem of the prairie, "bud and blossom like the rose," were Mrs. M. L. Barber, who spent her last years in Kansas, her sister, Mrs. Burhans, who closed her life in Hammond, Mrs. Little, mother of Hon. Joseph A. Little and Mrs. Garrish, and Mrs. Wason-the last three from the Granite State, and all five with granite-like principles.
LEADING WOMEN OF FOREIGN BIRTH
A little group comes in here of women of foreign birth, who had crossed the broad Atlantic and who had much to learn in regard to language and institutions, but whose well trained children proved them to be true mothers, known years ago among us as Mrs. John Hack, Mrs. Giesen, Mrs. Dascher and Mrs. Beckley. Mrs. Haek, so far as known, was the first German woman to find a home in the county. The sturdy sons and tall husband who came with her are gone, but grandchildren and great-grandchildren live at Crown Point. Some of the descendants of the others mentioned are residents of the county.
TYPICAL NEW ENGLAND WOMEN
Here are the names of a very different group: Mrs. Calista Sherman, born in Vermont and dying in Crown Point when more than ninety-five years of age, as one of our oldest women, shared largely in the respect and esteem of the community; and with her may be named two daugh- ters, Mrs. Farrington and Mrs. J. H. Luther. It is recorded of Mrs. Luther, who had no children of her own, that she was a mother to some motherless girls and one of our noblest women in relieving suffering humanity, in avoiding injurious gossip, in kindly deeds of friendship and neighborly regard.
The next in this group is Mrs. Rosalind A. Holton, a sister of Mrs. Sherman, the youngest of thirteen children of the Smith family of Friends of Shrewsbury, Vermont, born July 18, 1795, and dying at Crown Point, when nearly eighty-nine years of age, at the home of Mrs. R. C. Young, where she had resided for many years. Next to her name belongs that of her daughter, Mrs. R. Calista Young, mother of Charles H. Young, of Chicago, who has herself closed a life not short-a life marked , by large unselfishness, by untiring efforts for the good of those connected with her, by a steadfast Christian faith and hope. Five such women are
96
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
not found in every community as were these aged sisters and their daughters.
Other names: Mrs. Vinnedge, head of a large family, a Methodist when sixteen years of age and an earnest church member through a long life ; Mrs. Frank Fuller (Hannah Ferguson), mother of nine children; Mrs. Sarah R. Brown, who became the second wife of Amos Hornor; Mrs. Mary M. Mason, daughter of Henry Farmer, second wife of Deacon Cyrus M. Mason, who became a resident in 1836; Mrs. Martin Vincent (Mercy Pierce), who married in 1837, the womanly head of a well known family ; Mrs. William Belshaw, born in 1824, a member of the Jones family, and before her marriage a teacher in two of the early log school- houses, those near Lowell and Pine Grove; Mrs. Lucy Taylor, wife of Adonijah Taylor, born in Connecticut, brought up in Vermont and the mother of nine children, dying in 1869 at the age of seventy-seven, a highly respected and estimable Christian woman; Mrs. Ebenezer Saxton, of Wiggins Point and Merrillville, a woman who had a fearful experience with a drunken Indian in the absence of her husband-the surly savage threatening the life of an infant in the cradle and at length, while the Indian slept, she poured the remainder of the whiskey from the jug, watching the children through that long night and relieved at last of the presence of the Red Man by Doctor Palmer, who came along in the morning of the next day while making his professional rounds. The girls and mothers of that day had fortitude and courage.
MRS. BENJAMIN MCCARTY
A few more names in this grand list-Mrs. McCarty, wife of Judge Benjamin McCarty, the mother of six sons and two daughters, was not only an early settler in Lake County, but in Porter and Laporte, hav- ing a home in the latter county from 1832 to 1834. She was not young when coming into Northern Lake County, having grown-up sons and daughters-intelligent and cultivated all ; and at Creston, in a little priv- ate cemetery, her dust reposes.
MRS. BELSHAW AND MRS. HACKLEY
Mrs. Belshaw, an English Baptist, mother of sons and daughters, also came from Laporte County in middle age to become an early resi- dent of Lake. Hers was for a time a bright home. But death came and her daughter, eighteen years of age, was taken from earth, and she, with many of the large family, found another home in distant Oregon where one of her sons, who had married Candace MeCarty, became a noted
97
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
wheat raiser. Other members of the Belshaw family yet remain in Lake County and her name belongs of right among our worthy mothers, grand- mothers and great-grandmothers.
