USA > Indiana > Lake County > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of Lake County, Indiana, with a compendium of history 1834-1904 > Part 3
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Beautiful, exceedingly beautiful, as this region was in its native wild- ness, the prairies, the groves. the woodlands, showing very little indication that man had ever been here, only some trails, some dancing floors made of earth, some burial places, it did not prove to be an Eden after the white man's presence began to be felt in its most choice localities. Virtuous in general as the pioneers were, there was so little of society restraint, of civil restraint over them, that sometimes the temptations to do wrong proved too strong for a feeble virtue. But these were rare cases, only a few dark spots, in a generally moral. upright, virtuous community.
When one considers the crimes that are so numerous in these later years. not only in towns and cities, but often in country neighborhoods, it is pleasant to look back sixty years ago upon the quiet, yet active home life. that was spreading out upon the prairies, and to see how secure life and property were,
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
and how fearlessly the young maidens could roam into the wilds in search of flowers and fruits, before tramps had an existence : and if they met some hunter youth, he was sure to be a friend. Now a lone man is to be dreaded and shunned. It was not so then.
SAD OCCURRENCES.
In the course of years, and in any community, as human life is, there will always be some events of more than ordinary sadness. At least two of such events may fittingly be recorded here. The first is the death by freez- ing of David Agnew, whose wife was a Bryant, on the night of April 4. 1835. As one of the Bryant family making the settlement at Pleasant Grove. it fell to his lot to take an ox team across from Morgan prairie in Porter county to the new settlement.
The weather had been mild with some rain, and snow and cold were no longer expected ; but on that April day there came "a most terrible snow- storm." Circumstances had separated David Agnew with the ox team from others of the party, but as the storm became very severe Simeon Bryant stopped at Hickory Point, built a fire, and waited for their coming. They came not as expected, and at about four in the afternoon, Simeon Bryant, thinking that David Agnew had concluded not to come on in that storin, building a large fire of logs for a camping place if he should come, started on foot for the settlement, distant ten miles west. He was "a remarkably strong, robust man," said one of that family, but was very thoroughly chilled when at dark he reached the cabin of E. W. Bryant. David Agnew was not a very strong or healthy man, and no one thought of his undertaking that perilous trip of ten long miles on such a fearful night. The next morning. when the storm was over. an April fog coming on, as Simeon Bryant. David Bryant, and E. W. Bryant went out to look over the land, they saw some object lying in the snow, and E. W. Bryant said, "It looks like a dead man." David Bryant took a closer look and said, "It looks like Agnew." And the body of David Agnew it proved to be, beside which those three stout-hearted men stood aghast. What that night had been to him in suffering and in struggle none could fully know.
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
I quote now from the Bryant narrative: "Upon looking round they found beaten paths where Agnew had at first run round in a circle to try to keep from perishing, and then, as if strength had failed so as not to be able to do that, he had supported himself with his arms around the trunks of the trees, running around them till there was quite a path worn and leaving the lint of his coat sticking in the bark. He finally got hold of a pole about seven or eight feet long, and placing one end on the ground and leaning on the other ran round in a circle, until. as it would appear, his strength was entirely exhausted and he fell across his support, leaving no sign of having made a struggle after."
We can see in this account how heroically he struggled for life, and that he should have perished so near to a home and a shelter seems doubly pit- iable. It was found that he had reached Hickory Point with his oxen and wagon, but instead of trying to camp there with them by the fire, had drawn out the keys from the ox bows, dropped them with the yokes all chained together upon the ground, thrown out a few unbound sheaves of oats from his wagon as food for the oxen, and had started immediately to follow Simeon Bryant across the ten miles of prairie and marsh.
The Bryant narrative says that there was an Indian trail passing by Hickory Point and through Pleasant Grove, but that the night was very dark, although the snow-storm was followed by almost incessant lightning. Somehow Agnew made his way across, but perished almost within reach of help.
There have been a few deaths in Lake county the circumstances of which have made them exceedingly pitiable, but none much more so than the death by freezing of David Agnew.
The other of these occurrences is the death of Peder Olsen Dijsternd. a young Norwegian, who was passing through the county in a buggy, with one companion, on his way to a settlement of his countrymen across the Kankakee River south of where is now Momence. Before reaching his des- tination he was taken sick, and was left by his traveling companion at a home
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
near the Red Cedar Lake to recover or to die. Of the companion who left him nothing is here known. Ignorant as he was of their language the family learned not much from him, but gave him such care as their home afforded. He soon died. The burial was witnessed by the writer of this record 3001 after his finding a home at the lake, and to him it was exceedingly sad. No kinsman of the dead man present, no countryman present, no one to shed one tear or speak one pitying word. A few pioneers gathered, undertakers in those days were not, and the rude coffin was conveyed to a little mound near the lake shore and the body of the fine-looking young stranger was laid away to rest. The boy who witnessed with a sad heart all the proceedings has in the years of his manhood conducted very many burial services, he has heard the voice of wailing and has witnessed bitter weeping, as tender earth-ties have been severed, but the burial of the young Norwegian stranger remains fixed in his memory as the one example of a burial of an unknown stranger, alone in a foreign land. Nearly thus was the body of Henry Mar- tyn, the missionary, committed to the dust ; and of our stranger's death it might be said as of Henry Martyn's,
"no sister's hand. No mother's tender care his pillow smoothed. All, all he loved on earth were far away."
But soon there came in search of this Norwegian an uncle, Peter Sather, a quite wealthy exchange broker, from the city of New York. He learned from the Ball family such facts as were known in the neighborhood, he found the burial place of his nephew, he paid to the owner of the claim five dollars for the little mound, (he could get no title, as all the land of Lake county then belonged to the Government or to a few Indians), and returned to his eity home. In the Commissioners' Records of Lake county, January, 1838, that nephew is called a "pauper" whose burial cost the county of Lake thirty-one dollars; but in the city of New York and in his childhood's home in Norway he was evidently far from being penniless. What money or its equivalent he took with him from his uncle's home, and what became of it, probably no one now living knows. He had not lived "a pauper" if indeed thus he died.
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
PICTURES SUGGESTED FOR SOME ARTIST.
At least three beautiful scenes might be placed on canvas showing some few of the many interesting events in Lake county history.
One is an event in Indian life here, and Indian custom : a custom, prob- ably, learned from French missionaries.
The locality is Big White Oak Island in the Kankakee Marsh. The time is January 1, 1839. The witnesses and narrators are Charles Kenney and son of Orchard Grove. The circumstances are these: On that Island a French trader named Laslie, who has an Indian wife, has a store. The two Kenneys were looking up some horses, and the night of December 31, 1838. came upon them. They staid at Laslie's place all night. Mrs. Laslie, the Indian woman, kind and thoughtful, treated them well, gave them clean blankets out of the store on which to sleep, and would receive from them no pay.
I quote now from "Lake County, 1872." a book out of print: "The morning dawned. The children of the encampment gathered, some thirty in number, and the oldest Indian, an aged venerable man, gave to each of the children a silver half-dollar as a New Year's present. As the children re- ceived the shining silver each one returned to the old Indian a kiss." Surely a beautiful picture could be made from this historic scene, the broad marsh spreading out on each side, southward the line of timber skirting the unseen river, the encampment, the two white visitors, the joyous Indian children, the aged Pottawattomie, who had years before been active as a hunter, now bestowing the half-dollars, the money of civilization, and bending gracefully down to receive the gentle kisses from the children's lips.
The second of these events is a very different scene. It is the turning over of the first furrow on the prairie where was afterward to be the Main street of Crown Point. The time is spring, the year 1835. I quote now from "Lake County, 1884," also out of print :
"A large breaking plow with a wooden mold board had been provided. four yoke of oxen were attached to the plow, and the women and children
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
came out from the cabins to see the first furrow turned in the green-sward of the prairie. Judge Clark held the plow, Thomas and Alexander [his sons] guided the oxen. W. A. W. Holton walked behind to aid in turning over any refractory turi, himself then young and vigorous with that jet black hair, that cares little for exposure, which has characterized the Holton young men; while in front of all, to enable the oxen and boys to keep the line, walked the tall, spare form of Solon Robinson, even then as white-haired as Christopher Columbus when he stood on the deck of the Santa Maria."
