The Vidette-Messenger Centennial EditionThe 1936 special edition celebrating Porter County's centennial year . . . .
The following article has been transcribed from the August 18, 1936, issue of The Vidette-Messenger, published in Valparaiso, Indiana. This particular special edition focuses on Porter County's centennial celebration and contains a 94-page compendium of Porter County history up to that time.
Return to the index of articles from The Vidette-Messenger's Porter County Centennial special edition.
Source: The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso,
Porter County, Indiana; August 18, 1936; Volume 10, Section 3, Pages 19-20.
LIBERTY HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY OF LIBERTY TOWNSHIP
As Compiled By History Class and Instructors For The Vidette-Messenger
Liberty
township, a tract now five miles square, lies in the central position in the
northern half of Porter county. Westchester borders it on the north, Jackson on
the east, Center on the south, and Portage on the west. Coffee Creek runs
through the northeastern part and Salt Creek near the western edge. In the
southeastern corner about a third of Long lake lies within the township and to
the north extends Wauhob lake, both being of glacial origin. The surface is
level or lightly undulating, but the hills of the glacial moraine, which form a
continental divide, enter the southern boundary in the center and circle north
and east around the lakes, passing on out into Jackson township. In Liberty, the
north slope of this moraine is more abrupt than in other parts of the county.
The altitude at Woodville is one hundred twenty-one feet above sea-level; that
at the summit of the moraine, at the old Dillingham homestead on Road 49 is 888
feet. The latter is the highest point in the county, affording a wonderful view
over the fields and forest of North Liberty and the spires of Chesterton to the
dunes and the sparkling blue of Lake Michigan.
When the white man first laid eyes on the land of this township, it seemed
valuable especially because of the hardwood forests which covered the northern
and central part. In the northeast and on the west were swampy areas. As the
years passed the land has been drained by various ditch projects and the forests
have bowed before the axes of the pioneers and their descendants. These two
factors have contributed to a gradual shrinking of the size of the streams and
lakes. Any one doubting this has but to observe the difference between the banks
of our creeks and the present streams or study old maps of the township showing
the great millponds which have disappeared. Such maps published as late as 1876
show a great expanse of water in the northwest, spreading over acres of land
which are now the fertile fields of August Hockelberg, Daly Brothers and Julius
Turk. Anyone looking at Salt Creek, now even in time of flood, can hardly
realize that there was once a project for boats to steam down Salt Creek to
convey grain and lumber to Chicago by way of the Calumet river.
Early travel was by water, so many of the characters in the pageant of our early
history as a county did not pass through Liberty township. But the county was
crossed by important trails over which the first white men followed the
moccasined feet of the Pottawatomies. The "Pottawatomie Trail" was the north end
of a great path from the Wabash river to Lake Michigan and entering Porter
county at what is now Baum's Bridge. Passing east of what is now Valparaiso,
this trail followed the crest of the moraine between Coffee Creek and Salt Creek
and ended at the beach.
That old Indian road, as it sweeps in long curves east of Flint lake, Long lake,
and Wauhob, was the route along which creaked the ox-drawn wagons of the first
settlers and over which they later sent their grain and produce to Lafayette, to
South Bend and to Michigan City. Over this same route was later built the famous
"plank road" with its toll-gates and more recently the ribbon of cement which we
call "Forty-Nine." Another trail branched from this road of the Pottawatomies
going west through southern Liberty on toward Twenty-Mile Prairie and the
northwest.
As the years passed, the type of road betrayed the stages of development of the
township. First was the trail through the dim light of the primeval forest, worn
by Indians on the warpath or on their regular hunting trips. Later French fur
traders and missionaries on horseback passed under the shadow of the great
trees. And then came oxen drawing wagons laden with simple household articles
and the sturdy emigrants from Ohio and New York. Soon these pioneers were
sending loads of grain to distant points and making long trips to grist mills
where the family flour was ground by water power. The plank road, built between
1850 and 1853, at a cost of about $125,000, was a commercialized attempt to make
such intercourse and trade easier. Roads began to be improved as a public
enterprise and slowly developed the custom of grading and graveling our
pathways, and finally of constructing roads of cement. Liberty is crossed by two
such state roads of cement. No. 49 running north and south along the east and,
intersecting it at right angles, No. 6. The continuation northward of Campbell
street is cement to the point of crossing No. 6. Another strip of cement goes
from No. 49 in the neighborhood of the great Wabash bridge on No. 49.
The history of Liberty has been changed by railroads also. First, crossing from
east to west, was the Baltimore and Ohio in 1875. Later (1891) a branch of the
Wabash was built near the northern edge and the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern
crossed the Wabash in the northwest corner of the township at Crocker.
In 1903 an electric road was constructed from Valparaiso to Chesterton,
following as a whole the route of No. 49. Intersecting this line near Woodville
was another branch from LaPorte to Gary. The electric cars carried not only
passengers (school children, shoppers and summer vacationists going to our
beautiful lakes), but freight, especially milk. Once milk had been shipped via
the Baltimore & Ohio from Woodville and Babcock, then the interurban carried
this product of Liberty farms to the city distributor, but now motorized trucks
and cement highways have fallen heir to this traffic. The electric line was an
important factor in the development of the summer colonies around our lakes,
colonies which now have been superseded by permanent homes in the gemlike
setting of woods and water along Lake lake and Wauhob lake.
