out-of-doors assembly to be held for the people of Northwestern Indiana to meet to discuss religious, scientific and literary subjects." Before the first session, in 1895, Parker built a tabernacle and restaurant. The assembly lasted ten days at a cost of $1.00 per person. The Fountain Park Company was organized in 1897 with Parker as president. By 1898, a 36-room hotel had been built and a dam on Carpenter Creek to create a small lake for boating and swimming. The dam was removed because it obstructed water flow to Remington and other areas. Between the close of the fourth session and the opening of the fifth session, the first permanent cottage was built by the Sherman "White family of Brook and the George Ball family of Kentland. As the number of cottages was growing, the owners expressed the wish that all tents and cottages be placed on the outer side of the grounds and that the grove be preserved intact. Fountain Park was becoming a popular destination with amenities which included telephone service, mail pickup and delivery, grocery service, mineral water from natural springs, tenting privileges, a hotel and restaurant. Its location, a from Remington, and its stop on the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad line made it accessible from Chicago. Hacks operated from Remington on a schedule during the assemblies. In 1901, the Pennsylvania Railroad offered special excursion rates. Its people were beginning to realize that the assembly brought into their midst advantages. Nationally known Temperance speakers, evangelists, politicians, poets and musicians performed at the Assembly, including ex-U.S. Senator John Ingalls, Billy Sunday, William Jennings Bryan (on four occasions), Paul Harvey, Governor Robert M. La Follette, World War I hero Pat O'Brien, and Mrs. Billy Sunday, the widow of the late Billy Sunday also delivered a short address. William Jennings Bryan and Pat OBrien had the highest attendance ratings in Fountain Park's history. An address by one Senator described Fountain Park by saying, "Under the shadow of the trees, in this happy little grove, in that rude structure (tabernacle) where nothing has been done for show during these past scores of years has been gathered annually the very best and brightest men and women the world has known, and their sweetest and brightest thoughts have been expressed for us who come to listen and to learn. Here was freedom; rest for the weary, pictures of a bright