USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume I > Part 23
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HON. JOHN H. GILLETT
Hon. John H. Gillett, ex-judge of the State Supreme Court of In- diana, is one of the strong men of the Hammond and the Lake County bar. He is a native of Medina, N. Y., born September 18, 1860; was educated in the public schools of Valparaiso, and at his admission to the Indiana bar in 1881 commenced practice at Hammond. In 1886 he served as assistant attorney-general and was judge of the Circuit Court from 1892 to 1902. He was elevated to the bench of the State Supreme Court, by appointment, in 1892, and in November of that year was elected to a six-years' term. Judge Gillett was honored with the chief justiceship from 1903 to 1908, and since the latter year has been engaged in a large and lucrative praetiee at Hammond. As an author he is well known for his works on "Criminal Law" (1888 and 1895) and "Indirect 'and Collateral Evidence" (1897).
HON. WILLIS C. McMAHAN
Judge Willis C. McMahan, of the Circuit Court, is a native of Car- roll County, Indiana, born August 2, 1858. He graduated from the Delphi High School and in his early manhood was a teacher. From 1881 to 1882 he studied law at the University of Michigan, continued his studies with a Logansport firm, and in 1883 was admitted to the bar at Delphi. He began practice at Crown Point in April, 1884, and from 1886 to 1901 acted as its town attorney; served as prosecuting attorney of the county in 1890-94, and as county attorney from 1900 until Governor Durbin appointed him judge of the Thirty-first Judicial Circuit in 1902. Judge McMahan was elected to the bench in Novem- ber of that year and reelected in 1908 and 1914.
HON. VIRGIL S. REITER
Judge Reiter was very active and prominent in his profession before his appointment to the bench of the Superior Court in August,
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1907. In 1908 he was elected for the six-year term. He is a Hoosier by birth and commenced practice at Rochester, Indiana, where he also served as city attorney. In August, 1893, soon after the expiration of his term of office, he located at Hammond and at once took high rank both as a lawyer and a republican leader. From 1898 to 1902 he was chairman of the Lake County Republican Central Committee, having been appointed United States commissioner in 1900. He served as city attorney of Hammond from 1902 to 1904. On the first of October, of the latter year, Judge Reiter becante associated with L. L. Bomberger under the firm name of Reiter & Bomberger, Mr. Bomberger having previously been in partnership with the late Charles F. Griffin from 1900 until the death of the latter in 1902.
HON. LAWRENCE BECKER
Judge Lawrence Becker is another native German who has made his legal and judicial mark in Lake County. When he was but ten years of age his parents brought him from Westphalia, with other members of the family, and for four years they resided at Tolleston. They then moved to Montana, but as a young man of twenty-three Lawrence re- turned to Indiana and completed his legal education at the Valparaiso University, from which he graduated in 1896. He located at Hammond. was city attorney from 1898 to 1902, and mayor from May, 1904, until March, 1911. After being elected to the head of the municipal govern- ment for three times, he resigned the mayoralty at the latter date to accept the appointment of judge of the Superior Court of Lake County, which had been tendered to him by Governor Marshall. He has since served with credit on that bench, and for more than a decade has been a member of the Hammond Public Library Board. of which institution he is one of the founders.
HON. CHARLES E. GREENWALD
Before his election to the bench of the Superior Court in November, 1914, Judge Greenwald was a leader of the Lake County bar, resident at Whiting for about sixteen years. He is a native of the City of Cleve- land and has but just entered his thirty-ninth year. A graduate of the University of Michigan law department in 1895, three years later he located at Whiting, and during the following decade made a good record in the office of the prosecuting attorney of the county, of which he was head for two terms. His career, both as a private and a public practi- tioner, earned him the judicial election of 1914.
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JAMES A. PATTERSON
The present prosecuting attorney of the county, James A. Patterson, is a member of the Indiana Harbor bar, is a graduate of the Chicago Law School and located at the point named in 1902.
