USA > Indiana > Porter County > History of Porter County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests > Part 29
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A few years before the war a preacher named Lovereign came from Canada and opened a school in Valparaiso. He was a good teacher and his sermons were always listened to with interest. After he had been in town awhile, people began to miss things, but no suspicion pointed to the preacher until a young woman who had been employed by Mrs. Lovereign went to a store to exchange a pair of shoes, which she said Mrs. Lovereign had given her in payment of her wages, but they did not fit. The mer- chant recognized the shoes as having come from a ease that had been stolen from the railroad depot a short time before. T. A. Hogan under- took to play the part of detective and traced the theft to the preacher.
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Tt. was then discovered that he had stolen about twenty bushels of wheat from Skinner's warehouse and carried the sacks to his residence more than half a mile away. Upon searching his premises heavy articles of hardware, for which he could have no earthly use, and various other pieces of missing property were found. He was tried before Judge Tor cott, who sentenced him to two years in the state's prison at Michigan City. After serving his sentence he disappeared.
SLEET STORM OF 1871
Porter county is located in a belt where storms are of frequent occu rence. It would be impossible to chronicle every storm that has occurred within the county, but the writer has been able to gather records of some of the most severe ones that have passed over the county during +1 ... last thirty years. On May 10, 1882, an electrical storm played havoc south of Valparaiso. A founder year old boy named Otto Bartlett was struck by the lightning while plowing on Scott Fleming's farm near Gates' Corners, but was not killed. Several buildings were struck and cousa erable damage done to the growing erops. Young Bartlett was the son of a widow who had resided in the county but a few weeks.
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The central and southern parts of the county suffered considerable loss from an electrical storm, accompanied by a high wind, on the last day of July, 1888. A. V. Bartholomew's briek farm house was struck by lightning; Caleb Counter's barn, five miles southwest of Valparaiso was destroyed, Nelson Swener's house near the Grand Trunk railway station at Valparaiso was damaged, the fire alarm instruments were put out of service, wires were blown down, and near Boone Grove there was a heavy fall of hail that did great damage to the growing erops.
On August 12, 1896, the entire county was visited by a storm of great severity which lasted for three hours. The rainfall was unusually heavy, several houses in the city of Valparaiso were struck by lightning, tele- phone and electric light wires were damaged to such an extent that several days elasped before the service could be restored to its normal condition. A few farm buildings in different parts of the county were blown down by the wind.
Lightning struck the college auditorium in the great storm of June 5, 1899, and the wind removed about one-third of the roof from the build- ing, causing a loss of $1,500. At the electric light works three large smokestacks were blown down, telegraph and telephone wires were again severely injured, several buildings and a large number of shade trees in Valparaiso were blown down by the wind, as were two of the . windows in the tower of the court-house. On the 18th of the same month there was a destructive hail storm in the northwestern part of the county. It is said that every pane of glass in the windows from Crisman to Babcock was broken by the hail; pigs, chickens and other small ani- mals and fowls were killed by the hail-stones and erops were literally beaten into the ground. Wind and lightning also did considerable damage.
A storm passed eastward across the central portion of the county on July 9, 1903. West of Valparaiso the barn of Andrew Gustafson and one belonging to a man named Pieree were destroyed. Washington township was the greatest sufferer, the Bryarly school house having been struck by lightning and burned to the ground, several barns were wrecked by
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wind and lightning and crops rendered practically worthless in the path of the storm.
All northwestern Indiana felt the force of the great storm of March 25, 1905. The wind disabled miles of telegraph and telephone lines; bridges and enlverts were washed away by the flood; the dam at Deep River was washed out; trees were uprooted, and several buildings were either struck by lightning or blown from their foundations. No lives were lost in Porter county, but Lake county was less fortunate. Six people were hurt at Ilammond, and at Indiana Harbor four men were killed and about twenty injured, some so severely that they afterward died. At East Chicago the plant of the Republic Steel and Iron Com- pany was damaged and several houses blown down.
On May 11, 1905, Valparaiso and vicinity suffered much damage by an electrical storm, which was accompanied by a strong wind and a fall of rain that amounted almost to a cloud burst. Columbus Pierce's resi- denee, at the corner of Jefferson and Greenwich streets, was twice struek by lightning. Barns belonging to T. Clifford, near Wheeler, and Mrs. Gordon, in Washington township, were destroyed by wind and lightning, as was the residenee of Jonas Smith south of Valparaiso. Cellars were flooded and acres of wheat were destroyed by the heavy rainfall, the straw being just at that stage of growth where it was easily broken.
