USA > Indiana > Porter County > History of Porter County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests > Part 14
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the court-house in 1883, the township was named "for and in honor of an old settler, Lemuel Jackson." This statement has been questioned by old settlers, who elaim that it was named for Andrew Jackson, the hero of New Orleans and president of the United States at the time Porter eounty was created. The latter theory is borne out by the following from the Western Ranger of August 11, 1847: "The strong Federal township in this county is called Jackson. This is disgraceful. A township in which three-fourths of the people are Federalists and Abolitionists should never bear the name of the illustrious Jackson ! Some of our friends have sug- gested that the name be changed to Tom Corwin, and we go for it dis- tinetly. No name would be more suitable."
Early in the year 1834 Asahel K. Paine selected a claim and built the first eabin in Jackson, thereby becoming the first settler in the township. The second settler was John P. Noble, who came in April, 1834, and in June H. E. Woodruff located in the township. Before the close of the year the colony had been increased by the addition of Calvin Crawford, Joseph Wright, Johnson Crawford, Samuel Olinger, Lemuel Jackson, E. Casteel and a few others. A number of settlers eame in 1835, among them William Barnard, Benjamin Malsby and William Eaton. Pursuant to the order of the board of county commissioners, an election for jus- tiee of the peace was held at the house of Asahel K. Paine on April 30, and H. E. Woodruff was elected to the office. Lemuel Jackson, who had been elected associate judge, resigned his position, and on December 24, 1836, a special election was held at the house of William Eaton to choose his successor. At that cleetion forty votes were east, showing the steady tide of immigration to Jackson township during the preceding two years. Seneea Ball received every one of the forty votes. In 1837 Jesse MeCord arrived in the township and established a blacksmith shop on section 26, about a mile and a half southwest of Clear Lake. The first tavern was opened by a man named Page in 1836. It was located south of Page marsh, which was named for him, was a log structure, and bad in con- neetion a large log stable for the accommodation of the horses ridden or driven by travelers. George A. Garard says this was the only tavern
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ever conducted in the township, and that was discontinued on account of a change in the road which diverted travel to another route. However, a man named Shinabarger settled on the site where Steamburg after- ward grew up and opened a house of entertainment for travelers late in the year 1836, though he did not claim to keep a regular tavern. Lemuel Jackson built a sawmill on Coffee creek about 1835 - the first in the town- ship-and for some years did a good business in sawing lumber for the settlers. Sawmills were built by Samuel Olinger and Abraham Hall in 1838. Associated with HIall was a man named Dilley. Farther down Coffee ereek was Casteel's saw and grist mill. Near this mill a man named Enox started a distillery, but it was burned in 1849 by-the burst- ing of the boiler and was never rebuilt. Smith & Becker built a grist mill with two run of buhrs for wheat and one for corn, on Coffee ereck in 1856, and twenty-five years later it was the only mill in the township.
The first school was taught in a log cabin located on section 26, on the farm afterward owned by John P. Noble. The first regular school house was erected iu 1838, about a mile and a half east of the center of the township. It was a log cabin, 16 by 18 feet in size, equipped with the customary "Yankee fireplace" and greased paper for windows. Jane Jones was the first teacher in this house. The second school house was built in 1846. In 1883, when the corner-stone of the court house was laid, there were seven distriets in the township. The historical sketch deposited in the corner-stone was written by Oliver Stell, who was at that time trustee of the township. Ile was born in Warren county, Ohio, December 30, 1816, came with his parents to Indiana in 1821, and to Jackson township, Porter county, in 1844 In the course of that sketch he says: "In the year 1882 the acreage of wheat was 2,643; oats, 755; corn, 2,468, and potatoes, 150. The number of pounds of pork raised was 931,400; wool, 4,593, and butter, 36,450. At the election of 1882 there were 263 votes polled; at the election of 1836 there wer 12 votes polled, showing an increase of 221 votes in forty-six years."