FATHER OF THE SUPERIOR COURTHOUSE
Probably no single individual should have more credit for the build- ing of the Superior courthouse than James M. Bradford, an able busi- ness man of Hammond, who has held important offices both in the serv- ice of the city and county. He was one of the founders of the water- works and while county commissioner, from 1894 to 1900, was the leader in the movement to secure a courthouse in his home city. Others planned and carried through the legislation providing a Superior Court for Hammond, the original stipulation being that the commissioners pro- vide rented quarters for holding its sessions. But Commissioner Brad- ford wanted a new courthouse, and went after it. Before his oppo- nents knew that he had made any decisive move, he had negotiated for a site and the architect was well along in his plans. The matter was finally taken into the courts, but the new courthouse movement, led by Mr. Bradford, won the fight-both in and out of eourt.
UNITED STATES COURTS AT HAMMOND
Besides the Superior, the United States District and Cireuit courts convene in Hammond, the Federal body meeting twice annually-on the third Tuesdays of April and October, respectively. In 1907 a mag- nificent three-story structure was ereeted on the corner of State Street and Oakley Avenue, at a cost of $140,000, to serve both as a postoffice and a United States courthouse. It stands on a handsome square, 150 by 200 feet, and Joseph T. Hutton, the Hammond architect, may well feel proud of his handiwork and brain-work. Since the ereetion of this new building the sessions of the United States courts have been presided over by Hon. Albert B. Anderson, of Indianapolis, whose appointment dates from 1902. At each term of the court, the judge is accompanied by the other officials from Indianapolis, ineluding the elerk, the marshal and the district attorney. The resident representative is Charles L. Sur- prise, who was born near Lowell, received a thorough education in the county and a legal training at the Northwestern University, Chieago. and in practical office work at Hammond. He received his appointment as deputy elerk of the United States District and Circuit courts in 1906.
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PRESENT BAR OF HIGH GRADE
Although Hammond, as a substantial town, is now some forty years of age, its citizenship was long concentrated in business and industrial development, and we believe it is a fair and a safe statement to say that it was not until the establishment of its Superior Court in 1895 that the bar of that city became substantial and of high rank. Since then East Chicago and Gary, with their remarkable development, have also attracted a number of able lawyers, especially in the field of commercial and cor- poration law.
HON. ELISHA C. FIELD
HIon. Elisha C. Field, president of the Monon Line and a leader of the Hammond bar, is a native of Valparaiso, Indiana, born April 9, 1862. After receiving a literary training at the Valparaiso College he entered the law school of the University of Michigan, from which he obtained his degree of LL. B. in 1865. That year marks his admission to the bar and his settlement at Crown Point. He was appointed prosecuting attor- ney in 1868, served as judge of the Circuit Court in 1879-89, and in the latter year became general solicitor of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago, and its successor, the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Rail- road. From 1907 to 1914 he served as vice president of the Monon and since the latter year has been the head of the system. Judge Field is also largely interested in the stone industries, being prominently identi- fied with the Indiana Stone Railroad Company and the Indiana Stone and the Consolidated Stone companies.
PETER CRUMPACKER
Peter Crumpacker is a leader of the later-day bar of Lake County. He is a native of Laporte County, his two brothers being leaders at the Valparaiso bar, Hon. E. D. Crumpacker having served for years as prosecuting attorney, on the appellate bench and in Congress as a repre- sentative of the Tenth District. Soon after graduating from the Val- paraiso Law School, Peter Crumpacker located at Hammond, where, since 1888 he has done nothing but go right ahead. From 1891 to 1893 he was associated with Hon. J. H. Gillett, afterward appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana. In 1894-98 Mr. Crumpacker served as city attorney of Hammond during the administration of F. R. Mott as mayor, and in 1900 became associated in private practice with D. J. Moran, a bright young attorney who had joined the fraternity two years before.
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A. F. KNOTTS
Armanis F. Knotts, ex-mayor of Hammond, is also well to the front in the list of Lake County lawyers, and as a public man few have been more consistently earnest and helpful. Although born in Ohio, his par- ents brought him to Pulaski County so young that he considers himself for all practical purposes, a Hoosier; and he was "always for Ham- mond" until he moved to Gary and has since been faithful to her in- terests. Mr. Knotts received a thorough education at the Valparaiso College, and from 1879 to 1887, besides conducting a normal school and business college at Lodoga, Indiana, he completed business, engineering, scientific, classical and law courses at the Valparaiso institution. In 1887 he graduated in law with the same class which numbered Peter Crumpacker. Before he had completed his legal studies he had been elected county surveyor of Porter County, resigning that office to go to Hammond.
