USA > Indiana > LaPorte County > Michigan City > History of Michigan City, Indiana > Part 11
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. If the county seat commissioners met at all in May, as enjoined upon them by the act appointing them, they did not visit the county, and were probably de- terred by the Black Hawk scare in that month. In October Commissioners Cole- man, Thornton and Craig appeared at LaPorte, accompanied by Andrew W. Snodgrass, who acted with them under some authority not now known. Craig was a prominent lawyer of Versailles and had served four legislative terms; his father, George Craig, built the first mill and the first court house in Ripley county and when a member of the senate was the author of the so-called "rolling penitentiary bill," which, had it passed, would have set the state convicts to work on the roads. Thornton was one of the earliest settlers in Tippecanoe county. In order to be in readiness to present the cause of his new town in the contest about to be waged for the county seat Major Elston was on the ground before
they arrived in the county and when they came he was busily engaged in laying out a corrected plat. Again we are un- informed as to his companions, but we know that Samuel Miller, of whom more will be said later, was there and Asa Harper was also with him.
In the county atlas of 1874 this state- ment is found in the sketch of Michigan City :- "Asa Harper helped survey the city." In Packard's history, written two years later, the author says of Mr. Har- per :- "He came to the county in 1833, and assisted in surveying the town of Michigan City." A sketch of Mr. Har- per's life, for which he furnished the material, is in the Chapman history of 1880 and this passage occurs :- "When he was of age, in 1832, he settled in La- Porte, whence he afterward moved to Michigan City." Asa Harper was a shipbuilder and carpenter at Michigan City twenty years before he retired, in 1856, to the farm where he died near Waterford; and it would seem strange that he did not state the fact of his con- nection with the survey of the city, if it was true, except that the sketch is ex- ceedingly brief, eleven lines, and only essential dates are given. On the other hand, General Packard knew him and in all probability took the statement from his own lips, thus confirming the preced- ing writer. With the aid of Harper, then, the major staked out the town ac- cording to his perfected plat. This must have been done and the county seat deci- sion must have been reached early in October in order that all parties inter- ested might travel to Logansport in sea- son for the sales of the Michigan road lands in that month.
In April of that year six entries were made of lands in or adjoining the pres- ent city. On the tenth Major Elston en- tered the east half of the southeast quar- ter of section 29, and Joseph Duncan, for whom an addition and a street were
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named, bought the east half of the north- east quarter of the same section, with the fraction of the adjoining section 20 on the north, and the east half of the north- east quarter of section 30, thus giving him a good part of the creek and also the lake beach on each side of the town plat. Ten days later William Nichols bought the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 28, and the day after that Elston purchased the northeast quarter of the same section. This last tract and the east half of the northeast quarter of section 33, bought October 8, were taken for the timber; it was expected to be usefully converted into lumber for building the city.
streets. It is transcribed at page 6 of book A of deed records. The original map used by Elston and bearing his en- tries of the names of purchasers of lots, some in pencil and some in ink, is in the possession of his son, Major Isaac C. Elston, who succeeded his father in the management of Elston's bank at Craw- fordsville. It is weather-worn and bro- ken by much handling in all sorts of weather and shows spots that were made by the snow and rain of three quarters of a century ago, and in places the folds have worn through the paper, which is pasted on cloth, and rendered the lines and writing illegible. Every effort should be put forth to secure this valuable relic
THE PIER
The original plat as settled upon at this time included so much land as was bounded on the north by the beach and the south bank of the creek ; on the south by Market street ; on the west by a line half way between Wabash and Buffalo streets ; on the east by a line half way between Spring and Cedar streets, ex- cept that the southwest corner of Dun- can's entry cut somewhat into this line. The plat was not filed at the office of the county recorder until September 17, 1833, by which time the original proprie- tor had added the sixteen blocks between Market, Ninth, Wabash and Spring
of the city's incipiency for the public library where it can be permanently pre- served as a sacred document. It bears the following inscription, unsigned :-
"Michigan City was laid out by Isaac C. Elston in October, 1832, is situated on the Southern Margin of Lake Michi- gan at the Mouth of Trail Creek in the North West Frac. and the West Half of the North East Quarter of Sec. 29 in Township No. 38 North of Range No. 4 West. The lots are 821/2 feet front bv 165 back, with the exception of those fronting on Front Street and lots No. I & 4 in block No. 5 & fronting | here sev- eral words are illegible] are 55 feet front
HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
by 145 back ; and the latter are 721/2 feet front by 165 back,-Michigan and Wa- bash Streets are each 100 feet wide -- Washington & Franklin Streets are each 821/2 feet wide-Fourth Street is 75 feet wide, and all the others are 66 feet wide -the alleys are 15 feet wide-the streets cross each other at right angles and bear N. 20 deg. W. by N. 70 deg. E. Megnet- ically or N. 14 W. by N. 76 E. Astro- nomically. Wabash Street extends to the Lake."
