LaPorte County, Indiana - Chapter 7: Development - the Country, 1904

The country about us is not what it was in a state of nature ; great improvement has been made. It is still beautiful, blit its beauty is of a different bind. Then its voices sang of solitude, now they sing of usefulness. Then it had a wild beauty, and its atmosphere was laden with the poetry of an imagined past, when it teemed with the civili¬ zation of the mound builders, or when, later, the red man roamed through its forests and over its prairies. I Jut its beauty has been chastened by human touch, and now it tells us of happy homes, and of the triumphs of human life ; saddened of course by the thought of the hardships and sor¬ rows and final partings which its inhabitants have experienced.

The first thing, of course, after the settler had made his family as comfortable as possible temporarily, was to build the traditional log cabin. Trees must be selected which were not too large, or they could not be handled conveniently; not small, or the cabin would be a house of sap¬ lings. The process of felling the trees, splitting the logs, hewing them so as to have fiat walls indde. notching them at the ends to let them <lo'vn upon each other, slanting the gables, riving out lapboards or shingles, putting on roof poles, binding the shingles to them, sawing out doors and windows, making the fire place, and many other things necessary in building a log cabin - this process is yet familiar to many of us; wre remember it well. This knowledge and experi¬ ence stood our volunteers well in hand during the Civil war, for it enabled them to make them¬ selves comparatively comfortable during the long winter of inactivity. After our settlers had housed their families they made a shelter for their stock, which was often done by setting posts in the ground, with crotches at the upper end ; poles were laid from crotch to crotch, other poles laid across, and the roof covered with long prairie grass until it was thick enough to shed water. Poles were slanted against the sides, and grass piled on them in the same manner. The door could be left open, or closed by any means con¬ venient. This made an exceedingly warm shelter, though it was so dark that the animal's eyes sometimes suffered from it. Swine and other stock could be left to shelter themselves, and they usually found some sheltered nook in the groves and forests, or among the thick grass, where they made themselves comfortable, though some of them ran wild. Of course, in a country like LaPorte, where it was possible to obtain from the centers of civilization the necessary articles, these primitive methods were greatly modified and im¬ proved upon from the very first. Shingle nails were used instead of weight poles, window panes took the place of oiled paper or cloth, and so on. The first settlers brought with them the few tools necessary for their pioneer life, such as axes, adzes, iron wedges, hammers, saws, augers, g'mlets, frovvs for shaving shingles, planes, chisels, etc., and the women brought needles, scissors, thimbles, pins, thread, yarn, spinning wheels, and some brought looms. Mr. William Andrew of LaPorte has in his possession a grindstone which was owned by his father in the early thirties. The settlers within a radius of many miles used to come and grind their tools on that stone. It was originally a very large disc, but by much grinding it has been worn down until it is very small.

After the primitive log cabin, came the frame building, and then the brick structure. For brick were made very early in the county. But it was the sawmill which marked the first move away from pioneer life. For as soon as a saw¬ mill was accessible to any community, frame buildings were practicable. Indeed, the county was so well wooded that they were within the reach of nearly all who would put forth the necessary labor to obtain them. All that was necessary was to cut the logs, haul them to mill, pay the toll, in whatever form, and haul the lum¬ ber home again. And this was an economy of time which was very precious in those days of subduing the virgin soil and making a settled home. It was no easy matter to hew timber, and split out boards with wedges, and then smooth them by hand. Hence it was that, as detailed in another chapter, sawmills were put up in every part of the county. Where nature provided the means they were run by water power, otherwise by steam. And at once frame buildings - mills and shops of different kinds, stores, hotels, churches, schoolhouses and dwelling houses be¬ gan to multiply, and the country put on the ap¬ pearance of advancing civilization. Many of those buildings are standing to-day, though most of them have long since vanished, or given place to others. In almost every large town, in almost every smaller center, and even in the country itself, may be found an occasional frame dwelling which was built in the thirties of forties, and many of those built at that time have been remodeled and modernized so that few traces of their original form remain. Slowly, as the years went by, im¬ provements were made. Gradually new, more beautiful and commodious buildings were put up for both families and dumb animals, and more and 'more conveniences were introduced into the former ones, until to-day, as one rides through any part of the county, he sees not only highly improved and well stocked farms but large, com¬ modious, and in many cases even artistic, build¬ ings which bespeak the thrift of the owners, and the vast progress which has been made since the first log buildings were made in Hudson and New Durham townships in 1828 and 1829. This is the case in every part of the county. Even in riding over the northern sandhills, and in ap¬ parently the most unproductive portions, one is often surprised to find a large, white farm house burst upon his view, with its cluster of neat farm buildings and well kept grounds. And when we couple with all this, the rural mail delivery, that greatest of all modern civilizers, enabling us ef¬ fectually to assimilate our foreign population, what can our LaPorte county farmer ask besides? He can receive and read his daily paper as though he were in the city.

