USA > Indiana > LaPorte County > Michigan City > History of Michigan City, Indiana > Part 10
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A writer in the Historical Atlas of In- diana, 1876, said of the Michigan road that "this celebrated highway enjoyed a merited reputation far and near, for many years, as being the worst thor- oughfare in the universe;" but that is about the sentiment expressed by every traveler of every road in all new regions. Judge Polke was highly commended by the governor and by the general assem- bly for the manner in which he perform- ed his work as commissioner. That the road was practically impassable, as some have said, is negatived by the fact that it was in constant use. In Polke's re- port to the legislature of 1834, announc- ing the completion of his labors, he said :-
"The uncommon emigration to the north, and the amount of merchandise (principally salt and other heavy arti- cles) which has been transported from South Bend, Michigan City, and other places to the Wabash, &c. in the unfin- ished state of the road, has much im- peded the progress of the work, and materially injured the same, before it became sufficiently settled for carriages to pass over it with ease and facility."
He also said that this premature use of the line caused in making repairs an expense of much time and money that ought to have been given to original construction. Beginning with the open- ing of the road there came to Michigan City a large forwarding business and for years thereafter grain and farm produce was hauled to the warehouses on the lake from as far as Indianapolis. As Governor Ray had never failed in his an- nual messages to urge the importance of constructing the road his foresight had provided for in the treaty of 1826 so
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his successor, Governor Noble, annually pressed the general assembly to maintain and improve it. Governor Wallace, whose incumbency began at the close of 1837, never referred to the matter in any of his public papers. February 2, 1837, the legislature, acting on the sug- gestion of the executive, enacted a law for the improvement of the Michigan Road, the particular incentive being the fact that congress had in the preceding summer appropriated $20,000 for the
ST. JOHN'S LUTHERAN CHURCH
harbor at Michigan City. Charles W. Cathcart in the senate and Charles Mc- Clure in the lower branch, representing LaPorte county, were instrumental in getting into the act a specification that the improved road should include La- Porte in its course, (from South Bend to the lake, as it was understood though not stated) and they warmly advocated
the proposed betterment. Julius W. Adams was designated by the legislature as the engineer to view the route and submit a plan of improvements with an estimate of the cost. He made a very thorough survey, taking levels and measurements for the entire length of the line, and, omitting LaPorte because of the impracticability of diverting the road already constructed, followed the original Michigan road to its terminus at the intersection of Michigan and Spring streets in Michigan City, the newly erected government of the city having control of the remainder of the line to the margin of the lake. He found that the surface of the lake at its ordi- nary level was 140 feet below the base of the old capitol at Indianapolis. Adams finished his report December 20 of the same year and filed it on the 29th, to be submitted to the legislature the follow- ing month. It was found that he had designed, estimated and recommended a fantastic scheme to boulevard the entire length and width of the road with hex- agonal block pavement and "grillage." In the exalted mood that was upon this optimistic surveyor that season he saw visions of a long reach, mighty in its breadth and length, binding the southern- most waters of Hoosierdom with those on the far northern boundary, in its gracious windings accommodating itself to the needs of men and the difficulties of nature, lined with fair cities and love- ly homes, and its entire extent converted into a Parisian dream by the use of the Adams grillage and hexagonal blocks.
The country was in a frenzy of in- ternal improvement at that time but the magnificence of this new proposal was startling to the wise men of Indiana when it burst upon them in January, 1838. It soon transpired, however, that the scheme had powerful support in the lobbies and gradually it was learned that a prodigious graft was being attempted ;
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only with great difficulty was it defeated, Cathcart, with his strong personality and impressive eloquence, and McClure with his vote going against it. From the Adams report one item of information is extracted :-
"The distance now travelled in a day by a six horse waggon and load (taking the road at its average state) does not average 12 miles. Allowing this as the distance travelled daily, and it will re- quire 14 days to make the trip from In- dianapolis to Michigan City ; taking the daily expenses of a horse at 30 cents, and we find the cost to the waggoner for horse feed to be $25.20 in transporting 4500 lbs. from this to Michigan City."
