Lake County, Indiana - The whole text, 1884 (part 1 of 8)

Historical Papers Prepared Foe This Volume

The members of the org'anization known hs the Old Settlers' x\ssociation of Lake County, Indiana, send forth this semi-centennial volume, through their Historiea] Secretary, with greetings to all their friends, and to the strangers also whom it may reach.

Those who read its pages will find various histori(,'al papers grouped together, in w^hich they will find, it is hoped, much to interest and instruct: and to those of the coming generation, who may reach the close of the second fifty years of our settlement, these papers are specially commended with the hope that they wiU duly appreciate, in 1934, the work done for them and theirs by the pioneers and earlier settlers of Lake.

I V. Other Records Axd Papers

Proba})lv the first reference to a ''semi-centennial celebration of the settlement of our county " was made twelve years ao"0, near the close of a former volume, "Lake County, 1834 to 1872." It was then considered sure that in the ordinary course of events there would be this year a special '- gathering of the sons and daughters * of Lake.''

The Old Settlers' Association of the county, as was natural and appropriate, took the lead in arranging for such a celebraticm. They appointed a committee of arrangements consisting of George AYilley, O. Dinwiddle, H. Dickinson, Charles Marvin, Frank Gibson, Nathan Wood, H. Keilman, Augustus AYood, Joseph Small, Jacob Wise, and S. W. Shuneman, which committee reported at the annual meeting of the association in 1S83.

1. That we hold next full in the early autumn of 1884, a CELEBRATION, Commemorating the early settlement of our count}-, and reviewing its 50 years of growth.

3. That we invite to take part with us in such celebration not only all of the present citizens of the county, but all those who have gone forth from our borders and have become citizens in other counties and states; and especially all the old pioneers of Lake and their descendants, and all who were l)orn in I.,ake coimtv and are now citizens in other counties: and that we extend U» the pioneer settlers a?id their descendants tlie hi*spittilities of this Association: ;ind that in thus invitiuii- home for a KEL'^'iON all the sons and dauirhters of Lake, we assure to tliem all a share in tlie well known hospitalit}' of tJie citizens of our county.

That such invitation l)e issued in the name of this Association, through a. special committee of invitation, making use of th<' best available means of c<min.iunication with, those whom we invite. Committee of imitation : George Willey, James H. Luther, Bartlett Woods, Amos ilornor, T. A. Wason, John Brown, T. Serjeant, T. H. Ball, IL Beckmau, Mrs. M. J. Dinwiddle, Mrs. Eliza Marvin, Mrs. J. Fislier, Parley A. Banks.

4. That tor the purpose of securing a full review of our tift\' years of history and growth, we recommend the assignment of , the following subjects to the individuals named, requesting them to prepare caref ull}' written articles, historical papers and essa^-s, on the*subjects assigned, that the whole may be ready foi- publication in a SEiTi-CEKTEXxrAL Volume, which volume may transmit to succeeding generations the memorials of the celebration and the gathered results of our first fifty years of growth.

."). That for the instruction and entertainment of the young l)eople of the county and to recall to our own minds more vividly those ho-;pitable days of squatter and frontier life, we rec[uest .some of the old settlers to exhibit, in tents or cabins, pioneer life with "the latch string out; " and also request the exhibition of old implements of household and agricultural use.

Indiana, hereby invite all the pioneers of Lake county, now living, and all the descendants of the pioneer settlers, their sons and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law; and all who were born in Lake county or who have been at any time citizens of the county, wdierever they may be now residing; and also our neighbors and friends in Porter county and Illinois, who were sharers with us in pioneer experiences; to meet with us at Crown Point, on Wednesday and Thursday, September 3d and 4tli, 1884, to hold with us a re-union; and to aid in celebrating this fiftieth year of the settlement of our county. All the present citizens of the county, who are not members of our Association, are also hereby invited to take part and to aid in this our lirst semi-centennial celebration. And to them and to all, to all who are now residents of other counties and states, who may then meet w itli us, we are authorized to extend an assurance of a cordial and a hearty welcome, and of a generous share in those hospitalities wliich the representatives of our early settlers know so well how to give.

Appropriate exercises have been arranged for this celebration of the settlement of our county and this review of 50 years of growth; and room will also be given for the incidents and recollections that may be brought from distant regions of the South and West, as for the first time Lake county invites all her sons and daughters home.

Appointed as Marshal, S. Allen. Also, appointed John Fisher as member of this Committee in the place of George Willey, deceased, and Henry Sohl of Hammond as a member for the new North township.

Ii. The Gelebratioe

On Wednesday, September 8d, the morning dawned as pleasantly as could be desired. The early and even the late autumn is usually very pleasant around the southern curve of Lake Michigan. At sunrise the town bells were rung and the stars and stripes w^ere unfurled to the breeze on the top of the court-house.

The people from town and country began to gather in due season at the Fair Ground. A fresh breeze sprang up which made speaking in the open air more difficult: but which sent the waters in the little lake on the tf rounds, known as Fancher's Lake, dancing merrily in the l)right sunshine.

The officers of the (31d Settlers Association became officers of tlie Semi-centennial Celebration without any formal vote, and the public exercises were opened at the stand in the grove, in due form, at about 10:30 a. m.

Prayer was offered by the Rev. T. H. Ball, as the acting chaplain of the Association, the assembly joined in singing Dr. Smith's beautifvil hymn "My Country 'tis of Thee," words of greeting and of welcome were spoken by the President, some letters from invited guests were read, and then commencing at 11:30 the following oration was delivered by the Rev. T. H. Ball, who

Semi-centennials, centennials, l)i-centeiniials, and quarfo-centennials are common in our day. N^ e luive our wooden, tin, crystal, silver, o-olden., and diamDiul v/eddings. Pleasant, instructive gatherino-s all, not only reminding us of the rapid flight of time; l)ut leading us to cultivate our social natures more fully, in tliis actixe, earnest, inventive, practical, and money-making age. We need in this, our Intensely busy American life, in this wonderful land, where cities like Cliicago grow in a single life time, where such a net work of rail -roads as now in every direction crosses our country, can be constructed in fifty years, w'here millionaires are to be found in every large city, and commercial, agricultural, and manufacturinof interests have unfolded within fifty years beyond all former example in the world's liistory: - we need the influence of laro-e social p-atherinu-s t<.) soften and enlarge our hearts: w^e need the gatherings themselves to call us from our close application to business and professional life back to the still living facts th.at we have social natures and can meet together and enjoy existence under the blue dome of heaven siniplv'^ as human beings, bound together by the large ties of humanity, of common brotherhood, of our own dear and glorious land. In the older, or rather the younofer days, in what some are pleased to call the classic lands of the old world, social life had characteristics like our own, but was developed and cultivated in very different forms. The large assemblies in ancient Greece were called together to witness athletic contests, to hear new j)oems and his- tories, to look upon new works of art, at the Olympic, the Pythian, the Isthmian, and the Xemean o-ames. In ancient Rome the hundreds of thousands met to look upon triumphal processions, as some new oontjueror passed in his chariot with his splendid retinue alono- the streets of republican and then imperial Rome; or to witness in the immense amphitheaters gladiatorial and wild beast conflicts. And then largely the artisans, and the tillers of the soil, and the domestics in the homes were serfs and slaves. Yet further east and further back in tlie world's history, the same ruling classes and the great multitudes met for feasting, for revelrj, and for the corrupting rites of a voluptuous and often cruel religion, where human blood was freely shed. The same sun tliat shines down upon us, sh(me, and with no more I^rightness, on the yellow Tiber when the mighty multitudes assembled in old Rome, and upon the blue waves of the !)right ^Egean sea when the great crowds were gathered in ancient Greece, and on the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the mighty Ganges, when unknown thousands met in palace court-yards, around spacious temples, in consecrated but impure groves, in the long wide streets, to hold their festivals, to offer human victims in sacrifice to the sun, or to see multitudes crushed l)eneath the ponderous Juggernaut car. No brighter Avas the sunshine "on the hills of Greece'' when '-Homer sang and Sappho wept," than over our broad prairies now; "the long gleam upon the ancient Nile" blazed in no "richer radiance to the noon when history's old father gazed upon it," than on Lake Michigan year by year it flashes now upon the dancing waves: but a far different form of civilization is now niakino- colossal strides ^over all the world, and the thousands meet to view the results and celebrate the triumphs of modern enterprise and art and skill, of brain and muscle, in the peaceful avocations of a richer and a nobler life. As American freemen, American peers of our mig-hty realm, without a sei'f, without a slave, without a titled noble, we meet to-day, citizens of this county of Lake, to review the results, to celebrate the achievements of our first fifty years of existence as an American community. It is not fifty years of civil life, but of social, settler, civilized life, that we this year commemorate.