The date of this plat is quite naturally the date of its amendment and adoption, no lots having as yet been sold. The purchases from the government which have been noted in the foregoing pages cover all of section 29 except the west half of the southeast quarter, a tract in the very center of the city, including Franklin and Washington streets south of Fifth. Every piece of land in and adjoining the present city was entered before this was and there was consider- able rivalry in securing the land on which the city was expected to grow. It is impossible to explain the omission to file on this particular lot at that time unless it was supposed to be included in Elston's entry, as his plat of it seemed to indicate. He entered it July 1, 1834, after he had included it in his plat but before he had sold any of the lots in that part.
When the locating commissioners reached the county they found six can- didates for their preferment in selecting the place for the county seat. On the Lac du Chemin, now Hudson lake, was the first permanent settlement in the county. Rev. Robert Simerwell, of the old Carey mission, had a Baptist school there for the Indians; the late Asa M. Warren, whom the Indians called the Wishtean-bish-the blacksmith by the lake-had his shop there; Jack Jones had a trading cabin; Joseph Bay had a boarding house, and Joseph W. Lykins and two or three others lived near by.
At Door Village John Welsh and his son had a store, Arba Heald lived in a cabin, General Joseph Orr and quite a number of others were located in the vicinity. John Wills and his sturdy fam- ily of sons, with a few others, lived at or near Bootjack. Judah Leaming had a few neighbors at Springville. There was a small settlement about the site of LaPorte, which was not yet platted or named. Michigan City made the sixth candidate. All but the two last named were soon eliminated for want of induce- ments, and as between these two there was an intense rivalry. The parties in- terested in both sites were all on the ground and Major Elston stood single- handed and alone against General Wil- son, Colonel Walker, Captain Andrew, Dr. Todd, James Andrew, and all the Sac trail settlers, General Orr with the rest. Financially the two proposals were not greatly apart, each including every other lot of the original plat of the pro- jected town, the lots necessary for coun- ty buildings and a stated sum in cash. Elston urged with all his force that Michigan City ought to be made the county seat for the reason that there, where the Michigan road led to the only harbor in Indiana, the greatest city in the county would of necessity arise in the near future. The LaPorteans laid stress on the statutory requirement that the public buildings should be located as near to the center of the county as con- venience would admit. Until his death May 18, 1906, there dwelt at La- Porte, with his memory unimpaired notwithstanding his great age, Judge William P. Andrew, who, then an am- bitious young man of twenty-three years, was present throughout the county seat contest. To Mr. Daniels he gave his recollections of the occasion for use in the county history of 1904, wherein the account is thus written :---
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"The visit of the commissioners to lo- cate the county seat occasioned a great deal of interest among the settlers, and as the commissioners rode back and forth between the two rival places to listen to the arguments of each for receiving the county seat, they were accompanied by several interested gentlemen. * After canvassing the matter thoroughly for several days, the commissioners final- ly decided upon LaPorte as the proper place for the county seat. One thing which led them to this decision was, that the gentlemen interested for LaPorte outnumbered those interested for Mich- igan City. They were men of strong personalities, and no doubt the commis- sioners felt a stronger persuasive power on behalf of LaPorte. Again, the local- ity of LaPorte was much more inviting than that of Michigan City. The latter place at that time was rather forbidding, being comparatively low and swampy. and mostly covered with pine trees. La- Porte, on the contrary, was a beautiful spot, possessing even at the beginning every advantage for a pleasant and pros- perous town. But the chief reason for locating the county seat at LaPorte was, that it was the most central place. * *
It was held, even with the county lines where they then were, that Michi- gan City was too far north of the center. and that it would be unfair to require the inhabitants of the southern part of the county to travel so far to their coun- tv seat. * The LaPorte gentle- men did not offer any greater financial inducements than Major Elston did: it was the advantage of its being a central locality that induced the five commis- sioners to locate the seat of justice in LaPorte."