From the moment Mr. Knotts opened a law office, he took an active part in the material upbuilding of the city, irrespective of its direct effect on the growth of his professional interests. As one of his projects upon which he labored night and day was to seeure for Hammond a direct water connection with Lake Michigan through Wolf Lake, he became popularly known as "Harbor Knotts;" so popular, in fact, that he was sent to the State Assembly in 1898 as the joint representative of Lake and Jasper counties, and in May, 1902, elected mayor of Hammond. While in the Legislature he secured the passage of the bill which placed the Superior Court of Hammond on the same footing as the Circuit Court, and au- thorized the building of the fine Superior courthouse there. Also, while mayor he appointed the industrial committee which was so active and successful in locating new industries at Hammond.
Mr. Knotts was elected mayor at a time when riots, strikes and "graft," together with the recent burning of the great slaughter house, made the outlook very dark for Hammond. Its mainstay, from a busi- ness and industrial standpoint, had been knocked from under it ; the city had now to depend upon three minor industries. But in a short time the city recognized the presence and stimulation of a strong personal force in Mayor Knotts. Eleven new industries were planted in Hammond dur- ing his administration and largely through his initiative. His record as an originator and a pusher won for him the attention of Judge Gary, of the United States Steel Corporation, and his work in the founding and development of the City of Gary will be found described as a part of its history.
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FRANK N. GAVIT
A strong member of the Lake County bar and a special advocate of the interests of Whiting, the city of his residence for more than twenty years, Frank N. Gavit is a Canadian of Irish lineage, in his fifty-first year. He is a graduate of the Northwestern University Law School, as well as of the Northern Indiana Normal School. Mr. Gavit first located for practice at Saginaw, Michigan, but after remaining in that city for about two years came to Whiting in 1892. From the first he has enjoyed a large private practice, having, for many years, represented its two banks in legal matters. He also drew up the incorporation papers for the Town of Whiting, afterward incorporated it as a city and has rep- resented his home place in all of its litigations with Hammond. More- over, his practice has been largely as an advocate of the rights of the modest citizen.
LAKE COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION
In 1896 the lawyers of Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago organ- ized the North Township Bar Association, of which A. F. Knotts re- mained the president until it was made a county-wide affair under the name of the Lake County Bar Association, in 1912. The members of the old organization became the charter members of the new, the first president of which was D. J. Moran of IIammond; secretary, E. G. Sproat. In 1913 L. L. Bomberger, of Hammond, was elected president of the Lake County Bar Association and Mr. Sproat was reelected sec- retary. J. H. Conroy was chosen president in 1914; C. B. Tinkham, vice president ; N. A. Hembroff, treasurer; E. G. Sproat, secretary.
. CONGRESSIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE DISTRICTS
Lake County has been in the Tenth Congressional District since 1876. From the organization of the county in 1837 until 1843, it constituted a portion of the Seventh. In that year the state was divided into ten congressional districts, and Lake County, with sixteen other counties in Northwestern Indiana, was placed in the Ninth Congressional Dis- trict, making it the largest of the ten thus created.
In arranging the senatorial districts Laporte, Lake and Porter were placed in one district and allotted one senator, and Porter and Lake were allowed one representative to the Assembly. In 1872 the State Legislature made a reapportionment by which Lake and Porter were allowed one senator, and Lake alone, one representative. Four years
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afterward, Lake County became one of eight counties to form the Tenth Congressional Distriet. In 1895 the state was divided into thirteen dis- tricts, the Tenth being reduced in area to Lake, Porter and Laporte counties. In 1914 occurred the last reapportionment by which Laporte was attached to the Thirteenth Congressional District, and the Tenth made to comprise Lake, Porter, Jasper, Newton, Benton, White and Tippecanoe counties.
Since 1872, there has been no change in the legislative apportion- ment as it affects Lake County, with the exception that since 1897 Lake and Jasper counties have jointly sent a representative to the Assembly.
