victoriavm Blog Posts, Griffith History, Tales of the Town

A Tale of the Town – Part Two

Join us as we go back in time to tell the stories of Griffith, from before our town was even thought of and onward.
Written by Karen Kulinski

So, in our last Tale, I left you standing up to your waist in the marsh water that one day would be the site of Griffith, Indiana.

By 1850 the Native Americans had been “treaty-ed” out of Indiana, and the U.S. government decided to rid themselves of the uninhabitable marshlands they still owned at the top of our state, but had no use for.

So was passed The Swampland Act of 1850.

Our state — really, all states that bordered the Great Lakes — were given these lands to encourage settlement.  The idea was for Indiana to sell the land cheap to Americans and immigrants alike at $1.25 an acre ($51.92 today.)

There was a bit of a catch, though. The land was mostly underwater, and the buyers would have to drain it before the land could be used to plant crops or build homes on. But there was an incentive, too.

It had been discovered that all that land under all that water for all that time was prime farmland once it was drained, fertile beyond belief. By 1859, the total amount of land sold in Indiana under the Swampland Act was 1,257,588 acres.

The first settlers to come to Griffith, Mathias and Anna Miller, along with Mathias’ brother, arrived in 1853 and settled on land in the area where the trains eventually crossed on Broad Street.

The Millers lived in a sand dune dugout for their first year in Indiana until Mathias and his brother drained the water off their land and could build a log dwelling.

In 1853, draining land was done by picking up a shovel and digging a ditch to hold back the water or divert it. I once put forth the question: How do you dig a ditch when the land is under water? The answer, you wait to do the digging until late summer, early fall when the water recedes and dries up.

Fun Fact: some 70 years later, a descendent of Mathias and Anna — Leo Miller — caught a mighty fine fish in a Griffith ditch.

Leo Miller, and his fine fish

In later years, a man by the name of Noah Hart, operated a profitable business digging a massive ditch, with large teams of mules, which opened up more land for farming. Mr. Hart called his creation Cady Ditch after Jack Cady, an innkeeper in the area.

Those early farms grew crops and raised cows and pigs mainly for their own consumption rather than to sell. Among these farm families were many of German descent like Mathias and Anna Miller — the Hoffmans, the Helfens, and the Redars.

But things were destined to change for the farm folks. At the same time that settlement was beginning in Northwest Indiana, the first railroad was built on the east coast, the Baltimore and Ohio.

Some 34 years later, the first railroad line would come through what would become Griffith — the Joliet & Northern Indiana, later acquired by the  Michigan Central. This rail line was heading to the big city of Chicago, Illinois. Chicago was, and is still, the railroad capital of the United States.

Toward the end of the 1800’s, three more railroads came through Griffith, and the Erie Railroad had built a depot in the area that would become Broad Street.

Those four railroads attracted the attention of two entrepreneurs from Rensselaer, Indiana, who dreamed of creating a city to rival Chicago in Northwest Indiana.

But that’s another story.



Read more 👉
Society Sagas: https://ghsinc.org/category/society-saga/
Tales of the Tower: https://ghsinc.org/category/the-tower/
Tales of the Town: https://ghsinc.org/category/tales-of-the-town/
History Notes: https://ghsinc.org/category/history-notes/

victoriavm Blog Posts, History Notes, Tales of the Town, Town History Museum

WHEN GRIFFITH TURNED FESTIVE

Take a sleigh ride with me back in time when I first encountered Christmas in Griffith, some 50 years ago.
Written by Karen Kulinski

On an early date with my husband, Alan, he took me for a ride down Broad Street, then the major shopping center of the town, to see the Christmas lights. I thought it a sweet gesture, never imaging what a show this little town put on in December.

Holiday garlands of greenery, interspersed with oversized Christmas lights and huge ornaments and bows, were strung over Broad Street, one after the other for almost two blocks. Plus special light-up holiday messages — SEASONS GREETINGS, HO HO HO and NOEL.

Below the lights, every shop on those Broad Street blocks were lit up, too. It was a sight right out of the movies — It’s A Wonderful Life — only way prettier because it was in color.

My first Christmas in Griffith, I discovered who made that holiday magic happen. An organization called Community Spirit. And a whole lot of townspeople.

To find more information, I turned to a 2004 publication — a young people’s history of Griffith, written by Griffith young people. My thanks go out to Beiriger 4th-graders, Jill Fitzgerald and Rebecca Frank, whose article on Community Spirit provided a treasure trove of information.

Community Spirit was organized about 1969 by Griffith resident Gale Riggle and the Griffith Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees.) The reason, say the girls in their article, was “the group felt that downtown Griffith should be more festive at Christmas time.”

Festivity takes money, so the group immediately went to work raising funds to purchase a nativity scene. It was put up in front of Franklin School for many years, eventually finding a second home on St. Mary’s Church property.

The Christmas garlands came next, purchased piece meal over the years. Summer and fall, Community Spirit members spent hours making sure all the lights worked and the bows and ornaments were sparkly and tightly attached to the garland.

All had to be ready for Thanksgiving Saturday when Griffith got festive.

The day began with the volunteers enjoying a traditional early breakfast together at a local restaurant. Then they set about hanging the decorations, with the help of the Griffith Fire Department and their cherry-picker truck.

By that evening, with lights all aglow, Griffith was exceedingly merry and bright!

Community Spirit did more than just light up the holiday for Griffith, the girls wrote in their article. “Community Spirit also put up flags along Broad Street for the 4th of July and helped with the parade. In the spring, they hung flower baskets downtown.”

And, most importantly, the girls wrote one more thing Community Spirit did. “In the late 1970’s, they worked with other town organizations to save the last remaining depot in Griffith. And over the following two years, helped renovate the depot for use as a town museum.”

Unfortunately, the holiday light extravaganza did not continue to today. Rumor has it that as traffic increased on Broad Street, drivers found the lights a distraction, especially nearing stoplights. And taller trucks often hit and damaged the garlands as they barreled through town.  But the memories live on in those who saw those amazing decorations. And now I get to tell a new generations of Griffith folks the story of when Griffith got festive in a very big way!