USA > Indiana > LaPorte County > Michigan City > History of Michigan City, Indiana > Part 20
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This does not, of course, refer to the work of the French priests who entered the region of the lakes long before the English and the Americans, and who in- troduced Christianity to the Indians. Even in 1688 there is evidence that Cath- olics were tilling this soil, for they had a mission among the Ottawas and were ceaseless in their desire to convert the natives. Around Marquette these mis-
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sions flourished, and there was a bishop at Detroit in 1800. From here the Rev. Frederic Rézé (afterwards the bishop) was sent in 1830 to the Potawatomies at St. Joseph, and again as bishop in 1835. These Indians seemed eager for conver- sion and they adhered loyally to the Catlı- olics, but they were removed by the gov- ernment troops from their Indiana home, so soon (1838) after the foundation of Michigan City, that little chance was given the missionaries who followed the Indians, to stay at the head of the lake.
The settlers themselves had hurried in from the east and south; the two waves of migration met at this point, and it is interesting to note which brought the dominant phase of protestantism. Major Elston had donated two lots from his original plat of the city for the use of the Methodist church, but the settlers from the east must at the moment have been more alert, because the Episcopal- ians built the first edifice to be conse- crated for the sole purpose of worship.
The Episcopal church with the Rev. D. V. M. Johnson as priest in charge, al- thought not at first intended for religious services, but used by them for that pur- pose, was built on Pine street between Fourth and Market streets, in 1836, while the State of Indiana was yet a missionary diocese under the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, D. D., its first bishop. Here the church remained till 1858.
In 1858 the corner stone of a wooden structure on the present property was laid. This lasted till the present church, now Trinity cathedral, was erected. The Rt. Rev. John Hazen White, D. D., had been made bishop of Indiana on May Ist, 1895, but as the state grew it was decided to form within it two dioceses, and therefore Bishop White left Indianapolis in 1899 and took for himself the northern diocese of the state, selecting Trinity for his cathedral and being consecrated as
bishop of the diocese of Michigan City.
The Methodists (Episcopal) built the second church edifice in Michigan City, often called The Pioneer Church, refer- ring rather to Methodism than to struc- ture. For some years Michigan City had been in the circuit, but services were held at private houses or in buildings devoted on week days to other than religious pur- poses. In 1838 Mr. Porterfield Harrison and others erected on the site given them by Major Elston a modest church which was held exclusively for worship. This lasted for several years, but the en- croaching sand threatened to bury the place, so that the lot now occupied at the corner of Franklin and Seventh streets was purchased, and a church with a parsonage was built in 1881.
The Congregational church comes next in order. As an organization it had been early to administer to the wants of its members, and even in 1835 the Reverend John Morrill from Massachu- setts had moved to LaPorte and then to Michigan City, where he acted as preach- er for it, among the members being Mrs. Benjamin James, Jacob and Mrs. Bige- low, Mrs. Susan Sprague, Robert Stew -- art and Joel Ferris. Mr. South, Mr. Chase and Mr. Townsend followed Mr. Morrill. In February, 1840, the mem- bers of the congregation allied them- selves with the Presbyterian church till October, 1841, when they withdrew and became again independent. Immediately thereafter Willys Peck and S. H. Turner returned to their earlier confession and established 'The First Congregational Church of Michigan City.'
The building exclusively for worship was not built however till the year 1843. since when it continued in existence until it was destroyed by fire in November, 1907.
A Baptist church was organized in 1836, but it soon ceased to exist, the announcement of the Michigan City Ga-
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zette for July 8 and 15, 1835, to the effect that a preacher of distinction re- sided there and that a church was prob- able, seemingly having been premature. Again in 1853 the newly constituted church, with the Rev. A. Hastings, for- merly of LaPorte, soon ceased to exist. The members of the faith met for some time at the home of Mrs. Walter Leeds on Spring street. A third attempt was made in 1889, with a good prospect of success, but the permanent church edifice now occupied was only used by them as late as 1897.
Notwithstanding the fact that the first protestant religious services in LaPorte county were conducted by Presbyterians in 1832, this denomination did not gain a foothold in Michigan City until 1871, on May 9 of which year the present church was organized with 39 members, the first elders being J. S. Ford, John Orr, J. S. Thornton and Henry W. Johnson. A church edince was built in 1872 and Rev. J. Q. Hall was called to the pas- torate. This building was burned in February, 1896, and the following year the present structure was completed and occupied.