HON. THOMAS J. WOOD
Both in Congress and the State Legislature a large proportion of the members have been lawyers, and for the past thirty years none of the Lake County delegation has had a better record than the late Hon. Thomas J. Wood, of Crown Point. A native of Ohio, he spent his earlier life on a farm, and as a scholar and teacher near Terre Haute, Indiana. He worked his way through the University of Michigan Law School, and graduated at the head of his class in 1868, locating at Lowell for prae- tice. But he moved to the county seat in 1870, and as a legal advocate and counselor, as well as a democratic leader, was soon at the very heart of things. First he was elected to several town offices, and from 1872 to 1876 earned a more extended reputation as state's attorney for the county. In 1876 he was elected state senator for Lake and Porter coun- ties, and during his four years in that office earned a high standing as an alert and sound debater and a far-sighted legislator.
REPRESENTED THE OLD COLFAX DISTRICT
While in the Senate, Mr. Wood pushed through much important leg- islation affecting land titles throughout the state, thereby obtaining the warm support of property owners and men of substantial influence. In 1882 he was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, representing for two years the old Colfax district. In that strong republican district he was defeated for reelection by less than three hundred votes. Mr. Wood's strength in a state which for many years has been placed in the doubt- ful column had even eaused his name to be mentioned for the presidency. He was a man who had grown beyond professional limitations and his death, which occurred at his home in Crown Point, October 13, 1908, was an acknowledged loss to the county and the state.
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HON. JOHN B. PETERSON
Hon. John B. Peterson, of Crown Point, representative in Congress for the Tenth Indiana District, is a native of Lake County, born on the 4th of July, 1851. He has been a leading member of the state bar since his admission to practice in 1870, being also entitled to practice at the bar of the United States Supreme Court. Ten years of progressive pro- fessional work in Lake County brought him such a solid reputation that in 1880 he became prosecuting attorney for the Thirty-first Judicial Circuit, a position which he held for four years. In 1913 Mr. Peterson was elected to Congress, as a representative of the Tenth District as it then existed. He is a Democrat and a vigorous supporter of the Wilson administration. * He is not only a good lawyer, but a successful banker, being president of the Commercial Bank of Crown Point and the First Calumet Trust and Savings Bank of East Chicago.
THE FIRST TWO PHYSICIANS
Like the lawyers, most of the old-time physicians who became best known located at Crown Point. "Doctor and Judge" H. D. Palmer has already been etched as an associate on the bench of the Circuit Court. He was a regularly edueated and licensed practitioner, and one of his first competitors was a gentleman who was neither. Joseph Greene was to the southwestern part of the county-to the American settlers around Cedar Lake and the Germans further west-what Doctor Palmer was to the northeastern and northern districts. Notwithstanding his lack of a diploma he knew how to grapple with malarial fever and other ailments common in the low country ; was also a good deer hunter, quite widely- traveled and popular, and a welcome visitor to many firesides. His brother, Sylvester, shared his practice and popularity.
NOT OUTDONE BY ANY INDIAN
The next early physician was Dr. James A. Wood. His home was at first in Porter County, but his rides often extended into Lake. The doctor rode a very fine-looking Indian pony; thick set, with a heavy mane, and very sagacious and hardy. One day he was near the Cady marsh and a patient needed a physician on the other side. Dr. Wood had been told that no white man had ever ridden across. It was im- plied that an Indian had. That was too much for the doctor, and time, moreover, was precious. He concluded that if an Indian had crossed, he could and would ; and he did. A solid gravel road crosses now, with Vol. 1-16
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three or four railroads-just to show how Man flouts Nature. Dr. Wood soon moved from Porter County to the east side of Cedar Lake, and had a large practice. Later, he located at Lowell and during eighteen months of the Civil war was regimental surgeon to the Twelfth Indiana Cavalry.
DOCTORS YEOMAN AND FARRINGTON
Dr. S. B. Yeoman was another pioneer physician and resident of Lowell, who died in January, 1865.
Dr. W. C. Farrington located at Crown Point for practice in 1840 and during the succeeding sixteen years established a large professional business at the county seat and in the surrounding country. He was also enterprising and aggressive in other ways, and his death in 1856 was widely deplored.
DR. A. J. PRATT
Dr. A. J. Pratt, who located in 1854, married the widow of the de- ceased, succeeded to much of Doctor Farrington's practice and, being an able practitioner himself, eventually became one of the leading physi- cians of the county. For nearly forty years, or until his death in 1893, Dr. Pratt was an honor to manhood and professional life.
