History of Porter County, 1956A brief county history written by John Drury . . . .
This
following history of Porter County, Indiana, was written by John Drury and
published in 1956. This book is very unique in that it contains hundreds of
aerial photographs of Porter County farms and homesteads, sorted by township. A
similar book was published for Lake County as well.
Source Citation:
Drury, John. 1956. This is Porter County. Chicago, Illinois: Inland Photo
Company. 352 p.
STORY OF PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA
By John Drury
Located in the northwest portion of Indiana, with the Illinois metropolis of
Chicago not more than fifty miles away, Porter County is widely known throughout
the Midwest for its Indiana Dunes State Park, greatest lakeside sand hill region
in America. The county is also renowned for its historic Valparaiso University,
largest co-educational university of the Lutheran church in this country.
A summer playground for several generations of Chicagoans and vacationers from
other parts of America's interior, the Duneland region of Porter County,
fronting on Lake Michigan, was early heralded by writers, artists, scientists,
poets and nature-lovers as a unique and strangely beautiful area of wind-carved
yellow sand hills, rolling white surf, somber green pines and blue
Mediterranean-like skies.
Among those who hiked through this singular locality in their younger years are
two of America's foremost nature writers of today, Donald Culross Peattie and
Edwin Way Teale. At a later period Peattie wrote, among other books, The
Flora of the Indiana Dunes and Teale wrote Dune Boy, two publications
which added immeasurably to the fame of this natural Great Lakes wonderland.
But the pioneer chronicler of the region was the late Earl H. Reed, noted author
and artist. In his The Dune Country, Sketches in Dune Land and other
books, all illustrated with his own remarkable etchings, Reed long ago made
known the wild beauty of this Hoosier sand hill country, an area that now brings
thousands of visitors annually to Porter County. Reed's pathfinding work was
subsequently expanded by the late George A. Brennan, whose The Wonders of the
Dunes turned up the rich historical background of the region as well as
unfolded more of its natural phenomena.
Aside from its lakeside attractions, however, Porter County is one of the
fastest-growing counties in Indiana. In 1950, when the last government census
was taken, it had a total population of 40,076 -- an increase of 44 per cent
over its 1940 population. An unofficial business survey places its 1955
population at 48,000. Its neighboring county to the west, Lake, which contains
Gary and other cities of the great Calumet Industrial Region, had a population
increase of but 25.6 per cent during the 1940-1950 period. Today, Porter County
is 675th in population rank among the 3,103 counties of the United States.
Although just outside the Chicago metropolitan zone (as defined by the Census
Bureau), the county has become something of a residential suburb of America's
second largest city. Such comparatively new communities of the county as Ogden
Dunes, Dune Acres, Beverly Shores, Tremont and Pines, all located in the
Duneland region and all served by the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend electric
railway, are largely composed of successful Chicago business and professional
men and their families.
Another unusual aspect of Porter County is that it and its neighboring county,
Lake, form a kind of "gateway" to Chicago. Because of their location at the
south end of Lake Michigan, these two counties are traversed by more railroads,
highways and air lanes than perhaps any other two counties in the nation. At
almost regular intervals all day long and all night long, the city dwellers,
suburbanites and farmers of Porter and Lake counties can hear the sounds of
America on the move -- the low tone of Diesel engines, the shrill whistle of
steam locomotives, the far-off hum of transcontinental airliners and the soft
purr of automobiles, busses, and motor vans.
With the exception of its narrow Lake Michigan sand hill area, Porter County is
mainly devoted to grain and livestock farming. But despite this, the county
derives slightly more wealth from its manufactured goods and materials than it
does from its agricultural products. In 1950 the value of all farm products sold
in the county -- crops, livestock, poultry, dairy products -- amounted to
$8,400,000, whereas, about the same time, the value of its manufactured goods,
articles and materials amounted to $10,438,000. At the same period 10.8 per cent
of its total employed were engaged in agriculture while 33.6 per cent were
engaged in manufacturing. Practically all of the county's manufacturing plants
are located in Valparaiso, county seat and principal city of Porter.
As a result of pleasant social contacts between new homeowners and native
residents of the county, both of which groups share a common interest in their
unique natural environment, there has grown up in Porter County a community
spirit of unusual proportions. Such spirit is reflected in organizations like
the Duneland Historical Society, Duneland Weavers' Guild, Newcomers' Club,
Porter County Historical Society and the North Porter County Conservation Club.
Another demonstration of this community spirit occurs when the many painters,
sculptors, potters, weavers and miscellaneous handicraftsmen of the region
exhibit their work at the annual Outdoor Arts and Crafts Show in Chesterton,
widely known as "The Gateway Town of the Dunes." An offshoot of the show is the
Turtle Derby, first originated in Chesterton many years ago and now an event of
almost national interest. In Chesterton, too, is located the famed "Big Inch," a
one-inch-square piece of unimproved real estate owned jointly by several
prominent local and national personages, among them President Eisenhower and
Adlai E. Stevenson.
VALPARAISO MORAINE
As most residents of Porter County know, Valparaiso, seat of justice and
principal city of the county, is centrally located on a portion of the highest
land in their locality. In driving northward from Valparaiso on State 49, they
observe that the land gradually slopes down to the sand dunes of Lake Michigan.
Actually, Valparaiso city stands on the crest of a geologically ancient
shoreline, dating back more than 20,000 years, which formed the southern
boundary of a much larger lake than Lake Michigan.
As this vast body of water, which geologists have named "Lake Chicago," was some
sixty feet higher than the present surface of Lake Michigan, it engulfed all of
the land area north and west of the ancient Valparaiso shoreline -- an area that
includes the present sites of Chesterton, Gary, Chicago and other lake shore
cities and that extends as far north as Kenosha, Wisconsin.
It was in earlier ages that Lake Chicago was formed by the slow melting of a
huge glacier, or ice sheet, that once covered most of the upper-Midwest. As the
climate became warmer, the glacier slowly receded northward and, among other
things, left a great deposit of sand, boulders and clay in what is now the
central portion of Porter County (as well as Lake County). Thus was built up a
ridge that, for many ages, formed the southern shoreline of Lake Chicago.
