USA > Indiana > Lake County > The First Hundred Years (1938) > Part 12
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Of course, that was one of the big things of Gary's early history. Knowing that Gary is in a class by herself, at this time and will always be on the map as an important town, I feel very proud of my early connection.
S. B. W.
The object of the law creating a county council in Indiana was that the council would be a check on the commissioners liber- ality in making appropriations. For a long time our County Council did not amount to a hill of beans. They sat there like a bump on a log and O. K.'d everything the commissioners proposed.
Herman Batterman was a man of some capacity, honesty and judgment, and knew what his business on the council was. The tax spenders were not pleased with his actions and offered some severe criticism because he was doing what he thought was right.
I thought he should be supported in his good actions.
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WANTS A GRAFT COMMITTEE Ross Township Farmer Makes Some Serious Insinuations About County Council
Sam B. Woods, a brother of Mrs. Geo. Randolph, formerly of this place, in a letter to the Lake County Star, rips up the County council as follows :
Lottaville, Indiana January 15, 1904
Editor Star:
"The Hammond News" got funny over Herman Batterman's record for smashing estimates. I thank God and Herman Batter. man that he has the moral courage to do what he thinks is right, and is not controlled by a lot of grafters and suckers who are trying to make a living by the sweat of other people's brows.
We have two men in the county council who believe that the people who pay for running this county have some rights, but the balance seem to think the taxpayers have no right which they are bound to respect.
When a board of commissioners can recommend the payment of $300 to George Eder, as they did, I would not be surprised at anything.
Long live Batterman and Aulwurm. I would like to have a graft commission appointed in this county and have Batterman at the head of it.
Respectfully, S. B. Woods.
Sam B. Woods is generally in luck. The new interurban cars pass his door at the farm house, and then besides, he intends selling several hundred town lots when he gets his suburb ready to put on the market. He will be fixed, in a short time, so he won't care whether there is a tax on butterine or not. *
Mr. Seamon, of Chicago, proposed to build and equip an electric road between Gary and Crown Point if the people of the interested section would give the right of way of 50 feet wide.
It made no difference to Gary, Crown Point or Mr. Seamon whether the right of way was straight south down Broadway and then west to Crown Point or come to Broadway to 45th Street, west to Cleveland and south to Crown Point.
By getting the two routes bidding against one another is always a help. Both sides were working hard with varying re- sults. Finally John Brown told me that Merrilville was doing better than we were and he thought they would get the road. I
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asked him what I could do. He said he did not know if I could do anything. I concluded to take some Lake County maps and go see Mr. Seamon, in Chicago and convince him that the proper route to take was straight north from Crown Point across the Calumet River, then east to Gary, west to East Chicago, Indiana Harbor, Whiting and Hammond.
It seemed to make a good impression on him and he set a day to come out. I went home and told my wife to get up the best chicken dinner she ever got up. I cleaned up my horses, shined up my harness, and met Mr. Seamon at the depot, then showed him our route.
That and the chicken dinner settled the location of the road. It would have been a good paying road if the automobile had not come in use at that time or a little later.
SLACKERS ARE PLENTIFUL
May 9th, 1918
Editor Star :
When I read the war news I wonder what we can do to help win this horrible thing. It seems to me that I am doing all I can, sometimes up at five o'clock (new time) milking the cows and working all day to the limit of my strength and from all I can see there is hardly a man, woman or child on the farm who is not doing the same.
We are short of help, but are trying to raise big crops, which can't be done without a great amount of work. If we are going to win this war everybody must either work or fight. We must have more men over there, and they must be fed and clothed and ammunition furnished them. If everybody in this country does not get busy we are going to fall short. Now who is it that can do more?
When I go to town I see more men covering chair bottoms, looking for someone or something to turn up, when they could be making more money in one day than I see on the farm in a month. Insurance agents, real estate agents, saloon keepers, bar tenders and some professional slackers.
I had two big duffers, insurance agents, stop me in the field while plowing, and besides they had another slacker along driv- ing the auto. That made three strong men, trying to do what one frail girl could have done better as far as I was concerned, for I would not insure with a lot of slackers like that. Every man that is a man, at this time in particular, will be doing productive work, and if he is not doing it he should be drafted and made to do it. Could not the Council of Defense get in some good work here?
