USA > Indiana > Lake County > The First Hundred Years (1938) > Part 5
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Let one who shared their sorrows and their joys this day bear witness that to them, this generation owes a debt of gratitude which too few appreciate, and which can hardly be fully paid. Their industry was marvelous, assisting in everything, spinning on that almost now forgotten spinning wheel, then, doubling and twisting, socks, stockings, mittens, all made by their willing hands, the baby attended to, or swung up to a baby jumper made by a hickory spring pole. No sewing machines in those days, their own clothing, the sun bonnet for summer, the hood for winter, the children's clothes, the quilt and coverlets, everything nearly worn by the family except the boots on our feet, all this was their work, besides the cooking, washing, and duties pertaining to a home, humble though it surely was; such were the pioneer women in the log cabins of Lake county. A few exceptions there might have been, but in the main this held true. They had a mission, a work to do, and they bravely did it. And here today, there are young wives and mothers, who if they should enter on such a work would be as brave and loyal to duty, and would if need be, as cheerfully accept the situation to the circumstances surround- ing them, and if you will trace back the history of our country, you
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will find it is this characteristic of adapting themselves to the surroundings, and meeting all difficulties, has made this country what it is today. Farming then was very different from what it is today. The whole energy at first of the pioneer was to provide; to get something to eat. Difficulties stared most of them squarely in the face. On a piece of wild land, everything had to be done and most had little to do with. It was with many, a question of endurance, a survival of the fittest. Some lost heart and gave up and returned to their homes in the East. Others who had be- come habitual movers, always on the frontier, moved further West seeking new land and adventures.
In the early days there were no churches, but there were al- ways some good souls whose love for man and reverence for re- ligious teachings prompted them to keep open house for every preacher who came that way, and perhaps in these humble cabins, trust in a Heavenly Father and confidence in a kind Providence was preached as reverently and had as attentive and sincere hear- ers as in any grand and costly church in the land.
Looking back over these years, I can say that the influence of the pioneers in fixing character on this county has been for good, for good morals and good government, in peace or in the days of the Rebellion, always on the side of duty. Lake county has never, to my knowledge, had occasion to blush for any of her children. Her war record was a bright one, though to many of us a very sad one. The news of victory brought with it also the news of suffering and of death. Some came home to die and many absent ones sleep in a Southern grave.
I should do an injustice to the pioneer history of Lake county were I to omit stating the reasons for the slow growth after the first settlement. The majority of the first settlers lacked means, a want of capital; it was the day of small beginnings. The man was rich who owned a breaking team. Some had a yoke of oxen, very few had horses, but many had neither. No one had pastures; everything was turned out, and the tinkle of the bell led many a wanderer to a settler's cabin. Hunting the oxen on foot through the wet, tall grass and sloughs in the early morning was anything but pleasant, and often finding them late made plowing slow work, and a wooden mold board on the plow made good work impos- sible. No steel plows then. Harrows of the most primitive kind, many home made with wooden teeth; no mowers, no reapers, no separators like our modern threshing machines, pitch forks, rude and clumsy, made at the nearest blacksmith shop ; all our imple- ments would be looked on today as relics. Only one tool has held
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its own and that is the American ax; it has been the pioneer's friend and has been with him and one of his best helpers in all his labors from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
And then, after working and waiting for years, and when at last we did raise something to sell, our means of transportation was so impeded by bad roads, that it cost nearly all it was worth to get it to market.
For fifteen years, not calculating from 1834, but from 1835, we had no connection with the outside world East, except by steam and sailing vessels on the lake, or by the mail coach, or by private conveyance. As winter closed in on us, lake navigation ceased and the only public conveyance was by the mail coach be- tween Detroit and Chicago. For fifteen years we were almost an isolated community, at times a four days trip with oxen to Chi- cago, and at that day, Chicago was a land locked town six months in the year. Capital had very little to do with our early growth, for comparatively speaking, there was none; what progress was made was by hard knocks and constant labor. In 1850, the rail- roads came and opened up to us the world and a market the year around. Fifty years of growth have brought us up to be one of the best counties in the state with eight railroads into Chicago, now a city of over half a million of people, and with railroads diverging in every direction, we are far from being an isolated people today.
