“From Bog to Park – the Annexation of Miller and the Building of Marquette Park”

Be sure to check out the companion maps page.

Gary tries to buy the land - 1911

Ten months later a new scheme was proposed by Gary Alderman Maurice N. “Battleaxe” Castleman. As a member of the park board Castleman suggested spending half a million dollars to buy the land for a park. The Hammond Times pointed out that it would probably bankrupt the City or at very least leave no money for other park developments. During an inspection of the site in June of 1911 Castleman was asked how the people of Gary would reach the site. “Don’t yew worry about that,” said Alderman Castleman changing the navy plug from one side of his mouth to the other. “This year park will be reached by an interurban railroad in less time that it takes ter think, just as soon as the lad is purchased. We will have trolley cars and airships running every five minutes for the benefit of the ‘peepul’ who wish to while away the’r spare hours in this delightful reckreating center.” (sic-transcription exact).(Footnote: “Park Board Inspects Proposition,” Hammond Times, June 8, 1911, page 8. ) Castleman, one of those colorful characters of early Gary, would prove to be an anathema to Millerites until he was ousted from the Gary council a year later.

Castleman, who was elected to the council in November of 1909, resigned his position a year later then stole his resignation letter from the clerk’s files. After finally getting ousted in May of 1912 he announced for mayor in 1913. Jim Lane, in City of the Century, writes of Castleman: “Maurice N. Castleman personified the frontier spirit of Southside capitalists. Called “BattleAxe” because of his expertise in spitting a brand of chewing tobacco by that name, Castleman started out in Gary as a saloonkeeper and became a real estate speculator, trolley car executive, and city councilman. He amassed a fortune by combing the Crown Point land files and then buying out absentee owners acquiring title simply by paying delinquent tax assessments. Once, dressed in raggedy clothes, he bought a choice plot for ten dollars after telling an unsuspecting Chicago owner that the land was under four feet of water. He wanted it for duck hunting, he said.”(Footnote: Lane, James B. 1978. City of the century: a history of Gary, Indiana. Bloomington: Indiana University Press., page 35. ) In 1923 his divorced wife was looking for him, no one knew if he was dead or alive.(Footnote: “Is Castleman Dead or Alive,” Hammond Times, October 16, 1923, page 1. )

Despite a seemingly friendly joint meeting in the Miller Town hall on July 20^th nothing would happen for another year. In the meeting Miller decided to proceed with condemnation of Drusilla Carr’s 50 acres (Footnote: In the newspapers, and in this article, the acreages mentioned vary until the final aquistions in 1919 and 1940. Land was contested, and Mrs. Carr had divested herself of some of it in payment to creditors. ) at the end of Lake avenue and then work with the park board to buy the rest of the needed land. Of course no one still had any idea of who owned the land and Drusilla’s land claim was in court – seemingly always in court.

Two years after the court had declared that Gary could not annex Miller the question was up for grabs again. While Castleman was still around wanting to buy the land, into the mix stepped William C. Crolius, a former mayor of Joliet and the defeated Gary mayoral Democratic primary candidate in 1909. Crolius, who claimed that he had leased land from Mrs. Carr for 15 years, offered detailed plans to build a pier and run boats between Chicago and Miller with his managing partner, Captain Miles Barry, a former tugboat and steamship owner. The Daily Tribune pointed out that once in Miller they might get stranded by a change of weather and the restaurants in Miller would flourish before they could return to Chicago by train. The folks in Miller loved the idea and had been bullied by Castleman one too many times.

Crolius had made his grandiose plans public on May 8^th. Eight days later the two parties vying for the land met in the Miller Town Hall. At the start Mayor Knotts and Crolius shook hands. Things got “warm” when Crolius started in on Castleman’s reputation, prompting outbursts on both sides: “Taking a big quid of tobacco Battleaxe fired volleys of the weed juice at the nearest spittoon and in a loud and screaming voice denounced Crolius as a schemer and the agent for real estate men. Mayor Knotts punctuated the proceedings with a few words which do not look good in print. They referred to his old time opponent, Crolius.” (Footnote: “Miller is Not to Be Cajoled,” Hammond Times, May 16, 1912, page 8. ) The Mayor and Castleman went home disgusted while the town trustees, North, Olander and Frederickson were congratulated by fellow Millerites for keeping the Gary park grabbers at bay. Crolius was their man, for the time being anyway.