The four commissioners (including Snodgrass), not five, were in all likeli- hood impressed with Michigan City's prospects for becoming a great commer- cial port, for the whole state was talking about it, but they could not get away from the law compelling them to choose a spot as near the center of the county as possible, and besides at that time the settlements were almost wholly along the Sac trail and that route was the one by which the emigration was then com-
ing into the county. Major Elston was at Logansport October 8, as we have seen, buying timber land, and October 22, at Crawfordsville, he redeemed his promise to General Orr by deeding him a lot. He did not regard the commis- sioners' selection as final and always thought, while he was an owner of lots at Michigan City, that the town would eventually outstrip LaPorte so far as to make the removal of the county seat de- sirable to a majority of the citizens of the county. That opinion was not held by him alone and it persisted for many years, arising at every apparent oppor- tunity. There was talk about a change in the next year, 1833, when the county commissioners were preparing to let the contract for building the first court house. Ten years later, when the first building began to show signs of falling down, and from that time until contracts were awarded for a new temple of jus- tice in 1847. the question of removing the county seat was discussed and warm- ly agitated. The interest was such that public meetings were held, several arti- cles were written for the local papers, editorials, sometimes bitter, were pub- lished, and the controversy ran high. Citizens of Michigan City offered in 1845 to bear the expense of erecting the new county buildings and removing the offices and records thereto.
In the election of August 4. 1847, the removal question was made an issue as affecting the legislative candidates. It was a period of great depression in the harbor improvement project, but the new court house was to be undertaken with- out further delay and the Michigan City people endeavored hopefully to secure it. Normally the city gave its majorities 10 the whigs, whose candidates for repre- sentative were Myron H. Orton and Franklin W. Hunt in this year, but the democratic candidates, Jacob G. Sleight and William Taylor, were pledged to re-
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY.
moval and received majorities of over one hundred and fifty votes in the city. Orton and Hunt were elected, but in Michigan City they received only six- teen and eight votes respectively. In 1859 Michigan City made another effort to become a county seat, this time by the organization of a new county, to be called Linn and to be carved out of La- Porte and Porter counties, but the at- tempt failed. The matter of removal had some advocates when the present court house, the corner stone of which was laid June 30, 1892, was decided upon, and again, to a less extent, when the superior court was established in 1895.
Isaac C. Elston was born in New Jersey in 1794 and in boyhood removed with his parents to Onondaga county, New York, whence, in 1818, he went to the far west, as then known, to seek his fortune, locating at Vincennes. There he engaged in merchandising two or three years, then removed to Terre Haute for a short time and in 1823 estab- lished the first store in the new town of Crawfordsville, which was then the northernmost white settlement in the state and was so isolated that there were less than a dozen white families within fifty miles. There he established his family in the wilderness, embarked on that business career which soon made him a marked man in the little com- munity and later in the state, and carv- ed a handsome fortune out of the rough material of those primitive days. He was the first postmaster President Jack- son appointed. His military title of major was conferred by the governor in connection with the militia when the In- dians were still threatening. He was an early purchaser of land and lots in the new country and was shrewd in such investments. In 1825 he and two other Crawfordsville citizens bought the en-
tire site of Lafayette within a day or two after it was laid out, paying $240 for it, and it was through their influence that the county seat was located at that place. Though active and influential in the politics of the state, adhering to the democratic faith throughout his life, he never held or was a candidate for public office, but gave his undivided attention to his large and always increasing busi- ness interests. He founded the famous Rock River mills at Crawfordsville, and was the first president of the Crawfords- ville & Wabash railroad, which was af- terwards merged into the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago railway, of which he remained a director until age crept upon him and he voluntarily re- tired. The first named road was his conception and by his energy and persist- ency it was made an actuality. In 1853 he established the banking house of El- ston & Company at Crawfordsville, of which he retained control until his death, when the management passed to his son and namesake, the present president. While he lived he was a devout member and a liberal contributor to the Metho- dist church. One morning in 1867 he died very suddenly at his home in the old Elston residence at Crawfordsville.
