LaPorte County, Indiana - Chapter 4: Early Settlement - Center, Kankakee, Wills, and Other Townships, 1904

Let us turn now to a locality which became Center township and the city of LaPorte. The Michigan Road lands had been put upon the market. This was a state road extending from Madison on the 'Ohio river to Michigan City. Certain lands selected in the counties through which the road passed had been granted by Con¬ gress to the state of Indiana, the sale of which was to defray the expense of building the road. Captain A. P. and James Andrew, then living in the vicinity of Cincinnati, took the contract of making twenty miles of the southern end of this road. They filled their contract, and took their pay in land scrip which the state would either convert into cash or receive in payment for the lands. The Andrews chose to purchase land, and thought of purchasing it in LaPorte county ; but before doing so they wisely concluded to look it over. Accordingly a party of ten men visited the locality on a prospecting tour. Among them were General Walter Wilson, of Logansport, Captain A. P. and James Andrew, John Walker and Dr. Hiram Todd. A daughter of one of the party, not with them at the time, says that there were also among them two brothers by the name of Barcloe from Dearborn county. It is probable that this is the party which, according to history, General Joseph Orr and Major J. C. Elston joined at Crawfordsville. The party em¬ ployed a guide by the name of Joe Truckee, a half-breed Indian. The Michigan Road had been surveyed and, though not completed, had already become a traveled route. The party followed this road through Rochester, Plymouth and South Bend, and then westward to Rolling Prairie, en¬ tering the county from the east to avoid the Kan¬ kakee swamps. They arrived here in October, 1831, and found that several settlers had already entered claims and built cabins. John Stanton had settled not far from where the Lake Erie and Western now crosses the Lake Shore Rail¬ road. Aaron Stanton had settled north of John, and Amos Stanton west of John. In the same year David Pagin and John Miller had settled near Miller's Lake, which probably took its name from the latter, but is now dry. Jacob Miller and William Clark had settled in the vicinity of what was afterwards the Lewis Cutler place, and Joseph Pagin had settled on the east of Clear Lake. None of these were within the present limits of LaPorte, though all were within about two miles, and some quite near. In LaPorte it¬ self there were only three houses, and these were built of logs. They belonged to George Thomas, Richard Harris and Wilson Malone. Burr oaks and wild flowers grew in the streets of the future city.

After prospecting to their entire satisfaction, the visiting party went away. The sales of the Michigan Road lands occurred at Logansport, in October, 1831. Those of this prospecting party who desired to purchase land for the building of the city of LaPorte, would not bid against each other; they had bid against each other as to the outlying purchases, but they would not now. Ac¬ cordingly, by previous arrangement, General Wil¬ son bid in the land for them. This was with a view to laying out a town which would be the capital of the new county.

The prospecting party broke up and its mem¬ bers returned to their homes. Captain A. P. An¬ drew brought his wife Abigail and her niece to LaPorte county, and at first settled on section ten, not far from where the county farm now is.

Meantime Daniel Andrew, a half uncle of A. P. and James, had come from Ohio to purchase land. One night as he was sitting in the cabin of A. P. Andrew, a man by the name of John Coleman rode up and informed them that the In¬ dians were about to rise. Word had been sent from Fort Dearborn to warn the settlers. The family were too startled to sleep. They made preparations to remove the women, and the next day Daniel Andrew started with Mrs. A. P. An¬ drew and her niece to return to Cincinnati. This was in May, 1832. The Indian scare was quite extensive throughout the county. It was the same scare that induced the settlers to build works of defense at Door Village.

Daniel Andrew returned to the county, but his career was a short one. He died on Terre Coupee prairie in St. Joseph county, on Friday, March 15, 1838, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. His remains were buried on Sunday, the 17th, from the Methodist church in LaPorte, with services conducted by Rev. W. K. Marshall.

