Melvin Amos Halsted
| Melvin Amos Halsted | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 29, 1821 Rensselaer County, New York |
| Died |
March 24, 1915 Auburn, Kansas |
| Spouse(s) | Martha Foster |
| Children | 4 (William; Theron H.; Mary Theresa; and an infant daughter) |
Melvin Amos Halsted (March 29, 1821 - March 24, 1915) was the founder of Lowell, Indiana.
Childhood and marriage
Melvin Halsted was the child of William Halsted and Patty Haskin. Melvin lived in New York with his parents on a farm along the Hudson River until the age of 13, when he moved to Montgomery Country, Ohio, where he began to farm.
In 1842, Halsted married Martha C. Foster, daughter of Elijah D. and Ruth C. Foster of Troy, Pennsylvania. Soon after their marriage they moved to Lake County, Indiana.
Founding of Lowell
In 1845, Melvin and Martha settled in Lake County, Indiana. Melvin bought an eighty-acre farm about five miles west of Lowell on Belshaw Road In 1848, Halsted and his business partner, O. E. Haskin, built a water-powered saw mill in present-day Lowell. Halsted and his family moved from the West Creek farm to a cabin near the present railroad depot in Lowell the following year. The town was officially incorporated in 1852.
After Lowell
Halsted traveled throughout the country after founding Lowell. He helped create a village in southern Illinois and another town near San Francisco. In 1850, Halsted went to California in search of gold, and developed a small fortune there. He came back to Lowell, and funded a trail that would lead from Lowell to the neighboring town of Crown Point, Indiana.
Late life and death
Melvin's wife, Martha, died in 1899. In 1913, at the age of 92, Melvin Halsted made his seventh trip to the west, going alone. Melvin died on March 24, 1915 at the home of his son William, in Auburn, Kansas. He was buried in the West Creek Cemetery beside his first wife, Martha Foster Halsted.