In a different part of the county, in the woodland north of Hanover Center, where was a great resort for deer, was the first home of another worthy woman, a Presbyterian, Mrs. Hackley. She was the mother of Mrs. W. A. Clark and Mrs. Pettibone, of Crown Point, and with the former, Mr. and Mrs. IIackley finally made their home.
Other names are: Mrs. Robbins, of Brunswick and Lowell, both of whose sons fell as members of the Union army; Mrs. Dudley Merrill, of Merrillville; Mrs. Krost, of Crown Point, the mother of four sons and two daughters; Mrs. Sohl, an early resident in the old North Township before Hammond was; Mrs. Payne, Mrs. Foley, Mrs. Stringham, the earliest residents of Center Prairie, who did not remain long, but who helped along civilization before their husbands moved on; Mrs. Jones, a later resident than they, mother of Perry Jones, born in October, 1804, and who lived in the county to the end of her life of nearly ninety- six years.
Mrs. Mary Hill, mother of Doctor Hill, of Creston, and of Mrs. Henry Surprise, a motherly woman of rare patience and untiring love, lived to complete eighty-four years.
Mrs. Underwood was the mother of five daughters, and of several sons. She died many years ago at the home of her daughter, the wife of Doctor Palmer, being over ninety years of age.
"AUNT SUSAN" TURNER
The next life to be noted at some length is that of another very motherly woman, although never a mother in fact-"Aunt Susan," Susan Patterson Turner, who was born in Pennsylvania, February 27, 1813. As the oldest child and the only daughter of Samuel Turner of Eagle Creek, she was left in charge of the household through the winter of 1838, while her father and mother returned to Laporte County to find a more comfortable winter abode. She and her brothers passed safely and well through the privations of that season, and when her aged mother died in 1871 the care of the household devolved fully upon her. To her brothers' children, who delighted to visit the old home- stead, she was always "Aunt Susan," and as the years passed and her motherly qualities continued to be widely appreciated a large community came to apply that name to her with affection and honor. She died on July 24, 1899.
Vol. I- 7
98
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
MRS. J. HIGGINS
Mrs. Higgins, who came into Lake County as Diantha Tremper in 1844, was born near Niagara Falls in 1824. She became well acquainted with the families of the early settlers in both Lake and Porter counties. In 1847 she was married to Dr. J. Higgins, who in 1859 settled as a physician at Crown Point. In the earlier years of her residence at that point she was active in many circles. She trained carefully her only child, Mrs. Youche, as well as her grandson, but in later years impaired health kept her more closely at home. As a Christian woman her exam- ples and influence were for good on those around her. She died in 1895.
MOTHERS OF LARGE FAMILIES
Among the mothers of large Lake County families may be placed, first, the name of Mrs. Flint, of Southeast Grove. Among the first set- tlers of that beautiful grove were the members of this noted Methodist family. One daughter was the first wife of James H. Luther, one be- came the wife of Rev. D. Crumpacker, and one, the eighth child, Olive L., was the wife of Rev. Robert Hyde. There were in all fifteen children, and Mrs. Hyde enjoyed the distinction of having seven brothers and sisters older, and seven younger than herself. Mrs. Hyde died in Chicago September 3, 1901, about seventy-five years of age.
As the second among these prolific mothers may be placed the name of Mrs. Scritchfield, of Creston, the mother of thirteen children, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren still living in the county.
The third of these mothers was Mrs. Julius Demmon, in girlhood Nancy Wilcox, member of a pioneer family ; married in 1850 and became the mother of six sons and six daughters; in less than fifty years had sixty-one grandchildren living in Lake County.
LIKE THE PATRIARCHAL TIMES
The reader may have noticed that many of the earlier mothers had from six to eight or ten children; and it was pleasant indeed to find in those cabin homes wide-awake boys and cheerful, lively girls. Each of those large homes was a little world in itself. Home then was more like the patriarchal times than now. Some believe that it was richer, purer, better than now.
99
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
MRS. SAMUEL TURNER
A place must be found in this roll of honor for the name of Mrs. Samuel Turner of Eagle Creek, who was Jane Dinwiddie, born January 19, 1783, a woman of Scotch-Irish blood and of Seotch Presbyterian principle ; who was married to Samuel Turner at Gettysburg, Pennsyl- vania, in February, 1810, and with him came to a choice location on Eagle Creek in 1838. She became a permanent resident in 1839, when fifty-six years of age. Not many now live who knew her in the home circle, but her likeness in the "Dinwiddie Clan Records" shows her to have been an estimable woman, and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Iowa and Indiana show that, through her, they have inherited the blessing of having been "well born," a privilege to which it has been said all children have a right.
