USA > Indiana > Lake County > Lake County, Indiana, from 1834 to 1872 > Part 20
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Darling Church's wife was a daughter of W. Rockwell. The wife of C. L. Templeton, of Cedar Creek, is another daughter. These families came from the State of New York. Nearly all of the large Church and Cutler families are yet living, but no member is remaining in this county. Some are in Michigan, some in Illinois, some in the far West, some in Wisconsin. All are intelligent, enterpris-
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ing, and virtuous; and many are active and excellent church members in their own communities. They have been sadly missed here. Mrs. Alonzo Cutler, the third daughter of R. Church, resides in La Porte County. Her husband is wealthy and her sons enterprising.
Other members of this large family are referred to in this volume.
JUDGE BENJAMIN MCCARTY.
Succeeding Dr. Lilly on the east side of Cedar Lake, having given a county seat to Porter County, he was an active competitor for the location of the county seat in Lake County with Solon Robinson and George Earle. A village had been commenced by Dr. Lilly on the north- east declivity of the lake bank by a hotel and a store. This, for a few years, was a central point where neigh- bors gathered, where religious meetings were held, and out from which influences of some kind reached the sur- rounding settlers.
B. McCarty had a large family, consisting of his wife, two daughters, and six sons. These sons were Enoch Smiley, Wm. Pleasant, Franklin, F. Asbury, Morgan, and Jonathan. E. S. McCarty, probably in 1840, erected a brick kiln, and thus supplied the settlers with material for chimneys. The family kept some of the best horses then in the county, and the sons, two of whom were young men, gave more attention to dress and looks than most of the settlers' sons. They had enjoyed more ad- vantages than some others, and were naturally aspiring. In a few years the family moved to the prairie and opened a farm in what is now called Tinkerville, where the Hill family have resided for many past years. The
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two older sons soon commenced teaching and married. The oldest one, E. S. McCarty, married a lady from White Post; the second, W. P. McCarty, married a daughter of Rev. G. Taylor, in Pleasant Grove. The older daughter married Israel Taylor, son of Adonijah Taylor, who lived at the Outlet ; the younger daughter married George Belshaw. For several years the family remained on the farm; the father, B. McCarty, had the title of Judge, but I am unable to learn its origin.
He was not on the strong side politically, in this county, and so was not elected to the highest offices of honor or trust. He had, however, represented the two counties of Porter and Lake before becoming a citizen of Lake.
Selling his prairie farm, at length, he removed to Iowa with some of his sons. The others and one daughter, Mrs. George Belshaw, went to the Pacific coast. Frank- lin McCarty alone remained at Tinkerville on a farm.
EBENEZER SAXTON,
In whose door yard is the old Indian dancing-ground, and in whose garden is the Pottowatomie burial place of the McGwinn village, is another of the early settlers yet remaining, one whose life has been marked by many struggles, and one who has had more than an ordinary share of trials and conflicts.
Originally a native of Vermont, he came to this county from Canada, at the time of the Patriot War in 1837. (The Sherman family and M. M. Mills came from the same region at about the same time.) Having sold his Canadian farm on a credit, he started with his family in a wagon drawn by oxen, and traveled four hundred-
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miles to Detroit. He at length entered Lake County, crossed Deep River at Liverpool on a ferry boat. Eight families, it appears, were on board, with ox teams and loading. The boat sunk. The families were taken over. The boat was relieved of some of the weight, raised, caulked, and the oxen brought over. E. Saxton had now five dollars in gold. Coming to Turkey Creek, the team for the first time on the route, stuck fast in the mud. He gave two dollars to a man near by for helping them out. He reached Wiggins' cabin and entered, and rested, and finally located.
A few of his early experiences are illustrative of new settlement ways and trials.
He bought on Door Prairie ten bushels of corn for twenty days' work. Corn was two dollars a bushel, and work was one dollar a day. He gave a man one half of this to take it to mill, and obtained therefore for the work of twenty days the meal of five bushels of corn. He went to Door Prairie and rented some land of one Dr. Wilkinson, for which he was to pay two dollars an acre. The doctor delayed to write out the contract, the wheat grew and promised a large yield. The doctor denied the contract, and as it was only verbal and no witness to it was at hand, it could not be proved. E. Saxton con- sulted a lawyer. The advice given was to take two-thirds of the crop and leave one-third for the owner of the land, according to the established custom. This he did, and locked up ninety bushels in a barn, and took twenty bushels to mill. When near the mill his load upset into the water. The miller furnished him with one hundred pounds of flour. He left the wheat to dry and returned
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home. The doctor, the owner of the land, during his ab- sence, not satisfied with the landlord's third, obtained a landlord's warrant, opened the barn and had the ninety bushels sold at ten cents a bushel. All therefore that E. Saxton obtained for his labor, and for more than a hundred bushels of wheat rightfully his own, was the hundred pounds of flour. The result had been too dis- heartening for him to return to the mill. The landlord had the power and there was no redress.
