USA > Indiana > Porter County > History of Porter County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests > Part 13
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
Besides these five members of the election board, the only two voters were A. D. MeCord and John Moore, though there were then in the township twenty men who were entitled to vote.
The first birth was that of Margaret Bryant-April 16, 1837. Ilar- riet Dinwiddie, the youngest ehild in a large family, died the same ycar and was the first death in the township. The first marriage is be- lieved to be that of James Dilley and Sarah Richards, though the date eannot be ascertained. Orris Jewett, one of the carly settlers above men- tioned, was a blacksmith, and for several years his shop was the only one in Boone township. The few settlers who brought then families with them felt the need of educational facilities for their children, and in 1837 they ereeted a log school house of the most primitive pattern in which a school was taught in the fall of that year, but the name of the teacher seems to have been forgotten. A Presbyterian church was or- ganized in July, 1838, by a minister named Hannan, and after a few years the old school house was abandoned and the church building used for school purposes. In 1840 a second school house was built about a mile and a half southwest of the present town of Hebron. It was also a log structure, about 18 by 20 feet in size. The third school house in the township was built on the northeast corner of section 15, township 33, range 7, in 1842, and Mary Crossman was the first teacher. Two years later the building was burned. Some of the early teachers were Ellen Hemes, Amos Andrews, James Turner, Eliza Russell, Sarah Richards, Rhoda Wallace, George Espy and Alexander Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton afterward studied law and became a prominent attorney in the city of Chicago. The first frame school house in the township was located two miles east of Ilebron. In May, 1853, a meeting was held for the purpose of determining whether a special tax for the support of free schools should be levied. Fourteen votes were east, ten of which were against the levy and four in favor of it, so the proposition failed to carry and the old school system was continued in operation. In 1854, the highest amount received from the state school fund by any district in the town- ship was $43.00, and the lowest was $12.62. For the school year of
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
1911-12 there were eight teachers employed in the Hebron high school and five in the distriet schools. In the high school M. E. Dinsmore was superintendent ; Elizabeth Patton, principal; and the teachers were R. M. Hamilton, Thomas G. Scott, Maggie Rex, Neva Nichols, Emma Mor- gan and Hattie Felton. Outside of the high school the teachers for the year were : District No. 1 (Malone). Grace Ling; Distriet No. 2 (Ayles- worth), Ruby Wood; District No. 6 (Bryant), Edna Dilley; Distriet No. 7 (Tannehill), Bess Ilawbrook; District No. 8 (Frye), Mabel Wheeler.
At the time the first white men came to Boone township, there were still a number of Indians living there, and in a few instances they showed a disposition to make trouble for the settlers, notwithstanding they had ceded their lands to the United States in 1832. A story is told of how old chief Shaw-ne-quo-ke came to the eabin of Simeon Bryant one day in 1836 while the "men folks" were absent and de- manded that the white men vacate the Indian "hunting grounds." Taking a piece of chalk, the old chief drew a rude eircle upon the floor, and then explained in the Indian tongue that all the land within a radius of five miles belonged to the people of his tribe. As Mrs. Bryant made no move toward giving up her frontier home, the Indian grew ineensed, and seizing a butcher knife threatened to kill her if she did not have immediately. The woman's screams awakened two large dogs that lay asleep in the eabin, and this fortunate eireumstanee doubtless saved her life. The dogs attacked the Indian with such vigor that his designs upon Mrs. Bryant were thwarted, and as soon as he could get away from the ferocious animals he beat a hasty retreat to the Indian eneampinent. A few years later the red men were removed to their reservations west of the Mississippi river, leaving the white men in un- disputed possession of their homes.
For a quarter of a century after the first settlement, the population mereased but slowly, with the exception of a tide of immigration in the latter '40s. Dr. Griffin, who settled at Walnut Grove in 1838, was prob- ably the first physician in the township. When the railroad eame through
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
in 1863 a large number of people came with it, most of them settling in the vicinity of Hebron. Since then the growth has been gradual but sub- stantial.
