USA > Indiana > Lake County > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of Lake County, Indiana, with a compendium of history 1834-1904 > Part 5
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 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
In 1898, according to a quite careful count. there were in the three older towns of the county the following number of families : In Crown Point 580: in Lowell 290: in Hobart 315; in even hundreds 600, 300. 300. It has been already stated that in 1850 there were in all Lake county 715 fam- ilies. No attempt was made to count the families of Hammond, East Chicago, and Whiting.
For the year 1899 the great improvement going on in the county was road-making. Some of the roads were called gravel, and others stone roads. Before this year eleven miles of gravel road had been made in Hobart town- ship.
The following paragraph is quoted : "Cost of different roads: In Hobart township. Ist gravel road, $36.990, 2d, $21,990, 3d. $36.990, mak- ing in all for Hobart, $95,970. In North township, the Bradford roads, $124.500. In Ross, $71,485. In Cedar Creek, $47,540. In Calumet, $42,988. In St. Johns and Center. $167.500, and in Center. the Jenkins road, $12.900,
43
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
in all for St. Johns and Center roads, $180,400. Grand total for roads in the seven townships, $562,883, or a little more than half a million of dollars."
These were not all completed till 1900. AAround the public square in Crown Point was laid a walk of sandstone, the stone ten feet in length, five in breadth, and six inches in thickness, the walk costing $11,000.
The Nineteenth Century closed upon a certainly prospering, enterprising community in this county of Lake.
In 1899 one more railroad was constructed running from Griffith to Lake Michigan and then westward, called the Griffith & Northern. This is a freight road and made no towns.
In June, 1901, work was commenced in the northeast part of the limits of East Chicago, miles away then, however, from its factories and stores and dwellings, for new industries, especially for a large, independent steel mill, which was to furnish employment, when in full operation, for one thou- sand men. In July, when the locality was first visited by this writer, about one hundred and fifty men were at work 'grading the ground for streets and for buildings, and breaking the ground for a new city. It was an interest- ing sight. This record was made in August, 1902: "A large mill building has been crected called The Inland Steel Mill, and on Monday, August II. 1902, 'the wheels of the big mill were started to receive the first iron of the rolls.' A well sunk by the Inland Mill people 276 feet deep will furnish abundance of good water. Indiana Harbor is already a town, almost a city of itself. Its future none can foresee, but it promises now, when its mill work is all in operation and its harbor constructed, to make East Chicago one of the great lake cities of Indiana."
Indiana Harbor, as this part of East Chicago is called, is rapidly making good the promise of 1902. Since February 20, 1904, electric cars have been running between the two divisions of the city. To one who saw cities try to grow in northern Indiana sixty-seven years ago, and saw them fail, it is amazing to see how cities now spring up and grow. Electricity is a great agent now. Money and energy, steam and electricity, are doing
44
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
much for Lake county in its rapid advance among the counties of the State.
In 1903 yet another road was completed as far as Griffith, the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville road, which promises to be an important thoroughi- fare when its trains can reach Chicago. It has made the village of Merrill- ville, which had waited long, a railroad town, and may yet add quite a little prosperity to Griffith.
Besides the sixteen roads named, most of them important roads of the country, there are six short lines within the county as given by the State Board of Tax Commissioners for 1903. These are: Chicago Junction, length three miles, fractional parts omitted: East Chicago Belt, five miles ; Indiana Harbor, nearly five miles: South Chicago & Southern, seven miles ; Standard Oil Company, fourteen miles: Chicago, Lake Shore & Eastern, eight miles : making, according to that report of the State Board, miles of main track in Lake county, 324.28. and of side tracks. 194.55. Lake county has many more miles of railway than any other county in Indiana.
According to the United States census the population of Lake county in 1900 was 37.892: the population of Hammond was 12.376: of Whiting 3.983 ; and of East Chicago. 3.411. The population of Whiting may still be placed. in round numbers, at 4,000 ; and that of East Chicago, which includes within its limits that new locality called Indiana Harbor, may also be placed at 4,000. It thus appears, by consulting a county map, that more than twenty thousand of the inhabitants of the county live within five miles of the southeast limits of Chicago. According to a state authority the number of voters in the county in 1901 was 11, 162, of these 16 being colored men.
