USA > Indiana > Lake County > Lake County, Indiana, from 1834 to 1872 > Part 8
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LAKE COUNTY.
at Kendallville, and in May, 1864, the regiment left that place and proceded to Nashville. Remaining in a camp of instruction about three weeks, the regiment left for Huntsville May 29. Here, and over quite a territory, they performed guard duty, and were engaged in fight- ing guerrillas and " bushwackers," a large number of the regiment being killed or wounded in these engagements and skirmishes. After remaining about a month at Huntsville, the headquarters were removed to Browns- borough, where they remained until the 15th of Septem- ber, when the regiment was ordered to Tallahassee. Here they watched the movements of the rebel General For- rest and had several skirmishes with bands of his men and with guerrillas. On the 26th of November they proceeded to Murfreesboro and took part in the battle of Wilkinson's Pike and Overall's Creek, and in December went into winter quarters at Nashville. February II, 1865, the regiment started for New Orleans, stopped at Vicksburg, and reached New Orleans March 12. They proceeded to Mobile Bay, found occupation there and in Florida, and after the fall of Mobile, reporting to Major General Grierson, April 17th, they took part in a raid: of over eight hundred miles into Georgia, and across Ala- bama to Columbus, Mississippi, arriving there May 20. Making some other changes, doing guard duty, protect- ing government cotton, and other property, the regiment was mustered out of the service at Vicksburg, Novem- ber 10, 1865, and returned to Indiana. It was paid off and its members discharged November 22.
" The regiment was highly and specially complimented by Major General Grierson, in a letter to Governor
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OUR WAR RECORD.
Morton, for its gallant conduct and military discipline." Vol. III., page 268, Adjutant General's Report.
The following is an extract from a letter written by one of the officers of Company G, to his father, who then resided in Hanover township, and was taking an active interest in the events and issues of the war. It bears date June 11, 1865.
Camp near Columbus, Miss. " I see the Register thinks the Twelfth has not amounted to much in the service. I wont say how that may be, but we have certainly been on duty enough. Commanders of posts and brigades with which we have been connected have certainly called on us enough. Last summer the men were often on duty every other twenty-four hours for weeks at a time, and men have often been obliged to stand guard for three or four days at a time. People at a distance, or those who have to depend on talk for their information, seldom get it very correct. I suppose the Twelfth is as well disci- plined as the average of cavalry regiments. Col. Karge, Second New Jersey, who has commanded different bri- gades ever since the war commenced, said that the Twelfth Indiana was the best regiment he ever com- manded. So also said a steamboat captain, that the Twelfth had the finest, most gentlemanly officers and men of any regiment he ever saw. This is rather more praise than we deserve, but then the men are what their sur- roundings make them, and if we had been sent out on a campaign at first we might have won a different name. In short, I don't believe we are any better or worse than any one else."
That the Twelfth Cavalry gained no distinguished war
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LAKE COUNTY.
honors is doubtless true ; but having no opportunity to engage in any noted battle, it is not just to infer that its arduous services were useless, or that its officers and men would not have borne themselves gallantly in fight.
Hanover township lost, out of Company G, two of its promising and energetic young men, sons and brothers whom their families knew not how to give up, CHARLES BALL, 2d Lieutenant, and STILLMAN A. ROBBINS; and Tinkonville lost one of its leading citizens, the son of an old settler, MILES F. MCCARTY.
The following extract from a letter, written by a mem- ber of the company to the author of this record, will be of interest to at least one circle of relatives and friends :
"I did not, in my former letter, say anything about FRANKLIN MCCARTY's death. He died the day after I got to Nashville "-May 27, 1864-" but I did not know he was dangerously ill till the night he died. Some one told Will Scrietchfield that he was not expected to live, about dark, and then he could not go. We were camped, by the way, some three miles from Nashville. Enlisted men are not entitled to receive the countersign which enables them to pass guards after dark, but, as it is gen- erally known to me from my connection with the adju- tant, I went down; but he was already dead. I think he never enjoyed himself very well in the company, and felt that he was not placed in a position that his age and tal- ents warranted."
