LaPorte County, Indiana - Chapter 19: Mills, 1904

Chapter 19: Mills

Machinery was not introduced into the county until July, 1832, but it is related that within a year prior to that Arba Heald, who was one of the most progressive men in the community, bought a very small mill, "about the size of a tin pail," for his own family. It was attached to a young tree on his place in Scipio township and the neighbors were obligingly permitted to use it for cracking com by hand, that being the only sendee of which it was capable. This was soon superceded by a larger and better apparatus known as an English malt mill and operated by horsepower for toll. When General Joseph Orr settled his family in the county in March, 1833, he inquired about the mills and was told by a neighbor that he would have to go to Niles, Mich¬ igan, for his grinding. This neighbor said he had twice visited the Heald establishment and each time he "got a small turn of bran and some little flour." The affair served very well as a make shift in those days of small things, but Mr. Heald was not satisfied apparently, for (in a statement made by a member of his family for publication in 1874, he having died in 1852), it is said that "he built the first watermill in the county; at first an English malt mill turned by hand, and then by horsepower." This watermill was erected in the summer of 1833 on land en¬ tered by Mr. Heald in 1831, in section 33, Cool¬ spring township ; but it is referred to by all the county historians as a sawmill and never as a gristmill. It is certain that lumber was cut there from the start and until Arba Heald died; but afterwards the sawmill was removed and only grinding machinery was in use, operated by Mr. Heald's son, until about 1890, when the business was discontinued. It was always known as the Heald mill, and was not the first watermill in the county.

The Andrew saw mill, referred to in a former chapter, was the earliest industrial enterprise using machinery in the county. It was situated in the vicinity of Camp Colfax near LaPorte. Af¬ ter a few years it was sold and moved away.

Charles Vail, son of Isaac and Sarah, born in New Jersey in 1803, an^ brought up as a baker, located at Terre Coupee in 1829, and in 1832 moved to Springfield town¬ ship, and, with the assistance of Erastus Quivey, built the first waterpower mill in the county on the north branch of Trail creek. It was a saw¬ mill, the second in the county, and stood where the Vail mill now stands in section 31, on land which Mr. Vail bought of the government in the next year. This sawmill was completed in Oc¬ tober, 1832, a couple of months after the Andrew venture was in operation and nearly a year be¬ fore Heald was at work in Coolspring township. Charles Vail conducted the business of manu¬ facturing lumber and continued until death stopped his labors February 25, 1872, when he was succeeded by his sons Charles and Aaron S., the latter being the present proprietor and manager of the business. Under the ownership of the sons the third new mill was installed, two having been worn out, and a gristmill was put in. The sawmill was abandoned after 1892, when the tim¬ ber supply had disappeared. The dam was washed out in the summer freshets of 1902, lead¬ ing to some litigation with reference to a public bridge spanning the outlet of the pond at the mill. Charles Vail was of good old Quaker stock and is remembered by his rugged honesty and public spirit. In the early days he built a school house at his own expense and paid the teachers for three years. The Vail mill is the oldest busi¬ ness enterprise of any kind in operation in the county, and it is exactly as old as the county seat.

With 1833 the agricultural, commercial and industrial development of LaPorte county was taken up in earnest and the population received large accessions. When the year opened the county could muster only about sevenscore cotes and the county seat boasted but three houses, but as the season progressed the old Sac trail was ex¬ tensively traveled by a sturdy race of pioneers in quest of homes on the rich government lands in LaPorte county. Productive farms and magni¬ ficent ranges of hardwood timber invited the miller and the lumberman, and other manufac¬ turers came along in due time. It will be con¬ venient to take up each branch of industry sep¬ arately beginning with,

Six of the twenty-one townships in the county have not borne sufficient timber to attract saw¬ mill men. These are Clinton, Cass, Dewey, John¬ son, Hanna, and the newly erected Prairie and Washington townships. The dense forest growth of the north half, pierced by several streams af¬ fording excellent mill seats and adjoined by a flourishing farming community, with growing towns and villages springing up all about, at once drew the notice of lumberers, and in 1833 at least four sawmills were started in Coolspring town¬ ship, and one each in Springfield, Michigan and New Durham. The Heald mill, already men¬ tioned, is one of these. General Joseph Orr, who was himself a part owner of a sawmill in Coolspring township in the same year, said forty years later that he believed Nathan Johnson was en¬ titled to the honors of priority in mill construc¬ tion in that township, thus casting a doubt upon Arba HeakTs right even to second place in the county. Nathan Johnson was probably the first settler in Coolspring; he was the founder of the once promising town of Waterford, and was often called upon as a juror, election officer, or town- * ship committeeman in the Whig organization. He built the dam at Waterford* the longest in the county, and set up a sawmill there ; John Walker of LaPorte being associated with him in the en¬ terprise. It is probable that Walker, who owned much land in the vicinity by original entry, in¬ duced him to go there. Johnson, December 19, 1839, s°ld out to Otis E. Bowers for $25,000* including 1,360 acres of land. Bowers added a distillery to the sawmill, which later gave way to the gristmill now in operation there. The saw¬ mill business gradually fell off and was ultimately discontinued. When Johnson sold out in 1839, or possibly before, he erected a new mill on sec¬ tion 15, in the same township, and ran it for a long time. This property, after two or three mills have been worn out and replaced, has been owned and handled by Timm Brothers for more than thirty years. General Joseph Orr built a sawmill on a branch of Spring creek in section 14, in 1835, George W. Reynolds and a man named Hill as carpenters, completing it July 3. George Bentley ran it. Elisha Mayhew, a Penobscot lumberman, had an interest in it, but lived in LaPorte, and later sold his share to one of the Standifords* who settled early in New Durham township. As was the case with many of the water mills, a wool carding machine was attached to this one. Orr & Standiford sold to Samuel Weston, who was on the first grand jury in the county; he added a gristmill ; James Mason later became the owner and dropped the lumbering and subsequently the whole business was discontinued. Bentley after¬ ward, in 1836, built another mill near Waterford and ran it until he died in 1864. In 1833, w pos- siblv a year later, John Beatty and Purdy Smith started a sawmill in section 32, in the southwest comer of Coolspring township, and it was in operation many years. In 1881, and again in 1893, the dam washed out in freshets, whereby the adjoining railroad was undermined and in each case a train was wrecked. The first time one human life was lost and the second time two. After 1893 the property was not renewed. In 1836 Amos Smith, son of Purdy, a lad of ten years, was killed by a falling tree as he was ear¬ ning water to some of the timber-cutters work¬ ing under the direction of his father in the woods. It has been seen that the first sawmill in Springfield township was built in 1832 by Charles Vail with the assistance of Erastus Quivey. In 1833 Quivey built the second sawmill in that township, utilizing power from the Galien (or Galena) river. It was situated on section one, and after two years was sold to Solomon Ross with the gristmill ad¬ joining, the place being still known as Ross's mill ; though the machinery disappeared ten years ago and the dilapidated old building is used as a bam. Ross was born in Virginia in 1807, located in the township in 1834 and died in 1869, after which his son Amos J., dropping the lumber busi¬ ness, continued to operate the flouring mill for twenty-five years. The earliest recorded sawmill in New Durham township is that of Josiah Bry¬ ant, in 1833, on section 4. Mr. Bryant served on the second grand jury in the county, and his son Benjamin T., became a leading farmer in New Durham township. In 1851 Bryant sold the mill to John H. Armstrong, who sold to Hiram Holmes, and he (in i860) to Samuel S. Davis. The mill wore out and later Henry Larray built another at the same place.

