Lake County, Indiana - The whole text, 1884 (part 7 of 8)

1. Dr. Ira Holton of Chester, Vermont, was married in September, 1816, to Miss Rosalinda Smith, who was the youngest of thirteen children and who was born July 18, 1795, a member of that Smith family of Friends in Shrewsbury, Vermont, represented for these many years in Crown Point by Mrs. Calista Sherman and herself, the two sisters who have been our most aged women. A third sister of that large Vermont family, Mrs. Thankful Smith Brown, was represented here for a time in the person of her son, Clement Brown, who was born in Rutland county, Vermont, November 17, 1805, and who after re siding in Chicago, Minnesota, and California, having a brother. Dr. H. S. Brown, in Milwaukee, one in Califor- nia, a son, John Brown, in Chicago, and a sister, Mrs. H. B. McConnel, in Vermont, came, some five years ago, "to spend the evening of his days at Crown Point," where he died, October 30, 1884.

Dr. Holton, residing with his family for some years as a physician in Canada, came to Lake county in 1844 and went to Michigan City to reside in 1845, where he died in 1851. He had five sons and five daughters, several of whom with their mother became residents in Lake county. Mrs. Holton died here, at the home of Mrs. R. C. Young, where she had lived for many years, March 28, 1884, having nearly completed her eightyninth year of life.

2. Sons: Volney Holton came to Lake county about 1840. His children are: Ira, Henry, Lydia, Pearl, AVillard, Janna, Gertrude, and Andrew J. Four children have died. His wife was Miss Martha Jane Cochrane. He died, having been afflicted with blindness for many years.

Daniel Holton, the third son, came to this county with his brother. He left after about ten years, and is now in Kirbyville, Oregon. He has two sons and one daugrhter.

Janna S. Holton came here with his father. Dr. Holton, in December, 1844. Since then, for now forty years, he has been a prominent citizen, a merchant, or county officer, or business man, continuously. Probably no other business man of Crown Point has for as many years gone regularly, almost every day, from his home to his store or office, as J. S. Holton. Now in the latter part of "middle life," with a comfortable and pleasant home, where reside his wife and three young daughters; his two older daughters, Mrs. Wheeler and Mrs. Rowins, living in Crown Point with young children growing up around them, their husbands practical printers and editors of the Lake County Star; no business man here would seem to have more elements of domestic happiness around him.

Hiram S. Holton, the youngest of the sons, was for many years a resident of Crown Point and. a prominent business man. He was married to Miss Gertrude Mc- Donald. They have two sons, who are young men in business life, Winfred B. and Hoyt; a daughter. Miss Flora, attending the high school at Indianapolis, and a young son, Charles. The family take a large interest in the promotion of temperance and of public virtue. Their home life is very pleasant. For a few years they resided in Washington City, and now live in Indianapolis where they find profitable business, still retaining their Crown Point home. . , _

Mrs. R. Calista Young of Crown Point, who has one son, Charles H. Young, pension agent at Crown Point, and an excellent singer and musician, married July 4, 1883, to Miss Jennie Rowe, herself a good amateur pianist.

Mrs. Charles R. Luther of Valparaiso, who was the youngest of the ten children of Dr. and Mrs. Holton. Mrs. Luther has two sons and one daughter.

Mrs. Holton at the time of her death, in March last, had living seven children, thirty-one grand-children, and tvrenty-four great-grandchildren. In all sixty.two descendants.

Hack

1. John Hack, who was the father of eleven children, came with his family to Lake county and settled on Western Prairie, called also Prairie West, in 1837, the first pioneer German family of the county. He died in Crown Point in 1855, sixty-nine years of a-ge.

2. Matthias J. Hack born July 27, 1816, was married to Miss Angeline Schmal, now Mrs. Hack of the Hack Exchantre in Crown Point, December 15, 1854. He died February 27, 1867, leaving three sons, Joseph L., John M., and William.

2. Joseph Hack, born March 18, 1825, was married April 15, 1852, to Miss Catharine Linen, with whom' he lived thirty years and four months. He has had three sons and three daughters. The sons are:

3. George G. Hack who was born in 1854. He was married October 26, 1880, and after the death of his wife he was again married, May 17, 1883 to Miss Elisabeth Lorth of Chicago. They have one son, Arthur, born March 5th of this year.

3. Sons of M. J. Hack: .Joseph L. Hack born in October, 1849, married in 1873; three children: John M. Hack, born in 1851, married 1875; two children: and William Hack, born 1854, married 1883. He has one child. These six grandsons of John Hack, the pioneer of forty-seven years ago, have their homes in Crown Point.

seven children, are now: Mrs. Rhein o£ Hanover township, not far from Cedar Lake, who is seventy-two years of age; John Schmal of St. Johns, who is about seventy; Joseph Schmal of Brunswick; Mrs. A. Hack of Crown Point; and Adam Schmal of Center township, formerly county treasurer, and a resident of Crown Point. He is quite wealthy, and is well known as an upright citizen and othcer to the citizens of this county.

Of the family of Peter Orte, coming at the same time with the Schmal family, none now remain. Of the family of Matthias Reder, also accompanying these, there are now two grandsons, one of whom, Lewis Reeder, is a citizen of Crown Point.

There are in the county quite a number of grandchildren of Joseph Schmal in the five families named above. Only a small number of the. German families of tiie county belong to the "pioneer" period; but very many of them are " old settlers."

1. Henry Sasse Sen. was married in 1827 in the province of Hanover and came to America in 1834. He first settled in Michigan, and came to Cedar Lake in this county in 1838. He was married a second time in 1841 and again in 1870. His present wife has one son, young Herman E. Sasse.

2. Henry Sasse Jun. was born in Germany, in Hanover, January 6, 1832, and came to Michigan and to Cedar lake with his father and mother. That mother, Mrs. Anna B. Sasse, died June 10, 1840, leaving two sons, the younger, William Emil, born near Ann Arbor, November 20, 1836, who died in Hanover township June

Family Kecords

Henry Sasse .Jun., coming to this county when six years of age, was married the last of March, 1855. He has one daughter, Henrietta, now Mrs. Henry Gromann, wlio has one daughter and one son. The Sasse family are now all residents of Crown Point. H. Sasse, Jun. has l)een one of the intelligent and successful teachers of the county, and was for some years a prosperous farmer at Cedar lake. He is now a dealer in Agricultural implements. H. Sasse Sen., although retired from business life, holds quite an amount of property, the accumulations of fifty years of life in America.

Of the pioneer H. Von Hollen, who died a few years ao^o, there are no descendants. Of Lew'is Herlitz there are two sons, two daughters, some grandchildren and ofreat o-randchildren.

Of the Meyer family there are several representatives. Frederick C. Meyer and his wife Mrs. ^lartha Meyer, now quite aged, live on the West side of Cedar Lake. They have two sons, Frederick and Henry, and three daughters.

At the head of Cedar Lake, on the high bank, where was once the squatter home of Joseph C. Batten, and afterward the home of a soldier in the army of Napoleon when on the march to Moscow, now resides John Meyer, a son of an an " old settler," born in 1 838, who has six sons and two dauo-hters, and is one of the substantial farmers of Hanover township, owning land in both Hanover and Center. The old log walls of the early home still remain on the place. The two little girls, some seven and nine years of age, appearing almost like twins, Lizzie and Maggie, give graceful life within their father's commodious home.

An uncle of J. Meyer, and for many years a prominent business man at Brunswick is H. C Beckmann. He has two sons, John N. Beckmann, born in 1856, and Herman C. Jun. and several daughters. The monument to the memory of the mother of these daughters and sons, in the small mound cemetery of J. Meyer, is one of the finest and most costly in the county.

1. J. C. Sauerman came from Bavaria in 1846, when fourteen years old. Remained over three years in Chicago, then returned for a visit to his Europeon home. He recrossed the ocean and settled in Crown Point in 1851. In August, 1853, he was married to Miss Strochlein, .daughter of John Strochlein, who came to this county in 1852. They have three children, Mrs. Maggie Pettibone, wife of Dr. Henry Pettibone, of Crown Point, Andrew A., and Miss Flora.

2. Andrew A. Sauerman, born in Crown Point, was married four years ago. He has one son Harvey. He is assistant cashier of the Crown Point National Bank.

Fisher

1. Alexander Fisher, who was born in Ajer, Scot-- land, in 1801, came to Montreal in 1818, and afterward settled in Schenectady county. New York, where he was married, 1819, to Miss Agnes Brown, born at Paisley, Scotland, daughter of Alexander Brown who came to this country in 1805. They had eight children, six of whom are now living, three sons and one daughter having been for many years residents in this county.

2. William Fisher, the oldest of these three sons, born in 1825, came to this county in 1850. In 1854 he was married to Miss N. Bryant. They have three children, David A. Fisher, dealer in hardware in Hebron, Mrs. x\rabella Hayward, living near Ross, and Miss Ida E. Fisher. I>iving for many years on the west and then on the east side of Eagrle Creek, on the Hebron and Lowell mail road, the family have lately removed to Hebron.

2. Thomas Fisher, coming to this county in 1850, becoming a permanent resident in 1851, was married to Miss Mary Brown, a daughter of Alexander Brown, of South East Grove. Living for some years in Eagle Creek, they have for many of the later years been residents of Crown Point. They have no children.

2. John Fisher, born in Schenectady county. New York, in 1832, coming to this county in 1855, was married in 1865 to Miss Joanna Willey. They live near Crown Point and have one son.

These three brothers, the Lake county representatives of a large family, are all well off, having accumulated property and having married into old and wealthy families. The first has been for some thirty years a farmer, and has held the office of county commissioner, and has now retired to business life at Hebron, The second has carried on a factory for some thirty years, has been a farmer a portion of the time, and then a retired town resident, accumulating steadily year by year by the increase of capital and by business enterprise. x\nd the third, comiuio- as a surveyor, becominirat leno-th a farmer, has been for many years county surveyor, an office which he still holds. He is a man of fine and generous impulses and deservedly popular, a valuable friend.

