Born in Alsace—Lorraine France, Peter Fox Jr. first arrived in the city of Hammond on Christmas day of 1881, where he began to work in the city’s meat packing industry. Later, he then opened up his own shoe shop, remember these were the days when shoes were made by hand and not mass produced as they are now. His shoe store was located at very busy intersection of Hohman and State.

When Peter Fox first arrived here in America, before coming to Hammond, he settled down in La Porte, Indiana, there he met his wife Miss Mary Bauer. They were the parents of ten children. While in La Porte Fox had the honor of laying out the city’s very first park and planted many of the beautiful Maple trees that were so well admired back then.

Two of Mr. Fox’s sons—William and Joseph both served in France during World War I. Joseph was one of the first from Hammond to enlist and one of the last to return. Joseph was stationed near his father’s birth place for nine months, unaware at the time.

Peter Fox’s father back in France, was a very well known landscape artist there for fifty-one years, it would only be a matter of time before Peter would follow in his fathers footsteps.

Mr. Fox spent some time working with Mr. Cy De Vry, the well known manager of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. When Lawrence Becker became the Mayor of Hammond, he appointed him the city’s first Park Superintendent. His job then was to trim all of the trees in the parkways of town.

Fox was very community mined and well respected for his talents. One of his pet projects was to buy swans for the Harrison Park Lagoon. A fund was sent up by some of the residents of the Homewood area of the city, a very well to do and upscale neighborhood, located just south of Harrison Park. This fund was administered by Park Superintendent Fox. The swans were expected to cost $35 a pair.

Arrangements were already in order to bring in a number of squirrels and wild ducks to the park. Anton Tapper donated the ducks, whose feathers on one wing were clipped in order to keep them from flying away. All of this helped to make Harrison Park a spot of natural beauty, for which it was well known throughout the entire region.

Lavish gardens full of flora and fauna along with the well manicured lawns of Harrison Park were captured on many picture postcards over the years. All of this mostly the handy work of Peter Fox, Hammond’s renown landscape artist.