It is proper at this point to state that some degree of uncertainty necessarily attaches to the dates given, and that many discrepancies exist in the former histories of the county. The writer has used his best judgment in determining the dates, examining for that purpose the court, real estate and election records as well as all available biographical matter and the record of original entries of public land.

As related in Chapter X, Henry N. Cathcart declared that he and his brother Charles W. had their uncomfortable time with the gnats, beacon bugs, etc., while building a mill for Aaron Stan¬ ton in 1833. This fixes the date or origin of the old Stanton mill, in Coolspring township, which was built by Aaron Stanton of LaPorte, as a saw¬ mill and afterward converted into a gristmill, in which connection it will be again mentioned. The earliest sawmill in Michigan township was estab¬ lished in 1834, by John Walker, of LaPorte. It likewise was superseded by a gristmill; and the Eureka mill of Roeske Brothers, in section 34, is its lineal successor. It appears that James M. Scott acquired the property, perhaps in 1834, and installed the flouring machinery. Samuel Olinger (who was the first justice of the peace in Michi¬ gan township, defeating James M. Scott by a vote of 12 to 8), is said to have been engaged in saw¬ milling in that township at an early day, but no satisfactory record has been found. In that year he opened a hotel in Michigan City, Thompson W. Francis having erected the building for him, and in 1836 he is found running a sawmill in Porter county. There seems to have been no other lumber manufacturing in Michigan town¬ ship in the early days. Matthew Mayes, a Penn¬ sylvanian, who located in Galena township in 1834, and had a blacksmith shop many years at Maye's Corners, also called Hesston, visited that locality in the preceding year and assisted John Tolbert is setting up a sawmill in section 8, on the Galien river. This was the first sawmill in that township. It was not completed and set in motion until 1834, by which time Wrightman Goit had taken a partnership interest in the enter¬ prise. Mr. Goit, who was commendablv active in local political and religious affairs (he donated the fand for Posey chapel), met an untimely death in January, 1852. While cutting timber in the woods he was struck by a falling tree. He was engaged in getting out ties for the first railroad in the county. His descendants are still repre¬ sented in the county. March 5, of the same year, Kellogg Shedd, also a man of local prominence in the township, lost his life by the upsetting of a load of logs, with which he was going to the Barnes mill. This occurred near Center school. After the death of Mr. Goit, the mill stood idle and fell into decay until R. B. Goit and William Ingersol rebuilt it in 1854. It was operated at least twenty years longer by different owners, Philip M. Hess being one of the latest proprie¬ tors. It came to be known as the Bliss mill and was owned for a time by Dalrymple. Some have said that George W. Barnes had the first sawmill in Galena township, and perhaps the matter is open to dispute. He is accorded the honor of having been the first settler in that township, dating his arrival in 1833, and it was at his house that the first township election was held, in April, 1836. He was in the county early enough to be summoned on the first grand jury and vote at the first county elections, in 1832, and he died about July, 1844. Mr. Barnes was born in Maine and moved to Ohio, whence he came to this county. It is recorded of him that he was "a man of uncommon nerve and force of character, possessing traits which made him eminently fit for a pioneer of civilization and it is further recorded that "he was a married man, but never brought his family to his new home," which state¬ ment is followed by some speculation concerning the possibility of domestic infelicity. In his will, dated June 11, 1844, and probated two months later, he spoke of his wife as "my be¬ loved wife Alvira" and left her an equit¬ able share of his very considerable prop¬ erty, including the household furniture, pro¬ visions on hand and certain livestock which she was to select for herself. These terms would seem to indicate that she was with him at that time and that he was solicitous for her wel¬ fare. Having no children he left the remainder of his property to two brothers and two sisters. This man built his mill in 1834 in section 20, and the establishment bore his name for half a cen¬ tury. At his death it was left to his five testa¬ mentary beneficiaries, above mentioned. At the village of Lakeport, now Hudson, once a formid¬ able rival of LaPorte, Garret Bias in 1834, built the first sawmill in Hudson township, locating it not far from the blacksmith shop of "Wishtean Bish," the earliest mechanic in the county. With lumber from this mill James F. Smith constructed the first frame house in the place. Bias ran the mill until 1838, when he traded it for seven acres of land within the corporate limits of Chicago, and the mill was hauled down the old Sac trail to Rockford, Illinois. The land was afterward sold for taxes. Bias opened the second tavern in Lakeport in 1835, and in 1838 was elected captain of a local militia company which was formed there, and was armed with old fashioned govern¬ ment flintlock muskets. The first lieutenant of this train band was Andrew Avery, who holds a prominent place in this history. Caleb Davis, fa¬ ther of Eugenius W. Davis, of Galena township, came to LaPorte county in 1831 and in 1835 to Springfield township, where he built a sawmill in section 25, and ran it until he moved over into Galena in 1838. For many years he preached the gospel without pay, and in 1879 moved to Shelby, Michigan, where he died at a ripe old age. The mill was abandoned about 1875 under the ownership of W. Hough.

About 1835 or 1836 two sawmills were placed on the Little Kankakee in Pleasant township, one by a Mr. Whitmer on land now known as the Elizabeth Burson place, the other, probably a little earlier, close by on section one. The Whit¬ mer mill long since passed out of sight. Gristmg machinery was soon put in the other, the Root & Graham mill, and in time sawmilling was drop¬ ped. This place came to be known as the "Mud mill" and the "Hickory mill," and the old building is standing yet near the roadside, and is called the Forney mill. About five rods from the town¬ ship line, in section 31 of Scipio, on a branch of Mill (formerly Markham's) creek, there are yet visible some decayed timbers of the only sawmill the township ever had, as old settlers have said. It was built in 1836, by Asaph Webster, who lived in the adjoining section on the south, and was discontinued many years ago.

