USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 40
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The first grand jurors from La Gro Township were Sylvanus Mc- Lane and Benedict W. Lowry; the first petit jurors, John Harter and Robert Hurley.
Of the foregoing, perhaps Mr. Wines became the most prominent, for, in addition to operating a successful sawmill on the Salamonie about two miles above La Gro, he was influential in several public capacities. After serving acceptably as sheriff he was sent to the State Legislature, being one of the first representatives from Wabash County.
THE IRISH SETTLEMENT
Soon after the commencement of work on the canal a number of Irish families gathered on a traet of land near Andrew Freshour's farm, about three miles north of La Gro, and there, within the succeeding two or three years was formed quite a settlement. Among the best known of these Irish settlers were John Eagan, John Coughlan, John Dalton, John Shanahan and Michael Shanahan. Further southwest and nearer the Wabash, such sons of the Isle as Timothy Kinneark and Patrick Kinneark
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were attached both to the work of the eanal and the soil of La Gro Town- ship as farmers.
In fact, the village was long the center of a large, industrious and (at times) rather lively, not to say turbulent, colony of Irishmen. Before the canal was completed to Wabash in 1837, there had been several skirmishes at and near La Gro by contending factions, which culminated in an en- counter so deeisive as to be ever afterward noted in local history as the Irish War. Several hundred arrests were made, all the details of which trouble will be found printed in the general account elsewhere given of the Wabash & Erie Canal.
RISE AND FALL OF TOWNS
Several towns have risen and fallen in La Gro Township; some of them have entirely disappeared ; others deelined into mere postoffices and were finally absorbed by the Rural Routes, and several are still thriving.
LA GRO PLATTED
The original plat of the town of La Gro is not dated, but it is thought to have been made in the spring of 1834, as it is known that lots were sold at that time. It was then in Grant County. The plat was not re- corded at Wabash until March 6, 1838.
UTICA AND BELDEN
Utica, on the north bank of the Wabash River just within the town- ship and the county lines, was surveyed March 1, 1837. Although it made no headway as a village, a grain warehouse was built at that point and some business was transaeted for a number of years during the early period of canal activities. As stated, the plat was surveyed in March, 1837. It lay north of the eanal for ten blocks, and six blocks baek into the country-sixty town blocks in all! But aside from the little grain warehouse, there was virtually nothing to cover that magnificent expanse, and in June, 1853, the town plat of Utiea was vacated by the County Commissioners.
A portion of the original site of Utiea was afterward included in the hamlet of Belden, which was laid out by Elijah Hackleman, May 13, 1856. Its original proprietor was Archibald M. Kennedy. By the late '70s there were a sawmill, a gristmill, a blacksmith shop, a store, a grain house, a schoolhouse and a few dwellings. A postoffice was established in
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1878. Belden has never been more than such a little hamlet as is described. Its postoffice has been absorbed by the Rural Mail Routes.
MAJENICA AND NEW HOLLAND
Majenica was platted October 16, 1842, but was promptly squelched by New Holland which, on the 23d of the following month, was laid out, across the Salamonie River at the mouth of Deer Creek. Although the former was named after an Indian chief who once lived near its site, north of the river, euphony and romance had no saving virtues, and after a short struggle Majeniea succumbed to the greater enterprise and vigor of New Holland, across the river.
The proprietor of New Holland was Martin MeFarland. George Jen- nings opened a store and John Wilson, a blacksmith shop. New Holland soon secured a postoffice, a frame schoolhouse was built in 1844, and Iliram Pickering established a little tannery in 1845. The tannery, variously improved, stood the stress of half a century, and was the one really permanent industry of New Holland. Kindley's original sawmill changed hands twenty or more times in forty years, according to a local seribe, but the tannery went right along under Pickering's faithful pro- prietorship and unvarying industry. New Holland, for years, was really quite a promising place, but now is but a very quiet hamlet.
DORA AND URBANA
Dora was laid out as a town by John Minniek as proprietor, and is located on section 18 on the western banks of the Salamonie River. The plat was recorded December 13, 1850. Mr. Minnick had already built and put in operation two mills-a sawmill in 1843 and a gristmill in 1845. The first store was opened by Stephen Minnick about the time the town was laid out, and a postoffice was established also. The town grew both in business and industrial matters, and by the early '80s had about twenty-five dwellings, two churches and perhaps one hundred and twenty- five people. A good township schoolhouse was built in 1875. The hamlet has since been on the decline.
