USA > Indiana > Porter County > History of Porter County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests > Part 17
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The population of Union has had its "ups and downs ' almost from the organization of the township. In 1860 it was 867; ir . 0 it had in- creased to 1,057; ten years later it was 1,054; in 1890 1 4 .. 1 decreased > to 985; a further deerease followed during the next de the popnla- tion in 1900 being only 938; then came a substantial L . nd in 1910 it was 1,069, the highest in its history.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
Washington township, in the middle of the eastern . was created by the board of county commissioners on April 12, 1845 ral changes
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
have been made in the western boun la y, but the township of the present day has the original boundary Thes is established when it was first erected. It is bounded on the north in Jackson township: on the east by Laporte county ; on the south. th. aship of Morg. : . and on the west by Center. Its area is thirty .me renoles, being five miles in extent from cast to west and six miles from north to south. The surface of the township is affected by the great glacial moraine which passes through the central portion of the county, and is generally undulating in char- aeter. Crooked creek, which is the outlet of Flint lake, enters near the northwest corner and flows southeasi to section 23, township 35, range 5, where it turns almost due sonth. crossing the southern border about two miles west of the Laporie comdy line. This stream has two small tributaries in the northeastern part, so that the township is well watered and well adapted to grazing and stock raising. The soil is simi- lar to that of the surrounding townships, being composed principally of elay and loam sandy in places, and marshy in a few localities. Some of the finest farms in the county are upon the Morgan prairie, where the first settlements in the county were made.
William Morgan is credited with being the first settler. He came from Wayne county, Ohio in the spring of 1833, and located upon the northern part of the prairie that still bears his family name. Before the elose of the year, Adam S. Campbell, Isaac Morgan, Rufus Van Pool and Reason Bell also settled upon the prairie. Samuel Flint took up a elaim where the village of Prattville was later located, and Jacob Coleman settled about two miles south of Flint & place. In 1834 James Blair, Isaac Werninger, James Baum and a few others, among who was Ruel Starr, who afterward beeame prominently identified with the county's political affairs. Other settlers were David S. Holland, Benjamin Saylor, Levi Chamberton, Seth Winslow, W B Smith, Michael and Andrew Ault, George B. Cline, Joseph Todd, Henry Rinker, Anthony Boggs, Robert Fleming, John Shinabarger, Peter Cline, Joseph Brewer and Clark Babcock. All these men and a ow others voted at the first town- ship election on April 30, 1836. when I! boy Rinker was elected justice
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of the peace, receiving twenty-three votes. W. B. Smith received twenty votes and Peter Cline, seventeen, making a total of sixty votes cast.
There were still a few Indians in Washington township when the first settlers came. Near the place where Prattville was afterward laid ont there was a Pottawatomie village of 100 or more inhabitants, with a burying-ground near it. While these Indians were of some annoyance to the whites, they did not commit any serious depredations, and in 1836 they removed to another location near the Kankakee river, in the south- ern part of the county, where they remained until 1842, when they were removed west of the Mississippi.
The first white ehild born in the township was Reason Bell, Jr., a son of Reason and Sarah Bell, who had come from Wayne county, Ohio, in 1833. The date of birth of their son, who was also the first white child born in Porter county, was January 11, 1834. No record ean be found to show the first death or the first marriage. The first "big" house- raising was in 1834, when some thirty settlers gathered to assist Isaae Morgan in raising a double log house on seetion 16, a little north of the Laporte road. The first tavern was opened in this year by David Oaks not far from Prattville. A year or so later John Shinabarger started the second tavern about a mile north of Oak's place. The first store was opened in the double log house of Isaae Morgan above referred to, late in 1834 or early in 1835. In May, 1836, Andrew Ault opened a general store about three-fourths of a mile west of Prattville. Ile also took out license to retail liquor, his lieense eosting him ten dollars per annum. The first shoe shop was established in 1835 by Adam S. Camp- bell, who brought his leather and other materials from the state of New York. The same year Russell opened the first blacksmith shop near Prattville. The first school was taught by Mary Hammond in the winter of 1835-36. The first school house was built the following year, and not long afterward the Luther school house was erected. Among the early teachers were Thomas Campbell, George Partial, Nancy Trim, Dr. Pagin and Lowry Hall. In 1911-12 Washington had a township high school and five distriet schools, in which the teachers were as follows:
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High school, Elmore Perry and Mary Trudelle; District No. 3 (the Luther school), Bess Finney; No. 4 (Prattville), Gracia Green; No. 5 (Bryarly), Mariola Cornell; No. 6 (Island), Lillian Burns; No. 7 (Blake), Maude Green.