Now over our fields and houses curve the great skyways traversed by the planes
enroute from Chicago to Detroit or Cleveland. Here and there at night blink the
government signal towers with the sweeping beams of light providing a bright
trail through the night from airport to airport for the mighty ships of the air.
Pioneer life emphasized the value of cooperation; the early inhabitants were
dependent upon the help of their neighbors in clearing the forest, the log-rollings
and the house-raisings. Hence the population tended to center somewhat. The
Indians were no great menace unless they had imbibed too freely of the white
man's fire-water. This was especially true in Liberty of early times where there
were three settlements, the Dillingham in the ast, the Zane in the central part,
and the Salt Creek settlement on the west. The grist and saw mill on Salt Creek,
built by William Gossett in 1836 was the first in the county and the resort of
all our early settlers. Other mills later divided the trade but Salt Creek for a
half a century presented a scene of activity around the mill, creamery, store
and postoffice.
The railroads caused the other concentrations of population. Where the Baltimore
and Ohio cross the old plank road the village of Woodville sprang up, becoming
an important shipping point for grain, livestock and wood. The growth of the
cities, Chicago and later Gary, provided a market for the products of the great
dairy herds that Liberty owned and much milk was shipped from Woodville. For
years there was an elevator, stockyards, a creamery and a store at this point,
and here concentrated the neighboring population. A few miles west was Babcock,
another milk-shipping point with a store and many homes. The Wabash had no
stations among its course until at the point where its crossed the Elgin, Joliet
and Eastern in the extreme northwest corner of the township. There sprang up
Crocker (1893) which now in 1936, is the only town in the township and has a
population of 200.
Woodville, Babcock and Salt Creek have lost their activities and their
buildings, and a few closely-grouped houses are the only indication to a
stranger that thriving communities once were situated there. Such as has been
the result of the passing of local milling of grain, the disappearance of our
forests, and the extension of good roads, "horse and buggy" days being replaced
by a motorized civilization centered in the larger towns.
Parallel to this has been the change in educational advantages. The first school
of the township was a subscription school in a log house in the Zane settlement
in 1836. The building was erected by all the neighbors and had windows of oiled
paper and slab seats. Mrs. Sophia Dye, the teacher, received two dollars a week
for instructing her fifteen pupils in reading, writing and arithmetic. The
following year Anna Dillingham Lyons conducted a school in a part of her
father's house in the eastern settlement. In 1838 the children of the same
locality were instructed for two or three terms in a log school house, the
teacher being E. P. Cole, the grandfather of Fred Cole, county superintendent of
schools in Porter county from 1908 to 1933. In 1837 a school had been started in
Salt Creek too.
Martin Phares, born in 1854, four miles east of Gossett's Mill, tells of his
school days in South Liberty in a letter published in "Siftings" in The
VIDETTE-MESSENGER. This was five miles north of Valparaiso, District No. 1, but
may be taken as typical of other schools of the day. The teacher was Aunt Emily
Skinner. The building was set in the midst of the forest with no sanitary
provisions, no well, no wash basin, towels, or soap. The seats were benches, one
on each side and extending the length of the room. For a desk there was built
along each wall a continuous shelf, level for ten inches and then sloping
downward. Below each of these was a second shelf where slates, books, mittens
and mufflers were kept. The blackboard was on the wall opposite the door end of
the room. On this the pupils wrote with real chalk in irregular broken lumps,
erasing with cloths.
Boys sat on one side of the room, girls on the other. The pupils faced the wall
while studying, but swung about and faced the center of the room to recite.
Slates were cleaned by the application of saliva and a vigorous coat sleeve.
Heat was provided in winter by a box stove set in a tray of sand. This sand not
only prevented fire spreading from dropping of hot coals and ashes, but provided
a warm hiding place for ink bottles during freezing weather. This school was in
session six or seven months, three or four in the winter and three in the
summer. Attendance was irregular because larger boys and girls were constantly
withdrawn to work. This school was followed by a new one built in 1862,
one-eighth of a mile distant. This had a cylindrical stove and desks and seats
of modern form made by neighboring carpenters.
School was taught at Salt Creek from 1837 to 1856, but not until the later date
was a building constructed especially for that purpose. The Babcock school on
the road north of Babcock Station was another of the older schools, being built
to relieve the crowded conditions of the Salt Creek school before the Civil War.
James Bradley built the new Phares school in District 1. A wooden school had
followed a log school at Cole's Corners in 1856, and was in turn replaced by a
brick structure in 1877. The first Linderman school was built in 1869 and
followed by a more modern one in 1875. The school at Crocker followed the growth
of the population in that vicinity.
In 1913, while Charles Turk was trustee, a brick building was erected in place
of the Johnson school. A high school was organized at this time. This building
now provides a place for the pupils of the township of the first six years. On
the opposite side of the road, while Edward V. Gustafson was trustee in 1928, a
modern brick building was added for the upper six grades, and the schools of the
entire township were consolidated. In this building are science laboratories,
modern plumbing, and a large gymnasium which also serves as an auditorium for
school and community purposes. Motor buses transport pupils over gravel and
cement roads to buildings heated by furnace and hot water and lighted by
electricity -- a far cry from the days of the box stove.