AN ASSOCIATION.
The Old Settlers' AAssociation, of which mention has been made. was organized at the court house in Crown Point. July 24. 1875. The first public meeting was held at what was the old Fair Ground, September 25. 1875. September 14. 1876, the annual meeting was held at the same place. September 15, 1877, on account of rain, the meeting was held in Cheshire Hall. September 10, 1878. after the public exercises connected with laying
45
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
the corner stone of the new court house, the fourth meeting was held at the old Fair Ground. In 1879 the Association met in the then new Fair Ground. In 1880, met again in Cheshire Hall. In 1881 and 1882, met in Hoffman's Opera House. In 1883 and 1884 at the Fair Ground. Since 1884 the annual reports of the Historical Secretary have been printed every five years for the members of the Association and other citizens of the county. Sixteen of these reports are now in print, four more will this year be in writing, and these, if continued on, will furnish, it is supposed, quite an amount of in- formation for the historian, whoever he may be. of 1934. It is probable that no other county in Indiana has so full historic records.
At the annual meeting in August, 1903. the name of the Association was slightly changed. The "s" was dropped from the word "Settlers" and the word "Historical" was added, so that the name now is THE OLD SETTLER AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION of Lake County, Indiana. It is expected that the Association will have a room before long in which to preserve records and relics.
An account has been given of the anniversary meeting of 1884. At the annual meeting in 1889, when East Chicago and Whiting, now thriving cities, were starting into existence, the following address was delivered to the children present at the Fair Ground; and believing it to be of interest to the children of the families where this book will come, it is repeated here :
"Beloved children. representatives of the descendants of the pioneers of Lake, some of you grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those pioneer settlers whose names have already, in the annals of Lake, become historic, -- representatives also to-day of some three thousand children in our county,- it is my privilege to speak to you for a few moments in regard to the heritage which those pioneers and early settlers, with others who have come among 115, have left and will leave for you and those whom to-day you represent.
'My subject is, Our Heritage to the Children. I am to represent therefore those men and women, venerable in age, a few of whom yet remain among us, who have come down to us from a former generation. As in their name and in their behalt, and in behalf also of pioneer children, who are now between sixty and seventy years of age, I am to speak to you to-day.
"We are leaving, we are to leave you, this county of Lake with its present great resources. We found it almost a wild. We shall leave it to you a wealthy portion of this great commonwealth of Indiana.
46
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
"Whether or not the Indians succeeded the Mound-Builders here, 1 do not certainly know. But I do certainly know that we took possession of Indian hunting grounds: of Indian homes. When the pioneers came they found here Indian trails and dancing floors. Indian gardens and burial grounds. Indian ponies and Indian life. I have been in an Indian canoe on the Lake of Red Cedars, have seen them eat and trade; and there are those yet among us who have seen them in their wigwams and on their hunting grounds. We came next to the Indians here. And almost a wild, so soon as they were gone, were these five hundred square miles of land and water. We found here the prairie and the woodland, the lakes, the marshes, and the streams. These were then free and bridgeless streams. We have put bridges over them all. The only obstructions, the only dams then were made by the beaver. We have built dams and erected mills. The musk- rats made their homes in the marshes. We have turned many of these into meadows and corn-fields. On the southwest of Cedar Lake. where over a large area the sand-hill cranes waded, where the largest boats of the lake passed, and the best fishing ground was found for the large pike, we have made dry land.
