Lake County, Indiana - The whole text, 1884 (part 2 of 8)

"During the summer of 1884, United States surveyors surveyed the land. The party camped for a week in June and July in that part of the grove now owned by Dr. Pettibone in the town of Crown Point," For this I am indebted to the History of Lake County, by my friend Mr. Ball, and I shall have to quote still further from that valuable record. " Mr. J. Hurlburt, an old settler of Porter county, was one of that party of surveyors, and at that time he remembers no cabin, and no settler at that time, (June and July) in any of our central groves." "^^ As yet, the squatters were not here;" but soon the pioneers came. Ball's history says "in September 1834 Richard Fancher, Charles Wilson, Robert Wilkinson, and two nephews left Attica, on the Wabash, three in a wagon and two mounted on good horses, to look for claims or homesteads in the newly surveyed northwest corner of the state. They crossed the Kankakee at the head of the rapids, crossed West Creek at a place which Wilkinson selected for h home, and came up to Cedar Lake. They camped there. They kept their headquarters at the lake. R. Fancher and Charles Wilson being well mounted, traveled considerably. They were at South East Grove, and at all the central parts. The surveyors had Just been over the region. They found no settlers." Richard Fancher selected a part of section 17, the land on which we are now assembled bemg part of this same section, and the little lake in our Fair Ground w^as named after Richard Fancher, and is to-daj called Fancher Lake. Charles Wilson selected land near Cedar Lake. They staid three weeks, returned to the Wabash and waited for the spring. I have quoted freely from the pages of Mr. Ball's history the doings of these pioneers, and their evidence goes to show that up to the date of their coming there were no settlers in the region of country traveled by them.

In the last of October, 1834, came a prominent figure in our county's history, Solon Robinson. In that same October there came fi-om the Wabash, David and Thomas Hornor, and Dr. Brown. On the first of November Henry AYells and Luman A. Fowler came to Solon Robinson's tent, looking at the country.

In October 1834, Thomas Childers and family, according to the record, settled on the southeast quarter of section 17, on the edge of School Grove, being the first known settlers in the central part of the county. Solon Robinson and family settled on the part of timber now forming part of Crown Point, and must be awarded the honor of being the first settler in Crown Point, and second only in tlie central part of the county, and from this time the pioneers came moving on and became settlers. I will name them in the order of their settlement in 1834. In October of that year Thomas Childers. In November, Solon Robinson, Luman A. Fowler, and Robert Wilkinson. In December, Jesse Pierce, and David Pierce, and it is believed that a settler by the name of Ross settled on Deep River in the summer of this year, and it is probably from him that the town- ship took the name. William (Jro(jks settled on T)pp|) Hiver near the V)ri(lo"e across that stream on the present road from Merrillville to Hobart. Samuel Miller, of Michig^an City, in companv with Crooks built a mill there. I knew Miller but do not reme)nber Crooks; the same Crooks was afterwards an associate Jud<j-e. There was a store there in an early day, selling a little of everything. Whiskey was part of the stock in trade. Whiskey was cheap then, and was retailed at a shilling a quart. The mill and store were finally abandoned, but the place always was known as Miller's Mill.

In 1835 came names familiar to the early settlers, and to many now living. I copy from the record from Ball's history. In January: Lyman Wells, John Driscoll. In February: J. W. Holton, W. A. Holton, and William Clark, from .Jennings county, Indiana. March: R. Fancher, and Robert Wilkinson, from Attica, Indiana. In the spring: Elias Bryant, J. Wiggins, Nancy Agnew% widow, and E. W. Bryant. In May: Elias Myrick, William Myrick, S. P. Stringham, Thomas Reed, and Aaron Cox. In June: Peter Stainbrook. In November: David Hornor, Thomas Wiles, Thomas Horn or, Jesse Bond, Jacob L. Brown, and Milo Robinson. Iti December: Henry Wells, William S. Thornburg, R. Dunham, John G. Forbes, R. Hamilton, and John Wood. There were settlers perhaps besides these. Some had located in 1832 and 1833 on the stage route fi-om Detroit to Fort Dearborn, and there might be others who failed to have their names on the Claim Register, and this might have been, as the " Squatters' Union of Lake County " was not organized until the 4th of July, 1836. Be this as it may, these six names in 1834, and twenty- nine in 1835, are from the best authority, and will be accepted as the true record of the first Pioneers in 1834 and the following year 1835. The years 1836 and 1837 were marked. by increased numbers, and still they came, coming not only from the older states and Canada, but from lands across the sea.

The homes of the pioneers were log cabins; many of the younger people here to-day have hardly seen one, and fewer have lived in one. Before 1834 the groves and woodlands of this region had scarcely resounded with the echo of the white man's axe; nature had here a new field for his efforts; it lay in the line of the march of civilization towards the setting sun. The mission of the race was to make the wilderness figuratively speaking blossom as the rose.

The pioneer family had come, the wagon covered for the journey their only shelter. A cabin is to be built, the nearest timber is sought for, the axes wake up the stillness of a thousand years, only broken before by the whoop of the Indian or perhaps by that mysterious race that may have lived here even before the Red Man came. The advent of civilized life had begun, the logs are hauled by the oxen that brought them here, neighbors lend a helping hand, and then, the raising. All the settlers around are invited - few there may be, but all come. The best choppers are chosen to carry up the corners, log after log goes up even to the roof, no rafters no shingles, but instead of shingles shakes two feet long rived out of a white oak log, and poles put on the shakes to keep them in place. Not a nail was necessary; even the door was hung with wooden hinges. Dinner was provided, good feeling ruled; whiskey was passed - 11 around during the raising, and few thought at that day, that it was any great breach of temperance propriety to drink with the rest, wishing success, health, and happiness to the new comers. Tha chimney was a curiosity. Brick were out of tlie question. It was a stick chimney laid up square and the sticks split out as near like lath as possible, clay mortar was laid on with each lath, the whole carried up above the peak of the roof, the Jambs and inside and the hearth were all clay, kept in place by logs outside. All was plastered inside and out with clay mortar and the chimney was completed.

Of furniture in the sense we understand it now was very little. I do not remember any of the pioneer cabins having a cooking stove or a carpet. No sewing machines, nothing like there is to-day to lighten woman's labor. The fire place at one end wide enough for a log fire, the kettle swinging on the crane, the bake kettle, the spider and the frying pan comprised about all the cooking utensils of the household. A table made from the best material on hand, sometimes shakes, a few splint bottom chairs, a bench or two, some had bed^ steads, but it was no uncommon thing to see a bedstead made of poles, the ends driven into the logs and one leg, out in the room holding up the ends of the poles. With an axe and few tools a one legged bedstead could be made in a few hours. No locks or bolts on our doors, no fastenings of any kind. Civilization and culture claim to have made great strides; so they have, but in our condition we had some compensating advantages; in those small beginnings, without much capital to start, the poverty of that day was clean and respectable. There were no tramps, there was no fear of the modern burglar. Simply as a way to fasten the door when shut was " the latch " and this was always of wood, with a string attached, and it became a saying, when speaking of the generous hospitality of the squatters, that their latch string was always out, and it was; to all that came there was a greeting and welcome. This feeling was the result of a mutual dependence at raisings. Joining teams, and in every way in which we could help one another. In health or in sickness this trait of fraternal feeling always prompting to the most neighbourly interests and kindly offices, was to us all, a source of much comfort and happiness Our isolation and trials would have been almost unbearable without it was for that fellow feeling that made us " wondrous kind." Sympathy, that divinity that lives in its purity amidst poverty trials or trouble came out in its grandest devotion in the hours, when, in our homes came sickness and death. Pomp and wealth and luxury have come to many in our land, but not in the reveling of wealth or the splendor of its surroundings, can be often found the beauty of this sympathy and kindness, which grew up and was a balm and a helper to the pioneers in their humble cabins in the wilderness. Fashions there were none. The cut of a coat or the style for a bonnet, did not occupy a thought. The mothers and wives and daughters of the pioneers had no money to waste, or time, to trouble themselves with the frivolities of fashion.

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 marvellous, assisting in everything, spinning on that almost now forgotten spinning wheel, then, doubling and twisting, socks, stocking, 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 childrens 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 to-day 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 and adapt themselves to the circumstances surroundingthem, and if you will trace back the history of our country you will find it is this characteristic of adapting themselves to the surroundings, and meeting all difficulties, has made this country what it is to-day. Farming then was very different from what it is to-day. 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 every thing 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 become habitual movers, always on the frontier, moved further west seeking new lands and adventures.

Histoeical Papees

In the early days there were no churches, but there were always some good souls whose loye for man and reverence for religious 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 v,-as preached as reverently and had as attentive and sincere hearers as in any gTand 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 knowledo-e 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 victorv broug-ht with it also the news of suffering and of death. Some came home to die and many absent ones to-day sleep in a Southern orave.