A grandson bearing the same name as his own was until within two or three years past a resident of Michigan City, where he was connected with the Michi- gan City Gas Light company. On the morning of February 14, 1906, at Wash- ington, where she was that day to assist, with her sister, Mrs. Henry S. Lane, and her niece, Miss Helen Smith, in a recep- tion given at the home of the vice presi- dent, Mrs. Helen Elston Blair of Indian- apolis, a daughter of the major, passed away in much the same manner as he did. Another daughter was the wife of Gen. Lew Wallace.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
The First Inhabitants.
Robert White, of Scipio township, says that when he, a lad verging on manhood, rode horseback from Door Prairie on Monday, September 24, 1832, and came to Michigan City in search of the lost Armstrong boys, he found two unfinished cabins on the site of the town. Judge William P. Andrew, who was with the county seat commissioners on their trip of inspection to Michigan City within a week or two of the same date, said :- "The only building in Michigan City was a log cabin not yet completed. It was covered with lapboards weighted down and kept in place by the usual poles, and the door and windows were cut out : but that was all." This is good testimony that there was at least one house in the city then. The coun- ty atlas says in one place that "Jacob Furman, aided by Benj.
T. Bryant, built the first log cabin in August, 1833, on what is called Peck's corner," and in another place, speaking of the same incident, it says "Jacob Furman aided B. F. Bryant" to build a cabin. General Packard did not know which aided the other so he gave both equal credit, in which the later writers followed him, except that Mr. Daniels reports Judge Andrew's account.
Benjamin T. Bryant, who was born in this state in 1815, came to New Durham with his father, Josiah Bry- ant, in April 1832, and two years later, still a minor, married a daughter of the pioneer settler, the widow Benedict, and set up for himself in Clinton township.
where he lived a long and useful life. Jacob Turman, (not Furman) was his mother's brother. In August, 1832, Mr. Turman, aided by young Bryant, began the erection of two log cabins near the first bend of Trail creek, one of which was for Samuel Miller and the other was for Joseph C. Orr, who was already in camp there with his family.
The earliest permanent resident of Michigan City seems to have been San- uel Miller,-"Colonel Miller," the atlas calls him. He was the first real estate agent, the first merchant, the first post- master, the first warehouseman and the first settler in the city. Samuel Miller came to Chicago as early as in 1825 and was a trader with the Indians. The first date we have pertaining to him is that of his marriage with Elizabeth Kinzie, daughter of John Kinzie, in 1826. About that time he purchased a log cabin on the point between the north branch and the Chicago river and there he and his wife lived and kept what was called the Mil- ler House, the second hotel in Chicago, and Archibald Clybourne joined him in opening a store in the same building, enlarged for the purpose. Mark Beau - bien, who afterwards owned a hotel in LaPorte, had a tavern just across the river to the south and the Wentworth hotel was opened just opposite on the west side. In 1828 James Kinzie took the Beaubien place and competed with Miller strenuously but good-naturedly. Miller established the first ferry and built the first bridge in Chicago and was
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY.
