USA > Indiana > Northwestern Indiana from 1800 to 1900; or, A view of our region through the nineteenth century > Part 31
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It stands within a public square, which seems to be the prevailing style.
Auditor of Jasper County, Henry B. Murray.
WHITE COUNTY.
In Monticello selected for a county seat and named in Sep- tember, 1834, town lots were laid off by John Barr, Senior, County Agent, and a sale was ordered for No- vember 7, 1834. A small, two story, frame
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court house was soon built, which was ready for use in 1836. Cost, about five hundred dollars. A log jail was built. In 1850 a second court house was built, costing nine thousand dollars, and a new jail.
In the history of Pulaski and White it is said that one jail was "built in 1854, and another in 1864, cost- ing seven thousand and seven hundred dollars." An- other authority says that in 1875 a third jail building was erected, built of stone, and that this with the sheriff's residence attached, built of brick, cost twelve thousand dollars. That nearly eight thousand dollars should be laid out for a jail in 1864 and twelve thou- sand in 1875 does not look quite probable. In 1894 was built the present massive and imposing court house, of gray stone, costing eighty-five thousand dollars.
M. J. Holtzman, Auditor.
PULASKI COUNTY.
The first court house was a frame building erected at Winamac about 1841. One of brick was afterwards built, and both court house and jail in 1876 were con- The present court
sidered substantial structures. house is a fine looking building of light-colored stone erected in 1895, costing about fifty thousand dollars. The square in which it stands is graded up very neatly. Auditor, James N. Hayworth.
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COURT HOUSES.
STARKE COUNTY.
The court
house at Knox, while not so large nor so costly as some of the others, is quite as fine in appear- ance, and presents to a visitor an in- viting and interesting arrangement in all. of its inside structure. The room for the farmers' families has a cosy and pleasant appear- ance ; the court room is peculiarly arranged so that the lawyers and their clients may pass in to the inner por- tion of the room between the seat for the judge and the wall. This appears to be a great convenience, as the entrance is near the seat for the judge.
The inside of the dome has interesting designs painted or frescoed upon the wall. On the north, America is represented by an Indian ; on the south is the figure of Justice ; on the west a figure representing Glory ; and on the east is presented Eternity. America should ever be the home for justice; and being just Americans will have their share of all true nation- al glory ; but well is it in temples of justice for litigants and lawyers and witnesses and judges to remember,
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in the East there is that which overshadows all time.
The building is near the north part of the town on good ground for a public building, so that it is sightly, and is a good stone structure, completed in 1898, and costing $125,000.
The material is called Blue Amherst stone, fur- nished by the Malone Stone Company of Cleveland, Ohio.
Present auditor of Starke County Aug. H. Knos- man.
LAKE COUNTY.
Near the center of Lake County, by the enterprise of two brothers, Solon Robinson and Milo Robinson, there was erected in 1837 a log building de- signed for a court house, although no county seat for Lake had then been lo- cated. Courts were held in this building, and when, in 1840, this central locality was finally se- lected for the most northwestern county seat in Indi- ana, the log building was adopted as the court house, and has been known in all these years in the annals and traditions of Lake County as the "Old Log Court House." In May of 1838 it had been made the tem- porary court house of the county by the act of the
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county commissioners in accordance with an act of the State Legislature.
In 1838 the lower room was fitted up "for a prison" at a cost of sixty-four dollars.
The cost of the entire building may have been five hundred dollars.
This log building, so near as any one now living can tell, was outside of what is now the southwest corner of the public square, in the present paved road- way.
In 1849 a frame court building was erected, occu- pied in 1850, and a brick office building was on the east side and one on the west, for treasurer and audi- tor, and for recorder and clerk, all fronting the south. Cost of all about ten thousand dollars.
For about thirty years these buildings and a frame jail building, supplied the needs of the county. But it was decided to erect a more costly and larger build- ing in 1878, and on September 10th of that year the corner stone of the present brick and stone build- ing was laid, with masonic ceremonies, in the presence of a large assemblage of citizens. The building was ready for use in 1880. Cost $52,000. In round num- bers, and also quite exact, the log building was in use ten years, the frame buildings thirty years, and the present one has been in use twenty years.
