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

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CHAPTER XXIV.

PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS.

Before the public schools had made much advance out of the early pioneer period, several private schools and academies were commenced and carried on for a few years, furnishing as these did, a more extensive course of study and better substitutes for collegiate education, than could be found in the public schools.

An early academy was founded at La Porte, called the Lancasterian Academy, Rev. F. P. Cummins, Principal. This academy was opened before 1843, the precise date not found. This school had one evening a grand exhibition, perhaps the most attractive, in its literary exercises that had been given in any of these counties. Two young members of the Cedar Lake Lyceum, E. J. Farwell and T. H. Ball rode in one day about fifty miles on horseback, in order to attend it. And their expectations were realized. The academy was not kept up many years, and about 1843 it was merged in the literary department of the La Porte University for which a charter had been obtained in the winter of 1840 and 1841. The law department of this university was organized in 1841, the medical in 1842, and the literary in 1843. None of these departments flourished very long. Medical lectures were suspended in 1851, and the building was occu-

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pied afterwards by Prof. Churchman, who started a literary academy for girls which flourished until the building was burned in the winter of 1855. Other and later private schools were kept up for a time by Mrs. Holmes, T. L. Adams, by W. P. Phelon -- Technic and Training school,-- and some others, but all, except the parochial schools, at length gave place to the public schools.

In Lake County the first academic and boarding school was opened by Mrs. J. A. H. Ball, about 1840. It continued, in some form, for some sixteen years. "It sent six students to colleges and seminaries and fitted many for business and the duties of life." Among the boarders at this school from other counties was Maria Bradley, of La Porte, who became Mrs. J. P. Early; and she and Elisabeth H. Ball, two of the five girls of City West, were educated for a time together; and from this school, an informal graduate, the latter went forth to New York City and to south Alabama and there became a successful teacher in the Grove Hill Academy; and as the wife of Judge Woodard, of Clarke County, accomplished a large and lasting work in Sunday-school, and church, and mission enterprises. In different parts of the land these two City West girls, one a Methodist, one a Baptist, lived not unto themselves.

The next academic and boarding school of the county was commenced by Rev. Wm. Townley about 1848. In this school instrumental music for the first time in the county was taught. This school achieved in its day a good success. It supplied the public schools largely with teachers from the girls of the school. In November, 1852, Mr. Townley stated that he had had nearly five hundred scholars, and that not

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five young men had gone out as teachers. This school closed in 1856, Rev. W. Townley leaving Crown Point for the West.

In 1856 Miss Mary E. Parsons, a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary, having taught at Oxford, Ohio, commenced a school at Crown Point, hoping to found another Holyoke school. She accomplished much for the cause of Christian education, but her efforts were terminated by her death at Crown Point, November 14, 1860.

A primary school for children was opened, probably not long after 1860, by Mrs. Sarah J. Robinson, a daughter-in-law of Solon Robinson, and a young widow, one of the best teachers of little children ever in Crown Point, "kind, patient, loving, unselfish, and truly Christian." In July of 1864 she went to Nashville in the service of the Christian Commission. She was also at Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans. She returned in September, 1865, to Crown Point, but not to teach. In 1866 she was married to Dr. W. H. Harrison, an army surgeon, and went with him to Mexico.

The next schools of the county to be mentioned Here are a girls' school started by Miss Martha Knight and Miss Kate Knight in 1865; the Crown Point Institute, also commenced in 1865, having a preparatory and collegiate course of study, and in one of its years having about sixty boarding pupils, educating a few hundred young men and young ladies, the property being sold to the town of Crown Point August 1, 1871, for $3,600; and the Tolleston school established by A. Vander Naillen, a French mathematician, about 1866, in which was taught civil en-

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gineering, and which was removed to Chicago in December, 1869.

1. In Porter County, at Valparaiso, Rev. J. C. Brown opened a school in the Presbyterian meeting-house, probably in 1843. It was a school of academic grade, and received pupils from outside of the county. How long it continued is not known. In later years the Valparaiso Institute was established which was for some time a nourishing school, having a large, substantial building and good teachers.

The years of its prosperity included probably 1863. As the public schools improved, this, like the schools in La Porte, gave way to the city graded school.

2. The Valparaiso College was opened in the fall of 1859, the Rev. C. N. Sims, A. M., President. His successors were:

"E. H. Stanley, A. M.; B. W. Smith, A. M.; Thomas B. Wood, LL. D.; R. D. Utter, A. M.; and A. Guernsey, D. D." In 1871 the college gave place to the Northern Indiana Normal College, H. B. Brown, founder.

3. The Northern Indiana Normal School and Business College. Valparaiso.

The special announcement for 1900 says: "The school was organized September 16, 1873, with four departments; four instructors, and thirty-five students; now there are nineteen fully equipped departments, fifty-seven instructors, and an average daily attendance of more than 2,000 students, making this the largest Normal School in the United States."

This school has had a remarkable growth. The school year consists of five terms with ten weeks in each term.

The school was opened in the building of the Val-

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paraiso College. It now has large, costly and fine looking buildings, massive they may well be called, on what is known as College Hill.

Near Rensselaer is the St. Joseph's Catholic College, a flourishing institution.

Near the college is located the St. Joseph's Indian Normal School, founded in 1888, as a training school for Indian boys.

 

PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS.


2. Lutheran Schools in La Porte County: --— In Michigan City are two large Lutheran schools, the buildings of brick near to the churches. The churches are large brick edifices nearly opposite each other on the main street of the city. One is called St. Paul's and the other St. John's. In St. Paul's school are four rooms and of pupils 287. Quite an area of ground is in front of the school building and adjoining the church, which in the summer time is a beautiful flower garden.

In the school building of the Church of St. John are three rooms with pupils 220. In La Porte are also two schools. The number officially given for the larger school is 332. Number of pupils at Otis 4; at Tracy 13; at Hanna 21; at Westville 15; at Wanatah 23.

Placing the smaller school in La Porte at 100 and there will be of Lutheran children in the county receiving church teaching 1,015.

In Porter County: -- At Valparaiso, pupils 47, at Kouts, 30. Total 77.

In Lake County: -- In this county are seven schools. Number of pupils: Whiting, 61; Tolleston, 92; North Hammond, 95; Hamimond, 235; Hobart, 44; Crown Point, 56; Winfield, 15.

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Total in Lake County, 598.

In Starke County: -- At North Judson, 53; at Winona, 18; Total 71.

In Pulaski County: -- At Denham, 22; Medaryville, 6.

In Newton County: -- At Goodland, 18.

In White County: -- At Reynolds, 43.

In Jasper County: -- At Fair Oaks, 24, at Kniman, 11.

Total in the eight, counties, 1,885.

2. In the Catholic schools of La Porte are now about one hundred pupils.

In Michigan City there are probably five or six hundred. In the county perhaps eight hundred. No way has been found for obtaining the exact number.

In Porter County the school at Valparaiso is large, numbering no doubt several hundred.

In Lake County there is a large school at Hammond and smaller ones at Crown Point, at St. Johns, at Dyer, and at other places, amounting, in 1890, in eight schools, to 726 pupils.

The number in Lake County at present may be placed at 900.

No way has been found for obtaining any exact estimate of the number of schools or of the pupils in the other counties, but wherever, in those counties, there is a large Roman Catholic church, there is quite sure to be a parochial, Catholic school. The children receive much catechetical instruction. Neither Catholic nor Lutheran children are allowed to pass fourteen years of age ignorant of the great doctrines of their churches. 

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

 

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