Whiting High School - Reflector Yearbook (Whiting, IN)

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SUPERINTENDENT W. W. HOLLIDAY 6

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19 ERNEST VATER Joke Editor DONALD PARKS Athletic Editor DONALD SPURRIER Editor in Chief HAROLD DAEGLING Business Manager GEORGE BENSON Cartoonist MARY AGNES GROGAN Assistant Editor 5

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19 n I listory of Whiting WHITING derived its name from a conductor on a Lake Shore freight train which was wrecked near the present station. The company built a siding to avoid similar accidents and called the place “Whiting’s turn out,” or Whitings. When the Standard Oil Company came in 1889 some of the office men of the Stand- ard objected to the awkward final “s” of Whitings, and succeeded in changing the word to its present form. The first Pennsylvania Station was at Berry Lake and was called Eggers. The Whiting stop of the Pennsylvania was established in 1889 and was called “Fields” for a short time. The station site was originally south of 119th Street, but was soon moved to the north side of 119th Street crossing. The present sta- tion was built in 1892. Ground was broken by the Standard Oil Company in May, 1889, by William Barstow who had charge of the first con- struction gang. The refinery was two years in building, although a part of the plant was put in operation in 1890. The establishment of the plant had a great deal to do with the growth of the popula- tion, for within two years the population of two thousand people had gathered. Year by year, additions were made until it had grown to the famous Standard Oil Company of the present day. An experienced engineer sunk a shaft and drove a tunnel under Lake Michigan to supply the millions of gallons of water required in the refining of the oil. While all this was taking place at the plant, a mushroom city was building. Stores were being opened in the rough board shacks. Gradually shacks were replaced by sub- stantial frame buildings so that early in the year 1891 many of the company’s dwellings were occupied. East of the Pennsylvania tracks was the business cen- ter as well as the resident district. Whiting in 1860 A VISITOR coming to Whiting about the year 1860, or in the middle of the fifties would have found transporta- tion a serious difficulty. If the stranger came by rail as he might have done after 1853, it was necessary to leave the train at Ainsworth, as South Chicago was then called, and walk the ties five miles to Whiting. If he came on foot or horse conveyance, he would have found a great scarcity of roads and bridges. Until the advents of the railroads, the swamps and sloughs of the northwest corner of Indiana were a wilderness, unbroken except by an occasional hunting or fishing party. Christopher Schrage and family came to Whiting from Chicago in 1854. They found it necessary to travel south as far as Hegewisch, in order to get to Chitten- den bridge over the Calumet river, as South Chicago did not have a bridge at that time. From Hegewisch they traveled on the so-called Indian Ridge to East Side, where they found a passable trail near the lake to Whiting. There were no bridges to the west or south, except ITohman’s bridge (now Hammond). Boats were common enough and a foot traveler could usually hire one boat to make a crossing. Transportation by water was usually inconvenient, for, although there