USA > Indiana > Northwestern Indiana from 1800 to 1900; or, A view of our region through the nineteenth century > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
Before closing Mr. Niles says :
For nearly twenty-five years no lecture courses have been given, but before that time many famous lecturers appeared before the association audiences, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, George Sumner, Wendell Phillips, Bayard Taylor, Benjamin F. Taylor, Horace Greely (who was also here in 1853, making the trip from LaFayette to Otis on a hand-car because of an accident on the New Albany road), Petroleum V. Nasby, (his first lecture) W. H. Milburn, (the blind preacher, chaplain of the U. S. Senate) J. G. Holland, John G. Saxe, Geo. Thompson. M. P., (English Abolitionist) John B. Gough, James B. Belford (the red-headed-rooster-of-the-Rockies) Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Grace Greenwood, Anna E. Dickinson, Mrs.
400
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA.
Mendenhall, Clara Barton, (her first lecture) Olive Logan and Mrs. Scott Siddons.
To these are added as noted persons who have spoken in La Porte, but not in connection with the association : Daniel Webster, in 1837; Henry Ward Beecher, in 1844; General Neal Dow, in 1879, and two Presidents of the United States and four Vice- Presidents.
MICHIGAN CITY LIBRARY.
Note : The following sketch of this library, through the kindness and courtesy of Miss Daisy L. Brown, of Michigan City, has come directly from the Librarian as prepared by her for this book.
To both these young ladies special thanks are re- turned. T. H. B.
The Michigan City public library had its origin in a legacy of $5,000 left by Mr. George Ames, as a fund to be used for the purchase of books for a pub- lic library, in case a library organization should exist within a stated time. In 1894 interest in the organiza- tion of a library association began to manifest itself. Early in 1895 a literary society known as "the Fort- nightly Club" appointed a committee to look into the provisions of Mr. Ames' will, and to report a plan of organization necessary to secure the benefits of the bequest. Through this committee were sub- mitted the names of fifteen men and women, prom- inent residents of the town, who consented to form a board of incorporators, and to take the necessary legal steps to organize a public library association.
The next development was the offer by Hon. J. H. Barker, of a contribution of one-third the entire cost of a library building to be erected by the sub- scriptions of the citizens. A soliciting committee was appointed, and so great was the enthusiasm shown that $30,000 was secured. A beautiful building
401
LIBRARIES.
of Bedford stone, classic in architecture, and with in- terior furnishings of marble and of quarter-sawed oak, was erected on a centrally-located corner lot, opposite the city high school. The building was fitted through- out with the best library furniture and appliances and most conveniently arranged for the purposes of a modern library. It contains not only the usual reading, reference, book and delivery rooms, but a finely lighted children's room, a room for the use of students, and one for the use of literary clubs. It is probably one of the best equipped libraries of north- ern Indiana. Under the law of the State, the library is supported by taxation, and has in addition a small book-fund, endowed by private gifts.
In the summer of 1897, Miss Marilla W. Freeman, a graduate of the University of Chicago, undertook the organization of the new library, and in October the library was thrown open to the public with 3,000 volumes on its shelves. The annual statement of the librarian for May Ist, 1900, reports 5.500 vol- umes in the library, and a circulation for the year of nearly 40,000 volumes. The library met with imme- diate popularity and success, and has become one of the most important factors in the educational life of Michigan City. It is in close touch with the work of the public schools, as well as with the literary clubs. Through its collection of technical works, it has made special efforts to attract and hold the interest of the employees of the various factories and other indus- trial centers of the city. Its gifts have included not only books and money, but a considerable number of fine pictures for the adornment of its walls.
WINAMAC LIBRARY.
At Winamac was organized a few years ago the People's Library Association. The membership fee authorizing the use of the books of the library is one dollar a year. It is not, therefore, a free public li- brary.
CHAPTER XXVI.
OUR INDUSTRIES.
