USA > Indiana > Lake County > Lake County, Indiana, from 1834 to 1872 > Part 13
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This much is sure. French explorers passed near Ce- dar Lake at that timc; the Indians certainly lived there and had some intercourse with the French. I imagine La Salle himself, standing on that height, and for some
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purpose, which we can never know, inserting that instru- ment of steel within the bark of the young oak. And now, two hundred years afterward, into the hands of children of the West, descendants of English Puritans and French Huguenots, that durable metallic memento has come, perchance, from the hand of that noted explorer, the French La Salle.
EXTRACTS FROM THE FIRST RECORD BOOK OF BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF LAKE COUNTY.
" MEMORANDUM-FORMATION OF THE COUNTY.
" By an act of the Legislature approved on the 28th day of January, 1836, the county of Lake was erected out of the counties of Porter and Newton, and comprises all that tract lying west of the centre of Range seven West, and North of the Kankakee River, which contains about Five Hundred Sections of land."
Until February 15, 1837, it was attached to Porter county.
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ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.
By an act of the Legislature, approved on the 18th day of January, 1837, the county was declared to be an independent county after the 15th day of February, 1837.
On the 8th day of March, 1837, Henry Wells was com- missioned Sheriff, and by order of a writ of election to him directed, due notice as the law directs, being given, an election was held on the 28th day of March, at the house of Samuel D. Bryant, under the direction of E. W. Bryant, inspector ; and at the house of R. Eddy, under the direction of William Clark, inspector; and at the house of A. L. Ball, under the direction of Wm. S. Thorn- bury, inspector ; for the purpose of electing a Clerk of
1
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INCIDENTS AND ITEMS.
the Circuit Court, and a Recorder of the County, and two Associate Judges, and three Commissioners of the County.
By the returns from the several polls, duly made to the Sheriff, on Wednesday, the 29th of March, it appeared that for the office of Clerk, Solon Robinson had thirty- eight votes; D. Y. Bond had twenty-one votes; and L. A. Fowler had seventeen votes ; and Solon Robinson was declared to be duly elected.
For the office of Recorder, William A. W. Holton had fifty votes, and J. V. Johns had twenty-two votes. And said Holton was declared duly elected.
For the offices of Associate Judges, William B. Crooks had fifty-one votes; William Clark had fifty votes ; Sam- uel D. Bryant had twenty-eight votes; Horace Taylor, one vote; and said Crooks and Clark were declared duly elected.
For the offices of County Commissioners, Amsi L. Ball had seventy-eight votes ; S. P. Stringham, and Thos. Wiles each had fifty-nine votes. The tie being decided by lot as the law directs. Amsi L. Ball was declared duly elected for the term of three years; Thomas Wiles was declared duly elected for the term of two years; S. P. Stringham was declared duly elected for the term of one year. The said Commissioners, being duly commis- sioned by the Sheriff, appointed the 5th day of April for the first meeting of the board to be held at the house of Solon Robinson, the place appointed by law for holding the Courts of the County.
"S. P. STRINGHAM, P. B."
The first meeting of this first Board of Commissioners was held April 5, 1837.
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They appointed Solon Robinson for their Clerk ; adopted a county seal ; appointed John Russell Assessor ; divided the county into three commissioner's districts and three townships, the townships having the same bounds as the districts and being named North, Cen- tre, and South; ordered elections for Justice of the , Peace in each township; appointed Inspectors, and Constables, and Fence Viewers, and Overseers of the Poor for each township; and formed road districts and appointed Supervisors. They also, at their sec- ond day's session fixed the constable's bonds at three hundred dollars; appointed J W. Holton Treasurer of the County, and Milo Robinson Trustee of the Semi- nary Fund, and Agent of the Three per Cent. Fund, fixing the bond of the latter, as Agent, at three thousand dol- lars, and as Trustee at two hundred, and of the former, as Treasurer, at two thousand dollars. They ordered the Clerk to issue a summons to Samuel Haviland to show cause why his ferry license should not be abated, and made provision for county maps.
They ordered a bounty of one dollar on wolf scalps.
They instructed the Sheriff to prevent any person from taking pine timber away from the public or school lands of the county, and to bring such offenders to justice.
They made arrangements for Grand, and Petit Jurors for a fall term of Circuit Court, gave some special instruc- tions to the Clerk, and adjourned until May of the same year.
A certificate of one dollar wolf scalp bounty was granted to W. W. Paine, April 20, 1837, payable April I, 1839.