And yet, as an instance of the fact that "man never is but always to be blessed/' in 1839 t*ie subject was agitated of finding a better country. On Thursday, March 14th, of that year, a meeting was held at the schoolhouse in New Durham township, for the purpose of free expression of opinion upon the subject of the policy and pro¬ priety of emigrating to the Oregon territory". Daniel Jessup was called to the chair, and J. Simmons was appointed secretary. Much valu¬ able information relating to that country was laid before the meeting, and several resolutions of an inviting character adopted. The subject of the Oregon country was determined of sufficient in¬ terest to merit the consideration of all American citizens. The meeting finally crystallized into the recommendation that a county meeting be held at the court house in LaPorte, on Thursday, the 21st; at 1 1 o'clock a. m., and that notice of the same be given. Notice was accordingly published in the . county papers by the chairman and secretary, that at the specified time and place a meeting would be held for the purpose of considering the policy and propriety of colonizing the Oregon territory. All who felt an interest in the Oregon country were invited to attend. Little ever came of it, the people were too well fixed in their own county. In the late forties also, as related else¬ where, there was an exodus from the county to California. But they who went through the ex¬ perience were constrained to acknowledge that they would have been better off if they had re¬ mained at home. And, indeed, it is difficult to see how anyone who is well fixed in as good a country as LaPorte county, and to whom the climate is suited, can better himself by going elsewhere.

After the county was incorporated, it settled rapidly. It was a land of promise, and probably no other county in the state gained so many in- habitants during the first few years of its exist¬ ence. In some of the townships nearly all the government land was taken by 1835. It was felt that there could not be a better land, that the fertility of the soil could not be surpassed, and that for salubrity of climate the west had not produced its equal. The prairies afforded to the farmer the ready opportunity of making the soil subject to his wishes, and the woods afforded an abundance of timber of the kind best adapted to the wants of the people. By 1836 the county population was above ten thousand, whereas three years before it was the journey of a mile from house to house. The whole land which but a short time before was owned by the government on every hand presented the most thriving farms, overflowing granaries, and an agricultural popu¬ lation rising rapidly in wealth and comfort. The county did not present the opportunity for profit¬ able speculation that some other regions presented but no country held forth more solid inducements for investment.

In 1838 travelers through the county were en¬ thusiastic in their descriptions of its inland lakes and beautiful scenery, declaring that it stood un¬ equalled for agricultural and commercial advant¬ ages, and that it could maintain a greater popula¬ tion than any other of the same size in the west. The farmers seemed more liberal and appeared more intelligent than in most other places. Visit¬ ors saw that there was an abundance of water power in the county, which could be applied to all manufacturing purposes, and they looked forward to the not far distant day when the song of the forge and the busy hum of industry and enterprise would resound throughout the whole county, when each little brook should be made to run the mill or ply the spindle, and when this then remote region of the west should be far east to other set¬ tlements yet more remote. The strides of the past eight years seemed marvelous, fancy - could not picture the great things to come, and La Porte county must occupy a prominent and enviable sta¬ tion. Such was the picture presented in 1838, and time has enabled us to see with how much correct¬ ness it was drawn.

And yet that very year is known in history as the sickly season, throughout what is now the middle west. Sickness prevailed to an alarming extent throughout the whole northern part of In¬ diana. There was a long continued season of dry, sultry weather. The little brooks were dried up, the lakes, which the spring before had in some places overflowed the roads for rods to a depth of two or three feet, had now fallen much below their usual level, leaving on their margin an im¬ mense quantity of vegetable matter to be decom¬ posed by the action of the sun, creating sickening effluvia to float about in the atmosphere, and add to the occasion of sickness and distress which prevailed throughout the county. But the deaths were few, considering the vast number of cases. At that time there were marshes about LaPorte and in many other places, which have since been drained out or filled up, but which then probably added to the occasion of sickness. Disease was so prevalent, widespread and alarming, that the religious people suggested the idea of a day set apart for humiliation and prayer, which was not opposed nor ridiculed by the non-religious, who said that they could not cry that all was well when it was directly contrary to the truth.

