USA > Indiana > Lake County > Lake County, Indiana, from 1834 to 1872 > Part 7
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LAKE COUNTY.
bill's, George and Andrew, with other families from Chi- cago, settled southwest of Cedar Lake, in the neighbor- hood of the large Beckley family, in 1850 and 1851. This Beckley family were the founders of the large and pros- perous community of German Methodists in Hanover and West Creek Townships. Andrew Krinbill sold goods, sent East and obtained a shoemaker, sent to Chicago for 'a blacksmith, and commenced a flourishing village. The blacksmith and shoemaker made money and went to farming; and in 1858 Andrew Krinbill came up to the county seat. The village did not grow ; but the farming interests flourished and the settlement increased.
In Eagle Creek Township, J. W. Dinwiddie, retiring from business at Crown Point, became again a farmer, and was soon recognized as one of the best calculating, most energetic, and prominent men, not only of the township but of the county. Under his administration as township trustee the three large and well constructed school houses were erected known as Plum Grove, Eagle Creek, and Bryant's. He commenced and carried on actively large farming operations.
At Southeast Grove were other energetic farmers and money makers, some of whom were residents of an ear- lier date, now making steady improvements and laying foundations for more rapid accumulations in the coming years. Their names will be found recorded in another connection. During these years the range for stock was abundantly large. Thousands of acres of excellent pasture lands invited the herds of cattle. The limit for stock raising was the amount of provender that could be provided for the winter.
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NEW GROWTH.
In 1853, David Bryant returned again into the county, bought a large farm, and brought in from Ohio a flock of one thousand and sixty sheep in 1854. He now settled in Eagle Creek Township. The two Mitchells, David and Robert, at this time made business visits to the county, buying cattle and preparing the way for the loca- tion here of the Mitchell families. These afterwards went into the sheep business extensively. M. A. Halsted, also, and others, now commenced sheep keeping and wool raising. Parts of this region were found to be well adapted to this new pursuit.
In Winfield Township, also, additions were made to the inhabitants. The large Patten family came July 4, 1853; the Tarr families about the same year. The Wise, Hixon, and Sanders families came a few years earlier. James Cooper came in 1852, when soldier land · warrants could be bought in the State of New York at the rate of fifty dollars for an eighty-acre warrant. Govern- ment land in this township could be found until about 1854.
New men appear also, entering into business and pro- fessional life, at Crown Point. James H. Luther, who came in 1849, was occupied during these years in hotel- keeping, merchandising, and farming, until in 1860 he was elected county auditor.
Zerah F. Summers became a resident in 1854, was elected county clerk in 1859, and has since become a grain buyer and leading business man.
Dr. A. J. Pratt, from Michigan, went into partnership with Dr. Farrington in 1854, and after the death of the latter, entered upon an extensive practice, rapidly gaining
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property and position. Dr. John Higgins, who graduated at a medical college in 1846, and had already located in Crown Point, was now pressing onward along the road to success. Dr. Brownell, from the state of New York, located in town in 1854. In 1856, still continuing to practice medicine, he removed to a farm not far from Plum Grove.
In 1852 was formed the firm of Turner & Cramer ; David Turner being the son of an old resident in Porter and Lake, and E. M. Cramer being a new man in the county, having moved from the State of New York, and living for a short time on a farm at South East Grove. This firm did, for these years, a large business, but was dissolved before this decade closed, E. M. Cramer enter- ing into public and political life and becoming one of the most popular men in the county, holding for two terms the office of county treasurer.
In 1854 Frederick Foster, with his large family of four sons and four daughters and a son-in-law, removing from Pennsylvania, became a resident on a part of what is now Railroad Addition, purchasing his farm for fifteen dollars an acre. In the same year came Wm. Blowers and family ; and in February, 1855, the Sears family arrived at Crown Point.
Other improvements of this period and names of fam- ilies becoming residents will be found in the more par- ticular notice of Crown Point.
Into all parts of the county some new men came, Ger- mans from the Old World and Americans from the East, mature men seeking fields for enterprise, and young fam- ilies commencing life seeking for homes where they might
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NEW GROWTH.
grow up with the growth of the new region. This was the period of our most rapid increase in population, as will be shown by the figures from the census reports. I am not able to name even each prominent man that be- came during these ten years a citizen ; much more will it be impossible for me to name them all.