Several small villages sprang up in Jackson township as the popula- tion grew. Jackson Center received its name from the township and its
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central location therein. A postoffice was established there in 1856, with E. H. Johnson as postmaster. The first store there was opened by J. S. Sanders in 1874. Two years later he sold out to a Mr. Hill, who in turn sold to John Saekman in 1881. Steamburg was located near the southern boundary, about two miles west of the Laporte line. When the Baltimore & Ohio railroad was built, about 1875, a railroad station was established at Coburg, just across the line in Washington township. The people of Steamburg nearly all moved over to the new station, and Steamburg ceased to exist. Suman, or Sumanville, is a small station on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, about three miles northwest of Coburg. It was established 'as a postoffice about the time the railroad was com-" pleted, with Col. I. C. B. Suman as postmaster, from whom it derived its name. A store was started by a man named Jones when the railroad was built, but not meeting with the patronage he expected, he gave up the enterprise after a few months. Another store was started in 1881 and met the same fate. Burdiek is the most important village and the only postoffice in the township, the other offices having been discontinued upon the introduction of the rural delivery system. It is located on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad in the northwestern part of the township and has a population of about seventy-five. A public school is located here, the postoffice is authorized to issue money orders, and the village is a trading and shipping point for the surrounding rural dis- triets.
For the school years 1911-12 there were nine teachers employed in the public schools. In the township high school at Jackson Center Ida Reektenwall was principal and Hazel Bundy, assistant. In the district schools the teachers were as follows: No. 1 (Quakerdom), Lonisa Mal- chow; No. 2 (Carter's), Judith Lindwall; No. 4 (Taylor school), Ethel Rands; No. 6 (Coburg), Lucy Mander; No. 7 (Bogne), Alta Herrold; . No. 8, (Burdick), Mary Belger; No. 9 (County Line), Carolyn Whitloek.
School No. 1, known as the Quaker school, or Quakerdom, takes its name from the fact that at an early date a number of Friends, or Quakers, as they are commonly called, settled in that locality and established a Vol. 1-19
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church. It was a double hewed-log structure and was used for a number of years as a "meeting-house." Little ean be learned concerning this old Quaker settlement, as the old settlers are all dead and most of their deseendanis have removed to other fields of labor. Some years before the Civil war, the Methodists purchased the old school house at Jackson Center and enlarged it by an addition so as to render it available for church purposes. Chancey Moore, one of the early teachers, was class leader here for several years.
Two lines of railroad cross the township in a northwesterly direction, almost parallel to each other. The Wabash crosses the eastern boundary of the county near Clear Lake, runs thenee northwest to Morris, and thence west, leaving the township near the northwest corner. The Bal- timore & Ohio enters the township on the south, two miles west of the Laporte county line and runs northwest, erossing the western boundary one mile east of Woodville. A third railroad-the Lake Shore & Mieh- igan Southern-crosses the extreme northern part, through Burdiek. These lines, with the stations of Coburg, Suman, Morris, Burdick and Woodville within easy reach of all parts of the township afford ample transportation facilities. There are about twelve miles of macadamized road in Jackson township. For some time after the organization of the township there was a gradual inerease in the population, but in the last twenty years there has been a slight deerease. This is due to the same eauses that have affeeted so many rural communities. Young men leave the farms to seek their fortunes in the eities, and others, lured by the prospeets of cheap lands in the West, have removed to the newer states beyond the Mississippi. In 1890 the population of the township was 1,009; in 1900 it was 938, and in 1910 it had fallen to 894.
LIBERTY TOWNSHIP
This township was created by the board of connty commissioners at its first session in April, 1836. It lies in the northern part of the county and is bounded on the north by Westehester township; cast by Jackson :
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south by Center, and west by Portage. It is exactly five miles square and contains an area of twenty-five square miles. The surface is generally level, with some swamp lands in the western and northwestern portions. When drained this land produces large crops of grain and hay. The soil is a dark loam, running to elay in places. Long Lake, in the southeast corner, is connected with Flint lake in Center township by a narrow chan- nel; Coffee creek flows across the northwestern portion, and Salt ercek runs along the western border, or rather aeross the southwest corner and thenee along the western border. The latter stream furnishes some water-power, and in one place widens to form a pond of considerable size. Originally, the land was heavily timbered with oak, hickory, maple, ash, elm, black walnut, butternut, white wood and some minor varie- ties, but very little of the native timber remains, except in the swamp dis- triets which have not yet been brought under cultivation.