"Westward the Star of Empire wends its way." and from the time of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and of Cap- tain John Smith at Jamestown, the movement has been going on; the settlement here at the south end of Lake Michigan was only a part of the great plan. We had our trials and difficulties, but after all, was nothing compared with the wars and terrible suffer- ings of the pioneers on the Atlantic coast. The influence and results have been wonderful. In our day, we have seen the pioneer settlers reach and pass the Great Lakes, building up homes, found- ing states and that great Northwest, which made Chicago in all its magnificent growth a possibility, still moving westward, organ- izing territories and states on the plains and in the hills and in the valleys of the Rocky mountains, and on the shores of the Pacific, California, Oregon, and Washington. A continent to- day the home of over fifty millions of people. Perhaps in no time or in any country has labor accomplished greater results. Science has come to its aid and now brains and work go together. Iron and steel and steam have now the breath of life, a helper I trust to lift humanity up, to lighten life's labors and to aid in developing and distributing the great and varied resources of
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our country. This day's celebration is a tribute to honest labor, to our county's history, and to the greatness and progress of our country. Such a country is worthy to be the home of a virtuous, intelligent, patriotic people. As citizens, let us be true to our great responsibilities, whether adopted or native born; let us in all cases be Americans, in the highest and best sense, determined to uphold the rights and denounce the wrong, and by word and vote, do our best to leave our children a Republic based on intelligent constitutional liberty and a country better than we found it.
A MYSTERY
Many years ago the settlers made a roadway across the Cady marsh with logs, and such was the loose condition of the soil, then covered with water, that in some places it required a layer of two or three logs deep to get a road on a level with the mire and the water. This work was all voluntary; it was a big job for those days; it was considered so important as a way to Chicago, that all helped willingly, and the tavern keepers all along the road to Chicago furnished free whiskey to all who helped. It was cold and bleak on the marsh as the hauling and placing the logs had to be done on the ice. A few old settlers are left who will remember the lively times we had, some chopping in the woods, teams haul- ing, others placing the logs. Jack Cady kept the tavern, then on the old stage road, and for him the marsh was named. There was a ferry across the Calumet at what is now called the Stahl- bum bridge; another at Dolton, and on the north road a ferry, at where the Hohman street bridge is now at the Grand Calumet. It was a hard trip to Chicago in those days, and the Cady marsh logway was about as important to us then as a macademized road would be to us now.
Half way across, was a peat mound covered with scrub wil- lows and in this on the east side, was discovered a spring, and this spring has furnished drinking water to many passing that way from this early day to this. It was considered good water and perfectly pure, and no one ever suspected that that spring held the remains of three human beings, but time in most cases discloses all things. Mr. Carlson, who is owner or interested in the land now, went to work to clean out the spring, thinking that, he would increase the supply of water. In so doing he discovered the skulls and bones of what is supposed to be a man, a woman and a child about five or six years old, and from their position, they had evidently been forced in head foremost, which in the loose and miry condition, could easily have been done. It is plainly a mur-
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der; and these victims, perhaps movers, forced in this spring for concealment. It must have been done after the road was passable or they might have been dragged there on the ice. They are not the remains of Indians. Their mode of burial contradicts even a suspicion that they would bury any of their people in a marsh. More likely some young man, his wife and child, moving West, the old folks waiting and hoping for a letter that never came. It may be that they are not forgotten, that today the tale is told in some eastern home of this little family leaving and going West in anticipation of success in a new field, perhaps of a farm in Illinois or Iowa. Who murdered them and secreted them so ef- fectually these many years is one of those mysteries that we shall never know.
Lake County Star June, 1891.
B. Woods.
WAS THE WHIG PARTY AFTERWARDS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ?
