USA > Indiana > Lake County > The First Hundred Years (1938) > Part 10
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The people of Hammond are not jealous of Crown Point nor have they any reason to be. The people of Hammond have no desire to remove the County Seat to this place. We doubt whether another person than the one referred to in the above article would think of such a change, but all can see that Guiteau- ism did not die with that "crank". It would be preposterous and overly selfish to wish to have the county seat placed clear in one corner of the county. Hammond does not desire to injure Crown Point real estate nor does she wish her any bad luck. Hammond
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has a noble future and will some day become a large city but will never be selfish enough to try to change the county seat.
Hammond Tribune
May 11th, 1883
WILL MR. GOSTLIN KEEP HIS WORD
Editor Star :
Just before the election, Mr. Gostlin, the candidate for Senator, fearing that he might lose votes in portions of Lake county, wrote and scattered broadcast a letter, in which he pledged himself, as a man of honor, that should he be elected, that he would not directly or indirectly vote or do anything in his official capacity as Senator to aid in any way a movement looking or aiming at a removal of the county seat from Crown Point to Hammond.
Now, we ask Mr. Gostlin, will he assist and vote for the bill got up at Hammond creating a "Superior court" at Hammond? His constituents have a right to know this and will expect an answer.
What is the nature of this bill which the attorneys and others of Hammond have drawn up and introduced in the legislature ?
It is to create a "Superior court" at Hammond with all the powers and authority of a circuit court, to have a judge, a sheriff and a clerk of court, has jurisdiction over all Lake county; can compel the attendance of witnesses from the remotest part of the county ; some would have to travel sixty miles going and return- ing to their homes; this would be an outrage, but the court could punish for contempt, it can issue writs of injunction, habeus corpus, appoint receivers and custodians of property ; it could do any and everything a superior court can do, and all they propose to leave for our court to do is the probate business.
And who pays for all this? Why the taxpayers of Lake county of course; it means two court houses, two judges and sher- iffs and clerks; our court expenses now unreasonably large, would be more than doubled, and why? Simply becauuse Hammond wants the earth. A few insignificant lawyers and real estate sharks who have no conscience, who recognize no right as between man and man, but who are scheming for some advantage over their neighbors, and think any rascality is justified if it only succeeds.
Crown Point is the "seat of justice" for Lake county, in the original law authorizing the location, the words "county seat" are not mentioned.
The seat of justice by this law authorizing the location is Crown Point, the place where law justice is administered, where persons charged with crimes are tried, where all the treasures of
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the people are safely kept, records of all deeds, mortgages and everything showing titles to property are stored in safety.
Located in the center of the county so that all can have an even chance of reaching it, it was and is recognized as the proper place for the court of Lake county.
The exceptions are a few at Hammond and only a very few there. Is there nothing stable in any county seat; is property to be everlastingly menaced by a set of schemers; are investments in county seats to be always at the mercy of designing adventurers?
Unfortunately, it seems so, every few years a war is opened on the county seats, but the raiders have always been driven back and beaten and so it will be now; these raids have stirred up all the county seats of the state, and they today will stand and defend each other.
These authors and advocates of this "Superior court" bill, would, if they could, destroy property rights, would reduce in value every home and business interest in Crown Point, but our people need not fear, the legislature will defeat this bill, and will continue to protect and defend the vested rights of the people, who have built homes and are engaged in business enterprises in the county seats of Indiana.
Bart Woods.
Lake County Star January 18, 1895
Bart Woods saw what a terrible mixup and expense these numerous courts in Lake county would be. The lawyers them- selves are now claiming that all court business should be done under one roof for the best interests of economy. Crown Point court house could handle all the business of the county if we had swifter justice and not so many hangers-on.
LAKE COUNTY'S COURTS
(The following is taken from Monday's Indianapolis News and is credited from "a taxpayer of Lake County" who tells facts and gives figures which look alarming for the taxpayers of our county.)
The bill introduced on Tuesday last by Senator Culbert in the Senate, and by Representative Furness in the House, is re- ported in the News-as a bill "Amending the act providing for the establishment of a superior court for Lake, Porter, and Laporte counties". This bill is known here as Senator Gostlin's bill, and has been published in the Whiting News, a North township paper friendly to the bill.