I should do an injustice to the pioneer history of Lake County were I to omit stating the reasons of the slow growth after the first settlemxent. 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; every thing 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 any thing but pleasant, and often finding them late, made plowing slow work, and a wooden mold board on the plow made good work impossible. No steel plows then. Harrows of the most primitive kind, many home made with wooden teeth; no mowers, no reapers, no seperators like our modern threshing machines, pitch forks rude and clumsy, made at the nearest blacksmith shop; all our implements would be looked on to-day as relics. Only one tool has held its own and that is the American axe; it has been the pioneers 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 between Detroit and Chicago. For fifteen years we were almost an isolated community, at times making a four days' trip with oxen to Chicago, 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 railroads came and opened up to us the world and a market the year around. Fifty years of growth has 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

Histoeical Papers

" Westward the Star of Empire wends it way " and from the time of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and of Capt. 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 as nothing compared with the wars and terrible sufEerings 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, founding states and that great northwest, which m.ade Chicago in all its magnificent growth a possibility, still moving westward, organizing 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 grander 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 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, and 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 right and denounce the wrong, and by word and vote do our best to leave to our children a Repblic based on intelligent constitutional liberty and a country better than we found it.

Reminiscences Of West Creek By Mks. Joanna. Fisher

The first settler in West Creek was Robert AVilkinson, who settled, where Charles Marvin now resides, in March, 1835. He moved back south many years ago. His son, John, lives in Lowell. In 1836 James Farwell and his sons took up claims in what is now Hanover township. Mr. and Mrs. Farwell died many years ago and are buried in the Brunswick cemetery. Next to the youngest son, Hudson, after serving in the Mexican war, died on his way to California. Abel lives in Lowell, Major in Missouri. Carlos in the far west, Edwin near Chicago, and Darius and the only daughter, Mrs. Thomas Clark, are dead. Darius died in Brooklyn, N. Y., and Mrs. Clark in Crown Point. Also, in this year came Mr. Charles Marvin from Connecticut. He is still living in the township. They were soon followed by Derastus and Henry Torrey, Chancelor Graves, John Kitchell, Mier Spalding, Joseph Jackson, John Michael, and "William Farley, in the central part of the township. Henry Torrey soon moved to Lockport. Derastus, commonly called Major Torrey went to Kansas over thirty years ago where he died, and his wife and children live. Chancelor Graves and William Farley died in the fall of 1838, the first death in the township. Mrs. Farley died some twenty years ago. The blind son, William, well known to the early settlers died before his mother; the eldest daughter, Mrs. Orrin Graves, several years ago. Lyman and the youngest daughter, Mrs. Farrell, live near Mokeno, Illinois, Edward at Lockport, Illinois, and Zebulun in Chicago. Mr. Kitchell went away after a few years. Mr. Spalding died about twenty-seven years ago. His wife and children all live in the county except the youngest son who is a physician in Chicago. Mr. Michael moved to Michigan a few years ago. His sons^ Edward and William reside in West Creek. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson are living at a good old age at Wapello, Iowa. In July 1838, Harry and Solomon Burns, their brother-in-law, Joseph Hazelton, and George Willey, all from western New York, located near Farwell's. They came through with horses and wagons, and were four weeks making a journey that now takes less than two days. Before six weeks had passed, eight of the thirteen in the company were prostrated by sickness, only one of the adults, Mrs. George Willey, escaping. Mr. Hazelton, discouraged by sickness, soon tired of the new country and went further south. The Burns brothers are both buried in the Brunswick cemetery. Of their children the eldest son, Joseph, and the youngest daughter, Mrs. Abel Farwell, now reside in Lowell. Albert died in Utah, Clark in Illinois, and Louisa, Mrs. R. P. Robbins, in Lowell. Mr. Willey lived where he first settled until nineteen years ago, when he moved to a farm a mile east of Crown Point, where he died April 5, 1884. His wife and eldest daughter, Mrs. John Fisher, are still living there. His son, G. A. Willey, lives in Bellville, Illinois. The two youngest daughters, Mrs. Granger and Mrs. Griffin, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The following year H. P. Robbins and Ransom Rankin came into the Farwell settlement. Mr. Robbins married Louisa Burns, and lived for many years where he first settled. His two sons died in the army. His wife a few years ago died in Lowell, where he now lives with an adopted daughter, Mrs. George Waters. Mr. Rankin moved to Iowa where he died; his wife and family living there now. In the south part of the township the Hamiltons, Haydens, Hathaways, Fosters, and Belshaws settled about this time; in the eastern part Father Beckley, Mr. Wiverly, Jesse Bond, and Mr. Jarret. Two Hoosier families, Kinnerson and Green, now came into the Farwell settlement. Mr. Sasse bought Mr. Marvin's place, Mr. Marvin moving three miles further south. They were soon followed by Seth Gordmier, Orrin Graves and Joseph Hunt; and still later by Isaiah Gordinier and the Blayney, Fuller, Klaas, Tegtmeir, and Irish families. In most of these families were young people, and quite a large congregation used to meet in the Graves school house for Sabbath school and church. Here Mr. Townley, Elders Hunt and Whitehead, and later H. Wason and T. H. Ball preached the Word of Life. What changes time has wrought ! Of all that used to meet there, Mr. Irish and Mrs. Brenker are the only ones now living in the neighborhood. Mr, Sasse lives in Crown Point. Of this large family only two are living. Mr. Blayney is dead. His wife and youngest son live at Beecher, Illinois, the eldest son near Crawfordsville, and the two daughters in Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Fuller, two sons and two daughters, all sleep the quiet sleep of death. Albert lives in Dakota, Charley in Illinois, and the da^ughter, Mrs. Marvin, in West Creek. Mrs. Graves and both her sons are dead. Mr. Graves lives with his eldest daughter, at Laporte. One daughter is in Kansas and one in Sherburnville. The Tegtmeir family are all in Bramer county, Iowa, except Mrs. Fred Brinker. Mr. and Mrs. Klaas and their daughter Mary are dead. Henry lives in Missouri, and Christopher on the homestead, and August at Dyer. Mr. and Mrs. Irish and their daughter, Mrs. Henry Klaas, are dead; two of the sons are west, and Hull lives in Hanover township. All traces of the Green and Kinnerson families are lost. The first physician in West Creek was Dr. Youngman, and soon after Dr. Mazuzan settled near the Torrey bridge. The first Protestant church built in the county was the Methodist in West Creek. Elder Morrison, a Methodist minister from Yellowhead, preached in the Farwell neighborhood in the early days. He was an earnest and able, though uneducated man, somewhat noted for eccentricities, and, like his hearers, had worn out the clothing he brought from the east. One Sabbath he appeared with one boot and one shoe, and all the men but one in the congregation were barefooted, and the women wore homemade bonnets. But these trifles did not detain them; they enjoyed the sermon as much as if clad in broadcloth and velvet. For the first few years the settlers had to go forty miles to Wilmington to mill, and to Chicago, which was but a village, to do their trading; and they had very little to trade with when they got there. What they raised brought very low prices, wheat at fifty cents and less a bushel, and every thing else in proportion, after hauling it there in wagons drawn by oxen, through almost impassable swamps, often carrying their loads, bag by bag, on their backs through places where the team could not draw it. But their wants were comparatively few, and they were strong hearted and brave. The neighbors, though far apart, were kind and true, and never failed to lend a helping hand in times of sickness and need, and those times often came in those days of exposure and hardship. Many were sick. In my own home at one time father and mother both lay sick in one bed with fever, and the oldest child only six years old; but the neighbors cared for them faithfully and tenderly; and so it was in every case. These pioneers fully understood what was meant by " my neighbor," and acted the part of the Good Samaritan whenever the opportunity offered. There was no isolation, no living just for self alone; but earnestly, patiently, and helpfully they took up the hard task of redeeming the wilderness and making the prairie blossom as the rose. And to-day we reap the results of their toils and privations, in thriving villages, well improved farms, comfortable dv/ellings, and general prosperity. Let us honor their memory and learn a lesson from their patient endurance of privations, their unflinching courage, and tireless industry, and strive to impress upon our children the same habits of economy, industry, and sobriety, which they taught us.

East Cedar Lake

That part of the present Center and Cedar Creek townships included in the designation written above commences on the northeastern shore of Cedar Lake, at the old Indian burial ground, and extends southward to the eastward bend of Lake Prairie; and as some of those who made the original settlement along the lake went southward to the prairie, where their descendants are now to be found, this paper will include also a notice of the locality called Creston.

Solon Robinson says, in his manuscript history, that Henry AYells and Luman A. Fowler, reaching his camp November 1, 1834:, passed on to Cedar I^ake, "then the center of attraction for land lookers." This remark is valuable, as showing that so early as the fall of 1834, that sheet of water proved attractive to explorers here; and, although it has lost some of its earliest charms, vet through all these fifty years, it has proved attractive to large numbers of fowlers, fishermen, and visitors. It became one of the very early social centers of the county ; and had a good right to be, as it did become, a competing point for the location of the county seat.

