USA > Indiana > LaPorte County > Michigan City > History of Michigan City, Indiana > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
67
HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
"I find from actual examinations in the Indian country ** *
* a tract of country equal in point of soil, fertility and beauty to any part of the state, and which at this time excites as much, or more attention than any other part of the state."
By the close of 1831 the road was open northward to Logansport and the next general assembly, February 2, 1832, ap- pointed Judge Polke as commissioner for the remaining division, directing its completion between June 15 and No- vember 30 of the same year, and author- ized an alteration in the route "at Michi- gan City, a town lately laid off at the termination of said road on Lake Mich- igan, so as to enter Michigan street and pass along the same and Wabash street in said town to the terminus of said road." This is the first mention of the city in any public document or act of the state. The commissioner, with his pow- ers now enlarged, at once set about the task imposed and caused new levels and measurements to be made preliminary to the letting of contracts, A. Van Ness being the surveyor employed. Various delays occurred and the road was not reported as finished to the lake until in December, 1833.
.
While Chester Elliot and his assistants were leaving the mouth of Trail creek bound south in the spring of 1829, as we have seen, another surveying party was approaching from the east, led by Thomas Brown, a United States deputy surveyor under contract to locate the boundaries of the congressional town- ships in the "new purchase" or "ten mile strip." On June 26 he ran the east and north lines of township 38 north of range four west now organized as Michigan township, and on the next day he ran the south and west lines. Of the country along what is now the southern part of the city he said in his field notes that the land was level and wet, mostly third grade ; the timber consisted of oak, pine,
poplar, elm, maple, hickory, etc., and the undergrowth was chiefly willow. Going west on the south line of section 35 he crossed Trail creek thus: "58.00-a stream 60 1ks. wide, course NW, and en- ter wet prairie." He described the first mile of the west line in this way : "Land level, part wet ; part broken, sandy hills, all 3d rate land. Timber pine, birch, aspen, etc .; Undergth willow." At the end of the fractional second mile, "on SE margin of L. Michigan," he set a post, of which he said : "This post stands on a high sand bank at least 30 ft. above a level with the lake. Land broken & sand barrens, former 4th rate at least." Two small black oaks a considerable dis- tance away marked the location of the post. In the same year, November 2 to 8, 1829, Thomas Henderson, also a con- tracted deputy U. S. surveyor, subdivid- ed the township by running the section lines and marking the corners, this con- stituting what is known as the govern- ment survey, now in use for the purpose of describing tracts of land in deeds and legal instruments.
The last visitor to the mouth of Trail Creek who left any account of the place prior to the arrival of the founders of Michigan City was an eccentric specula- tor named Jerry Church. In the summer of 1831, having traded for some goods at Door Prairie, he set out from that point for Chicago. He wrote :-
"I then took possession of the horse, wagon and goods, and started as a ped- ler once more. I had a hard time to get my wagon around the lake, and finally concluded that I would try a new route. I was then about twelve miles from the Dismaugh creek, which empties into the Michigan lake, where Michigan City now stands. That was in the year 1830. [ This is manifestly a misprint for 1831.] As I was preparing to travel, a young man who lived in the neighborhood came there. He told me that he was going to Chicago with his sister, and would like to have my company through. I told
68
HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
him that I was very thankful for the offer, and would probably have to get him to assist me with my carriage. He said he would do so, and took an axe with him. His sister rode on horseback and the young man went with me in the wagon. The first day we cleared a road and got down near to the lake and en- camped. We spanseled our horses and turned them out, and struck up a smoke to keep off the musquitoes. When we pre- pared to go to bed, I gave the young lady my wagon for her bed room, and her brother and myself laid under it, and in the morning we gathered ourselves up, and again set off on our journey. We struck the lake where Michigan City now stands, ours being the first carriage of any kind that had ever been there; and there was not a white man lived within twelve miles of the place at that time.