Probably more trouble occurred over the land titles and claims in Liberty township than in all the rest of Porter county. Through the treaties with the Pottawatomie Indians, the government granted to cer- tain individual members of that tribe small reservations, known as "floats," varying in size from a quarter section to a seetion, and in some cases even more. These "floats" could be bought of the Indian or half- breed owners for a trifle, and shrewd speenlators took advantage of the situation to purchase a number of them for the purpose of selling them to actual settlers at a handsome profit. As the Indians to whom they had been reserved rarely occupied them, white men located upon them, not knowing the real state of the title. After the occupant had made some improvement the speeulator would appear upon the scene and de- mand a price that was often beyond the means of the settler to pay, or his immediate removal from the land. In the one ease the speculator could receive a price for the land much greater than he had paid for it, and in the other he became possessed of the improvements made by the settler without eost to himself. Several petitions were sent to Washing- ton praying for relief, but the government was slow to act and the per- nieious system went on until it culminated in what is known as the
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"Snavely war." William Crawford located upon one of these Indian tracts-a quarter section in the northeast part of the township-but sub- sequently sold it to William Snavely. A little later Peter White laid elaim to the land and asked the assistance of the law to dispossess Snavely. Charles G. Merrick, who had been elected sheriff of the county in 1838, organized a posse, and, pursuant to the order of the court, went to Snavely's for the purpose of evieting him. Snavely barrieaded him- self in his eabin, and he and his sons, well armed, put up a spirited de- fense. Unable to gain admittance through the doors or windows, the sheriff ordered some of his men to climb to the top of the house and tear off the roof. No sooner had they begun to remove the clapboards than Snavely fired through the opening and wounded one of the men. This had the tendency to stop active operations on the part of the sheriff and his men, and Snavely, thinking he had killed the man, made an attempt to escape. He was overtaken, captured and taken to the county jail, where he remained until his victim recovered from the wound, which was only a slight one, when he was released upon payment of a fine and a promise to relinquish the land. Some years after his death, his heirs received a portion of the value of the improvements made by Snavely while in possession.
Trouble also resulted through the methods praetieed by speculators at the publie land sale at Laporte in 1835. The "land-sharks" were there with long purses, anxious to get possession of the most valuable traets, not for the purpose of establishing homes upon them and bringing them under cultivation, but merely to hold them until some actual set- tler would be forced to buy at a large profit to the original purchaser. Liberty township, with its heavy growth of timber, offered special at- traetions to these men. In order to gain an opportunity to purchase the lands at a low priec they frequently gave a quarter section to those seeking a home not to bid against them. Then by collusion among them- selves they "bought the lands for a song." Those to whom the quarter sections had been given as bribe not to bid went upon their lands, built houses and founded homes. Every improvement of this character created
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a demand for other lands in the towr.l., vc the speeulators an
excuse for advancing prices. As most of it ud in the township was owned by the speculators, settlers sought .1. Isewhere, and Liberty was slow in developing.
Owen Crumpacker is credited with being o first settler in the town- ship. He came from Union county, Indians, r. Dme, 1834, and was soon followed by William Downing and Jerry fodhunter. During the next two years John Dillingham, E. P. Cole, William Gosset, George Hesing, Asa Zane, Ira Biggs, David Hughart, Solomon Ilabanz, John White, Abram Snodgrass, Frederick Wolf, John Sofford, William Calhoun, Daniel Kesler and a few others located within the present limits of the township. Three settlements were formed by these pioneers. One known as the Dillingham settlement was in the castern part ; the Zane settlement near the center, and the Salt creek settlement in the western portion. Soon after his arrival in 1836, William Gosset built a saw and grist mill on Salt creek, and with the first lumber sawed be erected the first frame house in the township. It was a one-story structure, about 24 by 32 feet in size, and later was used for a church and school house. Gosset's mill was for years a landmark in that portion of Porter county. The people of the Zane settlement patronized Elijah Casteel's mill, which was located on Coffee creek, just across the line in Jackson township.
