USA > Indiana > Northwestern Indiana from 1800 to 1900; or, A view of our region through the nineteenth century > Part 32
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Evidence is not at hand for giving the birth places of pioneers south of the river; but some were from the east, some from the south, and some from Europe.
CHAPTER XXXV.
McCARTY.
From the report for 1898 of the Historical Secre- tary of the Lake County Old Settlers' Association the following is taken :
"Some weeks ago I found in the possession of Mr. W. McCarty of Creston, a grandson of Judge B. Mc- Carty, the old Day Book of E. S. McCarty of West Point.
"Its opening date is July 1 or 2, 1839. I think it is the oldest day book existing in the county. The store was first opened by Dr. Lilley inMay, 1837. Some of the entries are copied as items of interest for this generation. I omit names now, giving prices : I 1b. saleratus, 19; I 1b. tea, 50; I qt. molasses, 25; 6 yds. calico, 24; 1.44; I spool thread, 13; I-2 yd. mus- lin, 13; I ball wicking, 13; 2 lbs. sugar, 34 ; 4 gals. gin (1.50) 6.00; I gal. whiskey, 56; 1-2 doz. brooms, 1.50; I 1b. raisins, 25.
Again, a few names: Robert Wilkinson, 6 yds. calico, 38, 2.28; Foley, 3 pints gin, 75; J. C. Batten, 8 yds. sheeting, 1.34; 2 pair socks, 1.25; I pair stock- ings, 75; 2 yds. sheeting, 34; James Farwell, 2 lbs, to- bacco, 50; Solomon Nordyke, I set buttons, 38; then there is a credit of 6 days work 4.50, 4 days work (75) 3.00.
Again, a few more items showing prices. I bunch
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quills, 50; I oz. wafers, 13; 8 yds. gingham, 3.00; I paper needles, 13; 5 yds. satinet (1.25) 6.25; 15 yds. sheeting, 2.50; 2 doz. buttons, 25 ; I pair slippers, 1.50; I set chairs, 3.75; 1 1b. shot, 16; I paper pins, 13; 2 lbs. nails, 30; Wm. Rockwell, I pint molasses, 13; Syl- vester Green, I quire paper, 25; H. Wells, I quire paper, 25; H. S. Pelton, 4 lbs, shot, 16, 64. Brick were made at West Point and sold. A memorandum says : "Commenced molding on the 27th day of May, 1840." As showing prices some entries are :
John Foley, Dr.
Hard brick 1000. 4.00
Soft
1000. 2.00
Lewis Warriner, Dr.
1500 hard brick. . .6.00
500 soft brick . .1.00
Paid Peter Bowen for threshing wheat 132 cents a bushel.
Showing prices then paid for work :
E. F. Hackley, 75 cents day, 6 1-2 days, 4.88.
9 days work on mill, 6.75.
For more common labor :
Leonard Stilson, 2 days, 50, 1.00; 10 days work, 5.00 ; 1000 rails (making) 5.00; 3460 rails made, 17.30. Showing prices of lumber :
Henry Dodge, 300 feet flooring. 80, 2.40.
Paid for making coat $3.00.
Jabez Clark, Cr., 9 lbs. butter, I.12 I-2. Some one Cr. chicken, 12.
This day book through these extracts shows what the pioneers paid for what they called "store goods," and what they received for their own work.
Other names, as of the Myricks, William and Elias, of S. D. Bryant, Horace Wood, and many others, on
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MCCARTY.
that day book, were sixty years ago well-known names in Lake County, and their places of residence over quite a large area in the county show that the West Point store of 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1840, was very centrally located, and that West Point itself might well be as it was, a competing point in 1840 for the county seat of Lake.
JUDGE McCARTY.
Where Benjamin McCarty was born or when has not been ascertained, but he first appears in this history as an early settler in La Porte County and as its first sheriff. The county was organized in 1832, one hundred families then being within its limts, and when the first Board of Commissioners met May 28, 1832, he was "the acting sheriff." He was afterwards elected Probate Judge and as such his name appears among those solemnizing marriage in La Porte County twice in 1833 and once in 1834.
He soon became a pioneer in Porter County, where he selected a central location and secured on his quarter section, "the geographical center of the county," the location of the county seat of Porter County. This was in 1836. For a few years the family resided in Porter County, and then passed further west and became pioneers in Lake County.
He obtained what was known to early settlers as the Lilley place of the east side of the Red Cedar Lake, where had been kept by Dr. Calvin Lilley a tavern and a store, and laid off town lots here, named the place West Point, and entered into competition with Solon Robinson and Judge Clark to secure the location in 1840 of the county seat of Lake County
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But West Point was not in the center of the county and Judge McCarty's second town failed.
The McCarty family at this time consisted of him- self and wife, six sons, E. Smiley, William Pleasant, Franklin, Fayette Asbury, Morgan, and Jonathon, and two daughters, Hannah and Candace. Four of the sons were young men, the two daughters were young ladies. The two sons known as Smiley and William had each a fine black saddle horse, probably as fine looking animals as were then in Lake County, and the other sons were well provided for also in the line of steeds.
They were the solid young men and boys of the community, more cultivated and better educated than many, quite polished and dignified. Some of the young men became teachers in the early public schools ; the young ladies were soon married, the younger, Candace, marrying George Belshaw, who be- came afterward a large wheat raiser in Oregon; and finally the family, except one living son, and their dead, all left the county for Oregon and Iowa. Of one of these sons who went to Oregon, the rest of this notice will treat, the sketch having been written in 1872 and published in "Lake Couny, 1872," a work out of print.
FAYETTE ASBURY MCCARTY.
He went into the Far West, beyond the Rocky Mountains, about twenty years ago [1852]. 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 In- dians ; was four times wounded by them; killed with
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MCCARTY.
his own hand twenty-one of the Red Warriors 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 commenced his wanderings. He went among the mines ; he went up into Alaska, then Rus- sian 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 boy- hood at Cedar Lake.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE.
Lake County came quite near losing about seventy square miles of area in the fall of 1860.
From the records of the Commissioners' Court of Lake County, it appears that on Friday, September 7, 1860, according to Order No. 19. George Earle pre- sented a petition duly signed in which the petitioners asked that a part of the territory of Lake County be set off to Porter County. The bounderies were thus described : Commencing at the southeast corner of section 4, township 35, range 7 west, thence west to the southwest quarter of section 3, township 35, range 8, then north on the section line to the northwest corner of section 34, township 36, range 8, then west to the range line between ranges 8 and 9, then north to Lake Michigan, then along the lake easterly to the line between Lake and Porter Counties, then south to the place of beginning.
There were present at that session only two Com- missioners, John Underwood and Adam Schmall. The petition was ordered to be filed and the case was con- tinued.
December 7, 1860, only the same two Commis- sioners were present. Order No. 12 says, in regard to this petition, there being a difference of opinon be-
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tween the two members of the Board who were pres- ent, the decision was deferred until the March term of 1861. And it is said in the records, "See Revised Statutes, Vol. I, Chap. 20, section 8, page 225."
From information furnished by Mr. John Under- wood, who is not now living, the decision of the case was postponed by his suggestion, as he was not in favor of granting the petition, and in the winter the situation of affairs was brought to the attention of the representative from Lake at Indianapolis, probably Hon. Bartlett Woods, a man ever true to what he re- gards as the interest of Lake County, or Hon. E. Griffin, and by act of the Legislature the law as it then stood, which authorized such a setting off from one county to another, was changed,-see act March I, 1861,-and when the Commissioners met March 6, 1861, they passed the following: Order No. 18. "It is ordered that said petition be dismissed."
Thus ended the effort to form, it was supposed, a new county, presumably with Hobart for the county seat.
According to that History known as "Porter and Lake," (page 56), an effort had been made in 1859 to form a county to be called Linn, from territory then being a part of Porter and a part of La Porte coun- ties, Michigan City to be the county seat. Petitions signed by more than two thousand citizens were pre- sented to the Porter County Commissioners request- ing this setting off of a part of Porter into a new county.
This the Commissioners declined to do. "Tlie Commissioners of La Porte County disposed of the
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question in a similar summary manner and the plan was abandoned." "Porter and Lake," page 57 .*
As years have passed along there has been some- thing printed, something said, in regard to the removal yet again of the county seat of Lake County.
The following paragraph is from the report made at the Old Settlers' anniversary in 1891 :
"In the winter of 1890 and 1891 a strenuous effort was made by some Hammond citizens to have a bill passed through the State Legislature leading to a re- moval of the county seat to Hammond. Crown Point citizens and some in other counties, especially in La Porte County, worked diligently against the bill, and it was at length defeated. No little excitement was awakened in the county by this attempt of the young manufacturing city to take, from the center of the county to the border of the city of Chicago, the county seat of Lake."
