USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume I > Part 25
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NASHVILLE AS A GRAVEYARD
Nashville seemed to have a fatality for Lake County soldiers. The adjutant general's records show that of the Seventy-third the following died in that city : Lewis Atkins, Eli Atwood, E. Woods, Albert Nichols, John Childers, William Frazier, A. Lamphier, James Roney, L. Morris, T. W. Loving, William Harland and William Stinkle. W. M. Pringle and Miles F. McCarty, of the Twelfth Cavalry, were also victims of conditions and circumstances at Nashville, the latter being the third son of Judge Benjamin McCarty, of West Point and the county at large.
CHARLES BALL AND STILLMAN A. ROBBINS
Lieut. Charles Ball, third son of Judge Hervey Ball, died while home on a furlough, September 12, 1865. He was in his thirty-second year. ITis death was the result of disease contracted in the Southwest, probably in Mississippi. The deceased was a brave, faithful and highly talented young man.
About a year before his own death he had written a touching tribute to a West Creek comrade, who had shared in the Sabbath school influ- ences of Cedar Lake before he had joined the Twelfth Cavalry-Stillman A. Robbins, who was acting as chief clerk in the provost marshal's office at Huntsville, Alabama, when stricken with the fatal fever which termi- nated his young manhood July 18, 1864.
OTHER DEATHS OF LAKE COUNTY SOLDIERS
Of the Twelfth Cavalry, besides those already mentioned, there fell in battle or died-at New Orleans, Henry Brockman and Sidney W. Chapman; at Kendallville, Charles Crothers, Fred Kable and Albert Moore; at Vicksburg, Jacob Deeter ; at home, R. L. Fuller, F. S. Miller, William Stubby and Ezra Wedge; at Starkville, Ephraim E. Goff; at Huntsville, M. Hoopendall ; at Michigan City, A. MeMillen.
Company B, Twentieth Infantry, from Lake County: Horace Ful- ler, Wilderness; Lawrence Frantz, Spottsylvania; John Griesel, David
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Island; M. Hafey, Pittsburg; C. Hazworth; William Johnson, Peters- burg; Albert Kale, Camp Hampton; William Mutchler, Camp Smith ; P. Mutchler, Washington; James Merrill, Wilderness; S. Pangburn, Andersonville ; C. Potter; D. Pinkerton ; J. Richmond, Gettysburg; John F. Farr, Washington; Isaac Williams, Charles Winters, City Point.
Company A, Seventy-third Regiment: John H. Easley, Stone River; R. W. Fuller, Indianapolis; I. W. Moore, M. Vincent, J. M. Fuller, Gal- latin; John Maxwell, Scottsville; C. Van Burg, Bowling Green; E. Welch, Stone River; S. White, Blount's Farm.
Company A, Ninety-ninth Regiment : O. E. Atkins, D. T. Burnham, J. Bartholomew and H. II. Haskins, at Andersonville; J. D. Clinghan, Huntsville; H. A. Case, La Grange; James Foster and James Horton, Atlanta; R. T. Harris and T. C. Pinnel, La Grange ; Jolin Lorey, Adam Mock, N. Newman, Black River; Corydon Pierce, Washington; Albert Robbins, brother of Stillman Robbins; J. Schmidt, Indianapolis; J. Stickleman, A. Vandervert and M. Winand, the last dying "'at home," December 11, 1864.
CAPT. JOHN M. FOSTER
Of those who survived the war, Capt. John M. Foster was among the best known. His brother, Almon Foster, was the first captain of Company G, Twelfth Cavalry, Capt. John M. having been promoted from the first lieutenancy. They were sons of Frederick Foster, of Crown Point, and brothers of Mrs. John Pearce, of Eagle Creek. After the war Capt. John M. Foster returned to Crown Point and engaged in business, in which he was quite successful. He died at the county seat in February, 1893, leaving sons and daughters to confirm his good name.
