USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume I > Part 24
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LAKE COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY
Organized medicine in Lake County dates back but a comparatively few years when, in 1899, about a dozen physicians interested themselves in the organization of the Lake County Medical Society. Dr. Pannenborg was selected as president, with Dr. T. W. Oberlin as secretary. The following year Dr. Howat was chosen to head the new organization and thus served until 1909. In 1911 Dr. Howat was elected to the presidency of the State Medical Association.
The increase in membership was slow until 1907, when physicians
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from the then new city of Gary began to apply for membership, bringing the total to near the half century mark. The close of the year 1914 finds a total membership of ninety-four, being the second largest county medical society in the state.
The present plan of the society provides at least ten scientific pro- grams each year, with a summer picnic for the members and their fami- lies, and an annual meeting, at which time we hold our election, hear the president's address and make plans for the new year. The presidents of the society have been as follows: Dr. J. P. Pannenborg, 1899; Dr. W. F. Howat, 1900-08; Dr. A. G. Schlicker, 1909; Dr. E. M. Shanklin, 1910; Dr. E. E. Evans, 1911-12; Dr. W. D. Weis, 1913; Dr. J. W. Iddings, 1914. Secretaries: Dr. T. W. Oberlin, 1899; Dr. HI. E. Sharrer, 1902-07; Dr. W. D. Weis, 1908; Dr. E. M. Shanklin, 1909; Dr. H. C. Groman, 1910; Dr C. A. DeLong, 1911; Dr. E. M. Shanklin, 1912.
DR. W. F. HOWAT
. Dr. W. F. Howat has been a leading practitioner since 1892 and citizen of Hammond since locating in that city in 1895. He has served as president of the Lake County Medical Association for eight years (1900-08) and was president of the State Medical Association in 1912. For a dozen years past he has been a leading member of the Public Library Board, has served on the Hammond Board of School Trustees for seven years, and otherwise been identified with the advancement of the city.
ST. MARGARET'S HOSPITAL
The institution above named was established at Hammond by the Sisters of St. Francis in 1898. Since that year it has been twice enlarged and at the present time has a capacity of about one hundred and seventy- five beds. In 1913, 1,600 patients were treated therein, and it is probable that the number will not fall below those figures during 1914.
CROWN POINT, EARLIEST NEWSPAPER CENTER
The press of Lake County is in its fifty-ninth year, and from first to last has seen its dark days as well as its bright. Like all else of a professional, political and semi-public nature, it first took root at the county seat, when Crown Point, its lawyers, its resident officials, its physicians, and ministers and teachers, wielded the bulk of influence on the public affairs of the county.
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THE LAKE COUNTY HERALD
The birth of journalism in Lake County was no more auspicious than it usually is in a young community, however stable it may be for its years. At the height of the border troubles between Kansas and Missouri and while the republican party was in the throes of its birth, the leading citizens of Crown Point and Lake County called loudly for a mouthpiece in the shape of a newspaper. Rodney Dunning, a Val- paraiso citizen and editor, responded to the call, and to make certain his coming and the founding of a republican newspaper, John Wheeler and Zerah F. Summers, the county surveyor and his assistant, with Janna S. Holton, a leading merchant, advanced $300 in cash for the purchase of a printing outfit and guaranteed a circulation equivalent to a like sum. Mr. Dunning came and issued the Lake County Herald for several months during the later part of 1856. His backers, who were all related by marriage, were solid and ambitious men, and were long identified with the progress of Crown Point and the county.
FATHERS OF LAKE COUNTY JOURNALISM
John Wheeler, a native of Connecticut, spent his youth and early manhood in Ohio, and was twenty-two when he located at Crown Point with his bride of a year and various members of his father's family. There, for a few years he was a farmer in the summer and a teacher in the winter. With his father, he also commeneed surveying in the Kankakee swamp lands, and made such progress that he became county surveyor in 1853. In the following year Zerah F. Summers, a relative by marriage, located at the county seat. Mr. Summers, who was four years younger than the county surveyor, was already an expert in that line, having been educated as a surveyor and seen considerable service upon the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad. He therefore became Mr. Wheeler's efficient assistant in connection with his duties as county surveyor.
Janna S. Holton, the third republican enthusiast and leading sup- porter of the experimental newspaper, located at Crown Point with his father, Dr. Ira Holton, a Vermonter, in 1844. In 1856 he was one of the rising young merchants and citizens of the town, and continued to grow in position and strength of character during his long after career.