My last visit to the county jail showed a number of able
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bodied men and from what I could learn from them and from the turnkey, most of them got in there for getting drunk at a funeral or picnic or for fighting. Some have been there for six months waiting for trial. One fellow had been there for such a long period that all had forgotten why he was there.
If we have not courts enough in Lake County to try these fellows and get them into prison where they can make binder twine, turn them out free men. Open the doors to those fellows of minor offenses and let them go to work.
At the poor farm it looks to a native that a lot of the inmates are just as able to work as a great many people that are working and paying taxes to support them in idleness.
I write this for the reason that I think it is the truth, and important that. we get everybody to work. If I am not right I hope someone will set me right.
Sam. B. Woods.
CALLS LOCAL FARMER PIONEER DAIRYMAN
Indianapolis Farm Paper Devotes Page of Interesting Reading Praising Sam B. Woods
Built First Silo in Ross Township
Gives Credit to Mr. Woods As Starting the Dairy Business in Lake County
Sam B. Woods of Ross Township was the subject of a sketch in a current issue of the "Up-To-Date Farmer" published at Indianapolis which covered more than a page in length and appear- ed under the caption of "Sam Woods-A Pioneer in Indiana Dairying."
Among other things the article says :
Whenever one investigates the history of dairying in northern Indiana he is sure, sooner or later to come across the trail of Sam B. Woods of Lake County. Possibly the dairying industry of the section might be as fully developed as it is if Sam had never lived, but certainly its growth would not have occurred in the same way without him. Not only has he made a lasting impres- sion upon the general agriculture of this region, but the results of his encouragements and his own good example of progressive dairying are also reflected in the methods of his neighbors.
"It was 35 years ago when Mr. Woods married and settled down on his father's 240 acre farm, which the elder Woods had taken up from the government. Sam still lives on the old home- stead and has been in the dairying business practically from the time he began farming for himself. To begin with he engaged in
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general farming-and it was a little too general Sam says now. Anyway there was no satisfactory amount of money left after the rent was paid, so he decided to raise sheep. One season's experi- ence with sheep was enough for Mr. Woods, as along with the sheep he had also gotten a bad dose of foot rot. Then he decided to tie to the dairy cow and he has stuck to her ever since. It has meant sticking close to the job, year in and year out, but it has been his salvation. By the way the Woods farm contains more than 240 acres, some of which is among the highest-priced farm land in the county.
"In these days of ready made markets for dairy products it hardly seems possible that a dairyman living within 50 miles of Chicago would have had to hunt for a buyer for his milk a gener- ation ago. That was the case, however, when Sam B. Woods want- ed to sell his milk at the beginning of his dairy career. He found a man in Chicago who would take his supply and Mr. Woods began shipping whole milk on an evening express train. Shipping milk in the evening would not do in warm weather and in order to get a milk train on which to ship his milk, Mr. Woods was obliged to find enough farmers who would agree to ship milk to make it worth while for the Grand Trunk railroad to run a morning train. He proved equal to the task-and the Grand Trunk milk train is still running. And if you are ever led to wonder why there are more silos and more dairy cows seen along the Grand Trunk rail- way east of Chicago than on the other lines in this section, re- member Sam Woods had a hand in the arrangement.
"Just as Mr. Woods led in starting the dairy business in northwestern Indiana, so he has continued to be a leader in it. He built the first silo in Ross township. That was 25 years ago and we doubt if more Indiana farmers than you can count on your fingers had silos before then. Ross township now has more silos than any township in the county and Lake County leads the state with more than 700 of these structures.
" 'Whatever success I have had," says Mr. Woods, "I at- tribute to the fact that I have always bought good animals and put lots of tile in the ground."
" 'If anyone deserves a good home," says Mr. Woods, "it is the farmer. Farm folks spend more time in their homes than do city people and so their homes should be just as pleasant as pos- sible." This idea he has carried out in strictly modern farm home which his hard work of dairy business has made possible for him. City life has no convenience that Mr. Woods has not put into this home although a part of it was erected 58 years ago. Every one of the 14 rooms in the house and basement is lighted by electricity obtained from the interurban line which passes the
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farm. The current is also used in running Mrs. Woods' washing machine and wringer, the sewing machine, vacuum cleaner and for pumping the hard and soft water for household use. Hot water heat is used, and a water pressure system provides hot and cold water in the house wherever it is needed. One room is set aside as a farm office.
