USA > Indiana > Lake County > Lake County, Indiana, from 1834 to 1872 > Part 9
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Nor one from the other would too widely sever ; Yet of " Puss in the Corner," and " Blind Man's Buff,"
Had we not in our childhood surely enough ?
Above such enjoyment then, gently we'll mount,
And sprinkle our pastimes from Piera's fount. In a parenthesis here to insert,
Classical hearers, please do not feel hurt ;
Our shoes may seem shoddy plodding that ground,
But mayn't sense sometimes yield for the sake of the sound ? Besides toasts, then, and music, and speech most profound, With our names, kindest friends, we'll acquaint you around. And the first to be found on the list or the roll,
The two Arnolds of Merrillville quickly are told ;
Not an Arnold of traitor extraction I ween,
For a VIOLET never disloyal can seem.
Next come the Bs, and the list not so small ;
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LAKE COUNTY.
There is Barton, and Bonnell, and Bothwell, and Ball ; Bacon, and Boyd, and Barker, and Brannon ; Gents and ladies in "pi " you'll observe by the scanning. Craft, Cheshires, and Chapman, Cramer followed by Chase, There's a Castle, a Coffin, and Death we must face ; Dittmers and Davis, and with D we are done ; And a Foster fills proudly F's column alone. Gregg, Granger, and Gerloch, and then comes a Hyde,
. Hayne, Hill, and a Holton who stands in his pride. A Jackson, a Johns, a Miss Johns, ah, ha ! For a lady's name truly they've wandered afat A Kenny, a Knothe, a Lehman you see. And skip "Ab," the invincible who never will flee. The M's are so many we look out for the Mair, To be lost in the list were an accident dire, But no danger, that thought we quickly forestall, For there stand the two Melvilles, both graceful and tall, McClaren, McCracken, Merrill, Martins you scan, Now introduce you a lady, yet surprising, a MANN ! Now Nichols from Lowell, stands alone in the line ; Silver nickel is good, Hannah comes in good time. Here is Palmer, and Pelton, a Pearce for the Post, Rhea, Rundells, and Rollins, and in S stand a host ; Sykes, Sales, Sasse, and Sheehan, Sturges, Sherman, and Starrs, Like the bright flashing meteors, they've come from afar. Now we're at tea with Tillotson and Tucker,
Wise, Whipple, Ward, Woods, Wood-en Williams we mutter. And the last in our group is found in Dickens, short song,
A hope that his memory might ever be Young. Thus showing you round, in front, left, and right,
We hope you'll enjoy yourselves hugely to-night, And that never, down all of life's checkered lane, May we sigh that these hours were hours spent in vain."
I return once more to the year 1865. On the 16th of September of that year was organized, at Crown Point,
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PROGRESS.
the Lake County Sunday School Convention, an organ- ization which is yet living, and accomplished much, it is to be hoped, in promoting the moral culture of the young. Judge Ball, of Cedar Lake, was its first Presi- dent, and continued to act as such, until, failing health laid him aside from active life. The convention holds each year, in the month of August, an anniversary meet- ing, which meetings have been largely attended and are very interesting.
In 1868, James H. Ball having been appointed School Examiner, held the Institute.
His first circular is placed here for preservation, and to show the progress now made.
"THIRD ANNUAL TEACHERS' INSTITUTE OF LAKE COUNTY
Will be held at Crown Point, commencing August 31, 1868, and con- tinue five days. Classes and exercises will be conducted daily as follows:
Orthography and Reading.
English Grammar .- W. W. Cheshire, former Principal of Crown Point Graded School.
Physical and Descriptive Geography and Physiology .- Miss S. J. Walker, of Orleans, Indiana.
History .- Mrs. B. B. Cheshire.
Mathematics and Analysis of Language .- President T. H. Ball, . of Crown Point Institute.
Political Geography .- T. J. Wood, Esq.
English Composition and Rhetoric .- Mrs. L. G. Bedell.
