USA > Indiana > Lake County > Lake County, Indiana, from 1834 to 1872 > Part 4
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SQUATTER LIFE.
elected : Wm. Clark and Wm. B. Crooks, associate judges; Amsi L. Ball, Stephen P. Stringham, and Thos. Wiles, county commissioners ; W. A. W. Holton, recorder ; Solon Robinson, clerk. First assessor, John Russell. Justices of the peace elected : in North township, Peyton Russell; in Center, Horace Taylor; at Cedar' Lake, Milo Robinson, and in South, E. W. Bryant. In August Luman A. Fowler was elected sheriff, and Robert Wilkin- son, probate judge.
The log building used for several years as a court house and place of worship, connected with which are many in- teresting associations, was erected this summer by Solon and Milo Robinson, who also erected a frame building, one of the first in the county, which was used as a hotel for several years. It became a part of the home of H. S. Pelton. Other frame buildings were, during this sum- mer, erected.
The first Methodist class was probably organized this year at Pleasant Grove; and there was preaching several times at Solon Robinson's and in the court house. Lake county being this year a part of the Porter County Mis- sion, Rev. - Beers minister in charge. Claims were ta- ken up during this year very rapidly, and the year 1837 closes up the entries in the Claim Register.
Of the many settlers this season I name here especially Bartlett Woods and Charles Woods, natives of Winchel- sea, England ; Hervey Ball and Lewis Warriner, of Aga- wam, Massachusetts; George Flint, Benjamin Farley,, Henry Torrey, and Joseph Jackson; Henry Sanger, Ephraim Cleveland, William Sherman, A. D. Foster; and,, first of the German settlers on Prairie West, John Hack,
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LAKE COUNTY.
with his large family and, according to current report, a chest well filled with five-franc pieces.
Among so many it is difficult to select any out, as most of the permanent early settlers became well known over the county. I therefore insert here the names, in the order of the years, of those whose early citizenship can be estab- lished by documentary evidence.
SETTLERS IN 1834.
According to Robinson's Records there was a set- tler, probably, by the name of Ross this summer on Sec. 6, Township 35, Range 7, and on the same section one was seen by S. Robinson, in October, "in a little shed cabin," whose name he was unable to record, his claim afterwards becoming "Miller's Mill." From the Claim Register I extract the following: "Wm. Crooks and Samuel Miller in Co. Timber and Mill Seat." Claim made June, 1835. Settled Nov., 1834. Sec. 6, Town- ship 35, Range 7. Crooks, from Montgomery county. It is probable that this W. Crooks was the settler there seen in October.
Also, those Records state, that an old man named Winchell, from La Porte county, settled, in the summer of this year, and commenced a mill near the mouth of Turkey Creek, which claim and mill he afterwards aban- doned.
Naming those, I now record as settlers in fact :
October.
Thomas Childers.
November.
Solon Robinson. Luman A. Fowler,
Robert Wilkinson,
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SQUATTER LIFE. 53
December. David Pierce.
Jesse Pierce,
The last two settlers, according to the Claim Register, on Deep River and Turkey Creek.
SETTLERS IN 1835.
Lyman Wells,
January. John Driscoll,
February.
J. W. Holton, W. A. W. Holton,
Wm. Clark, from Jennings County.
March.
R. Fancher, Robert Wilkinson, Attica.
Spring. 1
Elias Bryant,
J. Wiggins,
Nancy Agnew, widow, E. W. Bryant.
Elias Myrick,
May. Thomas Reed, Wm. Myrick, Aaron Cox, S. P. Stringham, Vermillion, Ill.
June.
Peter Stainbrook.
November.
David Hornor, Thomas Wiles,
Thomas Hornor,
Jesse Bond, Jacob L. Brown, Milo Robinson.
Henry Wells, Wm. S. Thornburg, R. Dunham,
December. John G. Forbes, R. Hamilton, John Wood.
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LAKE COUNTY.
SETTLERS IN 1836.
William A. Purdy, New York.
Elisha Chapman, Michigan City,
S. Havilance, Canada,
David Campbell,
William N. Sykes, W. Williams, La Porte, John Ball.
