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 XXXV.

McCARTY.

From the report for 1898 of the Historical Secretary of the Lake County Old Settlers' Association the following is taken:

"Some weeks ago I found in the possession of Mr. W. McCarty of Creston, a grandson of Judge B. McCarty, the old Day Book of E. S. McCarty of West Point.

"Its opening date is July 1 or 2, 1839. I think it is the oldest day book existing in the county. The store was first opened by Dr. Lilley in May,1837. Some of the entries are copied as items of interest for this generation. I omit names now, giving prices: 1 lb. saleratus, 19; 1 lb. tea, 50; 1 qt. molasses, 25; 6 yds. calico, 24; 1.44; 1 spool thread, 13; 1-2 yd. muslin, 13; 1 ball wicking, 13; 2 lbs. sugar, 34; 4 gals, gin (1.50) 6.00; 1 gal. whiskey, 56; 1-2 doz. brooms, 1.50; 1 lb. raisins, 25.

Again, a few names: Robert Wilkinson, 6 yds. calico, 38, 2.28; Foley, 3 pints gin, 75; J. C. Batten, 8 yds. sheeting, 1.34; 2 pair socks, 1.25; 1 pair stockings, 75; 2 yds. sheeting, 34; James Farwell, 2 lbs, tobacco, 50; Solomon Nordyke, 1 set buttons, 38; then there is a credit of 6 days work 4.50, 4 days work (75) 3.00.

Again, a few more items showing prices, 1 bunch

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quills, 50; 1 oz. wafers, 13; 8 yds. gingham, 3.00; 1 paper needles, 13; 5 yds. satinet (1.25) 6.25; 15 yds. sheeting, 2.50; 2 doz. buttons, 25; 1 pair slippers, 1.50; 1 set chairs, 3.75; 1 lb. shot, 16; 1 paper pins, 13; 2 lbs. nails, 30; Wm. Rockwell, 1 pint molasses, 13; Sylvester Green, 1 quire paper, 25; H. Wells, 1 quire paper, 25; H. S. Pelton, 4 lbs, shot, 16, 64. Brick were made at West Point and sold. A memorandum says: "Commenced molding on the 27th day of May, 1840." As showing prices some entries are:

John Foley, Dr.

Hard brick 1000. -- 4.00
Soft brick 1000 -- 2.00

Lewis Warriner, Dr.
1500 hard brick -- 6.00
500 soft brick -- 1.00

Paid Peter Bowen for threshing wheat 13 1/4 cents a bushel.

Showing prices then paid for work:

E. F. Hackley, 75 cents day, 6 1-2 days, 4.88.
9 days work on mill, 6.75.

For more common labor:

Leonard Stilson, 2 days, 50, 1.00; 10 days work. 5.00; 1000 rails (making) 5.00; 3460 rails made, 17.30. Showing prices of lumber: Henry Dodge, 300 feet flooring. 80, 2.40. Paid for making coat $3.00.

Jabez Clark, Cr., 9 lbs. butter, 1.12 1-2. Some one Cr. chicken, 12.

This day book through these extracts shows what the pioneers paid for what they called "store goods," and what they received for their own work.

Other names, as of the Myricks, William and Elias. of S. D. Bryant, Horace Wood, and many others, on

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that day book, were sixty years ago well-known names in Lake County, and their places of residence over quite a large area in the county show that the West Point store of 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1840, was very centrally located, and that West Point itself might well be as it was, a competing point in 1840 for the county seat of Lake.

JUDGE McCARTY.

Where Benjamin McCarty was born or when has not been ascertained, but he first appears in this history as an early settler in La Porte County and as its first sheriff. The county was organized in 1832, one hundred families then being within its limits, and when the first Board of Commissioners met May 28, 1832, he was "the acting sheriff." He was afterwards elected Probate Judge and as such his name appears among those solemnizing marriage in La Porte County twice in 1833 and once in 1834.

He soon became a pioneer in Porter County, where he selected a central location and secured on his quarter section, "the geographical center of the county," the location of the county seat of Porter County. This was in 1836. For a few years the family resided in Porter County, and then passed further west and became pioneers in Lake County.

He obtained what was known to early settlers as the Lilley place on the east side of the Red Cedar Lake, where had been kept by Dr. Calvin Lilley a tavern and a store, and laid off town lots here, named the place West Point, and entered into competition with Solon Robinson and Judge Clark to secure the location in 1840 of the county seat of Lake County.

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But West Point was not in the center of the county and Judge McCarty's second town failed.

The McCarty family at this time consisted of himself and wife, six sons, E. Smiley, William Pleasant, Franklin, Fayette Asbury, Morgan, and Jonathon, and two daughters, Hannah and Candace. Four of the sons were young men, the two daughters were young ladies. The two sons known as Smiley and William had each a fine black saddle horse, probably as fine looking animals as were then in Lake County, and the other sons were well provided for also in the line of steeds.

They were the solid young men and boys of the community, more cultivated and better educated than many, quite polished and dignified. Some of the young men became teachers in the early public schools; the young ladies were soon married, the younger, Candace, marrying George Belshaw, who became afterward a large wheat raiser in Oregon; and finally the family, except one living son, and their dead, all left the county for Oregon and Iowa. Of one of these sons who went to Oregon, the rest of this notice will treat, the sketch having been written in 1872 and published in "Lake Couny, 1872," a work out of print.

FAYETTE ASBURY McCARTY.

He went into the Far West, beyond the Rocky Mountains, about twenty years ago [1852]. The maiden whom he had chosen to become his wife, fell with others a victim to Indian border strife just before the time set for their marriage. Lone in heart, he engaged for three years, in warfare against the Indians; was four times wounded by them; killed with

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his own hand twenty-one of the Red Warriors who had burned the dwelling, and killed the whole family of her whom he loved. Like Logan, the Mingo, against the whites, he could say, "I have killed many;" and then he commenced his wanderings. He went among the mines; he went up into Alaska, then Russian America; he went down into South America; he crossed the ocean -- the Pacific; spent some time in China; visited the Sandwich Islands on his return; made money among the mines; and after fourteen years' absence, visited, some six or seven years ago, the haunts of his youth in Lake County. He found here some old friends; narrated to us his adventures; went to New York to take passage again for the mines; was taken sick, and died soon after reaching the gold region at Idaho. Successful in obtaining gold, noble in disposition, lonely in heart in the sad romance of his life, he leaves his name and memory to be carefully treasured up by the friends of his boyhood at Cedar Lake. 

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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