The German Methodist Episcopal has a church at the corner of Eighth and Buffalo streets in Michigan City with about 200 members and is in a flourish- ing condition.
The Lutherans have two churches, St. Paul's and St. John's Evangelical occu- pying buildings diagonally opposite each other on Franklin and Ninth streets, each having a church school attached. The one has jurisdiction over about 550 fam- ilies, the other over about 500 families. The Swedes also have a Lutheran con- gregation, and the Norwegians worship in a building of their own.
It has been related in an earlier chap- ter that in the spring of 1675 good Pere Marquette journeyed northward from Chicago along the east shore of the lake
until death ended his earthly pilgrimage, and that in all probability he was the first white person who held a religious service on the site of Michigan City. From that time until the present Roman Catholic influence has been continuously felt on the Chicago and St. Joseph rivers and in the region between. Already mis- sionary work among the Indians around the south shore of the lake had been inaugurated by Claude Allouez, who built cabins on the Chicago, was appoint- ed to succeed Marquette, and a few years later established the mission near Niles, where he died in the harness. In November, 1679, while LaSalle was at the mouth of the St. Joseph, as it was named by him, anxiously awaiting the arrival of his lost vessel, the Griffin, his clerical companion, Father Hennepin, caused a rude chapel to be constructed on the high bluff at the river mouth, where he and Father Gabriel Ribourde preached to the French explorers and the Miami Indians, the Pottawattomies not yet having removed to this region. A little later the religious and military post was removed to the vicinity of Niles, where it was called Fort St. Joseph, and from the time of Allouez to the present Roman Catholic rites have been observed almost without intermission there and in the territory reaching to Chicago. The tireless and intrepid missionary priests pursued every trail and stream in the entire region, and "the trail by the creek" was their usual route between the two missions. At the mouth of the creek was a favorite camping ground.
Passing over the romantic period of the eighteenth century and coming to the actual American occupation of Northern Indiana, we find that in July, 1830, Rev. Frederic Reze, afterward bishop of Detroit, visited the tribes in Northwestern Indiana. On that visit he baptized Pokagon, the Potawatomie chief, and secured the discontinuance of
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the Carey Baptist mission which had been in operation eight years in which period and for a few years before the Catholics had been inactive there. At the earnest solicitation of Pokagon for a priest to be settled among his people Rev. Stephen T. Badin was sent to re- side there. His interpreter and assistant was Miss Camps. Father Badin estab- lished his chapel in a small building about a mile from the original site of the St. Joseph mission house. His successor in 1834, Father Desseille, was very active in visiting the tribes and it was he who prepared them for removal to the West. Bishop Brule of Vincennes was with him on several tours in the northwestern field. On his very sudden death in 1837, Ben- jamin Mary Petit, a young deacon, took up the work. He went with the Indians to the West, but before going he had set up a mission near South Bend, among others.
In the meantime, probably in 1836, Bishop Brule of Vincennes, after visiting Michigan City in the preceding year with Father Desseille, directed a mission sta- tion to be established there, and it was served by Revs. Francis Cointet, Francis Gonesse and Theophilus Mainault as missionary priests during the first few years. The mission eventually ripened into a settled church, St. Mary's, and a building was erected at the corner of Boston and Buffalo streets, a site which had long been occupied as the Catholic cemetery. The building was altered and decorated in 1902. Some years after St. Mary's was erected the growth of the Polish population created a necessity for a church home for them and St. Stanis- laus Catholic church was established.
CEMETERIES.
The recorded original plat of Michi- gan City carries the following donation, among others given by Major Elston for public purposes : "One acre of ground
on the southeast corner of section 29 is donated to a public Buryal ground." This tract was east of blocks 103 and 104, at the extreme lower end of Spring street and opposite the eastern end of Wood street. It was the city cemetery for thirty years and until the close of the war and is still spoken of as the Old Cemetery. As early as 1840 it began to be too small and March 4 of that year the common council ordained "That 35 feet of the east side of as much of the street running between the graveyard and blocks 103 and 104 as joins said graveyard and lot No. 1 in the same block be vacated as a street and attached to said graveyard."
May II, 1852, a council committee consisting of I. Bigelow, Aurora Case and W. H. Goodhue, was appointed "to see about purchasing a new burying ground." Bigelow resigned and George Ames was appointed in his stead July 28. Nothing was accomplished by this effort and the matter went over indefinitely.
Ten years later, March 10, 1862, A. Bailey was designated by the council as a committee to inquire about adding to the cemetery, and also to investigate the cost of a suitable piece of land near the Jernegan home for a new cemetery. Out of this action grew the purchase of the tract now occupied by the beautiful Greenwood cemetery. The ground was laid out and prepared for its dedicated purpose in season for the public sale of lots by the mayor August 14, 1864, and November 26 following an ordinance was enacted forbidding burial of the dead at any other place within the city limits. Rules and regulations were enacted March 11, 1865, and June 10, 1872, with minor modifications at other dates.
A Catholic cemetery was established in the block where Boston and Buffalo streets corner, authority to that end being given by the council August 3, 1852, be-
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fore the church purchased the property, and November 6, 1852, after the pur- chase was effected. This ground was soon needed for building purposes by St. Mary's Catholic church and the new cemetery of that denomination was locat- ed outside the city. May 28, 1860, there
was a council committee appointed to ill- vestigate a petition for the removal of all bodies then interred in the old lot, but a year passed by without report and the committee was discharged without ac- tion. The purpose was carried out at a later time.
CHAPTER XV.
The Press, Medicine and the Law.
TIIE PRESS.
Strange as it 1 may seem, it i nevertheless a fact that no con- plete file exists of the various news- papers published in the early days of Michigan City. The public library treas - ures these few odd numbers that saw the light before the advent of the railroad, but nobody has saved a complete file of any local newspaper, and what would undoubtedly be the most valuable source of information, not only concerning con- temporary conditions but also in regard to dates which have other wise escaped record, has been cast upon the rubbish heap of useless things, discarded the no- ment they had served their transitory purpose. This inestimable loss should prove a warning to libraries and reposi- tories of the present, for no one can tell when the contents of a newspaper may become the only place in which to find printed statements of what actually oc- curred on any particular date.
The first newspaper published in Mich- igan City was the Michigan City Ga- zette, and the first number appeared July 8, 1835. This was also the first news- paper published in LaPorte county. Its editor and proprietor was James S. Cas- tle, who came from Buffalo around the lal.es to Detroit ; he himself with his family came by team from Detroit, arriv- ing in Michigan City in June, 1835. Per- haps the most pregnant result of this move was the introduction to this neigli- borhood of the young brother of Mrs. Castle, Polaski King, a lad of twelve,
who had accompanied the printing outfit ahead of them, and who became the first "printer's devil" in the county. Work- ing in the printing office and as a clerk in local stores, and completing his edu- cation in the local schools, he entered carly upon a business career which event- ually made him one of the leading mer- chants and most respected citizens in the county.
The Gazette was politically Democrat- ic at first, but soon became an advocate of Whig principles, which were of great- er popularity at that time in the county. After an exciting life of six years The Gazette ceased to exist, having made way for others. During the career of The Gazette, there was published for a while another Democratic paper called either The Herald or The Times (or both), es- tablished by Richard Burleigh. Democ- racy evidently was not capable of nour- ishing literature there at that time. The Gazette soon passed into the hands of Samuel Miller, who owned it but leased it to James S. Stuart. In 1840, when Miller still owned The Gazette, occurred what was called 'the elopement of The Gazette': Miller it seems owed C. B. Blair money, $200.60, and had given a mortgage on the office, but as he could not or would not pay when due, Blair took possession. In the mean time Stuart also had defaulted in his payment to Miller, so that a three-cornered fight ensued during which the press was spirit - ed away. This was the beginning of the end, for in 1841 The Gazette died.
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T
PERSPECTIVE OF PROPOSED $100,000 Y. M. C. A. BUILDING-John H. Barker Donated One-half of the Cost
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The character of the journalistic cour- tesies may be judged from remarks made about The Gazette by the LaPorte Her- ald (February 22, 1840). "Stuart," said The Herald, "was a degraded being, an abandoned reprobate, entirely reckless of the truth, deceitful and treacherous, a filthy and loathsome blackguard, an ob- ject of pity and contempt rather than of ridicule, a mere tool bought up by a rot- ten bank at a low price and therefore un- worthy of a very serious notice." Any person acquainted with early newspaper life around Lake Michigan in those days can well guess without being told that the author of such selected epithets must have been Wilbur F. Storey, who edited a paper in LaPorte and South Bend be- fore he decided to make Chicago famous.