For the first few years northwestern Indiana was a grazing and agricultural region and raising cattle and grain were the main industries. Exports of pro- duce commenced about 1840, grain and pork (pork meaning hogs dressed ready for the meat market) were the first to be sent from the farms, and then cattle. There were, however, exports, and in im- miense quantities for the number of inhabitants, of quite a different kind. These exports were wild game, "prairie chickens" so called, in great numbers, wild ducks, wild geese, quails, rabbits, and also very much fur. This class of exports, costing nothing but the taking, helped many pioneer families in the way of better living. Soon, added to the grain and cattle and pork, there were sent from the farms butter, eggs and poultry, hay, some wool, some honey, and some sheep. And at length many horses. Grass seed and fruit soon increased the list of exports. As giving some idea of the amount the following records are here inserted : H. C. Beckman of Brunswick, in Lake County, as early as 1872, in the regular course of his trade, bought in a single day thirty-seven hundred eggs and about three hundred pounds of butter. In five months of that year he bought for export 5,600 dozen of eggs and of butter, for the year, 10,000
403
OUR INDUSTRIES.
pounds. About $50,000 was in that year paid out in Lake County for butter and eggs alone, by the dif- ferent merchants. Judge David Turner made out a list of the exports of Lake County for the year 1883, when Lake County was becoming a large exporting county, and it will serve as an illustration of what the other counties had also to a great extent become as a large food producing and exporting region. Oats, the figures denote bushels, 1,000,000 ; potatoes, 150,- 000 ; rye, 19,857 ; clover seed, 2,000 ; ; hungarian seed, 9,000 ; millet seed, 4,500; berries, 4,629; the figures now denote pounds, butter, 544,529; cheese, 220,000 ; butterine, 3,000,000; wool, 26,553; honey, 26,629; milk, 285 000 gallons ; hogs, 16,526 head ; cattle, 16,- 000 head; calves, 1,000; horses, 1,500; chickens, 4,397 dozen ; eggs, 200,000 dozen; hay, 65,893 tons ; ice, 65,000 tons ; sand, 23,000 car loads; brick and tile, 13,000,000; wood, 100 car loads; moss, 50 car loads; cattle slaughtered and shipped, 130,000 head. On ice and sand shipped from Clarke on the Calumet, in business months, the amount paid for freight was $150 each day, or $3,000 each month. And these figures given above are for one county and one year.
SOME AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. .
Number of bushels of corn raised in these coun- ties in 1898. After the name of each county are given the figures denoting the bushels, and the figures de- noting the yield in each county by the acre: Starke, 717,535 ; 35. Lake, 1,365,156; 39. Porter, 1,431,720; 40. La Porte, 1,528,052; 31. Pulaski, 1.707,545; 35. Newton, 2,434,672; 34. Jasper, 2,435,392 ; 36. White, 2,584,749 ; 31. It thus appears that either Porter has
404
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA.
the best corn land or the best farmers. The number of acres in Porter County planted with corn was 35,- 793, and the average yield was exactly forty bushels for an acre. Lake County, with an average of thirty- nine bushels comes next. La Porte and White are alike averaging only thirty-one bushels.
In the production of oats for the year 1897 New- ton, Jasper, and White excel, each producing over a million of bushels. Indeed, Newton was the second oat county in the State, Jasper the third, and White the fifth. Benton County alone exceeded Newton, and Tippecanoe was in advance of White.
Our other five counties produced the same year over half a million bushels of oats each. So it is evi- dent that in 1897 northwestern Indiana produced more than six million bushels of oats. For that same year, 1897, the hay crop of these counties, taking 110 account of the immense quantities of wild or native grass made into hay on the Kankakee marsh lands, was the following (the number of thousands of tons only is given): Pulaski, 12,000; La Porte, 21,000; Porter, 30,000; Lake, 39,000; White, 39,000; Starke, 43,000; Newton, 65,000 ; Jasper, 97,000. These are not, except La Porte, large producing wheat counties, yet somewhat is raised in each. The following fig- ures give the number of bushels for 1898: La Porte, 867,186; Pulaski, 316,044; White, 258,765; Porter, 197,532; Starke, 69,120; Jasper, 45,862 ; Lake, 30,582 ; Newton, 20,736.
A few more figures ought still to be of interest giving the number of horses in each county : Starke, 3,328; Newton, 6,086; Pulaski, 6,386; Porter, 6,950; Lake, 7,609; Jasper, 8,210; La Porte, 9,048; White, 9,442. And the number of cows in these counties
405
OUR INDUSTRIES.
was in 1897, the year for which the horses are given : Starke, 3,344; Newton, 4,204; Jasper, 4,604; Pulaski, 5,247 ; White, 5,399; Porter, 8,218; La Porte, 9,053; Lake, 9,832.
