USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume I > Part 14
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The biggest item of revenue was derived from the sale of bonds for construction purposes, which amounted to $1,250,657.68. The so-called county revenue realized $651,581.29, largely derived from taxes and the sale of bridge bonds. Next in order of importance as revenue producers were the special school tax, which brought in $475,920.53; corporation and school, $394,945.62; taxation for redemption of bonds, $329,960.42;
117
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
local tuition tax, $227,333.69 ; bond or sinking fund, $205,381.62; liquid licenses, $195,400; gravel road repairs, $111,275.05; common school rev- enue, $104,328.12, and state school tax, $100,770.03.
The largest items among the "disbursements" on account of county revenue were those which covered bridge construction and repairs, amounting to $169,274.99, and for the poor farm (including new build- ing), $97,102.22.
A large percentage of the bonded indebtedness of the county has been incurred in the building of bridges, in which branch of public work this section of Northwestern Indiana is eminent. The bonds now out- standing are for these structures: Dickey Place bridge, $80,000; Chicago Avenue bridge, $67,500; Hohman Street bridge, $56,000; Forsyth Ave- nue bridge, $71,000; South Hohman Street bridge, $45,000; Hobart bridge, $22,500 ; Gary bridge, $16,500.
The bonds issued in the course of the construction of the new alms- house amounted to $127,500.
VALUE OF REAL ESTATE AND PERSONAL PROPERTY
The abstract made by the auditor from the figures returned by the tax collectors is a direct exhibit of the county's wealth and its capacity to raise revenue by taxation. The first column of the table presented indicates the value of lands, lots and improvements throughout the county, given by townships and corporations; the second column, the deductions on account of mortgage exemptions ; the third, the net value of real estate, and the fourth, the value of personal and corporation property :
Total
De-
Divisions-
real estate. ductions.
Net value.
Personal property.
1. North $ 365,640
$ 362,755
$ 549,825
2. Calumet
684,550
$ 2,885 6,675
677,875
705,715
3. Ross
1,001,900
20,025
981,875
1,089,820
4. St. John Township.
407,520
5,345
402,175
577,795
5. Center
770,220
10,870
759,350
696,165
6. Crown Point
536,820
18,045
518,775
619,770
7. West Creek.
1,053,335
8,310
1,045,025
805,770
8. Cedar Creek
941,060
16,880
924,180
611,945
9. Lowell
238,540
6,845
231,695
215,500
10. Eagle Creek
867,880
14,430
853,450
304,620
11. Winfield
476,565
17,015
459,550
666,645
12. Hobart
576,385
19,90
556,445
1,140,015
118
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Divisions.
Total real estate.
Deduc- tions. 5,510
Net value.
Personal property.
13. Hanover
$ 636,025
$
$ 630,515
$ 508,525
14. Hammond
6,411,965
284,215
6,127,750
4,697,770
15. East Chicago
4,830,940
169,870
4,661,070
3,949,965
16. Whiting
3,834,690
50,190
3,784,500
4,455,600
17. Griffith
150,950
805
150,145
489,055
18. Gary
12,440,065
66,825
12,373,240
9,090,015
19. Dyer
190,265
100
190,165
323,830
20. Miller
505,250
1,345
503,905
697,670
21. Munster
231,260
6,600
224,660
491,170
22. Aetna
29,000
29,000
47,710
23. East Gary
291,525
2,560
288,965
553,175
24. New Chicago
68,090
15
68,075
9,140
25. Highland
179,510
3,290
176,220
379,110
26. St. John Crp
106,395
1,100
105,295
171,370
27. Schererville
178,615
1,700
176,915
703,170
Total
$38,004,960
$741,390
$37,263,570
$34,550,910
TAXABLE CAPACITY
The table which follows relates especially to the taxable capacity of Lake County. The first column indicates the total net value of taxables ; the second, the number of polls, and the third, the total amount of tax, including delinquencies :
Net value.
Polls. 122
Amount of tax.