May 12, 1837, Thomas and William McCart¬ ney purchased a tract of timber in section 4, Lin¬ coln township, and built a sawmill on Spring run, now called Mill creek. This, the first in the town¬ ship, was run by Thomas McCartney until it was sold to William Hughes ten years later, and still later it was moved away, probably about 1874, when it was owned by Jared Drollinger. During the same year Benjamin Galbreath and John, hi$ son, built two mills in the vicinity of Independ¬ ence, in Wills township, a sawmill and gristmill. "They had come to the settlement during a very wet time," says Packard's History, "and imag¬ ined they had a fine waterpower. Both mills and dams were built at the same time. The grist mill was started first, with one run of stone. The son, John Galbreath, succeeded in grinding three sacks of corn, when the waterpower was gone forever, for it was the first and last time it was used. There is now no stream whatever where this enterprise was undertaken. The father suc¬ ceeded in sawing three small logs. The next year both mills were torn down/' This was in section 28. During the year 1836 Andrew Avery, who was mentioned in connection with the Garret Bias sawmill, located in Lakeport, Hudson town¬ ship, and under the inspiration of brilliant prom¬ ise held out by the little village for future great¬ ness he began in 1837 the construction of a saw¬ mill to be operated by a novel sort of power. Again Packard's History is borrowed. "On the east bank of Du Chemin lake the land is quite high for some sixty rods ; it then sinks below the level of the lake. Through this mound it was proposed to dig a ditch. A large force of men were employed and after an immense amount of work a canal was perfected through which the water ran to the depth of four feet. With this power he contrived to run a wheel. For a while he succeeded very well, blit, like all the lakes in the country, it became less in volume as the land was cleared up, the timber cut off and the sod broken, until, two years after, the project was en¬ tirely abandoned. The lake is now at least four feet below its former level." This mill began operations in 1838, when Avery was a lieutenant of militia, and in the next year a gristmill was attached and a company was organized to capital¬ ize and run it, Salem Huntington, Richard Hicks and James F. Smith being his partners under the firm style of Huntington, Avery & Company. In 1840 Avery bought out his partners and moved the mills to a spot close to where Asa M. Warren, the "Blacksmith by the Lake," had his shop in 1829, and where the mill building now stands in use as an icehouse. Avery employed oxen as his motive power at this place, using sometimes five yoke. In 1842 the building was burned and an¬ other and larger one was immediately erected. Two years later the steers were superseded by steam, and in another two years the plant was en¬ larged under the ownership of Early & Avery. Jacob Early soon sold out and in a short time Aven* again became the sole owner, but in 1857 he failed in business, though ultimately he tri¬ umphed over his difficulties and the mill property was left in his hands. Again it burned, in 1870, and was rebuilt without delay by Mr. Avery, who continued to run it until in 1883, when he sold out to Azro H. Eckert, reserving the machinery to be removed within a month. The gristmill had ceased running prior to that time. The building has been converted into an icehouse, where the town of New Carlisle obtains its supply of ice. Solomon L. Palmer, who was born in Oneida county, New York, in 1810, and located in Ga¬ lena township in 1835 on section 22, built a saw¬ mill in 1838. He died in 1873. In Packard's History it is said that the Jessup mill of 1839 was the first sawmill erected in New Durham town¬ ship, but it has been seen that there is a fairly clear record of the Bryant mill of 1833 in that township. The Jessup mill stood on the head¬ waters of the Little Calumet, a mile west of the present site of Otis, in section 6, and was built by Israel and James Jessup, connections of one of the earliest families in the county. It is there yet, owned by Samuel C. Hackett, having passed through several hands since its construction. Noble township received its first sawmill in 1839, as it seems, when John Johnson & Brothers, set one up on Markham (now Mill) creek, threefourths of a mile below the present Union Mills. This mill disappeared about 1875. Clinton town¬ ship possessed but little timber and was not at¬ tractive to the lumberman. About 1840, however, or perhaps a little earlier, a small mill was con¬ nected with the waterpower at Bigelow's mills on Hog creek. If there were others they are not remembered. Among the early manufacturers of lumber was Nicholas W. Closser, who built a waterpower mill on Trail creek about a mile below Waterford, and later a steam mill on Door Prairie, about four miles west of LaPorte. - The dates of these enterprises are uncertain, and the mills have long since passed of sight. Mr.* Closser brought his family to the county from Indianapolis in the summer of -1834, traveling by. ox teams and occupying twenty-one days on the road. He was a member of the first Sunday school in Marion county, Indiana, and took great interest in similar work after his ar¬ rival in his new home. He was a soldier in the Black Hawk war, second constable in this county, an early trustee of Scipio township, county school superintendent, and maker of the first table and bedstead to be manufactured on Door Prairie. He was an enthusiastic member of the Old Settlers' association and served as its president, delighting to sound the summons to dinner at the annual re¬ unions by blowing an old conch that was a relic in his family. He died in 1891. Another early lumberman was Samuel B. Webster, who got out much of the material for the LaPorte and Plymouth plank road. His father, James Web¬ ster, who settled in this county in 1832, had been a pioneer manufacturer of lumber, flour, leather and whisky in Fayette and Franklin counties, Indiana. Samuel built the first frame residence in Michigan City and passed his later life, after some years of merchandising at Rolling Prairie, on a Kankakee township farm, where he died. He was honored as a justice of the peace. Many of the mills that have been mentioned, besides others, were set up under the supervision of John Harding, a capable millwright who came to the county in 1834 and died in 1884.

After 1840, the period now reached in this review, the manufacture of lumber steadily in¬ creased in the county until the supply of timber began to be exhausted in the seventies. Small portable mills were numerous and their history cannot be traced. In November, 1834, Charles Francis and several sons came to Galena town* ship from Connecticut and the facflfy was m many ways a valuable acqnhwrtofl to the new set¬ tlement. The father wswborn hr Hartford, Coi>~ necticut, in 1794, and died at the oH homestead in this county in 1870. Of the original family tint came to this county as stated, Simeon Francis bom in 1827 and a resident of the city of LaPorte survives. Charles Francis built a sawmill on his farm, section 28, m 1846, propelled it by power derived from a branch of the Galien river, and rail it with the assistance of his sons. It was discon¬ tinued about 1874, having then been owned some years, by one of tne sons, Joseph H., now dead. This mill was less than a mile above the Barnes mill of 1834 ; and about the same distance below the latter, on the same branch, William Waldruff and Hiram Bement, in 1848, set the third sawmill for that stream to run. Waldruff sold to Ira L. Barnes and still later the firm sold the entire business to Richard Etherington. It was converted into a gristmill and is now known as the Finley mill. It has been related by old resi¬ dents that at about this time one William Mat¬ thews, who had been living in the neighborhood bf Lamb's chapel, having come there from Mis¬ souri, lost his life under peculiarly pathetic cir¬ cumstances. He was a large, powerful man, in¬ dustrious and of unobtrusive manners, devoted to his family and especially to his little son of six years. He was employed as a timber cutter for one of the sawmills in that vicinity. One day while the wind was blowing a gale, he was in the woods at work, his boy at his side, and the tree he was cutting fell unexpectedly and endangered both of them. The father, without hesitation, grasped the child and with one desperate effort cast it beyond the path of the falling tree, but the instant's delay cost him his life. He was crushed so that he died almost instantly. The widow sold the small property left to her and disappeared from the connty. The old dam now visible as a part of the public highway on the south line of section 14, in Galena township was built by Sam¬ uel Sutherland about 1850 for the purposes of a sawmill, which he ran there during a quarter of of a century and then abandoned. In 1855 J- B. Hatch, whwwas bom in New York m 1830 and still resides near the old mill site that bears his name, purchased the Barnes mill property that was established in 1834 in section 20, Galena township, and made improvements on the saw¬ mill* Whtrf is safd to have been the first steam ftiift of any kind erected in that township was the sawmill of Valentine F. Smith, dating from 185 7 and located about forty rods west of the Mayes settlement, now called Hesston. In connection with it he had a shingle mill and barrel-heading factory. The plant was destroyed by firje in 1862 and was not rebuilt, Others who were extensiveby engaged in lumbering in Galena township in years gone by were the Finneys, David Hudson and William L. Hiley, the last named being now a restaurant proprietor in LaPorte. The last saw¬ mill ever built in this township, and by many years the last m the county of the oldfashioned upright style, long since out of date, was that of Zachariah Kinne in section 11. This mill was in two states, the millwright and surveyor having co-operated to set the saw so that it ran exactly on the state line. The construction of the dam and building was begun in 1877, but was so pro¬ tracted that one of the local wits of the period made a rhyme about it which was read with im-