Benj. Joslen, Richard Church, Michigan, Darling Church, Michigan.
Leonard Cutler,
Charles Cutler,
B. Rhodes, La Porte,
J. Rhodes, La Porte,
Jacob Van. Valkenburg, New York.
Jas. S. Castle, Michigan City,
Hiram Nordyke, sen., Tippecanoe.
Charles H. Paine, Ohio.
Hiram Nordyke, jr., Tippecanoe County,
Joseph C. Batton, Boone County,
James Knickerbocker, New York,
John T. Knickerbocker,
H. Bones,
Horace Taylor, .
Daniel E. Bryant,
Peter Barnard,
Jonathan Brown,
David Fowler,
E. J. Robinson, Cyrus Danforth,
M. Pierce, State of New York,
Sprague Lee, Pennsylvania,
John A. Bothwell, Vermont,
Peleg S. Mason,
Adonijah Taylor, " Timber and Outlet."
The last according to Claim Register, "May 15th."
John Cole, New York, F. A. Halbrook, New York, Silas Clough, New York.
Stephen Mix, New York,
G. C. Woodbridge, John J. Van Valkenburg,
S. D. Bryant,
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SQUATTER LIFE.
Rufus Norton, Canada,
Francis Barney,
Elijah Morton, Vermont, Hiram Holmes,
Samuel Halsted "Timber and Millseat."
"Nov. 29th transferred to James M. Whitney and Mark Burroughs for $212."
Calvin Lilley, South Bend, Samuel Hutchins, La Porte,
Jacob Nordyke, Tippecanoe. Hiram S. Pelton, New York,
Ithamar Cobb, J. P. Smith, New York,-settled July 5th. G. Zuver, Bartholomew County, H. McGee,
Henry Farmer, Bartholomew County.
William S. Hunt, "blacksmith," Wayne County. George Parkinson,
S. Wilson, Abel Farwell, M. C. Farwell,
Ruth Barney, widow,
James Anderson, Simeon Beedle, William Wells, W. W. Centre, E. Dustin, jun., Charles Marvin, Peter Selpry, H. M. Beedle, D. Y. Bond, John Kitchel,
James Farwell, Carlos Farwell, Henry Horner, J. V. Johns.
E. W. Centre, Isaac M. Beedle,
S. D. Wells,
T. M. Dustin,
C. L. Greenman, Mercy Perry, widow, Jacob Mendenhall, B. Rich, S. L. Hodgman, Henry A. Palmer,
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LAKE COUNTY.
Paul Palmer, D. Barney, George Earle, A. Hitchcock, O. Hitchcock, Russell Eddy, Wm. Brown, Charles Walton, Jonathan Gray, Edward Greene, Elisha Greene, R. Wilder, Solomon Russell, A. Albee.
H. Edgarton, Wm. Hodson, Jackson Cady, E. H. Hitchcock, J. V. Johns, C. Carpenter, R. S. Witherel, Wm. Farmer,
Nathan D. Hall,
S. T. Greene, W. Page,
John McLean, Daniel May,
SETTLERS IN 1837.
James Westbrook, John Bothwell,
Henry Torrey, Joseph Batton,
N. Hayden,
N. Cochrane,
Lewis Warriner,
E. T. Fish,
John Fish,
George Flint,
Benjamin Farley, D. R. Stewart,
H. Galespie, J. H. Martin. T. Sprague, J. Hutchinson,
Samuel Sigler, John Brown, S. Hodgman, John Kitchel, H. R. Nichols, A. Baldwin, Josiah Chase, Charles R. Ball, Hervey Ball, Lewis Manning, Ephraim Cleveland, Wm. Sherman, T. Sprague, John Hack, G. L. Zabriska, John Hutchinson,
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SQUATTER LIFE.