In the year 1835 the east side was visited by claim seekers, but, while Aaron Cox settled on the west side in May, no cabin seems to have been built and occupied on the east side until 1836.

Then came members of a larore family connection. These were Adonijah Taylor and Horace Taylor, two brothers, with wives and children, and two brothers-inlaw, Calvin Lilley and Horace Edgerton, with their families, and the aged father, Obadiah Taylor. There also came James Knickerbocker from New York and John T. Knickerbocker, and Cyril Carpenter, but the last of these were not permanent settlers. With the large Taylor family and its connections East Cedar Lake is mainly identified. Dr. Calvin Lilley, who had been stopping for a year or two at South Bend, and whose goods were brought in a good sized row-boat down the Kankakee river, chose for his claim the northern portion of the east side, built his cabin near the top of the slope where it commanded a full view of the broadest part of the lake, and opened a pioneer hotel and started a new-country store. Of course his licenses could not be obtained until after the organization of the coanty and the election of county commissioners in 1837. May 29, 1837, a license was granted to Calvin Lilley to sell foreign and domestic groceries and dry goods, for which he was required to pay five dollars; and a license to keep a tavern at Cedar Lake, for which he was required to pay fifteen dollars. The commissioners had in this same month granted licenses for three taverns on the " beach of Lake Michigan " for six dollars each, and for two on the Sand Ridge Road at the same cost, and for one at Liverpool at a cost of ten dollars. Judging from the rate of license, the Lilley hotel must have been considered at that time the most important and lucrative one then in the county. For some years it continued to be an important social center.

South of Dr. Lilley Horace Taylor made his claim and settled with his family, in 1836, on what is now the " Stanley place," his claim taking in Cedar Point. Fine large cedar trees were then growing on that wooded bank, of which but few traces now remain. South of him, at the outlet, where is now the Binjon hotel, settled Adonijah Taylor. His claim is recorded on the Claim Register, October 17, 1836, No. 322, R. 9, T. 34, S. 2t3, S. Vv^. quarter. North and South fractions, Timber and Outlet. Settled or to be, May 15, 1836. No. 35 on the Register, entered by Calvin Liiley from South Bend and A. Taylor from Pennsylania, "9, 33, 12, N. W. quarter, Prairie, and outlet, and mill seat," gives both men as residents in June, 1836. These two in company also entered 9, 33, 11, N. E. quarter, described as " Prairie;" No. 36; both entries having been recorded July 7, 1836. It' thus appears from the Register that if not in May certainly in June, 1836, this family settlement was made. It also appears that these East Cedar Lake settlers extended their claims southward, the first summer, as far as the south-eastern limit of the present Creston. In this same summer, Horace Edgerton, with four sons and three daughters, made his home near the two Taylor families. The northern claim of this neighborhood, made by Calvin Liiley, settled June 1, 1836, was first recorded. No. 32, " 9, 34, 23, S. W. quarter. East" eighty, "fraction." Oct. 30, there is this entry; " This claim is altered by direction of the arbitrators so that the claimant now holds the South fraction of this section abutting on Cedar Lake and containing about 60 acres."

Returning again to this early settlement, James Knickerbocker, from New York, " resident " with his family " since May," made his claim July 5, 1836, recorded July 7, to 9, 34, 24, N. E. quarter, west eighty; and Johi; T. Knickerbocker claimed May 1836, " resident on it since same time," 9, 34, 26, N. E. quarter, S. W. eighty " fraction, abutting on the Lake." Of this the Claim Register says, " Transferred to James Westbrook, Feb. 27, 1837." Of this Westbrook family the writer of this paper retains one vivid remembrance, on account of a very fine black pony colt, placed in his hands to be broken to bit and saddle, by a member of this family, the pony proving to be an intelligent but rather wavward animal which nearlv cost the rider his life as he endeavored one day to ride the still unbroken colt with only a halter to restrain and guide him. The Westbrook pony was at length broken, but not to wear a harness; the Westbrook family removed from the county; and the place, still bearing their name, was occupied afterw-ard by Dr. James A. Wood. The date of removal of the Westbrook family was probably 1840; of the Knickbockers still earlier. Claims were made in June 1836, by L. Dille, of Ohio, on 9, 33, 8, for J. M. Dille, on 9, 33, 7^ for A. W. Dille, on 9, 33, 17, for T. J. Dille, on 9, 33, 18, for D. M. Dille, on 9, 33, 2, and 9, 34, 24, for G. AV. Dille, in July, and in September, by A. W. Dille for G. W. Dille, on 9, 34, 35, N. W. quarter east eighty, south fraction on Cedar Lake. Of these young men, sons of Gen. Dille, of Ohio, George Washington Dille marrying Miss Freedom Edgerton became a resident and for many years on that " fraction on Cedar Lake." These claims are num.bered 86, 87, 89, 90, and 91. In the summer of 1837 Lewis Warriner, of Springfield, Massachusetts, bought of Henry Myrick a claim made in September. 1835, recorded " 9, 33, 2, N. E. quarter," No. 826. " To be settled this fall." And

Histopical Papees

Norman Warriner made a claim at the same time, 9, 33, 3, N. S. quarter, south eighty "to improve immediately and settle next spring." These families made their settlement according to the recorded intentions; and in the summer of 1838, some other families settling eastward of the lake and near, quite a little community of " pioneer squatters " were gathering around them home comforts. The lake settlers took quite an interest in fishing, the store and " tavern " proved to be quite attractive, while several of the men gave their attention to mill-building on the Lilley and Taylor mill-seat. Comforts were provided for the women and children, some gardening was done, but no extensive farming. There was very little ram that summer and a large amount of sickness. Death visited this community and a burial place was selected near the bank of the lake. A school house was soon built, where religious meetings were held conducted by the Rev. R. Hyde, and a school was opened, taught by Albert Taylor, Lorin Hall, and then by Norman Warriner, probably in the winter of 1838, and in 18-40 or 1841 by Miss H. Caroline Warriner, and in the winter of 1843 by T. H. Ball. At that time what are now two districts were but one, the school house stood near the edge of Center Prairie, and nearly a mile from the lake, on which prairie were then the and Dr. Wood. For a time school had been held in a cabin built by Leonard Stringham near the same locality. The regular appointment in this neighborhood, at the school house, and at the Paine place, was for Methodist preaching; but occasionally a Baptist minister from the west side of the lake would come over and preach.

In 1839 Dr. Calvin Lilley died and his place passed into the hands of Benjamin McCartj, from Porter County, who with his wife, six sons, and two daughters, having considerable means, intelligence, and enterprise, made quite an addition to this community. His sons dressed well and rode fine horses; his house was opened for Baptist meetings; he named his place West Point, and made offers to the commissioners for locating there the county seat; his oldest son, Enoch Smiley McCarty, put up and burnt a brick kiln, probably the first in the county, which is accredited to the year 1840; his older daughter married the oldest son of Adonijah Taylor; and for a number of years the family was thoroughly identified with the East Cedar Lake community. The name McCarty, is still to be found among the inhabitants of the growing village of Creston.

The post office of the neighborhood was established at Lewis Warriner's, (the place now owned by Moses M. Esty,) and his house became a center for the east side debating society, and also a place for occasional Baptist preaching. L. Warriner had two sons and one daughter, his wife and younger daughter having died in 1838; he had been a member of the Massachusetts legislature at Boston; was United States Census officer for Lake in 1840, and represented Lake county two or three times at Indianapolis; and connected with his home, with the post office, and the literary gatherings, there are many pleasant remembrances and associations. There are those yet living who can recall these.

But the time soon came, West Point not having been selected for the county seat, when the fishing and milling interests proved insufficient as occupation for the dwellers beside the lake; and they commenced removing southward to the fertile and inviting then open prairie. The first to remove was probably the McCarty family, settling and building where is now the home of James Hill. The next was probably the Edgerton family, locating where now resides Alfred Edgerton. The exact dates have not been ascertained, but the latter removal was probably 1844; the former was some years ealier perhaps 1842. Other families followed; and soon a mile and a half of the eastern side of the lake became almost a wilderness again. The neighborhood roads were un travelled, a thick undergrowth came up; and " West Point " remains tenantless unto this time, a pasture ground only, covered with trees, shrubs, and blackberry " bushes." Little vestige remains of the earlier pioneer life that once was there. One of our first social centers, where large households have gathered, where hotel and business life has been, where literary exercises have been held, where neighbors have often gathered, where has been heard the voice of prayer and praise; there, for life are only the birds, the rabbits, and the honey bees now. Fifty years from a wilderness to a wilderness again.

