The Towns

To jump to the topics, click on the following: Portage | Plainfield | Palestine | Williamsport | Greensburg | Canton | Mount Pleasant | Terre Coupee | Denniston | Osceola | Crums’s Point | Granger | Wyatt | Lindley | Woodland | Warwick | Nutwood | New Carlisle | North Liberty | Lakeville | River Park | North Liberty | Walkerton

Towns that were

In a new county, with few inhabitants, the forests yet standing and the soil uncultivated, except in spots few and far between, without roads, except trails winding through the woods, over prairies and along the marshes; 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.

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 that tract.      The plat of St. Joseph was the first town plat laid off and recorded in St. Joseph county, and by reason of this circumstance, and because the town was our first county seat, the following quotations and other particulars taken from the venerable record will be of historical interest:      “Town of St. Joseph, by William Brookfield.      “All the blocks in this town plat, excepting those on which ‘Brookfield’s square’ are written, belong to the county, agreeable to his donation to the county. Donation September 14, 1830. Those blocks on which ‘Brookfield’s square’ are written are exclusively his own.”      “State of Indiana,

ss.:

“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 free act and deed for the purpose therein expressed.      “Given under my hand and seal the day and year first above written.

“L. M. Taylor (Seal)”

There is on the plat a representation of the St. Joseph river, turning sharply to the north, 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 following title is also shown: “A correct diagram of the county seat called St. Joseph, in the county of St. Joseph, state of Indiana.”      “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 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 here marked on the plat “Michigan State Road.” On Wesley street appears the words: “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 Madison, 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 the history, the legislature, in the year 1831, passed 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 when 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.

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 out as a county seat; the new town would be laid out as a seat of commerce, education and manufactures.      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 feet 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, 1836, a still further addition was made by Lemuel Crawford. The town seemed on the high 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 fatty over the river at this point; as well as to have county roads laid out to and from Portage, on both 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 act granting the charter was approved January 30, 1837, and amongst other things, provided:      “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 march, 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 Kankakee 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 the board of trustees, shall have power to grant and confer such degrees in the liberal arts and sciences as are usually granted and conferred in other colleges in the United States.” A further provision was that “said institution shall be located at of within two miles of the village of Portage in the county of St. Joseph, and state of Indiana.”      But the “St. Joseph Manual Labor Collegiate Institute” was never anything more than a project on paper; and, like all the other ambitious projects of the town, has been long since altogether forgotten. The panic of 1837 was on, and the promoters of the town suffered reverses, in common with those of many another struggling and hopeful band of projects in every part of the country.      William McCartney, who appears as one of the incorporators of the “St. Joseph Manual Labor Collegiate Institute,” was the owner of a farm on the river, in German township, a little above the town of Portage. This farm is connected in our history with an effort made to establish the only community association ever attempted in St. Joseph county. Timothy G. Turner has left us the following brief account of this ill-starred community:      “In the winter of 1845 a community, suggested, probably, by the system of economics elaborated by the French philosopher, Charles Fourier, was established on the McCartney farm, about two miles below South Bend. It was a joint stock company, organized under the name of the ‘Philadelphia Industrial Association.’ Its objects were economical and social. Its operations continued about two years. The Hon. William C. Talcott, of Valparaiso, Indiana, favors us with the following reminiscences in relation to it:      “’I think Mr. McCartney was the first president, and I was secretary during almost its entire existence. It was chiefly through my influence that the association was formed and managed. There were, probably, more than a hundred persons, old and young, connected with us, from first to last; but I should not think more than about seventy living on the premises at once. During a part of the time they ate at a common table.      “’The main cause of their dissolution, I have ever believed, was that Mr. McCartney violated his promise to invest the whole tract of land; and, after we were fully organized and on the ground, ready to receive the title and use the land, he withheld all of the valuable and available portion, and turned us off with the broken, marshy land, lying between the road and the river, at twenty dollars per acre, the appraised price of the entire tract.’”      Mr. Turner adds, that while the association failed, Mr. McCartney succeeded in getting his land cleared up and improved for nothing.      It would seem that everything connected with an attempt to build up any enterprise at the old portage was a failure. At first, the old St. Joseph, Brookfield’s town, and now Judge Egbert’s more hopeful town of Portage, both alike went down before the vigorous municipality growing up at the “south bend” of the river. In the face of financial and other difficulties, the people of Portage became discouraged, and, one by one, all the projected enterprises were abandoned. The town went down as rapidly as it had arisen, until not a vestige of its former glory remained.      With its other misfortunes, the town suffered from a nickname which belittled its pretentions to greatness. The river at this point turned abruptly to the east, and then as abruptly to the west, making a little peninsula which humorous people in derision called a pinhook; and Pinhook the town was named to the end of its days.      The following items concerning the good old town of Portage, under its nickname of Pinhook, are from the genial pen of the lamented Richard H. Lyon, who devoted so large a part of his later years to local historical investigations. His body most appropriately rest in Riverview cemetery, near the site of the historic scenes on which his fine mind so often dwelt:      “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 know 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 stare the college enterprise on its way. It never got beyond the purchase of the bell, however, and when the county arose from the financial blow it received in 1837, Portage was no more and the bell went astray somewhere.      “Productive farm land 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 fro a time maintained his office and residence there. Until a few years ago taxes on his 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 has ceased to exist for more then half a century. An effort was made to secure water power 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’ 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 around 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 town 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 exultation 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 Marquette?