The very close observer may notice that the first woman whose name is on this list was born January 15, 1783, and that the last one was born January 19, 1783-both born in the year that gave peace after the American Revolution. They were our oldest pioneers. For the most part the women, as well as the men, who came to share the privations here and lay the foundations were rather young, or in the prime of life.
MOTHERS THAT WERE MOTHERS
It is claimed as a saying of Napoleon Bonaparte that what France most needed was mothers. Mothers that were mothers had homes in Lake County two generations ago. And the names of at least some of them have been placed upon these pages.
Of our little army of noble pioneer women, probably three or four hundred in number, there are many living descendants in the county to carry out in the life of this generation the rich results of their influ- ence and their virtues.
CHAPTER VI
COUNTY ORGANIZATION
FIRST ELECTION OF COUNTY OFFICERS-FIRST COMMISSIONERS' MEETING -THE ROUT OF THE TIMBER THIEVES-DIVIDED INTO THREE TOWN- SHIPS-TEMPORARY COURTHOUSE BUILT-A "PRISON" FITTED UP- OLD COURT ROOM OF HISTORIC MEMORIES-JAIL BECOMES A TEMPER- ANCE HALL-CROWN POINT WINS COUNTY SEAT FIGHT-BENJAMIN MCCARTY-PIONEER PROMOTERS OF CROWN POINT-CREATION OF THE PRESENT TOWNSHIPS-OTHER COUNTY BUILDINGS-AGITATION FOR BETTER COURTHOUSE-THE COURTHOUSE OF 1880-THE CARE OF THE COUNTY POOR-COURTHOUSE REMODELED AND ENLARGED-JUDICIAL AND OFFICIAL ACCOMMODATIONS AT HAMMOND-LATE ATTEMPTS TO REMOVE COUNTY SEAT-RATHER A DISCOURAGING DECADE-MISCEL- LANEOUS FIGURES FOR 1847-PROSPEROUS ERA, 1850-60-ANOTHER DECADE OF "HARD TIMES"-A GREAT RAILROAD PERIOD-RELIGIOUS STATISTICS-LARGE LAND OWNERS-COMPARATIVE POPULATION IN 1910, 1900 AND 1890-NORTH TOWNSHIP, CENTER OF POPULATION --- CITIES IN THE CALUMET REGION-THE FINANCES OF LAKE COUNTY -VALUE OF REAL ESTATE AND PERSONAL PROPERTY-TAXABLE CAPAC- ITY-THE ROADS OF LAKE COUNTY-BONDED INDEBTEDNESS-FINAN- CIAL STATUS OF DIFFERENT ROADS (BY TOWNSHIPS).
The county now known as Lake was erected out of the counties of Porter and Newton on the 28th of January, 1836, and by Legislative Act of January 18, 1837, it was declared to be an independent political body on and after February 16th of the latter year.
FIRST ELECTION OF COUNTY OFFICERS
On March 8, 1837, Henry Wells was commissioned sheriff, and an election for county officers was held on the 28th of that month. As illustrating the mail facilities of those days it is on record that a special messenger, John Russell, was sent to Indianapolis, to obtain the appoint- ment of a sheriff and authority to hold an election. He made the trip on foot and outstripped the mail.
100
101
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
The election of March 28th, 1837, was held at the houses of Samuel D. Bryant (E. W. Bryant, inspector ), A. L. Ball (W. S. Thornburg, in- spector) and Russell Eddy (William Clark, inspector). The highest number of votes cast for any one candidate (as elsewhere stated by James H. Luther), was 78, and the following were elected: William Clark and William B. Crooks, associate judges; Amsi Ball, Stephen P. Stringham and Thomas Wiles, county commissioners; W. A. W. Holton, recorder ; Solon Robinson, clerk, and John Russell, assessor.
FIRST COMMISSIONERS' MEETING
The board of commissioners held their first meeting on the 5th of April, 1837. They adopted a county seal. They appointed J. W. Holton county treasurer and fixed the amount of his bond at $2,000. The commissioners also named Milo Robinson trustee of the Seminary Fund, with bond at $200, and agent of the Three Per Cent Fund, fixing that bond at $3,000. Further, the board instructed the sheriff to prevent any person from taking pine timber from the public or school lands of the county, directing him to bring such offenders to justice.