The panic of 1837 stopped all the works of internal improvement in the state and left the treasury bankrupt. It also ended a hopeful plan of that year by which the state was to construct a railroad to the lake along the Michigan road, by its side. In the legislature of 1844 it was officially declared that the road was finished, the lands all sold and the accounts closed, whereupon the office of Michigan road commissioner was abolished and the road itself turned over to the several counties through which it passes for the purposes of maintenance. Many ill-advised efforts have been made by contiguous property owners to reduce its width and some litigation has grown out of such attempts. The latest pro- posal looking to its improvement is a suggestion which has met with consid- erable favor, that the road be turned over to the state board of forestry for the pur- pose of including it in the forestry tract and planting it with trees, making it one of the most beautiful as well as useful avenues in the world. "It is a matter of state, as well as of local pride," writes one newspaper correspondent, "to thus make restoration of the Michigan road,
originally cut out of virgin forest, by filling it with trees, and generations to come will enjoy the blessing, while the present generation will derive some ben- efit from the improvement. Indiana could do nothing that would add more to her glory than to make a grand avenue of living forest trees through the length of her domain on the old Michigan road and then boulevarding the highway the whole distance from Lake Michigan to the Ohio river."
A meeting of citizens of Chicago was held August 5, 1833, to determine by vote whether or not they would assume the functions of an incorporated town. Thirteen votes were cast. Five days later the first election for town trustees was held and twenty-eight votes were cast. It is believed that every legal voter in the place cast his vote on that occa- sion. The statute required a population of one hundred and fifty for incorpora- tion. About that same date Jerry Church was in Michigan City and said of it "it is quite a town and called a city." In October Charles Cleaver came and he said there were then probably about fifty inhabitants. The two places were not far apart in size. Chicago's estuary was not as favorable for harbor pur- poses as that of Trail creek, and there was every reason to anticipate for Mich- igan City a position of supremacy in the commerce of the lake. It was by force of circumstances beyond the control of man that the wonderful western metrop- olis grew up elsewhere than at the foot of Hoosier Slide, for energy and intelli- gence were not lacking among the foun- ders and builders of Michigan City. The men who established the town and its first business enterprises were brought to the spot by the influence of the Mich- igan road.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
Founding the City.
The unknown author of the brief sketches of the towns and townships in- cluded in the historical atlas of LaPorte county published in 1874 says of the be- ginning of Michigan City :- "It was laid out by Major Elstin and Samuel Miller. Gen. Orr joined the Major and his com- pany at Crawfordsville, and accompanied them in the Fall of 1831 to Michigan City. The Major had just purchased the site, and with his party was intend- ing to lay off his town, but on reaching the spot he found his prepared plat did not square with the shore of the lake and the bank of Trail creek. The General, being something of a draftsman, quickly settled the question by drawing one that did with his finger on a draft-board of clear sand, and for which he received a present of a corner lot." This acount is taken almost verbatim from a bio- graphical sketch of the life of General Joseph Orr, written by himself and pub- lished in the same volume. In the sketch of Michigan township in the same book appears this statement :- "Major Elstin purchased the land where Michigan City now stands, of the Government in 1831, laid out the town in 1832." The state- ment first quoted is copied in the ac- count of the city in the historical atlas of the state issued in 1876. Jasper Pack- ard, in his history of the county, 1876, says :- "The land on which Michigan City, is now located was purchased of the government in 1831, by Isaac C. Elston, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, and he laid out the town in October, 1832.
The first settlers in Michigan City arrived in 1833." "The Elston sur- vey of Michigan City was located on the fractional section twenty-nine. * ** The plat of Michigan City was filed for record in October, 1833." In the Chap- man history of the county, 1880, the author, said to have been "a Presbyte- rian preacher of LaPorte," speaks of events in 1832 as follows :- "It is this year that we have the first intimations of the now prosperous city of Michigan City. The lands on which the city now is situated were purchased of the Gov- ernment by Major Isaac C. Elston, of Crawfordsville, at the land sales of last year ; and in October of this year he laid out the town. ** *
* He believed that at this point a harbor could be made. His penetration as he looked at Trail creek * * enabled him to appre- ciate its value, hence his purchase.
