USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume I > Part 16
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CEDAR LAKE'S EARLY FAME
Solon Robinson says in his manuscript history that Henry Wells and Luman A. Fowler, reaching his camp November 1, 1834, passed on to Cedar Lake, "then the center of attraction for land lookers." This remark is valuable, as showing that so early as the fall of 1834 that sheet of water proved attractive to explorers here; and, although it has lost some of its earliest charms, yet through all these fifty years it has proved attractive to large numbers of fowlers, fishermen and visitors. It became one of the early social centers of the county, and had a right to be, as it did become, a competing point for the location of the county seat.
In the year 1835 the east side was visited by claim seekers, but while Vol. 1 -10
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Aaron Cox settled on the west side in May, no cabin seems to have been built and occupied on the east side until 1836.
THE TAYLORS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS
Then came members of a large family connection. These were Adoni- jah Taylor and Horace Taylor, two brothers, with their wives and chil- dren, and two brothers-in-law, Calvin Lilley and Horace Edgerton, with their families, and the aged father, Obadiah Taylor. There also came James Knickerbocker from New York, John T. Knickerbocker and Cyril Carpenter; but the last of these were not permanent settlers. With the large Taylor family and its connections East Cedar Lake is mainly identified.
CALVIN LILLEY AND HIS HOTEL
Dr. Calvin Lilley, who had been stopping for a year or two at South Bend and whose goods were brought in a good sized rowboat down the Kankakee River, chose for his claim the northern portion of the east side, built his cabin near the top of the slope where it commanded a full view of the broadest part of the lake, opened a pioneer hotel and started a country store. Of course his licenses could not be obtained until after the organization of the county and the election of county commissioners in 1837.
On May 29, 1837, a license was granted Calvin Lilley to sell foreign and domestic groceries and dry goods, for which he was required to pay $5, and a license to keep a tavern at Cedar Lake, for which he was to pay. $15. In the same month the commissioners had granted licenses for three taverns on the "beach of Lake Michigan" for $6 each, for two on the Sand Ridge Road at the same cost, and for one at Liverpool at a cost of $10. Judging from the rate of license, the Lilley Hotel must have been considered at that time the most important and lucrative one then in the county. For some years it continued to be an important social center.
South of Doctor Lilley, Horace Taylor made his claim and settled with his family in 1836 on what is now the Stanley place, his claim taking in Cedar Point. Fine large cedar trees were then growing on that wooded bank, of which but few traces now remain.
DOCTOR LILLEY AND ADONIJAH TAYLOR, PARTNERS
South of him at the Outlet, where was afterward the Binyon Hotel, settled Adonijah Taylor. His land is recorded on the Claim Register,
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October 17, 1836, as "No. 322, R. 9, T. 34, S. 26, southwest quarter, north and south fractions, timber and outlet ; settled, or to be, May 15, 1836."
No. 35 on the Register, entered by "Calvin Lilley from South Bend and A. Taylor from Pennsylvania ; 9, 33, 12, northwest quarter ; prairie, outlet and mill seat," gives both men as residents in June, 1836. These two, in company, also entered 9, 33, 11, northeast quarter, described as "Prairie No. 36." Both entries were recorded July 7, 1836.
NEIGHBORHOOD EXTENDS SOUTHWARD
It thus appears from the Register that, if not in May, certainly in June, 1836, this family settlement was made. It also appears that these East Cedar Lake settlers extended their claims southward, the first sum- mer, as far as the southeastern limit of the present Creston.
In this same summer Horace Edgerton, with four sons and three daughters, made his home near the two Taylor families.
- The northern elaim of this neighborhood, made by Calvin Lilley and settled June 1, 1836, was first recorded as "No. 32, 9. 34, 23, southwest quarter, cast eighty, fraction." On October 30th is this entry: "This claim is altered by direction of the arbitrators so that the claimant now holds the south fraction of this section abutting on Cedar Lake and con- taining about 60 acres."
THE KNICKERBOCKERS AND WESTBROOK FAMILY
James Knickerbocker, from New York, "resident with his family since May," made his claim July 5, 1836, recording it two days later as 9, 34, 24, northeast quarter, west eighty ; and John T. Knickerbocker claimed in May of that year, 9, 34, 26, northeast quarter, southwest eighty, "fraction abutting on the lake," as "resident on it sinee same time." Of this the Claim Register says "Transferred to James Westbrook, Feb- ruary 27, 1837." The Squatter's Union was surely alive to its duties. The Westbrook family moved from the county, and the place bearing its name was afterward occupied by Dr. James A. Wood. The date of the removal of the Westbrook family was probably 1840; of the Knieker- bockers still earlier.