MAJOR ISAAC C. ELSTON
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
a member of the first board of county commissioners when Cook county was formed, having previously served as a commissioner for the school land. In 1831 the town bought his ferry scow for $65 and appointed Mark Beaubien ferryman. When the Black Hawk war arose Miller placed his wife in the fort and took his place as a private in Ghol- son Kercheval's company of home de- fenders. Within a few weeks after the Black Hawk scare was allayed, probably in June or July, 1832, Mrs. Miller died, leaving three children, Margaret Ellen, Montgomery K. and Filly, upon which the father immediately closed his affairs in Chicago and moved to Michigan City. He was with Major Elston when the town was platted in October, 1832, and occupied a log cabin on the south bank of the creek at the bend toward the lake, where he later built the first warehouse in the new city. He bought a large num- ber of lots in Michigan City of Elston and others and entered and bought large tracts of land in the vicinity and he also opened the first store and was the first forwarding and commission merchant and, later, a grain buyer. In August, 1833. Major Elston gave him a power of attorney as his agent to sell town lots and through his influence many of the prominent men of Chicago invested in lots and lands in and near the town. He was first postmaster, serving from August 26, 1833, until June 26, 1835. and established a weekly mail route to LaPorte, changing it shortly to a daily route. July 18, 1835, in the democratic convention held at Lakeville, he was nominated for state representative, but was defeated by C. W. Cathcart. He received 212 votes, while Cathcart re- ceived 433 and Jonathan A. Liston 134. At the first meeting of the city council. in 1836, he was appointed official printer and later he was elected to the council and to other city offices. Mr. Miller
prospered in business and at a very early day, having married Emily Kimberly at Michigan City for his second wife, Au- gust 17, 1834, prepared for his family the most elegant home in the place, of which Mrs. Lydia Evarts wrote as fol- ยท lows in a paper read in November, 1899. before the Woman's Study club :-
"One of the most imposing structures of those early times was the Jernegan property, situated on the Jernegan hill. The house was built and formerly occu- pied by a man named Samuel Miller. The house stood in the center of the large grounds. The approach was through a large arched gateway, sup- ported by high stone posts, then terrace upon terrace to the handsome house. When first built, I am told by those even farther back than myself, that there was nothing in the country around to equal it in grandeur. I have had it pictured by some of the country youths, who brought their grain to this port for ship- ping, how, when passing, they would stand on their loads that they might get a better view of what seemed to them to be little short of a castle."
In January, 1844, he died at Michigan City leaving his wife Emily and two children, Margaret Ellen and Montgom- ery K. Miller, Filly having died young. Jacob Miller was the ad- ministrator of his estate and Tobias Mi !- ler was the guardian for the children. It was found that his affairs were con- siderably involved and there were judg- ments against him, and the estate was settled as insolvent, though it turned out that his real estate paid all claims and left a good balance for the heirs.
Although Major Elston voted at one of the early elections in the county he was never a resident and all his deeds to Michigan City lots were executed at Crawfordsville. In 1832 he made but one such deed, that of October 22 to Joseph Orr for lot four in block four (not a corner lot) for as- sistance in drafting the plat, and the next year he made but one, a deed dated
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
October 18 to John Balyard of Butler county, Ohio, for lot two in block nine. August 18 he and his wife, Maria E. Elston, executed a power of attorney to Samuel Miller authorizing him to sell lots in the new town. December 17, 1832, however, Elston had given to John Eg- bert of St. Joseph county a bond for $200 obligating himself to convey to Eg- bert three years after date the undivided one-tenth of all lots in Michigan City then remaining unsold and of the unsold parts of the southeast, southwest and northwest quarters and the west half of the northeast quarter of section 28 then included in the town plat, except lots five and six in block four, one and four in block five and eight in block nine, El- ston reserving the right "to make dona- tions to individuals or corporations for public improvements to advance the growth and population of the town." This bond was discharged September 24, 1835, by a final settlement in which El- ston gave Egbert a note for $278, the balance agreed to be due in full satisfac- tion of all matters pertaining to their mutual interests in Michigan City lots. On the first page of the first entry book used in the county recorder's office, dated 1832, the fifth item that "came into office for record" is this :-
"Town Plat of Michigan City Isaac C. Elston & John Egbert proprietors Sit- uate on the N. W. qr. & W. half of the N. E. qr. of S. 29. T 38 N. R. 4 W. Recorded in Book A. Page 5 & 6. Fee $2.50 Paid."
This entry is without date, but it was between Nov. 2, 1832, and Feb. 1, 1833. Page five of book A bears the following record :-
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