* All that we find of Michigan City this year is the plat as surveyed by its pro- prietor."
T. H. Ball, in his "Northwestern In- diana," 1900, a book of the highest value to the student of history of this section. says :- "There was a sale of government lands at Logansport in October, 1831, and at this sale Major Isaac C. Elston, of Crawfordsville, is said to have pur- chased the lands on which is now Michi- gan City, and to have laid out town lots in October, 1832." "The town plat of Michigan City had been recorded in 1833." In "Michigan City Illustrated," published by the Michigan City News in
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1900, we are told that "the first white settler, and the man who laid out the settlement, was Major Isaac Elston, who came here in 1832 and constructed a primitive cabin. Major Elston was accompanied by several hardy fron- tiersmen, all skilled in woodcraft, who had come to carve for themselves homes in the forest." And, finally, we have the account given by Rev. E. D. Daniels in his admirable and monumental history of LaPorte county, 1904, to this effect : "The land for the original plat of Mich- igan City was purchased by Major Isaac C. Elston, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, at the sale of the Michigan Road lands in Lafayette, Indiana, at the government price of $1.25 per acre. * * This gentleman had the sagacity to foresee that amid the splendid resources of the county and the grand commercial posi- tion which it presented, Michigan City was destined to hold no 'inconsiderable' rank among the flourishing towns in the western world. In October, 1832, when the commissioners came to the county to locate the seat of justice, we find Ma- jor Elston busily engaged in laying out the original plat of Michigan City.
The original plat was recorded September 17, 1833."
Such is the information, and all of it, that can be gleaned from the published histories of Michigan City concerning the laying out of the town and the in- ducements thereto. Nearly every state- ment is erroneous, and none of the wri- ters gave the subject the notice its im- portance demands in a history of the oldest and largest municipality in the county, in the founding of which the en- tire state was deeply interested.
It was November 6 and 9, 1830, that Major Elston made the first purchases of land at the site of Michigan City. At that time the talk of an Indiana harbor on Lake Michigan had been running all through the course of the boundary dis-
pute, which, as a previous chapter states, was then at its height. One of the lead- ing thoughts in providing for the Michi- gan road had been to lead a highway from the interior of the state to the most favorable spot for such a harbor and for the commercial city that was confidently expected to grow up there. That point had been selected by the first board of road commissioners and confirmed by the legislature, and it was certain that the road would soon be actually under con- struction. Already there was talk of memorializing congress in behalf of an appropriation for the harbor and there was no reason to doubt that Indiana, with its very limited coast line, would be favored with one such improvement at the national expense. Isaac C. Elston was a prominent man in the state, he knew all about these things and had seen the report and map of the road commis- sioners, and when that fall the govern- ment put up the land for sale at the land office in Crawfordsville, where he lived, he was ready to select and enter the tract he wanted, though he had never seen it. He bought the land containing the first half mile of Trail creek, fully understanding that it was barren sand and utterly useless except for his pur- pose of laying out the long anticipated town. His first entries covered the frac- tional northwest quarter and the west half of the northeast quarter of section 29, at the mouth of the creek, and May 13 following, the intervening legislature having carried the road a step further and the optimistic talk of the coming lake metropolis having increased, he ex- tended his holding, still without seeing it, by taking in the southwest quarter of the same section. He had seen Com- missioner Polke at Indianapolis, beyond doubt, and knew that he was not buying farm land.