One other effort in obtaining provisions met with a dif- ferent result. In March, 1838, he bought, of a man from Michigan City going to Crown Point, fifteen hundred pounds of flour. He was to pay in team work at two dollars a day. The work was to be done at Michigan City. He went with his team; did one-half of the amount of work, and was ready to do the other half; then the man discharged him, as he wanted no more work. Some time afterward the Michigan City man entered suit at Liverpool for the remainder that was due to be paid in money. A capias came for E. Saxton to appear at Liverpool. He took Wiggins along behind him on his horse. Passing out of Turkey Creek, Wiggins unfortu- nately slipped off into the water. He did not drown, and remounting, proceeded. The trial came on, the bargain was proved, and the Justice decided fifty cents in favor of the plaintiff. So the other half of the work for the fifteen hundred pounds of flour was never done. The suit disposed of the contract.
E. Saxton lost his wheat stacks one year by fire. This involved him and others in a lengthy law case.
He is now quite advanced in years, has passed through
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many vicissitudes, has evidently possessed a strong con- stitution, and enjoys a vigorous old age.
He once crossed the prairie between his home and Crown Point, to bring Solon Robinson across to Lake C. H., in the short time of twenty minutes. It was in the winter, the prairie was crusted over with ice, no fences were in the way, and his horses were fleet.
JAMES ADAMS.
In the year 1835 James Adams passed through Liver- pool on his way to Chicago or Fort Dearborn. He returned in the winter to Michigan. In January, 1837, during the Patriot's War in Canada, he was sent by Gov. Mason and Gen. Brady, from Detroit to Chicago, as mes- senger extraordinary to obtain soldiers from Fort Dear- born to aid in the defense of Detroit. There was, it may be remembered, a stage route then between these two places. The sleighing was at this time good. Warmly clad, furnished by Gen. Brady with a pair of good fur gloves, receiving instructions to make the distance in twenty-four hours if possible, he left Detroit at four P. M. in a sleigh drawn by a good stage horse. At each stop- ping place, the distance between being about twelve or fifteen miles, he gave the attending hostler a few mo- ments for changing his horse, requiring the best horse in the stable, and dashed on. At eight P. M. of the next day he entered Chicago; thus making the distance in twenty-eight hours, probably the shortest time in which a man ever passed over that route drawn by horse power. He delivered his instructions to Captain Jamison, who chartered the stage coaches and sent the soldiers imme- diately to Detroit. J. Adams was allowed to remain off duty for four weeks.
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In 1840 he was on the stage route from Michigan City to Chicago. In 1842 he bought in Lake County. In Oc- tober he became a resident, and continues to reside on his well cultivated farm between Merrillville and Hobart. He has an excellent well of water. There is a strip run- ning across that neighborhood, about three miles long and eighty rods wide, where good water can be obtained at a depth of from sixteen to eighteen feet. On each side of this narrow strip it is needful to go about forty feet to obtain water.
J. Adams is very sociable and hospitable, and the friend who finds himself there at night-fall is sure of a cordial reception, and will find well furnished rooms and abundance of home comforts.
MAJOR C. FARWELL,
The son of an early settler on West Creek, himself a member of that party who spent July 4, 1833, in the un- broken solitude of what is now the county seat of Lake, from whom I learn that several families were in that company, that they duly celebrated that anniversary day, and remained in the locality about a week,-left his father's place on West Creek, settled at School Grove, erected a blacksmith's shop, and made plows. In 1841 he removed to Crown Point, built a hewed log shop, in 1842 put up a frame building, stocked plows, and made wagons. He also made a few buggies and some cutters .. He sold out about 1851 to Dr. Farrington, went to Hick- ory Creek, remained some three years, went to Iowa City, rambled for some five years over Colorado, Idaho, and Montana, and is now residing at Carthage, Missouri. He probably should be called our first plow, wagon, and buggy manufacturer.