The town of Hebron had its beginning in 1844, when JJohn Alyca laid ont three lots of one acre each at the cross-roads a mile cast of the Lake county line, where the Presbyterians had erected a small church some four of five years before. The next year a man named Bagley built a log house there-the first dwelling in Hebron. That year Mr. Blain, the Presbyterian mininster, succeeded in having a postoffice located at the "Corners," as the place had been known up to that time, and the name of Hebron was given to the postoffice, Mr. Blain being appointed the first postmaster. In 1846 Samuel Alyea built the second house and put in a small stoek of goods. ITis store was about forty yards from the cross- roads, but a year or two later he formed a partnership with E. W. Palmer and a new store was erected near the junetion of the roads. An addition was made to the town in 1849 by Mr. James, who laid out several half-acre lots south and east of the cross-roads. West of this addition the Siglar brothers laid out a tier of lots in section 15 in 1852. In 1864, when the railroad was completed through the town, the Siglars also laid out a considerable addition in sections 10, 11 and 15. Three years later, Patrick's addition was laid out in the southeast quarter of section 10. The first brick building in Hebron was the residence of Daniel Siglar, which was built in 1867. Sweeney & Son built the first brick business building in 1875. It was two stories in height, the upper story being used as the town hall. The first hotel was opened by Samuel MeCune in 1849. ". After him the house was successively conducted by Tazwell Rice, Harvey 1 Allen and John Skelton. In 1865 the Pratt House was opened by Bur- rell Pratt. About two years later he sold the house to another Mr. Pratt -no relation of his-who kept it for two years. The house then changed hands several times, being conducted by John Brey, John Gordon, Harvey Allen and John Siglar, the last named taking charge in 1879, when he changed the name to the Bates House. Ilenry Smith started a hotel near the railroad station in 1866. He was succeeded by a Mr. Winslow,
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
and when he went out of business the house was purchased by a man named Poole, who converted it into a dwelling. The Central House, built in 1878 by John Skelton, was operated as a hotel for over two years, when it was also turned into a residence. Bumstead's County Directory for 1911-12 gives but one hotel in Hebron-the Commercial, kept by Otto Wharton. A newspaper called the Free Press was started at Hebron in September, 1878, by II. R. Gregory. The next year the
MESHON
HEBRON TOWN HALL
name was changed to the Local News, aud in 1880 the publication office was removed to Lowell, Lake county. Dr. John K. Blackstone was the "first physician to locate in the town. IIe was soon followed by Dr. S. R. Pratt. Other early physicians were Andrew J. Sparks and Dr. Sales. In July, 1838, Bethlehem church of Associate Reform Presbyterians was organized by a minister named Hannan. The Methodists had been hold- ing meetings for a year or more previous to that date, and a congrega- tion was regularly organized by Rev. Jacob Colelasier in the latter part of 1837. The Old Style Presbyterians organized in 1860; the Union Mission Church in 1877; a Congregational church in 1882, and a Chris-
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
tian church some years later. (For a more detailed account of these churches see the chapter on Religious History.)
The first attempt to incorporate the town of Hebron was in the year 1874. This was followed by two other unsnecessful efforts, and it was not until 1886 that the town was incorporated. On Agust 1, 1886, a census was taken by Aaron W. Fehrman, and a petition signed by sev- enty-four residents was filed with the county commissioners praying for incorporation. With the petition was also filed a map of the proposed town, embracing 186.08 aeres in the southeast quarter of section 10, the southwest quarter of seetion 11, the northwest quarter of section 14, and the northeast quarter of seetion 15, all in township 33, range 7. The census report showed a population of 663 within the corporate limits as defined by the map. At the September term the board of commissioners granted the petition, subject to a vote of the people, and ordered an elec- tion to be held for that purpose on Saturday, October 2, 1886. Ai that . election a majority of the electors expressed themselves as in favor of the project, and Hebron became an incorporated town. Since that time the growth of Hebron has been gradna), the United States census reports showing a population of 689 in 1890; 794 in 1900, and 821 in 1910. A number of the leading seeret orders are represented in the town, to wit: Hebron Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Spencer-Baker Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star; Hebron Tent, Knights of the Maccabees; Court Hebron, Independent Order of Forestors; Hebron Camp, Modern Woodmen of America; Hebron Lodge, Knights of Pythias; Hebron Temple of the Pythian Sisters; Shiloh Camp, Sons of Veterans, and Walters Post, Grand Army of the Republic. A lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was organized there at a comparatively early date, but it was allowed to lapse, and the records concerning it have apparently been lost. According to Bumstead's County Directory, already referred to, the town government for 1911-12 was composed of A. W. Blanchard, president; Roy Rathburn, elerk; O. E. Bagley, treas- urer; I. V. Fry and B. F. Nichols, trustees, and E. F. Phillips, marshal. Among the business concerns are the Citizens' Bank, the IIchron Tele-
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
phone Company, a butter and cheese factory, the Hebron Lumber Com- pany, the implement house of A. V. Phillips, the hardware store of W. F. Morgan, four general stores, the Commercial Hotel and the Hebron News. There are also livery stables, jewelry and drug stores, a bakery, millinery stores, a confectioner, and the town has its quota of physicians, dentists, ete. The Hebron postoffice is authorized to issue international money orders, and three rural delivery routes supply mail daily surrounding agricultural districts.