If it becomes a law it will give the Superior Court at Ham-
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mond co-ordinate jurisdiction with the Court House at Crown Point, the county seat of Lake County.
Senator Gostlin, in a letter to the Lake County Star, January 25, 1895, said they would be satisfied if they got the Superior Court, and that it would not "put any additional expense on the taxpayers of Lake County outside of North township." And yet the auditor's report (page 6) shows that the Circuit Court cost $2,076.50 and that the expenditures for the Superior Court for the same time amounted to $4,560.97. This does not include jury fees in either case.
So much for Senator Gostlin's pledge and promises, a dif- ference of nearly $2,500, and yet the business and work of the Circuit court is double the business of the Superior Court at Hammond.
It is the old county seat war of 1895 over again, when they were beaten. Knowing it was useless to try to remove the seat to a town on the State line and part of that town in Illinois, they got up and introduced, two years ago, the bill for the Superior Court; this was passed in March, 1895, over the Governor's veto. Governor Matthews looked on the bill as a dangerous bill. He saw it was an entering wedge for something further on. In the veto message he said:
"Never in the history of the State have courts of this charac- ter been established to be held at other places than at the recog- nized county seats."
"This, it is to be feared, will be establishing a dangerous precedent, leading to conditions and results not to the best inter- ests of the citizens of the State."
Governor Matthews clearly saw the danger ahead and it has come in this bill to "amend" now before the Legislature. Should these amendments to the Superior Court law pass, the next move is to compel the commissioners of Lake county to build a court house at Hammond, and those concerned openly avow it, and say that they will have "an elegant court house" in Hammond by 1900. So if their plans carry, there will be two court houses and two county seats in Lake county, and if this present bill passes, it will be extended to every county in the State.
What a confusion it will be in probate matters. A man dies in West Creek township and has property in North township, where will his will be probated? Where will deeds be recorded? They aim to have jurisdiction over probate, decedent estates, settlements, etc., in fact everything. This scheme would end in having two auditors, two recorders, two sheriffs, two clerks, two treasurers, two court houses and two jails. The whole thing is an outrage on the taxpayers and is of benefit to nothing except real estate in Ham-
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mond. This war on the county seat every two years is engineered by real estate boomers, and a few lawyers. They make people believe that they will ultimately get the county seat. By this time the City Council is called upon to appropriate money and send a lobby to Indianapolis to have a good time and work for the bill.
It is a very serious question with farm prices low and hard times pressing heavily upon us, how many more courts and judges will be imposed on us? Court expenses are doubling up, and we are in danger of an increase.
The farmers and taxpayers of Lake County appeal to the legislature to protect them by defeating the bill.
Bart Woods
Lake County, Feb. 6, 1897
The farmers of Lake County backed my father up in his court house fight.
LAKE COUNTY'S COURTS
A Ross township farmer, writing in the Indianapolis News of Tuesday in reference to Lake County's Courts says :
I am a farmer living north of Crown Point, and southeast from Hammond. I am as much interested in one town as the other, and am well acquainted with both towns, so I think I am an impartial judge in regard to the court squabble between the towns. Hammond is the pride of Lake county in enterprise and growth. It has one of the greatest slaughtering establishments in the world. That has attracted to it men of business and real worth, and also bloody butchers, nail mill hands, foundrymen, not whats and what nots, and also lawyers and pettifoggers, the latter gen- erally out of a job and always trying to turn up something.
It is this latter class that are kicking up all the fuss in re- gard to the court squabble between Crown Point and Hammond. They are a class that are not particular how they get a thing. They would build a very fine school house in a town and leave the township to pay for it. They would take into the corporation of the town all the out-lying country, marshes and sand hills, and assess them for town taxes. The town government is extravagant and corrupt. It is distinctly understood there by most of the poli- ticians that an office is to be worked for all there is in it. They have sold out to Roby, houses of ill fame and gambling houses, and it seems to me, under the present condition of things, (milk 71/2 cents a gallon, corn 18 cents a bushel, oats 14 cents, hogs 3 cents per pound; men, women and children all working hard and long
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hours to make a living and pay taxes) that we don't want Ham- mond to run this court business, as she is running the town.