The railroads, the business men, the capital, the new forms of industry, mark this as emphatically a period of NEW GROWTH.
There is a transaction belonging to the history of this county, in common with that of other counties in Indiana, which an impartial and faithful historian can hardly pass over in silence. It belongs to this decade and may be called the Swamp Land Speculation. The kind of notice which justice here demands has been a matter of grave consideration.
The United States donated to the State of Indiana certain portions of government lands within its borders, to be selected in a certain way, which took the name of Swamp Lands. The Legislature passed an act, in May, 1852, to regulate the sale of these lands and provide for draining and reclaiming them according to the condition of the grant.
Quite a quantity of land remained unentered ten years after the land sale at La Porte. This was taken out of market in the different counties until the lands had been selected which were to be drained, reclaimed, and sold. There were selected in this county as such swamp land some 180 sections. This, at the minimum price of one dollar and a quarter an acre, would amount to $144,000. Any portion of this amount not used in the necessary
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expenses connected with draining these wet lands was to become part of the common school fund of the State. The county auditors and treasurers were the authorized agents on the part of the State for selling these lands. A commissioner of swamp lands for each county was appointed by the governor, and the commissioner appointed and employed an engineer.
It became known to the Legislature of the State that the funds arising from the sale of these lands were sup- posed to be improperly used, and they appointed a swamp land committee of investigation. From the printed report of this committee, made to the governor of Indiana, two thousand copies of which were ordered to be printed, the following statements and extracts are taken. Copies of this report are scarce in this county. Those sent here disappeared.
This committee, after making several statements, say :
" The different laws in relation to the expenditure of the swamp land fund are very imperfect, giving many opportunities for dishonest men to prey upon the fund with impunity-these opportunities seem to have been well improved." After stating some of these imperfec- tions they continue, "It seems that an opportunity to speculate thus opened was early discovered by a number of very prominent men, and large combinations formed to effect that object, and when a swamp land commis- sioner refused to be used as an instrument in their hands to carry out their views, they were potent in affecting his removal and in securing the appointment of one who would act in accordance with their wishes." Non-politi- cal readers might well exclaim, after hearing these state-
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ments, What sort of legislators were these to frame laws that offered such temptations ! And what sort of an ex- ccutive that thus allowed removals and made appoint- ments ! The committee continued, " By this process, the fund in many of the counties was exhausted, and in some cases largely overdrawn, and very little good effected by ditching." The committee visited several counties to ascertain facts. In reference to one county, especially, they say : "These investigations show frauds to an extent that seems to preclude the idea that honesty had any part in these transactions." Under "Lake county," they say : " The operations in this county have been quite extensive. The first commissioner appointed was S. P. Smith. There is no evidence to raise a doubt as to the correctness of his administration." The S. here is evidently a misprint for J., as the proper name of the treasurer is evidently also a misprint. In regard to the third commissioner, Henry Wells, they say: "No evidence was obtained to implicate him in any improper transaction." In regard to the fourth they say : "Under his administration the committee think extensive frauds were perpetrated." In regard to one individual they say : "These two sums thus obtained, amounting to seven thousand three hundred and nine dollars and sixty-five cents can undoubtedly be recieved * * if prop- erly prosecuted. * How many similar transactions were had with other parties, is not known. It is under- stood that all the money recovered for swamp lands was retained in the hands of the county treasurer, and not paid over to the State treasurer.
An example may be presented of the class of transac-
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tions referred to above, a few statements being given to make its features intelligible.
" The commissioner, and engineer were required to locate and lay out ditches, to make contracts, &c. The engineer was not required by law to keep a record of his estimates, nor to make certificates of estimates from which the commissioner should issue ditching certificates. Hence there was no check kept by the engineer upon the arrears of those ditching certificates issued by the commissioner. Nor does the law require the commissioner to keep a record of the ditching certificates issued by him, and the committee were unable to find in any case a record of those certificates."