Boone township is well supplied with transportation facilities by the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chieago & St. Louis Railroad Company, which operates a double track line through the township, entering on the east two miles south of the northern boundary and running dne west to Hebron, where it turns northwest and crosses the west line of the county one mile north of Hebron. Aylesworth is a flag station on this road, four miles east of Hebron, and with the exception of a small portion of the southwest corner, no part of the township is more than three miles from the railroad. There are over twenty miles of macadamized road in the township, most of the lines leading to Hebron, so that the farmers have splendid opportunities for marketing their produce.
CENTER TOWNSHIP
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This township, one of the original ten organized on April 12, 1836, was so named because it oeeupies the central portion of the county. Several changes have been made in the original boundaries, and at the present time the dimensions of the township are five miles east and west and six miles north and south, 'giving it an area of thirty square miles. It is bounded on the north by the township of Liberty ; east by Wash- ington; south by Morgan and Porter, and west by Union. Being situ- ated upon the high ridge or moraine that separates the valley of the Calumet river on the north from the valley of the Kankakee on the south, the surface is undulating and the soil is generally of elay, or of elay and sand alternately. Marl beds and peat hogs are found in the Salt
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
creek valley, and iron ore exists in small quantities near the city of Val- paraiso, but none of these deposits has been developed. Flint Lake lies near the northwest corner, Bull's Eye or Round Lake is just west of the Chesterton road, about two miles northwest of Valparaiso, and Sager's Lake is situated in the southeastern suburbs of that city. When the first white men came to the township, they found considerable forests of hard and soft maple, black and white walnut, hickory, elm, basswood and sev- eral varieties of oak, but most of the native timber has been cleared off
UPPER END OF SAGER'S LAKE
to make way for the fields of the husbandmen. Agriculture is the chief occupation of the inhabitants, and the erops grown are of the same gen- eral character as those of the other townships in the central and southern parts of the county.
During the Indian oeeupaney of the region now comprising Porter county, there was in the western part of Laporte county an opening be- tween two traets of timbered land. To this opening the early French traders gave the name of La Porte-"The Gate." Over the prairie thus named ran the trail leading from the Kankakee river in Illinois to the
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
Great Lakes. Later the English conferred upon it the name Door Prairie, and the little town which grew up there took the name of Door Village. Some of the early settlers, as they worked their way westward into Porter county, passed through the "Door" and established their frontier homes, some of them locating in Center township. At that time there was a small Indian village of some dozen lodges located on the west side of section 19, township 35, range 5, between the present Laporte pike and the Grand Trunk railway, less than one mile east of Valparaiso. This village was known as Chiqua's Town, from an old Pottawatomic Indian bearing that name. Chiqua had at one time been an influential chief in his tribe, but a few years before the treaty of 1832 his love for "fire- water" had led him to indulge in a protracted drunk, and while intoxi eated his hut was destroyed by fire, his squaw losing her life in the flames. For his dissolute habits he was deprived of his chieftanship, but a few of his friends remained true to him, and these, seceding from the main body of the tribe, established the village under Chiqua's leader- ship.