That he had reason thus to feel I doubt not; for, hav- ing known him well for many years, I am sure he had capabilities which favorable circumstances would have rapidly developed. As he was one of a circle of boys
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OUR WAR RECORD.
living around Cedar Lake, in the early days, so many of whom are dead or scattered now, it is not strange that those pleasant associations of youth should make me lin- ger here on this record. And, alas! he who wrote those lines quoted above, before the regiment returned to the West, permitting its members to enjoy the repose and comforts of their quiet homes, himself fell a victim to disease, and returned to Cedar Lake to die, where his hopes of life had so brightly budded.
While some fell, and some must ever fall-well has one said, " There is seldom a line of glory written upon earth's surface, but a line of suffering runs parallel with it ; and he who reads the lustrous syllables of the one and stoops not to decipher the worn, and dimmed, and tear-stained inscriptions of the other, gets the least half of what even earth has to give;"-while some fell and were wept for in secret, others returned home with the scars of war, sharers in the glory of a just success, and are now filling positions of profit and honor. Three re- turned soldiers are this year candidates for three of our highest offices, John Brown, for Treasurer ; John Donch, for Sheriff, and John M. Dwyer, for Recorder. Others are leading business men in our towns, and others still are the owners and the tillers of the soil. But let us re- turn to the decade of the war.
The pulpits of Crown Point, as elsewhere in the West, patriotic but not political, were thoroughly on the side of the Union. Services were held from time to time ap- propriate. to the several occasions of joy and sorrow, of hopes and of fears; fasts and thanksgivings were ob- served ; and earnest words of religious teaching and pat-
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LAKE COUNTY.
riotic feeling were uttered. After the fall of Vicksburg, and the capture of Fortress Monroe, in 1863, the Presi- dent recommended the observance of a day of Thanks- giving. The following hymn, written by one of the pastors in town, was sung at Crown Point, during the services of that day, September 11, 1863 :
THANKSGIVING HYMN.
God of our fathers, now to thee, Our grateful homage we would pay ; Thou leadest on the bond, the free ; Help us to praise thy might to-day.
Thou lovest right, thou hatest wrong ; By thee the bondmen's chains are riven ;
Beleagured town and fortress strong, Into our hands by thee are given.
For this we praise thy matchless power, For this we lift our hearts to thee ; In each exultant, joyous hour, Do thou our God and Fortress be.
We recognize thy powerful hand ; We bow before thy holy might ; Oh be thou gracious to our land, Oh bring us forth to noon-tide light.
When at length the war cloud passed, and in the spring of 1865 the rebel armies surrendered, the bronzed and war-worn veterans hastened back to their peaceful homes. But many a mother's eyes were dim with tears, the hearts of many a wife and maiden throbbed with an- guish, as the "boys in blue " returned ; for their own sons, and husbands, and brothers, had given their lives to maintain our national existence. Nobly did many of
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OUR WAR RECORD.
the families of Lake resign their loved ones to the grand- ness of the cause that had called them forth to dare, and do, and die ; but they nevertheless felt that some of their choicest treasures had perished in the terrible conflict.
Of our one thousand men, how many fell on the red fields of blood, and died in camp and hospital, cannot now be ascertained. The names of some who perilled life for their country's welfare, and lost their lives on ac- count of the Great Rebellion, are here recorded. There is an old saying : Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. "It is pleasant and noble to die for one's country." In behalf of each one of these, his friends may say,-To perpetuate this Union of States he died.
From the Roll of Honor, of Indiana Volunteers, as found in Vol. VIII, of the Adjutant General's Report, the following list is made out :
TWELFTH CAVALRY-COMPANY G.
Names.
Where Dying. When.
Charles Ball,
At home, September 12, 1865
Henry Brockman,
Charls Crothers,
New Orleans, April 5, 1865 Kendallville, March 17, 1864 New Orleans, April 18, 1865 Vicksburg, January 4, 1865
Jacob Deeter.
