Frederick and Fredericke

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Fredericke and Frederick Suhr. Images from findagrave.com.

Returning to the Harms 73rd Avenue farm, we left off in 1873 when Mary Chester bought the lower forty of the 80-acre parcel.

In September 1874, Mary lost her husband, Charles. In November, she sold her 40 acres to a German immigrant family by the name of Suhr, lending them $921 of the $1,000 purchase price.


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Image courtesy of the Eldon Harms family.

I did not recognize that name at first, but I should have: from the early days of this blog, when I was researching the Chester Cemetery, as that is the final resting place of the couple who bought these 40 acres. Back then, I was able to find very little information on them: just the 1880 Census showing Frederick and Fredericke, along with their 27-year-old son, Henry, farming somewhere in Ross Township.

Since 2009, I have discovered findagrave.com, which, through the collective effort of many people, has become a remarkable resource. From information there, I can now fill in some of the missing background, as well as post photos of the Suhrs (above) from the same source.

Frederick and Fredericke (Lichtwarle) Suhr had been married in Germany, their native land, where Frederick worked as a miller. (It was Fredericke's second marriage; her first had produced one son, Charles Schmidt, named for his father.[1]) They came to the U.S. in 1870, evidently just missing the census, and brought with them their three children: Fredrika, Henry, and Emma.[2] They lived in South Chicago at first, but, as we see from our documents above, by 1874 the family moved to Indiana.

Their children all married — most importantly, Emma, in 1887, to Conrad Bender, a man prominent enough in Porter County to rate a biographical sketch in a regional history book, whence I have gleaned some of this information.[3] The other children, Fredrika and Henry, appear to have spent much of their married lives in Illinois.

The Suhrs evidently did well enough on their farm to pay off their mortgage by 1880.

In 1882, at only 65 years of age, Fredericke Suhr died. She was buried in the Chester Cemetery, west of their farm. Frederick then sold the farm and left Indiana to spend the next 15 years in Illinois, probably with one or both of his married children there. He died in 1897, and they brought his body back to Ainsworth, to rest beside Fredericke.

Through their daughter, Emma Bender, their descendants were spread around northwest Indiana. Emma, who died in 1918, was survived by seven children: "Edward F. Bender, of Gary; Mrs. Martha Lute, of Hobart; Mrs. Ida Schenelter of Crown Point; Mrs. Bertha Malone, who lived with her mother in Hobart; Albert C. Bender and Frank J. Bender, who live on and operate the Bender farm in Portage township and Walter F. Bender, of Chesterton."[4]

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The real estate transaction we're looking at brought up two other names I recognize from past posts. The mortgage of the land in October 1874 was acknowledged before Justice of the Peace Horace Marble, whose 140-acre parcel just south of Ainsworth included the cemetery. (He was listed there, as a farmer, in the 1870 Census, but by 1880 had moved to Hobart and become a "commission merchant.")


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The Horace Marble farm as it appeared on the 1874 Plat Map. Hickory Top had not yet been renamed "Ainsworth."

The assignment of the mortgage, in December 1874, by Mary Chester to her son, Henry, involved J.P. Jesse B. Albee.

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[1] Pictorial and Biographical Record of La Porte, Porter, Lake and Starke Counties, Indiana. Chicago: Goodspeed Brothers, 1894.
[2] "Long Illness Proves Fatal to Mrs. E. Bender," Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso), Oct. 20, 1933 (transcribed at findagrave.com).
[3] Goodspeed (1894).
[4] "Long Illness Proves Fatal," 1933.

Climbing False Buckwheat

Lately this vine has been growing so vigorously, not only did it climb up my old apple tree, but great lengths of it are growing over the goldenrod around the tree, weighing it down.


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I found it hard to identify because Newcomb's Wildflower Guide expects you to know how many petals a wildflower's blossoms have. And among all these white appendages, I wasn't sure whether I was looking at fruit or flower.



Eventually I just had to go paging through the "vine" parts of the book, looking for a resemblance … which I found in the drawing of Climbing False Buckwheat. Newcomb says the tiny blossoms have five regular parts. The bigger, frilly, oval or teardrop-shaped things are the fruit.



Perhaps because what's shown in this photo is the farthest growth of the vine, hence the youngest, the stem hasn't turned red yet. Here is an older part, showing the distinctive red stem and heart-shaped leaf.