There is Bill Reading down to the legislature a lobbying in the interest of the Hammond court, who is typical. Those people at Hammond ought to hang their heads in shame in having him down there to represent them at the state capital.
In the name of all that is good, we ask that the state law makers remember the producers of wealth have rights that ought to be respected, as well as some lobbyists.
Crown Point is situated in the center of the county, while Hammond is in the extreme northwest corner. Crown Point has a population of 2,500 to 3,000, it is beautifully located with all the modern improvements, a fine court house and jail and a good lot of people. Nine-tenths of the taxpayers are satisfied to give Crown Point the county seat and the court house business, and if it were not for these shyster lawyers, we would hear nothing of this cost- ly business every time the legislature meets.
March 1, 1899
Sam B. Woods.
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Sam B. Wood's
EARLY ARTICLES
SAM B. WOODS AT EIGHTY AS SEEN BY A FRIEND To The Friends of Sam B. Woods and the Readers of His Book :
The friends of Sam B. Woods need no interpretation of his character that I could make. He tells me though he is putting the experience of his life and some of those of his father's life into a narrative and biography. As such it will have permanence.
I therefore address this message to those who in the future may read his book. The man behind the book will breathe through its pages. Anything he does breathes with life. He will read this of course. The reading to him will be part of the compensation for a life well lived. He has lived four-score years now, but he is to- day one of the youngest men of my acquaintance. That is the unusual thing about this rare character.
Why not take time to tell a man while he yet lives that you respect and admire the life he has lived? Why wait until his ears no longer hear the eulogies he has earned ? For many a man has given up the struggle for better things when a word of appre- ciation from those who really endorsed his efforts would have given him the courage to go on.
It was not my privilege to know Sam B. Woods when I was a young man. He was in his seventies when I first met him, going strong and still is. In a proper cause he has all the enthusiasm of a college boy committed to a great ideal. He never asks, "What is the use?" He says, "It is useful and good, let's do it." He never asks, "What is there in it for me?" He says, "This is good for everybody and therefore good for me". He never asks, "What will it cost me in money or prestige or reputation for the thing I am about to do". He says, "Is it right?" and if he answers that it is, then he endorses it and what's more, works for it believing that things can be done.
A little leaven leavens the whole loaf 'tis said, and so a citizen like him purifies the social air of the whole community he lives in. I don't know how great a fortune Mr. Woods has accumulated nor does that interest me. Too prone are we in these days of what goes in the name of success to measure a man by his money, his achievements or his prestige. Too little do we look at the house of character he has built with the bricks and mortar of experience that have touched his hands. By the latter test, our friend has "built a stately mansion for his soul as the swift seasons roll". An
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honest man is the noblest work of God. Such a man is my youth- ful friend of four-score years.
Merritt D. Metz.
Hammond, Indiana,
May 4th, 1937
SAM WOODS SAYS COUNTY SEAT IS NOW CORRECTLY LOCATED Crown Point, Indiana, February 16, 1914
Editor Gary Post :
Ball's history of Lake County says, "The leading event of the year 1840 was the location of the county seat at Crown Point. A large Public square was laid out and donated for the use of the public buildings. Solon Robinson gave the site and a log court house was built and thus the county seat was established at Crown Point 79 years ago by the founders and early settlers of this county."
The place was held sacred as the county seat of Lake County and none thought it could be at any other place until about 25 years ago a bunch of lawyers at Hammond, headed by A. F. Knotts, thought they should have the county seat.
Knotts was successful in being elected to the legislature and by a very peculiar manipulation down at the capital succeeded in establishing a superior court at Hammond. But the county seat still stood on the high ground at Crown Point. His bill, which passed the legislature, only allowed rooms to be secured by the commissioners. But the big vote at Hammond and the pressure brought to bear convinced the commissioners they should build a court house and it was built at great expense. During the first rain after the court house was completed court had to adjourn as the roof leaked like a sieve and when it got cold they could not keep the building warm and it was an all around bad job, and all done by a lot of lawyers that we are told knew how to do business. But they did not know how to do business or they knew how to get the graft. They built it so close to their main street and now claim there is so much noise on the street it is hard to do business in the court house.