The example selected presents a case that may now be readily understood. A contractor assigned a blank ditch- ing certificate to another person who filled it up, or had it filled, "in the sum of two thousand, six hundred and nine dollars and sixty-five cents," and obtained and re- tained the money, other certificates being issued to the contractor for all the work he had done; thus, in the lan- guage of the com:nittee, "fraudently taking from the Swamp Land Fund the sum of two thousand, six hundred and nine dollars and sixty-five cents."
The committee even found certificates with forged sig- natures on which money was drawn. Also they found certificates issued and money paid when no work had been done. They say in regard to two individuals, whom they name, that they believe " from the written testimony and testimony not recorded * a judgment could now be obtained for a sum not less than twenty thousand dollars, The whole
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NEW GROWTH.
amount of money taken away from this fund, the commit- tee had no means at hand, in this county, for summing up. The difference between the amount actually paid for work done and the whole amount for which these lands sold would probably be that sum.
I have given no names of those implicated by that committee in this transaction. Some, if not all of them, are still residents of this county, and I see no good to be accomplished by transmitting their names to posterity in this connection. The names of two commissioners, J. P. Smith and Henry Wells, two of the early settlers, it is a pleasure to me to be able to record as untarnished in respect to the Swamp Land speculations.
The lessons for the present and the future are obvious. Send both capable and honest men to the Legislature. Elect to office and secure for official appointments men of sterling integrity. And there is an old petition of which we might all do well to make more frequent use ; " Lead us not into temptation." The citizens of the county in the present have doubtless the right, the official report of the Investigating Committee being authority, to hold some of their public men responsible for pocketing a large amount of money. And the citi- zens of the future will have the right to feel that incom- petent or unfaithful legislators placed temptations before men in public life which resulted in defrauding the county of valuable drainage probably up to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars.
Those conversant with the facts will sustain the asser- tion that quite probably $100,000, during those few years of fraudulent or speculative management, passed into
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LAKE COUNTY.
the pockets of a few of our public men. And the amount which beyond question passed into the hands of corrupt officials in high position at Indianapolis was by no means small. How large there is no data here on which to base a conjecture. Let it be repeated that, of this transac- tion, the lessons are obvious.
The grant of lands to the Wabash Canal has been already mentioned. The entries of the land seem to have extended from 1843 to 1856, the certificate of "lands sold in Lake county at the Canal Land Office," at Terre Haute, being dated February, 1857.
The amount certified to as having been thus sold is some sixty sections. It thus appears that about two hundred and fifty square miles or sections, one half the area of the county, were donated by the United States Government for the purpose of internal improvements in Indiana. If thus liberal in other counties and in other States, quite an amount of the public fund would be definitely appropriated. Whether it be wise in gen- eral to make such disposition of the public domain, is a question for political economists and statesmen.
III
OUR WAR RECORD.
CHAPTER VI.
OUR WAR RECORD AND PROGRESS. £ 1860-1869.
" Higher, higher, let us climb, Up the mount of glory ;
That our names may live through time, In our country's story : Happy, when her welware calls, He who conquers, he who falls."
Amid the political changes and excitements which marked in this land the sixth decade of the nineteenth century, this county, formerly Democratic, became strongly Republican, giving year by year those decided majorities which secured to Schuyler Colfax the repre- sentative of this district, his seat in Congress, and enter- ing heartily, in 1860, into the campaign which resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln. When, therefore, that shot was fired, at twenty minutes past four o'clock on the morning of April 12, 1861, against the granite wall of Fort Sumter, which inaugurated the great Civil War in America; and when the tidings was flashed along the wires that Fort Sumpter had actually surrendered to the rebels, and that, on the historic 19th of April, blood was shed in the streets of Baltimore; and when the Presi- dent's call for volunteers was heard ; it was to be expected that the loyal citizens of Lake would thrill in that in- tense wave of excitement that poured over the North,
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LAKE COUNTY.
and press forward at once for marching orders, that they might hasten to the scene of conflict.
The entire population of the county in 1860 was 9, 145. The number of families was about 1,800. So many of our young men went into Illinois regiments that the whole number of our citizens enlisting cannot be deter- mined. So far as can be ascertained, as many as one thousand men from these eighteen hundred families entered the Union army.
