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The Chicago Title and Trust Index, Book 154 - Indiana Harbor
(Formerly known as Lake County Title & Guaranty Company)

This index strictly covers sales and/or transfers of real estate from the Inland Steel Company, banks, and individuals to various people and businesses located in the Indiana Harbor section of East Chicago, Indiana. The asterisk in the index represents the original name had been crossed off and a new (transfer) name written in.

This index covers the person or businesses name, Block Number, Lot Number and the subdivision of the property. To determine where your relative lived there, you can take the information contained in this index and consult Sanborn Maps for the area. These maps can be found at most large libraries.

We hope this index will help with your search for your ancestors.

BACKGROUND – Indiana Harbor

Many times, East Chicago, Indiana was called the Twin Cities. The western side of the city being called the East Chicago neighborhood and the eastern side by Lake Michigan being called Indiana Harbor. The two areas were separated by Indiana Harbor Ship Canal and Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad switching yards. Each of these neighborhoods has its own business district.

The city of East Chicago began 1887. In 1887, the Standard Steel and Iron Company (a real estate, not an industrial company) platted the area that is now west of the canal. Many of the early north-south streets were named for investors.

A comment from the Chesterton Tribune dated May 1890 states that: “Only two years old East Chicago has 1,500 inhabitants, 13 saloons, and 2 churches.”

Inland Steel began buying up land in 1895 and by 1898 they had acquired 1,300 acres in and around East Chicago. Late in the spring of 1901 the Inland Steel Company began building their steel mill.

European immigrants seeking employment in the numerous industries located in and around East Chicago, Indiana, flocked into the city in great numbers before World War I. In 1910, the foreign born constituted 53 percent of the population. Ten years later they still were about 40 percent of the population. Most of the foreign born were from the eastern and southeastern nations of Europe, with the Poles, Hungarians, and Austrians predominating in that order. The Czechs, Rumanians, Yugo-Slavs and Greeks were also heavily represented. The immigration quota laws passed by Congress in 1921 and 1924 practically closed the doors of the nation to the people of eastern and southeastern Europe.

The 1921 law limited the number of immigrants from any European country to 3 percent of that nationality in the US in 1910. In 1924, this allotment changed to 2 percent.

Indiana Harbor’s population in 1900 was 3,411, and in 1910 it was 19,098. By 1920, Indiana Harbor's population increased to 35,067, and in 1930 it stood at 54,784.

Initially, there was no adequate housing within East Chicago for the workers, except for the supervisors who lived in the Sunnyside neighborhood in the 1920's.