Northwestern Indiana from 1800 to 1900A regional history written by Timothy H. Ball . . . .
Source Citation:
Ball, Timothy H. 1900.
Northwestern
Indiana from 1800 to 1900 or A View of Our Region Through the Nineteenth Century.
Chicago, Illinois: Donohue and Henneberry. 570 p.
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA FROM 1800 TO 1900
234
CHAPTER XVI.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
To a large extent the men and women who settled this region
came from centers of cultivation and intelligence
in older states, and brought with them the results of their early training.
There were some families who had lived on frontiers before, and had enjoyed few
advantages for education and improvement; but they were not the founders of
institutions here.
It was but natural that those men and women with firm religious principle and
with their strength of character, realizing almost intuitively that they were
here to lay foundations for coming generations, should soon commence studying
and teaching the Scriptures, and should have soon in active development what are
called Sunday schools. They had brought with them their Bibles and their hymn
books, and although the world was not sixty-five and seventy years ago as it is
now, human nature was the same, the deep human needs were the same, and no book
was so well adapted as was the Bible to meet these needs in the wilderness. The
religious history and the beginning of church life have been given, so far as
these records are concerned, and it remains now to look over some of the school
records of sixty or more years. But the material for minute details has not been
generally preserved, and a general survey of the beginnings in most of these
counties is all that can be attempted here to be given. As prayer meetings were
held, first in La Porte
235
County as the first that was really settled, and then in White, and in a few
years in Jasper and Pulaski, and in Porter and Lake, so in these counties the
children were invited to meet on Sundays in the log school houses, and to bring
their Testaments, and to spend an hour or more -- there was not so much hurry
then as now -- in reading and in reciting verses learned at home, and in singing
some of the good, old church hymns, and in prayer. Those who have searched early
records and conversed with the first settlers do not seem to have secured the
dates of many schools or the names of the first teachers.
Incidentally, in General Packard's account of La Porte, it is mentioned that a
Sabbath school was there organized in 1837, "in which A. and J. B. Fravel took a
deep interest." And it is further mentioned, Rev. G. M. Boyd is the narrator
now, that there was then no barber in La Porte and so J. B. Fravel cut the hair
of the men, charging each man a dime, and appropriated the money to purchase a
Sunday-school library. Also it is stated that on the Fourth of July of that
year, "the little school was out in patriotic procession," and that Daniel
Webster, then in La Porte, "standing in his carriage addressing the citizens,"
said of the children as they came in sight, "There, fellow citizens, is the hope
of our country." Perhaps this is the record of the first school and first
library and first procession of Sunday-school children in this region. It may be
that among the Presbyterians on Rolling Prairie there was an earlier school. Let
him, who can so do, produce the record.
In 1843 Rev. G. M. Boyd says, "As the church increased, the interest in the
Sunday-school cause increased. The returns show an aggregate of three
236
hundred and five scholars in the county." The schools continued to increase, and
in 1876 there were reported fifteen Methodist schools and one thousand four
hundred and eighty-two scholars.
Other denominations were not remiss in establishing and carrying on schools. The
county of La Porte for sixty-three years has a good, but largely unwritten,
Sunday-school record.
In Porter County, the first record of a Sunday school found, is in the history
of "Porter and Lake," where it is stated that in 1838 or 1839 a school was
organized by Benson Harris and Ira G. Harris, (who were sons of Elder Harris, a
Baptist minister), and George Bronson. This school was near the present town of
Wheeler. It is further stated that this school soon had an average attendance of
eighty members and that sometimes more than one hundred were present. Some of
the statements in regard to this school are such as to cast a doubt upon the
accuracy of the record. A year or two later in date would probably be more
accurate. The next record, and this comes from the
pen of Rev. R. Beer, is of a Union school of eighteen pupils, organized by Mrs.
Brown and Hugh A. Brown, wife and brother of Rev. J. C. Brown, in the fall of
1840 or in the winter. This was in what became the city of Valparaiso, and this
school of eighteen members is said to have included "every child of suitable age
in the neighborhood." It was held in the court house until the spring of 1841.
The children increased in number and school after school followed this one in
various parts of the county.
The same course of events took place south of the Kankakee River. Some one
started a pioneer Sunday school, and year by year other schools were added
237
to the number; but the names of those first earnest men
and women are not at hand to be placed upon this page.
