USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 40
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IIISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
young swimmers and bathers would avoid the tempting waters as they would a bath of poison. But the vietims continue to disappear from year to year beneath the treacherous waves. until as every summer comes the peo- ple expeet to hear of deaths by drowning, almost as a matter of course. In South Bend, the board of safety has felt called upon to provide a life-saving station, with a boat ready at any instant to go to the reseue of a person caught in the dangerous currents. It is hoped this precaution may be the means of putting an end to the loss of life that has for years afflicted so many households.
The most heart-rending drowning that per- haps ever took place on the St. Joseph oc- eurred on the evening of Tuesday, June 2. 1868, when four young people, Eugene Seixas, Charles Waterhouse, Adele Seixas and Molly C. Miller, lost their lives in a boat that was carried over the dam at South Bend. The cause of the accident is not certainly known; but it is believed that the boat, which was launched in the still water a little above the headgates of the west raee, was caught in the current and carried sideways over the dam before the young men perceived their danger or had time to grasp the oars. Miss Miller's body was recovered that evening and those of the others on the next day. The tragedy cast a gloom over the whole city. where the young men and women were all well known and were beloved by all the peo- ple.
II. FERRIES, ROADS AND BRIDGES.
Sec. 1 .- FERRIES OVER THE ST. JOSEPH .- In the beginning, shallow places in the river, or fords, were selected for the purpose of crossing from one side to the other. The first settlers were often thus required to ford the stream with their wagons, oxen, cows and other stock. Soon after the starting of towns, however, it became necessary to eross the river at the towns whether the water were deep or shallow. Before the building of bridges such erossings were made by ferry boats plying
from one bank to. the other. These vessels were generally flat boats, and simple in con- struction ; on which teams, animals and all kinds of goods, as well as persons, were taken over the river at fixed charges. To protect the publie as well as the ferryman, the county board granted special licenses, without which no one was allowed to establish a regular ferry or make charges for carrying goods or pas- sengers from shore to shore.
The first ferry license on the St. Joseph river, as we have seen," was granted Septem- ber 6, 1831, to Nehemiah B. Griffith; who was authorized, on certain terms and conditions, to establish a ferry over the river, on what is now La Salle avenue. This ferry was of great advantage to the people having occasion to pass from one side of the river to the other.b Misunderstandings, however, arose, and com- plaints were made to the county commission- ers as to the manner in which the ferry was conducted. This resulted in some litigation, and the matter was in an unsettled condition for a long time.
On January 7, 1835, Alexis Coquillard was granted a license to establish a ferry on what is now Colfax avenue. That the business in- creased may be known from an order made by the board on March 3, 1835, requiring Mr. Coquillard to add another boat to his ferry.
It is said that there was a ferry established aeross the river at Mishawaka in 1834, but there does not seem to be any record of a license for such a ferry. There is no doubt. however, that a means of frequent erossing of the river at that point was a necessity, although a regular licensed ferry may not have been established. The people of that town, at a very early day, had set their minds upon a bridge over the river as being far preferable to a ferry.
On September 1, 1834, Elisha Egbert took out a license for a ferry, crossing the river at the town of Portage, north of South Bend. Mr. Egbert was much interested in this town.
a. Chap. 5, Subd. 5.
b. There was a steamboat landing at the same place.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
whose success for a time seemed promising, but which has long ceased to exist.
Sec. 2 .- BRIDGES OVER THE ST. JOSEPH .- Not only has Mishawaka the honor of building the first dam across the St. Joseph river, but also of constructing the first bridge over the same stream. Both were private enterprises ; and both were undoubtedly due in large meas- ure to the enterprise of the principal founder of the city, Alanson M. Hurd. This first bridge over the river was built in 1837, and seems to have been a substantial structure. This may be inferred from the accident that happened in 1847 to the steam boat Pilot by running against the bridge. On May 3, 1847, the county auditor reported to the county commissioners that the owners of the Pilot threatened suit for the loss of their boat, claiming also that the bridge was an obstrue- tion to navigation. The only action taken by the board was to order surveys and estimates for a new bridge, a "lattice" bridge, at Mish- awaka.