But further south, less than a mile from the laid out town of West Point, an effort was made to start a new enterprise, and thus build up again on an old homestead. Israel and William A. Taylor, two sons of Adonijah Taylor, with their cousin, 0. G. Taylor, commenced in the spring of 1854 the erection of a large steam mill at the outlet of the lake. The mill was built, and did some work; but was not a profitable investment. In the spring of 1858 there came to the outlet mill Robert Gray. An- other town was laid out bearing the name Gryytown. Village life commenced. It is sufficient here to say that Graytown was abandoned about 1865.

But a.gain, in that same place, life in another form commenced. In 1877 Christopher Binyon bought the Graytown property and erected buildings to accommodate visitors and boarders, but a notice of this new form of life belongs to another paper, " Cedar Lake as a pleasure resort ;" and there is only further to be added here that now Bohemian and German families, some of them large bee-raisers, have opened farms in the woodland extending some miles northeastward towards Crown Point. Their woodland farms show the prosperity that accompanies industry and economy. The ep-rly pioneers would be astonished to see these bee farms and pasture grounds where once they hunted deer.

And now we come to Ceeston, or the settlement on the prairie. This neighborhood, formerly called Tinkerville, yet without any significance in the name, and now, from the name of the station, called Creston, extends east and west qne mile and a half, and north and south about two miles. Its principal north and south street is the dividing line between Cedar Creek and West Creek townships; its east and west streets are two, a half-mile apart. It is on the northeastern portion of Lake Prairie. Claims were made here, it has already been seen, as early, as 1836, and a mill was soon built, on Cedar Creek or the Outlet, known as the Taylor, and McCarty, and then the Carstens mill; but the settlement proper dates about 1842. It soon became the home of the McCarty, Edgerton, and Taylor families from the lake side, and then, as the years went along, of the Stillson, Palmer, Thompson,.

Histomgal Papers

Scritchfield, Davis, Hill, Wheeler, Garrison, Nichols, Carstens, and still other families; the earlier lake families bein^ blood relations, and nearly if not quite all the families coming into the neighborhood becoming connected by marriage with these kindred families. Some thirty families may be counted here that are related by ties of blood, or connected by marriage with the Taylor, Edgerton and Palmer families, and are thus connected back to Obadiah Taylor from Pennsylvania.

Good farms were soon and easily made on this fertile prairie land; and a prosperous agricultural community, with a growth now of forty years, can show well cultivated fields, orchards, barns well filled, and herds of catttle, also trained fast horses, comparing favorably with any in the county. On the land of Jacob Nichols, who became a resident in 1856, is one of the finest springs for watering stock to be. found in the county, a spring for which with reason he v.^ould not take a thousand dollars. It is on the line between sections 11 and 14, in 9, 33, a little east of the center of that line. The basin is some sixteen feet in diameter, the water in which is about three feet in depth. The supply is considered abundant for a thousand head of cattle.

The first school house in this neighborhood was built about 1849, on the northwest corner of the center of section 2, R. 9, T. 33. This house soon became the place for public meetings of the Cedar Lake Sunday-school and the Cedar Lake Baptist church. Here a number of interesting meetings were held, and here were received as members and in Cedar Lake baptized, of those in this neighborhood, in 1850, William Taylor, Enoch Smiley McCarty, Daniel Davis, Lucy Taylor, Mary Edgerton,

Polly Jane Edgerton, these in January, Israel Taylor and his wife Hannah Taylor in May, Calvin Taylor, Lucy Taylor, and Esther Edgerton, in December; in 1851, Harvey Davis, Jonathan McCarty, Elizabeth Vinnedge, Laura Thompson, and Alvin Taylor ; in 1853, Betsey Davis, Catharine Scritchfield, Jane Scritchfield, Nancy Ann Scritchfield, and Susan Davis ; and in 1855 Sophia Palmer, Catharine Taylor, and Amy Mann. At that time this was a Baptist community ; but in 1856 that church was disbanded. A second school house was built about 1857 a half mile further south, on the south-west corner of the south-east quarter of this section 2. Here for a number of years, besides the public school, and literary societies, which are still held in the school building according to the custom of the county, religious meetings were held and the Sunday-school met, until the erection of the Creston meeting-house beside the cemetery on the north-east quarter of this section 2, On the first schoolhouse corner a store was opened by Amos Edgerton in 1865, and kept by A. D. Palmer from 1868 to 1875, when he was burnt out and built a half mile further west, on the township line, near a supposed railroad line. Here he still continues in business, the railroad having been built by a new company, the road now bearing the name of Louisville, New Albany, and Chicago, the trains running since 1880. Around this station, called Creston, village life has commenced. Other store buildings have been erected, and one store besides A. D. Palmer's is having considerable trade. This is kept by Cassius M. Taylor, a grandson of Horace Taylor who settled at the lake in 1836. Two brothers, John and William Love, have built a large hay barn and ship largely. A. D.

Palmer has erected and carries on a grain warehouse. Several families live around and near the station. A good church building has been erected by the inhabitants. Here Methodist meetings are held regularly, and the Cedar Lake Sunday-school, in its fourth locality, holds its sessions. Commenced by Baptists and held by them for some sixteen years as a union school, it has passed through several changes, and now, held by Methodists, it is likely to become the Creston school and to be made denominational.

North from Creston, and on the shore of Cedar Lake, is one very large ice house, and there are three smaller ones. A station is there called Paisley, and a boarding house for the pleasure seekers and visitors of summer. With the exception of one ice house and some dwelling houses and land, the interests here do not belong to the East Cedar Lake or Creston community. That community as spread over that small portion of the once wild and beautiful Lake Prairie now numbers more than forty families. Among these are now great-great-great-grandchildren of Obadiah Taylor, who came here as an aged father in 1836. In other words, those of us who have been here some less than fifty years, - he died in 1839 - have seen in this family line already six generations. The number of descendants of Obadiah Taylor now living in this county is a full hundred. Among the men of means of this family in the Creston community, the " solid men" of landed property, are O. G. Taylor, D. C. Taylor, Alfred Edgerton, Amasa Edgerton, and A. D. Palmer. Other men of this class are, M. M. Esty, Jacob Nichols, O. J. Thompson, Amos Thompson, H. A. Carstens, James Hill, and Philander Cross. Others are also well situated for homes and home comforts, and enterprising, business young men are accumulating property. Some fair young girls and promising children are growing up in this community whom discretion says must not be named.

As one of our many prosperous, farming, neighborhood communities, and especially as a part of the descendants of those who were the pioneer settlers around that beautiful lake, that has already become such a pleasure resort, which was even in 1834, fifty full years ago, " the center of attraction for land lookers" in Lake county, the Creston inhabitants should see to it that they keep up not only the intelligence and enterprise of their early New England ancestry, but that they hand down unimpaired virtue and religion to their descendants.

Lake Prairie

Lake Prairie has been called the " Gem of the county," and certainly it well deserves the fair name. Twenty -five years ago, Professor Mills, of Wabash College, stood on a knoll on Mr. Peach's farm, and lookuig around till his eye met the woods that encircle the gently rolling land, said, " I have been thirty years in the west, and have been in every county in the State, and never but once have I seen so beautiful a view." Other strangers from the East, South, and West have said the same thing, and Lake Prairie's own children who have gone away to seek homes elsewhere have come back and said, " There is no place like this after all." The scene has changed in this quarter of a century but has only gained in beauty. Now, as far as the eye can reach, may be seen comfortable houses and farm buildings, orchards and shade trees, with here and there a bordering of deep green osage; while still farther in the distance the tall wind-mills point out the homes beyond the range of vision.

Not an acre is unfenced, and but few are unfit for cultivation. The soil is good and best adapted to corn, oats, and grass. The earth has well "yielded of her increase," for almost without an exception the land owners are in good circumstances. The one landmark of early days was the " Lone Tree," a burr oak, that is still standing on the farm of Cyrus Hayden. Many stories are told of men lost on the trackless prairie, who came to that, and were able to locate themselves, and find their way home.