Calisthenics .- Miss C. A. Jackson.
Penmanship .- Miss M. J. Ball.
The following lecturers are expected to be in attendance : J. B. Hoag, M. D., of Knox, Indiana ; A. S. Cutler, D. D. S., of Kanka- kee City, Illinois ; W. Mendenhall, of Chicago, and others, giving a course of eight lectures."
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LAKE COUNTY.
While educational interests were thus striding onward and some of the educators were endeavoring to promote literary culture, although population was not increasing so rapidly as between '50 and '60, our towns were grow- ing up at a rate unknown before; Lowell, without a railroad, Crown Point, and Hobart, and Dyer with railroad facilities, were erecting good buildings and sending off large amounts of produce; and the year '69 closed upon a region that had made a long stride in educational, social, and material progress.
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BURIAL PLACES.
CHAPTER VII.
BURIAL PLACES.
Different nations and tribes have devised differ- ent ways for disposing of the bodies of their dead. Some have embalmed them. Some have burned them and then preserved the ashes in an urn. Some have ex- posed them on scaffolds or heights that the flesh might be consumed by birds. Others have left them more or less exposed to be devoured by hyenas and other ravenous beasts. And still others have buried them as securely as possible within the earth.
The manner of disposing of the bodies of the dead marks the kind of civilization which a nation has at- tained. The practice of burning, though existing among nations of ancient civilization, is now called “ barba- rous."
Dr. Shaw says, of the present burying places of the East, which is the most populous portion of the globe, " They occupy a large space, a great extent of ground being allotted for the purpose. Each family has a por- tion of it walled in like a garden, where the bones of its ancestors have remained undisturbed for many gen- erations. For in these inclosures the graves are all dis- tinct and separate; each of them having a stone placed upright, both at the head and feet, inscribed with the
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LAKE COUNTY.
name or title of the deceased, whilst the intermediate space is either planted with flowers, bordered round with stone, or paved with tiles." Kitto, page 359. Such cemeteries would indicate civilization.
I propose in this chapter to name ours, and briefly note their condition ; considering that they belong to our progress and our civilization. 1
I-WEST CREEK TOWNSHIP.
I. A very retired, quiet resting-place over West Creek, on the Fuller place, where the dead of that neighborhood have been buried. Not fenced by itself nor deeded to trustees ; but well cared for.
2. The Hayden Burial Place. Now West Creek. Not deeded. Protected.
3. The Methodist Church Burial Ground, near the bridge. Cared for, but too small.
4. Old Burial Ground near the Wilkinson place. Only some six graves. Private property. No special care, but not disturbed.
5. The Sanders Burial Ground. Probably not deeded to the public, but protected.
6. The Belshaw family ground, now owned by S. R. Tarr. Ought to be deeded to the County Commission- ers. It is enclosed, contains some fine, large evergreens, but there is no security that it will remain undisturbed, and the dust of one of Lake Prairie's loveliest daughters, with several other once loved forms, is there reposing.
7. Lake Prairie Burial Ground. This is large, well protected and cared for ; is on a sightly eminence, one of the best located cemeteries in the county. I can find no deed of this ground to trustees on"record. It ought to be thus deeded.
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BURIAL PLACES.
II-CEDAR CREEK TOWNSHIP.
I. Lowell Cemetery. Fenced, cared for, and well filled with graves. Needs a gate.
2. Orchard Grove Burial Place. Well kept.
3. Tinkerville or Cedar Lake Cemetery. This is pro- tected, is used as a public burial place, but is private property on the land of A. D. Palmer. It ought to be deeded to Trustees, or the Commissioners.
III-EAGLE CREEK TOWNSHIP.
I. Plum Grove Cemetery. Private as to ownership ; public as to use. Needs fencing.
2. South East Grove Cemetery. Is near the school house, near where a church should be built; is fenced and deeded. It contains one of the finest gray marble monuments in the county, erected to the memory of Otto F. Benjamin, a very promising young man, who died suddenly, at the school house where he was teaching, in 1871. Only two burials at South East Grove up to the year 1843.