Little Jerks of Ainsworth

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Here's one of the little jerks who've been nibbling on my tomatoes all summer: a Tomato Fruitworm.

They grow up to be really boring moths.

"A Decent, Sober Indian Woman"

While looking through some land title abstracts at the Merrillville/Ross Township Historical Society, I came across this strange document:


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Image courtesy of the Merrillville/Ross Township Historical Society.

What struck me was Edward Cicott's description of his aunt-by-marriage: "a decent, sober Indian woman as capable to taking care of any property and managing her property as most Indian persons are." In all of the title documents I've looked at, I have never encountered any such characterization. The affidavits I've seen have dealt with factual matters: "I know So-and-so to be who he says he is," or "I was well acquainted with Such-and-such and she died five years ago."

I suppose the Indian Affairs Bureau wanted this affidavit to ensure (or to give the appearance of ensuring) that Me-shaw-ke-to-quay was not being taken advantage of in the sale of her land.

The land she was selling was Section 36, Township 36 North, Range 8 West of the Second Principal Meridian:


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Image from 1939 Plat Book. Don't ask me to explain Clark and Dearborn Streets.

I have marked the Hoffman eight acres at the section's southern edge because the abstract in question came to us through the purchase of that land in 1924.

Earlier in the abstract is a statement that Me-shaw-ke-to-quay held formal title to the land through a treaty made in 1828:


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Image courtesy of the Merrillville/Ross Township Historical Society.

This may be what is meant by the term "floating claim." Per the treaty, Me-shaw-ke-to-quay was entitled to select two sections of undeveloped land within a certain region. This Section 36 was one of her selections. I don't quite understand the timeline: Me-shaw-ke-to-quay sold the land in 1836, but her selection of it wasn't formally approved in Washington until 1837, if this abstract is correct.

All I know about Me-shaw-ke-to-quay is that she was Potawatomi, and married a white man, George Cicott. He is almost as elusive. A 1913 history of Jefferson Township, Cass County,[1] gives us a little information:

George Cicott was the first white man to set foot within the present boundaries of this township. He was a French-Canadian who for many years lived and traded with the Pottawattomie Indians and married an Indian wife.

The Indians looked upon him as one of their number and he was, so far as the rights and privileges of the tribe were concerned. By the treaty of 1826 a reservation of over one thousand acres in the southern part of the township was ceded to him, as were also other tracts of land, including the present site of Logansport. From the sale of these lands he accumulated quite a fortune. Immediately after the cession of these lands in 1826, or possibly 1827, Mr. Cicott settled on his reservation as what was afterwards known as Georgetown, and opened a trading post and dealt almost exclusively with the Indians, as there were at the time no white settlers in the township. He erected the first mill in the township in 1829 near the present site of Georgetown … Mr. Cicott died about 1833.[2]

George had an older brother, Zachariah, who seems to be a bit better known, and this essay about Zachariah gives some interesting context.

In spite of the "fortune" that George Cicott accumulated for himself, by 1836 his widow was "poor and destitute," according to our title abstract:


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This image, and the images below, courtesy of the Merrillville/Ross Township Historical Society.



I cannot identify the purchaser, Daniel Jackson.

An interpreter was involved in at least part of the transaction:



Everyone (except perhaps the buyer) was in Cass County at that time. I have no evidence that Me-shaw-ke-to-quay ever lived on this Section 36.

In addition to the affidavit of her nephew with which I began this post, another trader named George W. Ewing certified, in 1838, to Me-shaw-ke-to-quay's competence to conduct the transaction …



… but based on what I've learned about him, I wouldn't take his word for it. (And I'm not sure Edward V. Cicott was any better.)

George Ewing uses much the same language as Edward Cicott did to describe Me-shaw-ke-to-quay: "sober, decent and prudent." Now, I can understand "sober" and "prudent," but what does "decent" have to do with competence to sell one's land?

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[1] Powell et al. (eds.) History of Cass County, Indiana. Chicago and New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1913. Reproduced at https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=exgVAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA616&hl=en.
[2] Most sources give 1833 or 1832 as the year of George Cicott's death; it's interesting that Edward Cicott gives it as 1830 in his affidavit.