USA > Indiana > LaPorte County > Michigan City > History of Michigan City, Indiana > Part 15
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Ignoring for the moment the demands of increasing commerce, which of course needs protection here, it is a vital pur- pose to hasten to completion the harbor of refuge, so that such disasters as have occurred even in recent years may never be repeated.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
The City In the Making.
It is a feature of Americanism that we instinctively incline toward organization. We love precedent, and the form and ceremony of public action, but we some- times ignore the value of the record and forget how vital to the establishment of a precedent may be the evidence of a document.
In Europe, public archives and records go back in an unbroken line through and beyond the dark ages, but in the United States the hardest task of the historian is to find, among the scraps of irregular registers, the facts that must be at the foundation of his narrative.
This rule is evident in the study of the beginnings of Michigan City. It was the express purpose of Major El- ston to establish at this favored spot in Indiana an organized town. The early inhabitants had no more than drifted into the shadow of Hoosier Slide than they yielded to the Anglo-Saxon instinct and organized themselves into a town gov- ernment, but unfortunately all record of what they did, or inclined to do, all doc- umentary evidence of the public action from 1833 to 1836, has disappeared. There is a tradition that the transactions of a town board were entered in a note book, but this book has not been found, and therefore nothing but the imagina- tion can guide us toward these early fathers.
We know, for instance, that the town must have built a bridge on Franklin street ; before that, even, we know that Major Elston had laid out a town in which he had inscribed street names ; that he was not satisfied with the orig-
inal Indian name Me-eh-wy nor the French Du Chemin, but preferred Trail Creek for the stream that wandered into his future harbor ; likewise he would not accept haphazard names for the streets which were ultimately to become the thoroughfares of his expected city, and therefore chose, far in advance of the demand, such significant names as
Franklin, Washington, and Wabash. It was across this very Franklin street, that the bridge mentioned above had been built. It was a wooden bridge, but the timbers were in an excellent state of preservation ; it crossed over Fish-lake Creek, which once wandered through the town, at about where Zeese's dry goods store now is, but the creek has lost its beauty and its being, although the waters still serve a utilitarian purpose by helping along the Fourth street sewer that flows below modern brick pavement.
An interesting confirmation of this original activity of the town, is furnish- ed by Mrs. J. H. Kinzie, in her volume of reminiscences of Chicago, "Wait- Bun." Here she states, in talking of the north side of the Chicago river, that "there was still another house-built by a former resident of the name of Miller, but he had removed to Riviere du Che- min, or Trail Creek, which about that time (1831) began to be called Michigan City. * I can now recall a petition that was circulated in the garrison about that period, for 'building a brigg over Michigan City'-an accommodation much needed by travelers at that day."
But no record of this fact exists. The town was growing rapidly ; not only did
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it serve as a transient resting place for those going even further west, but, as has been shown, it also attracted for permanent abode many who saw with a keener eye for the future, the important possibilities for Indiana's only harbor. To handle this fluid mass of human be- ings, to preserve order and expedite pub- lic business, there must have been a town government, yet nothing beyond hearsay remains. To be sure the county of La- Porte had been organized by the state legislature in 1832, and necessarily much of the formal business of the people was in the hands of county officers, but there still remained a town life of which writ- ten record is lost. This is unfortunate, bc- cause in the earliest movements of a community may often be detected the germs from which a great idea springs.
The factors to make a city were al- ready at work ; we have seen how migra- tion was at first attracted to the Indiana shores of Lake Michigan ; how the state at once encouraged this direction by de- vising and building the Michigan Road as a south and north path for traffic ; how Major Elston had pushed his town site project with future commercial greatness in view, and how the people, backed at times by the United States government, had not rested content until they had the promise of a real harbor which should make at and within the mouth of Trail Creek a safe anchorage for the lake traffic. Much was expected of Michigan City in the way of growth because of this harbor, and Indiana was not going to let slip the chances to par- take of the growing lake business. Therefore, these influences working to- gether, produced the desired result, and the city soon became a fact.
February 8, 1836, the state legislature passed an act incorporating Michigan City. Credit must be given to Dr. Lee H. T. Maxson, state representative from LaPorte county, and to Gustavus A.