Michigan City, a visit which must be reserved for a later chapter. At this time the roads were few in number and open only to footmen and horsemen. The military express route from Fort Dearborn to Detroit and Fort Wayne had two lines to Trail creek from the west, one along the margin of the lake, the other an inland path around the head of Fort creek and used only when the weather was unfavorable for the more solid road on the beach. Passing to- ward the east the traveler would follow the well-worn trail up the Trail creek valley and across to Hudson lake and Niles and Detroit, or by way of Boot- jack to the south bend of the St. Joseph
HOOSIER SLIDE
We then took the beach and followed it to Chicago. We had to camp out three nights."
The infatuated Black Hawk came to Trail creek in the fall of 1831, holding pow-wows at the villages and dancing grounds in the vicinity with the purpose of securing an alliance of the Pottawat- tomies with the Sacs and Foxes in the outbreak of the following spring-in which attempt he was frustrated by To- pinabee, Pokagon, Chandonnais and oth- ers of friendly disposition toward the whites-but after Jerry Church the next visit of which we have any detailed ac- count was that of the men who founded
and so on to Fort Wayne; or he might diverge by the Yellow river trail, which went to Logansport, and take the Sac trail at Les Petits Lacs-the little lakes -- where LaPorte now is. There was some travel by the beach road to the mouth of the St. Joseph, and there was a little-used trail from the mouth of Trail creek to Lafayette through Porter county. The narratives contained in this chapter furnish all the descriptions we have of the region about Michigan City as it was when its founders arrived, except those in the field notes of the gov- ernment surveyors who have been men- tioned.
CHAPTER SIX.
The Michigan Road.
After winning the sovereignty, pur- chasing the soil and entering into posses- sion of the valley of the ancient Riviere du Chemin, now become Trail creek un- der the dominion of the Hoosiers, the next step toward the foundation of a commercial city and safe harbor on the coast Indiana had wrested from Michi- gan was to make the chosen spot acces- sible by a road from the interior. The haven, the highway and the metropolis were all included in the early dreams of Indiana's future greatness, and Mich- igan City bears the distinction, almost unique, of having been in existence in design long before it was ever laid out even on paper. It was quite natural that out of the familiar mention among the statesmen of the road to Lake Michigan and the city on Lake Michigan there should grow the names now borne by the city and the road, and that the names should be in use before either came into being. The earliest mention of such a city occurred in the course of the discus- sion of the boundary question, an ac- count of which appears in a former chap- ter. The road finds its first definite ref- erence in the Pottawattomie treaty of October 16, 1826, at the Mississinewa. It was designed as a sort of north and south companion piece to the great na- tional road passing through the state east and west by way of Indianapolis and to supplement the improvements o'? the old Sac trail and the dragoon trace connecting Chicago with Detroit and Fort Wayne, the two latter of which
were authorized by treaty before the In- dians ceded the lands through which they passed. The second article of the treaty of 1826, as it was ratified by the senate, is as follows :-
"As an evidence of the attachment which the Pattawatima tribe feel towards the American People, and particularly to the soil of Indiana, and with a view to demonstrate their liberality, and benefit themselves, by creating facilities for travelling and increasing the value of their remainng country, the said tribe do hereby cede to the United States a strip of land, commencing at Lake Michigan, and running thence on the Wabash riv- er, one hundred feet wide, for a road, and also, one section of good land con- tiguous to the said road, for each mile of the same, and also for each mile of a road from the termination thereof. through Indianapolis to the Ohio river, for the purpose of making a road afore- said from lake Michigan, by the way of Indianapolis, to some convenient point on the Ohio river."