E. L. Palmer, .
Lewis Swaney,
N. Reynolds,
Francis Swaney,
B. Demon,
O. V. Servis,
Joel Benton,
Thomas O'Brien,
John L. Ennis,
Orrin Smith,
Dennis Donovan,
D. B. Collings,
Patrick Donovan,
Z. Collings,.
Thomas Donovan,
Timothy Rockwell,
Daniel Donovan,
Jesse Cross,
Oliver Fuller,
E. Cross,
Thomas Tindal,
R. Cross,
Orrin Dorwin,
A. L. Ball,
H. Severns,
Daniel Bryant,
Wid. Elizabeth Owens,
E. D. Owens,
N. Pierce,
Wm. Vangorder,
G. W. Hammond,
J. Rhodes, Joseph Jackson,
Charles Mathews,
O. Higbee,
James Carpenter,
Z. Woodford,
Jacob Ross,
Wm. Hobson,
Patrick Doyle,
P. Anson. 1
W. J. Richards.
The register is not entire, and the names of all the settlers of 1837 cannot now be ascertained by any means at my command.
In the winter of 1837-38 Congress established some mail routes through this county, which had been crossed till now by only the Detroit and Fort Dearborn mail, carried
Bartlett Woods,
Charles Woods,
Dudley Merrill,
J. F. Follett, A. D. Foster,
Adam Sanford,
Hiram Barnes,
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LAKE COUNTY.
in coaches along the Michigan beach, then by way of Liverpool, and again removed to the Bradley route. The new ones of 1838 were : first, from La Porte to Joliet, taken by H. S. Pelton, and the principal mail line of the county for a number of years, probably till the railroad era commenced ; and the second, from Michigan City to Peoria, let to be carried in four-horse coaches, but the coaches did not run, and a remnant of that route, from City West to West Creek, gave us a mail carried on horse- back, which continued for several years, its western ter- minus being Bourbonnois Grove, near Kankakee City; and the third, from Lake Court House to Monticello, in White county. This last was also taken by H. S. Pelton, " but was afterwards found to be through such an inter- minable wilderness that it was discontinued." Congress had not at that time studied the geography and history of the Kankakee Marsh, and of the counties of Iroquois. and Newton and Jasper.
This year marked the beginning of bridge-building in- our borders. The two northeast of Crown Point were built by Daniel May and Hiram Nordyke, at an expense of $500. The bridge across West Creek, near Judge Wil- kinson's, built by N. Hayden, cost $400. The one across. Cedar Creek, near L. Warriner's, by S. P. Stringham and R. Wilkinson, cost $200. The Deep River bridge, at B. Wilkinson's, cost $400, built by A. L. Ball. Several smaller ones were also built. Our streams were no longer " bridgeless," like the modern Euphrates. The money for building came from "the three per cent. fund."
It was also a year of saw-mill building. Accredited to. this year are Walton's, Wood's, Dustin's, and Taylor's.
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SQUATTER LIFE.
Only one of these, Wood's, furnished much lumber. Of one of them it was expressly said, it was " about half the time without water, and the other half without a dam." The first mill-builders found great difficulty in making their earth dams secure against the freshets. The bea- vers of this region, in the days before the fur-traders came, seem to have been more successful. The remains of their earthen works may still be traced west and south of Crown Point.
In October of this year was held the first term of Cir- cuit Court, Judge Sample presiding, Judge Clark associ- ate. The session was very quiet and peaceable. There were then no drinking places. Men were not cross, nor quarrelsome, nor drunk. Nine lawyers were present. Of 'the members of the first grand jury, only John Wood and Henry Wells remain among us. Of the first petit jury, Richard Fancher alone remains. On the docket of that term were thirty cases.
The first marriage license here issued seems to belong to this year. It was for John Russell and Harriet Holton. The first citizen married in the county was David Bryant (the bride's name is not given), the license having been obtained in Porter county. The ceremony was performed December 2, by S. Robinson, who says, "Another of my official acts, as a Justice of the Peace. Done on a most excessive cold day."
The second marriage was that of Solomon Russell.
The fourth, that of John Russell, has just been men- tioned ; and the second and fourth parties married became the first and second to obtain divorce, an example which has been followed by far too many ever since.
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LAKE COUNTY.
The year 1838 marks the commencement of Baptist meetings in Lake. A church was constituted in the Ce- dar Lake school-house, June 17th, nine Baptist members from Massachusetts and New York entering then and there into self-constituted church relationship. Elder French, of Porter county, was present and acted as mod- erator of the meeting.
