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| HomeTownValue.com, Your Home Town 'Past and Present' |
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Michiana-Grand Beach, Harbor Country
The Story of Harbert-SawyerThe emergence of the railroad secured the founding of the Harbert, John Glavin, an engineer on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, noted the area's barren land on one of his runs between Chicago and Detroit. Glavin investigated and found the land affordable. Farmer Glavin had a new career. But while Glavin founded the community in the 1850s, a Chicago industrialist who was instrumental in building the town's train depot aced out farmer Glavin when it came to naming the village. Agriculture was the mainstay of the Harbert economy. Orchards and vineyards were established. All of the town's products would be gathered at the Harbert depot for transport to Chicago and Detroit. The community's most famous visitor and resident was Carl Sandburg. Much of Sandburg's Pulitzer Prize winning account of Abraham Lincoln was written at his Harbert home. The Sandburgs lived in Harbert for 15 years. An Ohio judge, Silas Sawyer, grew weary of the court room and decided he would join the westward migration in the mid-1800s. Sawyer bought a hundred acres and after clearing half of his land planted it with fruit trees. He continued logging the area and hauled his timber on a horse drive railroad to Fuller Pier where Warren Dunes State Park is now. The town grew as an agricultural center and eventually established an open air market where buyers transported their products by train and truck to population centers. In the 1920s, John Flynn arrived and started his Palm Tea Room as well as the Flynn Soda Grill. The Flynn Building became Sawyer's most famous and for many years also housed the Flynn Theater which staged live productions. Sawyer is home to the well known Tower Hill Camp which was founded in the 1920s by the Congregational Church. Historical information courtesy of the Harbor Country Chamber of Commerce.
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