"Through the great Kankakee Marsh, where lived the muskrats and the mink, where the wild geese made their nests. we have cut long ditches with steam dredges and have opened up thousands of acres for pasturage and farming. We have fenced up all the once wild prairie, and now, where the deer bounded and the wolves galloped leisurely along, where the cranes 'danced' on the high areas and the prairie hens had their nests undisturbed. where the wild flowers of such rich beauty grew, there are orchards and gardens and barnyards and dwelling houses, and the wild life of the prairie is no more. We have planted twenty-five towns and villages where were only Indian wigwams and gardens. We have built forty-eight churches and one hundred schoolhouses. We have dug some three thousand wells of water. In the early times, in a dry season, it became sometimes needful to steal water. One spring on the west side of Cedar Lake supplied at one time nearly all the families around the lake. What the Indians did for water in the dry season I know not. They left very little. We found only nature here: but we shall leave to you the marks of white men on this soil which no coming years will erase. Lake county has been made first in the state of Indiana in railroads, first in exporting beef to foreign markets. first in the great oil refinery now in process of erection at Whiting, first in organized Sunday-school work. And it has been placed among the first in exporting hay, raising horses, in the general prosperity and intelligence of the people. There are now some eighteen thousand people, about one-half living in the twenty-five towns and villages, and the other half, nine thousand, on the rich and well cultivated farms.
"Now, all these farms and orchards and pasture lands, all these towns and villages, all these manufacturing interests and industrial pursuits, all the material results in our public school and Sunday-school work, all this civilization and prosperity attained since the moccasined Indians ceased here to tread, we shall leave as a heritage to you, the children of this generation.
47
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
Instead of succeeding Indians, who left only trails and dancing floors and burial places, you will succeed a generation of busy workers, of intelligent white people, who will leave you wagon roads and railroads, bridges and fences, and the results of the outlay of a large amount of money and labor making what we call fixed capital in the land. The property in Lake county was assessed for taxes in 1888 at nearly nine and one-half millions of dol- lars. Do you see how differently you will enter upon life compared with your pioneer ancestry? You will have no court-house, no public buildings to erect, few churches and few schoolhouses to build, no prairie sod to turn over and subdue, few fences to make, few houses to build. All these things have been done for you by those who struck the first blow here with the axe, erected the first log cabin, built the first bridge, constructed the first mill, made the first brick, sowed the first wheat and oats, and reaped the first harvest.
"Can you see, beloved children; and through you I speak as to the three thousand, can you see how much has been done for you by the two generations that have gone before you here? Some have worked in one line, some in another. They have all helped to furnish for you a rich, a valu- able, and, as earth is, even a glorious inheritance. Soon it will all be yours, for rapidly we are passing away.
"SHOW YOURSELVES WORTHY OF THIS INHERITANCE."
Since this address was delivered to the children in 1889, those who have read a few preceding pages have seen that the heritage for the children has very largely increased, more than half a million dollars having been invested in improved roads, a hundred thousand dollar court house having been built and furnished at Hammond, the assessed value of the property in the county having reached the sum of twenty-one and a half million, and the county auditor's report for January Ist, 1904, showing receipts for 1903 with balance then on hand of about one million dollars.
.And now the question comes up: Who were the men of the past gen- eration who seventy years ago began to lay foundations here, and who for twenty, thirty, forty years, toiled on, amid privations and discouragements, to furnish for us the inheritance which we all now enjoy? Shall we not honor their efforts, and count their names worthy of lasting remembrance ? For the names of some of these men, all of whom have passed from the activities of life, sec in another chapter short memorial sketches.
48
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
INTERESTING ITEMS.
Churches, School Houses, Banks.
The first church buildings erected in the county were a Methodist church on West Creek and a Roman Catholic chapel near the present St. John, date of both, 1843. In 1872 there were twenty-three church buildings, one only being north of the Calumet, the Lutheran church at Tolleston. There are now: In West Creek township three: in Cedar Creek five : in Winfield four ; in Center eight : in Hanover three: in St. Johns four: in Ross two: in Hobart nine : in Calumet two; and in North twenty-six. In all sixty-six.
Of schoolhouses there are one hundred and twenty, and of teachers two hundred.
Of banks there are: In Crown Point two: Lowell has two: Dyer one ; Hobart two : Hammond three : East Chicago two: Whiting two. Total num- ber fourteen. The capital invested in most of these banks is owned by resi- dents of the county.
Of the Lake County State Bank of East Chicago. Potter Palmer. Jr., is a director. vice president. and cashier, and probably a large owner of the capital. which is advertised to be fifty thousand dollars.