A regular "Kansas blizzard" struck Porter county on February 18, 1908. About twelve inches of snow fell in a few hours, and the high wind blew it into drifts that were almost insurmountable. The roof of Eglin's feed store on West Main street in Valparaiso was broken in by the weight of the snow, the damage amounting to $1,000, and other build- ings were damaged to a less extent. When the rural mail carriers started out on the morning of the 19th they found the roads so full of snow drifts that they turned baek, traffic on the railroads was impeded, and it was several days before travel resumed its customary proportions.
At 6:45 p. m. on the last day of April, 1909, a wind storm struck Por- fer county at Wheeler and passed almost due eastward across the county. Several small buildings on farms near Wheeler were reduced to ruins.
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The highways were obstrueted by branches blown from trees. At Flint lake Freund's daneing pavilion was wrecked. Two miles south of Val- paraiso W. B. Stoner's barn was blown down. The wind was followed by a heavy fall of rain, with severe lightning and thunder, but the only dan- age was done by the wind.
An electrical storm passed over a part of the county on July 22, 1909. Daniel Kraft's barn in Portage township was struck by lightning and burned. Two of his sons who chanced to be in the barn at the time were render: d uneonscious for awhile by the force of the bolt. Near Coburg the barn of I. H. Forbes was struck by lightning, set on fire and totally, consumed, and there were a few instances of minor damages reported.
Joseph Smith's house on College Hill, at Valparaiso, was struck by lightning in the electrical storm of August 12, 1909, and John Morrison's barn north of the city was also struck, though neither building was burned. Considerable damage was done by this storm through the flood- ing of cellars, washing gutters in the highways, etc.
Probably the most severe storm ever experienced by the people of Porter county was the cyclone on Saturday night, November 11, 1911. It struck the county near Lake Eliza, in the northern part of Porter township and traveled in a northeasterly direction, erossing the eastern boundary of the county near Coburg. Windmills, out buildings and barns on several farms west of Valparaiso were wrecked, the principal suf- ferers being Calvin Skinkle, W. O. McGinley, Edward Murphy and George Gast, the last named losing two, barns. On P. W. Clifford's farm, occupied by J. I. Weddle, two large barns were totally destroyed. Far- ther north J. A. Wollenberg's barn was blown down and Gus Mitehner's house, occupied by Henry Prentiss and family, was demolished. Mrs. Prentiss, with her little child, went to Wohlenberg's for shelter, and her husband was found wandering about in a dazed condition a mile and a half north of his ruined home. He could not explain how he happened to be in that loeality and some have insisted that he was blown there by the terrifie wind. The school house at Jackson Center was left a mass
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of ruins and fenees were scattered to the four winds. The damage was so great that it can hardly be estimated.
Several destructive fres have occured in the county in recent years. About three o'clock on the morning of May 27, 1885, fire was discovered in the rear of a row of frame buildings on the north side of Main street east of Franklin. A smart breeze was blowing, and in two hours every building in that block was a mass of smoking ruins. The destruction in- eluded the skating rink, owned by Salisbury & Sloan, the Tremont House, Dolson's stables, in which several valuable horses were burned, Williams & Felton's livery barn and the two adjoining buildings, Wilkinson & Foster's implement house, and a number of smaller shops. It was fortu- nate that a high wind was not blowing, as in that case the loss would un- questionably have been much greater. As it was it rau into thousands of dollars.
The house of John Hamlet, a German, near "Sugar loaf," south of Valparaiso, was discovered on fire about four o'clock on the morning of July 16, 1890. This was one of the saddest events that ever occurred in the county. Mr. Hamlet was away from home, working on the new school house at Chesterton, and the fire started at an hour when his wife and four children were asleep. The fire was first noticed by some of the neigh- bors and before assistance could be rendered Mrs. Hamlet and her ehil- dren were cremated. The remains of the five were interred in one coffin.