The latter part of the original article, conferring power on the Indiana legisla- ture to locate the road and apply the proceeds of the land to its construction, was stricken out and in lieu of it con- gress passed an act which became a law March 2, 1827, as follows :-
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assem- bled, That the General Assembly of the State of Indiana shall be, and the same are hereby, authorized to locate and make a road from Lake Michigan, by the way of Indianapolis, to some conve- nient point on the Ohio river, agrecably
70
HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY.
to the second article of a treaty made and concluded near the mouth of the Missis- sinowa, upon the Wabash, in the State of Indiana, the sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, between the Commissioners on the part of the United States and the Chiefs and War- riors of the Potawatamie tribe of Indi- ans ; and the said General Assembly are hereby authorized to apply the strip of land and the sections of land, by said ar- ticle 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 article was included in the treaty at the instance of Governor James B. Ray, by whose influence it was sup- plemented by the act of congress just quoted. In urging this act he was ably supported by Senator James Noble, whose son, Noah Noble, was one of the first commissioners for the road and succeeded Ray as governor, taking great interest in the road all through his term of office. Mrs. Dr. H. J. Thompson, now a resident of LaPorte, is his great granddaughter. When the general as- sembly next met after being clothed with the power conferred by the act of con- gress Governor Ray. in his annual mes- sage, called the attention of that body to the treaty and the supplementary act and urged prompt legislation thereon, expressing the opinion that the proposed road was of the highest importance to the state. He said that for commercial and military reasons the road was of na- tional as well as state importance, as much so as any of the internal improve- ments in Indiana. The legislature there- upon passed the act, approved January 24, 1828, "to provide for surveying and marking a road from Lake Michigan to Indianapolis," of which the following are extracts :-
"Be it enacted by the General Assem- bly of the State of Indiana. That John McDonald of Davies County, Chester
Elliott of Warwick County and John I. Neely of Gibson County be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to survey and mark a road from Lake Michigan to Indianapolis, agreeably to the late treaty with the Pottawattamie Indians, and the act of Congress in con- firmation thereof. * The said * * commissioners shall proceed to examine all the bays, inlets and estuaries of riv- ers on that part of Lake Michigan lying within the state of Indiana in order to ascertain where the best harbor can be had, *
* * and suitable site for a commercial town ; and survey and mark a road by the most eligible route to In- dianapolis. * * And it shall be the duty of the commissioners aforesaid to deposit in the office of the Secretary of State, a plot of said road, together with their notes as aforesaid, which report shall be signed by the commissioners or a majority of them ; and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to lay the same before the General Assembly, at their next session.'
The commissioners put themselves in motion immediately and were on the lake shore in May ; having agreed that the mouth of Trail creek was "the most suitable site for a commercial town and the place where the best harbor could be had," they proceeded to locate the road, commencing at the creek June 12, as has been related in a former chapter.
The tendency of the roads in new set- tlements to follow the ancient Indian trails is constantly noted in the history of the country and the Michigan road was no exception, for the commissioners clung closely to the old trail from the lake to Logansport, known as the Yel- low river trail, a distance of seventy-four miles from the lake to the Wabash. The distance between these points as the bird flies is seventy-two miles. From the Wabash to Indianapolis the distance by the road is seventy miles, while by a straight line it is sixty-nine. The route first chosen was rejected in conference without being submitted to the legisla- ture, for the reason that it involved a
71
HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
heavy expense in crossing the Kankakee river and marshes, and for the further reason that it was thought desirable to touch the St. Joseph river because of its navigability. A new line was according- ly run in October, making the distance from Trail creek to the south bend of the St. Joseph thirty-four miles and thence to the Wabash sixty-eight ; the first being two miles longer than by a direct line because of the necessity for avoiding the Galien marshes, and the second being four miles longer because of the occur-
slaughtered, barreled and shipped to market ; that the lake would become a place of deposit for other materials and a point from which foreign salt and other supplies would be brought into the interior and that the road "terminates at the mouth of the river Dysman, where a harbour for vessels may be easily made." The legislature thought that perhaps the route might be improved upon, so, providing for the payment of expenses already incurred, it ordered an- other survey for the purpose of finding
PUBLIC LIBRARY
rence of many swamps in Marshall and Fulton counties.