In a country as large as ours, consisting, in states, territories, and island possessions, of some fiftv large divisions, there must ])e many interesting, attractive, and peculiar localities. The northwestern county of Indiana, which bears the name of Lake, situated, as it is, so near the fourth, we might say third large city of the country, has at least this peculiarity; that no direct line of railroad from Maine to Florida, on all the Atlantic coast, nor from the states this side, nor from a state between Lake Michigan and the (jrulf, except a small part of western Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, can enter the city of Chicago without passing across the limits of this county of Lake. Nearly every railroad passenger then and nearly all the freight, entering and leaving Chicago, to and from three and twenty states, must cross our borders. Our sand hills and our prairies may well be known to half the country. Small as is our territory compared with the whole land, a little more than one eight thousandth part, it is yet large enough to hold an army of more than 1,500,000,000 (1,548,800, 000) or more than all the inhabitants now upon all the earth, and give to each one, for standing room, nine square feet. Without a mountain, with no large hills, except the sand bluffs of the shore of Lake Michigan, made up of woodland and groves, of prairie and marsh land, it is naturally well watered and sufficiently fertile for all the needs of civilized man. With one great lake to wash its northern borders, and half a dozen small ones, furnishing a home for fish and fowl, scattered withiii, with a small yet noted river skirting its southern limits, and a double river crossing from aast to west and from west to east, with a still smaller river bearing away floods of snow water in the spring time, with three large creeks, five smaller ones, and a few brooks and branches, with from five hundred to a thousand little marshes, grassy, Avith clear water, one or more to each s<piare mile, no Indian could have needed a better home for fish, for wild fowl, and for fur. Sixteen miles from east to west and about thirty -two fi*om north to south, with some grand lake views, some fine woodland scenery, and some beautiful prairie landscape views, over verdure as rich as grows in the north Mississippi Valley; such is our county, the land whose earliest settlement to-day we commemorate, over which, as a county, in Mediaeval Europe, an earl, a count, or a count palatine, would have exercised dominion. A county is an earldom no longer, but a portion of a state or kingdom, a shire, separated from the rest for its own administration of justice, and f(n- carrying on some separate civil affairs, having its own county courts, its shire-town, and its court house.

Indian title, so called, was here extiniruished. It is fitting to-day that we should give to them, our immediate predecessors, some attention and some thought. Some of their remains and of their rude arts will be here presented before your eves. Questions of deep interest are connected with that singular race called the North American Indians. How came they on this continent? When did tliey come? Did they descend from one of the sons of Noah? Did they exterminate a still earlier race, the Mound Builders? But all these questions must be left now unanswered. Our pioneer settlers found here the Pottawatomies; not, as far as we know them, the most advanced, most warlike, certainly not the most noted, of the hundreds of the tribes of Red men. They could trap, hunt and hsh; they could fight, could dance, and smoke the pipe of peace; they had been in contact with French missionaries and fur traders and with representatives of the American Government; they had known for a few generations, some of the virtues and some of the ^ices of the Whites, and had it is feared, learned the latter more rapidly than the former. They were still, in disposition and modes of life, not far removed from those wlio had seen La Salle and Hennepin, Marquette and Joliet, and their associates and followers. If not wholly '-'-untutored," they were still the Red Men of the wilds. Here were their hunting grounds, here some of their favorite trapping resorts; and here we found their trails, their dancing floors, their village encampments, their garden spots, their small vineyards, their burial grounds. Some interesting and some beautiful incidents of these, our predecessors, have been preserved elsewhere; and our latest interest

The Celebration

" Who shall deem the spot unblessed Where Nature's younger children rest, Lulled on theii sorrowing mother's breast ? Deem ye that mother loveth less These bronzed forms of the wilderness iShe foldeth in her long caress V *

Althouirh one burial mound, containinuf either Indians or Mound Builders, has been accidentlv despoiled of its lonuf ao^o deposited human forms, I am glad that the later Indian burial place still lies undisturbed beside the crystal waters of the Lake of Cedars. No true-hearted American can wish to forg-et that on this s(h1 of North America once roamed, once lived and loved, the Red children of this New World. Sharina as w« have done in that fearful but providential work of the exterminatioti of such larore numbers of this sincrular race, we will also share in handing down their memory and some knowdedofe of their arts and virtues to the o-enerations of the future. And so we come to the White race, the pioneers and the settlers who began fifty years ago to enter these, then trulv, beautiful Indian and trapper wilds.

Without (loul)t the first white explorers here were French, who as earlv as 1679 passed in canoes down the Kankakee, and some of whom, the noted, resolute, illfated La Salle, with three other Frenchmen and an Indian hunter, passe<l on foot across our borders in the -3 spring of H580; among- whose records of travel is found for the first time the name of Chekagou,""' as applied to that little stream, then no doubt, of limpid water like our little Calumet, on which is now- a great city. The command over this whole region from I^ake Michigan to the Spanish possessions in Mexico was coriferred by the king of France upon T^a Salle in 1684, two hundred years ago. And until the treaty at Paris in 1768 our region formed a part of the large French possessions in North America. French settlements were made in various places; but none, so far as appears, within our limits. Soon after the war of the Revolution the pioneer explorers from the Atlantic coast began their long westward march, a march that led soon to the settlement of Ohio, southern. Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, and which was not to cease till their descendants crossed the great rivers and the Rocky Mountains and reached the shores of the Pacific, filling up at length all that lay between. But only the Indians, trappers, and fur-traders were here as sojourners on om- s(ji] until after the purchase from the Pottawatomies in 1882. We date our beginning of actual settlement in 1834-; yet there is now evidence, which has lately come to light, that at least one family, the first to open a farmei-'s home in what is now Lake co\inty, spent the winter of 1838 and 1884 on section six, in township thirtv-five, range seven west, now in the township of Hobart, formerly in that of Ross. The name of this pioneer was William Ross. The Bennett family had opened a way side inn near the mouth of the Calumet, the site afterward selected for Indiana City, in 1838, on the lake shore stage road, opened it is believed as a stage line this vear. Another log-cabin stage hotel was opened in the spring of 1S34 by the Berry family, the house being afterward kept by Hannah Berrv, the name and lof-alitv probably being preserved in Berrv Lake. That the Ross faniilv aetuallv spent here the winter of 18'3'^ 1 assert upon the unquestionable authority of a most credible and yet living witness, James Hill, who visited that family in their cabin in February, 1834. On the way he stop})ed at Benjamin ^IcCarty's in Porter county. He met a gang of Indians between McCartys and the Ross place. The winter was cold. He found, in exploring the region, a few wigwams of Indians near the mouth of Deep river and on the Caluinet, and going into one wigwam to vvarm himself he noticed particularly that one squaw had a playful voujig child about a year old. These Indians could talk but little Encrlisli. Their wiowams were made of mattinoplaced around poles plajited in the groimd, and the door way, in this winter time, was protected by a blanket. Tliis William Ross came froni Decatur county, Indiana. He raised a crop* of corn on Terra C<jupee Prairie in the summer of 18HH. His fandly were not all with him, as his children w<M-e then grown up to manhood and woniauhocul. He was afterwards killed by the fallino- <jf a bee-tree. 1 have given these particulars thus minutely because some of our piojieers have doubted the statement that any pioneer farmer resided in Lake county so early as this winter of 1833.

[n the summer of 1834, fifty full years after the <-lose of that Avar which extinguished the claims of England to this region over whicli for eighty years the Frencl) iiehl a nominal control, and which Eno-land held for about twenty years, fifty years utro this past summer, surveyors under tlie United States of'<)vernment, but including- no youncr Washington aniono- them, laid out our lands m the usual United States divisions of townships and sections. These townships we call '-'-congressional,"" each containing thirty-six sections or thirtysix square miles. These surveyors found Iiere no boarding houses, no beds, no tables and chairs, no butchers' shops, no provision stores. They found wild, open prairie and leafy groves, with here and there an Indian encampment, squaws and children and o-razing ptonies. So their provisions and simple furniture as well as camp equipage and instruments this surveying }>arty carried with them. Next came those whom we Ijave learned to call ^ claim seekers,"" men seeking locations on the newly surveyed Government lands. Among these we have the now historic names of Wilijam B. Crooks, making his claim, near the home of William Ross, in June of 1834, and in company with him Samuel Millee, these selecting " Timber and Mill Seat," and some of the foundation timber of Miller's Mill "" can be seen on this fiftieth year down in the clear water of Deep River. AIso-^Winchell from La Porte county, who commenced a mill near the mouth of Turkey Creek. Then we have Richard Fancher, and Robert Wilkinson with two nephews, who coming from the Wabasli valley just fifty years ago this very month, passed over all the central portions of our county, finding no settlers, seeing no Indians, the first named, Richard Fancher, who alone still remains among us, eighty-four years of age, making his claim around yonder little lake, including this very land which is now the Fair Ground of oin- county, fiiuliijo- afterward that unfortxniately for liim on this noted section Seventeen had been laid an Indian float." We have next William Butler from the eastward, and then Browx and two Horxors, David and Thomas, fnjin the Wabash region, Thomas Childers and Solon Kobinsox, Henry Wells and Lumax A. Fowler, Jesse Pierce and David Pierce, and Robert WiLKixsox of Deep River. Most of these became this same vear or early in the next actual settlers. And these were followed year by year by manv others, whose names time will not allow me to mention, until in 1840, with a population of 1468, our pioneer settlement, according to the rules of the Old Settlers' Association, closed. The land sale had passed and we were "squatters" no longer. Yet year after vear other settlers came, until from two households in 1838, and ten or twelve in 1834, two hundred in 1837, and six hundred in 1847, we now count about four thousand families. In 1837 two hundred and forty-nine persons were assessed for taxation, twenty-three of whom were over age for poll tax. In 1846 there were assessed six hundred; and in 1871 more than eighteen hundred.