A few months after the Hamlet fire-Tuesday, November 25, 1890 -- a disastrous fire occurred at Hebron, which destroyed a large part of the business district The fire broke out about three o'clock in the morning in Bryant & Dowd's store, where a loss of $5,000 was incurred by the owners. James White's hardware store, J. C. Smith's grocery, MeIn- tyre & Kitheart's drug store, Fisher & Hogan's dry goods house, Mor. gan Bros. drug store, White's blacksmith shop and Joseph Burgess' lime house were all reduced to ashes within a few hour. . And the adjointhb buildings on either side were more or less damag. 1. The heat was so
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intense that the windows on the opposite side of the street were broken. The total loss was not far from $30,000.
Vineyard Hall, one of the largest dormitories at the Valparaiso Uni- versity, was discovered to be on fire shortly before midnight, January 22, 1897, and before the fire department could reach the scene the flames were beyond control. There were some sixty or more students oeenpying the building and several of them had narrow escapes. Misses Minier and Warner were found insensible in their rooms and were rescued with difficulty. All of the inmates suffered more or less loss. The building belonged to a Mrs. Anderson, of Laporte, and was valued at $10,000. It was almost a total loss.
On Sunday evening, April 6, 1902, Chesterton suffered a loss of sev- eral thousand dollars by a fire which destroyed a number of the best business buildings in the town. It broke out between the Krieger build- ing and the postoffice about ten o'clock, and swept down Calumet avenue. A high wind was blowing and sparks were carried a distance of five or six bloeks, taxing to the utmost the fire-fighting facilities of the town. The postoffice, Ameling's saloon, Quiek's hardware store, Wilson's boot and shoe store, Harrigan's hotel, Williams & Son's livery stable, and several smaller concern were wiped out before the fire could be brought under control. There was no alley in the rear of the buildings, which restricted the efforts to extinguish the flames. The fire was thought to have been of ineendiary origin. The total loss was about $20,000.
C. J. Kern's store in the Salyer block on Main street, Valparaiso, caught fire at noon on January 16, 1903. A stock of $12,000 was practi- cally ruined and the building was damage to the extent of some $2,000. Fortunately the fire department was able to prevent the fire from spread- ing to the adjacent buildings.
In January, 1904, the postoffice at Ainsworth was burned in a some- what peculiar manner. Frank Coyle, the postmaster, who lived in the building with his family and kept a small stock of groceries, arose curly, built a fire in the stove and went to the pumping Ction a short distance away. The other members of the family were sound asleep and
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before they awoke the stove became overheated and set fire to the house. Mrs. Coyle and her four daughters had a narrow escape. The loss was about $2,000.
On January 22, 1904, the Grand Trunk railway station at Valparaiso was burned-the second time within five years. The fire started be- tween the ceiling and the roof from a defective fine. The building had been erected but a few years before at a cost of $3,500. The Grand Trunk also suffered by fire in the burning of the elevator at Valparaiso on March 23, 1904. It was operated by Way, Higley & Company, and at the time of the fire contained about 4,000 bushels of grain, mostly oats. The total loss was about $6,000.
Shortly after eleven o'clock on the night of October 2, 1907, the buildings occupied by the Valparaiso Carriage Company on West Maiu street were discovered to be on fire. The building, which was owned by .Frank A. Turner, was completely destroyed and the adjoining build- ings were damaged. The total loss was about $11,000.
On April 8, 1908, the old Central Hotel at Chesterton was burned. It was an old landmark, having been first erected at City West, which in 1840 was regarded as rival to Chicago. It was later removed to Chesterton and remodeled. Originally a frame building, after its re- moval it was veneered with brick, which fact rendered it difficult to get at the fire. The loss was about $10,000, including the damages done to the buildings on either side of the hotel.
In the last quarter of a century a few railroad wrecks have happened in Porter county, which formed tragie though interesting events in her history. On October 11, 1887, a tail end collision oeeurred on the Chicago & Erie line at a water tank about half way between Boone Grove and Kouts. The fast freight, eastbound and loaded with dressed meats, took the side track at Boone Grove to allow a passenger train going in the same direction to pass. The engine of the passenger train was disabled at HIurlburt and only one side was in use when the freight was passed at Boone Grove, where the erew of the freight train were told of the disabled engine and instructed to follow slowly. Owing to
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the defective locomotive, the engineer of the passsenger train was unable to stop at the right place at the water tank, and the engine had to be "pinched off," that is moved with bars made for the purpose by placing them under the wheels on the track and prying the engine forward. While this was going on, the condneter ordered a red light to be dis- played in the rear of the train, but on account of the fog it was not seen by the engineer of the freight train in time to avert the collision. Ile had barely time to reverse his engine and jump with his fireman for safety, when the freight engine crashed with terrific force into the rear coach of the passenger, killing eleven people and injuring a score or more, some of them seriously. Conductor Parks of the passenger train was indicted by the grand jury for not sending a flagman to the rear and placing torpedoes on the track, but Judge Field quashed the in- dietment.