SKETCH OF THE TWELFTH CAVALRY
Although the Twelfth gained no distinguished war honors, it aceom- plished a large amount of soldierly work and of the kind which eounts, albeit not spectacular. It scouted and raided over many hundreds of miles in Alabama, Tennessee and Florida. Out from Huntsville, espe- eially, the command was engaged very extensively in fighting and ridding the country of guerrillas. In September, 1864, the regiment was sent to Tullahoma, Tennessee, and was there constantly employed against Forrest's cavalry. They were also active in South Alabama and Florida, and, as stated by the adjutant general of Indiana, "The regiment was highly and specially complimented by Major General Grierson in a let- ter to Governor Morton for its gallant conduct and military discipline." Vol. I-17
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CAPT. W. S. BABBITT
W. S. Babbitt, captain of Company C, Twentieth Regiment, and John P. Merrill, lieutenant in Company A, Ninety-ninth Regiment, returned to the county at the close of the war, and both died at Crown Point within the same twenty-four hours, February 21-22, 1897. Captain Babbitt was then seventy-one years of age; Lieutenant Merrill, in his fifty-fourth year.
Capt. W. S. Babbitt was born in Vermont, December 19, 1825; went to sea when eleven years of age, and before coming to Ross Township in 1854 had sailed five times around Cape Horn and made three voyages on a whaling vessel. He joined the service and went to the front as lieuten- ant in Company B, of the Twentieth, but was transferred to Company C and promoted captain. After the war he made Crown Point his family residence.
LIEUT. JOHN P. MERRILL,
Lieut. John P. Merrill, one of the sons of Dudley Merrill, of Merrillville, was born in that place October 13, 1843. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company A, Ninety-ninth Regiment, and in October, 1864, was promoted from the office of sergeant to that of first lieutenant. He returned home in June, 1865, and became a merchant. He was for many years trustee of Ross Township, and at length, having been county treas- urer, moved to Crown Point. Spending several years there as an active and useful citizen, he died suddenly on February 21, 1897, his older soldier friend, Captain Babbitt, answering the Almighty roll call on the following day.
VETERAN OF MEXICAN AND CIVIL WARS
Alfred Fry, captain of Company A, Seventy-third Regiment, and soldier of the Mexican war as well, died at Crown Point in 1873, one of the most noteworthy figures in the county. He had enlisted as a private in that company July 26, 1862, and was mustered into the service of the Union army as orderly sergeant in the command named. On the follow- ing 1st of September, at Lexington, Kentucky, he was commissioned sec- ond lieutenant of Company A, and when the regiment returned to Louis- ville he was assigned to the position of brigade commissary. On the 2d of December he was commissioned first lieutenant and engaged in the battle of Stone River, being under fire for six days. He was promoted to be captain of Company A on January 19, 1863, and his regiment was
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assigned to Colonel Streight's brigade. While making an attempt to pass through Northern Alabama to Rome, Georgia, about fifteen hundred Union soldiers were surrounded and captured by the Confederates. Many of them, including Captain Fry, were taken to Libby Prison, where, as well as in other Southern prisons, they endured many hardships. They were paroled February 14, 1865, and in March entered the Union lines. In a few weeks Captain Fry was exchanged, returned to his company, received his honorable discharge in Alabama, with other members of his regiment, and returned to Crown Point, where he spent the remainder of his life.
HOW THE WOMEN AIDED
In Lake County, as in every section of the United States, the women were as much bulwarks of the Union cause as the men. Shouldering a gun, though very necessary, is not the only way to uphold the arms of a government in the throes of war. A Soldiers' Aid Society was organized at Crown Point in 1861, and later another was formed with Mrs. J. H. Luther as president; Mrs. B. B. Cheshire and Mrs. J. E. Young, vice presidents ; Mrs. A. M. Martin, secretary, and Mrs. T. H. Ball, treasurer. At Plum Grove a third aid society was organized as follows: Mrs. M. J. Pearce, president ; Miss A. J. Albert, secretary, and Miss M. J. Wheeler, treasurer. Other societies were founded in different parts of the county ; and they all raised considerable sums of money, sent many articles of convenience and comfort to the soldiers, and perhaps more than all else, did what their sisters were doing elsewhere-inspired the soldiers at the front with hope for a reunion, and with constant zeal as defenders of their hearths and the dear ones around them.
