USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume I > Part 13
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"In the meantime Dr. Lilley died, and his place came into the hands of Judge Benjamin McCarty, who had been successful in giving a county seat location to Porter County and was now, with his large family a
104
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
resident in Lake. He laid off town lots, called his home town West Point, and was against Solon Robinson as a competitor for the new location. But he was not now in the center of the new county and Solon Robinson was; so the commissioners, Jesse Tomlinson and Edward Moore, of Marion County, Henry Barclay, of Pulaski, Joshua Lindsey, of White, and Daniel Doale, of Carroll County, determined that this time the location should be in the center. They therefore located the county seat at Lake Court House, which soon after took the name of Crown Point."
BENJAMIN MCCARTY
Benjamin McCarty, or Judge MeCarty as he was popularly known, was a natural politician of the early period. He was "acting sheriff" when Laporte County was organized in 1832, and later was elected its probate judge. Then, within a few years, he got into Porter County politics, bought a quarter section near its geographical center and induced the county legislators to fix the county seat on his land. But soon the judge sighed for other counties to manipulate and, while the location of Lake County's seat of justice hung in the balance between Liverpool and Crown Point, he bought the property of Dr. Calvin Lilley on the east side of Red Cedar Lake. This consisted of land, a tavern and a store. Upon that site he laid off the Town of West Point, and at once entered into the county seat race. But as West Point was not in the center of the county, Judge MeCarty's second town failed, as we have seen.
PIONEER PROMOTERS OF CROWN POINT
As inducements to locate the county seat at Crown Point Solon Rob- inson and Judge Clark donated a large public square, and gave an acre of ground besides, for a courthouse and other public buildings; also an acre for school purposes. Russell Eddy, who became a prominent resident in 1838, donated ten acres of land, and J. W. Holton fifteen. Other dona- tions, some in money and some in work, were also made. George Earle, the county agent, and the two proprietors of the town, conducted the first auction sale of lots on November 19, 1840; after which the county seat was considered to be permanently located at a promising town.
CREATION OF THE PRESENT TOWNSHIPS
On May 9, 1839, the commissioners made the first division of the three original townships, by creating from South Township those of West Creek, Cedar Creek and Eagle Creek.
105
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
In 1843 Winfield Township was set off from the original Center and named after Gen. Winfield Scott.
On June 8, 1848, the commissioners took off a large strip from the north part of Center Township and organized St. John and Ross town- ships. The latter was named to honor the first of Lake County's farmer settlers, William Ross, and the former is supposed to commemorate John Hack, the first German settler. It might have been stretching a point to call him a saint, but he was, from all accounts. a good, sturdy, honest German citizen-which is sufficient for the average man and woman in this world.
On June 8, 1853, Hanover was taken from what was left of Center and erected into a separate township, which left the present Center Township.
The original North Township of the county was divided by the commissioners into North and Hobart townships September 5, 1849. The boundaries of this Hobart Township were slightly changed Decem- ber 6, 1853, but its northern part did not even then extend beyond the Little Calumet River. On March 9, 1883, its territory was again changed, sections 1 and 2, township 35, being detached from Ross Township, and its west line, running on the west side of section 2, was extended up to Lake Michigan, its east boundary following the county line up to the lake. It was thus made 5 miles in width and 8 miles long.
At that time also (March 9, 1883) a strip five miles in width on the west side of old North Township was made a new division of the county, ealled North Township, and between that and the new Township of Hobart a strip of territory six miles in width, extending from the north line of township 35 to Lake Michigan, was erected into Calumet Township. As this division took three sections away from Ross Township, the Village of Ross is no longer in the township by that name.
The three original townships of the county have thus become eleven, there having been no changes since 1883.
But, although the county seat has remained at Crown Point since 1840, official and judicial business has so increased that the old-time log courthouse has given place to two magnificent structures, convenient and modern in every respect. Territorially, Crown Point is central and con- venient, but on account of the wonderful development of the northern part of the county, the center of population, of business, of politics and of legal and judicial procedure has shifted far to the northwest. The result is both Crown Point and Hammond are headquarters for judicial proceedings and county business, although Crown Point is still the official county seat and contains the principal county offices. The details of this necessary adjustment will be naturally developed in the course of the narrative.