1. North
$ 912,580
$ 25,014.34
2. Calumet
1,383,590
80
35,325.22
3. Ross
2,071,695
207
53,440.03
4. St. John Township
979,970
95
22,426.29
5. Center
1,455,515
162
34,887.83
6. Crown Point
1,138,545
369
49,942.46
7. West Creek
1,850,795
246
50,567.67
8. Cedar Creek
1,536,125
207
45,249.24
9. Lowell
147,245
152
20,224.27
10. Eagle Creek
1,158,070
106
28,215.73
11. Winfield
1,126,195
121
24,341.30
12. Hobart
1,696,460
368
64,898.04
13. Hanover
1,139,040
165
28,392.79
14. Hammond
10,825,520
2,614
328,724.05
119
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Net
Amount of
value.
Polls.
tax.
15. East Chicago
$ 8,611,035
2,163
$ 269,064.49
16. Whiting
8,240,100
950
181,916.94
17. Griffith
639,200
83
18,905.07
18. Gary
21,463,255
2,671
629,970.61
19. Dyer
513,995
87
11,335.54
20. Miller
1,201,575
101
46,502.47
21. Munster
715,830
69
16,702.66
22. Aetna
76,710
47
2,691.22
23. East Gary
842,140
64
25,924.70
24. New Chicago
77,215
28
4,007.81
25. Highland
555,330
58
14,974.29
26. St. John Township
276,665
50
6,716.56
27. Schererville
880,085
71
20,006.27
Total
$71,814,480
11,456
$2,060,367.89
THE ROADS OF LAKE COUNTY
Lake County is one of the most active counties in the state in the matter of the improvement of its roads-its gravel roads, or turnpikes, as they used to be generally called. The importance of the good roads movement in that section of the state is told in part by the facts culled from the auditor's report. In the following table is a statement of the tax receipts, by townships, which were received in 1913 to be applied on that work, the amounts including the balances which went over from the previous year; also the expenditures, and the balances on hand at the beginning of 1914:
Townships-
Receipts. Disbursements. Balance.
North
$113,387.47
$ 90,701.90
$22,685.57
Calumet
90,902.39
77,262.25
13,640.14
Ross
15,353.51
10,291.36
5,062.15
St. John
19,257.31
15,381.40
3,875.91
Center
14,978.06
14,215.33
762.73
West Creek
10,306.64
7,071.25
3,235.39
Cedar Creek
15,968.80
11,462.85
4,505.95
Eagle Creek
7,168.72
5,575.00
1,593.72
Winfield
7,560.48
4,829.50
2,730.98
Hobart
30,855.68
22,069.04
8,786.64
Hanover
4,221.36
2,913.75
1,307.61
Total
$329,960.42
$261,773.63
$68,186.79
120
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
BONDED INDEBTEDNESS
On January 1, 1914, the bonded indebtedness incurred by the various townships for the construction and maintenance of its gravel roads was as follows :
Townships-
Bonds outstanding.
Bonds maturing. $ 78,008.00
Calumet
$ 737,002.00
Cedar Creek
74,019.23
9,411.98
Center
94,059.87
11,422.26
Hanover
23,400.00
1,800.00
Hobart
135,653.35
15,698.80
Eagle Creek
32,000.00
4,000.00
North
999,820.00
105,770.00
Ross
70,085.79
8,863.86
St. John
88,245.18
10,844.96
West Creek
71,234.19
6,609.94
Winfield
32,350.00
3,230.00
Totals
$2,287,869.61
$255,659.80
FINANCIAL STATUS OF DIFFERENT ROADS
This road matter is of so much interest to the entire rural population, and to a large extent concerns those of the cities, that we here present the details as to the financial status of the different turnpikes in the various townships :
NORTH TOWNSHIP
1. North Township valuation, including town and cities
$29,860,395.00
Four per centum limit allowed by law. . Bonds Outstand-
1,194,415.80
Name of Road-
ing.
Bonds Maturing 1914.
Ruff No. 1.
$
5,550.00
$ 370.00
Ruff No. 2.
