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HISTORY OF LAPORTE
Because of its designation as the county seat, LaPorte has been a service-based community throughout its history. Local government, business, civic enterprise, and industrial development have evolved out of the service oriented beginning of the city.
Over the decades, an innumerable line of products has originated from LaPorte factories and LaPorte hands. They have included baby carriages, bicycles, wagons, wool, bread, slicing machines for the food industry, pianos, radiators, office furniture, picture frames, doors and windows, air ventilating machinery, machine tools, castings for jet engines, boxes, industrial film, plastic containers, cans, and airplane wings and tanks during the years of World War II.
Greater LaPorte Chamber of Commerce This site best viewed at 800 x 600 resolution |
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LaPorte was incorporated as a city in 1835. Its first mayor, William J. Walker, was elected that year. The town soon developed into a trading center for the numerous farms that surrounded it. The lakes of LaPorte provided one of the first industries. In winter, ice companies cut ice from the lakes and shipped it to Chicago. Over the years, those same lakes attracted summertime vacationers and today are lined with year-round homes.
LaPorte's educational, religious and civic activities were strengthened by the presence of the first courthouse built in LaPorte in 1835, and followed by two succeeding courthouse structures, each located on the present site in the City's central business district. The current courthouse, designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, was completed in 1894.
The city's industrial history was created around the early-day woolen mill industry and farm equipment manufacturing, founded in the 1840's and 1850's, and followed by the railroad, which entered LaPorte in 1852. The arrival of the railroad prompted a period of rapid new growth for the community. Companies moved in and new ones were created, drawn by accessibility of raw materials and a large labor force.
Among the many German, Irish and Polish immigrants was Meinrad Rumely, who, with his brother John, established a foundry and machine shop to serve the railroads. This firm developed into Advance-Rumely, maker of the famed Rumely Oil Pull tractor which helped open the Great Plains to cultivation.