The difference in the quantity of Irish potatoes raised in these counties in 1897 is somewhat surpris- ing. The number of thousands of bushels only is here given and the figures are, for Jasper, 67; La Porte, 67; Newton, 47; Porter, 63; Pulaski, 31; Starke, 41 ; White, II, and Lake, 546,921, or more than half a million of bushels. In 1899 E. W. Dinwiddie of Plum Grove raised a thousand bushels. In accounting for this great difference it should be borne in mind that Lake County touches that great city, Chicago, and extends from it in a southeast direction over the Calumet region, and that the soil (the sand, the marsh, the peat beds), of the Calumet bottom and of the Cady marsh, especially of that valley which is so often covered with water in the spring time, seems pecu- liarly adapted for vegetables, such as potatoes, cab- bage, onions, and parsnips; and then, there is quite a large settlement of Hollanders along that valley, and they and families of other nationalities make it a spe- cial business to raise vegetables for the Chicago mar- ket. Considering these facts, looking thus over that great garden region of the Calumet, we need not be surprised that in Lake County should be produced a half million bushels of potatoes in a season. How many thousand heads of cabbages go into Hammond and into Chicago in a season, it is not likely any one has reckoned up. It may be further added here that the number of acres in potatoes in Lake for 1897 was more than eight thousand and in White only four hundred and forty-nine.
406
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA.
These figures for products, thus far given in this chapter, are from the "Indiana Agricultural Reports" and are supposed to be accurate, as they are from official reports compiled by J. B. Conner, chief of state bureau of statistics for Indiana.
Hogs are raised in all these counties to some ex- tent, White taking the lead. The figures for the thou- sands are, as reported from the counties for 1897, and from the same authority as above: Starke, 7; Lake, 16; Newton 18; Porter, 20; Pulaski, 22; Jasper, 24; La Porte, 25, and White more than 38 thousand. Not many sheep are now kept in this part of the State. Quite a large flock was brought into Lake County in 1840 by Leonard Cutler, and the Mitchells, and others had some large flocks about 1865, but there was not much encouragement for keeping them. In these later years the largest flocks have probably been thosc of Hon. Joseph A. Little and of Oscar Dinwiddie of Plum Grove, and of Harvey Bryant. Now, or in 1897, the number of sheep and lambs in Lake County was 2,600, and a few over, in Porter 6,000, in La Porte 12,000, in Starke 1,800, in Pulaski 8,700, in White 5.700, in Jasper 3,200, and in Newton 2,500.
In the great sheep raising county of Indiana, Noble, there were in this same year more than forty thousand, while at the same time there were in Noble but six thousand and two cows, and Lake and La Porte had more than nine thousand cach. The in- dustries in different counties differ sometimes very much.
Prices of agricultural products have varied very much as the years have passed along. A sudden rise in the price of grain took place in the spring of 1835 which gave an opportunity for the first grain specu-
407
OUR INDUSTRIES.
lation, so far as is known, among the pioneers. Two of the early settlers of Crown Point, William Clark, afterward known as Judge Clark, having been elected associate judge, and William Holton, one of the ster- ling men of Lake County, who died a few years ago at an advanced age in California, bought oats in La Porte County at fifty cents a bushel. They intended to sow the oats ; but after reaching home and delaying a little time, they concluded it was too late in the sea- son to sow oats. They hauled the grain back to La Porte and sold it for one dollar and fifty cents a bushel. While the purchase was small in amount the percentage of profit was more than the board of trade men in Chicago generally make. Corn, oats, wheat, at that time brought the same price.
For the encouragement that farmers received in endeavoring to settle up the wild lands, one example is the following: "George Parkinson, of South East Grove, in the winter of 1839 and 1840, sold pork in Michigan City for $1.50 a hundredweight, hauling it some forty miles. He sent a load of grain. The pro- ceeds returned, the man who did the hauling received his pay, and about fifty cents were left."
For several years, including 1844, the average price for wheat in the Chicago market was about 60 cents a bushel. In 1861 corn sold for 17 cents a bushel. In 1864 the price paid for corn at Dyer Sta- tion was 90 cents. When potatoes could be sold in the spring for 25 cents per bushel farmers thought it was a good price. That was before the days of pota- toe bugs in this longitude. For several years now they have often sold for a dollar. The following is for the year 1899: "Winamac Markets." Wheat, per bushel, 73 cents ; oats, 28; rye, 48; butter, per pound,
408
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA.
11 cents; lard, 8; eggs, per dozen, II; flour, $12.10; chickens, 6 cents per pound; turkeys, 7; ducks, 5; hams, 10; shoulders, 8; potatoes, per bushel, 60; hogs, per hundred, $3.40.
