USA > Indiana > Lake County > History Of Lake County (1929) > Part 6
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I have only written for a beginning of the history of Lake county. Will you all now help to continue the record? Re- member that we are all rapidly passing away, and in a few years the place that now knows us will know us no more, and those that come after us will not know these things. We plant trees, we build houses, we make farms for those who are to fill our places. And why not write our early history? I am aware that this sketch is a meager one. But I would not make it more full, without fear of tiring your patience. But each one of you can make additions-leave the facts upon the record, and believe me, that the time will come when they will all be more interesting than this, my first effort, has been to you; though from the attention with which you have listened to me, I have reason to hope that I have helped you to pass an evening more pleasantly and more profitably, than those do who spend their days and nights in seeking pleasure by steeping their senses in the ruinous forgetfulness of beast- ly drunkenness.
That you may all live to see the day when drunkness shall
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY
be among the things that once were, but now are not, is the most earnest wish of your friend and fellow laborer in the good cause in which the Lake County Temperance Society is now engaged in trying to promote.
That you may be able to do this, I pray you to persevere in this good cause. And as for myself, I will ask for no proud- er monument to my fame than to be assured that the members of this society will stand as mourners around my grave, and pointing to the lifeless form beneath the falling sod, shall truly say, "There lies a brother who in his life had an ardent desire to promote the happiness of his fellow creatures." May his historian be able to record that in the latter years of his life he was eminently successful in this, and particularly so upon this evening.
(The end.)
Copied from a serial publication in the Lake County Star, including issues of September 8, 15, and 22, 1916.
EDITORIAL NOTE :- The editorial committee respectfully call attention to the remarkable prophecy of the author in the closing paragraphs of the above narrative, and especially to his very hearty request for help in the keeping of a record of the local events. Think of the value of this short sketch to the reader of or the writer upon the early history of the county. We repeat the request :
"Will you all now help to continue the record? Remember that we are all rapidly passing away, and in a few years the place that now knows us will know us no more, and those that come after us will not know these things. . ... Each one of you can make additions-leave the facts upon the record, and be- lieve me, that the time will come when they will all be inter- esting."
With all due regard to the compilers of commercialized histories, and a proper respect for their value, in the absence of better works, despite the taint of monetary motives, we are led to exclaim, how barren of really authentic, compiled local history would our county be without the contributions of Solon Robinson and of Timothy H. Ball !
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1833 - 1847
In passing, it may be interesting to amplify Mr. Robinson's observations on the original source of title to lands in this and other parts of the State, by further comment upon the treaties and their provisions.
The entire area of the Territory (and later, State) of In- diana having been originally occupied by Indian tribes (or nations) it became necessary for the United States to make some forms of settlements with the several tribes for possess- ion of the lands by white settlers. Such arrangements took the form of treaties signed on behalf of the United States by Commissioners duly appointed, and on behalf of the several Indian tribes (or nations) by the Chiefs, Headmen and War- riors, by which treaties the Indians ceded lands designated by boundaries, and the United States in each case agreed to pay to the tribe concerned a certain sum, or certain sums, of money, or a certain amount of money and other property, such as merchandise. In some cases the payments in money took the form of annuities. These treaties are about twelve in number, and bear dates from the Greenville treaty of 1795 on down to the Miami Reservation treaty of 1840, the south- ern part of the state having been ceded earliest. The princi- pal tribes were the Piankashaws, the Wyandottes, the Shaw- nees, the Miamis, the Kickapoos, the Delawares, the Weas and the Pottawattomies. (The last name has had many forms of spelling). The Pottawattomies occupied all the north end of the state, approximately from the Iroquois (Pink-a-mink) river on the west to the head waters of the Eel (Sho-a-ma- que) and the Tippecanoe (Te-pe-can-nae) rivers toward the central and easterly part of the state and on to and beyond the St. Joseph's (Ke-mem-sow-wak) river, of the Maumee (as well as on over to the St. Joseph, of Lake Michigan).
