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."
5 comments:
I would know something about this farm. In 1973, as Southlake Mall was under grading work before the buildings started going up, what was probably the original house and a barn for the farm was still up, and abandoned, on the southwest corner of US 30 and Mississippi, set a little south of the intersection, with a front yard fronting on 30, with a driveway off Mississippi. That old map above seems to bear that out, with a little black square right in that spot.
I saw the house burn down one night that Fall, I believe, all the way from Stardust bowling lanes. At that time you had a full line of sight from Stardust right to that farmhouse. No other buildings were up on 30 then. Anyway, Merrillville Fire Dept showed up and let it burn all the way up, since it was slated for demolition, almost certainly, anyway. It ended up a hole in the ground. My friends and I left Stardust to go watch it!
I think the first thing to go up on that spot was a Bob Evans restaurant, and a lot of other places shortly after that!
Thank you for the information! I wonder if somebody, somewhere, still has a picture of that farmhouse.
I actually had gone through it a couple times a year or so before it burned. (I loved going through abandoned buildings!). It was a good-sized 2-storey home, and as I remember, pretty modernized on the inside. Although I would think it was the original house going way back, it had the feel of a large suburban home. It had a large barn close to the house as well, and it was absolutely a dairy barn. Stanchions, stalls, apparatus still there for milking, etc.. There were probably a couple small buildings if I remember. Another interesting abandoned farm house was on 73rd and Taft, (Rt 53) West of Merrillville, on the Northeast corner across from Calumet Cemetery. Strack's went up there in probably 1972, with the out-lot where the farm house stood left vacant at the time, or maybe a gas station. That one burned as well in the night, and allowed to burn to the ground. The old barn, windmill, and garage were dozed during the land-clearing operation before construction.
As far as pictures, I had often carried an Instamatic camera with me, and often took pictures of these places. Any that I took before about 1980 are long-ago lost. I rented a room at a farmhouse in Crown Point, (probably another "famous" property) at the corner of Greenwood Ave. and the old 9-Mile Stretch (or Indiana Ave, an extension of Merrillville Road south out of Crown Point) for storage of personal items while I was on the road, and the owner died while I was away for a while, and the property was quickly torn down for a proposed bank, and everything I had there was lost. It may well be that I had taken pics of one of these places. Alas, no help now!
Just for the hell of it, the address was 11620 Grant Street (I guess Indiana St was called that long ago), and it was called the "Skinner Farm". This might be worth doing a little research on!! Northwest corner. Condos occupy the 5-acre site now. The bank fell through in 1980, I guess. It is just South of Solon Robinson School.
Well, that's a darn shame about your pictures etc.
I suppose the Sundermans had money enough to do a lot of renovating. As for the old house on Taft, it was probably the old Wehner place, to judge by the 1908 plat map: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ainsworthindiana/5859949817/sizes/o/in/set-72157627022153052/
Thanxxx!!! for the tip! I will later look up that link and see what I can learn! The guy in that house in the late '70s was Paul Banks. I rented a storage room upstairs from him, and kept heavy trucks and scrap metal on the farm itself. Lost it all by not paying attention to fast-moving events. His death and the quick moves by his son doomed the place. I was gone for a months in '79 and all this took place in a 2-month span. The shame is, the bank plans were nixed by zoning, and the property sat vacant for I'll bet, 20 or more years. Then they built condos on the 5-acre site. The old house was un-remodeled, had a coal-fired convection furnace monstrosity in the basement, with a semi-automated chain conveyor to fire it continuously. It was long out of use. Paul had a couple gas-fired ceiling heaters hung from the ceiling, like in a garage. The rest of the place looked and felt like a 1930s-era farmhouse. Right to the wallpaper, and a cistern-pump right by the front porch! I really liked the place! When I was there, anyway........
I'll be back again looking for more stuff here to comment on! I knew Lake County like my own face! I saw a lot of changes, believe me! I watched I-65 go in, in '67-68. Saw Southlake Mall go up. I remember Mid-America Homes and the pre-cast concrete place on Colorado St! (One of your other recent posts about that farm!) Right where Target is now. My best friend lived at 1213 W. Lincoln Hwy, right in front of the truck scale. I watched the massive changes all down Rt 30 after I-65 went in. I grew up in Gary, at 47th Place and Kentucky. I used to prowl for miles like a renegade Apache indian! I really knew the area!
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