USA > Indiana > Lake County > Lake County, Indiana, from 1834 to 1872 > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
" Thus commenced Mrs. Robinson's life in this place - a life of toil and hardship, which has continued such until within the past few years.
" In 1852 her desertion by her husband, leaving her with the care of her four children, at an age when a father's influence was most needed, left her worse than widowed. Yet through the twenty remaining years of
335
SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
her life, in which griefs have multiplied, having buried both her sons in early manhood, she has nevertheless maintained her characteristic cheerfulness, ever closing her heart upon her own sorrows but opening it always to the wants and griefs of others. The poor have always blessed her for her charities. The sick have been cheered and comforted by her care and sympathy. Sabbath Schools and benevolent societies have never had their solicitations refused, and churches have shared alike in her generosity.
" She was truly a remarkable woman ; possessed of a remarkable degree of efficiency and executive ability ; companionable alike to old and young; always cheerful and vivacious, she was always welcomed into any circle ; and never at enmity with any person in the place during all these forty years."
She died February 28, 1872, at the residence of her son-in-law, Frank S. Bedell. Her two daughters, Mrs. J. S. Strait, of Minnesota, and Mrs. L. G. Bedell, were with her during her last days.
"She welcomed death, and her life went out sweetly, peacefully, with a sustaining faith in God."
MRS. H. HOLTON
Has been mentioned as the first teacher whose name is on record here. She also was one of the pioneer women in the country, coming in February, 1835. She is still living near Crown Point with her son, J. A. W. Holton, being almost four-score and ten years old.
MRS. JUDGE CLARK,
Settling at the same time, died many years ago.
336
LAKE COUNTY.
MRS. L. A. FOWLER,
Whose husband was for many years so prominent in offi- cial life, is yet living in a pleasant residence in the north- west part of town.
MRS. J. P. SMITH,
Is also yet living, and spends part of her time in the West and a part with her daughter, Mrs. Keily, in Crown Point.
MRS. R. FANCHER AND MRS. HENRY WELLS, Also both died several years ago.
MRS. RUSSELL EDDY,
Still another of the first settlers in Crown Point, a woman of great industry, energy, and hospitality, a very active member of the Presbyterian Church, also died a number of years ago. She was, so far as is known, the first Sun- day School teacher in Lake County, and as such her name is here recorded for honorable remembrance. She was a member of a large Massachusetts family, and at that time, before any Presbyterian or Baptist Church had been organized, she was holding a letter of dismission from the Baptist Church at Troy, New York. The first annual report of the Secretary of the Lake County Sun- day School Convention, contains this record : " Hers is the first name in the Sabbath Schools of our county. Her school was commenced probably in 1837, four years after the first school held in Chicago. It was not called a Sunday School on account of the opposition to religion all around her, but was a gathering of the children to study the Scriptures."
MRS. LUCY TAYLOR,
Wife of Adonijah Taylor, of East Cedar Lake, and
337
SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
mother of a large family of children, an estimable woman, an affectionate wife and mother, making home pleasant by her cheerfulness and life, was born in Vermont, Au- gust 12, 1792. She was one of the first four or five women making homes for their husbands and children on the east side of the lake. She was baptized by Elder Thomas Hunt in 1850, and became a member of the Ce- dar Lake Church. She was the last but one of all the early matrons in that part of the county, and died Decem- ber 10, 1869, being seventy-seven years of age.
MRS. J. A. H. BALL
Has been already mentioned as one of the first teachers. She is the last survivor, in this region, of the early set- tlers around Cedar Lake, who were then in or near the prime of life. The daughter and grand-daughter of phy- sicians who attained considerable success in their pro- fession, and who had practiced for long years in the same town and resided on the same spot, she either inherited or had acquired skill and inclination for the practice of medicine. Bringing from her father's home a well filled medicine chest, lancets, tooth-pulling instruments, apoth- ecaries' scales and weights, with the knowledge of their uses, she found these all extremely useful to her own fam- ily and to her neighbors amid the prevailing sickness of 1838 and the wants and accidents of many later years. Her education in the best schools of the city of Hart- ford just when Mrs. Sigourney retired from the position of a teacher, when Prof. Sumner and Mrs. Lincoln were giving instructions in natural science, and Prof. Patton was conducting a school in which both the solid and or- namental branches were taught, and her acquaintance
338
LAKE COUNTY.
with those who were the leaders in literary and social life in that city between the years 1819 and 1824, fitted her peculiarly for teaching. Botany until about this time had been taught in Latin, but it was now introduced in an English garb into Hartford by Dr. Sumner, a distin- guished botanical author, whose lectures she attended ; having also for a teacher a grand daughter of Gen. Put- nam. The botanical knowledge here gained, having a teacher so enthusiastic, was very accurate and practical. She had also, a rare acquirement even now, given atten- tion to Hebrew, and wrote those old characters with facil- ity and beauty. But her training in her father's home fitted her for a very different and highly needful service. She dispensed medicine not only to her own family but to her neighbors, in what is now the township of Hanover. She was often called for to visit the sick, and to go for miles in the still hours of night where there was human suffering. If she considered the patient quite dangerous she would recommend the calling of a physician. If not very dangerous she would treat the case herself.