The second survey found favor with Governor Ray and was submitted to the general assembly at the next session, 1829, together with a strong paragraph in the governor's annual message urging its adoption and legislation authorizing the work to proceed. The governor said that the road offered the means of aid- ing the people to drive on foot to the lake their cattle and hogs, there to be
better ground and straighter lines in places, but directed that the general route by way of the south bend of the Big St. Joseph should not be changed. Chester Elliott did this work and made the report, without materially altering the route previously chosen ; the gov- ernor submitted in his annual message another powerful appeal for immediate action, and the legislature, by an act ap- proved January 13, 1830, approved the survey. In the meantime similar work
72
HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY.
had been in progress on the division south of Indianapolis and the general assembly appointed Samuel Hanna of Wayne county, Abraham McLelland of Sullivan county and William Polke of Knox county as commissioners "to lo- cate finally and absolutely" the section between Madison and Greensburgh. The actual construction began at Madi- son that same spring and was rapidly pushed toward the north.
At this time Major Isaac C. Elston of Crawfordsville was prominent in busi- ness affairs and in state politics and had a wide acquaintance among public men. He knew all about the Michigan road and the projected city on the lake and he talked with the commissioners about the lay of the ground at the mouth of Trail creek. He had already made some money in town site speculations. The lands in the ten-mile strip ceded by the treaty of 1826 were offered for sale the first Monday in October, 1830, at the Crawfordsville land office, in accordance with a proclamation issued June 15 by President Jackson, and Major Elston, November 6, bought at private entry, at $1.25 per acre, the northwest quarter of section 29, township 38 north, range 4 west, being the fractional quarter con- taining the mouth of Trail creek. He paid cash and received certificate num- ber 12,892, on which the patent was issued February 3, 1831. The land was proclaimed and sold under the provi- sions of section three of the act of April 24, 1820. Though he had never seen the place he made the purchase for the pur- pose of laying out "the commercial city on Lake Michigan" that was so much talked about and was already referred to as "the Michigan city." The first entry in LaPorte county had been made by Eber Woolman three days earlier, on Hudson lake, and Elston's was the thir- teenth entry in the county. November 9 Elston purchased the west half of the
northeast quarter of the same section, certificate number 12,932, which gave him more of the creek, and May 13, 1831, he entered the southwest quarter of the section. Later, after inspecting the property, he entered the southeast quar- ter of the same section and other lands in the vicinity.
After the southern division of the road was well under way, occupying the sum- mer and fall of 1830, and Noah Noble had become a commissioner, he and Will- iam Polke were charged with the pre- liminary work for the northern section, which comprised the selection of the lands donated by the Indians through the federal government to the state. Judge Polke took this in his care, being thoroughly familiar with the Indian country, and made several visits to the northern terminus that fall. All that winter he spent exploring the fertile prairies of LaPorte county to find the most desirable lands for the state under the grant, and in the following spring he went over the tracts again to confirm his selections. The legislature in January, 1831, received the reports of progress and the governor's reference to the road in his message with gratification and made allowance for the expenditures, all of which gave an impetus to the public interest in the undertaking and advertised the city that was soon to be. Judge Polke's schedule of sections se- lected for the Michigan road lands was submitted to congress and received the approval of that body, Senator William Hendricks and Representative Ratliff Boone being especially active in getting the matter through without delay.