CROWN POINT REGISTER APPEARS
Mr. Dunning did not make a success of the Lake County Herald. and Mr. Holton became the purchaser of its press and office material.
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In the meantime Mr. Summers had taken a trip into the Kansas terri- tory of the free soil contentions, and returned to Crown Point a stronger republican than ever. There in August he and Mr. Wheeler formed a partnership, bought the remains of the Herald from Mr. Hol- ton, and on the 4th of August, 1857, issued the first number of the Crown Point Register.
COL. JOHN WHEELER
Projecting ourselves in the narrative, for a few years, it may be stated as a bit of personal information that John Wheeler continued his newspaper association with Mr. Summers until 1861, when he entered the service of the Union army as captain of the home company which he raised-Company B, Twentieth Regiment Indiana Volunteers. An elegant sword, the gift of friends in Lake County, was presented to Captain Wheeler while his regiment was on parade in Indianapolis. They passed through Baltimore with flying colors, were at Fortress Monroe, at Hatteras and Camp Hamilton, and so thoroughly had their captain performed the duties of a soldier that he was commissioned major of the regiment February 16, 1862. In March, 1863, he was promoted to the colonelcy. "In July, as colonel of the Twentieth Indi- ana Regiment, he led his veteran troops on that bloody and decisive field of Gettysburg, and there fell on July 2d, in the slaughter of that terrible conflict. The body of the patriot soldier was brought to Crown Point for burial." Col. John Wheeler was one of the sturdiest, ablest and most honored pioneers of Lake County, and his stay in the com- munity was all too short. And his descendants have done him honor in word and deed.
ZERAH F. SUMMERS
Mr. Summers sold his interest in the Register in 1862, being county clerk at the time; he held that office from 1859 to 1867, and both during that period and afterward served as real estate appraiser, county school examiner, and town trustee. In 1865 he erected a warehouse at the depot in Crown Point, and commenced the grain business, which he continued until his death in 1879. In 1869-70 he was engaged as surveyor and civil engineer on the line of the Vincennes, Danville & Chicago Railroad. The later years of his life were spent in travel, with a view of benefitting his health, but such efforts were futile, and he died at the Battle Creek (Mich.) Sanitarium, July 31, 1879.
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JOHN MILLIKAN, VETERAN
Succeeding Mr. Summers, Harper & Beattie became proprietors of the Crown Point Register, and Samuel E. Ball assumed the proprietor- ship in October, 1869. Then came Frank S. Bedell and John J. Wheeler, and in April, 1882, John Millikan became the sole owner.
At the time Mr. Millikan thus assumed control of the Crown Point Register he was nearing his seventieth birthday, and he had been a printer, or an editor, or both, since he was twelve years of age. In February, 1837, when twenty-two years old, he became connected with the South Bend Free Press. "This paper," says one of his old-time friends, "was at length bought by Colfax & West, who changed its name to the St. Joseph Valley Register, and in 1845 Editor Millikan moved to Laporte, where he purchased of Thomas A. Stewart, the Laporte Whig. In 1852 this name was changed to the Laporte Union. In 1867 he left the newspaper field and went to Chicago, but in 1871 returned to Indiana and resumed editorial work at Plymouth, purchasing there and publish- ing the Plymouth Republican. After six years in Plymouth he made one more change and came to Crown Point in 1877.
"There, Mr. Millikan soon commenced the publication of a new and interesting paper called the Cosmos, but before long he purchased one- half of the Crown Point Register, and in 1882 became sole owner. He continued to conduct it successfully until 1891, when he retired to a more quiet life, befitting his years and rather feeble health. Mr. Milli- kan was one of the veterans of his profession and was highly respected by his fellow workers and the citizens of the county."
For a number of years after Mr. Millikan's retirement, the Register underwent various changes; the proprietors have included S. B. Day, McMahan (Willis C.) & Bibler (A. A.), Mr. Bibler, Charles J. Davi- son, C. A. Collins and A. A. Bibler for a third time.
In 1860 a democratic paper called the Jeffersonian was started at Crown Point, but it was short-lived.