Star, November 17th, 1911.
When the Lincoln Highway was paved with concrete, some of us thought it was our duty to see that the public got what it was paying for. We took the matter up before the Farm Bureau. The bureau appointed Alec Boyd, Roy Hock and myself to look over the construction which we did. We found that the concrete was not being laid according to specifications, which fact we reported to the state highway commission. Their engineers insisted that everything was being done right, so that we had to put up a real fight to get matters straightened out.
The paving company brought suit for slander against each of us on the committee, demanding $50,000. It was nothing more nor less than a bluff to scare us off. They said that if we would withdraw the charges, they would stop the suit. Their bluff did- n't work. We saved the taxpayers of Lake County $5,700, and it didn't cost us a cent.
COMPLAINT AGAINST ROAD IS JUSTIFIED
Crown Point, Indiana, March 18th .- The State Highway Com- mission this week refused to pay the Federal Paving Company of Chicago for 1,128 feet of construction on the state highway system -on Lincoln highway-lying between Merrilville and Schereville. The investigation of the Federal Paving Co.'s job by the state was on complaint of property owners who declared it was not be- ing laid as thick as was specified in the plans. Experts were sent to examine the work and corroborated the complaints of the property owners. The commission deducted $5,700 from the con- tract price of the work because of the faulty work and five in- spectors and engineers were discharged by the State Highway Commission.
FEDERAL PAVING COMPANY WITHDRAWS SUIT
The Federal Paving Company's suit against Sam B. Woods, Roy Hack and Alex Boyd for slander and defamation of character in regard to the Lincoln Highway construction, for $50,000 each, has been dismissed. In fact it was no law suit and the Federal Paving Company never intended it to be. It was a bluff on the
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part of the paving company to scare the Farm Bureau out. A short time after the suit was entered, they sent a representative to this committee and proposed to withdraw the suit if the committee would withdraw their charges against the company.
Surely, the Farm Bureau did one good piece of work here. It showed to the State Highway Commission that they could not put out a job like that in Lake County without having it exposed. We made them buy a coring machine and show how the road was made. This was the first and only coring machine in the state and the papers say the contractors of the state don't like its presence. They seem to think it is not fair to expect them to build a road according to the specifications-for that is all the coring machine is expected to do-show whether or not the material for which the contract calls is there.
Some people blame the paving company entirely for this poor road, when, in fact, it was up to the State Highway Commission to see that we had a good road built according to contract and they did not do that. So the blame is on them and especially on the head of the Highway Commission, Laurence Lyons, who re- signed from the commission and is now chairman of the State Republican Committee. He should make a good politician, but it looks to us as if he were no good as head of the State Highway Commission.
Sam B. Woods.
Harold E. Woods was our first born. Like all country boys, he grew up on the farm in close acquaintance with the cows, pigs and chickens. He was scarcely old enough to know how to set a hen when he went into the chicken business on his own hook. It wasn't long before he had an incubator and was increasing his stock. At one time, he had several hundred chickens, sizable flocks of turkeys and geese and three hundred Pekin ducks. From child- hood, he took care of his own business dealings, had his own money and financed his own enterprises. He grew up able to depend on himself and to manage his own affairs.
Professor Plumb of Ohio State University saw Harold on our farm caring for his poultry and persuaded the boy to return to Columbus with him to superintend the poultry interests of the state agricultural college. His interests broadened to include hogs and soon he was showing these at the International Stock show in Chicago. He was made a member of the stock judging team at the University. The professor will tell the rest of the story.
Harold got typhoid fever and pneumonia in 1908 and died after a short illness. He was not yet 25 years old. His untimely
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departure was a crushing blow to the family. Undoubtedly, had he lived, he would have been a leader in our home community.
