Ligonier High School - Lance Yearbook (Ligonier, IN)

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1 XKXX i1'fJl1 C' QP -if assi.,-S+' fl ll 4 3 l l J l A PRIMARY CLASS OF 1890. Alice L. Vulluince, Teacher First Row,-.-Mamie Mc-Masters, Mattie Yeager, Jennie Rapsch, Rosa Benthin, Jennie N llanta, Emma Sack, Della Sax, Mary Vallance, Mamie Epstein, I-larry Sweetman Second Row:-Jerome Ackerman, Mamie Wertheimer, Merton Abdill, Grace Weaver, Oliver Parks, Will Cavin, Buell King, Genevieve McConnell, Will Sack, Haidee Franks, Maude NVolfe Third Row.--Harry Peck, Ray Shobe, Grace Dill, Margery Haines. Irma Carter, Charles Inks, Frank Hartzler. Fourth Row:-Alice L. Vallance, Audley Green, Charles Graham, Frank Heermann, Eugene Billman, Harry Patton, Otis Knepper, Charles Heermann FOUNDER. Mr. Cavin owned eighty acres where our town now stands. The land came to him by government grant, and like all proprietors of towns in early years, Mr. Cavin confidently expected to be the founder of a metropolis that would im- mortalize his name. Ligonier was laid out and platted May 11, 1835, the year be- fore the county was organized, and the plat was recorded at the county seat of LaGrange County. One hundred and ten lots were laid out on a beautiful tract of U land, which in former years had been used as a depository of animal bones from which the flesh had been gnawed by red men, before the era of settlement. WHY CAVIN STREET IS MAIN STREET. Cavin Street, one of the first streets E named, stands as a monument to the founder. It was the intention of Mr. Cavin : that Main Street should be the business street of the town, north and south of and : perhaps around the public square. In fact business did start on Main Street, sev- Q eral frame store buildings having been erected on the east side of Main Street, north E of Third, and organized for merchandise purposes. That is the reason that Main - Street was platted eighty-three and a third feet in width while Cavin and Martin : Streets were only fifty feet in width. But one condition, evidently, was not taken E into consideration by the founder and the first merchants: that the street platted . E as Cavin Street, now the business street of the town was laid out on the old Hunt- S ington and White Pigeon Road, a main Indiana-Michigan thoroughfare and on which E far sighted merchants established places of business, believing that business could S not easily be diverted from that main-traveled highway. It turned out as they an- X : ticipated and Main Street was soon abandoned for business purposes. U 'Ei j E ,Z 7,1 I V W A 3 ag Page 11

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iw-fl? It P' ' I QD -ij QNX-'asv e st NKXX U X , 5 WI flu We had a heavy snowfall about thirty years ago INDIANS OF THIS REGION. It is interesting to note that the Indians inhabiting northwestern Indiana, especially the Noble County district, at the time of the first settlement by white people and long before were of the Algonquin stock and the Pottawatomie nations. Individuals of other tribes were undoubtedly among them -Ottawas, Shawnee-s, Miam-is, etc. The Miamis were naturally more numerous than any other people besides the Pottawatomies, for the Niiamis were the aboriginal possessors of the country and had permanent possessions of the regions south, at Fort Wayne, in the Whitley and southern Kosciusko territory. ' U RESTING PLACE OF GREAT TRAIL. The spot on which the town of Ligonier stands was for many years a resting place on the great east and west Indian trail, and was noted for its wild strawberries which grew in abundance throughout this I section in the summer months. The Elkhart river also abounded in fish, and wild E deer and other game which furnished the food supply for the Indian tribes were 1 plentiful. : E SETTLERS. Ligonier, Indiana, like most of the prosperous cities of the state was : first settled by sturdy pioneers from Pennsylvania and many of the New England 5 states, who landed in the wilderness and laid the foundation for the numerous com- S munities which have developed into productive points of commerce and incidentally E peace and plenty. The name Ligonier was b'rought from Pennsylvania by Isaac E Cavin, one of the founders, who was a native ot' Ligonier, Pennsylvania. This city -1 of Ligonier was named after and in honor of Colonel Ligonier of Revolutionary War : fame who fought under George Washington. : U I 'J i a 1 , I - -.h Page 10

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Swv f 'ii M e is fig ...-. i -W as-',...,.N: The Ligonier Regulators, with J. C. Braden as captain who captured a band of horse thieves about fifty years ago. fThis picture was taken much later howeverj After they were captured the band of horse thieves was brought to Ligonier, and the people from miles around gathered here to watch proceedings. The Reg- ulators had decided to turn over to civil authorities all of the horse thieves except the captain, McDougal. They took a vote of the people to determine what was to be done with him. Those in favor of hanging him, took one side of the street, and those in favor of turning him over to the authorities with the other members of the gang took the other side. The vote was three to one in favor of hanging. The man was hanged to the limb of an oak tree which still stands near Diamond lake. J. E. Braden furnished the rope which the Regulators later burned on the thief's door- step with a threat for further revenge. Allen J. Ramsby, a brother-in-law of W. A. Cochran was a member of the Regulators at this time. Although he is now a resi- dent of Petosky, Michigan. He was born and raised on the Hawpatch. FIRST SETTLERS. The first settler was Ward Bradford, who built a house on lot No. 1, and who also had the honor of constructing the first bridge across the Elkhart River at this point. There were many settlers, however, located at this date in the vicinity of Ligonier, and Isaac Spencer who lived about a mile south, was the first to open a general store in a log building. He was the first county clerk, and finding merchandising not very profitable, he closed the store which was opened two years later by Daniel Stukey. In the autumn of 1844 Henry Treer, of the partnership Hill and Treer, of Fort Wayne, opened a general store, and, a year later, Hugh Miller opened a second one. Treer became somewhat embarrassed profitable fields of labor about the same time, and Taylor Vail, an influentialiand respected citizen of Ligonier succeeded Treer, The first permanent settler in the vicinity of Ligonier so far as can be traced was Jacob Wolf, who settled a little west of Ligonier as early as 18313 and those who came to join him were Gideon Schlotterback, Henry Engle, John Hostetter, and Adam Engle. Only two or three families lived in Ligonier in 1840 and almost ten years elapsed after the platting about 1846 and retired from the business. Miller likewi-se saw visions of more ,Z ,I N ' J 3 1 Page 12 I 5 'af W P Q lllllllllilllllillllllllllllll