USA > Indiana > Lake County > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of Lake County, Indiana, with a compendium of history 1834-1904 > Part 11
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BROWN .- Alexander Brown, who came to the United States in 1805. has been already mentioned. Besides his daughter Agnes, who also has been mentioned, he had a son named John. This John Brown, bearing a name that is noted in the martyr history of Scotland and England, had six sons and two daughters. One of his sons, ALEXANDER F. BROWN, was born in 1804. August 25th, before his grandfather. Alexander, came to America, was married in 1835. and became a resident of this county, at Southeast Grove, in 1840. He was going on prosperously, with his Scotch enterprise and industry, when his life was unexpectedly terminated in 1849. He left
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three sons and two daughters, two of the sons and the daughters are now living in Crown Point. The sons and one daughter are among the wealthy citizens.
There came also to Southeast Grove in 1840 a brother of .Alexander F. Brown, another of the six sons of John Brown of Scotland, who was known as JOHN BROWN, JR. He was never married. He made his home for many years with the Crawford family west of the Grove, which home was near his farm. He was quite a prominent citizen.
Yet another of those six sons, WILLIAM BROWN, the youngest probably of the six, also came to Southeast Grove, but as he is still living his record does not come in here.
GEORGE BROWN, the youngest son of A. F. Brown, was born May 5, 1849, the year in which his father died. He was married in 1869 to Miss Turner. of Eagle Creek township, a sister of Mrs. T. Pearce; he continued farm life at the Grove; became interested and active in Sunday-school life; and died June 21, 1878, leaving three sons, Alexander, William, and Herbert.
The record of the two living sons, John Brown and William Barringer Brown, of Crown Point, is to be found elsewhere.
WALLACE .- This name, so fully interwoven in the history of Scotland, calls to mind the old days of Robert Bruce and Sir William Wallace and the heroes and patriots of that age.
LYMAN WALLACE, the first of the Lake county Wallace family in . Amer- ica, was born in Washington county, New York, in 1800. His first wife was a native of Vermont. and had one son, William Wallace, and three daughters. His second wife was also a native of Vermont. She was born May 4, 1798. She became the mother of five daughters. He came with his wife and these daughters to Southeast Grove in 1843 from Genessee county, New York. He died at Southeast Grove in 1851. Four of the daughters became mistresses of families, Mrs. John Dinwiddie, Mrs. Starr, Mrs. William Brown, and Mrs. Parkinson.
The influence of these closely connected families has been large on the
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material interests of Lake county, extending through more than sixty years. Some of its members have been active also in church and educational lines, and they have all taken a commendable interest in the Association of early Settlers.
English Settlers.
JONAS RHODES was one of those early settlers, the Woods brothers, the Haywards, the Muzzail family, and a few others, who from among the "cot- tage homes" and the "stately homes" of fair old England, of which Mrs. Hemans has so beautifully written, came to found for themselves new homes as beautiful as they might make them, in this, if not a fairer, yet certainly a broader, a much more roomy land, this land we call America.
Jonas Rhodes made his settlement in 1837, not on the border of one of those prairies which were to the New Englanders generally so beautiful and so attractive, but on the sand ridge and amid the wooded growth of what is now Calumet township; and a little place that has lately sprung up, called Glen Park, is near what was his early home. Without knowing what would take place in a few years he selected a location near which more than one railroad line now passes. The years passed with him as with others busily and pleasantly engaged. Children grew up in his home. He did his part in developing the resources of the county, aiding enterprises that were good, prospering in his activities of life. and reaching a good age. He was a pleasant man with whom to meet. He was much interested in the first published history of Lake county, and once remarked that he thought the weather record it contained was worth the whole price of the book. He has in this county a number of descendants.
HAYWARD .- Five brothers by the name of Hayward, and not the tra- ditional three, came over from England and settled, in 1837, in Lake county, Indiana. These were called in their father's home Charles, Thomas, Henry, Alfred, and Edwin.
CHARLES HAYWARD settled a little distance from what is now the stone church of Ross township. His brother. THOMAS HAYWARD, settled not far eastward towards Hobart. The other three brothers, settling in the same S
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part of the county, not far from the claim of Bartlett Woods, are still living in the West.
A son of Charles Hayward is Edwin Hayward. the second in this county to bear that name, and two sons, George Hayward living near Hobart, and Oliver Hayward, are the two sons of Thomas Hayward, who died in March. 1904, after a residence in the county of sixty-six full years.