In succeeding ages, of course, Lake Chicago gradually receded, too, until it
came within the present basin of Lake Michigan. Today, the old southern
shoreline of Lake Chicago is known to geologists as the Valparaiso Moraine,
so-called because of the ridge left here by the receding glacier. The complete
story of this glacier, and of Lake Chicago, is told in The Indiana Sand Dunes
and Shore Lines of the Lake Michigan Basin, by George B. Cressey (1928).
PREHISTORIC MOUNDS
In addition to such remotely-made natural formations as the Valparaiso Moraine
and the Lake Michigan sand dunes, Porter County contains a number of equally
remotely-made formations shaped by the hand of man. These are the several
earthworks in the southwestern portion of the county constructed by that dim,
far-off, mysterious race of humans known only as the Mound Builders.
At first thought to have been a "lost race" that was wiped out by the Indians of
historic times" the Mound Builders are now believed to have been remote
ancestors of the North American Indians. All that is known of them is that they
were skillful workers, in stone, shell and beaten-metal and that they built
earth mounds for either burial places or places of sacrifice.
One such mound, about a hundred feet in diameter and ten feet high, is located
on the Wark farm near the village of Boone Grove, in southwestern Porter County.
Another large one is on the Richard Vergin farm in the same locality. As
described in The Archeology of Porter County by J. Gilbert McAllister
(Indiana Historical Society, 1932), both of these mounds were investigated and
found to contain numerous stone and metal relics of the strange people who built
them.
EARLY FRENCH EXPLORERS
Was the great French explorer-priest, Father Marquette, the first white man to visit
what is now Porter County? Although there is not much evidence to support their
claims, many regional historians hold that Father Jacques Marquette actually
camped in the Duneland, region of the county as long ago as 1675, thus becoming
the first white man to visit these parts. At that time Father Marquette was a dying man; he came to the end of his days near
present Ludington, Michigan, only a month or so later.
When Father Marquette, together with several canoemen and Indian guides, camped
in the Duneland region, it was his second visit to the interior of America. On
his first visit, two years earlier, Father Marquette and Louis Joliet
discovered the upper Mississippi River and claimed it, and all the vast country it drained, for the
King of France. The explorer-priest then made plans to return to the region and
set up missions among the Indian villages on the Illinois River.
Although the thirty-eight year old Jesuit priest did come back to the Illinois
country in the winter of 1674-1675, he soon became ill and forced to return to
Quebec. On the journey homeward, we are told, Father Marquette and his
companions took a "short cut" by way of the Illinois and Calumet rivers to a
point at the foot of Lake Michigan where now stands the great industrial city of
Gary.
In The Wonders of the Dunes, by the late George A. Brennan, we find these
words: "It is most probable that on this journey, with Marquette dying, they
took him by the easiest route. This was via the Sag and the Calumet rivers, a
route no more difficult than the one by the Chicago River. Besides, it saved
over 40 miles of lake travel, which in the missionary's condition meant a great
deal."
Brennan continues: "As he journeyed, Father Marquette stopped frequently and
took shelter in the different creeks arid rivers that pierced the dunes country,
camping there overnight and also in bad weather. He preached often to the
Indians, and camped on the shores of the Calumet River, Fort Creek (Tremont),
Trail Creek (Michigan City), and St. Joseph (in Michigan." . . . . As we have
seen, the ailing Father Marquette got no farther than the site of today's
Ludington, Michigan, where he died on May 18, 1675.
LA SALLE ON THE KANKAKEE
Four years after Father Marquette visited the northern boundary of present-day
Porter County, there came to its southern boundary the great French
empire-builder in America, Sieur de La Salle. It was during the month of
December, 1679, that La Salle, at the head of an official expedition, journeyed
down the Kankakee River -- Porter County's southern boundary -- on his first
visit to the interior of America. On this visit La Salle built forts at the
present-day sites of St. Joseph (Michigan) and Peoria (Illinois). Three years
later, La Salle again journeyed down the Kankakee River, this time to
consolidate French positions in the vast upper Mississippi Valley.
PETITE FORT
While the region now composing Porter County -- and all of the upper Mississippi
Valley -- was still under French rule, there was built in the Duneland area of
the county a small French military outpost known as Petite Fort. Work on the
construction of the fort, a log stockade which also served as an Indian trading
post, was started in 1750. It was used by the French for about five or ten years
afterwards and then abandoned.
This fort, long since gone, stood on the top of a high sand dune (perhaps Mount
Tom) overlooking what is now the main swimming area of the Indiana Dunes State
Park. A meandering creek, originally known as Little Fort Creek and later as
Dunes Creek, emptied into Lake Michigan at this point; it is now channelized
under the large automobile parking area of the state park.
GREAT SAUK TRAIL
After the close of the French and Indian War in 1763, a conflict in which France
lost its vast inland American domain to Great Britain, there came into more
prominence than before the Great Sauk Trail an ancient Indian trail that passed
through the present site of Valparaiso city and central Porter County. Today's
US 30 (Lincoln Highway) follows for the most part, the old Sauk Trail through
the county. During the British regime in America (or up until the American
Revolution), the Great Sauk Trail was much used by "western" Indians on their
way to British headquarters at Detroit, where they received annuities for
helping the English.
BATTLE OF THE DUNES
Not too well known among today's Porter County citizens is the fact that a minor
battle was fought in their favorite Duneland area during the American
Revolution. Now known as the Battle of the Dunes, this encounter took place on
December 5, 1780, when a detachment of some sixteen French irregulars,
sympathetic to the American cause, was overtaken by a pursuing band of fur
traders and Indians in the employ of the British.
After looting the British outpost of Fort St. Joseph near present Niles,
Michigan, the French irregulars were hurrying towards Petite Fort (then in
American hands) in the Duneland country when the pursuing force met them. In the
battle that followed, four of the American sympathizers were killed, two wounded
and seven taken prisoners. It is believed that the battle was fought near Petite
Fort, about in the center of today's Indiana Dunes State Park.
