St. Joseph County, Indiana - Chapter 9: The Towns, 1907

Chapter 9: The Towns

Incidentally, in the general history of the county and in that of the townships, as well as in the reminiscences set out in various chapters, ranch of the history of our cities and towns has necessarily been already detailed. It is not the purpose to repeat what has thus been sufficiently stated, but it seems proper that our several municipalities should have separate chapters, in which, without unnecessary repetition, a connected urban history of the coimty may have a place.

I. Towns That Were

In a new country, with few inhabitants, the forests vet standino; and the soil uncultivated, except in spots few and far between, without roads, except trails winding through the woods, over the prairies and along the marslies; and, with all these, also ambitious men seeking fortunes in the increased values which may come to lands happily located for the purposes of commerce and manufactures, it is to be expected that many towns will be started with glowing prospects, never to be realized. It has been .so in St. Joseph county, and the plough runs over many a townsite of which even the present proprietor does not know the name.

Sec. 1. - St. Joseph. - The first of those half forgotten towns was St. Joseph. This town, located at La Salle's portage on the St. Joseph river, in section 27, township 38 north, range 2 east, in what is now German township, was. on May 24, 1830, selected as the county seat of St. Joseph county, by the commissioners named in the act organizing the county, approved January 29, 1830." On September 14, 1830, the town was formally laid out by William Brookfield, our first county surveyor, who was the owner of the tract.

The plat of St. Joseph was the firet town plat laid off and recorded in St. Joseph county, and by reason of this circumstance, and becaiLse the town w^as our first county seat, the following quotations and other particulars taken from the venerable record will be of historical interest:

"All the blocks in this town plat, excepting those on which ' Brookfield 's square' are written, belong to the county, agreeably to his donation to the county. Donation September 14, 1830. Those blocks on which ' Brookfield 's squares' are written are exclusively his own." "State of Indiana, "St. Joseph County,

"On this eighth day of November, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and thirty, personally appeared before me, Lathrop ]M. Taylor, recorder of St. Joseph county, William Brookfield, and acknowledged the within instrument to be his free act and deed for the purposes therein expressed.

with the following lettering: "Big St. Joseph River of Lake Michigan;" and on the margin of the river, at the turn, the words: "Portage of the Kankakee."

"The Michigan State Road" is shown to enter the plat at the corner of ' ' South street ' ' and "Broadway," three quarters of a mile south of the river, and it turns west on "Wesley" street, at the corner of Wesley and Broadway, two hundred rods south of the river. Its direction on Broadway is nearly northwest, and it is there marked on the plat "Michigan State Road." On Wesley street appear the w^ords: "Michigan State Road, running due west to Lake Michigan - 33 miles nearly due west."

Thirty-three squares, of ten lots each, are found on the plat. Of these, four are marked " Brookfield 's squares." Half a square, or five lots, is marked "Public square." Two lots are marked "Episcopal church;" two, "Methodist church;" five, "court house;" three, "jail;" two, "Presbyterian church;" three, "market;" two, "Baptist church;" two, "Academy;" two, "R. Catholic church;" and two, "United Brethren in Christ." The remaining lots, two hundred and sixty-eight in number, were given to the county.

The north and south streets are marked. "Brookfield," "Washington," "Jefferson," ' ' Broadway, ' ' and ' ' Madison ; ' ' and the east and west streets, "North," "Berry," "Worth," "Evans," "Ross," "McBane," "Wesley" and "South." Each street is sixty-six feet wide, except Washington, Jefferson and MadLson, which are each ninety-nine feet in width, and Broadway, which is one hundred and twenty-three feet wide. The alleys, which all run north and south, are each three rods wide. The lots are each five rods in width by eleven rods in length.

Berry, Worth, Evans, Ross and McBane streets were named after the five commissioners appointed by the legislature to locate the county seat."

St. Joseph was never more than a projected town, a town on paper, and was never in fact the county seat, even during the short period it was nominally so. The county business was from the beginning transacted in the house of Alexis Coquillard, in the town of South Bend. The people were not satisfied with the location of the county seat at St. Joseph, and, as shown in chapter fifth, subdivision seven, of this history, the legislature, in the year 1831, parsed an act and named commissioners for the re-location of the seat of justice. On May 12, 1831, the commissioners so appointed removed the county seat from St. Joseph to South Bend, from the historic Portage at La Salle's Landing, to the south bend of the river. The "bend" is about four miles above the portage; but the city has so extended that the north limits are now but a mile and a half above, and the time may yet come w^hen the territory of the present county seat will take in the old county seat.

All that is left of St. Joseph is the pioneer plat in the office of the county recorder. Mr. Brookfield left the county and the state soon after the disappointment caused by the removal of the county seat, and the incipient town quietly settled back into its native wilderness.

Sec. 2. - Portage. - The failure of the town of St. Joseph at the old portage did not altogether extinguish the anticipations of those who thought that a prosperous settlement must, in the end, grow up at or near the site of the landing where for countless ages the commerce of the wilderness had been transferred on its way from the lakes to the gulf, and from the gulf to the lakes. One more effort was to be made to establish a town at the portage, and, to make assurance doubly sure, the town itself would be named Portage. St. Joseph had been laid

The prime mover and the mainstay of the town was Judge Elisha Egbert, one of the most noted men in the history of St. Joseph county. He was judge of the old probate court for seven years, and then became judge of the common pleas court, and held that office from the establishment of the court in 1851 until his death in 1870.«

On July 12. 1834, the town of Portage was surveyed for Elisha Egbert by Tyra W. Bray, the county surveyor. It was located on the southwest fractional quarter of section 26, township 38 north, range 2 east, about half a mile to the south and east of the site of the former town of St. Joseph. Additional surveys were made in March, 1837, by Thomas P. Bulla for Abner Morse, John Egbert and Jacob Egbert ; and as late as February, 1838, a still further addition was made by Lemuel Crawford. The town seemed on the hFgh road to prosperity. Hotels and stores were erected. Physicians took up their abode in the new town, and there were representatives of all lines of business suited to a growing community.