In the Register of March 24, 1887, in an editorial, you say in speaking of the Whig party of that day, "The Whig party, af- terwards the Republican party." Now, with all due respect to the editor of the Register, I think the facts of history will show that the Whig party was not then nor ever "afterward" the Re- publican party.
In this country, the first organized effort in 1848, against the extension of slavery, there were quite as many Democrats as Whigs and it was so all over the North. Had it not been so, Cass would have been elected. One reason for this was, many Demo- crats refused to vote for Cass because he declared in his letter to Nicholson of Tennessee that Congress had no power to legislate on slavery in the Territories.
The Whigs as a party, in opposition to Cass, nominated Gen- eral Taylor and he was elected. The Free Soil party was the initial movement against the extension of slavery and thus is was distinct from the old Abolition party as it did not propose to in- terfere with slavery in the states-it was the germ, the beginning of the Republican party. The Whigs kept up their organization up to 1852. Four years after this, in 1852, nominating General Scott.
The Free Soil party of 1848 polled 291,263 votes for their nominees for President and Vice-president.
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In 1856, the voters, irrespective of former political affilia- tions, organized the Republican party, the Whig party as a party, had nothing to do with it. What effort was made by the Whigs was the nomination of Millard Fillmore, as the nominee of the "American Party" and Fillmore secured one State and eight electoral votes.
John C. Fremont was a Democrat, and Wm. L. Dayton a Whig. No one of that day claimed that the Whig party was "afterwards" the Republican party.
The Republican party was the child of freedom. It was or- ganized, not by the help, but in direct opposition to the two old parties.
The moving cause, the prime aim, the great work to be ac- complished was the same in 1848 as it was in 1856, to save the territories from the curse of negro slavery, to be free states for free men. The old cry of '48 was revived in '56 in answer to the demands of the slave power for "equal rights in the terri- tories", the equal rights as they meant it, was the right to take the slaves into the territories. No more slave territories, no more slave States, this was the Republican answer of '56, and the free soil answer of '48.
I have said enough to show that no old party had anything to do with forming the Republican party. All the Whigs in La- Porte followed their own ideas on the slavery question, many, in fact a majority. I think of the Whigs living there who came from the South, went into the Democratic party, and some years after, when the Republicans of Lake county were voting for Colfax, the Democrats nominated an old line Whig, as his competitor on the Democratic ticket.
I know that in the early days we got abuse from both the Whigs and the Democrats. One prominent Whig in Crown Point, could do his sarcasm up into poetry as well as in prose. His little printing press that done such good service in 1840 "Tip and Tyler" too, was now turned on "this new party".
The Democrats abused more than the Whigs, as Cass being then in the Senate had been more pronounced, and his position was more freely attacked by the Free Soilers; we were everything that was bad, Abolitionists, traitors, soreheads, cranks, fanatics, etc., the word "Mugwump" had not been invented then. We were the "Mugwumps" of that day, the men who claimed the right of private judgment with the courage of their convictions, men who cut loose from party domination and party despotism.
May there always be men loyal to the best interests of the
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country, who claim the right of individual liberty and exercise it. Had it been otherwise there would have been no Republican party. B. Woods.
Crown Point Register
April 2, 1887
In the Lake County Star, of which John Wheeler was editor, there appeared during 1881 an article written by my father on Lake County. In it he prophesies that one day ocean going vessels would enter the harbors of the Calumet region. With all our great natural resources here, we would have a great country for busi- ness if we knew how to handle it rightly, my Father maintained. Most of his prophecies have already come true.