The first settler was Robert Wilkinson who came in 1835, and lived in the edge of the grove, near where Charles Marvin now lives. Twenty years later he moved to Missouri, where he died. But two of his children are now living in the county, John Wilkinson and Mrs. Wm. Hill, both of Lowell. In 1842 George Belshaw came and settled on the farm afterwards known as the " Tarr place," and now owned by his grandson, Charles Belshaw. His two sons, William and Henry, entered the land they nov/ live on. In 1846 James Palmer came from St. Joseph county and bought 320 acres of land and built the house afterwards owned by Abram Ritter, about a mile north of the Presbyterian church. His son, A. D. Palmer, who now keeps a store in Creston, lived for a few years just north of his father. Two brothers, George and Abram Ritter, came about 1851. Abram bought land of James Palmer, where his widow and youngest daughter, Mrs. Livingston, still live. George entered the land now owned by T. A. Wason, Edwin Michael, E. P. Ames, E. N. and T. P. Morey. George Ritter died in a few years, and none of his children are now living in the county. In 1850 Jacob Baughman moved here from Ohio with his family, and entered 320 acres of land now owned by Frank Plumer, Jay D. Baughman, and Abiel Gerrish. He has two sons living here now. Jay D. and Jacob Baughman, of Lowell, with two daughters, Mrs. Knisely and Mrs. A. G. Plumer, while two sons are in the west. About this time A. G. Plumer came from New Hampshire and bought a large farm just west of Mr. Baughman, where he now lives. Just on the edge of the prairie, a mile south of Mr. Plumer, lived E. D. Foster, the father of Lyman and Alfred Foster, who were early settlers in the county but living outside of Lake Prairie. In the south-western part of the prairie lived Calvin Taylor, who died some years ago in Lockport, Illinois; John J. Michael, who moved to Coldwater, Michigan, a few years since, after building on his farm one of the finest residences in the township ; John Green, and Joseph Jackson, who is now living in Iowa, over ninety years of age. On the eastern side of the prairie the father of William Pixley entered quite a large tract of land. A furrow was plowed around it and a hedge set out, but it did not prove a success, very little of it living. H. R. Nichols and Oliver Fuller were among the early settlers, Mr. Fuller living on the farm now owned by Mr. Bruce. Mr. Nichols has lived in Lowell for some years, where his two sons are in the hay busi- ness, but he still owns the farm where he first settled. Near to him were the two brothers Harvey and Henry Austin, on the farm now owned by Wesley Pattee. The Austins have lived in Michigan a number of years, and Harvey met his death by a railroad accident last winter. In the south-east the brothers James and Amos Brannon moved on the land where they now live about 1850, though they had been in the county several years before. James Brannon married Eleanor Foster and Amos Brannon Sally Taylor, both daughters of early settlers. A little farther to the south-east, not really belonging to the prairie yet identified with the society and church there, were the two families of Peter Burhans and his brother-in-law Marshall Barber. Mr. Burhans moved to Crown Point a few years age, but his sons Charles and Alexander live on his farm. Mr. Barber sold his farm some twenty years ago, moving first to Crown Point, then to Kansas where he now lives. George Ferguson and Mr. Sherart were near neighbors of Mr. Belshaw, and both died many years ago. A son of Mr. Ferguson lived on his father's farm till a year ago, when it was sold to Perry Brannon, a son of James Brannon. In 1855 and 1856 several families came from New Hampshire and settled near each other. Thomas Little bought the land owned by a Mr. Barker, who had lived on it several years, and which is now part of the large farm owned by his son, Joseph Little. Abiel Gerrish, who died this summer, bought land of Jacob Baughman and his son John, also 80 acres of A. G. Plumer. His only son, James L. Gerrish, has lived on this farm for somie years. Henry Peach bought his farm of E. Knise- Ij, who then went west, but afterwards came back and bouofht land on the state line, where his widow and youngest daughter still live. Mr, Peach died in 1858, and his was the first grave in the Lake Prairie burying ground. His son Abiel lives on the farm now. Samuel Ames and E. N. Morey bought unimproved land of the heirs of George Ritter. Mr. Morey still lives there, and has sold part of his farm to his oldest son. Mrs. Morey 's father, Dr. Peach, came with his family a year or two later, and lived here till his death, a few years ago, at the advanced age of ninety-eight. He was the oldest person in the county. Mr. Ames moved to Elkhart, Indiana, two years ago, to live near his daughter, and his son, Ed. P. Ames, now owns the farm. In 1857 Rev. Hiram Wason, also a native of New Hampshire, came from Vevay, Indiana, and became the pastor of the Independent Presbyterian church, which had been organized the year before with twelve members. He bought land of A. G. Plumer and built the house where he still lives. He resigned his charge of the church in 1864, and has preached only occasionally since.

This neighborhood has sustained a Sabbath-school, though not always having regular preaching. They have also aimed to have good schools, and their teachers have been among the best in the county. One teacher especially deserves the gratitude of her pupils for her faithfulness, both in mental and moral lessons. Miss Mary J. Ball, now Mrs. Cutler, of Kankakee, Illinois, taught the school for four successive years, and during that time it ranked the first among the district schools of the county in scholarship and advanced studies. There are but two churches on Lake Prairie, the Presbyterian, and a German Methodist not far from Hanover Center.

Historical Papeks

The northern part of the prairie was not settled until later, the land being entered by persons living elsewhere, and remained unimproved till sold again. The present owners are nearly all Germans.

Reminiscenses Of Eagle Creek By Mrs. S. J. Monteith

The toilsome journey from Pennsylvania was over and for a time our weary feet found rest in Door Village. Fair and beautiful it lay before our eyes, but we were poor and must press onward to fields yet uncultivated and almost unsought. Thus Samuel Turner and wife journeyed on, and spent the summer of 1838 in the southern part of Lake county, locating their farm on the banks of the winding little stream, afterward called Eagle Creek. In the fall they went back to La Porte county, sending in their stead the young people of the family, as better able to endure the hardships of a pioneer winter.

" O the long and dreary winter, O the cold and cruel winter. Ever thicker, thicker, thicker, Froze the ice on lake and river, Ever deeper, deeper, deeper. Fell the ice o'er all the landscape, Fell the covering snow, and drifted Through the forest."

creek. It was dark and cheerless enough during the day, for the only light must come through the chimney, as window glass were not to be obtained. At night the glowing flames, leaping and crackling in the broad fireplace, transformed the place entirely, and around our humble hearthstone many a happy hour was spent, talking of the past and planning for the future. Before the first glimmer of dawn the boys must be away to the swamp, and who can tell how long the hours and days were to the sister at home alone, trying to make things comfortable for them when they should return at night, nor how often she wended her way to an oak standing alone, to peer out over the snowy wastes and into the gathering darkness to watch for their coming. Our neighbors were the Sarjeants, Dilleys, George Smith, A. Goodrich, M. Pearce, E. Coplin, the Bryants, and a few others; and after a while we had a Doctor within nine miles, which was a great boon ; for in those early years sickness, especially ague and fevers, prevailed to such an extent that often whole families were prostrated, and scarcely enough well people would be found in the neighborhood to wait on the sick ones. In the spring the father and mother brought apple seeds with them, which we planted, and, if you will visit the farm now, you may still eat the fruit from some of those seedlings. "We were the first in the neighborhood to have apples. Then revived our Pennsylvania taste for apple butter ; but it needed sweetening and fortunately Aunt Polly Dilley could give us honey in exchange for apples, so that both families were supplied with the luxury. Once a traveler from Alabama stayed with us over night and gave us some peach pits, which were planted, and in three or four years we were abundantly supplied with peaches which we have never seen equalled in this part of the country; but our winters were too severe for the trees and they did not endure many of them. When we settled there we would not have taken as a ^ift what is now the Niles farm; for it was impossible to cross it without miring down in the quicksand.

The mail service in those days was very limited and envelopes entirely unknown; but occasionally a letter written on a sheet of blue legal cap folded so that the paper served for an envelope, and securely sealed with wax, would find its way from Pennsylvania or Ohio, often by the hand of a traveler and after spending weeks on the way. We have one such in the house now bearing date of 1843, in which occurs a sentence something like this: " The Washingtonian movement has reached here, and total abstinence is being agitated. I trust this reform will go on and prepare the way for others until human slavery shall be abolished." The writer did not live to see his hope fulfilled twenty years later.

Fifty years have seen many changes. Here and there stands a tree that looked down on our grandfathers in middle life and their sons in boyhood days; but they are fast giving way to younger ones that were only saplings then. And the weather-beaten stones and grass-grown mounds in yonder cemetery would tell you where rest our forefathers. So must we follow them.

" All that breathe will share their destiny. ******** So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan that moves To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take

His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon ; but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

Note: - The "sister at home" mentioned in the foregoing paper was Miss Susan Turner, a sister of Judge Turner, of Crown Point, who has remained through the changes of these, our first fifty years, on the early family homestead, until this November; sometimes almost alone; at other times entertaining the group of happy children that would go down from Crown Point to visit " aunt Susan." The writer of this note has met her in her Eagle Creek home, and he was delighted with the rural and sylvan beauty there; the running stream near by, the grove of majestic oaks, the singing birds of summer time, the quiet and repose of nature there, all adding to the associations and pleasantness of the place. Many a beautiful spot for a little home, where the glad voices of childhood would be heard, and manhood and age would find comfort and rest, the pioneers of our county selected, when they reared their first log cabins.

By James H. Luthee

The writer of this begs to be excused for all the defects in composition, amount of matter and lack of more interesting items for the reasons that he could not commence writing it until the present month, November,

1884, and that he has not time to gather facts from old settlers within the territory which this is allowed to cover. He also asks to be excused for any personal events in his own life experiences that may seem to go out of the proper territory and not pertinent to his subject proper. I need not refer to my inability, for that is generally known and admitted; but I am doing the best I can under all circumstances.