Wheat and produce were so plenty in the late thirties and early forties that it was often difficult to get them hauled to market. It was before rail¬ roads had come to the county. It was no uncom¬ mon thing to see such advertisements as the fol¬ lowing : "Wanted, twenty teams to haul wheat to Michigan City by Wheeler and Traver." But human nature was very much the same .then as now. On Friday, November 1, 1839, there was a meeting of farmers at the house of Henly Clyburn, in New Durham township, to take into con¬ sideration their own interests which they resolved to sustain "in spite of the common wheat specu¬ lator or his mercenary agents." What would they have said if they had known our present day corners in wheat and other necessities of life? Can we not imagine those farmers turning over in their graves? In that meeting they resolved to maintain a fair and equitable price for wheat, and to fix that price themselves ; that they dep¬ recated the disposition of many merchants of the county to palm upon the farmers their goods at one hundred per cent, above eastern prices ; and that, rather than be thus defrauded, the farmers would be their own merchants as well as their own exporters. They resolved also to advise that all farmers meet in their several townships pre¬ vious to the first Monday in the following January, for the purpose of choosing five delegates to rep¬ resent each township in a county convention to be held at the court house in LaPorte on the first Monday in January, at u o'clock a. m., to take into consideration such measures as may seem most advisable for the carrying out of the fore¬ going resolutions. Of this New Durham meeting James Haskell was chairman, and A. D. Heaton, secretary. A similar meeting was held at the house of Mr. Cears, in Scipio township, on the 30th of November. At several different times in the history of the county similar movements were set on foot, and we may see in them the precur¬ sors of the Grange and later organizations. But they were not successful. There are economic laws which the resolutions of men cannot control and which are not the effects but the causes of those resolutions - laws by which the Almighty is evolving a social order which the movements of men can neither hasten nor retard.

After Rome had conquered a nation she made roads to that nation. So she was in easy commu¬ nication with the remotest parts of her empire, and they with her. The settlers of LaPorte coun¬ ty instinctively saw the necessity of this. Through their proper representatives, they at once began to make roads so that the people could get some¬ where. The example had been set them in the case of the old Michigan road, which was very useful. The old Sac trail also had made the coun¬ ty a thoroughfare. Almost at their first session the county commissioners began to provide for roads, and so it was year after year until the county was well traversed with them, and there was communication in every direction. This greatly helped in the development of the county, for it provided a way by which the crops might be carried to market. One can have little appre¬ ciation of the civilizing influence of roads, until he has lived in a country where they do not ex¬ ist, and where one must open and close gates and go across his neighbors' farms continually.

George Washington was the first to suggest that the great lakes and the Mississippi river be connected. His suggestion was for canals, as railroads were then unknown. The suggestion did not bear fruit in his day, though it did after¬ wards. But it did not touch LaPorte county. Reports came from time to time of the progress of the Wabash and Erie canal, but that was all. The people waited for canals, but they did not come. They waited until the late forties for rail¬ roads, but the railroads did not# come. Then the people went to making plank roads, as the next best thing. It was not long before the principal points in the county were connected by plank roads. Companies were formed, and these roads were laid to other counties. Turnouts were laid so that the lightly loaded teams coming out of the towns might use them and leave the main track for the heavily loaded teams going into town. There was much discussion concerning them, directions for their proper construction were published far and near, and they were thought to be a great thing. But in 1852, and thereafter, the railroads came and the plank roads gradually fell into disuse. One by one the com¬ panies abandoned their lines, but some of them did not take this step until well into the sixties, and even now in some places the old planks re¬ main. At a meeting of the stockholders of the Union Plank Road Company, held at their office in Michigan City, on the third day of August, 1863, it was ordered that all of the line of the road of said Union Plank Road Company lying between the intersection of Michigan and Pine streets in Michigan City and the city of LaPorte which had not before been abandoned, be and was thereby abandoned by said company. C. B. Blair was president, and D. J. Baldwin, secretary. So ended a useful institution. Much heavier loads could be hauled over the plank roads than over the soil roads, and they helped greatly in the de¬ velopment of the county. After the railroads came, all was changed ; old centers were aban¬ doned, new centers were formed, the markets were brought nearer the farmer's home, distances were shortened, marketing made easier, and the devel¬ opment of the country was wonderfully acceler¬ ated.

