USA > Indiana > Lake County > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of Lake County, Indiana, with a compendium of history 1834-1904 > Part 15
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So far as appears in any of our records we celebrate to-day, of those married in Lake county, the first Golden Wedding.
In the summer of 1843, on the east side of Cedar Lake, on Cedar Point bluff, a campmeeting was held. Then, how many times before I know not, Mr. Wellington A. Clark met Miss Mary Hackley. He met her several times afterwards. And December 7, 1843, they were married.
Judge Wilkinson, the first probate judge of Lake county (around whom had been, not helping but laughing Indians, when in raising the logs for his cabin walls a heavy one would slide back upon his wife and son and himself), came up along that belt of woodland to the northern home. to con- duct the ceremony, "to solemnize" the marriage. He took his rifle along with him, and shot one of those red deer before he reached the Hackley home. Besides the family of five and the bridegroom and the Judge. there were present three guests, making ten in all that day within the cabin walls.
Over the fifty years of sacred family history between then and now, with its lights and its shadows, its joys and its griefs, its successes and re- verses, I am not to glance. But I may safely and appropriately say that the difference is very great in this county of ours, with its more than one hundred schools, its sixty churches, its dozen railroads, its manufacturing
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establishments, its many towns and villages, its twenty-five thousand in- habitants, between this World's Fair year of 1893 and that year of 1843 to which we have cast a glance backward to-day. Not only is the difference very great here, but great over all the civilized and all the savage world.
Golden weddings should remind us of securing a home in the Golden City.
HUNTING WILD HOGS.
How deer were hunted is quite well understood, but not many now in Lake county know anything about hunting up wild hogs. A very short ac- count of how this was done ought to be of interest to the boys of the county who may have some of the hunter instincts but have little game to hunt except wild rabbits.
The word "up," used above, was inserted for a purpose. Wild hogs, as this writer knew them, were not hunted like deer, to be shot and killed; but were hunted up when autumn came, by those who claimed them, that they might have food and care in the winter. It will appear at once that these hogs were not wild in the same sense in which the deer were wild. for they had claimers, they had nominal owners.
In those carly years of the settlement of this county all domestic animals were allowed a free range in the woodlands and on the prairies. They had no right to go into the settler's gardens and small grain fields, but some- times they would do even that. Hogs were to be marked, and this was done by clippings in their ears, and each owner's mark was to be recorded in a book kept at the county seat. While a hog had only two ears it was curious how many marks, all different of course, could be made on the ears, some marking the right ear, some the left, some marking both ears, perhaps one unlike the other, some cutting a little notch, some making a slit, some marking on the top with a little notch cut off and some marking at the bottom, and so in various ways that each man might prove his own. If one hungry family stole a hog the first thing to do was to dispose of the ears. Having this matter understood, that hogs going out from their win-
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ter homes, some of them not to be seen again till the next winter was near at hand. carried their marks with them, the readers of this are better pre- pared to understand what is meant by hunting them up.
The readers should also recall to mind the fact that the hogs of those days were not Berkshires, nor Poland China, nor any of the modern im- proved breeds; but the long bodied, long limbed racers, that could run rapidly, turn on their sides and go through a small opening in a worm fence, and that knew well how to look out for themselves.
