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Newsletter of the Historical Society of Ogden Dunes, Indiana, Inc.
 Volume 4 Number 9                                                            October 1996
[This is much of the second half of this issue, all I happened to have in electronic form so far.]

LOOKING BACK
Peter Youngman, our Historian, has come up with some bits of local history for your edification.
Chesterton Tribune, Thursday, 15 October, 1925
UNEARTH SPHERICAL STONE ON JOHN HARBRECHT FARM
While at work on the new highway leading from Porter to the Dunes highway, Leonard Anderson found a peculiar shaped stone three feet under ground on the John Harbrecht farm, in Westchester township. The stone is very nearly round and weighs 24 pounds and four ounces. It was at one time used by the Indians to grind their corn into meal. It is possible that the vessel that should go with it may be found in the vicinity where this find was made. The stone shows that much work and patience was used by the person who carved it out from the virgin rock, and the wonder is what kind of tool was used in the making. The stone is now on exhibition in The Tribune office. The region where it was found was formerly the home of Indian tribes who ranged the country from Petoskey to Terre Haute. The last of these Indians left the Baillytown country in the late sixties.
Chesterton Tribune, Thursday, 29 October, 1925
UNCOVER OLD INDIAN BURYING GROUND
Road makers, who are doing the grading for the new road [Waverly Road] running north from Porter to the Dunes Highway, ran into an Indian burying ground Friday. They were working on a stretch about twenty-five feet south of the Dunes Highway and just east of the Seneca Bigelow home in a sand hill when the scraper unearthed a skeleton. Trustee Pearson was notified and asked for instructions. He gave orders to box the skeleton and await further orders. A short time afterward, the scraper unearthed another skeleton. Then another and another, until the remains of four skeletons were brought to light. All were in a sitting position, Indian fashion. It is believed that the remains of Indians have been unearthed, and that an Indian burying ground had been found. The workers have penetrated the sand hill only a short distance and it is not known what will be found before the grade through has been made. The remains have been boxed and buried. The locality, where the bones have been buried, is to be kept secret, as it is feared that relic hunters might dig them up again.

Two weeks ago the graders found a stone used by the Indians to grind their corn. Work has been partially done on the road from the Harbrecht farm north to the Dunes Highway. All the country from the Calumet river north is rich with relics of the Indian habitation, and before the work is finished it is expected that some great discoveries will be made. The territory known as the Baillytown district was the home of Indians from time immemorial until the late sixties, when the last of this aboriginal race departed for the west forever. The sand hills are full of relics and the fields to the south of them are the resting places of countless utensils used by the Indians. In times past many arrows have been found in this section. In the sand hills along the lake several skeletons were uncovered by the winds and brought to view. Deer heads have also been found in times past. A regular museum could have been made had all the relics found there in the past been collected and preserved. Now that the territory is being developed the scraper and the shovel will bring many strange things to light bearing on the history of the peoples who lived here before the white man came.


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Chesterton Tribune, Thursday, 1 October, 1925
SOUTH SHORE TO BUILD NEW SUB-STATIONS
Plans for re-electrification of the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend railroad are announced.

Announcement was made that contracts have been awarded for new electrical equipment to be installed in eight sub-stations which will be built along the line of the railroad. This new equipment will include some new features which never before have been used by an electrically operated railroad in this country.

Construction of the sub-stations will begin soon. The re-electrification program will be completed by July 1st of next year.

One of the new features of the proposed installation is a carrier current type of centralized supervisory control which will be an entirely new practice in the operation of electrified railroads. This new invention has been tested at the General Electric company's research laboratories at Schenectady, N. Y., and the South Shore line will be the first electrified railroad in the country to put it into practical operation.

Under this new system the supply of electrical energy for the entire railroad will be controlled from a central office by a single wire, thus simplifying operation to a great degree.

Six of the new sub-stations will be automatically operated, and two will be of the manual type. The equipment for four of the sub-stations will be of the rotary converter type and the balance of the mercury arc rectifier type. This latter installation will be the first of its kind to be used on an electrified railroad in this country.

The new sub-stations will be located at Columbia avenue, Hammond; Gary; Ogden Dunes; Tremont; Michigan City; Tea Lake; New Carlisle and South Bend.

The buildings will be constructed of brick and will be of ornamental architecture. Capacity of five of the sub-stations will be 1,500 kilowatts. The others will be 750 kilowatts, but the equipment will permit increasing their capacity to 1,500 kilowatts.

Electrification of the railroad is part of the rehabilitation program which has been started since Samuel Insull and associates took over the management of the railroad in July.


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Chesterton Tribune, Thursday, 24 September, 1925
SAND SAVES AUTOISTS ON DUNES HIGHWAY
Fate in the guise of a level stretch of duneland's famous sands extending along the left side of the Dunes Highway, about three miles east of Tremont was responsible for the escape uninjured of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Milgram, 752 Lincoln, and their two children, when the Studebaker sedan in which they were riding turned completely over.