Well did some one say that the nations of Europe were sifted to obtain the seed for planting the early American colonies. And not yet, it may be, has the sifting ceased. Into our bounds they came, pioneers from the southward, descendants at least of those who settled in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the genuine Hoosiers of our state; men accustomed to use the long Kentucky rifle, who were skilled in sJKjot.iuu- wliat they called '"prarrie" chickens, who did a !aro-e amount of " reckoiHug,' whose women and children found ir difficult " to get shut " of the ague, and who, when they held secrets of their own and were in the oresence of others whom the facts might or inio-ht not concern, "never 'let on."'' Well did these understand and practice the virtue of primitive hospitality, loading their tables with food but not with display; lighting the supper tables with lamps made of iron spoons, a piece of clotii for the wick, a little gravy from the skillet for the oil. and for the lamp stand a crevice between the logs of the cabin in which the mistress of ceremonies inserted tinhandle of the spoon. From this primitive contrivance arose what was called the "Hoosier lam])."

And there also came families from many eastern states, fron) Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York: and others from New Eno*land, brinfriuo- with them their intelligenc^e, their enterprise, their untiring energy: the children of the latter doing nnach shrewd "guessing," and when they would say, I "-saw" something, instead of using the provincialism " I seen it," would be met by the c]uestion from some of the other children, a question supposed sufficient to settle the matter of language, "Did ycni '-saw' it clean in two?" Surprised, but not much al^ashed, the yoinig New Englanders held on to "saw" and "did" in the place of "seen" and "-done," laughing in their sleeves and in their own log cabins at the odd expressions which every day met their young ears.

courteinis, and kindly, for they were seeking- homes ainono- the '"native bDrn,"'"' they were planting- themselves in the wilds of a new land, of a New World, and they came as Mrs. Henians says in her beautiful Song of P^migration,

-' We will rear new homes under trees that glow As if gems were the fruitage of every bough; O'er our white walls we will train the vine, And sit in its shadow at day's decline ; And watch our herds as they range at will, Througli the green savannahs all bright and still."

They came from the banks of the Rhine and from many of the kingdoms of then divided Germany, the industrious, sturdy Germans, the countrymen of Luther, and Schiller, and Goethe, and Kepler, and Humboldt, they came Catholic and Lutheran, bringing with them and singiiig at nightfall around their household fires and on tlieir night journeyings the songs of the fatherland, of the Rhine valleys and of the old historic times: they came also from "-the merry homes of England;" from the land of Bruce and Burns where they sino- '-' the sweetest of all Scotia's holy lays;'' from the emerald isle the noted green Erin, wliere the trefoil, the shamrock grows; they came" fi-om cold, freedom loving Sweden, the countrymen of Linna3us and Gustavus Aclolphus, of Jenny Lind and of Christine Nillson; from, the neig-hboring shores of small but noted Denmark; and, last of all, they came from the villages and fields of Holland, the sturdy, industrious, patient, plodding', indoniitahle Dutch, the descendants of those who fought for eiohty years for the blessings of religious freedom. From yet other states and lands some came; all here to become Americans, all here to aid in buikling up this northwestern corner of o'.ir now wealthy and influential state.

What, Now. Have All These Accomplished V.

The answer to this question will be the story of our growth for our first fifty years; and to condense this as fully as will be needful for this day I shall make only three eras as marked out by our three c()urt-h.)uses. And these will be for us the three eras of our land.

It includes the six years of pioneer settlement, years which brought into our county nearly fifteen hundred inhabitants, years in which the log cabins with their stick and mud chinnieys were built in the woodland and groves and on the edge of the prairies, seldom far from the shelter of the oak and the hickory trees, years in which the large breaking plows drawn by four and five yoke of oxen turned over thousands of acres of the green sward. of the prairie, years in. which roads were laid out and opened and mills and bridges l)uilr, and neighborhoods were formed and courts for the first time were held and school and church life commenced. Years also in which domestic animals, mainly horses, cattle, hogs, and j)Oultry, coming with the pioneers, learned here the ranges," and found also homes, none of these in those years straying far out into the prairie, neither man nor beast seeking there a home, but leaving those wilds for the grass and flowers, for the polar plant, for the grouse and deer and wolves. This era includes also the ten years of slower growth, from 1840 to 1850, the years that followed the "land sale," years in which encroachments were slowly made upon the open prairie by the growing herds of cattle and the new settlers that came, in which brick-kilns were burned, frame buildings erected, literary and temperance societies organized, school anti church houses built, flocks of sheep brought in; but years in wliich tLs^two markets were Michigan City and Chicago, and all produce, which began in 1840 to be sent to market, and all goods brought in, were tra,nsported by means of ox and horse teams. It was a series of years in which very little money could be made by farming, and yet our population increased in these ten years to about four thousand. It was on the whole a slow, plodding era. But settlements were established at Crown Point, Brown's Point, Wiggin's Point, Hickory Point; on the east and west side of Cedar Lake, on the west side of West Creek, and along Cedar Creek and Eagle Creek; at School Grove, South East Grove, Pleasant Grove, Plum Grove, and Orchard Grove; on Western Prairie, Center Prairie, Eagle Creek Prairie, Lake Prairie, and Robinson's Prairie; on Deep River, and on the Sand Ridge, and near the Calumet.

The frame court-house was built in 1849, and with 1850 commenced indeed a new era. Over thirty years, until 1880, this era extends, the era of railroads, of towns and villages, of enlarged facilities for agriculture, manufactures, and trade. First came the Michigan Central Rail Road from Detroit, across the southern peninsula of Michigan, giving us a station on Deep River called Lake: and now "the steam whistle was heard for the first time where had been the scream of the eaofle and the sharp notes (jf water fowl; and the people of the county soort ascertained that they were in close connection by rail and wire, with the Atlantic seaboard." The Michigan Southern road soon followed, and then the Joliet Cut Off, the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne, the Great Eastern or Pan Handle, the Baltimore and Ohio', and then the Grand Trunk. The Michigan Central, by means of a coach line connecting Lake with Crown Point, gave to the county seat a daily mail; soon a daily mail coach between Crown Point and Lowell gave to that growing town the same facilities; atid the Fort Wayne road gave the same to Hobart, which soon, now, began to take its place among the four principle towjis and business centers of the county. Dyer on the Cut Off, becoming also a large shipping point, having a daily mail and other rail-road advantages. This era marks the principal growth of our towns and villages, giving us in all twenty-four, fifteen of them being also rail-road stations.

Farming, stock-raising and dairy products now began to be profitable, hay became a valuable article of export, and the farming community began on the line of accumulation which has placed most of them now in independent circumstances, so that, whether they wake or sleep, work in summer or rest and care for their stock in winter, still their wealth increases. Those who now own unencumbered farms in the county of Lake ought to be satisfied with their progress of accumulation. The impetus given to agriculture and stockraising by means of the rail-road transportation brought almost to the doors of the farmers led to still larger encroachments

Upon the areas of the open prairie. The New Hampshire settlement was made in 1855 in the very heart of Lake Prairie; settlement spread westward to the center of Robinson's Prairie; board fences and hedo-es and wire fences were constructed; Lake Prairie was nearly all enclosed by 1870, Robinson's Prairie northeast of Crown Point by 1871, and the broad southern portion of that prairie, between Porter county and Lowell, southward from Crown Point to the Kankakee reo^ion, by 1872. The wolves and the deer were exterminated or driven away to wilder resorts, no place was left where the i^rouse could in safety make their nests and watch over their broods, no room was left for the sand-hill cranes to occupy in holding their councils and their dances, the polar plant and the phlox and the other rich flowering plants of the wild prairie were destroyed; and fields and gardens and orchards, and pastures and grazing herds, and the busy homes of the Anglo-Saxon race, and groups of merry children in their sports, and the white school houses with their bee like hum of busy children and watchful teachers, took the place of all the wild, free life that once characterized our beautiful prairies.

x\lthough ours is largely an agricultural and stockraising community, yet other interests sprang up in this enterprising, railroad period. Two brothers, Thomas and William Fisher, coming from the eastward in 1850, started at South East Grove a broom factory, making sometimes fifty thousand brooms a year; and removing at length to Crown Point Thomas Fisher has continued through all these thirty years the same profitable industry. Joseph Hack in 1852 bought the smith and was^on shop of Major Far well at Crown Point, and he has carried on and enlarged that profitable business through all the period over which we are passin^j- now. Wagons and carriages of excellent workmanship, of tried durability, go fortli every year in numbers sufficiently large to supply the home demand. At Hobart brickmaking became the leading industry, four thousand dollars a month having been at one time paid out there to the workmen. Two large brickmaking establishments at Crov^n Point and one at Lowell have furnished material for home building. About 1869 the State Line Slaughter House was opened on the Calumet, where in 1872 some eighteen men were employed and three or four car loads of beef were daily shipped to Boston. This place became in 1873 the town of Hammond; and this special business of sending beef to the east and to Europe has assumed immense proportions. The ice business of our county is also a large industry; as is the shipment of sand, and, in July and August, the shipment of berries. Time will not allow me to speak of other smaller industries, as the Warner Water Elevator and Purifier, an industry by no means small, the wagon and harness shops, the mills, the sash door and blind factories, the fulminating powder works; all the northern portion of the county, not inviting for tillage, promising now to become a stirring, thriving, manufacturing region over its whole extent, having suitable locations for three large cities.