The first death was that of William Hughart's wife, and it was due to the eseapades of some drunken Indians. One day, in the fall of 1835, some four or five Indians visited Joseph Bailly's trading post on the Calumet river, where they took on a cargo o: "fire-water," and then Started out to annoy the settlers. William and David Hughart, who lived together, were absent on a hunt and the Lotions tried to force an en- tranee to the house. The women, though bamy frightened, managed to bar the door, after which they sought i fore in the loft of the cabin. After beating the door awhile with their tomahawks, the Indians left, and. none too soon for their scalps, for in a title while the brothers re- turned. Mrs. Hughart died not long afterw .hu from the effects of the shock. On June 14, 1836, William Hughare married Elizabeth Zane,
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which was the first wedding in Liberty township. A wedding in the pioneer days was usually the occasion for a neighborhood gathering and nearly always wound up with a dance. The following story is told of the festivities accompanying the marriage of George IIumes and Sarah Crawford in April, 1837. The ceremony was performed in a log cabin about 14 by 16 feet feet, by Thomas J. Wyatt, justice of the peace. As there were some thirty or forty invited guests present, and the cabin con- tained two beds, besides other articles of furniture, the crowded condi- tion of the room can readily be imagined. After the wedding the jus- tice and the bride's father celebrated by looking too frequently upon the "flowing bowl," and in a short time were hopelessly intoxicated. The younger guests insisted upon having "just a little danee," but the two drunken men were in the way. The two beds were piled full of hats, wraps, etc., but a bright young woman solved the difficulty by proposing to 'roll the two men under the beds. Iler suggestion was carried out and by this means the larger part of the floor could be given to the dancers, who continued the merriment until the "wee sma' " hours.
In Liberty, as in the other original townships created by order of the board of county commissioners, April 12, 1836, an election was ordered to be held on April 30th. Following is a copy of the election re- turns from Liberty township :
"At an election held at the house of Daniel T. Kesler, Liberty town- ship, Porter Co., Ind., on the 30th day of April, A. D., 1836, for the pur- pose of electing one Justice of the Peace for said township, the following named persons came forward and voted, to wit: Peter Ritter, Thomas J. Wyatt, William Downey, Daniel W. Lyons, Joel Crumpacker, Joel Welker, John Sefford, M. Blayloch, Frederick Wolf, Richard Clark, Wil- liam Calhoun, Isaac Zane, Owen Crumpacker, Hiram Snodgrass, Jerry Tochunter and Solomon Habanz. We, the undersigned Inspectors and Judges of an election held at the house of Daniel T. Kesler, in Liberty Township, Porter Co., Ind., on the 30th day of April, 1836, for the pur- ยท pose of electing one Justice of the Peace, do hereby certify that for the office of Justice of the Peace, Peter Ritter got thirteen votes, and Thomas
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J. Wyatt got three votes. Given under our hands this thirtieth day of April, 1836."
These returns were signed by Jerry Todhunter, inspector, and by John Sefford, Joel Crumpacker, William Snavely and Solomon Habanz, judges. At the spring term of court following this election, Daniel W. Lyons was appointed the first constable for the township; Jesse Morgan and Richard Clark, overseers of the poor; Edmund Tratebas and Wil- liam Downey, fenee viewers, and Solomon Habanz, supervisor of roads. About the same time, Peter Ritter, Samuel Olinger and William Thomas were appointed to lay out a road from Casteel's mill, on Coffee ereck, to Gosset's mill, on Salt creek. The road as established by them is still in existence and follows very closely the original line. The Valparaiso and Michigan City plank road, built in 1851, ran throught the eastern part of the township, on the line now occupied by the Valparaiso and Chesterton road, a fine, macadamized highway, and there are about ten additional miles of improved road in Liberty township.
In 1836 a school was taught in a little log house in the Zane settlement by Mrs. Sophia Dye. This, it is believed, was the first school in the town- ship. The following year a school was taught in the Dillingham settle- ment by Anna Lyons, and a year later a log school house was built in that locality, in which E. P. Cole taught several terms. A school was likewise opened in the Salt Creek settlement in 1837, but the name of the teacher cannot be learned. The first frame school house was built in 1856. As in the other parts of the county the first school houses were built by the cooperative labor of the citizens, and the schools were maintained by subscription. In 1911-12 Liberty had seven district schools in operation, the teachers in which were as follows: No. 1 (the Phares school), Eva Wheeler; No. 3 (the Cole school), J. M. Lentz; No. 4 (the Linderman school), Eda Lawrence; No. 5 (the Johnson school), Nellie Crumley ; No. 6 (the Babcock school), Grace Moore; No. 7 (the Daly school), . Phoebe Hess; No. 8 (Crocker), Coral Toseland.