Some confusion has grown out of the fact that this land was sold by the fed-
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eral government instead of by the state of Indiana, it being apparently included in the grant to the state. The treaty of 1826 ceded to the United States "a strip of land commencing at Lake Michigan and running thence on the Wabash Riv- er, 100 feet wide for a road and also one section of good land contiguous to the said road, for each mile of the same, and also for each mile of the road from the termination thereof, through Indianapo- lis to the Ohio River." By the act of
other sections selected for each mile of the road was not reported to congress for confirmation until in 1831. In the meantime the "new purchase" had been thrown open to sale at the Crawfords- ville land office in October, 1830, and El- ston had made his entries. After con- gress confirmed the Michigan road land selections in 1831 the unsold tracts were withdrawn from the government sale and the state made other selections equal in extent to the land sold which fell with-
PINE STREET SOUTH FROM SIXTH STREET
congress of 1827 the general assembly of Indiana was authorized to locate and make the road agreeably to the treaty and "to apply the strip of land and sec- tions of land by said article ceded to the United States or the proceeds thereof to the making of the same and the said grant shall be at their sole disposal." The road was located in 1829 and con- firmed by the state in the fol- lowing January, and the route was through sections 28 and 29. at the lake terminal; but the list of sec- tions contiguous to the road and of the
in the grant, namely, that at Michigan City.
In the fall of 1831 it was supposed that the road would be opened to the lake within the coming year, so Major Elston prepared to visit the site of his proposed town and lay it out. He had a plat prepared in advance, constructed from the maps of the road commission, covering the ground south of the creek to Market street and between Wabash and Spring streets. In October he set out on his journey into the Indian coun- try. He left no account of his trip to
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
the lake nor of his proceedings there, but General Joseph Orr was with him and forty years later he wrote a brief paragraph about it in a sketch of his own life for publication in the county atlas of 1874, which has been quoted above.
Between the early spring of 1829 and that of 1830 settlements were made in each of the six LaPorte county town- ships along the old Sac trail. Benajah Stanton said that when he came to the county in 1830 "there was but one cabin between LaPorte and Michigan City," which could not have been far from the trail named. Some time in 1831, it is stated in Packard's county history, Judah Leaming located at Springville, in Springfield township, and erected a log cabin. There was no settlement of any kind in Galena or Coolspring townships until 1833. It has been conjectured that Road Commissioner Polke may have had a cabin as early as 1831 at the lake terminal of the Michigan road, but there is not a particle of evidence that it was so and his movements up to that time show no reason why he should want one.
When the Elston expedition, there- fore, arrived at the mouth of Trail creek there was not a cabin or a house of any kind in the county north of the Sac trail except the one Benajah Stanton saw in Center township and possibly the Leam- ing house at Springville. The site of the city was in the virgin state of nature, save that the ancient and well-worn trail from the east led down the left bank of the creek to the margin of the lake, the freshly-driven stakes marking the line of the Michigan road were to be seen, and a path where Jerry Church had but a few weeks before broken through the brush on his way to the lake with the first wheeled vehicle ever brought there was visible. Church, who was usually an accurate journalist, said that when he was there no white man lived within
from nine to twelve miles of the place. General Packard's description of the spot chosen for Indiana's future com- mercial port, as first viewed by its pro- moter, runs thus :- "The town site was one that was rather forbidding, much of it being low and swampy. A growth of pine trees covered most of the spot, and there were some sugar maple trees. Trail creek slowly made its way over the sands to the lake, winding around by the very foot of Hoosier Slide, a deep sluggish stream, which was obstructed by a bar at the mouth, where so little water pass- ed over that a person could readily cross it on foot. Yet it was believed that at this point a harbor could be made."