3. Of the third g-eneration, and bearing the family name, there is now in the county but one, George W. Fisher, .a promising youth, the only son of J. and Mrs. .J. Fisher.

Brown

1. Alexander Brown, of Scotland, had a son, John Brown, and a daughter, Agnes, who married Alexander Fisher. He came to this country in 1805.

2. .John Brown, - a name that is historic in England and America - had six sons, Alexander, George, Mathew, John, Colin and William ; and two daughters. May and Eliza.

3. Alexander Brown was born August 25, 1804, was married March 1, 1835, came to South East Grove in 1840, and died October 21, 1849. He had three sons and two dauo-hters. The daug-hters are, Mrs. T. Fisher and Mrs. W. Nicholson, both having homes in Crown Point.

4. .John Brown was iDorn October 7, 1840, was married to Miss Almira L. Clark, July 13, 1871. They have three children now living: Niel, May, and Grace.

4. William Barrinofer Brown was born June 17, 1848. He was married, November 18, 1877, to Miss Carrie Sigler, of Hebron. They have three dang"hters, Mabel, Bessie, and Bernice.

4. Georire Brown w^as born May 5, 1849, was married to Miss Turner in 1869, and died June 21, 1878. He left three sons, Alexander, William, and Herbert.

8. John Brown, of South East Grove, was born in the state of New York, April 3, 1812, and came to this county in 1840. He has not been married. He has his home at Mrs. Crawford's, near the Grove.

8, William Brown, who came to this county in 1843, was born December 1, 1821, and was married in May, 1851, to Miss Mary J. Wallace. They have three daughters, Miriam, now Mrs. H, G. Bliss, Edith M., now Mrs. Jay (^rawford, and Miss Ruby .T., who is attending school at Crown Point; and two sons, Mathew J. Brown, a young man of much energy and activity in farming and business life, and William Brow^i, who is yet quite young, very promising in his young manhood. The two sons and Miss Ruby still make their home with their father and mother.

Lyman Wallace, of Scoth descent as the name suggests, (although at present the line cannot betracedback to the renowned warrior. Sir William Wallace,) was born in Washington county. New York, in 1800. He was married twice. His first wife, a native of Vermont, had one son, William Wallace, and three daughters. Two of these are yet living, Mrs. Phelps of Decatur, Michigan, and Mrs. Temple of Eagle Creek in this county. His second wife was also a native of Vermont, of Burlington county, and was born May 4, 1798. She was the mother of five daughters, and with his wife and these, his daughters, L. Wallace came to this county in 1843 from Gennessee county, New York, and settled in the south part of South East Grove. He died here in the winter of 1851. Four of his daughters married and now are: Mrs. John Dinwiddle of La Porte, Mrs. Starr of Winamac, Mrs. William Brown of this county, and Mrs. Parkinson of Kansas.

The youngest daughter. Miss Lucretia Wallace, remains at home with her mother. They have removed to Hebron in Porter county, where Mrs. Wallace is still living. She will be eighty-seven May 4, 1885.

William Wallace was in the Union army. He was in Missouri, and went one day to a house where the family was supposed to be friendly to the Union cause, and while sitting on the steps was shot in the forehead by a confederate soldier.

Jackson And Farley

I am sorry that no special records have been obtained of the families of the two early settlers named above. But those who could have furnished them are either not living or not in the county. Benjamin Farley was born in 1781. His son, Zebulon Farley, now of Chicago, and his grandson, Eugene Farley, are well known in Crown Point.

Joseph Jackson was born in 1793 and his wife in 1796. They have been married nearly seventy years. They left Crown Point some twenty-five years ago. Recent letters from Iowa state, " that the health of General Jackson and his wife is still good."

Most American families must find it difficult to trace back their ancestral line more than two or three hundred years, and many families have no certain records for more than two or three generations back. I have before me, in niakino- out somethino- of the line of the Dinwiddle family of Lake county, letters from Alexandria in Virginia, from Bristol and London in England, from Petersburg, Virginia, from Annan Cemetery, Scotland, and I have consulted other authorities.

I find first, as in many names of more than one syllable, and even us in some of these, a variety in the orthography. Thomas Dinwiddy, architect and surveyor, of Greenwich, London, has sent to Oscar Dinwiddle of " America," a list of what he calls " Various versions of my name received on letters, parcels, &c.," amounting to one hundred and thirty in number. The list is a literary curiosity as it now lies before me. The same Thomas Dinwiddy says, in his accompanying letter, "-'Your name, however, terminates in ie, mine in y; so that I should think we were split from the original Scotch tribe long since. I think the spelling of my name must be a corruption, yours being the true way." (See the letter written in October, 1877.) In the letter of the Rev. William Dinwiddie, of Alexandria, two other forms of the name are given, as he speaks of the Rev. James B. Dunwody, a Presbyterian minister in South Carolina, and Lieut. Dun woody, from loAva, in the Signal office at Washington City. Coming now to the letter from Scotland, dated Annan Cemetery, December 12, 1884, written by David Dinwodie, I find the following: "All my forefathers lived and died, and have become almost nameless as the leaA-es of the forest, about the parishes of Applegirth and Lochmaben. Looking at Bacon's Popular Map of Scotland last night, I could see three prominent places, such as Dinwodie Castle, Dinwodie Holm, and Dinwodie Green. The last place got its name from the first Dinwoodie in the world, who was a man of the name of John Din, to whom one of the kings of Scotland gave the title Dinwoodie and one hundred pounds reward. I have been thinking of going to Applegirth for a long time for to see the old burial place of my forefathers, and to see the coat of arms on one of the stones." In a later letter he explains still further in regard to the name, that a reward of one hundred pounds was offered for the head of an outlaw, that John Din succeeded in killing this outlaw and carried his head to Edinburg, to the king, in what was called in those days a woODiE. So the king, after bestowing the promised reward, added to his name this word woodie, and a woodie forms a part of the coat of arms. The date he cannot tell, nor the king's nam^e. He sends, however, twelve stanzas from a poem on '' The Battle of Dryef Sands, 1518," from which I take the following:

" Dinwoodie's laird, a wondrous wight, In stature tall as mountain pine, Drove fierce and furious through the fight, Wliile blood daik-dimmed his sabre's shine.

Young Douglas, who attention claims, Beneath his conquering sword there fell ; With many more whose noteless names No poets sing, nor legends tell.

As when two ravening wolves descend From Alpine heights midst storms of snow, They run, they rage, they furious rend. While reeking streams of purple flow."

It thus appears that the Dinwoodie of 1518, who was then a Scottish laird or h:)rd, was a tall, brave, and fierce warrior, as became the customs and requirements of those days; if not the same man, a genuine descendant of the bold man who killed the dreaded outlaw. Height of stature characterizes some of the American branches <jf the family. The Rev. William Dinwiddle of xA.lexandria savs, " The shortest of us is six feet high. Edgar and James are six feet three; I am six feet one inch; my father six feet three; and mj grandfather was six feet two.*"

David Dinwoodie of Scotland can give no family records back, because the "old family Bible" containing the records had gone with a brother-in-law out of Scotland; but he considers David a family name, although his father's name was James; his grandfather was John Dinwoodie, and his great-grandfather was Thomas Dinwoodie, who "lived in Sandy Holm Parish of Applegirth." This James Dinwoodie was married over ninety years ago. His father, John Dinwoodie, lost his landed estate in consequence of signing bonds for three different men, all of whom failed and left him to pay off their indebtedness; which was done to the very last shilling.

James Dinwiddy, of Bristol, says that one of his ancestors, " Robert Dinwiddy, landed in America some years ago." His letter was written in March, 1876, and he soon after died. His only son, Thomas Dinwiddy, of

Greenwich, who reco<^nizes the y terminatian as a corruption of the earlier name, says he can trace back no further than to his great-great-grandfather, who lived near Bristol and died in 1770; but he thinks they were connected with Robert Dinwiddie, the governor of Virginia, and he sends the inscription copied from " Governor Dinwiddie's tomb at Clifton Church near Bristol." The letter in which he says, I have procured a copy of the inscription, and I am very glad to enclose it to you, is dated Greenwich, London, March 23, 1879, addressed to Oscar Dinwiddie. As a matter of general historic interest, I am glad that we can reproduce here the " Inscription on Robert Dinwiddie's Monument " taken direct from the copy sent from Bristol through Greenwich.

" In this Church are deposited the remains of Robert Dinwiddie Esqr formerly Governor of Virginia Who Deceased July 27th 1770 in the 78th years of his age The annals of that country will testify With what Judgement, Activity, and Zeal he exerted himself In the Public cause when the whole of the north American Continent Was involved in a French & Indian War The rectitude of Conduct in his Government And integrity in other Public employments Add a Lustre to his Character which was revered while he lived And will be held in estimation whilst his name survives His mere private virtues and amiable social qualities he possessed Were the happiness of his numerous friends and relations Many of whom shared his bounty All lament his loss As his happy dispositions for domestic life Were best known to his affectionate Wife & Daughters They have erected this Monument To the memory of his Conjugal and

On a " list of Barons and men of note" in 1296 is the name of Allen Dinwithie, the progenitor, it is said, of the Dinwiddies, who were chief proprietors on lands bearing their names in Applegirth, Dnmfriesshire, Scotland.

Thomas, chief of the clan, w^as slain in Dinwiddle's tower in 1503, by the Jardins; and, it was supposed, by the same agency, the Laird of Dinwiddie was assassinated in the streets of Edinburg in 1512. Among those giving alleg-iance to Eno-land in 1547 was the Laird of Dunwoody with forty-four followers. See " Dinwiddie papers."

Assuming, now, that all of this variously written name are descendants of the brave John Dinwoodie of Scotland, the lines of descent not being traceable at present, the Lake county family genealogy is the following: (As in other family lines the figures given denote the generation, from the earliest of the line whose name is given.)

