USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume I > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
So, as written many years afterward by one of the four sons of the Ball family, T. II. Ball of historic fame :- "In the early summer of 1837, a party of men might have been seen starting on horseback from a little town on Lake Michigan now no longer in existence, to explore the new county of Lake. Some of these had come in the early spring
49
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
from the State of Massachusetts, and had fixed their abode for a sum- mer home ten miles west of Michigan City, on the bank of a great lake. The band of horsemen found trails and pathways, they crossed swollen, bridgeless streams, and penetrated the apparently illimitable wilds as far as Red Cedar Lake. Pleased with that region, delighted with the native beauty of that little lake and the surrounding prairie, they de- termined there to pitch their tents and took possession of claims on Government lands in accordance with the self-imposed squatter laws.
"Among these New Englanders, men then in the prime of life, were Amasa Ainsworth, Lewis Warriner, Norman Warriner and Hervey Ball, and a young man, Job Worthington, to which number, if not among them then, was soon added Charles R. Ball, a young man, all from the old town of West Springfield, Massachusetts. The first of these making a elaim (Ainsworth) settled afterward at Michigan City. Mr. Worthington returns in the course of a few months to New Eng- land. Charles R. Ball, remaining for a time at Cedar Lake, settled at length near Chicago. There remain then, for the Massachusetts Bap- tist pioneers, Norman Warriner, Lewis Warriner and Hervey Ball. Their temporary houses were soon erected and their families settled around the lake.
"It has been already said that the two Warriner families found homes during this year at a little distance from the east bank of the lake.
BAPTIST PIONEERS OF LAKE COUNTY
"These three families found in a short time that three miles north of Cedar Lake on Prairie West were two other Baptist families-those of Richard Church and of his son-in-law, Leonard Cutler, from the State of New York. And soon to these were added the small house- hold of Mrs. Elizabeth Owen, then a widow, a native of Wales, and family of Mrs. Leland, also a widow with several sons. These seven families were the Baptist pioneers of the County of Lake.
"There were also, among the first residents around the lake, two brothers by the name of Witherell, the sons of a Baptist minister in the State of New York. One of these was also a minister, Orrin Witherell, and without much doubt he was the first Baptist who ever preached in Lake County. He may have preached twice in the winter of 1837-38; but these two brothers were very slightly identified with the religious interests and activities here, and soon left their claims and went else- where."
Vol. I-4
50
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
FIRST BAPTIST SOCIETY FORMED
On June 17, 1838, Norman Warriner and wife, Lewis Warriner and wife, Richard Church, Sarah Church, Mrs. Cutler and Hervey Ball and wife, met in the large log schoolhouse on the west shore of the lake which was not then quite completed. Elder A. French of Porter County, the moderator, led both in prayer and the business proceedings. It was resolved that "we will maintain the observance of the Sabbath by meet- ing together and conducting the worship of God by the improvement of such privileges as we may be favored with; also that we will hold regu- lar covenant meetings monthly, and that we will endeavor to watch over each other in love as brethren; hoping that a door will soon be opened in Divine Providence for our being regularly organized as a church of Christ."
Hervey Ball was chosen stated clerk, and on the Sabbath following Elder French.preached to a small but very attentive congregation.
LEWIS WARRINER
Of the constituent members of this first Baptist society, which shares with a class of Methodists the honor of being the pioneer Christian body of Lake County, Lewis Warriner has perhaps left the most striking record. He came from the same Massachusetts town as the Balls ( West Springfield) and when he located on the east side of Red Cedar Lake in 1837 was a man of forty-five who had already made a prominent place for himself in the Old Bay State. He had been sent to the State As- sembly four times and filled other honorable public offices. But strong man though he was, he met with losses at the outset of his stay in Lake County which were heart-rending. In that sickly season of 1838 much of the light and joy departed from his home in the passing of his wife and young daughter; but the father, two sons and a daughter main- tained the frontier home with courage and hope.
Continuing the record of the worldly events in which Mr. Warriner participated :- In 1838 a mail route was opened from Crown Point to West Creek, twelve miles, and Mr. Warriner was appointed postmaster, continuing in that office until 1849; then followed an interim of three years to allow for administrative changes, and a second term as post- master, from 1852 until he left the county in 1856.