An effort to quite materially change Commission- ers' districts in Lake County was made by some young men of Hammond.
This is the record, also from a report made at an Old Settlers' anniversary :
"In March of this year, 1898, a petition from Ham- mond with 734 signatures was presented to the County Commissioners asking for the re-districting of the county so that the three Commissioners' districts
* I have had no access to the records in Porter County to verify the above statement; but as the law was in 1859 the Com- missioners had not much discretionary power. At least it was Mr. Underwood's opinion that, if the law had not been changed, the Lake County Commissioners would have been obliged, in March, 1861, to grant Mr. Earle's petition. Only two Commis- sioners being present in December, 1860, and the action of one of them in the matter, saved to Lake County what is now Hobart Township and a large part of Calumet. T. H. B.
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ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE.
should run north and south through the county in strips about five miles wide and thirty miles long, in- stead of continuing, as they have done, to run across the county from east to west. A day was set by the County Board for hearing the matter and W. B. Read- ing of Hammond advocated the measure. Remon- strances were presented signed by 1,31I citizens of the central and southern parts of the county ; the Com- missioners' Court room was well filled with interested citizens ; Hon. B. Woods spoke against the petition in behalf of the remonstrants; and the Commissioners declined to grant the petition."
Hon. Bartlett Woods, a native of England, becom- ing a citizen here in 1837, now over eighty years of age, has been for many years the foremost man in Lake County to advocate, even if he stood alone, what he believed to be just and right. A number of good and true men whom Lake County has sadly missed in her civil and political affairs, have passed away, leaving him, among men in public life, almost alone of his generation; but in this particular of bat- tling bravely for what he regards as right, he may quite well be called "the noblest Roman of them all."
Some disposition in past years was manifested in a part of La Porte County for the removal of the county seat from the center to a corner, from La Porte to Michigan City ; but although Michigan City became a larger place than La Porte that has not seemed to be any good reason for removal. Good judgment, and that common sense that lets "well enough alone," seem likely, in La Porte County, to prevail.
The question of changing the location of the county seat has also had some disturbing influence in Newton County ; but here the apparent propriety was quite
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different from what it was in Lake and La Porte, as here the suggestion was to remove from near a corner to a locality nearer the center, that is, from Kentland to Morocco. Kentland has a much finer court yard than Morocco could furnish, but the buildings are not much, and the town is not specially growing. In general, public sentiment is not favorable to such changes which must injure the interests of some while promoting the interests of others.
If communities, as well as individuals, would carry out in all such matters the principle of the "Golden Rule," would actually do to others as, in a change of circumstances, they would like to have others do to them, there would be much less strife and discord in communities and neighborhoods.
Some one once wrote, "Oh! it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is villainous to use it like a giant." It is not necessary always for big fish to eat up little ones. But if they do, large towns should not wish to injure smaller ones.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
ALTITUDES.
The authorities for the altitudes given below are various. Some of the altitudes, those in La Porte County, are from Professor Cox, former State Geolo- gist of Indiana. Those in Porter County are from Frank Leverett, from Gannett, from Campbell's Sur- vey of the Kankakee Region, and from Henry Rankin, former county surveyor of Porter. Those in Lake County are from the same, substituting for Henry Rankin the name of George Fisher,county surveyor of Lake County. These altitudes for Porter and Lake are taken from "The Geology of Lake and Porter Counties" by W. S. Blatchley. In La Porte, eleva- tion above the sea level, 810 feet ; at Wanatah, 710; at La Crosse, 662 ;* and about two miles north of La Porte, said to be the highest point in the county, 870 feet, or 270 above Lake Michigan. This authority makes Lake Michigan 600 feet above the sea level, and a later authority, 1896, makes it only 582 feet.
In Porter County about a mile northwest from Valparaiso 840 feet; Flint Lake, 825; Valparaiso,
* I was at La Crosse on Wednesday, August 16, 1899, and found there a party of engineers taking altitudes along the Pan Handle line. They gave to me the altitude in front of their station 674 feet. I think these figures were not de- rived from a barometer. T. H. B.