The treaty of October 16, 1826, concluded upon the banks of the Wabash, near the mouth of the Mississinewa (Ne-mah- che-sin-way) river, sometimes called the Mississinewa treaty, was signed upon behalf of the United States by Lewis Cass, James B. Ray and John Tipton, Commissioners, and upon behalf of the "Potawatamie" Tribe of Indians by upwards of sixty "Chiefs and Warriors," among whom were To-pen-i-be, Ash-kum, Au-ben-au-be, Wau-bon-sa, We-wau-ne, and Me- nom-i-nie. That particular tract of the lands ceded which ex- tends into the present counties of Lake and Porter was de- scribed as follows: "Beginning at a point upon Lake Michi-
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY
gan ten miles due north of the southern extreme thereof; running thence due east to the land ceded by the Indians to the United States by the treaty of Chicago; thence south with the boundary thereof ten miles; thence west to the southern extreme of Lake Michigan, thence, with the shore thereof, to the place of beginning."
This tract having been ten miles in width, and having ex- tended from lake Michigan eastward to a line drawn south from Parc aux Vaches, on the St. Joseph River, to Rum's Vil- lage (near South Bend), has often been called and designated "The Ten Mile Purchase;" and the southern boundary line thereof having been for a time part of the northern boundary- line of the remaining lands of the Pottawattomie Indians, was called (and continues to be called) the Indian Boundary Line. It was a common practice in the early days to call a line mark- ing the limits of Indian lands "the Indian Boundary Line," as may be observed in the text of the Tippecanoe treaty herein- after mentioned, in which this terminology, or expression, was used several times relative to the boundaries of Indian lands. Also the government surveyors adopted the usage for fraction- al sections adjacent to such line. The land included in this ten-mile purchase was surveyed in 1829, and the land south thereof and north of the Kankakee river, (of the Tippecanoe- purchase) was surveyed in 1834. The northern boundary of Indiana Territory had been the old line designated in the Or- dinance of 1787, concerning the government and subdivision of the Northwest Territory, the same being a line drawn due east and west through the most southerly extreme of Lake Michigan, and the ten-mile extension, which gave Indiana its 40 miles of lake frontage, was due to the Enabling Act passed by congress for the admission of Indiana Territory as a state which act permitted such extension, if so desired, notwith- standing the express language of the old ordinance above mentioned passed by the congress under the Articles of Con- federation in conflict therewith. The stormy story of this old line is interesting, but too long for further comment thereon here. See Toledo War. The extension comprises lake as well as land. The boundaries are described in the state con- stitution, as well as in the Enabling Act.
The treaty of October 26, 1832, concluded upon the banks of the Tippecanoe (Te-pe-can-nae) river, was signed upon behalf of the United States by Jonathan Jennings, John W.
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1833 - 1847
Davis and Marks Crume, Commissioners, and upon behalf of the "Pottawatomie" Indians by nearly fifty 'Chiefs, Headmen and Warriors", among whom were Po-kah-kouse, Min-o-min- ee, Aub-be-naub-bee, Ash-kum, Kee-waw-nay, Pee-shee-waw- no and Banack (signatures by mark x). The land ceded by the treaty was described by certain lines, but it may be briefly and approximately described as that part of northwestern Indiana lying north and west of a line drawn from a point near South Bend southwesterly to a point on the Indiana-Illi- nois line near the south-western corner of the present Benton county. A further treaty was concluded with the tribe on the following day at the same place, amplifying the cessions. Among the Indians or descendants of Indians who received personal benefits or reservations under the treaties were To- pen-ne-bee, principal chief; Poch-a-gan (Pokagon), second chief; Aub-e-nau-bee, John B. Chadana, Tou-se-qua, wife of Joe Baily, and Quash-mau. It will be recalled that the town-site of Liverpool was obtained by a "float" purchased by the promoter from Quash-mau, prior to the general sale of lands in this locality by the land department of the general government; for although the lands were surveyed in this part of the state mainly in 1834, sales thereof did not begin until the spring of 1839, the lands having been held in the meantime by "squatters."
It is highly probable that the above mentioned "Joe Baily" was not Joseph Bailly of Baileytown.
