60 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



of the Peace in each. This was the first election in Lake 

 County. Amsi L. Ball, Robert Wilkinson & Solon Robin- 

 son were elected & held their offices until the county was 

 organised next year & neither got fat upon their fees. I 

 reccollect having one suit before me & think that Squire 

 Ball had two perhaps three, but I don't think that Wilkin- 

 son ever had any. So much for law in those days. 



The first preaching of the gospel in the county, if I rec- 

 collect aright, was by a Methodist minister by the name 

 of Jones; and one of his first, if not the very first, ser- 

 mons was at the house of Thomas Reed ; and from the 

 size of the house, his congregation could not have been 

 large. He was sent here by the presiding elder of the 

 Northern Indiana Conference, who resided at South 

 Bend. The next year the county was included in the 

 Porter County Mission under the charge of Mr. Beers. 



The settlement progressed rapidly this year & some 

 good crops were raised. Of the great events of the year 

 I will mention two. The formation of the "Settlers 

 Union" for the mutual protection of each other's claims, 

 for all were then squatters upon public land. 



The other was the great sale of lots in the town of Liv- 

 erpool, to the amount of some $18,000, which is eighteen 

 thousand times as much as the whole town is worth now. 

 At this sale the first electioneering speech in this county 

 was made by Gustavus A. Everts, then a candidate for 

 Senator for this county & Porter, La Porte & St. Joseph 

 & I think Elkhart. 



In the fall of this year we added a physician to our 

 population in the person of Doctor Palmer. Previous to 

 this there was none nearer than Michigan City.^ For in 

 the spring of this year I had employed one from there. 



The first store in the county was also established this 

 year. And during the winter of 1836 & 7 we, that is my 

 brother Milo & myself, sold about $3000 worth of goods 

 out of that little old log cabin adjoining the one now used 

 as a court house. 



' Dr. Calvin Lilley, belonging to the Taylor settlement, was the 

 first physician, settling at Cedar Lake in the spring of 1836. 