No stirring events have ever occurred in Washington township. hence its history differs very little from that of any agricultural community. The men who redeemed the soil from its wild state and brought it nuder enltivation cared little for the more exciting phases of life, and were content to pursue "the even tenor of their way." Their life was one of toil, sometimes privation, but it had its recompense. They saw the Indian and the wild beast disappear before the march of civilization ; many of them lived to see the railroads come and place Porter county in communication with other portions of the country; their social inter- course was usually without envy or jealousy and their friendships were sincere, and they have handed down to their posterity an inheritance ju which their children and their children's children may feel a just pride. As in other portions of the county, the early settlers were compelled to go to Michigan City for their supplies or to market their surplus products. The nearest grist mill was at Kingsbury, a little village about six miles southeast of Laporte, and for several years grain had to be taken there to be ground. In a few instances the pioneer farmers went nearly a hundred miles to obtain good seed for planting, yet with all these diffi- culties to contend with the courageous frontiersman persevered, and to him Porter county owes a debt that can never be repaid.
Washington township is crossed hy four miles of railroad, all running in an easterly and westerly direction. Near the center of the township is the Grand Trunk, but there is no station on this line in Washington. The Baltimore & Ohio crosses the northeast corner. Coburg, near the northern boundary is a station on this line and a trading center for the northern part of Washington and the southern part of Jackson townships. The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago enters at the southeast corner and runs a little north of west through Valparaiso, and the New York,
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Chicago & St. Louis (Nickel Plate) crosses the southwest comer. The time-tables of the last named road show a small station called Nickel two miles east of Valparaiso and near the boundary line between the town- ships of Washington and Morgan. There are about fifteen miles of macadamized road in Washington, and as the distance to Valparaiso is not more than eight miles from any portion of the township, the people depend chiefly npon that city for their supplies. There is no postoffice in the township, but mail is distributed daily through the medium of the rural free delivery routes that traverse all parts of the county. The population in 1800 was 670; in 1900 it had fallen to 556, but during the next decade there was a substantial gain, the population in 1910 being 610.
The old town of Prattville, mentioned several times in the above sketeh of Washington township, was laid out by Thomas Pratt, Wilson Malone and Lyman Beach. It occupied the east half of the northwest quarter of section 21, township 35, range 5, on the Laporte road, about two miles east of the eity of Valparaiso. The plat was recorded on November 11, 1856, and a few lots were sold, but the town never became a substantial reality and the name is about all that remains.
Wilson Malone, son of Lester Malone, was born in Ross county, Ohio, June 18, 1805, and in that county eame to manhood. The death of his parents in his youth left him to his own resources, and in 1826, when he was twenty-one years old, he eame west, stopping in Fountain and Mont- gomery counties, Indiana. On February 22, 1832, he married Sarah Swank, born in Springfield, Ohio, October 15, 1811, the daughter of Jacob Swank, an early settler in Montgomery county. In the same year of his marriage he removed to La Porte county and later came to Porter county, where he continued to reside until his death, December 22, 1876. His first earnings were invested in Porter county land; he was one of the prosperous men of his day and was the owner of more than 1,000 acres of land at the time of his death.