The year 1905 witnessed at least four disastrous wreeks in the county. On Sunday, February 12. a Baltimore & Ohio train ran into a Michigan Central wrecking train at the Willow creek crossing of the two roads and six persons were injured. The wrecking train was on the way to Ivanhoe, where a locomotive was off the track. The same day a train on the Pere Marquette line got stuck in the snow drifts east of Porter and was forced to use the Michigan Central tracks from Porter to New Buffalo. On Saturday, February 18th, two freight trains col. lided at McCool on the Baltimore & Ohio. One of the trains was left standing on the main traek while the engine was engaged in doing some switching, and the other train ran into it, smashing the caboose and three cars next to it. The engineer and fireman of the running train were the only ones injured. Five persons were injured in a head-on collosion at Suman, on the Baltimore & Onio, on Friday, December Ist, when a passenger and freight met on the curve at that point.
It appears that the Baltimore & Ohio has been particularly unfor- tunate in the matter of wrecks in recent years. On Monday, November 12, 1906, one of the worst wrecks that ever happened in the county was caused by a head-on collision between two trains on this line near
HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
the Woodville station. An eastbound freight had ors to wait at Babcock for the westhound passenger. It so happened that the Balti- more & Ohio had that night a large number of emigranis from south- eastern Europe, bound for Chicago and the northwest, and the passenger train was run in two sections. The first section passed the freight at Babcock all right, and the engineer of the latter, not seeing any signal to indicate a second scetion, pulled out and started eastward. About 200 yards west of the station at Woodville the second section was mnet, the two engines coming together with sufficient force to reduce both of them to scrap iron. Forty-one persons were killed and a large number injured. Coroner Carson investigated the matter and ordered tire arrest of the engineer of section one of the passenger, and the engineer, conduc- tor and head brakeman of the freight. When the passenger engineer was brought to trial in April, 1907, he testified that upon stopping at MeCool he discovered for the first time that his signal lights-indicating that another section was following-were out. His evidence was cor- rohorated by that of his fireman and he was acquitted. The other cases were then dismissed ..
Early in the fall of 1908, smoke from the forest fires in Wiscon- sin and Michigan settled over northern Indiana, and this condition was assigned as the cause of a wreck at Chesterton early on the morn- ing of Monday, September 14th. On Sunday, the day before, an ex- eursion was run from Indianapolis to Chicago over the Lake Erie & Western and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern roads. Returning, the excursion train left Chieago a little before midnight, and at Ches- terton was waiting for a freight train to get from the main line to the side track, when the rear coach was struck by a suburban train. One woman was killed and twenty-three persons were injured. Fortunately the suburban train was not running fast when the collision eame. The crew of that train stated that they were unable to see the lights on the rear coach of the excursion train on account of the dense smoke which overhung the track.
Although the citizens of Porter county have generally been moral
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and law-abiding people, several murder. bove been committed upon her soil. The first notable homicide was the killing of John Pelton by Francis Staves in 1838. The two iner had been working together in a sawmill in Laporte county and stopping at a place of rather un- savory reputation kept by a man named Palmer. Pelton was one of those who spent more than his ineome, and in order to avoid the pay- ment of the debts he had contracted decided to take Horace Greeley's advice several years before it was uttered and "go West." Staves volunteered to act as his guide for a part of the way, probably all the more willingly because he knew that Pelton had something over $100 about his person. A day or two later Staves returned to his usual haunts, and no suspicion was aroused until later, when an Indian boy found a bundle of elothing tied up in a handkerchief, not far from Jesse Morgan's in Westchester township. Calling the attention of his father to his discovery, the elder Indian began a search and found the body of a man concealed under some brush at the root of an up- turned tree. Some of the white settlers were notified and the body was identified as that of John Pelton. Suspicion pointed to Staves as the last man that had been seen with the deceased. He was watched and it soon developed that he was rather flush with money for those days. Pelton had been shot from behind and after falling from his horse had been beaten over the head with a club. This stick showed the mark of a niek in the blade of the knife with which it had been cut, and this mark corresponded exactly with a knife found in Staves' pocket when he was searched. IIe also told conflicting stories as to the place where he had parted from Pelton. Staves was tried, convicted and sentenced to be hanged. The execution took place on the lot just across the street from the south end of the high school building, and was witnessed by a throng of people. In November, 1901, William E. Brown, formerly auditor of Porter county, in writing to the South Bend Tribune, said: "Among the old settlers in that part of Porter county, the guilt or innocence of Stave: has always been a mooted question. In fact in the early sixties a man in Des Moines, Iowa, was Vol. I-22
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said to have made a death bed confession in which he elaimed to have committed the murder, completely exonerating Staves."