5,550.00
370.00
Becker, L.
14,720.00
920.00
Higgins
4,800.00
300.00
Kennedy
24,000.00
1,500.00
Summers
5,120.00
320.00
121
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Bonds Outstand-
Bonds Maturing 1914.
Name of Road-
ing.
Szudzinski
3,720.00
$ 620.00
Gavit
10,880.00
680.00
Davidson
1,680.00
280.00
Hilliard
3,000.00
500.00
Cohn
12,040.00
1,720.00
Atchison
6,020.00
860.00
Ottenheimer
3,080.00
440.00
Beaubien
3,360.00
480.00
Spencer
12,600.00
1,800.00
Krost
8,960.00
1.280.00
Millies
10,500.00
1,500.00
Riley
3,780.00
540.00
Van Horn
11,200.00
1,400.00
· Parks
2,880.00
360.00
Paskwietz
4,000.00
500.00
Vater
4,800.00
600.00
Schreiber
5,600.00
700.00
Wirth
2,400.00
300.00
Schaaf
12,800.00
1,600.00
Pearson
16,320.00
2,040.00
Jansen
10,800.00
1,350.00
Sutherland
2,880.00
320.00
Gorman
12,600.00
1,400.00
MeLaughlin, Ph.
37,800.00
4,200.00
Rohde
12,600.00
1,400.00
Meyer
40,500.00
4,500.00
Becker, L. No. 2.
9,000.00
1,000.00
Drackert
37,800.00
4,200.00
C. C. Smith
12,600.00
1,400.00
Krooswyck
68,400.00
7,600.00
Humpfer, M.
5,400.00
600.00
Jabaay
13,680.00
1,520.00
MeLaughlin, F. C.
7,920.00
880.00
Schrage
7,200.00
800.00
Hook
6,480.00
720.00
Trinen
1,800.00
200.00
Hess
16,200.00
1,800.00
Gehrke
3,600.00
400.00
Mott
16,200.00
1,800.00
122
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Bonds
Outstand-
Bonds Maturing 1914.
Name of Road-
ing.
Potter
$ 28,000.00
$ 2,800.00
Duelke
124,000.00
12,400.00
Klein
4,800.00
480.00
Becker, J. C
60,000.00
6,000.00
Reiner
40,000.00
4,000.00
Sheerer
37,600.00
3,760.00
Schlieker
30,000.00
3,000.00
Weis
24.000.00
2,400.00
Dreesen
4,000.00
440.00
Schutz
5,600.00
560.00
Lentz
7,600.00
760.00
Humpfer, Jos
4,600.00
460.00
Jones
60,000.00
6,000.00
Hopp
6,400.00
640.00
Senzig
20,000.00
2,000.00
Hammond
16,000.00
1,600.00
Martz
4,000.00
400.00
Total
$999,820.00
$105,770.00
HANOVER TOWNSHIP
11. Hanover Township valuation.
$1,139,040.00
Four per centum limit allowed by law
45,561.60
Bonds
Bonds
Outstand-
Maturing
Name of Road
ing
1914
Mandernach
$ 23,400.00
$ 1,800.00
CALUMET TOWNSHIP
2. Calumet Township valuation including towns
and cities
$23,486,045.00
Four per centum limit allowed by law .
939,441.80
Bonds
Bon Is
Outstand-
Maturing
Name of Road
ing
1914
Bormann, O.
$ 22,400.00
$ 1,400.00
Weil
65,500.00
4,100.00
123
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Bonds Outstand- ing.
Bonds Maturing 1914.
Name of Road-
Williams
$ 10,850.00
$ 1,550.00
Knotts
18,900.00
2,700.00
Rhodes No. 1
21,000.00
3,000.00
Beiriger
2,912.00
208.00
Triplett
4,200.00
300.00
Wildermuth
9,600.00
1,200.00
Kunert
24,000.00
3,000.00
Hirsch
16,000.00
2,000.00
Castleman
11,520.00
1,440.00
Kesler
20,800.00
2,600.00
Englehart No. 1.