Judge Egbert succeeded in securing from the county commissioners the establishment of a public ferry over the river at this point -^ as well as to have county roads laid out to and from Portage, on hoth sides of the river.

Still another project was the cutting of a mill race from the Kankakee to the St. Joseph. This was an idea entertained by many a projector of that early day. The Kankakee is many feet above the St. Joseph, and it seemed extremely feasible to dig a mill race which, with so great a head, should supply unlimited water power for mills and machinery. The people of the town of Portage were so sanguine of success in this line that they procured a charter from the legislature for a company to engage in the enterprise. The

"That William McCartney, sen'r, Franklin W. Hunt, Daniel Dayton, Abner Morse and Elisha Egbert, be and they are hereby authorized to cut a race of such width as they may think proper, commencing at or near the northwest side of the Kankakee pond,'' so as not to divert any of the waters of the Kankakee that naturally flow into the Illinois river down said Kankakee that lies west of the town of South Bend, in such manner that the race shall not extend beyond the southern limits of said pond, in St. Joseph county, Indiana; thence running on the western side of the Kankakee marsh, so as not to injure the hydraulic privileges of any other person or persons, and terminating at or near the town of Portage in said county."

A similar mill race was afterwards dug by Alexis Coquillard and associates, from the Kjinkakee to the St. Joseph, but the water so leaked away in the loose soil that sufficient did not reach down to South Bend to supply any available power.

A literary and industrial institution of a high order was also projected, of which the Rev. Abner Morse was to be the president. This institution received a charter from the legislature, by an act approved January 30, 1837,^^ in which it was provided: "That Abner Morse, Caleb Martin, William McCartney,, sen'r, Franklin W. Hunt, Daniel Dayton, S. Brace, Elisha Egbert and George Hunt, sen'r, and their successors in office be, and they are hereby constituted and declared to be a body corporate and politic, by the name and style of the 'St. Joseph Manual Labor Collegiate Institute.' " The trustees were given "power to appoint a faculty in said college, consisting of a president, professors and tutors, as the necessities of the institution may demand, and the faculty so appointed, by and with the approbation of and managed. There were, probably, more tlie board of trustees, shall have power to than a hundred persons, old and young, congrant and confer such degrees in the liberal nected with us, from first to last ; but I should arts and sciences as are usually granted and not think more than about seventy living on conferred in other colleges in the United the premises at once. During a part of the States. ' ' A further provision was that ' ' said time they ate at a common table, institution shall be located at or within two ' ' ' The main cause of their dis.solution, I miles of the village of Portage, in the county have ever believed, was that Mr. McCartney of St. Joseph, and state of Indiana." violated his promise to invest the whole tract a project on paper; and, like all the other and use the land, he withheld all of the valuambitious projects of the town, has been long able and available portion, and turned us off

William McCartney, who appears as one of his land cleared up and improved for nothing, the incorporators of the "St. Joseph Manual It would seem that everything connected Labor Collegiate Institute," was the owner of with an attempt to build up any enterprise a farm on the river, in German township, a at the old portage was a failure. At first, little above the town of Portage. This farm the old St. Joseph, Brookfield's town, and now is connected in our history with an effort Judge Egbert's more hopeful town of Portmade to establish the only community asso- age, both alike went down before the vigorous ciation ever attempted in St. Joseph county, municipality growing up at the "south bend" Timothy G. Turner has left us the follow- of the river. In the face of financial and ing brief account of this ill-starred commu- other difficulties, the people of Portage benity:*^ came discouraged, and, one by one, all the

"In the winter of 1845 a community, sug- projected enterprises were abandoned. The gested, probably, by the system of economics town went down as rapidly as it had arisen, elaborated by the French philovsopher, Charles until not a vestige of its former glory re- Fourier, was established on the McCartney mained.

farm, about two miles below South Bend. It With its other misfortunes, the town sufwas a joint stock company, organized under fered from a nickname which belittled its its entire existence. It was chiefly through Pinhook, are from the genial pen of the lamy influence that the association was formed mented Richard H. Lyon, w^ho devoted so a. Gazetteer of the St. Joseph Valley, 1867, ^^^S^ ^ Part of his later years to local historip. 48. eal investigations. His body most appropri-

"The original, ancient, historic Pinhook bend of the St. Joseph river was located a short distance below St. Mary's Academy, about four miles from the city as the stream goes, and was on ground laid out as the town of Portage, platted in 1834, but now wholly extinct. It was nicknamed by the Indians on account of the peculiar strip of land around which the river turned in the form of a bent pin. The French traders, the boatmen and the early settlers of the region adopted the name and Pinhook became one of the most famous points of interest on the river from its mouth to the head of navigation in Branch county, Michigan.

"The Portage town covered the lowland, comprising about 53 acres, east of Riverview cemetery, then owned by Judge Elisha Egbert, now the property of James H. Ray. It took the nickname of Pinhook and was better known by that title by the pioneers than by its real legal name. A ferry was established there and roads led to Pinhook from all directions. Several stores, shops, dwellings and warehouses were built in the town, ground donated for a Congregational theological school, and a distinguished educator of New England, the Rev. Abner Morse, father of the late Congressman William A. Morse, of Massachusetts, sent to start the college enterprise on its way. It never got beyond the purchase of a bell, however, and when the country arose from the financial blow it received in 1837, Portage was no more and the bell went astray somewhere.