After the Indian scare was over, A. P. An¬ drew went to Dearborn county, near Cincinnati, and brought his wife back with him, accompanied by his brother James. During this trip to the east the Captain had bought a steam engine and the machinery for a saw mill. He saw the necessity for such an adjunct in settling and developing the country which he had chosen for his new home. He shipped his purchase down the Ohio and up the Wabash river to Lafayette. This was in the summer of 1832. Even before this A. P. Andrew had seen the utility and feasability of a railroad between Lafayette and Michigan City, to connect the water transportation of Lake Michigan with that of the Wabash river. By act of the state leg¬ islature approved February 2, 1832, the Wabash and Michigan railroad was incorporated. The incorporators were William C. Linton, of Vigo county, Israel T. Canbv, Isaac C. Elston and Jonathan W. Powers, of Montgomery county, Samuel Milroy, of Carroll county, John Taylor and Thomas T. Benbridge, of Tippecanoe county, James Blair, of Vermillion county, James Armstrong and William Crumpton, of Fountain county, Abram P. Andrew, of Dearborn county, John Egbert and Charles Vail, of St. Joseph county, and Daniel Sigler and Joseph Orr then of Putnam county. The act empowered the corporation or theiragents to "have full power from time to time to examine, survey, mark and locate the route for a railroad for a single or double track commencing at or near the town of Lafayette in Tippecanoe county, and running on the best ground for the interest of the corporation and the convenience of the public, to the mouth of Dismaugh or Trail creek in LaPorte county, with full power in all cases to diverge from a direct line where more favorable ground can be had for the construction of the road, the same to be not more than eighty feet in width." This was certainly a very early, if not the first, attempt to build a railroad through La¬ Porte county. The act of incorporation is a long and specific document and was evidently secured in good faith. Three of the incorporators - Elston, Andrew and Orr, afterwards had to do intimately with the history of the county, and probably were the prime movers in the project, which however, was not to be realized for twenty years ; though we know not what efforts were made in surveying and construction work, even at that early day.

But we may see from all this that A. P. An¬ drew thought the route from Lafayette to La¬ Porte quite practicable. Accordingly he decided to bring his new engine and sawmill machinery over that route. He made a mutually advantage¬ ous agreement with Peter White, to whom we referred in the last chapter in connection with the early settlement of Scipio, to truck the engine and machinery from Lafayette. White desired to buy some oxen. There was a man by the name of Smoots, living in Tippecanoe county, who dealt in cattle. White went down to Lafayette lighthanded, but came back hauling the engine and machinery, with several yoke of oxen. A de¬ scendant of one of the parties says that there were twenty-seven yoke. Whether that is the correct number or not, it is certain that the load was hauled from Lafayette to LaPorte with a long line of yokes of oxen. They crossed the Kankakee river at Tassinong in Porter county, and it is said that the water was so deep in the middle of the river that the forward oxen helped pull the others through ; and that the engine boil¬ er, being air tight, buoyed up the wagon and lightened the load. However these things may be, the engine and all the machinery arrived in LaPorte safely in the early part of July, 1832.

A. P. Andrew set up the engine and mill near what is now known as Camp Colfax, on the shore of a little lake which, like scores of others, long since became dry. This was outside of the orig¬ inal plat of LaPorte. There he began to saw lumber even before the mill was' roofed over. People were in such a hurry for their work that for some time the Captain could not get time to house himself comfortably, and the mill was kept running night and day.

After making suitable preparations James An¬ drew returned to the vicinity of Cincinnati for his family. On the journey back to LaPorte the party consisted of James Andrew, his wife, his little daughter Catharine, and William P., after¬ wards Judge Andrew,* who at this present writing still lives, at the age of over ninety-four years. He was then a young school teacher. He accompan¬ ied the party back to LaPorte for the purpose of taking charge of little Catharine on the way. He had a cushion on the saddle just in front of him where she sat, but becoming weary of this posi¬ tion she stood up much of the time. A part of the time she stood in front and a part of the time behind him, clinging to him for support, and as she did so she could just see over his shoulders. The uncle passed the hours away by telling stories and encouraged her to do the same, and when his stock of these became exhausted he was com¬ pelled to invent others. Such was the overland journey of the emigrants who settled in this new country, and the benefit of whose labors and hard¬ ships we enjoy.

When the family arrived in LaPorte they found A. P. Andrew and family comfortably housed not far from his mill. In one end of his house he had established a store which as yet had

How the goods for this store were brought to LaPorte, whether from Lafayette at the same time with the engine, or from Niles, Michigan, is a point concerning which descendants of equal authority do not agree; nor do they agree on some other points. It is probable that there was a store somewhere near LaPorte before the ad¬ vent of the Andrews ; for by the fall of 1831 about a hundred pioneer families had located within a dozen miles of LaPorte, to say nothing of the Indians, a sufficient patronage certainly to sus¬ tain a store. The old Sac trail from Niles seems to have been the usual route for the importation of goods. Higgins Belden & Company's his¬ tory says that Stephen and William Clement came in the fall of 1831 and opened a store, and the first load of goods was drawn from Niles by Benajah Stanton for them. We know from the county records that the Stantons came in 1830.

James Andrew and his party arrived at the sawmill on Friday, September 21, 1832. On Sunday, the 23rd, some of the men at the mill told them to go to the top of a knoll near by and look off upon the prairie. They did so and saw a long line of white covered wagons slowly moving east¬ ward ; there were forty of them, a military train returning from the Black Hawk war. It was a picturesque scene ; and on that quiet Sunday, the first in their new home, the minds of the new set¬ tlers were in just the condition to be impressed with it.

On Monday, the 24th, word came that two boys were lost. All the men for miles around turned out and joined in a search for them. To facilitate this, A. P. Andrew took tin horns from the store and distributed them among the men that they might signal each other. The boys were found on the afternoon of the third day, and one of them was so exhausted from wandering about, and from hunger and loss of sleep, that he could not stand. They had a dog with them which had kept them warm in the chilly autumn nights by lying near and almost hovering them. The bark¬ ing of the dog led to their being discovered. The boys were the sons of Rev. James Armstrong. They had gone for the cows at night and become lost, the father was out on the big circuit, and the mother was sick at home. But the whole county as we might say came to her aid, and her sons were restored to her. Through all the trials, dangers and sufferings of pioneer life, the early settlers helped and sympathized with each other.

There is so much confusion in the reminis¬ cences given of these early times, that it is not safe to state anything on the authority of these reminiscences unless it is confirmed by documen¬ tary evidence. But as nearly as we can make out from a careful sifting of accounts, Aaron Stanton, his son Benajah and Richard Harris, from Union county, Indiana, arrived in Center township in February, 1830, and put up a cabin on the farm afterward occupied by Moses Stan¬ ton, where they all lived together. On March 28, Stanton, who had brought two hired men with him, withdrew from the company and built a cabin and settled on section twenty-four, about two miles north of the eastern boundary of La- Porte. After harvest he returned to Union coun¬ ty for his family, which he brought back with him the same year. On his return trip he was ac¬ companied by Philip Fail and wife, who abode in Stanton's cabin for a time ana then located in Kankakee township, not far away. Stanton's cabin was probably the first one built in Center township. William and Stephen Clement, Will¬ iam Clark, Adam Smith, Jesse Morgan, William Thomas, a Mr. Richardson and William and Jesse Bond, are mentioned as arriving in 1830 and '31, and Brainard Goff and Colonel W. A. Place in 1832. The Blakes, Landon Wheeler, the Balls, John B. and Charles Fravel, William Stan¬ ton and family and Alfred Stanton were all early settlers.

Among the early settlers were Seth Way and Charles Ladd. They had married sisters and lived in cabins on Pine Lake. James Andrew estab¬ lished himself on a large farm south of LaPorte, and Way took the contract of fencing his land. He worked all winter splitting the rails, and, that they might be near their work, Way and Ladd moved their cabins. Both were strong, able workers. They would work until 12 o'clock at night, fanning their wheat and preparing it for market. Early in the morning they would take a load of it to Michigan City, the next day they would repeat the process, and so on until their wheat was disposed of. Then they would go with

But the party of prospectors are the center around which the early affairs of the township revolve. With their advent dawned a new era. They were the ones who bought the land for the purpose of locating the future capital of the coun¬ ty. Fortunately A. P. Andrew, a river steam¬ boat captain, understood the running of engines, and it was he who brought and set up the mill which soon gave another aspect to the settle¬ ments ; for frame houses began to appear instead of log cabins. It was the first step away from pioneer life.

The first cabin built in Kankakee township was put up on section eighteen, by Philip Fail, in the fall of 1830. On October 30, Benajah S. Fail was born. It has been claimed that he was the first male white child bom in the countv, but if the above dates are correct Elizabeth M. Clyburn and Lewis Shirley preceded him. On May 24, 1831, Ezekiel Provolt, David Stoner, Arthur Irving and a man named Willets arrived in the township, with their families, from the vicinity of Lafayette. They were on the road eighteen days, and as an incident of emigrant life, on one occasion when the party had finished a day's jour¬ ney, Mrs. Provolt rode back to the previous camping place that she might procure fire with which to cook the evening meal. The first night after their arrival they encamped upon the land after¬ ward occupied by A. J. Bowell, about one-half mile north of Rolling Prairie railroad station. The next day the party moved to the present site of that town, where Ezekiel Provolt put up a cabin and his family moved into it. Jesse West and Arthur Irving built cabins near by. In the same year Daniel Murray, Chapel W. Brown, Emery Brown, Jacob Miller, John Garret, James Hiley and Myron Ives moved into the township. In 1832 Alexander Blackburn, Solomon Aldrich, and Charles Ives with their families settled in the township and began to make improvements. In 1832 also Bird McLane came with his father's family and settled on Rolling Prairie.

The Indian scare which, as we have seen visited other parts of the county, now struck the little community of Kankakee. Runners came an¬ nouncing that the Indians had risen against the settlers, and the terrified pioneers fled in dismay to Terre Coupee prairie in St. Joseph county, where a large number congregated at the house of a settler named Egbert. There they remained until the excitement subsided, and then returned to their homes. In a short time there was another alarm, and the settlers again went to the same prairie, and about forty of them took refuge in a school house, where they remained during the night. The next day they saw a company of sol¬ diers move westward on a reconnaissance, which restored confidence, and the settlers returned home in the rear of the command. In the follow¬ ing June the land sale at Lafayette took place; and though most of the men had gone to attend it, the women, who had become used to reports of Indian uprisings, felt no alarm. Here as else¬ where, after the Black Hawk war the county set¬ tled more rapidly, so that the settlers did not live so far apart. Hence they could befriend each other more readily. The prosperous shared with their less fortunate neighbors. There was game in the woods, fruit on the trees, honey in the forests.

In the words of another : "It was a wild, a free and in some respects a rich, a delightful life. The land, like the game, was free to all. Each one could go where he wished, locate wherever he chose, take whatever he could find on the prairie or in the woods, provided he interfered with no Indian and with no other settlers' rights. He could cut down trees, pasture his few cattle, cut grass for his winter's hay, plow and plant the soil anywhere, careful only not to infringe on any other who was a squatter like himself. Largely each man was a law to himself. It was a large freedom."

This is true, but it is not so large a freedom as there is in a populous and complicated civiliza¬ tion. In pioneer life there is more room but there is not more freedom. Cannot a person do more, live more, in a populous community? There his freedom is greater, his range of uses wider. The hermit is free only with respect to himself, but in a thickly settled country each person is free with respect to thousands of people himself included. In pioneer life there is perhaps only one person to enjoy freedom, but in a populous commun¬ ity there are thousands to enjoy it together, as a vast, aggregate organism, and to share it with each other as individuals. In such a community the individual has his rights and they are pre¬ served to him. Each is free, his freedom limited only by the like freedom of others. This gives greater discipline and culture. Others have as strong personalities as ourselves - as strong likes and dislikes. All of these cannot be gratified. Every person must sacrifice some things for the sake of others, and in this way a higher manhood is developed, which in the true sense means a greater freedom.

The first settlers in Wills township were John Wills and his three sons, John, Daniel and Charles, who came in 1830 and settled on section six, where Boot Jack now is. This was the first settlement of a family, though Asa M. Warren claims to have been the first man in the township. This is explained above, and also by the fact that Hudson was originally a part of Wills. After them, in the same year, others came. Among them were Andrew Shaw, Joseph Lykins, John Cissne and John S. Garroute. In 1831 came James Mills, Matthias Dawson, Dr. Chapman and others.

In this year Mary, wife of John S. Garroute, went to visit the sick wife of a man named Gar¬ wood, living some miles east at Hamilton, in St. Joseph county. On her return the day was clear and cold. She stopped to rest and warm herself at the house of John Wills. When she resumed her journey the wind had risen and was driving the snow. For some reason she dismounted and was overcome by the cold, and her lifeless body was found the next morning in the timber near the bend of Plumb grove on the farm afterward occupied by John W. Zigler. The mail carrier, who was traveling on snowshoes, discovered the body and said that as he did so he frightened away a wolf which was making for it.