THE ROUT OF THIE TIMBER THIEVES
It was found much easier for the commissioners to give these instruc- tions than for the sheriff to carry them out. A case in point. When the young Chicago was beginning to grow and pine timber was needed, a report reached the county officers that men were stealing valuable trees from the northern sand hills. A posse was summoned and an independ- ent military company was taken into the service. The party took dinner at Liverpool and proceeded, it is said, with drum and fife rending the air, to the place where the havoc was said to be progressing among the lake-shore pines. But the trespassers had disappeared; the pine was well on its way to Chicago; and it is further reported that the county commissioners finally paid all the bills, including the damage to the timber done by the trespassers and the organization of the impressive, but too loud Posse Comitatus.
DIVIDED INTO THREE TOWNSHIPS
At the first meeting of the county commissioners noted, the county was also divided into North, Center and South townships, which ex- tended across its territory from east to west. Later the following justices of the peace were elected : For North, Peyton Russell; Center, Horace
102
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Taylor, Cedar Lake, and Milo Robinson, Crown Point; South Town- ship, F. W. Bryant. At the August election of 1837 Luman A. Fowler was chosen sheriff and Robert Wilkinson, probate judge.
In the summer of 1837 Solon Robinson erected a log house on the southwest corner of the square, which various old settlers, from a com- parison of memories, have concluded was about thirty-five feet from east to west and twenty feet from north to south. During the October after its completion, the first Circuit Court of the county was held therein by Judge Sample and Associate Judge Clark.
TEMPORARY COURTHOUSE BUILT
In accordance with an act of the State Legislature and through the action of the board of county commissioners, this crude structure was made the temporary courthouse of the county, in May, 1838. About the time that dignity was added to it, a second story was also super- imposed.
A " PRISON" FITTED UP
In November of 1838 the county commissioners allowed $64 to the sheriff for "fitting up the lower room of the courthouse for a prison." Thus was justice early established in Lake County.
The entrance to the upper, or court room, was by a flight of stairs on the north side of the building. The seat for the judge, which was also occupied as a platform and pulpit on frequent occasions, was in the west end of the room. The same piece of carpenter work served for several years as "rostrum," "platform," "benches," and "pulpit" for the earlier citizens of the county.
OLD COURT ROOM OF HISTORIC MEMORIES
"There were some good charges delivered to juries and some import- ant civil and criminal cases tried; there, some excellent sermons were preached by ministers of fervent piety, of earnestness and eloquence ; there, lectures and addresses were given to interested and appreciative audiences ; there, with no mere common ability and success, vocal music was taught; there, pictured representations were given of the evils of intemperance and many a name was signed to a total abstinence pledge within those walls; and there, some of those whose names may not soon be forgotten in the county made their 'maiden' speeches and stepped for the first time upon the platform as advocates of reform."
103
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
In that room were organized the first library association of the town and county, as well as the pioneer literary society. Occupied for more than ten years for such varied purposes, when Crown Point was the liveliest center of everything worthwhile in the county, it is safe to say that this old audience room in the courthouse stood for more than any other locality in Lake County.
JAIL BECOMES A TEMPERANCE HALL
The cost of the original courthouse was probably $500. The logs were finally taken down and built into two barns and at length became fire wood. Besides that part fitted up as a "prison," on the ground floor, there was an east room used as an office, and additions were made to the west end for other office rooms. W. A. Clark related that the citizens of Crown Point, when the jail was considered no longer useful, made a raid upon the "prison," tore out the fixtures and trappings with no little difficulty and transformed the quarters designed for criminals into a temperance hall. No public authority interfered : consequently the action seemed to have the tacit approval of the powers that were. This was probably in 1849, and two years later the historic log court- house had ceased to exist.
CROWN POINT WINS COUNTY SEAT FIGIIT
In the meantime, Lake Court House, which had become the county seat against the vain efforts of its several competitors, had been named Crown Point. The other events which had happened, as having a special bearing on the official affairs of Lake County, are thus summarized by our invaluable deceased friend, T. H. Ball, in his "Northwestern In- diana :" "In 1839 commissioners appointed by the Legislature, as was customary, located the county seat at Liverpool, on Deep River, in the northwestern part of the county, on Section 24, Township 36, Range 8, about three miles from the county line and four from Lake Michigan. Dr. Calvin Lilley, on the northeast bank of Red Cedar Lake, and Solon Robinson at his village, named at first Lake Court House, had both been applicants, along with George Earle, of Liverpool, for the location. There was so much dissatisfaction among the settlers at the idea of having their county seat in a corner of the county that a new location was ordered.
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.