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north part, 820, court house 803 ; Hebron, 713; Kouts, 687; Kankakee River, Baum's Bridge, 659; Dunn's Bridge, 663; (these both from surface of the water in the river); Chesterton, 659; and, highest point meas- ured, some four miles north of Valparaiso and a mile east, 888 feet.
It looks a little unreasonable that Chesterton is no higher in its elevation above sea level than the Ken- kakee River at Baum's Bridge. And one authority gives Gossett's Mill Pond, which is, or was, about six miles north and west from Valparaiso, as only 620 feet. The writer, here, will not vouch for the accuracy of these figures, and Mr. Rankin gives Chesterton as 670 feet. The other figures, 659, are from Mr. Frank Leverett of Iowa, who it seems, made some examina- tion of our Calumet Region.
In Lake County the following elevations have been given: In Crown Point, court house yard, by G. Fisher, county surveyor, 714 feet, at Creston, by Mr. F. Leverett, 740 feet, and Creston is on a prairie and the water on the road from Crown Point to Creston, for most of the way, runs southward. Also, from survey made, the county surveyor, G. Fisher, has found that the point where the road, half a mile east of Creston, crosses the township line three-quarters of a mile north, is fourteen feet lower than the south end of the pavement in Crown Point. Surely no one can stand in that road on that township line and look down upon Creston, over the low land between, and reason- ably suppose that Creston is on ground some forty feet higher than the ground where he stands.
Mr. Leverett also gives Palmer 733 feet, and the watershed "near head waters of Eagle Creek and Deep River,"-and their head waters are several miles apart,
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ALTITUDES.
-747 feet. Of twenty-seven elevations given in Lake County, except at Crown Point, 714, Pan Handle sta- tion 695, Erie 702, and Fancher's Lake near Crown Point 713 feet, no other, except as given by Mr. Lev- erett, comes near to 700 feet. He gives St. Johns 697, Lowell 690, Leroy 683, Palmer 733, and the Kankakee River at the old mouth of Eagle Creek, which is many miles below Baum's Bridge, 660 feet.
But another authority gives the old Gibson Sta- tion 600, Tolleston 607, Lake Michigan 582, Whiting 606, and Lowell 636.
The authorities seem to differ quite a little in their observations or their estimates.
There is surely room for doubt as to the accuracy of Mr. Leverett's figures, the others being assumed as nearly correct. Some of these others are : Hammond 598; Hessville 623; Griffith 636; Highland 617; Dyer 638; Ross 638, and Miller's 625. These seven are all from Gannett's Dictionary of Altitudes. From Campbell's survey are these: Shelby 642; Kankakee River at Monon Railway Bridge, surface of water, 635.7. and at State Line 624.3 feet; thus giving a fall from Baum's Bridge, which is four ranges east, of 35 feet to the State line.
The highest point in Lake County, leaving Creston out till another authority asserts it to be 740 feet, is probably on the Watershed line between Crown Point and the Red Cedar Lake.
CHAPER XXXVIII.
MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS.
WILD FRUIT.
Mention has elsewhere been made of the abundant yield of cranberries and huckleberries. The following statements are added. From a marsh, not very large, near his home in Hanover township, Mr. H. Van Hollen gathered one year a few hundred bushels, and the price that year was not less than three dollars per bushel.
Another of the early settlers saw a prospect for a good cranberry crop, he also had an opportuity to buy forty acres of marsh land for two hundred dollars. He made the purchase, the berry crop was large, and the price, it is said, was that season five dollars for a bushel. He paid for his land and had some hundreds of dollars left.
Professor Cox, the geologist, who explored the region around Michigan City in 1873, and mentioning the huckleberry bush on the sandy knolls, which, he says, "is native and very prolific," the fruit of which "is highly esteemed and much sought after," adds: "The shipments in the height of the season reach near three hundred bushels per day, being, to the berry gatherers, a dispensation of ten thousand dollars per
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MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS.
annum." He mentions our other abundant native fruit, cranberries, and says that "about two miles northwest of Michigan City is a marsh of sixty acres * which, it is asserted, yields, annually from one to two hundred bushels of berries per acre." These vines are cultivated, that is, they have been planted, but they are, in many marshes, the wild or native growth.
THE CALUMET REGION.