Lewis Warriner was elected a member of the Indiana Legislature to represent Lake and Porter counties in 1839; he was the first to be sent to that body from Lake County, his competitors for the honor having been L. Bradley of City West, and B. McCarthy of Valparaiso.
51
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
In 1840 he served as United States census enumerator for Lake County, and was again elected to the Legislature in 1848. Like Hervey Ball, with whom he enjoyed an intimate and lifelong friendship, he never deviated a hair's breadth from the faith of the Baptist church. His character was above reproach ; he was an able man in many ways and of wide influ- ence along the elevated paths of life. His surviving children having both married, Mr. Warriner left the county in 1856 and went to reside with his son, Edwin B., of Kankakee, Illinois, and afterward with his daughter, Mrs. James A. Hunt. He died at the residence of his son-in- law, at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, in May, 1869, in his seventy-seventh year.
RECOGNIZED AS CEDAR LAKE BAPTIST CHURCH
Within a year from the organization of the first Baptist society of Lake County, it was resolved to take steps to be formally recognized as a church, according to the policy of that denomination. At a meeting held in Leonard Cutler's house, April 6, it was "Resolved, To invite a council of ministers and brethren to meet with us on the third Saturday in May to take into consideration the propriety of recognizing us as a church of Christ." It was agreed to invite Elder French of Porter County, Elders Bolles and Sawin of Laporte County. and Elder Hinton of Chicago, "with such brethren from their several churches as may be appointed."
The neighboring churches at that time were in Porter County, thirty miles away ; at Chicago, forty miles away, and in Laporte County, fifty miles from Red Cedar Lake.
"The grass on the prairie again began its unchecked growth. There were no great herds of cattle to crop it as it grew. The May flowers again appeared in the woodland beside the lake, and the time set for the council came."
Without going into all the details, it is sufficient to know that at the stated time, May 18, 1839, Elder A. French, of the First Baptist Church of Salt Creek, and Elder Benjamin Sawin, of the Church of Laporte Village, with two representative brethren from each of those bodies, duly recognized the local brethren and sisters as the Cedar Lake Baptist Church. The council convened in the schoolhouse.
FIRST METHODIST MISSION
Somewhat earlier than that year the Methodists had organized classes at Pleasant Grove and Crown Point, the latter (1838) being denominated
52
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
a "church," rather than a class. The best account of early Methodism in Lake County has been written by Mrs. Sarah G. Wood, who married into the well-known Wood family of Wood's Mill, or Woodvale. From her researches it seems that in 1836 a Methodist missionary named Stephen Jones was sent by the presiding elder, then residing at South Bend, into the interior of what is now Lake County. He preached at the cabin of Thomas Reed, two miles south of Crown Point, and at some other points, and after six months of such ministrations as he was able to give the scattered settlers the first Methodist class was organized at the residence of E. W. Bryant, Pleasant Grove. At that time the county was attached to the Northwestern Mission, taking in a circuit of 500 miles ; and consequently it was impossible to reach the several appoint- ments oftener than once in six weeks.
The Pleasant Grove Society consisted of E. W. Bryant and wife, John Kitchel and wife and a Mr. Menden Hall and wife, with Mr. Bryant as leader. In 1837 II. B. Beers came to the work, which during that year was confined to Lake and Porter counties and was called the Deep River Mission. Jacob Colclazier followed Rev. Mr. Beers in 1838, and during the year the first quarterly meeting in the county was held in the dwelling house of William Payne, Bishop Roberts conducting the meeting.
CROWN POINT METHODIST CHURCH FOUNDED
In the later part of the year Rev. Mr. Stagg took charge of the work, and under his ministry the Methodist Church of Crown Point was organ- ized, Aaron Wood being presiding elder. Robert Hyde, a local preacher residing at Pleasant Grove, supplied the Crown Point appointment in 1839, and quite a number were added to the church. So that 1839 may be said to mark the firm establishment of the Methodists at and near Crown Point and of the Baptists at the Lake of the Red Cedars.
THE CHURCHES, CUTLERS AND ROCKWELLS
The year 1836 kept the Claim Register busy. It records about one hundred and twenty who made claims in Lake County, a considerable portion of whom became settlers. Prairie West received an important accession from Michigan, among whom were the Churches and Cutlers.