One illustration now of hunting: A colony of these had lived on the Bond place, in what in different connections has been called the West Creek woods. Some of these were transferred by purchase to the west side of Cedar Lake. They spent the winter contentedly at their new home. In the spring they left. and there was no doubt in the owner's mind that they had crossed Lake Prairie and had gone back to their old haunts in the woods of West Creek. Autumn came. It was now 1840, and the owner, with a young man twenty-one years of age and a youth of fourteen. proposed to hunt them up, those runaway hogs. and bring them back to their new home. Each hunter was quite well mounted. They were all New Englanders and had little experience with such animals. They took corn in their saddle bags with their lunch. The weather was then delightful and to them all, those woods, so new to them and wild, were charming. Along in the afternoon, after a quite long search, some hogs were seen. The horses were tied. The young man and the youth were instructed to keep hid, that is, behind trees out of sight, and the owner, taking some ears of corn, advanced cautiously towards the acorn eating hogs, keeping as much as possible a row of trees between him and them. AAt length he threw part of an ear of corn. The hogs looked up. It was evident that besides those that had gone away in the spring were many young animals with unmarked ears that had never tasted corn nor seen a man. And they were wild. Wild as young deer or wolves. The older ones were wild too now, so far as coming near to a man. Some more corn was thrown. The younger ones tasted it. They
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seemed to like it well. Slowly the man came out from behind his tree. The young animals were very wary, but they continued to eat corn while the man who threw it to them drew quite near. Then, unfortunately, the young man thought he could safely come out from behind his tree. The young hogs saw him, they gave a peculiar sound, it was not a squeal nor a grunt, it was more like a bark. there may be some yet living who have heard stich a sound, and immediately, not in a minute but almost in a second, there was no hog, no pig in sight. They were seen no more that day, and the disappointed hunters mounted their horses and went home, being sure that they had learned some lessons in hunting and treating wild hogs.
It was not considered needful to give up that fine drove of pigs and logs, for one failure. It would not be good stock-raising. So another visit to the woods was made by the same three hunters. In the course of the day the drove was again found. The same caution and extra caution was used in feeding them. They were more hungry and they liked the corn. They at length came up close to the one who fed them. He reached and at length mounted his horse and kept feeding those young, now trusting shoats, starting eastward for the prairie. The drove followed quite close to the heels of the horse. They went out of the woods, crossed the prairie quite rapidly, the two young hunters on their horses bringing up the rear. They reached their home before nightfall, gave the trusting animals that followed the corn a good place for sleeping and for winter quarters, and the three all felt that they knew something about hunting up wild hogs.
SOME CEDAR LAKE INCIDENTS.
About 1680 the first white man of whom any trace has been found near the shore of this once beautiful lake, stood upon the well wooded height of the northeastern bank. It is high and wooded now. It must have been high and wooded then. How is it known that a white man was there then ? for of his presence there are no written records. Who was he? What could he have been doing there, only some sixty years after the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock? One question at a time, please, and listen to
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the answers. We know a man was there at some time because he left his mark.
A man sinks into the great ocean and leaves no trace. A man, espe- cially a white man, steps into one of our forests called primeval, and he may only sink his sharp axe an inch or two into a tree and for years its im- press is left. He camps for a night upon the wide prairie and he may leave there a tin dish or a tent-pin made of iron. and years afterwards the ob- servant pioneer says, as his plowshare touches it. this is not an Indian relic. A white man made it and no doubt a white man left it here. And so we read in the forest or on the prairie the presence once of a white man.
The historic fact is this: About 1850 a large oak tree was cut down which had grown upon that wooded height. and near the very heart of the tree was found a piece of steel, a little instrument an inch and a quarter in length, with a round shaft the size of a clay pipe stem, the head, on the top flat and very smooth, and having twelve sides each smooth and well wrought, and the point end not a point but having an edge like an axe. For what use this was made no one knows, but that it did not grow of itself in the tree is very certain. Even an evolutionist could not believe that. Some one drove it into an oak sapling and the wood and bark formed year by year, and as the wood could not crowd the steel out it grew over it. covered it from human view. protected it from rain and frost, and there at length it was found in the heart of a majestic oak. According to the woodmen count and estimate, that tree had been growing nearly two hundred years. The instrument itself, now in the possession of Mrs. M. J. Cutler, a sister of T. H. Ball, shows that it was not the work of an Indian. It came most probably from some European workshop. And almost surely a white man, himself from Europe, placed it, for some purpose, in that young oak. Who was that white man? Knowledge on that point there is none: but con- jectures may lawfully be offered.
