USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume I > Part 9
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
The record is that no speculators interfered with the rights of the squatters ; that "the sale passed off quietly, and the sons of Lake returned peacefully to their homes."
Thus, with Lake County secure in its civil organization and the settlers fully protected in the titles to their homes, the pioneer period closes with a substantial guarantee for the future.
CHAPTER IV
PIONEER MEMORIES
BARTLETT WOODS-A PIONEER PICTURE-THE CABIN AND ITS FURNITURE -FELLOW FEELING THAT MADE US WONDROUS KIND-MARVELOUS IN- DUSTRY-REASONS FOR SLOW GROWTH-LACK OF TRANSPORTATION- FIRST FREE SOIL MEETING-HISTORIC RELICS OF LAKE COUNTY PIONEERS PRESENTED BY T. H. BALL, MRS. M. J. DINWIDDIE, T. A. MUZZALL, LEWIS G. LITTLE, MRS. M. J. HYDE AND OTHERS-CON- DENSED ACCOUNT OF THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL-WHAT OF THE 1934 GATHERING ?- MRS. S. J. MONTEITH'S MEMORIES-A LONESOME PIONEER SISTER-HONEY EXCHANGED FOR APPLES-AN OLD LETTER OF 1843-THE IMMORTAL "THANATOPSIS"-AUNT SUSAN TURNER- RECOLLECTIONS OF JAMES H. LUTHER-THE OLD STAGE ROUTES- FIRST OF THE CALUMET INDUSTRIAL REGION-FIRST COUNTY ELEC- TIONS-NORTH TOWNSHIP BOUNDED-EARLY FIGURES FOR NORTH AND HOBART TOWNSHIPS-SIX EARLY YEARS COVERED BY T. H. BALL-DIS- COVERY OF ROBINSON'S PRAIRIE-THE FIRST COLONY AT CROWN POINT -TURNING OF THE FIRST FURROW-ADDITIONS TO ORIGINAL COLONY -- HAMLET GROWING INTO A VILLAGE-POSTOFFICE OF LAKE COURT HOUSE -TOWN SITE REGULARLY PURCHASED-LAKE COURT HOUSE, THE COUNTY SEAT-NAMED CROWN POINT-SETTLERS AROUND RED CEDAR LAKE-THE HERVEY BALL PLACE-THE VON HOLLEN AND HERLITZ FAMILIES -- THE TAYLORS-DAVID AGNEW FROZEN TO DEATH.
When a well educated, broadly intelligent and keenly observant man, also active and sympathetic, resides in one county for sixty-five years, naturally he has noticed many important and interesting human beings and events. Such was the good fortune of Bartlett Woods and Lake County, and no one more firmly intrenched himself in the respect, admiration and affections of the people generally than the able, energetic and big-hearted Englishman who came to them as a youth, when the country was green and raw, and left them as their Old Man Eloquent, with white hair but still mellow soul.
60
61
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
BARTLETT WOODS
Bartlett Woods was born in England and reared in Hastings. In 1837, while the county was still in its infancy, he crossed the ocean with his elder brother Charles, the younger being at that time in his twentieth year. They selected land between Merrillville and Ross, and that locality was Bartlett Woods' homestead for many years. After he had become "comfortable in estate"-he was always contented in mind-and widely known as a public speaker and writer, he moved with his wife and young- est daughter to Crown Point.
Young Woods had received in England such an education as became a postmaster's son; his father had been postmaster at Hastings for a period of forty years, which, in the Old Country, was sufficient to give the entire family a high standing. An earnest reader and deep thinker, he was also a natural speaker and a graceful writer, and within a decade after settling in Lake County was recognized as one of its coming men. His public life commenced in the fall of 1848, when he was thirty years of age, the occasion being the first free soil meeting in Lake County.