About the elose of the Civil war, Chauncey F. Page, a jeweler who had been in the employ of Aaron Rogers, went to Crown Point and en- gaged in business for himself. He married Emma Goss, stepdaughter of Benjamin Long, but the union was not a happy one, and before a year Mrs. Page returned to the Long home at Pearce's mills, about five miles west of Valparaiso. On the night of January 15, 1867, Page learned that Mr. Long was away from home and took advantage of the opportunity to visit the house Upon being denied admission he broke in the door with an axe and fired two shots at Mrs. Long, both of which took effect, killing her instantly. Ile then went to his wife's bedroom, and notwithstanding her piteous entreaties, shot her through the head. Miss Fredericka Ludolph, a daughter of Martin L. Ludolph, was spend- ing the night with Mrs. Long and her daughter. Page next turned his attention to her. After shooting her twiee he beat her over the head with a chair and left her for dead. Alarm was given and a pursuit organized in which Sheriff S. L. Bartholomew, M. L. MeClelland, T. A. E. Campbell, T. A. Hogan, A. H. Goodwin, A. J. Buel and A. A. Starr joined. Page was captured in Chicago and brought baek to Valparaiso for trial. Although Miss Ludolph was severely wounded she was able to appear at the trial as the principal witness for the state. It is said that Page almost fainted when he saw her enter the court room. The murderer was given a life sentenee in the penitentiary at Michigan City, where he committed suicide in his cell.
A sensational case occurred in the fall of 1887, though the murder in this instance was committed in St. Louis, Missouri, by a preacher of Chesterton-William T. A. West. It seems that West beeame enamored of a young girl named Susje Beck, who had been employed as a domestic in his family and persuaded her to elope with him. At St. Louis he found employment as an electro plater and Miss Beck passed as his wife. One morning she was found dead in bed at the hotel where they had been boarding. A letter supposed to have been
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written by her stated that she had taken arsenic with suicidal intent, and another letter written by West said his boly would be found in the river. The St. Louis police took the view that this was merely a sch ne to defraud the undertaker, and no effort was ande to appre- her? the minister. He came back to Chesterton, where his congre- gafico had built him a comfortable parsonage, Lost his popularity had waned and he fled, presumably to Canada, alandoning his invalid wife and five small children. Ten years later J. G. Williams proprie- tor of the Grand Central Hotel at Seguin, Texas, was arrested as West, but parties from Chesterton failed to identify him as such and he was released. West was never brought to justice.
On August 16, 1895, Alonzo Powers shot and killed William Tratebas in Trudell's blacksmith shop at Chesterton. The two young men Tratebas was but nineteen years old and Powers was twenty- four-had been on unfriendly terms for some time and had quarreled several times. Tratebas was in the shop when Powers came in and started a controversy that ended in blows being passed. Trudell sepa- rated them, when Powers drew a revolver and fired two shots, both of which struck his victim near the heart killing him almost instantly. Powers went home, but was soon arrested and the officers had hard work to prevent the crowd from lynehing him. Sheriff Stoddard was notified and taking a deputy hurried to Chesterton The murderer was in the office of Justice Sievers, guarded by a posse. He was slipped out the back way and driven rapidly to Valparaiso, the mob following for some distance. On October 24th Powers was convicted of murder in the first degree and senteneed to the penitentiary for life. Some of the jurymen wanted to inflict the death penalty.
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