74 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



next edition of this history, I shall be able to say that in 

 the year 1847, the people determined to have a school 

 house in Crown Point, which would be a credit to them, 

 and in the eyes of a stranger, add much to the respecta- 

 bility of the place. 



The winter of 1842-3 it was said, would long be remem- 

 bered — How long has it been ? How many of you now can 

 remember anything remarkable of this winter that you 

 should remember it? But few I venture to say, for such 

 is the treachery of man's memory. Yet this was the hard 

 winter. The winter in which people had to dig out of the 

 snow the neglected straw, and strip off the hay covering 

 of old sheds & stables to feed the cattle to help them 

 eke out an existence, until grass should grow. A period 

 that many of them failed to see, for every resource of 

 feed utterly failed their owners, and the poor brutes ac- 

 tually starved to death, and that too in a country where 

 any quantity of grass can be had for the mowing, and 

 where thousands of tons of wheat straw are annually 

 burned "to get it out of the way". The distress of that 

 winter was not confined to this county — it was universal 

 through all this region of the North West. The winter 

 commenced the middle of Nov. and one of our citizens 

 was frozen on the Grand prairie Nov. 17, 1842. This was 

 William Wells, a very steady, sober and stout healthy 

 man. Snow continued very late, for here we had good 

 sleighing into April. And usually we have but very little 

 in March, or as for that matter — but little during the 

 winter. 



In March 1843, the burying ground at Crown Point 

 was first opened. The scarlet fever in a very malignant 

 form paid us a sad visit. A child of Major C. Farwell 

 was the first tenant of that ground. It is an evidence of 

 the healthyness of our location, that from the fall of 1834 

 to the spring of 1843 we had no occasion for a public 

 burying ground. But in 6 weeks of this fatal spring we 

 made eight graves there. And while our feelings were 

 yet tender, we promised that the ground should be fenced 