JOSEPH BAILLY, FIRST SETTLER
The first permanent white settler of Porter County was a noted French-Canadian
fur trader named Joseph Bailly. He arrived in 1822 -- six years after Indiana
was added to statehood-and built a home and trading post on the Calumet River just northwest
of the present site of Chesterton. This trading post is still (1956) in
existence and, although privately owned, has become the principal historic
landmark not only of Porter County but of northwestern Indiana.
At the time Joseph Bailly first arrived with his family, there was no Porter
County, or even a La Porte County or Lake County. It was simply a prairie,
forest, swamp and sandhill region occupied by some villages of the Pottawatomie
tribe of Indians. Soon enough, however, Bailly's trading post, on the edge of
the sand hill country, became a social center and stopping-place for travelers
passing through the northern Porter County area.
In her manuscript study, Crossroads County: A Brief History and Guide of
Porter County. Indiana (1938), Marion Neville tells us: "When the fur trade
declined in the 1830's, Bailly sought to augment his fortunes in real estate.
There arose in his mind grandiose plans for an immense highway and harbor
development as well as a town in the Calumet region, and although he platted the
town of Bailly and sold several lots, his hopes were never realized. There is
today, however, a small village near the Bailly homesite called Baillytown."
The Neville account continues: "Some years after Bailly's death (in 1835) his
daughter Rose remodeled the dwelling house of the estate and made, it into a
chapel. Bishop Luers furnished .an altar and the Sisters of Providence
contributed the bell of St. Mary's Academy. Later, the place was owned by
Frances Howe, granddaughter of the fur trader, who further remodeled it and
wrote a book concerning life there in the early days called The Story of An
Old French Homestead in the Northwest. In the museum of the Porter County
Historical Society at Valparaiso may be seen numerous relics and heirlooms from
the old Bailly home and trading post. . . . The small cemetery in which Bailly
is buried is located on a hilltop overlooking US 12 and present Baillytown. A
tall wooden cross here has become a familiar land mark of the countryside."
OLD INDIAN BOUNDARY LINE
If, on a map of Indiana, you draw a line eastward from the southernmost tip of
Lake Michigan (which would be at Gary) to the state of Ohio, it would correspond
to the Old Indian Boundary Line of the Hoosier State's early days. As may be
seen, this line passes through what is now northern Porter County and through
the towns of Porter and Chesterton.
Had it not been for some far-seeing members of Indiana's first state
constitutional convention, this line might have become fixed as the new state's
north boundary, which would have meant, of course, the cutting off of Indiana
from any frontage on Lake Michigan. Quick to see this, the constitutional
framers in question set the new state's boundary line ten miles north of a line
drawn eastward from the .lowest tip of Lake Michigan. And thus it came about
that Gary, Chesterton, Michigan City, South Bend and Elkhart grew up in Indiana
instead of Michigan.
Although this ten mile strip was set up by Indiana when it was organized into
statehood in 1816, yet the land itself properly belonged to the Pottawatomie
tribe of Indians who then lived on it. And so it remained until the Treaty of
Mississinewa, signed in 1826, when the Pottawatomies sold it to the government.
Thereafter it became known as the Ten Mile Purchase. A few years later it was
thrown open for sale to settlers. The south line of this strip has since then
become popularly known as the Old Indian Boundary Line.
BUTTERNUT SPRING
In the fertile, level farming area northwest of Valparaiso city may be found an
ancient Indian watering place known as Butternut Spring. When the earliest
settlers arrived in Porter County, they heard tales from the Pottawatomies of
the wonderful curative waters to be found at Butternut Spring. It was a favorite
gathering-place of Indians, the settlers were told, from remotest times. A huge
butternut tree once stood here and it was from this that the Indian "spa"
obtained its name. Only the stump of this tree remains.
ARRIVAL OF THE MORGAN AND THOMAS FAMILIES
It was just after the close of the Black Hawk War of 1832, a conflict which
resulted in the permanent removal of all Indians from Indiana and Illinois, that
the Morgan and Thomas families arrived and became the most prominent of Porter
County's earliest settlers. They staked out claims here in the spring of 1833,
just a year after La Porte County was organized -- a much larger county than now
and which originally embraced all of the territory included in present Porter
and Lake counties.
The Morgans consisted of three brothers, Jesse, William and Isaac. Settling on
land just east of the present site of Chesterton, Jesse Morgan built a
commodious log house here and, as it was on the original Detroit-Chicago mail
and stagecoach road, soon converted it into a wayside inn he called the Stage
House. Here, too, Jesse Morgan became first postmaster of what is now Porter
County. His place was called Coffee Creek Post Office after a nearby creek of
the same name. It is said the creek acquired this name after an early teamster
lost some bags of coffee in it while attempting a crossing at high water.
In the meantime, Jesse's two-brothers, Isaac and William, established claims on
the rolling prairie just east of present-day Valparaiso and this area became
known as Morgan Prairie. When all of the land in Porter County was opened for
sale by the government in 1835, the Morgans, the Thomases and other early
settlers paid $1.25 an acre for it.
Two grandsons of Jesse Morgan are at present (1956) among the leading citizens
of Chesterton. They are Edward L. Morgan, president of the Chesterton State
Bank, and Bennett B. Morgan, head of the Morgan Hardware Company of Chesterton.
When the Duneland Historical Society was organized several years ago, Edward L.
Morgan was elected its first president. A Morgan family heirloom is the
pigeon-holed desk used by Jesse Morgan when he served as Porter County's first
postmaster in 1833.
When Jesse Morgan and his two brothers arrived in 1833, there came that same
year William Thomas and his family. One of the Thomas sons, William, Jr., later
married Ann Morgan, daughter of Jesse. It was William Thomas, Jr., and his two
brothers, John and Vincent, who platted the town of Chesterton in 1852. A
granddaughter of William Thomas, Jr., is Mrs. Charles H. Smith, who at present
(1956) is one of the most prominent of Chesterton's business women.