No action looking towards building a bridge at South Bend seems to have been taken until 1844, when Abram R. Harper, an enterprising merchant of the town, was authorized by the county board to take up subscriptions and erect a toll bridge over the river at Washington street. The idea of a toll bridge does not seem to. have been received with favor by the people, and the project languished. In March, 1845, the county undertook the support of the enterprise, on condition that eight hundred dollars were secured by subscription. Mr. Harper was appointed superintendent. The bridge was to be three hundred and fifty feet in length ; and to extend from Washington street, on the west, to Market street, now Colfax avenue. on the east side.
At the June term, 1847, Mr. Harper report- ed to the county board that he had advanced towards the building of the Washington-Mar- ket street bridge five hundred and thirty- seven dollars and fifty-four cents, and that there was yet due on subscriptions one hun-
dred and ninety-nine dollars and fifty cents. It was evident that the board must now come to the rescue of this work, and an order was made that the road tax for Portage township be turned over to the superintendent and the bridge completed.
At the same session of the board it appeared from the surveys and estimates for the con- struction of the Mishawaka bridge that its total cost would be five thousand dollars, and that said sum exceeded the amount of the ordinary road work and tax of the two road districts in which the bridge lay. An order was then made that the road tax of all the dis- tricts to be benefited by the bridge should be applied to its completion. This bridge was to be three hundred feet long and twenty-eight feet in width.
Thus was the very important work of spanning the river with bridges at the two towns completed. The days of the ferries were passed. The county, under statutory provisions, has since taken charge of the build- ing of all bridges over the river, as well as of all other bridges in the county.
Soon after there was found need of an ad- ditional bridge in South Bend; and a covered wooden bridge was built on Water street, now La Salle avenue, where the first ferry in the town had been established. This covered wooden bridge is noted in our local history by reason of the disaster occasioned to it by the only tornado that ever visited this section of the country.ยช It was about two o'clock on the afternoon of August 9, 1865, that a black, angry-looking cloud was seen coming up the Kankakee valley from the southwest. The cloud came on swiftly and threateningly ; dipped towards the earth as it reached the town; stripped the tin roof off the court house, tearing the tin and rolling it up like bales of cloth; dipped still lower and struck and tore down the east half of the Water street bridge; and then scattered houses and barns as it rushed on to the southeast. The tornado does not seem to have been near a. See Note, Chap. 7, Subd. 7, Sec. 2.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
enough to the earth to have done any damage except as it passed over the town. The com- missioners, in restoring the bridge, wisely de- termined to remove the roof from the whole of the bridge, being of opinion that the eum- brous structure concentrated the full force of the tornado and thus caused the partial des- truction of the bridge.
Later a plain wooden bridge, a frail one it was considered, was built on Jefferson street ; and afterwards another, the Leeper bridge, on North Michigan street. Four miles north of the Leeper bridge another was built, at Musquito Glen, near the old Sheffield or Sid- er's mill. Still other wooden bridges were ereeted from time to time, at different places along the river.
Then came the era of iron bridges. The first of these was a kind of suspension, swing- ing or chain bridge, built over the river on Water street, now La Salle avenue, in South Bend. An unskillful workman one day drove a pin out of the unlucky east end of this bridge, and let the whole structure into the river. A more substantial bridge, of the truss pattern, was erected in its place. The truss bridge was in favor for a time. One was built at Mishawaka, on Bridge street, in place of the old wooden one at that point; another was built in 1881, on Jefferson street, South Bend, in place of the feeble wooden structure that had too long done service in that place ; still another took the place of the wooden Lee- per bridge on Michigan street, South Bend.
But the iron in the truss bridges expanded in summer and contracted in winter, and it required the constant care of experts to keep the bridges in safe condition. With the new century came the conviction that some more safe and durable form of bridge must be adopted. The first effort in this direction resulted in the Sample street bridge in South Bend. The upper truss was abandoned, and a solid sub-structure support, with iron gird- ers, was substituted; giving a smooth, solid road bed, continuous with the street on either side. A further step in the same direction
was taken in 1903, in the building of the Col- fax avenue bridge, supported on great iron girders resting upon piers. This, too, gives a street surface continuons with the street at either side, a most desirable feature in all bridge construction. It is to be regretted that the Colfax bridge has so heavy a grade from east to west. It would seem to have been very easy to remedy this defect by beginning the grade one square further east, making an easy ascent from Bridge street to Michigan street ; but, even as it is, this bridge is one of the finest public improvements ever made in the county.