13,600.00
1,700.00
Englehart No. 2
25,600.00
3,200.00
Englehart No. 3
14,400.00
1,800.00
· Brennan No. 1.
11,200.00
1,400.00
Brennan No. 2.
5,400.00
600.00
Wirth
2,400.00
300.00
Patterson
12,600.00
1,400.00
Shaw
21,600.00
2,400.00
Euler
16,560.00
1,840.00
Kelley
25,200.00
2,800.00
Kirk
18,000.00
2,000.00
Pennington
21,600.00
2,400.00
Keller
14,400.00
1,600.00
Borman, F.
23,760.00
2,640.00
Rhodes No. 2
12,600.00
1,400.00
Wright
52,000.00
5,200.00
Scheidt, F. B
37,600.00
3,760.00
Davis
23,200.00
2,320.00
Rundell
26,400.00
2,640.00
Maas No. 1
22,400.00
2,240.00
Maas No. 2.
21,600.00
2,160.00
Caldwell
28,800.00
2,880.00
Carnduff
10,800.00
1,080.00
Hall
8,000.00
800.00
Renollet
7,500.00
750.00
Holmes
14,000.00
1,400.00
Cole
8,000.00
800.00
Williams No. 2
10,000.00
1,000.00
Total
$737,002.00
$ 78,008.00
124
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Ross TOWNSHIP
3. Ross Township valuation.
Four per centum limit allowed by law.
Bonds
Bonds
Outstand-
Maturing
Name of Road
ing
1914
Ross No. 1
$ 21,488.56
$ 3,574.76
Hurlburt
7,560.00
540.00
Phillips
5,180.00
370.00
Krieter
1,500.00
300.00
Halfman
1,920.00
320.00
Peterson
7,350.00
1,050.00
Smith
9,600.00
1,200.00
Triplett
1,527.23
109.10
Nicholson
14,000.00
1,400.00
Total
$ 70,085.79
$ 8,863.86
ST. JOHN TOWNSHIP
4. St. John Township valuation including towns. $2,650,715.00 Four per centum limit allowed by law. . ...
Bonds
Outstand-
106,028.60 Bonds
Name of Road
ing
Maturing 1914
Schubert
$
6,714.62
$ 610.42
Stommel
6,414.54
583.14
Schiessle
5,600.00
400.00
Schaefer
8,400.00
525.00
Keilman
14,700.00
2,100.00
Scholl
4,480.00
560.00
St. John and Center
23,031.25
4,187.50
Beiriger
2,912.00
208.00
Triplett
2,672.77
190.90
Trinen
1,800.00
200.00
Backe
11,520.00
1,280.00
Total
$ 88,245.18
. $2,071,695.00
82,867.80
$ 10,844.96
.
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
125
CENTER TOWNSHIP
5. Center Township valuation including towns. . Four per centum limit allowed by law ..
$2,594,060.00
Bonds
103,762.40 Bonds
Outstand-
Maturing
Name of Road
ing
1914
St. John and Center
$ 23,031.25
$ 4,187.50
Jenkins
3,547.50
6,450.00
Wheeler
7,485.12
623.76
Sherman
4,550.00
350.00
Bieker
3,500.00
250.00
Lehman
6,300.00
450.00
Meeker
8,100.00
540.00
Hoffman
2,976.00
496.00
Farley
5,950.00
850.00
Gard
15,120.00
1,680.00
Randolph
13,500.00
1,350.00
Total
$ 94,059.87
$ 11,422.26
WEST CREEK TOWNSHIP
6. West Creek Township valuation.
Four per centum limit allowed by law.
74,031.80
Bonds
Bonds
Outstand-
Maturing
Name of Road
ing
1914
Bailey
$ 30,306.96
$ 2,244.96
Black
16,000.00
2,000.00
Hayden
4,927.23
364.98
Koplin
20,000.00
2,000.00
Total
$ 71,234.19
$ 6,609.94
$1,850,795.50
126
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
CEDAR CREEK TOWNSHIP
7. Cedar Creek Township valuation including towns
Four per centum limit allowed by law.