Most of the people of Liberty township who have affiliated themselves with
churches of the various denominations have been members of congregations outside
of the township. Yet that does not mean that Liberty has lacked religious life.
Those of the Catholic faith journey to their churches in Chesterton and
Valparaiso. The Methodists were the first Protestant organization to touch our
people. The first religious gathering took place one Friday afternoon, in April
at 2 p. m., when Stephen Jones, a missionary of that church, spoke at Salt Creek
at the invitation of Mr. Gossett. Forty people, called together by the blowing
of a tin horn by Mrs. Gossett, gathered there. Later a camp meeting was held at
Salt Creek and a deepening religious life was fostered. Mr. Gossett erected a
church for the circuit-riders with lumber from his mill.
Among these brave men are recorded the names of Beer, Young, Forbes, Posey,
Griffity and Colclaster. Mr. Gossett had been so anxious that Salt Creek have a
regularly ordained minister that he offered to "bread" the minister's family for
a year from the product of his mill. As a result, Rev. Forbes was assigned the
circuit which included Salt Creek. Here for many years Sunday school was
conducted as it was also in the Cole school and at South Liberty. To these came
various Protestant ministers from Calumet and Valparaiso, who usually conducted
serves after the Sunday school hour. Before the Civil War a Methodist church was
built at the southeast corner of the township, near Kinne's corners. The
congregation finally scattered and the building was moved, but a little cemetery
marks the spot.
In 1928, a group of those living along No. 49 built the Liberty Township Sunday
School, a community Sunday school which has become a center of religious life
for the young people of the township. After the consolidations of the township
schools, the people of Crocker used the school building of that town for Sunday
school and finally bought it for a community church. This has become a vital
part of the religious and social life of that community.
In 1930 the Franciscan Fathers obtained a tract of land at the southwest corner
of Liberty township, through the help of Judge Fetterhof of Whiting. There they
built a beautiful shrine, the Seven Dolors, and later a monastery. This shrine,
built of rock obtained from the bed of the Great Lakes, reminds one of those
made of volcanic rock in Italy. Among the shrubs and flowers of the beautifully
landscaped grounds gleam the Stations of the Cross, where devoted pilgrims may
pray. To this resort many people of the Catholic faith, especially those of
Slavish blood from nearby Calumet cities.
The population of Liberty township has been a gradual growth as indicated by the
following figures: 1860 -- 459; 1870 -- 798; 1880 -- 901; 1890 -- 901; 1900 --
977; 1910 -- 881; 1920 -- 888; 1930 -- 1,009.
The earliest settlers came from the states to the east, and from more eastern
and southern parts of our own state. Those from out the state were largely Ohio
people who had come earlier from New York. The building of the Lake Shore
railroad bought many Irish and a number settler in Liberty. A map of the
township, dated 1876, and showing the farm owners, gives such names as Maroney,
Flannery, Kelly, Callihan, Maher, Collins, Clifford, Doyle and Daly. The first
quarter section of Daly land in South Liberty was obtained from the Pittsburgh,
Fort Wayne and Chicago railroad. Jeremiah Daly had been a contractor working
along the road to Valparaiso, which he reached in 1857. Because of the
railroad's financial difficulties, Mr. Daly had to accept this land as back pay.
Many of the Irish in the north central part of the township have been displaced
gradually by Swedish immigrants, Swansons, Johnsons, Olsons, Carlsons and
Andersons. The Irish gravitated toward nearby towns. Also before the Civil War
came an influx of Germans, particularly in the northwestern section. Here we
note on the map such names as Shultz, Rhue, Trowe, Witzel, Huckleberger, Benke,
Tofte, Sass, and Lenburg.
The eastern and southeastern part of the township is still populated by
descendants of the early American pioneers from neighboring states, the Cole,
Dillingham, Hanrahan, Bull, Hughart, Skinner, Tanner, Johnson, Davison, Pharis
and Jones families. A few Polish people have come in from similar settlements in
Jackson, Pine and Westchester, among these being the Wozniak, Skoronski,
Marcinkowski, Buezkowski and Gloyeski families. Of late years there has been an
infiltration of people of Slavish blood, descendants of old country farmers who
are leaving Gary to live again in rural surroundings. The interurban has caused
a dual character in the inhabitants of our township, because, to the earlier
agricultural group, it has added many industrial workers from cities of the
Calumet region who find happier and more healthful homes in the beautiful
surroundings of rural Liberty within reach of their work cities.
The social life of the early days centered around the problems of food and
shelter caused by pioneer life, in groups they felled the trees and held log-rollings,
house-raisings, and sheep-shearings. Each new home meant a house-warming and
weddings were gala community affairs. When orchards began to bear, paring bees
were added to the rag-cuttings, quiltings, and wool-pickings. When school houses
were built, the became the center of social life where the young people held
spelling schools, singing schools and debating societies. Sleigh-ride parties in
the winter and trips to pick huckleberries at the marshes along Lake Michigan
gave recreation and most neighborhood gatherings were enlivened by the sound of
the fiddle as the Virginia reel claimed the attention of the young people.
