The cold weather began Dec. 6, 1901, with temperature down as low as 15 degrees below zero? A good ice harvest was reported. In the spring of 1902 a very strong wind in northwest Indiana tore up wooden sidewalks and blew over a street car!
The Seramur Hotel once stood on the site of Lowell's beautiful new Legion Park? Other owners were Ceiga, Tanner, Hepp and Kepshire.
When Melvin Halsted moved to the site of Lowell from his West Creek farm in 1848, he and his family lived in a deserted cabin near the present depot? The Halsteds moved into their new house on Main Street in 1850.
A large mill pond once covered many acres northwest of Lowell? The Main Street dam held back the waters of Cedar Creek to run the first saw mill in 1848, the first grist mill on Mill Street in 1853, as well as the second grist mill on Main Street at the bridge in 1868. Water rushed down a long, wooden trough to power the Mill Street mill.
If your Lowell house has a brick foundation, it is likely that the bricks were burned at the Clark Brickyard at Lowell? Your home could also be well over 100 years old.
Many homes, including brick, were moved from one site to another in the Town of Lowell? Several blocks of the older part of town have homes that were carefully moved, many of them by the Mahlers, Paul and his son Carl.
There was a railroad sidetrack that dead-ended at Liberty Street? It serviced a coal yard, implement shop, lumber yard, block plant, grain elevator and a hay barn.
Some early merchants traveled the farm roads of the area selling a great variety of goods, including many household items? Often the rig they drove was called the "cracky wagon," with merchandise of all kinds hanging from the sides.
The Alyea Hotel and livery stable once stood on the southeast corner of Jefferson Street and Mill Street? It is now the site of an auto parts store.
Farmers in the area sent crates of eggs on the Monon railroad for the Chicago market?
Beneath the blacktop of Lowell's Commercial Avenue lies a concrete road built in 1928 as a part of the Harding Highway, Indiana State Road 2?
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 to cause 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!
In 1836 Newton County's northern border was just to the south of Cedar Lake? Lake County was established in 1837, and Newton's border was moved to south of the Kankakee River.
The area near 133rd Street and U.S. 41 has had at least three names? The early settlers called it Hanover Center, which changed to Cook, and is now named Town of Cedar Lake.
An old United States engineers map shows the deepest place in Cedar Lake to be 45 feet? That place was in a channel close to the western shore.
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 Lyric, the Taylor, the Grand, the Ritz and the Palo were movie theatres in Lowell's history? The Lyric, Taylor and Grand all featured silent movies.
A Lake County Asylum for the poor was established in 1854 on the property of 1841 pioneer William Sanders, near the Sanders Burial Ground on 205th Avenue?
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.
A large grandstand was built at the west end of the baseball field at Oakland Park in the early 1920's? It was built and owned by Post 101, the American Legion, and was a favorite spot during the annual Labor Day celebrations, as well as for weekly baseball games. It was also used when the first lighted football field was on that site.
Pioneer historian Rev. Timothy Ball wrote the following in 1902: "People of the Scottish Race or their children or grandchildren comprised nearly one-fourth of the total white population of the American colonies at the outbreak of the Revolution"? It was from the Dinwiddie Clan Records, a hard cover book written by Ball, available for viewing at the Lowell Public Library.
There was a total of 3,991 people living in Lake County in 1850? In all, 1,227 persons were in the Three Creek townships of southern Lake County.
In 1900 21,091 people were counted in the three townships?
During the years from 1910 to the 1930's, the population of the Town of Lowell was about 1,200?
Edward Curtiss was appointed as the first Lowell Town Marshal on May 3, 1869?
Cornelius Blachley was murdered in 1877 across from the Halsted House at the corner of Halsted and Main Streets in Lowell?
The history of the Lowell Public Library can be found on their interesting web site at http://www.lowellpl.lib.in.us/history.htm? Among the interesting stories can be found a list of World War II veterans, as well as those of other wars, with many of the names linked with biographies and obituaries.
The Old Timer is very grateful for all the help and encouragement, and for the criticism as well.
DID YOU KNOW THAT?
A very Happy New Year will be celebrated in 2002, the Town of Lowell's Sesquicentennial.
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