USA > Indiana > Lake County > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of Lake County, Indiana, with a compendium of history 1834-1904 > Part 6
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When on that October morning the work of excavation commenced an unexpected discovery was made. It was found that the top of that mound was artificial. so soon as the surface soil was removed, and as the plow- share cut into the second layer of earth it struck a mass of human bones. evidently entire skeletons, until the plow reached them, of human beings and in a good state of preservation. As many as twenty skeletons were taken out from a small space of ground, and a tree, under the very roots of which some of them were found. gave evidence that they were buried there, apparently in one promiscuous heap, two hundred years ago.
LARGE LAND HOLDERS.
In 1872. about twenty years after railroads began to cross Lake county, the following areas of land were held by the following named persons: Non- residents of the county : Dorsey & Cline, about 12.000 acres: Forsyth. 8,000: G. W. Cass. 9,577: J. B. Niles, about 1.800: Dr. Hitte. 1,200: D. C. Sco- field. 1,000. Residents: A. N. Hart. 15.000: J. W. Dinwiddie estate, about 3.500: Wellington A. Clark. 1.3. .. .
Calling the area of the county, wet land and all, five hundred sections, the Claim Register says : "This county contains 508 sections of land, about 400 of which are dry, tillable ground"-and considering each section to contain 640 acres, there are. then, in the county 320,000 acres ; and, according to the
54
HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
figures given above. in 1872 the representatives of only ten families held one- sixth part of the area of the county. Thirty years have made quite a change in those ten families, and all those tracts of land have been more or less divided up. The Lake Agricultural Company, President W. R. Shelby of Michigan, still holds quite a portion of the G. W. Cass land, and William Niles, Esq., of La Porte. still holds quite a large amount of the J. B. Niles land. The other tract of land now held by non-residents lies on Lake Michigan cornering on Tolleston, comprising about 4,000 acres. Real owners unknown.
SOLDIERS OF LAKE COUNTY.
Some mention is justly due, beyond what has yet been made, of the men and young men, some of them scarcely more than boys, who so readily left their homes,
"To march o'er field and to watch in tent."
to fight for their country, and perhaps to die. But of the more than a thou- sand that probably went from the "Homes of Lake," and of the two hundred or more that never returned, of only a few can memorials be recorded here.
There are on one Lake county roll, taken from Volume VIII of the Ad- jutant General's Report, the names of nineteen who died, members of Com- pany G of the Twelfth Cavalry; nineteen who were members of Company B of the Twentieth Regiment; of twenty who were in Company A, Seventy- third Regiment ; and twenty members of Company A of the Ninety-ninth Regiment.
The following are some records concerning a few. Were the material ample it is evident that some selection must be made or the war record alone would make a quite large volume.
Colonel JOHN WHEELER .- Born in Connecticut, February 6, 1825, spending the years of youth and early manhood in Ohio, married in 1846 to Miss Ann C. Jones, a daughter of Jolin D. Jones, himself the son of Johnson Wheeler, who was the father of seven children, in 1847 the Wheeler and Jones families becoming residents in Lake county, the home of John Wheeler was for about six years in West Creek township. In 1853 he was appointed or
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
elected county surveyor, holding the office for three years. For the next four years he was associated with Zerali F. Summers in editing and publishing the Crown Point Register. In 1861 he raised a company of one hundred men, was chosen Captain, his company becoming a part of the Twentieth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. February 16, 1862, he was commissioned Major, and in March, 1863, Colonel. "In July, as Colonel of the Twentieth Indiana Regi- ment, he led his veteran troops on that bloody and decisive field of Gettys- burg, and there fell on July 2d in the slaughter of that terrible conflict."
Colonel Wheeler's line of genealogy, traced backward, is the following : His father, Johnson Wheeler, who removed from Connecticut to Ohio in 1824, and who became a resident of Lake county in 1847, was born in 1797, and was the son of Johnson Wheeler, born in 1754, who was a son of Samuel Wheeler and Ruth Stiles Wheeler, born in 1712, who was a son of John Wheeler, born in 1684. who was a son of John Wheeler, of Woodbury, who died in 1704. date of birth not known, who was a son of John Wheeler, who settled in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1644, and had resided in Concord before 1640. Date of migration from England not known.
Ruth Stiles, wife of Samuel Wheeler, and so the great-grandmother of Colonel Wheeler, was a daughter of Benjamin Stiles, of which New England Stiles family Dr. Stiles of Yale College was a member ; and as Dorcas Burt, of the noted Burt family of Springfield. Massachusetts, in 1658 was married to John Stiles of this same family of which Dr. Ezra Stiles was a member. the probability is that Ruth Stiles was a descendent through Dorcas Burt of Henry and Eulalia Burt, who came from England also "before 1640."
To one who traces lines of genealogy, it is singular how many of the earliest New England families have been, in some generation, connected by marriage. And that those first early families should have intermarried is natural. One line from that same Henry and Eulalia Burt goes down to that noted man, Grover Cleveland. It is certain that there were eight Burt daughters who were married and had many descendants, and it is claimed that there were eleven sons. No man can choose his ancestry ; and no man can be sure of what sort will be his descendants.
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
STILLMAN A. ROBBINS .- In marked contrast with the foregoing record of one who had led veteran troops in brilliant and bloody battles, is placed a memorial of a soldier youth. It is copied from a publication of 1864. "Died. In Huntsville, Alabama, July 18, 1864, Stillman A. Robbins, of Company G, Twelfth Indiana Cavalry, aged 22 years and 8 months. There are those who recollect, a few years ago, a bright little boy, deeply interested in mastering that key to knowledge. the magic alphabet: then, in early boy- hood, leaving the sports of other children, and stealing away by himself with liis favorite books, treasuring with care a neglected Sunday-school library; then in the academy the attentive scholar, winning the love of teachers and classmates by obedience and politeness; and soon again in the business of life with a mechanical taste becoming a skillful engineer ; and they saw in the child. the boy, and the man, a characteristic nobleness, manliness, and energy. that ever attracted attention, and won respect and love.
"In November. 1863. when returning after a five months' absence, the young engineer finding a cavalry company recruiting in his neighborhood, after spending but a few hours under his parents' roof, enrolled himself as a volunteer.
"Soon after the organization of the regiment he was detailed as clerk in the adjutant's office, where he soon won the confidence and esteem of all the officers in the regiment by his attention to business and soldierly conduct. At Huntsville he was again detailed as chief clerk in the provost marshal's office, which position he filled for a month with great credit, when he was taken with a fever from which he was just recovering, when a hemorrhage suddenly closed his career.
"He sleeps where 'southern vines are dressed above the noble slain,' none the less a martyr to his country than if he had wrapped his colors round his breast in some blood-red field of battle; and there is no nobler grave than that of a patriot soldier. His loss was deeply felt by all the regiment -- talk not of grief till you have seen the tears of warlike men'-but who shall speak of the loss to those parents who had given up their two brave boys, their all, without a murmur. to their country ?- C. Ball."
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
The writer of the record just copied was Lieutenant CHARLES BALL, him- self a member of the Twelfth Cavalry, who "was detailed to serve as a staff officer, and was appointed sergeant-major." a position which "kept him gen- erally at the headquarters of the regiment."
He sent to his Cedar Lake home very interesting letters, but they are too lengthy to be reproduced here. Some of them are in a publication called "The Lake of the Red Cedars."
One incident only will be given here of his many experiences. There was assigned to him at Huntsville a somewhat dangerous duty. He had taken from his home the best horse for cavalry service that he could find. a good and easy traveller and very hardy. "Mounted on this hardy and faithful ani- mal the sergeant-major started from the headquarters and passed out of Huntsville alone to carry orders. He knew not what moment the aim of a concealed foe would be upon him, but proceeding upon a gentle gallop, he slacked not rein nor did his trusty steed break his pace, till a ride of about twenty miles was accomplished." It had not the excitement of Sheridan's famous ride, but perhaps it was more dangerous.
MILES F. MCCARTY .- Another member of the Twelfth Cavalry was Miles F .. usually called Franklin. McCarty. He was the third son of Judge Benjamin McCarty, of West Point, a member of a pioneer family of La Porte. of Porter, and of Lake counties. He was talented and ambitious. He had capabilities which would have developed nobly under favorable circumstances, but by some means he was not in the line of promotion. He was taken sick at Nasliville, or on the way there: and died at Nashville, May 27. 1864. His death was more than usually sad. Four members of Company G died at Naslıville.
GEORGE W. EDGERTON .- Of two members of Company B who fell at Gettysburg with their Colonel on that bloody field. July 2. 1863. one was George W. Edgerton, a member of a true pioneer family and a young patriot soldier. He was a son of Amos Edgerton, a grandson of Horace Edgerton. and was connected with the large Taylor family of pioneers of East Cedar
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
Lake. He was a promising youth, and his loss, like that of thousands of others, was a great grief to a fond mother who has herself long since passed to the peaceful shore. Her son fell in one of the greatest decisive battles of the world.