For sixty years Crown Point has been of Lake the county seat. For sixty-two years courts of justice have in Crown Point been held.
The third court house of Lake County was built ยท near the center of what Solon Robinson marked out and donated for a public square, to be free from fence or obstruction for the common use of all the citizens.
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But originators, donors, and founders cannot bind altogether those who come after them; and the pres- ent arrangements seem to suit the citizens of the pres- ent. What other generations may do remains for other generations to see.
In 1882 was built on Main street, on a lot adjoining the Methodist church, reserved for many years by Carter & Carter, of New York City, as a location for an Episcopal church, a brick jail edifice, at a cost of about $24,000.
Around the court house yard, was laid in 1889, a walk ten feet in width, of sandstone, six inches in depth, and about sixty-four rods in length. The yard is about 315 feet from north to south and about 220 from east to west. Auditor, M. Grimmer.
PORTER COUNTY.
O00. Auditor of Porter County, M. J. Stinchfield.
A frame court house was built in 1837. A log jail was put up in 1838. In 1853 was erected a brick court house, costing about $13,- 000. In 1871 was built a jail costing $26,0 0 0. Com- menced in 1883, fin- ished in 1885, the present court house was built of Bedford stone. Cost $149,-
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LA PORTE COUNTY.
In La Porte County, the town of La Porte hav- ing been selected for the county seat, the Commis- sioners contracted for a brick court house in 1833, to be forty feet square, and to cost $3,975. They also arranged for a jail building to cost $460. These build- ings were not completed, prob- bably, until 1834.
The La Porte County court house of the present, the corner stone having been laid June 30, 1892, by the Grand Lodge of A. F. A. Masons of the State of Indi- ana, is the grandest temple of justice in northwestern Indiana. It was completed in 1894. The cost was $305,000. It is of brown stone from Lake Superior It has three stories. The workmanship is excellent. It contains rooms well arranged for the accommoda- tion of farmers' families when they come to town on any business. It is only the second court house of the county ; and judging from its looks, one would not suppose another would ever be needed.
The ample ground around the building is in fine condition, well kept with good stone walks. The iron railing for the fastening of horses is on only three
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sides. On the main street in front of the public square no teams can be tied. It is a good arrangement to have the front always clear.
Auditor of La Porte County, F. H. Doran.
Note: I have found the auditors of the counties intelligent, accommodating men, well informed and ready to give information, and for their courtesies to me, I here return hearty thanks. T. H. B.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
"ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS."
In addition to the facts given in Chapter IV, the following from Lake County 1884, is added here.
"The finest collection of American antiquities in this county has been made by W. W. Cheshire, an en- thusiastic archaeologist and member of the Indiana Archaeological Society. In the department of arrow and spear heads Dr. Herbert S. Ball has a fine col- lection, and in purely human remains he has prob- ably the best in the county. Of fossil shells the finest are probably in the possession of T. H. Ball.
In the cabinet of W. W. Cheshire are some three hundred specimens of stone implements collected in this county, some having been obtained in every township. Among the stone axes are some very fine specimens, one weighing six and three-fourth pounds, and one being only two inches long and an inch and a half broad, a miniature or toy axe. Of the axes there are, collected in this county, about two dozen. Of arrow heads there are about one hundred. Some of these are remarkable for beauty and regularity. One is of chalcedony, of the variety called agate, one and five-eighths of an inch wide and two and six-eighths inches long. One of copper, apparently molded, four and three-eighths inches long and one inch and one- fourth wide, with three small notches on each side of
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the shaft. This was found in St. Johns township.
There is in this cabinet a piece of copper ore found near Lowell. One stone arrow head is worked with a twist as though designed to give it a whirling mo- tion in the air. There is here also the breast bone of a wild goose, shot in the Kankakee marsh some years ago through which is the arrow head which was then in the breast of the living goose. This is of bone, nicely made, is considered by some of us to be Esqui- maux workmanship, and is nine inches long, a half inch wide, slightly curved, and has four sides or faces. The shaft that was evidently inserted in the arrow is about one inch long and is finely wrought to a point. * * * There are also here specimens from near Hebron * * of mastodon or mammoth bones and teeth."