The owner tired of waiting for the completion of the enterprise and sold the timber he had in¬ tended to cut with it. The mill was never a suc¬ cess as a custom mill, but it stood in fairly good repair until about 1893, after whic|i it fell into decay and only the framing timbers' are now vis¬ ible. It was sometimes known as the State Line mill.

Passing to New Durham township we find in Packard's History a statement that in 1844 Henry Herrokl built a sawmill south of Otis, and the statement is repeated in Chapman's History. Henry HerrokTs parents, Jacob and Sarah, were married in 1828 and the family came to LaPorte county from Ohio in 1854. They had mat faring children at the time of their removal, of whom Christopher, the one next odder than Henry, was bom in 1834. It is apparent that Henry Herrokl was neither at the plaice nor of sufficient age to build a mill near Otis in 1844* nor until after 1854, about which time he did put up the mill referred to. He sold it to W. F. Cattron & Company. It was run by waterpower. The statement also found in Packard and Chapman, that "in 1845 Philander Barnes built a mill about a mile west of Otis," fails of verification. The mill about a mile west of Otis was the Jessup mill of 1839; the name "Philander Barnes" has not been found in the records of the county after a consid¬ erable search ; the mill known for many years as the Barnes mill in that vicinity was about a mile and a half north of Otisy in Codbpring township instead of m New Durham. That mill, which stood in section 31, was operated until about 1875, when the then owner, J. Barnes, abandoned the waterpower. Its origin is unknown to the present writer. In 1852 Captain Jo Davis and his son Caleb established a steam sawmill a mile or so north of the village of New Durham. About two years later it was purchased by William S. Medaris. who removed it to section 2, on the newly opened railroad, where Durham station now is. In the year i860 a boy named Landon, while playing in a dugout canoe on a pond near the Medaris mill, was accidentally drowned. It has been said that this event took place in the Medaris millpond, implying that the mill was driven by water; but the pond had no con¬ nection with the mill, which was operated by steam. The pond alluded to has en¬ tirely disappeared. In 1872 E. M. Bryson bought the mill and continued to run it for more than twenty years. He installed a 25-horsepower en¬ gine and did a large business. In 1855 Shep Crumpacker erected a steam sawmill something less than a mile west of Westville. John Logan, now a resident of LaPorte, built the frame build¬ ing and Clayton Weaver, who died in 1903, at b is farm residence near Stillwell, built the stone foundation. Moses S. Wright later owned the property for a considerable length of time. In 1^9 Joseph R. Kimball set up a small portable sawmill near Westville, which was the last ven¬ ture of the sort in the township.

Leaving New Durham township the next date encountered is 1845, when Thomas Fisher and Jonathan Dudley established a steam sawmill at Independence, in Wills township, near the un¬ fortunate speculation of the Galhreaths that has been recounted above. This plant ran nicely there until it wa* sold in 1851 to James and Thomas Hoofcm, Theodore Boardman and David Will¬ iams and by them removed to Puddletown, where it passed through several ownerships/ Among those who held interests in it at different times were Janies Parnell, William Houghton, Martin Uga, Aaron Miller, Edwin Picket and James N. and Lorenzo Dow. As late as 1880, says one authority, there were two sawmills in operation at Puddletown. In one of these mills Mathew Feather, a workman, lost his life in 1871, a piece of lumber flying from the saw crushed his skull and produced instant death. In 1850 James and Samuel Webster, pioneer settlers in Pleasant township, put up a sawmill on the Little Kanka¬ kee in section one of that township. It was a short lived enterprise and is now forgotten by the oldest inhabitants. Not until the railroad was in operation through the county did Kankakee township enjoy the advantages of a local lumber manufactory. John Drummond, A. J. Bowell and J. H. Fail, who were among the earliest arrivals in the township, built a steam sawmill at Rolling Prairie in 1852 and sold it after three years to Johnson & Folant, who two years later sold it to Jesse H. G. Coplin. The following year a grist-' mill was added to the plant. An explosion oc¬ curred in this mill in i860 which killed Thomas Lewis, caused the loss of an arm to Frederick Knight and slightly injured Coplin. He sold to

B. F. Huntsman in 1863, and in 1868 the mill was burned and rebuilt. In 1885 and 1886 Mr. Huntsman handled at this place one of the larg¬ est sawing contracts ever entered into in the county. J. H. Lesh & Company, heavy lumber dealers and manufacturers of Goshen, Indiana, bought the last large timber tract that has been sold in LaPorte county and Huntsman cut it out for them, employing from forty to one hundred teams at a time in the operation. The mill did little business after that and is now gone. A. C. Bowell, who lived and died on section 16, in this township, had a small sawmill and cider mill for a few years about 1880. Shaw & Johnson had a steam sawmill near Rolling Prairie which had been set there by W. H. Whitehead some time prior to 1874, and in that summer moved it to section 32, near Lamb's chapel, in Galena town¬ ship, where its. remains yet stand on the farm of D. Bowell. A. C. Bowell had an interest in it and J. E. Bowell owned and ran it last. In 1874

C. R. Madison, a native of Denmark, bought the mill property in section 6, Springfield township, which was afterwards operated as a gristmill ex¬ clusively by Henry E. Huntley, who died very suddenly February 28, 1904. Mr. Madison suf¬ fered severe injuries by being caught under a load of falling logs in the pineries of Michigan and later, while employed in a carriage factory in Chicago, he met with another accident that re¬ moved most of his fingers. In 1850 the Hack mill in Springfield township, section 16, was built by Martin & Hill. It was a steam mill and was first located at Springville, the removal occurring in 1855 after the original owners had sold out. In 1874 the mill was destroyed by fire, but Peter Hack, the then owner, rebuilt it and continued to run it about twenty years longer. Joseph Dauphine, it is said, erected a steam sawmill in the same township in . i860. Arthur Brewer has a mill in section 26, Galena township, with which

Many others have been engaged in lumbering in a small way in the county, of whom a few may be named. T. M. and Alexander A. Hicks, of Hudson township, had a water mill in section 17 and later they settled down to farming. Edmund T. Smith, an Englishman, ran a mill about ten years after the war. Dorf & Kenton had a small steam mill for a time in section 26, a little west of Mount Pleasant, locating there in 1869. George H. Bean, who was married in 1869 at the age of eighteen years, spent some time in the business and then became a farmer. The last three were in Galena township. Harry Bennett, now living in the eastern part of the county, was a sawmill man. William H. Replogle, a Center township farmer, has a mill near the Chicago & South Shore electric railroad, but it is not much used. Noah Travis of Union, and B. N. Shreve, of Coolspring, R. W. Smith, of Springfield and B. F., W. H., and H. Huntsman, of Wills, were others. There was a small mill at Corymbo for a short time about 1875.

