Pioneer History by Richard C. Schmal

DID YOU KNOW THAT --

An advertisement in the Civil War era (1860's) featured in-line skates (or roller blades), which were fastened with straps? The ad read: "Learn to ice skate on rollers."

When renting a horse and rig from a livery stable, some of the young men asked for a horse "that knew its way home"?

The Old Timer was born in the hotel on the hill (south of Costas) called the Union House years ago, built in 1860?

Before the course of Cedar Creek was changed a few decades ago, there was a bridge on Halsted St.?

In an old picture of downtown Lowell, horses are shown tied to hitching posts where the Chamber of Commerce Office is now?

Senior Citizens Park was donated by pioneer Jabez Clark to be used as the town square?

The front part of the Lowell Healthcare Center on Burnham Ave. in Lowell was once the third St. Edward Church? On the upper floor was a two-room school.

177th St. in the east part of Lowell was once called North St.?

One of the largest camps for the Indians at Lowell in the early days is now Liberty Park?

At the site of the present heavy equipment company near the bridge on Main St. there was (1920's and 30's) a brush factory operated as the Dearborn Mfg. Co. of Chicago?

The first Methodist Church building in Lowell was built in 1870 at the northwest corner of Main and Burnham?

Old maps show a large mill pond north of Lowell, which flooded many acres, providing water pressure to turn a grist mill and a saw mill?

Old maps also show the name "Theakiki" (land of wolves), the Indian name for the Kankakee River?

Lots for homes on the east side of the tracks at the village of Belshaw were sold when the buyers picked a number from a hat?

The Cedar Lake Theatre was on Lakeshore Dr. at the north end of the lake?

The 1870 Church of Christ building was built at the present site of the large bank building on Commercial Ave. near downtown Lowell?

A deep hole at the southwest side of Redwing Lake was called "Lafler's Lake" after a nearby pioneer family?

In pioneer days there was a small thriving community south of Lowell called "Egypt" with a mill on Cedar Creek and a small store?

The youth of the Lowell area enjoyed a roller rink in the downtown area? (It was in a brick building on the south side of Commercial Ave. at Cedar Creek.)

The first log schoolhouse in Lake County was said to be on the northwest side of Cedar Lake?

Bakery wagons from downtown Lowell served the farming community in the area?

In 1837 James Adams, a well-known Lake County pioneer, rode by horseback from Detroit to Chicago in twenty-eight hours? He changed horses about every twelve miles and made it in record time.

Some residents of Lowell were killed in the terrible Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago in 1903?

The number of voters in Lake County in 1895 was about 8,000?

Land north of the Wabash River was still owned by the Indians in 1822, and the land here was purchased from those tribes in 1832?

A handle factory was in business in the Armour section of Cedar Lake for many years?

One of the first businessmen in Lowell was Jonah Thorn, who built his store in 1853, one year after the founding of our town? He was followed in 1857 by storekeepers William Sigler and John W. Viant.

The 1987 book Cedar Lake, Indiana, Once Again, It Will Live by Cedar Lake historian Beatrice Horner was written in answer to pioneer historian Rev. Timothy Ball's 1880 book The Lake of the Red Cedars, Will It Live?

In the summer of 1913, the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, veterans from both the North and the South came together near the battlefield -- this time in friendship?

Cedar Lake covers over 800 acres?

Over 50 hotels and inns have been recorded in Cedar Lake's history?

The Lowell Souvenir was an early 1900 newspaper in Lowell?

Some old timers also remember swimming in the old "South" swimming hole about a block south of Oakley Ave. at the creek?

Cedar Lake was incorporated as a town in 1967?

--If you remember at least half of these, you must be an "old timer," too!