A PIONEER PICTURE
Nearly a decade before Mr. Woods had come to Central Lake County as among the first of the pioneer colonists, and more than forty years afterward, when president of the Old Settlers' Association, was writing in this strain: "The pioneer family had come, the wagon covered for the journey their only shelter. A cabin is to be built, the nearest timber is sought for, the axes wake up the stillness of a thousand years, only broken before by the whoop of the Indian or perhaps by that mysterious race that may have lived here even before the Red Man came. The advent of civilized life has begun, the logs are hauled by the oxen that brought them here, neighbors lend a helping hand, and then, the raising. All the neighbors around are invited-few there may be, but all come. The best choppers are chosen to carry up the corners, log after log goes up even to the roof; no rafters, no shingles-but instead of shingles, shakes two feet long rived out of a white oak log, and poles put on the shakes to keep them in place. Not a nail was necessary; even the door was hung with wooden hinges. Dinner was provided, good feeling ruled ; whiskey was passed around during the raising, and few thought at that day that it was any great breach of temperance propriety to drink with the rest, wishing success, health and happiness to the new comers.
62
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
THE CABIN AND ITS FURNITURE
"The chimney was a curiosity. Brick was out of the question. It was a stick chimney laid up square and the sticks split out as near like lath as possible. Clay mortar was laid on with each lath, the whole carried up above the peak of the roof. The jambs and inside and the hearth were all clay, kept in place by logs outside. All was plastered inside and out with clay mortar and the chimney was completed.
"Of furniture in the sense we understand it now, there was very little. I do not remember any of the pioneer cabins having a cooking stove or a carpet. No sewing machines; nothing like that of today to lighten woman's labor. The fireplace at one end wide enough for a log fire, the kettle swinging on the crane, the bake kettle, the spider and the frying pan, comprised about all the cooking utensils of the household. A table made from the best material on hand, sometimes shakes, a few splint-bottom chairs, a bench or two; some had bedsteads; but it was no uncommon thing to see a bedstead made of poles, the ends driven into the logs and one leg out in the room holding up the ends of the poles. With an axe and a few tools, a one-legged bedstead could be made in a few hours. No locks or bolts on our doors; no fastenings of any kind.
FELLOW-FEELING THAT MADE US "WONDROUS KIND"
"Civilization and culture claim to have made great strides; so they have, but in our condition we had some compensating advantages. In those small beginnings, without much capital to start, the poverty of that day was clean and respectable. There were no tramps. There was no fear of the modern burglar. Simply as a way to fasten the door when shut, was the latch ; and this was always of wood with a string attached ; so that it became a saying, when speaking of the generous hospitality of the squatters, that their latch string was always out. And it was; to all that came, there was a greeting and welcome. This feeling was the result of a mutual dependence at raisings, joining teams, and in every way in which we could help one another. In health or in sickness, this trait of fraternal feeling always prompted to the most neighborly interests and kindly offices, and was to us a source of much comfort and happi- ness. Our isolation and trials would have been almost unbearable with- out that fellow feeling that made us 'wondrous kind.' Sympathy, that divinity that lives in its purity amidst poverty, trials and trouble, came out in its grandest devotion in the hours when sickness and death came to our homes. Pomp and wealth and luxury have come to many in our land, but not in the reveling of wealth or the splendor of its surround-
63
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
ings can often be found the beauty of this sympathy and kindness, which grew up and was a balm and a helper to the pioneers in their humble cabins in the wilderness. Fashions there were none. The cut of a coat or the style of a bonnet did not occupy a thought. The mothers and wives and daughters of the pioneers had no money to waste, or time to trouble themselves with the frivolities of fashion.
MARVELOUS INDUSTRY
"Let one who shares their sorrows and their joys this day, bear wit- ness that to them this generation owes a debt of gratitude which too few appreciate and which can hardly be fully repaid. Their industry was marvelous. They spun, doubled and twisted, made stockings and mittens, attended to the baby or swung it up to the baby jumper made of a hickory pole, fashioned their own clothing-the sun bonnet for summer and the hood for winter-and the children's clothes, made the quilts and coverlets-everything nearly worn by the family except the boots on our feet. All this was the work of the pioneer women, besides the cooking, washing and miscellaneous duties. A few exceptions there might have been, but in the main this held true. They had a mission, a work to do, and they bravely did it.