Bonds
$1,983,370.00 79,334.80 Bonds
Name of Road
ing
Maturing 1914
Hayden
4,927.23
$ 364.98
Cedar Creek No. 1
14,262.00
2,377.00
Worley
4,600.00
1,150.00
Brown
10,222.00
730.00
Ebert
10,850.00
1,550.00
Dickey
9,600.00
1,200.00
Strickland
7,560.00
840.00
Driscoll
6,800.00
680.00
Palmer
5,200.00
520.00
Total
$ 74,019.23 $ 9,411.98
EAGLE CREEK TOWNSHIP
8. Eagle Creek Township valuation
Four per centum limit allowed by law.
46,322.80
Bonds
Bonds
Outstand-
Maturing
Name of Road
ing
1914
Cochran
$ 32,000.00
$ 4,000.00
WINFIELD TOWNSHIP
9. Winfield Township valuation.
Four per centum limit allowed by law.
Bonds
45,047.80 Bonds
Name of Road
ing
Maturing 1914
Beach
$ 5,590.00
$ 430.00
Stewart
16,640
1,280.00
Blakeman
4,080.00
680.00
Batterman
2,040.00
340.00
Fisher
4,000.00
500.00
Total
$ 32,350.00
$ 3,230.00
$1,126,195.00
Outstand-
$1,158,070.00
Outstand-
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
127
HOBART TOWNSHIP
10. Hobart Township valuation including towns
and cities
$3,894,100.00
Four per centum limit allowed by law.
Bonds
155,764.00 Bonds
Outstand-
Maturing
Name of Road
ing
1914
Hobart No. 3.
$ 12,021.75
$ 1,849.50
Swanson
36,400.00
2,800.00
County Line
3,951.60
329.30
Kreft
5,280.00
880.00
Smith No. 1.
3,240.00
540.00
Smith No. 2.
1,920.00
320.00
Smith No. 3.
3,000.00
500.00
Hillman
11,200.00
1,400.00
Roper
4,000.00
500.00
Scheidt, E. C.
24,000.00
3,000.00
Morton
15,200.00
1,900.00
Banks
8,280.00
920.00
Harrison
3,960.00
440.00
Barnes
3,200.00
320.00
Total
$135,653.35
$ 15,698.80
CHAPTER VII
CALUMET TOWNSHIP
EARLY INDUSTRY OF CALUMET TOWNSHIP-TOLLESTON, THE OLD PART OF GARY-WONDERFUL RISE OF GARY-GRIFFITH, GRAND RAILWAY CROSS- ING-CLARKE STATION-ROSS-THE HORNORS, DAVID AND AMOS- REV. GEORGE A. WOODBRIDGE.
Calumet Township embraces the central districts of the great Calu- met Region, and before the railroads came was a tract of marshes and sand ridges, banded east and west by the Grand and the Little Calumet rivers. It was a wonderful trapping ground for muskrats and a grand resort for water fowl, and for nearly twenty years after the steam engines had been claiming the right-of-way throughout the region, Tolles- ton and vicinity constituted headquarters for perhaps the most success- ful trapping and shooting in Northern Lake County.
EARLY INDUSTRY OF CALUMET TOWNSHIP
In the '80s the Tolleston Gun Club was at the height of its fame, and it is a matter of record that as the result of two days' shooting several of its members sent away 1,200 ducks. A single trapper has taken in the season about 3,000 muskrats and mink. As late as 1883, this same trapper and his son caught in the fall about 1,500 of these valuable fur bearing animals. Before the township was mostly given up to railroads and cities, therefore, such occupations furnished employ- ment to many residents. These splendid trapping, hunting and fishing grounds also drew many sportsmen to the locality, which added to the local trade. Consequently before the coming of the steel mills, Calumet Township was quite a busy section of the county.