When Gary was much larger than Hammond was when she demanded a court house and wanted a court house at Gary, Ham- mond lawyers did all in their power to prevent Gary from having a court.
After the state went dry and 90 per cent of the criminal busi- ness went with it, Crown Point lawyers want an extra criminal court. You would think they would be ashamed of themselves. They would if they had any shame but they have none.
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When Knotts wanted to split the courts up and peddle them around the argument was the courts are a sacred thing and the records and everything should be kept under one roof. And now the advocates of the removal of the county seat to somewhere be- tween Gary, Hammond and East Chicago say it is great trouble and expense to go to three different places to look up records. The lawyers admit themselves that they have made a botch of it and now they are getting excited and want to make another botch out of it. They are not to be trusted.
If there is any great need of any changes in public affairs the business interests, the interests that furnish the money that builds court houses will tell the lawyers to go and jump in the lake, and if half of them stayed there Lake County would be bet- ter off. Talk about more courts! If lawyers would wake up and get a move on themselves and do business like other people have to do business we have more courts than we need now.
One hundred years ago farmers were cutting grain with a sickle. The lawyers are cutting their grain with a sickle yet. If farmers were as slow and pokey getting things done as the courts are potatoes would be $15.00 per bushel and eggs $5.00 per dozen.
At the meeting in the Commercial Club rooms at Gary last Friday the East Chicago delegation argued that because the north end had the majority they could and should have the county seat. What is that? Kaiserism or bolshevism; might makes right? But it will never be right. We have a beautiful county and nicely proportioned-great manufacturing interests along the lake, beau- tiful residences and farming country to the south, county seat on the water shed between Lake Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico. There is not a finer residence town within 100 miles of Chicago than our county seat. The wealthy people of the Calumet region will make Crown Point their suburban homes as time goes on. Getting everything in the Calumet region would make the county topheavy and unbalanced. It is now just as near right as we can get it and we are going to leave it that way by the help of the Gary Commercial Club and the lawyers of Gary who are standing by the Crown Point county seat to a man.
Sam B. Woods.
About 1875, Father took the agency for a windmill. A busi- ness-like young fellow came to the house one day just as the fam- ily were getting ready to go some place. The fellow knew his business and soon had Father interested in his windmills. His proposition was to put one up on our farm and make Father the agent for the company. When he had sold three mills to other
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farmers at an agreed-upon price, his own would be paid for by his commissions.
Mother was impatient at the delay caused by talking to the man so Father, to appease her, signed the contract hurriedly. He supposed he had agreed to sell three wind mills and the agent led him to understand that if he could not sell the three, it would be all right anyway.
It wasn't long before a large, pompous fellow came out to the farm with Father's agreement about the windmills in his hand. He demanded payment for the three mills Father had ordered. Father tried to explain to him that he had ordered none, that he was merely an agent for the company and that he was trying to sell three windmills. The big man opened the agreement that Father had signed with the agent, and sure enough, it was so worded as to constitute a note on demand.
Father saw at once that they were going to try to work him for three or four hundred dollars and make trouble in the bargain. He came out to the woodpile where a big hired man and I were cutting stove wood and told us what was going on. We went into the house, prepared to throw the fellow out bodily if he started anything.
Father asked him for the agreement and said: "Do you know what I'm going to do with this. I'm going to put it in 'ere." ('Ere being English).
He walked over to the big kitchen stove, lifted up the tea kettle, slipped the agreement into the hot fire, and slammed the kettle down again. He told the collector :
"You can now go to thunder."
The collector jumped to his feet, shouting, "You have de- stroyed my property. I'll sue you."
Father told him to go ahead and sue, that he was willing to match his reputation with such a man at any time.
The fellow went away in a rage. Letters began to come threatening law suits and other violent proceedings if Father didn't settle for destroying the property of the wind mill company. He wrote back telling them that they were trying to work a skin game on him and that he would have nothing further to do with the matter. He suggested that they proceed with their suit. The matter ended there.