Then came the years when young men saved their money to buy "shoo-fly" buggies
and fast driving horses for the delight of the fair ones whom they were
"sparking." Swains delighted in racing their horses to give the girls a thrill,
and runaways seem to have been common-place incidents. Quicker transportation
has continuously enlarged the area in which young people move socially, and the
automobile has done the most toward the removal of this social life from the
rural community. Counteracting this is the influence of the farm bureau with its
monthly meetings and social program for the farmers and their wives, and the 4-H
clubs for the young people. The consolidated school likewise tends to
concentrate the social life of the people by the interest created in dramatics,
school functions, and especially competitive sports.
The first white men to traverse Liberty township were undoubtedly French. Over
the Pottawatomie Trail passed the Fathers Allouez and Dablon and later the brave
LaSalle. The natives were sympathetic with the French, but after the French and
Indian War the territory became English in 1759. After the Revolutionary War our
land was part of the western land claims of Connecticut. In 1800 was organized
the Northwest Territory. In 1816 Indiana became a state and six years later the
first white man's cabin was erected in the township immediately north of
Liberty. Ten years later a treaty with the Pottawatomies opened Porter county
lands to settlement.
In 1934 Owen Crumpacker came from Union county, Indiana, settling on land in the
neighborhood of what is now Woodville and No. 49. He returned a year or so later
to LaPorte county. Soon after his coming William Downing, Jerry Todhunter and
Elijah Casteel settled in the township. In 1835 E. P. Cole, Peter Ritter and
Thomas (Beehunter) Clark arrived. Asa Zane and Ira Biggs built the first houses
of the Zane settlement in the same year, and David and William Hughart built a
home in Liberty.
In 1835 also took place the first sale of Porter county lands at LaPorte.
Speculators bought up a great part of the land in which became Liberty township
because of the heavy timber growth there. These lands they held to sell later at
a great profit. To insure buying at a low price and then making the land so
attractive that people later would pay an advanced price, they devised the
following plan. They would contact promising prospective buyers who came to the
auction and bribe them not to bid by giving them a quarter section of land.
These who obtained land thus would improve their acres, and thus make an
investment in Liberty land look even more attractive to newcomers. The land
sharks thus got the land at their own price, and a great part of the land of the
township was owned by these speculators. Settlers looked elsewhere for more
reasonable farms and Liberty was slowed in development.
In 1835 at LaPorte, the commissioners who had control of all the land west of
LaPorte county between the Kankakee river and Lake Michigan to the state line
divided the territory into three townships -- Waverly on the north, Morgan on
the south, and Ross of the west. (Ross township roughly corresponds to the
present Lake County). This marks the beginning of civil government locally in
our county. On January 28, 1836, the County of Porter was organized by act of
the assembly. In April the first board of commissioners was gathered in
Valparaiso and there established the limits of the civil townships. Liberty was
constituted as it is at present, except that in 1853 the northern tier of
sections was added to Westchester. April 30 was set as the date for the first
township election. This was held at the house of Daniel Kesler, and elected for
justice of the peace, Peter Ritter. Jerry Todhunter signed the returns as
inspector and John Sefford, Joel Crumpacker, William Snavely and Solomon Habanz
as judges. At the spring term of court following this election, Daniel Lyons was
made first constable. Peter Ritter, Samuel Olinger and William Thomas were
appointed to lay out a road from Casteel's mill on Coffee Creek to Gossett's
mill on Salt Creek. (This road approximates the present road running east and
west past the Liberty Center school.)
At the first election the following people voted: Peter Ritter, Thomas J. Wyatt,
William Downey, Daniel W. Lyons, Joel Crumpacker, Joel Welker, John Sefford, M.
Blayloch, Frederick Wolf, Richard Clark, William Calhoun, Isaac Zane, Owen
Crumpacker, Hiram Snodgrass, Jerry Todhunter and Solomon Habanz. In addition to
these the following pioneers had arrived: John Dillingham, William Gossett,
George Hesing, John White and Cornelius Blachly.
The first death and the first wedding in the township concerned the same family.
In the autum of 1835 some Indians had imbibed too freely of liquor at Bailly's
trading post, and set out to be annoying. They arrived at the cabin home of
David and William Hughart, and, beating upon the door with their tomahawks and
yelling in their drunken frenzy, they tried to force an entrance. The Hughart
brothers were away hunting and their wives were in terror. They got the door
barred and climbed into the loft. When the men returned the Indians had just
left, but Mrs. Hughart died soon after as a result of the fright and shock. The
following June William Hughart married Elizabeth Zane.
In 1836 William Gossett (who had previously filed for land in Westchester
township) began the erection of a saw and grist mill at Salt Creek on the east
bank. This was the first grist mill in the county and made it possible for early
settlers to avoid the long trips of forty or fifty miles to get grain ground.