Urbana, which lies partly in La Gro and partly in Paw Paw Town- ship, was surveyed March 5, 1854, and a sketch of it will be found in the history of the latter, to which it seems most closely related.
LINCOLNVILLE
In the late '40s that fertile section of the township west of Deer Creek and drained by its little tributary known as Bucl Greek, commenced to be
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settled by a fine class of industrious and law-abiding farmers, trades- men and craftsmen. About 1848 Christian Swaffer bought an acre of ground in that locality and set up a wagon shop which he run for several years. Job Holloway, who came in 1854, was the village blacksmith for thirty or forty years. Ile and his brother, Israel, had a monopoly on the smithy and wagon-shop industries. Several large general stores lo- cated, a postoffice was established in 1865, a shingle factory and planing mill followed, a large brick township schoolhouse was completed in 1876, and by the time that was completed the community at the four corners of sections 25, 36, 30 and 31, had three churches.
The settlement had been known as Lincolnville since the establishment of the postoffice in 1865, and in 1876-77 the southwestern and the south- eastern portions of the site were platted. The platted portions were in sections 31 and 36.
Lincolnville covers a generous plat of ground, whether it is platted or unplatted in a legal sense, and retains its old appearance of being more a collection of pretty little farms and gardens than a town.
CHURCHES AT LINCOLNVILLE AND ELSEWHERE
At or near Lincolnville are several churches, the Methodist Society having about eighty members with Rev. A. D. Burkett, of Mount Etna, as its pastor.
There is also an organization of the same denomination at Hope- well (old Hopewell Church) four miles northeast of La Gro. It has fifty members and is under the charge of Rev. E. C. Farmer, of Bippus.
The Methodist Church at Lincolnville was formed in 1868, the first meetings being held in the schoolhouse and elsewhere. The society com- pleted a house of worship in 1878.
The Hopewell Church was one of the first to be organized in the county, a Methodist elass having been organized in that neighborhood in 1843. This region was long the center of famous revivals and is greatly endeared to Methodists throughout the Wabash Valley.
The Friends were formerly quite strong at and near Lineolnville. As early as 1840 they comiteneed to meet in log cabins about a mile northeast of the present hamlet. As Lincolnville developed the member- ship of their society became strong enough to warrant a regular Friends meeting house. They also maintained a cemetery, in connection with their old house of worship, which was opened for burial in 1842.
LA GRO TOWN OR VILLAGE
As originally laid out in 1834 the town of La Gro lay wholly north of the Wabash & Erie Canal, with its southern base resting on that water-
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way, which here is very near the river. The streets east and west were Washington, Main, Webster and Jefferson ; north and south, Davis, Dover, Spencer, Canal, Clinton, Tipton, George and Harriet. They are parallel to the canal east and west. La Gro Creek crosses the eastern part of the town.
The first addition to the original town (Brady's) was surveyed May 25, 1840, and lay north of the canal and west of the first plat. In 1843 that addition was extended to the westward, and in 1848 South La Gro, south of the Wabash River, was laid out by Robert and Michael English.
This was the most ambitious addition to the town, the new plat em- bracing nearly two hundred lots on both sides of the road southward from the bridge across the Wabash. That highway was given the name of Main Street, which was a continuation of the Davis Street of the original town. The ideas of the Messrs. English as to the growth of the town southward were as large as the real estate men interested in the North Town. The plat of South La Gro comprised the water power and the saw and grist mills built, owned and operated by the English brothers, who therefore had several reasons to expect that 'their addition would grow rapidly. But their hopes were not realized, the settlement of the town having been almost confined to the portions north of the river and canal. Even in that direction, it has fallen far short of the expectations of its proprietors, who finally extended their plats so that they included the grounds of all the cemeteries and the country far beyond them. The greater part of that area is now farm land.
CORPORATION AND SCHOOLS
La Gro was incorporated as a town in June, 1859, the members of the first town council, elected on the 25th of that month, being as follows: E. W. Benjamin, First Ward; W. B. Barlow, Second Ward; William Murgotten, Third Ward. A. II. Mills was elected clerk and assessor, and Peter S. Murphy, marshal and treasurer. Mr. Murphy evidently did not favor the treasurership, as he failed to qualify in that capacity, and B. II. Lassell was appointed to the office. .
