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
458
CHAPTER XXXI.
MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS.
Extracts and statements, quoted and abridged,
from an address, by Solon Robinson, delivered
before the Lake County Temperance Society in the log court house in 1847.
Historical. Early settlers. 1. The Bennett family opened a tavern on the beach
of Lake Michigan "near the mouth of the old Calumie," the date supposed to be
1832. 2. The Berry family opened a tavern on the beach in the spring of 1834. 3.
Four or five families settled as squatters in the fall of 1834: "Thomas Childers
and myself in October. He a day or two before me. His claim southeast quarter
section 17, mine northwest quarter section 8." November 1, "Henry Wells and
Luman A. Fowler came along on foot." Their horses had been left on Twenty Mile
Prairie. "Cedar Lake was then the center of attraction for land lookers, and
they passed on down to that lake without thinking to inquire who kept tavern
there." They found lodging in a fallen tree top still covered with leaves, and
had for supper "the leg of a roasted 'coon." They found there David Hornor, his
son Thomas, and a relative named Brown, who were looking for claims and who
settled in 1835. Wells and Fowler returned next day to the Robinson camp, slept
that night on "the softest kind of a white-oak puncheon," bought claims and "two
log cabin
459
bodies built by one Huntley," on the south half of section 8, paying for these
claims $50. Henry Wells went back to Michigan for his family. Luman A. Fowler
staid through the winter. "During the first winter we had many claim makers but
few settlers."
4. "The first family that came after Childers and myself was that of Robert
Wilkinson" of Deep River. "He settled about the last of November, 1834."
5. The next family, that of Lyman Wells, with whom came John Driscoll, settled
in January, 1835, on section 25, township 33, range 9. April 4, 1835, "there was
a most terrible snowstorm, the weather previous having been mild as summer."
Until March, 1836, the nearest postoffice was Michigan City. Solon Robinson then
appointed postmaster. His office was named Lake Court House, written usually
Lake C. H. Receipts for quarter ending in June, 1837, $26.92; September 30,
$43.50. For the next two quarters $57.33, and $57.39. This last the largest
amount while he was postmaster. Next postoffice west was Joliet.
"In the spring of 1836 we were attached to Porter County the commissioners of
which divided this county into three townships." The county was organized in
1837. Log court house built in 1837. "During the summer of 1837 we had preaching
several times at our house and in the present court room."
"The Baptist people at Cedar Lake also had frequent meetings this year, and I
think had preaching at Judge Ball's who settled there this year."
"The summer of 1838 was one of severe drought and great sickness."
Muskrats went to houses to seek water. "One of them came into my house and never
so much as asked
460
for a drink of whisky," but went direct for the water bucket.
In 1839 the county seat was located at Liverpool. The seat of justice had been
fixed by the legislature temporarily at Lake Court House.
In March, 1839, the land sales opened at La Porte.
In June, 1840, county seat re-located. Contest mainly between West Point at
Cedar Lake, and Lake C. H.
"The county seat was then permanently located where it now is in June, 1840."
"There are four principal streets running north and south." "There is a very
large common or public square in the center that never can be built upon, and an
acre of ground devoted exclusively for the court house and public offices."*
"November 19, 1840, the first lots were sold at auction * * * and
from this time the town of Crown Point dates its
existence."
"The town is laid out upon sixty acres, twenty acres of Judge Clark's and forty
of mine."
A house was soon built in the new Crown Point. "I built it for Elder Norman
Warriner in the spring of 1841, and he was the first minister of the gospel
settled here, and I believe in the county."
"In June, 1841, three individuals made the first effort to form a temperance
society here. Your records will show that it was carried into effect, and the
celebration of the Fourth of July with cold water and a picnic dinner was the
happiest one to some
__________
*The large court house now in the center of that "public square" shows how
little founders of towns can control the future of their towns. T.H.B.,
1900.
461
three hundred men, women, and children, that I ever saw."