IV-WINFIELD TOWNSHIP.
I. Deer Creek Cemetery, near the school house. This place of burial, used for many years, seems to be prop- erly kept.
2. Old Burial Ground at Hickory Point.
V-ROSS TOWNSHIP.
I. Cemetery at Ross.
2. Cemetery at Merrillville.
3. Family burial place at Deep River. This is, per- haps, the oldest in the county, having been first used in 1836. These are cared for.
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LAKE COUNTY.
4. An old burial place near the Wilkinson Ford of Deep River, from which some bodies have been removed, but where many yet remain. This old spot is now part of a cultivated field. It seems a pity that the little ground required to receive the dust of human forms may not remain undisturbed. This spot ought yet to be res- cued from the plowshire, consecrated, as it has been, by the burial of old settlers; or the human remains there resting should be removed to a quiet cemetery which is sacred to repose.
5. A cemetery near the Joliet road, between Deep River and Merrillville. Tolerably protected.
6. Ground on the farm of W. T. Dennis contains some thirty graves. Here were buried many old settlers, as the Beebers, Dustins, Sturdeyvants, Clevelands, and oth- ers. Has not been used for burial purposes for five or six years. It ought to be protected and secured against desecration.
VI-HOBART TOWNSHIP.
I. Catholic Cemetery at Lake.
2. Protestant Cemetery at Lake; laid out in 1871. Unused at this date.
3. Hobart Cemetery. All these are properly cared for and kept.
4. An old burial ground that has been used for thirty years, south of Hobart, on a farm formerly owned by Wm. Banks. This is private property, the right of use for burial purposes being reserved when deeded by W. Banks, but not the land itself. It ought to be sur- rounded by a fence, as it is located in a road-side pasturage.
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BURIAL PLACES.
VII-ST. JOHN'S TOWNSHIP.
1. Hack Family Cemetery. A beautiful situation.
2. St. John's Cemetery.
3. Dyer Cemetery.
These, as consecrated grounds, are protected and kept in order.
4. An old burial place east of Shererville, on the east end of the sand ridge. Not protected by any fence, probably deeded to no trustees. It is Protestant ground, and shows neglect. The neighborhood interested ought at once to secure, by a suitable fence, this place, where for so many years their dead were buried.
VIII-HANOVER TOWNSHIP.
I. A burial place on the west side of West Creek. The ground belongs to the public, although undeeded, as it lies on a portion of land set apart for a highway, other land for the highway having been purchased beside it. This cemetery has been sadly neglected. It is the last resting-place of the remains of some old and highly re- spected citizens and deserves far better care.
2. The family cemetery of H. Sasse, Sen. This is well kept.
3. A little knoll near Cedar Lake, originally claimed by S. Russell, has been consecrated by occasional bur- ials since the spring of 1837. The body of a little daughter of Solomon Russell, drowned in an unfinished well, was the first one there committed to the dust. A young Norwegian passing through this region, taken sick and dying at the Cox place, away from all friends and kindred, buried in December, 1837, was the second to find there a resting-place. Since then many residents
I2
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4
LAKE COUNTY.
near Cedar Lake, have, during the past years, been added to those slumberers. This knoll, by right, belongs to an uncle of that Norwegian, a man of intelligence and wealth, who came out from the city of New York many months afterwards, found the house in which his nephew died, the spot where he was buried, and who for that spot of ground paid Solomon Russell five dollars, the value then of four acres of land. H. Sasse, Sen., and myself have a knowledge of that purchase. John Meyer, of Hanover, is the present legal owner of this land; and I take the liberty to suggest that he ought, in considera- tion of its ancient purchase, and of its use for so many years as a place of burial, to deed the few rods in this little wooded knoll to the County Commissioners, that it may, in the language of the Statutes of Indiana, " be ded- icated as a public burying place forever."