A school building was erected in the town at a very early day-in fact, about the time it was platted by Gen. John Tipton. Some years afterward a larger schoolhouse was erected, which, after the completion of the substantial Township Union School in 1881, was transformed into a residence. The present principal of the Union School is IIngh S. Jeffries.
The first school established outside the village of La Gro is thought to have been located one and a half miles north of Peabody's Creek and
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was probably opened about 1839. One of its close contemporaries was a log cabin which stood a mile north of Hopewell Church. Jesse Springer was one of the earliest teachers in that neighborhood.
AT THE HEIGHT OF ITS PROSPERITY
From 1834 to 1837, while the canal was being built through La Gro Township, the town had a brisk local trade, and though houses, stores and everything else were erude, the place showed rapid growth. Then came a season of depression, while the canal was being completed at its Ohio end to Lake Erie. After that, for twenty years or more-that is,
LA GRO HIGH SCHOOL
from 1841-the town of La Gro rivaled Wabash as a business and trans- portation eenter. The matter is well put, in this wise: "The amount of trade in grain and stoek at Wabash and La Gro, especially the latter, was something marvelous. Grain was hauled from a vast region; from Goshen on the north to Anderson and Muncie, and even to Indianapolis and Richmond on the south. For, though the roads might be better south- ward, yet the price was better at the canal, there being a close and a certain connection with the Great East and the Atlantic seaboard; and henee it came to pass that during a period of perhaps twenty years or more a very large amount of trade was done at La Gro and Wabash, and a considerable portion of that time the advantage seemed to be largely with the town at the mouth of the Salamonie.
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"La Gro was in several respects easier of access. Into La Gro it was 'all down hill', while the approaches to Wabash from the south were vexed by severe aseents. And, moreover, a plank road was constructed from La Gro in the direction of Marion, as also one from La Gro to North Manchester; and the amount of travel drawn to La Gro by these was truly marvelous. Several grain buyers established themselves there, and all the grain and stock and pork were brought to them that they could handle. During the busy and prosperous days of La Gro an immense trade was carried on. One hundred teams have been known to be on hand by sunrise, and the wagons would stand in a long train far out into the country, obliged to wait for hours and hours, and sometimes far into the night, before the turn of each would come to unload, thus enabling them to do their trading and go home."
In 1841 one of the English brothers erected a large warehouse, and Judge Comstock built another. John R. Murphy began business with Mr. English, but soon became an independent merchant, grain buyer and stock dealer. In 1842 Amos L. Stevenson came from Marion and for about fifteen years kept a store and hotel, bought grain, packed pork . and dealt in live stock. Isaac Bedsaul engaged in the pork and grain trade for about a dozen years from 1844, and then moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa. These are some of the best known business men of La Gro's booming period, for as late of 1860 the town handled more grain and stock, and commanded more general trade, than Wabash itself; in fact, there were several years during which La Gro was the greatest grain center in the Upper Wabash Valley.
La Gro's bright days were over when the "through" railroads com- meneed to push through the Wabash Valley and more than take the place of the canal, the plank road and every other medium which had been bringing her trade and prosperity. Since then the town has dropped out of the race, and has been, on the whole, decreasing in population even for * the past twenty years. The national census for 1890 gives the population at 549; that of 1900 at 456, and that of 1910, at 463.
JOHN AND GEORGE TODD
Among the best known of the merchants of La Gro, who witnessed both the rise and the decline of their home town, were John and George Todd, father and son, who were associated for several years as dealers in hardware and agricultural implements. The latter, now in his sixty- second year, sent the last freight down the Wabash Valley by way of the Wabash & Erie Canal and of late years has established a large busi- ness as a builder and contractor. His home is now in Wabash, whither
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he moved in 1914, after having lived near or in the village of La Gro since his infancy. Both among the farmers and business men of La Gro Township no two men were better known or more thoroughly respected than John and George Todd. The editor of this work therefore feels that he is fortunate in numbering the latter as one of his associates.
John Todd, who died September 28, 1882, was born of Irish parents November 7, 1804. In 1811 the family moved from his birthplace in Pennsylvania to Ohio and thence, after two years, to Franklin County, Indiana. He married Elizabeth Lackey shortly before he had reached his twentieth birthday, and, in time, eight children were born to them. Soon after his marriage his father died, leaving him in eare of the home- stead where he remained until 1849, when he moved to Union County, Indiana. There his first wife died in 1850, and two years thereafter he married Miss Lee Dare, a native of Maryland, by whom he had two chil- dren. George was the elder of these, both sons.