Such crowds came with their grist that some had to wait three or four days for
their turn. With the first lumber sawed, William Gossett erected a frame house
which was later used as a church. Also in 1836 Samuel Olinger erected a saw mill
on Damon Run. This is the creek which flows through the land of Edward Esserman,
a short distance south of Liberty Center high school. This mill was later sold
and long since removed. Traces of the dikes of earth that made the dam may still
be seen as you look east from the road between the homes of William Ruge and
Mrs. Mildred Swanson. In 1837 Daniel Lyons was married to Anna Dillingham,
William Calhoun to Sarah Sefford, and George Humes to Sarah Crawford. A chair
and wheel factory was started on Spring Creek by Abraham Snodgrass, but soon
abandoned.
In 1838 other troubles developed about land claims. At the time of the treaties
with the Indians the government had granted small tracts called "floats" to
various individual Indians. Land sharks bought these floats for little from the
Indians who seldom lived upon their claims. After settlers had built upon the
land and begun to cultivate it, the shrewd speculators would appear and demand
that the squatter buy their claims at a fabulous price or else move at once. In
either case the landsharks made many, for, if they sold, they sold at a
substantial increase, or, if they got the land, they also gained possession of
the improvements the unlucky settler had made. Such a settler was William
Crawford, who located in the northeast part of Liberty. He sold his claim to
William Snavely. But in 1838 Peter White claimed the land and called upon the
sheriff to force Snavely off. The sheriff came with a posse but during Snavely's
violent resistance to eviction, a man was wounded and Snavely surrendered. This
was known as the "Snavely War."
The years that followed are the ones most lost to history. There were of course
no telephones, no daily papers, no railroads or even good roads, and each little
community lived largely to itself. For years the grain and livestock that was
sold had to be driven to Michigan City and what buying was done was usually
there. The women spun and wove cloth, and the wants of their families were
simple. Shoes were made by local shoemakers to order, and usually lasted over a
year. Kerosene lamps succeeded the candles, and stoves followed the fireplaces,
but still the men were busy cutting the woods and clearing more and more land.
Mrs. F. Hockelburg, Sr., in telling of her own early days in the township in the
eighties, said they worked so hard and were so far from their churches, they
often forgot when Sunday came around. Many of the homes were still made of logs.
The roads were rough, and trips to the mill in a lumber wagon were as tiring as
earlier trips on horseback had been. The women had great difficulties in
churning in the summer because few had cellars. Butter was packed in great tubs
and carried to the small neighborhood stores.
The schools had meager equipment and the teachers were paid modest salaries.
From some of the trustee books we collect the following items about school and
teachers: In 1879 John Nichols was hired to teach a sixty-day term for $1.25 a
day, beginning April 9. He used McGuffey's Readers and Harvey's English Grammar,
and had twenty-seven pupils. B. S. Wise at the same time, was fired for $1.65 a
day his final report stating that the school had no maps and no dictionary.
Martin Phares was hired in 1880 to teach the Babcock school for $1.40 a day. His
final report says, "Miserable blackboards, miserable seats, miserable doorlocks,
miserable pump, excellent windowblinds, excellent doors, excellent stove,
excellent fence, excellent yard. Maps one and two fractions. No dictionary.
Seats (loose and lame) one and one-half."
Emma Hill in the same year reports her school grounds badly rooted up by hogs,
no dictionary, one dipper, one broom, one water pail. The next year was better
for Emma Hill had two maps, and Pearl Elliott one dictionary and two erasers.
The same year Viola Wrus of Salt Creek school had a "chart for infants." A.
Hinesberger got a bell and Susie Skinner blocks to illustrate cube root. By 1895
feather dusters and wash basins join the list of usual equipment. In 1896 one
school with thirty-nine pupils had a set of Chamber's Encyclopedia and
thirty-six books in the library, ten maps and twelve erasers. Quite often at
this time the list includes a sprinkler. Best of all in 1896, School No. 8, at
Crocker, had an organ and a library of fifty-four books. The state schools had
been standardized in 1881 and now all were using books of the "Indiana Series."
At Salt Creek (the Indian name for which was Ween-tah-gi-uck or deer lick) the
miller, William Gossett, had prospered. In 1844 he erected a new mill on the
west bank of the stream, but died before its completion. The mill was
successfully operated by Skinner, Fifield, Robbins and Stafford. In ????,
McPherson and Meyer had a general store but this was soon abandoned. In 1858
Salk Creek had a postoffice. The postmasters mentioned were John Beck, John
Millar, Abram Stafford and George Wheeler. In 1866 Cruthers started a store
upstairs over the mill. He was followed by Robbins and Miller and George
Wheeler.
At various times Salt Creek was the home of Practicing physicians, Dr. E. J.
Jones living there from 1851 to 1857 and Dr. Hiram Green in the four years
immediately preceding the Civil War.
In the Gossett cemetery, north of Salt Creek, lie many of those most intimately
connected with the settlement. Among them is the grave of Henry Batton, a
Revolutionary War soldier. His son was a major in the War of 1812. His grandson,
Henry Hageman, married Hannah Gossett. Their daughter is Mrs. John Busse of
Porter. The final resting place of this patriot should be a shrine for the
liberty-loving people of our county.
In 1865, W. D. Cruthers, Dr. Stanton, Abram and Peter Stafford began the
building of a steamboat twelve feet wide and thirty feet long. It was intended
to convey lumber from the mill to Chicago, but after being run up and down the
creek a few times, it sunk in the Calumet river. Thus failed another ambitious
commercial enterprise.