* *
From Ohio State University
PROFESSOR C. S. PLUMB ON THE DEATH OF OUR SON HAROLD E. WOODS
Columbus, Ohio, February 18, 1908 Editor Star :
Through your valuable paper I desire to express something of the esteem with which Harold E. Woods was regarded here at the Ohio State University. It had been my pleasure to make his acquaintance years ago, when the boy was in short pants caring for his poultry at the farm home. Later on, coming to the Uni- versity to attend the College of Agriculture, he found a welcome place in my home where he was a welcome and frequent visitor. From the first Harold made warm friends among the students and secured the confidence and esteem of all with whom he came in contact. He was always frank, genial and thoughtful of others. His fellow students found him enthusiastic and always willing to take hold and help in those movements that prompted the best of student life. He was active in the work of the University Young Men's Christian Association, and was a member of its council. He was president of the Agriculture Society in the College of Agriculture and did much to advance the organization. In 1906 he became a charter member of the Delta Theta Sigma fraternity, the members of which represented the very best element in our student life here. The past fall he was chosen one of the Live Stock Judging Team of the University which participated in the annual students' intercollegiate test at the International Live Stock Exposition at Chicago, an honor eagerly sought for each year by live stock students in the University. In 1906 he was in- terested with feeding the show hogs which the University exhibited at Chicago and contributed much to make that part of our exhibit a success.
His death was a shock to us all; and universal sympathy and regret was expressed among students and instructors such striking worth should be cut down just as he was ready to begin a career of great usefulness. Only a short time before he was taken down with his final sickness he had expressed to me his determination to go back to Crown Point and take up work on the farm at home and make himself a useful citizen to the community and state. Had he lived he would have been one of the most valuable and esteemed citizens of Lake County.
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In his death his parents have at least the comfort that he lived a clean, beautiful life, an example well worth many a young man following after. There was no stain on his escutcheon.
Very truly yours,
C. S. Plumb.
SAYS PROTECTION HAS NEVER HELPED THIS NATION
Editorial on the Manufacture of Tin in the U. S. Brings out Reply From S. B. Woods.
Editor Star :
In your issue of June 8th you refer to protection of the manu- facturers of tin and claim if it were not for the protection of tin we would not have enough tin to can the beans for the army for two days and, "If we had had free trade during the past fifty years the Kaiser would now be master of England and France and would probably be shooting New York, Boston, Baltimore and New Orleans full of holes."
I thought this weak infant industry "Protection" had got- ten so big and fat it had died from fatty degeneration of the heart. But your claim takes the cake and it seems we are going to have another dose of "Protection" served to us to swallow for the next election. Bob Ingersol said, "I believe in protecting infant in- dustries, but when the infant gets big enough to wear No. 12 boots and threatens to kick your head off if you do not rock the cradle, it is time to quit."
Carnegie, who is authority on steel manufacturing says the U. S. can compete with any county in the world. Protection claims everything and always has ever since I can remember. But what is the truth of the matter? It is not protection that has caused the prosperity of this great and glorious country, but it is the American farmer with the help of the American farm ma- chinery manufacturer who have made it possible for the farmer to sow, plow, cultivate and harvest the crops from the largest and most fertile body of land that God ever made. The farmer has always been on the job working long hours for small pay. He did not go on strike for higher wages and until lately he never formed combines to influence prices, but he is learning from the other fellow and it will not be long before he will be fighting the devil with fire. He has always raised enough for home use and sold enough abroad to bring the balance of trade to our favor.
When are the times good? When do the railroads carry to their full capacity ? When do the mills run overtime ?
It is when the American farmer has a big crop of wheat, corn,
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oats, beef, pork and beans, butter and cheese. It must be moved. The railroads want more cars, more engines, more rails and the mills get busy. This protection as a general thing (excepting in- fant industries) is the biggest legalized graft known to civilized man. It has thrown things out of balance and made an unsteady condition. It has made it possible for the manufacturer to pay higher wages than the farmer can pay and has caused men to leave the farm to work in the factories.
What is the consequence? If we had the tin cans we have not the beans to put in them. The war is going to be determined by the side that has the most to eat, and if the men and boys had stayed on the farms last year so we could have done our best for the crop we would have had a better one and the H. C. of L. would have been much less.