About the time when that large Cedar Lake oak was young and thrifty, men from France were in this then thoroughly wild region, the first white
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men. so far as is known. that ever were here. The names of two of these are well known in early American history. One was called Hennepin and the other La Salle.
Louis Hennepin was not a Jesuit but a Franciscan. He accompanied La Salle's expedition of 1679. Passing through the lakes Erie. Huron, and Michigan, these with the men who were with them passed in canoes up to a portage on the St. Joseph River, then across to the Kankakee River, and down that river to the Illinois River. and down that river to a place near the present Peoria.
In February of 1680 Hennepin, as instructed by La Salle. started in a canoe on a voyage of discovery. He made an eventful voyage. Returned to France, and published in 1683 an account of his explorations. There is no probability that he ever saw the Red Cedar Lake. But there is a record that La Salle started on foot with three Frenchmen and an Indian hunter. March 2. 1680, to return to his fort on Lake Ontario, distant about twelve hun- dred miles. He had gone down the Kankakee in December, 1679, with thirty-two men and eight canoes. He was now returning on foot with four companions. If there is any record of that land journey this writer has not found it, and so he conjectures that La Salle and his four com- panions passed between the Kankakee River and Lake Michigan and camped for a night on that wooded high bank of the Red Cedar Lake. It is recorded that before leaving the portage in December of 1679 La Salle caused some letters to be fastened to trees to convey information to others who might pass that way. Possibly then, probably, one might almost say, this little in- strument of steel, now in the possession of one who was born at Cedar Lake, was used by La Salle to fasten a letter high up on the little oak.
The incident, in connection with which the foregoing was written, was the finding of a curious little steel instrument, by Mr. Ames of Lake Prairie. in the heart of a large oak tree, and his giving it to a teacher of the Lake Prairie school. Miss Mary Jane Ball.
In the winter of 1837 and 1838, quite certainly in the latter year, a wild
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animal of the cat family was chased into a swamp which was then at the head of Cedar Lake. There were no real trees in the swamp, but an almost impenetrable mass of what was called black alder bushes, the water being two or three feet in depth. In the summer these bushes would be covered luxuriantly with wild roses. The swamp was many years ago cleared out and drained, until which time it was known as the wildcat thicket. It took its name from the wild animal that Job Worthington of Massachusetts, then a member of the Ball family, succeeded in capturing and killing, with the as- sistance of others, in January probably of 1838. Of its dimensions there are no records, but in the eyes of children it was large, and was surely a savage looking animal. There were reports in those early years of other animals of this family, catamounts, perhaps, having been heard at night, mak- ing their peculiar cry; but there are no records as yet found of any other having been killed in the county.
Two black bears were seen in Lake county in early times, stragglers from the thick woods of La Porte and Porter counties, and in the southeast part of this county have been some large timber wolves; but the native ani- mals of Lake county were seldom dangerous.
The bald eagles often visited the Lake of Cedars, and they were grand birds ; but they were looking for fish, and not for little children nor for lambs.
One lake incident, probably known now, only to this writer, illustrates well the power of imagination. To enable the reader to understand it better it may be needful to state that in 1837 the morus multicoulus or mulberry speculation was at its height in Massachusetts, and that Mr. Lewis Waniner brought some plants or cuttings with him. Cuttings would grow, but needed protection in the winter.
Two of the quite young men of East Cedar Lake found one day a little mound of sand at the south end. called the foot, of the lake. They said to themselves, a little Indian has been buried here. Their curiosity was ex- cited. Rather strangely they proposed to dig into it and see. They went to work, digging down into the sand. and my informant reported that soon
a
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one of them grew sick. The nearness of the decaying body was too much for him to endure. He quit work and retired to breathe some fresh air. The other young man said he perceived nothing, and kept at work. Soon he reached. buried in the sand for protection from the cold of winter, a bunch of Mr. Waniner's mulberry cuttings. The other youth soon recovered from his nausea. This incident came to the writer so direct that he does not like to question it, knowing as he did so well the actors and the informant, and knowing that one of them had a strong emotional nature.
