Lake County 1870 (northern half)

(Click to enlarge)

Via the U. of Alabama, from Alvin J. Johnson, Johnson's Indiana (New York: A.J. Johnson, c.1870).

Merrillville is still "Merrittsville." No Ainsworth, at least not in Indiana. There is one just over the border in Illinois, along a railroad that may be either the Michigan Southern or the Cincinnati, Peru & Chicago — hard to tell on this map. Those Ainsworths got around, didn't they?

Miller, but no Gary. Robertsdale, but no Whiting.

* * *
Freight trains still stop here in Ainsworth — when their own train-traffic reasons require it — occasionally blocking State Road 51. Sometimes they stop so quietly that if I'm inside the house and not paying attention I don't realize the train has stopped rather than just passed out of hearing. But presently the continual whoosh ... whoosh ... whoosh of cars down Ainsworth Road draws my notice, and a glance out the window confirms: stopped freight train. The cars are looking for a way around the train, and it's either make a U-turn and go back north on State Road 51, or turn east onto Ainsworth Road. Sometimes the train stops for 20 minutes, or more, while some drivers sit there — fuming, or listening to the radio, or shouting into their cellphones, "Hey, I'm going to be late — yeah, there's a damn freight train..." or just thinking about how their lives have turned out — and others drive around in unaccustomed routes or back roads they've known for years, looking for a clear crossing. So at least in that way the Grand Trunk Railroad still has a powerful effect here in the ghost of Ainsworth.