Some time in the late summer or early fall of 1833 Seth IIull lo- cated a claim on or near the site of this village, thereby becoming the first white settler in Center township. He remained but a short time, selling his claim to J. S. Wallace and going on farther west. Thomas A. E. Campbell took a claim east of Hull's, near the Washington township line, and built a cabin, but soon afterward went back to New York state, where he remained until 1835. Some of the settlers who came in the year 1834 were Benjamin McCarty, who settled on section 22 on the Joliet road; Ruel Starr, who located his claim in the eastern part of the township; "Philander A. Paine, who built his cabin on the northeast quarter of sec- tion 23, and his father, who located east of the Salt creek bridge on the Joliet road and began the erection of a sawmill, which was never finished. The same year a man named Nise settled on the northwest quarter of sec- tion 24, about three-quarters of a mile northeast of the public square in Valparaiso, but soon afterward sold out to a German by the name of Charles Minnick. In this year came also J. P. Ballard, who erected the
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
first building within the present city limits of Valparaiso. Among those who came in 1835 may be mentioned (. A. Ballard, Alanson Finney and Samuel A. Shigley. The first settled on the northwest quarter of section 25, Mr. Finney located his claim west of Ruel Starr's, and Mr. Shigley built a sawmill on the site afterward occupied by William Sager's flour mill, the first sawmill in the township. When Thomas A. E. Camp- bell returned to the county in 1835, instead of perfecting title to his elaim in the eastern part of Center township, he bought out Philander A. Paine and settled on the northeast quarter of section 23, where he passed the remainder of his life.
In dividing the county into civil townships, the board of county commissioners ordered an election to he held on the last day of April, 1836, for justices of the peace. In Center township the election was held at the house of C. A. Ballard. Thirteen votes were polled, of which Ruel Starr received nine votes and was declared elected. Ilis opponents were G. Z. Salyer and John MeConnell. At the May meeting of the board it was deeided to give Center township an additional justice of the peace, and an election was held at the same place on May 28, 1836, when G. Z. Salyer received eight out of fifteen votes. At the presidential election on November 8, 1836, General Harrison received fifty-nine votes and Mar- tin Van Buren received forty-five. At the state election in August, 1837, there were 126 votes cast, of which David Wallace received 101. In 1840 the total number of votes cast at the presidential election was 287, General Harrison receiving 149. This increase in the voting strength during the first five years of the township's history will give the reader some idea of the growth in population during the same period.
The first birth and the first death in the township are uneertain. The first marriage was that of Richard Ilenthorne to Jane Spurlock, May 5, 1836, Rev. Cyrus Spurlock, who was also county recorder, officiating. About 1838 a man named Kinsey put up a wool carding mill about a mile and a half south of Valparaiso. It was operated by water power, the water being conveyed through a large hollow log to an overshot wheel. Mr. Kinsey also put in a small pair of buhrs for grinding wheat and
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
corn on certain days. A year or two later a second carding mill was erected by Jacob Axe on Salt creek, a short distance above Shigley's sawmill. The flour mill later owned by William Sager was built by William Cheney in 1841. Eleven years later Mr. Cheney and Truman Freeman built a small flour mill in the southern part of Valparaiso, though at that time the mill site was outside the corporate limits of the town. Another pioneer mill was a steam sawmill at Flint Lake, erected by a man named Allen, though the exact date cannot be learned. It was supplied with two boilers, each twenty-eight feet long and forty-four inches in diameter. In 1863 one of the boilers blew up, the boiler being thrown some 500 feet and landing in the marsh at the lower end of the lake. The remaining boiler was subsequently removed to Valparaiso to be used in the paper mill. The first fan-yard in the township, and proba- bly the first in the county, was established by a Mr. Hatch just south of Valparaiso in 1843. A steam tannery was started by a man named Gerber on a lot south of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad about a year before the beginning of the Civil war. The entire plant was destroyed by fire in 1874, and sinee that date there has been no tanning done in the city.
