Almanac: This week in south Lake County history
July 24, 2012 1:30PM
Updated: July 24, 2012 1:30PM
100 years ago
July 26, 1912
Way back, 60 years ago, West Creek township could compete with the balance of Lake county for lawlessness, and continued in the limelight until the anti-horse-thief order organized and run them out and some of those chased away are still living in other states. At that time the captain of the desperadoes was Shep Latin, who had headquarters on “Bogus Island,” in Newton county, and their trail into West Creek township and on into Michigan was dark and crooked, although they had many stopping places and harbors to put into while moving stolen property from one place to another. They committed all kinds of depredations.
Since those early times West Creek township has been quiet and orderly, until a short time ago, when a blind pig was opened in the northwest corner, on the Ira Gardener place, which was recently raided by Sheriff Grant and the contents taken away, but the prosecutions failed to materalize. It has been going since, and across the river in a rough country where houses are few and far between, and a large band of horse traders have settled on three hundred acres of rented lands. They are numerous and their stock of horses is large – perhaps a hundred or more – and the place is well fitted for a “fence.”
Sunday night Sheriff Grant and deputy Furman were wired that a man had been shot at the “blind pig place,” and when they arrived there at 2 o’clock in the morning they found a man shot through the leg. The row had started at a gambling table, and when a young Kentuckian accused some of the traders of cheating the ball opened. They were about to do him up when he found a revolver in one of the rooms of the house and commenced firing. He was Mr. Phelps, from “old Kentuck,” and the crowd retreated with one man shot. Phelps was a workman for John Black, with a farm on Sugar Grove, and he immediately went away and got a shot gun and two boxes of shells and took refuge in an empty house where the officers found him. The trader’s name who was shot is Ed. Brooks. Phelps is an intelligent young man and claims he shot in self defense, and as none of the parties had come Tuesday morning to testify at the hearing it is probable they will not show up. Sheriff Grant says it is a wild country down in that corner where the trouble happened, and he looks for more outbreaks before cold weather drives the large band of “traders” back to Chicago. Some of them have attended horse sales here of late. It is no doubt a bad bunch and they have located in the most isolated spot in northwestern Indiana.
75 years ago
July 30, 1937
“Rudy” Mionski, fifteen years old, was slightly injured on Sunday on Main street, when he rode his bicycle if front of an automobile driven by Leonard Mitchell of New Jersey, who was passing through the city. Mitchell was held for a short time by Sheriff Holley, who after hearing the circumstances released him from custody. The blame for the accident was placed on the boy, who eyewitnesses said, rode his “bike” directly in the path of the Mitchell car.
If your dog came up suddenly missing on Tuesday, or if it failed to get home for its usual bone or table scraps by sundown, or, if by chance, you noticed that the canine population was less in number as you meandered down the avenue to your place of abode, you will now understand after reading this news item that Chief of Police Erlenbach and his trusty .45-calibre had something to do with it all. By actual count after the day’s work was done, there were thirty-three fewer dogs roaming at large on the streets than there were when the sun was pepping over the horizon in the morning.
50 years ago
July 27, 1962
Crown Point library board, the Center township trustee and his advisory board have entered into a library merger effective today. The agreement culminates negotiations started April 3, when the local library board passed a resolution offering to combine the Crown Point library resources with those of Center and Winfield townships. The merger comes about under a 1947 statute creating library districts from a city library and the libraries of one or more townships.
Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona will come to Lake county August 22 to spark the Lake County Republican campaign fund drive. “Dollars for Decency,” now under way, according to Theodore L. Sendak, county GOP chairman. Word of Goldwater’s appearance, and first in Lake county, came Tuesday from the office of Senator Homer Capehart of Indiana. America’s most sought-after public speaker, the Arizona Senator gets more requests to address gatherings than any other Senator, any Congressman or Federal official, Sendak said. The Lake County fund drive, uniting all elements and organizations auxiliary to the Republican party, is headed by three volunteer officials: Arthur F. Endres, of Whiting, general chairman; Thomas F. Hodges, Gary attorney, area chairman for northern Lake county; and William H. Fifield, Crown Point realtor, area chairman for southern Lake county.