The very next day Drusilla Carr won another round in court over 85 contested acres of what she claimed were hers’, more than 160 acres stretching from the mouth of the Grand Calumet (about where the Marquette Park concession stand is today) to the west line of U.S. Steel’s property. The land was reputedly worth in the neighborhood of two thousand dollars an acre, but the land in what is now Marquette Park was largely a bog by 1912 and not worth nearly as much as that at the north end of Lake Street.(Footnote: Again, the acreage is from the newspapers and basicly conjecture. With the reversal of the flow of the Grand Calumet by U.S. Steel the old mouth of the river, approximately where the concession stand in Marquette park is today, silted up with sand and decaying vegetation. Between that and the lagoon in the old course of the river the land was frequently wet. ) Almost immediately she filed an affidavit saying she had never leased any land to Crolius and wasn’t selling any land to anyone until her case in court was finally settled. The victory in May was only one chapter in the long dispute. The Gary Tribune crowed happily in an editorial that the land would now be available for purchase in the future, that Crolius was a four-flusher with nothing to his scheme, and it was time the City of Gary start cozying up to Mrs. Carr.(Footnote: “Site for Our Lake Front Park Is Safe,” Gary Daily Tribune, July 7, 1912. )

The Miller trustees lost total faith in Crolius rather quickly, especially after Drusilla’s affidavit. Crolius stuttered and stammered, claiming no lease was necessary and he could claim riparian rights. But then he failed to show up for meetings and by the end of the summer things were back to square one: no park, no annexation.

In December the Gary park board met and every one of the seven members had different ideas. A Gary park board member, The Daily Tribune’s president Homer Carr, thought the land worth about a thousand dollars an acre. Board chairman William Gleason said it wasn’t worth more than fifty bucks an acre and then was accused of wanting the land for U.S. Steel for another coal storage site. One source of happiness was the discovery they had $200,000.00 to spend, especially good news to board member Bill Cain, president of Cain Construction who benefited from park board contracts. No wonder the folks in Miller wanted to be left alone.(Footnote: “Tangle Promises No Speedy Solution,” Hammond Times, December 12, 1912, page 8. )

The question of annexation was again in the forefront in the summer of 1914, but this time it was de-annexation – from Hobart township. In a Times headline story subtitled, “Miller People Want a Divorce,” it was claimed by the folks in Miller that Hobart township was tapped out of money to build or improve roads and that Miller would never get Lake Street paved, let alone a new road along the Lake and Porter county line to the beach.(Footnote: “Hobart To Lose And Calumet To Gain,” Hammond Times, July 27, 1914, page 1 and 8. ) The county commissioners were presented with a remonstrance from Hobart and the annexation to Calumet township was deferred - until 1922 as it turned out.

For eight years Miller remained in Hobart township even after Miller’s annexation in 1919. When the City of Gary petitioned the county commissioners in January of 1921 to take Miller out of Hobart township and join it to Calumet township the commissioners declined to do so faced with another remonstrance petition from Hobart. What turned the tide a year later was Mayor Johnson urging the paving and building of “Gleason Road,” an extension of the Gary-Aetna Fifth Avenue up Lake Street and turning eastward to the Porter County line. Miller was taken out of Hobart township at the county commissioners meeting Monday, February 27, 1922.(Footnote: Hammond Times, March 1, 1922, page 1. "Gary residents who have been praying for the construction of the Gary-Beach Miller road can now rest at ease. When the old town of Miller was taken out of Hobart township by the county commissioners at Crown Point on Monday and annexed to Calumet township, they were assured an early construction of the much needed highway." ) Grand Boulevard, just a dirt road, had been opened in 1916 by the Town of Miller after two years delay thanks to the New York Central Railroad.

