A Love Letter and a Mystery

This letter (a recent purchase of mine) was written from Hobart, Indiana, on October 26, 1883, to a brown-eyed, dimple-cheeked schoolteacher in Kansas.


(Click on images to enlarge)





Here is my transcription (original spelling retained but some punctuation added for clarity):

Hobart Ind Oct 26th 1883

Miss Clara

"My Dear Girl"

Yours of the 21st recd on the 25th. I remained in Chicago several days longer than I should otherwise have done waiting to get a letter from you, before I came out here. I left the City the same day I recd it, and will answer it immediatly, so that it will not be so long between letters. Was sorry to hear of Dr Steelman's death and also of the sad accident to your little niece. Hope she may recover soon.

You must excuse this paper as it is all I have at hand.

Am glad to learn that drouthy Kansas is having lots of rain. This makes my second trip into Indiana since I left home and I shall try my best to make all my collections this time before I return to Chicago. Shall not remain in the City long after I return, am getting anxious to get home, and I suppose the reason is, because there is a little browned eyed dimpled cheake'd school teacher about 14 miles east of St John that I want to see very much, and I hope when I get back to Chicago there will be a letter from her waiting for me. I love that little Brunette and I don’t care if she know's it — — but I don’t think her letters express much of that article for me, but perhaps she is reserving that to tell me when I get back which by the way will be inside of two or three weeks, if nothing happens. Was glad to learn that you were over to the wedding. Wish I could have been there? As it is getting late will close by wishing you happy and well, with much love

Yours &c —

Ross

In spite of some initial frustration,[1] I was able to identify these people. The writer was Elijah Ross Swartz, born in Ohio in 1843; the recipient was Clara Jane McNeil, born in Iowa in 1862. Here is an account of their wedding, from the front page of the Stafford Herald (Stafford, Kans.) of March 6, 1884:


(Click on image to enlarge)

And here is a photo of Clara Jane McNeil Swartz, which someone has added to findagrave.com:


(Click on image to enlarge)

Ross lived in this area for a time. We first encounter him in the 1870 Census, farming in Union Township, Porter County and still going by his first name, Elijah.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com.

He is listed first, as if he were the head of the household, but the family's property is attributed to his mother, the 63-year-old Mary. I have not been able to find out with certainty who his father was and whether Mary was, in 1870, widowed, separated, or divorced.[2]

The earliest map of Union Township that I know of dates to 1876 and does not show the Swartz family owning land, so either they rented the land, or they sold it before 1876. To judge by the names listed near theirs on the census, such as Shearer and Janes, the Swartz family was close to the county line.

In January 1876 (Indiana Marriage Collection), Elijah married Alla Demott, also a native of Ohio and some 12 years his junior. By 1880, Elijah had given up farming in Union Township for dealing hardware in Chesterton.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com.

The family's record does not continue on the next page: he and Alla had no children.

The next we hear of Elijah, or Ross, it's October 1883 and he is courting Clara McNeil. That is the mystery of this post's title: what happened to Alla? I cannot find any record of her death. It's possible that they were divorced, though that would be unusual. Alla simply disappears.

♦    ♦    ♦
Ross and Clara remained in Kansas until the early 1890s, when they moved to California. There the 1900 Census records them …


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com.

… and there they lived out the rest of their lives.

Ross's death in 1913 was reported back in St. John, Kansas:


(Click on image to enlarge)
County Capital (St. John, Kans.), 30 Oct. 1913.

Clara died in 1934, and her obituary suggests that all her life she remained proud of her work as a schoolteacher in Kansas.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Highland Park News Herald (Calif.), 18 Jan. 1934.

She and Ross are buried in California.

♦    ♦    ♦
As a postscript, here is a letter Ross wrote for publication in the Porter County Vidette, telling citizens of Porter County why they should move to Stafford County, Kansas.


(Click on image to enlarge)
St. John Advance (Kans.), 22 Mar. 1883.


_______________
[1] For some unknown reason, Ancestry.com turns up no record of their marriage.
[2] Mary died in St. John, Kansas, in 1892. Her brief obituary does not mention a husband, or any of her children except the one she lived with. ("Obituary," County Capital (St. John, Kans.), 26 Aug. 1892.)

Mills of Mystery: Wilson & Saunders

[continued from here]

Wilson & Saunders were the flies in John Wood's ointment, according to Solon Robinson, who, as we know, said: "The accommodation of the people of the county was greatly increased this year [1847], in getting grain made into bread stuff, by the mill of Wilson & Saunders on Deep River below Wood's (and as he thinks not quite far enough below)." This only tells us that Wilson & Saunders' mill was downstream from Wood's mill, and annoyingly close.