A strip of land, or of marshes and sand ridges, across the north part of Lake County, bears the name Calumet Region. It barely extends into Porter, but does pass out into Illinois. Through it the Calumet River flows west and south, and then returning crosses the strip almost a second time, passing now north of east. The whole area is about seventy square miles. The river, winding quite a little in its lower course, makes probably seventy-five miles or eighty miles in its entire circuit. It is a singular river, a peculiar region. Before the railroads came it was peculiarly a trapping ground and a grand resort for water-fowls. and then for sportsmen. From one of their noted resorts on this river have been sent away twelve hun- dred ducks as the result of two day's shooting. One trapper has taken in the trapping season about three thousand musk-rats and mink. As late as 1883 this same trapper and his son caught in the fall about fif- teen hundred of these valuable fur bearing animals. But the region now is mostly given up to railroads and to cities.
DISAPPEARANCE OF WILD ANIMALS.
When the last deer was seen in Lake County can-
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not certainly be known, but surely very few have been in any of the island groves since 1884.
Occasionally a wolf is yet found, or until very re- cently. In the spring of 1869 a wolf and eight young ones were killed on the Knoph farm only a mile or two east of Crown Point.
A few musk-rats of the noted Kankakee variety yet remain, and now and then there is found a mink. John Loague, who has a camp at Red Oak Island, in February of 1900 caught a mink which measured three feet from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail. It was considered a very large one.
Quails to some extent remain, a few "prairie chickens," some few, very few partridges, may possi- bly be found on well protected grounds, a few squir- rels, many rabbits, some foxes, woodchucks and skunks, and a wolf, the last one yet heard of was killed near Lake Station in February, 1900, a straggler no doubt. Plover and other water fowls yet remain along the Kankakee.
THE WHITE OWL.
"During one of the very cold and snowy winters of our early times, a large white owl, not a native of this region, was shot on the west side of Cedar Lake. The bird seemed, from its appearance, so thoroughly protected was it from cold, and so white, to be a moun- tain or an Arctic denizen; and it was agreed to call it a Rocky Mountain Owl, brought out of its usual range and haunts by the great westerly storm.
THE BALD EAGLE.
"In 1857 a bald eagle was shot on the west side of Cedar Lake by David Martin,which measured from tip
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MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS.
to tip of the wings, some seven and a half feet. These American birds, formerly frequent visitors at that lake, have been rarely shot, and are now seldom seen. This is supposed to have been the last one killed around that lake.
THE SWAN.
"In 1869, Herbert S. Ball. coming up to his home at Crown Point, through the woods east of Cedar Lake, met a magnificent water-fowl which he captured and killed. The plumage was of snowy whiteness, very pure and beautiful. The wings extended from tip to tip nearly eight feet. The head was almost twice the length, and some three times the magni- tude of the head of a wild goose. Its neck was very long. Its wings were broad and strong. The long bone of the wing was in length nearly eleven inches. When examined at Crown Point this majestic bird was unhesitatingly pronounced to be an American wild swan, of which a few individuals were shot in Cedar Lake by Alfred Edgerton a number of years ago."
DATES OF SOME EARLY MILLS.
Mills in La Porte County. In 1830 a saw-mill by Captain Andrew near the present La Porte. In 1832 a saw-mill by Chester Vail. In 1833 a saw-mill by Jacob Bryant at Holmesville. Also in 1833 the Ross mill in Springfield township by Erastus Quivey. Also in 1833 three mills in Cool Spring township: One by General Orr, one by Arba Heald, one by Walker & Johnson. Also in 1833 two grist-mills, in Union township, one by Jolin Winchell, one by John and Henry Vail.
In 1834 a fine grist-mill on Trail Creek near Michi-
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gan City. This mill became noted, customers coming to it from long distances. Also in 1834 two grist- mills in Springfield township, one by Joseph Pagin and one by David Pagin. Also in 1834 a saw-mill in Galena township, the first, and another in Cool Spring township.
In 1835 the first saw-mill in Pleasant township on the Little Kankakee. And in 1835 two more in Springfield township, one by Jacob Early, one by Charles Vail.
In 1836 a saw-mill in Scipio township on Mill Creek by Asaph Webster, and a grist-mill on Spring Creek by Aaron Stanton.
In 1837 the Bigelow mills completed, and in 1838 the grist-mill at Union Mills by Dr. Everts.
It thus appears that there was no lack of mills in La Porte County before the year came of 1840 .*
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