A FEW MORE PARTICULARS.
Water.
So far as surface water was concerned the county was originally well watered. While not a region of rocks and rills, of springs and streams of crystal water, there were marshes in abundance and some flowing springs. which in the pioneer days usually furnished a supply for all the domestic animals. In these hundreds of marshes usually lived some muskrats, some little fishes. and one or two pair of wild ducks. Shallow wells were dug near the marshes or in low places which furnished drinking water for the families. But dry seasons came, marshes began to be dry. the muskrats. even. were driven by thirst and hunger to the houses and stables of the settlers, and the cattle were driven to the central lake and to the large streams once a day for water. The surface wells also gave out. as dry seasons came and the
49
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
draining of marshes was commenced. and deeper wells were dug and walled up with brick; and at length wells were driven or bored, so that now on every large farm there is a well of some depth. a windmill to work the pump, and a good-sized tank to hold the water. These windmills are pic- turesque as well as useful. Without them it would seem almost impossible for the farmers to keep such large numbers, as now they do, of domestic animals. There are yet a few. comparatively, of valuable living springs in the county, four or five of these furnishing a large flow of water; and there are a very few artesian wells. The cities of the county can obtain water in pipes from Lake Michigan; and the larger inland towns have "water- works." Many of the town families have their own wells and cisterns. The water in every part of this county, where they who use the water have wells, is generally good.
In regard to wells of water, there have been found some peculiar and interesting facts in the county. Along the line of the Grand Trunk Rail- road west of Ainsworth is the Adams' neighborhood. I quote a sentence : "There is a strip running across that neighborhood, about three miles long and eighty rods wide. where good water can be obtained at a depth of from sixteen to eighteen feet. On each side of this narrow strip it is needful to go about forty feet to obtain water." Other peculiarities have been found.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATIONS.
The county now known as Lake was "erected out of the counties of Por- ter and Newton" January 28, 1836, and by act of the Legislature, January 18. 1837. it was declared to be an independent county on and after February 16. 1837. the day on which the writer of this was eleven years of age.
At the first meeting of the first board of County Commissioners the county was divided into three townships. North, Center and South, each ex- tending across the county from east to west. This meeting was in April, 1837.
May 9, 1839, the Commissioners divided the original south township into three townships called West Creek. Cedar Creek, and Eagle Creek townships,
4
50
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
from the names of the creeks running through them from north to south.
In 1843 Winfield township was set off from the orginal Center, named, it is supposed. after General Winfield Scott.
June 8, 1848, the Commissioners took off a large strip from the north part of Center township, and organized St. Johns township and Ross town- ship, the latter taking its name from our earliest farmer settler. William Ross, a settler in 1833, and the former, probably, from John Hack. the first German settler.
Whatever may have been the boundary lines of the original north town- ship of the county, boundaries were fixed September 5, 1849, for North town- ship, which boundaries give that township as laid down on the map of Herbert S. Ball in "Lake County, 1872." That map shows the ten townships as they were from 1853 until the Calumet township was organized.
Tune 8, 1853. Hanover was taken off from Center by the Commissioners and made a separate township. The present Center township was therefore left as it now is, in June, 1853.
Hobart township was at first formed September 5. 1849, but its bound- aries were slightly changed December 6. 1853, and the township then included the sections as shown in the county map in "Lake County, 1872," the north part not extending beyond the Little Calumet River. March 9. 1883, its terri- tory was again changed, sections 1 and 2 in township 35 being given to it from Ross township and its west line, running on the west side of section 2. was extended up to Lake Michigan, its east boundary line following the county line up to the lake. It was thus made five miles in width and eight miles long.
.A strip five miles in width, on the west side of the old North township. was then made a new division of the county, called North township; and be- tween that and the new township of Hobart, a strip of territory six miles in width extending from the north line of township 35 to Lake Michigan. was made a new township and called Calumet. As this took three sections away from Ross, the village of Ross is no longer, as it originally was, in Ross township.
51
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
The three original townships of the county have now become eleven, there having been no other changes since 1883.