Nor will the rapidly passing, precious, and, I hope, long to be remembered hours of this September day, allow me to more than name the facts that in this period of rapid growth we began to erect three and four thousand dollar country homes, like the Ditniers dwelling at Cedar Lake, and the residences of George Willey, Mrs. Crawford, and Mrs. Dinwiddle; tliat large barns and grain houses were built; that cheese and butter factories were established; that many church buildings and good school houses were constructed, the town of Lowell, without a rail-road taking in this particular the lead, erecting fine brick churches and the first large, two story brick school house of the county at a cost of eight thousand dollars, erecting also at the same cost, a three story factory, eighty feet by fifty which was in 1872 the largest building in the county; that large brick blocks of city style began to be built at Crown Point and that Cheshire Hall was opened for public gatherings, in which so many noted lecturers addressed large audiences, and in which was held for a large part of one winter the most singularly attractive religious meeting connected with our history; that new stores were opened in our twenty towns and villages; that we passed with a noble record through those exciting years of the civil war; and that our county periodicals, our photograph galleries, our Agricultural Society and county fairs, our lodges of various kinds, olr Old Settlers' Association, and most of our literary societies, belong to this same period of railroad growth, of the frame ten thousand dollar court-house.

The corner stone was laid with imposing ceremonies in September, 1878. The building was completed in 1879; and so this era begins with the full year of 1880. Our first era comprised fifteen full years, with our central public building costing perhaps five hundred dollars. Our second comprised thirty full years, with our central building- costing some ten thousand dollars. Five years only have passed of our present, third era, with a brick and stone court-house costing some fiftytwo thousand dollars. May this remain for a hundred years. These buildings and these county outlays show the progress we have made. Corresponding in style with the court-house, in 1S82 our commissioners erected what has been called "one of the best county jail buildings in the State," of brick, iron, and steel, costing twenty thousand dollars. Corresponding with the same grade of outlay and designed by the same architect, the town of Crown Point erected in 1880 a public school building at a cost of twenty thousand dollars; two six thousand dollar family residences have la.tely been built in Crown Point, the one by Dr. Higgins and his son-in-law, Senator Youche, the other by Amos Allman, the latter completed in 1883; and this year we have erected a county-house for the poor- of our county, one hundred and seventy-six feet in length, at a cost of some fifteen thousand dollars. And Mrs. Biggs, the daughter of A. N. Hart of Dyer, is now building at Crown Point a seven thousand dollar residence for herself and her mother. Similar improvements also are* taking place in the country, as well as in other towns. Charles Marvin, a well known and wealthy pioneer, now seventythree years of age, removing from his old home to the east side of West Creek, purchasing the old Wilkinson place where the laughing Pottawatomies neglected to aid that early settler in rearing his log cabin, and so provoked him by their merriment, as a heavy log seemed likely to slide back upo:i himself sou and wife, that he was tempt.ed to walk in among them with his handspike, - Charles Marvin erected last fall, on that uld historic homestead, near the old pioneer family spring, one of the larofe and costly residences of the county, coverinoan area of fifteen hundred and thirty-four square feet. And George Doak of South East Grove has this summer invested some of his spare thousands in a new family residence of this same style of taste and outlay. HofEman's Opera House, in Crown Point, costing some six thousand dollars, a large wooden building, seating some seven hun'dred persons, has taken, for many of our public gatherings, the place of Cheshire Hall. Four additional railroads belong to this period: The New York, Chicago, and St, Louis, commonly known as the "Nickel Plate;" the Chicago and x\tlantic; the Louisville, New Albany, and Chicago; and the "Three I's," the Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa; giving us eleven railroads in this our fiftieth year. Belonging mainly to this short period of the last five years is the rapid growth of the town of Hammond, the most city-like in its business, its manufacturies, its general style, of any town in our borders, and now, in fact incorporated under a city government. Its aspirations are large and its future growth cannot now be foretold. Hobart and Hammond are now the only towns that can aspire to compete with Crown Point in being controlling centers of population and of influence. To each has been accorded a poulation of fifteen hundred. Each is quite city-like and depends largely on manufactures. Hobart is devoted mainly to the making of brick, having three large yards, one making it is said, eight hundred thousand a year, the second one and a half nnlHoiis, and the third, opened in 1882, with a capacity of forty thousand brick a day. In this yard is used a sixty horse-power steam engine. As yet Crown Point with very little in the line of manufactures, being the oldest town and the county-seat, is in the number of families still the first. How long this maybe true none can tell. Already Hammond, with six hundred schuol children. Crown Point having seven hundred and forty, claims to have nearly a thousand more inh:iljitants than Crown Point, and is the first town in the county to establish a city government, with a mayor and a board of aldermen. Of the present five thoifsand, five hundred, and thirty school children of the county. Center township has one thousand and fifty-seven, or nearly one-fifth of all, Crown Point containing twofifteenths of all in the county enumerated this year for the public schools. These children are between the ages of six and twenty-one. Commencing in 1837 with three townships. North, Center, and South, we have divided and subdivided until we have now, in the north Hobart, Calumet, and North, Ij'ing side by side, the northern border of each v>'ashed by the long waves of Lake Michigan; in the next tier Ross and St. Johns; then Winfield, Center, and Hanover, four miles, seven miles, and five in breadth; and on the south side, three sisters, Eagle, Cedar, and West Creek, six miles, five, and five, in breadth, with more than one-third of the territory of the first, one-half of the second, and one-third of the last, lying within the low-land of the Kankakee; eleven townships in all; our whole territory, the northwestern corner of Indiana, lying north of the Kankakee river, extending, according to the state boundary and the Statutes of 1870, ten miles into the waters of Lake Michigan, comprising an area of land and marsh surface of about five hundred square miles. The southern part is devoted mainly to grazing and agriculture, and is occupied by an intelligent, industrious, independent, even wealthv, farming community; forming a part of those millions that comprise the landed but untitled nobility of our country. The central portion, although not containing such fertile land, is also agricultural, and is occupied, except in the towns and villages, by a farming community, also intelligent, industrious, and prosperous. The north, which has ])een mainly valuable in the past for pines and for cedars, for wild fruits and for furs, and for holding up railroad ties; for which years ago the pioneers oi the southern portion would not have paid ten cents an acre, composed as it was and is of sandridges and marshes, and of marshes and sand-ridges, containing a double river and some little lakes; we must probably give up to manufactures and trade; we must be resigned to its liecoming a locality for large manufacturing cities, for factories of various kinds, its food supplies and its products to become known through the civilized world; we must be resigned, not only to having one of its little towns ship a thousand bushels of huckleberries in a season, and having its railroads carry off five thousand car loads of ice in a year and ten thousand car loads of sand, and fifty car loads a year of Calumet moss; but to its becoming, through all that singular and noted Calumet region, a second Holland in population and industry, in commerce and wealth.

houses, frame and brick edifices, now in nunil)er one hundred and two. We have five masonic lodges, four odd fellow lodges, one fire company, one fire insurance company, one national bank, twelve large ice houses, one powder mill, three flouring mills, eight weekly newspapers, one hundred and twenty-nine licensed teachers, and twenty-eight post-offices, four being money order offices and one post-master appointed by the President. We have more than six thousand horses and sixteen thousand head of cattle.

And here we are to-day, after the i-hanges and the growth, the disappointments and the success, the joys and the ever present earth sorrows, of our first fifty years. We are a growing, thriving, peaceful, prosperous, intelligent, and enterprising community. We have done our full part, as an agricultural, stock-raising, cheese and butter producing region, in biiilding up that great mart of trade Chicago. For many years we carried our products there, on wagons and sleds, drawn by ox and horse teams, through mud and water and sand, through storms and heat and cold, and almost gave them away to those money making buyers.

When the country was in danger of beino- dismembered, we did our full part in sending forth our sons and brothers, who stood })eneath the stars and stripes and fought and fell in many a fierce conflict, on the red fields of blood, in the most terrible civil war ever known in the history of the world, sending as we did more than a thousand men from a population of nine thousand then, men women and children included; and our own brave '-' boys in blue " fell at New Orleans and Vicksburg and Nashville; at Stone River and Black River and at Andersonville; at Atlanta in the Wilderness and at Gettysburg; and at many another spot, where shot and shell and fell disease struck down the brave. And since the white banner of peace has spread its ample folds over al] our fair, broad land, we have done our full part in promotinjj; the intellig-ence and prosperity of this central region of this great and powerful center of all the states that lie east of the Rocky Mountains. Our public schools and our Sunday schools show for themselves what has been done for our energetic, sturdy boys; and for our fair-haired, winsome, beautiful girls. With more than twenty towns and villages; with eleven rail-roads, the first rail-road county in the state of Indiana; with some of the finest prairie and pasture land in all the Mississippi Valley; with fifty miles of that singular Calumet region, now inviting commerce and manufactures; rich in stock, in flocks and herds, having had this last spring, owned by Thomas Hughes of Eagle Creek, the finest herd of short-horned cattle in the state of Indiana; Avith good public buildings and with forty-two churches; with a county-seat noted for health and for the good order and refinement of its inhabitants; with such an intelligent, prosperous farming community; - we are ready to enter upon another half century with all the elements about us for a far more wonderful growth. AVhat we may become by the year 1934 no human mind can now foresee. We are here to-day, at the close of one half century, to step forth upon the edge of another. What for us and for the world the coming years may have in store is known in its completeness only to Grod. We enter upon it with abundant hope.