EARLY SETTLERS
After the Morgans and Thomases came to the region of future Porter County early
in the spring of 1833, they shared it with only one other white man (and his
family) -- Joseph Bailly, the fur trader. But none of them long remained the
sole white settlers. Now that the Black Hawk War was over and northwestern
Indiana was being opened to settlement, an inrush of Easterners occurred and new
log cabins began to appear at almost weekly intervals on the prairies and along
the creeks of the area that was to become, in a few years, Porter County.
We are told that within a month or two after the Morgans and Thomases arrived
there came Henry S. Adams, who brought with him his mother, wife and three
daughters and who soon had a farm under cultivation in what is now Morgan
Township. Later in the spring of 1833 came George Cline, Adam S. Campbell and
Reason Bell, all of whom built log cabins in the locality. Then, a short while
afterwards, arrived Jacob Fleming, the Colemans and Ruel Starr, and, about the
same time, Thomas A. E. Campbell (nephew of Adam S. Campbell). The last-named
staked out a claim on Salt Creek.
In 1834 others arrived -- Jacob Wolf and his three sons, John, Jacob and
Josephus; Barrett Door, William Thomas, Jesse Johnson, John Hagerman, A. K.
Paine, Thomas and William Gossett, Theophilus Crumpacker, Jerry ,and Joseph
Bartholomew, Jacob and David Hurlburt, William Frame, R. and W. Parrott and
Abraham Stoner. The first house on the site of Valparaiso, seat of justice and
largest city of Porter County, was built early in 1834 by C. A. Ballard.
In 1835 there came S. P. Robbins, G. W. Patton, the Baum brothers, Allen B. James,
Peter Ritter, E. P. Cole, David Hughart, Hazard Sheffield and Nelson Barnes.
Many of these men, with their families, settled on "Twenty Mile Prairie,"
so-called because it was twenty miles away from the nearest big city, Michigan
City.
"THE HOOSIER'S NEST"
If the now nationally-known word "Hoosier" did not originate in Porter County,
it at least was first given wide currency in this part of Indiana. For it was
from a pioneer wayside inn, called The Hoosier's Nest, located just west of
Valparaiso, that the term first gained popularity among early travelers and in
time became another name for residents of Indiana.
It. is possible the word "Hoosier" might have eventually disappeared from the
language had it not been for this Porter County caravansary. What actually
happened was that this tavern. was the inspirational source of a famous poem of
the time called "The Hoosier's Nest,” and it was this widely-read poem that
helped to fix the term "Hoosier" in the daily speech of Americans.
In The Calumet Region Historical Guide (1939) we read these words: "About
three miles east of Deep River, off US 30, an unpaved road leads to the site of
The Hoosier's Nest, an inn built in 1834 by Thomas Snow. This inn was listed in
the Ohio Gazetter (1835) as 'The Hoosier's Nest.' It was from this inn and its
activities that John Finley received inspiration for his poem 'The Hoosier's
Nest.'
ORGANIZATION OF PORTER COUNTY
By the year 1835 there were enough settlers in the region between the Lake
Michigan sand dunes and the Kankakee River to form a new county. A movement for
this purpose was soon started, meetings were held at Morgan Prairie, Twenty Mile
Prairie, Coffee Creek and other early settlements and in time a petition calling
for a new county was presented to the Indiana state legislature at Indianapolis.
Apparently no objections were raised by the citizens of La Porte County, which
then embraced the region in question, and so it came about that the Indiana
legislature passed an act ordering that the new county be formed on February 1,
1836, and that it be named after Commodore David Porter of the United States
Navy. The act was signed by Governor Noah Noble and by David Wallace, who then
was president of the state senate (he was the. father of General Lew Wallace,
author of Ben Hur and other famous novels; in 1837 David Wallace was
elected governor of Indiana).
When Porter County came into existence, it included what is now Lake County,
which today contains Gary and other populous cities of the great Calumet
Industrial Region. But when Lake County was organized in 1837, Porter was
reduced to its present size. At Porter's first election, held on February 23,
1836, the following early settlers were chosen for public office: John Sefford,
Benjamin N. Spencer and Noah Fowts, county commissioners; Benjamin Saylor,
sheriff; William Walker, treasurer; George W. Turner, clerk; and Cyrus Spurlock,
recorder.
"THE FATHERS OF OUR COUNTY"
In the Illustrated Historical Atlas of Porter County, Indiana, by A. G.
Hardesty (1876), we find the following words: "These first Commissioners and
Officers were, in one sense, the fathers of our county, for it was their duty to
bring order out of chaos, as it were; to man the ship of state and start her on
her voyage down the sea of time, freighted with their first legal enactments,
and all their good will . . . The first act of these Commissioners was to divide
the county into ten civil Townships, which, from time to time, have been
subdivided into two more; making in all twelve (12) Townships."
COMMODORE DAVID PORTER
As we have seen, the new county was named after Commodore David Porter of the
United States Navy. His greatest exploit was as commander of the naval vessel
Essex in the War of 1812. After rounding Cape Horn and entering the South Pacific,
Commodore Porter captured seven British ships and took possession of the
Marquesas Islands. Eventually, however, the Essex was blockaded by British ships in the harbor at Valparaiso, Chili, and Porter
was taken prisoner. He was released later. When Porter County was named after
him in 1836, he was serving as American charge' d'affaires at Constantinople.
Commodore Porter died in 1843.
PORTERSVILLE BECOMES VALPARAISO
Had it not been for a party of wayfaring sailors, who dropped into its first
hotel, Valparaiso might still, in this mid-twentieth century period, be known by
its original name of Portersville. It was these sailors who, while visiting the
American Eagle House in the winter of 1837-1838, suggested that the new county
seat town be named after Valparaiso (from the Spanish, meaning "Vale of
Paradise"), Chili, where Commodore Porter battled with a large squadron of
British ships. The American Eagle House stood at Franklin and Main streets and
was first opened by Abraham Hall, pioneer settler.
When Portersville was selected as the new county's seat of justice in
1836, it was hardly more than a "paper town." It had been platted that same year
by a group called the Portersville Land Company, believed to have been organized
by Benjamin McCarty, then owner of the land on which the town was laid out.
Other members of the company were Enoch McCarty, John Walker, William Walker,
James Laughlin, John Saylor, Abraham Hall and a downstate resident, James F. D.
