The 1874 Plat Map shows 160 acres straddling Mississippi Street, on the south side of present-day U.S. 30, owned by Daniel and Sybil Underwood.
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These days, of course, Southlake Mall sprawls over half of it, the other half teems with restaurants and hotels, and I-65 roars past its western border.
My imagination is not good enough to turn that into a family farm, much less virgin woodland or prairie.
The earliest record I can find of the Underwood farm is the purchase in October 1852 of the west half by Daniel Underwood (Early Land Sales, Lake County).
Daniel was the son of Harmon and Mary (Mather) Underwood, both natives of New England who had moved to Ohio by the time Daniel was born in 1828. Sometime after 1840 the family moved to Lake County, Illinois, and it was there that, on November 7, 1854, Daniel married Sybil Huntley.
Sybil was likewise of New England stock. Her parents were Nehemiah and Lucy (née Dudley). This family, too, had relocated to Ohio, and eventually to Lake County, Illinois (with a stop in Winnebago County per the 1840 Census). If you look at the 1874 map above, you can find Sybil's younger brother, Nehemiah Jr., owning 40 acres north of Daniel and Sybil's farm.[2]
The 1860 Census shows Nehemiah and Lucy Huntley, along with Nehemiah Jr., living in the household of Daniel and Sybil Underwood and their two young daughters. Harmon and Mary Underwood are living nearby with two of their adult children, John and Ann. Harmon, as we already know, had bought the 160 acres that eventually became the Willy farm in 1852, and sold them to John in 1854.
Between 1854 and 1880, Daniel and Sybil had six children that we know of: Mary, Emma, Florence (or Flora), Clara, Frank, and Jessie.
In 1886, Sybil unexpectedly died.
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Crown Point Register, October 14, 1886.
The location given for Daniel and Sybil's marriage is not consistent with records currently available. The obituary mentions a child who did not survive Sybil; that was Flora, who died in 1884.
Daniel never remarried. He remained on the farm with three of his adult children: Frank and Clara, who were unmarried, and Mary, who was the widow of Jackson Castle. (Jackson had grown up on the old Castle-Lathrop farm north of Ainsworth.)
Findagrave.com tells us that Jackson and Mary had lost a little daughter, but the 1900 Census tells us that a son, Harry, survived and was growing up on the Underwood farm.
The 1910 Census shows Daniel Underwood still on the farm. His household now included another grandson, Willis Saxton, the child of Jessie Underwood, who had married Bertram Saxton in 1895 and died of puerperal fever nine days after giving birth to Willis. (The other surviving child of that marriage was living with Bertram closer to Merrillville.)
Daniel Underwood died in 1912.
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The Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 14 May 1912.
That is the only notice I could find of his death. The Hobart Gazette said nothing about him, which is odd for such a long-time resident. The issues of the Hobart News that might have said something are missing from the microfilm.
The farm apparently passed to Daniel's children, or one of them. Frank Underwood's name is printed on the farm in the 1926 Plat Book, although the 1920 Census seems to place the household of Frank and his two sisters somewhere closer to Merrillville. They might have been living in town, possibly in the Burge-Underwood house, and renting out the farm.
Although the land appears under Frank's name in the 1939 Plat Book, by March of 1940[3] it had been bought by John and Ethel Sunderman.
John Sunderman identified himself as farmer in both the 1940 and 1930 censuses, but he was also involved, along with his father, John Sr., and his brother, Howard,[4] with the Sunderman Construction Company, a prominent local road-building firm.[5] Back in the 1920 Census, John Jr. had given his occupation as a housing contractor.[6] He was then living in Gary with his first wife, Katherine, and their two sons. Within ten years he had taken up dairy farming and moved his family to Ross Township. The enumerator of the 1930 Census records that John and Katherine owned their farm, and from the few landowners who appear near them in the census (there was a lot of farm-renting going on), I gather they were somewhere in the vicinity of the Underwood farm, but I can't find them on any relevant plat map.
The history train will now make an unscheduled stop at Gossip City to pick up some forgotten baggage.
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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 19 Nov. 1932.
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Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 25 Nov. 1932.
And thus the 1940 Census shows John Sunderman on the Ross Township farm with his new wife, while Katherine is living in Gary with their two grown sons, John and William.
The 1950 Plat Book shows the farm still in its 1874 configuration, owned by J.C. and E.E. Sunderman. The 1972 Plat Book shows a change:
Sometime after 1950, apparently, the Sundermans had sold the west half of their farm, and purchased another half-quarter-section north of U.S. 30.
By 1972, though, John Sunderman was gone; he had died January 31, 1967 (Indiana Death Certificates). And Ethel died on May 17, 1972.
In the summer of 1973, construction of Southlake Mall began.
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Vidette-Messenger, 6 June 1973.
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[1] Possibly this Henry Wells? Early Land Sales, Lake County shows a whole lot of land purchased under that name.
[2] I have a story about him that we will get to some other time.
[3] "Merrillville," The Hammond Times, 28 Mar. 1940.
[4] "Hold Rites For Gary Highway Builder Today," Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 6 July 1935.
[5] "The Sunderman company is one of the largest road contracting firms in the state." "Contract Was Not Sub-Let," Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.), 19 Aug. 1931.
[6] In the Occupation and Industry columns, the enumerator crossed out "laborer" and "steel mills" to substitute "contractor" and what looks like "house."