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Growth of Lake County, From a Social Viewpoint
BY C. OLIVER HOLMES
In casting about for material that might be worthy of your attention, I must first compliment those who have searched so diligently and garnered so well in the archives and memories of our people, since they have left so little to be covered. However, the growth of social conscience, that high mark of the flowering of community life, and the bringing to bear of those instrumentalities and agencies that respond to the sen- sitiveness which we feel when we become concerned for the well-being of those who are handicapped and inhibited, seems not to have been jotted down in any connected way.
Speaking in terms of local government, but few will recall that the Legislature of 1835-36 authorized the creation of this political subdivision now known as Lake County, which with Porter County was carved out of LaPorte, and even some of Newton.
Lake County moved promptly then as now, in matters po- litical, for tho the act was approved only in January, by March the Commissioners had qualified, divided the County into three townships, North, Centre, and South, and had arranged to have all the offices then permissible, which custom has been faithfully followed even since in these parts. The rivalry for office in our time had its interesting forerunner in the strug- gle for the coveted honor of being Sheriff. The successful can- didate for the first appointment was Henry Wells, who won out by the simple expedient of walking to Indianapolis, arriv- ing there at the State House ahead of the mail in which there had been suggested the selection of another man.
In rapid succession were set up the Recorder's office, which office in Indiana still pays much better attention to the status of lands, lots, liens on chattels, or the registry of swine, cattle, horses, etc., than is given to birth or other vital records of our people; the machinery for the Court and Clerk came next, along with the appointment of those political wheel-horses known as Township Trustees for the three townships now set
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Growth of Lake County from a Social Viewpoint
up. Taxes were already in our midst, and a Treasurer was appointed to handle them. Higher education was assured its due consideration by the appointment of a Trustee of the Seminary Fund.
Lake County has been noticeably slow in making proper provision for corrective and remedial institutions, as a brief glance through her records will show. We have set up courts in rapid succession in various parts of the County and as promptly neglected and forgotten those who have been swept within the net of law-enforcement machinery.
Our jails have, as a rule, been a disgrace and the recurrent censure of Grand Juries, and Boards of County Charities seem to have helped but little. Many of our sheriffs have enriched themselves by dieting the inmates, and but little effort has been made to help the prisoner come back quickly to right so- cial attitude and with supervision or counsel for his read- justment. We are now housing twice as many in our County Jail as should be, with no effort at segregation of the hardened or vicious from the juveniles or milder offenders. This, too, in spite of pleas by judges and sheriffs.
How slowly we move in our social development is well illus- trated by the attitude that induced our political patriots in the trying days of the war, by threat and cajolery, to levy tri- bute on the banks of the County for some $80,000, bonds be- ing issued therefor, for the building of sheep or cattle barns at the County Fair Grounds; these are, of course, used but a few weeks in the year, at the most. No provision is made for the temporary care of our mentally affected, such as the in- sane or feeble-minded, pending their admission to proper state institutions.
Tho we have been harsh and neglectful in the treatment of our criminal and of our insane, and have but little data as to efforts in their behalf, save for the building of jails, or buying of cells, our County does have a better record on be- half of her neglected children, the delinquent, those who are dependent, and more recently, the tubercular.
Lake County has had a County Infirmary or "Poor Farm" much better than the average for nearly two generations, the present one being especially good in location, appointments, reasonable cost of operation, and alert for improvements;
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY
however, the practice of using it as a dumping ground for insane or deranged ought not to continue.
Many of you do not know that as a County we have had for years a reputation for leadership in the attention we give to our dependent, neglected, and delinquent children, thanks to the early interest of Judge W. C. McMahan, to which high standing Judge E. Miles Norton has added con- siderably. Juvenile Jurisdiction was assigned for the entire County exclusively to the Circuit Court in 1903, and a Special Referee due to the volume of work authorized by the Legis- lature in 1923.
Under Judge McMahan was also organized our Board of Children's Guardians, on April 24, 1915, the original mem- bers being Mr. H. E. Sheppard of East Chicago; Mrs. H. V. Call, of Gary; Mr. L. L. Bomberger, of Hammond; Mrs. F. J. Smith, of Whiting; Mrs. William Meade, of East Chicago; and Mr. Charles Mayne, General Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association of Gary.