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
THE FRAME COURTHOUSE
The frame courthouse bore date of 1849, but it was not completed and occupied until 1850. George Earle, who had but lately platted the town of Hobart, was the architect of the new building, the dimensions of which were large for that day-sixty-seven feet long, thirty-seven wide and twenty-seven high.
This somewhat pretentious county home was all on the ground, but had four pillars in front and was surmounted by a round cupola which, to present-day eyes, greatly resembled a salt shaker. It stood north of the public square and on the east and west street bounding it. The court- house contained a courtroom, a jury room and a sheriff's room.
OTHER COUNTY BUILDINGS
Just east and west of the courthouse stood two brick buildings, all fronting south; the eastern office building accommodated the treasurer and auditor, and the western the recorder and clerk. Immediately north of the building containing the offices of the treasurer and auditor was the frame jail. Courthouse, office buildings and jail are said to be covered in the sum of $10,000.
The probate judge held court in the old building until his office was abolished in 1851, and afterward the Circuit Court of the county con- tinued to dispense justice therein for some thirty years. During all that period the county officers also occupied the other more miscellaneous buildings, as described.
AGITATION FOR BETTER COURTHOUSE
In the later '70s the people, even the taxpayers, commenced to ask for better accommodations. Not only had the frame courthouse served as a general gathering place for exciting political and temperance meet- ings and for unusual local occasions, but had been the scene of many sad, as well as rousing war meetings; and even more learned judges and more eloquent lawyers had there held forth than in the little audience and courtroom of the loghouse. But even the frame courthouse, with its cupola, fell before the march of events, was sold to John G. Hoffman, moved and transformed into an opera house.
Some sixty thousand dollars had already been collected for the erec- tion of a brick and stone courthouse on the square donated for the purpose by Solon Robinson and William Clark, original proprietors of the town, when an attempt was made by criminals, unknown and undis-
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
covered to this day. to blow up the little brick building housing the offices of the county treasurer and the auditor, as well as this tidy sum of $60,000. The building was wrecked, but the money was saved.
THE COURTHOUSE OF 1880
A description of the courthouse. which was ready for occupancy by 1880, written not long after its completion, gives these facts : The present brick and stone courthouse was commenced in 1878, the corner-stone
COUNTY COURT HOUSE, CROWN POINT
having been laid with Masonic ceremonies, in the presence of a large concourse of people, September 10. There are in the auditor's office twenty pages of printed specifications, but the plans giving dimensions have been removed. It appears from the data remaining that the cellar story is 10 feet 4 inches in the clear between the joists, the principal story 15 feet 2 inches. the second story 22 feet 2 inches for courtroom and corridors and 19 feet 2 inches for commissioners and other rooms. The flagpole is fifty-six feet high. There are twenty-six windows in the principal story. The outside dimensions are said to be ninety-six feet by one hundred and five. There are six good office rooms on the principal floor and several rooms on the second story. The entire cost was about fifty-two thousand dollars.
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
This solid red-brick, stone-trimmed courthouse, two stories in height, stood near the center of the publie square. In 1882 the brick jail and sheriff's residence was built on Main Street, adjoining the Methodist Church, at a cost of $24,000. In 1889 another decided improvement of county property was made in the laying of a wide stone walk around the courthouse square, 315 feet from north to south and about two hundred and twenty from east to west.
THE CARE OF THE COUNTY POOR
In the care of its poor, Lake County has always evinced the spirit of a careful and sympathetic friend. Its home for the needy who are public charges was founded in 1884 by the ereetion of a residence for the poor and feeble. While at times the management of the County Poor Asylum has been eramped for means, everything possible under the circumstances has been accomplished.
The poor farm comprises 310 acres of land lying directly east of Crown Point on a good gravel road. Most of it is under careful cultiva- tion, although there are small tracts of timber, pastures for the live stock, and quite an area is covered by large barns, horse and cattle sheds, and the handsome structures erected in 1912 at a cost of some two hundred thousand dollars. The farm is kept neat and productive, being self- sustaining, and the work of conducting it, as well as much of the operating labor for the asylum, is largely performed by those dependent on the county.