" The northern extremity of Lake county had a history before the central and southern portions were hardly known. All the communication between Detroit and Fort Dearborn - Chicago - during the territorial days of Michie-an were along- the beach of Lake Michio-an in Indiana. One of our oldest citizens, James Adams, of Ross township, passed over this route, the bearer of despatches from General Cass, then Governor of the territory of Michigan to the officer then in command at Fort Dearborn." I got the above from Hon. B. Woods.

As my own experience and travels along that beach are the next earliest that I can give I write as briefly as I can and be understood. I in company with the Cutler boys, of La Porte county, traveled with ox teams upon the beach from near where Indiana City was afterwards built, to Chicago and Fox river, in Illinois, which was then called the Indian country, was unsurveyed, and occupied by Aboriginees. Our object was to make claims and secure farms. I was then nineteen years old.

We returned in the spring of 1835 for teams and supplies. After the grass had grown so that our cattle could subsist upon it we, with an elderly gentleman from Virginia by the name of Gillilan who had a large family of girls, three horses, a "schooner wagon" filled full, started west, and this time struck the beach at Michigan City. Our first camp was on the beach where, back of the sand ridge, were extensive marsh lands, with abundant grass, upon which we turned our cattle consisting of eight yoke of oxen and one cow. After breakfast we went for our cattle and found all but one ox, and being absent from the rest we presumed he was mired, which we learned was a fact when we found him. He was almost out of sight, could not stand if he was up, and could not be got up in that deep mud. So we managed to get his legs up and got his body on a rail, and we rolled him as much as five rods to ground upon which he could stand. We only made about three miles on our way that day. We finally reached the Calumet, now South Chicago, without further accident in the evening, and went into camp. That region was then all a common, with a plenty of feed.

A small ferry was then used there by the single inhabitant living on the north side of the river in a log cabin. x\fter considering the matter well and consulting with the ferryman we concluded to drive into the lake below and go round the river on the sand bar. After studying and getting our bearings we hitched our friend's lead horse before the ox teams, and I, as pilot, led the way and succeeded in getting the ox teams nicely over. Our Virginia friend and family came next. They had never seen so large a body of water before, and were very timid in spite of all. The only danger was in getting too near the river, not in getting too far into the lake. I hitched on to them and started in; they were scared and screamed, and begged me to get nearer land, which I presume I did, and the wheels began to sink in the softer sand near the river, and we were stalled. The boys on the other side hastened to us. I dismounted into the cold liquid to my arm-pits ; could hardly keep the precious freight aboard our wagon. But the oxen came, were hitched on, and my horse to lead, and we pulled out all safe and well pleased. This was exciting, but we boys feared nothing, but it was awful to our Virginia friends. But they soon cooled off, settled on a claim near ours, and were happy. I hope to be excused for this digression from the line of history asked of me, for I could not well avoid these items so vivid in my mind and so dear in my estimate of an early pioneer life. I drove teams between Chicago and La Porte up to the fall of 1836, and did not know of any other way but via the beach.

I will now quote from a manuscript history written and read by Solon Robinson, in Crown Point, now the property of Amos Allman: "In 1828 the Government purchased the' 10 mile strip on the north line of the state which extended to the extreme south bend of Lake Michigan, which is on section 35, town 37, range 8. By the treaty of 1832 the remainder of the land held by the Indians in northern Indiana was acquired, previous to which time no whites, except trappers and hunters of the American Fur Company and soldiers from Fort Dearborn, had ever trod upon these broad prairies.

" In 1833 the first white man settled upon the soil of Lake county, near the mouth of the old Calumic, and kept a tavern to accommodate the increasing travel along the beach of the lake, then the only road. The next was by name of Berry, in the spring of 1834, also a tavern keeper on the beach of the lake. There was also anoth- er of these beach taverns built this year, but whether in our county limits I cannot say. All were temporary settlers located to administer to the necessities but not much to the comfort of emigrants flocking to Illinois by the only known route along the lake shore. I have myself slept with more than fifty others in and around one of these little log cabin taverns. The only eatables were flour and coffee, and this was a stage house. During this year, 1834, most of the land in the county was surveyed and settlers began to make claims. Lake was taken from Porter county at the session of 1835 and 1836. In the fall of 1835 the first tax collector visited us from La Porte. Most of the settlers had to draw their provisions from the Wabash in the summer of 1836, One of the greatest events of this year was the sale of Liverpool lots amounting to 118,000 (and this without a title from the Government) and at this sale the first electioneering speech was made in this county by Gustavus A. Everett for state senator. The district included Lake, Porter, St. Joseph, and I think Elkhart counties. The first election and the first assessment of lands were made this year, 1837, 409 lots in Liverpool being assessed at $26,- 440. The county seat was located at Liverpool in 1839, and relocated at Crown Point in June, 1840."

Emigration started for the west in 1834, mainly for Illinois, which attracted people to the business of tavern keeping along the beach, as before mentioned, and I am sure that all but one, if not all the beach taverns before alluded to, were in the present territory of Lake county; and that one may have been in Porter county, near where City West was built in the speculative days, and abandoned almost within the same year ; and as em- igration increased mail must be carried, and stages and stage roads followed, and rude log taverns, with barns, etc., which my space will not permit me to describe specifically. I have not traveled along that beach since 1836 ; but in the spring of 1837 I started from Valparaiso for Milwaukee, and the now famed Waukesha, where I had a claim that had to be looked after, intending to take the usual beach route, but missed it and came upon what my friend Bartlett Woods speaks of as the "ever-to-be-remembered-by-those-who-crossed-it" Long Bridge over the Calumet river, at the mouth of Salt creek, built of logs and covered with poles. He says he drove a team of oxen over it. I, too, remember it, for I had far more fear in crossing this than I had in getting around the mouth of the Calumet river. I think this bridge was built by Porter and Lake counties in 1836. My father, James Luther, was Porter county's commissioner to build it, but I do not know who was Lake county's. This mistaking my road made much extra travel for me, via Liverpool, where George Earl was then in glory as to business (for business there was lively); thence I took in what is now Old Thorntown, and Rexford's, now Blue Island, to Chicago. On my return the same spring I took stage from Chicago to my nearest point home, which was nearest the old maids' tavern, about ten miles west from Michigan City, and its route was along the lake banks, near where Cottage Grove avenue now runs, to the Calumet, which we ferried, thence to the Calumet again, where Hammond now is, and where there is now a fine drawbridge. On the north side of the river there was a stage tavern. Mr. Hohman afterwards bought the property, and lived upon it till his decease. Mr. M. M. Towle (and perhaps others) erected here a slaughter house. Other business enterprises followed, and finally Hammond was laid out. Business increased, and additions to the town were made until, at this writing, it is a corporate city whose voters almost decide the political balance in the county election. From thence the road ran on between the Grand and Little Calumet rivers via Baileytown, where there was a stage tavern kept by one Culver ; thence northeasterly to Michigan City. Besides the taverns mentioned above on the north side of the Little Calumet there was another one kept, which I think was kept by a Mr. Gibson, which was near what is now Gibson Station, on the Michigan Central Railroad, and north from Hessville. Friend Bartlett Woods says, that about seven miles west from Liverpool there was a big log-house tavern kept by Jack Cady, and about four miles farther west was a stage house, built by one of the Gibsons, which was afterwards purchased by Mr. Allen H. Brass, and was well and widely known as Brasses tavern.

From Mr. A. H. Brass I get the following: He settled in what is now North township in 1845, and says that the first, (I think it must have been the second) wagon road from Michigan City and Valparaiso to Chicago was via the old maids' tavern, long bridge, Liverpool, and crossing at Brasses, then at Osterhouts and Daltons, then to the city. He also says, there was a road north of that, which was doubtless the one described.

Of the citizens living north, between the Little Calumet and the lake he could only recollect the following, the widow Gibson, David Gibson, the Moss family, and a Mr. Carger. He further states the Tuttles, of

Chicago, run the stage line on the north road, and that Clem. Brown, lately deceased in Crown Point, once lived on this route and was general manager if not a company proprietor.

In the years from 1855 to 1860 Mr. George W. Clark, of Chicago, purchased several thousand acres of land in the norhwestern part of the county, southeasterly from the state line, near South Chicago, at f 1.25 per acre. It was swamp land with alternate slough and sand ridge, that previously had been considered entirely worthless; but within the last three years Mr. Forsyth, Mr. Clark's brother-in-law and heir by his wife, sold eififht thousand acres of it for an even milliox of dollars. There are at this time several bodies of that land, which are held at from ten to one hundred dollars or more per acre. The principal causes of this great appreciation in the prices are, the railroads passing through it, consisting of the Michigan Southern, the Michigan Central, Baltimore and Ohio, " Nickel Plate," Chicago and Atlantic, and the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago; also, its close proximity to the greatest inland city in the United States, if not in America, Chicago ; and to the head of Lake Michigan, which affords one harbor, and prospectively others, by and through which the immense shipping of all the lakes may take refuge inland for many miles along the Grand Calumet river, whose waters are deep enough to float any vessel that traverses the lakes and rivers, from the Atlantic ocean to Chicago.