Michigan City, one of the greatest lumber markets in the state, has never been a producing point, the Trail creek mills having occupied the local manufacturing field. Since the location of the Andrew steam mill at Camp Colfax in 1832 the county seat has seldom been without an active sawmill. Jacob Early, who settled in the county in 1835 and was a pioneer merchant, miller and land owner, had a steam mill on Clear lake near the Lake Shore Railroad, which was perhaps the second mill at LaPorte. He was for a long time interested in lumbering and flouring in several townships. His clerk and son-in-law, Edmund S. Organ, a settler of 1836, county treasurer and LaPorte postmaster, was with Mr. Early in some of these operations. In 1876 the sawmill at the foot of Detriot street in LaPorte was owned by Huntsman Brothers, W. H. and Horace ; and C. Huntsman was head sawyer. In 1885 Sim Bosserman was the proprietor, according to the newspapers of that date, but the mill had not been running continuously, several cessations having occurred. The city directory of 1884 made no mention of its existence but referred to the mill established by Meinrad Rumely in the winter of 1883-4 and first run during the first week in that January. This was located in the old Lake Shore paintshop, leased for the purpose and had a feed mill attached to grind Saturdays.* After six years the Rumely mill ceased. In the summer of 1898 the Leslie mill at the foot of In¬ diana avenue was burned. As LaPorte had the earliest, so also it has the latest lumber making establishment in the county, J. K. Wise, formerly of North Manchester, Indiana, having in 1903 put in a large sawmill near the Lake Shore sta¬ tion. The business is conducted by the firm of J. K. Wise & Company, and is occupied chiefly in cutting timber brought from outside the county.

On the authority of ,the Indiana Gazetteer there were twenty-seven sawmills in LaPorte county in 1849. This number was increased in later years until more than sixty had been put in operation and those engaged in the business re¬ garded the timber supply of the coimty as pracically inexhaustible. Galena township had a mill for every two sections of land. Certainly, ex¬ cepting the soil itself the great forests of hard¬ wood constituted the greatest natural source of wealth in the county. While the eighth decade of the nineteenth century was passing the ad¬ mission was forced that LaPorte county's saw timber was practically a thing of the past, and one by one the mills dropped out of active opera¬ tion. At the prsent time there is not obtainable in the county sufficient timber to keep one mill continuously running. A directory of the county for 1892 mentioned but one sawmill, that of Aaron S. Vail in Springfield township, and a list of county manufacturing enterprises compiled in 1898 for the purposes of a map disclosed no fixed lumber mill.

northern portion of Indiana there is sufficient water power and inexhaustible beds of bog iron ore, so that whenever labor for agriculture ceases to be in demand it will be employed in manu¬ factures. Wheat is made into flour at home, »n<l South Bend and Michigan City expect soon to rival Madison, which leads the state in manu¬ facturing.*' The alterations in labor conditions 1a thus forecasted have not yet been such as to bring the bog iron ore forward conspicuously, but Mich¬ igan City, under the impetus of her splendid manufactures, is more than twice as large as Madison, and the grain grinding industry LaPorte county has kept in full step with other advances. The authority above quoted said further that there were then, 1849, thirteen mills in this county, "some of them merchant mills and among the best in the state.'' Even then a considerable movement from Arba Heald's little hand mill, "about as large as a tin pail," had been accomplished. In many instances, particu¬ larly where the waterpower seemed adequate, saw and gristmills were established together, and in other cases gristmills were attached after the others had been in operation. Other machinery, as carding mills, distilleries, turning lathes, etc., were likewise run in connection with the early mills. These facts have led to confused recol¬ lections as to the character of many pioneer estab¬ lishments, and, in the absence of complete rec¬ ords, some of the statements made as facts are open to more or less doubt.

Springfield township has the oldest mill in the county, that built in 1832 by Charles Vail in section 31, an account of which has already been given. Another old mill in this township was the Ross mill, now occupied as a barn. At the May term, 1836, of the commissioners courtr Erastus Quivey, Hiram Griffith and Joseph W. Foster applied for and received permission ta construct a dam across the "Galene" river near the ninety-first milepost on the Michigan road, on condition that the dam should be built of earth, 50 yards in length, 40 feet wide at the bottom, 20 feet wide at the top, and 8 feet highr with a substantial forebay and "waste weir through it for a budge," and that it should be maintained in good repair at all times for a pub¬ lic highway. It is pretty well established that this mill was built in 1833 on land bought of the government by William Clark in 1830 and that it was first a sawmill, as has been already stated. John Hazleton was the millwright who set it up. Three of these men settled in the township in 1832, Foster coming a little later but in season to be elected first justice of the peace at the elec¬ tion of April (k 1836. At the same election Quivey and Griffith were both candidates for supervisor and fence viewer, and both were de¬ feated. The Willow creek mills, operated at one time as a sawmill by C. R. Madison, the crippled man, as has been seen, first appeared in 1834, when Joseph Pagin, in whose house on Clear lake the first circuit court in the county was held, erected a gristmill in section 6, Springfield township. At about the same time David Pagin, in whose house on Miller's lake the locat¬ ing commissioners met for the selection of the county seat, put up another mill on the same stream a little below Joseph's. They had been in the county since 1830 and settled first near the future site of LaPorte, but moved in 1832. In 1839 Joseph and John Pagin set up a third mill between these two and established a distil¬ lery at the lowest one. Joseph ran the first mill until it wore out and then abandoned it. David's was never much of a success *and it, too, was dis¬ continued. The other became the Willow creek mill, owned by H. E. Huntley at his death Feb¬ ruary 28, 1904. Mr. Huntley was born at Dayton, Ohio, in 1838 and was a member of Com¬ pany B, Seventy-third Indiana infantry, receiv¬ ing severe wounds in battle. One of his sisters married Charles Emory Smith, owner of the Philadelphia Press and ex-postmaster general. In 1835 Jacob Eearly built a mill in section 28 of the same township, now known as Hanson's mills. It has been worn out and rebuilt several times. Early's son-in-law, E. S. Organ, owned it for a long time, Davidson & Tie had it in 1892, and Robert and O. W. Hanson are the present proprietors. O. W. Hanson spent the summer of 1904 in a trip to the old family home in Den¬ mark. A mill whose ruins may be seen in sec¬ tion 35 of this township was built by Abram Fravel in 1840 and owned by I. W. Frick in 1874. Mr. Fravel, who died in 1879, was defeated as a candidate for school commissioner the year in which he set up the mill, and in the following year, as well as in 1853, he was defeated as a candidate for county auditor.