The dairy business is a large branch of industry. Six trains take milk to Chicago each day, and the milk stands on these roads, besides the regular sta- tions, are many. It is not easy to ascertain the amount of milk shipped in a year nor its value to the farmers, but some idea may be obtained from the following figures : On the Monon line, in the summer, 180 cars, in October 130 each day, daily average 120. On the Pan Handle, summer of 1899, 140 cars, in October IIO; for the year, daily average 120. On the Erie road, summer 600, for the year, daily 500. On the Grand Trunk, daily, 400. On the Fort Wayne, daily, 130. Number of cars shipped daily for the entire year, 1,290. This milk is shipped mostly from Porter and Lake counties.
The creameries send off large amounts of butter beside the dairy-made butter sent from the homes. At Dyer, in Lake County, a creamery was started in 1893. The average of butter made there is four thou- sand pounds each month. Average price for 1899, 20 cents a pound. One thousand dollars, or more, each month is paid to the farmers for the milk.
At St. John, four and a half miles below, on the same road, the line called the Monon, is a still larger creamery. It may be safely said that twelve thou- sand dollars in a year is there paid out to the farmers. On the State line, six miles south of Dyer, is a third, much larger, where, to the farmers in Lake County is paid about a thousand dollars each month, and some four miles further south a fourth, where a like
409
OUR INDUSTRIES.
amount is paid out. This gives to the farmers on a strip of land along the west edge of Lake County, twelve miles long, and, perhaps, some three or four in width, an income for milk of about $50,000 in a year. It is quite an industry.
At Hebron, in Porter County, there has been for some years a creamery which now uses about 9,000 pounds of milk daily and pays to the dairymen about $1,000 each month. At Merrillville, in Lake County, is a cheese factory which has been doing a good busi- ness for several years. Active leaders in the milk in- dustry are, in Lake County, S. B. Woods, J. N. Beck- man, and C. B. Benjamin; and in Porter, Messrs. Wahl and Merrifield.
HERDS OF CATTLE.
For several years the finest herd of improved cat- tle in Lake County was kept by Thomas Hughes. He took a large interest in the county fairs. In 1895 he removed to Kansas and died there July 29, of that year, when about 59 years of age. H. C. Beckman and John N. Beckman, his son, had the next best herd, probably, in the county. The largest number of cattle in Lake County, 1,500 head, were kept by John Brown and his son, Neal Brown, in the winter of 1899 and 1900. Large herds of cattle have been kept in the north part of Newton and Jasper counties, raised and kept mainly by men interested in the Chicago cattle market, and not as improved animals for milk and butter. In the south parts of Porter and La Porte counties, along the marsh, many cattle are kept, and in the north of Starke some are kept for milk and butter and for beef.
410
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA.
Near Rensselaer much attention has been given to raising fast horses. In West Creek township of Lake County the Hayden horses have been noted. They have usually been large and strong, drawing heavy loads. Many good horses have been raised in Lake County. For several years there has been held in Crown Point, on one Tuesday of each month, a horse market attended by buyers from Chicago and else- where. It has been called the best horse market with- in quite a distance of Chicago. As raisers of improved breeds of hogs may be named George F. Davis & Co. of Dyer, "originators, breeders, and shippers of the famous Victoria swine, also breeders of cotswold sheep, shorthorn cattle, fancy land and water fowls." At the world's Columbian Exposition, in 1893, Mr. Davis took twenty-six different premiums on his Vic- toria swine, class 61, amounting in all to $550; and in class 178, fat stock, he took seven more premiums, amounting to $150. He also took premiums on sheep, amounting to $80, and on poultry and pigeons $56, making the entire amount of his premiums $836. It is probable that of sheep and hogs, a few, equal to any in the United States, have been owned at Dyer.
Another noted raiser of improved hogs is John Pearce of Eagle Creek township. The variety which he keeps is known as Poland-China. In color these are black. The first improved hogs in Lake County were Berkshires.
ICE AND SAND.
The ice industry is for a short time an immense business. The great shipping counties are La Porte and Lake.
The lakes of La Porte County have furnished large
411
OUR INDUSTRIES.
amounts. No full estimate can be made. In Lake County besides the lakes, the Calumet and Kankakee rivers have furnished very many thousand tons. A lit- tle idea may be obtained, yet a faint one, from a record of work at Red Cedar Lake, southwest from Crown Point. Armour has there a large ice house, and there are other large ones. In January, 1892, about three weeks of good ice gathering was well improved. At Armour's were working about two hundred men, and at the south end of the lake one hundred. Work goes 011 at night at Armour's, as they use at his ice house electric light. The record is, that about sixty car loads a day were shipped from Armour's while the men were engaged filling as rapidly as they could the very large house.