A creamery had been established here also and farmers began to bring their milk
instead of laboriously churning butter for their own use and to sell. Mr. Trowe
operated this for a long time, but finally moved away. Some of the buildings so
used in early days are part of the dwelling property of the late John Tofte just
east of Salt Creek. In later years the mill was owned and operated by the
Blachly family and then by Mr. Tratebas. News items from Salt Creek in the
Vidette of the late decades of the century reflect the busy community life with
its Sunday school, its store, and social activities. That has all disappeared as
have the mill and the dam which once made a great lake nearby.
This section was gradually filled by hard working immigrants from Germany, and
many of the names now current there show this. They have been patient,
industrious, and frugal and their descendants today are some of our finest
citizens and most prosperous farmers.
Other mills throughout the township were operated by Cromwell Axe, Hunt and
Kellogg, Brown and Sellers, David Long and Long and Wondes.
In the Zane settlement still lived the descendants of the Phares family. The
Hugharts have moved over the line into Center township. Norman Tanner (father of
Schuyler Tanner) had been a conductor on the "underground railway." Calkins
Brothers, Thomas Johnson, J. S. Bradley, S. Lansing, T. Skinner, A. B. Crook, E.
W. Fury and T. Bull now hold land in the central and south-central part of the
township. Art Hanrahan's home, just east of Campbell street road, is one which
still is operated by descendants of those original owners. His grandmother, Mrs.
Crook, told many interesting stories of the early days.
Mr. Crook had been renting land in LaPorte county where the wheat crop had
failed because of the rust. He came to this neighborhood in the fall, attracted
by the hills covered with timber in contrast to the swamp and lake of Twenty
Mile Prairie. Land which he later bought was occupied by a settler, who had made
a log cabin which had not been 'chinked' or 'dabbed.' Mr. Crook bought the land
with the understanding that the cabin would be finished. In the following
January Mr. Crook brought his family to their new home, only to find that the
cabin was unfinished. In sub-zero weather they put up a stove and hung blankets
around it to attempt to keep the children warm, but they froze their feet. Deer
ran through the dooryard and Indians were frequently seen. This cabin was of
wood, with slab shingles and wooden hinges and latch for the door. When the
January thaw came, the Crook family hastily chinked and dabbed their new home.
This log cabin may still be seen on the Hanrahan place where it has been made
into an ice house.
Just up the road east is another interesting home, that of William Schmell. Mrs.
Schmell, who was Matie Bull, has preserved many beautiful and interesting relics
of the pioneer days of her ancestors. Her home is built on the farm where her
parents started house-keeping in a log house, and she has a spinning wheel, a
reel, and many beautiful pieces of furniture which date from that early day. One
mahogany table, of which she is particularly proud, was brought by her father
from New York. Her father had a great apiary, as many of the older settlers will
remember. He was physically disqualified for the Civil War, but his father,
Colonel Bull, was in the War of 1812. His grave is in the Kimball cemetery in
the southwest part of the township. Mrs. Schmell told of early school days in
the Phares school, where one of her teachers was S. McClure, later owner of
McClure's Magazine. She told of his delight in a relative's baby whom he handled
upon his knee, commenting that he liked "new babies that were not so red." (The
particular baby was the Arthur Hanrahan whom we know.)
The Dillingham descendants still occupy the land and house owned by their
progenitor, the Welshman, John Dillingham. Mr. Dillingham and his family came in
their wagons from Ohio, two of his sons and a daughter riding the horses and
driving the stock through. One of his daughters was married to E. P. Cole,
another Ohio pioneer who came here at the same time. Another daughter was
married to a Mr. Wauhob from whom Wauhob lake takes its name. His son Olcott
lived at the summit of the hill on No. 49, which overlooks the intersection of
No. 49 and 6, a home marked by tall pines such as everywhere mark the homesites
of our earliest pioneers. His son, Isaac Dillingham, is remembered by many in
Porter county, he having died quite recently. The first John Dillingham opened
his home to travelers, for there were no inns in those days. The first school of
the neighborhood was taught in his house by his daughter. The women of the time
used to do their washings down by Wauhob, at a place where the bed was sandy.
Here too the men washed their sheep.
E. P. Cole, a son-in-law of Mr. Dillingham, was another leading man in the
eastern settlement. He settled on section 19, finding Indians on his section
when he came. They were friendly, often giving presents to the children. His
four sons went to the Civil War. John and David lived to return, the former to
become the founder of Woodville, the latter to move to Nebraska. Jackson Cole
came home ill from the army and died six months later, never having left his
room. Giles Cole contracted measles in the army and while still ill was sent on
a raid. He caught cold and died, being buried with six hundred others at
Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. Mrs. Ada Freer, John Cole's eldest daughter,
was four years old when her father went to war. She told many interesting facts
about her family. Her grandfather bought much of his land for from nineteen to
thirty cents an acre. Her grandmother used to put some of the children before
her on the saddle and ride horseback to Sunday school in the Phares
neighborhood. Arvilla Osborne taught a private school for Mr. Cole's children
and later became the wife of his son, John Cole.