At home, October 27, 1864
Ephraim E. Goff,
Starkville, August 16, 1865
Wm. Harland,
Nashville, January 8, 1865
M. Hoopendall,
Huntsville, June 22, 1864
Fred. Kahle, F. S. Miller,
Kendallville,
April 13, 1864
At home,
Albert Moore,
Kendallville,
April 3, 1864
M. F. McCarty,
Nashville, May 27, 1864
A. McMillen,
Michigan City,
February 3, 1864
Wm. M. Pringle,
Nashville,
November 4, 1864
Sidney W. Chapman,
R. L. Fuller,
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LAKE COUNTY.
Huntsville, July 18, 1864 At home, May 15, 1864
Wm. Stinkle,
Nashville,
February I, 1865
Ezra Wedge,
At home,
February 3, 1864
TWENTIETH REGIMENT-COMPANY B.
Col. John Wheeler,
Gettysburg,
July 2, 1863
George W. Edgerton,
Gettysburg, July 2, 1863
Horace Fuller,
Wilderness,
May 5, 1864
Lawrence Frantz,
Spootsylvania,
May 12, 1864
John Griesell,
David Island,
August 16, 1862
M. Hafey,
Pittsburg,
C. Hazworth,
May 26, 1863
Wm. Johnson,
Petersburg,
June 18, 1864
Albert Kale,
Camp Hampton,
Dec. 17, 186[
Wm. Mutchler,
Camp Smith,
April 25,1862
P. Mutchler,
Washington,
July 15, 1862
James Merrill,
Wilderness,
May 5, 1864
S. Pangburn,
Andersonville,
November 6, 1864
C. Potter,
D. Pinckerton,
J. Richmond,
Gettysburg,
July 2, 1863
John F. Torr,
Washington,
November 24, 1862
Isaac Williams,
July 5, 1863
Charles Winters,
City Point,
June 19, 1864
SEVENTY-THIRD REGIMENT-COMPANY A.
Lewis Atkins,
Nashville,
November 22, 1862
Eli Atwood,
Nashville,
November 29, 1862
John Childers,
Nashville, December 3, IS62
John H. Earley,
Stone River, December 31, 1862
R. W. Fuller,
Indianapolis, Nashville,
Wm. Frazier,
J. M. Fuller, M. Graves, T. W. Loving,
Gallatin,
Nashville,
Nashville,
August 2, 1863 December 15, 1862 January 29, 1863
December 16, 1862 September 30, 1863
S. A. Robbins, Wm. Stubby,
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OUR WAR RECORD.
A. Lamphier,
Nashville, Nashville,
January 7, 1863 April 30, 1863
I. W. Moore,
Gallatin,
John Maxwell,
Scottsville,
Albert Nichols, James Roney,
Nashville,
C. Van Burg,
Bowling Green,
December 23, 1862
M. Vincent,
Gallatin, January 8, 1863
Nashville, November 29, 1862
E. Woods, E. Welch, S. White,
Stone River,
December 31, 1862
Blunt's Farm,
May 2, 1863
NINETY-NINTH REGIMENT-COMPANY A.
D. F. Sawyer,
February 12, 1863
O. E. Atkins,
Nickajack,
July 6, 1864
D. T. Burnham,
J. Bartholomew,
Andersonville,
J. D. Clingham,
Huntsville,
H. A. Case,
La Grange,
August 21, 1864 August 22, 1864 July 11, 1864 March 10, 1863
James Foster,
James Horton,
H. H. Haskins,
R. T. Harris, John Lorey, Adam Mock,
N. Newman,
T. C. Pinnel,
Corydon Pierce, Washington,
Albert Robbins, J. Schmidt, Indianapolis,
J. Stickleman,
A. Vandervert,
March 19, 1863
M. Winand,
At home,
December II, 1864
Atlanta, July 22, 1864 Atlanta, July 22, 1864 Andersonville, October 20, 1864 La Grange, March II, 1863 Black River, September 21, 1863 Black River, September II, 1863 Black River, August 4, 1863 La Grange, February 7, 1863 April, 1863 August 6, 1864 July 28, 1863 September 23, 1864
It seems singular that the four companies should have lost almost the same number of men. Company G, and
II
L. Morris,
December 29, 1862 November 9, 1862 December 1, 1862 February 8, 1863
Nashville,
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LAKE COUNTY.