White and Jasper are the leading Sunday-school counties now, so far as the
number of schools is considered, and it is a matter for regret that their
earliest Sunday-school history cannot be given here. There may be yet living
those who know it, or there may be some who have access to it. Next in the
number of schools to Jasper is La Porte, and then Pulaski and Lake, which are in
number the same. Whatever may have been its early history, Pulaski is a good
Sunday-school county now. And Starke and Newton, with later beginnings, have
worked nobly up. In Starke, in that part of the county where is now North
Judson, the first school was organized in 1866, a Union school, William Palmore,
Superintendent. Succeeding superintendents were Dr. Quick, and brethren Strong,
Lightcap, and Jones. Another Union school, W. Palmore, Superintendent, was also
organized in 1866, about four miles west of North Judson. This must have been
about the beginning of school work in Starke. In the same year the United
Brethren organized in North Judson with seven members, and about ten years
later, an organization having been previously effected, the Methodists erected a
church building in North Judson. In 1884 the "Brethren" also built a church, and
then the Union school was divided, and two denominational schools formed, one
meeting in the morning, the other in the afternoon, some of the children
attending both schools.
In 1886 twenty schools were found in Starke, as reported in "Our Banner," a
Sunday-school paper, called more fully North-Western
Indiana Sunday
238
School Banner, published in 1886 in the interest of the "22d District," which
included then as now the counties of Lake, Porter, La Porte, and Starke.
Probably the oldest Superintendent in Starke County, that is, the one longest in
office, is W. Lightcap of North Judson. He was in office in 1886 and it is
understood that he is Superintendent of the United Brethren school still. He is
a nephew of the earlier one of the same name.
Lake County has its Sunday school history for fifty years,
from about 1840 to 1890, in a volume of two
hundred pages, published in 1891, called "The Sunday Schools of Lake." In that
work it is stated: "Wednesday, August 27, 1890, the 25th anniversary of the Lake
County Sunday-school Convention was observed, as also the 50th anniversary of
Sunday-school work in Lake County. To the observance of this double anniversary
this memorial volume owes its existence." As in that volume the Sunday-school
history of Lake County is so fully given, but little need be given here; only
such statements seem needful here as will give some general idea of Lake County
Sunday schools in connection with the schools in the other counties.
The first schools in the county were commenced about 1840 and some of them have
been kept up through all these sixty years, while to most of the earlier schools
changes came, and year after year new ones were opened.
The Lake County Sunday School Convention was organized at Crown Point in 1865.
It held its "First Anniversary" in 1866, and its twenty-fifth in 1890; while the
State Convention, organized the same year, in 1865, counted its twenty-fifth
annual meeting in
239
1889. As in the year of this writing (1899) the "35th
Annual State Convention" was held at Columbus, the State organization would seem
to be one year older than the Lake County organization, which could call this
only its 34th annual meeting. The difference of a year in numbering is only a
different method of counting. Whether a child born in 1865 would be twenty-five
years old in 1889 or in 1890 is not a hard question to settle; but of course an
organization may call the day of its organization its first annual meeting, if
it so chooses. It does not make it one year old on that day.
The Lake County organization, claiming to be as old in years as the State
organization, held its second anniversary in 1867. Two days were devoted to the
exercises. On the first day was held a teachers' convention. There were present
by invitation, from Chicago, Rev. O. Adams,
brother M. W. Smith, a devoted infant class teacher, and Rev. N. D. Williamson.
Questions were investigated, How can the churches be more effectually enlisted
in the Sabbath school work? What are the duties of superintendents and teachers?
An address was given by Rev. O. Adams on "The Art of Teaching," the subject of
"Teachers' Meetings" was taken up, and written questions were answered by
brother Williamson.
In the evening an address was given by Rev. N. D. Williamson on "Claims of the
Sabbath School on the Whole Community."
The next day, which was Wednesday, August 21, 1867, most of the schools of the
county met at the Fair Ground. Addresses to the children were delivered by
brothers Williamson and Smith. Rev. Mr. Clarke, of La Porte, spoke on "the best
means of
240
reaching the destitution of the county," the Secretary reported the schools of
the county, and seven resolutions were presented by Judge Turner, of Crown
Point, and adopted. Also two were offered by Rev. T. C. Stringer, Methodist
pastor at Crown Point. As showing what the county organization proposed to do,
the fifth of Judge Turner's resolutions is here quoted: "That the work of the
Lake County Sunday School Union is, the establishment in every school district
in the county, of a Sabbath school, for winter as well as summer, furnished with
blackboards and all suitable requisites."