Richard Church was well advanced in life when he located, some of his children having families of their own. The homes of his son, Darling Church; of his son-in-law, Leonard Cutler; of his near neighbor, W. Rockwell; of Mrs. Elizabeth Owen, a widow; of Mrs. Leland, with sev- eral sons, and of John Bothwell, were also on Prairie West; and they were all comers of 1836 or 1837.
53
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
The Churches and the Rockwells were related by marriage, William Rockwell, the father of the family, being an elderly man, like Richard Church, when he and his sons migrated to Prairie West. He was elected a county commissioner in 1840 and died in 1855, seventy-four years of age. Four years before he had been elected an associate judge for Lake County shortly before the office was abolished.
Two sons became citizens of Crown Point, one of them giving the family name to the Rockwell House, a well known hostlery at the county seat of which he was long proprietor.
1837 ALSO A BUSY YEAR
In 1837, according to the Claim Register, eighty-one men became settlers of the newly organized county, after which, with its civil machin- ery in full operation, there seemed to be no crying need for such a record; the Squatters' Union, however, maintained its organization until the first of the regular land sales had been safely weathered and specu- lators had been cowed, if not bullied.
EBENEZER SAXTON SUCCEEDS JERE WIGGINS
How Wiggins Point was founded by Jere Wiggins in 1836 has been told. In 1837 Ebenezer Saxton, a Vermonter, left Canada during the Patriot war and started for Detroit with his family. His destination was four hundred miles, by ox-cart, but he made it in time, when he was drawn into the tide which was setting so strong Chicago-ward. The family reached Deep River and the new town of Liverpool, where they boarded a ferryboat of the rickety, flimsy, pioneer kind. Only seven other families, with their ox teams, joined the Saxtons; and the ferry- boat floundered. Fortunately the water was shallow ; so the eight families were fished out of the river, the boat righted, the oxen landed, and the procession of emigrants continued philosophically onward.
The Saxton family started southward into the new Lake County, their means now reduced to $5 in gold. Reaching Turkey Creek, the oxen, for the first time in their long journey, were stuck fast with their load in the deep mud. A whole-souled pioneer helped them out for $2, and the Saxtons, with the three remaining dollars, passed on to what was the old McGwinn Indian village and burial ground, then known as Wiggins Point. There they found the Wiggins cabin, obtained shelter and rest, and secured the Wiggins claim, and lived at that locality, after it had been named Merrillville, for many years thereafter.
54
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
MERRILLVILLE FOUNDED
Not long after the coming of the Saxtons, Dudley and William Merrill secured land on the north side of the old Indian trail, opposite the Wiggins-Saxton claim, the latter erecting quite a large frame house on his property. The Merrills were aggressive, and Mr. Saxton himself was a good worker, and soon a little settlement appeared, to which was given the name of Centerville. Not long afterward, when the postoffice was established, it became Merrillville, with a hotel, store, blacksmith shop, cheese factory and a very respectable collection of houses.
THE BROWNS OF EAGLE CREEK
Alexander F. Brown, of Scotch lineage and an old New York family, remained in the Empire State until 1837, when, at the age of thirty- three, he moved with his family to Southeast Grove, Eagle Creek Town- ship, Lake County. There he became one of the solid squatters of the Union, secured his homestead and became the father of three sons, one of whom died after his death in 1849. The eldest son is John Brown, the ex-treasurer and auditor, the pioneer banker and farmer, and the old soldier and splendid citizen of Crown Point and Lake County. As he was born in 1840 on the family homestead at Southeast Grove, a detailed account of his life and services falls in a later portion of this history.
SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST CREEK NEIGHBORHOOD
The Jacksons and the Farleys, related by marriage, settled in what was known as the West Creek neighborhood in the same busy year of 1837. They were New England people by birth and residents of New York before they migrated to Michigan and thence to Lake County. In the spring of 1837 Joseph Jackson located his claim on West Creek; in the summer returned to it with his son Clinton and the latter's family, while in October he started from Monroe County, Michigan, with his own family. They came with teams and were nearly three weeks on the way. Mr. Jackson took with him some dry goods and groceries and opened the first store in that part of the county. In 1838 a schoolhouse was built, and one of the family, Miss Ursula A. Jackson, became teacher of the first school in what is now West Creek Township.