MI. GRAVES .- Another youth whose life was given for his country was MI. Graves, son of Orrin W. Graves, of West Creek. He was a member of Company A, Seventy-third Regiment. and died at Nashville, December 16, 1862. He was a mild and pleasant boy, too young to bear the exposures of a soldier's life.
Nashville seems to have been a fatal place for our soldiers. The record states that of the Seventy-third there died at Nashville Lewis Atkins, Novem- ber 22, 1862; Eli Atwood. November 29, 1862: E. Woods, November 29, 1862: Albert Nichols. December 1, 1862: John Childers, December 3, 1862; William Frazier, December 15, 1862; A. Lamphier. January 7, 1863: James Roney, February 8. 1863; L. Morris, April 30, 1863; T. W. Loving, Sep- tember 30, 1863; of the Twelfth Cavalry, W. M. Pringle, November 4. 1864; William Harland, January 8, 1865: William Stinkle. February 1, 1865; be- sides M. F. McCarty and M. Graves, specially named.
Captain ALFRED FRY .- Among those who returned from Mexico in 1848 was Alfred Fry of Crown Point. fifteen years older than when he first became a soldier, who enlisted as a private July 26, 1862, and was mustered into the service of the United States as Orderly Sergeant of Company A, Seventy-third Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, August 16. 1862. September Ist of the same year at Lexington, Ky., he was commissioned Second Lieutenant of Company A. The regiment returning to Louisville he was as- signed to the position of Brigade Commissary. December 2d he was com- missioned First Lieutenant and engaged in the battle of Stone River. He was under fire for six days. January 19. 1863, he was commissioned Cap- tain of Company A. His regiment was assigned to Colonel Streight's brig- ade and surrendered in May, 1863. in that disastrous attempt of about fifteen hundred men to pass through North Alabama to Rome. in Georgia. Cap-
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
tain Fry's narrative of the treatment the officers of the Seventy-third Regi- ment received, after they had surrendered on honorable conditions, was pub- lished in full in "Lake County, 1872," and presents a very dark picture of man's inhumanity to man.
For one year they endured the horrors of Libby Prison, and for about one more year were removed from one prison pen to another. Finally they were paroled, February 14. 1865. and in March entered the Union lines. Captain Fry was in a few weeks exchanged, returned to his company, then in Alabama, was discharged in the summer with his regiment, and became again a resident of Crown Point, where he continued to live, engaged in the peaceful pursuits of life. until 1873.
Captain JOIN M. FOSTER .- Of Company G, Twelfth Cavalry, John M. Foster became Captain, promoted from First Lieutenant. His brother, Al- mon Foster, was the first captain. They were sons of Frederick Foster, of Crown Point, and brothers of Mrs. John Pearce, of Eagle Creek. Unlike the infantry regiments, the Twelfth Cavalry was sent into no great battles and the officers and men had no opportunity to gain promotion through deeds of valor: but the regiment performed a large amount of cavalry ser- vice. Colonel Karge, of the Second New Jersey, who commanded in the course of the war several different regiments, is reported, in a letter written June II. 1865, to have said that the Twelfth Indiana was the best regiment he ever commanded.
After the war closed. Captain Foster returned to Crown Point and en- gaged again in the peaceful pursuits of business life. Sons and daughters grew up in his home. He was a worthy citizen: was quite successful in business : and lived until February, 1893, rejoicing in the prosperity of a united nation.
As this cavalry regiment gained no distinguished war honors, as the in- fantry regiments did, it seems just to quote a few statements from the report of the Adjutant General of Indiana, see Vol. III, showing that its members accomplished a large amount of soldier work in various ways, in North Ala-
·
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
bama, in Tennessee. in South Alabama and Florida, and over many hundreds of miles of southern territory. Out from Huntsville as a center the men "were employed very extensively in fighting and ridding the country of guer- rillas and 'bushwhackers,' in which numerous skirmishes and engagements were fought." In September. 1864. the regiment was removed to Tulla- homa. Tennessee, and there constantly employed against General Forrest's forces. They went to South Alabama and into Florida, fighting, skirmish- ing, doing different duty from what infantry could do. "The regiment was highly and specially complimented by Major General Grierson, in a letter to Governor Morton, for its gallant conduct and military discipline." No one reading the full report of the Adjutant General could reasonably think that the members of Company G failed to do their duty. . As to what to do a sol- dier has little choice.
