A tall man in a silk hat was the owner of a stage coach line between La Porte and Valparaiso. He was William S. Parkinson who lived at Westville and was born April 21, 1823 and died February 24, 1870. He was the father of Charlena Parkinson, who became the wife of E. E. Coddington – who was the father of Flossie M. Coddington.
La Porte Herald – August 20, 1915
The stage coach ended in the 1870's when Mr. Parkinson who lived on Valparaiso Street in Westville, conducted the last stage route between Valparaiso and La Porte over the Joliet Road through Westville. He had the contract for carrying the mail and his low bid, combined with a falling off of passenger traffic due to the advent of buggies, put him out of business.
Sixteen years before Parkinson, a Mr. Windle and Til Hogan of Valparaiso operated the line between Valparaiso and La Porte and employed driver Fabian Matott, who two years before at the age of 14 had left his home near Lake Champlain, New York. He lived ½ mile west of Westville. He drove the Windle and Hogan and then owned the line for a total of 16 years. He left to enter the army, enlisting in 1861. He married when he returned in 1865 (and died in 1931 at the age of 96.)
La Porte Herald – April 6, 1937
The coach constituted rolling stock of Westville-Valparaiso Stage Coach Lines, owned and operated in the early 1860's by Wm. Parkinson of Westville. Drivers were Favin(note spelling) Matott of Westville, Joe Drago of Valparaiso and Jan Parkinson of La Porte. Mr. Wm. Parkinson was always in fore-front in civic affairs.
In 1862 in a Fourth of July celebration in Westville, Wm. Parkinson, wearing a long duster, touched off the fireworks. Suddenly the entire batch of fireworks burst into flames with resulting in explosions. William, seeing his duster on fire, started to run, thru fanning the flames more and more. After the fire was extinguished, Parkinson was credited with being the first long-tailed meteor ever sighted in La Porte County.
May 1, 1923 – La Porte Herald
Fare between La Porte – Valparaiso $1.25 – La Porte-Westville
$.75.
Mattot drove for Wm. Parkinson – later he and Zip Smith
purchased the business. They carried mail for $750.00 per year.
The coach
left La Porte at 6 a.m. Thru Door Village to Westville where the horses were
changed – getting passengers and mail to Westville for the northbound
Monon due at 9 a.m. Then it followed plank road to Coburg (now Lincolnway) into
Valparaiso. On the return trip it waited for southbound train due at 9:30 p.m.
in Westville. It connected at Valparaiso for coaches to Calumet – now
Chesterton.
The Carriage carried 19
passengers – 9 inside by crowding and 10 on top.
Stage headquarters
were Capt. Eli's house, which preceded Teegarden. People wrote their names in a
book there with the date they desired passage and the driver read them and the
drove to pick them up.
Special note: Harvey Truesdell operated South Bend to La Porte stage coach then to Michigan City and New Buffalo.
La Porte County Historical Society Picture & Site for Stage Coach