The sixth resolution had reference to township organizations, and the seventh to
sending out a Sunday-school missionary. In adopting these resolutions, and in
undertaking this work, it is evident that the Sunday-school workers of Lake
County had, as early as 1867, some fair ideas in regard to Sunday-school work.
The presidents of the convention for twenty-five years were Judge Hervey
Ball, who lived to be about seventy-five years of
age, Rev. H.Wason, who lived more than eighty-three years, Rev. R. B. Young,
seventy-five years of age, Rev. Dr. Fleming, age at death unknown, Judge David
Turner, seventy-three years of age, Hugh Boyd, of South East Grove, still
living, between eighty and ninety years of age, J. L. Worley of Lowell, still
living, seventy-nine years of age, A. A. Winslow, now American Consul in
Belgium, and Cyrus F. Dickinson, of Lowell. First Secretary, Rev. J. L. Lower;
second, Rev. T. H. Ball, from 1866 to 1877; third,
Professor O. J. Andrews; fourth, Rev. T. H. Ball, from
1879 to 1890; in all twenty-two years.
Besides the regular convention meetings each year,
241
institutes have been held along the lines of these years by the county
secretary, aided by others, at the Butler School, at Ross, Merrillville,
Hammond, Hobart, Lake Station, Hurlburt Corners, Le Roy, Eagle Creek, Plum
Grove, Orchard Grove, South East Grove, Lowell, Pine Grove, Creston, and Crown
Point.
In 1890, when the work of organizing schools was about completed, there were
reported forty-five "schools of the present," also forty,five "schools of the
past," and twenty-two schools not connected with the County convention,
Catholic, Lutheran, and Unitarian.
On Wednesday, August 29, 1894, "The Lake County Sabbath School Convention" was
changed to "The Lake County Sunday School Union." "A new constitution was
adopted and allegiance to the State Association was pledged. This action marks
an epoch in the Sunday School history of Lake County.'* It certainly did mark
quite a change in some respects. A new name, a new object, a new constitution,
and a new time for holding anniversary meetings. The old organization continued
for twenty-nine years and then came to a sudden and unexpected close. The new
one has not enlisted the interest of many of the schools of the county. What it
may do remains to be seen.
__________
* Quoted from the Awakener of Indianapolis.
242
SUNDAY SCHOOL STATISTICS.
|
Counties. |
Schools. |
Membership. |
|
Lake |
46 |
*4,500 |
|
Porter |
39 |
*4,000 |
|
La Porte |
59 |
7,460 |
|
Starke |
26 |
2,027 |
|
Pulaski |
46 |
*4,000 |
|
White |
66 |
*6,000 |
|
Jasper |
64 |
4,029 |
|
Newton |
32 |
*3,000 |
|
Total |
378 |
35,016 |
The figures here given, as to the membership of the schools, are not all of them in accordance with official reports, but none are less than the official reports at hand, and are sufficiently accurate for comparison.
MISSIONARIES.
Among those who have gone from Indiana to heathen lands as missionaries Lake
County has sent out one.
Mrs. Annie (Turner) Morgan, a member of a pioneer family, the third daughter of
Judge David Turner, was born in Crown Point; was a member of the Crown Point
Presbyterian Sunday School, was educated in Crown Point, and at Oxford in Ohio;
was married to the Rev. Freeman E. Morgan of Elgin, Ill., a Baptist minister,
who spent some time in Crown Point, and the two, having been appointed as
missionaries by the American Baptist Missionary Union, left for India by way of
Europe, in October, 1879.
__________
*Estimated.
243
Mr. Morgan was stationed at Kurnool, a city of 25,000 inhabitants, on the
Tungabhadra River, in the Madras presidency of India, his field extending
outward from twenty to forty miles. Mr. and Mrs. Morgan were members of the
Telugu mission, fifteen millions of people speaking the Telugu language. The
name was formerly written Teloogoo. For seven years valuable labor was performed
among the Telugus, and missionary life was well learned, when the family were
obliged to return to this country on account of Mr. Morgan's health. His
affliction terminated fatally in a few years. Mrs. Morgan and her children are
living near her early home. Twenty full years have passed since she went forth
full of hope to do good service in the wide mission field, that "field" which
"is the world."
Porter County has also been represented in the foreign field. Miss Carrie
Buchanan, daughter of the Rev. J. N. Buchanan of Hebron, for eight years a
missionary of the United Presbyterian Church, having her portion of the field in
Egypt, returned to her home in Hebron on account of failing health in the fall
of 1899. It is understood that she will soon return to her Egyptian field.
White County has a representative now in Persia as a missionary physician. Miss
Emma T. Miller was born in Monon, then called Bradford, received her first
school instruction there and then at the high school at Monticello. In
September, 1886, she entered the Cook County Nurses' Training School, Chicago,
having some six years before, when fifteen years of age, felt herself called to
do mission work. She graduated in 1888, in the spring, and the next fall entered
the Womans' Medical College of Chicago, and graduated
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"with high honors" in 1890. In 1891 she sailed
from New York and reached
Oroomiah, in Persia, where she became matron of the hospital which had been
established there. "Her work consists in attendance on the patients in the
hospital, teaching a class in Materia Medica, and answering calls
from the people in the
surrounding country." Dr. Emma T. Miller is still in active work.*
Presbyterian teachers in what Mrs. Moore calls Home Missions, aiding the colored
people of the South. Mrs. Mary E. Allen, born in Indiana,
for some years a pastor's wife in the South, established the Mary Allen
Seminary at Crockett, in Texas, for the education of "colored girls," which was
opened in 1886. Rev. J. B. Smith, then Presbyterian pastor at Monticello, left
that church to take charge of the Seminary. The teachers
from northwestern Indiana have been: Miss Margaret P. Bolles,
from Remington, a teacher there in the public
schools, who went to Mary Allen Seminary in 1866, but who returned to Remington
in feeble health and died in 1895, and Miss Ella Ferguson, of Monticello, now in
the Seminary, "the head teacher, a noble woman and good worker."
Jasper County has a representative also in the same kind of mission work, a
Baptist teacher, Miss May Huston, daughter of Rev. D. J. Huston, a noble,
devoted young lady, teaching at Nashville, Tenn.
ORDINATION OF MISSIONARIES.
On Monday, May 28, 1900, at the Congregational Church in East Chicago, Rev.
Thomas Gray and wife
__________
*From Mrs. A. Y. Moore's "Sketches of
Indiana Missionary Women of the Presbyterian
Church." 1900.
*Mrs. Moore. Page 67.
were set apart to go as missionaries to Micronecia, They were both examined in
the afternoon by an examining board and their examination was said to have been
extremely satisfactory. The ordination services were held in the evening in the
presence of a large audience.
NAVIGATION OF
NORTHWESTERN INDIANA FROM 1800 TO 1900
FRONT MATTER AND DEDICATION
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1
- GENERAL OUTLINES
CHAPTER 2
- THE INDIANS
CHAPTER 3
- THE EARLY SETTLERS
CHAPTER 4
- WHAT THE EARLY SETTLERS FOUND
CHAPTER 5
- PIONEER LIFE
CHAPTER 6
- COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS
CHAPTER 7
- OUR LAKES AND STREAMS
CHAPTER 8
- LAKE MICHIGAN WATER SHED
CHAPTER 9
- TOWNSHIP AND STATISTICS
CHAPTER
10 - RAILROAD LIFE
CHAPTER
11 - POLITICAL HISTORY
CHAPTER
12 - THE WAR RECORD
CHAPTER
13 - RELIGIOUS HISTORY
CHAPTER
14 - RELIGIOUS HISTORY
CHAPTER
15 - RELIGIOUS HISTORY
CHAPTER
16 - SUNDAY SCHOOLS
CHAPTER
17 - TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF NEWTON AND JASPER
CHAPTER
18 - TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF WHITE, PULASKI AND STARKE
CHAPTER
19 - VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES OF LAKE
CHAPTER
20 - VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER
CHAPTER
21 - VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES OF LA PORTE
CHAPTER
22 - EARLY TRAVELS
CHAPTER
23 - PUBLIC SCHOOLS
CHAPTER
24 - PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS
CHAPTER
25 - LIBRARIES
CHAPTER
26 - OTHER INDUSTRIES
CHAPTER
27 - SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
CHAPTER
28 - THE KANKAKEE REGION
CHAPTER
29 - DRAINING MARSHES
CHAPTER
30 - ANIMALS AND PLANTS
CHAPTER
31 - MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS
CHAPTER
32 - COURT HOUSES
CHAPTER
33 - ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS
CHAPTER
34 - BIRTH PLACES OF PIONEERS
CHAPTER
35 - McCARTY
CHAPTER
36 - ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE
CHAPTER
37 - ALTITUDES
CHAPTER
38 - MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS
CHAPTER
39 - SOME STATISTICS
CHAPTER
40 - WEATHER RECORD
CONCLUSION
Transcribed by Steven R. Shook, April 2012