Captain DANIEL F. SAWYER .- Officers as well as men in the ranks fell victims to the sickness incident to camp life and to climate. Daniel F. Saw- yer, the first captain of Company A. of the Ninety-ninth, was taken sick and died in Mississippi, and was succeeded in command by K. M. Burnham. Cap- tain Sawyer was from Merrillville. and his body was brought home and laid away to sleep in the Merrillville cemetery.
Lieutenant JOHN P. MERRILL .- One of the sons of Dudley Merrill. of Merrillville. John P. Merrill was born October 13. 1843. In August, 1862. he enlisted in Company A, of the Ninety-ninth Regiment, and in October. 1864. was promoted from the office of Sergeant to that of First Lieutenant. He returned home in June, 1865, and became a merchant. In 1867 he was married to Miss Martha T. Randolph. He was for many years Trustee of Ross township, and at length, having been elected County Treasurer, he re- moved to Crown Point. Spending several years of life as an active, useful citizen of Crown Point, he died there suddenly "at 5 o'clock Sunday evening. February 21." 1897.
Immediately following the record of his death is the following record : "Captain W. S. BABBITT was born in Vermont. December 19. 1825. When
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
eleven years of age he went to sea. Sailed five times around Cape Horn and made three voyages on a whaling vessel. Came to Ross township in 1854. Was a soldier in our army in that great conflict, and died, at Crown Point. on the next day, February 22, one of our national anniversary days. Age, 71 years." The "next day" in the record here quoted means the day after the death of Lieutenant Merrill. Like him he was Lieutenant in Company B. of the Twentieth, but was transferred to Company C and was promoted Captain. He also removed to Crown Point, where he spent with his family the later years of his life. He did not forget God in the days of peace, of whom he could say as king David once said, "Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle." but was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Such are a few brief memorials of our loyal and gallant soldier dead. There were many others, perhaps not quite so well and widely known as these, who were equally dear to their special kindred and friends, and of these others a small volume of memorials might be collected.
Of the Twelfth Cavalry there fell in battle or died, at New Orleans. Henry Brockman and Sidney W. Chapman; at Kendallville, Charles Croth- ers. Fred Kable, and Albert Moore: at Vicksburg, Jacob Deeter; at home, R. L. Fuller, F. S. Miller, William Stubby, and Ezra Wedge; at Starkville, Ephraim E. Goff: at Huntsville, M. Hoopendall: at Michigan City. A. Mc- Millen : making with those elsewhere named sixteen of whom no memorials are here given. But their names will live and their deeds are on record.
Of the Twentieth. Company B, there fell in battle or died. Horace Ful- ler. Wilderness : Lawrence Frantz, Spottsylvania ; John Griesel, David Island ; M. Hafey, Pittsburg; C. Hazworth, -: William Johnson, Petersburg; Albert Kale. Camp Hampton: William Mutchler. Camp Smith: P. Mutch- ler. Washington: James Merrill. Wiklerness: S. Pangburn. Andersonville : C. Potter, -: D. Pinkerton, -; J. Richmond, Gettysburg: John F. Farr. Washington: Isaac Williams, Charles Winters, City Point. Seventeen names without memorials.
Of the Seventy-third. Company A, the names not already given in the
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
Nashville list are these: John H. Easley, Stone River; R. W. Fuller, Indi- anapolis; J. M. Fuller. Gallatin : I. W. Moore, M. Vincent. Gallatin; Jolin Maxwell, Scottsville: C. Van Burg. Bowling Green : E. Welch, Stone River : S. White, Blount's Farm. Nineteen names in all. of this company, with no memorial sketch.
Of the Ninety-ninth, Company A, the names are: O. E. Atkins, D. T. Burnham: J. Bartholomew and H. H. Haskins at Andersonville; J. D. Clinghan at Huntsville: H. A. Case at La Grange; James Foster and James Horton at Atlanta : R. T. Harris and T. C. Pinnel at La Grange: John Lorey, Adam Mock, N. Newman, at Black River: Corydon Pierce at Washington : Albert Robbins, a brother of Stillman Robbins of the Twelfth, dying August 6, 1864; J. Schmidt, Indianapolis; and J. Stickleman, A. Vandervert, and M. Winand, the last one dying "at home," December 11, 1864. Of this com- pany are also nineteen names.
Seventy-one names are thus here given following the eleven memorial sketches. Patriot soldiers all.
This writer gives no sketches of the living.
A SOLDIER'S MONUMENT.