Lanier. The last-named afterwards became an influential New York capitalist who,
among other things, rendered great financial aid to the state government of
Indiana during the Civil War and whose beautiful Greek Revival mansion at
Madison, Indiana, is now a state historic shrine.
After the Portersville Land Company publicly offered to donate an entire block
to the county for a courthouse square, as well as an immediate cash payment of
$1,200 for the erection of public buildings, the special commissioners chosen to
select a suitable county seat accepted the offer and thus it was that
Portersville became the seat of justice of Porter County. Thereafter,
Portersville quickly emerged from a "paper town" to a real one, and several
years later its name was changed to Valparaiso. The first session of the Board
of County Commissioners, lasting five days, was held in the Portersville home of
C. A. Ballard, who was paid $2.50 for this public use of his dwelling.
"GHOST TOWNS" OF THE DUNES
At the time Porter County and Valparaiso were founded, this part of the country
was in the midst of a flourishing "townsite" boom. It was about this period, as
we have seen, that Joseph Bailly, first settler of the county, planned a great
town in the Duneland region -- a project that failed to materialize. At the
present time a small village called Baillytown is located near the old Bailly
trading post, but this is of recent origin.
Another Duneland town was platted in 1835 on land owned by William Gossett. He
named it Waverly. It is said that $10,000 was spent to layout the streets of
Waverly and build a few houses. When a forest fire destroyed Waverly in 1838, it
was never rebuilt. Waverly was described as being about two miles northwest of
the future site of Chesterton.
Still another town of the Duneland area which had a brief, but lively,
existence, was City West. It was platted in 1836 at the mouth of Fort Creek,
where now stands the Pavilion of the Indiana Dunes State Park. At one time City
West had forty houses, a sawmill, a lake pier and three hotels. It even once
entertained such a personage as Daniel Webster, the great statesman and orator.
But City West soon declined and passed out of existence. Later a New City West
was built on the Chicago-Detroit road through the dunes area, but this, too,
declined after the railroads came through Porter County in the early 1850's. New
City West stood in the vicinity of present-day Tremont, on US 12.
FIRST RAILROADS
One of the most important factors in the development of Porter County was the
building of railroads through it in the early 1850's. First "steam road" to be
constructed in the area was the Michigan Central -- now part of the New York
Central System. It was under construction as early as 1851 for in that year
Hubbard Hunt, a Valparaiso merchant, received the first shipment of goods by
rail in Porter County. It was sent on a construction train from Michigan City
and unloaded on the prairie where, a year later, the village of Porter (now
called Old Porter) was laid out. The Michigan Central Railroad was finally
completed through the county in 1852 and, not more than a few weeks later, there
came the completion of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (which also is now
part of the New York Central System).
CHESTERTON FOUNDED
Now the second largest community in Porter County and widely know as "The
Gateway Town of the Dunes," Chesterton is one of the earliest "railroad towns" of the
county. It was platted in 1852 on the right-of-way of the then new
Lake Shore &
Michigan Southern Railroad (now part of the New York Central System). At first
it was called Coffee Creek, then Calumet, and finally Chesterton. The founders
of the town were the Thomas brothers, William, John and Vincent, sons of a
pioneer settler of the county.
From Louis A. Menke's The Story of Chesterton (centennial booklet, 1952),
we obtain this information: "Railroad park, in downtown Chesterton, was
originally a wood yard of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. Farmers
brought in the fuel to be used on the old wood-burning locomotives of the road.
The piles of four-foot firewood extended over a larger area than the present
park."
The Menke account continues: "The Thomas family gave the land for the wood yard
and depot as an inducement for the railroad to build a station here. In 1879 the
tract ceased to be used as a storage place for wood. For many years the town of
Chesterton has leased it as a park, and it is now the scene of major community
events."
Another "railroad town" came into being almost at the same time as Chesterton.
This was Porter (now known as Old Porter). It was platted just west of
Chesterton. Then, in 1872, Henry Hagerman, an early settler, laid out the town
of Hagerman a little beyond Porter and this soon became a busy shipping point
for brickyards in its vicinity. Since then, however, Hagerman has been absorbed
by the town of Porter.
VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY ESTABLISHED
It was in 1859 that Valparaiso University, once nationally famed as the "Poor
Man's Harvard," was established under the name of Valparaiso Male and Female
College. After the outbreak of the Civil War two years later, enrollment at the
college declined until finally its doors were closed in 1869. But in 1873 it was
taken over by Professor Henry Baker Brown and re-opened as the Northern Indiana
Normal School and Business Institute.
After Professor Oliver Perry Kinsey came to the institution in the early 1880's,
it grew in popularity and, during the first decades of the present century,
became renowned as the "Poor Man's Harvard" so-called because of its then unique
work-and-study program. Among one-time students here were Len Small and Flem D.
Sampson, governors, respectively, of Illinois and Kentucky; George W. Norris,
celebrated United States senator; and Lowell Thomas, dean of radio commentators.
In 1925 the institution, located on a forty-three acre campus in Valparaiso city
and containing seven buildings, was acquired by the Lutheran University
Association. Now the largest co-educational university maintained by the
Lutheran church in this country, Valparaiso University has a present enrollment
of almost 2,000 students from all parts of the Midwest.
Another pioneer educational institution in Valparaiso is the Valparaiso
Technical Institute. It is an outgrowth of Dodge's Telegraph and Radio
Institute, founded in 1874 by G. A. Dodge, one of the first telegraphers at
Valparaiso.
THE "WIZARD OF LIGHT" AT VALPARAISO
According to the centennial edition of the Valparaiso Vidette-Messenger, it was
none other than Thomas A. Edison himself who gave Porter County citizens their
first glimpse of his then new invention, the electric light. We are told that
Edison, the "Wizard of Light," came to Valparaiso about 1880 and, on the night
of his visit, demonstrated the new invention, by "lighting up" the Fisk
building, which stood on the site of the present Elks' Club edifice. It was
about ten years later that Elliott F. Van Ness founded the Van Ness Electric
Company at Valparaiso and built the city's first electric lighting plant.