Clark, Richard Fancher, John B. Wilkinson, i\nios Hornor, Wm. Williams, Arthur Bryant, Mrs. Wui. Fisher, a member of the Bryant family, Mrs. Susan Clark, a daughter of Henry Wells, and Mrs. I^uman A. Fowler. There may be a few others, and some of these were quite young* fifty years ag-o. Of those who saw this region in 1834 and then trod upon our soil there remain only the two aged men James Hill and Richard Fancher. Of the settlers then there are none; but children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of those are with us now.

Of the settlers of the next four years many yet remain and are with us here to-day. But in a few years more all these will be gone, and there will be none left who saw these groves before a white man's axe had felled the old monarchs of the wood, those trees under which the Indian youth and maidens sported; none who saw these prairies in their fresh, virgin beauty and loveliness, so gay with flowers in summer time, so grand when over them swept the autumn fires, when the pinnated grouse seemed to be everywhere, before one weed, one Canada thistle, one dandelion, one leaf of white clover had here appeared; there will be none left who saw here the Pottawatomies, with their blankets and furs and wigwams and ponies, amid the abundant herds of deer and the numerous packs of prairie wolves; there will be none here even who saw the pioneers. We, whose eyes saw all these things, must soon sleep with our fathers; and only our traditions and our records, perhaps also our photographs, will remain in the memories and in the hands of our descendants.

Up 1)11 this next half ceiiturv now lyin^ before us, that liesides the records and the traditions which will he left to vou, almost every rood of our soil, if it could speak, would be vocal with memories of the pioneers; and you would be amused, astonished, startled sometimes, to hear the words that would issue forth from the witnessinir earth, tellino- of scenes in the groves, on the prairie, by the sparklino- waters, in the briofht sunliofht and by the light of moon and stars alone beheld, some weird, some romantic, some sul)lime, some picturesque, and some grotesque, which no records and, soon, no traditions will ever bring before your minds. And rememl)er, that, back of these, the same witnessing earth would give you strange and pleasant and fearfully thrillingwords about the Red children of the wilds; their loves and their hates, their sorrows and their joys, their prayers to the Great Spirit, their hopes of immortality, their savage warfare and successful hunts, the workings of their truly human hearts with little to restrain or guide them but the dim light of nature and the heart teachings from nature's God; those Red children, our own brothers and sisters by the ties of human blood, who, except the few remains of their arts and weapons, have left on this soil no trace, althouofh for " thousands of moons "" they paddled their canoes in our waters and there bathed their symmetrical, coppercolored forms, in summer time, and lived aud loved and wept, and fought and sported and died, where we have now our farms and towns and homes. And, once more, remendjer, that back of all these this same witnessing earth would give you scenes more surprising than night dreams or day dreams, placing before you the real life of the Mouiul Builders, who have left here their mounds and their hones, who, perliaps thousands of years ao^o, had here their well cultivated fields, their vineyards, ami orchards, perchan(;e their flocks and herds, their temples for worship, their peaceful, quiet homes, all of which perished before the fierce onslaiio-ht of the North American Indians or some earlier savage tribes. Rememl)er. that new, and fresh and as in primeval loveliness, this region seemed but fifty years ago, man, perhaps agricidtural, civdized man, and afterwards savage man, had been here for unknown ages. We have entered upon the soil where their feet have trodden, we have taken full possession of lands which once thev called their own. Their titles have been extinguished, and no abstracts thereof remain. Our own we consider gO(jd whenever we can trace them back to a United States patent some forty-five years old. But we differ from all who have gone before us in having brought into the wilderness the rich seeds of a Christian civilization. The weed seeds peculiar to the western prairies sprang up over our prairie soil soon after our plow shares turned under the native green sward, seeds which had been left buried in th^ earth, it may be, bv the old farmer Mound Builders a thousand years ago. These native weeds we may call a part of our heritage from them. We have planted seeds of another kind, yet not of an easier gn^wth, to yield as we hope, abundant fruits for generations yet unborn. Let us, then, remember, as we enter upon the coming years, that into our farming and stock-raising; our manufactures and our trade; c^ur professions, our schools, our journalism; into all our social, our civil, our literary life; not only the energy and intelligence which characterize the AdLrht-Saxuu race must enter; but also the true, uiiperverted Christian element; if we would transmit our arts and our inheritances, our free institutions, our ^rowiiiij civilization, our traditions and fjur records, to our children's children onward for not only a hundred hut a tliousand years. Every other civilization but the Christian has Ixjrne in itself the seeds of its own decay. Ours is the latest form, ours is the grandest form of human nroo-ress earth has yet seen; and we have reason to believe, if we do well our {)art, that ours is destined to endure until the promised millennial o-lorv bursts in full snlendor ui)on the world.

At the close of the oration it was found to be 12:80 by central time, and the assembly adjourned until 2 p. M. to discuss in the mean time the merits of a oceneral basket dinner. The dining- hall was spacious, as it took in not ordv Floral Hall but the whole grove. Cloths were spread; Ijaskets opened; and an abundant supply of choice food, such as in this heart of the foodproducing l)elt of our great country the farmers furnish for the markets of the world, was furnished for every guest. Appetites were gfood in the pure fresh air, under the blue sky; the variety of food in this grazing reg-ion. --flowing with milk and honey,""' abounding- in poultry, and where the farmers' families all eat "the finest of the wheat,'" was sufficient, joined with the summer and autumn fruits, to tempt even an epicure; and an hour and a half soon passed at dinner and in social intercourse. At

At the stand, 2 p. m. Exercises opened with singing by the choir, which was composed of the followingyoung persons of Crown Point, T, A. Muzzall leader: Benton Wood, Cassius Griffin, and Misses Helen Cleveland, x^ddie Meeker, Rose Northrup, Mattie Dresser. Allie Fuller, Ella Warner, and Georgie E. Ball. The Historical Secretary of the Old Settlers' Association then presented to the assembly, in the name of Joskph A. LiTi'LE of West Creek township, a blank l)ook, the best bound and most costly that could l)e obtained in Crowji Point, with the request that the names of all present should be recorded therein with dates of settlement and appropriate remarks, and that the book should be afterward sealed up and placed in one of the fire proof vaults of the court-house, to be opened by a special committee in the fall of 3934, when the county holds its first centennial. The book was accepted gratefully, much interest in regard to it was awakened, and George Keixbill and Wellington A. Clark were appointed to take charge of the book and secure the signatures.

The Historical Secretary then presented a chair heavily draped in mourning which remained on the platform through the celebration, reminding the assembly of the death which took place April 5, of the Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements for this celebration, George Willey of Center township, who had just completed his three score years and ten of earthly life. Some commemorative remarks were made by the Secretary, and the choir then sang the following hymn,

Memorial Hymn

We must pass ere long away To the realms of endless day; While we briefly sojourn here, Earthly woes we need not fear, Ours a hope that gildeth bright Every cloud of earthly night.

Let us on the Father call, Who in mercy heareth all ; He who pities human woes, No respect to persons shows ; As we in his sight appear So he judges; Him we'll fear.

We were not redeemed with gold From our mode of living old, But with blood ; we share the love Of the Lamb enthroned above; One another then must we Love with pure heart fervently.

While our days of sojourn here We must pass in filial fear, We are taught to count it joy When temptations us annoy; Having Christ our living Friend Soon our conflicts all will end.

[For some of tlie teachings contained in the above hymn tb« author would refer, in regard to the second and third stanzas, t© I Peter 1:17 - 22; and for the fourth stanza, in connection witk this passage, to James 1 :2.

Three of the historical papers prepared for this volume were then read by the writers, " West Creek Reminiscences,'"' " Our Rail Roads," and "' Our Exports," which will be found with the other historic papers, and some of the antiquities and relics were displayed. In displaying the antiquities a feature of great interest to the audience was introduced by Lewis G. Little, Chairinan of the Committee on Antiquities, who came from a distant part of the ground and passed through the audience to the platform dressed in the costume of his Puritan forefathers, accompanied by his cousin Miss Mary E. Barnard, of New Hampshire, also dressed in ancient costume, the two personating '" John Alden " and the " Puritan maiden Priscilla." The fine appearance of both as well as the ancient costume attracted and enchained the attention of all. An entire list of the antiquities and relics and curiosities' will be found elsewhere. The hour for afternoon adjournment having arrived the exercises at the Fair Ground were closed for the day.

Arrangements had been made for some literary exercises in the evening at Hoffman's Opera House. Of these as carried out, the following is the programme. At 7:30 the Crown Point Band marched fi-om the public spuare to the Opera House and furnished some excellent music.

Ihe Celebkatiox

4. A declamation in two styles, of the pioneer school boy days and of the present, extract from the trial of Blannerhassett, by Harry Church.

The following hymn for the land, taken from the Youths^ Companion of Boston, but written at Crown Point, was, so far as known, for the first time publicly sung:

Another of the prepared historical papers was read by its author, " The Methodist History of Lake," which will be found in its place among those papers.

Address

I'oii seldom meet and renew old friendshi]) as you have to dav. The white locks of men and women before me, tell the truth of aj^e, and a life well spent, I trust, to promote enjoyment in your declinino- years. The old people have a li^rht to point to their many achievements, and n uillino- credit must be (riven them by a later generation al)out to take their place. There is a tine chord in the human heart that beats tenderly for ripe old age, and makes all feel kind to one another when grandpa and gi'andma come. I like to hear the grand-children scream, and see them dance, when grandma is coming and no one would have this (Otherwise. It is the natuaal outflow of affection that God planted in the human heart, it is affection not o-ained by art or grown bv kind associations, but born with the soul. What have the old people done for usV Let us think awhile. 1 look back 50 years ago and see Lake county a vast and uiunhaluted plain, covered with wild grass, which the native Indians and wild beasts roamed at will. It was a long way from the convenience of a well settled country. These old people, then young, strong and willing, canif upon this land and made the fine farms we now see on every side. They made the hio-hways, built churches and school houses, towns and villages. They reclaimed the land, cultivated the soil and established the convenience of a settled country, and now they can look over a tine cvdtivated plain with good improvements, and the people possessing- reasonable conveniences and comforts, and exclaim with truth, this is our place, our work and our children's heritage. They

When the early settler came there were no roads, no railways, no villages and no market place within a day's drive. They could not travel as far in a day then as now. The wild roads went everywhere and turned everv way over very little dry and solid ground. They went around or forded the slouschs, then numerous enough. They started here, then the far west, to begin life with very little to cheer them, and made the country as they went along. They came to plant civilization and make the wilderness bloom for posterity. They succeeded well, and will soon leave the fruits of their manly toil to children who felt none of the hardships of the early settler.

In those days l^ake county was farther west from the (3hio line than the Rocky Mountains are from us. Indeed we can go to these mountains now sooner and better than the early settler could drive to the state of Ohio. Imagine, then, the sort of metal the pioneer had. In those days it was a fight for life, a struggle to get bread and clothing. There was no money and little property. The comforts of life were not thought of for many a year. Many days' drive fi-om relatives and friends. many miles from neigh])ors, the early settler lived lonely in his prairie cabin. It required nerve and the best kind of grit to stay and peg away in those days. I admire their self-denial, their patient toil and rdsignation to hardship and suffering, and it was the same kind that did all the great things of history. The great achievements of the world came from this kind of courage and self will. Their great hope for the better! How grand it was. Strong- liearts would have broken but for hope for the future. You looked ahead for better times and knew they would coine bv steady work and patient waiting. Your hope was mighty as your will, as consoling as your hope to-day <»f a g-lorious abode in Paradise. That is the promise given t(j all on certain conditions, to be fulfilled. Oh, for hoj>e. and its precious consolation, the ever present fi-iend when all seems lost. Hope, the gift of God, to keep us alive and nerve to duty. My old friends, what faith you had in your work of beginning civilization in your new western home, far from the old stamping ground of childhood. Your faith was the kin of hope. You had faith that your work would bring ffood fruit. You had faith that your sacrifice would bring comfort. You had faith your hardships would bring better days and it was fulfilled. You had the same kind of faith in your toil that the Hebrew children had. They believed through all the weary years -of scourge and bondage, that some day by the mercy of God, they would be fi-ee and march to a better land. Yovi had the same faith that good old Paul had centuries ago, that a better and happier time would come to him, and it sustained him, as it sustained you, through all the the grievous wrongs he bore, for a better condition of society, a better civilization, a better world to come. History is replete with great deeds of mankind, founded upon faith iji results. As you opened up the wild land to culture, the wilderness to civilization, so the fathers did before you. The same self-will, the same determination, the same faith inspired the Pilgrims, when they landed upon Plymouth Rock to establish religious liberty in America, and though they were superstitious, intolpii-aiit, ;iiiil cruel, vet they yjlauted the irerni that o-rew to relio-ious freedom. The same subliuie faith moved the e^-i-eat heart of Martin Luther and John AVesley. Manv jjeople sneer at faith. What inspired Robert Fulton, as he sat upon his bench, studying for years in abject j)overtv. how to !»}>ply th(' force of steam to water-craft':' What inspij-ed the loyal hearts of the old fathers when they declared for American independence? They had faith in the success of popular government and gave their lives for it. You lived, my old friends, later than the age of persecution for opinion sake, and at the beginning of the most wonderful progress the world ever knew. None of you suffered persecution for political or religi<Mis opinion. As you have worked and sacrificed to build up i\ country, so men of all ages have worked and sacrificed in other channels of the world's progress. Some brave unfaltering men of history stood proudly erect before the gibbet, abi^ut to consign their souls to eternity, and l)oldly refused to lay down the work for a better government of the people. Others were drawn and quartered, others suffered agony upon the rack until merciful death came to them, others tortured with corded ropes to break bone and inuscle. while many suffered the pains of tire all for advanced thought and opinion, and bright, earnest men have gone to the mad house, with reason dethroned, in overwork to subdue natural forces to the will of man. All the conveniences, all the achievements we have in this age, came to us, after sacrifice, hardship. |)overty, and suffering.

advancement that your ancestors never saw or enjoyed. Your ancestrv, back to Abraham, never saw ^le rich l)lessincTs of civilization that you have seen. ' They lived in a darkened world, when compared to the a^-e of development you have witnessed. Somewhere on the irlc)l)e, for two thousand years human development and civilization seem to have crrown step l)y step, until our age is reached, when they took a bound, overleapingevery stej> heretofore made. Yt)u have seen the railroad era, and lived when railroads spanned the continent. You lived when the Ijest appliances of steam power were made. You lived when electric force was sent over a thousand wires and first worked ^between two continents. In your time came o^reat transcontinental steamship lines and the finest craft ever floated on lake and river. In your age a perfect mail system came with fastest routes. In your a^-e came the sewing machine, the reaper and m(jwer, the thresher and separater, and now the selfl:)inder. In your time came the lightning press and the great dailies, that almost bring the world to your door every morning. In your time great cities have been l)uilt and wonderftd markets established. You have seen the best educational system ever known to the world, and lived in an age of art and science, which have done more for mankind than ever before. Your time shows the best school houses and more church edifices, and a wider dissemination of Christianity. You have lived to see your earlv settlements reach thousands of miles westward, across the continent, and witnessed great states join the old galaxy of the Union. You saw that evil American institution, human slavery, abolished, and universal freedom established on every spot oi American soil. You liave enjoyed civil rights and religious liberty in full form and substance with nearly a free Bi1)le to all. You have seen and used every useful invention to sow the seed and gather the harvest. You have seen infant industries grow to powerful institutions, moving thousands of wheels and a half million spindles, which astonish the civilized world. They made you throw away the old hand cards and spinning wheels. What other people, in any other age saw what you have seen in the worlds great progress? Grandma can talk, actually talk to grandchildren by the telephone fifty miles away. The old lady can ask " my daughter " fifty miles away, what was said at Martha's tea party. Yes, she can say good night to her daughter in Chicago and jumj) into bed. The old man can send word to his son on the Pacific coast and get an answer in a short hour or so. Did any of you dream of these great things coming to pass, when you braved the life of the wilderness forty or fifty years ago? It all bewilders people who knew how the world moved fifty years ag"o. While you have witnessed the greatest of the world's achievements, you have seen times of terrible connnotion through internecine strife. In your day came the most cruel and terrible war of modern times, waged for the perservation of the old union of the States. Your sons fell on ghastly battle fields, a free offering upon the altar of their country. You are consoled that their blood consecrated the Union anew to the rights of all men, white and black, preserved the old constitution and the country of Washington, Jefferson, and the elder Adams, reaffirmed all the great doctrines of the government declared July 4, 1776, and maintained in the revolution by the best blood of niankind, and re-established the old flag over every foot of a common country. It broke heart strings to give up for ever the soldier boy, but all are born to die for home and country. Every true heart cherishes the loval dead. Every true heart feels for vour maimed and disabled sons and it is the first great act of a glorious country saved to care for them. I shall stand by them, my old friends, in the future as I have in the past, regardless of what I may be called by unfriendly men. I have given your crippled sons many generous votes and given them as much time at the pension office in Washington as I devoted to my public duties. I want to see a system established in the granting of pensions that a soldier is not compelled to produce evidence enough to hang his neighbors before getting his pension. You have lived to see peace come out of this a^vful strife, and you feel happy in your closing years that this great (M)untry is re-united and every section is moving forward with prosperity, that nuist redound to the strength and glory of all.

The old people of this country are able to advise a high moral standard in the conduct of men, in the condu(^t of parties, in the conduct of elections. Your words for truth, for right and justice cannot fail to have a wide and permanent influence. 1 am glad to have met you to-day and talked to you in this informal manner. If Providence wills, I will be glad to meet you another year, and speak of the capital of the country. I now thank you for your kind attention, and wish you g-ood healtli and happiness through the year.

Lake Colxtv

who visited this reg'ion in February, 1884, in recrard to his seeino- William Ross as a settler here at that time, a man with whom he was acquainted before his removal from Decatur county to this reg-ion. The statement of James Hill has been recognized as distinct and sufficient authority for the earlv settlement here of William Ross as claimed.

[And corresponding exactly with this statement, it appears that in March, 1^35, the La Porte countv commissioners named all the territory of what became Lake and a part of what became Porter, Ross township, after the name of a settler who had then it is said resided in what became Lake for a year or more.]

i^fter the statement of this aged citizen of our county, - who was born in Kentucky in 1810, and became an inhabitant of Indiajia, in Decatur county, in 1827, who purchased a half section, or three hundred and twenty acres, of land in Cedar Creek township in 1853, - there was read by the Rev. T. H. Ball the following-

Semi-Centennial Poem

Full fifty years ago, Amid the winter's snow. These groves, this prairie land. Our northern lake shore strand. Were bare, and bleak, and wild; But white man, wife and child, One cabin dwelling place had found, Had come to hold and till the ground.

The Celebratiox

Of children, women, men, In years now fiye times ten, (Those years of war and peace,) Has been a larcre increase: Some sixteen thousand here Haye homes this fiftieth year, The year which now we celebrate As half a century in our date.

The Red men are no more Upon our northern shore, With birchen bark canoes And moccasins for shoes; They hunt no more the deer. They wield no more the spear, They trap no more the rat and mink Along our riyer's grassy brink.

Their tomahawks are found Tnil)edded in our i^round; Tlieir spear and arrow heads Are in t'heir lowly beds; Tlie race from us has gone, To live but in our song, And on our owji historic page, Tn records of our earliest ape.

The tread of busy feet Is now on many a street; Voices of girls and ])oys, The homes. of household joys, Are on our prairie lea, And by the streamlets free, Where late was nature's solitude Or where the Indian wigw^am stood.

The Cet.Ebratiox, 55

Next to the church the school. Where, under gentle rule, Our children knowledge gain. Gives proof of white man's brain; School houses trim and neat. Where fair-haired children meet. In all our rural districts stand, Our heritao-e from Pilo-rim land.

( )ur ceaseless toil and trade. Where honest gains are made, Growing through fifty years, Years with their hopes and fears, Have made a wondrous change Where wild deer found free range; And we expect a city yet Upon the winding Calumet.

The ponderous, loaded car, Bringing the freight from far, Drawn by steam's wondroiis power. Is passing every hour; And thousands on each day, Pass by us on their way., To find some place for toil or rest, Northward or southward, east or west.

Though beautiful and bright, Seen in morn's rosy light, These quiet homes appear. The age of toil is here; And prattling children learn Money to save and earn; Fathers and mothers plan still more How to increase their srolden store.

Peace to the homes of Lake. In love may they awake, At peace with God and man, Heeding great Nature's plan. As mornings come and go. And winters white with snow. In summer's heat a,nd winter's cold, May God protect us as of old.

The hour for dinner havinoj- ao-aiii arrived the assembly adjourned until 2 o'clock. Another rich Lake county dinner was enjoyed by a still larger number than was present yesterday. The various groups, into which the large assembly was divided, seemed to enjoy still more fully than yesterday the social intercourse of this pleasant re- uxiox; where were the "pioneers," - those who were left of the settlers who from forty-four to fifty years ago came into these lovely wilds - and the " old settlers " who have been for twenty-five years inhabitants here, and the later inhaljitants of the county, and their children grand-children and great grand-children. The " pioneers " wore badges of white satin ribbon, and the " old settlers " wore badges of red satin, having on them, besides these designations,

The others, the more youthful portion of the assembly, wore badges of red satin, containing only the words quoted above without the designation " Pioneer " or "Old Settler." The two " noon hours " passed rapidly, and the groups of old friends were again called together.

Two p. M. A.t the stand in the grove. " The Family Bible that lay on the stand," was sung by Jacob Wise, assisted by George Krinbill, both early settlers.

Another of the historical papers was read, " The Pioneer Settlers, their Homes and Habits, their descendants and Influence," which will be found elsewhere; and an address was delivered by Amos Hornor Esq., of Ross.

The programme for the afternoon, as arranged, included. Business, Toasts, with five minutes each for responses, and a more full display of Relics and Antiquities, but the indications in the southwest of a shower, and the slight shower that did come, l^roke into these arrangements.

Notwithstanding the dark cloud and the light showers the young representatives of the early New Englanders again appeared, and now rode into the grove, both, according to primitive Puritan manner, on one steed and without a saddle. Some of the antiquities were exhibited; but the shower effectually set aside the responses to the toasts and the business. And so, informally, although the sunshine returned, the celebration closed.

If not all that could have been desired in numbers and interest, it was certainly a fair success; and those who may live to see the close of the second fifty years of our settlement and growth can compare notes, and form estimates, and judge of interest, as they review these records of this ke-uxiox.

The observant reader will notice that these articles are here called antiquities which have been in existence in their present form fifty years or more, as fifty years is called the present limit of settlement here. One object in presenting these, and especially in presenting some of the smaller relics, was, to show to the children and young people how easily articles, apparently perishable, could be kept in a state of good preservation for at least fifty years. Another object was, to show to the present generation some of the customs, styles, and proofs of cultivation, of the former generations who ha\^ now passed away. The cultivation of some love and even veneration for the past many consider desirable for every truly refined and noble nature.

1. A pocket comb made of horn in a horn case marked T. H., (the initials of his grandfather's name,) and dated 1786, wanting but two years of being one hundred years old. In good condition.

4. The remnant of a watch guard, neatly braided, of fine silk cord, given to its owner, as a memory and friendship token, by a young girl in Appling, Georgia, fifty-one years ago.

6. A small pocket book, made of excellent leather, given to its owner by his uncle H. H. Horton, about fifty years ago. Still in good condition.

10. A rifle made at the Springfield armory in Massachusetts, and brought to Cedar Lake in 1834 by H. H. Horton. Length of barrel twenty-three and a fourth inches.

12. Part of a stone weapon, supposed to have been an old Indian hatchet, very neatly wrought, with a point somethino- like a bird's beak, found this year on the land of Th<nnas Geortre sonth of South-East Grove.

18. A copv of the Ulster County Gazette, N. Y., Januarv 4, 1800, draped in deep mourning for the death of George Washington. The late news from Europe which it contains is dated Munich, September 29, Strasbiirgh, October 9. Paris. October 13, and London, October 24.

14. A map of the world, eleven inches by twenty-two, drawn in 1817, by the owners mother, then Jane AA'rault Horton, a girl thirteen years of age.

16. A painting in water colors, the Woodman and his Dog," eighteen inches by twenty-four, made by the same hand, perhaps a year or two later. The three specimens of drawing and painting showing the girltraining and handiwork of one of our pioneer New Englond women.

19. Remains of pre-historic man exhumed at Cedar Lake October 6, 1880, where thev were deposited more than two hundred years ago, according to the age of a tree under which some were found.

22. Presented from Mr. Cole, telegraph operator and agent at Clarke, two small pieces of bone or horn, of supposed Indian workmanship, one having two jKjtches cut on it and an orifice through it and pointed; the other tapering and pointed; each four inches in length; taken in 1882, along with a jaw bone, supposed to be of a dog, and with a hujnan skeleton, supposed to be of an Indian, from about two feet beneath the surface where a well was commenced at Clarke Station. The skeleton was entire, the teeth were well worn, indicating some sixty years of age.

23. Presented frouj George Doak of South-East Grove, found near his home, a stone of Indian workmanship, about five and a half inches long, an inch wide, and three fourths of an inch thick, shaped like some whet-stones, the sides slightly (jvaJ, smooth, neatly wrought, with an orifice half an inch in diameter running through the entire length.. This seems to have been drilled out by m.eans of some sharp instniineni. Its use is unknown.

1. A woolen shawl made in 1795, spvnj. woven, and colored at the home of her mother, Mrs. Perkins, who is still living at the advanced age of ninety-eight, at Rome, New York. The shawl was afterwards embroidered as it now is by Mrs. Dinwiddle's own hands.

3. A bed-quilt of 1812, the lining- home-made linen, tiie pieces of calico bearing the follovvino- dates: 1798, ISOO, 1802, 1806, 1812, and one from "Grandmother Lockwood's dress," probably many vears older. The quilt is in good condition, the calico of those days evidently being well made.

5. Four stone Indian relics found near Plum (irove; the first a pipe; the second a hatchet with a groove for the purpose of securing it to the handle; the third a very smooth, polished, dark colored scraping instrument, five inches long; and the fourth an oval stone, five inches long, two and a half wide, one and a quarter ttiiok, unpolished, surface rather rough, yet indicating upon it human workmanship. Its use is unknown.

6. Six geologie specimens of different varieties, also found near Plum Grove, one found by Jerome and Eddie Dinwiddie some twenty years ago, three-eights of an inch in thickness, contains beautiful, picture-like im- [jressions.

A blanket woven by a squaw of the Navajoe tribe, at F(jrt Sumner, New Mexico; made of "pulled'"' wool. and twisted by the fingers, and woven on a rude frame, formed of two upright forked sticks inserted in the ground, about eight feet apart and some seven feet high, a pole being tied across these about six inches from the ground and another pole being laid across the top, tlie warp being tied perpendicuJarlv to these two poles, and the yarn, rolled, twisted, made into balls by hand, being then passed by the deft Indian fingers through the warp and beaten firmly together with a stick. On such a loom, without a -shuttle, was this blanket woven. It weighed when new twenty pounds, is six feet wide and eight feet long. It was obtained bv its present owner, T. A. Muzzall, direct fi-om these Indians in June, 1866.

10. A pair of velvet breeches lined with buek-skin which Ijelonged to the great o-randfather of Jesse Little of West Creek, tiieir present owner and a brother nf Lewis G. Little.

IL A piece of oak, desig-ned for a cane, taken fi'oni the beam of the house of Georoce Ijittle, Newbury, Mass., who came to this c<juntrv from London in 1640. The h<»use from which this specimen was taken was erected in 1679. When it was torn down in 1861, still owned bv the Little family, canes and other relics were manufactured from the beams and u-iven to many of the descendants.

To give an idea of the time it may be mentioned that Joseph A. Little of West Creek is of the seventh generation from the Ouilder of thn house.

1. A pewter pJatter, part oi the wedding- outfit of her grandmother, Mrs. Phebe Ballard Abbot, who was married November 12, 1772. On the rim are the initial letters, P. B.