4. Hanover Centre Cemetery, consecrated ; belonging to the Church of St. Martin.
5. A cemetery connected with the German Methodist Church.
IX-CENTRE TOWNSHIP.
I. Old Burying Ground.
2. Crown Point Cemetery.
3. Crown Point New Cemetery.
4. East Cedar Lake.
5. Old County-farm Cemetery.
Not one of these, I am sorry to make such a record, is. cared for as it should be, except the new cemetery. The idea of removing the dead from place to place, not al- lowing even their bones to rest in peace, and the idea of leaving graves unprotected, or of running the plow-share
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BURIAL PLACES.
over them, seem to me alike to do violence to the better impulses of our hearts; and I express here the hope that my fellow-citizens, in the different parts of the county, in other respects so considerate, so humane in feeling, so noble in disposition, so cultivated and intelli- gent, will awaken to a just sense of what, in regard to our thirty-eight burial places, their own civilization demands at their hands.
The metropolis of Great Britain comprises Westmin- ster, London proper, and Southwark. The first two places, once a mile apart, are on one side of the Thames, and the last on the other side. In contrast with the burials in Westminster Abbey, where so many of the great and some of the good of England have been buried, a writer says : " Bunhill Fields is out of doors, a little plat of four acres in the heart of the great city, as plain and unpretending as a country church-yard. Yet it has a history as replete with interest as the more splendid depository of royalty and genius." One hundred and twenty thousand are said to have been buried in that city cemetery. Among them are John Bunyan, Daniel DeFoe, and Dr. Isaac Watts. In another cemetery across the street lie the remains of John Wesley. His mothers's dust reposes in Bunhill Fields, where also lie the remains of George Fox, the Quaker; of T. Fowell Buxton, the philanthropist, and of multitudes of others of renowned and unknown men.
When, one hundred years hence, Lake county having become densely populated, a large suburban town having spread out for miles around the present growing village, there will be no ancient, quiet church-yards into which
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LAKE COUNTY.
observing travelers, and meditative poets, and studious antiquarians may enter and find the resting places of the noted ones of this generation, unless we change the present custom, and the prevailing popular taste. In view of the growth, and the love of research and medi- tation, which we may surely look for three generations hence, I earnestly recommend to the citizens of Crown Point, to purchase and fence the Old Cemetery -- it is in a very good situation for a quiet summer morning retreat for thought and solitude-and set it apart as the resting place of the slumberers who are there, "forever," until the dead themselves shall awake. Then I earn- estly entreat that they let the second one remain, re- fence it, and care for it, and let the two hundred sleep- ing bodies that are there sleep on. Let that once ani- mated and honored dust lie where sorrowing friends, absent and scattered now, laid it away to rest. It is poor civilization to be continually moving the bones and .ashes of the dead. Let the generations of the future see the very places where our bodies are moldering to the dust.
I45
TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
CHAPTER VIII.
TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
Leaving the resting places of the dead, and returning again to the abodes of the living, I present, in this chap- ter, a glance at the centres of business life, the villages, and the towns. They are arranged neither in the order of age or size ; but partly in the order in which some of them were visited ; and, partly, with the design of pre- senting as much variety as is practicable.
BRUNSWICK-1858.
This village is in Hanover Township, on the west side of West Creek, ten miles from Crown Point, nearly due west of the head of Cedar Lake. It was commenced by the location of a store, near the corner, in 1858. It contains eighteen families; one store, at which is sold annually some twelve thousand dollars worth of goods; two blacksmiths' shops; two wagon shops ; two masons; one carpenter ; one shoemaker ; one harness maker, one physician, a homæpathist ; and one horse doctor. It also has a two-story school building, which cost twelve hun- dred dollars ; and a manufacturing establishment of water elevators. It contains the residences of H. C. Beckman, late County Commissioner ; of Dr. C. Gro- man, J. H. Irish, J. Schmal, and A. Farwell. It seems
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LAKE COUNTY.
to be prosperous, but not growing rapidly. It has no church building.