According to an article in the Times in June of 1915 the NY Central had opposed any road building north from the town hall (Grand Boulevard) because it wanted to build a yard along its tracks and didn’t want a road interfering. That all came to a head in March of 1915 when the railroad proposed to the town that it would pave Lake Street and build a new two thousand foot long road skirting the south bank of the Grand Calumet as long as the town shelved its plans to open the boulevard. When the railroad failed to provide their promise in writing it went to court where it was ruled in Valparaiso circuit court that Miller should go ahead with opening Grand Boulevard.(Footnote: “N.Y. C. RY. To Build Big Yards,” Hammond Times, March 30, 1915, page 1. And “Gary Wins Another Lawsuit,” Hammond Times, June 18, 1915, page 10. )

Getting a park looked a little more hopeful when in March of 1915 the State legislature passed Senate Bill 165 which authorized the creation of joint park boards with the authority to levy taxes to the participating towns and cities. A joint park board of the Gary park board and Miller town trustees was formed in July.(Footnote: “Joint Board Started,” Hammond Times, July 24, 1915, page 2. )

So proclaimed the headline in The Times on October 7^th. Glowing articles appeared in October papers around the state like the one in The Indianapolis News lauding steps taken by the joint Gary-Miller board to preserve 329 acres. Those came on the heels of a tour of the site by the joint park board in August. The one sentence notice in the Times of the August tour was just below another note: “Attorney E.G. Ballard of Chicago, formerly of Chicago, was in town yesterday renewing old acquaintances.” Ballard, Drusilla Carr’s attorney who would fight annexation to the last, no doubt visited a worried Mrs. Carr.(Footnote: Hammond Times, August 14, 1915, page 5. )

Indeed, on November 3rd the court issued a restraining order stopping the joint board’s plans to set aside the 329 acres of land for a park.(Footnote: “Court Order is Issued,” Hammond Times, November 4, 1915, page 6. ) Mrs. Carr, represented in court by Attorneys Ballard and Carver, had thrown a monkey wrench into the plans. A hearing was set for November 10^th, but then hearings do have a way of getting postponed. In December the joint board met to lay out assessments but did little – a judge hadn’t been selected to try the case yet.

In any case, damper would hang over the board for another two years: a court ruled that only elected bodies could levy taxes, thereby eliminating the ability of the joint board to raise money. It wasn’t until two years later that the supreme court ruled that indeed the “Gary-Miller joint park board, although an appointive body has the constitutional right to impose a tax for the purposes for which it was created.”(Footnote: “Hardy Is Reversed by Court,” Hammond Times, February 15, 1917, page 2. )

Then in April of 1916 things warmed up again when promoters got the ear of Mrs. Carr proposing to spend a million and a quarter dollars to acquire her land, then mentioned as 240 acres, to build an “Atlantic City” with a summer Palm beach hotel, a great bathing beach, an island pavilion and a harbor way for excursion boats. At their June meeting the town trustees came out for annexation vowing to hold a mass meeting and circulate a petition. Mayor Johnson of Gary was initially opposed to annexation saying there was no real tax advantage to the City, but with annexation the city would be able to condemn land and build a park. The people of Miller were, however, very suspicious of annexation, citing increased taxes to them, contracts which would be let to cronies of the “Gary gang,” and an influx of saloons and undesirables to the town limits. (Footnote: “Miller Against Annexation to Gary Just Now,” Hammond Times, June 28, page 2. )

July and August were hot in more ways than one. A heat wave gripped the country, killing 44 people in one day in Chicago, July 28^th, a day the temperature recorded 104 degrees in Gary. Thousands of people used the beach and the mosquitoes were described as “man-eating” in the marshes of Aetna and Miller. In the midst of this the City of Gary put a “full court press” on the people of Miller by passing a $200,000.00 bond issue to build a park should the people of Miller either de-annex the desired land or agree to total annexation. On August 24^th a mass meeting to hear speeches was held in “…the dusty street before the school house in Miller.” In the next day’s reporting on the meeting the Daily Tribune also ran an article, and an editorial, claiming that the “Coney Island” scheme was a vile syndicate which would bring more saloons and mayhem to Miller. Without naming names it claimed a Chicago attorney and two Miller men were behind the syndicate, implying that the Chicago attorney was E.G. Ballard, Mrs. Carr’s lawyer. (Footnote: “Miller Beach Sought As Prey of Tenderloin,” Gary Daily Tribune, August 25, 1916. And “Only Possible Outcome,” Daily Tribune, editorial. )