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WESTCHESTER TOWNSHIP
When the board of county commissioners issued the order of April 12, 1836, dividing the county into ten civil townships, the territory now comprising Westchester was included in the townships of Lake, Liberty and Waverly. Two months later the citizens of Lake and Waverly town- ships petitioned the board of county commissioners for the consolidation of the two townships. The petition was granted and the new township thus formed was called Westchester. As thus created, it included all that portion of the county lying north of the line dividing township 36 and 37. Subsequent changes were made by the erection of Pine town- ship, and changes in the bonndaries of Liberty and Portage. until West- chester was reduced to its present size. It is bounded on the north by Lake Michigan ; on the east by Pine and Jackson townships; on the south by the townships of Jackson, Liberty and Portage, and on the west by Portage. Its area is about thirty-three square miles. In the northern part are the sandhills so common along the shore of Lake Michigan, but the central and southern portions have a more fertile soil and are well adapted to agriculture. Originally the surface was covered with a heavy forest growth, but the portable sawmills have used up practically all the native timber suitable for lumber. A great deal of sand has been shipped to Chicago, and in the vicinity of Chesterton are fine beds of clay which has been utilitized extensively in the manufacture of brick both common and pressed. These elaybeds and the sandhills are the omy mineral deposits of commercial importance in the township.
It was in Westchester township that the first white settler in Porter county built his cabin. In 1822 Joseph Bailly located on the Cahunet river, at the place later known as Bailly Town. A more complete account of Mr. Bailly and his frontier post will be found in Chapter 111. In 1833 Jesse Morgan came with his family and settled in what is now West- chester. His daughter Hannah, born in February, 1834, was the first white child born in the township. In 1835 William Thomas, Sr., William Gosset, Jacob Beck, John Hageman, John Foster, William Frame and
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Pressley Warnick brought their families and located in Westchester. Some of these men settled in territory afterward added to other townships and their names appear as pioneers therein. Other early settlers were Eli Hendricks, Elbanan Ranks, William Coleman, Alfred Marvin, two men named Abbott and McCoy and a mulatto named Landy Gavin, who had purchased his freedom from slavery. The first death in the town- ship was a son of Joseph Bailly in 1827, and the first marriage was that of Esther Bailly to Col. John II. Wistler, who came from Detroit in 1803 and erected old Fort Dearborn near the mouth of the Chicago river. Their marriage occurred in Chieage, but they later became residents of the township. The second marriage was between Samuel Thomas and Lneille Hale.
In the winter of 1833-34 a private school was tanght at the home of Jesse Morgan, but the name of the teacher cannot be ascertained. Two years later a school was taught in a vacant trading post on section 5, township 36, range 5, about a mile and a half east of the present town of Chesterton. As the population increased regular school districts were organized, school houses erected and teachers employed under the public school system. In the year 1911-12 there were twenty-three teachers employed in the public schools of the township and the incorpo- rated towns of Chesterton and Porter. Eleven of these teachers were in the commissoned high school at Chesterton, viz: F. M. Goldsborough, superintendent, Galeman Dexter, principal, Matilda Swanson, Agnes Long, Helen Miller, Etta Osbern, Jennie Crane, Dott Osborn, Agnes Morgan, Rose Murphy and Mabel Pelham. E. E. Stultz was principal of the grammar school at Porfer, and his assistants were Emily Peterson, Tennia Osborn, Mary Bradt and Anna Kossakowski. Of the ten school districts at one time, three have been discontinued through consolidation, ete. The teachers in the district schools for the year 1911-12 were as follows: No. 3 (Furnessville), Edith Lindstrom; No. 4 ( Waverly), Edna Doyle; there are two schools in District No. 5, that at Bailly Town taught by Emma Peterson, and the one at City West by Bertha Carlson ; No. 6 (Old Porter), F. M. Wimple; No. 7 (Salt ('reek), Mabel Bruni-
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mitt ; No. 10 (Mosquito Town), Oral Haslett. The school houses in all these districts are modern in their design, well equipped with working apparatus, etc., showing that the people of Westchester are not behind in their ideas pertaining to the education of their children.