Two GRAND WAR NURSES
"And two of the noble-hearted women of Crown Point, Miss Elizabeth Hodson and Mrs. Sarah Robinson, gave their services in those dark days of suffering to the care of the sick and wounded and dying. Connected with the Christian Commission work they found large employment in the hospitals at Memphis. They both returned to Crown Point, and Miss Hodson was afterward governess at the Soldiers' Orphan Home, Knights- town, Indiana. They both were very noble Christian women."
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT FOR SOUTHERN LAKE COUNTY
The fact that so large a proportion of the soldiery of the Civil war was drawn from the central and southern sections of the county is empha-
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sized by the monument at Lowell, which was completed in 1905 as a memorial to the three Creek townships. It is a military memorial cover- ing the heroes of three wars, with those of the Civil war overwhelmingly in evidence.
In this connection we cannot do better than extract from the "Reports of the Historical Secretary of the Old Settler and Historical Associa- tion," which we accordingly proceed to do. "Some months ago," he says (writing in 1905), "there was set up at Lowell a monument erected by
SOLDIERS MONUMENT AT LOWELL
the people, and largely by the ladies of West Creek, Cedar Creek and Eagle Creek townships, to commemorate and preserve the names of the men who went forth from those three townships as soldiers in the ter- rible Civil war of 1861.
MEMORIAL UNVEILED
"Friday, June 9, 1905, was the day appointed for the unveiling and formal dedication of this monument. On that day large numbers were present in Lowell. The Tribune estimates the number present at four thousand, among them more than two hundred old soldiers. Department Commander Lucas was present, and also Governor Hanly. These both delivered addresses, which were considered excellent by those who heard them. The following statements are from the Lowell Tribune of June 15,
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1905: The monument is twenty-five and a half feet high, made of the best Barre granite, with nine-foot base, and weighs forty-five tons.
"On the east, or Eagle Creek face, are one hundred and twelve names, one of the men named having served in the regular army. On the north, or Cedar Creek face, are the names of one hundred and fifty volunteers, of four men who were in the Mexican war, of two who were in the Spanish-American war and of six who were in the regular army, making in all one hundred and sixty-two soldiers for Cedar Creek. On the west face are the names of one hundred and forty-four volunteers who were in the Civil war, three who were in the Mexican war and one who was in the regular army, making one hundred and forty-eight for West Creek Township. On the south face of the monument are eighty-two, in- cluding the names of men now living in these townships, or whose bodies are slumbering therein, but who did not enlist there, of whom there are sixty-five ; also the names of two soldiers of the Mexican war and of four- teen soldiers of the War of 1812; and the name of one woman. a devoted nurse in hospital work in the Union army, who became Mrs. Abbie Cutler, the first wife of Dr. A. S. Cutler, her tombstone now standing in the cemetery at Creston."
MRS. ABBIE CUTLER
In its notice of the address of Governor Hanly, the Lowell Tribune says : "Ile paid a most beautiful tribute to Mrs. Abbie Cutler, the nurse in the War of the Rebellion, whose name appears on the monument."
"It may be added here that a fine laurel wreath was sent up from Dr. Cutler and his present wife, Mrs. M. J. Cutler, now of Rockford, Ten- nessee. which was placed on the monument as their tribute of loving remembrance.
"In all, there are on this granite monument five hundred and four names.
"The unveiling was by Miss Rose Kimmet. the formal dedication services being conducted by Commander Lucas.