THE DILLES AND WARRINERS
In June, July and September, 1836, various claims were made by Gen. L. Dille, of Ohio, for his sons, who became residents of the East Cedar Lake country. Of these young men, George Washington Dille married Miss Freedom Edgerton.
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By Courtesy of Frank F. Heighway, County Superintendent of Schools
OLD DISTRICT SCHOOL NO. 8
By Courtesy of Frank F. Heighway, County Superintendent of Schools
LEW WALLACE SCHOOL, CENTER TOWNSHIP
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In the summer of 1837 Lewis Warriner, of Springfield, Massachusetts, bought of IIenry Myrick a claim made in September, 1835, and recorded as "9, 33, 2, northeast quarter, No. 826 : to be settled this fall."
And Norman Warriner made a claim at the same time-"9, 33, 3, northeast quarter, south eighty ; to improve immediately and settle next spring."
EASTERN SETTLEMENT GROWS
These families made their settlement according to their recorded inten- tions; and in the summer of 1838, some other families settling east of the lake and vicinity, quite a little community of pioneer squatters were gathering around them home comforts. The lake settlers took quite an interest in fishing, the store and tavern proved to be quite attractive, while several of the men gave their attention to mill-building on the Lilley and Taylor mill-seat. Comforts were provided for the women and children, some gardening was done, but no extensive farming.
EDUCATION AND RELIGION
There was very little rain that summer and a large amount of sick- ness. Death visited this community and a burial place was selected near the bank of the lake. A schoolhouse was soon built, where religious meet- ings were held conducted by the Rev. R. Hyde, and a school was opened and taught by Albert Taylor, Lorin Hall, and then by Norman Warriner, probably in the winter of 1838; in 1840 or 1841 by Miss H. Caroline War- riner, and in the winter of 1843 by T. H. Ball.
At that time what are now two districts were but one. The school- house stood near the edge of Center Prairie and nearly a mile from the lake, on which prairie were then the four families of S. P. Stringham, J. Foley, Doctor Wood and a Mr. Paine. For a time school had been held in a cabin built by Leonard Stringham near the same locality. The regular appointment in this neighborhood, at the schoolhouse and at the Paine place, was for Methodist preaching; but occasionally a Baptist minister from the west side of the lake would come over and preach.
THE MCCARTYS AND WEST POINT
In 1839 Dr. Calvin Lilley died and his place passed into the hands of Benjamin MeCarty, from Porter County, who, with his wife, six sons and two daughters, having considerable means, intelligence and enter- prise, made quite an addition to this community. His sons dressed well
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and rode fine horses; his house was opened for Baptist meetings; he named his place West Point and made offers to the commissioners for locating there the county seat. His oldest son, Enoch Smiley McCarty, put up and burnt a brick kiln, probably the first in the county, which is accredited to the year 1840. His elder daughter married the oldest son of Adonijah Taylor, and for a number of years the family was thoroughly identified with the East Cedar Lake community. The name McCarty is still to be found among the inhabitants of Creston.
LEWIS WARRINER AND FAMILY
The postoffice of the neighborhood was established at Lewis War- riner's (the place now owned by Moses M. Esty), and his house became a center for the East Side Debating Society, and also a place for occa- sional Baptist preaching. L. Warriner had two sons and one daughter, his wife and younger daughter having died in 1838. He had been a member of the Massachusetts Legislature ; was United States census officer for Lake in 1840, and represented Lake County two or three times in the Indiana Legislature. Connected with his home, with postoffice and the literary gatherings with which he was identified there were many pleasant memories and associations, but there are few left to recall them.
WEST POINT ABANDONED
But the time soon came, West Point not having been selected for the county seat, when the fishing and milling interests proved insufficient for the dwellers beside the lake, and they commenced moving southward to the fertile and inviting open prairie. The first to move was probably the MeCarty family, settling and building where is now the home of James Hill. The next was probably the Edgerton family, locating where now resides Alfred Edgerton. The exact dates have not been ascertained, but the latter removal was probably 1844; the former some years earlier, perhaps 1842.
