USA > Indiana > Porter County > History of Porter County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests > Part 31
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Senators-Charles W. Catheart, 1836; re-elected in 1838; Sylvanus Everetts, 1840; Joseph W. Chapman, 1842; Andrew L. Osborn, 1844; Abraham Teegarden, 1848. (Up to this tine senators were cheted for two years. The new constitutie i made the term four year. . but there can be found no record of the lection of 1850.) Samuel I Anthony, 1852; Morgan HI. Wier, 1856; David Turner, 1859 (election made ncees- sary on aceount of change in district) ; Ezra Wright, 18'2; Erwin Clmrch, 1966; Richard Wade 1870; D. L. Skinner, 157. Thomas Wood, 1878; J. W. Youche, 15-2; Mark L. DeMotte, 1886. Johannes
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
Kopelke, 1890: William II. Gostlin, 1894; Nathan L. Agnew, 1898; T. E. Bell, 1902; Arthur J. Bowser, 1906; Frank N. Gavit, 1910.
Assessors-The office of county assessor was created by the legisla- ture of 1891. Pursuant to the provisions of the act, the county commis- sioners of Porter county, on June 12, 1891, appointed Edwin L. Fur- ness to fill the office until the next general election. Andrew J. Zorn was elected in 1892; William L. Freeman in 1896 and again in 1900; Cor- nelius A. Blachly, 1901; Eli N. Norris, 1908.
County Council-On March 3, 1899, Governor Mount approved a bill providing for a county council in each of the ninety-two counties of the state, the members of which were to meet annually in September, make levies and estimate appropriations for the coming year. By th- provisions of the act the county was to be divided into four di cit .. one councilman chosen from each district, and three from the county at large, making seven members in all. The first council was to he ap- pointed by the judge of the circuit court, and on May 23, 1899, Jud .e John II. Gillett appointed the following members of the council in Pol- ter county : Claus Specht, A. L. Harper, Warren Harris, Fletcher White, Oliver P. Kinsey, James R. Malone and Sandford Ilall. Mr. Specht declined to serve and William G. Windle was appointed in h's stead. Subsequent councilmen have been chosen by vote of the people at general elections as follows :
1900-Oliver P. Kinsey, Sandford Hall, Hail Bates, James S. Fulton, Leigh G. Furness, Warren Harris and Lee G. Howell.
1902-Oliver P. Kinsey, Hail Bates, James S. Fulton, Sandford Hall, Lee G. Howell, Arthur J. Bowser and Warren Harris.
1906-Lewis II. Robbins, Amos B. Lantz, Oliver P. Kinsey, Jasper N. Finney, Azariah F. Brody, Warren Harris and James Hodgeus
1910-Claney St. Clair, Herbert D. Scofield, John J. Overmyer, L. per N. Finney, Azariah F. Brody, Charles F. Jones and Charles F. Locke. (A list of judges and prosecuting attorneys will be found in the chapter on Professions.)
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
The following table shows the vote of Porter county for the leading presidential candidates from 1836 to 1908:
1836-Harrison and Granger, Whig. 87
Van Buren and Johnson. Dem. 69
1840-Harrison and Tyler, Whig. 220
Van Buren and Johnson, Dem 194
1844-Clay and Frelinghuysen, Whig 311
Polk and Dallas, Dem. 305
1848-Taylor and Fillmore, Whig 343
Cass and Butler, Dem 401
1852-Scott and Graham, Whig. 236
Pierce and King, Dem 257
1856-Fremont and Dayton, Rep 1,054
Buchanan and Breckenridge, Dem 712
1860-Lincoln and Hamlin, Rep. 1,529
Douglas and Johnson, Dem 889
1864-Lincoln and Johnson, Rep. 1,269
MeClellan and Pendleton, Dem 936
1868-Grant and Colfax, Rep. 1,892
Seymour and Blair, Dem. 1,264
1872-Grant and Wilson, Rep. 1,685
Greeley and Brown, Dem. 978
1876-Hayes and Wheeler, Rep 2,082
Tilden and Hendricks, Deut 1,577
1880-Garfield and Arthur, Rep. 2,243
Hancock and English, Dem 1.578
1884-Blaine and Logan, Rep. 2,480
Cleveland and Hendricks, Dem 1,867
1888- Harrison and Morton, Rep. 2,427
Cleveland and Thurman, Dem 2,018
1892-Harrison and Reid, Rep. . 2,187
Cleveland and Stevenson, Dem 1,937
Vol. 1-22
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
1896-McKinky and Ho .. "1. Rep 2,853
Bryan and Sewall. Dem. .2,026
1900-Mckinley and Roos velt, Rep 2,797
Bryan and Stevenson, Dem. 1,848
1904-Roosevelt and Fairbanks, Rep .3,153
Parker and Davis. Dem 1,441
1908-Taft and Sher dan, Rop. 2,940
Bryan and Kern, Dem. .1,789
Of the minor party candidat .:. Van Buren and Adams, on the Free- soil ticket in 1818 received 77 :. : ... [Tale and Julian, the Free Dem- ocratic candidates in 1852, received 60 votes; Breckenridge and Lane, representing the ultra slaveholi: watiment in 1860, received 28 votes, General J. B. Weaver received 117 votes in 1880 as the candidate of the Greenback party, and in 1892 h cooked 129 as the candidate of the Populist or People's party. The war sear Bidwell, the Prohibitionist candidate received 145 votes.