THOMAS MUZZALL, also from England. with a mother and two sisters. residing a short time in Canada, became also a settler in the same neighbor- hood in 1837. All these English families became good Americans and valu- able citizens. They all selected the same part of the county a little north of the prairie belt. Their descendants are now among the prosperous and enterprising citizens of Crown Point and Hobart and the far West.
CHARLES MARVIN, a pioneer of 1836, was born August 4. 18II. in Norwich, Connecticut. In his young manhood he spent about two years in South Carolina, visited New Orleans, went up to Alton and then to Lock- port in Illinois, in 1833. In 1835 he was married to Miss Charlotte Perry. and with her mother came into the western edge of Indiana in 1836. He and Mrs. Perry located claims, and those claims were included in Lake county
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when that was organized. He sold his first farm, now in Hanover, near Brunswick, to Henry Sasse, Sr., about 1839. In 1851, then a widower, he was married to Miss Eliza Fuller, a daughter of Mr. H. S. Fuller, of West Creek. Abont 1881 he sold his second large and valuable farm and bought the old Judge Wilkinson place, where he built a stately residence. He there died in 1892, nearly eighty-one years of age. He was a noble example of true manhood and was noted among Lake county pioneers for the urbanity of his manners. He was a true gentleman. He had no children. He had some kindred at Lockport, and there his body was taken for burial, although for fifty-six years he had been a citizen of Lake.
JACKSON, FARLEY .- Two New York or New England families, that be- came closely connected by marriage, came in the true pioneer days to the southwestern part of the county, and helped to form what became known as the West Creek neighborhood.
JOSEPH JACKSON, coming here from Michigan in 1837, was born in 1793, probably in New England, but lived for some time in New York State, and then in Michigan. In the spring of 1837 he came and located his claim, in the summer he came again with his son, Clinton Jackson, and his son's family ; and removed with his own family in October, 1837, from Monroe county. Michigan, to Lake county, Indiana. They came with teams, and were nearly three weeks on the way. There was an early snow that fall, and on the first morning of their journey they found the ground covered with snow. They had started on a warm, bright, October afternoon. 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 Ann Jackson, became teacher of the first school in what is now West Creek township. After several years of farm life the family removed to Crown Point, put up buildings, kept hotels, and the father, J. Jackson was for one term the first county Auditor. After a residence in this county of nearly twenty years, an active, useful, very substantial citizen, in the spring of 1857
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he removed to lowa. He was for two terms of office Mayor of the city of Wapello, and lived to be nearly ninety-five years of age.
BENJAMIN FARLEY came with his family to the West Creek neighbor- hood also in 1837. He was born in 1781. in New York, and came to this county from the State of New York, and was when he settled here well on in middle age. He had five sons and two daughters. He lived here only a few years. His tombstone is in the West Creek cemetery. One of his sons, Zebulon Pierce Farley, was married to Miss Amarilla Valeria Jackson, daughter of Joseph Jackson. Z. P. Farley, born April 14. 1821, is still living. but not now in this county. In our civil history and in our Masonic history the name of Farley will remain.
HATHAWAY. HAYDEN .- Into this same West Creek neighborhood there came two other families having now many living descendants and repre- sentatives. PETER HATHAWAY was the head of one of these families and NEHEMIAH HAYDEN of the other. Peter Hathaway, a native of New Jersey. was born, according to one record, in March, 1782. was married in New Jersey, came into New York and about 1839 became a citizen of this county. Three sons are named in the early Sunday-school history of the county, Silas, Abram, and Bethuel; and there were probably several other children. Indeed. one record says there were twelve in all. of sons and daughters. The mem- bers of this large. pioneer family were active church and Sunday-school work- ers: and worthy successors of such a valuable family reside in the same neighborhood now, members of the third and fourth generation.
NEHEMIAHI HAYDEN was a pioneer settler of 1837.
Some other early settlers of this same neighborhood were HENRY TOR- REY, in 1837 .- a bridge across West Creek in 1838 was called the Torrey bridge: JOHN KITCHEL. settling probably in 1836, of whom not much is now known: AADIN SANGER. a settler of 1838: and N. SPALDING.
This West Creek or Hathaway and Hayden neighborhood soon became a very prosperous portion of the county, and a flourishing religious center. Here was erected one of the earliest church buildings of the county.