Other families followed, and soon a mile and a half of the eastern side of the lake became almost a wilderness again. The neighborhood roads were untraveled, a thick undergrowth came up, and West Point remains tenantless unto this time-a pasture ground only, covered with trees, shrubs and blackberry bushes. Little vestige remains of the earlier pioneer life that once was there; one of the first social centers of the county, where large households have gathered, where hotel and business life has been, where literary exercises have been held, where neighbors have often gathered, where has been heard the voice of prayer and praise -there for life are only the birds, the rabbits and the honey bees now.
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GRAYTOWN ALSO A FAILURE
But further south, less than a mile from the laid-out town of West Point, an effort was made to start a new enterprise, and thus build up again on an old homestead. Israel and William A. Taylor commenced, in the spring of 1854, the erection of a large steam mill at the outlet of the lake. The mill was built and did some work, but was not a profitable
By Courtesy of Frank F. Heighway, County Superintendent of Schools.
PRESENT CEDAR LAKE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL
investment. In the spring of 1858 Robert Gray bought the Outlet Mill property and laid out Graytown ; neither did that village flourish, but was abandoned about 1865.
COMMENCEMENT OF THE " RESORT" BUSINESS
Again, in that same place, life in another form commenced. In 1877 Christopher Binyon bought the Graytown property and erected buildings to accommodate visitors and boarders, but a notice of this new form of life belongs to another feature of the township; that is, "Cedar Lake as a pleasure resort." To this later period also belongs the settlement of German and Bohemian farmers, some of them large bee-raisers, who
THE FAIR GROUNDS NEAR CROWN POINT
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opened farms in the woodlands extending from Red Cedar Lake north- eastwardly for a couple of miles toward Crown Point.
The founding of Creston was largely the result of the collapse of West Point, but the details relating to it belong more properly to the townships of West Creek and Cedar Creek, in both of which the village lies.
The beauties of Red Cedar Lake, whether viewed from its shores or the surface of its waters, destined it for a popular pleasure resort, as soon as it should become familiar to a sufficient number of non-residents to warrant improvements by the home people. Long before the Monon was completed along the west shores of the lake (in the spring of 1881) fishing parties, boatmen and pleasure seekers quite numerous had spied out the charms of the locality. In fact, Red Cedar Lake had become so well known by 1859 that one of the most ambitious of all the attempts to satisfy the tourists and home people was made in that year.
YOUNG AMERICA IS LAUNCHED
To meet such an apparent existing and increasing demand, Adelbert D. Palmer, afterward of Creston, in the spring of 1859 contracted with Obadiah Taylor, a shipbuilder by trade and then on a visit to the county, to build a double-masted schooner, with cabin and upper decks and capable of carrying 100 passengers. It was completed and launched the same summer and named the Young America. The occasion of its launch- ing was a gala day. A large number of people assembled, speeches were made, a sumptuous dinner served, and as Young America slid gracefully out into the lake, it was considered that a new era had also been launched of benefit to the locality. But it grew unseaworthy and finally stranded off the coast of Cedar Point.
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS
The next boat specially used for pleasure seekers was the Lady of the Lake, which Samuel Love imported from Lake Michigan. It was a much smaller sailboat than the Young America and was kept busy by excursion parties for five summers. About this time a clubhouse was built at the outlet by some conductors on the P. C. & St. L. Railroad and supplied with a score of rowboats, while Crip Binyon opened a summer hotel at the same point.
THE RAILROAD AT LAST
The real life of Cedar Lake as a pleasure resort dates from the pushing of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad along its western
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shores. Since 1881 people have been able to "get there" easily. A line was projected as early as 1867 and some grading and bridging were actually accomplished in 1874. Then came a suspension of the work, and it was not until the old Indianapolis, Delphi & Chicago Railroad, with its successors, had passed to the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago, that anything decisive was done. The line was then rapidly completed, and with the running of regular trains along the shores of Cedar Lake, in 1881, purchasers of land commenced to appear. Various Chicago men and other non-residents bought properties on the lake, brought sailboats, camping parties increased . in numbers and size, several good hotels were built, excursion trains representing churches and societies made the shores lively, steamers were placed upon the lake and docks were built ; and Red Cedar Lake was a full-fledged "pleasure resort." As early as 1884 about two hundred boats of different kinds were on the waters of the lake, and from three to five thousand people would some- times "resort" in a week. "Since then," says one who has carefully watched the development of that feature, "buildings have been erected on both sides of the lake and every summer there are thousands of visitors. Almost entirely in these later years has that Lake of the Red Cedars been given up to the devotees of pleasure in the summer time, and in the winter to the ice business."