REASONS FOR SLOW GROWTHI
"I should do an injustice to the pioneer history of Lake County, were I to omit stating the reasons for the slow growth after the first settlement. The majority of the first settlers lacked means, a want of capital was the day of small beginnings. The man was rich who owned a breaking team. Some had a yoke of oxen, very few had horses, but many had neither. No one had pastures; everything was turned out, and the tinkle of the bell led many a wanderer to a settler's cabin. Hunting the oxen on foot through the wet tall grass and sloughs in the early morning was anything but pleasant. Often finding them late, made plowing slow work, and a wooden mold board on the plow made good work impossible. No steel plows then. Harrows of the most primitive kind-many home- made, with wooden teeth ; no mowers, no reapers, no separators like our modern threshing machines; pitchforks rude and clumsy, made at the nearest blacksmith shop; all our implements would be looked on today as relies. Only one tool has held its own, and that is the American axe. It has been the pioneer's friend, and has been with him and one of his best helpers in all his labors from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
64
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
LACK OF TRANSPORTATION
"And then, after working and waiting for years and when at last we did raise something to sell, our means of transportation was so im- peded by bad roads that it cost nearly all it was worth to get it to market.
"For fifteen years-not calculating from 1834, but from 1835-we had no connection with the outside world east, except by steam and sailing vessels on the lake, or by the mail coach, or by private conveyance. As winter closed in on us, lake navigation ceased and the only public conveyance was by the mail coach between Detroit and Chicago. For fifteen years we were almost an isolated community, at times making a four days' trip with oxen to Chicago; and at that day Chicago was a land-locked town six months in the year.
"Capital had very little to do with our early growth, for compara- tively speaking there was none; what progress was made was by hard knocks and constant labor. In 1850 the railroads came and opened up to us the world and a market the year around."
FIRST FREE SOIL MEETING
Two years before the railroads came to Lake County Mr. Woods came into prominence as a free soiler, and, as stated, has written an interesting account of the first meeting held in that cause, during the month of September, 1848. He was one of the secretaries of that pioneer meeting, and afterward made arrangements to go out with Alexander McDonald, the Crown Point lawyer, and deliver free soil speeches. Later he did much to establish republicanism in the county and in 1861 and 1865 represented the young party in the State Legislature.
Mr. Woods' commencement of his own public career is as follows: "The War was over. Mexico as a basis of peace ceded a large area of territory. Should these new acquisitions be slave or free? The time had come to make a determined stand against the aggressions of the slave power. The year 1848 opened with ominous forebodings of a struggle. The democratic party had become the mere instrument of Calhoun and the Southern leaders. The whig party made no decisive blow for freedom, was trimming and vacillating, dominated by the spirit of concession and compromise. Neither of the old parties represented the anti-slavery sentiment, and so a new party sprung into existence- the free soil party. 'No more slave territory, no more slave states,' was the answer of this new party to the demands of Slavery. The excite- ment was intense. Earnest citizens from both parties, whigs and demo- crats, joined in the movement. 'Free soil; free speech; free labor and free men,' was their campaign cry.
65
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
"Early in September bills were posted all over this county stating : 'All those opposed to the further extension of slavery and who are in favor of the admission of California as a free State are requested to meet at the Court House in Crown Point on Saturday, September 16, 1848.'
"The day for the meeting came and the log Court House was well filled. Judge Clark, Alexander McDonald, Wellington Clark, Alfred Foster, Dr. Pettibone, Luman A. Fowler, William Pettibone, John Wood of Deep River, Bartlett Woods, Jonas Rhodes, Samuel Sigler, David K. Pettibone and Dr. Wood of Lowell, were there. Judge Clark was chosen chairman and Wellington Clark and Bartlett Woods, secretaries of the meeting, which was quite enthusiastic. Speeches were made and a com- mittee appointed who planned a series of meetings throughout Lake County.
"The following is copied from one of the original notices, now in my possession, and shows something of the feeling of the men who first started the free soil movement in Lake County :-
" 'Free Soil and Freedom-The undersigned will address the citizens of West Creek on the issue of Free Soil and Equal Rights, against Slavery and Aristocracy, at the Methodist meeting house, on Thursday, the 5th of October next; of Cedar Creek, at the house of Leonard String- ham, on Friday, the 6th ; of Eagle Creek, at the place of holding elections, on Saturday, the 7th; of Winfield Township, on Friday, the 13th, at the place of holding elections; and of Ross Township, at the house of S. B. Straight, in Centerville, on Saturday, the 14th-at each place at 1 o'clock. Now come. Come one and all, and see what a horrible demon Free Soil principle is. You shall not be injured. Come out and learn whether it be McDonaldism or the Republicanism of 1776.
" 'Sept. 20, 1848.
'BARTLETT WOODS, 'A. MCDONALD.'