Turning to Early Land Sales, Lake County, we find relevant entries that show "Wilson & Sanders"[1] purchasing Lots 8, 11, and 12, and Robert Wilson purchasing Lot 9, of Section 16, Twp. 35 N., Range 7 W., in December 1844.

I'm sure we all remember Section 16 from our encounter with the Wilkinsons. And as you can see, Wood's mill, in Section 21, lay just below Section 16's southern border:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from the 1874 Plat Map.

The enumerator of the 1850 Census visited the Wilson-Saunders household right after visiting the Wood household:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com.

It would be astonishing if they had actually been neighbors, operating two mills next to each other. (You will notice that Benajah Wilkinson's widow, Prudence, and children are further down on the same page.)

The 1840 Census also records a Robert Wilson near John Wood …


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com.

… which was probably our Robert, but the census gives so little information that we can't know for sure.

I have not been able to trace either Wilson or Saunders before or after the 1840-1850 timeframe.

♦    ♦    ♦
Where was the Wilson & Saunders mill? Short answer: I don't know.

Thanks to the trails in Deep River County Park, these days you can walk the whole length of the Deep River as it flows through Section 16, from Wood's mill all the way up to the north side of Ainsworth Road.

You can look around for a spot that might have accommodated a water-powered mill. Such a mill needs not only flowing water but also some high ground on which to perch the mill itself, so it isn't flooded or washed away every time the river overflows its banks.

The topography has to allow for damming the river so that the flow of water on the mill's wheel can be controlled. Wood's mill diverted some of the river's water into a millpond; the Cascade/Huffman mill did likewise. George Earle made a millpond of the river itself.

But a mill also needs a road for customers to use when bringing in raw materials and taking out finished products. Even today the river through Section 16 runs a pretty remote course. In 1847, we know Ainsworth Road and 73rd Ave./Joliet Road were in use. Was County Line Road then usable enough that Wilson & Saunders might have built their mill just below Wood's where the river runs past County Line Road's high ground? That would be very close indeed. There is high ground near Ainsworth Road, too, but we thought that area was reserved for the Wilkinsons, didn't we?

Even if I were able to find a source that showed exactly what land was included in the 1844 purchases — lots 8, 9, 11, and 12 of Section 16 — I might not be very far along, since each of those lots contained 40 acres.

♦    ♦    ♦
Here are a few of the entries from the early daybooks at the Hobart Historical Society museum that mention Wilson & Saunders.

The earliest I have found dates to September 7, 1846. It shows (if I understand the entry correctly) a customer at this Hobart store paying here for 100 pounds of flour to be gotten from Wilson & Saunders' mill.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Remember that in 1846 George Earle was operating only a sawmill, so Wilson & Saunders' was probably the closest grist mill.[2] (To judge by all the pills and quinine being bought on these pages, there was a lot of sickness going around in this later summer; also notice that Jesse Albee paid 25 cents to have teeth extracted, and there is no accompanying charge for pain medication.)

Ten days later, some complicated business:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I chose that one mostly because on the opposite page we find E. Saunders doing various things that include providing shelter and clothing for two orphaned Hodson boys, and it occurs to me to wonder if John Saunders, the miller, was related to E. (Edward?) Saunders. Of course, I don't have a clue.


On this page, dating to July 1847, we find Wilson & Saunders doing business with Saunders & Scales, and I wonder which Saunders that was.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


The latest entries I can find date to September-October 1847, and show Wilson & Saunders making a few lumber purchases from George Earle's sawmill.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.



So, the next time you're walking along the river in Deep River County Park, you can ask yourself where you would put a mill if you were Robert Wilson or John Saunders in 1844. And I suppose you have to remember that weather and erosion have been working on the river and its banks for nearly two centuries since then, so all you can do is imagine.

[To be continued …]

_______________
[1] "Sanders" shows up now and then as an alternate spelling of "Saunders." Maybe "Saunders" is the phonetic spelling of "Sanders."
[2] "There are two grist mills, Wood's and Wilson & Saunders, (three run of stone). Mr. Earle is also engaged at the present time in building another, which will have from 2 to 4 run." Solon Robinson, "History of Lake County, 1833 – 1847," Lake County 1929, p. 59. In a notice dated December 1, 1847 (on display at the Hobart Historical Society museum), George Earle announced that both his mills (saw and grist) were in operation.

Foster a Mama Dog, They Said. It'll Be Easy, They Said

Mama will do all the work, they said. Well, she does a lot of work, but she can't do everything. And this particular mama dog has, shall we say, severe digestive issues.

But she is getting better, and each one of her seven pups is the cutest pup in the world.