They were thus distributed : In the Ninth Indiana regiment, called, from the severe battles through which it passed and its own war record, "the Bloody Ninth," were about seventy.
In the Twentieth Regiment were one hundred, Com- pany B.
In the Seventy-third, one hundred, Company A.
In the Ninety-ninth, one hundred, Company A.
In the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth, twenty. In the One Hundred and Fifty-first, eighty.
In the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth, about twenty.
In the Fifth Cavalry were about twenty-five. In the Seventh, perhaps thirty.
In the Twelfth Cavalry, Edward Anderson, Colonel, we were represented by Company G.
There were also some thirty in one Indiana battery, and several in other batteries. Some of our young men enlisted in the regiments of other States, about three hundred enlisting in the State of Illinois.
The Indiana regiments acquired an honorable repu- tation on the field of battle, and their record belongs to the historic records of the State and of the Union.
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OUR WAR RECORD.
The Ninth and the Twentieth gained special distinc- tion on the various bloody fields where their flags waved in triumph. The Ninth was in battle at Shiloh, Perry- ville, Danville, Wild Cat Mountain, Chickamauga, Look- out Mountain, and Mission Ridge. It was also at Atlanta and in various connected engagements, and in the battles at Columbia and at Nashville.
The Twentieth went to Hatteras Inlet, to Fortress Monroe, aided in the capture of Norfolk, and joined the Army of the Potomac. Its various fortunes and con- flicts as a part of this great army need not here be detailed. It finally reached Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, where, says Venable, "the greatest and most important battle of the whole war was fought." He adds, " The fury of the third day's engagement is indescribable. Whole brigades were almost utterly destroyed. The slope of Cemetery Hill, upon which the hardest struggle occurred, was literally heaped with the slain." Here the Twentieth, says our Adjutant General, "lost its com- manding officer, Col. John Wheeler, and 152 men and officers killed and wounded." Among those killed were besides Col. Wheeler of Crown Point, two others of our soldier boys, George W. Edgerton and J. Richmond. The regiment was afterwards at New York City on guard duty, and then at the battle of the Wilderness, and at other noted engagements.
The Seventy-third Regiment was engaged in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, in various battles, losing their commanding officer, Col. Gilbert Hathaway, formerly a lawyer at our bar, at Blount's farm, Alabama, and were on the next day, May 3, 1863, all captured at Cedar Bluffs.
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LAKE COUNTY.
The men were soon exchanged, but the officers were kept in a long imprisonment.
As an illustration of what our imprisoned officers ex- perienced, I give the narrative of Captain Alfred Fry, of the Seventy-Third :*
NARRATIVE.
Alfred Fry enlisted as a private soldier July 26, 1862. and was mustered into the service of the U. S. at South Bend, August 16, as Orderly Sergeant of Company A, Seventy-third Regiment Indiana Volunteers. Pro- ceeded to Lexington, via Louisville, Sept. Ist, was com- missioned Second Lieutenant of Company A. The defeat of the Union forces at Richmond, Kentucky, obliged the regiment to leave Lexington and retire to Louisville, where he was ordered to report at the head- quarters of Gen. Ward for duty as Brigade Commissary, which position he held until the reorganization of the army under Gen. Buell. On the first of October the regiment was assigned to the Twentieth Brigade, Sixth Division of Buell's Army, and commenced the pursuit of Bragg. Entered Nashville Nov. 26.
Dec. 2, 1862, he was commissioned as First Lieuten- ant, and engaged in the battle of Stone River. Was under fire for six days. Lost here Edward Welch, of Winfield Township, the first man killed in the regiment.
On the 19th of Jan., '63, Lieut. Fry was recommended by Col. Hathaway to Gov. Morton, and was commissioned as captain of Company A. April 10, '63, the regiment
1 *NOTE .- I have changed the form of the narrative furnished to me, from the first to the third person, and have made slight alterations in some expressions; but the substance'remains the same. As the account of a well-known citizen who had a per- sonal experience of the horrors of Libby Prison, I have felt it proper to place it on permanent record.