"The meetings were held and were well attended, and at the Presi- dential election in November the free soil vote showed plainly that the issue had been met and that a new era had begun in our national politics.
"From that time on, Lake County's free soil idea grew in strength. It was the germ from which the republican party sprung. Its large republican vote attests this. Its vote for Fremont, for Lincoln and for Grant and Colfax, and for Colfax all through his Congressional career, gained for it the honor of being one of the banner republican counties of the State.
"The first meeting in the Old Log Court House left its mark and was not held in vain."
Vol. 1-5
66
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Besides becoming a leader in political affairs, Mr. Woods was promi- nent as a farmer, assisting in a notable measure in the organization and forwarding of the Grange movement and in the work of farmers' insti- tutes. Therefore it was that his death, in May, 1903, removed a large figure from the activities of Lake County citizens covering three-score years and several generations. He was a notable human link between the times of the pioneers and those of modern spirit and achievement.
HISTORIC RELICS OF LAKE COUNTY PIONEERS
On September 3 and 4, 1884, the Old Settlers' Association of the county held a semi-centennial celebration of the settlement of that part of Northwestern Indiana. It was well attended and drew forth many interesting papers from the enthusiastic pioneers, who also presented for inspection a number of historic relics. Some of these related closely to Lake County; others were of more general interest, but all were mementoes of Lake County pioneers and widely illustrative of old times and individual tastes, as well as of family histories.
As observed by T. H. Ball, who was the most generous donor: "The observant reader will notice that these articles are here called antiquities which have been in existence in their present form fifty years or more (written in 1884) ; as fifty years is called the limit of settlement here. One object in presenting these, and especially in presenting some of the smaller relics, was to show to the children and young people how easily articles, apparently perishable, could be kept in a state of good preserva- tion for at least fifty years. Another object was to show to the present generation some of the customs, styles and proofs of cultivation of the former generations who have passed away. The cultivation of some love and even veneration for the past many consider desirable for every truly refined and noble nature."
CONDENSED ACCOUNT OF THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL
A condensed account of this gathering, so full of interest to the older generations of Lake County, was written for the publishers of this work a decade ago and is reproduced : "A semi-centennial celebration of the beginning of permanent settlement of the county was held on the Fair Ground, September 3 and 4, 1884. Considerable preparation was made for this event through the Old Settlers' Association, and by a large num- ber of citizens much interest was taken in preparing for the proceedings and in carrying them out. A large general committee of arrangements was appointed, thirty subjects named and assigned to writers for his-
67
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
torical papers, and six special committees appointed. Of those who were on these different committees eleven are not now living. An oration was delivered by previous appointment, which by the special influence of the chairman of the committee, George Willey, Esq., was assigned to T. H. Ball, who occupied one hour of time in its delivery. An address was made to the members of the Association of Pioneers anad Old Settlers by Congressman T. J. Wood, and a semi-centennial poem was read com- prising twenty-five stanzas of eight lines each. Seventy-one relies and antiquities of various kinds, historie and prehistorie, were presented for inspection. Not numbered among these were twelve old or curious coins, making the full number eighty-three. Most of these rare, curious, valu- able relics and heirlooms are supposed to be still in the county, and some of them can probably be secured for the Association when a suitable room is found in which they can be preserved.
"Besides the exercises at the Fair Ground on the two days of Wednes- day and Thursday, literary exercises were held on Wednesday evening at Hoffman's Opera House in Crown Point, the Crown Point Band fur- nishing some excellent music; Willie Cole and Miss Allie Cole giving a flute and piano duet ; singing also by a quartette, Benton Wood, Cassius Griffin, Miss Ella Warner and Miss Georgie E. Ball-Mrs. Jennie Young, pianist. On the first day of the celebration, the opening hymn was 'My Country "Tis of Thee'; on the second day, the new hymn was sung called 'Our Broad Land.'
WHAT OF THE 1934 GATHERING ?
"Further features of this celebration cannot here be given, but this writer hopes that thirty years from now-in 1934-a still larger gather- ing will be found upon the Lake County Fair Ground, where a book now in the recorder's office is then to be opened-a book presented to the Association by Hon. Joseph A. Little and which contains very many signatures of persons present at Lake County's semi-centennial in 1884. A special committee, to be appointed thirty years hence, is to open that (at present ) sealed book. To be called for and to be opened at the same time by that same committee, there is now sealed up in the recorder's office quite a large map of Lake County. On this map are the names of many children, some of whom, as men and women, it is expected will be present then."