LAKE COUNTY STAAR AND JOHN J. WHEELER
Aside from the Register, the only other substantial newspaper in Crown Point is the Lake County Star. It was founded in 1872 and has been owned and edited since 1880 by John J. Wheeler, son of Col. John Wheeler, the gallant soldier and one of the founders of the Lake County Register. As the grandson of the latter has also been identified with the official and journalistic life of the county, the Wheeler family has been, for many years, a strong personal factor in its progress. The
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veteran editor and publisher of the Star married Miss Belle Holton, daughter of J. S. Holton, one of the three founders of the Register, and granddaughter of Solon Robinson, the founder of the town itself and a man of rare literary gifts. So that John J. Wheeler is the link which binds much of the best life and many of the higher interests of the community in which he has resided during his mature life.
Mr. Wheeler was born in West Creek Township during the third year of the colonel's marriage. At the outbreak of the Civil war he was in his fourteenth year. He comes of good Connecticut fighting stock, although he had no means of knowing that Joe Wheeler, member of one of his family branches, would become a famous cavalry general of the Con- federacy. A like spirit animated John J. Wheeler, the youth of fifteen, when he followed his father into the Union ranks, serving faithfully in such modest position he could fill, until after Colonel Wheeler's death at Gettysburg. He possesses two honorable discharges to show that his soldier youth gained all the honors of a present-day veteran. Afterward he was twice elected county surveyor, resigning, in 1872, during his second term of office in order to enter the newspaper business.
In 1880 Mr. Wheeler came into sole possession of the Lake County Star. He has since conducted it with ability and good judgment, as a conservative republican newspaper. Mr. Wheeler served as postmaster at Crown Point during the Harrison administration and is one of the leading men of the county, as regards ability. character and stanch family connections. He has been identified with the Grand Army of the Repub- lic since its organization, and has been a prominent Mason for over forty years. It is a pleasure and a great advantage to have his assistance as an editor of this work.
THE PRESS OF HAMMOND
The press of Hammond is represented by the Times and News, repub- lican and democratic newspapers respectively. The former is the out- growth of the Tribune, founded in 1884 by Alfred A. Winslow, who afterward became consul to Guatemala. It subsequently came into pos- session of Davidson Brothers, of Whiting; T. J. Hyman, of Chicago, and Sidney McHie. Under the management of the last named it was trans- formed into the Times, and Mr. McHie turned the paper over to its pres- ent proprietor, Percy A. Parry.
About 1888 James B. Woods, then postmaster of Hammond and a leading citizen, established the Independent, which was understood to be the organ of those who were opposed to the so-called "Towle element." Mr. Woods, who was also city clerk and a man of wide influence, made a
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vigorous newspaper of the Independent, and considered that it had accomplished its purpose when it was discontinued.
Mr. and Mrs. S. E. Swaim founded the Lake County News in April, 1900, and in July of the following year purchased the Hammond Daily Standard; from the latter came the Daily News. The News is as dem- ocratie as the Times is republican.
EAST CHICAGO
The East Chicago Globe was founded in January, 1891, by E. S. Gil- bert. On August 10, 1899, he sold the paper to Allison P. Brown, who has since continued the business, assisted by his wife and his son, Francis P. Brown.
THE CALL, OF WHITING
All the Whiting newspapers of the past have been cheerfully and industriously absorbed by the Call, pushed on by its editor and publisher, Edwin II. Farr. A brief record of births, absorptions and the present Whiting Call is given, in Mr. Farr's breezy style :
"In November, 1890, Pastor D. A. Holman, of the Plymouth Congre- gational Church, bought him a font of type and an old Franklin press and set up as the editor of The Congregationalist, designed to circulate among his flock; but, being an ambitious fellow he reached out for a broader field, and, on January 1, 1891, he changed the name of his paper to the Whiting News and became a purveyor of neighborhood tittle- tattle to all of Whiting. Duty calling the reverend editor hence, he sold all the rights, titles and emoluments in the News to J. G. Davidson, a budding young real estate dealer, who bought the paper to boost some of his real estate holdings, being at that time a youth of large ideas. Mr. Davidson immediately proceeded to issue an edition of 10,000 copies to circulate in a town of say 3,000 inhabitants, and when the bills com- meneed to come in J. G. unloaded the whole outfit onto his brother, II. S., who, being just out of school, where he had edited the college paper, was as ambitious as he was unsophisticated. It was in June, 1891, when I. S. came into possession of the News, and, mirabile dictu, he held on to it until 1895. Whether Ilenry made the paper pay, no one but himself knows, but he must have made his brother, J. G., believe it was a paying proposition, for he sold out to him in 1895, under the plea that he wanted to go back to school and study theology. From 1895 until 1900 the News led an erratic career. When the editor had any other duty to perform, social or other on 'print day' the paper did not appear, but
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it was always a welcome guest when pressure of other business did not prevent the editor from printing it. Old timers will never forget the pungent articles from the pen of 'Pocahontas,' nor the stroke of genius of the editor during the railroad strike when he printed his papers on the reverse side of a roll of wall paper.