"In the spring of 1842 Mr. Mills built his large tavern house in Crown Point,
and opened a store in one end of it and a very bad whisky shop in the other. I
cannot say that this improvement has ever improved the morals of the place." In
1842 a frame school house, the first, at Crown Point, was built. In 1843 Elder
Warriner went to Illinois. M. Allman came to Crown Point. This year two church
buildings were erected, the M. E. church at West Creek, the German Catholic on
Western Prairie, the latter having a bell.
These extracts give some of the valuable historic facts contained in that quite
lengthy address. One, at least, of those who heard it delivered is living yet,
and he has not forgotten the circumstances of its delivery, the interest with
which many listened to it then, and the value which, we were then told, would,
in after years, be attached to such records.
Fifty-three years since then have passed, and little could that then
white-haired man have thought that one of his young auditors would, after many
years, look over with interest that preserved manuscript, and make a faithful
effort to transmit the facts recorded, as well as a just representation of the
one who recorded them, into the coming years of the twentieth century. And not
the records of the early years of Lake County alone, but that with them would be
combined by his then youthful friend, now gray-haired and well advanced in life,
what he could find of seven other counties also; to go down, perhaps, to another
generation. What use may be made of what is left by any one in manuscript or on
printed page no one can tell; and so one lesson plainly is that we should not
write,
462
however carelessly or hastily, what might harm or do
injustice to another.
See in regard to Solon Robinson a notice elsewhere in this chapter.
EARLY CELEBRATIONS.
A Fourth of July celebration was held in the bounds of Starke before the county
was organized, in either 1848 or 1849, the locality being near the present Toto.
The company could not have been very large. They had a warm dinner. The cabin
where they met seems to have had two rooms, they had tables
from which to eat, and after dinner they danced.
She who, as a young girl remembers the circumstances, was born in 1840, was then
living in Pulaski County came into the new county of which her father became a
resident, in 1851, and is now a resident in the town of Knox.
A celebration in Jasper County, at Rensselaer, is thus narrated by Judge
Thompson: "In 1843 we had a Fourth of July celebration, with a two-story
quilting, the reading of the declaration, and a sermon under an old oak standing
in what is now Washington street." The first real celebration at Crown Point,
which was in 1841, was referred to in Solon Robinson's historical address. One
at La Porte in 1837 has been also placed in these records.
In the Standard, the Baptist paper published at Chicago, date July 7, 1900, an
account is given of a celebration in Lake County, under the heading, "The Fourth
of July in the West in 1848," by "M. J. C." It occupies nearly an entire page of
that large and widely circulated paper. It is too lengthy to be reproduced here,
but some of those who have read it,
463
not knowing where that celebration was held, will be
readers, it is hoped, of this book also, and will recognize the quotations
inserted here.
This was a celebration by a New England family, a family usually numbering
from ten to twelve inmates, and for this occasion
the Standard story says, "some neighboring families several miles distant had
been invited, making about thirty persons in all." Reluctantly omitting the many
preceding sentences, the following is quoted: "The resources for preparing a
feast in that western home were wonderful. Two large old-fashioned fireplaces
could roast and boil, and a 'rotary' stove, brought from
Buffalo when moving West, had a capacious tin oven of three pieces, which
could be put on top, and seven or eight loaves of bread, or a cake two feet
across, could be beautifully baked, the whole top of the stove turning with a
crank to bring any part over the fire."
The various sets of dishes are then described, the light blue dinner plates, and
the dark blue ones, and the "light brown of beautiful design," and "the big
platters and lovely tureens, and the dessert plates of light blue with scalloped
edges, and the white china with gold bands,", -- some of these sets "seldom
used, and all brought from the East a dozen years
before." All mention of the rich dinner and the exercises of the day must be
omitted, and one other statement only can be added, that a good display of
fireworks from Chicago closed up this memorable
day.
The mention of the fireworks suggests this record, that just ten years before
this time, July 4, 1838, the oldest brother of "M. J. C." had celebrated his
"fourth" with a display of fireworks not obtained in Chicago, but brought
from the Eastern home, fur-
464
nished by a good uncle in New York city when Roman candles were a new invention;
and that with his fireworks of various kinds he caused a suspension, for a time,
of a Fourth of July dance near by his home; and that, probably, so he thinks, he
presented the first display of fireworks ever exhibited in Lake County. Those
fireworks his young sister did not see, for it was the year before her bright
presence gladdened that Indiana home, that his
private celebration was held.
These five early celebrations, each different from
all the others, may serve as illustrations of many others in those earlier
years.
AN INCIDENT.
The following account is taken, with very little change in the wording,
from a memorandum found in an old record book, the
handwriting of which gives assurance of its perfect accuracy, but whether the
incident occurred at her own home near Wheeler, or whether, which is more
probable, at the home of her friend who makes the record and who was much
interested in bee management, is not certain. This is the record: In 1844 Almira
Harris was stung on the temple in the morning by a bee returning to the hive.
Her whole system was immediately affected and in a few minutes the flesh was
swelled even to her toes, and the skin presented a shining, red appearance
similar to the hives or mad-itch, and her face was so swelled that she could
scarcely see. She was in great pain, particularly in the stomach, and in a few
minutes was unable to sit up, and probably would in a short time have died
without a remedy, an antidote to the poison. Several supposed remedies were used
in the hurry and alarm of the family, but without any benefit
465
and having heard that the oil of cinnamon was good for
snake bite, some one proposed to try that now. About fifteen minutes had already
passed. From
appearances she could not have lived but a short time, as spasms were coming on.
Three drops of this oil on sugar were given, and the good effect was immediate.
The relief from
pain was so sudden that it was with difficulty she was kept
from fainting. The
swelling immediately began to subside but it was two or three days before she
entirely recovered.
A RISKY SHOT.
That along the Kankakee River, near the wet lands, and on the timbered islands
or sand ridges, sportsmen and trappers have for many years had temporary homes,
has been more than once mentioned. Some records in regard to the wild fowls here
and the fur bearing animals will be found in other connections.
A few miles south of Crown Point, when the prairie was open and wild, there were
some small marshes where a few hundred wild geese would often stop for a few
hours' rest or for forage. It was autumn. Two young men in a wagon drawn by two
horses, one reputed lazy but quick enough in his actions when startled, were
returning homeward across this then open prairie. A woman was also in the wagon.
As they approached one of these small marshes they saw a few hundred geese
sitting or probably standing on the newly formed ice. They had with them one
double-barrel gun, loaded for geese. The ground near this marsh was rendered
quite uneven by small bogs or bunches of earth and grass, formed, no one knows
how, and now frozen quite hard. But the temptation was great. One of the young
men
466
took up the gun. The other drove the team along the
jolting edge of the marsh. At length, coming within about ninety feet of the
wondering geese, the young man with the gun shouted, the geese arose in one
black mass, both barrels of the gun were discharged, that lazy horse and the
other started on a keen jump, the woman fell from
her seat into the wagon, the young man with the
gun instantly fell to the bottom of the wagon box, and the other wound the lines
tightly around his hands, braced himself against the front of the box, and as
the wagon bounded from
bog to bog, gave his attention to the horses. He
succeeded after a time in checking their fearful speed. The horses were brought
to a halt. Then they turned back to look after the results. They found five
large, fat wild geese fallen to the ice as the result of that risky shot, a shot
which might have caused the loss of limb or life, had not the driver succeeded
in arresting the progress of those frightened, plunging horses.
But a hunter or a sportsman will risk much rather than lose the chance of a good
shot.
A RECORD.
A sheriff of Pulaski County some thirty-five years ago was Alonzo Starr, in 1843
having come from Genesee county, New York, and
settling or a farm in Lake County, when in October, 1852, he was married to Miss
Ruby Wallace of South East Grove, and after some time removed to Francesville
and in 1865 to Winamac and was elected sheriff, which office he held for two
terms. He was considered one of the best informed Free Masons, "when it came to
the workings
467
of that order in Northern
Indiana." He died in 1898 seventy-six years of
age.
In 1872 ten families owned about one-sixth of the area of Lake County; and six
families, so near as an estimate could be made, owned one-tenth, in value, of
the real estate of the county. At that time A. N. Hart of Dyer held the largest
number of acres, about 15,000, which lands were supposed then to be worth a half
million of dollars. About 1892 a thousand acres of that land was sold for a full
hundred dollars an acre. At that time Dorsey & Cline, non-residents, held as
much as 10,000 acres, and G. W. Cass, also a non-resident, held of Kankakee
marsh land nearly 10,000 acres. Since then, great changes have taken place
through all the Kankakee region and the Calumet region. The Lake Agricultural
Company, composed of heirs of General G. W. Cass, a leading member of the
company, William R. Shelby of Michigan, still own a large portion of the Cass
land.
Of individual owners now John Brown, President of the First National Bank of
Crown Point, has 5,300 acres of this marsh land, and W. M. White, a nonresident,
has the second largest amount, holding about 1,300 acres. In the Calumet region
on Lake Michigan, the Chicago Stock Yard Company hold about 4,400 acres. A few
quite large farms remain in the central parts of the county; but several large
tracts of land, since 1872, have gone into the hands of many owners.
The, settlements in La Porte County, amid the many beautiful lakes, along the
small, rich prairies, and in the dense forest growth of its tracts of choice
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timber, made rapid progress. Says General Packard, so
generally accurate and reliable in his statements; "In the spring of 1834 the
county exhibited marked progress and prosperity. Roads had been laid out in all
parts of the county, schools were opened, many broad acres were under
cultivation, courts of justice were established, numerous houses were erected in
La Porte and Michigan City, modest farm houses dotted the prairies in every
direction, and the tide of immigration was rolling in unchecked. The comforts of
life were fast being added to the mere necessaries; and contentment and
happiness took up their abode in the dwelling of nearly every settler."
The record is that settlers came into La Porte County rapidly in 1834 and 1835;
but it should be borne in mind, when reading General Packard's beautiful
description of prospering settlers, that settlements in Porter and Jasper, in
Lake and Pulaski and White, were only beginning or scarcely even beginning in
1834, and that those pioneers had to pass through many years of privations and
hardships before it could be said of them that "contentment and happiness had
taken up their abode in the dwelling of nearly every settler," that is,
contentment in the sense of having their main wants supplied.
Settlements on the larger prairies, and certainly in Lake County, were not made
to any extent by the pioneers.
And the same was the fact in Jasper County. Judge Thompson says, that the
prairies in the early days were considered wholly unfit for human occupancy.
"The pioneers uniformly settled in or near the groves and along the streams." In
1856, he says, "the dryest season ever known," the people first learned the
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value of the prairie lands, even the mucky prairies, and after that year the
population and wealth of the county rapidly increased.
In that same year of 1856 a settlement was made near the center of Lake Prairie
in Lake County by families from New Hampshire
bearing the old and honored names of Little, Ames, Gerrish, Peach, Morey and
Plumer, some of them descendants of the noted martyr, John Rogers of Smithfield.
Their pastor, Rev. H. Wason, settled in 1857. A school house was built, school
and church life commenced, and houses and fences and orchards soon changed the
appearance of the late open prairie. In 1870 no range for stock was left.
Robinson Prairie, northeast from Crown Point, was
nearly all enclosed in 1871, and the broad sweep of that prairie, nine miles
across, south and southeast from Crown Point, was
for the most part enclosed by the end of the year 1872. As late as 1866 a party
of young people endeavoring to reach Crown Point from
Plum Grove, spent a good part of one night in vain attempts to find their
way where there were no fences, no houses, no works of men to guide them.
The smaller prairies of Porter County, Horse Prairie and Morgan Prairie, and
Door Prairie, Rolling, and Stillwell of La Porte, were enclosed earlier.
Settlement and rapid growth, as has been fully seen, commenced in the north part
of La Porte County about 1830; but the extreme south part made very little
advance until the railroad period opened. That which is now called Dewey
township was for some time a part of Starke County, and afterward was a part of
Cass township, and was set off as an independent township and named in June,
1860. Much of this
470
township and the south part of Hanna, the part in
township 33, were in the Kankakee Marsh Region, and so gave little inducement
for settlers until railroads and ditches opened up this now inviting region.
Settlement commenced in Dewey in 1854 and the settlers were mostly Germans.
Early family names are: Schimmel, Schauer, Besler, and Lougu. Names of later
settlers are, Rudolph, Rosenbaum, Kruger, and Wagner. Much of the land is held
by non-residents, as has been the case to quite an extent through all of this
valuable region.
The railroads and the ditches, the advance forces in leading on to settlement
and cultivation, have made a vast change in the Kankakee Valley since 1850.
AN OBJECT LESSON.
As late as 1845 members of the Ball family on the
west side of their Red Cedar Lake set up a row of poles, with white flags on the
top of each, through the center of Lake Prairie from
north to south, so as to enable them to keep near the same line in
crossing over that unbroken prairie amid its immense flower beds and its
thousands of tall polar plants. It was nine miles across
from north to south, and from east to west
across the more central part the prairie ridge was high so that one could not
see more than four miles off when standing on the general level of the prairie
at the north. While this prairie was thus open and was burned over every fall by
the fires that came up from the Kankakee Marsh,
there was on one winter's morning, to the children and other people who observed
it, a strange and an interesting sight. Along the marsh shore line, at the
south, on sections 3 and 4 and 5 of township 32, range 9, were groves, or
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stretches of woodland, one especially was at that time
called the Belshaw Grove. Across the center of that prairie, as already implied,
the horizon line seemed to touch the prairie. In the summer it was a line of
green grass, miles away; in the winter it was a line of brown, burnt prairie
surface, or a line of snow. On this special morning E. J. Farwell, riding over
from his home near
the Illinois line, announced to the members of the
Ball family, living on the
northwest quarter of section 27, that groves were in sight, woodlands, all
across the middle of their prairie. They looked and to their great surprise,
beheld the Belshaw Grove, which some of them had learned well to know, and
woodland further west, standing in bold outline across that open prairie line,
as though some wondrous power had, the night before, raised them up bodily and
set them down in the middle of what was the day before open prairie. They looked
and wondered. The scene was grand. The prairie was smoothly covered with a newly
fallen snow; the sun came up bright and warm for the time of year; and then and
there those favored children had their grandest object lesson on the refraction
of light. Before noon of that day those groves disappeared and nothing could be
there seen on which the sun was shining but the spotless snow. But, before the
sunset of that day came, again those groves appeared in sight and remained until
the prairie was covered with the dusk of the evening. Those children never saw
those groves in the middle of that prairie again, and they knew, when then they
saw them that they were in reality out of sight.
Note -- Illustrating the statement that the larger prairies were not settled by
the early pioneers, is the following personal reminiscence:
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It was not until 1845, having had a home on the edge of Lake Prairie for more
than seven years, and having become quite well acquainted with the central parts
of Lake County, that I first crossed the nine miles of open prairie between my
home and the southern Marsh border, or Shore Line, I crossed it then on
horseback, in the summer time, on one delightful afternoon, with a fair-haired,
lovely girl, two years younger than myself, who was entering even then, unknown
to any, upon the last year of her short life. She knew the way and I did not.
Our horses went over beautiful flower beds that day. We went up to the crests of
the long slopes and down into the valleys of that gently rolling prairie --
beautiful it has always been called -- miles away from
houses or fences or human beings, with the loveliness of nature around,
and over us the protection of God.
SOLON ROBINSON.
Note. -- Of the first settler, at what is now Crown Point, some special
statements may justly be made. There are not many living now who know much about
him, not any, except a few of his own family who knew him very well. He has a
daughter now living in Crown Point, Mrs. Straight, and a daughter in Chicago,
Dr. L. G. Bedell, one of the noted physicians of that great city, some
grandchildren and great grandchildren living, but few of these were much
acquainted with him. Having known him better than most of those now living, and
having been intimate with some who did know him well, I have very certain
knowledge as to the statements here made.
T. H. B.
Born October 21, 1803, in Connecticut, spending
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some years in Jennings County,
Indiana, he came with a
young family into Lake County in October, 1834. His wife was a superior woman,
born near Philadelphia. He was active in forming the Squatters' Union, was their
first Recorder of Claims, was Clerk of the Circuit Court of Lake County, was
general manager of the Board of Commissioners, (there was then no Auditor), and
controlled so largely the affairs of the early settlers that he acquired the
title of "Squatter King of Lake." He was the first postmaster and continued in
office till 1843, and
in company with his
brother sold goods to the Indians and to the first settlers. "He was affable,
familiar, plain, hospitable, kind, and accommodating," enjoying the wielding of
influence, fond of gaining celebrity. He became quite a writer, an author, two
stories, "The Will," and "The Last of the Buffalos," being among his earliest
publications, before he left Lake County. After having a home in Crown Point for
about thirteen years he went to New York and was for some time connected with
the New York Tribune. He there wrote "Hot Corn," "Green Mountain Girls," and
"Me-Won-I-Toc, A Tale of Frontier Life," the scene of which, like that of "The
Will," was laid in Lake County and touched the Lake of the Red Cedars.
Besides these few facts of a long and varied life, the following statements are
here added; added because by some who did not know him, who never shared the
hospitality of his home, who never met with him in temperance work or in
literary societies or in building up the life of a young community, his real
character has been misapprehended and inaccurate statements concerning him have
been publicly made.
He was not a professed Christian man, not a
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church member, not what is called a religious man; but he had been too shrewd an
observer of men and things, long before he settled in Lake County, not to know
and to acknowledge how useful and needful in social and civil life, were the
restraints and blessed influence of Christianity. And one of almost his first
acts in securing inhabitants for the county seat was obtaining the residence in
it of Rev. Norman Warriner from Red Cedar Lake,
providing for him and his family a home very near to his own home and providing
ways to help in his support. Thus, in the very beginning of the life of Crown
Point as a county seat a resident minister was secured through the efforts of
Solon Robinson. As early as 1837 his own house and the log building which he had
erected for a court house were opened for preaching. Acting in concert with
Judge Hervey Ball he was instrumental in the
purchase of a library for the village from a
colporteur of the American Tract Society. A Sunday school, which his children
from its beginning attended, was started in the
log court house about 1840 through the efforts of Rev. N. Warriner and the
Baptists of Prairie West and of the Lake and of Rev. J. C. Brown and a few
Presbyterian women, in which school, after the arrival of Rev. M. Allman in 1843
the Methodists also united. A temperance society was also organized in the court
house by Rev. N. Warriner, Solon Robinson, and Judge
Ball, in which those of all denominations and creeds represented in the
community united. An Evangelical Library Association was formed by Rev. W.
Townley, Rev. M. Allman, "S. Robinson, H. Ball,
and a few others."
A strong temperance man, intelligent, talented, a fluent speaker and an easy
writer, whatever eccentric-
475
cities of character he may have possessed, and whatever
skeptical doubts in regard to Christianity he may have entertained, the founder
of Crown Point, Lake county's "Squatter King," did not undertake
from even the very first
to build up a town on infidel teachings. He was far
from undertaking to do
that. Whatever unbelief or skepticism there may be in Crown Point it is not to
be traced back to any teachings given by Solon Robinson.
Like his hand-writing, which was clear and distinct, much of which written in
1836 with good black ink is now in my possession, so his name is indellibly
written, plainly, distinctly, in the history of Crown Point and of
Northwestern Indiana; and as the "original
projector of a National Agricultural Society," so far as I may be able, having
known him quite well from 1837 to 1847, I wish to
see that there is done to his reputation no injustice. In closing up his last
address to the members of the Lake County Temperance Society in 1847, he said:
"And as for myself I will ask no prouder monument to my fame than to be assured
that the members of this society will stand as mourners around my grave and,
pointing to the lifeless form beneath the falling sods, shall truly say, 'There
lies a brother who in this life had an ardent desire to promote the happiness of
his fellow creatures.'" In one of his many published articles he had taught:
"Happiness and not wealth should be the aim of all, though no man should allow
himself to be happy without he is doing some good in the world -- promoting the
happiness of his fellow creatures as well as of himself."
Spending many years in New York city, acquiring there quite a reputation as a
writer, he at last made a home near Jacksonville, Florida, where he died in
1880, at the advanced age of 77 years.
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