Not one of the occupants of the car was even bruised and the soft sand in which the car turned turtle proved such an efficient shock absorber that even the glass windows in the car remained intact.

An elderly gentleman, driving a Ford, attempted to cross Dunes Highway Sunday morning. A truck coming toward Gary threatened to crash into the Ford and Mrs. Milgram, who was driving the Gary car eastward, swerved her car to avoid what seemed like a certain triple-collision.

A rear tire of the Milgram car blew out as the car swerved and it was thrown to the left side of the road, facing back toward Gary and on its side.

After the Milgram family had been removed from the car a wrecker was called and soon had it right side up. A new tire was all that was needed to put the car in running condition and the Milgrams continued their journey to Michigan City.


Chesterton Tribune, Saturday, 29 October, 1898
Lake Michigan presented an awful picture of grandeur last Wednesday, and the sight was one worth traveling far to witness. Only once in a lifetime did the angry waves, dash on the shore as far as they did Oct. 26, and that was on May 19th, 1894. Both times the waters of the lake climbed over the hill on which the fishing shanty stands, and dropped into the creek. The high winds from the north had lashed the waters of the lake steadily for 24 hours, and the south shore was where the effect could be seen best. From away off where the sky meets the waters, one could see a huge black something dash up out of the lake, and then go down. Nearer and nearer it would come, and with its thousands of mates make a roar like the falling of Niagara or the bombardment of a city. On, on, leaping higher and higher comes the wave until it strikes the sand bar. Then the sight is grand. High up into the air the mighty wave seems to stop, while over its crest, in graceful waves falls a solid body of water, followed by the white caps. Just as the waters are churned into snowy whiteness, another wave of even huger proportions dashes on to the bar, and seemingly overwhelms its dying predecessor, and then rushes onward, shoreward, climbing just as far up the sand hill as its fury permits, and then falls back seemingly exhausted and defeated. The sky was clouded with gulls and ducks and other water fowl which had been driven from the bosom of the lake, their home of safety, and while the gulls would not settle down and light on terra firma as ducks would, still they kept very close to shore. For a time, standing on a hill on the beach, one could see a thousand Niagara's storming the shore.
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Valparaiso Porter County Vidette, Thursday, 12 October, 1871
THE great fires of the last week have so filled the public mind that nothing else has been thought of.
THE railroad bridge at Plymouth took fire last Monday night, and was only saved by the most strenuous exertions of the volunteer watchmen who were patrolling the streets of Plymouth to save the town from fire.
THE woods about Flint Lake, and through to the neighborhood of Prattville, have been on fire a good deal of the time during the last week. A great deal of damage has been done to the timber.
OVER 1,000 cords of wood were burned on the line of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad just beyond Bourbon, last Thursday night. So fierce were the flames that trains were delayed about eight hours before they could pass the scene of the conflagration.
THE greatest excitement prevailed here all day Monday and all Monday night, caused by the fires that were raging in Chicago and elsewhere. Citizens resolved themselves into a Vigilance Committee, and visited houses and offices, to oversee the fires. It was wisely considered that an "Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and knowing that under the pressure of the Chicago calamity, the Insurance Companies were probably swamped, they felt that our only security consisted in the vigilance of the people. The rain Tuesday night allayed the anxiety, in a measure, but the caution developed by the occasion ought to grow into confirmed habits of prudence with regard to fire.
IN all parts of the country fires were raging last Saturday, Sabbath and Monday, doing considerable damage, principally to wood and hay. In Essex Township nearly 200 tons of hay was burned, and the dwelling of Oliver Bailey was threatened, but by the heroic efforts of two of the neighbor women it was saved. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey were absent at the time, and only two small boys at home.

South of Hebron the whole country was said to be in flames, and the people of Hebron were much alarmed for the safety of their town, but they turned out manfully, and fought the flames successfully.


Valparaiso Porter County Vidette, Thursday, 19 October, 1871
THE mill and dwelling house known as Cassello, on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway, burned last Sunday. The great fire at Chicago has so taken up the attention of the people that the innumerable smaller fires throughout the country are almost unnoticed.
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The Hour Glass Newsletter
George Svihla, Editor
762-5184
Historical Society Officers
Naomi Svihla, President
Donald Kurtz, Vice President & Treasurer
Jane Sutton, Secretary
George Svihla, Curator
Peter Youngman, Historian
Board of Directors
Margaret Benninger Evelyn Childs
Susan Clouser Constance Richter
Norbert Scheff John Skafish
George Svihla Thomas Tittle
Peter Youngman
Memberships:
Individual $10
Family $15
Sponsor $50
Patron $100
Organization/Business $100
Life $500

Historical Society of Ogden Dunes, Inc.
115 Hillcrest Road - 101
Ogden Dunes, IN 46368-1001

PROGRAM  October 19, 1996  2 P.M.
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Web-published 13th September, 1999. Last updated 20 October, 2004.