Plainfield

The village of Plainfield was the first platted town to be laid out in Olive township. It was surveyed December 23, 1833, by Tyra W. Bray; and was laid out on “nearly equal portions of the northeast and northwest quarters of section thirty-six and the southeast and southwest quarters of section twenty-five, in township thirty-eight 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 the were,” and hence receives notice in this place.

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, Abijah 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 on the prairie can point out its site.

Williamsport

This town was surveyed by Thomas P. Bulla for the proprietors, 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 thirty-seven north, range four east. It has left no record but its plat.

Greensburg

On December 4, 1835, the town of Greensburg was surveyed 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.

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 flourish 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 then ephemeral existence.

Mount Pleasant

There is little left of fair Mount Pleasant except the record of its plat, which reads as follows:      “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 purpose within represented.      “Signed, sealed and delivered in my presence, August 19, 1836.      “Attest: Lathrop M. Taylor, recorder.”      The town continued to maintain a feeble existence unto by an act of the legislature, approved January 17, 1850, the play 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 Miami village where La Salle held his memorable conference, in May, 1861. A church, a school, farm house and other farm buildings now remain to mark the site of the town, well named Mount Pleasant.

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, of 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 proceeding chapter, the town “is on its way to join Plainfield and Palestine.”      An interesting item as to the burial of veterans of the war of 1812 in the old graveyard of Terre Coupee, and at other points in Olive township, appeared recently in the Indianapolis News, and is here inserted:      “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, Joshua 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.”

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 over thrown 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 Lowell, afterwards laid out and since become a part of the city of South Bend.

Unincorporated Towns

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

“John A. Henricks.

“November 17, 1837.      “N. B. The beginning corner to resurvey any of the lots in this plat is the corner on the river, between sections eight and nine.”      The main street in the town comes in form the west as “Vistula street,” and goes out on the east as the “Road 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 plated 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 platted. 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 town. 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 at the extreme east and one at the extreme west of the county, and both admirable 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.

Crums’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 for 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 town is on one of the main gravel roads leading southwest from South Bend and connecting with the road to North Liberty and Walkerton.

Granger

The great farmer’s movement organized during the latter part of the nineteenth century, and known as the Granger was commemorated by the founding of the town of Granger, in Harris township, by Thomas J. Foster, April 3, 1883. The town is near the Michigan line, on the east side of what is now the Big Four railroad, in fractional section seven, township thirty-eight north, range four east. An addition to the town was made by Mr. Foster in September of the same year. The population in 1900, was yet small, being but sixty-seven souls. A more suitable name than Granger could not have been selected for the town. It is situated in the heart of the rich and beautiful Harris prairie: and the country, both in Indiana and Michigan, is one of the finest farming districts to be found anywhere. An extensive grain trade is carried on over the Big Four.

Wyatt

East of Lakeville, on the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section thirty-four, township thirty-six north, range three east, in Madison township and on the Wabash railroad, is the new and busy town of Wyatt. It was laid out and platted March 27, 1894, by Jeremiah Bechtel and Louisa Bechtel. When the Wabash came through the heavy timbered section of the south part of Madison township, and the drainage of the rich lands turned that wet region into fertile farms, the need of a shipping town was evident, and Wyatt came in answer to the pressing needs of the enterprising people. In 1900 the population had reached one hundred and seventy; and the town promises to be one of the pushing, bustling communities of the county.

