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 XXX.
ANIMALS AND PLANTS.
As this is not a scientific work, and as space is quite
limited, a short sketch only can be here given of the native, or wild animals,
called in the old classification beasts, birds, fishes, insects, and reptiles.
And as a good and a full view of the "fauna of Lake County" was prepared by E.
W. Dinwiddie of Plum Grove in 1884, and as there are but few varieties in any of
the other counties not found in Lake, the salamander, as called in the South and
by Webster, "2. A pouched rat (Geomys pinctis), found in Georgia and Florida,"
seeming to be limited to Newton and Jasper, a kind of abstract of the paper
carefully prepared by E. W. Dinwiddie and published in Lake County, 1884, pages
150 to 158, will here be given as including nearly all of the animals native in
Northwestern Indiana in the times of the first
settlers. The first paragraph is quoted entire: "The peculiar position and
varied nature of the soil of Lake County probably render it the natural home of
more species of animal life than any other region of similar extent in the
United States. Lake Michigan, the Kankakee and Calumet
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rivers and marshes, numerous small streams and lakes, swamps, prairie, groves,
loam, clay, and sand hills, make a variety of soil and condition suited to the
wants of hundreds of species of temperate zone animal life." Quadrupeds named
are: By supposition bison, elk, deer, beaver, opossums, musk-rats, mink,
raccoon, squirrels, four species, gophers, two species, chipmunks, woodchucks,
moles, skunks, rabbits, badgers, hedgehogs, weasels, wolves, prairie wolves and
large gray timber wolves, foxes, wildcats, and two varieties of mice, the field
mouse and a white-throated timber mouse.
Birds named are: As a visitor but not probably a native, the white swan; also as
visitors, gulls, but as native, among the swimmers, wild geese, brants, ducks,
especially "the mallard, blue wing teal, widgeon, wood-duck, spoonbill, and
spike-tail", -- and from different data the
estimate is reached that in a single year in the county have been killed of
these ducks 250,000, one man having himself shot in one season 2,300, -- loons
and mud hens; of waders, white and blue sand-hill cranes, other white and bluish
cranes, the former sometimes having been seen in flocks of "two or three hundred
feeding on the grass or stubble fields," the latter being solitary birds, "or
not more than two together," thunder-pumpers, jacksnipe, sand-pipe, plover, and
rail, and of "the dry land birds," crow blackbirds, crows, red-wing blackbirds
(a white blackbird has been seen), pigeons, meadow larks, mourning doves,
robins, blue-jays, cat-birds, wrens, thrushes," two species of martins, three of
swallows, four varieties of wood-peckers, and several varieties of wild
canaries," also humming birds, kill-
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dees, whip-poor-wills, "four species of owls, and two of
hawks, grouse, called prairie chickens, quails, pheasants, and eagles. Of fishes
some fourteen species have been found, including some excellent varieties for
food, but their names are here omitted.
Of insects very many are mentioned, but their names (except moths, butterflies,
"many of them very brilliant and beautiful," flies, ten species, gnats, four
species, musquitoes, four, and bees, three varieties, and wasps and hornets),
must also be omitted. Of reptiles are named four varieties of lizards, three
kinds of frogs, two of turtles or tortoises, toads, tree toads, and then snakes,
rattle snakes, black snakes, and green snakes. And then of small animals many
are referred to, as beetles, fifteen or twenty species, five species of spiders,
crickets, katy-dids, locusts, and "unnumbered hosts of small bugs and insects
and a great variety of worms."
Animal life was certainly abundant.
NATIVE PLANTS.
In the same year of 1884, and published in the same work, Lake County, 1884, a
paper was prepared by T. H. Ball on the "flora of
Lake County." Something of an abstract of that will also be given, as, with the
exception of the heavy timber growth of La Porte, the vegetation in these
counties will be found the same. Little will be found elsewhere in this region
that is not found in Lake.
Five varieties of growth were marked out. 1. The Calumet Region. Here grew white
pine, red cedar, and several varieties of oak, and huckleberries, cranberries,
and wintergreens; also sassafras, and some twenty or thirty species of shrubs
and bushes
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that cannot be here named. These made parts of the
Calumet bottoms, in earlier years, about as impenetrable as southern jungles,
filled with so many tangled, running vines, that to pass through in straight
lines was quite impracticable. But cities are growing there now.
2. The clay land or woodlands. The original limits of this woodland were marked
out, naming especially forty-seven sections besides the principal groves of the
county. The growth as named was oak, of several species, hickory, and bordering
the prairies "a dense growth of hazel bushes;" also "in some localities,
crab-apples, plum trees, slippery elm, ash, sassafras, huckleberries, wild
currants, goose berries, black berries, strawberries, hawthorne, white thorn,
ironwood, poplar or quaking aspen, and, as stragglers perhaps, red cedars, black
walnut, and hard or rock maple." In these woodlands also grew many species of
small flowering plants. "Among these are anemones, spring beauties, butter-cups,
sanguinaria or blood-root, several species of blue violets, dog-tooth violets,
Indian puccoon, lady-slippers, and very many species" whose names cannot here be
given. Producing fruit mandrakes and pawpaws.
3. Plants of the prairies. Next to the true prairie grass are named, as
characteristic plants, the polar plant (Silphium laciniatum), of which the
botanist, Wood, says, "producing columns of smoke in the burning prairies by its
copious resin," and from which the children of the
prairies obtained pure, nice chewing gum, without paying any pennies, and the
prairie dock (Silphium terebinthenacium), also resinous, and with broad leaves,
from seven to twelve inches, and
from one foot to two feet in length. Then there
were,
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in bloom in June, July, and August, some fifty or more
species of prairie plants, among them the beautiful meadow lily, and, growing in
immense native beds, what the botanists call Phlox. On the 14th day of October,
1884, the record reads, were gathered from
a little portion of Lake Prairie Cemetery, where the
plow had not been, "specimens of twenty-five different species of the original
prairie plants," and their full number is estimated to be
from two to three hundred.
It need not be repeated that the prairies in summer were exceedingly beautiful.
Some statements in regard to the grasses of the county are here quoted, grasses
strictly so-called. "Probably from fifty to a
hundred species were native here. Some varieties made poor, but many kinds made
excellent hay. Some varieties grew about one foot high, some were two and three,
some five and six feet in height. Some of the woodland grass was only a few
inches in height. Some species had a small, almost wiry blade, some a broad
blade, some varieties had a reedlike stem with blades like the blades of maize.
The stem of one variety was three-sided. Wild pea vines growng with some of the
grass aided in making excellent winter provender."
4. The wet land growth. First in beauty among these aquatic plants is named the
water lily (Nymphaea odorata), of which Wood says: "One of the loveliest of
flowers, possessing beauty, delicacy and fragrance in the highest degree." It
would not seem that these could grow in greater abundance anywhere. "The yellow
pond lily comes next." Then the cat-tail (Typha latifolia), the blue flag,
Indian hemp, rushes, sedges, and yet many other aquatic plants.
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5. The Kankakee timber growth. On the islands proper, the soil generally sandy,
grow "red oak, black oak, jack oak, hickory, sycamore, maple, pepperidge or gum
tree, beech, and black walnut. Also some elm."
Some of the region is swamp.
"In this grow ash, elm, sycamore, birch, willow, maple, and cotton-wood, with a
thick growth of underbrush or puckerbrush. Through this latter growth neither
man nor dog can travel rapidly."
To the native animals, may be added, for La Porte County black bears and wild
turkeys; to the plants, white walnut and bass-wood.
Notes. 1. Mr. H. Seymour of Hebron, who was born February 20, 1808, and who died
January 18, 1900, nearly ninety-two years of age, was probably the oldest of the
early trappers and hunters, a rather peculiar class of men, who spent many years
along the Kankakee marsh. He came, according to his recollection, to the
vicinity of the old Indian Town, south of Hebron, in 1833. He was quite active,
retaining well his faculties, when he was visited a year or two ago. He said
that he thought the white cranes and the swan made nests in the marsh region in
those early times, but he was not really certain. In regard to the sand-hill
cranes, the wild geese, the ducks, herons, and the smaller water fowls of the
region, there was, he was sure, no doubt in regard to their nests.
The wild geese, the brants, most of the different species of ducks, and largely
the sand-hill cranes, have gone to places more remote
from the foot of man and the noise of steam, to make their nests and rear
their young; but in this grand marsh region the nest-
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ing places still remain of the blue heron, of the bittern, of the mud-hen, of
various species of snipe, of rail, and of plover. On Red Oak Island are still
the nesting places of owls, the large horned owls, and other varieties.
The wild geese many years ago made nests upon sections 4 and 5, and 18, in
township 32, range 7 west, the name Goose Pond having been given by the early
settlers to a portion of water, at the beginning of the present Brown Ditch, on
section 4, where the mother geese and their little ones used to swim and get
food. On section 18 they had for their swimming place a bayou which the trappers
call Hog Marsh.
On section 7, in this same township and range, is a small island where many
nests are still made by a marsh water fowl which the hunters call "squaks."
The year 1882 was noted for a great number of wild geese visitors, no longer
natives here.
A certain knoll southward from Plum Grove was very
attractive that spring to the Kankakee visitors. "From
four o'clock in the morning until about nine o'clock different flocks
would arrive at this grassy knoll until some five acres would be literally
covered with these beautiful water fowls, apparently as thickly crowded as they
well could stand."
Of course, unlike some human creatures, they were too polite to crowd. One man
has the credit of shooting fifty-nine here in one day.
On "Little Eagle," a small marsh island, now owned by Hon. Jerome Dinwiddie,
there was, many years ago, an eagle's nest, built upon a large elm tree. This
island is on section 6, township 32, range 7 west, of second principal meridian,
in Lake County. The same pair of eagles, it is believed, made a nest
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or repaired one for some twenty years. They left the
island about 1880.
Colton in his great and instructive work, "Atlas of the World," 1856, in
describing Indiana as then it was -- or was
supposed to be -- says: "Near Lake Michigan the country has extensive sand hills
which are covered only with stunted and shrivelled pines and burr oaks." Of
cedar trees, of the very fruitful huckleberry bushes and sand-hill cherries that
grew on those bluffs, his work makes no mention.
Whatever may have been the growth in 1856, the credit of this region requires
the showing that shrivelled pines were not the original growth.
Solon Robinson says, in his Manuscript Lecture of 1847, now in the possession of
Walter L. Allman of Crown Point, that the sand ridges along Lake Michigan were
"originally covered with a valuable growth of pine and cedar, which has been all
stript off to build up Chicago." And he adds, in regard to Lake County: "In the
northeast the sand hills are very abrupt and have yet some good pine timber,
although very difficult to obtain." And General Packard in his history of La
Porte County says: "Formerly the region bordering the lake was well covered with
beautiful white pine; but this valuable tree has almost wholly disappeared,
being cut off for lumber."*
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*I am glad that I was on those great piles of sand so often and saw with my own
eyes the great pine trees, as early as 1837, before the white settlers had made
much impression on the vegetation or the sand hills. Large and delicious were
the high bush huckleberries that grew on these high sand hills, and very
abundant were the fragrant wintergreen berries. Mr. L. W. Thumpson, now living
in Hammond, born July 14, 1814, remembers well the pines and the wintergreens,
and he thinks the pines in 1837 were twenty inches in diameter as the logs were
sawed at the City West sawmill. T. H. B.
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The largest and probably the only native pine grove in Lake County is quite
peculiarly situated. It is nine miles south of Lake Michigan and six miles south
of the Little Calumet, almost exactly south of the mouth of Deep River, and two
miles south of Turkey Creek. It is on the southeast quarter of the northwest
quarter of section 14, township 35, range 8 west, on land now owned by George
Hayward, who says that is covers an area of about ten acres. It is on low and,
originally, quite wet ground, so wet that years ago it could well have been
called a pine swamp. The trees are quite close together, there must be several
hundred of them, and the larger ones seem to be of about the same size, as
though they had all been growing not more than sixty or seventy years. Although,
according to Gray's Manual of Botany, of the white pine species, there are no
majestic trees among them, like those tall, wood monarchs that used to be along
the southern sand hills of Lake Michigan in 1837, between Michigan City and the
Illinois State line, with which some yet living were then so familiar; and
another peculiarity of this pine grove is, that the soil is not sand, but peat
bogs rather, where these trees grow. They are several miles away
from any other native pines that have not been
transplanted, and to account for their growth where they are and as they are,
would surely puzzle an ordinary botanist.
As the large and valuable pine trees of Lake and Porter counties were soon cut
down, perhaps on that account some writers have supposed that no such trees grew
along our lake shore borders.
A number of small pine groves may now be found, of that Lake Michigan pine, in
the rich prairie region north of the Kankakee River, the trees having been
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taken when small, from
their native sand hills many years ago. The
largest and finest grove of pine native in Europe, to be found now in Lake
County, is on what has been known as the Turner Schofield farm, about five miles
south of Crown Point. It covers about four acres of ground. The trees are
Austrian pine and Scotch pine with some larch. Here is a noted crow roost. A
little west of Schererville is a large pine grove of native pine of about a
thousand trees, trees that many years ago were taken
from their original
locality and set out on that grand sand ridge.
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