HANOVER CENTRE-1856.
This is east of Brunswick two miles, and eight miles southwest from Crown Point. It dates as a village back to about 1856. It contains ten families, one store, one wagon shop, one blacksmith's shop, one shoemaker, one carpenter, one dressmaker, and two saloons. It is the seat of the Church of St. Martin, belonging to which are five acres of land and a cemetery.
KLAASVILLE-1860.
This little village is pleasantly situated on the "Grand Prairie," about half a mile from the Illinois line, south and west from Brunswick, distant from Crown Point about twelve miles. It is near the summit of a slight elevation in the prairie, from whence one may look far away into the apparently boundless regions of Illinois. The village was founded by H. Klaas, who settled there in 1850, the first German in that vicinity. Here is lo- cated the Church of St. Anthony, erected in 1860, con- nected with which is a cemetery ; and settled near are some ten or fifteen families, in the village proper about · ten. Here is one store, and a school house; also a black- smith, a carpenter, a wagon maker, a shoemaker, and a tailor. It is a quiet, thrifty, healthful place.
TINKERVILLE-1850.
The locality which bears this name, lying a little south- east of Cedar Lake, and distant from Crown Point about seven miles, is not a compact village. A store, and post office, and a blacksmith shop are near each other, and a few rods away are four dwelling houses. The school
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TOWNS AND VILLAGES
house is half a mile distant, on one of four corners, and within a circle of three quarters of a mile are ten other families. As a centre for evening and Sabbath gather- ings, for schools and religious meetings, it is equal to a village of twenty families.
Here reside the descendants of the first settlers, on the east side of Cedar Lake, with other families who have settled among them, and nearly every family in this neighborhood is connected by ties of blood, or by mar- riage and intermarriage.
This settlement reached the village form about 1850. The Cedar Lake Baptist Church removed their meetings from the west side to the old School House in this place, and transferred the location of their Sabbath School at about this time, probably in 1849. Religious meetings have been held there, in the name of the Cedar Lake Church, by Elders Hunt, McKay, Brayton, Hitchcock, Whitehead, and Steadman, and thus this locality became the second Baptist centre in Lake County. No church edifice was erected; that church organization dissolved, and nothing remains to Tinkerville of that part of the past, except the Cedar Lake Sabbath School, one of the oldest organizations of its kind in the county. This locality is in Cedar Creek Township. It contains a cem- etery. The store, blacksmith's shop, and post office have been already mentioned. Familiar names here are A. D. Palmer, Alfred Edgerton, Amasa Edgerton, and Obadiah Taylor. The McCarty family resided here for many years ; B. McCarty, the father, and Smiley, Wil- liam, Franklin, F. Asbury, Morgan, and Jonathon, the sons. One of these, FAYETTE ASBURY MCCARTY, go-
-
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LAKE COUNTY.
ing forth from Tinkerville, became the greatest traveler Lake has ever reared. He went into the Far West, beyond the Rocky Mountains, about twenty years ago. The maiden whom he had chosen to become his wife, fell with others a victim to Indian border strife just before the time set for their marriage. Lone in heart, he engaged for three years, in warfare against the Indians ; was four times wounded by them; killed with his own hand twenty-one of the Red Wariors who had burned the dwelling, and killed the whole family of her whom he loved. Like Logan, the Mingo, against the whites, he could say, "I have killed many;" and then he com- menced his wanderings. He went among the mines ; he went up into Alaska, then Russian America; he went down into South America; he crossed the ocean-the Pacific ; spent some time in China ; visited the Sandwich Islands on his return; made money among the mines ; and after fourteen years' absence, visited, some six or seven years ago, the haunts of his youth in Lake county. He found here some old friends; narrated to us his adventures ; went to New York to take passage again for the mines; was taken sick, and died soon after reaching the gold region at Idaho. Successful in obtaining gold, noble in disposition, lonely in heart in the sad romance of his life, he leaves his name and memory to be carefully treasured up by the friends of his boyhood at Cedar Lake. I am glad to place here on record this brief tribute to the memory of our greatest traveler-F. Asbury McCarty.
