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
386
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-
387
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-
389
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-
390
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