Despite all the later-day improvements, a few muskrats yet remain, and very rarely is found a mink. Quails to some extent are also seen by sportsmen with keen eyes, with a few partridges. On well protected grounds, squirrels, rabbits, woodchucks and occasionally foxes are glimpsed and caught. But they are all of the past, rather than the present.
128
129
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
TOLLESTON, THE OLD PART OF GARY
Tolleston, which is now a corporate part of the City of Gary, owes its existence to a number of German Lutheran families, the heads of whom settled on its present site during the construction of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad through the county. The village, which lay between the Little and Grand Calumet rivers, was laid out in 1857 and in the following year the Fort Wayne was in operation. About
ONE OF TOLLESTON'S PIONEER HOUSES
1860 Charles Kunert opened the first grocery. He also served as post- master for many years and was probably the first to hold that office. As is customary in young American communities, this combined store and postoffice was social, political and business headquarters of Tolleston during the early years of its history. As late as 1872 the number of families in the Tolleston community had reached but eighty, and in 1900 an even hundred. Most of them were then employed at the New Stock Yards which then covered much of the present site of Gary.
WONDERFUL RISE OF GARY
Until 1906 Tolleston could not be called more than a little town of sturdy German Lutheran families, depending on the Stock Yards on the lakeshore for their livelihood, although some of the fairly well-to-do Vol. 1- 9
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were employed at Hammond further to the west. But in the year named Gary commenced to arise from the sand dunes and the ridges northeast of Tolleston, and three years afterward the following was being recorded : "A few months ago Gary was a series of sand dunes; to-day it is a camp of tents sheltering an army of busy workers. A few years hence it is destined to be a large, populous city clustered around the largest steel plant in the world. In five years, as the plans prophesy, the plant will cover five square miles or 3,000 acres already bought for it; it will have cost $75,000,000 and will employ 18,000 to 20,000 men, with a pay roll of $20,000,000 a year ; it will revolutionize the iron and steel market of this country and affect those of foreign lands.
"The history of Gary is brief. On May 4, 1906, Thomas E. Knotts, of Hammond, brother of Hon. A. F. Knotts, former mayor of Hammond and founder of Gary, came with his family in a furniture wagon across the plains of jackoaks, and, pitching his tent on the bank of the Grand Calumet River, became Gary's first settler. This was the material and geographical beginning of Gary. Since then over one thousand men and teams are grading the streets of the new city and building its sewers and 300 model dwellings are rising into line by the fiat of the corporation that orders things. Ere long it will have model churches, and school- houses with playgrounds. It will permit no crowded tenement quarter. It will require model homes to be erected and kept with sanitary fittings. It will permit no out-buildings to mar its beauty or endanger health. It will have wide, airy streets, promenading boulevards and esplanades along the river, paved with granitoid. It will have cheap gas for fuel, and electricity for light. It will be a city of good homes, clean streets, and business-like, twentieth century government."
The real Gary is more than the foregoing prophecy, as the world knows; for no municipality, young or old, has been more widely adver- tised than the City of Gary. No city was ever more quickly or more massively made to order than Gary, as no municipality in the world's history was ever able to draw upon such a capital to develop it. The details of its founding and growth form so unusual a chapter in the history of American municipalities that they are reserved for later chapters.
GRIFFITH, GRAND RAILWAY CROSSING
Griffith, in the extreme southwestern corner of Calumet Township, should be called the Grand Crossing of Lake County. Situated about midway between Crown Point and Hammond, the Joliet Cut Off, the Chicago & Erie, Grand Trunk and Elgin Belt Line, all cross at that
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point. The three lines last named were completed from 1880 to 1888, and shortly after the end of the latter year the great real estate "boom" commenced in the northern part of the county. It was during that lively period that Jay Dwiggins & Company, then of Chicago, founded the Town of Griffith.
