Pioneer History by Richard C. Schmal

Before 1832, Deida Young McCarty, born in 1796, was traveling by oxen from Richmond, Indiana, with her husband Benjamin McCarty as the family was headed for LaPorte County, Indiana, where Benjamin became the first sheriff and later was a probate judge. They moved to Porter County in 1836 where they took a claim in the central part of the county where Benjamin platted the pioneer town of Portersville, which is now the central part of the Porter County seat, Valparaiso, where he served as Postmaster from 1836 to 1839. His influence helped to place the county seat on his land. Looking for a new challenge, Deida's husband became interested in forming a new county, that of Lake. The early settlers were at odds as to where the new county court house would be built. Benjamin wanted the new site to be at Cedar Lake. He bought the Dr. Calvin Lilley claim at the northeast part of Cedar Lake in 1839, land that included a busy tavern, which Deida and her children helped to run for several years. McCarty built a comfortable house for his family on the east side of the lake and soon laid out a new town on a map, a town he called "West Point"*, and which he began to promote for the site of the new county seat. But due to the powerful influence of Crown Point pioneers and others, the present court house was chosen.

Deida's husband, a quick tempered man, provoked by the loss of the county seat on his land, quickly abandoned his land, sold the property, and bought a farm one half mile south of the little village of Tinkerville, now Creston. He soon constructed a grist mill on Cedar Creek to the east of his new home, now near the present site of Lake Dalecarlia.

Deida continued to make their home life a pleasant one and her quiet, even temper helped to balance the judge's fiery, quick one.

Both Deida and her husband were well educated and leaders in whatever community they lived, were used to living well, and were always well dressed.

They had two daughters, Hannah and Candace, and six sons: Enoch Smiley, William Pleasant, Franklin, Fayette Asbury, Morgan and Jonathan. When the McCarty family moved to Lake County in 1839 the older children were young men and women, more cultivated and better educated than many, quite polished and dignified, the result of the excellent home training by their mother, Deida, and their father, Benjamin, who never spared any expense when training their children.

Two of her sons became school teachers in Lake County. William Pleasant McCarty married Sarah, daughter of Rev. G. Taylor of Pleasant Grove. Enoch Smiley McCarty married a girl from White Post. Fayette traveled all over the west and south after his fiancée was killed by Indians. Candice married George Belshaw and moved to Oregon. Hannah married Israel Taylor, son of Adonijah Taylor. Franklin married Catherine, daughter of Esther Ann and Hiram Scritchfield. Franklin was killed at Nashville in 1864, during the Civil War. He was a member of the 12th Cavalry.

The older boys brought the finest of saddle horses to Lake County, each outfitted with expensive saddles and harnesses. The boys had the best of clothes, manners and culture, and with the whole family, were an asset to Lake County.

After raising a large family and helping her husband as he pioneered in three counties, Deida Young McCarty died at the age of 52 on March 8, 1848, and was buried in the McCarty family cemetery that was on their farm, along the road west of the house. Other family members buried in the little graveyard included Emily Young, daughter of James M.; a son of James and Sally Young, died 1853; and Sally Young, wife of James, who died in 1854.

In 1854 Benjamin McCarty sold his grist mill to the father of Henry Carsten and traveled to Iowa with his son William P. It is believed that they later traveled on to Oregon to join other relatives.

The following is a quote from an old issue of the Lowell Tribune: "Descendents of the grand old Judge and Deida are the kind of folks who populate southern Lake County and make it the ideal American Community."

* NOTE -- The Town of West Point was platted and mapped but never became a reality. It was to be near the present site of the intersection of Morriss Street and 133rd Av.e, former sites of the Kennedy and Coleman Hotels.