LAKE COUNTY-1881
Editor Star :
At the extreme south end of Lake Michigan, bordering on the lake for a distance of twenty miles, its western boundary being the state of Illinois, extending south to the Kankakee, is a tract of country varied in its character, but chiefly of fertile prairie, inter- spersed with thrifty groves and timber along its water courses, with an area of 500 square miles, with an average distance of 40 miles, and its northwest corner not more than 14 miles from the commercial metropolis of the West, destined to be one of the greatest cities of the English speaking people. Such a region, peopled by an enterprising, industrious and energetic race must, in the future, share largely in the growing greatness of the North- west. This is
LAKE COUNTY
Geographically it stands without a rival in the State. From the East it commands the entrance to Chicago-it is on one of the world's great highways of commerce. Already six trunk- lines of railroads pass over its surface. The Baltimore & Ohio; Lake Shore & Michigan Southern; Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago; Chicago & Grand Trunk, of Canada; Michigan Central; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis, besides the Joliet division of the Michigan Central, all trunk lines to the seaboard, bearing on its tracks not only the interstate commerce of our people, but car- rying in its trains, the interchanging products from and for dis- tant lands across the sea to mingle in the commerce of the world. The South Atlantic is now being built through the western and south townships. The Atlantic & Chicago is under survey. The Continental double-track seems now assured in the near future and the last proposed, the New York, Chicago and St. Louis, all
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of them must of necessity pass through the county on their west- ern route.
Occupying such a position, Lake county has a future before her, of which she may well be proud, her destiny is fixed, as one of the best counties in the State.
With her green pastures, rich arable lands, abundance of timber, general good health, markets in close proximity to every farm, good schools and churches, keeping pace to an advanced civilization, she has all the elements of prosperity in her grasp, which should, if wisdom and prudence guides her people, secure her prosperity and progress in the future.
Lake County is an agricultural county, with the exception of a part of the township in the north, washed by the waters of Lake Michigan,
NORTH TOWNSHIP.
This township from an agricultural standpoint, will not com- pare with the townships to the south, but her geographical position near to Chicago and on the Lake-the many lines of railroads traversing her entire length, more than compensate for these drawbacks. The improvements of the harbor, at the mouth of the Calumet at South Chicago, has given to all the waters of the Calumet a value that can hardly be estimated, promising to be- come one of the best harbors on the Lake, it has made it possible to use all the waters of the Grand Calumet for the use of Lake commerce, like Venice, in the olden times. North township's wealth lies in what casual and superficial observers consider as her disadvantages, her bayous, her lakes, and her "Calumet" meandering nearly across the county, keeping nearly parallel with the lake, land locked; but with an entrance to South Chicago har- bor, may some day flow safely and securely its share of the commerce of Lake Michigan. It requires but little stretch of the imagination to believe that the day is coming when we may see an Atlantic steamer from Bremen or Liverpool, floating on an inland harbor within the borders of Lake county. Already we see the keen eye to discover, and the energy to execute has taken hold and commenced, what is only the small beginning of a de- velopment in the northwest corner of Lake county, that will some day astonish by its results of a magnificent success. The village of Hammond, built up by the enterprise and business tact of the Towels and Hammonds, must be from its railroad facilities, its connection with the Lake by river, its nearness to the great city, one of the most thriving business and manufacturing suburbs of Chicago. Its industries are self-sustaining, on bed rock, it depends
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on- no subsidies from Government or from the "protection" of an unjust tariff, but boldly defies the competition and throws its products into the markets of the world.
Then there is South Chicago, known to all, just across the line; the new town of Pullman on Calumet lake, a few miles in Illinois; Irondale near Hammond, the nucleus of extensive iron industries, and last, there is the 400 acres of the Notre Dame property bought by the Grand Trunk, the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Wagner Car company, on which we hear will be built a town of grand proportions; a working town, where labor shall achieve some of its grandest triumphs, a rival to Pullman.
Take it all in all, the contiguity of all these to each other and looking at it soberly and carefully, with the possibilities of Chicago before us, we can but think that the south end of Lake Michigan must be a great country.
B. W.
Money-who knows what it is-what it is supposed to do or how it is to be backed up to make it of the greatest value and most use to the people. Those were ever-recurring questions in 1876. Here Bartlett Woods gives his opinions on the matter.
