Historical Images of Porter County

Murder Site of James Cotton on Grape Island
Kankakee River, Porter County, Indiana

Date: February 7, 1877
Source Type: Sketch
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: J. Lorenzo Werich, Wilson Reed Berry (illustrator)
Postmark: Not Applicable
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark:  J. Lorenzo Werich devotes a chapter of his book to Grape Island, though he names no other landmarks in the chapter that could be used to assist in identifying the island’s exact location.

A map prepared in March 1900 by Max John Ahlgrim of Shelby, Lake County, Indiana, identifies Grape Island as being located in the extreme southwest corner of Boone Township of Porter County, Indiana, or immediately across the Kankakee River in Jasper County (W½ of SW¼ of Section 10 T32N R7W).

In 1876, James Cotton and John France purchased hunting ground situated upon the island from Allen Dutcher and built a seven and one-half foot by eleven foot hunting shanty. Between February 7 and 9, 1877, France traveled to another camp that he and Cotton had previously used to fetch a boat. When France returned two days later, he found the shanty burnt and twenty-one year old Cotton inside “so badly burned that no person could have recognized him.” Some individuals believed Cotton was murdered, while others believed the shanty caught fire accidentally and Cotton was smothered in the flames. A man named Morris Smith was charged with the murder, but it is believed that he was later released based on lack of evidence.

Interestingly, in the February 26, 1885, issue of the Porter County Vidette it is stated that a Kansas resident Hank Lewis “who died a short time ago … before his death confessed complicity in the murder of Cotten, who was missed 5 or 6 years ago from a shanty in the Kankakee swamp. He said there was another man with him, but would not disclose his name. He said they got only 40 [dollars], most of the money they expected to get being deposited in a Hebron store and subsequently withdrawn by Cotten’s brother. Suspicion rested upon this man and another who was seen with him the next morning coming out of the swamp. Murder will out.”

The island received its name from the fact that about forty acres of wild grapes grew on it when early settlers arrived in the area. The dredging of the Kankakee River into Marble Ditch made the island accessible to agriculture and in 1920 the Cook Brothers, major landowners in the area, plowed over the island converting it from wild grape to cropland.

Image Source:
Werich, J. Lorenzo. 1920. Pioneer Hunters of the Kankakee. Logansport, Indiana: Chronicle Printing Company. 197 p. [see p. 143]

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Image and related text prepared by Steven R. Shook