SOLON ROBINSON, 1836 65 



Establishment of Lake C. H. Post Office 



[Printed Circular, with A. L. S., Indiana State Library] 



CIRCULAR ! ! 

 LAKE COUNTY POST-OFFICE MAY 1st. 1836. 



SIR 



A New County, called 'LAKE', has recently been 

 formed in the North West corner of INDIANA, which 

 includes the "extreme South Bend of Lake Michigan;" 

 it is 16 miles wide & about 32 long. 



Near the centre of this County, 13 miles South of the 

 Lake, 35 S. E. of Chicago, & 35 S. W. of Michigan City 

 la., on a new mail route from which to Peoria 111., the 

 P. M. Gen'l has just established a new Post Office called 

 "Lake C. H.", to which all communications for me, or 

 any other person you may know to be a resident of this 

 County, particularly of that part of it called Robinson's 

 Prairie, you will please forward direct to this Office. 

 Respectfully Yours &c. 



Solon Robinson. P. M. 



N. B. You will also send all papers to this Office for 

 Messrs Hammel & Henning — 1 



I send by Mr. Wells, 2 the bearer seven bundles of furs 

 — containing each 50, except one bundle of Coon which 

 has 29 Coon — 13 Muskrat & 1 Mink which with the 7 

 Mink delivered makes up the bundle — The 3 bundles 

 delivered, with them make up 500 — 100 of which are 



1 This note, written at the bottom of the printed circular, indi- 

 cates one phase of activity at the general store which Robinson 

 operated at Lake Court House. Mrs. L. F. Bennett, in Centennial 

 Notes, 191G, in Scrapbook No. 1 of the Porter County Historical 

 Society, says that Robinson was a John Jacob Astor fur trader, 

 an interesting statement which I have not seen elsewhere, and 

 have not otherwise been able to confirm. The trading establish- 

 ment of Jeremiah Hamell and James L. Hening was not far from 

 the site of Valparaiso, Porter County. Hamell represented Porter 

 and Newton counties in the General Assembly, 1837-38. 



7 Probably Henry Wells, a prominent early settler of Lake 

 County, and associate of Robinson. 



