Lake County IN Archives History - Books .....Chapter III Memorial Sketches Of Early Settlers - Prairie West Pioneers 1904 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com November 21, 2006, 12:27 am Book Title: Encyclopedia Of Genealogy And Biography Of Lake County, Indiana PRAIRIE WEST PIONEERS. Among a few very early residents who were considerably advanced in life was one of the settlers on Prairie West in 1836, RICHARD CHURCH. Some of his children, even then, had families of their own. He had lived in Michigan Territory for a time, but before that became a state he made his last home in Lake county, Indiana. He was one of the pioneer Baptists of the county, taking an active part in the organization of the first Baptist church. He had a large family of sons and daughters, nearly all of whom were men and women in 1837. His home, the home of his son, Darling Church, those of his son-in-law, Leonard Cutler, of his near neighbor, W. Rockwell, of Mrs. Owen, a widow woman from Wales, of Mrs. Leland with several sons, of John Bothwell, were the early homes of what was called for a few years Prairie West, all of which prairie is now thickly covered over with the homes of the German settlers who have spread out from the Hack and Schmal center at St. John. The work of that very worthy citizen, Richard Church, was done more through his children than by himself, as only a few years of active life were assigned to him here. Another of the early settlers well advanced also in life, was WILLIAM ROCKWELL, a near neighbor to the Church families of Prairie West, one of whose sons, W. B. ROCKWELL, was born in 1813 or 1814, and the other, T. C. ROCKWELL, in 1817. The Rockwell family orignally [sic] came from Connecticut, residing for a time in New York state, where these sons were born. The Church family came from New York, stopping for a time in Michigan. A son of the Church family, Darling, the father of Edwin Church, had married a daughter of the Rockwell family. There were other daughters of the Rockwell family. The father, William Rockwell, was for some time County Commissioner. The date of his election is given as 1840. His date of settlement is 1837. He died in 1855, when about seventy-four years of age. He must therefore have been about fifty-six in 1837. Both the sons left the farm and became citizens of Crown Point. William B. Rockwell, commonly called by his familiar friends Commodore, was twice married. Both his wives died, one in i860, the second in 1876, and left no children. He still kept up his interest in life and in the town. He was for some time a town Trustee. Many years ago he bought for two hundred dollars forty acres of land which contained a cranberry marsh. The yield that year proved to be large, the price was high, and he cleared on the one crop fifteen hundred dollars. His own time to die came in 1896. T. C. Rockwell, the other son, was married in 1845 to Miss Malinda Brown. He bought hotel property in Crown Point which was well known for many years as the Rockwell House. He retired at length to private life, occupying a neat residence on Court street. Two daughters, Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Raasch, reside in Crown Point, and three sons have been in business life for many years. These all have families, but not so large as was their grandfather's family who had the honor of being one of the last associate judges of Lake county, elected a little time before the office was abolished in 1851. [Note.—The name Commodore, so generally given to William B. Rockwell, is said to have been applied to him from Commodore Perry, who in September, 1813, achieved so great a victory on Lake Erie; and as William B. was born in September, it seems much more natural that the title of Commodore should have been applied to the babe then born, than to one born a whole year after that noted victory.] CHARLES L. TEMPLETON was born December 2, 1816, and became a resident of this county in 1840, and died January- 15, 1899, eighty-two years of age. He was an active and useful citizen in different lines of effort, as a farmer and promoting the Grange movement and interests, as a friend of Sunday-schools, encouraging the early celebrations, and aiding through almost sixty active years things that were good. His wife was a daughter of W. Rockwell, of Prairie West, and sister of W. B. Rockwell and T. C. Rockwell, of Crown Point. A. N. HART, the large land owner and business man of Dyer, came to Lake county from Philadelphia about 1855. He had been interested in book publishing. A large work in four richly bound volumes is in the possession of this writer. It is called "The National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, with Biographical Sketches." Publishers, D. Rice & A. N. Hart, 1854. It is a grand work, massively bound, richly gilded, with many portraits, and although it is fifty years since these volumes passed from the hands of the binder they look as though just issued from the press. With all the modern improvements of the last fifty years, no better portraits or more substantially bound books can easily be found now. That the man who was engaged in publishing such books should come with his family to the sand ridge of Dyer, and should acquire possession of so much of the wet land eastward included in the original Lake George, is one more of the facts that show how fortunate Lake county was in having among her settlers such capable men as those that came from New England, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Additional Comments: Extracted from: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Genealogy and Biography OF LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA, WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 1834—1904 A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. REV. T. H. BALL OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO NEW YORK THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1904 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/lake/history/1904/encyclop/chapteri369gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 6.3 Kb