Lake County IN Archives History - Books .....Chapter III Memorial Sketches Of Early Settlers - German 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, 12:53 am Book Title: Encyclopedia Of Genealogy And Biography Of Lake County, Indiana GERMAN PIONEERS. There began to come, in the early period of the settlement of this county, immigrants from the old kingdom of Prussia, from Hanover, from Wurtemberg, and different principalities now united in the great German Empire, to find homes on these then open prairies and to make farms in the then untenanted woodlands. Since that early period there have followed them families from Sweden and Norway, from Holland and Poland, from Bohemia and Italy, and other European countries, making a mixture of languages and nationalities resembling the great mixture in the city of Chicago. Some memorials of German settlers will follow here. JOHN HACK was born in 1787, in a Rhine province that passed from France to Prussia, and came into' this county with a quite large family in 1837. He was the first German settler so far as known. He established a home on the western limit of what was called Prairie West. Receiving the hospitalities of that family one August night in 1838, the writer of this memorial made the following record: "In the summer evenings the family would gather around an out-of-doors fire, the smoke of which would keep off the mosquitoes, and sing the songs of their native Rhine region, presenting a scene at once picturesque and impressive." Their two guests, while ignorant of the language, could enjoy the music of those beautiful evening songs of the "father-land." Those early Germans did much singing in the evening and when out from home in the still night hours. The night music is no longer heard. Another record of John Hack is this: "Tall and dignified in person, patriarchal in manner, clear and keen in intellect, he was well fitted to be a leader and a pioneer." He had large views of government and looked closely into the genius of our institutions." In 1838 the four families of Joseph Schmal, Peter Orte, Michael Adler, Matthias Reder, came from Germany together and settled near the Hack family, and others soon followed. In 1843 on the Hack land was erected and consecrated a Roman Catholic chapel and regular religious services were held. The founder of the settlement, near whose early home spot is now the town St. John, lived to see great changes in the land of his adoption. Greater ones, of which he never thought, his descendants in Crown Point now behold. Times change. JOSEPH SCHMAL, one of the four who crossed the ocean in 1838, had quite a family of sons and daughters. He was not a young man and did not become very fully americanized; but one of his sons, ADAM SCHMAL, became prominent in political life, and held for two terms the office of county Treasurer. Another son, bearing his father's name, JOSEPH SCHMAL, became a prominent farmer at Brunswick. One daughter, marrying a son of the Hack family, Mrs. Angelina Hack, was for many years an active, energetic, well known, and much respected woman in the life of Crown Point. One of her sons, John Hack, two miles east of Crown Point, is one of the noted dairymen of Lake county. George Schmal, another grandson of the pioneer of 1838, is a town officer of Crown Point. The descendants of good immigrants become in two generations, some even in one, good Americans. The descendants of some foreigners never become good citizens. HENRY SASSE, Sr., the pioneer of the Lutheran Germans, came from Michigan in 1838, with a small family, and brought the Cox claim and Chase claim on the northwest of the Red Cedar Lake. He was a man of much native ability, he had much intelligence, and had gained quite a knowledge of our language and of American ways after leaving his native Hanover. He came with means and accumulated property in this country. Circumstances led him to visit three times his native land, so that at least seven times he crossed the Atlantic. Death was quite a frequent visitor in his home, and few remain to represent his early Hanover township family circle. A granddaughter, Mrs. Groman, resides in Crown Point, and she has one son and one daughter and one granddaughter. A son, also living, Herman E. Sasse, is now one of the prominent business men of Crown Point. Unlike the name of HACK, there is little promise for the SASSE name to go into future generations. But the results of the life here for so many yars [sic] of Henry Sasse, Sr., and the results of the much shorter life of his oldest son, HENRY SASSE, Junior, will go on into future years. HENRY VON HOLLEN was another of those very intelligent, energetic Lutheran Germans who came to the lake neighborhood in 1838. He had received in his European home quite a drill in the line of cavalry soldiers and in the care of their equipments. He was a quite tall, strong man, one to make at least a showy soldier. Unlike his neighbor, H. Sasse, he came with very little means with which to open and improve a farm, but he soon purchased some wild land on which there had been found a large cranberry marsh, and this investment made him in a few years comparatively rich, so that when he died he left his wife in possession of ample means, and at her death she was able to rank as one of the wealthy women of Lake county. She lived for sixty-five years where they two as young housekeepers settled in 1838, and of that small household there is no descendant left. But circumstances will cause the name Von Hollen, or Van Hollen, as more generally called, for some time yet in Hanover township to continue to live. LEWIS HERLITZ was the third of that little band of Protestant Germans of 1838. He was a native of Pyrmont, a part of the principality of Waldeck. He bought what was known as the Nordyke claim north of the lake. his wife and Mrs. H. Sasse were sisters. He built a new residence on that early claim, secured a good title from the Government for the land, and a pleasant family home in a few years was his. Three sons and some daughters grew up in that home, a home noted for intelligence and politeness, and in 1869 the father died. In the home and at Crown Point the children and grandchildren yet live. Another of the well known early German settlers was HERMAN DOESCHER, who came into the west part of Hanover township in 1842, with one son and some more than ordinarily fine-looking and polite young daughters. He died in December, 1886, having lived in the county forty-four years, himself eighty-four years of age, and leaving six children, thirty-seven grandchildren, and twenty-one great-grandchildren. J. C. SAUERMAN. Coming from Bavaria in 1846, then fourteen years old, J. C. Sauerman had a home in Chicago for three years, he visited his old home in Europe, returned to this country, and, in 1851, became a resident of Crown Point. In 1853, then about twenty-one years of age, he was married to Miss Strochlein, a daughter of John Strochlein, who became a resident in the county in 1852. He opened a harness store and factory in Crown Point, employed workmen in the harness-making business, and was successful as a salesman and manufacturer. Success resulted in the accumulation of property. About 1875 he sold his harness business, was elected county Treasurer, and at length retired from business and public life. In person he was of about medium height, rather slender in form, quick, active in his movements. In social qualities he was kindly, gentlemanly, generously disposed, urbane. He was a member of the Lutheran church, a useful, worthy citizen, a noble Christian man. His two children are residents of Crown Point, A. A. Sauerman, Cashier of the First National Bank of Crown Point, and Mrs. Henry Pettibone. His grandchildren are in number four, among them one young man to bear and perhaps transmit the Sauerman name and virtues. JOHN KROST. One more of many citizens of favored Lake county who by means of talent and intelligent effort became prominent was John Krost. Born in Germany in 1828, he became a resident in Hobart in 1853, where for one year he was clerk in a store: then for about six years a clerk at Merrillville, and a farmer for two years; and then he made his final home in Crown Point. He was elected county Treasurer in 1862 and continued in office till 1867. In 1868 he was elected county Auditor and held that office for eight years. He was accommodating and very courteous, he was kind and generous to the poor, the needy, and the unfortunate or the unsuccessful. He was an exemplary member of the Roman Catholic church. He accumulated quite an amount of property, and his home on Main street was one of comforts, of social advantages, of cultivation and refinement. His children have been educated. He died in March, 1890, not only one of the wealthy, but one of the most kindly and gentlemanly of Crown Point's many cultured citizens. One of his sons is a physician in Chicago, and one a medical student at Rush. One is a dentist in Crown Point, gentlemanly and kindly as was his father. One has been county Recorder, and one is in Germany, learning the ways of his father's native land. Three daughters are living, educated and cultivated, and the sixth son is a student at Notre Dame, South Bend. 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/chapteri370gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 10.1 Kb