The third of these historic events is a widely different scene. It may be called a sacred scene. It is peculiar to Christianity. It is the public recognition, the first in this county, of a Christian church. The time was May 19, 1839. The locality was the Red Cedar Lake, a few rods south of the present Cedar Lake schoolhouse.
The recognition services were on Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, and were held in the grove or the lake woodland, with the shade of the young and thrifty oaks over the heads of the assembled people, and far above the leaf crowned treetops the blue May sky, the bright water of the Lake of the Red Cedars sparkling in the sunlight not far eastward, all the circumstances combining to add beauty to the picture. Two aged. venerable ministers of the Gospel were present. the stout built, rugged form of Elder French of Porter county is in full view and the more slender, less vigorous, but yet manly form of Elder Sawin of LaPorte. Elder Sawin has just preached to the attentive congregation. and now. as the camera is adjusted, the brethren and sisters rising from their seats form a circle in the center of the assembly. join their hands, and Elder French in the name of the council of churches there represented gives to them the right hand of church fellowship.
They are seated. Our picture is taken. Other exercises follow. That little band, among them the three pioneer men, Richard Church, Lewis War- riner, and Hervey Ball, other men in the prime of life, some young mothers, and some elderly women, now a recognized church. there in that woodland which gave little evidence that human footsteps had been on the ground
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
before, celebrated for the first time together what is called the Lord's Supper. They "took the sacred emblems of blood stained Calvary." But the picture for the painter's brush is the group of men and women so lately members of large Eastern churches, as they join hand to hand in the open air of the almost untrodden western woodland. to act thenceforth together as a church of Christ.
These three suggested pictures, painted as this writer would paint them were he an artist, taking in the natural beauty that was then around tlie human actors, would be treasures on the wall of the Old Settler Historic Hall that is to be.
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
CHAPTER II.
THE RAILROAD PERIOD. OUTLINE HISTORY FROM 1851 TO 1904.
When the first half of the nineteenth century closed, the frontier or pio- neer method of living, of working, of making sure, but slow progress, was coming, in Lake county, to a sudden end. For, eastward, in the distance, and not far away, could be heard the sound of the railroad whistle. The railroads were coming; the swift passenger cars, the long lines of freight cars, with all the changes which these meant to the quiet life of the settlers, were coming to help build up a mighty city on the Lake Michigan shore just outside of the county of Lake. Of necessity, from its geographical situ- ation, every railroad entering Chicago, which in 1850 was just commencing its remarkable growth, must, coming from the east or southeast, cross the northwestern corner of Indiana. And rapidly they came after a beginning had been made. So. when the families in the central part of the county, waking one early morning in the springtime, besides the sounds, to which they were accustomed, of the sand-hill cranes and wild geese in the marshes and of the thousands of the grouse on the prairies near them, heard far up among their northern sand hills, the shrill whistle of the steam engine. they knew that a new agricultural and commercial life was near at hand. The very deer were startled by the sound, unaccustomed as they had been even to the sound of horns and the baying or trailing of dogs, hearing only some- times a cowbell in the woodlands. Wild life, so abundant as then it was, at length grew wary. The railroads came. The Indians had gone. The deer followed them or were exterminated.
It has always been stated in Lake county history that the first road to enter Lake county was the Michigan Central, and the date assigned has been 1850. And this date is found in a paper prepared by Rev. H. Wason, one
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
of the best statisticians of the county, for the Semi-Centennial of 1884. He says: "For statistical purposes, I append the report of the State Board of Equalization on Railroads for 1884." one column in that report is headed, "Time when roads commenced running," and the time for the Michigan Central is given. 1850. This authority is good. And yet the writer of this Outline, from some information gleaned in the last few years. hesitates now to claim that date, believing himself to have been responsible for it at first, and he thinks the date ought to be 1851, the same year in which the Michigan Southern came into the county.