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DON CARLOS FARWELL,
Another member of the same family, who went westward many years ago, now resides in Virginia City, Montana Territory.
JOHN BROWN
Came to South East Grove in 1840. His brother, who has been elsewhere mentioned, came in the same year ; and another brother, Wm. Brown, still later. John Brown is one of the few men in Lake County who has lived unmar- ried. For some twenty years his home has been with the Crawford family. He owns a rich farm, is well-off, is open-hearted, sociable, and intelligent. He has passed the meridian of life.
CYRUS M. MASON
Became a resident here in 1840. The Farmer family, into which he afterward married, became residents in 1838. Mrs. Mason is therefore one of our early inhabitants. C. M. Mason was chosen as one of the two first elders of the Presbyterian Church at its organization in 1843 or 1844, and has ever since been identified with its interests. He resides a short distance east of town, has a good farm, and seems to be in a situation for spending a pleasant evening of life, as he, like the others, who "have borne the burden and heat of the day " in building foundations, looks forward to an enduring home.
AMOS HORNOR,
A young man when the members of his father's family, in 1834 and 1835, made choice selections of wild land and laid claim to woodland and prairie west of Cedar Lake, is the only one left in the county as representative of those first claimants. He came to Crown Point about
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1844, married Miss Mary White, who died April 17, 1845, at the age of eighteen years. He married again in 1857, made his home at Ross, and is one of the principal citi- zens of that village.
His brother, Henry Hornor, died May 8, 1847, being twenty-seven years of age.
The other members of that large family returned to the Wabash region.
DR. H. PETTIBONE
Is the oldest resident physician in Crown Point. He lo- cated here in 1847. (In that year, not in 1846, as given in the table of physicians, Dr. A. Stone left Crown Point). Dr. Pettibone has acquired an extensive practice. He married Mrs. H. S. Pelton, formerly Miss Eliza Hackley, and has built a nice residence on the place once occupied by H. S. Pelton and by Milo Robinson. The grove near his house is supposed to be the spot where the United States surveyors camped in the summer of 1834.
Although not himself one of the earliest settlers, his fam- ily connection places him among them. His father is a retired physician, from the East, who has been living for several years in town with his sons, the doctor and D. K. Pettibone, and his own son Henry Pettibone, having spent some time at Hanover College, is now at home, a prom- ising medical student. His older daughter is a member of the Seminary at Oxford. The younger daughter attends the home schools. Dr. Pettibone approves of educating children. His means are ample, his real estate interests being considerable and his practice still large.
In 1869 thirteen physicians of the county formed an agreement to establish uniform rates, adopting a " Fee-bill
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of the practicing physicians of Lake County, Indiana." Into this agreement Dr. Pettibone declined to enter, ad- hering to his own more moderate charges.
LUMAN A. FOWLER
Was one of the earliest settlers. His name has been sev- eral times recorded. He seems to have been the most popular man in the county for sheriff, having been elected for five terms of that office. He spent, after his first set- tlement here, some time in California. He returned here, again held office, and died in April, 1870.
MILO ROBINSON,
A brother of Solon Robinson, who engaged with him in merchandising and who kept the first public house, died, as elsewhere mentioned, in 1839.
H. S. PELTON,
A successor in location and business to those above named, was a successful merchant and rapidly accumu- lating, when he suddenly died in 1847.
W. G. MCGLASHON,
Whose date among us is 1846, has been connected with the mercantile interests of Crown Point during some twenty years. He was first a clerk for Wm. Allton, on the east side of the square, in 1850; then for Turner & Bissel, successors to J. W. Dinwiddie, on the west side, for six months; then for D. Turner, Turner & Cramer, and for Strait, during the next four years. He was then clerk in the store of A. H. Merton, successor to Turner & Cramer, for one year and a half; and leaving Merton was clerk for John G. Hoffman, on the south side, during the next year and a half. He now, in 1858, went into business for himself on the east side, in the building now
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occupied by Goulding and Son, and soon removed to the south side. In 1860 he purchased a stock of goods in Boston and occupied the building now occupied by H. P. Swartz's drug store. He here received as a partner M. L. Barber. He removed to the south side once more, kept the post office and did the express business, after the completion of the railroad; bought out M. L. Bar- ber, and finally closed business and retired to a farm some four miles south of town in 1867. In 1871 he re- turned to Crown Point and resumed the occupation of trade. This he is still continuing, in the building for- merly occupied by H. Farmer on the south side of the public square. His twenty years' experience has given him a large acquaintance with those who buy and sell in Crown Point.