RED CEDAR LAKE or the LAKE of the RED CEDARS. or as more commonly called in Lake county and by the railroad officials, plain CEDAR LAKE, has some interesting special history. In its original wildness it was beautiful. Job Worthington of Massachusetts, who spent a summer and a winter there in 1837 and 1838. said years afterwards that he had thought of it by day and dreamed of it by night, as one of the most beautiful places that he had seen ; and as late as 1879 Colonel S. B. Yeoman, of Ohio, who was deciding upon a line of railroad to run across Lake county, is reported to have said that whatever interests in other parts of the county might be affected by the location to be made. Cedar Lake was "too beautiful to be left out, promising too much as a pleasure resort." So the proposed road was laid on the west side of the lake, adding nothing, however, to its beauty, and a pleasure resort it did indeed become.
Solon Robinson spoke of the lake as being in 1834 very attractive to claim-seekers. Charles Wilson in that summer laid a claim on the west side. on section 27. This soon passed into the hands of Jacob L. Brown, and by him the claim was transferred to Hervey Ball for $300. So says the Claim Register, date July 18. 1837. The family tradition adds, "in gold." This was much more than the claim was worth, but it was then considered one of the most desirable locations in the county. For some twenty-three years this place remained in the possession of the Ball family and was one of the prom- inent religious, educational, and literary centers until the pioneer days had ended. Its church, its school, its Sunday-school. its two literary societies. were second in influence to none in the county. After the first settlers. the Brown. Cox. Nordyke, and Batton families sold their claims, the neighbor- hood which was to continue for many years was formed in 1838 by the four families of H. Ball. H. Sasse, Sr., H. Von Hollen, and Louis Herlitz ; and of these, the last, of the older members of the households, known as Mrs. H.
52
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
V'an Hollen, has lately passed away, eighty-seven years of age and having lived in the old home for sixty-five years. Younger members of the Herlitz family yet remain on what was at first the Nordyke claim, bought from that genuine pioneer sixty-five years ago.
On the east side of this lake claims were located and settlements made in 1836 by members of the large Taylor families, of whom the men then in active life were four, Adonijah and Horace Taylor, brothers, and Dr. Calvin Lilley and Horace Edgerton, sons-in-law of the father. Obadiah Taylor, then quite an aged man. Records of this family will be found among memorial sketches. These families gave considerable attention to saw-mill building and to fishing.
On the southwest side of the lake were the two regular fisherman fam- ilies of Lyman Mann and Jonathan Gray. They soon left that side of the lake.
A PLEASURE RESORT.
From the very first of the settlements in the county this lake had been a favorite place to visit for fishing and recreation by small parties from the growing neighborhoods : but after cars commenced running on the new road in the spring of 1881, that it would become a large pleasure resort was evident.
In April, 1881. Captain Harper, a Lake county man, who had learned to manage a boat on Lake Michigan. put a small sailing vessel on this lake. It would carry about twenty passengers. Excursion trains soon commenced running, many row boats were put on the lake, many improvements to accom- modate pleasure seekers followed. a seven hundred dollar steamer was put on the lake in 1883, and one worth twelve hundred dollars in 1884. Other sai! boats also came into use. As early as 1884 about two hundred boats of different kinds were on the waters of this lake. and from three to five thousand people would sometimes be visiting the lake in the same week. Since then build- ing's have been erected on both sides of the lake and every summer there are thousands of visitors. Almost entirely in these later years has that Lake of the Red Cedars been given up to the devotees of pleasure in the summer time.
53
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
and in the winter to the ice business when busy men fill the Armour and other large ice houses.
REMAINS OF MAN.
Before taking final leave of this lake there is one more item of interest to be recorded. On the first day of October. 1880, two young men. Orlando Russell and Frank Russell, commenced excavations for a mill foundation. The spot they had selected was a beautiful grassy knoll. a very sunny spot. a few feet higher than the sandy lake beach, sloping slightly in every direction. It had been. the summer before. a camping ground for many days and nights of a pleasure party, who did not dream as they reposed upon that turf. what dluist was slumbering a very few feet beneath their heads.
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.