By act of February 4, 1831, provision was made for the payment of contractors on the road by scrip, which was ex- changeable for Michigan road lands. James and .A. P. Andrew constructed fifteen miles of the road commencing at Madison and received their scrip, which
73
HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
they concluded to use in the purchase of lands in the new country toward the lake if they could find desirable tracts. In the autumn of 1831 they made a pros- pecting tour to this county, in company with General Walter Wilson of Logans- port, Dr. Hiram Todd, John Walker and two or three others, guided by a half- breed named Joe Truckee, who had been with the road surveyors on their first trips, and coming directly up the line of the unfinished but already traveled state highway to the Sac trail, where they diverged and came to LaPorte, arriving in October. The Andrews came from their home near Cincinnati. This party founded LaPorte, which is situated on Michigan road land bought by them at that time. In the same month Major Elston arrived at the mouth of Trail creek, in company with General Joseph Orr and others, to inspect his property and lay out his town. There is ground for the conjecture of Rev. E. D. Dan- iels, in his "History of LaPorte County," that these two parties traveled together. How Orr helped Elston adjust his pre- drawn plat of the town to the lay of the ground will be shown in a later chapter. That fall the road was reported as com- pleted and open for travel as far north as to Logansport, and Polke spent the winter surveying the sections he had se- lected and that congress had confirmed. In December, 1831, Noah Noble resign- ed as commissioner to become governor and his first annual message to the gen- eral assembly resulted in the act approv- ed February 2, 1832, under which Will- iam Polke was elected commissioner with power to complete the road and sell the lands. He built a small house on the north bank of the Tippecanoe river near the road, which was the first frame house on the road north of the Wabash and is still occupied as a farm residence, and there he removed his family from Knox county and established his office. His
first care, after ascertaining the extent of his legal powers, was to cause new levels to be made as a preliminary to let- ting contracts for construction, and the next was to raise the necessary money by selling the lands touching the line of the road. A. Van Ness made the new survey in May, as is related in another chapter. A story used to be told to the effect that this survey was interrupted by objections raised by Indians, but the fact is that the trouble occurred when Polke was engaged in surveying the lands included in the third clause of the treaty grant, covering one section for each mile of the length of the road from the Wabash to the Ohio. Incited by certain traders who wished to postpone the removal of the Indians as long as possible, some young chiefs set up the claim that the treaty, notwithstanding its clear terms, was intended to convey only the strip for the road and one section, through which it should pass, for each mile from the lake to the Wabash. When Polke began his final survey of the sec- tions distant from the road, under the third clause, he was stopped. He went to Colonel Stewart, the Indian agent at the Carey mission, and they sent for General Tipton, then living at Logans- port and just elected United States sen- ator, who had been one of the negotia- tors of the treaty. General Grover of the Fort Wayne agency came also. They conferred with Chandonnais, who easily extricated them from the difficulty by giving a great barbecue and firewater feast. At that period the public con- science was more tolerant towards the use of whisky than now. On the first Monday in June, as the act prescribed, Judge Polke held the sale at South Bend, offering the sections contiguous to the road. This included the south tier of Michigan township, but no one at that sale bought land near Michigan City. The commissioner, in his report, said
74
HISTORY OF MICHIGAN CITY
that the sale was disappointing for the reason that the Black Hawk scare had not yet subsided. A second sale, with better results, was held at Logansport in the ensuing October, at which a number of sales of tracts lying close to Michigan City were effected, the investors being Samuel Weston, John Sailor, H. McGiv- en and James Laughlin of LaPorte coun- ty, Isaac Elston of Montgomery county and John Walker of Shelby county, all of whom became characters of historical interest at Michigan City.
In the meantime the contracts had been let and the work of construction was in progress. Among those who held such contracts on the northern section were Jacob Rush, David Dinwiddie, John Walker, John Sailor, Elijah H. Brown, Wilson Malone, Robert S. Mor- rison, Judah Leaming, Alexander Black- burn, John Dickey and Arthur McClure, all of whom located in Michigan City or in the county. Jacob R. Hall was an- other whose connection with the road at that time brought him to this county. The winter of 1831-2 had been unusually severe and had delayed the work on the southern portion, causing the legislature to grant seven months additional time for completion, and the same thing happen- ed this year. Commissioner Polke re- ported to the general assembly that he had been hindered by the weather, by the delay in selling the lands, by diffi- culties in securing sufficient workmen. and by the fact that people insisted on impeding the laborers by traveling over the road before it was ready. At his request the legislature extended the time fixed by the act of 1832 for completing the road and in December he reported that it was finished and open for gen- eral use from the lake to the Wabash. As a matter of fact it had been quite ex- tensively used all through the year 1833. At the March term of the LaPorte coun- ty commissioners that year mention was
made of the road as being open to the lake and in the same month a stage line between Detroit and Chicago was estab- lished the wagons of which ran into Michigan City from Bootjack on the new road.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.