" Meetings on Sabbath appointed to be held at Prairie West, Centre Prairie, and H. Balls, alternately." The Church and Cutler families lived on Prairie West and Norman Warriner on Centre Prairie. According to the church records meetings were held according to appoint- ments for five Sabbaths, after which sickness for a season prevented attendance. Says the next record : " From continued distressing sickness no meetings were held until the latter part of winter." The church was not, therefore, publicly recognized until May 19th, 1839, but its constitution dates June 17, 1838. On the record book of that first Baptist church are the names of ninety-five members, forty-two of them baptized in Cedar Lake.
The sickness of the summer of 1838 was long remem- bered. It is probable that more died during that season, in proportion to. the inhabitants, than during any other season in our history. Among them were, the wife of Lewis Warriner, who died Aug. 24th, and also his young- est daughter, Sabra.
This was a summer also of excessive drouth.
Many improvements were made in the county this year, notwithstanding the sickness. An addition was made to the German settlement on Prairie West. The
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SQUATTER LIFE.
town house at Liverpool was completed, a line of daily stages running then through that city.
Russell Eddy completed his frame house and moved his family up from Michigan City. In that house, which is now standing just north of the new residence of E. C. Field, was; without much doubt, the first piano of the county, brought with the household goods from Michigan City, and over its keys presided the graceful Eliza, fresh from the schools of Troy, N. Y., the most polished and accomplished, at that time, of the young ladies of Lake. She soon married and left us, and her place was filled by the less accomplished but lovely and beautiful Ruth Ann.
She grew up, married D. K. Pettibone, soon after died, and by most is probably forgotten, or I should not have named her here in mentioning her father's first home.
An addition was made this year to the settlement over West Creek. Solomon Burns and family, with his broth- er, Harry Burns, a brother-in-law named Hazelton, and George Willey and family, came together, with four wag- ons drawn by horses, from the State of New York. They were on the road four weeks. They crossed on the Torrey bridge, then went northward and bought claims of the Farwell family. The Hazelton family af- terward removed westward. The Burns family settled where Abel Farwell, who married a daughter of S. Burns, now resides. For the claim a pair of valuable young horses had been transferred to James Farwell. These the lightning, not long afterward, struck and killed. George Willey was then commencing life, when he settled on a claim just east of the present village of Klaasville. He remained there many years, accummulated property,
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LAKE COUNTY.
sold his farm, purchased land near Crown Point, and built one of the five best country residences in the coun- ty in which he now lives, surrounding himself and family with those conveniences and elegances which wealth procures. His is more properly a surburban than a country residence.
Another daughter of S. Burns married H. P. Robbins, who some years ago, having lost both his sons in the war of the Rebellion, removed to Lowell and became one of its business men, and now also marshal of the town. Solomon Burns died in 1847, at the age of 47. As a some- what singular coincidence it may be noted here, that a cousin of his, Clark Rice, who came out to make a visit in 1846, died there, at the home of George Willey,'at the age of 46. The remains of the two cousins lie side by side in that neglected West Creek burial-place, both born in 1800. This little West Creck settlement, consisting of the fami- lies, Rankin, Hitchcock, Gordinier, Marvin, Burns, Far- well, Willey, Fuller, remained quite isolated until the building of the Hanover bridge.
Among the German settlers of this summer on Prairie West were Joseph Schmal and Peter Orte, Michael Ad- ler and Matthias Reder. These four families came over together.
Another settlement was commenced this year in Han- over. The pioneer of the Lutheran Germans was Henry Sasse, sen., who bought the claim of A. Cox, and also one made by Chase and Taylor, paying for the improve- ments on the latter $150. In the same year came H. Van Hollen, and other families soon followed these until a large settlement occupied the northern part of Lake
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SQUATTER LIFE.
Prairie, and along the West Creek woods made farms of the choice hunting grounds.
The privilege had been granted to the State of select- ing a certain amount of government lands for the benefit of the Wabash Canal. This selection in Lake was made in the month of June, this year, and Col. John Vawter, one of the commissioners, while here, preached in the log court house " to a very respectable congregation."