David Stoner and others came to Wills in 1832. Besides the above there were settlements on or before 1832 in other townships. Jame9 Webster and his son-in-law, James Highley came, from Virginia and settled on section one, in the northeast corner of Pleasant township. Silas Hale and Oliver Classon soon after settled on section twenty-two. In 1830 Jacob Hackman came to Galena. In 1831 Judah Learning built the first cabin in Springfield township, and after¬ wards became the first justice of the peace. He also built and lived in the first frame house in the township, the building subsequently occupied by Benjamin Rhodes. Abram Cormac and Daniel Griffin were also early settlers, and in 1832 John Brown, Joseph Pagin and his sons, Erastus Quivey, John Hazelton and Charles Vail, settled in Springfield. In Clinton township Isham Camp¬ bell, in 1832, made his home on Hog creek, and in the fall of the same year Andrew and Edmond Richardson settled on section nine. Horace and Lane Markham came into Noble township in

1831 and claimed land near Union Mills; Horace a short distance north of the town, and Lane a little to the west, both being on section eight. Mill creek was originally called Markham creek. In

1832 John Wheaton became a resident. And in 1831 or '32, in Union township, Thomas Stillwell built a small cabin near what was afterwards the residence of D. H. Norton. Stillwell settled at a distance from the whites because he was a border man and preferred solitude, or contact only with the Indians. But the white settlers soon reached him. In 1832 also Joshua, John and Curtis Travis arrived and located in Union township. We will not refer to the early settlements of other town¬ ships, as they were not made until after the county was organized, and we shall have occasion to refer to them in treating of the organization and de¬ velopment of the county.

Hon. C. W. Cathcart says, in his Reminis¬ cences, in speaking of the year 1831 : "On Roll¬ ing Prairie I found the Wills family, Squire Nichols at the crossing of the little Kankakee, Philip Fail and Aaron Stanton between that and the Clear Lake, and the Pagin family on the bor¬ der of that piece of water, and then came a gap until I arrived at the neighborhood in which I pitched my tent. There I found the widow Bene¬ dict and her family, embracing, besides her own children, her son-in-law, Clybum, the Garwoods, Eaharts, Morgans and a few others. Without exception I now, in the face of all my experience among men, wish to put it on record that, one and all, I never knew a more worthy, kind and honorable people."

It is very remarkable that, in the main, the early settlements of the county ran parallel with the high ridge which extends in an irregular way east and west across the county, and whose sum¬ mit divides the watershed. For a long time this was the case, the most thickly settled belt of the county running parallel with the ridge, or in other words nearly parallel with the shore of Lake Michigan. Perhaps this may be accounted for by the fact that the prairie belt was considered the most eligible for settlement.

The settlers of this county had many hard¬ ships, but they had less to contend against than the settlers in most other sections of the country. Here, rich prairies covered with grass invited the plow of the husbandman, the groves furnished an abundance of timber for fencing, and large re¬ turns for labor were promised from the very first year of settlement. Mills were soon built and other conveniences came very rapidly.

We find here a reason why so large a propor¬ tion of our settlers became permanent residents. In other counties many families soon passed to regions further west. They were a restless, ad¬ venturesome class who loved frontier life. They followed the Indians and the deer toward the setting sun until the ocean stopped them. They filled a gap between savagery and civiliza¬ tion, and helped prepare for the permanent set¬ tler.

But LaPorte county had comparatively few of these. Here the conditions were different. There was no such gap to be filled. The Indians were not so savage, and nature was not so wild. In general the settlers were of excellent stock and of sterling character - just such stuff as states and empires are made of. It has been said that most of our settlers were from the south. It would not make them any the worse if they were. But as a matter of fact our old settlers' roll shows 438 members from the eastern and middle states to hi from the south.

Now, there is a law which is acknowledged by scientists, according to which the first perma¬ nent settlers impress themselves and their char¬ acter upon the future. Powerful influences in after years produce important modifications, but the earliest influences persist and are generally decisive. See how difficult it is to Anglo-Saxonize South America, which was settled by the Spanish. The difference between Massachusetts and Virginia to-day is the difference between the pilgrim and the cavalier, which was impressed upon them by the early settlers. Boston, New as we consider the firm integrity and remarkable York, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, Mon- ability of our early settlers, we cannot but fed treal, and Quebec, are different because they have hopeful and confident for the future, as well as taken their character and bent from their first pleased for the past and present of LaPorte settlers. This is the law; and in the light of it, county.