DR. HARVEY PETTIBONE
Dr. Harvey Pettibone represented the second generation in a family of physicians; his father and his son being both practitioners. The rep- resentative mentioned located at Crown Point in 1847 and continued his professional work, with the county seat as its center, until his death, August 19, 1898, in his seventy-seventh year. He had commenced prac- tiee in his native town of Naples, New York, in the year 1842. Doctor Pettibone took the part of a good citizen in public affairs, and served his people in the State Legislature in 1882-84.
DR. HENRY PETTIBONE
Dr. Henry Pettibone, the son, was born at Crown Point in 1850, was educated at home and at Hanover College, Indiana, studied medicine, secured quite a large practice (his father gradually retiring), and un- expectedly died in Chicago, June 26, 1902.
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DR. JOHN HIGGINS
Doctor Pratt, the elder Doctor Pettibone and Dr. John Higgins were for many years the leading physicians of the Crown Point district. The last named was a New York man, who graduated from the Indiana Med- ical College in 1846 and in 1847 married Miss Diantha Tremper, member of a Lake County family of early settlers.
Doctor Higgins did not fully enter upon practice at Crown Point until 1859. In 1861 he entered the Union army as a physician and surgeon, did much hospital work, became an expert surgeon and resumed practice at the county seat in 1865. Like his two contemporaries his practice extended over considerable territory and, having a good start financially, like them he continued to accumulate. His only daughter married Hon. J. W. Youche, who died in 1901, and on April 7, 1904, he himself joined his wife who had passed to the beyond in 1895.
OTHER EARLY PHYSICIANS OF CROWN POINT
The late II. P. Swartz was one of the oldest practicing physicians in the county, as well as one of the prominent citizens of Crown Point. He graduated from Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1868, located at Crown Point in 1871, acquired a large practice, amassed property and actively participated in the best development of the community.
Dr. J. C. Gibbs, one of the first of the homeopaths to commence prac- tice, is broadly educated and a leading citizen. He commenced his higher courses at the University of Wisconsin, taking literary honors, but grad- uated from the Chicago Homeopathic College in medicine with the class of 1886. He stands high both as a practitioner and a man of affairs.
DRS. P. P. AND EDWARD R. GORDON
These two Hobart physicians, both deceased, left fine reputations. Dr. P. P. Gordon was the elder, their personal relations being uncle and nephew. Each served the county as coroner, in addition to establishing a large general practice. Dr. P. P. Gordon graduated from the Buffalo Medical College in 1865 and at once commenced practice at Hobart. He devoted considerable of his time to railroad surgery, was examining physician for a number of insurance companies, served four years on the pension board, and besides becoming widely known in his profes- sion amassed a variety of large property interests and did much to ad- vance the town and the county. He died March 8, 1904, and his nephew passed away December 19, 1912.
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OTHER HOBART PHYSICIANS
Doctor Miller, a graduate of Rush Medical College, located in Hobart during 1879, and since 1892 Dr. R. C. Mackey has been a resident physi- cian of growing reputation, having served as coroner twice.
Dr. Joseph C. Watson, who located at Hobart soon after his gradu- ation from the medical department of the University of Indianapolis in 1888, made surgery his specialty. Quite early in his career he became surgeon for the Nickel Plate Railway and has been since identified with a number of other roads in that capacity. For some years he has been a practitioner at Gary.
CORONER FRANK W. SMITH
Dr. Frank W. Smith, of Gary, who is now serving his second term as coroner of Lake County, is a man of broad education and active in the public reforms of the Calumet region. He is thoroughly grounded in the theory and practice of his profession, and since 1913 has been at the head of a non-partisan movement, having for its avowed object "the cleaning up of Gary." In national politics, the doctor is a republican.
DR. H. L. IDDINGS, MERRILLVILLE
For many years Dr. H. L. Iddings has been the leading medical prac- titioner of Merrillville and the surrounding district. He is a native of Noble County, Indiana, born sixty-three years ago, and is a graduate of the Detroit College of Medicine. For four years he was located in prac- tice at Swan, Noble County, and was then appointed to the position of physician to the State Penitentiary at Michigan City, discharging the duties of that position for two years. He came to Merrillville in 1883, and has been in constant and successful practice there ever since.
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