INDIANA'S LONGEST PRIZEFIGHT
An unusual event in the history of Porter County occurred one night in 1891 when
a bare-knuckled prizefight, lasting eighty-five rounds, took place in the town
of Kouts near the Kankakee River. The fight was between two champions of the
time, Ike Weir and Frank Murphy. They battled from 11 o'clock at night until
dawn the next day. The slugging match ended abruptly when word came that the
Porter County sheriff was on his way down from Valparaiso. Although a
long-drawn-out and bloody affair, the fight was declared a draw. It was one of
the last of the bare-fisted fights in this country.
KANKAKEE RECLAMATION PROJECT
With the organization in 1902 of the Kankakee Reclamation Company, formed for
the purpose of deepening, widening and straightening the historic Kankakee
River, thousands of acres of rich, black, bottom land soil were opened up for
cultivation in the southern part of the county. But the reclamation project
virtually brought to an end a "hunters' paradise" that existed along the river
from earliest Indian times. An outstanding account of adventures among the
swamps, marshes and flooded lowlands of the Kankakee in the old days is Tales
of a Vanishing River, by the late Earl H. Reed, who also wrote notable books
on the Duneland country.
SOUTH SHORE ELECTRIC LINE
When the Chicago, Lake Shore & South Bend Railroad -- predecessor of the present
South Shore electric line -- was built through north Porter County in 1907, it
greatly stimulated travel to the Duneland region and brought in its wake a
number of villages and towns, among them Ogden Dunes, Dune Acres, Baillytown,
Tremont and Beverly Shores. After the advent of automobiles and good roads,
however, the electric line went into receivership and would have ceased
operation had it not been bought in 1925 by the Chicago, South Shore & South
Bend Railroad, newly-organized by the Chicago capitalist, Samuel Insull. Today,
the South Shore Line, as it is familiarly known, is one of the few interurban
electric railways still operating in America.
NOTABLE CITIZENS
In addition to Joseph Bailly, first settler of northwestern Indiana, Porter
County in the past was the home of an unusual number of citizens who attained
renown outside the boundaries of the county. Among these were Edgar Dean
Crumpacker, former judge and long-time member of Congress; Professors Henry
Baker Brown and Oliver Perry Kinsey, educators and founders of modern
Valparaiso University; Chauncey Watson Boucher, another educator and one-time
president of the Indiana State Teachers' Association; George A. Dodge, founder
of Dodge's Telegraph and Radio Institute; Ross Woodhull, president of the
Chicago Sanitary District; John H. Gillette, a justice of the Indiana State
Supreme Court; and William E. Pinney, banker and founder of the Pinney-Purdue
University Experimental Farm in Porter County.
GREAT PORTER TRAIN WRECK
At about 6:30 o'clock on Sunday evening, February 27, 1921, two fast passenger
trains collided at the railroad crossing at the town of Porter, just west of
Chesterton, and caused one of the worst railroad wrecks in the county's -- and
the nation's -- history. A total of thirty-seven persons were killed almost
instantly. The accident occurred when the Interstate Limited of the New York
Central System, west bound, crashed into a wooden day coach of the Canadian
Flyer on the Michigan Central Railroad, east bound. Blame for the wreck was
placed by Michi-Central officials, and public authorities, on the engineer and
fireman of the Canadian Flyer because they failed to observe and properly obey
signal indications. An earlier train wreck in the county occurred at Woodville
on November 12, 1906, when two Baltimore & Ohio trains collided and caused many
deaths.
INDIANA DUNES STATE PARK
Although the Lake Michigan sand hill country that forms Porter County's north
boundary was for more than half-a-century a recreation area of Chicagoans and
residents of other cities and towns of inland America, it was not until 1923
that the Indiana state legislature formally established the Indiana Dunes State
Park. One who long ago proclaimed the wild beauties of this region was the late
Earl H. Reed, author of The Dune Country and other books of the area. It
remained, however, for a Gary high school teacher and Duneland devotee, Mrs.
Frank J. Sheehan, to start the movement which resulted in the creation
here of a state park. Today, the Indiana Dunes State Park stretches for three
miles along the Lake Michigan beach and occupies an area of 2,210 acres. An
official resident of the park is Frank V. Dudley, widely known as "The
Artist of the Dunes."
SHRINE OF THE SEVEN DOLORES
In the farm country northwest of Valparaiso may be found an unusual religious
shrine visited annually by hundreds of pilgrims. This is the Shrine of the Seven
Dolores (Shrine of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows). Occupying an area of 100
acres, composed of rock formations, gardens, small canals, a large grotto, the
Stations of the Cross and a three-story monastery, this shrine was established
in 1931 by an American-Czechoslovakian branch of the Order of Friars Minor, a
Roman Catholic monastic order founded in the thirteenth century by St. Francis
of Assisi.
PINNEY-PURDUE EXPERIMENTAL FARM
Of widespread interest both inside and outside of Porter County is the Pinney-Purdue
University Experimental Farm. It is located east of Valparaiso near the La Porte
County line and consists of nearly 500 acres of rich farming land used for
experimental work in animal husbandry, crop control and scientific farming. The
farm was originally owned by William F. Pinney, a leading Valparaiso banker. He
and his daughter, Mrs. F. R. Clark, donated the farm to Purdue University in
1919.
SPECTACULAR COURTHOUSE FIRE
Most spectacular fire in the history of Porter County occurred on December 27,
1934, when flames almost completely destroyed the dignified old Porter County
Courthouse at Valparaiso. This edifice, surmounted by an ornate tower, had been
completed in 1885 at a cost of $167,000. Both the tower and much of the interior
of the building had been destroyed by the great blaze of 1934, which required
not only Valparaiso but Gary and La Porte fire equipment to fight it. The
present Porter County Courthouse, three stories high and without a tower, is
considered an architectural masterpiece, blending as it does a traditional
architectural style with modern design. It was the work of Walter Scholer, a La
Fayette, Indiana, architect.