What is claimed to be the largest and most valuable waterpower in the county is that of the Roeske Brothers, in Michigan township. John Walker, as has been stated, built a sawmill there in 1834 and it was soon transferred to James M. Scott, who put in flouring machinery and ran it for a long time. It is now called the Eureka mills, but old residents still call it Scott's mills. Scott built a fine large mill and supplied a great extent of country, patrons coming all the way 'from Chicago, Joliet, Rockford, Galena and other distant points. He bought wheat at 60 cents a bushel and sold flour at $10 a barrel. Mr. Scott was defeated as the Democratic candidate for associate judge in 1835. He owned much land in the county and removed to Ohio about 1842, changing later to Wisconsin. In 1874 Denton Miller, a native of Saratoga Springs, New York, owned the property and ran it as a sawmill and brickyard, and in 1884 it was in the hands of the Roeskes, who still hold it. In 1884 J. Dolman had a flour and feed piill on the Michigan road at the edge of Michigan City managed by Ed¬ ward Dolman, who is now at Wanatah. This enterprise has disappeared.

In the Historical Atlas of LaPorte County, published in 1874, occurs this statement: "Le- Clere, W. Pinney, F. Scarborough and E. Bige¬ low built the first mills, before 1840, on Hog creek," in Clinton township. These mills, except Bigelow's, dropped out of sight several decades ago. Abijah Bigelow moved into the township in 1835, coming from Massachusetts, and bring¬ ing a small colony of Canadians with him. He at once commenced the erection of a gristmill in section 21 and completed it in 1837, thus founding the town, now defunct, of Bigelow's Mills, at one time quite a flourishing place. Mr. Bigelow was a Whig and served one term as county commissioner. He sold the mill to John Closser, postmaster of the place, and he to John Wright. Henry Harding became the proprietor in 1854 and continued as such until his death ten years later, when Abram Sovereign bought it of the administrator. Adam Bohland took it in 1865, the same year that the present owner, his son William A. Bohland, county treasurer, was born. The mill has stood idle since Decem¬ ber, 1901.

Nathan Johnson was the founder of Water¬ ford and out of the sawmill he built there in 1833, as has been told, grew the present Cool Spring mills owned by heirs of Casper Kuhn, who died at Michigan City, Nov. 4, 1903, leaving a widow and eleven children. Otis E. Bowers, in 183$, bought the Johnson sawmill and attached a dis¬ tillery. The flour mill was put in later and the property passed through several ownerships. In 1870 it was burned. Casper Kuhn, who had purchased the water privilege in 1858, then erected the present brick structure and equipped it with a good outfit of flouring machinery. It is said to be on$ of the three best waterpowers in the county, the Roeske and Vail properties being the other two. Kuhn was a native of Switzerland, reared at Buffalo, New York, and for some time was engaged in business at Misha¬ waka, Indiana, before he came to Waterford. One year prior to his death he conveyed the mill to seven children by his first wife as their full share of his estate. The Orr & Standiford saw¬ mill of 1833 in Coolspring township was changed into a gristmill two years later and acquired the name of Rough and Ready, after Zach. Taylor. In 1854 Joseph Dolman came to the county from Iowa and took charge of it, and there Edward Dolman, his son, then a lad verging on manhood and now a veteran miller at Wanatah, was in¬ itiated into the mysteries of the business. In recent years W. W. Higgins and Martin S. John¬ son have been the proprietors. About threefourths of a mile below this mill on the same stream was the old Blackhawk mill, now for¬ gotten. In 1835 the Stanton sawmill was im¬ proved by the addition of grinding machinery. Alfred Stanton purchased it of his father, Aaron Stanton, and operated it until he moved to Ore¬ gon in 1842. This was probably the Blackhawk mill.

The next township reached in the order of date is Wills, in which but one gristmill enter¬ prise is recorded, that of the Galbreaths men¬ tioned in connection with their miscalculated sawmill venture at Independence. After grind¬ ing three sacks of corn the wheels stopped for¬ ever.

Noble township has possesssed one of the leading mills of the county since 1838, when Dr. Svlvanus Everts completed the mill begun by him at Union Mills the year before. DV. Everts was the founder of the village, locating there after living two years in Union township, where he was the first physician. He was a notable man in the community and in the county and came of a family of notable men. He was very active in business and in politics and in all mat¬ ters of local interest. In 1840 he was a delegate to the Whig state convention and was elected state senator that year and again in 1843. His son, Dr. Orpheus C. Everts, died in 1903 after a long and useful life. Dr. Timothy Everts and Judge Gustavus A. were others prominent in the early history of the county. Dr. Everts fan the gristmill three years, when he sold it to. Bell & Gray, but they failed to meet their payments and he took it back. Not desiring to keep it he formed a stock company, all the shares in which were subsequently bought up by George Butt, who ran it until 1856. In 1866 John P. Teeple, who died in LaPorte in 1903 at the age of one hun¬ dred years, bought it and later it passed into the hands of Hamilton & Teeple. In 1880 Hamilton owned it alone and A. C. Teeple was the mana¬ ger. Carlin H. Terry is the present proprietor.

The first and only gristmill in Galena town¬ ship was established in 1858 by the Francis brothers in section 17 on Barnes creek, a branch of the Galien river, where the Winch woodturn¬ ing factory had formerly stood. The Francis family also had a sawmill on the same stream further up. A. J. Holman, a New York man, operated the gristmill from 1861 to 1876. Jonas Finley, whose son William married Holman's sister, owned the property many years until his death in 1873, when William W. Finley became the owner and so continues. William Finley's sister married Solomon Ross, owner of the mill in Springfield township. Mr. Finley has owned several mills in this county and operated them successfully.

Union township has two of the earliest mills in the county, both at Kingsbury. John T. and Henry L. Vail located there in 1833 and at once put up a little log gristmill on land bought by them of Jesse Morgan, the original enterer, in the southeast quarter of section 36. In 1837 they rebuilt with a substantial frame structure and added a fulling mill and distillery, with a wool-carding machine the next year. These were dropped after a while and the business confined to flouring. John Vail died very suddenly of apoplexy and the property fell into the hands of Lot and Edward Vail, who, about 1868, sold it to Moses Butterworth. Twenty years later R. R. & L. Ullon were the proprietors and now Charles B. Clayton is operating it. John Win¬ ched built a log gristmill in the same section the same year the Vails built theirs, there being some doubt as to the priority between them. This mill is now owned by William A. Steigely, a former county commissioner, and Charles F. Boelter as partners and is called the Kingsbury mills. John Winchell was the earliest settler in St. Joseph county, Michigan, and did blacksmithing for the Indians ; he was also the earliest permanent settler in Union township, this county. His Indian adventures were many and thrilling. His death occurred in 1836. In the spring of 1835 Jacob Early moved to Kingsbury and bought the mill. July 4 George W. Reynolds, who had on the preceding day completed the Orr mill in Coolspring township, as has been related, commenced the work of replacing the log mill with one of frame, which stood about thirty years. Reynolds soon afterward married John Wincheirs daughter, and their daughter is the wife of Daniel P. Grover, present county asses¬ sors FI. P. Lans, a German, bought the prop¬ erty in 1867 and built the mill that stands there now. It later became the property of Mrs. Bodley a sister of the Butterworths, and was operated by H. D. Lans, son of H. P.