Some, believed to be genuine, Indian pipes have been found, one near Plum Grove; and in the posses- sion of Mr. George Doak, of South-East Grove, is a peculiar stone, found near his home, about five and a half inches long, an inch wide, three-fourths of an inch thick, "the sides slightly oval, smooth, neatly wrought, with an orifice half an inch in diameter running through the entire length."
How an Indian could have drilled this orifice and for what is a matter of conjecture.
Of those antiquities and specimens of Indian art collected by W. W. Cheshire, who is now a resident in Washington City, some are now, (1900) in the cabinet of the Crown Point Public School, and some are in the hands of Julian H. Youche, an enthusiastic and intel- ligent youth, son of Hon. J. W. Youche, and grand- son of Dr. J. Higgins, of Crown Point.
Two copper hatchets, two broken earthen vessels,
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and a pipe, were taken out from those mounds south of La Porte, before Dr. Higday explored them; and in one explored by him, Professor Cox reports three human skeletons, two copper hatchets, two copper needles, some galena, several pieces of mica, and a carved pipe, taken out a depth of thirteen feet from the surface. In the largest mound of the group, Pro- fessor Cox says in his report (Survey of 1873), six- teen feet from the surface, two full size human skele- tons were found and "a pipe, a copper needle, frag- ments of pottery, and part of a marine shell (Cardium magnum)."
In some of these mounds earthen vessels were found containing black mold, which, it has been con- jectured, was once food buried with the dead, to sus- tain them until they became settled in the "happy hunting ground" on the other side. And this the learned geologist calls a reasonable inference, "around which," he says, "clusters a world of interest, com- ing from the dark, forgotten past, as a ray of light that has bridged centuries to tell its wondrous story." And so this black mold is regarded as indicating firm belief in a future existence, perhaps in immortality.
A beautiful specimen of wrought copper, taken from a wolf hole in Hanover Township, is in the pos- session of Mrs. M. J. Cutler, of Kankakee, Ill., who was a daughter of Judge Ball, of Lake County. This instrument, for such it seems to have been, is about three and a half inches long and one inch and a half broad at what may be called the cutting end, which has a rounded but not a sharp edge. It is about one fourth of an inch in thickness. It bears upon it what seem to be the marks of a hammer.
The owner of this piece of copper has also in her
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possession an instrument which appears to be steel, nearly two inches long, the shaft round, the small end edged, not pointed, "the head on the top is flat and very smooth, and besides this surface it has twelve small plane sides, each smooth and well wrought," and this was found, not in the ground, but, about 1850, "was taken from near the heart of a majestic oak" that grew on that grand bluff on the northeast bank of the Lake of the Red Cedars. One hundred and seventy layers of wood in that oak tree were counted outside of this piece of well wrought steel, and taking that number in years from 1850, will bring one back to 1680, or to about the time when La Salle crossed these counties. Did he, or some other French explorer, drive that into a sapling?
Its antiquity is not very great compared, probably, with the instrument of copper ; but it must have been made in some, probably, European workshop, more than two hundred and twenty years ago.
HUMAN REMAINS.
About ten years ago some of the inhabitants of Brunswick discovered a large bed of sand on section 19, the southwest quarter, township 34, range 9, on the bluff along the west side of West Creek, and from this sand were taken out several human skeletons, supposed to be Indian remains.
The largest "find" of human remains in Lake County was in October, 1880, of which a lengthy ac- count may be found in "Lake County, 1884," pages 327 to 330. A good many copies of this book are probably yet in Lake County. A few statements from that full account are here given :
Two young men, Orlando Russell and Frank Rus-
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sell, commenced, October 1, 1880, to prepare a foun- dation for a saw-mill at the exact "head," as the set- tlers in early times called it, of the Red Cedar Lake.
The spot selected was a little mound on the lake shore, sloping eastward, westward, and southward, and with a very gradual slope northward. "It was a beautiful and sunny knoll, raised but a few feet above the wave-washed beach of pure, white sand, and had been the camping ground the summer before, for many a day and night, of a large pleasure party."