CAMP FARR
An average of 400 youngsters from Chicago are welcomed each summer at Camp Farr,
an eighty-acre farm just southeast of Chesterton. This work-and-play camp was
established here in 1930 by the University of Chicago Settlement House, an
institution founded by the late Mary MacDowell, famed social worker. The Chicago
children are brought to Camp Farr in groups, each group remaining for a period
of two weeks. During that time the youngsters live in summer cottages on the
farm and help with the farm work. They also indulge in sports, play games and
have the use of a large swimming pool. At the present time (1956) the camp is
directed Eddy Edwards, who is both an expert farmer and a trained social worker.
He is assisted by his wife, as well as by older members of the groups from
Chicago.
STATE POLICE BARRACKS
A familiar sight in Porter County is Post No. 1 of, the Indiana State Police,
which occupies a new modern building at the intersection of US 20 and State 49,
just south of the main entrance of the Indiana Dunes State Park. The building is
set in the midst of an attractively landscaped "cloverleaf" intersection, and
above it rises a 300-foot radio tower. The post was established here in 1937
after being first located at Tremont. A few miles south of the barracks is
situated Chesterton, known as "The Gateway Town of the
Dunes."
DUNELAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
One of the most flourishing organizations of northwestern Indiana is the
Duneland Historical Society, with headquarters at Chesterton, in Porter County. It
was founded in 1948 by Louis A. Menke, of the Chesterton Tribune, at the
suggestion of several county residents. In addition to Edward L. Morgan and
Louis A. Menke, other past presidents of the society have been Roy Sherwood,
Harry R. Smith, Warren Canright, Sr., Arthur Peterson, ,Norris Coambs and C.
Will Nelson. Among members of the society and others who have written articles
on the past of Porter County are C. Will Nelson, W. A. Briggs, Louis A. Menke,
Norris Coambs, Olga Mae Schiemann, Earl Reed, Jr., Roy Sherwood, Colonel Edward
N. Wentworth, Marion Neville Drury, Roy E. Hawkinson, Mrs. Naomi Phillips and
Mrs. Florence Busse Smith. Another active group in the county is the Porter
County Historical Society, with headquarters in Valparaiso.
GREAT NATIONAL TOLL ROAD
A "crossroads county" from earliest times, due to its location at the southern
end of Lake Michigan, Porter County once again is the scene, in part, of a great
new highway that, when completed, will connect New York with Chicago. In 1955
construction work was started in the county on a motor toll road which will be
Indiana's portion of the modern expressway connecting the Illinois state line
with the Iowa state line. The four-lane toll road passes through the northern
portion of Porter County. A "clover leaf" intersection at the point where it
crosses State 49, just south of Chesterton, will serve toll road motorists
seeking Indiana Dunes State Park.
RICE LAKE AND ANIMAL PRESERVE
An
unusual sight of Porter County, but one little publicized, is the privately
owned Rice Lake and Animal Preserve. It is located a few miles east of
Chesterton near the tiny village of Burdick. Occupying several hundred rolling
acres, this park-like area contains an artificial lake, a large mink farm and
numerous enclosed runways or corrals in which buffalo, deer, elk and other types
of animals roam. The preserve was created a few years ago by Major William S.
Rice, head of Coe Dental Laboratories, Inc., of Chicago. The home of Major and
Mrs. Rice here is a railroad coach whi.ch once was the private car of President
Woodrow Wilson. The Rice preserve is not open to the public.
PORTER COUNTY AIRPORT
In the level open country just east of Valparaiso city may be found the smooth
green acres, runways and hangars of the Porter County Airport, largest landing
field of the county. This is the home base of dozens of privately-owned planes,
many of them in the possession of "Flying Farmers" of the county. Here, also, is
the headquarters of the Valparaiso Civil Defense Air Patrol. Another airport,
Urschel Field, is located just north of Valparaiso near the Porter County
Fairgrounds.
BURNS HARBOR PROJECT
At the present time (1956) a strong movement is being fostered by numerous
Indiana industrial and commercial interests for the construction of a great
industrial harbor at the mouth of Burns Ditch, a drainage waterway which empties
into Lake Michigan in the northwest corner of Porter County. If this project is
realized, it would not only provide the vast Calumet Industrial Region nearby
with another lake port but would result in the building up of a huge
manufacturing district in the Duneland region of north Porter County. This
project, however, is being strongly opposed by the Save the Dunes Council,
organized in 1952 and composed of some 500 residents and others of the area in
and about the Duneland country. The council’s aim is to preserve the dunes for
the people and create a larger state park than the present one.
"WHO'S WHO" IN PORTER COUNTY
In the latest (1955) edition of that standard reference work, Who's Who in
America, we find biographies-in-brief of more than a dozen residents of
Porter County. Most of them are. either Chicago business and professional
leaders who live in the county or educators associated with Valparaiso
University at the county's seat of justice.
In the latter group are the Reverend Otto P. Kretzmann, president of the university and author of The Road Back to God
and other books; Herbert W. Knopp, coordinator of university relations;
Professor Alfred H. Meyer, head of the university's department of geology and
president of the Valparaiso City Plan Commission; Herman C. Hesse, dean of the
university's college of engineering; the Reverend Walter E. Bauer, dean of the
college of arts and sciences; Professor John W. Morland, dean of the law school; and Dr. Henry G. Poncher, professor of human
biology and director of the university's student health department.
Other Porter County residents in Who's Who are Earl H. Reed, noted
Chicago architect and chairman of the American Institute of Architects'
committee for the preservation of historic buildings (his father was the late
Earl H. Reed, pioneer Duneland author and etcher); Colonel Edward N. Wentworth,
a leading livestock authority and former director of the Armour Livestock
Bureau; Dr. A. L. Rand, curator of birds at the Chicago Natural History Museum;
Henry B. Snyder, publisher of the Gary (Indiana) Post-Tribune; Professor Avery
O. Craven, distinguished University of Chicago historian; Colonel Clifford C.
Gregg, director of the Chicago Natural History Museum; and Herman G. Pope, city
planner and authority on public administration.
PORTER COUNTY TODAY
On the basis of latest United States census figures, a statistical profile may
be drawn of Porter County as it was in 1950, or in mid-twentieth century. From
this census, we find that Porter County is one of the fastest-growing counties
in Indiana, being eclipsed in this respect only by Tippecanoe and Clark
counties.