"So far as the knowledge of the historical secretary extends, this is now the second soldiers' monument in the eight counties of Northwestern Indiana. the first having been erected several years ago at Michigan City."
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
From the time that Cuba was blockaded in April until the Spanish- American peace was signed in Paris, December 12, 1898. there was more
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or less commotion among the young men of Lake County ; for the Span- ish-American war was primarily a young man's war, although not a few of the commanding officers had seen service in the Civil war of thirty- five years before.
When President MeKinley made his first call for volunteers many young men of Hammond responded, but some went to Chieago and others to Indianapolis, and were distributed among various regiments. Many also were employed by the G. H. Hammond Company and moved to Chicago when the plant was moved from Hammond. The consequence is that it is impossible to locate all who went from the county, the bulk of whom were residents of Hammond. Company A, One Hundred and Sixty-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry, was recruited entirely in that eity.
John Jordan, Frank Parker and C. O. Hubbell were active in raising that company, and although they were elected captain, first and second lieutenants, respectively, of that command, they failed to pass the required physical examination. In the meantime, Mr. Olds had raised part of a company in Chicago and, hearing of the rejection of the Hammond officers, came to the city with his men and joined the local company. He was elected captain of the consolidated organization, George Silverthorn, lieutenant, and August Johnson, second lieutenant.
The members of Company A, who were residents of Hammond at the time of their enlistment, were William Craick, Peter Keitzer, Louis Proulx, Louis St. John, Peter Rhodes, Bill Neis, Fred Franch, Carl Vermett, George Horniack, Fred Schroeder, Burr Wheeler, Charles J. Mason, Patrick MeGrath, Edward F. Schloer, Stephen W. Ripley, Emil Hahlweg, Carl Faul, Ed Granger and George Green ; of Whiting-James Meehan, James E. D. Murray, George Hay and Stephen Carr; of East Chicago-August Johnson, and of Crown Point, Henry Strabel.
The regiment and company went to Cuba, and were encamped near Havana, but saw no harder service than guard duty, although they were ready for anything sent to them. Their colonel was afterward Gov- ernor Durbin, of Indiana, and the One Hundred and Sixty-first had the reputation of being as well drilled a regiment as could be mustered among the volunteers. Company A was absent ten months, and was mustered out of the service with the regiment, at Savannah, Georgia.
CHAPTER XX
MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION
EFFECT OF THE RAILROADS ON PRIMITIVE LIFE-THE YOKE REMOVED FROM THE OXEN-THE PASSING OF THE OLD ORDER-FIRST RAILROADS IN LAKE COUNTY-PIONEER RAILWAY STATIONS-HOBART AND TOLLESTON -THE PAN HANDLE COMES-THE BALTIMORE & OHIO-THE GRAND TRUNK'S MILK TRAIN-THE NICKEL PLATE, ERIE AND MONON LINES -THE I. I. I .- RAILROADS OF THIRTY YEARS AGO-EARLY ROAD BUILDING IN THE KANKAKEE MARSHES-CALUMET REGION ASSERTS ITSELF-EAST CHICAGO ARISES-WHITING AND THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY-HAMMOND FORGES AHEAD-THE WABASH LINE-PROS- PEROUS EXPOSITION YEAR-LOCAL PHASES OF GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE -THE TWO HAMMOND FACTIONS-FIRST ELECTRIC LINE-BUILDING OF GRAVEL ROADS-THE BELT LINES-STATE LINE INTERLOCKING PLANT-EXPANSION OF ELECTRIC SYSTEMS-GARY & INTERURBAN RAILWAY-CHICAGO, LAKE SHORE & SOUTH BEND-HAMMOND, WHIT- ING & EAST CHICAGO LINE-RAILROAD YARDS AND WORKS-NOTABLE FEATURE OF THE PRESENT.