It must not be supposed that nature yielded her empire at once and without a struggle. Wild¬ ness overlapped civilization. Improvement in many respects was very gradual. As we saw in chapter first, the last of the Indians did not leave until 1838, and as late as October. 1847, three bears were killed in one week near Kingsbury. So numerous were the wolves, and so great the dam¬ age done by them to the farmer's flocks and herds that the board of county commissioners increased the bounty on wolf scalps to $5 each, and Mr. Samuel Treat offered $2 more. And so far as game is concerned, it was plenty for many years. In 1842, so the report goes, a citizen managed to catch forty wild geese when their wings were so completely frozen that they could not spread a feather. In November, 1861, Dr. Jessup of La- Porte made a four days' trip to Kankakee river, and returned with one hundred and sixty-five ducks, eighteen snipes, two large geese, twentyfour quails, and sixteen prairie chickens. In Feb¬ ruary, 1904, Daniel Holandsworth, a Westville fur buyer, bought three otter skins. The animals were caught by trappers along the Kankakee river and were very valuable, each skin being worth about $13. This excited comment in the local papers, but once there were plenty of otter in that part of the country, though they have been scarce for many years.

Strictly speaking the settlers of LaPorte county were not pioneers. The majority of them were people of more or less education and culture, trained and accustomed to the usages of civiliza¬ tion. In the settling of the county there was no interim between savagery and civilization. The pioneers did not come and build their cabins, and defend them with their rifles for some years until the civil officers, courts, schools and churches made their appearance. This was nec¬ essary in some settlements, but not here. In La¬ Porte county civil government sprang into being at once, as if by magic. The settlers brought civilization with them. They brought the com¬ mon law with them, and, in harmony with the legislative statutes, they saw to it at once that the community should be governed thereby. They provided at once for courts, for public buildings, for roads, and for every possible institution nec¬ essary to a civilized community. And the result was that in the fifties, land which in the thirties had been bought for $1.25 per acre, was worth from $50 to $100 per acre. The productiveness of the soil was the main element of strength. The cheapness of water transportation was another, for the roads made the lake port accessible.

But the chief developer and rearranger of cen¬ ters, and redistributor of civilization, was the railroad. Says William Henry Smith's History of Indiana : "The Erie canal had been completed and the fever of railroad building had taken pos¬ session of the public mind. There was an abund¬ ance of idle capital, both in this country and in England, all seeking investment, and the Ohio valley presented the most enticing inducements. It was then that Indiana lost her opportunity.

It was projected to unite Lake Erie and Lake Michigan by a great double track railroad, and then to extend the road on southwesterly to the head of steamboat navigation on the Illinois river. It was a grand project. The road was to start from a point on Lake Erie at the head of Maumee Bay, and connect with Lake Michigan at Michi¬ gan City. The harbor at Michigan City was naturally a better one than that at Chicago. In 1835 the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad Com¬ pany was granted a charter by the legislature of Indiana and the route surveyed.

"Among those interested in the project was Daniel Webster, the great senator of Massachu¬ setts. He came out to Indiana, when the work of building the road was begun with great' cere¬ monies, he delivering an address on the occasion to a large concourse of people, gathered from all parts, and throwing up the first shovel of dirt. So confident were he and his fellow projectors that the work would be completed and Michigan City become a great city on the lake, that they pur¬ chased a great deal of property, and thus the little town experienced its first boom. There were three things they did not count on : The first stumbling block was the Illinois legislature. Un¬ fortunately for the Buffalo and Mississippi Rail¬ road, in those days it was necessary to get a charter in every state through which the road was to operate. Chicago was a little town in the swamps, but her citizens were active and farseeing. They could readily see that if the pro¬ jected railroad was constructed Michigan City would be the great lake port, and they would be left to enjoy the swamps. They organized a lobby and prevented the Illinois legislature from granting the charter asked for. The second ob¬ stacle was the apathy on the part of the citizens of Indiana. They seemed to take but little inter¬ est in it and made no effort to overcome the oppo¬ sition of Chicago. The projectors, nor the people of Indiana, it seems, did not deem it possible to reach the Mississippi by any other route. Or, if they did, they must have thought the hills along the Ohio in southern Indiana could not be over¬ come bv a railroad, for no effort was made to reach the Ohio wholly through Indiana territory. The third obstacle was the great panic of 1837. That put an end, for the time being, to all railroad and canal building.