When the 1950 census was completed, it was found that Porter County had a total
population of 40,076 -- an increase of 44 per cent over its 1940 population. An
unofficial business survey places its 1955 population at 48,000. In the census
reports, the county is rated 675th in population rank among the 3,103 counties
of the United States.
Most of the county's increase in population occurred at its county seat,
Valparaiso, which in 1950 had a population of 12,028 (an increase of 37.7 per
cent over its 1940 population), and at the town of Chesterton, which at the same
time had a population of 3,175 (an increase of 28.5 per cent over its 1940
population).
Area and Density. With a land area of 425 square miles, the county's
density of population was found to be 94 inhabitants per square mile.
Urban-Rural Residence. Although nearly all of the land area of Porter
County is devoted to grain and livestock farming, most of its citizens are
classified as urban and rural non-farm residents, these being dwellers
principally of Valparaiso city and Chesterton and other towns and villages. The
figures showed that 16,084 were classified as urban residents (mainly of
Valparaiso), 16,503 as rural non-farm residents, and 7,489 as rural farm
residents.
Age Groups. In 1950 there were 4,446 infants under five years of age in
the county, 2,986 persons sixty-five years old and over, and the median age was
given as 28.3 years.
Migration. In the same year, there were 3,605 residents of the county
(persons one year old and over) who were either living in a different county of
the United States or in some foreign country.
Potential Voters. There, were 24,428 potential voters (citizens
twenty-one years old and over) in the county in 1950.
Vital Statistics. At the same period, there were 726 live births in the
county, 334 deaths (including 18 infant deaths), and 947 marriages.
Number and Income of Families.
The total number of families (two or more persons related by marriage or blood)
amounted to 9,535. The median income of all of these families in 1949 was given
as $3,574. The figures showed further that 17.1 per cent of these families had
incomes of less than $2,000, while 22 per cent had incomes of $5,000 or more.
Education. Under the heading of education, Porter County in 1950 had a
total of 6,850 young persons between the ages of seven and seventeen years
(school age). Within this total there were 4,650 between the ages of seven and
thirteen years (primary school age), and 96.8 per cent of these were enrolled in
primary schools. Also, there were 1,880 between the ages of fourteen and
seventeen years (high school age), and 91.9 per cent of these were enrolled in
high schools. Of all persons in the county twenty-five years old and over, it
was found that the median number of school years they completed was 10.8 years.
More than 4 per cent of these completed less than five grades, while 42.4 per
cent completed high school or higher education. The institutional population of
the county in 1950 (inmates of homes for dependent or delinquent children,
mental hospitals, jails; etc.) was given as 110.
Labor Force. With reference to labor, it was found that the county had a
potential labor force (persons fourteen years old and over) of 29,226. Actually
employed, however, were 15,145, of which 77.4 per cent were males and 25.5
percent females. There were 4,985 engaged in manufacturing (principally at the
great Calumet Industrial Region in adjoining Lake County and at Valparaiso
city), 2,467 in wholesale and retail trade, 1,603 in agriculture, 1,395 in
professional and related services, 1,272 in transportation, communication and
other public utilities, 1,124 in construction, 712 in business and personal
services, 315 in finance, insurance and real estate and 13 in mining. The labor
figures were summed up by showing that 33.6 per cent of the county's total
employed were engaged in manufacturing, while 10.8 per cent were engaged in
agriculture.
Housing.
There were 12,837 dwelling units in Porter County in 1950, as compared to 8,449
in 1940. The median number of rooms per unit was given as 4.7. More than 84 per
cent were one-dwelling unit detached structures (including occupied trailers),
27 per cent were built in 1940 or later, and 64.8 per cent had hot running water
with private toilet and bath. The median number of persons per unit was given as
3.1. The housing figures showed further that 71.1 per cent were owner-occupied,
0.1 per cent were occupied by non-white households, 66.4 per cent had central
heating, 89.8 had mechanical refrigerators, and 98 per cent had radios. There
were a total of 11,506 units classified as non-farm dwelling houses. The median
value of practically all of these was given as $7,365. The median gross monthly
rental of renter-occupied houses was given as $48.53.
Retail Trade. Under the heading of retail trade, Porter County in 1948
(when the last federal business census was taken) had a total of 442 retail
stores. These employed 1,500 persons and grossed $30,513,000 in sales. The
largest group were food stores, which totaled 114 and which grossed $7,569,000
in sales. The next largest group were eating and drinking places, which totaled
89 and which grossed $2,286,000 in sales.
Wholesale Trade. There were 37 wholesale establishments in the county in
1948 and these employed 171 persons and grossed $14,424,000 in sales.
Personal, Business and Repair Services. In this category, which included
barber and beauty shops, credit bureaus, automotive repair shops, etc., there
were 99 such establishments which employed 136 persons and which had receipts
totaling $1,099,000.
Manufacturing. As we have seen, most of the county's manufacturing plants
are located in Valparaiso. A federal manufacturing census taken in 1947 showed
that the county then had 43 factories which employed 2,077 persons and which
produced goods, materials and articles in the amount of $10,438,000. About half
of the county's factories did not employ more than twenty persons per plant;
only two had 250 employees or more per plant.
Agriculture. With reference to agriculture, Porter County in 1950 had a
total of 1,709 farms, of which 1,165 were classified as commercial farms. The
figures showed further that 18.7 per cent of all farms were operated by tenants.
It was also ascertained that the average value of land and buildings per farm
for all farms was $20,046. The value of all farm products -- crops, livestock,
poultry, dairy products -- sold in the county in 1949 was $8,400,000. In that
same year, farm expenditures amounted to $1,035,000 for livestock and poultry
feed and $457,000 for hired labor.
Bank Deposits. As of December 30, 1950, Porter County had bank deposits
totaling $16,550,000. On the same date, the county's two savings and loan
associations had savings capital totaling $10,168,000, with $10,190,000 in first
mortgage loans outstanding.
Transcribed by Steven R. Shook, January 2009