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
308
CHAPTER XX.
VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER.
Baillytown is not the name of a locality where American
pioneers settled, as is Waverly, and as is Tassinong, but is the name given,
probably by the earliest settlers, to a French and Indian trading post. It is
claimed that in 1822, Joseph Bailly, a French fur buyer, who was in connection
with Alexander Robinson in 1809 in the fur trade, opened a store and established
a trading post on the Calumet River, four or five miles
from the mouth of Fort Creek. His wife was an Ottawa Indian woman. They
had four daughters and one son. The son died in 1827 when ten years of age, and
at this time it is thought that the bereaved father erected a Roman Catholic
chapel. At this locality Indians gathered to sell fur and purchase goods.
In 1837 there was here quite a cluster of cabins, a building then understood to
be a chapel, store rooms and out rooms for the family, and also for the Indians
who staid for days, perhaps sometimes for weeks. Considerable parties of them,
on their ponies, would leave this place in the summer of 1837, pass through City
West, go somewhere, the children of City West could only guess where, and
return.
Joseph Bailly made money, and it is said that in
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1834 he had some lots laid out in due city form so as to build up a town. But no
American inhabitants came, the Indians that were there could not make a city,
and in a few years the trader himself died. Some of the daughters married, but
members of the family continued to reside there and the name yet remains.
CITY WEST.
Note. -- This sketch was read some years ago at one of the anniversary meetings
of the Lake County Old Settlers' Association, by T. H.
Ball, the title then being "My First Home in the West, or Old City West."
As written for that occasion it is quite different in form
from what it would be if written now for this
work. But the author hopes that no apology is really needed for inserting it
here in its full form as it was then written and read.
The village, for it was more than a hamlet, that bore this significant name,
among the earliest of those commenced in the county of Porter, is recognized as
having had a very short existence.
Before proceeding to give what may now be rescued from
oblivion of its actual history, I may be allowed to notice this question
which some might ask, Why try to preserve any history of a place that was so
shortlived? As planned for a large Lake Michigan city, it proved to be a failure
and not a success. Let then, the oblivion which it merits cover all its history.
Or the question may be stated thus: Of what use so far as the objects of history
are concerned can the records of this short-lived village be? The first question
or the first form of the inquiry, may be answered by another question. Why do
wealthy families, and sometimes families not abounding in wealth, often
310
place in their burial grounds a costly slab or marble monument on which is
engraved the name, perhaps the date also of the birth and of the death, of some
little infant? An answer to this question will suggest an answer to the other.
The "little cottage girl" whom the poet Wordsworth met, herself but "eight years
old," immortalized in his beautiful little poem, held as firmly to her
relationship to her dead brother and sister as to her living ones. And surely no
local history can be complete which treats of white man's occupancy; that does
not give some account of attempted colonies and settlements and villages and
towns and cities, as well as of those that succeeded and are in existence now.
The pupils in our schools who have learned of Plymouth and of Boston Bay
colonies in New England history, but who know nothing of Weston's Colony,
commenced "in the summer when nature laughed and the hillsides were gay with
flowers, and the air sweet with the songs of birds," as a chronicler has said,
giving the contrast between it and old Plymouth, -- these have missed one of the
grandest lessons taught by those old colonial settlements.
And those who have had no means of examining the records of the Spanish attempt
to found a colony in Virginia, on the Rappahannock called the first European
settlement in Virginia, made in the fall and winter of 1570, have missed one
grand mental picture, which would have shown them Melendez, "the founder of
Saint Augustine, the butcher of Ribault, the chosen commander of the Invincible
Armada, as he stood surrounded by his grim warriors, planting the standard of
Spain on the banks of the Potomac."
But the question in its other form suggests the in-
311
quiry, What are the real objects, the purposes, for
which human history is, or ought to be written? Is it not largely to teach
lessons, to impart instruction, to furnish warnings, to offer encouragements, to
stimulate to new and praiseworthy undertakings, and to furnish some guide that
may secure others against failure? And, if so, the history of failures as well
as of successes may be equally valuable. Chicago,
Indiana City, City West, Michigan City, all
started some fifty years ago (when this was written) with the hope of becoming
large, lake shore cities, great marts of trade, with fine harbors, abundance of
shipping, large warehouses, centers of commerce where would be bought and sold
large amounts of costly merchandise. One succeeded, beyond, doubtless, the most
sanguine hopes of its founders. Two failed entirely and are not. The fourth
succeeded, slowly for a time, but at length reasonably well.
I trust that I need no further apology for placing in this form the following
particulars in regard to a "city" that was but is not. "Troja fuit," was written
of an ancient town.
In the year 1836 four men, ---- Morse, ----- Hobart, ----- Bigelow, and L.
Bradley, adventurers in the better sense of that word, having some means at
their command, selected the mouth of Fort Creek in Porter County on the shore of
Lake Michigan, about ten miles west from Michigan
City, and about the same distance from Indiana
City in Lake County, as an inviting place for founding a city that might compete
with the then young Chicago and the still younger Michigan City in securing the
yet undeveloped commerce of Lake Michigan. Of loaded freight trains on railroads
they seem to have scarcely dreamed.
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The selection was not badly made. The sand bluffs along that portion of the
beach were large and grand. Fort Creek entered the lake along a bed nearly
parallel for a little way with the lake shore. It was not a large stream of
water, but it was not far southward to the Calumet River which it was designed
to connect with Fort Creek by means of a canal. Actual surveys and soundings
made in 1837 indicated that the natural advantages for a harbor were superior
there to the locality chosen for Michigan City. In the fall of 1836 and the
winter following quite a portion of land was laid out in city lots, Hervey
Ball from
Massachusetts looking for a location in the West, acting as surveyor and civil
engineer. A saw-mill was erected by one of the company, probably Morse, a dam
having been placed across the creek, buildings were erected, the large pine
trees that grew on the bluffs, and other varieties of timber growing on the
level and lowland, furnishing an abundance of good lumber, and village life in
that winter commenced.
When the spring of 1837 opened the place began to grow rapidly as a new western
town. Commodious and quite costly houses were erected; a large building was put
up for a store and warehouse; hotels were built ready for being opened to
accommodate the travelling public; a survey for a harbor was made, and an
appropriation from Congress was expected to enable
the proprietors to perform the needful work; and everything for a time promised
an abundant success. The saw-mill furnished a good supply of lumber and the
carpenters were busy putting the lumber into the form of houses.
There came from Massachusetts in the spring the
two families of Hervey Ball and Amsi L. Ainsworth,
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other families came in, and quite a little community was formed. How many
families there were in all cannot now be ascertained; but the following names
are preserved in memory: Ainsworth, Bigelow, Bradley,
Ball, Chisleu, Ellis,
Hobart, Morse, Muzzall, Sweet, Wheeler, and four other families at least are
remembered whose names cannot be recalled. There were several unmarried young
men, and in all there must have been some sixteen, possibly twenty, families.*
It is astonishing through how much one may live in a short period of time. The
writer of this spent here some seven months of the year 1837, visiting
occasionally the beautiful wilds around the Red Cedar Lake where was afterwards
his western home; but here he took his first and ever to be remembered lessons
in hunting; here he learned the grandeur of Lake Michigan in its native wildness
and its varied moods; here he first learned the meaning of the solitudes of
nature; here he learned something of Indian life, seeing the travelling parties
almost every week on their ponies, going to and from
the neighboring Baillytown, and visiting at their wigwams the hunting
parties that came from Green Bay in their large,
birchbark canoes, and camped for weeks near the growing village; here he and
others formed acquaintances destined to exert an influence through life; here he
first saw an Indian burial place and saw Indians mourning over their buried
dead; here he learned the
__________
*Of that family bearing the name of Muzzall, having come
from England through Canada, descendants are now living in Crown Point
and Merrillvllle; and of those young men one is now living in Hammond, L. W.
Thompson, born in 1814, and at the date of this note, November, 1899,
eighty-five years of age.
314
intense sadness and loneliness of death in a pioneer settlement and the
loneliness of a pioneer burial in the wilderness; and here he learned how
colonies were planted in American wilds. Those months seem now like years of
ordinary life.
Some incidents besides those named may also be mentioned. Gardens were made in
May and some of the families obtained their supply of potatoes
from the lake shore, at the mouth of the creek.
Some lake sloop had evidently been storm-tossed, perhaps, for a time, stranded.
And there was deposited for the benefit of the inhabitants a part of the cargo
in the form of sound and good Irish potatoes.
No formal school was opened in 1837, but some of the children carried on their
studies in their homes. No Sabbath meetings were held, and when the little
community assembled to bury their few dead, in a lone spot, selected for that
purpose, there was no minister in attendance to speak of the great hopes of the
future. Yet some were there who knew those great hopes and who were accustomed
to pray. They were not heathen burials. On a sand knoll, between the village and
the lake, on the bank of the creek, there was an Indian burial ground of some
size, the marks or inscriptions on the head-boards seeming to have been painted
with Indian puccoon root. Here the villagers did not bury; this sacred spot they
did not disturb. Near this, in the summer and fall, some Indian encampments were
held; the Indians being quiet, peaceable hunting parties, one party at least
having come down Lake Michigan from Green Bay, if
the information imparted to the villagers was correct.
One day there came from Michigan City along the
315
beach of the lake a party of boys, white boys, on their
ponies, who rode around City West in quite gallant style, showing off themselves
and their ponies, appearing to be members of the wealthier families of that lake
town. Where they dined that day cannot be recorded, but in the afternoon they
returned to their own city and the streets of City West were again quiet. A ride
of twenty miles along the beautiful sandy beach must have been an enjoyable
experience for stylish boys well mounted on ponies. There was quite a number of
these city boys, and some of them may yet be living. Frequently the Indian
parties came on good ponies from
Baillytown, men, women and children, passing along the
west street of the village, then going by their burial place to the lake shore,
sometimes going eastward to the city, sometimes westward. In a few days they
would return. To the white women and children the squaws and pappooses on the
ponies were always objects of much interest.
The young society of City West was not large in numbers, but very select. Of
young ladies proper there were not more than five or six. Of young misses there
were, of the "first set," five. Three of these are now living,* having been very
active and influential women in their spheres of life, one in Illinois, one in
Indiana, and one in Alabama, all now about sixty
years of age.
The most lovely one of these, probably the youngest, beautiful as well as
lovely, bore the given name of Mary. All five were quite polished, cultivated,
good-looking, dressed well, were accustomed to the refine-
__________
*"Now" means when this sketch was read at the Old Settlers' Association.
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ments of life, and formed a very small, but a truly city-like group of girls.
There were several boys and other children in the village, but only a few boys
connected with this small group of girls.
One morning the usual quiet life of the community was broken by the announcement
that Daniel Webster was about to enter City West in a two-horse carriage, having
turned aside from the stage road to visit our
little growing city. Of course the Whig portion of the community was quite
excited. A good breakfast was prepared at the Morse residence; and after
breakfast, as the citizens, men and boys, had gathered near the house -- girls
did not go out in those days as they do now -- the great "expounder of the
Constitution" came out to be introduced to the inhabitants of City West. There
he stood before us, the great lawyer, statesman, and orator, tall in form,
massive in intellect, the man of whom we had heard and read, but whom we had not
expected to see standing upon our sandy soil. He soon took his seat again in the
coach and passed out from us on to Michigan City.
A few more reminiscences.
Three varieties of wild fruit were found that year at City West. These were,
winter green berries, so abundant in May, so fragrant, so delicious;
huckleberries, blue and black, low bush and high bush, growing on the flats and
on the high sand hills, that overlooked so many miles of that blue lake,
ripening from the 1st of July till frost came,
ready to be gathered by the quart or by the bushel; and the sand-hill cherries,
as we named them, ripening in August, not so abundant, but a good, edible fruit.
Gathering berries for their own use formed a healthful and pleasant occupation
for the women and children in that ever
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memorable summer. Toward the cool of the evening, as the
sun would be, apparently going down into the lake, these women and children
found a delightful walk on the hard, smooth, clean sand of the wave-washed
beach, from the
mouth of the creek westward. And the little children and the young misses took
delight in running barefooted in the very edge of the dancing waves, avoiding
the large ones, letting the ripples flow over their white feet and ankles.
(Little girls' dresses came to their ankles then. They did not stop as now, at
the knees). At other times they would visit the great "blow-outs," climbing up
and running down in that which was so soft and yielding, in which they could
play, on which they could recline, and have on hands and face and clothes no
stain. What could be cleaner, except the water, than that white and black Lake
Michigan sand! Some, who loved the magnificence of nature, would climb to the
very top of some of those high bluffs and look out upon the broad expanse of
water, sometimes seeing the white sail of a distant vessel, and enjoying the
grandeur of that wide sweep of lake and shore line, that satisfied the range of
the keenest vision.
But this pleasantly situated little town, never became a city only in name. It
was two or three years too late in starting. The financial crash of 1837, that
swept over the country, did not spare even this little place. Congress made no
appropriation for a harbor, although Daniel Webster had taken breakfast there.
It would take money to stock the large store house with goods, money to dig the
contemplated canal from the Calumet to the lake,
money to make a city. And the proprietors were not millionaires. They had built
fine dwelling houses, they had spent thousands
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of dollars, they had secured nothing that would bring in
an income. They must give up their enterprise. The crash had come. They began to
scatter. Before 1837 had ended some sought new beginnings elsewhere. Others
followed the same example in 1838. Some went further west, some found homes in
La Porte County, some in Lake, engaging in various pursuits, some went further
from the lake into
Porter County; and in 1839 few if any were left in the once promising and
pleasant little city.
In 1840, in company with a young friend, I visited the place, mainly to obtain
wild fruit. We went from the Red Cedar Lake.
Toward nightfall we drove into the village. The houses were there but no
inhabitants. We called at the large Exchange hotel, but no one came to welcome
us or attend to our wants. We had come prepared for that. We had our choice not
only of rooms but of houses for that night. We chose a house, prepared our
supper, and arranged our lodging place. We had no fear of being disturbed that
night. The next day we gathered our fruit, bathed in Lake Michigan, and went out
from that solitude, and returned to our homes.
The next that we heard about the unfortunate City West was a report that a fire
had swept over it and that all the houses had gone into ashes It failed to
become a city for the lack of men and means,
mainly for the want of money. But for the needs of those years it was too near
to Michigan City. There was then no need for a harbor between Chicago and
Michigan City. Now there is one between, and there will probably yet be two. But
for a new City West there seems to be no hope. The early City West has gone. Its
years were few; its life was brief and bright, for
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some very bright; its decline and its end soon came; and
from it we may learn to be careful how and where we expend, in founding
cities, any large amount of means. Had the amounts expended in 1836 and 1837
been laid out where is Chicago now, some of those that were children in the
young City West might have been millionaires in Chicago before now.
Circumstances combine to make some rich and to leave others stranded on the
sands of poverty. And those circumstances cannot by the most sagacious always be
foreseen.
Young city on the lake shore;
Thou art-gone forever more;
Yet thy homes were fair and bright,
Seen in childhood's rosy light.
WAVERLY. In the year 1834, John I.
Foster, an early settler in the north part of Porter County, laid out a tract of
land into town lots and gave to the town which he hoped to see, the name of
Waverly. A few families, connected by the ties of blood and marriage, built log
cabins on some of these lots and soon there was a little cluster of six houses.
These were the families of Jacob Beck, John I. Foster, and William Gossett,
whose wives were sisters, also of William Frame, and the families of Sparks,
Warnick, and McCoy, two of these sons-in-law. Six connected families, founded
the young town.
It was on the Calumet, about one mile and a half above Baillytown, a name to
which the earliest settlers gave, as near as might be, the French pronunciation.
It was nearly four miles from the mouth of Fort
Creek on the lake shore. Thomas' saw-mill was near, at about the present
Chesterton; but the authority is
320
good for stating that the houses of Waverly were all of
logs. No business appeared in prospect; the inhabitants did not hear the
whistles of the coming age of steam; they must get food
from the earth; and so the
families went further south into the county, opened farms, built mills, and
Waverly ceased to be. In 1837 it had the appearance of an old, almost of a
deserted village. According to records concerning an election ordered to be held
in what became Porter County, the order issuing
from the La Porte County commissioners, this was
already quite a noted place early in 1835, for in March of that year the
election was to be held "at the town of Waverly."
Note. Most of the above statements in regard to Waverly are
from the clear memory of Mrs. Sarah J. Stonex, of
Le Roy, in Lake County, who was a daughter of that pioneer, Jacob Beck, and who
remembers well that village home of her childhood. She says that after City West
was abandoned she, with some others, enterprising children probably and
adventurous like herself, went over to City West and examined the houses, and
they found one, counting closets and all, which was divided off into twenty-two
rooms. This must have been the "Exchange" or the Bigelow hotel. She also says
that she was at City West at the time of the burial of the young child that died
there. This information, with other items of interest recorded in other places,
was obtained in an interview with Mrs. Stonex November 7, 1899. Strange that a
City West child and a Waverly child should have witnessed that frontier burial
service, and find out that they both were there, after the passing away of
sixty-two years! It surely made a durable impression on the memory of each.
Those two early towns of the county of
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Porter died young, as infants die; but the recollections
concerning each live, as Christians believe that infant spirits live.
Note 2. When Joseph Bailly died, the French trader and settler at Baillytown,
his wife and daughters were in Chicago, spending, according to their custom,
much of the winter season there. His death was quite unexpected. An Indian
runner was sent at once as messenger to Chicago, but, swift of foot as he was,
before he could reach there and the women return, it seemed needful that the
body must be buried. There was no embalmer to take charge of it. One of the
setters at Waverly, therefore, Jacob Beck, the father of Mrs. Stonex, prepared
the body for burial, and the brief funeral services were held before the return
of the wife and the daughters.
Note 3. All those who travelled on that early stage road that went by the
Holmes' tavern and the "Old Maid's Hotel," knew the "pole bridge" across the
Calumet. How many rods long it really was is not probably known by any one now,
but to a child, a boy who had been accustomed to cross the long covered bridge
that spanned the Connecticut river at Springfield, it seemed long, and surely
not very secure. The most rapid and dangerous ride across it was probably made
by a woman with a young child, the woman was driving a pair of horses, and
shortly before reaching the bridge the horses had struck a hornet's nest, were
frightened or stung, and began to run. The woman placed the child on the bottom
of the wagon, put her feet on its clothing to keep it
from being thrown out by the jolting of the wagon, and those horses ran
the entire length of the bridge before she could check them. It seemed
sufficiently danger-
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ous to have horses walk over that bridge, and passengers
liked to walk also rather than to ride across; but to cross it with horses on
the full run was a fearful risk. Providential protection seems often to be over
children.
TASSINONG.
Although not in the same part of Porter County as the three early localities
that have been noticed, Tassinong, already once named, seems properly among
early pioneer settlements to stand on these pages next in order to Waverly. At
some time and by some one, when and by whom no record has been found, some
woodland in what became Morgan township was named Tassinong Grove. The early
settlers in 1834 seem to have found the name already there, the Indians claiming
that it was old then. It has been conjectured that the French once had there a
trading post, but no real evidence seems to have been found. The name for us is
prehistoric, as it was found there by the pioneers. But old as is the name for
the locality, the village that the white settlers established was not among the
earliest business centers. No record of a store is found till about 1846. The
earlier merchants were Harper, Stoddard, their buildings made of logs, Unmgh,
Eaton, McCarthy, and Rinker & Wright. In 1852 there were two stores, two
blacksmith shops, a carpenter's shop, a tavern, and some shoe-makers' shops.
About 1855 a church building was erected. The organization was Presbyterian. The
postoffice dates from 1840. After the railroad
life commenced and Kouts as a station and town' was established, Tassinong as a
village declined. It can scarcely be called a village now, al-
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though its life has been quite different
from its early sisters,
Waverly and City West.
The living and growing towns of the present now claim attention.
At the crossing of the Chicago and Erie and Pan Handle railroads, about five
miles east from the county line and two and a half
south from Tassinong is Kouts, a railroad station
and so a growing town. It has a large school house, two churches, one Roman
Catholic, one "Christian" congregation, but the house built by the people and
undenominational, and a number of stores and dwelling houses, some of these
quite fine buildings. Population unknown, probably 250.
Hebron. Population 800. -- The old Indian village near the southwest corner of
Porter County, where the Bryant and Dinwiddie families and others were early
settlers, has been named as Indian Town. Here was quite a community of pioneers
but no actual town life commenced. About two miles north of the Indian village,
in 1844, some lots were laid out where is now the town of Hebron, and in 1846
the first store was opened by S. Alyea, and the second by William Sigler, which
soon became the store of his two brothers, Eli and D. T. Sigler, known for many
years as the Sigler store, and the building, on the corner of Sigler and Main
streets, at the original "Corners" where north and south and east and west
highways cross, is, in the year 1899, being repaired and rebuilt to be the drug
store of Miss Hattie Palmer, who for some years has been keeping a large drug
store in Hebron. The town grew slowly. The railroad in 1865 gave it some onward
impulses. In 1867 D. T. Sigler erected the first brick dwelling, and in 1875
the first brick busi-
324
ness block was put up by "Sweeney & Son." Hebron has now a two-story brick
school house. Cost, $8,000. It has several brick business houses. The churches
are four: Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, United Presbyterian, and
"Christian." A church called "Union Mission" was organized in 1877 with eighty
members. This organization, although in 1878 erecting a building at a cost, it
is said, of about two thousand dollars, did not long continue; and in 1882,
April 26, a Congregational church was organized, with about forty members, these
having been for the most part members of the Union Mission church. This
organization also had quite a short life. So Hebron has five church buildings
and only four congregations. Estimated population eight or nine hundred. Hebron
has some good dwelling houses, and, having been located in a grove, many of the
dooryards have shade trees of native growth, mainly oaks, which add to the
beauty of this town.
In Hebron is residing Mr. John Skelton, born in 1821, becoming a resident of
Hebron in 1865, when there were six houses on each side of the main street,
counting the country tavern as one, who has one recollection which probably no
man in Northwestern Indiana can share with him,
few probably in the entire State. He remembers distinctly, athough only about
four years of age, seeing General La Fayette at Trenton; N. J., when he was on
his way to Boston to lay the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill monument. He was
placed, as a little child eager to see, upon a slight elevation, and that noble
and noted man was carefully pointed out to him. That he then and there saw La
Fayette Mr. Skelton is sure there can be no mistake. Of places for holding large
open air assemblages
325
Hebron has an excellent one. It is a grove of native growth, having the shade of
old oak trees, the open square adjoining the Methodist church being large enough
to accommodate some thousands of people. A permanent stand has been there for
some years and seats, fastened securely, and compactly arranged, sufficient to
seat eight hundred. With a little addition to the seating capacity, when
needful, a thousand persons can be grouped very conveniently in hearing of a
good voice. This is the annual meeting place of the Old Peoples' Association of
Hebron, and sometimes of the Dinwiddie Clan. It is also a place for other public
gatherings. It is fortunate for a town to have such a roomy and convenient place
almost in the heart of the religious and school life, for open air assemblages.
Boone Grove is the name of a station on the Erie road which has become a very
pleasant village. As its name indicates it is in a grove, and the homes have the
benefit of shade trees of native growth. It has one church, known as Disciple,
or "Christian," and there is a neighborhood around the village of good Christian
families where Sunday school life has long been maintained and church-going
habits have been cultivated. The entire Boone Grove community is intelligent and
prosperous.
Wheeler. Population 180. -- Village life commenced quite early near the present
railroad station and town called Wheeler. A church house was erected and the
Baptists and Methodists both had church organizations. It was on the edge of
Twenty Mile Prairie and also close to Twenty Mile Grove. The Harris, Peak, and
other families lived near. When the Fort Wayne railroad gave a station here, it
added quite an element
326
of life, and yet but little growth followed. The larger business here is
shipping milk. The town has a school and one church.
North from Valparaiso about ten miles, on the
Michigan Southern and Michigan Central railroads, are three places near
together, Chesterton, Hageman, and Porter; and a few miles west and south
from these towns are the railroad stations of
Crisman and McCool. A few miles northeast from
Hageman, on the Michigan Central is Furnessville. A station on the Baltimore and
Ohio and the Wabash is called Willow Creek, and one is on the Wabash, thirteen
miles northward from Westville, called Crocker.
These are the principal towns, villages, and stations of Porter County in 1900.
One, Valparaiso, is a city; two, Hebron and Chesterton, are quite vigorous,
substantial towns; Hageman, Kouts, and Wheeler, are, in size and business,
probably next; and the others are small as yet, with the elements of business
and town life. Porter is not a county of many towns, twelve, including stations,
have been named, and there are some quite large country neighborhoods with
social centers, a school house, a postoffice, or a church.
Chesterton, is, next to the county seat, the largest place in the county.
Village life commenced about 1852. It is said that its population in two years
numbered 300, "most of whom were Irish." Its growth afterward was slow. In 1882
its population was said to be 600. It 1880 there was established at Chesterton
the Hillstrom Organ Factory. Proprietor, C. O. Hillstrom. This has been quite an
industry. The first brick building in the town was erected in 1874. Since then
many substantial buildings have been put up. As will be seen in the chapter on
industries brick
327
abound in this part of the country. The churches of
Chesterton now are Methodist Episcopal, Swedish Methodist, Swedish Lutheran,
German Lutheran, Congregational, and a Roman Catholic. The first Catholic church
building was erected in 1857. A brick church was built in 1876, and a few years
later a parsonage was added, making the value of the church property about
sixteen thousand dollars. The Swedish Lutheran brick church of 1880 cost about
five thousand dollars. The Swedish Methodist built in 1880. The German Lutheran
house, 1881, cost about two thousand dollars The Methodist church of 1863 cost
about the same amount. Present population about 1,200.
The town called Hageman was commenced in 1872 by Henry Hageman; the town lots
were laid out by Surveyor William De Courcey in 1880. Its industry is
brick-making. Population about 600.
Furnessville, called at first Murray's Side Track, and then Morgan's Side Track,
has not made much town growth. The first frame building was put up in 1853 by
Morgan, and the second was erected in 1855 by E. L. Furness, who opened a store
in his basement in 1856.
VALPARAISO.
In 1834 J. P. Ballard built the first house where is now the city of Valparaiso.
This is one of the traditional records. Others say that when the original town
was laid out there was no building on that, and that building commenced by
different persons in 1836. The first store was opened in December, 1836, by
Jeremiah Hamel, the second by John Bishop, and the third by Dr. Seneca
Ball. First postmaster, Ben-
328
jamin McCarty. It was quite appropriate that he, as
principal proprietor of the new county seat should be the first to hold this
office, although he had not earned it in any way by residence there as had Solon
Robinson, first postmaster at Crown Point. As it was with the other county
seats, the business interests, the courts, the county officers, all required and
produced some growth, but in those early years advance was not rapid. In 1850 it
was incorporated as a village. In 1865 it became a city. It had at one time some
manufacturing establishments, but these closed up, one after another, and the
great financial support of the city is now the large Normal college. In
Valparaiso are nine churches, and the buildings of most of them are massive
brick structures. These are: The Roman Catholic, the Lutheran, the
"Christian," the Methodist
Episcopal, the Presbyterian, the Baptist, the Mennonite, and the German
"Reformed," and the Believers. In 1898 there were enumerated 1,595 school
children, indicating at the most a population of about six thousand. The
thousands of students at the Normal College each year are not a part of the real
population. What the census enumerator will do with them this year remains to be
seen. The more full detailed history of this town, extending over sixty-four
years, can be found, up to 1882, in the county history of Porter. Since that
work was written some new factories have started, additional school buildings
have been erected, much building has been done on College Hill, new family
residences have been built, and a massive court house has been constructed. The
location of Valparaiso is among some hills, on some heights, and in some
valleys, while all our other towns
329
are on quite level ground. Some enjoy hills and valleys and town lots that can
be terraced up, height above height, and others like to build on a table-land or
a plain or in a valley. The hills of Valparaiso give much variety to the town.
The north part of the city is on level land. It is almost needless to mention,
in such a college town, and one with such large and well-conducted public and
parochial schools, in a town so old and with so many wealthy families,
water-works and telephones and electric lights. Without these in this day such a
city would not be. The water supply is from Flint
Lake, north of the city about three miles. The Grand Trunk road passes along the
level land on the north edge of town; the Fort Wayne and Nickel Plate, having
crossed the Salt Creek Valley, pass along the south oil the town.
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