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INCIDENTS AND ITEMS.
At the May Term the Commissioners granted a license to Vincent Matthews, to keep a ferry across the Calumet River, charging for the license two dollars, and establish- ing rates of toll, for a footman six and a fourth cents ; for man and horse twelve and a half; for a horse and wagon and passengers, twenty-five cents; for two horses and the same, thirty-seven and a half cents ; and for cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs, three cents per head. This ferry was near the Illinois line.
They also granted license to Henry Frederickson, Na- thaniel Davis, and John B. Chapman, proprietors, of Liverpool, "to keep a ferry on and over Deep River, in said town," charging them ten dollars, and fixing some ower rates of toll; and they granted license to A. P ... Bucklin, and Foster Murdock, to keep a tavern in the ltown of Liverpool. This license fee was also ten dollars ..
They appointed Wm. N. Sykes County Surveyor, and. Henry Wells, Collector of State and County Revenue.
They granted licenses to keep tavern on the " Beach of Lake Michigan" and " the shore of Lake Michigan,"' to Horace Stevens, John Craig, and Hannah Berry, on! the payment of six dollars each.
I am unable to ascertain where Hannah Berry kept her tavern, but perhaps it was near Berry Lake, called on some maps, as I think inaccurately, Lake George. The proper Lake George is laid down north-east from Dyer, " water from one to eight feet deep." See Colton's Map of Indiana.
The Commissioners also granted licenses to S. J. Cady, and David Gibson, for six dollars each, to keep taverns on the Sand Ridge Road. These two names and places
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are yet quite well known. The tavern stands on the shore of Lake Michigan are obliterated.
The Commissioners also appointed Township Trustees for the following Congressional townships :
Thirty-two, Range nine, Simeon Beedle, John McLain, Horace Wood.
Thirty-three, Range nine, Jacob Mendenhall, Thomas Wiles, D. M. Dille.
Thirty-four, Range nine, P. S. Mason, David Hornor, Daniel May.
Thirty-three, Range eight, E. W. Bryant, Ephraim Hitchcock, Orrin Smith.
Thirty-four, Range eight, Joseph P. Smith, J. W. Hol- ton, Milo Robinson.
Thirty-five, Range eight, Jonathan Brown, H. D. Pal- mer, Jeremiah Wiggins.
Thirty-four, Range seven, L. Hixon, - Thayer, - Lindsey.
Thirty-five, Range seven, John Wood, Robert Wilkin- sön, Wm. Hodson.
Thirty-six, Range nine, George Whittemore, S. J. Cady, and Wm. N. Sykes.
Road Viewers were also appointed to serve without compensation.
One Stephen Smith was found retailing spiritous liq- uors without license, and the Sheriff was ordered to attend to him. Arrangements were made for building bridges, and other matters were arranged, and the Board adjourned. Record. "May 15. Smith appeared and demanded a license on an insufficient petition. Re- fused."
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May 29 .- Licenses granted to Stephen Smith, J. S. Dille, and Thomas M. Dustin, to sell foreign and domes- tic groceries, and to Robinson & Co., and Calvin Lilley, to sell foreign and domestic groceries, and dry goods. Cost of each license, five dollars. License was also granted to Calvin Lilley to keep a tavern at Cedar Lake. Cost, fifteen dollars. Why he was required to pay more than the others does not appear. His was probably a large hotel.
On the same day the sum of forty-five dollars was al- lowed to John Russell for assessing the county.
May 30 .- Joseph P. Smith was appointed School Com- missioner, and S. P. Stringham, Surplus Revenue Agent.
June 19 .- Permit granted to Russel Stilson to re- tail goods, and keep a tavern in Liverpool.
July 17 .- Permit granted to Benjamin Rich to keep a tavern in Liverpool.
July 31 .- Permit to Samuel Miller to retail foreign merchandise at his store on Deep River.
In August, 1837, was held the first general election. Candidates for State Senator that year were : J. H. Brad- ley, who received forty-nine votes; and C. Cathcart, who received eighty-six votes.
The candidates for Representatives were: J. Hammell, of Porter, who received sixty-five votes; and A. L. Ball, of Lake, who received seventy votes.
The candidates for Probate Judge were: Peleg S. Mason, who received thirty-five votes ; and R. Wilkin- son, who received sixty-six votes.
H. S. Pelton was elected School Commissioner, and Luman A. Fowler, Sheriff.
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LAKE COUNTY.
Milo Robinson had been appointed County Agent June 5th.
November 16 .- Liverpool ferry license revoked.
November 17 .- Abner Stillson, Jr., was appointed, un- der certain provisions, to keep the Liverpool ferry.
The same day a new county seal was adopted, " the · impress of which represents a ship under full sail upon water, and a foreground with a plow and sheaf, and sur- rounded by these words, 'Lake County Circuit Court, Indiana.' "
January 1, 1838 .- Joseph Jackson received a license to retail foreign goods and dry groceries, in the south- west part of the county, " on a capital not exceeding one thousand dollars." Cost of license five dollars. This seems to be the first of the early merchants whose capi- tal the Commissioners saw fit to limit.
PETER OLSEN DIJSTERND.
Under date of this same, January 1, I find the follow- ing :
" That the Board will take the several accounts of the Overseers of the Poor of Centre Township, presented for expense of a transient pauper, deceased, at Aaron Cox's, under advisement until to-morrow morning."
January 2 .- Ordered, "That the sum of thirteen dol- lars be allowed Aaron Cox; that the sum of twelve dol- lars be allowed Jonathan Griffin ; that the sum of four dollars be allowed Horace Egerton ; that the sum of two dollars be allowed Calvin Lilly ; in all, thirty-one dollars, on account expense of Peter Oleson, a transient pauper, under charge of Overseers of Poor of Centre Township."
REMARKS.
I am sorry to see, with my knowledge of the facts, the
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INCIDENTS AND ITEMS.
names of old neighbors and friends in such an account as the above. For their sakes I would gladly have left it in oblivion ; but justice and right are sacred things, and I propose to do that justice to Peter O. Dijsternd, which I would wish, in like circumstances, paid to my own memory. He was a young Norwegian, of fine appear- ance, well connected in life, passing through this region as a traveler, endeavoring to reach a settlement further on towards the southwest. He was traveling with an- other man in a buggy, and, being too sick to continue his journey, was left at the house of Aaron Cox. The other traveler went on his way. Peter O. Dijsternd was unable to talk English; he might have had better care and attention than he did receive ; and in a few days he
died. I saw his body buried, and, as an observing and pitying boy of eleven years of age heard some of the side remarks. All the care and attention which he received was no more, was not so much in fact, surely no more than Western hospitality demanded from strangers to a sick and suffering stranger. And more. Aaron Cox soon afterward went southward, and after he returned, in some conversation where I was a boy listener, he, in mentioning inquiries or remarks about this young Norwegian, made where he had been, drop- ped the expression that he "never let on." It was then to me a new hoosierism, and I wondered what it meant. I know its meaning and can guess its significancy now. Surmises only I do not propose here to give. But still more. When the news of Olsen's death reached his uncle in New York City, that uncle, Peter Sather, a broker of means, intelligence, and culture, came to Cedar Lake ;
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LAKE COUNTY.
learned what particulars he could concerning his neph- ew's sickness, death, and burial ; purchased, as elsewhere stated, the ground where he was buried ; and returned to New York. Before me now lies the slip on which he wrote his own address, " Peter Sather, Exchange Broker, 164 Nassau street, New York;" and his nephew's full name, " Peder Olsen Dijsternd, from Norway." Now, I am sure that the uncle who would leave his business as an exchange broker, in New York, and incur the expense of a journey to Cedar Lake, at that early day, to learn something about the death and burial of a young nephew who was probably just over from Norway and penetrating into the West to find a home, was not the man to have refused to pay any proper charges connected with a lone, friendless, sickness, death, and burial; and the young Norwegian stranger, whose dust reposes in a mound near Cedar Lake, having such an uncle, was not a man whose mutilated name ought to stand upon our official records. as a "transient pauper," whose sickness, and medical at- tendance, and burial, cost the county of Lake the sum of thirty-one dollars. It must have been a pauper's care and a pauper's burial that he received. It is not reasonable that this young Norwegian left his uncle's office in New York, to journey westward, without money or its equiva- lent. Whatbecame of his means I know not; but I pro- pose here to take out his name from the list of the pau- pers of Lake. Justice was not done to him by those in whose hands he died. I claim for his memory and rest- ing place the respect and care which are justly and richly due. Well as I remember that first burial witnessed at Cedar Lake, but a day or two after I became a resident
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INCIDENTS AND ITEMS.
of the county, and how much a small group of new set- tlers pitied the sad, untimely, death of that fine appear- ing young foreigner ; and distinctly as I remember the circumstances of the visit of the courteous, gentlemanly broker from New York ; I had no thought, till reaching. the written page before me, that such accounts were ever presented to our Commissioners. I hope not to die among those who cannot understand my speech ; or among those who could not give me shelter for three or four days, and then commit my lifeless dust to the earth,. without calling me a transient pauper. For the credit of Lake county civilization I disclaim this record.