TOLLESTON-1857.
Number of families, 80; population, 400; distance
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TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
from Crown Point, eighteen miles, on the P. & F.W. R. R. The men for the most part work on the railroad. The company pay out here, per month, about $2000. Stores, 4; carpenters, 3 ; blacksmith, I ; shoemaker, I. This is a Lutheran village. It contains a Lutheran Church and parsonage, a good school house, and a few miles distant is a Chicago Club House. This is a neat looking build- ing of wood, near the Calumet, erected by a company of sportsmen in Chicago, who occupy it as a boarding house country seat. The house and grounds have a city like
appearance. Not far west of Tolleston, near the crossing of the Fort Wayne road and the Calumet, is said to be the highest sand hill around Lake Michi- gan. The wells in Tolleston are shallow, the soil very sandy, and the water not very cold. It is surface water. The number of families given here includes the suburbs.
CLARK-1858.
On Fort Wayne railroad. Number of families, 16; distant from Crown Point, 16 miles. Contains two ice houses, one hotel, and a school house. The principal in- dustry is putting up and shipping ice.
MILLER,
On Michigan Southern Railroad ; a station ; number of families, 12. Contains a little grocery store, and school house. Distant from Crown Point, about 20 miles.
WHITNEY.
A station on Michigan Southern Railroad. Contains 15 families. No business except railroad work. Distant from Crown Point, some 20 miles.
GIBSON'S STATION-1850.
On Michigan Central Railroad. Families, 4 ; no busi-
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LAKE COUNTY.
ness. Distant from Crown Point, 17 miles. Distant from Hessville, one mile.
PINE.
A station on Michigan Southern Railroad. Families,
4. Distant from Crown Point, 20 miles.
STATE LINE SLAUGHTER HOUSE.
On Michigan Central Railroad. Miles from Crown Point, 20. One store ; one boarding house for workmen. The Slaughter House employs some eighteen men ; ship three or four cars daily to Boston, loaded with beef, packed in ice.
CASSELLO-1858.
A station on Pittsburg & Fort Wayne Railroad. Very few families. Nearly destroyed by fire last fall.
CASSVILLE.
This place owes its existence to the Pittsburg, Cincin- nati and St. Louis Railway. A grain house, a hay press, a store, and three dwelling houses comprise the buildings on this ground. The location was not favorable for the growth of a town; and some slight friction somewhere, preventing the opening of roads and the sale of town lots, has apparently retarded a growth that might have taken place. Cassville is about half way between Crown Point and Hebron, or six miles from Crown Point, in Eagle Creek Township, one of the youngest and smallest
of all our villages. Yet its enterprising merchant, A Edgerton, does considerable business ; a fair amount of grain is there bought and shipped by Z. F. Summers ; near it reside J. Q. Benjamin, the McLaran family, and a few others ; and around it lie lands owned by some wealthy non-residents, Dr. Cass, of Porter, and Judge Niles, of La Porte.
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TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
LAKE STATION-1852.
Number of families, 40 ; dry goods stores, 2 ; grocery stores, 3; blacksmith's shops, 2; railroad blacksmith's shop, I; wagon shop, I; saloons, 5 ; shoemaker's shop, I; wind water elevators, for railroad, 2; boarding houses, 5; basket maker, I ; meat market, I. It contains also one church, and one school house, the Audubon Hotel, large and roomy, and an engine house. Most of the in- habitants are connected with the railroad. The depot grounds are the largest and most tastefully laid out of any in the county. There are many neat looking buildings. Soil, sandy. Distant from Crown Point, 15 miles.
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