Company B, nineteen each ; and the two A companies each twenty. Taking twenty per cent. as the general average, our whole loss would be two hundred men.
Terrible was that necessity that caused throughout the North the loss of so many young and valuable lives ; and that appeal to arms on the part of the South, for the settlement of a long dispute, must be held responsible for a large amount of life-blood and treasure. We may well hope that the whole nation has been sufficiently taught not to kindle again the flames of fraternal strife. Multitudes of this generation, both North and South, will carry with them to their graves the dark shadows which passed over their souls, in those fearful years of the life struggles of a great nation, as loved ones so untimely fell ; and, of these, young and loyal Lake may well claim to have her full share. Some proper estimate here ought to be placed on the value of a united and not a dissev- ered nation.
Although for four years of this decade the absorb- ing interest was the war, and the withdrawing of a thousand men from our industrial pursuits was at times sorely felt, yet prices advanced enormously, and all kinds of farm products found a ready and remunerative sale, and improvements and increase of inhabitants still went · forward. In 1861 corn sold for seventeen cents a bushel, and a dull market. Before the close of the war, in 1864, corn sold for ninety cents a bushel at Dyer Station. Pork, which had also been low, as well as all other agri- cultural productions, advanced to sixteen dollars a hun- dred weight, and most other products in proportion. " Greenbacks" were issued by the Government, boun-
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PROGRESS.
ties and quarterly payments were sent home by the sol- diers, and money became plenty.
Many good frame buildings were erected during the last ten years ; but about 1860 commenced an era of a far better class of buildings. Henry Dittmers, who bought, in 1859, that farm on Cedar Lake, where the Ball family had for twenty-two years resided, erected one of the first of these in 1860. He bought common lumber in Chicago for seven dollars a thousand, and laid out in a house and barns some four thousand dollars. His exam- ple was followed by many others. Most of the best buildings now in the county, and especially of those in the towns and villages, have been erected since 1860.
In 1865 a new impulse was given to Crown Point, and to all the southern portion of the county, by the comple- tion of the Cincinnati Air Line Railroad, known after- ward as the Great Eastern, and now called Pittsburg, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway. This road, passing through Crown Point, started it at once into new life. Railroad Addition was laid out and added to the town' a depot building was erected, grain houses were built, and a western railroad growth commenced.
In the same year (1865) an educational enterprise was started which accomplished something for the intellectual progress of the community. Block No. I in Rail Road Addition was obtained, a building was soon completed. at a cost-building and furniture-of some $5,300, and in January, 1866, the building was occupied for school purposes. I place on record here, as a memento of what it was designed to be and was, its last advertisement, as published in the CASTALIAN, of March, 1870.
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LAKE COUNTY.
CROWN POINT INSTITUTE.
FOUNDERS CROWN POINT INSTITUTE EDUCATIONAL COMPANY, ORGANIZED MAY 31, 1865.
Designed to furnish Collegiate Instruction for young ladies and young men, with a graduating course for the former, in
I .- Languages, II .- Physical Sciences,
III .- Mathematics,
IV .- Philosophy, V .- Belles-Lettres, VI .- Ornamental Branches.
Preparatory and Primary Departments were also added. Instruction commenced September 11, 1865.
T. H. BALL, PROPRIETOR AND TRUSTEE.
LOCATION.
Crown Point is located on the Chicago, Columbus and Indiana Central Railroad, forty miles from Chicago, in Lake County, Indiana. [It is noted for the healthfulness and beauty of its location. It is a county seat.