The peculiar canal experience of Andrew Avery and his ox-power mill at Hudson in the pioneer days has already been sufficiently de¬ scribed. In Kankakee township Jesse Id. G. Coplin bought the sawmill at Rolling Prairie in 1857 and in the next year added gristing ma¬ chinery, Luke or Wallace Francis of Galena township being connected with it some time later. The history of the mill has been told in the section devoted to sawmills. It is now owned and operated as a first-class flouring mill by Will¬ iam Strutz and Christopher Reinke, under the name of Strutz, Son & Company. In section 28 of this township, on the Little Kankakee, near the pumping station of the LaPorte Water Sup¬ ply Company, there is an old mill that is now in disuse. It was owned for a long time by Nicho¬ las Weber, and Theodore Lorig had land ad¬ joining. These names will be met again in the city of LaPorte.

Turning to New Durham township there is found a steam gristmill established by James Haskell at Westville in 1853, but it was sold and moved away about i860. Haskell was a setler of 1834 in Clinton township, having come from Massachusetts, and he removed from the county in 1871. Tobias Miller erected a mill there in 1858, propelled by steam, and soon sold it. Miller moved from Union county, Indiana, in 1834 and settled in Wills township. After sev¬ eral changes Sloan D. Martin acquired the mill and ran it until the outbreak of the war, when he went into the service. While first lieutenant of Company H, Eighty-seventh Indiana Infantry, he was killed in the battle of Chickamauga, Sep¬ tember 19, 1863. and his widow retained the property until the mill burned in 1870. Lieu¬ tenant Martin was born in LaPorte in 1835 and was always a miller. His son Charles was en¬ gaged in the Westville mills as late as 1880. James Dolman,. Jr., and James Dolman, Sr., built the Westville mills in 1872 and sold to E. & X. Dolman the following year, Joseph Dolman, the present proprietor, buying the plant later. This family of millers came to this county from Iowa in 1854 and were connected with many milling enterprises. The father is long since dead. This mill was burned in 1878 and rebuilt. There is a small feed mill at Westville owned by E. L. Rey¬ nolds. When the Luff & Owen paper mill just west of Otis, at the crossing of Reynolds creek and the Lake Shore railway and at the site of the old Jessup sawmill, was burned down about 1876, its place was taken by a steam and water flouring mill, now owned by Samuel C. Hackett.

Wanatah, in Cass township, has had a mill where the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago rail¬ road crosses Hog creek (erroneously named Hawk creek on the county map of 1892) since Joseph L Unruh (wrongly called Nurwgh in Chapman's History) established one there in 1867. He had very hopefully founded the vil¬ lage of Rozelle, but the completion of the railroad mentioned killed the enterprise and he promptly moved and became the first storekeeper and hotel man of Wanatah. This was in 1857. He built a large warehouse near the tracks and subsequently occupied it with milling machinery. He sold out his various interests in 1870 and moved to Chicago, E. L. Kiel, who was in his employ, taking the mill. Julius Conitz and Herman Mitzner had interests in it later, and Edward Dolman, one of the most capable millers in the county, is' the present owner. Something has been said about him above, but it may be added that he filtered the business in Coolspring township in 1854 as a mere lad, that he was employed in several mills until Jacob Early made him mana¬ ger of the mill now owned by Lorig & Weber in LaPorte in 1871, that he was interested in the Westville mill from 1873 until 1880, at which date he took up the business at Wanatah, and that he has invented a number of valuable appli¬ ances in the line of his business. It is said that at an early day an attempt was made to build a steam mill at Callao, but the work was left un¬ finished because of the death of the proprietor.

Pleasant township has had one gristmill, oc¬ cupying the site of the old Root & Graham saw¬ mill of 1836 in section one on the Little Kanka¬ kee. It used to be known as the "Mud" or "Hickory" mill, but is now known by the name of its owner, William Forney, who purchased it in 1868. He came to the county ten years pre¬ vious to that date and located in Union township. He was bom in Pennsylvania of Scotch parents in 1830.

About 1854 Jacob Early built a mill in La¬ Porte at the corner of Clay and Washington streets and owned it until his death, which oc¬ curred August 30, 1873, when he was eighty years old. Edward Dolman, now of Wanatah, was the manager at that time. John P. Early then took the mill and it was sold a little later to Strong & Barnaby, who had their office in the new First National Bank building. Some time prior to 1884 Theodore Lorig and Martin Weber, under the firm name of Lorig & Weber, bought it and are the present owners, with Martin Lorig as assistant in the business. It is called the LaPorte Flouring mill. In 1875 the LaPorte Milling & Manufacturing Company, with John P. Early as president and John H. Early as sec¬ retary, was formed and built a mill on the north side of Washington street just east of Michigan, on the lot owned by John H. Early, completing it the following year. October 28, 1878, this company made an assignment to E. S. Organ for the benefit of creditors and the property was sold four months later to Alexander Crane, adminis¬ trator of the estate of Jacob Early. In another month the Star Milling Company was organized and took the business, with John P., John H., Edmund A. and M. L. Early. Alexander Crane and E. S. Organ as stockholders. Toward the close of 1880 troubles had again accumulated, and George Hall commenced a suit against the company w'hich resulted in a judgment for him and a sale of the property by the sheriff to him. Not long after that the mill .was dismantled and its history closed. Hall sold the premises to Simeon S. Bosserman, who sold to Albert J. Stahl and John H. Harding, and they to the La¬ Porte Electric Company.

Jacob Early was a Virginian by birth and came to this county in June, 1835, with his fam¬ ily. In that year he bought the log gristmill of John Winchell at Kingsbury and made his home there, rebuilding the mill and opening a store. At about the same time he opened a store at LaPorte and built the mill now owmed by Han¬ son in Springfield township, which was after¬ wards operated by his son-in-law, E. S. Organ, then a clerk in the LaPorte store. In 1839 he wras one of the first vestrymen of Trinity Episco¬ pal church at Michigan City and in the next year he was a member of the Whig county central committee and was active in politics many years. From 1840 to 1852 he did an extensive distillery business near Union Mills, and from 1854 to 1856 he was interested with Andrew Avery in the mills at Hudson Lake. At this time he built the LaPorte mill. He also built the sawmill on Clear lake at the foot of Adams street and lo¬ cated his residence in LaPorte. Notwith¬ standing his long life of hard work he died leaving an estate that netted but $2,- 629.48, with debts and expenses of adminis¬ tration aggregating $200 more than that sum. John H. Early came to this county from Walkerton, Indiana, in 1875, but John P. had lived here from the arrival of . the family in 1835. Both were born in Virginia. The latter was opposed to Lincoln in 1859 and was a defeated candidate for elector on the Bell and Everett ticket. He took much interest in the meetings of the Old Settlers Association. His wife, Maria B. Early, was in 1876 elected conference secretary of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which connec¬ tion she developed much ability as a writer and speaker. The family moved to California in 1881.

township, established a mill at the corner of Main and J streets, which was owned by John C. Fisher later. The J street Milling Company was then formed, with August Backhaus, who was also at the head of the LaPorte planing mill and died in 1903, as president, and Henry E. Tanger as secretary and treasurer. H. F. Droege suc¬ ceeded Tanger, who engaged in other business, and - succeeded Backhaus.