"In 1900 Mr. Davidson sold out to E. S. Gilbert, and the paper was run for several years with that gentleman as proprietor. In 1904 the present editor of the Call leased the News from Mr. Gilbert, but disagee- ment over the political attitude of the paper resulted in the establish- ment of the Call, which sounded the death knell of the News. It grad- ually sank until it was buried under the deep waters of oblivion.
"In 1892 the Whiting Standard, with E. A. Gowe as editor and E. S. Gilbert as publisher, was born. After a short life it passed peace- fully away, the material and good will going into the hands of Mr. H. S. Davidson.
"Along about 1892 U. G. Swartz, who had been troubled for some time with that dread disease cacoethes scribendi got it into his head that he would like to be an editor. Now, with Mr. Swartz to think is to act, so he hies him to Chicago and buys all the paraphernalia for printing a newspaper, including a title 'head,' which left no doubt in the reader's mind as to the political affiliations of the editor. It read 'The Whiting Democrat.' Nor was ever anything ever printed by Editor Swartz that would lead one to infer that the paper was not loyal to the principles of Jefferson. None who read the Democrat will ever forget the erudite editorials of the industrious editor, postmaster and politician. Finally, Mr. Swartz, tired of the humdrum of a country editor's life, sold out the Democrat to the Ingham boys in 1897, who changed the name to the Sun and the politics to republican. It was well conducted and earned some money for the boys until one of them died, after which it went into the hands of the inimitable Bowman, who ran it a while and sold it to F. S. Vance, who, with the help of his wife, who was an excellent printer, owned and ran the paper until 1908, when it was absorbed by the Call.
"Modesty, that pearl without price, forbids us to dilate upon the achievements of the Whiting Call. Suffice it to say that it was founded by the present editor, who, at the time had a five dollar bill in his pocket, a few loyal friends and plenty of grit. The paper now has a good circu- lation and the plant is worth several thousands of dollars. It is the ambition of the proprietor to soon raise it from its present subterranean quarters to a position where God's sweet sunshine will beam on it from all directions."
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LOWELL NEWSPAPERS
Lowell, as one of the brisk centers of population and trade of Lake County, has two newspapers, both republican. The Tribune was founded in 1885 by the father of the present proprietors, H. H. & L. W. Ragon. The Souvenir was established in 1901 by E. E. Woodcock, still its editor and owner.
THE PRESS OF HOBART
The Hobart Gazette was founded August 28, 1889, by George Narpass and G. Bender, ex-superintendent of schools, the plant being moved from Marshall, Michigan. In January, 1890, Andrew J. Smith became its pro- prietor, and in the spring of 1892 N. B. White joined him as editor and half-owner. The Gazette is an independent paper.
The Hobart News was founded in 1907 by A. H. Keeler, who was killed in an accident April 1, 1910. A. L. Pattee, the present editor and proprietor, has conducted the paper since August 1, 1912.
GARY FERTILE IN NEWSPAPERS
The remarkable growth of Gary for five or six years after its found- ing in 1906 foreordained it to be a fertile field for the sprouting of news- paper ventures, and two of them, at least, have been substantial enter- prises. The Gary Tribune and the Evening Post, republican and dem- ocratie dailies, respectively, have large, modern and handsome plants.
The first number of the weekly Tribune was issued by Homer J. Carr and George R. Scott, on June 24, 1907, just one year after Gary had been platted. Even then Mr. Carr was a practical and experienced newspaper man, having received a portion of his training in Chicago. The daily Tribune was established September 6, 1908, and in December, 1912, the management completed the fine building now occupied at the corner of Fifth and Washington streets.
Ex-Mayor Thomas E. Knotts founded the Gary Evening Post in 1909. The business was organized into a stock concern in February, 1910, with J. R. and H. B. Snyder in control of the company. Their father, H. R. Snyder, is a veteran journalist of Ohio, and the two sons who control the Post are upholding his reputation.
The Gary Times, which appeared in June, 1906, almost simulta- neously with the first houses in Gary, was the first daily published in the city. The local news was gathered under the direction and largely
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through the personal energy of C. O. Holmes, and for some time the press work was done at Hammond.