One more incident, slight in itself and yet instructive. presses itself for- ward for some notice. It is connected with that Cedar Lake Belles Lettres Society which has been named, which Solon Robinson visited, quite sur- prised to find there some of what Sprague calls "the anointed children of education." instead of the Indians whom not long before he had met there in a conference.
There was a youth of the community, somewhat older than the mem- bers of the Society who had shown a disposition to make light of their writing everything out. even their discussions and addresses. He did not think he had any need of writing in order to present his thoughts to others. So they invited him to give them an address. He came prompt to the hour, as he no doubt supposed well prepared. He had done no writing. At least he had no manuscript before him. He took his place gracefully upon the floor and opened his address nicely. He proceeded about as far as the off-hand young lawyer who was invited to speak at the opening of a bridge, about two sentences, and then, while all were giving a respectful attention. expecting to hear some oratory, he hesitated. he stopped, he thought, and finally, after one desperate effort, he concluded that undelivered address with the brief peroration, "My thoughts have flown." and sat down. The mem- bers were too polite and considerate to show their amusement while he was present, their usual exercises went on, and he made no more fun of those young writers.
An attorney-general of the United States once said: "There is no ex-
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cellence without great labor. It is the fiat of fate from which no power of genius can absolve you." Children learn to skate by trying to skate; they learn to swim by trying to swim; and they learn to speak and write by trying to speak and write. The power to do any of these things well is worth an effort. A man, now no longer living, who was a power for good in Chicago a few years ago, said in substance, that to appreciate beautiful lan- guage was partly to command it, and that to command beautiful and forcible language was to have a key, with which no man who wished to rule through opinion could dispense. to the mind and to the heart of man.
The Bible itself says, "Words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in pictures of silver."
The after life of my young friend, whose thoughts forsook him in his hour of need, was not what man calls a success. And his death, some forty years ago, was peculiarly sad.
He had good capabilities, but in times of need they seemed to be of no avail. I certainly will not disclose his name, through my regard for what is due to the living and the dead, but I would here tenderly lay a wreath of mingled respect and grief upon his nameless grave.
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JOHN BROWN.
John Brown, for many years one of the forceful and honored factors in financial circles in Lake county and one whose influence has not been a minor element among the financiers of northwestern Indiana, has attained to prominence through the inherent force of his character, the exercise of his native talent and the utilization of surrounding opportunities. He has become a capitalist whose business career excites the admiration and has won the respect of his contemporaries, yet it is not this alone that entitles him to rank as one of the foremost men of his day in Lake county. His connection with the public interests of Crown Point is far-reaching and beneficial, and he has aided largely in promoting community affairs which have for their object the welfare of the general public. He is now the president of the First National Bank of Crown Point and he has extensive landed possessions, his realty holdings comprising six thousand acres.