Small in person, but of dauntless courage and great nerve power, she extracted teeth for stout men and women who wondered that she had so much strength. She bled when necessary.
One day Thomas Farlow, of Michigan City, was brought into her home quite seriously hurt by having been thrown from his wagon. To prevent inflammation or congestion it was needful for him to be bled. She took her lancet and bled him with the coolness and suc- cess of an army surgeon. Had she given attention to surgery, so far as entire control of her nerves was con-
P
339
SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
cerned, she would have taken off a limb from her own child or a stranger, if necessity required it, with entire calmness. But needlessly she would never inflict pain. For medicines and for extracting teeth I think she gener- ally received pay, for her time she received no remuner- ation. Thus, for many years, she performed to quite an extent the duties of a female physician, besides attend- ing to her household duties, having the care, as a very faithful mother, of seven children, and performing a teacher's work. She had in those days very keen eyesight, and although her health remained firm, her eyes, proba- bly from excessive night-work, before the days of sewing machines, gave way. She suffered with them for years and nearly lost the sight of one.
Although in the decline of life she has as yet firm health, a descendant of a long-lived family, and still attends to the wants of the suffering where duty calls. Had she commenced life some years later, and so shared the opportunities now granted to women, she would quite surely have become a distinguished female physician. As it is she has in this department served her generation well. .
A member in her young days of the Baptist Church at Agawam, Massachusetts, she was a member of the Cedar Lake Church, and afterward of the Baptist Church at Crown Point, and now is a member of the North Street Church. She is quite generally known in the central and southern parts of the county.
There are many others, no longer among us, of whom it would be pleasant to have some memorials preserved,
340
LAKE COUNTY.
but I find little material for making any records concern- ing them. Among these I name H. Nordyke, Solomon Russell, Jonathan Gray, Lyman Mann, Calvin Lilley, Adonijah Taylor, Horace Taylor, Horace Egerton, S. P. Stringham, John Foley, and Washington Dille around Ce- dar Lake. And there were, it may be remembered, more than four hundred others ; but few of whose names, per- haps, can be snatched. from oblivion. Some have written their names, as it were, in a bold hand across the county, and they will not soon fade out; others only made an entry in some corner, in dim characters, and already these are illegible. The legibility of the name will not prove the worth of the man.
There are also a number yet remaining among us, whom if I begin to name, I shall not know where to stop, who may justly feel that they are entitled to a record. upon these pages. And no doubt they are; but which: one of them has furnished me any material for such a record ? Perhaps when a revised edition is published the material will be readily obtained. I have made records where I found material; but do not claim to have made records concerning all who were meritorious.
I claim, however, for all who endured the privations,. hardships, and exposures, which were' the lot of those. planting our social and civil institutions upon this then virgin soil, and who murmured not nor repined, a part of that meed of praise recognized as due to the founders of States. Some of them were encouraged, I trust, by what President Elliott says animated the founders of Harvard University, " The beautiful hope of doing good." He whose soul is glowing with this hope is nerved for no lit- tle endurance.
341
SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
I hope that over the resting-place of none of them might truthfully be written the old, severe epitaph :
" Here lies a man who did no good, And if he'd lived he never would : Where he's gone and how he fares, Nobody knows and nobody cares."
There is authoritative teaching somewhere, that we should do good to all men as we have opportunity.
Young men of Lake have gone out into other counties: and States, and have been succeeding well. Eli Church,. from Western Prairie, member of the Cedar Lake Ly- ceum, went to the Pacific coast and accumulated, in the. staging business, some forty thousand dollars.
Edwin Church and brothers, sons of Darling Church,. are now doing a business in one of the towns of Michigan,. amounting, it is said, to one hundred thousand dollars a year.
Darius G. Farwell has been carrying on a drug store in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. E. J. Farwell is now practic- ing medicine in Chicago, and also carrying on a drug. store.
E. B. Warriner is engaged in one of the large furniture stores of Kankakee City.
William Hill is engaged in large farming operations. near the Pacific coast.