When the corner-stone of the court-house was laid in October, 1883, Aaron Parks was township trustee; Temple Windle, John Dunning and Morris Robinson, justices of the peace, and David C. Herr, assessor. These officers were elected in April, 1882, before the spring elections were abolished by law. At that time there were eight school districts in the township outside of the city of Valparaiso. In the school year of 1911-12 there were six distriets in the township, the schools being taught by the following teachers: District No. 1 (Flint Lake), Graee Banta, No. 2 (Cook's Corners), Mabel Laforce; No. 3 (St. Clair), Rebceca Bartholomew; No. 4 (Clifford), Hazel MeNay; No. 6 (Hayes), Stella Bennett; No. 7 (Leonard), Kathryn Anderson.
More than three-quarters of a century have elapsed since the first white man settled in Center township, but there are still left a few old
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
persons who can remember the conditions, the labors and the amuse- ments of those early days. Game was abundant and the trusty rifle of the frontiersman was depended npon to furnish a goodly portion of the family's meat supply. The log-rolling, the house-raising and the holi- day shooting mateh afforded opportunities for the settlers to get together, and on such occasions there were wrestling or boxing matches and other tests of physical strength. The few Indians who remained in the country were generally peaceful, and there were no hair-raising exper- iences of savage raids, accompanied by burning cabins, murdered women and children, or stolen live stock. Upon the whole the life of the Center township pioneers was uneventful. Through the spring and summer they toiled amid their erops. When the wheat was threshed-with the flail or the old "ground-hog"-it was hauled to Michigan City, where it was rarely sold for more than fifty cents per bushel.
Now, all is changed. The market is at the farmer's door. The Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago, the New York, Chicago & St. Louis, and the Grand Trunk railways traverse the county, all passing through Valparaiso, and in the township there are more than forty miles of ex- eellent macadamized highway, most of the roads centering at the county seat. Where the farmer formerly hauled twenty bushels of wheat thirty or forty miles to Michigan City, he can now take sixty bushels over an improved, modern highway a distance of from two to four miles, and in a few hours that wheat is in the great grain mart of Chicago, where it commands the highest market priee. The log cabin has given way to the briek or frame dwelling house; the tallow candle has been supplanted by the kerosene lamp, acetylene gas or the electric light. and the automobile now skims across the country where the ox-team was wont to plod its weary way. Sneh has been the march of civilization and progress in Center township. Including the city of Valparaiso, the population of the township in 1850 was 1,012; in 1860 it was 2,745; by 1870 it had increased to 4,159; in 1880 it was 5,957; in 1890 it was 6,062; in 1900 it had reached 7,222, and in 1910 it was 7,971.
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
- JACKSON TOWNSHIP'
Jackson township, one of the eastern tier, is bounded on the north by the townships of Pine and Westchester; on the cast by Laporte county ; on the south by Washington township, and on the west by Lib- erty and Westchester. His greatest extent from north to south is six miles, and from east to west, five miles. The northern boundary is somewhat irregular, two sections in the northeast corner having been given to Pine township when it was organized, and one section in the northwest corner has been added to the township of Westchester. The township was established by the first board of connty commissioners on April 12, 1836, and with the slight changes in boundary lines as above noted re- mains as originally created. The area of the township is twenty-seven square miles. As Jaekson township lies in the morainic belt, the surface is hilly, and in some places broken. Especially is this truc of sections 13, 14 and 15, where the many bowlders show the glacial origin of this seetion of the county. On section 16 there is a small lake, some five acres in area, the waters of which are quite deep. South of the Cady marsh in the same section is another small lake. Through the southern part of the township runs the water-shed which divides the basin of the Great Lakes from the Mississippi valley. The soil is variable, owing to the rough, hilly surface and the glacial formation, several kinds of soil often being found in the same field. As a rule, the township is better adapted to fruit growing and stock raising than to the regular lines of agrieul- ture, though in some portions good erops of wheat, oats and corn are raised without difficulty. Heavy timber covered the entire surface at the time the first settlers eame to the township. This timber was in the way of the pioneer farmer and much of it was felled and burned to bring the land under cultivation. After the completion of the Wabash and Balti- more & Ohio railroads, a great deal of cord wood was shipped to Chicago. There is still some timber, but enough has been wasted to buy all the land in the township, had a suitable market been available in the early days. According to the historieal sketch deposited in the corner-stone of
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
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