The early development of Lake County was mainly outside of the rather unsightly Calumet region, but as the northern portions were in the direct line of travel between the East, Chicago and the Mississippi Valley, the first railroads came into that region, and thereafter its greater improvement was assured. Of necessity, from its geographical position, every railroad entering Chicago, which in 1850 was just commencing its remarkable growth, if coming from the East or Southeast, must cross the northwestern corner of Indiana. And rapidly they came after a be- ginning had been made. So, when the families in the central part of the county, heard far up among the northern sand hills the shrill voice of the steam engine, they knew that a new life of agriculture was at hand. But it was to be some fifteen years before they were to receive the direct benefits of the new era, theirs being only reflected from such railroad stations of the north as Hobart, Lake, Miller's and Dyer.
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EFFECT OF THE RAILROADS ON PRIMITIVE LIFE
The transformation of the interior was, therefore, more gradual than that of the Calumet region, which had four lines in operation before the first one touched the life of Crown Point and Central Lake County. Even religion felt the stimulus, an old settler thus explaining why the church building at the county seat which had been commenced in 1845 was not completed until 1847. "Money was very scarce," runs the explanation, "and the country wild, with very few roads or horses. Lumber was hard to get, and must be brought on ox-carts from Chicago or Porter County."
"And so for twelve years," adds another, "the people of Crown Point held their religious meetings in their homes and in their log court- house; yet, before they heard the first railroad whistle, they did arise and build two frame meeting houses. But when the railroad stations became shipping points, lumber was brought in and the era of frame buildings, for dwellings and for churches, commenced. The log cabins, comfortable as they had been made, beeame out-houses, stables, cribs and granaries, and the family houses were clean, new, sightly frame dwellings, with eeiled or plastered walls, with good brick chimneys, an outside that could be painted, and inside walls that were not daubed with clay. Carpets were soon on some of the floors, large mirrors leaned out from the white walls, furniture such as the log cabins had not suffi- cient room to contain, now graced the more spacious apartments, instru- ments of music began to be seen and heard in many a home, and com- forts, even luxuries, found their way wherever the freight cars could unload goods and take on grain and hay, cattle, sheep and hogs, butter, eggs and poultry. Soon there was much to be sent off and much, for all the farming community, was brought back in return.
THE YOKE REMOVED FROM THE OXEN
"Changes in modes of living, in dress, in furniture and then in farm- ing implements were not, of course, instantaneous, but they came rap- idly. In the earliest years of settlement, and through all the pioneer period, oxen were quite generally used as draft animals. They were on almost every farm; they drew the plows, the wagons, the harrows, the sleds. They were on the roads drawing the heavy loads to the market towns. They were strong, patient. hardy, quite safe, not taking fright and running away, and could live on rough food with little shelter; but generally they were slow. A few could walk and draw a plow, along with ordinary horses, but only a few. On the road an ox team did well
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to make three miles an hour. A more true average would probably be two and a half miles per hour.
"It took but a few moments to yoke them. The yoke was put on the neck of the ox on the right (called the 'off ox')-first, the bow put in its place and keyed; then the other end of the yoke was held up, and it was instructive to see how the other ox, when well trained, would walk up and put his neck under the yoke, in the proper place for the bow to come up under his throat to the yoke, there to be fastened with a wooden, possibly with an iron key. When well treated they were gentle, patient, faithful animals, as for many generations, along a line of thousands of years, their predecessors had given their strength and endurance, in many lands, to the service of man.
"But as the modern railroad era opened, and changes in modes of agriculture and living took place, horses for farm work and road work began largely to take the place of oxen. Mowers and then reapers came to the farms as early as 1855, and for all the modern improvements that followed horses were found to be more serviceable.
"So in some neighborhoods in Lake County, the yoke was removed from the necks of the oxen as early as 1855; in other neighborhoods not until 1862-63, when large quantities of beef began to he wanted in the country ; and when the year 1870 was reached, oxen as working animals had almost disappeared north of the Kankakee River.