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SPALDING .- HEMAN M. SPALDING, one of nine children of Heman Spalding of New England, settled in Lake county in August. 1837, in the Hathaway and Hayden neighborhood. He had five sons and four daughters. One of the sons is Joshua P. Spalding, of Orchard Grove, and one is Dr. Heman Spalding, of Chicago. The father was born in 1809. He was a good citizen.
SANFORD D. CLARK .- For many years one of the noble, useful, exem- plary citizens of Crown Point, Sanford D. Clark, was not a pioneer settler. In our earlier years of settlement he was a prosperous merchant in Ohio, and in the spring of 1839, before the land sale, he came to this county on horseback, and furnished some relatives and acquaintances with money for entering several claims. For himself, so far as land was concerned, he seems to have made no provision. Near the beginning of the railroad period he became a resident of Crown Point; from 1864 to 1872, he was county Recorder; he took a deep interest in the war for the Union, and especially in the discourses of the three resident pastors, J. L. Lower, T. C. Stringer. and T. H. Ball. being himself what was called an "abolitionist" in those days of conflict of opinion, and approving of "the underground railroad." thoroughly religious, a member with his wife of the Presbyterian church. very unselfish, true-hearted.
He at lengthi removed to a western state and lived to be ninety or more years of age. Valuable in the society of Crown Point was his life for the many years while he remained here, and in these memorials of useful citizens it well deserves a place.
PATTEN or PATTON .- JOHN H. PATTEN, as he wrote the name, born January 10. 1801, came to Lake county from the East in July, 1852. after the real pioneer days had ended and much of the foundation work in building np society had been done, yet his family found sufficient work for them in the railroad period then coming on. He had nine sons and seven daughters, but only seven of the sons became residents here for much length of time and five of the daughters.
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Of the third and fourth generations there are now many members of this large family and they write the name Patton. The father, J. H. Patten, died in November, 1865, and Mrs. Patten, his wife, born in 1799. died in May, 1867. She was probably the mother of more children than any other woman who has lived and died in this county.
Three of the sons, Seymour Patton. James Patton, and Joseph Patton, are still living in the county, and one of the seven daughters, Mrs. Colby, lives in Crown Point with her daughter, the wife of the lawyer. J. Frank Meeker. The Christmas and New Year's family dinners have been in years past large and interesting gatherings.
BRYANT .- The Bryants, Bryant Settlement and Pleasant Grove, have been mentioned in the Outline History. DAVID BRYANT made a settlement in 1835 at Pleasant Grove, but was not a permanent resident. His wife died in March, 1836, and, although he was married again. in the spring of 1838 he removed to Bureau county, Illinois, and staid some years. He then went to Missouri and lived there a few years, returned to Illinois, then went to Ohio, probably to his earlier home and staid five years, and then again, in 1853, became a resident of this county. In 1854 he brought into the county one thousand and sixty-three sheep. He went again to Illinois for a short time, and returned, and again made visits there. He made his last Lake county home with his daughter, Mrs. William Fisher, then living at Eagle Creek, now in Hebron. A younger daughter. a Lake county girl for a number of years, is still living in this state, Mrs. Ora Doddrige.
Mr. Bryant was a very sociable, friendly man, of religious principle. and a church member. Born about 1797. It was said of him when seventy- five years of age, "He is growing feeble, but retains the use of his mental faculties." His memorial belongs to this county of Lake.
Of the five Bryants who commenced in 1835 the Bryant Settlement, and some of whom gave to the grove the name Pleasant, Simeon Bryant. David Bryant. E. Wayne Bryant, Samuel D. Bryant, and Elias Bryant, who joined the others in the fall of 1835. few of them seem to have made it a permanent home.
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SIMEON BRYANT staid about one year and removed to Indian Town, over the line in Porter county, south of the present town of Hebron, and there made his permanent home as a citizen of Porter.
SAMUEL D. BRYANT returned to the original home in Ohio and staid a few years, then came again to Lake county and bought at length, in 1854, a farm south of Southeast Grove, near what is now the Center School House, and there spent the remainder of his days, living to be more than eighty years of age.
ELIAS BRYANT, according to a Porter county history, died on the Pleas- ant Grove farm, but a son, Robert Bryant, in 1854, settled in Porter county, south of Hebron, where many Bryant families now reside. They have crossed over from Lake into Porter.
