Liverpool was the original county seat of
Lake County, Indiana
Lake County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. In 2020, its population was 498,700, making it Indiana's second-most populous county. The county seat is Crown Point. The county is part of Northwest Indiana and the Chicago metropo ...
, and one of the oldest towns in the area. Today, another settlement on the same site, named "Liverpool" after the former town, is a neighborhood of
Lake Station, Indiana
Lake Station is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 12,572 at the 2010 census.
History
Initially, the site of modern Lake Station was the starting point of two Amerind trails leading to Fort Dearborn.Workers of ...
.
History
At the start of 1836, the land that Liverpool would occupy was still owned by
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...
Amerinds. However, under the
Treaty of Tippecanoe
The Treaty of Tippecanoe was an agreement between the United States government and Native American Potawatomi tribes in Indiana on October 26, 1832.
Treaty
On October 26, 1832, the United States government entered negotiations with the Native ...
, some of the Potawatomi were given certificates that allowed them to claim parcels of land. John Chapman bought one of these certificates, giving him ownership of section 24 of township 36 north of range 8 west. At the time,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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was a small but rapidly growing harbor town, and Chapman intended to make a city large enough to rival it. It joined the other four cities then competing to be the metropolis of
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
: Chicago,
Michigan City,
City West
City West (formerly known as ''Neuer Westen'' ("New West") or ''Zooviertel'' ("Zoo Quarter")) is an area in the western part of central Berlin. It is one of Berlin's main commercial areas, and was the commercial centre of former West Berlin when ...
, and
Indiana City.
[Bowers, John O. 1929. "Dream Cities of the Calumet," (pp. 174-198) ''History of Lake County, Volume 10''. Gary, Indiana: Lake County Historical Association (Calumet Press). 223 p.] Chapman
plat
In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...
ted Liverpool near the confluence of the
Little Calumet River
The Calumet River is a system of heavily industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana. Historically, the Little Calumet River and the Grand Calumet River were one, the ...
and
Deep River, both of which were navigable at the time. An article from 1929 describes the original plan for the town, enumerating central streets and blocks:
"Of the streets thereon they had their Broadway, their Market Street, their Chestnut Street, Michigan, Indiana, and others of like dignity and rank, some of which were 100 feet in width. One block was designated "Public Square;" another "Market Square;" another "Church Square." Then there were 40 blocks subdivided into lots, 435 in number. Through this city to be, flowed the waters of Deep River, then described upon the plat as being 14 feet in depth, there being 18 blocks north of the river and 23 south."
The town competed with the settlements of Lake Court House and
Cedar Lake for the position of county seat in 1839. A wealthy land speculator named George Earle, who had acquired much of the surrounding territory, campaigned in support of Liverpool, and a commission decided in Liverpool's favor, making it the seat of Lake County. However, in 1840 citizens in the west of the county complained to the state legislature that the county seat was too far east, and another commission moved the county seat to Lake Court House, which later became
Crown Point, Indiana
Crown Point is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 33,899 at the 2020 census. The city was incorporated in 1868. On October 31, 1834, Solon Robinson and his family became the first settlers to ...
.
Combined with the financial problems of the
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment went up, and pessimism abound ...
, this resulted in the end of Liverpool's brief period of significance. The Liverpool courthouse was sold and floated downriver to
Blue Island, Illinois
Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois, located approximately south of Chicago's Loop. Blue Island is adjacent to the city of Chicago and shares its northern boundary with that city's Morgan Park neighborhood. The population was 22,558 ...
. George Earle moved away and founded
Hobart, Indiana
Hobart is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,890 at the 2020 census, up from 29,059 in 2010. It has been historically primarily residential, though recent annexation has added a notable retail corridor to the city ...
. At its height, there were about 500 settlers living in Liverpool; by the late 1840s, there were only two families left. Finally, a fire swept through the almost-empty town, and nothing was left of its original forty blocks of buildings.
[Goodspeed, Weston Arthur. 1882. ''Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: historical and biographical''. Chicago, Illinois: P. A. Battby & Co.]
Today, a neighborhood of
Lake Station, Indiana
Lake Station is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 12,572 at the 2010 census.
History
Initially, the site of modern Lake Station was the starting point of two Amerind trails leading to Fort Dearborn.Workers of ...
, which is at approximately the same location as the old city of Liverpool is sometimes referred to as "Liverpool."
References
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Former populated places in Lake County, Indiana
Former populated places in Indiana