-
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OUR WAR RECORD.
was assigned to Col. Streight's brigade. April 30 this brigade, only 1500 strong, was attacked by 4000 rebels under Gens. Forrest and Roddy, while on its march to perform duty. The enemy were repulsed and the brig- ade pushed on. Were attacked again in the evening at Crooked Creek. May 2d, again attacked at Blount's farm, Alabama. The 73d bore the brunt of this fight, and here the gallant Col. Hathaway fell, mortally wounded, while at the head of the troops and cheering on his men.
May 3d, being out of ammunition, exhausted by five days incessant marching and skirmishing, and surrounded by superior forces, the brigade surrendered on most hon- orable conditions, which were afterwards basely violated. The men were soon forwarded north and exchanged. The officers were kept in close confinement nearly two years. When they surrendered they were to be paroled and sent through our lines, but they were sent to Rich- mond, Virginia, and then on the 16th of May they entered the famous Libby Prison. Their paroles had been taken from them, and they had been told that they were not recognized as belonging to the army, but were highway robbers, bridge burners, negro stealers, and that they would be turned over to the civil authorities of Alabama, and be tried and hung. On their arrival at Libby they were searched, their greenbacks taken away and likewise their blankets, and up three flights of stairs they were placed in a room one hundred and twenty-five feet by fifty. Here Captain Fry found a rusty tin plate and a rheumatic knife and fork as instruments for house-keep- ing, and prepared little sacks for holding salt, sugar,
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LAKE COUNTY.
pepper, and rice. These were not very well filled. The rations were three-fourths of a pound of coarse corn bread, one gill 'of rice, half a pound of beef, and a very little salt.
The vermin were the most revolting feature of the prison. No amount of personal cleanliness could guard against the insatiate lice, and only by examining their clothing and destroying them once or twice a day could these hideous creatures be kept from swarming on the persons of the prisoners. For other occupation during the long evenings the prisoners would sing the Star Spangled Banner, Old Hundaed, and Old John Brown. In this dreary abode Captain Fry remained a year, leav- ing Libby, in company with others, May 7, '64, for Dan- ville. May 12th they left Danville. Arrived May 17th at Macon, Georgia, and were marched into the prison- pen, an area of some two acres, surrounded by a stock- ade fence fifteen feet high. July 27th were transferred to Charleston, South Carolina, and placed in the jail- yard under fire of the Union guns on Morris' Island. Here the ground was literally covered with vermin. The prisoners were without shelter. They were brought there to save the city from the shells of the Union bat- teries. October 5th they were sent to Columbia, and arrived in the midst of a terrific rain storm. The pris- oners were compelled to leave the cars and to pass the night in an open field, without food, blankets, tents, at the mercy of the elements, and four pieces of artillery trained upon the ground they occupied. When the storm ceased they were removed two miles to another open field, and here, without even the shelter of a tree or
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OUR WAR RECORD.
bush, endured the scorching sunshine that followed the storm. The rations here, to last five days, were five quarts of very coarse corn meal, one quart of sorghum, two tablespoonfuls of coarse salt, two tablespoonfuls of rice.
A wild hog chanced to pass the guard line. As soon as he had fairly entered, a general advance was made, and he was captured. One seized a leg, another an ear, others twisted their bony fingers into the bristles and closed hands, eyes, and teeth, as if for a death struggle. Every man clung to the part he first seized until it was. cut off and securely lodged in the kettle for supper. Between four and five hundred half-starved men were soon devouring him. This stray hog furnished the only meat tasted at Columbia, and for this no thanks were returned to the rebels.
February 14th, 1865, they were removed to Charlotte, were paroled, sent to Wilmington, and there, March Ist,. entered once more the Union lines. Captain Fry returned to Crown Point and remained with his family from March 13th till April 14th, when he reported for duty at Columbus, Ohio, remained here a month, was exchanged, and returned to his company at Larkinsville, Alabama, and on the 4th of July, 1865, arrived at Indian- apolis, where the regiment was finally discharged, offi- cers and men returning to their homes.
The Twelfth Cavalry consisted of twelve companies, six only mounted, recruited in the fall and winter of 1863, eight being rendezvoused at Michigan City and four at Kendallville. The regimental organization was completed
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