E. WAYNE BRYANT, who had a brother, Jacob Bryant, living in La Porte county, a pioneer of that county, arranged for a family home in the Grove. As early as the fall of 1836 he provided a room for a school, where the children of the Settlement were taught by Mr. Bell Jennings, "a very excel- lent man." He also aided in starting a Sunday school for the children in 1838 or 1839. He was a valuable pioneer. He bought some hand mill- stones of Lyman Wells, another early settler, and in the winter of 1836 and 1837 had them arranged to be run by horse power, and ground corn and buckwheat for all the neighbors. This little mill continued to grind for two or three years, and at one time there were in the mill, so says one of the family, over three hundred bushels of grain waiting to be ground.
MILLER .- There was beyond any room for doubt an early mill seat found and a mill built on Deep River. The Claim Register, which is author- ity, says : "William Crooks and Samuel Miller in Co. Timber and Mill Seat." Claim made in June, 1835, but settled in November. 1834. Locality, Section 6, Township 35, Range 7. W. Crooks from Montgomery county. This William B. Crooks was elected. in 1837. Associate Judge, and a "Per- mit" was granted, July 31. "to Samuel Miller to retail foreign merchandise at his store on Deep River." That he had a mill and a store is certain ; but
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of himself very little is known. It is said, and this is tradition and not history, and for its accuracy no good authority can be named, that his wife was part Indian, that he had sold property at Michigan City for eighty thou- sand dollars in gold and silver, and that much whiskey, as well as other articles of "foreign merchandise," was sold at his store. This last particular is no doubt true. If the gold and silver tradition is true, he must have been the most wealthy adventurer who came into the county in those early years. He made no long stay at that store but sold it to A. Hopkins, who soon sold it to H. Young, and he sold the mill irons to a mill builder, and for himself opened a gun shop which he kept for several years.
A gravel road crosses Deep River now at this locality and a few years ago some of the old timbers of Miller's mill could still be seen in the waters. Somewhere there may be descendants of this Samuel Miller.
NOTE .- Since the above was written there has come into my hands a little book of autobiography by Dr. James Crooks, a son of Judge William B. Crooks, who it seems was also a physician, and Dr. James Crooks says that his father settled at Michigan City in the spring of 1834. This James Crooks was then eight years of age. He says that Samuel Miller was then the principal business man of that place, that he "owned considerable real estate, houses, a store, warehouse, and a schooner." He also says that his father, Dr. W. B. Crooks, removed into what became Lake county in Novem- ber, 1834. and that in the spring of 1835 his father and Samuel Miller com- menced building a mill on Deep river. After narrating many interesting recollections of his childhood in Lake county he at length says that his father sold out, in the spring of 1838. "his possessions in Lake county to Samuel Miller of Michigan City," for one thousand dollars, and that five hundred dollars was paid "in gold." So Miller must have had some gold. He further adds that "Miller failed a short time afterwards." In June of 1838 the Crooks family left Lake county.
RUFUS HILL, an early resident in Pleasant Grove, perhaps as early as 1839, is noted for having one of the very largest families in the county. Credible authority gives the number of his children to be twenty-two. These were not all the children of one woman. The names of six of his older sons were Welcome, William, John, Charles, Martin, and Richard. There were six daughters of corresponding age, and then younger sons and daughters that made up the number. He lived to be over eighty years of age.
JOSEPH A. LITTLE
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
New Hampshire Settlement.
JOSEPH A. LITTLE, son of Captain Thomas Little, was the seventh in descent from George Little who came from London to Newbury, Massa- chusetts, in 1640. The given names of his ancestors were, George, Moses, Tristam, Enoch, Jesse, Thomas. The names of sixty-five hundred descend- ants of George Little have been collected.
The family of Thomas Little came into the then open and wild and beautiful center of Lake Prairie, and with the Gerrish, Ames, Peach, Plumer, and Morey families, formed what was known as the New Hampshire Settle- ment. The Wason family was soon added to the number.
Joseph A. Little was born in Merrimack county, New Hampshire, May 24, 1830. In 1859 he was married to Miss Mary Gerrish. He became a suc- cessful farmer and large wool-grower, keeping large flocks of fine wool sheep. He represented Lake county in the Indiana Legislature in 1886 and 1887. secured excellent farins for his sons in the Kankakee lowlands, and was laid aside from a life of activity and usefulness by the messenger, death, February 19, 1892. In the records of the Association of Old Settlers his name is in- erasibly written. He had three sons and three daughters.