RICHARD FANCHER AND THE FAIR GROUNDS
One of the first to explore the eastern shores of Red Cedar Lake was Richard Fancher, whose coming to that region in 1835 has been noted. Ile selected land around a beautiful little lake in section 17, about a mile south of the Robinson and Clark elaims, or "Solon Robinson's place." But Mr. Fancher soon found that there was an Indian claim, or "float," on the entire section, and he therefore joined the promoters of Lake Court House. He had five daughters, who became Mrs. J. C. Nicholson, Mrs. Alton, Mrs. Sanford Clark, Mrs. J. Clingan and Mrs. Harry Church. He lived to a good old age and died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Clingan, in 1893.
The old Fancher claim, which did not "stick," included the present beautiful fair grounds of the Lake County Agricultural Society. Nature seems to have fashioned them for the required purpose. In their hollowed center is set the charming and deep Fancher Lake. Around it is the race track, and surrounding this a range of wooded, gently sloping hills, form- ing an amphitheater of the required slope and dimensions. The society was formed in 1851 and the grounds purchased and laid out in 1858,
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since which the fair grounds have been the scene of increasing annual gatherings. Several of the most pleasant and profitable meetings of the Old Settler Association have been held at the fair grounds, notably the session of September 3 and 4, 1884, which celebrated the semi-centennial of the settlement of Lake County.
CHAPTER X
EAGLE CREEK TOWNSHIP
SOUTHEAST GROVE-PRESENT EAGLE CREEK TOWNSHIP-FIRST SETTLERS -SOUTHEAST GROVE CEMETERY SOCIETY-GROVE SCHOOLHOUSES- LITERARY WRESTLINGS-THE TURNERS, DINWIDDIES AND PEARCES.
Eagle Creek Township occupies the southeastern corner of Lake County, its southern half being included in the Kankakee region. Its surface is a mingling of undulating prairies and pleasant groves in the northern sections, and of marshes, islands and bottom lands in the southern portions. The marsh lands, swamps and islands in the Kankakee district cover substantially twenty-seven sections, and within the town- ship are nearly twenty-nine sections of high prairie and groves.
Since about 1884, when the draining of the Kankakee lands was com- menced on a large scale, and by steam dredges and other modern appli- ances, Eagle Creek Township has become noted for the productiveness of its soil. The raising of live stock has become especially successful. In this work of drainage and agricultural development none has been more prominent than John Brown, the pioneer banker of Crown Point, who was born in the township and whose father, Alexander F. Brown, was one of its earliest settlers. One of the largest of the ditches, or drainage channels, in the region, which crosses Eagle Creek, Cedar Creek and West Creek townships, was mainly constructed by him and is known as the Brown Ditch.
SOUTHEAST GROVE
It was chiefly at and near the beautiful groves of Eagle Creek Town- ship that the first settlers of the country clustered, their churches, socie- ties and schools often taking their names from these charming localities. The most noted of these were Southeast and Plum groves. When size, appearance, surroundings and everything else are taken into account, Southeast Grove is generally accorded the palm for all-around superior- ity. It is located about four miles southeast of Crown Point, and because of that direction the name was early applied to it. The grove covers an
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area of about one mile, including parts of four sections in the north- eentral part of the township.
PRESENT EAGLE CREEK TOWNSHIP
The old South Township was divided into Eagle Creek, Cedar Creek and West Creek townships in 1839, but Eagle Creek did not attain its present form until the organization of Winfield to the north, which was carved from the original Center Township in 1843.
FIRST SETTLERS
Although trappers and traders had temporarily lived on the islands and borders of the Kankakee marshes, the first permanent settlers were residents of the region designated Southeast Grove. To that locality eame Alexander F. Brown in 1837. He secured his land from the Government, improved it industriously and wisely. and became an influential eitizen of the county prior to his death in 1849. He was killed in a runaway accident at the age of forty-five, and left to his widow the eare of five children, one of whom was born after his demise. At the time of the father's death, the oldest child, a daughter, was twelve years of age, and John, the second born, was nine. It is to the latter, who has but just entered his seventy-fifth year as one of the honored fathers of the county, that the editor is indebted for the facts dealing with the early settle- ment and the first settlers of Southeast Grove and Eagle Creek Township.