"Productive farm lands now occupy the entire site of the old town, not a vestige of any kind of the early habitations being left. The last lot owner in the plat was the late Dr. Daniel Dayton, who was one of the town's original boomers and for a time maintained his office and residence there. Until a few years ago taxes on his real estate holdings in Portage, regularly assessed against the estate, were as regularly paid, annually, in the aggregate to about 41 cents per annum, although the corporation had ceased to exist for more tlian half a century. An effort was made to secure water power privileges for Portage through a big race constructed at the base of the high bluff south, west and north of the town, with an outlet on the cemetery association's grounds. A portion of the excavation for this race is the most conspicuous landmark left of Pinhook 's palmy days.

"About twenty years ago during a freshet that caused old St. Joe to rise and rage beyond its wonted limit, the river left its circuitous route aroimd the hook, burst over its banks and cut a new channel pretty straight through the pin, thus destroying the remaining glory of the boatmen's ancient landing place and the pioneer town. Since that date, with old Pinhook gone by, the river adhering to its new and straighter channel, the pinhook bend has been removed a short distance down the river, on the east side, where opposite the cemetery highlands the stream makes another graceful turn around a narrow strip of lowland. Here is modern Pinhook, on the estate of Samuel S. Perley, and here it will no doubt remain until the contemplated dam in the river at the Indiana-Michigan line is constructed, arresting the current and backing the water up for miles, completely submerging both ancient and modern Pinhook on the old St. Joe."

Is it the irony of fate that the sites of the lost towns of St. Joseph and Portage are now embraced by Riverview cemetery on the south, and the County Infirmary, on the north? Should the old towns arise for a moment from their ashes, they would find themselves encompassed by the resting places of the dead and of the old and infirm ; and they might then, perhaps, fall back into their long sleep with an added sense of the fitness of their surroundings. But would not the ghosts of these dead cities of the old Portage take with them into that sleep of forgetfulness a smile of exultati(m that across these same grounds.

for long ages, even before Columbus dreamed of the Indies, went up and down the commerce of the wilderness ; that along this portage was the pathway of the Mound Builder, the Miami, the Pottawatomie, the coureur des bois and the missionary ; that this soil was pressed by the feet of La Salle and Hennepin and Tonti and Charlevoix, and perhaps even by those of the sainted jMarquette ?

Sec. 3. - Plainfield. - The village of Plainfield was the first platted town to be laid out in Olive township. It was surveyea December 23, 1833, by Tyra W. Bray ; and was laid out on "nearly equal portions of the northeast and northwest quarters of section thirtysix and the southeast and southwest quarters of section twenty-five, in to^^-nship thirtyeight north, range one west." The proprietors were Israel H., Jacob and Hiram Rush. The town is still found upon the map located on the Laporte road, a mile and a half east of New Carlisle; but it is for all practical purposes among the "towns that were," and hence receives notice in this place.

Sec. 4. - Palestine. - A mile and a half east of Plainfield, located also on the Laporte road, was once the town of Palestine. It, too, was surveyed by Tyra W. Bray, and stood in "equal parts on sections twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one and thirty-two, township thirty-eight north, range one east." It was surveyed December 3, 1834, for the proprietors, Martin Clark, Daniel Curry, Abijali S. Reeden and Matthias Kinney. The existence of this old town is so completely obliterated that Judge Hubbard, who was born on Terre Coupee prairie, doubts whether any one on the prairie can point out its site.

Sec. 5. - WiLLiAMSPORT. - This town was surveyed by Thomas P. Bulla for the proprietor, John Newell, who acknowledged the plat December 13, 1834. It was located at the junction of the St. Joseph river and Babaugo creek, on the southeast fraction of the northeast quarter of section nine, township thirtyseven north, range four east. It has left no record but its plat.

Sec. 6. - Greensburg. - On December 4, 1835, the town of Greensburg was sui'veyed for Jacob Eutzler, in section twenty-five, township thirty-seven north, range three east. It lay on each side of the South Bend and Goshen road. It does not seem that there was any pressing need for the existence of the town, and on March 6, 1843, it was vacated by order of the board of county commissioners.

Sec. 7. - Canton. - Thomas P. Bulla was the surveyor of the town of Canton, located on the Babaugo creek, in section sixteen, township thirty-seven north, range four east. The survey was acknowledged December 14, 1835, by the proprietor, "William Ireland. This town did not fiourish as anticipated, and on June 3, 1844. on the petition of J. E. Hollister, the plat was vacated by the county commissioners. None of the towns in this part of the county, except Osceola, have had more than an ephemeral existence.

"This is a plan of the Town of Mount Pleasant in St. Joseph county, Indiana. Laid out on a part of the northwest and southwest quarters of section thirty-two and the northeast quarter of section thirty-one in township thirty-eight north and range two east. Each lot is sixty-six feet wide and one hundred and thirty-two feet long, except lots numbered eleven and fifty-five, the width of which is marked within them. The width and the course of the streets is marked in each respectively. The alleys are each ten feet wide, and run parallel with Michigan street. The lots, which are numbered, form the town plat, and nothing more nor less. Surveyed by Tyra W. Bray, St. Joseph County Surveyor.

' ' Before me, L. M. Taylor, recorder, personally came the within named proprietors, - David Miller, Ashbury Baltimore, Henry Brown, Jacob Ritter and James R. McGee, and acknowledged the within to be their true act and deed for the purposes within represented.

