INLAKE-L Archives

Archiver > INLAKE > 2006-01 > 1137099117


From: "cheryl BALOG wenberg" <>
Subject: VATER 1939 News article Whiting, Hells Kitchen
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 14:51:57 -0600


The Hammond Times Indiana July 2, 1939

CALLED WHITING HELLS KITCHEN

Ernst VATER, of Pioneer Family, Attributes Nickname to Wild Area

Whiting was once referred to by Chicagoans as "Hell's Kitchen." Others said it was the
Devils Kitchen.

That, according to Ernest VATER, of Whiting, was because the community was so wild
"all sloughs and ridges."

VATER was born in Whiting in 1894. His father was William E. VATER, Pioneer coal
dealer at 1645 Center Street, and his grandfather was John F. K. VATER, who came to
Chicago from Hanover, Germany in 1840, and later became a resident of Whiting locating
there in 1867.

The early-settler VATER bought land in Whiting in 1848 and Henry EGGERS, another
early resident who married VATER'S sister Amelia walked to Winamac (where government
land office was then located) to close the deal.

COST 50c AN ACRE

The land - two parcels totaling 112 acres - cost $56 or about 50 cents an acre.

Later, in 1901, VATER sold lake front rights to the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad
company to cross his land for $17,500; and sold the rest of the land in 1904 to the
New York Central Railroad for about $4,000 an acre, or $90,000.

VATER said he often heard his father and his grandfather tell that this region was not
good farming land. "Only a few places," he said, "made growing of potatoes, watermelons
and other agricultural products possible in the sand.

WILD IN THOSE DAYS

"People of the Chicago area called this the Devil's Kitchen, it was so wild. And there was
no way to get around this community with its sloughs and ridges. It was all so mixed up
that one could easily get lost and never find his way out of it.

"The ridges were really sand bars of lake section and covered with pine trees. It is not
true, as some believe, that this area was all waste land and sand burrs. The country was
really beautiful, with its pine trees, wild grapes and wild berries."

"Berry Lake was named for the berries which grew around it; not after any family living
in Whiting. We made grape jelly out of the grapes. They were so plentiful. You could
pick a bushel basketful in no time."

The pioneer VATER died in 1879. Then his son, William E. VATER, took over his gravel
and sand business. The coming of the Standard Oil Company "forced" VATER into the
coal business, the younger man said.

HOW IT STARTED

"My dad in 1889 had teams in the gravel business," he related. "A woman running a boarding
house for Standard Oil workers asked dad to get her a load of coal from along the railroad
tracks. So he and a driver picked up enough for a load, which they sold to her for $5.
Several weeks later she needed more coal. Dad found no more available along the tracks, so
he bought a car of coal. And that's how our business started."

"He bought the tract of land we are still using from Oliver FORSYTH.
We are the only company in Whiting - besides the Standard - that's 50 years old."

THREE TRACKS AT ROBY

During the Gay Nineties, there used to be three race tracks at Roby, VATER said. They
attracted scores of Chicagoans. A state law, he explained, brought about the three tracks.

The law, he said, provided there should be no more than 15 days of racing at one time on
any track followied by a 30-day interval before races began again.

Thus three Roby tracks, which ran their events in succession.




This thread: