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Many years ago, in the 1840s, 21 year old James Ewen and his wife came
to the United States of America from England to start a new home.
They came to New York on a sailing vessel. Then, they traveled to
Chicago, Illinois in a covered wagon drawn by a team of oxen. A friend of
theirs, Captain William Watts, had come to the United States from England
before them and had located at Hessville. When he learned that Mr.
and Mrs. Ewen were in Chicago, he went to see them and told them of a tract
of land about two and one-half miles east of Hessville that was for sale.
He told the Ewen's he wished they would come, as his family was very lonesome
for someone to see and talk to. The few pioneers that did live at different
places in the heavily wooded country were mostly German immigrants.
There were also a few Indians scattered throughout the dense woods.
The Potawatomi and Miami traveled along the ridge and the Little Calumet
River. They often camped at Calumet. James Ewen and his wife decided
to travel from Chicago to investigate the location. They found that
the land had been an U.S. Stake Claim consisting of 90 acres that had been
taken by a man named Charley Schrader. Charley had completed the first two
years of improving the claim. He had made a clearing in the woods and
had built a log cabin. He was then called into the Civil War and had
not returned. His fate was unknown. The time had lapsed for him
to claim ownership of the property, and the U.S. was disposing of it through
a Sheriff's sale. So, James Ewen secured the property. It was
divided by the Little Calumet River; about 50 acres south of the river and
40 acres north of the river. The greater part of the land was a dense forest
that was home to deer, bears, timber wolves, and many kinds of smaller animals
such as rabbits, fish, turtles, and frogs. There were thousands of wild ducks
and geese, and birds of all kinds. The wooded land contained many different
kinds of fruit such as wild strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries,
huckleberries, wild grapes, crabapples, plums, and cherries. All of
these things furnished food for the pioneers.
Starting in 1850, the Michigan Central Railroad ran through the country
about two miles to the north of where Black Oak now stands, and had a station
at Tolleston, four miles to the east. The railroad line ran from Detroit,
MI to Chicago, IL.
After several years had passed, Mrs. Ewen died. On October 16, 1872,
James Ewen remarried, taking as his wife the oldest daughter of his friend
Capt. Will Watts. Her name was Elizabeth Ann Watts. At the time
of this marriage, James Ewen was having a very large house built at the
site of what is now 29th and Calhoun Street. James and
Elizabeth lived in the log cabin until the new house was finished.
They named their new dwelling, "The Ewen Hunter's Home of Calumet, Indiana"
and housed folks who were traveling through the country. Also, people
who came out of Chicago for a few days recreation of hunting or fishing
along the Little Calumet River were provided with boats, food, and lodging.
James and Elizabeth Ewen were parents of seven children. One of their
sons was Henry Ewen. Henry outlived his brothers and sisters, and lived
to the age of 96 years old in 1976. Much of the Black Oak history is
based on the stories Grandpa Henry remembered and passed on to others.
Several years later, 1883, the Nickel Plate Railroad bought the right-of-way
along the south end of the Ewen tract of land and on the north side of the
river. There was a "flagstop" one-quarter of a mile to the west of
the Ewen home named "Calumet".
Sometime later, James Ewen traded land with Mr. Nimetz. He exchanged
20 acres of high land south of the river for 8 acres on the river to fellow
immigrant, Mr. Nimetz.
In 1890, James Ewen sold 30 acres of the section of land north of the
Nickel Plate Railroad to a New York syndicate. It was rumored the
meat packing companies, Armour, Swift and Morris of Chicago, were going
to move from Chicago. The land speculators plotted the portion of
land north of 29th Street for future homes for the slaughterhouse
workers. They sold some of the lots. However, the companies
never moved from Chicago. The land was sold at tax sale to Mr. John
Seberger. He bought south of the 29th Street to the Nickel
Plate Railroad line. He also bought the land adjacent to the west,
and there he built the cement block factory.
Shortly after James Ewen sold the land he died (July 17, 1891). It
seems he was killed or died as a result of an accident with a team of horses.
He was in front of the team and they spooked and crushed him with the tongue
of the machine they were hitched to. His son, Henry, was about eleven
years old at the time
Two years later, Elizabeth Ann Ewen married Jacob Nickel. Grandma
Nickel and her husband opened a store at the corner of 29th (Black
Oak Road) and Calhoun Streets. This was part of the old stage coach
road from Chicago to Crown Point. Grandma Nickel applied to the U.S. Government
for a post office at Calumet. The postal department sent an agent
to inspect the location and told Mrs. Nickel that everything was satisfactory
except the name. The name would have to be changed because there was
already a post office in the State of Indiana bearing the name Calumet and
there could not be two in one state with the same name. He asked her
if there was an old landmark that might be used for a name. She told
him the large black oak tree, which stood at the corner of 29th, and Calhoun
was often used as a guide, showing travelers where to turn on their journey
through Lake County.
He said, "That is fine. We will call the post office 'Black Oak'
and it will be recorded in Washington, D.C. by that name."
Grandma Nickel donated land west of the big Ewen house as a site for a
schoolhouse. She taught Sunday school in this building, also.
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