THE PASSING OF THE OLD ORDER
"It was quite a struggle for a few years for the farmers to make headway and secure the conveniences which the railroads supplied, for many were in debt for their lands, and prices for farm products were rather low, and money not very abundant until the changes came from 1860 and onward, as the nation was entering into the scenes of the great conflict. Those who are only about forty-five, or fifty years of age, can- not realize how financial matters were managed before any greenbacks were issued. But since that change in the currency of the nation, great improvements have taken place in the homes of the farmers. Little now remains on the farms of the earlier implements. The entire mode of planting and sowing, of cultivating erops and of gathering, has changed. It is singular how so many once familiar objects have disappeared."
FIRST RAILROADS IN LAKE COUNTY
Unfortunately, the railroads of Lake County came to stay before the newspapers; otherwise, there would be an indisputable record of
.
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the date when the first railroad was operating within its limits. As the matter stands, historically, there is no doubt that the Michigan Central was the pioneer, but whether trains commenced running over its line in 1850 or 1851 there is an uncertainty, with the weight of evidence in favor of the latter. In 1851, also, the Michigan Southern commenced to run trains through the county ; the Joliet Cut Off was in operation in 1854 and the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago in 1858. The Joliet Cut Off afterward became a part of the Michigan Central system.
PIONEER RAILWAY STATIONS
Lake Station, at the junction of the old Joliet Cut Off and the orig- inal Michigan Central line, which run to Chicago further to the north around the foot of Calumet Lake, was the first important point in Lake County for the shipment of grain and the exchange of general freight. At first, no great impetus to either farming or building was manifest, as the shipping and receiving station was fifteen miles from Crown Point, and for a large portion of the year the crude dirt roads between were almost impassable.
Ross and Dyer were special creations of the Joliet Cut Off, and com- menced to bring the central portions of the county within sight of fair transportation facilities. Ross Station gave facilities for a daily mail at Crown Point, and Dyer soon became a prosperous shipping center for the thrifty German farmers of St. John and Hanover townships.
HOBART AND TOLLESTON
The roads, however, leading to these railroad stations were made of dirt, usually either very dusty, very muddy or covered with deep sand. But the three roads built from 1851 to 1854 were acknowledged bless- ings from the first, and, with the completion of the Pittsburgh & Fort Wayne, or Wabash Railroad, in 1858, another trade and shipping center was established in the county which tended to improve the prospects of both the county seat and the rural communities of the northeast-central portions of Lake County. At that time Hobart had been a town about ten years, but its permanency was not considered assured until the rail- road bound it to the outside world, irrespective of the weather or the local highway authorities.
About the same time Tolleston, at the crossing of the Michigan Cen- tral and the new Pittsburgh & Fort Wayne, sprung into steady life, add- ing a large asset to the development of the Calumet Region; as it was
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twelve miles due north of Crown Point, it had little effect on the growth or the prospects of Southern Lake County.
THE PAN HANDLE COMES
For several years no new railroad crossed the county, and from 1861 to 1865 the people of the central and southern parts were too deeply concerned in the issues and the outcome of the Civil war to consider the subject at all. But with the return of peace and the resumption of peace- ful occupations by the citizen soldiery, the discussion of the new rail- road projected from the southeast toward Chicago was renewed with vigor by the leading citizens of Crown Point and such enterprising out- siders as Dennis Palmer, of Winfield Township. By his energy and gen- erous donations of land Mr. Palmer did much to direct the right-of-way of the Pan Handle (Pennsylvania) Railroad to Crown Point. Its com- ing brought renewed life to the county seat and all the tributary coun- try. The butter and eggs and prairie chickens, grain, hogs and eran- berries, of the district, were no longer to be laboriously loaded on to wagons, and carted off to Lake, Ross and Hobart, over abominable roads, there to be exchanged for the necessities and comforts (with a few lux- uries thrown in), to which all normal beings are entitled. All these ex- changes were now to be effected at their very doors.
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