1. David Dinwiddie. (Date of birth and of death unknown, also the connection up to John Dinwoodie unknown. Very naturally some branches of the family would get the name Dunwoodie, Dinwiddy, Dinwiddie, and various other forms.)

4. David Dinwiddie. (Dates of the birth and death of all these not as yet ascertained. More than one old family Bible with its family records is missing.)

5. David Dinwiddie, "fifth David, son of David in succession," born 1724; married December 17, 1745, to Jean McClure and November 20, 1783, to Elizabeth Kerr; died December 19, 1803.

6. David Dinwiddie, "sixth David, son of David in succession," born July 25, 1755; married January 27, 1778, to Susannah Patterson; died December 5, 1823.

9. Children of J. W. Dinwiddie: Oscar, born September 2, 1845; married February 2, 1874, to Mary Joan Robertson; Jerome, born February 7, 1848; married December 27, 1871, to Mary M. Chapman; Augusta E., born

Edwin Willis, born December 18, 1856; married October 22, 1884, to Candace Belshaw; Mary Elizabeth, born July 18, 1859; married September 30, 1880, to Walter L. Nichols.

10. Children of Frances R. and F. E. Brovvnell: Jay Carlton, born April 8, 1872; Alice J., born February 25, 1874; John Earl, born December 5, 1875; Claude Bertrand, born March 5, 1877; Catharine Alma, born October 9, 1879; and Guy Clayton, born May 21, 1881.

As in this line we qo back from Marion Elmer Dinwiddie, born in 1874, through four generations, a full hundred and fifty years, to that David Dinwiddie who was the fifth David son of David in succession, born in 1724, it is probable that going back from him, through four more generations, we would find the father of our first David to have been born somewhere about 1 574. His name has not yet been ascertained, nor does it seem to be yet known where the American line begins, (we cross the Atlantic without knowing it,) but between that father of that David and that warrior of 1518, " Dinwoddie's laird," poetically called " In stature tall as mountain pine," there could not be more than two or three generations. But at present this line can be traced back to the eleventh generation only from the present, bringing us back somewhere between 1550 and 1570, and, according to the family traditions of but a few generations

Commencing- once ao^ain with Marion Elmer Dinwiddle, and with his brothers, sisters, and cousins, we go back through eight generations, in the Perkins' line, to 1590. Here again we will cross the ocean without knowing it.

7. Mary Janette Perkins, born May 5, 1818, married August 19, 1844, to John W. Dinwiddle, now Mrs. Dinwiddle of Plum Grove. Mrs. Elizabeth Cook Perkins, mentioned above, the g-reat-grandmother of the Lake county Dinwiddle children, was born February 6, 1786, and is still living in Rome, New York. She will soon reach her 99th birth-day anniversary.

9. For those in this generation see 10 in the Dinwiddle line; these showing five children and sixteen grandchildren of Mrs. M. J. Dinwiddle, now living.

1. The Livingston family, Samuel and Mrs. Jane Livincrston, came from Europe to Lake county in 1853. Names of the sons and daug-hters: Robert, Sarah, John, Sam, Joseph, Eliza, Jane, James, William, Hartford, Thomas, and Moses. Six of tliese brothers were in ths Union army. Sam Livingston died January 20, 1852, Thomas, March 0, 1867, and John, April 25, 1880. The other sons and daughters are still living. Mrs. Jane Livingston died February 9, 1879, and her husband died March 8th of the same year.

2. Robert Livingston, who was married nearly forty years ago, has ten children, two sons, Sam and Moses, and eight daughters, Mrs. Jane Hill, wife of Dr. Jessie L. Hill of Creston, married November 10, 1875, and now havino- two promisino- daugrhters, educated at home, - Mrs. Mary Garrison, who has one daughter and one son, active, pleasant children, - Mrs. Eliza Pancoast, and, unmarried daughters, Belle, Ella, Rosa, May, and Loe. Three or four of these daughters have spent considerable time as teachers in the public schools of the county.

Othek Families

The Baldwin family, becoming residents here in 1848, are now represented by J. P. Baldwin, who was born in 1835, married in 1867, who has one daughter and one son, Miss Martha J. and John J., and lives on his farm in Winfield, near Palmer. Other dates of settlement are: Ross Wilson, October. 1854, John McKay, Joseph Wilson, and John Ross, 1855. The latter was married in the same year to Miss Jane Wilson; the first to Miss Margaret McKay in 1854, and Joseph Wilson to Miss

Dexnis Palmer, whose name is given to the station on the Chicacro and Atlantic Railroad some eiofht miles eastward from Crown Point, has lived for many years on that small prairie known as Eagle (yreek. He has two sons, one of whom has been for several years raising cattle and farming in the West.

Noah Bibler, whose wife is a sister of Dennis Palmer, came to Lake county in the summer of 1852. He removed from Bucyrus, Ohio, coming with a horse team along the miles that lay between. He has three sons, Elliot E. Bibler, who is married and has two sons, and who lives near Winfield station; Norris O., who still remains at the family home; and Dennis P. Bibler, who married a daughter of John Collins of Crown Point, and who also lives near Winfield station.

1. Jeremiah Willey, a descendant of an early New England family, was born in Connecticut July 28, 1777, and died May 14, 1865. Of marriage no date. His wife was Miss Hannah Staples. They had eleven children, one only dying in childhood. Four of the ten are now living. In 1817 the family removed to the state of New York, J. Willey was a son- of David Willey.

2. George Willey, one of the sons, was born in Connecticut in 1814, three years before the removal to New York. He was married in 1835 to Miss Clynthia

3. George Almeron Willey, the only living son, was married in 1864 to Miss Laurana Nash. They now reside in Missouri, and have three sons and four daughters.

Wood

Material has been found for some record of another old New England family. But, although the above is an old English name, the Lake county family records go back only a few generations. And, as is the case with some others, we begin in the first generation without a date.

2. Nathan Wood, a son of Jacob Wood, born March 23, 1721, and his wife, Elizabeth Wood, was born March 14, 1724. They had three sons and six daughters: Daniel, born April 7, 1747, Moses, May 25, 1748, Sarah, October 7, 1750, or the record says October 21, (As this was the last child born, in this family, in what was called Old Style, New Style having commenced in England, by act of Parliament, in September, 1752, the 3d day of that month being called the 14th, this fact niay have led to some confusion in the date.) The other childreii were: Dolly, born October 15, 1752, Phebe, August 17, 1755, Jacob, August 17, 1757, Lydia, November 17, 1759, Betsey, January 1, 1763, and Hannah, born Fel)- ruary 2, 1766.

4. John Wood, the pioneer settler of this family in Lake county, born as above, in 1800, was married to Miss Hannah E. Pattee, (a cousin of Sarah B. Hall, who became the noted missionary, Mrs. Boardman then Mrs. Judson,) November 16, 1824. Mrs. Wood was born in New England October 13, 1802. She was a noble woman. She died in Lake county September 27, 1873. A fine granite monument, about fifteen feet in height, marks the place of her burial, and on it is inscribed, "A true, faithful, loving wife; a kind and affectionate mother; ever toiling for the good of all; and this is her memorial." Old documents now in the county state that John Wood of Danvers was commissioned by the Governor of Massachusetts, Levi Lincoln, Cornet in a company of the Battalion of Cavalry in the first Brigade and second Division of the Militia of the Commonwealth,

Family Recokds

5. Nathan Wood was married November 4, 1852, to Miss R. A. Rundle. They have four sons, Edward E., Herbert, Nathan A., George W., and two daughters Miss Ella A. and Miss Eva M.

5. Augustus Wood was married in 1852. He has two daughters, Mrs. Carrie M., wife of Dr. J. A. Rvan of Valparaiso, to whom she was married May 20, 1879, and Mrs. Abby M. Bullock of Hobart; also one son, John J. Wood.

5. George Wood was married October 8, 1857, to Miss Mary J. Dizard. They have two sons, Eugene and William H., and two daughters. Miss Anna E. and Miss Sarah J. The oldest son is a merchant in Woodvale.

5. John W. Wood, now a grocer in Valparaiso, was married August 14, 1861. He has three sons, Fred A., Newton A., Harry G., and one daughter, Miss Mary.

5. Dr. Oliver S. Wood, physician now at Hebron, was married in 1864 to Miss Charity R. Farnham. They have two sons, Clayton and Carlton, and two daughters. Miss Lottie B. and Miss Leta.

Number of grandchildren of John Wood now living-, members of the sixth generation, twenty-four; of great grandchildren ten, who are of the seventh generation from Jacob Wood of the seventeenth century John Wood died December 1, 1883. His remains repose beside those of his wife near the granite monument.

Ball

The earliest mention of this name that I find in English history brings us back to a family in Kent, perhaps at Canterbury, and to John Ball, a noted preacher " on the brotherhood of mankind." See Froude's "Annals of an English Abbey." Maurice of England says: "-This remarkable man was the moving spring in the insurrection of 1381."

A second noted John Ball was born in 1585. He was quite a voluminous writer, a Puritan divine. See Ency. Brittannica. In later times seven Ball families in England have received coats of arms. Those of note in England are: among the baronets, "Ball of Blofield, Norfolk, 1801;" the Right Hon. John Thomas Ball, LL. D., made in 1868 a privy Councillor of Queen Victoria; Lieut. Col. William Clare Ball, C. B., an English Knight; Salisbury Ball Esq. of Burwell, born in 1836, son of Edward Ball, M. P.; Sir Alexander Ball, "a distinguished admiral in the British navy " in 1804; Sir William Keith Ball, his son, the first baronet of this line having been Governor of Malta; and Frances Maria Theresa Ball, a noted Catholic woman. See " County families of the United Kingdom" and other authorities.