A scrubby burr oak tree was standing a few feet from the water line. The plow share, "the white man's plowshare," passed over the green, beautiful surface, and five skeletons were struck, all in one mass, at a depth of about one foot. Six more were reached before the plow had gone two feet in depth. With these were some rodent bones and some large shells. A few days afterward, hearing of this discovery, for, for forty-five years no spot around that lake had been supposed to be more free from human remains, T. H. Ball and his son, Herbert S. Ball, made a visit to the spot. It was near what had been for many years the home of the one and the birth-place of the other.
The son had then but lately returned from the great plains of Northwestern Texas, where, on Blanco Canyon, he had examined human remains supposed to be three hundred years old. He soon commenced a search under the burr oak. He found a piece of lead ore, then an arrow head, and then an entire skeleton. One large root of the tree pressed hard upon the skull, which was towards the east. Soon the tree was re- moved and another skeleton was there with the head toward the west. In all, twenty skeletons were found
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near the surface of that little mound, one of the most sunny spots anywhere around that lake.
About two hundred rings of what is called annual growth were counted on that oak tree. The tree had evidently grown since the burial. And these remains were all of men in the prime of life.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
BIRTH PLACES OF THE PIONEERS.
It is risky to make sweeping statements, especially where the statement implies more knowledge than most men have or can have. As an illustration, in the history of Indiana by Goodrich and Tuttle, one of the standard State histories, it is said, on page 447, refer- ring to the trial and execution of a man for murdering some Indians, "Such was the result of the first case on record in America where a white man was hung for killing an Indian." Again, on page 449, mentioning two more men who were tried and executed for hav- ing part in the same murder it is added. "Thus ended the only trial where convictions of murder were ever had, followed by the execution of white men for kill- ing Indians in the United States."
To make such statements is assuming a large amount of knowledge. Now, whoever will look into Martyn's excellent history of the Pilgrim Fathers, pages 371, 372, will there find that in 1636 a lone In- dian, a trader, but an Indian, was murdered by some white men, and that "three of the murderers were caught, tried at Plymouth, found guilty and hung."
And so sure was such strict justice administered by those noble men, the Pilgrims, that Martyn says : "It was as certain death to kill an Indian in the for- ests of America, as to slay a noble in the crowded
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streets of London." Such facts, in studying the his- tory of their state, the children of Indiana ought to know.
But another illustration of the danger of missing accuracy in these sweeping statements, and one bear- ing on the subject of this chapter, is taken from "The Indianian," a high class,illustrated, monthly magazine, published at Indianapolis. This is from the April num- ber of 1899, in an article on Henry County.
"The early settlers of Indiana, in every part, were mainly from the South, coming from Kentucky, Ten- nessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Here and there would be a family from Pennsylvania, and occasionally one from New England, but the great majority were from the South." The sweeping clause in this is, "in every part." The writer certainly had not penetrated into the Northwestern part. If he had said, "in most parts of the State," it would have done very well, "in many parts" would have been still better; but "in every part" was more than he knew.
As giving the birth place of "early settlers," some of the New England families will here be named who made their homes in Lake County. Commencing in the center of the county may be first named Solon Robinson, a native of Connecticut; then the Holton families from Massachusetts and Vermont, the Wells family and Mrs. Eddy, and Luman A. Fowler, from Massachusetts originally ; W. R. Williams, the Sher- man family, (Mrs. Calista Sherman, born in Vermont in 1789, having fifty-two descendants living in 1884), and another Holton family descendants of Dr. Ira Holton, and Mrs. Roselinda Holton, a sister of Mrs. Sherman, all New Englanders. Then the large Wheeler family; and indeed the early Crown Point
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was mostly of New England blood. Going out from Crown Point, among others, the following pioneer New England families are found : The family of John Wood on Deep River; the Humphrey and Wood- bridge families on Eagle Creek Prairie; the Ball and Warriner families at the Lake of the Red Cedars ; and the large Taylor, Edgerton and Palmer families, whose descendants are now the large Creston commun- ity, all of New England origin. Again, there may be named the Kenney families of Orchard Grove from Maine; the Warner families from Connecticut; the Saxton family of Merrillville, having still a conch shell brought here by the pioneer, Ebenezer Saxton, which shell, according to their family tradition. came over in the May Flower. James Farwell and family from Ver- mont, also John Bothwell; George Willey and Charles Marvin from Connecticut originally ; Elijah Morton from Vermont ; the Spaulding family and yet others of New England descent. Not to mention the later "New Hampshire Settlement" in the center of Lake Prairie, not to mention the Towle families and others in the city of Hammond, in the early days New Eng- land families and "York-Yankees" were well scattered over Lake County.