So far as has yet been ascertained Joseph Morris may be considered the first permanent settler. The date of his eoming is uncertain, as the Claim Register throws no light upon it; probably it was about 1835. The place of his settlement, however, is known to have been on the east side of Southeast Grove, at what afterward became the home of George S. Doak, a well known teaeher.
George Parkinson became a settler in 1836, and in 1837 Orrin Smith, O. V. Servis. George Flint and, probably, William Ketchum took up homesteads. The last named located near the north of the grove, making a claim which was entered by Judge Clark, of Crown Point, in 1839.
Judge Clark moved from Crown Point to this grove farm about 1841, and afterward returned to a farm on the prairie, two miles east of Crown Point, where he resided during the remainder of his life. In 1850 he sold that early settled grove place to J. N. Baldwin, and it was sold by his heirs in 1868 to John Nethery.
The Flint place was near the south part of the grove, and was long afterward the residence of Thomas George.
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Other settlers were Reverend Thompson, a Scotchman and a Methodist local preacher ; A. F. Brown and John Brown, Jr., in 1840; the Wallace family and William Brown in 1843; John A. Crawford in 1844, and Thomas and William Fisher in 1850.
SOUTHEAST GROVE CEMETERY SOCIETY
In 1849, when occurred the death of Alexander F. Brown, this grove community found it needful to set apart a place for the burial of the dead. This further and businesslike action in the matter will appear from the following document, copied from the original record :
"At a meeting of the inhabitants of Southeast Grove held at the schoolhouse in said grove (notice having been given) for the purpose of forming a cemetery society, John Brown, Jr., was chosen chairman and Hiram Kingsbury, secretary. It was resolved
"1. This society shall be known as the Southeast Grove Cemetery Society.
"2. Said society shall be governed by three trustees who shall hold their offices until others are elected.
"3. It shall be the duty of the trustees to procure a deed for the lot now used as a burying ground; also to call meetings of the society for the purpose of transaeting any business they shall deem necessary.
"4. Said society shall embrace the following territory, to-wit: Sec- tions 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15; Township 33, Range 8, in the county of Lake, State of Indiana.
"John A. Crawford. F. C. Flint and O. V. Servis were unanimously elected trustees by the following voters: John Brown, Jr., John Cochran, Joseph Bray, T. C. Durland, J. E. Durland, F. C. Flint, William Post, E. E. Flint and William Ketchum.
"Southeast Grove, April 1, 1850."
A deed was obtained according to the third of these resolutions, and the Cemetery Society, organized in 1850, is still in existenee, but, of course, in new hands, and holds one of the most secure and best located burial places in the county.
The John Brown, Jr., mentioned as the chairman of the cemetery society, was a brother of Alexander F. Brown and therefore an unele of the John Brown still living. He was one of the six sons of John Brown, of Scotland. John Brown, Jr., never married, and for many years made his home with the Crawford family west of the Grove and near his farm.
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GROVE SCHOOLHOUSES
Years before that date, a schoolhouse had been found needful, and one was built of logs not far from the corner of sections 1, 2, 11 and 12, in the southern part of the grove. There the children of the neighborhood gathered to receive instruction : there was the meeting-place of a debating society, and there was commenced. about 1846, the Grove Sabbath School.
By Courtesy of Frank F. Heighway, County Superintendent of Schools.
PLUM GROVE SCHOOL
About 1850 the same enterprising men who provided a permanent burial place for the dead built, by subscription, a frame schoolhouse just south of where the present building stands-the latter having been built by the township about 1864. As is the custom in other parts of the county. these houses have been used not only for day schools and Sunday schools, but for church purposes, literary societies, lectures and everything else of an elevating and public nature.
LITERARY WRESTLINGS
The Orchard Grove Literary Society, whose members were drawn from the Cedar Creek neighborhood just over the township line to the west,
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was a keen debating rival of the Southeast Grove organization. Even as late as the '70s the traditions of the latter were nobly upheld by such men as J. Q. Benjamin, W. Brown, John Brown and B. Brown. A later generation of Southeast Grove debaters arose in Charles Ben- jamin, son of J. Q .; Mat Brown and William Brown, sons of William Brown; E. W. Dinwiddie, of Plum Grove; Thomas Nethery, John Wil- son, James Turner, Thomas Turner and R. Wilson. Among the young ladies of those times who gave zest to the literary exercises of the South- east Grove Society were Amy and May Crawford, May Doak, Alice George, Fanny Nethery, Esther Donahue, Jebbie Stewart and Ruby Brown and Mary Boyd.
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