Family Eecords

Noted Americans of this name are few. TLev are. Mary Ball, second wife of Auo-ustine Washing-ton, mother of George Washington, a superior woman, born in 1706, "descended from a highly respectable family of Eng-lish colonists * "^ who established themselves on the banks of the Potomac;" Thomas Ball of Boston, a sculptor of note, born in 1819; Ephraim Ball, born in 1812, inventor of " Ohio mower; " and George H. Ball, a Baptist minister and Editor, born in 1818.

Of the New England and I-,ake county family of Balls, to which now we come, nothing is known of their English ancestry. It is family tradition that three of the name came over from Eng-land, two settling- in New Eno-land, and one in Virginia.

1. Francis Ball came to Dorchester in 1640, removed to Springfield and there married, in 1644, Abigail, daughter of Henry Burt. This Henry Burt was a resident of Roxbury. His house was burnt, and for his relief or aid, - fire insurance companies not then having been established this side of the ocean - a grant was made by the General Court in November, 1639. He removed to Springfield in 1640. He was chosen or appointed Clerk of Writs. He had eight daughters. Tradition states that his wife being very sick in England was supposed to be dead and was placed in a coffin. She revived, came to America, and became the mother of nineteen children. There may be a doubt as to the number of her children. The second daughter, Abigail, was married, according to the Burt family records, to Francis Ball in 1644. Francis had two sons, Jonathan, born 1645, and Samuel, born in ]647. Fran-

2. Jonathan Ball, born in 1645, was a captain. His second wife was Mrs. Susanna Worthin^ton widow of Nicholas Worthington. He had in all twelve children, six of whom died when youno'.

The Ball family records state that Jonathan Ball was the first male child born in West Springfield. The following names of his children have been preserved in the records: Thomas, born in 1676; Samuel, 1680; Jonathan, 1683; Francis, 1687; Benjamin, 1689; Joseph, 1695. Thomas died young, Samuel was a physician. He was drowned in the Agawani river. Jonathan settled in Granville. (He had two sons, Jonathan and Lybeus. This Jonathan engaged m the war of 1755, was Major of a regiment of his Majesty's Provincial troops. He went to Boston to procure the money to pay his troops, and on his return to Springfield was taken with the small pox, and died March 7, 1760, in the thirtieth year of his age. Tradition speaks of his very fine appearance on horseback. His brother, Lybeus, was Major of a regiment in the war of the Revolution.) Francis settled in Springfield; Benjamin in West Springfield on the family estate; and Joseph in AgaAvam parish.

(I find the following in "Centennial Celebration" of West Springfield, Mass., under " Genealogy of the Smith Family," page 121. Speaking of the sons of

Benjamin Smith that record says, " Jonathan had a large and stately house erected for his use Just east of the ])rook, on a commanding eminence at the junction of two roads, having married Margaret, the only child of Samuel Ball of West Springfield Center." Her six sons are named and one daughter. The record continues, '- Mr. Ball having died, his second wife surviving him, it was found by liis will, that he had devised his real estate, with the exception of his homestead, to the children of his daughter, and the child of his second wife by a former marriage, so that the 'great swamp,' as it was called, now known as Ball's swamp, with other large tracts of land, fell into the possession of the Smith family," two of the Smith sons going to live with their st"p-mother, Mrs. Samuel Ball, and assisting in the cultivation of the farm.) We come now to the third generation.

4. Charles had two sons, Charles born 1760 and Heman, and one daughter, Ruth. Charles settled in Ireland parish, (now Holyoke); Heman, in Rutland, Vermont, where he was pastor of a congregational church, a doctor of divinity. He was a good scholar. He was never married. Charles Ball was one of the Selectmen of the town in 1777, then fifty-two years of age.

5. Charles the second, known as Lieut. Charles Ball, had four sons, Francis, Charles, Hervey born 1794, and Edwin H., born 1807, and one daughter, Merob. The daughter married Warren Chapin and had two sons, Asahel and Warren, and two daughters, Mary and

Jane. Lieut. Charles Ball was nine times elected representative from his native town, two only iji a list of seventy-three exceeding him in the number of re-elections, one of those being a grandson of Dr. Samuel Bull, called in the old record "Mr. Esq. and Hon. .Jonathan Smith Jr."

6. Hervey, third son of Charles the second, had four sons, Timothy Horton, born February 16, 1826; Heman, January 15, 1882; Charles, April 15, 1884; James Hervey, September 11, 1886; and three daughters, Elisabeth Hanmer, born August 25, 1829; Mary Jane, October 25, 1889; Henrietta, December 7, 1841. Of these Heman Ball died at Cedar Lake August 28, 1854, Henrietta Ball January 27, 1868, and Charles Ball, Lieutenant of Twelfth Indiana Cavalry, died while "at home on furlough" September 12, 1865.

7. Timothy H. Ball was married April 19, 1855, to Miss Martha C. Creighton of Alabama. They have one son, Herbert S. and one daughter, Georgietta Ethberta.

7. James Hervey Ball graduated at the Law School of the University of Chicago in 1871. He was married September 1, 1880, to Miss H. Bridgeman of Chicago, who died September 5, 1881.

Among the pioneers on the west side of Cedar Lake was Charles R, Ball, a nephew of Hervey Ball, son of Charles Ball, grandson of Lieut. Charles Ball, who has lived for many years a few miles north-west from Chicago. He was born in 18 - , and has six sons, Dunham, Charles, J. Wesley, Leavitt, D. Morris, and Marcellus. Daughters in the Ball family have generally l)een few. Of the five children of Lieut. Charles Ball of the fifth o-eneration, one son is now living- Col. Edwin H. Bill of Holyoke, Massachusetts. He has five sons livintr p.ud two daughters. His sons are: James R., Henry Jube, Francis Wayland. Charles Ely, and Dilhnan Kimball. His daughters are, Mrs. Helen S. AUvn aiid Mrs. Alice E. Carpenter of Holyoke. He h-is tv/enty grandchildren. Col. Ball has visited this ( (^unty occasionally, and was here at the time of the death of his lirother Judge Ball of Cedar Lake.

It thus appears that no one in this line, born in America, has died under the age of seventy. And the average age of the American generations is over eighty. Years between the death of father and son, 93, 32, 22, 43, 30.

very spot where, more than two hundred and thirty years ago, his dust was committed to the earth, and am glad and grateful that t})e communitv there preserve, in the heart of their old town, their long unused, now ancient cemetery. T. H. B.

3. Samuel Ames, one of these sons, was born in 1745. He married .Jane Gerrish, the only sister of Col. Henry Gerrish. He was in the Revolutionary War, was at the battle of Stillwater. He was noted as a hunter. His children were, .Joseph, Hannah, Sarah, Polly, and David. He died in 1825.

4. Joseph Ames, the oldest son, was born in 1771. He died in 1851. His children were: Myra, Joseph, Lucy, David, Samuel, Nathan, Plumer, Stephen, and Phebe Jane.

5. Samuel Ames, the third of these sons, was born July 14, 1813, and came from New Hampshire to Lake Prairie, West Creek township, in 1856. He has one son, Edward Payson, and one daughter, Lizzie. He is now livinof at Elkhart.

Family Kecokds

Miss Lizzie Ames was married in 1877 to George E. Compton. They reside at Elkhart in this state. E. P. Ames was this fall elected county recorder, and now resides in Crown Point.

Dr. Thomas Peach

A resident of Boscawen, New Hampshire, married February 2, 1815, to Miss Susannah Gerrish who was born June 15, 1797. and who was a daughter of Henry Gerrish of the sixth generation and sister of Abiel Gerrish of Lake county, Dr. Peach, then an aged man, came to Lake Prairie about 1858. He and his wife made their home with their son-in-law, E. N. Morey, where he died, February 8. 1882, l>eing ninety-eight years of age.

1. Among the early settlers in Newbury, Massachusetts, was Capt. William Gerrish, who was born in Bristol, England, in 1617, August 20, and settled in Newbury in 1689. He was the first captain of the military band in that town, a representative for five years, and removing to Boston in 1678, he died at Salem Aufifust 9, 1687. He had six sons and two daug-hters.

3. Col. Joseph Gerrish, one of those sons, was born March 20, 1682, and died January 1765. He was for twenty years a member of the colonial legislature. He " had such muscular power that he swam the Merrimack river, near its mouth, every year till he was past seventy." He had thirteen children.

4. Capt. Stephen Gerrish, one of those children, was born January 22, 1711, and died 1788. He removed from Newbury to Canterbury, New Hampshire. His second wife was .Joanna Hale, sister of Richard Hale who was " the father of Capt. Nathan Hale, the martyr spy in the war of American independence." He had five sons and one daug^hter.

6. Henry Gerrish, one of the sons, was born May 29, 1772, ajid died Septeinl)er 11, 1862. He married Mary, daughter of Hon. Abiel Foster, of Canterbury, .Tune 6, 1796. She died in 1869, "aged about 95" years. Mrs. Gerrish's mother, Mrs. Foster, was Mary Rogers, daughter of Rev. Daniel Rogers of Exeter, New Hampshire, Mrs. Gerrish was the eighth in descent from .John Rogers, the martyr. The following is the line of this descent:

John Rogers of London, burned at Smithfield, February 14, 1555, the first martyr in Queen Mary's reign. 1st. A son, whose name seems to have been lost, one of the -' small children" that stood with their mother near that martyr's stake, on that dark day in England's history. 2d. Rev. John Rogers, "a famous minister of God's word at Dedham, England, who died in 1639." 3d. Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, who came to America in 1636 and died in 1655. 4th. John Rogers, a physician, preacher, and president of Harvard College, who died in 1684. 5th. Rev. John Rogers of Ipswich, who died in 1745, in the 80th year of his age. 6th. Rev. Daniel Rogers, of Exeter, who died in 1785, aged

7. Abiel Gerrish, the younger of these sons, was born March 7, 1806, at Boscawen, New Hampshire. He became a resident of Lake county in 1856. He was married to Miss Eliza Dodge, January ]8, 1830. In January, 1880, they celebrated their golden wedding. Thev '"were two of the original twelve members of the Presbyterian church in West Greek, of which he was chosen elder at its formation." Mrs. Gerrish died September 19, 1881. He died June 10, 1884. They had five daughters and one son. The first three children, Maria, Martha, and Mary, were born in Ganterbury, New Hampshire. The first married Joseph Barnard Jr. of Gontoocookville, New Hampshire, whose daughter, Miss Mary E. Barnard, is now in our county. The second married William S. Freed, a former resident of Cr(nvn Point, now with his daughters in Washington territory. Mrs. Freed died December 16, 1875. The third married Joseph A. Little of West Greek, November 1, 1859. The fourth daughter, Jane P. married Thomas Stroud of Wheeler, Porter county, Indiana, December 81, 1863. The fifth daughter, Ann E., married David B. Brush, of Waveland, Indiana, September 22, 1868.