" The Methodist Episcopal Church," says an old man- uscript, "may be considered as regularly organized in the county from this time;" that is, from the summer of 1838, " forming with Porter county a circuit, and sup- plied with preaching at stated times." I find no early docu- ments or records in the hands of any of this denomina- tion, and am obliged to glean my information from other sources. It seems strange that such a large and growing body have preserved so little of their early history.
A number of the settlers, late in the fall of this year, proved up their preemption rights and entered their land before the public sale.
The first of these, probably, were S. Robinson and Judge Clark.
As the first of January, 1839, opened, death for the first time visited the little settlement at Lake Court House. It came in the form of consumption and laid low one of the active business men, Milo Robinson. After his death Luman A. Fowler kept the tavern house until the next fall, when he removed to Lockport, Illinois, where canal building was going on. After his removal H. S. Pelton married, took the house, afterwards purchased it, and occupied it until his own death.
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LAKE COUNTY.
In March of this year that event of so much interest to those early settlers, the sale of United States Lands, took place at La Porte. The sales commenced on the 19th. The squatters of Lake were in large force gathered there. The hardy pioneers, accustomed to frontier life and to depend on their strong armns and trusty rifles ; the New Englanders and the. Yorkers, almost direct from those centers of culture, and possessing their share of the in- telligence and energy of those regions; and the firm, sturdy, solid Germans, like those that of late broke the power of the third Napoleon,-Germans who had just left the despotisms of the Old World and had receiv- ed their lessons of freedom in the New, amid the wild- ness of untrodden Western prairies ; all were there, de- termined that no speculator should bid upon their lands. Some trouble had been anticipated. The principle upon which the squatters insisted was of importance to them. They were probably prepared,-from what I heard in those days of my youth, I am satisfied they were prepared-armed men were among them-to use force, if it should be necessary, to secure the right which each squatter claimed of buying his own quarter section at one dollar and a quarter an acre. They knew that in the wilds of Lake, in the retreats of the Kankakee marsh, no officers of justice would search for them if their mode of enforcing their claim should be called lawless. But there arose no necessity. The impression was strongly made that it would not be safe for a speculator to overbid a squatter, about five hundred of whom had solemnly pledged themselves to each other to abide, in the most faithful manner, by their own assertion of
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SQUATTER LIFE.
squatters' rights. The moral force employed was suffi- cient. Solon Robinson was bidder for one township, William Kinnison for another, and A. McDonald for the third. The sale passed off quietly, and the sons of Lake returned peacefully to their homes. But unfortunately for some of them, they had expended their silver and gold in making improvements and amid the sickness, and suffering, and death of 1838, " the wild cat " money was not current at the land office, and now what the spec- ulators could not effect in one way they easily accomplish- ed in another. They offered to loan these men money. for entering their claims, on the security of their lands, and charged them twenty, thirty, or more, per cent. And thus, after all their care, considerable tracts of Lake county land came into the hands of non-residents.
Another event of some importance took place this year, the location of the county seat at the town of Liver- pool by commissioners appointed by the Indiana Legis- lature. Cedar Lake and Lake C. H. had both sought the location; and the actions of these commissioners pro- duced much dissatisfaction. Before a petition for a re- location could be granted, before this summer closed, the proprietor on the east of Cedar Lake, Dr. Calvin Lilley died, and his place passed into the hands of another.
During these years, from 1834 to 1839, while there were the quiet of peace among us and friendliness on the part of the Pottawatomies, and the activity of new settler life, -- the Black Hawk War having terminated in 1832, after which nearly all of Iowa and Wisconsin was ceded to the United States-in Florida the Seminole War was raging, commenced in '35, and not actually ended till '42.
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LAKE COUNTY.
In one of these years, 1836, Arkansas was admitted into the Union, and in 1837 Michigan was admitted, and in 1837 took place the Canadian Rebellion. The short war with the Creek Indians took place in 1836.
Amid such events of national interest the sqatters of Lake formed a community by themselves ; feeling most of all, probably, the great financial crash of 1837, when the banks suspended payment, when in two months in the city of New York were failures amounting to more than a hundred millions of dollars, the effects of which " were felt to the remotest borders of the Union."
In that crash our two youthful cities, Liverpool and In- diana City, also died.