The first attempt to establish a town was in the spring of 1835, when
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PUBLIC SCHOOL, CHESTERTON
John Foster, who was a surveyor, laid out the town of Waverly on land belonging to William Gosset about two miles northwest of the present town of Chesterton. Several thousand dollars were expended in making improvements, but in 1838 a forest fire destroyed the work that had been done and the town was abandoned. City West was started about a year after Waverly. It was located near the mouth of Fort : reek and for a time promised to become a town of considerable proportions, but a change
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in the main route of travel inflicted such an injury upon the town that it sank into decay. Porter (afterward ealled Old Porter) was started when the Michigan Central railroad was built in the early '50s. The first house there was ereeted by John Richards and used for a stare. The second and third were built by Frederick Michael and used for a store and dwelling, respectively. A postoffice was established at Porter soon after it came into existence and continued there until 1872, when it was removed to Ilageman, which was started in that year by Henry Hageman. A new postoffice was established at Porter the following year. The two offices being only a mile apart there was considerable confusion in the distribution of mail, and the office at Hageman was finally discontinued. The present town of Porter was incorporated early in the year 1908, with a population of about 500. Furnessville, in the northeasteru part, takes its name from Edwin L. Furness, who was appointed postmaster when the postoffice was established there in 1861. This place was former- ly known as Murray's Side Track. No regular plat of this place was ever recorded. A Mr. Morgan built the first house there in 1833. Two years later Mr. Furness built a frame house and opened a. store.
Chesterton, the largest town in the township and second largest in the county, was at first known as Coffee Creek, from the stream of that name. It is said that the ercek is so called because a teamster lost a bag of coffee in it while trying to cross at a time of high water. A postoffice was established there as early as 1833 and was kept by Jesse Morgan for nearly twenty years. It was first located on seetion 6, southeast of the present town, and was called Coffee Creek postoffice. After several years the people grew tired of the name Coffee Creek and changed it to Caln- met, after the river which flows just north of the town. When the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad was completed in 1852, the town moved northward to the railroad and by the elose of that year there were some twenty or more houses in Calumet. The next year the post- office was removed from Coffee Creek and the name changed to correspond to that of the town. In the meantime a postoffice had been established at New City West, about a mile south of the old City West, and this
HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY 189
office was consolidated with the one at Calumet, with D. II. Hopkins as postmaster. The first house in the present town of Chesterton was erceted by Luther French in 1852 and was used for a hotel under the name of the Sieger House. The second was built by a man named Enoch. The first brick building was erected by Young & Wolf in IS7 !. Just when the name was changed to Chesterton is a matter of some difference of opinion. The adjutant-general's report of enlistments for service m the Civil war shows a Porter county company, most of the members of which came from Calumet, so it is probable that the name Chesterton was not adopted until during or after the war. It is said that the name was changed to avoid confusion with the town of the same name in the' State of Illinois. The present name was derived from that of the town- ship. The Northern Indiana House was built by Leroy Brown about 1855, and kept as a hotel by him for several years. In the carly '50s Mr. Hopkins removed the Central Hotel from City West to Calumet, where it was remodeled and used as a house of entertainment for many years. In the early days Calumet (or Chesterton) was known as a "tough" town, having at one time nineteen saloons, though the population num- bered only abont 300. That has all been changed, and the Chesterton of the present is as orderly a town as there is in northern Indiana.
On March 31, 1899, a petition was filed with the board of county commissioners asking for the incorporation of Chesterton. A census taken according to law, showing 198 voters and a total population of 716. At a special meeting of the commissioners on April 24th, an election was ordered for May 4, 1899, when the people should vote on the question of incorporation. The proposition was carried by a vote of three to one, and since then Chesterton has been an incorporated town. Chesterton has a bank with a capital of $25, 000, an ice company, a telephone exchange, a number of well appointed retail stores covering all lines of merchandise, Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran and Swedish Metho- dist and Lutheran churches, and lodges of a number of the leading secret and benevolent organizations. The population was 1,400, an
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increase of 612 during the preceding ten years. (See Chapters XII and XIII for detailed accounts of fraternal organizations and churches.)
Some difficulty was encountered in the incorporation of the town of Porter. A petition was first filed with the county commissioners on Angust 7, 1907, but when it came for hearing on September 2nd, a number of citizens appeared and asked for the exclusion of certain territory. The board dismissed the petition, chiefly on the grounds that the petitioners had filed no bond. On October 7th a new petition, accompanied by a satisfactory bond, was filed with the board, but again the remonstrators appeared and succeeded in defeating the project to incorporate. The petitioners then appealed to the circuit court, which tribunal ordered an amended plat, excluding the territory in question, and the matter was then referred back to the commissioners, who ordered an election to be held on the last day of February, 1908, when the people might vote on the question of incorporation. At that election eighty-three votes were cast in favor of the proposition, and only eighteen in the negative. Porter has one Congregational and three Lutheran churches, a commereial club, a large department store and several other mercantile establishments, and in 1910 reported a population of 524.
