Pioneer History by Richard C. Schmal
Strange, Unusual, and Interesting Historical Facts #21
(from the Nov. 3, 2009, Lowell Tribune, page 4)-
DID YOU KNOW THAT --
-- in 1848 a large earthen dam was built at the present site of Lowell's Main Street bridge (now closed)? Built by Melvin Halsted, the dam held the waters of a large millpond -- waters used to operate a saw mill and two grist mills. The sawmill was busy cutting lumber for homes, as well as for a long trough that was built to furnish water to the grist mill on Mill Street and Jefferson Street. Halsted was also busy burning bricks for his new home that the family moved to in the spring of 1850.
-- during some of Lowell's early decades all vehicles, buggies and cars were angle parked in the downtown area? Can you imagine backing out from angle parking now?
-- a building on West Commercial was built for a school? The central part of the old hotel building (south of the now vacant Costas building) was built for a school in 1860, perhaps for a private school. Soon after, it was remodeled and additions made when it became the 12-room Union House Hotel.
-- we are still looking for the site of the "Oakland stockfarm" in West Creek? A fine photo is in an old history book, 1906. Perhaps a reader can help.
-- the large concrete slab on the north side of Washington Street was the site of the Wilbur Lumber Yard? It was built about 1898 to sell lumber, coal, and cement blocks, and a railroad sidetrack went through the large complex. -- an early Lowell barbershop offered "hot water tub baths, soap and towels included"? McCarty's corner shop also offered a laundry service for a time.
-- during the years 1912 to 1933 shoppers and visitors could ride the trolley from Crown Point to downtown Gary? The ride lasted 55 minutes. It began in Crown Point on Main Street a short way south of Joliet Street, where there was a "Y" turnaround. To get to the trolley from Lowell, an old bus was available twice a day to Crown Point. It was jokingly called the "Jitney Bus" and also delivered packages between the two towns.
-- there was a bad passenger train wreck at the Lowell crossing in 1914? For years passenger trains picked up mail as they sped by, but this time one of the mail bags was thrown into a switch, which caused the wreck.
-- there once was a story told that some of the early pioneer families wrote to their relatives in the east to ask them to send some seeds "from those pretty yellow flowers we had in our yard"? Their relatives obliged, and quickly sent packages of dandelion seeds!
-- the price to build a new house in the south county area during the early 1900's was from $3,000 to $6,000?
-- the Town of Schneider was named after Fred J. Schneider? The honor was given him in appreciation of the labor and material given at the time of the construction of the New York Central Railroad in 1905.
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