The windmill was no good. The wheel wobbled around and knocked itself to pieces on the tower. The company worked the same game on a farmer over near St. John who payed them the money on the shark's deal.
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THE MEN CALLED "CRANKS"
"The men who compose the intrepid minority which begins a battle against established wrong are called 'Cranks' " .- Tom Watson.
If it were not for such men as Tom Watson, we cranks would get discouraged and quit. My father and I have been called cranks, fools, Jack Asses, backsliders, sore heads and most every- thing else but decent by the big shots that were giving the crowd a lot of flap doodle that they could understand better than they could the truth, and common sense.
There was a State Dairy Association Meeting held at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a Mr. Monrad who was interested in estab- lishing Creameries for the making of butter over the state, wrote a report of this meeting to Hoard's Dairyman.
He reported the conditions in Indiana dairy business as infer- ior to other states and at a rather low standard.
I answered him through Hoard's Dairyman and tried to show him there was at least some good dairymen in the state. It pleased Charles B. Harris of Goshen, Indiana, who wrote me in regard to my article, very much pleased with my defending the dairymen of the state.
A HOOSIER DEFENDS HOOSIERDOM
Published in 1896
Ed. Hoard's Dairyman
After reading Brother Monrad's "Thoughts", as expressed in a recent issue of your paper, in regard to the Indiana State Dairy Association meeting, I concluded that people, living in other states reading that, would come to the conclusion "that the little band of firm believers in the cow" would grow sick at heart, weary and worn out, give up the struggle, and let the whole state go down to perdition, never to be resurrected,-where men would go in rags and the children would cry for milk.
But, Mr. Editor, let me tell Brother Monrad and the rest of the United States, through your paper, that the situation it not so bad as Brother Monrad sees it. For I can tell you, there are just as good dairies, dairy farms, and dairymen in Indiana, as there are in any other state in the Union. We may not be able as a state, to show as good a record as some other states, but here and there, are individual dairymen that let their light so shine that others can see and take courage. Such men as Mr. A. H. Bates, of Fort Wayne; Mr. J. M. Knox, of Lebanon; Cal Hussel- man, of Auburn; Captain Jackson of Centerville; and hundreds of
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others all over the state, equally as good, belonging to this good army, and will never let the ship go down.
Coming nearer home and something I know more about, I have 30 cows, 29 of them giving milk. We are shipping to Ham- mond, 10 and 11 cans, of 8 gallons, per day, getting $1.00 per can for same, and paying 12 cents a ticket per can. The actual yield of these cows is from 690 to 700 pounds. Now, Bro. Monrad, is not that doing pretty well?
My next neighbor, west of me, milked 14 cows last summer, and shipped 7 cans of 8 gallons of milk to Chicago. There are lots of them right along the Turkey Creek Valley where the Chi- cago & Grand Trunk R. R. runs, that have just as good farms, just as good cows, and are just as good men as there are in Wisconsin or Illinois. Why Bro. Monrad, the Boyd Brothers, living a short distance east of Merrilville, have the farm, the barns and cows in such perfection, that if you had the like out of Winnetka, they would get up excursions from Chicago, and come to look at the sight.
Another man, a little farther east, Mr. Wm. Sikes, has a fine brick house, fine large barn, with a 250-ton silo on the north end, and is making as good an article of milk, and as much of it, and as cheaply as they do in any state, and "don't you for- get it".
Then there is Bro. Henry Chester, who is about the height of Bro. Goodrich, of Wisconsin, but he weighs 250 pounds, dress- ed with his milking clothes on, and I will bet Bro. Monrad that Bro. Chester can, and does, make milk just as cheap as Bro. Goodrich. Bro. Chester sold Ira J. Mix, of Chicago, over $11,000 worth of milk in continuous shipments.
Mr. Gib. Bullock, a little farther on, and Taney Banks, near Hobart, each read a paper on dairying, at our State Dairy Assn.' held in Crown Point, two years ago, and they made as good a showing for their cows as I have seen reported in Hoard's Dairy- man.
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