Moreover, Mr. Brown is entitled to mention in this volume from the fact that he is one of the native sons of Lake county, his birth having occurred in Eagle Creek township, on the 7th of October. 1840. The family is of Scotch lineage, and the grandfather. John Brown, was a native of New York and took a very active and prominent part in public affairs. He served as a major in the war of 1812 and lived to the very advanced age of ninety- three years. Alexander F. Brown, the father of our subject, was born in Schenectady county, New York, in 1804, and there remained until 1837. when he removed to Lake county. Indiana, settling in Eagle Creek township. There he secured land from the government and developed and improved a farm. He was widely recognized as one of the leading and influential residents of this county, and his influence was a marked element in shaping the public policy. He became a recognized leader in forming public thought and opin- jon, and all who knew him respected him for his loyalty to his honest con- victions and his devotion to the general welfare. In his political views he was a stanch Whig and he held membership in the Presbyterian church, hold- ing office therein, taking a very helpful part in its work and contributing liberally and generously of his time and means to various church activities. He was killed in a runaway accident in 1849 when forty-five years of age. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Eliza M. Barringer, was a native of
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Schenectady county, New York, and there spent the days of her girlhood. She lived to be seventy-three years of age and died in Lake county, Indiana. On her husband's death she was left to care for a family of five children, one of whom was born after his demise. The eldest, a daughter, Mary. now the deceased wife of Thomas Fisher, was but twelve years of age at the time of the runaway accident which terminated the active and useful career of the husband and father. John was the second of the family. William B., the third, is a resident of Crown Point. Anna is the wife of William C. Nichol- son, of Crown Point. George, the youngest, died when twenty-nine years of age, leaving a widow and three sons. Mrs. Alexander Brown reared her family of five children and much credit is due her for their success in life. She desired that they should have good educational privileges and thus be well fitted to meet life's practical and responsible duties, and she put forth every effort in her power to thus qualify them. She was one of the noble pioneer women of Lake county and all praise is due her from her children and friends.
John Brown remained with his mother assisting her in the work of the home farm until, feeling that his first duty was to his country, he enlisted as a member of Company I, Fifth Indiana Cavalry. He joined the army as a private in 1861. was promoted to the rank of sergeant and was captured with his regiment at Sunshine church in Georgia when on the Stoneman raid. He was held a prisoner for seven months. He was in many hard-fought battles. He took part in the entire Atlanta campaign until captured with Stoneman at Sunshine church, near Macon, Georgia. At Indianapolis, June 27, 1865, he was mustered out, having served for three years, during which time he was ever faithful to his duty, following the old flag in many a hotly contested battle. where he displayed marked valor and loyalty.
Mr. Brown at the close of the war returned to Lake county, where he began farming, following that occupation until 1870, when he was elected county treasurer upon the Republican ticket. He discharged the duties of the position so faithfully that in 1872 he was reelected. and in 1876 he was chosen for the office of county auditor. In 1880 he was once more elected to that position and served for eight years, retiring from the office as he had entered it-with the confidence and good will of all concerned. He served for four years as county treasurer
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and was township treasurer for a number of years, and in all these different public positions he displayed marked business and executive ability as well as unfaltering fidelity to the trust reposed in him. In the meantime he had become actively identified with financial interests of the county, having in 1874 established the First National Bank at Crown Point. He was one of the charter members and stockholders of this institution, which was capitalized for fifty thousand dollars. Its first president was James Burge, who was succeeded by David Turner, and Mr. Brown became the third president and is now acting in that capacity. He also has other business interests in the county, including a fine stock farm of about six thousand acres located in Eagle Creek and Cedar Creek townships. On this place he keeps about one thousand head of cattle and his annual sales of stock are very extensive and add materi- ally to his income. In business affairs he is far-sighted and energetic, his judgment is correct and his plans are carried forward to successful comple- tion.
Mr. Brown was united in marriage to Miss Almira Clark, and there were three children. a son and two daughters, born to them : Neil, who is now residing upon his father's extensive ranch: Mary Alice: and Grace Almira, who is the wife of E. S. Davis, of Chicago. For his second wife Mr. Brown chose Myrtle E. Ashton, and his present wife bore the maiden name of Jennie E. Northrup.
Mr. Brown is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. identified with John Wheeler Post No. 149. He is also connected with the Masonic fraternity of Crown Point and holds membership with the Knights Templar at Valparaiso. In politics he is a stanch Republican, and it was upon that ticket that he was elected to the different positions which he has so capably filled. He has indeed been a prominent factor in community interests, and although he has conducted important and extensive business affairs he has never been remiss in citizenship, but on the contrary has contributed in large degree to the general welfare and progress.
GOTFRIED W. WAGONBLAST.
G. W. Wagonblast. who is now living a retired life in Center township, is numbered among those who have long been residents of Lake county, and, moreover, is entitled to mention in this volume because he was one of the
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