(And that's why I'm having a hard time pulling together my next mystery-mill post.)

Mills of Mystery: Walton

[continued from here]


Regarding Walton's Mill, Solon Robinson gives us only the surname and the general location, "on Turkey Creek." Turning to Early Land Sales, Lake County, we find a Charles Walton, in 1840, purchasing the east half of the southwest quarter of Section 2, Township 35 N., Range 8 W.:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Screenshot from Google Maps.

As you can see, this parcel of land lies over Turkey Creek, and on its eastern side, Liverpool Road — a main-travelled road in those days — provided a way for customers to reach a commercial venture like a mill.[1]

I believe we have already met this Charles Walton before in this blog: in 1838, when he appraised part of Jeremiah Wiggins' estate, and in 1839, when he came to a Hobart-area store to buy opium and then a coffin for his brother. So he was already in this area before 1840. In fact, Porter and Lake Counties (Goodspeed/Blanchard) tells us that Charles Walton arrived in Ross Township in 1837 [p. 544], and continues: "In 1837 or 1838, a good saw-mill was built three miles northeast of Merrillville by Charles Walton" [p. 551]. That description of the mill's location fits the Liverpool Road/Turkey Creek area.

Goodspeed/Blanchard goes on to say that Charles Walton "sold to Louverman,[2] who ran [the mill] until 1848" [p. 551]. Returning to Solon Robinson's history up to 1847, we find this comment:

There are five saw mills in operation in the county, to-wit: Earle's, Dustin's and Wood's on Deep River; McCarty's on Cedar Creek and Foley's on a branch of Cedar Creek. (There are three dilapidated ones, to-wit: Miller's and Dustin's old mills on Deep River, and Walton's on Turkey Creek, the last about being repaired.)[3]

If the mill was dilapidated and undergoing repairs in 1847, and the mysterious Louverman stopped operating it in 1848, it must have had a short working life in the 1840s.

♦    ♦    ♦
I have found a few more related references in the early daybooks at the Hobart Historical Society museum that I have indexed thus far. Most of them appear below.

The earliest, from November 1836, may not refer to our Charles, but I find it interesting:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The way the storekeeper wrote that entry seems to say: "I didn't catch his first name, but I know he's a miller." (He could not have been from the town of Miller because it didn't exist in 1836.)


The first clear reference to Charles doesn't come until the summer of 1839. He is all over these two pages, selling cut lumber to the store, and receiving $6.00 in cash:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


This water-damaged page of the same daybook shows Charles, in the winter of 1840, selling lumber to the store, and buying a saw:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The first entry under his name reads: "55 ft of lumber hauled by Watkins and left on causeway of ferry." I suppose that was the ferry over the Deep River at Liverpool, about 3.5 miles from Charles' mill up the Liverpool Road.


Here's a non-lumber transaction from May of 1840: Charles purchases some household items (including a "rummer" — a drinking glass) and pays part of their price with 10 and a half pounds of butter and a raccoon skin.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


In July of 1840, Charles comes in and buys half a gallon of whiskey.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

That same summer (exact date unclear but seems to be in August), Charles furnished lumber for the building of a boat:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Beyond the summer of 1840, I have not found any transactions involving him. The three account books from which I have taken these images go up to 1837, 1846, and 1849, respectively. That boat-lumber may have been Charles' swan song on Turkey Creek, or at least one of its verses. Even if the Waltons remained on the land for some time yet, the mill probably was abandoned soon after 1840: I would expect that several years' neglect were needed for it to become "dilapidated," as Solon Robinson described it, by 1847.

♦    ♦    ♦
As I mentioned in one of those earlier posts about Charles, I have not been able to find any census or other official information about him outside of the 1840 Census, where he and his household appear:[4]


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from Ancestry.com.

Between 40 and 49 years of age, one male and one female — Charles and his wife, I suppose. That would put their birthdates at about 1795, give or take five years. All the other household members are children under 15 years of age, two boys and three girls. Without names for the wife and children, it's pretty much impossible to determine if any one of the Charles Waltons who turn up when you search on that name and that approximate birth year is our Charles.

As for his brother, whose name is unknown except that it started with S — it's possible that when he died in 1839, he was simply buried on the family's land. To this day, perhaps, his body is still resting somewhere near the spot where Liverpool Road crosses Turkey Creek.


[To be continued …]

_______________
[1] Early Land Sales, Lake County includes a few other purchases by people with the surname Walton (different first names), but none of them bought land on Turkey Creek.
[2] I have failed to turn up any records at all of this Louverman.
[3] "History of Lake County, 1833 – 1847," Lake County 1929, p. 59.
[4] Notice the neighbors listed near him: a who's-who of early Hobart and Merrillville settlers.