Ross Bryant went, years ago, to Valparaiso, made money, and has lately opened a commission house in Chicago.
-
342
LAKE COUNTY.
There are now growing up in the county a number of promising boys, whose strong arms and active minds will be needed ere long in life's duties and conflicts. For what posts of duty, or for what walks in life, they are fitting, no human foresight can tell. We have no richer treasures than our truly obedient, polite, modest, truth- ful, and therefore noble boys. May they not share in that experience which N. P. Willis has vividly portrayed in his poem on "Ambition," and find they have gained at last
"All things but love - when love is all we want." .
And there are also in our homes many fair and lovely girls, as frail perhaps as fair, -" rose-like in beauty," -- who, if properly nurtured and trained, may yet reach a vigorous, glorious womanhood. And they too will be needed. Earth has many paths for them to tread. As teachers, or physicians, or missionaries, or writers, or ar- tists, open pathways are before them. They are our jewels, and they need to be carefully polished and faith- fully guarded.
" There is light in the cabin of Long Bow, for the Red Fawn is there." Said of Indian father and Indian maiden. These make much of the light in our homes now, and all too soon will they try for themselves life's realities. A generous culture for body and mind is what they need to fit them for toil ; for earth's daughters should toil as well as earth's sons. They should toil, but not drudge; should be cherished and loved, not petted and spoiled. As the daughters now are trained so will the future mothers be. Well will it be if these learn what
343
SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
Monod has said of woman, " Her vocation by birth is a vocation of charity."
PRINCIPAL OFFICERS OF LAKE COUNTY.
I have made these lists from a comparison of different county records, correcting from other sources where they were incomplete.
SHERIFFS.
Henry Wells, appointed by the Governor March 8, 1837; Luman A. Fowler, 1837 ; J. V. Johns, 1839 ; Rollin T. Tozier, 1841 ; Henry Wells, 1843; Henry Wells, 1845 ; Luman A. Fowler, 1847; Luman A. Fowler, 1849; Janna S. Holton, 1851 ; S. B. Strait, 1853; Job D. Bonnell, 1855 ; Jesse E. Pierce, 1857 ; L. A. Fowler, 1859 ; L. A. Fowler, 1861; Andrew Krimbill, 1863 ; Andrew Krimbill, 1865 ; H. G. Bliss, 1867; H. G. Bliss, 1870; John Donche, 1872.
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.
A. L. Ball, S. P. Stringham, and Thomas Wiles, first board, elected 1837. In January, 1838, H. D. Palmer, appointed by the Circuit Court, took the place of A. L. Ball, who had resigned to run for representative. In May, Benaiah Barney, appointed by the Associate Judges, took the place of H. D. Palmer, appointed Associate Judge; Derastus Torrey, 1838; Henry Wells, 1839; W. Rockwell, 1840. (Some uncertainty here, as members of the first board were probably reelected, and that fact I do not find recorded). W. N. Sykes, 1843. (Again uncertainty). S. T. Greene, 1846 ; S. Parrish, 1847 ; Au- gustine Humphrey, 1847 ; Robert Wilkinson, 1848. (Some omission here). A. D. Foster, 1854; A. Humphrey, 1856; G. W. Lawrence, 1857 ; John Underwood, 1858 ;
344
LAKE COUNTY.
Adam Schmal, 1857; G. L. Foster, 1861 ; Daniel F. Saw- yer, 1861 ; A. Schmal, 1862 ; Aaron Konkright, 1862 ; G. L. Foster, 1863; A. Konkright, 1864; Wm. Brown, 1866; Alvin Green, 1867 ; H. C. Beckman, 1867; K. M. Burn- ham, 1870; J. Burge, 1870.
PROBATE JUDGES.
Robert Wilkinson, elected in 1837; Hervey Ball, 1844; David Turner, 1849. Office abolished in 1851.
CLERKS.
Solon Robinson, 1837-'43 ; Joseph P. Smith, 1843-'47 ; D. K. Pettibone, 1847-'59 ; Z. F. Summers, 1859-'67 ; W. WV. Cheshire, 1867 --.
RECORDERS.
W. A. W. Holton, 1837; J. P. Smith, August 1838. The office was probably held by him until he was elected Clerk, and then the two offices were united in one per- son till 1845. Major Allman, 1845-'56; Amos Allman, 1856-'64; Sanford D. Clark, 1864-'72.
TREASURERS.