I will now close this writing with some statistics which cost me two days labor, and which I think will prove the most interesting of anything before written, because it will show the growth of that part of our county.

The Records of the Commissioners. Book One has a record of the organization of the county, from which and the duplicates I get the following* facts:

March 28, 1837, an election was held to elect a county clerk, recorder, two associate judges, and three commissioners. There were three candidates for clerk. Solon Robinson received 38 votes, D. Y. Bond 21 votes, and Luman A. Fowler 17. Total, 76 votes at a county election. Solon Robinson was declared elected. For recorder William A. W. Holton received 50 votes, J. V. Johns received 22 votes. Mr, Holton was declared elected. For associate judges, William B. Crooks received 50 votes, Gr. W. Bryant received 28 votes, William Clark received 50 votes, Harace Taylor received 1 vote. Total vote 79 votes. For county commissioners Amsi L. Ball received 78 votes, S. P. Stringham and Thomas Wiles received each 59 votes. Being a tie, lots were cast which gave the election to Mr. Wiles. Mr. Ball got the three years' term, Mr. Wiles the two years' term, and Mr. Stringham the one year's term.

At that time the county was in three townships. North, Center, and South. North was bounded, by order of the Board, in Record Book One, April 5, 1837, as follows : District No. 1 to consist of all the territory lying north of the center of congressional township 35, in ranges 8, 9, and 10, and in range 7 all north of township 34, which includes half of Ross, all of Hobart, half of St. Johns and Winfield. In all of this territory - North township - the tax duplicate of 1839 shows that there were 109 names and 6(3 polls, and the total tax for that year was $763.26. Between this and the making of the duplicate for 1850 other townships had been set off ; and in my statements for 1850, 1870, and 1880 I get from the then townships of North and Hobart the following : North and Hobart were taxed separately after this. On duplicate for 1850 North had names 75, polls 21, tax $996.20 ; Hobart had names 95, polls 43, tax $530.58 ; totals, names 170, polls 64, tax $1,526.78. The duplicate of 1870 shows there were 553 names and 199 polls taxed on the duplicate. The total tax charged was $5,722.09. Hobart had 453 names and 152 polls, and a tax of $5,529.61. Totals of both - names 1,006, polls 351, tax $11,251.70. In 1880 North had names 619, polls 319, tax $13,878.38. Hobart had of names 631, polls 222, tax $4,586.60. Total of both - 1,250 names, polls 541, tax $18,464.98. There were of course more or less non-resident persons' names on the duplicate ; but the foregoing will show the growth of each of said townships by the names taxed and of the prosperity of each, and the whole, from one decade to the next. For 1884, when the late North had become North, Calumet, and part of Hobart, the following are the figures North has a personal tax of $114,287, and 491 polls Calumet has a personal tax of $14,385, and 50 polls Hobart has a personal tax of $73,545, and 287 polls total, 1202,217 tax, and 828 polls.

Note. - Accompanying this paper was a map of the present North, Calumet, and Hobart townships, with the ranges, townships, and sections all numbered, which I should be glad if we could reproduce upon this page. I am sure that all the members of the Old Settlers Association will be glad that we have the foregoing paper on North to%vnship from one who passed across it fifty yeas ago, and who from 1861 to 1869 was auditor of this county of Lake. T. H. B.

Crown Point From 1834 To 1884 By T. H. Ball

Into the wilds of Lake county there came, in the fall of 1834, as pioneer settlers, Solon Robinson with his wife and two youn^ children. They settled on the spot around which is now the town of Crown Point.

Then there was no political division known as Lake county ; the land in this region had two years before been purchased by the United States from the Pottawatomie Indians, many of whom still remained on their old hunting and trapping grounds, friendly and quiet, but Indians nevertheless, having learned from the French missionaries and traders some virtues and some vices connected with European civilization ; the land had a few months before been divided into townships and sections by U. S. surveyors, but none was owned or could as yet be purchased by private individuals ; Fort Dearborn, or Chicago, thirty-six miles west of north on Lake Michigan, a military outpost and Indian trading place, was beginning to become a village on the outskirts of white settlement and here, amid the surroundings of only trapper, fur trader, Indian, and explorer life, vast solitudes, remaining apparently as the Mound Builders had left them, except as trodden by wild beasts, by Indians, and by Frenchmen, stretching westward to the Mississippi and to the Rocky Mountains, this family sought a new home. It was the last day of October, a month that usually, around the great Lakes, is filled with glorious autumnal beauty, when they reached - having travelled from Jennings county, Indiana, says the family tradi- tion, with an ox team and wagon, - the open level, covered with waving grass and bright with many a flower that grows in no tree's shadow, known for many years after as Robinson's Prairie, a reg-ion in marked contrast with the heavy growth of beech, maple, walnut, elm, hickory, and oak through which for so many weary days they had journeyed. " About noon, of a clear delightful day," they entered this prairie region ; about sunset they camped for the night ; the next day the camping spot was selected for a home. A cabin was soon erected and pioneer life began. In mid-winter, from the same neighborhood in Jennings county, three other families came, and the little hamlet, almost excluded from the outside world, was formed. The cabins of these families were on sections five and eight, and the names of each individual, as probably the inhabitants of Cro-wTi Point will never again be named one by one, are here given:

1. The Robixsox Family. Solon Robinson, Mrs. Maria Robinson, Solon Oscar, about four years old, Josephine, a babe; young men, Luman A. Fowler, from the East, and Jerome Curtis and J. B. Curtis, two estimable young men from Jennings county, both of whom returned in a few months to their former home, where the latter was still living in 1876.

2. The Claek Family. William Clark, Mrs. Ann Clark; children, Thomas, about twenty years of age. Miss Margaret, then a young lady, Alexander, Marj- M., eight years of age, and John F., a boy ©f six years.

3. The Holtox Family. Mrs. Harriet Holton, a widow; a son, ^Yilliam A. "VY. Holton; a daughter. Miss Harriet Holton. A married son, J. W. Holton; children, Ellen Maria, about four years old, and John.

It thus appears that three married men and four married women, five young men and two young ladies, four boys and three girls, twenty-one in all, were members of the little community when in 1835, in the latter part of winter, where the woodland and the prairie meet, hamlet life commenced. Unlike the early settlement in 1607 at Jamestown, we find here manhood and womanhood, young men and maidens, and little children. The grain fields, the mills, the work-shops, the stores, the neighboring settlers, the supplies, were, for the most part, from forty to eighty miles away, in La Porte county, at Wilmington, and on the Wabash; and procuring the needed supplies, encounters with the Indians, with prowling wolves, and hunting wild animals, gave rise to many interesting incidents and adventures, the details of which must be sought for elsewhere or left to the imagination of the reader.

The winter passed, and the ever beautiful spring called the settlers to agricultural pursuits. A large breaking plow, with a wooden mold-board had been provided - L. A. Fowler was a carpenter and J. B. Curtis a shoemaker, but blacksmith there was none nearer than Morgan Prairie in Porter county, where the irons were carried for sharpening - four yoke of oxen were attached to the plow, and the women and children came out from the cabins to see the first furrow turned in the green sward of the prairie. Judge Clark held the plow, Thomas and Alexander guided the oxen. W. A. W. Holton walked behind to aid in turning over any refractory turf, himself then young and vigorous with that jet black hair, that cares little for exposure, which has characterized the Holton young men, while in front of all, to enable the oxen and boys to keep the line, walked the tall, spare form of Solon Robinson, even then as white haired as Christopher Columbus when he stood on the deck of the Santa Maria. The first furrow turned was along the center of section eight, where is now the center of Main street, commencing, for certain reasons, nearly opposite the present Register office and ending at the center of the section in South street. The plowing went on. The women soon returned to their cabin duties. The children and the birds lingrered behind the strange machine, the breaking-plow. Some grain was raised that season. x\n old Indian garden furnished a garden spot where all the families could raise a few vegetables.

In the fall and early winter some other families came. In November Milo Robinson, from New York City; and in December Luman A. Fowler, who had returned to Michigan and was there married in October, came with his young wife as a permanent settler now. With these also came, to reside in the hamlet, the then small family of Henry Wells; and with these William R. Williams. The latter afterward married Miss Margaret Clark. They came through from Wayne county, Michigan, with two wagons drawn by oxen, with one horse as a leader for each team.

