Whiting High School - Reflector Yearbook (Whiting, IN)

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The Reflector KENNETH DAEGI 1N GEORGT Mr COY AM MARIK PETERit M CONN GRJCSON AI.L.X A NDKK J WAYC GENEVA Mil I.F.R M ... EF.lv I.ELE3T1A DEWEY J«fc. Eda . THERESA THIELE VADA PHELPS LOTTIE Wll LITTt K«U. Um STEPHEN CHRUSTOWSKI m CRirmn EaoJl) AFrat. MURIEL PLACE So,-I EJao. MISi ILLY Fatuky AAiw THOMAS COUGHLIN ■: REFLECTOR SWF aui fc'i.e

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The Reflector WHITING -YESTERDAY AND TODAY The present city of Whiting is only thirty-five years old. There were some settlers here before 1889, but the coming of the Standard Oil Company then marked the beginning of a new Whiting. The town received its name from a conductor on a Pennsylvania train that was wrecked on the present site. After the wreck, the place was called Whiting’s turn-out, or Whiting’s. In 1889 the Standard Oil Company men had the name changed to Whiting. In the early days, all Northwest Indiana was full of swamps and woodland. There were no railroads through this region until the middle of the fifties. In 1860 to reach Whiting one had to come by train to Ainsworth, now South Chicago, and then walk to Whiting on the ties. In 1854, when Christopher Schrage came to Whiting from Chicago, he had to go south to Hegewisch to cross the Calumet River, as there was no bridge at South Chicago; from Hegewisch he came north to East Side and then to Whiting. At that time much of the land was covered by water. Mud Lake joined Lake Michigan where Atchinson Avenue now is. Berry Lake was a beautiful body of water surrounded by woodland. When this lake and surrounding sloughs were drained by a canal, great numbers of fish were taken out and many perished. There was a great deal of excellent hunting and fishing. Countless water fowl lived in the marshy lakes, and hunters came from all around here to shoot the wild ducks. In the fifties there was a boom, and more settlers came here. Whiting was composed at that time of about fifty families, mostly Germans, who suffered greatly in the panic of 1857. Then after the Civil War there was another boom, and more settlers came. In 1889 the Standard Oil Company sent a construction gang to Whiting to begin work on a plant for the refining of crude oil. Ground was broken in May, 1889. The plant was two years in the building, although part of it was in use in 1890. In two years two thousand people were here, and a mushroom city was springing up. The settlers who had been here before the coming of the Standard had to sell their homes and move to another part of the town. At first the settlement called “Oklahoma” was located between the two sides of the refinery, but later the houses were moved away and the land absorbed by the plant. One of the first things the Company did was to build a tunnel out under the Lake to provide water for the plant and the town. This was done so well that the town and plant still depend on the original water supply. In the first year, the Company laid out what was known as the “Village”: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York Avenues, and the North side of 119th street. Here “cottages” supplied with running water were built for the heads of departments, foremen and stillmen. This was soon the most desirable residence section of Whiting. It was the only part that (Continued on page 9) Seven