Lindley

The youngest of our towns is Lindley, in Warren township. It lies on the north side of the Lake Shore railroad, in the north part of the north part of the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section two, township thirty-seven north, range one east. It was platted September 6, 1901, by Ashbury Lindley and Mina Lindley. The locality, through but little more than a railway station, has had a surfeit of names. For a long time it was known as Warren Center, and that was the name of the railroad station. The name given to the post office, however, was Sweet Home, a very pretty designation for a county town; this name has been changed to Lindley. Recently the railroad company hunted up a fourth name, and the station is now called Lydick. It would be fitting that all should compromise on the honored name of that worthy pioneer, Ashbury Lindley, Who lived his good life in the neighborhood, and platted the town. A little to the west of the town is the crossing of the branch of the Michigan Central railroad, running from South Bend to St. Joseph, on lake Michigan. The census of 1900 shows the population of Sweet Home to be thirty- four.br>

Woodland

At the corner of section fifteen, sixteen, twenty-one and twenty-two, township thirty-six north, range three east, in Madison township, the town of Woodland has been in existence during a time extending back at least as for as the year 1860. The town was never platted; although on August 7, 1899, Mochel’s plat, practically an addition to the town, was laid out on the north half of the northwest quarter of said section twenty-two. The place has always been a business center of some importance. Schools, churches, groceries, post office, physician’s office, saw-mill, blacksmith shop, and other like features of a rural town have always been maintained. The population in the year 1900 was ninety persons. Some of those who have been prominent in the business of the town are: Martin Fink, William Shenefield, Dr. Bishop, Adam Mochel, Frederick Weber, Conrad Delley, Michael Kettring, Philip Buhler, Dr. Fisher, Frederick Lang and Charles Frank, the saw-mill and lumbermen, Scott, Shenefield, Thomas Crakes and many others. In the lumber business particularly, Woodland has been a busy town. No less than four or five saw-mills were, at different times, at work in and around the town.br>

Warwick

In the northwest quarter of section eighteen, township thirty-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.

Nutwood

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

Incorporated Towns

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 which 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 each eight feet wide

“Richard R. Carlisle,

“Proprietor.

“The beginning point to re-survey any of the lots of this town is at a stone at the northeast corner of No. thirty-three.      “Surveyed by Tyra W. Bray, St. Joseph County Surveyor.”      The plat was acknowledged by Mr. Carlisle August 15, 1835.      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 first. This 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, 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 draw 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 order incorporating the town, under name of New Carlisle.      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 townships 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 Methodist 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 of 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 form different parts of the country. At the close of the reunion, a regular organization was perfected.      The population of the town of New Carlisle, according to the census of 1900, was five hundred and ninety-seven.      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 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 moral 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 county.

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 width, 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.      “Laid out for the purpose above mentioned, as witness my hand, this 12th day of January, 1836.

“Daniel Antrim.

“N. B. The corner of section twenty-eight, designated as the beginning point in surveying the town plat.      “Surveyed by Tyra W. Bray, St. Joseph County Surveyor.” 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 town was duly incorporated June 8, 1894.

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-five, in township 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 travels, 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 form Logansport to Michigan City, instead of proceeding as formerly, along the Indian trails from Fort Wayne 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 wagons that perchance had once rolled across the Alleghenies, 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 were taken up and the toll house 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 Henderson, 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.

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. Horne 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 great 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 Indiana trails, yet not one bears 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 county 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 adapted 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 laze blowers, They originated in the Green bay county, 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 was not always their friend, at least did not always treat them as they deserved.      “During the Chicago massacre in 1812 and in the Black Hawk war of 1832, the Pottawatomies of the St. Joseph valley rendered invaluable service to the whites, which at the time was duly appreciated, but forgotten in after years when the government obtained 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 war 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 unknown 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?

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 corporation 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, township 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 Walkerton, 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 Toy 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 subsequent 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, 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 southern part of the county. Formerly the connections with the outside world were practically confined to exists 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, was a long 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 section, and with good two-story brick buildings in the business part. Among theses 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 Walkerton Independent.      The first newspaper established in the town was the Walkerton Visitor, the first copy of which was issued by Henry S. Mintle, April 7, 1875. Mr. Mintle continued the publication until his death, May 13, 1886, when the paper was sold to J. F. Endly, who changed the name to the Walkerton Independent. Since the death of Mr. Endly, his son, William A. Endly, has continued the publication 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 a fterwards purchased by Theodore Needham, who, in turn, sold it to Burrroughs & Son. Later it ceased publication, and the presses and material were removed 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 lawyer and doctors. There is a substantial brick school building, in which is conducted a grade school, including a first class high school.      There are at present five church organizations: The Presbyterian, the Catholic, the United Brethren, the Methodist 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 started by Mr. Endly, was organized February 5, 1876, with sixteen members, when the old Baptist Church building was used as its house of worship. The present fine edifice was formally dedicated June 12, 1904.      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 election was ordered for April 3, 1876. No further proceedings were had on the 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 since that date, and Mr. Nicoles estimates the present population at fifteen hundred. With its enterprising citizens, its fine farming surrounding 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 growth. Its future is assured; and St. Joseph county has good cause to be proud of her southwestern capital. (Howard, History of St. Joseph County, Indiana, 1907)

Go back to top