In 1903 the citizens of the three southern townships, Eagle Creek, Cedar Creek, and West Creek, including as quite central the town of Lowell, determined to erect a monument to perpetuate on lasting stone the names. if not all the deeds, of their brave sons who engaged in the great conflict which commenced in 1861.
It is understood that the monument is to cost three thousand dollars, the money mostly, perhaps all, raised by the efforts of the public-spirited women of those townships. It is to stand on the public square at Lowell.
SOLON ROBINSON
1119.
NOAH
NOBLE,
GOVERNOR of THE DATE OF ITDIANA, TO ALI. WHO MAY SEN; THESE PRESENTS-GREENING,
WHEREAS, It has been certified to me by the proper authority. That Valet , litemen in elected to the office of which is the timeset kowe fine the country of Vedic
THEREFORE K.YOW' YE, That in the name andby the authority of the sand state. I do hereby commission him, aberaideflex Habenin thelive the living hanet for the sand country of ' is
forthe terra offers.
years from than ale how ..
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF. I have hereunta set my hand, and caused to be affixed the seat of the state, at indraw polis, the way home'
day ot , 22%
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thurty \ 27. the your of the state, and of then dependence of the United States the $2/
BY THE GOVERNOR,
SOLON ROBINSON'S COMMISSION
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
CHAPPTER III. MEMORIAL SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
Note .- I propose not to arrange these in alphabetical order, although that order is very convenient for a reader if there is no index: nor yet alto- gether in chronological order; but rather in an order in which one name seems to suggest another .- T. H. B.
There is much material for memorial sketches of some of the early resi- dlents of Lake county, those who are called its pioneer settlers: there is scanty material for biographies of others. Some men have written their names in a bold hand, like the name. John Hancock, on the Declaration of Independence, within the history and across the history of Lake county.
Among these is the name. SOLON ROBINSON. He was born in Connecti- cut, October 21, 1803. And the more closely one studies the biographical history of Lake county, Indiana, so much the more fully he will see that Lake county, like many other portions of this Union, owes very much, for its intelli- gence and enterprise, to New England blood and New England training. Of the earlier life of Solon Robinson, of his education and his experiences, not much is now known. He left his native State rather early in life, and from which of the larger Robinson families he was descended does not seem to be known, but in May, 1828, he was married in Cincinnati, Ohio, and not long after became a citizen of Indiana, first at Madison. and then in Jennings county, at a place called Rock Creek. What business pursuits he followed seems to be also unknown. In October, 1834. in a conveyance drawn by oxen, having one extra wagon or more to convey the household goods, he came with his wife and two young children, and probably two young men. Jerome Curtis and J. B. Curtis, over that long line of road that was then leading up into Northwestern Indiana. The road way, except Indian trails. ended in Porter county; but he found there Jacob Hurlburt to guide him to
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.
the newly surveyed land lying yet further west. Just before sunset October 31. 1834, this leader of migration with his party, having crossed. what was to him and to them a wonderful sight, a beautiful belt of prairie, reached some skirting woodland. The next morning he concluded to locate there his future home, and from that November morning until about 1850 his name is quite closely interwoven with all that followed in the settlement and growth. So fully was he concerned in the affairs of the young county that he was called the SQUATTER KING OF LAKE. He made a map of the county, showing, be- sides other features, what was prairie and what was woodland, he secured the organization of the Squatters' Union. July 4. 1836. and was elected the first Register of claims. [That old Claim Register is now in my possession: also a copy of the Robinson map, probably the only copy now in Lake county .- T. H. B.] He was an early Justice of the Peace, was the first postmaster in the county, was elected the first County Clerk, and, with his brother Milo Robinson, opened the first settlers' store in the county. He secured the loca- tion of the county seat at Crown Point in 1840. He was fond of writing and had quite an agricultural turn of mind. He commenced writing for the Culti- vator, at least as early as 1837. In 1838 he proposed the organization of an "American Society of Agriculture." In 1841 he sent out an address to the farmers of the United States, through the columns of the Cultivator. The journeys which he took over the country in behalf of his plan cannot be de- tailed here. His efforts probably led on to the Grange movement. He also wrote stories, such as "The Will," "The Last of the Buffaloes," "Hot Corn." "Green Mountain Girls," and others. He was connected for a time with the New York Tribune. He went at length to Florida and there died in 1880. His older daughter. Mrs. Strait, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, re- side in Crown Point. and. like him. have talent and intelligence, and, like him, some of them hold office.
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