Everts, state senator, for activity in securing the enactment of this charter.
This first charter for Michigan City, one of the most elaborate enactments for the government of a city that the general assembly had yet formulated, consisted of 57 sections and provided in minute detail for the conduct of the affairs of the young municipality. The first sec- tion, prescribing the boundaries, was as follows :
Section I. Be it enacted by the Gen- eral Assembly of the State of Indiana. That the district of country in the county of LaPorte within the following bounds, that is to say, beginning at the southwest corner of section number thirty-one, in township number thirty-eight north, of range number four west, from thence north along the west line of said section, and to continue in that course into Lake Michigan until it reaches the north line of the state, from thence east along the state line through the lake, three miles, thence south to the shore of said lake, to where the east line of fractional section number twenty-one, in the aforesaid township, intersects the lake shore ; thence south along the east line of said fractional section and continuing that course to the southeast corner section number thirty-three, thence west along the south line of sections thirty-three, thirty-two and thirty-one, to the place of beginning, shall hereafter be known as Michigan City.
This area of fifteen square miles, near- ly, constituted one of the largest cities in the United States at that time, geo- graphically, and was an expression of the general belief that Michigan City was to become within a short period the leading commercial port on the lower shores of the lake, although about half the enclosure lay under the waters of the lake. With some changes the boun- dary, still remains as above prescribed.
The city was to be considered as one ward until the first Tuesday in April, 1842; in January, 1842, the council was to erect not less than three nor more
-
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than five wards; each ward was to have two members of the council. The offi- cers were to be the mayor, recorder, five aldermen, treasurer, one or more collec- tors and not less than three assessors or listers. "Alden Clark, Homer S. Find- lay, Wm. W. Taylor, John Sherwood and Richard C. Inman, are to be inspec- tors of the first election, to be held at the school house in said city, the first Tuesday of April next, when all voters who have resided within the bounds six months shall be legal voters, and if free- holders, eligible to office, the same as though they had resided in the state one
scalers of weights and measures, and gaugers; also the selection of the cor- poration newspaper for legal advertising, the designation of a place and time for bathing in the creek and harbor, the creation of a board of health and the or- ganization of a fire department. Other appointments authorized were the health physician, harbor masters, chief engineer and two assistants of the fire department, and nightwatch. Power to tax for street lighting was given, also power to com- pel the construction of sidewalks. The contingent expenses of the city were limited to $8,000 annually. "All that
VIEW OF THE HARBOR
year." Every voter must be an actual resident and make oath if challenged. The officers-elect were to take office on the second Tuesday in April of each year and serve for one year. The coun- cil had the appointment annually of the treasurer, city attorney, street commis- sioner, high constable, one or more po- lice constables, clerk of the market, one or more collectors, one or more pound- masters, porters, carriers, cartmen, pack- ers, bell-men, sextons, common criers, scavengers, measurers and inspectors of grain, measurers and inspectors of wood,
portion of Trail Creek from its mouth to the contemplated basin of a canal which is about to be made is hereby de- clared a public highway."
The first city election was held as directed, but the record of it is lost. The result is found in the record of the first meeting of the common council, held April 12, 1836, from which date the council records are complete and for the most part carefully kept. The minutes of the first meeting are as follows :
At a meeting of the common council of Michigan City held on Tuesday, the
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12th day of April, 1836, the following persons were appointed by ballot as fol- lows, to-wit: For Treasurer, Francis C. Goode ; for Attorney, J. R. Wells ; for Street Commissioner, Jos. Oakman; for High Constable, Hirmen Lawson; for Clerk of the Market, Purley D. Shum- way; for Collector, Oscar A. Barker ; for Pound Master, James Waddell ; for Packers, Benjamin James & Alden Clark ; for Sexton, David Harrison ; for Inspectors of Wheat, Zebina Gould & William S. Clark ; for Gaugers and Seal- ers of Weights & Measures, Thos. Snow & Henry C. Skinner; for Chief En- gineer, Warren Cole; for Assistant En- gineers, Robert Stewart & Homer S. Finley ; for Printer, Samuel Miller ; for Inspectors and Measurers of Wood, Geo. H. Knight & Ira Wilson, for Fire War- dens, Benj. James, Cortland Strong, Fisher Ames, Geo. Taylor, Tavner B. Switzer and David Finley ; for Harbour Master, Jonathan T. Barker.