Factories were erected, stores and residences arose, churches and Sun- day Schools were organized, and for a time in the early '90s it looked as if Griffith was to be a permanent city of some consequence. But as we all know who were in these parts during the World's Fair period, the "boom" was succeeded by a "slump;" and Griffith had a fall and a collapse. For some years the place was almost deserted, but those con- nected with the railroad work remained, and it afterward had a small share in the prosperity and growth of both Hammond and Gary, so that now it is a town of some five hundred people, containing the usual com- plement of stores and churches. It is largely a workmen's and a rail- road town, besides making some pretensions as a shipping center.
CLARKE STATION
Clarke is a station on the old Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, which dates from the completion of that line through the county in 1858. It is situated about two miles from Lake Michigan, one mile north and two miles west of Tolleston. It was named in honor of George W. Clarke, who was at one time a very large land owner in the Calumet region. For many years the main industry of Clarke Station was the harvesting, storage and shipping of ice, and before the days of the artificial product, when many thousands of tons were annually cut, from the Calumet rivers and lakes, Clarke was one of the leading ice centers in Indiana. In the early '80s the region was shipping more than 60,000 tons every season, and Clarke Station was paying to the Fort Wayne road freights which amounted to $3,600 per month. The settle- ment may now muster 150 people.
Ross
As has already been seen, Calumet Township did not assume its present form until 1883, when it was created from the western sections of old North Township and some northern sections of Ross and St. John townships. Thereby the old settlement of Ross, which was formerly in the township by that name, was included in the limits of Calumet Town- ship. Therefore it is that near its southern border in what is now a little station on the Joliet Cut Off is this pioneer landmark commemorat- ing the residence on Deep River, a few miles to the east, of the first sub- stantial settler in Lake County, William Ross.
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By Courtesy of Frank F. Heighway, County Superintendent of Schools
WALLACE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL, CALUMET TOWNSHIP
By Courtesy of Frank F. Hcignway, County Superintendent of Schools
PLAYGROUND AT WALLACE SCHOOL, CALUMET TOWNSHIP
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THE HORNORS-DAVID AND AMOS
Several years before the village was laid out (which was in 1857 ) that well known pioneer, Amos Hornor, resided on the site of Ross; so that he may be accounted its first resident. His father, David Hornor, is said to have made claims on the west side of Red Cedar Lake in the fall of 1834, and Amos, the son, who came in the following year, rather insisted that the elder man should have the honor of being the next set- tler in Lake County after Ross. In November, 1835, David Hornor brought his family to live on the beautiful shores of the lake where he had taken up land, but after a few years returned to his old home in the Wabash Valley.
After the return of his father's family to the Wabash, Amos Hornor resided for some time at Crown Point, and soon married Miss Mary White, one of the young belles of Crown Point, daughter of Mrs. Sally White, of Porter County. The marriage took place in that county on the Fourth of July, 1844. She lived less than a year, and in June, 1849, Mr. Hornor made Mrs. Sarah R. Brown his second wife, with whom he moved to Ross a few years afterward. In the meantime he had made a claim in the edge of the West Creek woodland. known for some years as the Amos Hornor Point. In 1892. his second wife having died, Mr. Hornor married Mrs. Amanda M. Coburn. the bridegroom having then reached the age of seventy-nine years. His death occurred August 25, 1895, at the Village of Ross, of which he had undoubtedly been the best known citizen for some forty years.
REV. GEORGE A. WOODBRIDGE
Rev. George A. Woodbridge, a pioneer minister, also resided at Ross for a number of years, from 1860 until his death at an advanced age. He was a native of Connecticut, a graduate of Yale College, the possessor of a large library and one of the most highly educated men who ever lived in Lake County. In 1839, when he first came to the county, he located near the present Village of Palmer.
A number of other citizens of note in the county have resided at or near Ross, but the place itself has never been more than a wayside sta- tion on the Joliet Cut Off, which was built into the township as early as 1854. In fact, that was the third railroad to enter the county, being preceded only by the Michigan Central and Michigan Southern. In 1857 forty acres of land on the south side of the railroad were laid out into town lots, as Ross, but even at this time the evidences of a settlement are virtually confined to a store, a schoolhouse. a church and a scattering of houses.
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