8. James L. Gerrish, the only son of A. Gerrish, was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, November 15, 1836. Still a member of his father's family he came into Lake county. West Creek in 1856, and was married February 15, ,1866, to Miss Lena D. Dyer of Wheaton, Illinois. They have two children, Henry and Kittie,

7. A irraiidson of Col. Henry Gerrish, the seventh son of Joseph Gerrish, and a cousin of x\biel Gerrish, late of West Creek, is Dr. Alfred A. Gerrish, born July 9, 1829, a physician at Lowell, in Lake county. He is unmarried.

Little

The Gerrish, Little, Ames, Peach, Pluraer, and Morey families, all old New England families, have intermarried in the generations of the past, and about thirty years ago representatives of these families formed a settlement in West Creek township, which has been often called the New Hampshire Settlement. (Members of the Little family also intermarried with the Ball family a number of years ago.)

George Little, who came from London to Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1640, was the founder of this now wide spread family, in the United States. A quite full record has been gathered, by diligent research, of his descendants, a record which contains now the names of sixty-five hundred of these descendants. Of the Lake county branch of this family only will the record be here given.

1. George Little, from London, England, came to Newbury in 1640. He soon secured some of the most productive land in that town - and this word is used here in its New England sense equivalent nearly to our township - and purchased land at Saco, Maine, at Stonington and Quinnebang, Connecticut, in New Hampshire, and in New Jersey. He had three sons and two daughters. He died in 1693 or 1694.

estate was returned to the probate court in November 1691 as amounting in value to one thousand and sixtyfive pounds sterling. He had three sons and three daup-hters.

8. Tristam Little, the second of these sons, was born December 9, 1681, and died November 11, 1765. The house which he erected was standing a few years ago, and probably is now, being the residence of AYilliam Little Esq., town-clerk of Newbury. (A large part of the land in that town secured by George Little of 1640 is still owned by his direct descendants.) Tristam Little, the third in this line, had six sons and five daughters.

4. Enoch Little, the fifth of these sons, was born Miy 21, 1728, and died October 21, 1816. He removed from Newbury to Hampstead in 1766, and to Boscawen, New Hampshire, in 1774.

He had seven sons and five daughters. His first, second, and third sons, Friend, Benjamin, and Joseph, were soldiers in the war of the Revolution. Two were in the battle of Bennington, and one was with Washington at White Plains, and "at West Point at the time of Arnold's treason, and saw Andre lead to execution."

5. Jesse Little, the sixth of these sons, was born July 30, 1767, and died August 10, 1840. He married Martha, a daughter of Col. Henry Gerrish of Boscawen, who died at New Buffalo, Michigan, August 28, 1855. He had six sons and four daughters.

6. Capt. Thomas Little, the fourth of these sons, was born January 2, 1802, married Myra, a daughter of Capt. Joseph Ames of Boscawen, New Hampshire, June 2, 1829, and removed to West Creek township, Lake county, in 1855. For almost thirty years, it thus appears, this household has been numbered among the families of Lake. Capt. Little was, like his ancestors, a man of excellent character, energetic and intellicrent, an earnest Christian man, one of the founders of the Lake Prairie Presbyterian church, a man well known in the southern and central parts of the county. He died at the family home in West Creek township, August 19. 1877, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. Mrs. Little, his wife, died June 17, 1869.

They had one son, Joseph A., and two daughters, Sarah H., and Lucy J. These all are well known among the residents of the southern part of the county.

Miss Sarah H. Little, a very estimable young lady, admired and loved by her many friends, died February 19, 1874. Her dust reposes with the mortal remains of her father and mother, in the Lake Prairie Cemetery, a burial place on a large rise of ground near the center of Lake Prairie, within its ample enclosure twenty-five, or more of the native plants of that prairie growing each summer, a burial place, in the estimation of this writer, the choicest of all our cemeteries, where he hopes memorial stones can be found, as in the heart of the New England towns, by the generations of the future, even until the dead awake.

7. Joseph A. Little, the only son of Capt. Little, was born May 24, 1830, became a resident of Lake county, then a young man,^ in 1855, was married November 1, 1859, to Miss Mary Gerrish, a daughter of Abiel Gerrish of West Creek, and has become "an ex- tenssive fanner and stock-raiser" in the southwestern part of the county, now one of our wealthy and influential citizens. He has three sons, Lewis G., James H,, and .Jesse; and three daughters, Ellen, Myra A., and Mary E.

8. Lewis G. Little, the oldest of these sons, was born in Lake county, February 21, 1861. He is now a student of Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, Indiana. A descendant in such a long line of honorable ancestry, a member of one of the large families of our land, of whom the names and records are known of six and a half thousand persons, in the generations of the past and of the present, he may well 1)6 expected to make for himself a noble record in life. And like him, his brothers and sisters have their own records largely yet to make! They will be expected not to fall behind the virtue, the energy, the intelligence, and the solid worth of the generations that have preceded them.

For much of the foregoing I am indebted to records " compiled by Alfred Little" of New England. I find in this family largely Christian men, and men of weight of character in their communities, farmers, office holders, soldiers in our three noted wars, singers and musicians and teachers, college graduates, surveyors, business men, and some distinguished Gospel ministers.

Well says one of these compilers, a writer known to readers of Boston journals by the signature "Carleton," " No educated person denies or underrates the value of historical investigation." "A life time devoted to that pursuit does not seem misspent." And well says George T. Little, a compiler and publisher in 1877, "The fact that the Bible, God's revealed word, devotes

SO much space to genealoorical tables, and so repeatedly reminds, the Hebrews that they are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, grants to the family history the right to a place amid the numberless volumes that annually issue from the press."

Weather Record

In " Lake County, 1834 to 1872," pages 222 to 234, there may be found a weather record from 1835 to 1872, extending through thirty-eight years. Some record will be added here, from 1873 to the close of 1884, thus giving us a brief weather record for our first fifty years. The temperature as marked is for Fahrenheit's thermometer. " Degrees" is often to be understood.

1873. January 1. Mild. 2. Mercury 42 degrees. Afterward cold. 29. Below zero 24 degrees. February 2. Below zero 16. From 5th to 21st mild, like spring. Mercury again below zero. On the whole a cold month. March 4. Below zero 8. 9. Wild geese. 10. Blue birds appeared. 15. Thunder shower. 17. Plowing commenced. Afterward some snow. 31. Plenty of frogs and crows. April, a cold, snowy, wet month. May 4, 5, spring'-like. Some farmers fijiished sowino- oats. Some turned their steers out to pasture. Food not very abundant. 10 to 15, cold winds. Afterward pleasant. Corn planting began 17th. June dry and hot. Latter part of July warm arid dry. October 28. A rough, snowy, wintry day. November. Frequent snows, only a few pleasant days. December, not very cold. Some storms.

1874. January mild. February, a very n)ild, spring-like month. March 17, some commenced plowing and some sowed wheat in March, Third week very warm. Fourth week cold. April 5. A snow storm; depth of snow ten or twelve inches. 18. A hard snow storm. Young cattle and colts turned out to pasture, but not very much grass. April a very cold, backward month. May, cool and rather dry. June, very warm and dry. July, very warm and dry. August, very dry and warm. September, a warm and pleasant month. October, very warm and pleasant. November, first half pleasant, last half rough. December, warm, pleasant,

1875. January 9, below zero 20 degrees. 24. Spring-like. February. For a few days mercury below zero. 23 and 24, warm, rain and thunder. March, last week like April; grass starting. April. First week very fine weather. Last two weeks cold and dry. No grass. Frost not all out of the ground. May 15, 16, 17, frost each morning. June 13, a white frost. July 16 terrible wind, hard rain. July, a cold, wet month. Hay and grain damaged by rain and wind. September 18, 21, 23, white frosts. October 29, hard storm, terrible blow, November, mild, December, warm and muddy.

1876. Januiiry 1, 2, 3, very pleasant. Wild geese around. January, a mild, March-like month. February, warm and open month. March. A disagreeable, wet month, the worst travelling known. Almost impossible to get round. April, rather cold and wet. May, a rather warm, pleasant month. June, an unusually wet month. August, a warm, growing month. September, wet. October, more pleasant. November, an unpleasant month. December, cold; nearly all the month good sleighing.

1877. January, cold, dry, pleasant. Six weeks this winter of best sledding known here. February very pleasant. No rain or snow. Roads dry and dusty. Spring birds singing. March a cold, rough month. April pleasant. May a growing month, rather warm and w^et. June rather cool and pleasant. August neither dry nor wet; neither cold nor very hot. Corn good. Last of September very warm and dry. October a warm, wet month. November warm and wet. December a warm, cloudy, muddy month. Many plowed.