Resolved, that the next meeting be held on the 19th inst.
CALEB F. FISK, Recorder. WILLYS PECK, Mayor.
This original charter was altered at various times. On February 6, 1837, there was an amendment in which the election laws and the tax laws were changed, and the government and pow- ers of the council were enlarged. Trail Creek was made a public highway to the center of section twenty-eight.
February 12, 1839, another ยท amend- ment provided that the charter shall in no wise be construed as vesting powers in contravention to the Constitution of the United States. This was published in the Michigan City Gazette.
February 15, 1839, it was decreed that the northeast quarter of section thirty- eight, "now included in the limits of the corporation of Michigan City, shall here- after constitute, and its boundary lines form, the limits of a village to be known and designated as City Niles." This means section twenty-eight.
February 15, 1841, there was an amendment to define the boundary as at
the first, except that the northeast quar- ter of section thirty-eight was taken out.
January 22, 1842, there was an amend- ment concerning taxes.
January 15, 1844, the northwest quar- ter of section thirty-one, and the west half of the northwest quarter of section thirty-two, were excluded from the limits and jurisdiction of the corpora- tion.
December 25, 1844, the charter was amended to allow publication by post- ing, when there was no newspaper pub- lished in the city.
January 26, 1847, another slight amendment was made.
February 14, 1848, the error in two former acts was corrected so that sec- tion thirty-cight was declared to mean section twenty-eight.
January 21, 1850, the following blocks and streets in Michigan City were vacat- ed, by order of the county commission- ers : Blocks 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33- 34, 35, 36. 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 54, 61, 62, 63, 64, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, and fractional blocks west of Perry street in section twenty- nine, said lots being in Michigan City Land Company's survey. Also the west one-half of blocks 16, 25, 26, 35, in El- ston's survey, being the parts of said blocks west of the alley. Also the streets between said blocks, viz: Buf- falo, Manhattan, Elston, Ohio, Tennes- see, Kentucky, Huron, Columbia, Miami, Perry, Market and Seventh, and the alleys in said blocks.
Under the new constitution of 1851 the legislature enacted the law of March 9, 1857, providing a general form for the government of cities, and the question at once arose whether or not Michigan City should abandon the special charter of 1836 and accept the provisions of the new act. At the next election, April 6, 1858, the issue was squarely presented in the nominations and the vote, 322 to 192
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for mayor, was accepted as a declaration for the change. Accordingly the city at- torney, James Orr, was instructed by the council, at its first meeting after the elec- tion, to investigate the legal aspects of the proposed change, and he soon sub- mitted a lengthy report, which was pub- lished in full in the Enterprise of May 12. In the previous November many citizens had joined in petitioning the council to come in under the new law, and now, six months later, on the receipt of Orr's report, the petition was granted and the council adopted a series of reso- lutions surrendering the old charter and accepting the provisions of the general law, the vote standing: Yeas, Alder- men Thomas Larkin, E. M. Davis, W. D. Woodward and John Kreiger ; nav, C. S. Winship.
The common council adopted a city seal May 24, 1859, thus described : "A device in the center of a ship, sheaf of wheat, etc., with the words Corporate Seal of Michigan City, Indiana, in a circle on the outer edge of the same."
At the March term, 1877, certain areas were annexed to Michigan City, by the county commissioners :
1. Part of the northeast quarter of section twenty-eight, commencing at the northeast quarter of said quarter section, thence west on the north line 160 rods to the northwest corner, thence south on the west line 160 rods to the southwest corner, thence east on the south line 165 rods to the southeast corner, thence north on the west line 160 rods to the beginning.
2. All of the northeast quarter of sec- tion thirty-one and all that portion of the west half of the northeast quarter of sec- tion thirty-two not embraced in Blair's second and southwest additions. In all, about twenty-five additions have been made to the city.