Although Storey never lived in Michi- gan City, he was instrumental in a roundabout way in pushing a newspa- per here. After the suspension of The Gazette the city was left for some time without a paper. At this time Wilbur F. Storey established the Mishawaka Toc- sin, but at the end of the first year he sold it to George Merrifield, who, in 1845, sold it to Thomas Jernegan, who then moved it to South Bend. Thus, on the Tocsin, Jernegan received his news- paper training, but when he in his turn had sold his outfit, he knew of the open- ing in Michigan City and consequently went there and in April, 1846, establish- ed the Michigan City News as a Demo- cratic organ. The News continued un - til September, 1853, when the office was burned. Jernegan was then postmaster, and being busy enough with his federal cuties, he decided not to resume the pub- lication of this paper.
Again was Michigan City without a press exponent of current affairs, but in the summer of 1854 Richard W. Colfax began publishing the Michigan City Transcript, advocating Whig instead of Democratic policies. In the spring of the
next year he sold his interests to Wright and Heacock: Heacock withdrew and went to California, leaving Wright the proprietor. Wright then changed the name to The Enterprise and continued to be its editor until the fall of 1859; he was a vigorous and sometimes a bril- liant writer, and did much to attract at- tention to the growing Michigan City. Then ( 1859) he took charge of a paper in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Thomas Jernegan, who had previously edited the Michigan City News (1846) and had been postmaster ( 1853) took The Enter- prise and continued it.
Jernegan was thus one of the oldest editors and publishers in Indiana ; with but few years of intermission he was in the business nearly half a century, with honor to himself and to his work. In May, 1869 ,the city council made The Enterprise the corporation newspaper for
a year. At one time during the meeting of the Methodist Episcopal conference in Michigan City, it appeared as the Every Day Enterprise, but there was not enough demand for a daily edition and it returned to the weekly ranks. Except for a period of two years and six months during the war, that is, from May, 1863. to November, 1865, when its editor was assistant paymaster, The Enterprise lived its life of usefulness down to 1883, and it promised so to exist unchanged, but trouble came unsolicited. In 1861 Lew Morrill had taken charge, and W. C. Brundage owned a half interest. A. R. Colborn lent Morrill $1.500.00 with which to buy out Brundage, whose share was to be transferred to Judge J. C. Suit, a Frankfort, Indiana, friend of Colborn. Bit Colborn's enthusiasm cooled, and to secure him Morrill gave him a mortgage on the entire office furniture. This awk- ward arrangement lasted until the stim- mer of 1884, when Colborn threatened foreclosure; Morrill tried to sell the office hoping to get enough to cover the
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note, but was unsuccessful, and he then offered to surrender the paper to Colborn or to any one he might select. This Col- born agreed to do, and chose C. S. Clay- pool, a friend connected with the Delphi Journal, who was to manage The Enter- prise and assume the payment of the $1.500.00, which was supposed to be secured by a bill of sale on the property from Morrill. When it became known that the paper was thus sold, Nosworthy and Barshof of Michigan City, who had a bill against Morrill for $400 got out an attachment on the office. Judge Daniel Noyes, before whom the subsequent suit came, decided that Colborn's mortgage had not been recorded at the proper time, and that the office was worth more than the face of the note, and he therefore ren- dered judgment in favor of Nosworthy and Marshof. Claypool had then had charge of The Enterprise only eight weeks, but had not paid a cent, and as the paper and fixtures were rapidly de- teriorating, Colborn decided to have no more to do with the business. The pub- lication ceased therefore, and the proper- ty fell into the hands of the sheriff. Some wish was shown to have Morrill reinstat- ed as editor, but nothing was done and The Enterprise was finally closed in De- cember, 1884.
Mr. Charles J. Robb was working on The Enterprise in 1881, but at its de- mise he had gone to Sandusky, Ohio, then to Flint, Michigan, and to Chicago. Meanwhile The Republican Printing Company had tried to revive The Enter- prise and felt that its existence would be firmer if Mr. Robb were to assume charge. After seriously considering the matter, Mr. Robb associated with him- self Mr. Ira S. Carpenter of Chicago, and these two came to Michigan City in 1888. They changed the name to the Michigan City News, made it a thor- oughly Republican daily paper, and soon bought out The Republican Printing
Company. In 1902 Mr. H. R. Misener, city editor of The News since 1896, bought out Mr. Carpenter, the firm name then becoming Robb & Misener, and The News has continued to be a well estab- lished daily. Mr. Robb is the editor, Mr. Misener the business manager and Louis L. Wheeler the city editor.