All of the great minds say that if this country is to prosper we must conserve the fertility of the soil. Keep the boys and girls on the farm for they are the ones that know the business and they are necessary for the highest type of farming. The farm- er boys and girls have not all been fools. They know enough to choose an occupation where there is the most money for their labor. You can talk about keeping the boys and girls on the farm until doom's day, but not until the conditions in this country be- come better for the farm will the sensible ones do it. But I am hopeful that the farmers are getting on to their job as never be- fore in the history of America were the farm and the farmer ap- preciated as they are today.
Sam B. Woods.
KNOTTS' RESULT NOT CAUSE
Lottaville, Indiana, May 23rd, 1911.
Editor Times :
Last Tuesday's Times had a long article on "How Gary Suffered by Knotts." The worst part of the whole business is from the condition of things over there it must be true. Gary made its bow to the world as going to be a model city. No saloons and a happy and prosperous people. What did they do? Had more and worse saloons than any town in the county which attracted the worst element to Gary and made it possible for such men as Knotts to be elected to office. Where the saloons flourish there is always crime and misery and Gary could have had a town without saloons and conditions would have been very different there today. The Times says, "Utter Disregard of Decency and Law."
The trouble is we have no law or justice. Our courts don't amount to a hill of beans for punishing law breakers.
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They are more inclined to get us into trouble than out of trouble. We could not build an electric road from Gary to Crown Point because of the courts. The most important improvement in northern Lake County today is held up by the courts-drainage of the Calumet. When the courts get through with it it will cost more for court expenses than it will to dig the ditch. Our courts have had Knotts in hand long enough to make it hot for him. But what have they done? Our judges either want Knotts' influence or they are afraid of him.
Four-fifths of the lawyers of Lake County are for the wide- open saloon for they know that causes most of the crime and misery and if it was not for the saloon most of them would be out of a job.
Knotts is not the cause but the result of conditions in Gary. "The happiness and stability of the people of this earth have al- ways been in strict accord with their morality."
Sam B. Woods.
HOW DAIRYING HAS GROWN IN NORTHERN INDIANA
Rapid Rise of Milk Business in Hoosier State Makes it Rival of Elgin District
By Sam B. Woods, Lake County 1914
Prairie Farmer's silo contest put Ross township, Lake County, Indiana, on the map as a dairying community, and I am going to give you a short history of the birth and growth of dairying in this section. Lake County is the northwest county of the state, bounded on the north by Lake Michigan and on the west by Illinois, Consequently we are close to Chicago. In fact, so close she has now run over into Indiana, meeting the towns of Hammond, East Chicago, Indiana Harbor, Gary and Gibson.
About 32 years ago I was married and commenced business on my father's farm, raising corn, oats and hay, and feeding it to hogs, steers, horses and a few milch cows-a little of everything and not much of anything. After paying rent, the surplus left was not of any great amount. Something had to be done to bring in more money and I decided that sheep would carry me over to pros- perity so I bought 150 head of sheep and some good Cotswold bucks. Before long I discovered we had taken on a bad lot of foot- rot with the sheep and my vision of prosperity was turned to dis- appointment ; but I got the whole lot fat and received a good price for them on the Chicago market.
Now the question was, "What can we do to be saved?" We decided the cow was our salvation and Chicago our market for
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the product. Chicago at that time was getting all her milk from the Elgin district. I could see no reason why Chicago people could not use Indiana milk, so I went to Chicago and found a man who would buy my milk shipped over the Grand Trunk railway. We bought more cows and shipped on an evening express train two and three 8 gallon cans daily. My dealer was a good one and paid me a fair price. Money came in better than in any other line of farming, so we felt we were on the right track. But this evening through train business, although satisfactory in the winter, would not do in warm weather, so I went to see the officials of the Grand Trunk at Chicago in regard to putting on a regular milk train. They were agreeable provided I would get the farmers along the line to ship enough milk to pay them to put on the train. So I got busy in interesting the farmers along the line from Lottaville to Valparaiso in making and shipping milk to the Chicago mar- ket. Any farmer who ever tried to induce his brother farmers to enter a new line of business will know what I was up against. Not one in ten would consider it at all; those that would brought up all kinds of objections, such as "Would not have milk for the pigs," have to make butter for our own use and might as well make it all into butter." Finally all of 16 cans were pledged.
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