HON. MARTIN WOOD,
Although not an early settler, has furnished materials. which will readily work in here.
April 4, 1848, he came among us. He commenced the practice of the law. He also taught in the public school. He married Miss S. Taylor, of Pleasant Grove, August 26, 1849. He settled on a suburban farm of fifty-five acres in 1855. Ten acres are now enclosed with ornamental trees. He has a large orchard, containing besides apples,. pears, quinces, and peaches. He has a variety of small fruit and much ornamental shrubbery. He has some twenty varieties or more of ornamental trees, rare varie- ties and a large amount of evergreens, and has devoted time and expense to adorning his place. His evergreens number about eight hundred. They include arbor vitæ, red cedar, Norway spruce, Scotch pine, white and yellow
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pine, silver spruce, Austrian pine, Weymouth pine, Sibe- rian arbor vitæ, balsam fir, and juniper. He has just erected a new dwelling-house, is having a large law prac- tice, and this fall, for the second term, has been elected a member of the State Legislature.
MAJOR E. GRIFFIN
Is our next oldest resident lawyer. His date of settle- ment is 1857. He was gaining position rapidly in his profession, and at the time of the Civil War he entered the army. He received the position of pay-master, which gave him the title of Major. Returning to Crown Point he soon obtained a very lucrative position in locating and managing the Vincennes, Danville, and Chicago railroad. He was now afflicted with disease, and returned to his home, where he spent many weary months, and for some time was not expected to mingle again in the business affairs of life. He did at length recover some degree of health, and although not able as formerly to engage in forensic arguments, is now resuming, to some extent, the practice of the law.' He has, associated with him in business, a young and promising lawyer, a late graduate of Michigan University, J. W. Youche.
He has commenced the erection of a large and costly dwelling house. He has been a large owner in Railroad Addition, and has laid out himself an addition to Crown Point.
TEACHERS.
O. H. SPENCER
Came to Lake County in 1848. He has lived ever since tear or in Hobart. He taught his first school in 1852,
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when near sixteen years of age, and has taught in this and in Porter County, near the line, forty-seven terms. His wife has taught in the same region, twenty-seven terms. Surely a good teacher's record.
REV. H. WASON,
A native of Massachusetts, for many years a resident pas- tor at Vevay, Indiana, became the first pastor of the Lake Prairie Church in 1856. He has ever since resided on Lake Prairie, is the owner of an excellent farm, has been President of the Sabbath School Convention and Agri- cultural Society, and in 1867 represented the county in the State Legislature. Both he and his wife, (who is a woman of sterling qualities, an excellent pastor's wife, a good singer), have been successful teachers. Their elder daughter graduated at Oxford recently, and the younger is now a student at that seminary. Their son, attending. the Wabash" College for a season, is now devoting his energies to the cultivation of the farm. Such families are very valuable in a community. Such peaceful, lov- ing, Christian homes, of comfort and abundance, make us think what earth and home might be.
Some one once wrote.
" Holy and fervent love ! had earth but rest For thee and thine, this world were all too fair."
MELVIN A. HALSTED.
I come again to a business man, to one whose name is written in large characters at Lowell. So near as I can ascertain, in 1845 he settled on a farm at the south end of Lake Prairie. He went to California when the gold discoveries were made known. He returned with means,
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and commenced a mill and improvements at Lowell. He laid out a town. A business centre was formed and grew quite rapidly. He drew the Pleasant Grove village prospect and interests to his mill seat and its surround- ings. He laid out money faster than it came in. Thus he became financially somewhat involved.
In 1857 he sold the Lowell mill property to Sigler, Has- kins, and Scritchfield, and went to Southern Illinois and then to California. Returning with quite ample means in 1864, he bought back the Lowell mill, bought the Mc- Carty mill, and was also the owner of the Foley mill, thus having the exclusive control of all the mill prop- erty south of Crown Point. He began to improve Cedar Lake, to make use of it as a reservoir of water for sum- mer and autumn drought. As by keeping the water up in the spring some of the low lands, meadow and marsh, south of Cedar Lake would be flooded longer than usual, the owners of these lands raised objections to his im- provements. Quite a lengthy and expensive law suit was the result, terminated at length by the rights of the land- holders being defined and secured.