The Calumet, also established at the very commencement of the city's history, is devoted to the interests of Northern Lake County and is the special organ of the Gary & Interurban Railway Company.
CHAPTER XIX
THIE MILITIA AND WAR
THE MEXICAN WAR-JOSEPH P. SMITH RAISES COMPANY-THE CIVIL WAR RECORD-HONORED DEAD-NASIIVILLE AS A GRAVEYARD- CHARLES BALL AND STILLMAN A. ROBBINS-OTHER DEATHIS OF LAKE COUNTY SOLDIERS-CAPT. JOHN M. FOSTER-SKETCH OF TIIE TWELFTH CAVALRY-CAPT. W. S. BABBITT-LIEUT. JOHN P. MERRILL-VET- ERAN OF MEXICAN AND CIVIL WARS-HOW THE WOMEN AIDED-TWO GRAND WAR NURSES-SOLDIERS' MONUMENT FOR SOUTHERN LAKE COUNTY -- MEMORIAL UNVEILED-MRS. ABBIE CUTLER-SPANISH-AMER- ICAN WAR.
Only what are now the smaller towns of the county had commenced to show life previous to the Civil war period. Lowell and Hobart, Mer- rillville and Dyer, Tolleston, Ross and Hessville, Clarke and Lake sta- tions, were then realities, while the Hohman, Sohl and Drecker families represented the future Hammond, and East Chicago, Whiting and Gary were from a quarter of a century to forty years in the distance of time.
THE MEXICAN WAR
When the local historian harks back to the Mexican war, antedating the civil conflict by nearly twenty years, the recruiting field of Lake County is almost confined to the Crown Point and the Cedar Lake dis- triets-to the central sections. President Polk declared war against Mexico in May, 1846, and called for 50,000 volunteers. It hap- pened that there was a business man of Crown Point, at that time, who had had a military training in New York and was ambitious to lead a force to the halls of the Montezumas in Mexico City.
JOSEPH P. SMITH RAISES COMPANY
Joseph P. Smith, the citizen referred to, had resided in New York City, where he had been captain of the Monroe Blues and absorbed a love of military matters. On July 5, 1836, he located at Crown Point,
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opened a store, organized a military company and the people of the county turned to him as their natural leader to respond to the President's call for soldiers to go to Mexico. Mr. Smith had been holding the office of county clerk since 1843, but at once put his official affairs in shape, organized his company of twenty-five or thirty as volunteers for the national service, collected the remainder of the required hundred from outside the county, and in 1847 his command joined the American army in Mexico.
From the most reliable accounts it is gleaned that all who left for the front with romantie notions were thoroughly sobered. Mr. Smith's command was never in action, but performed guard duty with a true soldier's steadfastness; and it had other trials which are as severe tests of military metal as the shock of battle. The boys were six months at Monterey ; forty-seven of them died amid the burning heats or on the trying march, and in the fall of 1848 those who were spared returned to Indiana. Among the survivors was Alfred Fry, of Crown Point, who was to live to see action and imprisonment in the service of the Union army fifteen years afterward. Some years after the close of the Mexican war, Captain Smith went West and was killed by an Indian.
THE CIVIL WAR RECORD
At the outbreak of the Civil war, Lake County had a population of over nine thousand and about one thousand eight hundred fam- ilies, and before the close of hostilities more than one thousand men had enlisted within its limits. Of that number seventy-eight are recorded as having died, either on the field of battle or as a direct result of war experiences. Company G, of the Twelfth Cavalry, contributed 19 to the list of the honored dead; Company B of the Twentieth Indiana Infantry, 19; Company A, Seventy-third Regiment, 20, and Company A, of the Ninety-ninth Regiment, 20 also.
HONORED DEAD
Col. John Wheeler, in command of the Twentieth Regiment, who was killed at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, was the most prominent of the Lake County victims of the war.
Daniel F. Sawyer, the first captain of Company A, Ninety-ninth Regiment, died in Mississippi while in service, and was succeeded in command by K. M. Burnham. Captain Sawyer was from Merrillville, and his body was brought home and interred in the local cemetery.
Of two members of Company B, Twentieth Regiment, who fell at
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Gettysburg with their colonel, one was George W. Edgerton, son of Amos and a grandson of Horace Edgerton, members of a leading pioneer family.
Another youth whose life was given for his country was M. Graves, son of Orrin W. Graves, of West Creek. He was a member of Company A, Seventy-third Regiment, and died at Nashville, December 16, 1862.
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