After several years of farm life the family moved to Crown Point, erected buildings, kept hotels, and the father, J. Jackson, was the first county auditor. After a residence in this county of nearly twenty years, in the spring of 1857 he moved to Iowa. For two terms he was mayor of the City of Wapello and lived to be nearly ninety-five years of age.
55
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
SOME ENGLISH SETTLERS
In 1837 a number of English settlers located in the northeastern part of the county, above the prairie region and mainly in what are now Calu- met and Hobart townships. Jonas Rhodes took up land on the sandy ridge and the wooded growth of what is now Calumet Township, near Glen Park. The five Hayward brothers settled not far south of Hobart.
GERMAN CATHOLICS OF ST. JOHNS TOWNSHIP
Too much praise cannot be given the German settlers of Lake County for their sturdy pioneer work. The first of their race to appear as a home-seeker and a home-finder was John Hack, a Prussian, who, in the spring of 1837, located on the western limit of Prairie West, near the present Town of St. Johns.
In 1838 the four families of Joseph Schmal, Peter Orte, Michael Adler and Matthias Reder came from Germany together and settled near the large Hack family. Others soon followed. These constituted the nucleus of the large Catholic settlement in what is now St. Johns Town- ship. In 1843 on the Hack land was erected and consecrated a Roman Catholic chapel and regular religious services were held from that time henceforth.
Adam Schmal, one of the sons of the pioneer, became prominent in local polities, and for two terms held the office of county treasurer.
GERMAN LUTHERANS OF HANOVER TOWNSHIP
In 1838 Henry Sasse, Sr., H. Von Hollen and Lewis Herlitz made their homes northwest of Red Cedar Lake, the pioneers of that large colony of German Lutherans who have settled in Hanover Township and advanced both its agricultural and moral interests. Mr. Sasse bought the Cox and Chase claims, and Mr. Herlitz the Nordyke lands. Several children of these pioneers-Messrs. Sasse and Herlitz had married sisters -became prominent citizens of Crown Point.
The increase of immigration and building which had been especially noticeable since the organization of the county in 1837 made sawmills and bridges most important adjuncts to the proper development of the country. Four of the earliest mills are accredited to the year 1838, called from the names of their builders, Walton's, Wood's, Dustin's and Tay- lor's. The Wood mill, at Woodvale, furnished the most lumber.
56
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
EARLY SAWMILLS AND BRIDGES
Bridge-building really commenced in the mill-year of 1838, the two industries being closely related. "One who looks over the county now, especially in the summer time, seeing here and there a ditch, but very little flowing water, can have no correct idea of our streams in the early days when, free and bridgeless, in the spring and often in midsummer, the Calumet and Turkey Creek, Deep River and Deer Creek, Eagle Creek, Cedar Creek and West Creek, were sending off their full flow of water to the distant Atlantic, some through Lake Michigan and some
OLD STYLE SAW MILL
southward through the Kankakee to the Mississippi and the Gulf. The stream called West Creek, with its wide marsh, its springs, and its quicksands, formed, until bridges were built, an impassable barrier for anything like travel. The horseman was in danger in many places if he tried to urge his horse across.
"Two bridges were built in this year (1838) of lumber across Deep River, a short distance northeast of Lake Court House, costing $500. These were built by Daniel May and Hiram Nordyke. That bridges were needed across this river was evident, for in the midsummer of 1837 a very large horse drawing a buggy in an attempt to ford the marshy stream, went down, probably into quicksand, leaving only his head out of water, and only by the rapid exertion of his driver, who plunged at once into the water, was separated from the buggy and helped upon his feet, regaining the dry prairie on the further side."
57
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
1838 FIRST YEAR OF BRIDGE-BUILDING
Over West Creek, near the Wilkinson home, a bridge costing $400 was built by N. Hayden ; across Cedar Creek, near the Lewis Warriner place, another was erected by S. P. Stringham and R. Wilkinson at an expense of $200, and still another by Amsi L. Ball, at B. Wilkinson's crossing, near the Porter County line, at a cost of $400. Thus, in the first year of bridge-building it appears that for five very needful bridges the amount of $1,500 was laid out. The money came from what was known then as the Three Per Cent fund.
COMING OF SAMUEL TURNER AND WIFE
None of the early settlers were useful and influential in more and better ways than the Turners of Eagle Creek. The Scotch-Irish blood in the family gave its members both perseverance and vivacity; made them both steadfast and popular; the people had confidence in them and were not disappointed in their performances.