The to\\Ti continued to maintain a feeble existence until by an act of the legislature, approved January 17, 1850, the plat was formally vacated.* Mount Pleasant was the third town to rise and go down in German township St. Joseph. Portage and Mount Pleasant, all within the limits of the great INIiami village where La Salle held his memorable conference, in May, 1861.^ A church, a school, farm houses and other farm buildings now remain to mark the site of the town, M^ell named Mount Pleasant.

Sec. 9. - Terre Coupee. - The town of Terre Coupee, also known as Hamilton from Hamilton's tavern,^ was located on each side of the Chicago road, the old Sauk trail, in the southeast quarter of section nine, township thirty-eight, range one east. The survey of the town was made by Thomas P. Bulla for Jacob Egbert who acknowledged the plat April 12, 1837. Additions made to the plat were acknowledged January 30,. 1841, by Jacob Egbert and Jonathan Hubbard. Terre Coupee, or Hamilton, as it is more frequently called, was for a time a very prosperous town, located as it was on the great through line of travel from the east. But with the building of the Lake Shore railroad through New Carlisle the greatness of Hamilton declined; and even its original name of Terre Coupee was transferred to the Lake Shore railroad station, two miles east of New Carlisle. The plat was vacated by order of the county commissioners, June 10, 1841. As the Hon. Lucius Hubbard, who spent his boyhood in and about the town, says in his reminiscences, which are set out in the preceding chapter, the town "is on its way to join Plainfield and Palestine."

"Probably no township in Indiana is the burial place of so many soldiers of the war of 1812 as Olive township, the largest town of which is New Carlisle. At the village of Hamilton, on the old Chicago road, formerly the Great Sauk Trail, where the stages from Detroit to Chicago changed horses, is a quaint old graveyard. The veterans of the war of 1812 who are buried there are John Cooper, David Dalrymple, Gabriel Druliner, Moses Ivins, Wm. D. Jones, Jo.shua Keene, John Lane, Leonard R. Rush, Jacob White and Virgil Reynolds.

"Three soldiers of the Indian war buried at this place are William Burden, Samuel Reynolds and Elias Heaton. In the Olive Chapel cemetery, in the same township, are four veterans of the war of 1812. Two are in the New Carlisle cemetery and two at Maple Grove."

Sec. 10. - Denniston. - This town was laid out in July, 1837, on the northeast fractional half of section twelve and the south part of section one, township thirty-seven, range two east. The proprietors were Garrett V. Denniston and Joseph Fellows, who laid out the town in connection with their ownership of the water power on the St. Joseph river.*^ As in the case of others, however, their enterprises were overthrown by the panic of 1837 ; and, on September 3, 1845, the town of Denniston was formally vacated by order of the board of county commissioners. The site of the town was nearly identical with that of Lowell, afterwards laid out and since become a part of the city of South Bend.

Ii. Unincorporated Towns

gee. 1. - Osceola. - The original plat of Osceola, near the extreme east of the county, in Penn township, was laid out in 1837. The record is as follows :

St. Joseph Coimty, Indiana, laid out on the west part of the southwest part of section nine, in township number thirty-seven north, range four east. The lots are each sixty-six feet front, and one hundred and thirty-two feet back, except those which are fractional. The width and courses of the streets are marked on each respectively. The alleys are each fourteen feet wide, and lie parallel with the streets.

The main street in the town comes in from the west as "Vistula street," and goes out on the east as the "Eoad to Toledo." The plat shows an elaborate system of mill races, triple in form, connecting the river on the north, with the Babaugo creek, on the east. A small island is also shown on the river. This plat was vacated by an act of the legislature, approved January 31, 1842.'^

An addition to Osceola, by William C. Thrall, was platted April 24, 1856. This was to the south of the site of the original plat, on the east half of the northwest quarter of section sixteen, township thirty-seven north, range four east. The plat was surveyed by Milton W. Stokes, who also made the survey of another addition June 4, 1859.

The town grew in its additions, rather than in the original plat, which, as we have seen, was vacated before the platting of the additions. This was no doubt due to the building of the Lake Shore road further from the river than the original plat, through section sixteen instead of section nine. The main Elkhart-Toledo public highway runs through the former site of the original plat, while the Goshen highway passes through the additions.

The town received its musical name from Osceola, the famous Seminole chief, who was taken prisoner by General Jessup in October, 1837. a few weeks before the town was plata. Local Laws, 1841, p. 163.

ted. The town of Osceola had but a feeble growth until the building of the interurban railway from South Bend to Goshen in 1899 and 1900. The Indiana Railway Company built one of its power houses at Osceola, and new life appeared at once in the old town. Even without the building of the power house, the extending of the interurban through Osceola would have worked a transformation in the life of the towm. It came at once to have many of the advantages of a suburban town, easily accessible as it was to Elkhart and Goshen, on the one hand, and to Mishawaka and South Bend, on the other. After the completion of the interurban lines from South Bend to the west, there will be a keen rivalry between Osceola and New Carlisle, one ai the extreme east and one at the extreme west of the county, and both admirably located as residence towns, with hourly connection with metropolitan cities to the east and the west. The population in 1900, was one hundred and seventy-seven.