ABIEL GERRISH, one of those men of mature age who came from New Hampshire to Lake county, was also the seventh in descent from Captain William Gerrish, who settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1639. The given names of the men in this line are: William. Moses, Joseph, who had thirteen children, and who was accustomed to swim across the Merrimack River near its mouth every year till he was over seventy years of age, Stephen, Henry, Henry, Jr., and Abiel, who came to Lake Prairie. He was born March 7. 1806. at Boscawen, New Hampshire. His mother was Mary Foster, daughter of Hon. Abiel Foster, of Canterbury, and her mother was Mary Rogers, daughter of Rev. Daniel Rogers, of Exeter, New Hampshire, who was the sixth in descent from John Rogers, of London, who was burned at Smithfield, February 14, 1555. the first martyr in the reign of the "bloody Queen Mary." The first was one of those "small children." as represented in that pictured
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group and were so many New England dadren have baked, who on that dark day in England's history stred with their mother near the martyr's stake. The second was Rev. John Rogers, of Dethar, who died in 1030. The third was Rev. Natherte! Rogers, who carve to America in 1030. The fourth was John Rogers, President once of Harvard College. The fifth was Rev. Ja Rogers, of Ipswich. The sixth was Rev. Daniel Rogers, of Exeter. The seventh. in this line, was his daughter Mary Rogers. The eighth was Mary Gerrish, wife of Henry Gerrish, who had five daughters and two sons. And the winch was the younger of these sons. Abiel Gerrish, who became : citizen of the county of Lake. a descendant of a noted martyr and also of a Long live of worthy ancestors. His wife, a very devoted Christian woman. died in September. ISSI, the two having celebrated in 18So their golden wedding anniversary, and he died in Tame. ESSI. They had one son and five daughters. One daughter became the wife of Hoa. Joseph A. Little. and still lives in the prairie home.
The head of another of these seven New Hampshire familles was SAMUEL AMES. His descent is fromy Jaoch Ames, of Canterbury, New Hampshire. His son was Samme! Aires, form in 2;24. His oldest son was Joseph Ames. born in 1721. One of his six sons was Sammel Ames, who came to Lake Prairie, who was born July ia. 1813. in New Hampshire. He represented Lake county in the Legislature some years ago. His son. Edward P. Ames. lives in Harryned. He thel a few years ago at Elkhart, where Mrs. Ames lis only daughter now reside.
REV. H. WASON, wenn spent many active years in pastoral life in West Greek township, after reading trong the responsibilities of a pastor's dadies. gave quite a little attention to farming along with this one son, and be too was chosen by the voters of the orwelty to represent theme at Indianapolis. It was certainly creditable to the majority of the citizens of the county that they sent three such thoroughly religious men, in the course of a few years. from the same not large reigiborhoe ! men of New England birth and New represent them in the Legislature. Such men as citizens
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are everywhere valuable. The readers of these memorials must have noticed how many of the earlier settlers were of New England and so of English descent.
WILLEY .- Another pioneer from the State of New York was GEORGE WILLEY. He was born in Connecticut. April 3, 1814, but when four years of age his home was removed to the State of New York. His father was Jeremiah Willey, of Connecticut, born in 1777, and his grandfather was David Willey, both bearing Bible names, as did so many of the children of New England.
George Willey, brought up in the State of New York, receiving the train- ing of the New York schools, well informed in regard to some of the higher institutions of learning in that State, was married in 1835 to Miss Cynthia Nash, and came with her and a party of settlers in 1838 to the western limit of Lake county. He made his home near the present Klassville, in what was West Creek township but is now in Hanover. George Almeron Willey, the one living son. has a home now in St. Louis. His oldest daughter. Mrs. John Fisher. resides in Crown Point. Two other daughters are living, but not in Indiana. The family removed from the farm many years ago, and Mr. Willey erected a spacious dwelling house near Crown Point. where his life closed April 5. 1884. while he was Chairman of the Committee of Ar- rangements for the Semi-Centennial celebration of the county. He was seventy years of age. He had taken a good interest in the jubilee celebration, and would have enjoyed it had he lived.
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