THE INSTITUTE.
Is now in its Fifth Year. The Fourth Term will commence April 25, 1870. Ten weeks in each Term-Four terms in a year. Pleasant rooms are furnished for self- boarders.
RATES OF TUITION, ETC., PER TERM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE.
Primary Department. $3.00
Bookkeeping $2.00
Intermediate
4.00
Music-Lessons and use of Instru-
Preparatory
5.00
ment ---
Collegiate 6.00
Melodeon 8.00
Janitor's fees
.50
Board-washing and lights exclu-
Drawing Lessons
2.00
Painting, Water Colors
4.00
Or, per week 3.00
VACATIONS.
.At Christmas, one week ; in April, one week ; Summer vacation, ten weeks.
RECREATIONS.
Besides the daily exercises and recreation, excursions sometimes to Cedar Lake, . a beautiful sheet of water, distant five miles, and a few sleigh rides in the winter.
COURSE OF STUDY.
PRIMARY.
Spelling, Reading,
Writing, Geography.
Mental Arithmetic, Readers, Ist, 2d, 3d & 4th.
INTERMEDIATE.
The same, adding Practical Arithmetic and Fifth Reader.
PREPARATORY.
Spelling, Sixth Reader, Intellectual Arithmetic,
Geography, English Grammar,
Practical Arithmetic, Algebra, Latin Grammar, and Reader.
Piano 10.00
Room Rent (self-boarders) 2.50
ded -30.00
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PROGRESS.
COLLEGIATE. YOUNG LADIES' COURSE.
FIRST YEAR-JUNIOR CLASS.
Physiology, Composition and Rhetoric, History of the United States, Cæsar, Botany.
SECOND YEAR-MIDDLE CLASS.
Geometry. Natural Philosophy, Zoology, Cicero's Orations.
THIRD YEAR-SENIOR CLASS.
Political Economy, Horace,
Chemistry, Ancient History,
Modern History,
Mineralogy and Geology,
Logic, Mental Philosophy,
Elements of Criticism,
Astronomy,
Evidences of Christianity. Butler's Analogy.
OPTIONAL IN THE COURSE, AND NOT NAMED ABOVE.
Bookkeeping, Drawing, Painting, Greek, German, Vocal and Instrumental Mu- sic, Sallust, Livy and Tacitus.
Rhetorical Exercises, Recitations and Compositions required in each department.
After taking out the musical instruments and some furniture, its academic work having been accomplished, the Institute property was sold, August 1, 1871, to the town of Crown Point for the sum of $3,600. Thus, like the Institute at Valparaiso, like the Female Institute at Indianapolis, like some other such private enterprises, it passed into the hands of the public, the prevailing dispo- sition now in Indiana being to sustain only public graded and district schools. The following statements were published in the Standard, of Chicago, in July, 1872, which also, as a condensed view of things accomplished in the educational line, I place among these records.
The communication from which the extract is taken was signed by the former Principal of the Institute. After stating its origin and reason for its transfer to other hands the article proceeds :
" It educated, more or less, a few hundred students, who are now, so far as I know, in Nova Scotia, New
English Analysis and Scanning, Physical Geography, Algebra,
Ancient Geography, History of England, Virgil,
Moral Science,
Trigonometry,
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LAKE COUNTY.
York, Kentucky, Virginia, Alabama, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and in the far West. Quite a number have engaged in teaching. . Some are practicing law and medicine, some are clerks and in business, some are farmers and mechanics. One only is preparing for the ministry. Most of the young ladies have married, , and a number of the young men. Some of the young ladies became leaders of church-music. All who have gone into life seem to be active and useful. Three of the young ladies have died. Seventeen of the students I baptized. Most of them received religious instruction. During one of the years there were some sixty boarders. Other years, not quite so many. The students were from the families of Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Spir- itualists, Lutherans, Catholics, and Jews.