Porter county has never exp. ris need a boom, but the increase in pop- ulation has been steady from the time the county was organized in 1836 to the present time. The United States census of 1840-the first after the formation of the county as a separate political division-reported the population to be 2,155. The next decade witnessed the greatest propor- tionate increase in the history, the population in 1850 being 5,229, or an increase of more than 100 per cent. In 1860 the population had reached 10,295, an increase of almost 100 per cent during the preceding ten years. In 1870 it was 13,903; in 1880 it was 17,229; in 1890 it was 18,052; in 1900 it was 19,175, and in 1910 it wa 20.540. Taking the state as a whole, in 1910 the increase in popis ton was 7.3 per cent over the cen- sus reports of 1900, the small st in any decade since the admission of Indiana into the Union in 1816. 1: 52 counties, or more than one-half the number in the state, then resposta decrease of from one to six- teen per cent. Porter county L'ON place shove the average, the in- crease during the decade heit 195 or a hitle over seven per cent.,
HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
notwithstanding the fact that there was a decrease in six of the twelve townships.
The increase in the value of property has kept pace with, or even out- stripped, the growth in population. Figures prior to 1870 are not. avail- able, but since that time the valuation of all classes of property has grown from $5,245,055 to $21,805,960, the latter figures being taken from the tax duplicate for 1911. This wealth is distributed among the townships and towns as follows:
Boone .$1,329,370
Porter $1,239,590
Center
1,528,950
Union 1,577,800
Jackson
1,048,710
Washington 1,519,630
Liberty
840,000
Westchester 1.611,860
Morgan
1,136,470
City of Valparaiso 2,808,060
Pine
1,090,500
Town of Chesterton 647,120
Pleasant
2,069,810
Town of Porter
454,840
Portage
2,408,530
Town of Hebron
394,720
According to a statement compiled by the county auditor in the spring of 1912, the county, in its corporate capacity, is the owner of the following property :
Real estate
Conrt-house
$50,000
Improve'ts $150,000
Personal $5,000
Total $205,000
Jail
6,000
14,000
2,000
22,000
County Asylum
11,250
30,000
3,200
44,450
Fair Grounds
5,600
2,000
....
7,600
Memorial ITall
4,000
5,000
1,000
10,000
Grand Total
.$289,050
One of the largest mortgages ever recorded in the state, if not the largest, was entered upon the records of Porter county in November, 1899. It was executed by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company to
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
the United States Trust Company, of New York, and covered all the lands of the comp my from Maryland to Chicago. The amount rep- resented by the in rigage was $165,000,000. It was presented to Re- corder Gustafson by a special agent, whose duty it was to see that the mortgage was properly recorded in every county through which the line of the Baltimore & Ohio read passed. The document contained some 40.000 words, was printed and bound in book form, and attached to it were revenue stamps to the amount of $82,500.
CONCLUSION
Statistics are void of poetry of romance and are often dry and uu- suiteresting to the reader. But it has been said that "figures do not lic," and the story of progress, the achievements of a people, can be told with greater accuracy in figures than in any rhyme or romantic strain. Even a casual analysis of the foregoing tables will give the analyst a fairly definite idea of what the people of Porter county have accomplished during the three-quarters of a century of her corporate existence.
Ninety years have passed since Joseph Bailly-the first white man to settle within the limits of the county -- built his lonely cabin upon the bank's of the Calumet river. Porter county was then a wild region of woodlands, sandhills, marshes and unbroken prairie, inhabited ouly by wild beasts and uncivilized aborigines. The war-whoop of the Indian was heard by day, and at night lhe bowl of the wolf reverberated through the primeval forest. Across the prairies and through the glades, always following the line of least resistance, wound the sinuous trails of the red man. His mele canoe, propelled by his brawny arm, glided along the shores of Lake Michigan, or traversed the waters of the Calumet and Kankakee rivers, as he passed from village to village or sought fish or game for food.
Now all is changed. In 1832 the Pottawatomie Indians ceded their lands in Indiana to the United States government, and the next year
-
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
the actual settlement of Porter county began. Step by step the intrepid pioneers forced their way westward, overcoming all obstacles and pene- trating the unexplored wilds, and built up an empire in the wilderness. The war-whoop of the Indian and the 'owl of the wolf have given way to the whistle of the steam engine and the humm of civilized industry. Where once the Indian trail existed is now a fine, macadamized high way-over which the tourist shirts along in his automobile- for the ral road with trains of coaches palatial in their magnificance rushing aero, the country at the rate of fifty miles an hour. In place of the ride canoe is the great steel steamer, which plows the waters of Lake Michi- gan, bearing tons of freight. the prodnet of human skill and labor. The wigwam of the unlettere I savage has been supphunted by the school house, and where once stood the totem pole the spire of the church points heavenward. Marsh lands have been received by an expendi ture of thousands of dollars for ditches, the wild pranie has been brought under the dominion of the plos, the Forests have lien felles and converted into habitations for civili ed man. The savage Indian. the wild beast and the uninviting wilderness have gone, never to re turn. The pioneers who conquered them have left to their posterity a record of dauntless courage, faithful industry. honorable achievement, and an untarnished name. Will the people of the precht generation, in full enjoyment of the labors of their sires, lave as honorable a rer ord to their descendants? A history of Porter county written thru quarters of a century hence will answer the question.
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