J. W. Holton, 1837; Milo Robinson, 1838, (died in 1839), and who succeeded is uncertain. As near as can be ascertained, the next Treasurer was A. McDonald, probably from 1840 to 1845; the fourth was W. C. Far- rington, 1845 to 1848. Then followed H. Wells, 1848 to 1855 ; J. S. Holton, 1855 to 1859; E. M. Cramer, 1859 to 1863; John Knost, 1863 to 1867; Adam Schmal, 1867 to 1871 ; John Brown, 1871 to -.
ASSOCIATE JUDGES.
Of these there have been but few, as the term of office was seven years and the office itself ceased in 1851. The
345
SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
following by appointment or election held this office in the county :
W. B. Crooks, W. Clark, H. D. Palmer, Samuel Tur- ner, A. F. Brown, W. Rockwell, and Michael Pearce. A. F. Brown was elected in October, 1849, but died before entering upon the duties of the office. W. Rockwell and M. Pearce were elected shortly before the office was abolished.
AUDITORS.
The duties of Auditor were at first divided between School Commissioner,- H. S. Pelton being elected to this office in 1837, and giving $10,000 bonds, while at the same time the bonds of the Sheriff were $5,000, and of the Treasurer only $2,000,- and the County Clerk, who also acted as Recorder.
The first who seems to have occupied this as a distinct office was Joseph Jackson, elected in 1847 or 1848. He seems to have held the office until 1852. The second was D. Crumbacker, from 1852 to 1861. The third was James H. Luther, 1861 to 1869. The fourth was John Knost, 1869 to 1873. Auditor elect this fall, who will be the fifth, is H. G. Bliss.
COUNTY SURVEYOR.
WV. N. Sykes was appointed by the Commissioners in 1837. He did not serve. Chancellor Graves was next appointed in May 1838. He also never accepted the office, and died in August. No other appointment ap- pears on the Officer's Record Book in the clerk's office, till 1852. The duties of the office, however, were discharged, during many of those years, by Hervey Ball; the field notes came first into his hands, and he
346
LAKE COUNTY.
unquestionably held the office. In 1852 W. N. Sykes was again appointed. He died in 1853. Then suc- ceeded, John Wheeler, 1853 to 1856 ; Matthias Schmit, 1856 to 1858 ; John Fisher, 1858 to 1866 ; Walter de Cour- cey, 1866 to 1868; A. Vander Naillen, 1868 to 1870; John Wheeler, 1870 to
REPRESENTATIVES.
The counties of Lake and Porter formed one repre- sentative district until 1850.
At the first election in 1837, J. Hammel, of Porter County, was elected by the two counties representative. Lewis Warriner, of Cedar Lake, was elected in 1839. Cline and S. Campbell, of Porter County, were also our representatives, the latter elected probably in 1842.
Of the citizens of our own county, A. McDonald was. the next representative, and continued to be reëlected, with one interval of rest, until 1855. This interval was filled by Lewis Warriner, who was elected representative- in 1848.
The following is the order of the succeeding represen- tatives : D. Turner, 1855; A. McDonald, 1857; Elihu Griffin, 1859; Bartlett Woods, 1861 ; D. K. Pettibone, 1863; Bartlett Woods, 1865; H. Wason, 1867; E C. Field, 1869 ; Martin Wood, 1871, and reëlected in 1872 for the session of 1873.
Lake County has furnished as Senators, for our sena- torial district, D. Turner, elected in 1856 for four years, and R. C. Wedge, elected in 1870.
Our county records have furnished no data for deter-
347
SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
mining the individuals sent to the General Assembly. The above is believed to be accurate. A Porter County record proves that A. McDonald was candidate for the legislature in 1847, and it states that he had twice before that year represented the two counties. Whether elected in the years 1843 and 1845, or in consecutive years, is uncertain. This however remains as the fact, the above records being accurate, that for eighteen years, from 1837 to 1855, two counties forming our district, Lake County sent but two men to the Indiana Legislature ; a fact not very flattering to our political leaders, but a fact, it may be, very creditable as showing our freedom from political intrigue and ambition.
348
LAKE COUNTY.
CHAPTER XII.
THE PRESENT. 1870-1872.
The events of the three years of this present decade are yet fresh in the memory of us all, and a record need only be made of the leading events which we wish to preserve for the interest of others.
Improvements have been going on quite rapidly, both in the towns and among the farming community. Those in the villages have been already noticed.
