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 XXIX.
DRAINING MARSHES.
In May, 1852, the Legislature of
Indiana passed an act to provide for draining "Swamp Lands." In this part
of the State it was mainly for draining the Kankakee Valley.
In Pulaski County, not on the Kankakee, ditching began in 1854, and at about the
same time in Lake County.
The work of developing the Kankakee Region has been a very different process
from that which was needful in opening farms in
the woodlands and on the prairies. Before the large areas of grass land could be
made very useful, before the abodes of muskrats and of mink could be made into
cornfields a large amount of ditching for drainage was needful. And when this
all was done by spades in human hands it was slow work. But when steam dredge
boats were put into operation, in Lake County in 1884, the process of
ditch-making was vastly different. There are now, north of the river, many large
ditches. About 1870 draining quite extensively began in White County. And south
of the river are now many large ditches. Of these the big Monon ditch in Jasper
and White Counties has a channel, cut through a layer of solid rock for a mile
and a quarter, thirty feet wide and said to be from
ten to twenty feet in depth. It
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was not a light undertaking. In Starke county several
enterprising men have had ditches cut leading into Cedar Lake, now called Bass
Lake, and into the river, so that now sugar-beet culture is taking the attention
largely of the owners of the low lands. For raising beets that land is said to
be excellent. One of these ditches in Starke is called Craigmile, and one the
Kankakee River ditch.
One of the large owners of Jasper County, of whom quite an extended notice will
be given, has himself laid out in improvements of various kinds more than six
hundred thousand dollars. He has used his own dredge boat very successfully.
Another large land holder south of the Kankakee river, of that land which was a
part of the wild region of the large Jasper County, is Nelson Morris of Chicago.
He holds about 23,000 acres; but, as he is a cattle man, he leaves his land for
pasturage instead of draining and cultivating and building, and thus producing
wealth by means of the dredge boat and locomotive.
Newton County has not received as much attention in respect to internal
improvements as some of the other counties, yet in the north part, some ditching
has been done, especially in draining Beaver Lake.
In the north part of Newton County are large cattle ranches kept in the interest
of cattle men of Chicago.
Mrs. Conrad, an intelligent and enterprising woman, is successfully carrying on
a large establishment, a farm or ranche, near Lake Village. Not far
from Thayer is what is called the Adams ranch of
about five thousand acres.
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In Newton vegetables are raised and fruit and stock.
In Lake County there are more than sixty, perhaps seventy miles, of dredge
ditches in the Kankakee marsh lands; but these were not made by the individual
owners of the land as such. They were paid for by a general assessment of the
cost on all the lands supposed to be benefitted by the drainage. The main
ditches are known as the Singleton ditch, named from
W. F. Singleton, agent of the Lake Agricultural Company, the Ackerman
ditch, the Griesel ditch, and the Brown ditch. As a result of this draining
large quantities of vegetables and of grain have already been produced.
ROCK AT MOMENCE.
Among other efforts made for draining the Kankakee Valley in
Indiana, it was suggested and proposed to remove a
ledge of limestone rock at a place in Illinois about seven miles below the State
line, a place called by the early settlers the Rapids, afterwards named Momence.
The matter was at length brought before the Indiana
Legislature and an appropriation of $40,000 was made in 1889 for the work
proposed. Various objections and difficulties were disposed of, James B.
Kimball, Franklin Sanders, and John Brown becoming commissioners, who organized
as a board November 12, 1891, with W. M. Whitten as Chief Engineer. A contract
for performing the required work was entered into by the board of commissioners
and David Sisk of Westville, La Porte County, Indiana,
for the removal of the stone in the ledge at the rate of "83 cents per
cubic yard." A bond was executed by David Sisk with William R. Shelby of
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Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Lake Agricultural Company as securities, the
sureties on the bond "being worth," says the report to the Governor made in
1893, "more than a million dollars." It was found that it would be "necessary to
remove 68,819 cubic yards of the rock," and that some further appropriation
would be needful. An additional appropriation of $20,000 was made, but by some
means a change of contractors took place, and in 1893 J. D. Moran & Co.,
performed the work of removing the rock.
This outlay of sixty thousand dollars appropriated by the General Assembly of
Indiana, although expended in Illinois, has been a
large help to the drainage of the Indiana part of
the valley.
Many of the citizens of Jasper County, both pioneers and later settlers, have,
done much in developing the resources of the county and adding value to its once
wild lands; but no one, in some lines, has done so much as Mr. B. J. Gifford, a
resident at present in Kankakee, Illinois. Before detailing what he has
accomplished and designs yet to do, some notice of his earlier life will be of
interest.
He was born on a farm in Kendall County, Illinois, in the pioneer days of that
part of the state; was left motherless at six years of age; at eleven he
arranged to obtain some prairie Government land which he thought was valuable,
but "his father thought it worthless," and so he gave up that first land
arrangement land which afterward sold for one hundred and twenty-five dollars an
acre, as many dollars as the price from the
Government would have been in cents; and at the early age of thirteen, "small in
stature, without
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any money, or clothes beyond what he wore," he started
out to make his own way in life. Seeing the necessity of obtaining an education,
he set resolutely about that, and at the age of seventeen commenced teaching
winters, and attending school summers, but when ready to enter college,
designing to go into the sophomore class, the war of 1861 commenced and he
enlisted in the Union Army as a private soldier, became captain, improved his
leisure time in reading law books, served in the army through the war, was
afterward admitted to practice as a lawyer, and settled in Rantoul, Champaign
County. Here he organized the Havana, Rantoul, and Eastern railroad Company,
built the road, seventy-five miles in length, from
Le Roy, Illinois, to West Lebanon,
Indiana, sold his stock at
a premium to Jay Gould, then became a member of a New York syndicate of which
Cyrus W. Field was one, was made President of the company, bought the Cleveland
and Marietta road for one million of dollars, July 2, 1881, managed the road for
about one year when the syndicate sold out "at a small profit," and he left "the
railroad field."
He had gained some experience and made some money and now gave his attention to
the draining of wet lands. In 1884 he had secured of such lands, in Champaign
County, seven thousand and five hundred acres. This he drained successfully,
built dwelling houses for tenants, and went to Vermillion Swamp and purchased
there a large tract of wet land which he also drained and upon which he built
houses for tenants who cultivated the land on shares, and in 1891 he was nearly
out of employment. He learned that in Jasper County there was a marsh that had
no value "except to trade to some one who never saw it." As
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that, for him, was quite a recommendation, he concluded to look at it. In July,
1891, he purchased, for four and a half dollars per acre, of Thompson Brothers
of Rensselaer, 6,700 acres in the Pinkamink marsh, and continued to purchase, as
opportunity offered, till he now owns 33,000 acres in Jasper and about 1,000
acres in Lake County. This land extends, with some small breaks,
from a point about two miles north of the Kankakee
River, "near the southeast corner of Lake County, to a point one mile south and
five miles west of Francisville, embracing the bulk of 'Pinkamink Marsh,' 'Stump
Slough,' 'Coppens Creek Marsh,' 'Buckhorn Marsh,' 'Mud Creek Marsh,' and a
considerable section of the Kankakee Marsh."
In the spring of 1892 a dredge boat was built and a second in October, and, for
two years, these were kept at work, by day and by night, when one "was laid
off," but the other is still kept at work.
Mr. Gifford has constructed, in these years, about one hundred miles of dredge
ditch, besides many smaller ditches.
It is evident that he has had some experience in this line and he says: "The
Pinkamink Marsh was, probably, the most difficult marsh to drain, in northern
Indiana. It consisted, mainly, of a vast 'muck'
bed, probably the largest in the world, and while ditches were easily made" the
frequent passage of the dredge boat was needful until the banks settled and to
some extent hardened. "The waters of this swamp are now under complete control."
This muck land, in a few years, produces large crops of grass and grain, but at
once will produce large crops of vegetables and especially of onions,
from five hundred to seven and even eight hundred
bushels, having been raised on
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an acre. The expense of raising a crop of onions is
placed at "fifty dollars per acre." Land so well adapted as this is for
gardening will be too valuable soon for grain and grass. About one half of these
drained marshes are already under cultivation, more than two hundred houses and
barns for tenants have been built, the foundations of all the buildings being
boulders found on the land; water being obtained
from wells which reach the bed rock at a depth of
about one hundred feet.
An oil field has lately been discovered in Jasper County.
Says Mr. Gifford: "It is now known to extend over this entire tract of land and
doubtless much besides, probably covering an area of 40 miles or more north and
south and 20 miles or more east and west."
As these tenant-farm houses were, many of them, from
twelve to fifteen miles from a shipping
point, "when the present annual crop [1899] made its appearance, now embracing
about 300,000 bushels of corn, 200,000 bushels of oats, 150,000 bushels of
onions, and 50,000 bushels of potatoes, and the certain prospect of more than
doubling in the near future, a railroad became a necessity." And so Mr.
Gifford's former experience in railroad construction became valuable. He very
quietly planned the "Chicago and Wabash Valley" railroad, "eighteen miles of
which are now completed and in operation."
This road, commencing at present at Kersey, which is on the
Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa road, about two miles
and a half east of De Motte, runs in a southeasterly direction, crossing the
Chicago and Indiana Coal road, as laid down on the
map of Jasper County, at Zadoc, and then passes "the villages of Laura, Gif-
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ford, Comer, Lewiston, and Pleasant Grove," having
turned directly south, and will cross the "Monon" nearly south of Wheatfield and
about five miles east from
Rensselaer.
"Right of way has practically been secured for the extension of the line, via
Wolcott, as far south as Mont Moreney. Ties sufficient for ten miles or more are
now made, and racked up along the line of road, which will doubtless be used
this summer."
"So much of this road as is now built is entirely out of debt, and it is not
likely any indebtedness will be incurred in any future construction. Some
grading has been done north of the I. I. I., and most of the right of way
secured to Orchard Grove, the intention being to carry the northern terminus to
the city of Chicago and to push the southern terminus to the coal fields of
Indiana."
The future of this railroad is not certain and of course is not yet history; but
it is a grand idea for one man, although a millionaire, to undertake "to make
these marshes of Lake, Jasper, and White Counties available to the city of
Chicago for garden purposes," and uniting the dredge boat and the locomotive,
"the two being," says Mr. Gifford, "the most powerful agents for producing
wealth discovered by modern man," "by their means to convert the worthless
swamps covering a large area of Northern Indiana
into fields the most valuable found within the State, or possibly the United
States."
And this work, it is evident, for Jasper County, Mr. Gifford is doing and has
already done.
A man who, on the Chicago Board of Trade, makes what they call a "corner" on
wheat or oats or corn, may put many thousands of dollars into his own
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pocket, but it has come out from
the pockets of others. He has produced no wealth. He has
produced nothing. He is not a producer. But the man who gets
from the dried muck, where
a few years ago the water was standing and the musk-rats built their homes,
hundreds of thousands of bushels of vegetables and grain, is a true producer. In
producing those supplies for the needs of man he produces wealth.
The facts stated above show not only what one man has done for the improvement
of Jasper County, but they show for the boys and young men of this generation,
what a boy, taking a right course, starting out with no means at thirteen years
of age, may accomplish for himself and for his fellows. In draining "swamp" or
wet lands, in Illinois and Indiana, Mr. Gifford
has provided homes for more than a thousand families, and has furnished
employment for many thousand men, "no one of whom" he says, "ever worked one day
without his pay," which is what some of the noted city millionaires cannot say;
and putting his own accumulations along with the accumulations of the thousand
families for whom he has provided homes, there would appear a large amount of
wealth produced by brain and hand labor from what
some would have called worthless tracts of land.
Such a man as Benjamin J. Gifford will need no marble monument to say that once
he lived.
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