It is no wonder the water in that once beautiful lake is not as deep as it once was since such immense quan- tities of water in a solid form are shipped away every good ice year. The rains and melting snow do not fur- nish a supply sufficient to fill it up in the spring.
The quantity of frozen water that is stored in the many large ice houses and sent to the cities in the sum- mer time can by no ordinary means be estimated. It is a business which the early pioneers had not consid- ered, and one which, in its magnitude, only the rail- roads make possible.
Another very large industry is shipping sand, al- though that furnishes employment for the railroad working men and train men rather than for the citi- zens who own the sand-banks.
Besides sand shipped from ridges and banks nearer to Chicago, for the last few years trains of cars have been busy endeavoring to remove from Michigan City that immense sand hill known as Hoosier Slide.
412
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA.
At North Judson, in Starke County, is a singular industry, known as a "frog and turtle industry." Ac- cording to a writer in the North Judson News, "there is a great and growing demand for frogs," and from this place they are shipped "into the leading markets of the country." On the day when the "News" writer visited this establishment, he says that in one hour one hundred and fifty dollars was paid out for frogs, brought in sacks and in wagon loads. For several days they can be kept in barrels until they are shipped and the big pond near by now contains, the "News" writer says, "over three million frogs." He says little about the turtles or tortoises, but they also are bought and shipped.
Quite a little business in this same line is done at Shelby, although there is as yet no large establish- ment there. From Shelby also, in some seasons, many mushrooms are shipped to Chicago.
A much more attractive industry is the fruit busi- ness. In Pulaski County in 1880 there were in culti- vation in strawberries fifty-five acres.
Quite a little fruit is raised in Starke County, not far from Round Lake.
Apples and small fruits are raised quite extensively in Lake County, and fruit in Newton and in Jasper Counties.
Around La Porte are fruit and berry farms from which large amounts are sent to market.
In Pine township in Porter County cranberries still grow for market. In September, 1899, the fol- lowing item of news was written, which will give some idea of this industry.
"The harvesting of the cranberry crop has begun and one hundred persons have been engaged for a
413
OUR INDUSTRIES.
week on the five Blair marshes in Pine township, *
* picking the berries, and there remains about a week's work for them. The cranberries this year are of an unusually good quality and the crop is a large one." In Porter County is quite a fruit raiser, who is called an up-to-date farmer, Milton Phiel, who has ten acres of land in fruit, having on this land one thousand pear trees, five hundred winter apple trees, and five thousand strawberry plants. He has, besides fruit, thirty cows, and had in 1899 a thousand chickens.
In Lake County the large berry raiser is H. H. Meeker of Crown Point. He has, near the town, ten acres in small fruit and in nursery grounds. He picked in 1899 of small fruit for market 10,310 baskets. In 1900 he has picked 13,000. He sends off quite an amount of nursery stock.
There is quite a nursery in Jasper County near Rensselaer.
MANUFACTURING.
Of course opening farms furnished the first occu- pation for the pioneers after some shelter was provided for the families and for the less hardy domestic animals.
After shelter there was needed a food supply. And then some of the pioneers gave their attention, and almost from the very first, to putting up mills, first saw-mills, then grist-mills. This work as an industry prevailed largely in La Porte County, where were so many good mill-seats found, and in Porter County in the northern and central parts, in both which counties, for a time, they had a supply of white pine from the Lake Michigan sand hills, out of which to make lum- ber. In Lake County the earlier mills were south of
414
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA.
the Calumet, and the pine trees of Lake were taken for the buildings of the young Chicago. Mills also were constructed on the Tippecanoe and Iroquois rivers, and in White, Pulaski and Jasper Counties, saw-mills were, in early days, quite a leading industry.
In the line of manufactures factories of various kinds followed. But of these the larger establish- ments are now mostly not many miles from Lake Michigan, where are the largest towns and cities.
The manufacturing towns are mainly: La Porte. Michigan City, Chesterton, Hobart, East Chicago, Whiting, and Hammond.
At Valparaiso, which is a college town. there is now a mica factory employing ninety girls and twenty- seven men. "Two other concerns are enclosing fac- tory buildings which promise to employ about four hundred men." At Crocker, in Porter County, is a canning factory employing some forty or fifty persons. Tomatoes are put up here in large quantities. Crocker is on the Wabash railroad not far from the Lake County line.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.