From John Dillinger to Quickie Weddings, Crown Point History Captivating
captivating, crown point, culture, history, john dillinger, quickie weddings,
A mention of the “marriage mill years” often induces a nostalgic smile from longtime Crown Pointers.
But ask about John Dillinger’s jailbreak with a gun fashioned from a bar of soap‚ and you may get a polite grimace.
Crown Point’s history is laced with hard-working founders‚ notorious criminals and brushes with fame.
Like many lifelong residents‚ Charles “Bud” McFadden remembers spending weekends watching strangers steam into town to be married. Known as the “marriage mill years‚” about 175‚000 couples came to the Lake County Courthouse between 1915 and 1940 for a quick marriage without blood tests or waiting periods. Couples were married around the clock by justices of the peace.
“When I was a child‚ for entertainment my family would park our car in the square and watch all the couples getting married‚” says McFadden‚ who has lived in town 78 years. “I’d get a five-cent double-dip ice cream‚ and my dad always got a cigar.”
The city became known as the “Gretna Green of the Midwest‚” alluding to an area in Scotland where British couples eloped. Rudolph Valentino and Joe DiMaggio are among those who married brides in Crown Point.
“It drew quite a crowd; people came from all over‚” recalls Bruce Woods‚ Lake County Historical Society president.
While locals cherish their romantic marriage-mill history‚ they often avoid discussing March 3‚ 1934. That’s when outlaw John Dillinger escaped from the Lake County Jail next to the Old Sheriff’s House‚ now undergoing renovation.
“If you’re a true Crown Pointer‚ you don’t like to talk about it‚” Woods explains.
Dillinger was held in the local jail in connection with the murder of a Chicago police officer. While incarcerated‚ he is said to have carved a gun from a wooden washboard or a bar of soap‚ then stained it with shoe polish to bust out of his cell.
McFadden‚ whose father was Crown Point’s first police chief in the 1920s‚ says many people think Dillinger’s weapon was a real gun smuggled to him in the false bottom of a trashcan. He adds‚ “Don’t you think longtime law enforcement officers could tell the difference between a gun and a bar of soap?”
Some locals favor the story about Louis Chevrolet winning the 1909 Cobe Cup Car Race‚ the 25-mile forerunner of the Indianapolis 500. The annual event‚ now the Cobe Cup Cruise‚ today displays slow-moving vintage vehicles tooling along the same route as the historic race.
Much of the area’s history‚ beginning with its 1834 settlement by the Solon Robinson family‚ is preserved in the Lake County Historical Society Museum in the renovated Old Courthouse at Crown Point.
“There was always something interesting here‚” says Catherine Huber‚ who ran Huber’s Department Store with her husband‚ Edwin‚ for many years.
Story by Kari K. Ridge
Photo by David Mudd