sissippi Railroad, did not neglect to push its own interests, and when the effect of the financial panic was worn off, began agitating a road from that city to the Mississippi. Fortunately for Chi¬ cago, Illinois had Stephen A. Douglas in the senate, and after years of presistent work he in¬ duced Congress to grant millions of acres of public land to build the Illinois Central Railroad. Thus Chicago arose from her swamps and became the great city of the lake, and the wonder of the world, while Michigan City had only a few miles of railroad embankment to remind it of what it might have been.,, (Pages 669, 670.)

The Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad was a LaPorte affair. The incorporators, as they stand in the order of their names given in the act of incorporation, were the following: Gustavus A. Everts, Aaron Stanton, and John B. Miles, of the county of LaPorte ; Lathrope M. Taylor, Samuel C. Sample, and Horatio Chapin, of the county of St. Joseph; William Latta, Thomas Thomas, James R. McCord, John Violet, Aaron M. Perine, and John Rorrer, of the county of Elkhart; Ephraim Sealey, Luther Newton, Nehemiah Coldren, and Robert Latta, of LaGrange county. This railroad was incorporated by act of the Indiana legislature approved February 6, 1835. The act of incorporation is a long, elaborate and care¬ fully prepared document, covering nine royal octavo pages.

Notwithstanding the three causes of failure mentioned above, there was a very vigorous and persistent effort made to establish this road, and it was destined to supply two very important links in the chain of railroad communication which was eventually opened between the east and west. At their May term, in 1838, the commissioners of LaPorte county subscribed $100,000, of stock in the road, and appointed A. P. Andrew, Jr., their agent, who was also appointed agent of the railroad at a meeting of its directors held at its offices in LaPorte on June 6, 1838. Joseph Orr was president of the board of directors, and Ed¬ mund B. Woodson, of Michigan City, was clerk. LaGrange county subscribed $50,000 of stock, and appointed Selden Martin agent. Not long after this A. P. Andrew, Jr., went to New York to negotiate a sale of the bonds, and was there until he became quite well known in financial circles. The letters of advice which Joseph Orr wrote to him during his absence are interesting documents. Mr. Andrew was then a young man, and Mr. Orr a man of more years and greater experience. Among other things, General Orr writes that it may be necessary for Mr. Andrew to deposit the bonds for sale. On June 4, 1839, Mr. Andrew did so. The bonds, or trust certifi¬ cates, were as follows : Two hundred and ninetytwo bonds of one thousand dollars each, issued by the county of LaPorte; fifty bonds of one thousand dollars each, issued by the county of LaGrange; and eighteen bonds of one thousand dollars each, issued by the county of Steuben. The bonds were all dated April 1, 1839, and made payable twenty years after date, to the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad Company or their assignees,, in the city of New York, with coupons attached for the payment of interest semi-annually at the rate of seven per cent, per annum. These Mr. Andrew deposited for sale with the American Exchange Bank in New York city. In the winter of 1838 we find A. P. Andrew, as the authorized delegate of the directors, looking after the interests of the road in the lobbies of the state legislature. In March, 1839, by recent provision of the legislature, the commissioners of LaPorte county voted to become trustees on behalf of the railroad company of "stock secured by mortgage to the amount of three thousand shares, together with the mortgages on lands in said county, and in other counties in the state of Indiana adjacent to said railroad, securing the payment of said stock," the directors to give the commissioners "a bond to indemnify them and the county against all loss or damages in the premises." All this was at the proposal of the company and shows that business was still being transacted, though little was done toward building the road. In August, 1839, A. P. Andrew was appointed loan agent of the road. The matter of building the road, however, hung fire for years. Meantime the Michigan Central Railroad was making its way westward, and seeking to obtain right of way through the lake counties of the state. The peo¬ ple of LaPorte county, weary of waiting for the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad, began to favor the Central. It appears that many of the Buffalo and Mississippi stockholders in LaPorte county, and in other counties sympathizing with them, by virtue of holding a larger amount of stock, or by virtue of having kept their assessments paid up, had a controlling number of votes, and that they had transferred their stock to an individual in Chicago for the purpose, either of assisting the Central to obtain right of way around Lake Mich¬ igan through Indiana, or else to build the western end of the Buffalo and Mississippi, so as to con¬ nect with the Central where it entered the state. What the people of LaPorte county wanted was a railroad, and if they could not get it in any other wav they were willing to connect with a Michigan road and let the Indiana counties east of them take care of themselves. Hearing of this, the in¬ terested parties in those counties called a conven¬ tion to which, significantly, the people of LaPorte county were not invited. The convention met in the Methodist church, in Mishawaka, on Wednes¬ day, September 1, 1847, and was largely attended and passed resolutions to pay up delinquent as¬ sessments, buy up stock, and obtain the requisite number of votes to elect directors who would checkmate the movement of LaPorte county to unite with the Central and leave the eastern coun¬ ties out in the cold. The convention voted that all efforts of resuscitating the old Buffalo and Mississippi road should be done in all particulars, under the provisions of the act for the amendment of the charter approved January 6, 1846.