In 1854 John Todd located in Wabash County, occupying his first farm east of La Gro village, He remained there for two years, when he moved into town and conducted a sawmill. His next move was to buy the large farm two miles northeast of La Gro, upon which he lived for eleven years. In this locality George reached manhood, was hardened by farm work and educated at the union school in the village.
Father and son formed a business partnership in 1875, and for sev- eral years conducted a profitable business in hardware and agricultural implements. At the time of his death in 1882, John Todd was accounted one of the most prosperous citizens of the place, being the owner of a one-half interest in the La Gro Flour Mills and more than four hundred aeres of valuable lands.
George Todd continued the lines of business thus laid down, contin- ually improving and expanding all branches. He also beeame business manager of the large flour mills situated a short distance south of La Gro, known as the Todd & McClure Mills. The younger man dealt largely in grain, and, as stated, developed a large contracting business before he moved his headquarters to Wabash. From his early man- hood he had taken a deep interest in the public affairs of the township, especially in the progress of its schools. Commeneing with 1880, he served for a number of years as school trustee, and was otherwise hon- ored. Mr. Todd is a man of family, having been married in 1875 to Miss Ada Tiller, an Indiana lady. Few were better known in La Gro than they, and their fine village residence was always the center of sociability and culture. One of their sons, also now located at Wabash, is among the younger and promising members of the Wabash County bar.
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LA GRO OF THE PRESENT
The business houses of the present La Gro are scattered for a short distance along Main Street, and the houses of the townspeople are sprinkled over pretty rises beyond. There are two or three churches in sight and a small flourmill and grain elevator. It is hard to realize that this is the booming La Gro of the '40s and '50s.
The most interesting landmark of early times is the Western House, which has been conducted by the Egnew family since 1867. On Christ- mas day of that year it was opened by Andrew Egnew and his wife, and when the former died in 1890 the son, William, joined the widow
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in its management. The Western House is the hotel noted as having been erected by Amos L. Stevenson in 1842. Of course it has been repeatedly remodeled to conform to the changing conditions of the times. In March, 1914, a smoker to the members of the Commercial ('lub was given in the parlors of the hotel, to commemorate the installa- tion of electric lights in the famous old hostelry. So that the story of the lighting of the Western House reads thus: Tallow candles, 1842; kerosene, 1868; gasoline, 1912; electricity, 1914.
The Morrow Grain Company and the La Gro Milling Company are the present-day evidences of the immense trade which eentered in the town sixty years ago. It is now the center of a fair country trade, the finances of the townsmen and farmers being handled by the Citizens State Bank of La Gro. That institution was organized March 9, 1912,
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and now has resources of $127,000. It has but recently occupied a fine new building. Present officers: Charles Hegel, president; Alex Fulton, vice president ; D. W. Gillespie, cashier.
La Gro has also been honored with a newspaper since April 1, 1912, when the first number of the Press was issued by E. W. Gumert.
La Gro has never been prolifie of newspapers. Its first journalistic attempt was in the autumn of 1849, when John Q. Howel commenced the publication of the Eagle, which fell to the ground in the following year. Then came a long pause, for it was not until July, 1874, that any representative of the press again appeared. At that time an old printer, Mr. Richards, issued the first number of the La Gro Express, which continued for three years as rather a spicy publication. Midway in its career, it had a weak rival in the La Gro Local. After the suspension of the Express in July, 1877, Mr. Richards founded the Laketon Herald.
THE M. E. CHURCH
The town has three religious bodies which are substantially sup- ported-The Methodist, Catholic and Presbyterian.
The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in La Gro by the Reverend MeLain, a local preacher, in the year 1837. This was the first Methodist Episcopal Church organized in Wabash County, and con- sisted of the following members: E. W. Benjamin, class leader, Mary Benjamin, Frank Johnson, Margaret Johnson, William Cadwell, Madaline ('adwell, and B. Abraham, seven in all.
In the fall of 1837 Rev. I. Harrison was sent on the Logansport mission. This included all the country from Logansport to Huntington, and from fifteen to twenty miles north and south of the Wabash River. During this year, R. Adams and family, with some others, moved to La Gro. This greatly encouraged the little band. In 1850, during the pastorate of the Rev. W. S. Birch, the present church edifice was built. From this little beginning, other societies have sprung up. At the pres- ent time both the La Gro and Asbury churches are in one charge.
Of the many noble laymen who stood by the church in years go te hy, may be mentioned the names of John Watkins, A. J. Robinson, John Young, Dr. J. Renner, R. H. Dare, M. Shaw, D. W. Wilson, E. N. Martin, and D. Eyestone. The following ministers have served the charge: C. W. Wilkinson, C. W. Church, L. W. Monson, N. H. Mott, A. J. Lewellen, J. B. Allman, L. M. Crider, A. C. Gerard, R. H. Smith, O. V. L. Harbour, J. D. Belt, A. S. Jones, W. W. Brown, A. E. Sarah, E. F. Gates, M. F. Murphy, B. S. Stookey, Karl H. Carlson, W. W. Wiant, and the present pastor, Harry A. P. Homer. יו
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The present membership of the La Gro Church is 200 while the membership at Asbury is sixty-five. The people in La Gro expect to have a new church edifice, costing about twelve thousand dollars, in about a year.
Asbury Church, or Asbury Chapel as it was generally called in the earlier days, was built in the fall of 1859, but preaching in connection with the society had been progressing since about 1848. The first serv- ices were held in the schoolhouse near the Disciples Church, at the eastern edge of section 16, La Gro Township, with Rev. Morrow P. Armstrong in charge. The house of worship built in 1859 and still occupied is just over the line in Noble Township.
ST. PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH
St. Patrick's Catholic Church of La Gro owes its founding to the gathering of a large number of Irish laborers and members of the faith at that point during the construction of the Wabash & Erie Canal. Several years before that period, Father Badin had stopped at La Gro and said mass, while on his way from Fort Wayne to Logansport. But the church was fairly founded when, in 1838, Thomas Fitzgibbon, one of the canal contractors, donated two lots for church purposes and a frame house of worship was crected. The list of resident pastors of St. Patrick's commences with the name of Rev. Patrick McDermott, who served the charge from 1846 to 1847. Then came Rev. Mich. C. O'Flannagan, 1847-1848 and Rev. John Ryan from 1848 to 1865. Dur- ing the earlier portion of his pastorate an addition was made to the church building, and the La Gro charge was extended so as to cover Huntington, Wabash and Warsaw. A bell was also placed in the church tower, one of the first in the county. In November, 1857, the two acres in the southeastern part of town were laid out for cemetery purposes.
During the service of Rev. Matthew E. Campion, in 1868-73, the present brick church was built, in dimensions 50 by 114 feet. It was dedicated on March 17th of the latter year. At that time, when St. Patrick's was at the height of its prosperity, it embraced some three hundred families in its ministrations.
Rev. John Grogan served from 1873 to 1882 and Rev. M. F. Kelly was his successor for a number of years. In 1888 Rev. Anthony J. Kroeger assumed the charge and during his incumbency of two years the school was opened in the old frame church. He also established the church at Andrews.
Following Father Kroeger, the successive pastors of St. Patrick's have been Revs. Jeremiah Quinlan, 1890-91; Julius Becks, 1891-94; G. M.
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Kelly, 1894-95; Michael Hanly, 1895-97; Peter J. Quinn, 1898-1907; William D. Sullivan, 1907-10; Joseph Mutch, 1910. Rev. Joseph Mutch has been pastor of St. Patrick's Church since July, 1910, and has within his jurisdiction 250 families.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
The Presbyterians of La Gro organized February 5, 1849, and dedi- cated their first house of worship April 1, 1866. The neat church which the society now occupies was completed in 1911. The present member- ship of the Presbyterian Church is 150. It is under the pastorate of Rev. M. M. Lecount, whose predecessors from the first have been as fol- lows: Revs. C. Galpin, John Fairchild, S. Sawyer, John A. Veale, W. J. Essick, E. B. Burroughs, E. B. Thompson, John J. Cook, F. M. Lynn, Andrew Luce, C. A. Kanouse, J. D. Schultz, C. D. Parker, L. H. Forde, C. K. Elliott, D. R. Burr, William Worrall and Frank H. Heydenburk.
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