The two following Castalian records, for the month of February, 1870, will preserve the remembrance of a beautiful phenomenon and of one business or commer- cial operation :
"On Saturday afternoon, February 5th, a remarkable natural phenomenon was witnessed in the south part of the county. It was that appearance known as sun-dogs, a term which Webster thus defines : 'A luminous spot occasionally seen a few degrees from the sun, supposed to be formed by the intersection of two or more halos, or in a manner similar to that of halos.' Halo he defines thus : 'A luminous circle, usually prismatically colored, round the sun or moon, and supposed to be caused by the refraction of light through crystals of ice in the atmosphere.' The appearance of February 5th, was remarkable for its brilliancy, its appearance when the sun
THE PRESENT - 1870-1872. 349
was so far from the horizon, and appearing on an after- noon so warm and pleasant. 'At four o'clock it was first seen by our observer, but it had been noticed by some on the marsh long before. At four, bright appearances, almost equal to suns, were seen on each side, several de- grees distant from the real sun, which was then also very bright. These were prismatically colored. From each a well defined curve extended upward, meeting over the sun, where a third, less brilliant but singular glow of light, and color, and curve, appeared. A line extended from each also, downward, nearly to the horizon, forming an almost entire circle round the sun, some fifty or sixty degrees in width, with three bright appearances in the line of the curve. A small bank of cloud lay, apparently, under the sun ; but who would suppose that on that day it could have contained crystals of ice? This bank seemed to dissolve away before sunset, and the sun-dogs disappeared. No storm, no cold, in this region, followed. Different observers have remarked that they never saw such an appearance on so warm a day, nor ever saw such brilliant sun-dogs."
" The White Water Ice Company, Cincinnati, have been doing quite a business at Crown Point this month. At this writing their men are busily engaged taking the ice from Fancher's Lake, loading cars, and building ice stacks. Some eighty men are employed daily, and thirty teams. These may be seen on East Street and Main Street every hour, wending their way from the Lake to the depot. Some are building, in the meantime, a 'stack ' at the Lake, and others erecting one near the depot.
26
-
350
LAKE COUNTY.
" These stacks are one hundred feet in length and sixty in width, estimated to contain, each, when com- pleted, twenty-five hundred tons. The ice is cut in blocks of the same size, by means of ice plows and saws, twenty of which blocks make a load, weighing more than a ton. If the weather continues favorable for the busi- ness, these stacks will probably remain till summer, and then our crystal water, in its solid form, will go south- ward, for cooling purposes, to be used by the inhabitants of far-off cities, who know nothing of the lake in the woods from whence it came. This business, picturesque and cool as it looks, is a part of the commerce of civiliza- tion, a part of the great work of exchange. It puts money into Crown Point, and takes what was and will be water away. Six acres of ice, in blocks twenty-two inches square, will make for the markets of the South, how many tons ? A visit to the lake, while the cutting and packing are going on, is interesting. The ice is first carefully laid off into squares by an instrument called a marker. Seams are next cut several inches in depth along the marked lines in one direction by an ice plow. Hand saws are then used to cut across these seams at proper distances, and another tool is employed to complete the breaking in the plowed seam. These strips, twenty- two inches in width, and some eight feet in length, are floated in, by means of spikes, to the foot of a slide. One man then attaches a grapnel to the outer end of the floating ice slab, and it is drawn by horse power up the slide. Asit leaves the water another man with a fitting tool separates it into squares along the marked, unplowed seams. These cakes are then delivered on a platform for loading, and
35I
THE PRESENT - 1870-1872.
at the stack are taken up a number of feet, from whence they slide rapidly down to the ice floor. From twelve to sixteen squares make this slide at once, and it is a lively sight. A number of men are there ready, with appro- priate tools, to pack the cakes. Two of these slides are used at the stack now being built at the lake. From seeing a slide of a few feet, one might imagine a little, yet very faintly, how that slide worked constructed once among the Alps, which was several miles in length. The rapidity of motion there must have been fearful. This is simply pretty. The plows used here are worth one hundred dollars a piece ; the markers some eighty dol- lars. The company must pay out at least one thousand dollars a week. A nice thing for Crown Point in these close times."
The great excitement of the year 1871 was the action of the Kankakee Valley Draining Company. A bill passed the State Legislature in the winter of 1869 and 1870, known as the Kankakee Drainage Law. A com- pany was formed under this law, consisting of George W. Cass, of Pittsburgh ; George N. McConnell, of Indiana ; W. D. Wright, of Cincinnati; and eight other persons, who proceeded to issue some $2,000,000 in bonds, run- ning twenty years, and to make assessments upon lands amounting in all to more than four millions of dollars. In this county it was claimed that 61,438 acres would be affected by the ditches which the company proposed to dig, and benefit assessments were laid on these lands to the amount of $597,794. When the map of their pro- posed work and amount of assessments were filed in the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.