Place:De Motte, Jasper, Indiana, United States

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

INTRODUCTION

The town of De Motte is in northern Jasper County, Indiana and finds its roots with the draining of the old Kankakee River swamp before and via the creation of the "Marble-Powers Ditch" dredging project in the early 1900's.

Until the wetland was drained with the dredging of the river, and the systematic ditching and pumping of the area, the northern part of what is now Jasper and Newton Counties were seldom ever above the water level of the river basin. Stories have been told of rowing and poling flatboats across the area all the way from Rensselaer (Jasper County's seat about 16 miles south of De Motte) to Lowell (a town in southern Lake County about 6 miles north of the dredged river bed). That a settlement 14 miles to the west of De Motte was named Lake Village was not considered to be a misnomer.

NAMESAKE

Variously spelled as DeMotte, Demotte, De Motte, at least 2 different honorees have historically been offered as the town's namesake:

Mark L. DeMotte was a post Civil-War area local who was the first Dean of Valparaiso University Law School, and who had served under Major General Robert H. Milroy (a native of the Jasper County Seat: Rensselaer, Indiana) during the Civil War. He also had served as the traveling Prosecuting Attorney for the Lake, Porter, LaPorte, St. Joseph, Marshall and Starke County Circuit in the late 1850's before the commencement of the Civil War.

Another version is that the town was named for Revolutionary War French Admiral Toussaint-Guillame Picquet de la Motte, whose accomplishments against the English in the Siege of Savannah had earned him public acknowledgment from the Marquis du Lafayette as well as public praise from his English adversary in that battle, Admiral Hyde Park. That the Polish Revolutionary War hero, Kasmir Pulaski (and name honoree of the adjoining Pulaski County, Indiana), lost his life in that encounter lends credence to this version of the story.

Either man would have been more than fitting for the sake of honor, but one 5th grade teacher at times was heard to remark, "They named streets for Civil War heroes. Towns were named for Revolutionaries."

GROWTH

Normally a quiet village, the town incorporated in 1967, having grown from a seemingly insignificant trading village in the late 1800's into a busy village that was about to become a bedroom community to the Calumet Region with the advent of Interstate Highway 65. Over the course of the next 40 years the whole northern Jasper County river valley has steadily had its woodlands subdivided and even its agricultural areas crowded by new commuting residents. What had become a "sleepy" Holland Dutch rural community evolved into a bustling center of commerce and retail trade.

While the 2000 census has the population of the town itself at about 3200 people, the population growth of about 8000 for Jasper County between the 1990 census and the 2007 estimation will largely be found in the unincorporated areas of the county to the west and south of the town, and most have De Motte postal addresses.

HERITAGE

In the late 1800's as the situation in Holland became more and more crowded in various ways, Holland Dutch immigrants began coming to the northern Jasper County region. Land was cheap (swamp ground usually is) and their need was for survival more than it was luxury. And, they were used to the challenges of the lowlands of their European homeland, and acclimated themselves well to the challenges of the sandy river bottom. Over the course of the years to come they intermingled with people of German, Polish and English descent already there, and alongside the Faith Lutheran, St. Cecelia Catholic and Methodist Episcopal congregations, their Holland Reformed traditions were not compromised. First Reformed, Bethel Christian Reformed, Community Christian Reformed and American Reformed church(es) demonstrated that the old Dutch traditions were not to be abandoned. The K-8 Christian School also operates under the Reformed auspices.

With the industrialization of Northern Indiana which was accelerated by the effects of World War II, the De Motte area began to become attractive to other working class folk. It was near enough to the Calumet region for those breadwinners dedicated to wholesome rural living for their families that regional growth was inevitable. With new people came new churches as well: United Pentecostal in the 1950's, the Church of the Nazarene in the early 1960's, Community Bible Church and the Church of Christ in the early 1970's, Kankakee Valley Baptist in the late 1970's, First Baptist in the 1980's, Calvary Assembly of God, and the Christian Church in the 1990's, and Grace Fellowship, as well as Crossroads after the turn of the 21st century.

CONCLUSION

For a setting which once was not much more than a slight rise in topography against the throes of an unpredictable flood land, the town of De Motte has become a wonderful place to call home, even for people who have not made it their resident dwelling since years of childhood. The challenges of its evolution from rural townsite to bustling mini-metropolis continue to be met by the hardy souls who are its "natives" as well as those who hope their children will someday appreciate what the opportunity of proximity to the city, without the hassle of urban living, will bring to them.

RESEARCH TIPS

For more of the History of the town of De Motte, and northern Jasper County, Indiana, see http://www.faithfabric.com/tbh/demotte/58park_board.htm

EXTERNAL LINKS

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

DeMotte is a town in Keener Township, Jasper County, Indiana, United States. The population was 3,814 at the 2010 census.