" If labor for the mind and heart is profitable, if he who trains for activity and usefulness young minds achieves success, then I doubt not that when the in- volved radical of my strange earthly life is solved, the unknown quantities representing six years of varied labor here will come out in integers of determinate and real value. The equation is one which no mathematician at present can solve, although he perceives entering into it a minus one thousand, To sell was, for myself, finan- cially, needful; for the cause of education it was a retro- grade movement. There are those whose real interests should have perpetuated such a school as a living power for years yet to come."
The Institute also published a paper, the first literary and educational paper in the county, at first called the PIERIAN, and afterward its name was changed to CAS-
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PROGRESS
TALIAN. The educated reader will not need to be in- formed that these both are classic names. This periodi- cal became an eight-page monthly, of good size and neat appearance. Of its literary character, Prof. Harkness, of Brown University, and others in the East, spoke very favorably ; and the Sun Beam, in its Literary Review, naming a number of exchanges, said, " THE CASTALIAN, Crown Point, Ind., and The Mount Auburn Index, Cin- cinnati, Ohio, are educational monthlies worthy the pat- ronage of every lover of learning."
Commencing November, 1867, its last issue was sent out in March, 1870. It may be that the teachers of the public schools would have done themselves credit and promoted their own interests by securing its continuance as an educational journal, but both it and the Institute are now among the things of the past.
The Pierian Society, conducted by the members of the Institute in its palmy days, the only society of the kind which has yet existed in the county, whose annual exhi- bitions were well attended, belongs alike to this period of educational progress.
The hundreds of former students, scattered widely now, will recall pleasant remembrances in connection with their academic life; and none of them will forget one, always so earnest and active in the Society, and in behalf of the CASTALIAN, the most thorough Latin and Greek scholar of the Institute, Henry Johnson, of Crown Point ; nor will they be surprised that he, entering the Sophomore Class at Hanover College, took the honors of the class in the languages, graduated with credit, and is now pursuing a theological course in the seminary at
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LAKE COUNTY.
Chicago ; and while the Dinwiddies and others are achieving success in farming, and J. B. Turner, and W. Weatherbee, and H. Nichols, and E. Bibler, and so many others are pressing on in business; and H. H. Pratt, H. Castle, and H. Pettibone are looking forward to distinc- tion in the medical profession, scores of others, active men and women now, making their mark in the world; none will be surprised if Henry Johnson, in his lone pathway, as a herald of the Cross, should gain at last the highest honor of them all. For a prophet's pen has writ- ten, "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteous- ness, as the stars for ever and ever."
From the CASTALIAN of April, 1868, the following is taken, and it is again commended to all who are inter- ested in education :
" The teaching which the Institute gives to its stu- dents :
Ist. Prepare yourselves for usefulness.
2d. Prepare yourself for happiness.
3d. Do what you can to fit others for usefulness and happiness."
In the same year (1865) two ladies came from Illinois, Misses M. and K. Knight, and started a boarding and day school for girls in Crown Point. They erected a small building on East Street, which has since been re- moved to the south end of town. They have also erected on South Street a dwelling house, have admitted boys and some young men into their school, and seem to be quite prosperous.
In 1866 the first Teachers' Institute of the county was
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PROGRESS.
held, conducted by W. W. Cheshire, then School Exam- iner. Pertaining to the Teachers' Institute, I find the following record taken from the Crown Point Register. As a fugitive production, belonging, probably, to 1867, it may interest the hundred teachers of the county to see it reproduced on a more permanent page. -
" On Thursday evening the Social was well attended by both teachers and citizens. The exercises consisted of toasts, music, volunteer speeches, and reading. The following poem, prepared expressly for the occasion, was read by Mr. J. H. Ball :
Fellow teachers and friends, we're assembled to-night
To enjoy from stern science a social respite.
A draft of nepenthe from study and care,
Diversion to cheer us, kindred feelings to share.
And though knowing all play "makes Jack a mere toy,"
Still we think that all study " makes but a dull boy"; . Hence, mirth, wit, and science we'd mingle together.
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