January 2, 1882, at a special session, it was ordered that Jas. E. Bradley, county
surveyor, make a new and complete map of Michigan City.
By an act approved by the governor March 7, 1889, certain supposed de- fects in the passage and adoption of cor- porate ordinances and by-laws were legalized and made valid.
The statement made at the beginning of this chapter, it will be seen, has been fully justified ; some records are missing, others are faulty, and some so inaccu- rately kept that the legislature had to come to the rescue of the hard working city fathers, who were surely so absorb- ed in doing good and making the city grow that they forgot to set down in proper form just how they did it.
All this has been dry reading. It would be drier still if one were restricted to the uninstructive details of the reso- lutions and acts of council meetings, but one with any imagination at all can easily see between the lines the life of a new city, eager to grasp opportunity and to meet the needs of the citizens. Among the first ordinances passed, with date of April 26, 1836, was that compelling the people to keep fire ladders and buckets, with other guards against fires, which, we must judge from this, were already commencing to be too frequent. This seemed not sufficient to prevent what trouble or excitement may have arisen from fires, so the council shortly after- ward, in 1837, passed an ordinance regu- lating the fire department, specifying officers and equipping a company. Not even such measures sufficed, for on Feb- ruary 10, 1838, the watchful council or- dered that these fire companies be ex- ercised in the use of such apparatus as might be committed to their charge. As brick in many cases displaced stone, and as the citizens began to exercise a great- er watchfulness, so developed the sys- tem by which fires were extinguished when once they started. In 1867 ( April 22) there was an ordinance that estab-
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lished the fire limits, within which people must submit to certain regulations in building, and without which the engines and men were not supposed to go. Feb- ruary, 2, 1881, a reorganization of the fire department was begun, and the city council specified that there should be two assistant chiefs, and such engine com- panies, with hook and ladder and hose companies, as might be formed agree- able to the ordinance. The chief was elected annually by the council, but these two assistants were his appointees. This step marked the departure from the old style of volunteer fire companies, with their regalia, their uniforms, their an- nual dinners, and their exuberant rivalry, to the newer method, wherein the con- pany was an organized force of the city, the men paid a salary, and the equipment a costly apparatus such as is demanded by any modern municipality. But many a heroic deed was performed under the stimulus of the volunteer spirit, many a fire put out by men who rushed from their daily tasks to show their loyalty in service to their fellow citizens.
April 9, 1894, the fire department was reorganized ; it was divided into compa- nies, each of which was limited to seven- teen members. March 27, 1899, an ordi- nance created a fund for injured fire- men, and the pay of the members of the department was fixed.
Today all the elements of a modern fire fighting machine are here; there are two fire companies, each with a captain and men regularly on the pay roll.
It was not until April 19, 1859, that the common council made any special provision for police control and for a city prison. On that date an ordinance was passed containing elaborate details for a police force, mayor's court and city prison, and May 30, by another ordi- nance, it was provided that a workhouse should be established. The workhouse feature was repealed Jan. 25, 1877, when
it was enacted that the north room of the first story of the brick building lately erected on the southwest corner of a piece of ground designated as the public square on the plat of the subdivision of Block 13 in the original plat should be established as a city workhouse or prison.
Hand in hand with the work of pro- tecting the city from the disasters from fire, and with the necessary vigil de- manded in a frontier city, into which were entering the hardy pioneers who builded our West, but who, from the very nature of the case, were not always law abiding and therefore could be kept in order only by the police and a jail, went other movements that showed how earnest were the first officials to lay a good foundation upon which the future city might develop. Even before atten- tion had been given to the fire depart- ment, but probably with a view to the same end, the council, April 19, 1836, passed an ordinance that owners of lots must remove brush and decayed timber. There was a penalty for neglect to do this, and special attention was directed to the residents along Wabash, Franklin. Washington, Pine, Spring and Cedar streets, on which, at that time, the great- est activity had spread. This primitive attempt at municipal house cleaning seems not to have been sufficient, be - cause, less than a year later, on February 6, 1837, the ordinance was repealed, and a more general and thorough method took its place. Travel was increasing, business demanded roads of a more uni- form standard, and it was on that date decided to grub out and to turnpike those streets most used for traffic. This was a real city improvement showing the am- bition to prepare acceptable thorough- fares, but the anticipated prosperity which had made of Michigan City a lodestone attracting thither much of the commercial hope of the older country to
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the east, sank unhappily beneath the panic of 1837, so that for years the ques- tion of street improvement was seldom discussed in the council.