1878. January warm. February warm and muddy.. March a very warm month. Buds of fruit trees swelled, ready to open. April a warm, growing month. 19. Cattle turned to pasture. 20. Peach, cherry, plum, crab, and some apple trees in blossom. May 10. Thunder, rain, hail, and snow. May and June wet and cold months, July very warm, somewhat dry. August showery and warm. September w^arm, dry, pleasant. October very pleasant. Last of November pleasant and dry. Last half of December snug wintry weather, good sleighing. Snow ten or twelve inches deep.

mostly gone. We have had again six weeks of fine sledding. February. First nine days pleasant; then some storms and cool; 25tli wild geese appeared. March 1, robins; 5, hard thunder shower at night; 8, bluebirds, and all signs of spring; a mild month; 10, hard rain and thunder; 28, hard showers, thunder, and hail. First twenty days of April cold; the last ten quite warm. Much replanting of corn -in May. June rather cold. July a dry, ratiier warm month. August very dry. September rather cold and very dry. October a very warm, pleasant month. Novemljer medium. December mild. The year peculiar, having the extremes of cold and heat, of wet and dry. From 6th to 19th of November very warm for the season. The first part of October also very v/arm, mercury 85 degrees, and some days 90. In September 9, 10, frost Corn in low ground killed.

1880. January a warm and rather wet month. February a warm month; birds of all kinds, frogs, and all signs of spring abundant. March rather warm and muddy. April cool and wet. May warm and wet. June very wet. Last three weeks of July rather dry and hot. August warm and dry. September pleasant. October a very fine month for work, rather dry. November a cold, pleasant month; fine roads; ground white most of the time. First and last of December cold, not much snow. First of the year wet, the last part dry; mostly pleasant; crops fair and prices good.

1881. January mild. 30, mercury 32 to 40. Dry for the last ten weeks. February a cold month with thaws and freshets. Creeks high. March cold, snowy, and rough. April 7 to 11, frogs, spring-like. Last half very pleasant. May warm and dry. June rather cool, and dry. July warm and dry. August very warm and dry. September 5, mercury 98 degrees, 6, 96, 7, 94; afterwards showers and then hard rains. October a very wet month. November also very wet. December very warm and wet. The year very dry and very wet; very cold and very hot; extremes in the year and extremes m the crops.

1882. January mild. February a very mild month. March warm and muddy. April commenced warm. Last of April cool and wet. May cold and wet. Corn slow in coming up. June warm and wet. July a cool month. First half wet. August a bad hay and harvest month, but good corn weather. September good corn and hay weather. October growing weather. First days of November pleasant and warm. Afterward some rain. Mild. December, mild; roads generally good.

1883. January, a very cold month. February a wintry month. 24, sleet and rain. March 1, spring birds. 18, mercury 42 degrees in the morning. 16 about noon. A terrible wind from the north. March a pleasant, dry month. Roads dry as summer, ground frozen too much for plowing. April dry and pleasant. May a rather cold and rough month. June cool and showery. Many hard showers and much lightning and thunder in July. August a cool month. October a cold, wet montli. November mild and wet. December a rather mild month. Very mild and pleasant till the 15th. 16th snow, four inches deep.

1884. January a very cold month. 5. Mercury 17 degrees below at night. The coldest day here of which there has been as yet a record on Lake prairie. 20, thunder, lightning, and hail. February not a cold inontli, h.iirh water, and many light snow falls. March had all kinds of weather and of travelling. 15. Snow mostly gone and frost out of the ground. 18. Warm, frogs and crows around. 31. Plowing commenced. April cold and tvet till 20th; then dry and pleasant. May 15, corn planting commenced. 29, mercury 35. May a growing month on the whole. Last week dry. June a good growing month. July a favorable month for crops. August rather dry. September dry and warm. October, 1 to 4, very warm, mercury 84. 9. Mercury 35. First frost. 10, 38 degrees. Some frost. 15,36 degrees. 21, a hard, cold rain. 22, 30 degress. Cold wind. 25, 28 degrees, 26, hard, cold rain. 28, 26 degrees. On the whole a mild month. November 4, hard cold rain. 5, 32 degre.es. Ground white with snow, first of the season. 6 to 11, pleasant. 12 to 16, pleasant. \ 18, 25 degrees. 19 to 23, Indian summer. Noveml)er on the whole mild.

Thus far I am indebted, for the above weather record, to the weather journal kept by the. Rev. H. Wason of West Creek, whose diary has been kindly placed in my hands. I am not aAvare that any one else in the county,, since 1880, when the Cedar Lake records closed, has kept a daily journal. I have found the six little volumes, containing the record for the last twelve years, made up of entries^ just suited for my purpose ; and for the use of this 'West Creek journal I here retiarn acknowledgments and thanks. . , tOur first published record, commencing with the winter of 1834 and 1835, ends in the fall of 1872. The first of these r.e<jords, as mentioned above, contains the fol- lowing: December of 1872 cold. Saturday and Sunday before Christmas very cold. On December 23, the mercury went down to 30 degrees below zero. Sulphuric acid froze. (Probably it was not pure.) Turning to the West Creek journal I find this record for the morning of December 24: " 26 below zero. Coldest that I have a record of." The one entry evidently dates for the night, the night of the 23d, the other for the morning. A difference in locality of fifteen miles and a difference also in thermometers will readily account for this difference of four degrees in the two observations. Thus far then, up to December 31, 1884, our coldest mornings have been December 24, 1872, mercury from 26 to 30 below zero in Lake county, and January 5, 1884, when the mercury was from 3fi''^o 32 degrees below zero.

That record quoted above says, for 1873, "Heavy snow fall in January." June 24, " Exceedingly hot and still." July, " First week, wind and rain unusual. 2, strong wind; 3, strong wind. Rain both days. July 4, the greatest fall of water in an hour and a quarter ever known." It should have been added, here, in Crown Point. " The roads were like streams." None who saw Crown Point on that afternoon will be likely to forget that rain-fall. The " Besor," so called, has been like a raging river since that day; but boats could float then where not many of us, who were not here in that great cloud-burst, would expect to see such a depth of rushing water.

Weather Report

December 5, 1883, Wednesday, was for the time of the year an unusually delightful day. A heavy white frost covered the ground in the morning. A bright sunshine followed continuing all day. There was no wind. The warm air seemed to have absolutely no motion unless upward. The writer of this record enjoyed that day a ramble, from Crown Point by way of Cedar Lake to Creston, and so marked the weather particularly. At one house he saw some black and some maltese kittens basking in the noon sunshine and a hen with a dozen little chickens, a few days old, seeking food, and but for the long shadows, more than twice as long as the objects that cast them, and the appearance of the vegetation he might have thought the month was May. Passing over meadow land he saw myriads of spider webs shining in the sunlight. At 3 o'clock, on the bank of the lake, he enjoyed a scene of more than pictured beauty and richness, a rare mingling, such as one might watch long to see again, of spring, of autumn, and of winter beauty. A large part of the western portion of the lake was darkly smooth, like a metallic mirror. Not a breath of air was in motion. Southwestward, toward the low, warm sun, the surface of the lake was bright and silvercolored. From that position his quite well trained eyes could not tell which was water and which was ice. The optical illusion was perfect. A little imagination transformed the water tank on the western shore, with its shadow reflected perfectly from the dark, smooth surface, into some ice-bound craft, the brown and leafless? woods behind forraincx a perfect back-o^round for a picture. After leaving the grassy knoll on which this observer had been resting and enjoying, and reaching the central ice-house at the south of the. lake, the illusion vanished. It was evident then at a glance that the silver color was a sheet of ice, and that the dark center northward, which had looked like ice, was perfectly still, open water. As this observer passed southward on the railroad track, the stillness of -the atmosphere was almost oppressive; and when he reached Creston the red sun seemed to just touch the prairie horizon, and he stood and watched that sun till its last ray, even then almost too bright to gaze upon, passed out of sight, and that bright December day was ended.

. Pleasant, mild weather continued, with those o-iorious displays of red light on the western sky after sunset and on the eastern sky before sunrise, which baffled the knowledge of the men of science. For fourteen days in December farmers were busy plowing, and theii winter commenced. The sleighing was quite good. On Saturday morning, January 5, 1884, the mercury was below zero 28, 30, and some reported 32 degrees, being the coldest on record at Crown Point.

The Crown Point record continues: January 30. Up to this date sleighing. Now a January thaw. Cold weather soon returned. On Tuesday, February 19, a " blizzard" came down from Dakota. The mercury went some degrees below zero in March. From December 15, till March 11, almost continuous sleighing^. Some have not ceased at all to use their sleds; others for a few days have used wheels. March 11. Yesterday sleigh- ing; this afternoon streets all mud. March 21. The air is soft and mild, almost like the atmosphere in a green house. Some robins have come.

Dec. 1884. The week of the county teachers' institute has been of late years the cold vveek. Saturday and Sunday, December 13, and 14, were quite mild. Monday a light snow fell and the mercury began to sink Lteadily. Tuesday more snow fell and sleighs began to be used. It was very unpleasant out. AVednesday morning, December 17, was severe, the mercury some degrees below zero. Thursday, December 18, was the cold day. The following observations were taken by Jas. Cooper, our new oil merchant at Crown Point. F. 2 p. m. Below zero 8 degrees, at 8 o'clock, 10, at 4, 11; at 5, 13, at 6, 14, at 7, 16, at 8, 16, at 9, 15, at 10, 15, at 11, 14. Friday morning at 5 o'clock, below zero 10, 6 o'clock, 8, 7, 7, 8, 6, 9, 3, 9:30, at zero, 10, two degrees above, with a cold northwest wind blowing, and snow drifting. Bright sunshine. Christmas morning. Much less cold, air still. At ten o'clock mercury 14 degrees above zero. No bright sunshine. December 26. Less cold. At sunset 18 above zero. December 27. A thaw. Raininof. For a time a crust formed on the snow and ice formed on the branches of the trees. The thaw continued through the night, and Sunday. December 28, was rainy in the afternoon. Monday, December 29. The snow has nearly all diappeared. A cloudy, dark day. 30. The thaw continues. The roads are getting muddy. 31. Early this morning the weather changed. A strong cold westerly wind is blowing. The. frost is going into the ground rapidly. Mercury 20 at eleven o'clock. In Illinois and westward the mercury went down to 20 and even 30 below zero. Some more snow fell Friday and a little more Saturday, much more having fallen early in the v/eek in the sonth part of the county than here at Crown Point. The sleighing is now quite good; yet the snow is not deep. Wednesday, December 24. Several inches of light snow fell last night. Mercury about 10 above zero this morning. Zero at noon.