Nicholas Weber erected the Centennial mills opposite the southwest corner of the public square in LaPorte in the year suggested by the name. This establishment in the center of the business district was throughout its career an eyesore to LaPorteans. After Weber's death his widow, in 1883, conveyed the property to Harvey Truesdell and Amos J. Ross, the latter a son of Solomon Ross whom we have already met in Springfield township. Ross conducted the business and made a failure of it, so it was sold to Rouse Simmons in 1884 and three years later Truesdell was again the owner, this time of the entire business. About the time of the Columbian exposition . in Chicago the machinery was removed and the building converted into stores, constituting with its brick walls and mausard roof, one of the most presentable busi¬ ness structures in the city. The lower floor is now occupied by Oberreich & Arnold. In 1876 W. H. Huntsman had a small gristmill in con¬ nection with the sawmill of Huntsman Brothers at the foot of Detroit street, which was discon¬ tinued within ten years. John C. Wilhelm, Charles Krueger and J. B. Silliman have been owners of feed mills and cider presses near the J street mills, and M. Rumely had a feed mill at the sawmill operated by him for a few years.

About forty flour, grist and feed mills are enumerated above. Six townships - Dewey, Hanna, Johnson, Lincoln, Prairie and Scipio - have had no such industries of sufficient import¬ ance to be recorded. The introduction of the roller process of grinding, the gradual diminu¬ tion of the water supply for power and the changed conditions of transportation whereby Minnesota flour can compete with that made at home have operated to restrict the local flouring business except under the most favorable con¬ ditions.

In the spring of 1873 Bugbee, Luff & Palmer built a paper mill on Reynolds creek and the Lake Shore Railroad, three-fourths of a mile west of Otis. A year later Palmer sold his interest in it to Daniel Webster, an Illinoisan, and in the next year Bugbee transferred his share to his sister, Mrs. Owen, and Webster sold out to H. D. Luff, the firm becoming Luff & Owen. The mill produced a ton of straw board daily until it was burned down in 1878, after which a grist¬ mill took its place. In 1874 Wesley F. Cattron, a native of Fountain county, Indiana, and a resi¬ dent of LaPorte county from his seventh year in 1833, erected a brick paper mill near Otis, where the Monon Railroad crosses a branch of the Cal¬ umet river, and equipped it with steam and water power. Its capacity was one and a half tons of straw board daily. This plant occupied the site of the old Herrold sawmill, mentioned on an¬ other page, and after about ten years it was con¬ verted into a flouring mill. Two unsuccessful attempts to establish paper mills were made in LaPorte a little earlier, one of which failed and its building was taken by the LaPorte Wheel Company, and the other lost its plant by fire and never rebuilt.

Associated Industries

There is a small group of industries found associated with some of the early waterpower mills, consisting of carding and fulling machines, distilleries, and the manufacture of small articles of wood. The Indiana Gazetteer of 1849 re" ported four carding machines and two fulling mills in LaPorte county. All of these can now be traced. In the sawmill that George W. Rey¬ nolds completed for Orr & Standiford in Cool¬ spring township in 1835 he helped install a ma¬ chine for carding wool, which appears to be the first in the county. When the Vail mill in Union township was rebuilt in 1837 a fulling mill was put in and in the following year a card¬ ing machine was added. About 1839, says Pack¬ ard's History, Lewis Pagin erected a building in Springfield township, near the other Pagin mills, and introduced machinery for the carding of wool. Bowers had both carding and fulling apparatus at the Waterford mill in 1839. The necessity for these establishments did not remain many years and they long since passed out of existence.

Five distilleries have been located, all of which are bygones. When Otis E. Bowers pur¬ chased the chief industry of Waterford in 1837, referred to in a preceding page, he added a dis¬ tillery to the sawmill and it was operated several years very successfully. John and Henry Vail put up a distillery in connection with their other business near Kingsbury in the same year, and it also was profitable while it lasted, which was not long. The Pagins, in 1839, built a distillery in section 6 in Springfield or section 1 of Coolspring township, below their sawmill and on the same stream. Xo remnant of it can now be found. In the same year a distillery was started by John Hobart at Hudson lake. Commencing in 1840 and finishing in 1842 Jacob Early put up a large distillery near Union Mills and worked it very profitably until it was destroyed by fire in 1852. This was the largest distillery in the county. About 1839 or 1840 Benjamin Elliott, then twentythree years old, came to LaPorte from Massa¬ chusetts and operated the Early distillery at Union Mills for nine years. At the end of that time he became convinced that the business was dishonorable and that the liquor traffic was an injury to the people and so he abandoned the en¬ terprise, which was proving very remunerative to him. He engaged in other business in Union Mills for eight years, then removed to Michigan City and was connected with the prison for fifteen years. Leaving that institution he took up the business of contracting. He was one of the men who platted Union Mills and when he left. the distillery in 1849 he opened a large general store. Leaving Michigan City about 1883 he made a new location in Brown county, Nebraska.

quarter of section 17 in Galena township and in the following year set up a shop for turning wooden articles on Mud creek, near the Mud creek school house. He devised a part of his machinery himself, with a view of producing wooden bowls. The venture turned out badly, and Joseph Winch bought the concern, his prod¬ uct being spinning wheels and splitbottom chairs. Mr. Winch was a Free Will Baptist preacher who came to the county in 1838 and died Feb¬ ruary 10, 1854. In 1840 he moved the shop to a better waterpower on Barnes creek near by and built a new and larger house for it, adding to his output hubs, bedposts, and other kinds of wood¬ work requiring turning. It was here that the Francis gristmill was afterwards erected. Along about the same time John and Willis Wright started a similar industry a mile or so southwest of the Winch factory, and ran it for four or five years, selling it to E. S. Dodds, in whose hands the machinery wore out after some years and was never renewed. Valentine F. Smith, always known as "Frank," who was a miller in LaPorte later, built a turning shop on a branch of the Galien river in the summer of 1849, a mile and a half west of the Winch shop, and ran it until the spring of 1854. When Door Village was in the height of its promise of future greatness Joseph Austin, in 1840, inaugurated an enterprise for doing all sorts of turning, making spinning wheels, and producing small furniture for the household. In the absence of waterpower he employed two large dogs to propel his machinery. Samuel Hall bought the plant but did not con¬ tinue long in the business, opening a tavern in ^ 1847.

Such in brief is the history of the milling in¬ terests of LaPorte county, which served well their use, but which are now mostly things of the past. Few sawmills remain ; and with respect to the flouring mills, the larger concerns at the centers have taken the place of the smaller ones in the country.