I here close the Commissioners' Record Book.
FROM A PAGE OF THE CLAIM REGISTER. " LAKE COUNTY.
" This county contains 508 sections of land, about 400 of which are dry, tillable ground. To find the exact geo- graphical centre of the county draw a line east and west through the centre of Section 8, Town 34, Range 8, and it will be found that the south part contains three sec- tions more than the north half. Then draw a line north and south through the centre of the same Section 8, and it will be found that the west half contains 69 sections more than the east half. Now take the N. E. quarter of the county as divided by the aforesaid supposed lines, which contains 10814 sections, and add it to the S. W. quarter, which contains 14434 sections, and 253 sections will be found as the quantity contained in these two quar- ters of the county.
" Then take the S. E. quarter, which contains 11034 sec- tions, and add it to the N. W. quarter, which contains-
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14414 sections, and 255 sections will be found as the quantity contained in these two quarters of the county ; which is a difference of only two sections from making the aforesaid centre of Section 8, the true geographical centre of the county.
" The tillable land is as equally divided between the aforesaid supposed quarters of the county."
THE TEN MILE LINE.
In some of the deeds to be found in the Recorder's Office is the following boundary description :
"South of Ten Mile Line on Section Thirty-two." A question arises, What is meant by this Ten Mile Line ?
On Field Note Records in the Recorder's Office, page 53, is the following explanation of a line drawn east and west, "South Boundary of Ten Mile Purchase." On page 54 of the same Records this same line is called " Indiana Boundary Line." The following is evidently the explanation of the two names for the one line. In the Constitution of Indiana, Article XIV., Boundaries, it is ordained and declared that the State of Indiana is bounded on the east by the western meridian line of Ohio; on the south by the Ohio River from the Great Miami to the Wabash ; on the west by the Wabash River till leaving the main bank on a line due north from Vin- cennes, " thence, by a due north line, until the same shall intersect an east and west line, drawn through a point ten miles north of the southern extreme of Lake Michigan ; on the north, by said east and west line, until the same shall intersect the first-mentioned meridian line, which forms the western boundary of the State of Ohio." It is to be supposed that the originators of this west boun-
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dary line expected that the northwest corner of Indiana would be on or near the shore of Lake Michigan, but it happens to be some distance out in the lake. The line drawn from the extreme south part of Lake Michigan to the west line of the State is therefore an " Indiana Boundary Line" and a Ten Mile Line, being the bound from which we are to measure ten miles northward into Lake Michigan to find our true northern limit.
Again. In 1828 there was acquired by treaty with the Pottawatomies a strip of land ten miles in width along the northern boundary of Indiana extending, in a narrow strip, to the extreme south limit of Lake Michigan. The northern boundary of the State being then the same as de- fined by the Constitution, it is evident that the line bound- ing the southern limit of this first purchase would meet that other line at the south limit of Lake Michigan, and so both would form a continuous straight line. The east- ern part of this line in our county is therefore justly called "South Boundary of Ten Mile Purchase."
According to Colton's Map of Indiana, "compiled from United States surveys," a north and south line in Indiana has quite a different direction from a north and south line in Illinois. If our west line had the direction from the Wabash River northward of an Illinois north and south line, South Chicago would be included in Lake county. As it now is, the northern boundary of our county, instead of being, as stated in Chapter I, of this book, the beach line of Lake Michigan, is a line due east and west on the surface of that lake ten miles north of our noted " Ten Mile Line." All the fish therefore and fisheries connected with some one hundred and twenty-
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five miles of Lake Michigan belong, evidently, to the in- habitants of Lake.
INDIAN FLOATS.
An Indian " float " was something like a soldiers' land warrant. When this region was purchased from the In- dians, instead of their reserving certain definite tracts or . parcels of land, the United States issued to some of their head men a number of land warrants or documents called " floats," by the possesion of which they were authorized to select and own so much land within the purchase, un- der certain restrictions. It is said that section eight, on which Crown Point now stands, was selected by an In- dian or his agent, and a float laid upon it; but certain influences induced the Land Office Agent at La Porte to slip the float over, in his record, on to section seventeen. So eight was entered and seventeen, joining it on the south, went into the hands of a great fur trader. Floats were laid on only some ten or twelve sections of land in the county, and most of these were near the Calumet.