In the controversy LaPorte county declared that her first choice was to complete the Buffalo and Mississippi road according to the original plan, but that if this could not be done, as seemed likely, they saw nothing wrong in seeking rail¬ road communications with the east by some other way. On Monday, October 4, 1847, the stock¬ holders met in LaPorte and elected a new board of directors, but the eastern counties did not carry their point; for the new board of directors at once adopted measures for the immediate com¬ pletion of the western end of the line; that is, from La Porte county west to the Illinois state line. The citizens of LaPorte and vicinity soon subscribed $40,000 of stock for this purpose, and the work, or at least the preliminaries, went on. Agitation on the subject of railroads increased, and the matter was discussed far and wide.

It appears that all things in the board of directors did not go to suit those interested in the western end of the line, for at the beginning of 1848 the legislature passed an act of amend¬ ment to the charter, providing that Chauncey B. Blair, of Michigan City, Andrew L. Osborn, A. P. Andrew', Jr., William C. Hannah and William

J. Walker, of LaPorte, be constituted a board of commissioners to take charge of all the road west of LaPorte, and to have all the powers as to that portion of the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad denominated in the amendment the western divi¬ sion, which were formerly vested in the board of directors. Thus was the western end, in a way, severed from the eastern; for it had become a separate interest.

Meantime the Michigan Southern Railroad, still another line of possible connection with the east, had been laid and was in operation as far west as Hillsdale. The commissioners, of the western division of the Buffalo and Mississippi went to New York in the spring of 1849, and re¬ turned with the joyous intelligence that arrange¬ ments had been made which would probably re¬ sult not only in the construction of the western division but in building the road far enough east to connect with the Michigan Southern at Hills¬ dale. As this was to be consummated, the Buffalo and Mississippi would have no further use for its right of way from Michigan City to the Michi¬ gan state line, and therefore the commissioners made arrangements whereby the Michigan Cen¬ tral might extend their road, from New Buffalo to Michigan City. The Michigan Southern and the western extension of the Buffalo and Missis¬ sippi were now working together, they were prac¬ tically one road, they advertised under one head, and there was every prospect of building the line from the western terminus of the Michigan Southern to Illinois. But just at this time the Michigan legislature, instigated no doubt by the lobbying of the Michigan Central, blocked the Michigan Southern from building its road be¬ yond, or even up to the limits of its own state. But there is more than one way to accomplish an object. The last week in May, 1850, a part of the directors of the Michigan Southern met in LaPorte, and with certain citizens of LaPorte perfected the organization of a railroad company under an act of the legislature approved February 11, 1843, providing for the construction of a rail¬ way in northern Indiana. George Bliss, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was elected presi¬ dent; A. P. Andrew, Jr., of LaPorte, vice presi¬ dent ; W. C. Hannah, of LaPorte, secretary ; Ed¬ win C. Litchfield, of New York, treasurer; and Ezekiel Morrison, of LaPorte, assistant treasurer. The foregoing, and also the following, were elected directors : Charles Butler and John B. Jervis, New York; John Stryker, Rome, New York; William L. Marcy, Albany, New York; James Bradley and O. P. Ludlow, LaPorte ; Thomas Stanfield, South Bend ; and Havilla Beardsley, Elkhart. They adopted the name of the Northern Indiana Railroad Company, under which bylaws were passed, reports ordered upon surveys which had been made; and measures taken to put the work in progress as soon as right of way could be obtained. The charter authorized the construction of a road from Michigan City to LaPorte, and as much further eastward as the company might see fit to extend it. The same parties purposed to build the road from Michigan City to the Illinois state line, under lease of the Buffalo and Mississippi railroad charter. Thus was planned a through line with the following links : The Erie and Kalamazoo from Toledo to Adrian, the Michigan Southern from Monroe, via Adrian, to the Indiana state line in Elkhart county, the Northern Indiana from that point to Michigan City, the Buffalo and Mississippi from Michigan City to the Illinois state line, a link to be built under the general law of Illinois from that point to Chicago and another line from there to Galena on the Mississippi river. But there were yet obstacles in the way ; rival interests opposed.