Solon Robinson, the authority for Lake County in its earliest years, stating what it had become in 1847, says : That there were then in the county about fifty frame houses, five churches, two brick dwelling houses, two brick offices, and one small out building, these the only brick buildings then in the county and these at Crown Point, and four or five stores in the county ; and then he adds: "Majority of the inhab- itants Yorkers and Yankees. About one hundred
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German families, fifteen or twenty Irish, about twelve English."
Going now to La Porte County, General Packard, an authority for that county, says: "The first set- tlers in Michigan City arrived in 1833, and it may readily be presumed that they found few attractions to welcome them. To their view there was presented only sand hills and swamps. Hoosier Slide towered up many feet higher than now, * * and further back across the creek that passed through the woods,
* * a low, wet, swampy tract of country occu-
pied all the locality." But in imagination, discour- aging as the prospect was, they saw a harbor and a city destined to be there. A town was started. Its growth in 1834, 1835, and 1836, was astonishingly rapid. There were hotels and business houses, and W. D. Woodward, who came in 1836, says that there were then nearly three thousand inhabitants.
"At the end of 1836, besides the numerous ware- houses and commission and forwarding houses, there were twelve dry goods stores." And the first log cabin, so far as is known, had been built in August, 1833. And now General Packard speaks of the early settlers, "They who first peopled Michigan City were pushing, active, intelligent, and enterprising men. Some of them became the heaviest business men at that time in the State. They were chiefly from the eastern States; and with them, to suggest a business enterprise was to see it accomplished."
Surely the writer in "The Indianian" had not ex- amined the early settlement of the northwestern corner of Indiana. It cannot be said accurately that the early settlers here were "mainly" from "Kentucky, Ten- lessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas."
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While just credit is given to what Southern fami- lies did come here, the enterprise and energy and in- dustry that have made this region what now it is, came "mainly" from New England, New York, Pennsyl- vania, Ohio, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Ger- many, Holland, Sweden, and Norway.
Note .- When in 1835 Abijah R. Bigelow settled in La Porte County, in Clinton township, "he brought a small colony with him who were mostly Canadians."
East of Hebron, in Porter County, was a neigh- borhood of early settlers called Yankee Town.
Furthermore, in regard to the settlers of La Porte County, Professor Cox, State Geologist, in his report for 1873, says: "Though a few French were num- bered among the first settlers, the greater portion of the present population trace their ancestry to New York, Pennsylvania, and New England, and retain in a marked degree the characteristic habits, thrift and energy of their ancestors."
From the enrollment of the Old Settlers' Associa- tion of La Porte County it appears that of the constit- uent members, in number 108, there were born in In- diana 18, in Pennsylvania 12, in New England 12, in Ohio 18, in New York 19, in the South 19, in England 2, and in Scotland, Ireland, Spain, District of Colum- bia, New Jersey, Illinois, and Madeira Island, one each, and one with no birth place given, making 69 from the eastward as against 19 from the South, not counting those born in Indiana and Illinois, which would make 19 more, or as many as came from the South.
And yet further, from a careful examination of the full enrollment of more than seven hundred mem- bers, it has been found that at least 92 of the early
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settlers were born in New England, 150 in New York, 53 in Pennsylvania, 109 in Ohio, 34 in various eastern places, 161 in Indiana, and III in the South, making 438 from the east as against III from the South, not counting those born in Indiana.
The early settlers of southern Indiana, probably of Central Indiana, were no doubt quite largely from the South, and some of them brought their slaves with them, and held on to them for years; but qute surely Northern Indiana, and especially the north tier of counties, was not settled up that way, and slaves, as such, could not have lived so near to what was in those days the line of freedom. In this latitude, of forty-one and a half degrees, were some of the most northern stations of that once noted Under Ground Railroad.
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