MONEY-1876
Editor of the Lowell Star :
The Independents are worthy of credit for a very unusual thing in political platforms. They say what they mean, First, that "a paper money" shall be issued directly by the government, without any promise to pay anything. The idea of redemption being thrown to the winds, it is to be, as they claim, "money" just as it is printed on its face, in fact, irredeemable paper, but decreed by law as "money" which they say will make it to all intents and purposes "money", Congress, to make it a legal tender for all debts, private and public, duties on imports included.
Second, the withdrawal from circulation the notes of all na- tional and State banks; in other words, the National banks are to be destroyed and the "paper money" issued exclusively by the Government, is to be the sole and only "money" of the country. Am I right? I do not wish to misconstrue their position. I know many are honest in the faith, and they have a perfect right to their opinions. But I think they are all wrong, deluded with a false hope-nothing but the wild, impractical theories of visionary men, casting aside the teachings of history and the lessons of experience.
But this matters not what I think or what you think. The "greenback plan" is developing a strength that the two old parties
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refuse to see or fail to acknowledge. Will they meet it? The Republican party, if true to its principles and its pledges, will, sustaining as it should, the National honor and credit in this emergency, insist on the honest payment and redemption of the greenback. The Democratic party will, if true to its traditions. But will they squarely meet it? Of course not. How can they ? They have no settled policy, principle or "plan". There is Morton one way, Blaine another. While Blaine advocates resump- tion, he is opposed by Kelley, a Republican, all divided into hostile camps. The Republican press has no unity of purpose. The Inter-Ocean for inflation, opposed to resumption, the Tribune in favor of resumption, and so it is all over the country. The Demo- crats no better off, make confusion worse confounded, Hendricks and Bill Allen on one end, and Tilden and the New York and New England Democrats on the other: Pendleton and Landers are backed already by the Independents, the other prominent as the opposer of any issue at all and afterwards of an unlimited issue of greenbacks in payment of the bonded debt of the country, in other words, repudiation !
To the thoughtful man, whose hopes are in his country's prosperity, what encouragement is there that anything will be done by the old parties to meet this issue as pretended by the Independents? At the present outlook, none! Then how can it be met? The necessity of doing something will, if I mistake not, force itself on the attention of the people, so as to fully arouse an opposition that will in some way assume form and shape and power, that will be felt in the next presidential campaign. To surrender to Congress the sole power to issue paper money, limit- ed only by the "wants of trade" to circulate and constitute the medium of exchange, and which we are to receive for the products of the industry of the people, forces it on the people as a legal tender for the payment of all debts to meet and effect all values, with the power to inflate at one session and contract at another, as either party may be in the ascendant, forcing prices up today and down tomorrow, is a power so formidable and so capable of being put to the basest of purposes that I tremble for the country when I find so many willing to yield themselves up to such a complete despotism. The present Congress ought to satisfy the people that nothing that the people can possibly do themselves should be entrusted to such a body of mere partisans. Is there a measure judged of and acted upon simply on its merits? No; but how it will effect the party in the next contest, or how it will work, or what effect it will have with Mr. Morton or Mr. Hendricks. No-better take from Congress all power of interference except its Constitutional power. With this power, no man would be safe.
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Every industry would be uncertain; legislate for debtors today and for creditors tomorrow. The country would be in a continuous suspense, and every one would be wondering what Congress would do at this "session", and each session would be a continual menace and fear to the whole country. As to the value of such money, it must depreciate in value, subject, as it would be to such conditions, and each addition would only add to the further depreciation, the only limit being the "wants of trade", and here is the great dan- ger. All that has saved the greenback and given it value is the belief that at some time it would be redeemed in gold, and the repeated pledge of Congress, backed by a decision of the Supreme Court that the issue shall not exceed a given amount, and the inference that further issue would be unconstitutional in time of peace. In spite of all we may say or do this nation is only a part of the world, and as a free trader I am in favor of as free exchange with foreign nations as there is today between States. And now this commerce is so extensive and our exports of agricul- tural products so large that they are, in spite of all theories to the contrary, measured by the world's standard of value, gold in every market in these United States.
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