The new asylum is provided with its own heating and lighting plants, the hospital and operating rooms are equipped with every modern con- venience and appliance, the living and sleeping rooms are entirely sep- arate, and, taking the institution all in all, it is believed there is no county asylum in the state which more fully meets the requirements of the case than that of Lake County. While there have never been over one hundred and fifty inmates to be eared for, accommodations are now provided for 350. This increase of facilities to properly care for the poor-to protect them and, at the same time, give them a home-may be largely credited to the present superintendent, August W. Neunfeldt. who has been at the helm since 1907.
COURTHOUSE REMODELED AND ENLARGED
A return to the headquarters of the county at Crown Point is now taken, and the fact is recalled that for another thirty years the frame courthouse did duty for the county at Crown Point, albeit, with the
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
increase of judicial and official business, the capacity of its accommoda- tions was strained to the utmost. Finally public sentiment, aroused by the aggravations of those who resorted thither, decided that patience had ceased to be a virtue, and called loudly and sharply for relief.
The result was that in 1909 the 1880 courthouse was expanded and remodeled into a modern structure at a cost of $160,000. As some im- provements had previously been made, within and without, and the property has since been well maintained, it is estimated that the total investment in the present courthouse at Crown Point has been two hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars. Among the public buildings it is one of the largest in the county. It contains the main offices for the various county officials and two handsome courtrooms, occupied by the judges of the Circuit and Superior courts. The judge of the Supreme Court alternates his sessions between Hammond and Crown Point.
JUDICIAL AND OFFICIAL ACCOMMODATIONS AT HAMMOND
The Superior Court of Lake County was created in 1895, but Ham- mond did not realize the benefit of a separate courthouse until 1903. In November of that year the first Lake Superior Courthouse was completed at Hammond, at a cost, with furnishings, of nearly seventy-seven thou- sand dollars. Seven years afterward, or in 1910, it was remodeled at an additional expense of $75,000, making the total cost of the building up to date about one hundred and ninety thousand dollars. Outwardly it is a magnificent granite building, two stories and high basement, with a lofty and elegant central clock tower. The body of the building contains three large courtrooms, two of them being used forty weeks and the other twenty weeks in each year. This part of the courthouse also contains the offices of the sheriff, clerk, court reporters and prosecuting attorney, and the law library, the last named embracing one of the largest collec- tions of the kind in the State of Indiana. In the basement are some of the county surveyors and officials connected with the register of deeds and the recorder. In this building, therefore, is to be found, to all intents and purposes, an extension of county seat privileges to Hammond, for the accommodation of Northern Lake County.
LATE ATTEMPTS TO REMOVE COUNTY SEAT
Of late years several strong efforts have been made to move the county seat from the territorial center to the virtual center of population and material activities; but what the future will bring forth it is not wise to prophesy. These later efforts may be said to have commenced about
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
twenty-five years ago, at the commencement of Hammond's decisive development, and one of the initial movements is thus described in the report made to the Old Settlers' Association in 1891. "In the winter of 1890 and 1891," it says, "a strenuous effort was made by some Hammond citizens to have a bill passed through the State Legislature leading to a removal of the county seat to that city. Crown Point citizens and some in other counties, especially in Laporte County, worked diligently against
SUPERIOR COURT HOUSE, HAMMOND
the bill, and it was at length defeated. No little excitement was aroused in the county by this attempt of the young manufacturing city to take from the center of the county to the border of the City of Chicago the county seat of Lake."
It was not until ten years after this that a compromise was effected between the larger population and greater monetary and professional interests of Northern Lake County and the less metropolitan elements south of the Little Calumet River, in the erection of the Superior Court- house at Hammond and the establishment therein of facilities for judicial proceedings and the transaction of county business, especially as relates to the surveying, transferring and recording of property.
RATHER A DISCOURAGING DECADE
The decade from 1840 to 1850 was one of slow growth and not a few trials for Lake County. Although some progress was made in agriculture and it became quite a wool-growing seetion and raised considerable
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
wheat, the prairie wolf and sheep rot kept busy, and rust damaged the wheat crops. Many farmers therefore left discouraged.
During that decade were also several seasons of wide-spread sickness -notably those of the summers of 1838 and 1846. Both were very dry seasons. Besides the sickness of 1846 to retard the growth of the county, the fields of grain went to waste, as there were few men to do the harvest- ing. The men and boys who were on their feet were taking care of the sick and performing the needful household work. Increasing the priva- tions of those memorable years, much of the scant harvest of wheat was hardly fit either for the market or for bread, and half the potato crop was also destroyed by disease. There is evidence from different sources that in the years of sickness, crop failures and consequent depression marking the later portion of the decade 1840-50, as many as one-half of the pioneers passed out of the county and sought more healthful and promising homes in the more distant West.