Sec. 2. - Crum's Point. - On April 21, 1875. Christian Holler laid out the original plat of the town of Crum's Point, on the line of the Grand Trunk railroad, in Warren township, not far from the junction of the Grapevine creek with the Kankakee river ; and located on the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section twenty-seven, township thirty-seven north, range one east. The survey of the town was made by Matthias Stover, September 7 and 8, 1874. On January 20, 1882, Mr. Holler platted an addition to the town. With the drainage of the upper Kankakee valley, Crum's Point, or Crum's Town, as it is frequently called, has Become the center of a rich agricultural district, and is quite likely to grow to be a place of considerable importance. The population, in 1900, was one hundred. The to-svn is on one of the main gravel roads leading southwest from South Bend and connecting with the road to North Liberty and Walkerton.

districts to be found anywhere. An extensive Sec. 6. - Woodland. - At the corner of seegrain trade is carried on over the Big Four, tions fifteen, sixteen, twenty-one and twenty- Sec. 4. - Wyatt. - East of Lakeville, on the two, township thirty-six north, range three northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of east, in INIadison township, the town of Woodsection thirty-four, township thirty-six north, land has been in existence during a time exrange three east, in Madison township and on tending back at least as far as the year 1860. the Wabash railroad, is the new and busy The town was never platted; although on town of Wyatt. It was laid out and platted August 7, 1899, Mochel's plat, practically an March 27, 1894, by Jeremiah Bechtel and addition to the town, was laid out on the Louisa Bechtel. Wlien the Wabash came north half of the northwest quarter of said through the heavy timbered section of the section twenty -two. The place has always been south part of Madison township, and the A business center of some importance. Schools, drainage of the rich lands turned that wet churches, groceries, post office, physician's region into fertile farms, the need of a ship- office, saw-milLs, blacksmith shop, and other ping town was evident, and Wyatt came in like features of a rural town have always been answer to the pressing needs of the enter- maintained. The population in the year 1900 prising people. In 1900 the population had was ninety persons. Some of those who have reached one hundred and seventy; and the been prominent in the business of the town town promises to be one of the pushing, bus- are: Martin Fink, William Shenefield, Dr. tling communities of the county. Bishop, Adam Mochel, Frederick Weber, Con- Sec. 5. - Lindley. - The youngest of our- rad Kelley, Michael Kettring, Philip Buhler, towns is Lindley, in Warren township. It Dr. Fisher, Frederick Lang and Charles lies on the north side of the Lake Shore rail- Frank, the saw-mill and lumbermen, Scott, road, in the north part of the northwest quar- Shenefield, Thomas Crakes and many others, ter of the northeast quarter of section two, In the lumber business particularly, Woodtownship thirty-seven north, range one east. It land has been a busy town. No less than four was platted September 6, 1901, by Ashbury or five saw-mills were, at different times, at Lindley and Mina Lindley. The locality, work in and around the town, though but little more than a railway station. Sec. 7. - Warwick. - In the northwest has had a surfeit of names. For a long time quarter of section eighteen, township thirtyit was known as Warren Center, and that was eight, range one east, in Olive township, is another unplatted hamlet, which seems advancing to the dignity of a busy center. It is known as Warwick, and is located on the old Chicago road, or Great Sauk Trail, at the intersection of the South Bend and St. Joseph branch of the Michigan Central railroad. The population is very small.

Sec. 8. - Nutwood. - -This town is a station on the Vandal ia railroad, in Center township, in the south part of section three, township thirty-six north, range two east. It has a post offic6 ; and in 1900 had a population of fortythree. Some other little hamlets, or collections of houses, may be found in different sections of the county ; but they are hardly more than pleasant neighborhoods and need not be referred to as towns.

Iii. Incorporated Towns

Sec. 1.- - New Carlisle. - One of the oldest of our towns, as it is one of the most beautifully situated, is New Carlisle, which from its picturesque eminence overlooks fair Terre Coupee prairie in Olive township. The town was founded in 1835 by Richard R. Carlisle, a unique character of our early history. He was of a restless disposition, a sportsman and a traveler rather than a pioneer settler. He did not remain in the town to w^liich he gave his name, and is said to have spent his last days in Philadelphia. The land on which the town was laid out had been obtained from the Indians by one Lazarus Bourissau, a Frenchman who married an Indian wife. It was from the children of Bourissau that the land was purchased by Carlisle. The dedication and acknowledgment of the town plat reads as follows :

"This plat represents the Town of New Carlisle, situated in the northeast quarter of section thirty-four, in township thirty-eight north, in range one west, in St. Joseph county, Indiana. Each lot is one hundred and thirty-two feet in length by fifty feet in width. All the streets and alleys cross at right angles - - variation north eight degrees and twenty minutes west. The width of the streets is marked in each respectively. [Michigan street is shown to be one hundred feet in width ; and Front, Chestnut, Cherry, Filbert, Arch and Race, each, sixty feet.] The alleys lying parallel with Michigan street are each sixteen and one-half feet wide ; those of a contrary course are eaeh eight feet wide.

On March 15, 1837, R. R. Carlisle filed and acknowledged a very much extended plat of New Carlisle, on the same general plan as the firet. This last plat was printed and lithographed in the city of New York, and contains a beautiful view of the town overlooking Terre Coupee prairie. Apparently a large number of these printed plats were prepared. They were no doubt intended to be circulated throughout the east and to attract attention to the beautiful town.

New Carlisle, though still a small place, could hardly fail to hold its own in the struggle for existence. The fine eminence on which it stands; the unequaled landscape which spreads out before it; the rich agricultural county that surrounds it; and the absence of any rival town for many miles, - all united to attach its people to the old town and to draAv others to it. The coming of the Lake Shore railroad, in 1851, secured the stability of the little municipality. On June 7, 1866, Samuel C. Lancaster and thirty-one others filed with the board of county commissioners a petition for the incorporation of the town; and the board fixed June 30, 1866, for an election to determine the question. On September 4, 1866, the report of the election was filed with the county board, and it showed forty-four votes for incorporation and six against it. Thereupon the board .entered an

Under an act approved March 3 , 1899, towns not having more than fifteen hundred inhabitants, and having no school indebtedness, were authorized to transfer their schools and school property to the trustees of the to\\Tiships in which such towns respectively should be located.'^ New Carlisle took advantage of this law and transferred its schools to the jurisdiction of the trustee of Olive township ; and, consequently, it has since been simply a civil and not a school town. The schools of New Castle are nevertheless of a high order and excellently conducted.