It was expected to insert here some full notices of the town of Hobart, of Hammond, and of Center township, but in other articles nearly all the record that is needful seems to have been already made.

Hobart, having been founded by George Earle, the father of John G. Earle of Chicago, will be found mentioned in "Lake County, 1834" as it was in 1872. In 1876 W. H. Rifenburg, one of the truly enterprising men of Hobart, prepared quite a lengthy " centennial " history of the town, which was, in whole, or in part, published in the Register.

Hammond, as such, was not till about 1874, and a brief record of that place will be given here, in addition to facts given elsewhere. (The work called "Porter and Lake," 1882, referring to " Lake County, 1834 to 1872," says of Hammond that " in 1872 this place did not receive even a passing notice" in that " brief history." But this is one of the mistakes of ignorance so often made, as the place did receive such a notice - see of that work page 150 - under the name of State Line Slaughter

Short Papers

For a number of years after other portions of the county were settled there seemed to be nothing to invite many families to the sand ridges and marshes where is now the city of Hammond. The Hohman family seems to have been the first in that locality, settling on the north side of the river in 1851. The second perhaps was the Sohl family, on the south side. The third was J. Drecker, about 1858. Members of these three families still remain, residing now in the city of Hammond and owning valuable real-estate. The fourth, so far as has been ascertained, was the Dutcher family, giving place to H. dayman. Then the Booth, Miller, Goodman, Olendorf, and Wolf families. And then the company of men from the eastward started the State Line Slaughter House.

The Sohl family, until a few years ago, were: William Sohl, born in Germany, who died about eight years ago; his wife, Mrs. Louisa T. Sohl, born in London, who died some six years ago; Miss Hattie C. Sohl, who died three years ago; and the present members of the family residing in Hammond, Mrs. Louisa Bell, who has three sons, Willie, Charlie, and Claude; Miss Alice Sohl; Henry W. Sohl, one of the alderman of the city; and Ernest Sohl, not yet twenty-one years of age.

William Goodman, the father and William H. Goodman, his son, both now living at Hammond, have been residents here for more tlian twenty years. The younger

William H. Goodman has had a lar^e experience in regard to the peculiarities, the sand ridges, and the tangled, marshy wilds of this region. He has worked in the slaughter house from almost the commencement of beef exportation here. He takes an interest in the Sunday-school and chvir(;h work here, is a very pleasant, kindly man, and has with his wife and little children one of the pleasant homes of Hammond.

The slaughter house was opened about 1869, George H. Hammond of Detroit with others forming a company. At first no day of rest was observed, work at the slaughter house going on seven days in the week; but since the village that soon commenced has grown into a town and city, and schools, and Sunday-schools and churches have been organized and carried on successfully, Sabbath work has ceased. The growth for some time was not rapid, but in a few years quite a town came into exis- . tence. At the slaughter house some three thousand head of cattle are butchered in a week, the beef being sent to New England and to Europe. Some other, in- - dustries have sprung up. There are now three churches, one .Catholic, one German Lutheran, and one Methodist Episcopal. The dwelling of M. M. Towle, with, its =7 green house and fine lawn^ is the most showy and im-_ ..._ posting private edifice in the- city. And next are the dwelling houses of T. Hammond, of Superintendent.,-,, Fogig^' and of T. Dunk. The new store room, of M. M. Towle is. ninety-four feet by seventy-five. The postofficewhas "four hundred and three boxes. .......

At the lumber yard wharf, where schooners unload, having come up the river from South Chicago, eleven vessels of considerable size have been seen at one time. A large distil lerj has been erected near the lumber yard, and near it a large cattle barn accommodating nine hundred head of cattle. Just south of the draw-bridge is the Hammond skating rink, eighty feet by one hundred and forty on the outside. These are some of the particulars that show what has been the grov/th of this place from a wilderness to a city.

At the head of this list will stand, of course, the name of Solon Robinson. Very soon after his settlement here he commenced to write for the Cultivator, and soon wrote the story called " The Will," and afterward other stories and at length books, until his name as a writer was widely known in the country. A number of others since then have contributed more or less to various publications. Judge Ball of Cedar Lake, at that time one of the largest bee raisers in the county, wrote articles on bees. W. A. Cla.rk prepared for the Crown Point Register thirteen excellent historical papers on early Spanish-American history, and afterward five historical sketches on early French discovery and travel in North America. Rev. A. Y. Moore and his wife although residents here for only a few year«, may both be named among our writers of books. Among contributors of general articles and lately for medical articles may be named, as wielding among our female writers a ready pen, Dr. L. G. Bedell, a daughter of Solon Robinson. x\s writers of short stories for literary papers, Miss Cross or " Peggy Slowboy" of Lowell and Mrs. Humphrey of Crown Point. The latter was a correspondent of Miss Augusta Evans of Mobile, and is now a resident of Colorado. Both of these ladies received pay for their stories. A youthful story writer, a young girl in her teens, is Miss Alice Palmer, a native of the county, and probal)ly in that line the most successful girl in the county. Her uncle, John Underwood, a resident in the county for many years, but now living in Kansas, published in 1883 a poem entitled " El Muza," which was perhaps planned in this county. It is an interesting Spanish tale or legend in smooth, good verse, in nine cantos, making a little volume of 148 pages. This may be safely called the first long poem yet published by a Lake county citizen. El Muza was the leader of the Moorish forces at the time of the capture of Grenada by Ferdinand and Isabella; and to one fond of those old Moorish and Spanish legends the poem is attractive. Quite a little army of newspaper contributors has grown up among us. As one of this number, who has achieved a local reputation, may be named Leslie Cutler of Creston, one of our younger citizens who has circumnavigated the globe.

By Baetlett Woods

The War was over. Mexico as a basis of peace ceded a large area of territory. Should these new acquisitions be slave or free? The time had come to make a determ- ined stand against the aggressions of the slave power. The year 1848 opened with ominous forbodings of a struggle. The Democratic Party had become the mere instrument of Calhoun and the Southern leaders. The Whig Party made no decisive blow for freedom, was trimming and vacillating, dominated by the spirit of concession and compromise. Neither of the old parties represented the anti-slavery sentiment, and so a new party sprung into existence - the Free Soil Party. " No more slave territory, no more slave states," was the answer of this new party to the demands of Slavery. The excitement was intense. Earnest citizens from both parties, Whigs and Democrats, joined in the movement. Free soil, free speech; free labor, and free men, was their campaign cry.

Early in September bills were posted all over this county stating: " All those opposed to the further extension of slavary and who are in favor of the admission of California as a free state are requested to meet at the court house in Crown Point on Saturday, September 16, 1848." The day for the meeting came, and the log court house' was well filled. Many were that have escaped my memory. Judge Clark, Alexander McDonald, Wellington Clark, Alfred Foster, Dr. Pettibone, Luman A. Fowler, William Pettibone, John Wood of Deep River, Bartlett Woods, Jonas Rhodes, Samuel Sigler, David K. Pettibone, and Dr. Wood of Lowell were there. I thmk all I have named were present. Judge Clark was chosen chairman and Wellington Clark and Bartlett Woods secretaries of the meeting. The meeting was quite enthusiastic. Speeches were made and a committee appointed who planned a aeries of meetings throughout Lake county. The following is copied from one of the original notices, now in my possession, and shows something of the feeling of the men who first started the free soil movement in Lake county:

Free Soil And Feeedom

" The undersigned will address the citizens of West Creek on the issue of free soil and equal rights, against slavery and aristocracy, at the Methodist meeting house, on Thursday the 5th day of October next - of Cedar Creek, at the house of Leonard Stringham, on Friday the 6th - of Eagle Creek, at the place of holding elections, on Saturday the 7th - of Winfield township, on Friday the 13th, at the place of holding elections - and of Ross township, at the house of S. B. Straight, in Centerville, on Saturday the 14th - at each place at 1 o'clock p. m. Now come. Come one and all, and see what a horrible demon that free soil principle is. You shall not be injured. Come out and learn whether it be McDonaldism or the Republicanism of 1776. Sept. 20, 1848. BARTLETT WOODS,

The meetings were held and were well attended, and at the Presidential election in November the free soil vote showed plainly that the issue had been met and that a new era had begun in our national politics.

From that time on Lake county's free soil idea grew in strength. It was the germ from which the Republican Party sprung. Its large Republican vote attests this. Its vote for Fremont, for Lincoln, and for Grant and Colfax, and f(3r Colfax all through his congressional

Note. - The court house of that day was built of logs, two stories high, the lower part used for a jail when needed, the upper part for a " Court House." It stood on the Bouth-west corner of the present Court Honse Grounds. B. W.

The attempt made in 1872 to blow up the county safe, which then contained a large amount of money, is mentioned in " Lake County, 1834." A successful attempt to obtain the contents of the county treasury, not then so securely kept, was made June 18, 1854. The treasury was entered by some one; the vault rifled; the money, "upwards of thirty-five hundred dollars," and valuable records, were taken out; some of the papers were found in the grove, west of town, but the burglars were not discovered. The date griven above is on the authority of the Indiana Legislature, as found in an act "approved March 2, 1855." This act, for the relief of treasurer, may be found on page 255 of some editions of our Statutes. Some ijive a different date, but it would seem that the official date must be correct.

The residence of John "Wood of Danvers, Massachusetts, located in 1835 in a choice portion of the Deep River valley, became with its mill seat and flouring mill the center for a family village. It has usually borne only the name of the post-office, Deep River, but of late it has been named as above, by members of the family, Woodvale. One of the first mills of the county was there built, a saw mill and soon after a grist mill. Wood's Mill became generally known in Lake and Porter Counties. In 1876 ihe present brick mill-building was erected. It is now owned and carried on by Nathan Wood and Son. It contains two runs of stone and eight sets of rolls, and can grind twelve bushels an hour.