From the best evidence to be obtained two other dates, as given in that State Board report are here changed, and the following are believed now to be the certain dates of these various roads when trains commenced running in the county :
Michigan Central 1851
Michigan Southern I851
Joliet Cut Off 1854
Pittsburg, Fort Wayne. & Chicago. 1858
"Pan Handle" road 1865
Baltimore & Ohio 1874
Chicago & Grand Trunk. 1880
Chicago & Atlantic ( Erie ). 1882
New York, Chicago, & St. Louis ( Nickel Plate ). 1882
Louisville, New Albany & Chicago ( Monon ) 1882
Indiana, Illinois, & Iowa ( the Three I's)
1883
Later roads :
Elgin. Joliet, & Eastern ( Belt Line) 1888
Chicago & Calumet Terminal. 1888
Wabash 1892
Griffith & Northern ( Freight) 1 899
Chicago, Cincinnati, & Louisville. 1903
These sixteen roads, taking the whole railroad period of fifty years, are placed together here, near the beginning of this Outline, for convenience of reference, and that the readers may see at a glance what have so largely helped to make Lake county, in the last few years, first in rapid growth among all the counties of Indiana.
On these roads are now three cities. Hammond. East Chicago, which
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
includes Indiana Harbor, and Whiting: three incorporated towns, Crown Point. Hobart, and Lowell: and seventeen towns and villages, these having a population of one hundred and less up to four hundred and five hundred.
That Lake county stands first among the counties of the State in the number of miles of railroad might naturally be expected. Marion, Allen. LaPorte, and Porter, coming next in number of miles of road-bed. Three of the best roads of the State, which are "great thoroughfares in the nation." the Michigan Central. Michigan Southern, and Pittsburg & Fort Wayne, pass across the county. These were assessed for taxation in 1884. "at twenty thousand dollars for each mile of road-bed."
Having looked over the railroads which have been built in this period of new life and more rapid growth, it will be instructive to look at some of the stages of advancement. The first place for shipment of grain and for obtaining freight from cars was Lake Station, distant from Crown Point fifteen miles. This gave no great impetus to farming or to building. The next stations were Ross and Dyer, and the latter soon became a large ship- ping point. Ross Station gave facilities for a daily mail at Crown Point, a little stage which carried passengers running up and back daily. This town, the only one in the county, in fact only a village itself for several years. had been slowly improving in the latter part of the pioneer period. The log huts had been gradually disappearing, shade trees and fruit trees were taking the place of the native growth, business houses were increasing in number. and in 1849 the frame court house was erected. "George Earle architect : Jeremy Hixon builder," so the statement on the building said; and from 1850 to 1860 a large amount of business was done for a small inland town. In these years some enterprising and excellent business men were building up the town. Some of these were: J. S. Holton. J. W. Dinwiddie. Joseph P. Smith, William Alton, A. H. Merton, David Turner, James Bissel. E. M. Cramer. J. C. Satierman, H. C. Griesel, and J. G. Hoffman. There were also the firms of Nichols & Nichols, Luther & Farley. Lewis & Dwyer, then Lewis & Pratt. Also, business men. Fred J. Hoffman, Levi Tarr, and W. G.
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
McGlashon. The railroad stations from which goods were hauled were Lake and Ross and at length Hobart. The roads were dirt roads, some- times dusty. sometimes very muddy, some of the way deep sand. Brick build- ings as well as frame dwellings were erected. In 1858 were built the brick dwelling houses of Z. P. Farley, of J. Wheeler, of J. G. Hoffman. and a three- story business house; in 1859 two brick county offices and the brick school- house, the Sons of Temperance donating to the schoolhouse one thousand dol- lars: and in 1860 was erected the present Methodist church building. In its steeple was placed a bell, and since that time the families of Crown Point have been able to hear for these last forty years in their peaceful homes "the sound of the church-going bell."
The completion of the Pittsburg & Fort Wayne road enabled Hobart. founded in 1847. to become a prosperous manufacturing town. The mill- dam was completed and a sawmill started in 1846, and soon a grist mil! was lusy grinding wheat and corn. Town lots were laid out in 1848. But there was little to bring business or inhabitants until the railroad passed through to Chicago. Then busy life commenced. Making brick became a great industry, followed by making what is called "terra cotta lumber and fire-proof products." Hobart has continued year after year to improve. having as citizens some very enterprising and energetic business men, and of terra cotta alone, the State Geologist has said that from Hobart "sixty carloads a month are shipped to all parts of the United States." Hobart has good. brick buildings and is a thriving little city.