It was also during that period that Lake County contributed about thirty of its young men, who could be so illy spared. They joined the American army in Mexico during 1847, and a large portion of them never returned.
There were other reasons why Lake County made little progress from 1840 to 1850, one of the chief being that her territory had not yet been traversed by convenient lines of travel and transportation. But from the time of the coming of the first railroad to this region-the Michigan Central in 1850-the times and the complete face of the county under- went a rapid transformation. This progress, and the general advance- ment of the following decades, is illustrated by the census figures, which embrace the long stretch of years from 1850 to 1910.
MISCELLANEOUS FIGURES FOR 1847
In 1847 there were in the county seven postoffices, five sawmills in operation furnishing oak lumber, two grist mills-Wood's mill, which did grinding for the farmers of both Lake and Porter counties, and Wilson's and Saunders'. George Earle was also erecting a third at what became Hobart. There were then in the county about fifty frame houses, five church buildings, two brick dwellings and five stores. Two of the "mer- cantile establishments" were at Crown Point-one kept by H. S. Pelton and the other by William Alton; the other three stores were at Pleasant Grove, Wood's Mill and St. Johns. The professional statistics indicate that there were in the county at that time (1847), with more or less busi- ness on their hands, two lawyers, half a dozen physicians, six ministers and one circuit preacher, and fifteen justices of the peace.
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LAKE COUNTY AND THIE CALUMET REGION
PROSPEROUS ERA, 1850-60
In 1850 Lake County had reached a population of 3,991. It was divided into 715 families and there were 423 farms within its limits. Only one black person is recorded as among its residents.
INDIANA CORN FIELD
In 1860 the population had increased to 9,145 and in 1870 to 12,339. As the latter decade included the Civil war era, the advance in population was not so marked as for the period from 1850 to 1860.
ANOTIIER DECADE OF "HARD TIMES"
The increase from 1870 to 1880 was even less than during the previous decade, as several seasons of great business disturbances occurred during this period, and it is a well substantiated economic truth that in "hard times" the natural increase of births is retarded and people everywhere in the affected districts are less prone to migrate. The population for 1880 was 15,091.
A GREAT RAILROAD PERIOD
The '80s formed the great railroad era for Lake County, seven or eight important lines of transportation entering and traversing its terri- tory in that period. For the past thirty years the increase in population has been remarkable, and, for the decade 1900-10, little short of marvelous
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
for a district in the Middle West. The explanation is found in the founding and expansion of the City of Gary.
RELIGIOUS STATISTICS
A fair summary of the progress of Lake County, considered from a statistical standpoint, would include also a mention of churches. In 1840 there was no church building within its bounds. It contained a few log schoolhouses and two or three Sunday schools. The population was 1,468.
In 1870 there were twenty church buildings, ten resident pastors, forty places for religious meetings, thirty Sunday schools, and the popu- lation, as stated, was 12,339.
In 1880 Lake County, as to population, was the seventy-first in the state, only twenty-one counties having a less number of inhabitants.
Doubtless owing to its favorable geographical position, its proximity to Chicago and to some natural advantages, from 1880 to 1890 Lake County made more rapid growth than any other county in Indiana. In 1890 it was the thirty-fifth in population, fifty-seven counties having less. Its per cent of increase was 58.28.
In 1890 there were fifty-six church buildings in Lake County, thirty- nine resident ministers, forty-five Sunday schools and sixty places for religious meetings.
LARGE LAND OWNERS
The following are some interesting facts presented by a private statistician regarding the large land owners of Lake County: In 1872 ten families owned about one-sixth of the area of Lake County, and six families, so near as an estimate could be made, owned one-tenth, in value, of the real estate of the county. At that time A. N. Hart of Dyer held the largest number of acres, about fifteen thousand, which lands were supposed to be worth $500,000.
About 1892 1,000 acres of that land was sold for a full $100 per acre. At that time Dorsey & Cline, non-residents, held as much as ten thousand acres, and G. W. Cass, also a non-resident, held of Kankakee marsh land nearly ten thousand acres.
