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 4, Page 18.

 

GRANDFATHER USED OXEN TO PLOW HIS LAND

(BY MRS. MYRTLE P. MILLARD)
To Hannah

"Farewell sister, thou art going
In the far off West to roam.
Seeking in the land of strangers
For a new and brighter home.

Could a sister's fondest wishes
Build thy Paradise on earth;
I would crown thy soul with blessing,
Blessing equal to thy worth.

Every fondest expectation
Mays't thou more than realize,
Mayst thou find a fairer climate,
Sweeter flowers and fairer skies.

But no spot, however beauteous,
Can seem half as fair to thee
As the home which thou are leaving
The sweet house of infancy."

Written by Mina Biglow to her sister Hanna, when she came to Porter county in 1842 from New York. They left that state in 1841.

James Pennock, Jr., settled new Gates Corners in 1842. He married Betsey White. They reared five children, Elizabeth, wife of Elias Axe; Heppeth, wife of Moses Gates; Mary, wife of ------ Clinton; Louise Angeline, wife of Sylvester Smith, and Eli Pennock.

James Pennock, Sr., was my great grandfather. Lewis Pennock, my grandfather. He had three boys and two girls; Norman, Garland and Benjamin Franklin, and two daughters, Nettie Pennock Bissel and Hattie Pennock Shreve. They came from New York by way of the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes to Michigan City and thence to Porter county, when the children were small. My grandfather cut the timber and had the lumber sawed for their house now occupied by Walter Atwell. My grandparents lived there all their lives and are buried in Fleming cemetery. My grandfather farmed with oxen and bound his grain by hand. One day he sent my father, Benjamin Pennock on horseback to the neighbors and asked them to come next morning to plant corn. My grandmother got breakfast for eleven men the next day. Grandmother spun yarn and knit mittens, wrislets, socks and stockings. I have the tablecloth she bought for the first communion service of the Christian church. The family always had morning prayers and grandfather asked a blessing at the table. In their living room was a table between their two rocking chairs. The Bible lay in the center and their spectacle cases on either side. I shall never forget my grandmother's bread and butter and brown sugar.

Article transcribed by Steven R. Shook

 

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