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Contents
Foreword & Acknowledgement
Before the White Man/Coming of the
First Settlers
DeMotte Grows into a Town
Early Transportation & Farming
The First Schools
Dredging of the Grand Kankakee Marsh
Leonard Swart (Interview)
Casper Belstra (Interview)
Northern Indiana Land Company
The Halleck Telephone Company
DeMotte Mercantile Company
DeMotte Library Grows
Cheever's Garage
Eighty Years of Community Banking
Fairchild & Tanner History
Earl Schwanke Article
Keener Township Fire Department
(Art) Lageveen Looks Back
Fire Almost Destroys DeMotte in 1936
Kankakee Valley Post-News
Asparagus & Truck Farming
Businessmen's Association
Lageveen Remembers Incorporation
Belstra Remembers When...
Kankakee Valley Schools
DeMotte Elementary School
(DeMotte) Christian School
Mark L. DeMotte
Charlie Halleck
Walter Roorda, State Representative
C-SELM
Van Keppel Construction Company
Fire Destroys Main Building at Kaper's
The Hamstra Group
DeMotte Historical Society
Tysen's Family Food Center
Belstra Milling
The Fire of 1992
United Methodist Church
DeMotte Christian Church
Community Bible Church
Calvary Assembly of God
Bethel Christian Reformed Church
First Christian Reformed Church
Faith
Lutheran Church
St. Cecilia Catholic Church
United Pentecostal
First Reformed Church
American Reformed Church
DeMotte Town Court
Incorporation of DeMotte
August 10 Incorporation Hearing
September 1965 Incorporation
First Town Board Election
The First Town Board
DeMotte Town Council 1969-1997
DeMotte Town Hall
DeMotte Park Board
Wastewater Treatment Begins
DeMotte Chamber of Commerce
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Forward class of '52
Members of the DeMotte High School
Class of 1952 became interested in the phases of development of the
DeMotte community. The group found it difficult to obtain accurate
information but were determined to do as much local research as possible
and put in writing as much information as they could gather.
In a paper dated April 30, 1952, Chester C. Diettert said, "It is rather
characteristic of small American communities not to become interested in
recording their history until it is too late to verify information from
primary sources, from older inhabitants of the community who can remember
facts from childhood or from having heard the story from their parents who
were early settlers. To these people the class of 1952 feels especially
indebted, Mrs. C. M. Erwin and Mrs. Neola True gave especially valuable
information."
"The story here presented is therefore subject to such inaccuracies as may
be characteristic of a story too long unwritten. The authors have been
careful to weigh information as it is possible to do against such records
as are extant. It has been their endeavor to maintain a historical
attitude and they believe their account to be essentially correct."
"Acknowledgement is made for use of a paper entitled, "The Community of
DeMotte" prepared by Paul Hoffman in connection with work done in a course
in Agricultural Sociology at Purdue University dated January 15, 1949. It
has been helpful to check information obtained in our community search
against this treatise."
Before the White Man
(This history of the Indians in northwest
Indiana was researched and written by the senior class of DeMotte High
School in 1952. It has been modified and edited to a small extent by Joan
Whitaker for this booklet.)
As far as knowledge of Indians in northern Indiana goes, few of the tribes
known to have lived in this area were permanent inhabitants. The Miami
probably stayed longer than any other group, perhaps for around 150 years.
Since the area of Keener Township and DeMotte was largely part of the
marshes and swamps of the Kankakee River, it was not especially suitable
for settlement. Like other such areas the yield of furs for trade with the
French proved profitable. The Miami occupied the region north and
northwest of the Wabash River in northern Indiana in the latter part of
the 17th century and remained the dominant tribe here until the Potawatomi
and Kikapoos came down from Michigan in the late 18th and early 19th
centuries.
The Potawatomi, probably not numbering more than 3000, built a series of
Indian villages and settlements along the Kankakee eastward across the
state in spite of Miami protests. Since the Potawatomis and Kikapoos were
the last to enter the area, and since they came after the establishment of
the Federal Constitution, their stay was not a long one. They probably
inhabited this area for about 40 years.
When the Indiana Territory was organized, a series of treaties with the
Indians were a part of the policy of securing more and more areas for
settlement by white frontiersmen. The Treaty of Tippecanoe in 1832 opened
the northwest part of the state to white settlers. Keener Township and
DeMotte would become future entities because of this treaty. A few years
later in 1838, the last of the Indians were removed forcibly from the
state and driven to western reservations.
According to an early book, "The Pioneers of the Kankakee"', the name of
the last recorded Indian in the territory was "Little Mingo".