With these additions to their little band, another winter, mild until February, passed away amid varied incidents, and the summer of 1836 brought new labors, additional settlers, and weighty responsibilities. The hamlet was growing into a central village. A store was opened by Solon and Milo Robinson; a post-office was established, Solon Robinson, the post-master, bringing the mail occasionally from Michigan City, the next offices being Joliet and Chicago ; about five hundred settlers, who were men, were around this little center, besides women and children, all on lands belonging to the Government, except a few families at Liverpool; and on the Fonrth of July, " in the grove," " at the house of Solon Robinson," was organized by " a majority of the citizens of Lake county," The Squatters' Union. Solon Robinson became Register of Claims. The little log huts were evidently insufficient for the business that would be required in this political center, and in the summer of 1837 a log court-house of respectable size, which became a two-story building, stood on a public square. The county was organized. Henry Wells was appointed Sheriff. Elections were held, and true political life began. " Lake County Court House," the name of the post-office, was evidence of the aspirations and expectations of the enterprising citizens. A tavern was opened, kept by Milo Robinson; a frame dwelling house was erected in 1838 by Russell Eddy; religious meetings commenced. Col. John Vawter, in June, preaching in the log court house " to a very respectable congregation;" marriages were solemnized; bridge building commenced; and in October was held the first term of circuit court, nine lawyers and the judge being present. In 1839 the land of this region belonging to the Government came into market. Parts of sections five and eight were purchased. And in this year A. McDonald became the first resident lawyer; and death came and removed one of the enterprising business men, the late city resident, Milo Robinson. The hamlet bad already grown into a village.

Historical Papers, 127 Ii. The New County Seat

The aspiring and also enterprising little village of Liverpool, situated on Deep river, had secured in 1839 the location of the county seat; but many were dissatisfied; and the Indiana Legislature therefore ordered a re-location. West Point, . on Cedar Lake, and Lake Court House, both sought the location. The commissioners from Marion, Pulaski, White, and Carroll counties came in June, 1840, and Lake Court House was successful. George Earle, of Liverpool, had been appointed County Agent. He with the two proprietors. Judge Clark and Solon Robinson, met to give to the new county seat a name. West Point at Cedar Lake, with no local significance, had already been named; and it was agreed, with no local allusions, to call the county seat Crown Point. This name the place has ever since borne. Seventy-five town lots were laid out. Judge Clark appropriating twenty acres, and Solon Robinson, forty. A public square was donated to the county, and one acre of ground was set apart for a court-house and for public ofiices. Other donations of lots, of land, of money, and of labor, were also made, and the work of town building went earnestly forward. Town lots were sold at auction November 19th. In 1841 Dr. Farrington and C. M. Mason burned a kiln of brick, and then the stick and mud chimneys began to disappear. Steadily, but slowly, the village was growing. Major C. Farwell erected a log blacksmith shop, and in 1845 built a frame shop, stocked plows, and commenced to make wagons and buggies and cutters. July 4th, 1841, was publicly celebrated by about three hundred people in the grove, enjoying " cold water and a pic-nic dinner."

In the spring- of 1843 a malignant form of scarlet fever visited the growing town. Eight persons died in a few weeks; and it was found necessary now, while enlarging the borders for the living, to provide also a place for a " city of the dead." So a cemetery was added to the precincts of the county seat. Religious services were now held regularly in the court house, the Rev. N. Warriner, the first Baptist pastor and first minister ordained in the county, and the first resident minister at Crown Point, and the Rev. J. C. Brown, a resident pastor at Valparaiso, conducting the public worship. In the summer of 1843 the Rev. M. Allman became a resident and also took part in the Sabbath service and in the Union Sunday School.

The resident lawyer, ministers, and physician. Dr. W. F. Farrington, who settled at the county seat in 1840, have been named. The first store and public house, have been also noticed. These all form an essential part of village and town life. In 1842 M. M. Mills, from Canada, built what is now called the Rockwell House.

The Robinson store, opened in 1836 in the log hut beside the old court house, where the Pottawatomies traded extensively, exchanging furs and cranberries for goods, came into the hands of H. S. Pelton about 1840. His store was on the west side of the square. He died May 26, 1847, and his goods were purchased July 28th by Carter & Carter, of New York city, J. S. Holton, agent. Carter & Carter sold to J. W. Dinwiddle, who became a resident in 1847.

In 1848 the brick store was built on the same corner, into which Shedd & Farwell brought from Michigan City a stock of goods. This store soon passed into the hands of Alton.

Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist ministers occupied by turns the rude pulpit of the court house. In that room was also organized the Lake County Temperance Society in Jane, 1841, an organization which continued some eight years. In that room also were held the first and most influential revival meetings connected with the earlier history of Crown Point.

The Presbyterian Church of the town w^as organized April 27, 1844. Rev. William Townley became pastor in 1846. The meetino-s mentioned above were conducted by him aided by ministers from Michigan City and South Bend. Many additions were then made to the church and some permanent good seems to have been accomplished. In 1847 the Presbyterian church building was completed, and then for the first time, in the village of thirty families, the simple village spire reminded the passing traveller that there stood a house of prayer.

A smaller and less church-like structure was completed about this same time for a Methodist house of worship. The Methodist Episcopal church at Crown Point probably dates back to 1843. - 11

Churches sometimes precede and sometimes follow schools. There was a school in the little hamlet in the winter of 1835, taught by Mrs. Harriet Holton, who died in 1879 ninety-seven years of age.

the village; and, in 1841, for the young county seat, a small frame house was built. This was used for the public school during many years. As early as 1848 the Rev. William Townly opened a select school, which marked a new era in educational advantages. In connection with this school, although a few years later than this period properly extends, belongs

The First Teachers' Institute

It opened November 1, 1852. From records made by Heman Ball, of Cedar Lake, the following extracts and statements are given : " Left home at 4 o'clock for Crown Point amid the rain and mud. Went to the Presbyterian church. The sexton was just lighting up the house. W^ent over to Mr. Townley's to inquire the prospects. In about half an hour Mr. Jewel, the Superintendent, and Mr. Hawkins, of La Porte, arrived in the stage. After some salutatory remarks the conversation turned upon the prospects of the Institute and the educational interests generally. Mr. Townley remarked that when he came here six years ago the district schools generally were very poorly kept. He had supplied from his school most of the femals teachers. He had had nearly five hundred scholars, and not five males had gone out as teachers. The cause, compensation not sufficient. At 7 o'clock went back to the church. Mr. Jewel gave the opening lecture. He said that he had been travelling all day over the prairie. He had been pleased with the almost boundless prospects. He thought that all that was wanting to make the people of the West great was energy and perseverance. He spoke of the educational prospects East and West; of Normal schools as they exist in the Eastern states. Tuesday morning. The students assembled in the Presbyterian meeting house and organized by appointing a treasurer and secretary. Morning exercises opened by prayer. Then we receive instruction in vocal music and the best methods of teaching it in schools. This is followed by reading. A lecture is then given on physiology by the Superintendent. - During the latter part of the week Dr. Boynton, a travelling lecturer, gave lectures illustrated by a manikin or artificial man. - We are occupied the remainder of the forenoon upon mental and written arithmetic. The afternoon exercises are as follows: 1st, geography; 2d, grammar; 3d, composition; 4th, a lecture upon school tactics. Public lectures are given every evening."

Such is the outline of the teachers' institute held the first week in November, 1852, arranged and carried out by private enterprise. How much improvement has been made since then, the state of Indiana expending annually about seven thousand dollars to make these gatherings of teachers profitable, the community at large has had some opportunities to judge.

Thus slowly, amid business changes and growing churches and schools, new families arriving and some seeking other homes, each year bringing its marriage or birth or death, the log huts gradually disappearing, shade trees and fruit trees taking the place of oak and hickory undergrowth, ten years passed over the county seat, the year 1849 witnessing the erection of the frame courthouse, "George Earle, architect; Jeremy Hixon, builder;" leaving the log building of earlier days, its surroundings and associations, its court scenes and Sabbath services, its jail incidents and many public gatherings, among the things of the past. Another era opens.

A railroad from the east enters Chicago ! The Michigan Central, finding a pathway among the sand hills of Lake Michigan, through the marsh and huckleberry region of Lake county, connects that growing young city, a little older only than Crown Point, with Detroit, with the Atlantic coast, with the civilized world. A little station on this road and on Deep River is named Lake. It is fifteen miles distant. But the inhabitants of Crown Point go to Lake to send their telegrams, to take the cars, to ship and receive freight. The Cut-Off is built, and sometimes they go to Ross, nine miles distant. The Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne Road is built, and they go to Hobart, twelve miles away. A little stage or hack starts out in the early morning; it returns, perhaps, each evening. It carries the mail, it takes passengers and packages. It brings back news. Truly do the inhabitants of Crown Point learn the meaninp- of "inland." For fifteen years they live on as a town. They can hear, in still, clear mornings, the shrill whistle of the engine among their northern sand hills, but the iron horse comes no nearer to them. He is busy bearing burdens to a city. Exciting events transpire; civil war breaks out ; the life of the nation is imperilled; tid- ings from the capital flashes along the wires. They wait, to hear the news, the results of battles in which their loved ones are fighting and falling, until the little stage from Hobart comes in. Thoroughly do the inhabitants of Crown Point learn the meaning of inland. And yet, during these fifteen years, they make progress.