Augustus Wood opened a store near the bridge over the mill-race many years ago, but removed at length to Hobart where he still is engaged in business.

While for almost fifty years there has been some village life around the mill, great care was taken by the owner of that valley region that no saloon should be opened near the mill, and until late years Woodvale was free from saloon influence.

George Wood, the third son, erected about eleven years ago a cheese and butter factory, which has been in successful operation every summer since its erection. He obtains cream from a distance of ten miles. This season he has made daily about five hundred pounds of butter and three hundred pounds of cheese. Next season he expects to make only butter, and to average, in the best of the butter-making season, one thousand pounds each day.

On the east side of the river, near the county line, on quite an eminence, is the Woodvale cemetery where now the dust reposes of members of three generations of the Wood family. Among other memorial stones are those containing the following records: Mary Ann, wife

Some soldier graves are also there. Names, Luther Smith, George Maxwell, and Rice C. Thompson. All died in 1865. The one last named was 18 years old.

Portions of this county, containing wet, marsh land, of little or no value for cultivation, have proved to be very valuable to their owners on account of the large crops of cranberries produced, one of the finest, perhaps most valuable, of the wild fruits of the North Temperate Zone. The years 1851 and 1852 were noted for a large cranberry yield; and large quantities of these berries are gathered nearly every year. At first, of course, they were free for all who would wade into the water and " scoop" them up. The rakes, so called, used for getting them justify the expression quoted above. As one illustration of the value of this berry crop, the following is given : One of the earlier setttlers saw that there would probably be a good crop on a certain year. He had an opportunity to buy forty acres of this marsh or "swamp" land, for which he was to pay two hundred dollars. He made the purchase; the crop proved to be large, the price was also quite high, five dollars a bushel; and he paid for the land and cleared besides fifteen hundred

V. Holton and - Sherman went from a point near the bridges over Deep River a mile from Crown Point, in a canoe or "dug-out," to Chicago in 1841. They wore on the way some three weeks. They took on the way five otter and sold in Chicago fur amounting to ^150.

When putting on the roof of the Rockwell-house in Crown Point V. Holton and others saw cominof out from Brown's Point and passing out across the prairie to School Grove a drove of deer, one boundini^ after the other, according to their best count, in number one hundred and eleven.

Long Liyed Animals

Martin Nichols of Plum Grove, who is very kind in his treatment of animals, has a high-spirited mare that will not bear the touch of the whip, but is gentle and safe, that is now twenty-two years old. Animals of this line have been in the hands of the same family for more than seventy years. The mother of this one lived to be twenty-six years old, and the grandmother twenty-six years or more. It pays financially to give kindly treatment to the domestic animals. If they are dumb brutes, they are our fellow creatures, and should never receive brutal treatment.

The Post-oflBce Department has made some increase in these last twelve years. The gross receipts of the Crown Point office for the year ending last Juno, were

$2,228.50. The expenses for the same time were ^1,325. Earned for the Government' 8903.50. The bank facilities for doin^ business have made a great difference in the money order department. The postoffice at Hobart has one hundred and fifty-six boxes and drawers. The office at Crown Point has three hundred and twenty-eight. The post-office at Hammond has four hundred and three boxes.

The finest collection of American antiquities in this county has been made by W. W. Cheshire, an enthusiastic arch^oloo-ist, and member of the Indiana Arch. Sk)ciety. In the department of arrow and spear heads Dr. Herbert S. Ball has a fine collection, and in purely human remains he has probably the best in the county. Of fossil shells the finest are probably in the possession of T. H. Ball. In the cabinet of W. W. Cheshire are some three hundred specimens of stone implements collected in this county, some having been obtained in ©very township. Among the stone axes are some very fine specimens, one weighing six and three-fourth pounds, and one being only two inches long and one inch and a half broad, a miniature or toy axe. Of the axes there are, collected in the county, about two dozen. Of arrow heads there are about one hundred. Some of these are remarkable for beauty and regularity. One is of chalcedony, of the variety called agate, one and fiveeighths of an inch wide, and two and six-eighth inches long. One of copper, apparantly molded, four and three-eighth inches long, and one inch and one-fourth

This is of bone, nicely made, is considered by some of us to be of Esquimaux workmanship, and is nine inches long, a half inch wide, slightly curved, and has four sides or faces. The shaft that was evidently inserted in the arrow is about one inch long and is- finely wrought to a point. This is a relic or curiosity that money would not buy. In this cabinet is also a remarkable stone of a pebbly appearance, very nicely worked, convex and eggshaped on one side, with a crease cut in the center of the convexity, the under surface concave. The size is about that of a common hen's eofg", althoug-h not so lonor for its thickness. The stone has been pronounced by the archaeologist of the Smithsonian Institute unique. This also money would not purchase. There are here also specimens from near Hebron, just out of our county, of mastodon or mammoth bones and teeth; and zeuglodon bones, brought by T. H. Ball from South Alabama, On the farm now owned by J. P. Spalding, near the north-vp'est corner of section 33, township 33, range 8 west, are the remains of two old mounds. They have been plowed over for more than forty years, but human skeletons, arrow heads, and pottery, are still unearthed, as the plowshare goes deeper, year by year. The larger one was about forty feet in diameter. The pottery found is of two varieties. The location was oriorinally a rid^e or headland of the grove (Orchard Grove) running into the marsh land. In the fall of 1883 two young men of Creston dug out a skeleton, probably of an Indian, from the north mound at the south end of Cedar Lake. The skeleton was found in a sitting posture and was only about six inches under the surface of the ground.

Geese And Ducks

The wild geese were in great abundance here for the last time, probably, in the spring of 1882. A certain knoll, containing about seven acres of land, southward from Plum Grove, was that spring very attractive to the Kankakee geese. From four o'clock in the morning until about nine o'clock different flocks would arrive at this grassy knoll until iome five acres would be literally covered with these beautiful water-fowls, apparently as thickly crowded as they well could stand. How many thousands it would take to thus cover one acre has not here been computed. One sportsman succeeded in shooting fifty-nine in one day, wary as they were and inaccessible as was their resting place.

The south-east township of the county, having about twenty-seven sections in the Kankakee region marsh lands, swamp and islands, and nearly twenty-nine sec- tions of high prairie and grove, has these five peculiarities: that it contains no store, no village, no saloon, no post-ofBce, and no church. And there runs across, unless just cutting the north-east corner, no railroad. For an industrious, intelligent, prosperous, and wealthy farming community it is equal to any in the county.

Le Roy

The station bearing the above name, formerly called Cassville is a good market for farm products. There are two principal buyers, S. Love, and John Wilson; and it is said that better prices are paid there than at Crown Point. On one day this fall it is said that one hnndred wagon loads of hay went into Le Roy. The two finest looking houses of the village are, the home of the Beach family, and the house lately built by S. liOve. This house covers an area of nine hundred and sixty-eight feet. In one room are eight doors.

The first sailing on Cedar Lake was done, probably, by Job Worthington of Massachusetts, in a small Indian canoe, and using an umbrella for the sail, in 1837. But the first " snow white sail " that was given to " the gale" was spread, without much doubt, by T. H. Ball, then a boy, and his uncle, H. H. Horton, a merchant from New York. To that uncle the credit belongs of rigging a sail and fitting a rudder to a large row-boat, and sailing on the lake in either 1838 or 1844.

in ] 835. To no other one can its erection with good reason be attributed. In that cabin the editor of this volume spent his first night in Lake county in the summer of 1837.

One of our lawyers, a German by birth, the Hon. J. Kopelke, is one of our best educated young men and a good writer in English and German. He has in his library and reads with facility in their original language the Pandects of Justinian.

The principal builder and contractor of Crown Point is now Thomas B. Lee. He has lately built the county house, Mrs. Biggs' residence, and is building the Presbyterian church. Like others of our citizens he had some thrilling experiences in the war. He was in the battle of Shiloh, a member of a full company in an Arkansas regiment. His company went into battle eighty strong, and only fourteen marched out. Five others were afterwards borne wounded from the field. The other sixty-one men were never seen more.

Probably the best historical and theological library yet collected in the county was that of the Rev. George Woodbridge of Ross, who was eighty years of age in October, 1872, and who died but a few years ago. His library, containing some six hundred choice volumes was divided this year among his children.

Sand Ridge

Hobart. A road runs, a little north of the crest of this ridge, due west for perhaps fortj rods, then straight, bearing a little north of west, four miles in all, to Lansing. There are three cuts now through this ridge, the one at Highlands made for the Chicago & Atlantic railroad; one a mile westward, where, some thirty years ago, & narrow ditch was dug through to let the water of the low lands on the south pass to the Calumet, which ditch was worn by the running water until now at the crest of the ridge it is about seventy feet down to the torrent of water that rushes through in spring time, as though in a mountain gorge, and the opening at the top is by measurement one hundred and twenty feet wide; and the third cut is near the State line, made for the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad. This ridge of sand extends westward for some distance into Illinois. From its summit near the State line the view extends, without obstruction southward to Dyer, and off as far as the eye can reach upon the prairie region of Illinois. Along this ridge was an old stage road from the old. Liverpool westward.

In the fall of 1856 Chauncey Wilson became a resident on this ridge, on section 19, where Mrs. Julia A. Wilson and two sons, Charles J. Wilson and Robert L. Wilson, still reside. Ira O. Dibble was a few years ago a large land holder in this part of the county. A school house was built in this neighborhood in which the first school was taught by Miss Chloe Green in 1857.

twenty-five members. The first meeting of the school year was held at Crown Point, the second at Hammond, the third at Hobart, and the fourth at Lowell, The year closed with seventy-three members and one honorary member. The first meeting of the present year and the first anniversary was held at Crown Point in the Public School Building November 22, 1884.

From the report of the examiner, who was then James H. Ball, the report of the first regular official school visitation, as that report from week to week was published in the Register, the following is taken: