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
499
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.
501
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