On May 14, 1850, when the forces of expansion were again at work, we find that Michigan City had turned the cor- ner of hard luck, and was again intent on her career of progress. The council ordered a portion of Franklin street graded and planked, the purpose being to establish a plank road all the way to
Franklin street was ordered paved with cedar blocks, and from that date on, the street pavements were rapidly and care- fully extended. Meanwhile other street matters received attention; in 1879 the Michigan Central Railroad was given the right of way on Front street. The Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railroad in 1879 was equally favored, certain streets being vacated to the use of its tracks, and in the same year of 1879, so important had become the in-
THE MARSH PUBLIC SCHOOL
LaPorte, and another to Springville. But at this period it was deemed best to dele- gate the actual construction of such things to private activity, so on October 8, 1850, the Plank Road Company was authorized to use Franklin street.
The plank road idea prevailed for many years, and on June 21, 1881, a plank road was ordered along Elston avenue. This was the last of the cruder methods of paving, however, for in 1887
dustry of the Haskell and Barker Car Company, that it also was permitted to lay certain tracks on certain streets, which thus were practically absorbed into that industry.
In 1889 all crossings and buildings were numbered according to a uniform system, and in 1892 the decimal plan of house numbering was introduced.
One of the most modern ideas in street government, which shows how progres-
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sive the city had become, and really how much in advance the officials were in that civic pride which makes for comfort and beauty, was made a law in 1899 ; this law prohibited the use of the public streets for advertising purposes.
Having attended to the immediate ne- cessities of fire, police and roads, the council in the second year of existence and work, that is, on December 5, 1837, attacked the problem of drainage. It was ordered that water courses be open- ed on Pine and Market streets, and that water standing on them be removed. The system of surface drainage continued for some years, partly because the city had not grown fast enough to require a more exact or hygienic method, but partly also because municipal education, in the Uni- ted States in general, had not then de- veloped to the degree in which under- ground drainage was the rule. We see even today in such great cities as New Orleans that surface drainage is still tol- erated, and therefore it is a matter of pride that as early as 1873 Michigan City ordered a sewer to be made on Franklin street. Gradually these improvements were carried on, so that Washington street was ordered underlaid in June, 1881, Pine street a few months after, and Spring street in May, 1882.
April 27, 1875, there was passed the ordinance for the construction of the wa- ter works for supplying water for both domestic and fire purposes.
In 1887 an extension of the water mains was ordered, but in 1887, a special election on February 23 was held, in which the question was put to a vote by the people, whether the city should as- sume an indebtedness for bonding the water works system. In favor of the
plan were 843 votes, against it only 85 votes, so that March 14, 1887, the au- thority to do so was voted by the council. Three weeks thereafter, in April, the council passed a second ordi- nance providing for the erection and con- struction of pumps, machinery and other details of a complete water system. But it was decided that municipal manage- ment of this public utility was unneces- sary, and therefore, on April 10, 1899, a franchise was given to the Lake Michi- gan Water Company, which assumed control of the city's plant, and has since managed it. At present there are two pumps each with a capacity of 400,000,- 000 gallons every twenty-four hours, although the average daily consumption will not go much above 400,000,000 gallons.
The illumination of the city began at a later date than that of the other munici- pal functions. Just how much indul- gence was allowed for street lamps, in the days before gas became an article of commerce, cannot with accuracy be stat- ed, but the records show that the first gas lighting was ordered on November, 1878, when the council granted the right to lay gas mains. This was followed shortly after, by the privilege accorded in 1880 to N. F. Cleary to lay pipes and to operate gas works. In 1881, I. H. Miller was granted the right to construct gas works and to lay pipes, and he seems to have been the first to undertake the task seriously.
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