MRS. S. J. MONTEITH'S MEMORIES
Mrs. S. J. Monteith, granddaughter of Samuel Turner (who married Jane Dinwiddie, of the famous clan), was of the younger generation
68
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
(she was born in 1847) who founded the Turner homestead of Eagle Creek, and thus describes their first cabin home and those early times : "Our cabin stood on a little hill surrounded by giant oaks and hickories, a short distance to the west from the creek. It was dark and cheerless enough during the day, for the only light must come through the chimney, as window glass was not to be obtained. At night the glowing flames, leaping and crackling in the broad fireplace, transformed the place entirely, and around our humble hearthstone many a happy hour was spent, talking of the past and planning for the future.
A LONESOME PIONEER SISTER
"Before the first glimmer of dawn the boys must be away to the swamp; and who can tell how long the hours and days were to the sister at home alone, trying to make things comfortable for them when they should return at night, or how often she wended her way to an oak standing alone, to peer out over the snowy wastes and into the gathering darkness to watch for their coming? Our neighbors were the Sarjeants, Dilleys, George Smith, A. Goodrich, M. Pearce, E. Coplin, the Bryants and a few others; and after a while we had a doctor within nine miles, which was a great boon ; for in those early years sickness, especially ague and fevers, prevailed to such an extent that often whole families were prostrated, and scarcely enough well people would be found in the neigh- borhood to wait on the sick ones.
HONEY EXCHANGED FOR APPLES
"In the spring the father and mother brought apple seeds with them, which we planted, and if you will visit the farm now you may still eat the fruit from some of those seedlings. We were the first in the neigh- borhood to have apples. They revived our Pennsylvania taste for apple butter; but it needed sweetening, and fortunately Aunt Polly Dilley could give us honey in exchange for apples, so that both families were supplied with the luxury. Once a traveler from Alabama stayed with us over night and gave us some peach pits, which were planted, and in three or four years we were abundantly supplied with peaches which we have never seen equaled in this part of the country ; but our winters were too severe for the trees and they did not endure, many of them. When we settled there, we would not have taken as a gift what is now the Niles farm; for it was impossible to cross it without miring down in the quicksand.
69
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
AN OLD LETTER OF 1843
"The mail service in those days was very limited and envelopes entirely unknown; but occasionally a letter written on a sheet of blue legal cap folded so that the paper served as an envelope and securely sealed with wax, would find its way from Pennsylvania or Ohio, often by the hand of a traveler and after spending weeks on the way. We have one such in the house now bearing date of 1843, in which occurs a sen- tence something like this: 'The Washington movement has reached here, and total abstinence is being agitated. I trust this reform will go on and prepare the way for others until human slavery shall be abolished.' The writer did not live to see his hope fulfilled twenty years later.
THE IMMORTAL "THANATOPSIS"
"Fifty years have seen many changes. Here and there stands a tree that looked down on our grandfathers in middle life and their sons in boyhood days; but they are fast giving way to younger ones that were only saplings then. And the weather-beaten stones and grass-grown mounds in yonder cemetery would tell you where rest our forefathers. So we must follow them.
" ' All that breathe will share their destiny. So live that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan that moves To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thon go not, like the quarry slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon ; but sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust approach thy grave, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams.'"'
AUNT SUSAN TURNER
In a note to Mrs. Monteith's paper, T. H. Ball adds: "The ‘sister at home' mentioned in the foregoing paper was Miss Susan Turner, a sister of Judge Turner of Crown Point, who has remained through the changes of these, our first fifty years, on the early family homestead, until this November (1884)-sometimes almost alone; at other times, entertaining the group of happy children that would go down from Crown Point to visit Aunt Susan. The writer of this note has met her in her
70
LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
Eagle Creek home, and he was delighted with the rural and sylvan beauty there; the running stream near by, the grove of majestic oaks, the singing birds of summer time, the quiet and repose of nature there, all adding to the associations and pleasantness of the place. Many a beautiful spot for a little home, where the glad voices of childhood would be heard, and manhood and age would find comfort and rest, the pioneers of our country selected when they reared their first log cabins.
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.