John Cole was mainly responsible for the location of Woodville on the Baltimore
and Ohio. He owned a great part of the land surrounding, and built an elevator,
store and other buildings there. A postoffice was established there in 1881. A
big trade in grain and livestock was developed, and carloads of wood were
shipped to Chicago over the railroad. In The Vidette of February 27, 1891, we
see this item: "This part of the township is losing its former appearance; All
the large timber is being removed from the forests. Three saw mills are in
operation within hearing of Woodville." Later this item: "Seventeen cars of wood
have been sold to Chicago by P. J. Lindell, 130 yet remain." On January 15,
1891, we read among the Woodville items: "Two young men from Chicago are engaged
in making wooden shoes," and on April 23, 1891, "The young shoemakers have
returned to Chicago." On June 4, 1891, appeared this: "The former forest of O.
Dillingham which but a year ago was the habitation of maple, oak and walnut is
now a field of corn."
Charles LaHayne of Crocker, 81 years of age and physically and mentally alert,
is Crocker's first citizen. He talked in a delightful way about older times. His
father was an early comer (1864) to the township, paying five dollars an acre
for his land, although the Witzels had paid only seventy-five cents. Charles was
the oldest child. The country about Crocker was called Whippoorwill Prairie,
because the woods echoes with the songs of those birds. Deer ran through the
country in great herds and prairie chickens were abundant. In the summer men and
horses were subjected to great danger from rattlesnakes that abounded in haying
time especially. Men were often stung as they reached down for scythes which
they had laid on the ground.
North of town stretched the great marshes toward Porter -- the resort of
thousands of wild fowl in summer and excellent skating in the winter. Every
spring Indian bands passed through to the "sugar woods" at Waverly. The squaws
were apt to ask for whatever clothing of the white women suited their fancy,
especially bright calico dresses and straw hats. A half-breed (Indian and
French) came to the elder LaHayne to chop wood every winter. He was quick and
skillful with the ax, often cutting two or two and a half cords a day. He was a
sailor on the lakes in the summe. He was called Moses Thomas and was well known
by many, because in later years he lived in a cabin on Mr. LaHayne's farm. At
eighteen Mr. LaHayne helped with track work on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad
when it passed through. He later worked as brakeman on the famous Stafford
steamer, rides made exciting by the use of long poles to get the boat around the
curves. The steamer was not a paying proposition, it being especially expensive
to pay for getting it through under the bridges on the Calumet at Tolleston. Abe
Stafford was something of an inventor and later turned his attention to
threshing machines. Mr. LaHayne said he had western fever like other young men
of this time and wishes to farm somewhere away from "among the stumps." He went
west looking at land, but the hot winds and grasshoppers of Kansas convinced him
that Indiana was better. He sowed wheat among the stumps and when harvest came
went through with his cradle, his wife binding behind. Finally he used a binder
where the stumps were not too thick.
Charles LaHayne attended the old Salt Creek school walking through the woods to
the south, very often with a lunch of cold pancakes and syrup. Later he attended
the Babcock school. He particularly remembered Mrs. Hayes, Miss Massey, and Miss
Hayden at the former school, and Miss Kate Stokes, Miss Pelham and Martin Phares
at the latter. Mail was carried once or twice a week by ox-team between Salt
Creek, Porter and Calumet. When the Wabash railroad came through, it was thought
that the new town would be named LaHayne, but the elder LaHayne was away at the
time and the place was called Crocker after the surveyor who laid out the
village. Mr. LaHayne attributes his health at his age to temperate habits with
clean living and a wise amount of work -- moderation in all things in other
words. He paid a tribute to the religious ideals of his parents' home, where the
bible was a much read and dearly beloved book.
In Crocker also reside a couple who were the occupants of the first house in
town, Mr. and Mrs. Pillman. Mrs. Pillman was Maude Babcock and added many
interesting stories to the saga of the Babcock school. She paid glowing tribute
to the character of one teacher, Kate Stokes, who was there nine terms or three
years. When it was too hot in school, the children made a brush shelter out
doors. Miss Stokes wore the same dress for two years and walked to Valparaiso
every Sunday to sing in the choir at the Catholic church. At night she taught
Charles Benke and helped his father with a further education in return for her
board. Boys whom she saw drifting and without a definite purpose, she inspired
to make something of themselves, giving of her own time to get them to go
further in their studies. She warned and inspired and was due the credit for the
success of more than one of her scholars. One of these was Newton Yost, who
later became a teacher in Liberty township.
Her discipline in the school room was severe, usually emphasized by throwing the
pointer at an offender. "One day," laughed Mrs. Pillman, "her aim was bad and
she struck me by mistake." I was hard to comfort for that because you see, I had
received the prize for being the best-behaved girl in her room." Miss Stokes
became a nun, Sister Theodosia of the Sisters of Charity in Hammond and died
only very recently. Mrs. Pillman spoke with feeling of the memory of that
teacher of long ago who was so interested in the life and character of the young
people about her that she poured forth her service without stint. Mrs. Pillman
was a tiny baby when her father went to the Civil War. From her one can glean
many stories of Babcock and Crocker. She, too, went to school to Martin Phares
and was one of those to welcome him on his return here two years ago. She
remarked that a person who could keep pupils of so many ages happily and
studying together with so few helps to make learning attractive was a real
teacher. Many of those who were operators and station agents at Crocker return
again and again to renew their friendship with "Mother Pillman," for her home
was always the center of home-like influences in those early days of the town.