In February, 1851, the matter stood thus: The Michigan Central had power to build from Detroit to New Buffalo, and thence along the lake shore to the southern boundary of the state. The Michigan Southern had power to build to the Indiana state line in Elkhart county. The North¬ ern Indiana had power to build from that point to LaPorte and Michigan City, and the Buffalo and Mississippi had authority to build from Mich¬ igan City to the Illinois state line. There were several ways by which each road, the Central and the Michigan Southern, could manage to build a road from the state line to Chicago; but while the Michigan Southern line was complete, it seemed that the Central could not supply the link from Michigan City to the Illinois state line. But suddenly it was announced that the Central had arranged to accomplish its object. The charter of the New Albany and Salem road, starting from a point opposite Louisville, Kentucky, was an "open end charter;" that is, its track could be carried to any point in the state north of Logan s¬ port. It was to be built to Michigan City, and thence west to the Illinois state line, and join the Illinois Central road. The Michigan Central had made arrangements with these roads, to complete its line from Michigan City to Chicago. This led the builders of the Buffalo and Mississippi to deviate from the original plan of connecting with Michigan City, and to build almost directly west from LaPorte.

Such, in brief, is the history of the strife which resulted in the establishment of two east and west trunk lines instead of one, through the northern part of the county. From the first the people of Michigan City favored the Michigan Central road and often fought the other one ; and when not only the Central but the Southern route was assured, they fought the cutting out of Michigan City by the Buffalo and Mississippi. They wanted both roads to pass through that town. They wanted that to be the great shipping center, as it thus far had been.

Other railroads had been incorporated but had come to nothing. By act approved February ,7, 1835, the Michigan City and Kankakee Rail¬ road Company was incorporated. The incorpor¬ ators were David Sprague, William Teall, Jacob Bigelow, Joshua Hobart, and David Burr, all of Michigan City. The object of the corporation was to construct a canal or railroad from the na¬ vigable waters of the Kankakee river to Michigan City. This was not accomplished, but it shows the enterprise which from the beginning has characterized Michigan City ; her leading citizens have always been on the alert for her interests.

Other railroads, however, were built and their objects accomplished, a more particular account of which will be given elsewhere. And their effect upon the development of the county has been immense. Said a LaPorte county writer in June, 1849:

"There is no reason under the blue heavens why our beautiful and well cultivated prairie farms should not at this moment be worth $45 per acre. In western New York, the northeast portion of Ohio, and that portion of Pennsylva¬ nia which lies contiguous to Lake Erie, improved farms much less prolific than ours are worth and daily selling at from $50 to $75 per acre. Look at it, people of LaPorte. You can raise a bushel of wheat at much less cost than they can, and this same wheat can be transported to Buffalo,

New York, for from three to four cents per bushel. What, then, should cause this vast differ¬ ence in the value of the land ? I answer, no rea¬ son excepting the fact that our country is com¬ paratively unknown, for the want of a direct travel communication. As soon as we are in pos¬ session of this great national thoroughfare, per¬ mit me now to make the prediction which will be fulfilled to the very letter within three years: Our productive farms in this county which ate now regarded as worth from $12 to $20 per acre, will be snatched at with the greatest avidity and sold at from $35 to $50 per acre. The hand of agricultural industry will be encouraged, and re¬ ceive an impetus hitherto not known in the county and enterprise and business of all kinds will be doubled."

AH of which has proved true and much more. We are now prepared to consider the development of townships and the formation of centers, the decay of old centers and the establishment and growth of new ones, which is very largely the result of the location of the railroads. But before entering into this subject, it may be well to devote a chapter to the development of the Kankakee region as a part of the country.