The first of the family to come to Lake County was Samuel Turner, who was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in March, 1782. In 1810 he was married at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1833 became a resident of Laporte County. But that part of Indiana was too settled for a poor man, and in 1839 Mr. Turner, his wife and various members of his family became permanent settlers on Eagle Creek. Other settlers near them at that time were D. Sargeant, John Moore, A. D. McCord, George Smith, A. Goodrich and Mrs. Mary Dilley.
Samuel Turner's granddaughter, Mrs. S. J. Monteith, says of this advent of the Turner family: "The toilsome journey from Pennsyl- vania was over and for a time our weary feet found rest in Door Village, Laporte County. Fair and beautiful it lay before our eyes, but we were poor and must press onward to fields yet uncultivated and almost un- sought. Thus Samuel Turner and wife journeyed on, and spent the summer of 1838 in the southern part of Lake County, locating their farm on the banks of the little winding stream afterward called Eagle Creek. In the fall they went back to Laporte County, sending in their stead the young people of the family, as better able to endure the hardships of a pioneer winter."
Among these sturdy young people was a son, David Turner, then in his twenty-second year; his father, the leader of the colony, was fifty-six.
The parents came to reside permanently on the claim which the young people had held on Eagle Creek in 1839, and Samuel Turner's popularity
58
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
became soon manifest by his election to the office of justice of the peace. In 1842 he was chosen associate judge. His stay in the county and in this world was all too brief, for he died in 1847. But the few years of his residence had endeared him to a wide circle.
The first Judge Turner was not only a man of sound traits, but he had a very kind heart and was ever endeavoring to serve his neighbors; in fact, it could be said of him as of few on this selfish earth-he seemed to love his neighbor as himself. An illustrative incident: For several years there was no cabinet shop nearer than Valparaiso, and having learned the use of carpenter tools, he was called upon to make all the coffins used in the neighborhood, frequently taking lumber from the chamber floor of his cabin for that purpose, and always without charge. His good wife and children remained to carry on the work of contributing to the growth of a virtuous community.
JUDGE DAVID TURNER
David Turner seemed especially adapted for such a work of duty and love. He succeeded his father to the justiceship in 1842, when in his twenty-sixth year; was elected probate judge in 1849, state representa- tive in 1854 and state senator in 1858, and was appointed by President Lincoln United States assessor in 1862. For many years he lived a very active and useful life at Crown Point, and died February 14, 1890, in his seventy-fourth year.
All of the Turners have been supporters and promoters of religion, and David Turner was particularly active in Sunday school work. He married Caroline Bissell in 1844, and ten children were born to their union-all in Crown Point. The second born and first daughter is Sarah J., who married Rev. T. W. Monteith and who has written much interesting local history, and the seventh born, and the second and last son, is A. Murray, the well known banker of Hammond. The details regarding various members of the Turner family, who came into Lake County so early and are still faithful to its best advancement, will be found in other portions of this history.
SQUATTER'S UNION PROTECTS SETTLERS
The most important event to the bona fide settlers of Lake County was the first sale of public lands, which occurred at Laporte on March 19, 1839. Their purchase by the Government from the Pottawatomies and their survey into townships and sections has already been noticed, as well as the formation of the Squatter's Union in 1836. That organiza-
59
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
tion had jealously protected the titles of those who sought homes, as against the schemes of speculators, who in other new counties of the state had often seized the properties of those who had made homestead im- provements upon the basis of "squatters' rights."
The Squatter's Union of Lake County did not propose that this injustice should occur within its domain. The actual settlers were not prepared to pay more than the Government price for their lands-that is, $1.25 an acre-and the members of the union bound themselves to stand by each other on the basis of that purchase price. Article II of its constitution read: "That if Congress should neglect or refuse to pass a law, before the land on which we live is offered for sale, which shall seeure to us our rights, we will hereafter adopt such measures as may be necessary effectually to secure each other in our just claims."
At the time the sales were held in Laporte the Squatter's Union had mustered a determined membership of some five hundred, who chose delegates to represent them at the bidding. Solon Robinson was selected to represent one township, William Kinnison another, and A. McDonald the third. The last-named became a prominent lawyer, the first at Crown Point, where he had settled during the year of the sales (1839).
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.