Mrs. Marion Ashton is also 81 and spent years of her married life here in
Liberty at what is now Clevendale, later at Triple Spring farm and finally at
her present home just east of the high school. She told of her husband's
participation in the Civil War. Their children attended the Salt Creek school
and later the Johnson school. Mrs. Ashton spoke of the fine work of Clara Jones
at Johnson school, and at the Sunday school held there. (Clara Jones married
Harry Atchison and died this June). Miss Beer, Miss Farrell, Mr. Crull and Mr.
Pennock were other well-remembered teachers. Sickness was a dread scourge in the
early days, for doctors were few and hard to get. There were no bans on public
funerals for those dying of contagious disease and epidemics spread apace. Mrs.
Ashton lost three children within a few days from diphtheria, an experience only
too common in those days. Mrs. Ashton is active still, busily plying her needle
every day in dainty sewing. Her brother Joseph Watts makes his home with her,
and his beautiful garden is an example to many younger gardners.
Probably the most exciting even in Woodville was the terrific wreck there
November 12, 1906, when two trains had a head-on collision. The engines were a
mass of twisted steel, and forty-one persons were killed, many of them being
emigrants from southeastern Europe.
Even though communication was slow and difficult, Liberty was alive to the
political problems previous to the Civil War. A study of the returns from
presidential elections leads one to the conclusion that the majority were Whigs.
In 1860 the township voted seventy-two republican and forty-two democratic. The
rift between the two parties widened steadily, being 105 to 44 in 1872, and 195
to 74 in 1880. It is interesting to note that Liberty was still republican in
the democratic landslide of 1933.
Liberty contributed its share to the armies that fought for the union. The
records are incomplete so many a brave "boy in blue" will be unmentioned. Abner
Sanders bade goodbye and marched down the road to meet his company at Woodville
from whence they went to Calumet to entrain for the front with the rest of
Company B. His son, William Sanders, was but two years old at the time. Abner
Sanders never returned, dying of wounds at Cheat Mountain, January 3, 1861.
James Bradley entered the army from Liberty with the Twelfth Indiana Cavalry
being mustered out at Vicksburg at the close of the war. Hiram Green, a
physician from Gossett's Mill, went to Chesterton where he recruited a company.
He was lieutenant and later captain. John C. Cole was a private in Company E,
Seventy-third Indiana Vaolunteer Infantry, and became a sergeant. Miller
Blachly, Jonathan and Benjamin Biggs served with Company C, Ninety-ninth
Cavalry. Charles Bull was with Company 20, Twentieth Infantry; Andrew and David
Cole were in Company E, Seventy-third Regiment.
Robert Lansing served with Company E of the Ninth Regiment and William Tillotson
to the Ninth Indiana Volunteers Infantry and later to the Seventy-third Indiana.
He was in Libby prison. Samuel Phares belonged to the Tweflth Cavalty and the
127th Indiana Volunteers. A. C. Fodsick was a surgeon with the Fifth Cavalry and
later an officer with the Ninth Infantry. Marion Ashton was in Company I,
Seventeenth Regiment. William Kipling and A. Babcock also served.
Discharges recorded in the court house in Valparaiso give an incomplete story of
Liberty's participation in the World War. Axel Lundberg died in camp from
influenza; Fred J. Lorenz, Albert Skoronski, Carl Dalke, Ed Blanke and Arthur
Slont were in France. Hans Christianson, Roy Linderman, Clarence Pillman,
William Berndt, Ed Dalke, Thure Carlson, Albion Olson, Ross Johnson, Earl Ashton
and Benjamin Biggs were also in the army gathered at President Wilson's call.
Liberty township holds today a position as enviable for location as it once had
for fine lumber. Its fields are still profitable for agriculture. Its proximity
to the great populations of Chicago, Gary and Michigan City afford a ready
market for the products of its soil and its dairy herds. The cement and gravel
roads afford the most splendid facilities for travel for business or pleasure.
As the Calumet region continues to develop Liberty still offers homesites in
rural surroundings with city advantages in transportation, light, heat and
power. Crocker in the northwest corner has now over two hundred inhabitants and
the possibilities of great growth. The Wauhob lake colony developed by the
Dillingham heirs and the Long lake territory offer attractive places for homes.
The people of Liberty are keenly alive to the world about them and progressive
parts of every worthwhile county activity. The school system has kept abreast of
the times. A resident of our township, Balthazar Hoffman, is joint
representative from Lake and Porter counties at Indianapolis, and is prompt to
speak in behalf of the needs of his home community. At the crossroads of the
county stands Liberty, busy in its local development, proud to have many of its
sons and daughters happy to till the ancestral acres and make their homes there,
and just as proud of those whose interests and talents draw them out into the
wider circles of the state and nation. As we look back over the hundred years we
gain a deep respect for the industry and courage of those who wrought through
this time with heart, hand, and brain to change a wilderness into a home for
their children's children.
Article transcribed by Steven R. Shook