It has been stated that the Michigan City Enterprise suspended for some months during the war ( 1863-65). In this interval M. and J. Cullaton publish- ed the Michigan City Review, but on the resumption of The Enterprise and the return of Mr. Jernegan, it died.
There had been an earlier Michigan City News, Democratic in politics, when J. F. Rowins began it in March, 1875. Soon after N. Conover became a partner and, buying out Rowins, the sole pro- prietor. But this News died after a brief career.
A technical, not a news paper, must be mentioned, as it is part of the journal- istic life of Michigan City. This was the Prison Reformer, published in behalf of the inmates of the State Prison. The Reverend M. S. Ragsdale was 'moral in- structor in the prison,' and took this means to give publicity to the efforts making for the good and happiness of the prisoners. It was continued but a short time.
Die Freie Lanze, a weekly published in German and begun in 1891, was con- ducted successfully by Dr. Carl Freitag, a scholarly and forceful writer who came to Michigan City from Chicago to embark in this journalistic venture, until December, 1907, when it was discontin- ued.
To The News, the oldest and almost the continuous descendant of The Tran- script of 1854, and Die Freie Lanze, must now be added The Dispatch which was started December 4, 1879, by Harry C. Francis. The Dispatch is today one
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of the best and most ably conducted Democratic papers of Indiana. John B. Faulknor, who served in the Indiana leg- islature in 1907, is the editor and pub- lisher, while the news departments are in the hands of Charles Gray and James Gleason.
MEDICINE.
Pioneers usually doctor themselves. If a frontiersman happens to know some- thing about medicine, he may be of ser- vice to his fellow associates in the wilder- ness, but in all probability he is among them not as a physician but like them- selves as a pioneer ; his skill he may turn to account, but it is offered as neighbor- liness rather than as a means of obtain- ing pecuniary recompense.
Michigan City was not a settlement but a foundation, yet it did not differ much in this respect from other places springing up in the West. Its first days were not marked by full fledged civiliza- tion, and two years passed before there is any record of a real physician practic- ing his profession for hire. In this fresh, open sandy prairie, exposed to the lake breezes, health was almost perfect; acci- dents happened and a few diseases, such as malaria and dysentery, were seeming- ly unavoidable, but the settlers were sturdy folk whose parents had most of them experienced the same hardships, so that they knew how to look after all of the minor and most of the major ill- nesses.
That the city attracted medical talent can be learned from many touching inci- dents in which the character of the peo- ple is shown. In 1835, so says The Ga- zette of July 15. of that year, a poor Polander had attempted suicide, but some one treated him skilfully and there- by saved a life. This man was a ward of the county commissioners, as the records show. They were thoughtful for the needy and used whatever funds they had
for succor to those seeking it, and those were not few. Other similar instances of timely relief are to be found in the records of the early commissioners.
We shall never know just how much good was done that way, but we do know that Michigan City looked well after the unfortunate, and thereby we get a proof of the presence of one of the first practicing physicians here. Dr. J. C. Chamberlain had in April, 1836, at- tended a pauper. Henry Brown, and the city paid the bill. Dr. Chamberlain had an office for regular consultation in the Mansion House at Franklin and Michi- gan streets, sometime in 1835. Dr. Lec H. T. Maxon, who was so active before the legislature in securing the charter for Michigan City, had his office one door cast from this corner.
This is the meager record of medical life in those beginning days. The names of Dr. DeWitt, Dr. Strong, Dr. Charles I'almer, Dr. Schuyler Pulford are known but dates and details about their personalities are lost. In January, 1838, Dr. Pulford and Dr. Chamberlain re- ceived remuneration from the township for services rendered, and Will S. Lind- sley, not even called a doctor, was also remunerated, but such small memoranda are hard to find. There was Dr. Jacob H. White who came west from Utica. New York, in the early thirties and practiced medicine, which he com- bined with farming in the county, but no precise knowledge of his professional life is preserved. Dr. James Anthony Wilkinson, who lived in LaPorte from 1834, also practiced in Michigan City and covered miles of ad- jacent territory. These few names have not escaped oblivion, but Dr. C. J. Bent- ley, who surely lived in Michigan City among the pioneers, cannot even be traced as a physician, if that is what his title implies.
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