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THE POTTAWATOMIES.
CHAPTER III.
THE POTTAWATOMIES.
Venable, in his History of the United States, a new and an excellent work, divides the Indians into eleven large families. These families were divided into tribes or nations. The Indians known as the Miami Confederacy held most of the territory of Indiana. The northwestern part was occupied by a tribe called Pottawatomies. For many "thousands of moons," for centuries, so far as any history can record, the Red men had held undisputed possession of the whole Northwest. Two hundred years ago the French penetrated these wilds and came in con- tact with the scattered tribes, both as fur traders and as religious teachers. The Indians, therefore, of 1834 were not altogether those, as Sprague expresses it, " of falcon glance and lion bearing," but those who acknowledged the white man as a conqueror.
By the treaty of 1832 the Pottawatomies had disposed of their lands to the Government; but they were still on their hunting and trapping grounds in considerable num- bers, when the first settlers came in. They were friendly and inoffensive, yet Indians still. Their favorite resorts seem to have been along the streams, around Cedar Lake, and at Wiggins' Point. The Calumet river was especially at- tractive. As to facilities for fishing, and as to abodes for wild fowls and fur bearing animals, this region could not well be surpassed. The Calumet and Deep rivers fur-
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LAKE COUNTY.
nished some hundred miles of canoe navigation, abound- ing in fish, fowls, and fur; the Kankakee Marsh is even yet a grand resort for trappers and fowlers, and in earlier years its islands were a favorite retreat for deer; and Cedar Lake and the West Creek woods were haunts that. it would scarcely seem Indians could peacefully leave. Having seen Cedar Lake myself in 1837, when its waters. and the large marsh south of it literally swarmed with fish,-A. Cox opened a pike that is said to have weighed twenty six pounds, and I have seen a quite large boat. loaded down with fish at a single draw of the net,-when its shore was sentineled all round with muskrats in the water's brink; having seen its surface so many times since· black with ducks and geese, or white with gulls and other water fowls; I can believe almost any story about the abundance of such game. The old and sacred Lake of Gennesaret, noted as it now is in this respect, amid its modern solitudes, can scarcely have a more abundant supply of fish and fowls in and on the same square miles. of depth and surface.
At Wiggins' Point, on the place now owned by E. Sax- ton, the Indians had, in 1834, a village, a dancing-floor, and a burial-place. From this dancing-floor sixteen trails diverged, leading off in every direction. These. trails were well trodden foot-paths. In the grove are now a number of black-walnut trees, whether native there or set out by the Indians is uncertain. The dancing- floor was very smooth and well worn, and the well trod- den pathways leading to it indicated that it was a place of general resort. Not many rods distant, the situation well chosen and beautiful, was the village burying ground ..
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THE POTTAWATOMIES.
In the center of this was a pole, perhaps twenty feet in height, surmounted constantly by a white flag. Here the Indian dead of this neighborhood were decently buried, according to the custom of this tribe. Sometimes they buried in a sitting attitude, in their more retired cemeteries, leaving the head uncovered; and at other times in a supine position. From the French they had received some religious ideas, and seem to have had some belief in a future resurrection of the body. It is related of one of these French-taught men, who was about to die near Miller's Mill, that he gave instructions not to have his body buried, as he expected it to be re- stored to life at some day, when the Indians would be the head race of the world. The bodies of those who ·expressed such a wish were placed in solitude upon the boughs of living trees. An Indian child's body in a basket, with bells attached, was found, suspended in a tree, by some of the early settlers. At the burial ground above mentioned a body was exhumed, probably in 1835, supposed to be the body of one of the head men of the tribe, about which were a blanket, a deer skin, a belt of wampum, and outside of the feet a fur hat; and with the body were found a rifle and a kettle full of hickory nuts. Dr. Burleigh, supposed to be from Michigan City, has the credit of removing this body, acting on the principle attributed to the students of a certain medical institution, who are said to have adopted as their motto, De mortuis nil nisi bonum, thus translated: There is nothing good about the dead except their bones. So, the conclusion is, take these when you can get them. It is said that one day, after the robbing of the grave, two Indians, armed
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