Since the Indian left no records, and relics of his presence in swampy
lands are scarce, it is not possible to give a detailed story of his stay
in Keener Township and the DeMotte community before the era of the white
man.
Coming of the
first settlers
(We are grateful to the 1952 Senior Class of DeMotte High School, the
writers of the booklets, 'DeMotte History, 1800-1979, and DeMotte
1876-1976 and various other sources for first gleaning the material used
by Joan Whitaker to write and edit this article.)
The white man first laid eyes on the Kankakee marshes
in the bitterly cold winter of 1678-79. Twenty-nine men, under the
leadership of Frenchman Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle carried their
eight canoes from the St. Joseph's River, where they had landed near South
Bend, to the Kankakee River and then paddled westward to where the
Kankakee River joins the Illinois River and flows on to the Mississippi.
The men suffered greatly during the cold, winter months on the Kankakee.
The La Salle party was piloted by White Beaver, an Indian guide familiar
with the river. Second in command to La Salle was his lieutenant Henri de
Tonti or 'Tonty' as he was more familiarly known. Also among the party
were Franciscan Fathers Gabriel de La Ribourde and Zenobius Membre. La
Salle was hoping to establish French military domination over the
Mississippi region and this was his first attempt in exploring the area.
On his third exploration attempt in 1684 he was shot and killed by a
disgruntled member of his exploration party in what is now the state of
Texas.
French Jesuit Priests founded Fort Tassinong north of present day Kouts
and white hunters and trappers began to erect shelters near the trading
post. Over a century elapsed after La Salle came down the Kankakee before
the first white man came to settle and build homes in what is now Keener
Township.
The swampy, undrained ground was bypassed for higher ground by early
pioneers coming through looking for new places to live. The few hilly, or
high spots in the area became the sites for the first settlers homesteads.
The Treaty of Tippecanoe in 1832 probably was the main factor in opening
up the northwest part of Indiana to white settlers. In November, 1859, the
Supreme Court of Indiana upheld an order for separating Jasper County from
the newly proposed Newton County. In December, 1859, the Jasper County
Commissioners made the order final by defining the boundaries between
Jasper and the newly created Newton County.
Keener Township was legally platted in March 1858. It was probably named
after a certain Jacob Keener who settled in the area in 1855. Keener was
born in Ohio in 1822 and, after coming to northwest Indiana, located in
what was then Walker Township. After the area was platted parts of Walker
Township became Keener and Union townships.
It is recorded that Jacob Keener was elected assessor for Keener Township
for a nine year period. He was also elected trustee and as constable, each
for a one year term. (The source of this information was dug out by the
DeMotte Class of 1952 and attributed to an old historical and biographical
publication on 'Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton' counties published in
1883 by F.A. Battey and Co., Chicago.)
 The inhabitation of the swamp lands bordering the Kankakee River was a
very gradual process. These lands were not officially the possession of
the State of Indiana until October 15, 1857. At that time President
Millard Fillmore of the United States sold the swamp lands to Indiana at
the Winamac land office under provisions of the 1850 'Act to Enable the
State of Arkansas and other states (of which Indiana was one) to reclaim
the swamp lands within their limits'. Previously this area was under
France, England, Virginia and the United States. The westward flow of the
early pioneers was not to leave the swamp land uninhabited for long. One
of the earliest names in the Keener Township settlement was Dr. Thomas
Antrim who arrived in 1853 from Ohio. His son, James F Antrim was born
here April 17, 1857.
Among the early settlers coming to Keener Township and Little Village were
the Fred Schwanke family who arrived in 1860 and built a home in what is
now officially Keener Township. In 1866 Acton Fairchild, his wife Harriet
and two sons arrived from Ohio and built a two-room log cabin. Their son,
Daniel Fairchild, who by now had received his honorable discharge from the
Civil War, made his way to Indiana to make his home in Keener Township in
1868. That same year the Alexander and Asa Tyler families arrived from
Wabash County.
About 50 Dutch immigrants arrived during the latter part of the nineteenth
century. Charles and Lucius Otis, Chicago, owned several hundred acres
south of DeMotte and several of the Dutch settlers worked on the Otis
Ranch on shares. Their initial experiences and knowledge gained in their
homeland and on the ranch helped them to later start their own farms.
Among those early settlers were the Walstra's, Peterson's, Sipkema's,
Roorda's, Boezeman's, Nannenga's, Kamminga's, Sytsma's and Hoffman's.
Gerrit Grevenstuk came to America in 1881 and found his way to Keener
Township where he began farming in 1891.
According to the census of 1890 the recorded population of Keener
Township, which included DeMotte was 492, by the year 1900 the township
had grown to 674.
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