Mills of Mystery

Here are some random excerpts from Solon Robinson's "Lake County, 1833 – 1847"[1] that amused me:

In the summer of 1834, most of the land in the county was surveyed by the United States Surveyors, and settlers began to "make claims," and four or five families settled that fall.

One of these I found in October, 1834, in a little shed roof cabin on Sec. 6, T. 35, R. 7, at a place afterward known as "Miller's Mill." His name is already among those that once were, but now are forgotten.

I am inclined to think that an old man by the name of Ross, also settled on the same section that fall. This man was killed by the falling of a tree near Deep river in 1836. (I believe King Alcohol was there to see, and it happened on a Sunday.)[2]

.    .    .
The next family [after Robert Wilkinson's] was that of Lyman Wells; (afterwards well known as "Lying Wells.") With him came "Irish Johnny", now known as John Driscoll.

They came in January, 1835, and settled on Sec. 25, T. 33, R. 9, near where Driscoll now lives. Driscoll was then single, but has since obeyed the scriptural command to multiply and replenish the earth.

Wells had a wife and 4 or 5 children. He lived a few years here and moved further west, and his wife died, and some say the world would not have suffered much loss if he had died too.[3]

.    .    .
Walton's saw mill on Turkey Creek, Wood's and also Dustin's on Deep River and Taylor's on Cedar Creek, were all building during this year [1837]. But with the exception of Wood's they might as well never have been built for the good they have done. The same may be said of the one called "Miller's Saw Mill" on Deep river. Dustin's, Miller's and Walton's have been in utter ruins for years, on account of the difficulty of making a dam of dirt stand, and Taylor's is about half the time without water, and the other half without a dam.[4]

.    .    .
The accommodation of the people of the county was greatly increased this year [1847], in getting grain made into bread stuff, by the mill of Wilson & Saunders on Deep River below Wood's (and as he thinks not quite far enough below).[5]

A little snark livens up history, doesn't it? But I was also intrigued by the references to several local mills I had never heard of before. I wanted to see what information I could find about them (excepting "Taylor's on Cedar Creek," which is outside my bailiwick).

First, let's deal with "Miller's Mill."

Upon learning that this mill was built in Section 6, Township 35 N., Range 7 W., I consulted the 1874 Plat Map and was puzzled because it does not show the Deep River crossing that section:


(Click on image to enlarge)

But here is that section as it appears on the Lake County GIS parcel viewer:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Screenshot from the Lake County Indiana GIS Hub Parcel Viewer Page.

You can see that 61st Avenue, a/k/a Bracken Road, crosses the river in the southwest part of the section. Also, Solon's Robinson's 1838 map shows the river crossing Section 6. I think we can conclude that the mapmaker of 1874 made a mistake.

The Lake County Encyclopedia, in a chapter containing "Memorial Sketches of Early Settlers," includes this information:

Miller. — There was beyond any room for doubt an early mill seat found and a mill built on Deep River. The Claim Register, which is authority, says: "William Crooks and Samuel Miller in Co. Timber and Mill Seat." Claim made in June, 1835, but settled in November, 1834. Locality, Section 6, Township 35, Range 7. W. Crooks from Montgomery county. This William B. Crooks was elected, in 1837, Associate Judge, and a "Permit" was granted, July 31, "to Samuel Miller to retail foreign merchandise at his store on Deep River." That he had a mill and a store is certain; but of himself very little is known. It is said, and this is tradition and not history, and for its accuracy no good authority can be named, that his wife was part Indian, that he had sold property at Michigan City for eighty thousand dollars in gold and silver, and that much whiskey, as well as other articles of "foreign merchandise," was sold at his store. This last particular is no doubt true. If the gold and silver tradition is true, he must have been the most wealthy adventurer who came into the county in those early years. He made no long stay at that store but sold it to A. Hopkins, who soon sold it to H. Young, and he sold the mill irons to a mill builder, and for himself opened a gun shop which he kept for several years.

A gravel road crosses Deep River now at this locality and a few years ago some of the old timbers of Miller's mill could still be seen in the waters. Somewhere there may be descendants of this Samuel Miller.