The New Carlisle Collegiate Institute, a school for the education of both sexes, was erected by the ]\Iethodist Episcopal church, in 1859 ; and the school was opened in 1861, under the patronage of that church. The Institute took high rank as a classical school;^ and continued to flourish for seven or eight years. The Institute building was a substantial two-story brick structure, forty-four by seventy-five feet. The expense of conducting the school, however, proved too heavy for the church; and accordingly the building was purchased for the use of the school town of New Carlisle.^ An exceedingly interesting reunion of the surviving students of the old Institute took place August 29, 1907, which was attended by about eighty alumni from different parts of the country. At the close of the reunion, a regular organization' was perfected.

The New Carlisle Gazette, one of the best of our county papers, was established February 6, 1880, by George M. Fountain and George H. Alward. It was at first independent in politics; but at the end of six months Mr. Fountain bought out his partner, and continued the publication of the "Gazette as a Republican journal, until his election as clerk of the St. Joseph circuit court, when the present proprietor, Mr. E. L. Maudlin, took charge.

On the incorporation of the town, it would seem that the people of New Carlisle had everything needed to make life full and content: Churches, schools, shops, stores, newspaper, all located in one of the most beautiful landscapes in America ; and with these, and more than all these, a highly iuoral and intellectual community. It is an ideal home for the philosopher, the artist or the poet, as well as for the contended, right living American citizen. With the completion of the two interurban railways soon to connect the town with South Bend, on the east and with Laporte, Michigan City and Chicago on the west, it would seem that nothing will remain to make New Carlisle one of the most desirable residence towns in the country.

Sec. 2. - North Liberty. - The town of North Liberty, situated in Liberty township, followed close after New Carlisle. It was founded in 1836 by Daniel Antrim. The dedication of the plat is as follows:

"This is the plat of the Town of North Liberty, in St. Joseph county, Indiana. Laid out on the southwest quarter of section twenty-eight and the southeast quarter of section twenty-nine, in township thirty-six north, in range one east. The streets and alleys cross at right angles, bearing east, west, north or south. The width of the streets is marked in each, respectively. [The streets are each sixty-six feet in w4dtli, except Main street, which is eighty-two and a half feet wide.] The alleys lying north and south are each sixteen and one-half feet wide ; those lying east and west, fourteen feet wide. Each lot is ten rods, east and west, by four rods north and south, containing one quarter of an acre.

"N. B. The corner of sections twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-two and thirty-three is designated as the beginning point in surveying the town plat.

Since the extension of the Wabash railroad and the Three " I " railroad through the town, North Liberty has become one of our most important centers of business and population.

So far as can be learned, the first newspaper, the North Liberty Herald, was established about the year 1892. The Herald was published for nearly four years. On March 23, 1895, publication of the North Liberty News was begun by its present editor and proprietor, Mr. Dell M. Woodward. The News is a sprightly well conducted paper, and fully meets the wants of the people of North Liberty and vicinity. About the year 1903, the North West Indianian was started at North Liberty, but continued for only about a year. The population of North Liberty, according to the United States census of 1900, was five hundred and four. The toAvn was duly incorporated June 8, 1894'.

Sec. 3. - Lakeville. - The town of Lakeville is situated in Union township, on either side of the Michigan road; and is located on the east half of the southeast quarter of section thirty-four, and the west part of the southwest quarter of section thirty-five, in towmship thirty-seven north, range two east. It receives its name from a number of small lakes south of the town, the chief of which is Riddle's lake. Originally this was merely a place of, rest and refreshment for the accommodation of travelers, merchants and others doing business along the great highway leading through the state from the Ohio river to. Lake Michigan. After the opening of the Michigan road and before the coming of the railroads, immigration and commerce for northern Indiana sought this north and south highway from Logansport to IMichigan City, instead of proa. See the history of Liberty Township, in the previous chapter.

ceeding, as formerly, along the Indian trails from Fort Wayue and Detroit, or coming up the St. Joseph from Lake Michigan. The immigrant seeking a home upon the Michigan road lands or bringing his family and house hold goods to the home already selected; the speculator intent upon picking out the fat of the land or in projecting towns in the wilderness, and the merchant bringing up his goods from the Wabash, - all moved along the great thoroughfare, on foot, on horseback, by the lumbering stage coach or in the weighty Pennsylvania w^agons that perchance had once rolled across the Alleghanies, bearing in their capacious bosoms the seeds of future commonwealths. And on this thoroughfare Lakeville was a modest station.

The original plat of the town, consisting of Lots A. B. C. D. E. & F., on the west side of the Michigan road, is first shown on record as lying north of and adjoining Coquillard's addition to the town ; which addition was platted August 18, 1857, by Alexis T., Alexis and Frances C. Coquillard. Alexis Theodore Coquillard was the son; Alexis, the nephew; and Frances C. Coquillard, the widow of the elder Alexis Coquillard, one of the founders of the city of South Bend. The original plat was itself afterwards placed on record December 23, 1859 ; but again in connection with the Coquillard addition.