The proprietor of the town, on this first visit in 1831, did not survey the lines and establish the street corners, but con- tented himself with a rough outline step- ped off on the ground, sufficient to give him the correct relations between his previously drawn plat, as altered by General Orr, with the creek, lake shore and Michigan road. He adopted for his town the name by which it had been fa- miliarly spoken of at Indianapolis for some time, Michigan City. This accom- plished he returned to his home, his stay having been quite brief. At the general assembly that winter he had several in- terests connected with his enterprise : one was to aid in pushing along the leg- islation necessary to the rapid comple- tion of the Michigan road ; another was to have included in the act a provision authorizing the alteration .of the line of the road in Michigan City, where, as laid out, it cut through the town plat at a very awkward angle. In both pur- poses he succeeded. A favorable bill was passed, and it included this clause: "And said commisioner is authorized to make such alteration at Michigan Citv, a town lately laid off at the termination of said road on Lake Michigan, so as to enter Michigan street and pass along the
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
same and Wabash street in said town to the termination of said road." Other proceedings of moment to him at that session were the creation of LaPorte county, the appointment of commission- ers to locate the county seat and the elec- tion of a Michigan road commissioner. For the latter position William Polke was the logical and successful candidate. In the senate, at that session, the dis- trict composed of Randolph, Delaware, Allen, Elkhart and St. Joseph counties was represented by Samuel Hanna of Fort Wayne, this being the third of his six terms in the legislature, of which he served three terms in each branch. In the house George Crawford of Elkhart, afterwards of LaPorte county, was serv- ing the first of five terms, representing at this time the counties of Allen, La- Grange, Elkhart and St. Joseph. Among the members were General Joseph Orr and Major John M. Lemon in the senate and E. A. Hannegan and James Rariden in the house, all of whom figure in the history of LaPorte county. Orr was in the last of five terms and Lemon in the last of eight ; both removed to this coun- ty. Rariden was eight terms in the gen- eral assembly and two in congress, be- sides sitting as a member of the consti- tutional convention of 1851 ; Hannegan was twice in the legislature, twice in the lower house of congress and six years in the senate, and for a time was a resi- dent of Michigan City. Of the members in the previous year two were attracted to the county by the legislative interest in the road-John Sering, who had four terms, and Abel Lomax, who was elec- ted nine consecutive years.
The act creating LaPorte county was approved January 9, 1832, to be effective April 1, and it named as the commis- sioners to locate the county seat Samuel Lewis of Allen county, Isaac Coleman of Fountain, Andrew Ingraham of Clin- ton, Levi Thornton of Tippecanoe and
Merritt S. Craig of Ripley, who were directed to meet "on the second Monday in May next, at the house of David Pa- gan, in said county of LaPorte," in the "discharge of the duties assigned them by law." They were to be notified of their selection before April I by the sheriff of Carroll county. The boundary of the county ran as follows :- "Begin- ning at the state line which divides the state of Indiana and Michigan Territory, and at the northwest corner of township No. 38, north of range No. 4, west of the second principal meridian ; thence run- ning east with said state line to the cen- ter of range No. I west of said meridian ; thence south 22 miles ; thence west, par- allel with the said state line, 21 miles ; thence north to the place of beginning." This, it will be observed by reference to the map, differs from the present county boundary, and it includes a triangular piece of the lake six miles on one side and nearly four on the other. Governor Noble, pursuant to law, appointed Benja- min McCarty sheriff pro tem for the new county and issued a writ of election for the choice of the first officers.
As required by the governor's writ he gave notice dated March 29 of an elec- tion to be held on the second Monday of April, 1832, for which purpose he di- vided the county into two districts by the line between ranges two and three. All qualified voters of the county east of the line were notified to vote at the house of Nathan B. Nich- ols, and all west at the house of Arba Heald, the returns to be made at the house of Jacob Miller on the ensuing Wednesday. The election was held as directed April 9 and from the returns the sheriff certified the election of Jacob Miller and Judah Leaming as associate judges : Elijah H. Brown, Isaac Morgan and C. W. Brown as commissioners, and George Thomas as clerk and recorder. The votes cast numbered fifty-five, of
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
which twenty-five were in the west dis- trict, containing Michigan City. May 28 the commissioners met at LaPorte, organized the board and proceeded to transact the business of the new county. The first enactment was the division of the county into three townships by the two western range lines. All of range four within the county was named New Durham township in memory of Dur- ham, Greene county, New York, the carly home of Mrs. Miriam Benedict, one of the first settlers near Westville. Offi- cers were appointed and elections for township officers were ordered. The voting in New Durham township took place June 16, 1832, and Elisha Newhall was elected justice of the peace. At the next term grand and petit juries were drawn and elections were ordered to be held in the several townships on the first Tuesday in August for school commis- sioners. Of these elections the returns were not preserved.
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