The Hammond Times rejoined the next day writing that the people of Miller were not surprised at the intimidating attacks on Ballard or Mrs. Carr by the Gary newspapers and wonder what will come next. Homer J. Carr, after all, was both the president of the Daily Tribune and a member of the Gary park board. (Footnote: Homer Carr was not any apparent relation to Drusilla per The Carr Family of Miller, Lake County, Harmening, Clara B., 2010, privately printed. ) Meanwhile, that same week, the lawyers were sharpening their pencils at superior court in Michigan City as the Hitt-Hall interests, which had lost 80 acres of land to Mrs. Carr in 1912, filed suit to have that judgement thrown out. Drusilla’s land had dwindled to less than 50 acres as she paid her lawyers with land. While the court papers from the original suit in 1903 were lost, the new suit was based on an affidavit filed by the then deputy sheriff John Agnew saying that he had served Mrs. Carr a summons in 1903. Mrs. Carr claimed there was no written proof of that and besides, she had claim by adverse possession having lived on it for more than 20 years. The tangled mess would be in the courts for years.

After a hot summer of charges and counter-charges things cooled down. The news of the war in Europe dominated the papers the winter of 1916-1917. With America’s entry into World War One in April of 1917, the mills and the powder plant in Aetna working to capacity, things stalled until the war was over.

In November of 1916 the town board was able to acquire the rights to build a boulevard from the north end of Grand Boulevard eastward along the lake to the county line. The town had opened Grand Boulevard and Forest west (now interrupted) to Lake Street and all that was needed was to improve those roads. (Footnote: “Win Lake Front Drive and Park East of Miller,” Gary Daily Tribune, November 15, 1916. Click for full article: “Win Lake Front Drive and Park East of Miller” ) Things, however, remained static for the joint park board until February, 1917 when the supreme court ruled that the board could indeed levy taxes, the legislation of 1915 being constitutional. Once again there was a possibility of a joint park board. After a new visit to the site in November of 1917, the Times crowed “A Park Victory for the People” in a short editorial: “The Gary-Miller joint park board, now free from the baneful influence of the legal and political department of Wall street, has moved to get the people a lake front beach at Miller. This deal is about to be consummated.
    With a board made up of the Miller trustees and the new commissioners named by Mayor Johnson, the five years of stalling of Carr, et al. is show up. In the hands of the people the park board is now doing something.” (Footnote: Hammond Times, December 4, 1917, page 4. ) It was still unclear if the joint park board could do anything or if it was even legal.

Once annexed, U.S. Steel proudly donated the land necessary for Marquette Park to the city at the August 29, 1919 meeting of the Gary park board. The 116 ½ acres valued at half a million dollars, was supposedly “a complete surprise” according to the article in the Hammond Times, which also said that the “…corporation has been working for some time to close their deal in their effort to furnish Gary with a lake side recreational park.” (Footnote: “Gary Gets Lake Front Park Now,” Hammond Times, August 30, 1919, page 5. ) That acreage corresponds to the tract of the east portion of Marquette Park owned by the city as shown on the companion map page. I imagine that U.S. Steel acquired the land by negotiations with Mrs. Carr, used its legal power to clear title on some of it, and bought the rest from existing estates. The acreage west to the steel company’s property line and claimed by Mrs. Carr was left alone for the time being. Title to that land would be contested in the courts until the 1940’s.

There was very little news of the park in 1920 except that Homer Carr and William Gleason had a huge spat over how improvements were to be made, the fight which lasted several months spilled over to animosity with Mayor Hodges. (Footnote: [“Mayor Cuts Diplomatic Relations – Gary Executive Angered at Newspaper and Park Bd. Row Goes Merrily On,” Hammond Times, September 23, 1920, page 1.] ) In any case, the architectural firm of George W. Maher and Son was no doubt busy drawing plans for the bathhouse which would go out for bid in February of 1921.