Continuing to spend money rapidly, after erecting as trustee, the Lowell School House, and building with others, the brick factory, he disposed once more of all his Lowell interests, and returned to the Pacific coast to resume the business of accumulation. The order of his life seems to have been to accumulate there and to ex- pend here. One more ready and lavish in expending has not dwelt among us, and no one therefore, in proportion to his means,- and these have been quite ample-has done more in aiding useful material, and also moral and religious interests, than M. A. Halsted.
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JOHN KROST
Is one of our citizens who, by means of talent, and intel- ligence, and effort, has become prominent in the county. In April, 1853, he became a resident, first as clerk in the store of Sanders, at Hobart, for a year, then as clerk in the store of Hale and Kenney, at Merrillville, for about · six years, and then, for the next two years, a farmer. In 1862 he was elected County Treasurer, and held the office till 1867. In 1868 he was elected auditor, and is now, 1872, in the second term of that office. He is accommo- dating, courteous, and gentlemanly ; and has a pleasant home on Main Street, enjoying with his family the advan- tages of position, comforts, and refinement. His three sons, Frederick, Joseph, and John, are distinguished among the boys at Crown Point for their politeness; and if they continue to practice their present qualities they will be quite sure to unfold into a noble type of man- hood.
ZERAH F. SUMMERS,
A son of Benjamin Summers, of Ohio, came to Crown Point in November, 1854. He became County Surveyor about 1856. In 1859 he was elected County Clerk, and held that office until 1867. He married a daughter of Ambrose S. Thomas, of New York. In 1865 he erected a warehouse at the depot and commenced buying grain. He purchased the warehouse occupied by M. L. Barber, erected a grain building at Cassville, and has shipped from the three houses during these five years, a large quantity of grain.
He was engaged several months as civil engineer in laying out the Vincennes, Danville and Chicago railroad.
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He is a good engineer, an excellent business man, sharing largely in the confidence of his fellow citizens throughout the county.
JAMES H. LUTHER,
Who in 1833 settled in La Porte County, and married a Lake County girl, Miss P. A. Flint, in 1840, became a resident here in 1849. 'He kept the hotel, now the Rock- well House, from 1852 to 1854, having married, as a sec- . ond wife, Mrs. M. M. Mills. In 1852 he was elected Justice of the Peace. In 1860 he was elected County Auditor and held the office for two terms. He discharged the duties of that office with great fidelity. He has also held the offices of Township Assessor and of School Di- rector. He is one of the Crown Point capitalists. Whether a lineal descendant or not of Martin Luther the Reformer, he has not been able yet fully to establish ; but he is strongly in favor of social reforms, and is liberal in his views in regard to religious teachings. He possesses excellent qualities as a citizen, a neighbor, and a friend, and is deservedly held in high esteem by those who share his friendship and confidence.
MRS. MARIAH ROBINSON.
I make room for the names of a few representative women in this Chapter of Sketches, but have records concerning only a few. The following extracts are taken from the Crown Point Register of March 7, 1872 :
" Mrs. Robinson was born November 16, 1799, near Philadelphia, in which city her early life was spent. She was married to Solon Robinson in Cincinnati on the 12th of May, 1828, and after a few years removed with him to Madison, Indiana, subsequently to Rock Creek, in Jen-
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nings County, and in 1834 she came with her husband, an assistant, and two small children, beyond the then borders of civilization, to this extreme northwest corner of Indiana. They journeyed hence by the slow and meas- ured tread of oxen, camping out nights, and cooking their own meals each day. They found here nothing but the rude wigwams of the red man ; " and Mrs. Rob- inson saw their log cabin rise, "watching its progress with peculiar interest, as the little kingdom which she was soon to enter as queen. Ah ! those happy days of privation, and struggles, and hardships, when the woman of such indomitable energy and perseverance is permit- ted to work side by side, hand in hand, with her co-worker, to lay the foundation of a future home of plenty and comfort, where, surrounded by her family, she expects to glide softly down the decline of life, enjoying the reward of her faithful labors! But alas ! in this case, a hope so cruelly blighted. All the hardships of pioneer life were hers to encounter, and all the privations as well as all the indescribable terrors one experiences when settling among only savages." Often, when she was alone with her chil- dren, the Indians would call into her cabin, and at first she was quite startled by some of their actions. They never, however, offered to do any real harm.
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