Transportation facilities were very meager in the carly days, and to
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supply this deficiency Abram and Peter Stafford and Dr. Stanton con- ceived the idea of building a steamboat to navigate lower Salt creek and the Calumet river, for the purpose of carrying or towing timber and produce to the Chicago markets. W. D. Cruthers later became associated with the projectors, and about the elose of the Civil war work was com- mended on a small vessel, twelve feet wide and thirty feet long. Some two years passed before it was finished, but eventually it started on its maiden trip. The experiment was not the success anticipated, and after two or three trips the boat was sunk in the Calumet river. The promoters were so badly discouraged that they made no attempt to raise the vessel, and somewhere in the Calumet river the fishes play hide and seek among the ruins of the only steamboat ever built in Porter county for the navi- gation of local waters. At the present time transportation is furnished by three lines of railway. The Baltimore & Ohio erosses the township east and west a little north of the center; the Wabash runs along the northern border, and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern crosses the northwest corner. Woodville, a station on the Baltimore & Obio railroad, one mile west of the eastern boundary, is the principal village of the township. It grew up after the building of the railroad and in 1910 had a popula- tion of less than 100. The postoffice was established there in 1881 or 1882, and in 1912 it was the only postoffice in the county, the others having been discontinued on account of the rural free delivery rontes which cover all parts of the township. Three miles west of Woodville is a small station called Babcock, and in the northwest corner, at the junction of the Wabash and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, is the village of Crocker, with a population of abont 200. It is a trading and shipping point of some importance, and owes its existence to the crossing of the two lines of railroad at that point. -
While the increase in population has not been great in recent years, Liberty has not been humiliated by a decrease as have some of her sister townships. In 1890 the number of inhabitants, according to the United States census, was 855; in 1900 it was 877, and in 1910 it had reached 881.
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IHISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
MORGAN TOWNSHIP
Although some of the earliest settlements in the county were made in what is now Morgan township, it was not organized as eivil township until August, 1843, when it was eut off from the northern part of Pleas- ant. It is exactly six miles square, eorresponding to the Congressional township 34, range 5, and contains thirty-six square miles. It derives its name from Isaae Morgan, who was one of the first settlers, though the place where he located is in Washington township. Among the pioneers of Morgan may be mentioned Benjamin Spencer, George, Jacob and Jolm Schultz, John Baum, Abraham Stoner, Samuel and Abraham Van Dalsen, Lyman and Elisha Adkins, John G .Keller, Thomas Wilkins, N. S. Fairchild, Archie De Munn, Elias Cain, John Berry and William Min- ton, all of whom had taken claims by 1837. Stephen Bartholomew, Thomas Adams, Miller Parker, Enos Arnold, G. W. Patten and John E. Harris were also among those who located within the present town- ship limits at an early date. An old settler is quoted as saying that when he came to Morgan township "there was nothing but snakes, wolves and Indians." The Indians were generally peacable, however, except when they were drinking, and even then one would remain sober and take charge of the fire-arms and other weapons to prevent his drunken tribesmen from doing some one an injury.
Among the Pottawatomies there was a tradition that at some period in the remote past their tribe got into a dispute with another tribe west of them regarding the boundary line between their respective hunting grounds. To settle this difference of opinion, it was agreed by the chiefs to fight three pitched battles, the winner of two of them to fix the bound- ary. Old Indians believed the three battles were fought somewhere on the Morgan prairie, though no evidence of such conflicts were apparent when the first settlers eame there in the early '30s. Some believe that the old fort on the Kankakee river, mentioned in the history of Pleasant township was ereeted as a place to which the Pottawatomies could re- treat in ease of defeat, but this theory is hardly tenable when one stops
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to think that the best authorities agree that the Pottawatomies did not inhabit this region until after the Revolutionary war, while the old fort shows evidences of having been erected at a much earlier date. The probabilities are the whole tradition is a myth.
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