Like others of our towns, Lakeville was for many years of slow growth. When the Michigan road, from South Bend to Plymouth became a plank road, an infusion of new life for a time gave an air of prosperity to the little hamlet, and several additions were platted to the town ; but after a few years the plank road became out of repair and the old planks w^ere taken up and the toll houses removed. After another interval the Vandalia railroad came in, and still later the Wabash gave connection with Chicago and with the east. The town has since prospered, and is now one of the busiest of our small municipalities. Additions have been platted by John Hendereon, Michael Hupp, Stephen A. Ulery and Sarah E. Rush; and the population, in 1900, had reached three hundred and fifty. The drainage and improved cultivation of the surrounding lands have also tended to establish the town upon a substantial basis, and Lakeville is now sure to go on prospering and to prosper. Lakeville became an incorporated town by order of the board of county commissioners, July 7, 1902.

Sec. 4. - River Park. - River Park occupies the territory between South Bend and Mishawaka, on the north side of the St. Joseph river. The original plat was acknowledged April 7, 1892, by Albert J. Home and Benjamin F. Dunn. Several additions have since been platted, the principal of these being Fordham and Berner's Grove. A petition for the incorporation of the town was filed with the county board May 7, 1900, and an election ordered for May 23, 1900. While the election was in favor of incorporation, yet, on remonstrance being presented and considered, the commissioners refused to order the town incorporated. From this decision of the board an appeal was taken to the circuit court, where the decision was reversed; and an order was made by the court, December 28, 1900, incorporating the town of River Park. The town has grown rapidly, the population being now estimated at from two to three hundred people. It has a post office, an excellent school and many business houses suited to the needs of a suburban population. A fine fruit nursery is conducted by Mr. John B. Witwer, who, like the great majority of his townsmen, has a most delightful home in River Park. The South Bend watch factory, which rivals Elgin and Waltham in the superior quality of its watches, is located in River Park.

Pottawatomie Park adjoins the town of River Park; although this fine pleasure ground, the largest in the county, was placed in the custody of the city of South Bend by the county commissioners. The park consists of sixty acres, including forty acres formerly used for the St. Joseph county fair grounds. On the discontinuance of the holding of annual county fairs on those grounds, an act, approved March 1, 1905,« was passed by the legislature authorizing the county commissioners to place such lands in the care of the city authorities, to be used as a park, which on April 3, 1906, was done in this case. The county afterwards added twenty acres of fine woodland on the north, formerly a part of the old county farm. The city of South Bend, in accepting this trust, gave to the grounds the exceedingly appropriate name of Pottawatomie Park. The late Richard H. Lyon, whose fine taste and historical instinct were sensibly affected by the erection of this noble park for the use of the people of the county, wrote the following beautiful tribute to the friendly Indians, after whom the park was named :

"The action of the South Bend authorities in adopting the name Pottawatomie for the new park on the old fair grounds, recently donated to the city by the county commissioners, will meet the general approbation of this community. It is a commendable proceeding, thus honoring the gTeat nation of red men, who with their cousins, the Ottawas and the Chippewas, once possessed and occupied this vast territory now embraced in northern Indiana, by giving to the largest and most important tract of the region dedicated to public use this highly appropriate title in recognition of a tribe whose name is written high in Algonquin history.

"Too little attention is paid in this part of the west to the preservation of good old Indian names by the white race that took the land from their dusky brethren, the original and rightful owners. South Bend's streets, most of her leading ones, are laid out on Indian trails, yet not one beare an Indian name with the sole exception of Miami street, formerly the old Turkey Creek road. There have been distinguished red men enough associated with the early history of this country to have afforded each of our important thoroughfares a representative Indian name. In the states east of us, particularly in New York and New England, Indian names of appropriate significant meaning have been generously applied to streets, public buildings, parks and private estates, thus preserving permanently the quaint lore of the original Americans.

"Every Indian word and especially an Indian name, has a distinct meaning and that is one reason so many have been adopted by the whites of the east. The word Pottawatomie has its peculiar definition or meaning in English. The Indians of this race were said to be experts in starting fires from the rubbing of two sticks together, hence they were called flame creators or blaze blowers. They originated in the Green bay country, Wisconsin, and followed the explorer, Robert Cavelier de La Salle, into the St. Joseph valley, soon after he discovered this region in 1679. It is an important fact that the first friendly service that La Salle received from either whites or Indians, after he launched out on his tour of the discovery of the great northwest, was at the hands of a Pottawatomie chief. The Pottawatomies were ever the white man's friend, but the white man wa.s not always their friend, at least did not always treat them as they deserved.

"During the Chicago massacre in 1812 and the Black Hawk war of 1832, the Pottawatomies of the St. Joseph valley rendered invaluable service to the whites, which at the time duly appreciated, but forgotten in after years when the government obtaining possession of their lands by subterfuge, bundled the most of them off to Kansas, where they were given a small and unfruitful reservation for the vast and rich lands they and their fathers once owned here. The last of the tribe to leave this vicinity was the Pokagon band, which removed from the original village on the old Sac and Fox trail down the river near Bertrand to VanBuren and Cass counties, Michigan, in 1836.

"There is not a full-blooded Pottawatomie living in St. Joseph county now. Not many moons in the past the brave red man held undisputed sway in the wilds hereabouts, but his wigwam, his hunting grounds, his Avtp' whoop and his quaint garb have all disappeared and in their place the productive farms, the thriving cities and villages of the white man cover the landscape. Nothing is left of the Pottawatomie but the unknowji graves of his ancestors, the memory of his useful deeds and his extreme friendliness toward his white brethren. Why should we not honor his memory by christening the new and extensive park with the name of Pottawatomie? When shall we see a statue of a representative Pottawatomie chief placed in a conspicuous spot in the grand park?