This agency has functioned efficiently and affords a splen- did example of right methods in the use of our so-called Mother's Pension Law, which in reality is much better than laws that do pension. The emphasis by Judge Norton upon child-placement is a significant development, of minor im- portance to the taxpayer whose burden is lightened thereby, and especial value to the child who gets a chance at a home and right growth. Fortunately that institution known as the orphanage has not taken much hold in our midst, and ex- cept for the efforts of one Church Group, our children will not be marked by it.
Long before the County Farm, in fact in the beginning of County affairs, in 1837, our concern for the individual tho shiftless and a ne'er-do-well, and his self-respect, which is the dynamic in right social practice, led to the appointment of the Over-Seers of the Poor, one for each Township, a task since assigned to the Trustee. With the changed conditions that now obtain, there is increasing demand that the relief work of a county be handled on a basis of the county as the unit for administrative purposes. Already the need for think- ing and working in terms of the County has been met by the organization of the Lake County Council of Social Workers,
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Growth of Lake County from a Social Viewpoint
which began in 1923, and meets two or three times a year with full programs and increasing co-operation.
For many years the bounty paid for wolves, or indemnity paid for killing sheep exceeded all the money spent by the County on the care of those who had tuberculosis, or the pre- vention of it. According to our death records, and the re- liable rule that there are ten times as many suffering from the disease as the annual deaths, there have been over a thousand active tuberculars within our county lines each year now for nearly twenty years. In 1918, tho after a good deal of effort, the movement for a sanitarium finally got under way, and we are just now in the late summer of 1925 opening this much needed institution. Tho poorly planned and an un- necessarily large amount of money has been spent, it will mean much to the hundred of our nearly fourteen hundred victims of the White Plague, who are fortunate enough to get the care and attention of the Superintendent and his staff who have been carefully chosen.
Among the facilities for ministering to our unfortunate children, mention should be made of the Detention Home of Crown Point, formerly a fine old residence, but now in poor condition. However our County Council and Commissioners have made good provision for a new and better place, ap- propriation involving $100,000 having just been made.
While good housing is of paramount importance, especial- ly in congested industrial centers, in this County it has but little attention by public officials, even tho Indiana has a good Housing Law. Several of the larger industrial concerns, e.g., the U. S. Steel Corporation, and one of the independents at Indiana Harbor have made commendable contributions, first in building for rent and later in selling on favorable terms to employes. Studies of conditions in our various centers find bad housing, poor health, low moral conditions, and crime- sources often closely interwoven.
No account of social growth in Lake County would be com- plete that did not refer to the substantial efforts of recent years along volunteer and church lines. It would take a large volume to delineate properly the activities, location, and personnel of all these agencies. It must suffice to say that the initial effort in Gary in 1908, of an organized nature with a paid worker, has now spread until Whiting, East Chi- cago, Hammond, and Gary all have organized relief work either in the form of the Red Cross, Family Welfare Society,
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY
or similar arrangement, with budgets from private sources, that is, publicly contributed and not raised by taxation, of nearly $50,000 per year; this does not take into considera- tion the thousands of dollars for the annual budgets of each of some six Settlement Houses maintained in the larger cen- ters by Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist Church, respectively.
Much could also be said, and should be said, of the fine growth of libraries, there being at least one in each town or city of the County and in one case, a Central Library and fourteen branches. Of fine Y. M. C. A.'s, Y. W. C. A.'s, Com- munity Houses, the development of playgrounds and super- vised play, that great help to modern police-work, we can but hint. They all speak in high praise of the genuine interest and sacrificial concern which have planted these potent agen- cies at strategic places in our teeming cities for the guiding of tender feet and moulding of plastic minds.
A phase of the shifting and changing conditions in the life and growth of Lake County, to which an entire paper could be devoted with profit and great interest, would be a study of the various jurisdictions, language and race groups, that have controlled or influenced life in this section begin- ning with the French in the very early days, that had little more than a migrant touch; and the English rule which used this region more for a portage than aught else; these two claiming their several supremacies, chiefly through the trea- ty or trade arrangements they made with the Indians who were really in possession; then the coming of the develop- ment of the northwestern territory and the Pioneer Ameri- cans, most of whom were probably of British ancestry; there filtered in rapidly, however, the Germans and a few other of the Northern-European folk, who have had a significant part in the shaping of life and conditions in our County, to be followed with the coming of the industrial development, by the cosmopolitan group from every country of Europe, a lit- tle of Asia, and a good deal of Africa. Recognition should be given to the contribution they have all made, and cog- nizance should be taken of the complexity of our social prob- lem, due to their background and our failure more fully to assimilate it.