Ambitions for the park were high in February of 1921. At a park board meeting its president, William P. Gleason, figured the bathhouse could be built for seventy-five thousand dollars. His plans included a paved boulevard leading to the park and extending east to the county line. It was likely in March that the conceptual drawing of the park was made, for having gotten bids for the bathhouse higher than expected, the road east was shelved as a future project in favor of a loop within the park, (Footnote: “Lake Shore Drive Halted,” Hammond Times, March 24, 1922, page 5. ) but parking for at least five hundred automobiles was included. The concept plan shows also the pavilion, a band shell and tennis courts.

In late winter and into the summer things moved fast. When bids for the bathhouse, expected to cost $75,000.00, were opened at the board meeting Monday, February 21, 1921 the “…commissioners were staggered by the high estimates submitted.” (Footnote: “City Bathing Pavilion to be $125,000.00,” Gary Tribune, February 22, 1921, page 2. ) Bids were for the building to be “Hydrastone” (Footnote: Hydrastone, or concrete block, had become popular in the first decades of the 20th century as machinery for its manufacture developed. The two-piece construction, while different, was not unheard of. For more about the history of concrete block see Hall, James, "The early developmental history of concrete block in America" ) or brick, but with little difference in price the contract was awarded the following Friday to the Nash-Dowdie Company of Chicago for hydrastone with plumbing contracts, signed March 7th, going to a local Gary firm. The specification said that the building would be ready to use in late June, four months away. (Footnote: Sorry, but as a former project manager, and the manager for the adaptive reuse of the Aquatorium's east wing in 2000, I can't help but laugh at this. ) The contractor said he would begin construction the next week. (Footnote: “Start Gary Bathing Pavilion Next Week,” Hammond Times, March 8, 1921, page 5. )

"Driveway to Marquette park", dated 1921 but likely 1920.

The bids had been published without really knowing whether there would be a road to the beach or not, for in January the county commissioners were balking at spending $390,000.00 to extend, and pave, a road from Aetna through Miller to the bathhouse and east to the county line, a road commonly called “Gleason Road.” The Gary park board commissioners were nevertheless excited to advertise for bids: “We will get the material to the Lake Front if we have to carry it through the sand and jungles on our back.” (Footnote: “Will Build Bath House Anyway,” Hammond Times, January 29, 1921, page 1. ) “Gleason Road,” which was essentially the paving of Lake Street, was not accomplished until 1923. The park board, along with many residents of Gary and Miller, petitioned the county commissioners in March of 1922 to pave some 2 ½ miles of roadway from Aetna to the north end of Lake Street. (Footnote: "Notice of Petition," Hammond Times, March 23, 1922, page 15. )

Another picture of the bathhouse underconstruction taken from the lake.

Bathhouse underconstruction. Likely late summer, 1921.

By April 8th it was said that work on the bathhouse was progressing rapidly and the cinder road to it was completed as well as Grand Boulevard being repaired. “Thousands of Garyites and out-of-town visitors sought the cool waters and breeze of Lake Michigan at Miller beach yesterday and today all beaches along the lake report record breaking crowds,” read the Hammond Times on June 23rd. Things slowed though, the contractor announced that it wouldn’t be done this season and then in August some plumbing fixtures were stolen from the site. A contract to Willis Slosson of Gary was awarded to remove a 25,000 cubic yard dune “near the new Gary bathing pavilion” and black dirt, 5,000 cubic yards of it, was brought in in the fall and winter of 1921-1922. (Footnote: (Dune removal and black dirt) Hammond Times, July 13, page 5. AND “Legal Notice,” Hammond Times, September 30, 1921, page 5. Bids due to the park commissioners October 10 for five thousand yards of black dirt. )

Resources are mentioned in the text or the footnotes. The Hammond Times articles were accessed through newspapers.com. The Daily Tribune and Tribune articles were taken off the microfilm at the Lake County Library.

Links:

• The Friends of Marquette Park for ongoing efforts to maintain and upgrade the park and its kids park.
• A way to donate to the efforts of the Friends of Marquette Park.
• The Aquatorium's website. or The Aquatorium's Facebook page.
• The City of Gary's website for the Pavilion.

There are several other pages on this website, created back in 1995, which need updating, including the Kids Park page where you can buy a paving brick to memorialize a loved one, or yourself, to support the Kids Park.

Page created March, 2019

© Text copyright: Steve Spicer

Feel free to contact me about this page.