Another village or town owing its growth if not its origin to that same railroad is Tolleston, between the two Calumets, twelve miles due north of Crown Point. Its date as a village is 1857. The Michigan Central road also runs through it, and the Wabash touches its northeastern corner. The inhabitants are for the most part German Lutherans and the men work on the railroad. It has a large Lutheran church and parsonage and school. and the population has reached five hundred.
For several years no new road crossed the county, and from 1860
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
to 1865 the interest of the inhabitants of the central and southern parts was concentrated on the events that were threatening the destruction of the nation. The inhabitants north of the Little Calumet were then few. Lake county having been strongly Democratic in its earlier years, became, when those troublous times came on, intensely Republican, and sent to the war, as men were needed, company after company of her brave and patriotic sons, until, so far as can be determined, fully one thousand had joined the regiments of Indiara and Illinois to help decide the great question then at issue over all the land. The population of Lake county in 1860 was 9.145. This number, of course, includes men, women and children, also men too infirm or too far advanced in life to perform a soldier's duty, and leaving these all out, it will appear that Lake county sent a large proportion of men into the fierce conflict. Some of them returned, but not nearly all of the one thousand.
Much money was sent back to their homes by the soldiers on the field, and in a new form: what were called "greenbacks" then came into circu- lation, and many improvements in the county were thus made.
It was not a time for building railroads, and yet, in 1865. a road came up from the southeast. passing directly through Crown Point onward to Chicago. It has had several names but is now generally known as the Pan Handle. For this the business men had been wishing long. They had for about fifteen years felt the great disadvantage of being "inland:" of bringing all their goods and sending off their butter. eggs, and prairie chickens. immense numbers of which they shipped, on wagons that went back and forth to Ross and Lake and Hobart. To them and to all Crown Point the railroad was a cause of new life. New growth began and kept steadily on.
In the spring of 1868 the town was incorporated.
This road gave two other stations, one at Le Roy, which though a small village became a large shipping point, and one called Schererville, a larger village, mostly German families, and a place for some shipments. As the road left the county south of the Calumet it gave no growth to the northern townships.
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
The year 1870 canie with no other new road. But without a road. without much prospect of one, a town of no little importance had been grow- ing up in the south part of the county in these eventful years from 1860 to 1870. Its commencement may be placed as early as 1850. Its founder was Melvin . Halsted. It is called Lowell. It is located in the best agri- cultural portion of the county. West of it lies the southern portion of Lake Prairie, and east of it and south of it the rich farming belt skirting the Kankakee marsh lands. As early as 1836 it was selected as a "mill seat on Celar Creek" by John P. Hoff, of New York City. He purchased the claim from Samuel Halstead, who had selected and claimed it in August. 1835. In November. 1836, the New York man having forfeited his right, it was transferred for two hundred and twelve dollars to James M. Whitney and Mark Burroughs. It came at length into the possession of Melvin A. Halsted, whose name is not written as was the first Halstead. He com- menced his long residence there in 1850 in a brick house, built a flouring mill in 1852. laid out town lots in 1853, and secured the erection of a briek church building in 1856. a small briek schoolhouse, used as a church, having been built in 1852. About 1853 Lowell's first store was opened by Jonas Thorn, and about 1857 William Sigler's store and soon after Viant's store were opened for business. These two were for some time the two principal stores of Lowell. The growth of Lowell was also advanced in these years before 1860 by a settlement made in 1855 and 1856 by a group of families from New Hampshire, who made their homes near the heart of Lake Prairie. This was known for some years as the New Hampshire Settlement.
The citizens of Lowell were not behind others in the war period, from 1860 to 1865, in showing their loyalty to the flag and in sending men to the conflict. Their deeds as patriotic citizens belong to a later portion of this Outline.
In going on along this railroad period from 1870 to 1880. it will be interesting to notice yet further the enterprise and growth at Lowell. One lesson might here be learned, the benefit for a town to be situated in a grow-
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