Since then great changes have taken place through all the Kankakee and Calumet regions. The Lake Agricultural Company, composed of the heirs of Gen. G. W. Cass, a leading member of the company, and William R. Shelby, of Michigan, still own a large portion of the Cass land. Vol. 1-8
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Of individual owners now, John Brown, president of the First Na- tional Bank of Crown Point, has 5,300 acres of marsh land, and W. M. White, a non-resident, has the second largest amount, holding about thirteen hundred acres. In the Calumet region, on Lake Michigan, the Chicago Stock Yard Company originally held about forty-four hundred acres, and until the United States Steel Corporation came into the field at Gary was the largest holder of lands among the corporations. As a
MODERN FARMING
rule, however, there has been little monopoly of land in Lake County- which is as it should be.
COMPARATIVE POPULATION IN 1910, 1900 AND 1890
With these preliminaries we present the figures of the United States Census for 1890, 1900 and 1910, in parallel columns :
1910. 82,864
1900. 37,892
1890.
23,886
Calumet Township, including Gary City and Griffith Town
17,982
1,408
944
Gary City
16,802
.
Ward 1
2,834
Ward 2
4,724
.. .
Ward 3.
6,244
Ward 4.
1,637
....
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
1910.
1900.
1890.
Ward 5
1,363
....
. ....
Griffith Town
523
..
·
Cedar Township, including Lowell Town Lowell Town
1,235
1,275
761
Center Township, including Crown Point Town.
3,602
3,372
2,894
Crown Point Town
2,526
2,336
1,907
Eagle Creek Township
717
597
647
Hanover Township
1,029
1,185
985
Hobart Township, including Aetna, East Gary,
Hobart, Miller and New Chicago towns.
3,729
2,718
2,197
Aetna Town
161
East Gary Town
484
Hobart Town
1,753
1,390
1,010
Miller Town
638
New Chicago Town
105
North Township, including East Chicago, Ham-
mond and Whiting cities and Munster town. 48,361
East Chicago City
19,098
3,411
1,255
Ward 1.
1,918
Ward 2.
4,142
Ward 3
1,441
· . ...
Ward 4
2,202
Ward 5
1,509
..
. .
Ward 6
4,608
. . ...
Ward 7.
3,278
Hammond City
20,925
12,376
5,428
Ward 1
2,736
Ward 2
2,517
Ward 3
2,728
Ward 4
1,461
Ward 5.
2,337
Ward 6.
2,319
....
Ward 7
2,074
.....
Ward 8.
1,890
.
.
Ward 9.
1,035
. . . . .
Ward 10,
1,786
Munster Town
543
Whiting City
6,587
3,983
1,408
Ward 1
1,464
Ward 2
1,973
Ward 3.
1,797
.
Ward 4
1,353
.
.
. .
. .
. .
·
. . . ..
....
.. ...
·
2,407
1,691
2,312
21,020
9,631
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
1910.
1900.
1890.
Ross Township
1,434
1,542
1,427
St. John Township
1,766
1,765
1,686
West Creek Township
1,306
1,173
1,201
Winfield Township
626
705
583
NORTH TOWNSHIP CENTER OF POPULATION
One of the impressive things shown in the foregoing tables is that, although the remarkable growth of Gary increased the population of Calumet Township from 1,408 in 1900 to 17,982 in 1910, still that town- ship is not the center of population of the region. North Township, which contains the cities of Hammond, East Chicago and Whiting, with a population of 48,361, holds that honor. It showed an increase of 27,341 in ten years, although the greatest percentage of gain was made during the later five years. The agricultural townships and district were almost stationary.
CITIES IN THE CALUMET REGION
The comparative census of cities in the Calumet region was as follows :
Cities-
1910.
1900.
1890.
Hammond
20,925
12,376
5,428
East Chicago
19,098
3,411
1,255
Gary
16,802
·
Whiting
6,587
3,983
1.408
THIE FINANCES OF LAKE COUNTY
The last report of the auditor of Lake County is very suggestive as illustrating the wealth, intelligence and enterprise of that part of the state ; in fact, it proves its standing in the great economic system of the United States. From that report, which carries the county's fiscal affairs up to January 1, 1914, it is learned that the receipts from all sources amounted to $4,338,660.08 and the disbursements $3,144,697.72, leaving a balance in the county treasury of $1,193,962.36.
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