Sec. 5. - Walkerton. - The town of Walkerton, not far from the center of Lincoln township, is one of the most flourishing centers in northern Indiana. Except the cities of South Bend and Mishawaka. it is the largest and most important municipal corpoiation in St. Joseph county. The town, as it now stands, is a combination of different towns and additions, all united under the name and government of Walkerton. The first of these corporations was that of West Troy, laid out by Elias D. Jones in the southeast part of the northeast quarter of section twenty-three, toAATiship thirty-five north, range one west. This town was platted by Mr. Jones December 14, 1854.

On June 20, 1856, William C. Hannah platted the town of WaIl?:erton, which was laid out in the southwest quarter of section twenty-four, in the same township and range as West Troy. Burk's addition to West Troy was platted April 27, 1860. On December 11, 1868, Jacob Rupel had the plats of his first three additions to Walkerton placed on record. A fourth addition was platted by him on July 2, 1875, and a fifth on January 23, 1884. Dixon W. Place platted his first addition to Walkerton September 3, 1887. All these corporations and additions, with the snbseqnent growth of each, are now united in one vigorous municipality, the center of an active and enterprising business and farming community.

The town was named from John Walker, the promoter of a railroad through the town, from Plymouth to Laporte, known at first as the Indianapolis. Peru & Chicago railroad, but long since become a part of the Lake Erie & Western system, extending from Indianapolis to Michigan City. This railroad, during the feeble period of its existence, was nicknamed the Pe-wee road. Two other railroads unite with the Lake Erie & Western to make Walkerton an important railroad center. These are the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Three I, otherwise the Chicago, Illinois & Southern. The Lake Erie and the Three I are under the control of the Lake Shore system. These railroads are of great moment to Walkerton and the southwest part of the county. Formerly the connections with the outside world were practically confined to exits by way of Plymouth and Laporte. Now, in addition, the people are in close connection with Chicago and the east by the great trunk line, the Baltimore & Ohio, and with the county seat at South Bend, as well as with the Illinois coal fields, by the Three I, or Chicago, Illinois & Southern, as it is now called.

Mr. Samuel J. Nicoles, long a leading citizen of the town, as he is indeed a Christian gentleman, whose citizenship would be an honor to any community, gives the following comprehensive statement of present conditions: Walkerton, says Mr. Nicoles, is compactly built, with a very good class of homes in the residence sections, and with good twostory brick buildings in the business part. Among these is an excellent hotel. Another is the two-story cement stone building, occupied and owned by William A. Endly, the enterprising editor and proprietor of the AValkerton Independent.

which was issued by Henry S. Mintle, April 7, 1875. ]\Ir. Mintle continued the publication until his death, May 13, 1886, when the paper was sold to J. F. Endly, w^ho changed the name to the Walkerton Independent. Since the death of Mr. Endly, his son, William A. Endly, has continued the publicatioii of the Independent, which has become a first class newspaper.

In 1879, before J. F. Endly became the owner of the Independent, he started the publication of the St. Joseph County Republican, which, in 1881, he sold to D. M. Eveland. This paper was afterwards purchased by Theodore Needham, who, in turn, sold it to Burroughs & Son. Later it ceased publication, and the presses and material were rejiioved to Laporte. >

The Walkerton State Bank, with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, is a well conducted and very safe and conservative institution. A grain elevator of ample capacity is owned and managed by a reliable company with abundance of capital. The merchants are agreeable and accommodating business men, and carry at all times large and well assorted stocks of goods. The town is also well supplied with lawyers and doctors. There is a substantial brick school building, in Avhich is conducted a graded school, including a first class high school.

There are at present five church organizations: the Presbyterian, the Catholic, the United Brethren, the jMethodist and the Seventh Day Adventist. Two of these have recently built fine church edifices, one of cement stone and one of pressed brick. Another has in course of erection a fine large building of stone and concrete. The first church to be erected in the town was by the Methodists, in 1859. The Baptists erected a church in 1870, and the Catholics in 1876. The Presbyterian society, as stated by Mr. Endly, was organized February 5, 1876, with sixteen members, when the old Baptist church linildinu- was used as its house of worship.

The streets of Walkerton are wide, with cement sidewalks extending- in every direction, and with shade trees on either side. The town is in some degree committed to municipal ownership of public utilities. It has a well constructed and well managed system of water works: and also a fine electric light plant. Both are owned and operated by the town.

After several fruitless attempts, Walkerton became an incorporated town June 8, 1877. The first petition for incorporation was filed with the county auditor December 2, 1873, and an election was ordered for the 22nd of the same month. By reason of irregularities in the proceedings, the commissioners refused to act favorably on the petition. A second petition was not filed until March 8, 1876, when an elction was ordered for April 3, 1876. No further proceedings were had on this second petition. The third petition was filed with the board March 5, 1877, and an election was ordered for April 2nd following. The report of this third election was returned on June 8, 1877; and the board of county commissioners finding everything regular and according to law% an order was entered duly incorporating the town.

By the census of 1900, the population of "Walkerton was one thousand and thirty-seven. The town has grown rapidly since that date, and Mr. Nicoles estimates the present population at fifteen hundred. With its enterprising citizens, its fine farming surroundings and its excellent railroad facilities, Walkerton is, besides, well located, being at a sufficient distance from South Bend, Laporte, Plymouth and Knox to admit of free and ample gTO^^-th. Its future is assured; and St. Joseph county has good cause to be proud of her southwestern capital.