Note. — Since the above was written there has come into my hands a little book of autobiography by Dr. James Crooks, a son of Judge William B. Crooks, who it seems was also a physician, and Dr. James Crooks says that his father settled at Michigan City in the spring of 1834. This James Crooks was then eight years of age. He says that Samuel Miller was then the principal business man of that place, that he "owned considerable real estate, houses, a store, warehouse, and a schooner." He also says that his father, Dr. W. B. Crooks, removed into what became Lake county in November, 1834; and that in the spring of 1835 his father and Samuel Miller commenced building a mill on Deep river. After narrating many interesting recollections of his childhood in Lake county he at length says that his father sold out, in the spring of 1838, "his possessions in Lake county to Samuel Miller of Michigan City," for one thousand dollars, and that five hundred dollars was paid "in gold." So Miller must have had some gold. He further adds that "Miller failed a short time afterwards." In June of 1838 the Crooks family left Lake county.[6]

The "gravel road" crossing the Deep River where the mill had been would be 61st Avenue — that is, by 1904, when these "sketches" were published, it was a gravel road; but when the mill was built, it was likely no more than wagon tracks in the dirt.

In a speech delivered in 1884 to the Old Settlers Association, the Rev. T.H. Ball said:

We date our beginning of actual settlement in 1834; yet there is now evidence, which has lately come to light, that at least one family, the first to open a farmer's home in what is now Lake county, spent the winter of 1833 and 1834 on section six, in township thirty-five, range seven west, now in the township of Hobart, formerly in that of Ross. The name of this pioneer was William Ross.[7] … Next came those whom we have learned to call "claim seekers," men seeking locations on the newly surveyed Government lands. Among these we have the now historic names of William B. Crooks, making his claim, near the home of William Ross, in June of 1834, and in company with him Samuel Miller, these selecting "Timber and Mill Seat," and some of the foundation timber of "Miller's Mill" can be seen on this fiftieth year down in the clear water of Deep River.[8]

At the same Old Settlers Association meeting in 1884, Bartlett Woods commented:

William Crooks settled on Deep River near the bridge across that stream on the present road from Merrillville to Hobart. Samuel Miller, of Michigan City, in company with Crooks built a mill there. I knew Miller but do not remember Crooks; the same Crooks was afterwards an associate Judge. There was a store there in an early day, selling a little of everything. Whiskey was part of the stock in trade. Whiskey was cheap then, and was retailed at a shilling a quart. The mill and store were finally abandoned, but the place always was known as Miller's Mill.[9]

I have not found Samuel Miller in the 1840 census of Lake County; in fact, Ancestry.com's search function doesn't return a single Miller in the 1840 census, which is surprising for such a common surname. Early Land Sales, Lake County doesn't list Samuel, either. Among the names I have indexed thus far from the early ledgers at the Hobart Historical Society museum, I find a few references in the 1840s to a "Miller, S.," but there is no way for me to determine what the "S." stands for.[10] It's possible that Samuel Miller came to Ross Township, built his mill, found it didn't pay, and got out of Lake County, all before the 1840 census.

I suppose it's no use walking along the bridge on 61st Avenue and looking down into the river around there. The old pilings that used to be visible have probably long since worn, or been swept, away.

This post has already gotten too long, with too many footnotes, so I am going to have to postpone talking about the other mystery mills for now.


_______________
[1] Printed in Lake County Historical Association (John O. Bowers, Arthur G. Taylor, and Sam B. Woods, eds.), History of Lake County, Vol. 10 (Gary, Ind.: Calumet Press, 1929), p. 35 et seq.
[2] Ibid., p. 37. This is probably the Ross for whom Ross Township was named. See Howat's discussion, which does not mention King Alcohol.
[3] Ibid., pp. 38-39.
[4] Ibid., p. 48.
[5] Ibid., p. 57.
[6] Ibid., pp. 119-120.
[7] Lake County 1884, p. 18.
[8] Ibid., p. 20.
[9] Ibid., p. 80.
[10] I have also failed to turn up any record of William Crooks, or the purchasers of the mill, A. Hopkins and H. Young.

Yet Another View of the Old Hobart High School

The puppies are still disrupting my brainwaves, so here's a low-effort post: a view of the old Hobart High School that in some small way is different from all the other views I've posted:


(Click on images to enlarge)



The postcard was manufactured by Wayne Paper Box & Printing Corp., Fort Wayne, Indiana, so once we've gone through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to retrieve a snapshot of the website I used to use to date this company's postcards and which has now disappeared from the internet — based on the "H" in the lower-right corner, and the gray border, I think we can date this postcard to around 1943 … although maybe that site was removed from the internet because it was inaccurate.[1]



Here are two sleeping puppies, a rare thing in my house these days:



_______________
[1] I am being facetious here.

Puppies Interfering with History

(Click on images to enlarge)



I was working on a new post for this blog, and making good progress, when I heard from the Humane Society of Hobart that they needed fosters for an incoming litter of pittie pups. I took two of the pups.

I would really like to finish my post, but we all know what happens to my brain when there are puppies in my house.