For an account of the establishment of the sanitarium the reader is referred to the article of Mr. H. E. Graham, print- ed in this volume.
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OLD CALIFORNIA HOTEL, MERRILLVILLE (Days of Forty-niners)
Merrillville
BY HIRAM BARTON (Abridged)
I was born in Cass County, Michigan, March 22, 1839. I came to this (Lake) County in September 1858, with my parents who settled on a farm near Merrillville. The names of the persons who lived here at that time were largely Merrill and Pierce. The town then was called Centerville. There having been another town in the state called Centerville, the name was afterward changed to Merrillville, a large number of the inhabitants having been of this name, none of whom now remain. There were formerly four families of Merrills, in and near town, namely the families of Dudley, William, John, Jr., and Lewis.
When we came to Grand Prairie, as it was then called, seventy years ago, it looked like the Garden of Eden. It was just one flower garden as far as the eye could see-flowers of every kind and color that one could imagine. Rosin weeds were from six feet to eight feet tall, with beautiful blossoms, resembling sun-flowers. There were no fences to hinder one from going where he pleased. Now and then a wolf would jump up out of the tall grass and lope away. Large herds of deer were frequently seen, especially around the timber. Prair- ie chickens in large flocks abounded in great numbers; also geese and sand-hill cranes that resembled an army of soldiers in blue uniform. There were wild turkey in the heavy timber; partridges and quails in the woods, and wild pigeons in num- bers which would be hard for boys now to credit. In the month of August they would almost darken the sky, and we would hear the sweep of their wings and see them picking the acorn of the oak trees, and at other times cover large areas of the stubble of the grain fields, constantly in motion as they picked up the scattered wheat. The pigeon has now gone, and perhaps been exterminated. There were also a great number of various kinds of water fowl, as wild geese, ducks, brants, swans, mud-hens, plover and sandhill-cranes. The lakes and rivers were well-stocked with fish of excellent varie- ties, as black bass, rock bass, and sun-fish. Around the lakes
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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY
were many fur-bearing animals, such as the otter, the mink, the raccoon, the prairie-wolf, the wild-cat and occasionally the lynx.
But a great change has taken place in the animal life and fully as much in the human family. Now, where the above conditions then existed we see large palatial homes, where once stood the cabins. Instead of hearing the howling of wolves we hear the church bells, and school-houses are seen everywhere in the country. Large corn-fields are now visible where animals used to ramble through the swamps; also large acreages of oats and wheat and barley and rye. All these have taken the place of natural vegetation and wild grass. The writer has had his part in the change. The prices in farm lands have risen from ten shillings per acre to two hundred dollars per acre. The writer has seen the largest cities of the county spring up along the sand dunes of lake Michigan- cities with popualtions ranging from 40,000 to 50,000. I refer to Hammond and Gary.
The children of the first settlers, who are here to-day are Levi A. Boyd, Myiel Pierce, Joel Glazier, Andrew Popp, Mrs. George Hanson and myself.
The first improvement in farming implements was the double shovel-plow, invented for plowing corn. We thought it could never be improved upon. The first two made in the county were made in Hobart by Jesse Sheffield, who died sev- eral years ago in Missouri. My father bought those two plows, and now that plow has gone out of existence, having been succeeded by a riding-plow with four shovels, with which one may plow 8 acres to 10 acres per day.
I have lived to see men cut grain with an old turkey-wing cradle and on up to the self-binders, with many improve- ments in between. Also I have lived to see the threshing of grain with oxen driven over it on the barn-floor, at the rate of 10 bushels per day; and then with the flail and then with the cylinder and concave machine, which four men could carry, which would thresh about 60 bushels per day, but which had to be run through a fanning mill. This was fol- lowed by the old eight-horse power machine that would thresh from 200 bushels to 800 bushels per day. Then came the large steam thresher which will thresh 2000 bushels per day.
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