A snuff-box, heart shape, brought from Scotland seventy-nine years ago, which has been in the Brown and Fisher families over two hundred years.

Presented by Mrs. M. J. Hyde: 1. A very fine powder horn, made from the liorri of a wild ox and brought into this county in 1844 b\ the father of Mrs. Hyde, Daniel Towl.

2. A cane made by Daniel T. Stichelman from a piece of timber taken by him fi-om the wreck of the U. S. steamer Edith, the first propeller built for the Government and wrecked in 1848. The maker of the cane was at that time in the U. S. Coast Survey at Guadalupe, California, camped about one mile from the wreck.

has been lianded down in the Saxton family from genertion to generation, in the line of the Ebenezers, and the family tradition is that the first Ebenezer Saxton of New Eno'latid brouo-ht it from Eng-land with him in the Mayflower.

2. A lumberman's board rule, of bla<;kwalniit, two feet long, a full inch in diameter, eight sides, ea(di side calculated for measuring luuil:)er of certain length, belonging formerly to Heman Spalding, grandfather of J. P. Spalding, who resided in the state of New V^ork.

Note. Through an oversight of the Historical Secretary a wrong date appears on page 64. No. 10, in regard to the Springfield armory rifle, a rifle of such excellent workmanship that, in connection with the skill astpiired by its bov owner at Cedar Lake, it gained the reputation, in his hands, of beino- unerrincr. The date, 1884, should be 1888. Until 1848, except Sundays, it was in almost daily use, and l)rought down a large

Extracts From Letters

'' Yours of recent date in regard to my attending the semi-centennial celebration of the old settlers of Lake county was duly received and should have been answered sooner. * * * I regret now to say that I shall be obliged to give up the pleasure of meeting many old friends and acquaintfuices that will be there, also of seeing old familiar places. * * * * Please remember me to old friends"

Your kind invitation to attend your semi-centennial celel)ration, is declined with regret, on account of tlie inability to overcome the obstacle which distance presents.

I fully appreciate the interest of the happy occasion, and would gladly respond to the call to be one of the memor;ible " Old Settlers" of Lake count}^ Avho will meet to compare notes, and commemorate the 50tli year of their " Life on the Prairie Lea," and to mark the changes time has wrought, noting the difference between then and now. As one of tlie early meml)ers of the society of Lake county, I recall many scenes of interest, wliicli loom up vividly in the background of the past, and would no doubt evoke a passing interest in the minds of the present actors in the Drama of Life, were they repeated to them, "' viva voce ;" but the pen is a meagre medium to reproduce those scenes, around which cluster sweet memories of early days. when I was " a chiel among ye takin notes."

Now I dwell in a far off clime, where, instead of snow, and sleighrides, to vary the phases of life, we have sunshine and flowers " all the year 'round," and " the Mocking bird sings us to sleep every night," and all the scenes are changed, as the turn of the kaleidescope has the magic powder to change.

Iiistouicai. Papers

The writer of the above, Mrs. E. H. Woodard of Scjuth Alal)aina, was a member of the Ball family at Cedar Lake, and was married in Au£rust, 1854, to Judp-e R. .]. Woodard of Grove Hill. They have four daughters and one son. Three of the daughters are married and have pleasant homes in South Alabama. The son. Charles H. Woodard. lives in Texas.

What a flood of pleasant recollections of the last third of a Centura rose before nie on the receipt of your invitation to attend the Old Settlers' Reunion this week. How delighted I would be if I could be there. But a lecture engagement at Columbus, Ohio, 4th iust., prevents. From 1851, when I first visited Lake county, I have never driven across its prairies, or enjoyed the hospitality of its homes, without feeling that nowhere had I better or warmer, or truer friends than within its borders. With best wishe.s. Yours sincerely, Schuyler Colfax.

Your pleasant invitation to share with you this delightful gathering of old friends, calls forth the warme.st feelings of my heart. I therefore regret that uiy health is such that it will not l)e prudent for nie to be with you. Therefore, please accept my most hearty thanks for your kind remembrance of this reunion of old settlers. Believing as I do you will have a delightful time, it reminds me of a similar gathering when I had the pleasure of meeting with you some five years past.

Permit me to congratulate all the old settlers that shall come together on this memorable gathering, to share the hospitality of the good old Hoosier state. In closing, let me say I completed last February 9th, (while in old Mexico), mj^ 80tb year.

Let me remind the many dear friends present, that there are not a few with me who are looking, I trust, to that reunion in the Better Home where we shall never part any more. For this let us live until the last sleep, for there is no night there.

From J. C. Batten of Santa Barljara, California, a pioneer settler here in 1836 from Boone coujity, who soon joined the western mi^'ration army; or as Solon Robinson expressed it many years ago, was swept westward by " that irresistible wave of emigration that is rolling onward to the Pacific ocean." He has reached that distant, western, wave washed coast, and can go no further. Writing to T. H. Ball he says:

" Your letter is received, and well do I remember Lake county, Indiana, and Cedar Lake at the time you mention. I remember your family and many of the families around the lake. I remember Thomas and Amos Hornor, their father, and all the family, the Farwells, Dr. Wood, and a Mr. Robinson; in fact most everybody around the lake in those early days: also a Mr. Cutler, my near neighbor, and a Mr. Sasse. I have heard since that young Mr. Sasse lived at the county seat."

"I would be glad to come back to the old settlement; and will, if my health is good and everything all right. Tell Amos Hornor when you see him that I would like to see him very much. Solomon Nordyke is living at Pleasant Plain, Jefferson county, Iowa. Solomon Nordyke and my wife are the only ones of the family that are living; Hiram, Jacob, and Caleb have been dead for more than twelve years."

The writer of the above lived at the head of Cedar Lake on the bank, in the first cabin erected there, where is now the stately mansion of John Meyer. The Nordyke family, into which he had married, lived further north where is now the Herlitz home.

An interesting letter was received and read, from Horace Bliss of Nebraska, a resident here many years ago, and well known to the older citizens of West Creek and of Crown Point. The letter spoke of the changes of the past and of the present. Unfortuately it is just now mislaid so that it cannot go into the printer's hands. The members of the West Creek Lyceum of 1856, an organization referred to in " The Lake of the Red Cedars," page 125, will remember well that intelligent and active member, then a young man, Horace Bliss; they will be glad to hear of his prosperity.

From one of our early, perhaps our earliest representative in Congress, a resident of LaPorte county, to his particular friend here, James H. Luther, then about to

Were you remaining at liome the temptation of once more meeting with y(m would take me to the Old Settlers' meeting at Crown Point; but as you will be away I must put off a visit to your place until I can find you at home.

I could not write up anything worth notice about the settlement of Lake county without brightening up my . recollections by a personal review of its old localities, also the oldest friends left ; and time will not give me the opportunity to do so.

From the Rev. Henry Johnson, of Michigan, a letter was received, addressed to T. H. Ball, but arriving too late to be read at the celebration. The writer, who graduated at Hanover College, Indiana, in 1872, having been prepared for college at the Crow^n Point Institute, and takinop the " honors of the class " in Latin and Greek when entering the college course at Hanover, had been requested to represent the Pierian Society of the Crown Point Institute at the literary exercises of September 3.

This will account for the allusions in tlie letter to the Society and to the Institute, and to the foinider of the Institue. (In the report of tliose Wednesday eveniiiiJexercises, as given on page 48, it has just been ascertained that an omission was made of tlie true No. 7. "The Burial of Moses" being No. 8. Tlie reader will please supply for that page 7. A recitation, *-- Nauhaut, the Indian Deacon," by Miss Georgie E. Ball. Taking part in those exercises were members of the earliest and of the latest of our literary societies, The Cedar Lake Lyceum and the Southeast Grove Literary. But the absence of Dr. E. J. Farwell, an early resident of Hanover, and of the Rev. H. Johnson, the writer of the letter mentioned above, prevented the carrying out of the fidl programme as first arranged.) Extracts from the letter.

I am sorry that I could not accept your invitation to be present at the reunion. I would have been glad to say a few words in behalf of the old Society. I shall always remain your debtor. Crown Point Institute is not dead. - Their leaf '' shall not wither." - She lives in her children. It was not in vain that you established such a school. Your pupils will always be grateful to you.

Before the close of the celebration a vote of thanks was passed, mentioning especially the members of the various committees who had aided so materially in makingthe gathering a pleasant one, also the singers, the papers of the county, the Chicago Tribune and its reporter.

By Bartlett Woods

It was a fortunate thoug-ht that pn^inpted the Old Settlers of this county to organize an association to meet annually inviting all, young and old, to meet with them renewing old friendships and a fraternal and kindly feeling to all; and to keep green .in our memories the trials and the incidents of the early days. Mj theme to day, '-' The Pioneers, their Homes and Habits, their Descendants, and their Influence."

Looking back it seems that we can hardly realize that from such small and humble beginnings such great results slu^uld follow; and now fifty years liave passed since the first white man built his cabin and ploughed a furrow in the then unbroken and virgin soil of Lake county. It was the wish of many of our citizens that this event should be commemorated.

A community, should in their journey through life occasionally make a halt and look back, and at this time we as a people can so clearly mark the starting place, that we should meet and celelirate the semi-centennial year which marks the fifty years of growth and of civilized life in what is now Lake county. Fifth years ago a wild uncultivated region, to-day the home of thousands of people.