INDIAN MOUNDS.
Several of these were mentioned in Chapter III. I . have since ascertained that there were very many in the county, on the islands of the Kankakee Marsh, on West Creek, west and northwest of Centreville, and probably elsewhere. Their actual number no one can now deter- mine. Some have been opened, and very large human bones have been exhumed.
VIEWS.
For a prairie region we have a few picturesque, and many beautiful, and some grand landscape views. Near Lake Station, from the summit of a sand hill, on the east
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INCIDENTS AND ITEMS.
side of the road, the northward view on a clear summer's afternoon, contains picturesque elements. The eye rests upon a part of the valley of Deep River ; and just be- yond is the village of Lake, surrounded by hills and woods, the fans for raising water reminding one of Don Quixote's windmills, and the vegetation giving evidence of the beds of sand from which it derives its nourish- ment.
The railroad grounds are the largest and neatest in the county, and the distance is just sufficient to give to the buildings a fine effect.
Another landscape view, picturesque and truly pretty. appears from an eminence near the residence of W. T. Dennis. The northward view is of a small section of Deep River Valley, which there resembles a New Eng- land meadow; thick trees skirt the river, a part of the interval is covered with willows and grape vines, another part is a rich harvest field and meadow land, and over the whole scene the summer's sun spreads light and beauty amid the green herbage, and foliage, and waving grain. Of those views containing more fully the ele- ments of beauty may be named a few from the hill-tops of North Township, the sweep of vision from these ta- king in a portion of Lake Michigan's blue waters, and the pines, and sand hills, and valleys of the shore.
Along the ridge between Deep River and Turkey Creek, as one comes westward, near the Red School House, are some fine views. Northward the eye glances over the woodland ridges running parallel with the Calumet, and southward and westward it takes in a broad sweep of slightly undulating prairie. From this ridge, across
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prairie and valley, Crown Point presents a very pleasant picture, as it stands forth in the sunlight upon its prairie and wood-crowned height. This town also presents a fine appearance, against the blue woods back of it, from a summit near the eastern limit of the county. South of the east line of Crown Point, along the north and south road on the prairie, are some very fine, perhaps grand, landscape views, extending over a magnificently rolling prairie, and across the dry and wet marsh to the Kanka- kee timber, which in the distance presents a long line of blue. On Lake Prairie also are some beautiful pros- pects, from some of the large eminences, the range of vision taking in the whole of that lovely prairie, bounded by that same blue line on the south, woods on the west, Cedar Creek woods on the east, and a glimpse being ob- tained from some heights of the bright water of Cedar Lake on the northeast, if the sun should then be shining down on its crystal depths.
Another beautiful prospect appears, amid the sum- mer's sunshine, on the Joliet road, one-half mile west of Centreville. From the Stone Church on the northeast around the horizon, till the eye rests on the grove and valley in which was once McGwinne's Indian village on the east, the whole view is beautiful. And yet one more may be named ; the landscape that suddenly spreads out before one, who is coming northward in Eagle Creek, and emerges from the shrubbery on an eminence overlooking the region of Cassville.
We have not, like the lands of the Old World, any an- cient historic records or traditions, linked with grove, or stream, or prairie slope, or even with the Lake of the
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Red Cedars. The Red Men's remains are all of human hopes and fears, that are associated with morass, or hill- top, lake, woodland, or plain, beyond the experiences of this generation. Leave them out of thought, and they are almost out of our knowledge, and our region, for its long great past, reminds us only of primeval nature.
Amid such scenes, in whose vastness and wildness we laid foundations, the primative influence which natural scenery is said to exert upon the style and the taste of individuals may have moulded some minds into a pecu- liar love for untrodden wilds, and for freedom, and for magnificence. If it be true, as a certain critic, Gilfillan, states : "We firmly believe that the scenery of one's youth gives a permanent bias and coloring to the genius, the taste, and the style; that is, if there be an intellect to receive an impulse, or a taste to catch a tone:"-then, in some respects, the impressible youth of this county have enjoyed in the past, and may still enjoy in the fu- ture, advantages for cultivating a love of native beauty, and a love for an enlarged freedom. One reared amid our prairie prospects, accustomed to a broad range of vision, should take no narrow views of life's relations or life's duties.
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