Westchester township is well supplied with railroads. The Michigan Central, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, and the Pere Marquette all center at. Chesterton and Porter, the Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend electric line passes through the north- ern part, and another electric line connects Chesterton with Valparaiso. West of Chesterton there is a place marked "Gilbertville" on some of the maps, but no official plat of the town was over filed in the office of the county recorder. There are about thirty miles of macadamized road in the township.
In 1890 the population of the township was 2,669. During the next ten years it decreased to 2,455, but since 1900 there has been a marked inerease, and in 1910 it was 2,953, a gain of almost 500 during the decade.
CHAPTER IX
THE CITY OF VALPARAISO
HOW THE CITY ORIGINATED-PORTERSVILLE LAND COMPANY-COUNTY SEAT SITES OFFERED-PLAT OF PORTERSVILLE-ADDITIONS TO TIIE CITY -- FIRST HOUSE-POSTOFFICE-NAME CHANGED TO VALPARAISO-EARLY BUSINESS ENTERPRISES-INCORPORATED AS A TOWN-POWERS CON- FERRED ON THE TOWN GOVERNMENT-MAIL AND STAGE ROUTES-INCOR- PORATED AS A CITY IN 1865-EXCITEMENT OVER PRESIDENT LINCOLN 'S ASSASSINATION-FIRST CITY ELECTION-EARLY ORDINANCES-MAYORS - TIIE TEMPERANCE CRUSADE - FIRE AND POLICE DEPARTMENTS --- WATERWORKS-GAS COMPANY-ELECTRIC LIGIITING COMPANY-MANU- FACTURING INTERESTS - CIIURCHES - SCHOOLS - CHAMBER OF COM- MERCE-STREET PAVING-RAILROADS-BANKS-CENSUS REPORTS. .
Some natural feature, such as a waterfall, the power of which can be utilized for manufacturing purposes, the head of navigation on a large river, a rich mineral deposit, or a safe harbor on the coast of a lake or the sea, frequently determines the location of a city. Some cities have their beginnings in the small settlement that grows up around a military post. Others have been called into existence by legis- lative enactment, and still others have originated in the minds of pro- moters or speculators. Valparaiso belongs to the last named class. When Porter county was formed, it was with the understanding that all the territory lying between the central line of range 7, west, and the western boundary of the state should soon be erected into a separate
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
county. A few men of sagacity and foresight, believing that the com- missioners appointed to locate a county seat would be inclined to seek such location near the center of the county as it would ultimately be, conceived the idea of laying off a town at or near that point. Accord- ingly, the Portersville Land Company was organized soon after the act erecting the county was passed by the legislature of Indiana. It was composed of J. F. D. Lanier, Benjamin and Enoch McCarty, John and William Walker, John Saylor, Abraham A. Hall and James Laughlin, all residents of the county except Mr. Lanier, who lived at Madison, Indiana. Benjamin McCarty was the owner of the southwest quarter of section 24, township 35, range 6, which tract was selected for the site of Portersville. This particular quarter section lies on high ground, giv- ing it a good natural location for a town, and it had the further advan- tage of being on the road running from Laporte to Joliet at the point where the road to Chicago branch off. It is also near the center of the county. The county seat commissioners made their report on June 9, 1836, designating the site for the court-house on this quarter section; the plat of Portersville was completed on July 7, and duly recorded on Oc- tober 31, 1836.
In the meantime William K. Talbott had laid out a town on his farm, about a mile and a half northwest of Valparaiso on the Chicago road, and not far from where the old Catholic cemetery was afterward located. This town he named Porterville, the only difference between that and the east town being the letter "s" in the latter, giving it the possessive form. Two other sites were also brought before the commis- sioners for their consideration-one in Washington township, where the town of Prattville was afterward laid out, and the other at Flint Lake. In the last some Indianapolis capitalists were interested. . The Porters- - ville Land Company, having the advantage in location and offering the most liberal inducements, secured the county seat, and in this way the city of Valparaiso had its birth in the schemes of a body of speculators. There is no charge that the members of the Portersville Land Company used any underhand methods, or any undue influence, with the commis-
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