Finally publie opinion was so distinetly ex- pressed that the county commissioners took the ultimate step in bridge making, and adopted the Melan, or concrete-arch system, the arches re-enforced with ribs of steel buried in concrete. This system results, practically, in the spanning of our rivers with indestruet- ible stone arches, over which are built road- ways and sidewalks absolutely similar to and continuous with those of the thoroughfares upon which the bridges are ereeted. The first of these bridges was built on Cedar street, Mishawaka, and so successful did the experi- ment prove that the county board no longer hesitated. Three concrete arched bridges were ordered,-one on Jefferson street, South Bend, thrown open to public travel in 1905; one on Bridge street, Mishawaka, now (in 1907) approaching completion; and one on La Salle street, South Bend, which will also be completed in November, 1907. The Cedar street bridge, Mishawaka, and the Jef- ferson street bridge, South Bend, are most beautiful as well as substantial structures. It is sometimes said that the Jefferson street bridge is of unnecessary length ; .that one-half the east arch, being over solid ground, might have been omitted and the space filled in with earth. It is elaimed that, besides the shortening of the bridge, and the consequent shortening and strengthening of the arches, this would have straightened Emerick street and made the connection with
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
Jefferson street and the bridge more direct and convenient at that point. But the bridge, as it is, is so noble a structure, broad and con- tinuous as the fine street on which it is built, that it seems ungracious to draw further at- tention to faults now apparent to every one. Hindsight is easy to us all: foresight only to the child of genius. The vision of the his- torian is, of course, but hindsight; and he must be pardoned for looking upon things as they have been done and as he actually finds them.
See. 3 .- ROADS .- The first roads, as we have
pathway had gone the Sacs and Foxes and other Indians in their journeys to the east from Wisconsin and other western countries; and by this traveled way had come the dread- ed Iroquois in their incursions from the far east. In peace, it was the pathway of the hunter and the highway of commerce; in war, it was the road along which advanced in threatening array the painted warriors of the forests and the prairies. As a national road the Great Sauk trail became known as the Detroit and Chicago road, or simply the Chi- cago road, as it is called to this day. This
JEFFERSON STREET BRIDGE, SOUTH BEND.
seen, were Indian trails and traces, running by the most convenient routes from point to point of importance throughout the vast sur- rounding wilderness. Some of these con- nected such far distant points and were of such convenience and even necessity for the use of the government as well as for emigra- tion and for the needs of primitive commerce, that they were adopted and cared for as national roads. Of such was the Great Sank trail, stretching from Canada and New York to the far northwest. This trail crossed the St. Joseph river near Bertrand and passed over the northwest part of this county. Over this
road would perhaps have made Bertrand a great eity had not the railroads passed through Niles and South Bend, and made of the great trail a common country road, in- stead of the thoroughfare of commerce which it had been for ages.
Another wilderness highway, connecting with the Great Sauk trail, extending thence east through South Bend and Mishawaka and across northern Indiana, to Vistula, Ohio, has now long been known as the Vistula road. This road, Mac others of its kind, took in all along the line other trails, traees and path- ways, as the Dragoon trace and the Turkey
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPIE COUNTY.
Creek road, leading off to Fort Wayne and other points to the south and east. Such a highway as the Vistula road, leading as it did through many counties, was of state im- portance, was laid out by a special act of the legislature, and was therefore known as a state road. Sometimes the statute so passed, as was the ease with the Vistula road, failed to fix any width for the highway, nam- ing only the line of the road and leaving the width to be fixed by public travel, to the subsequent inconvenience of the people and the annoyance of boards of commis- sioners and often of the courts. The Vistula road as it extends through South Bend is called Vistula avenue; while through Misha- waka it is known as Second street. Those who desire to preserve historical associations have frequently urged upon the good people of Mishawaka the propriety of continuing the name of Vistula through their beautiful city.
Still other highways were confined to the eounty itself, although generally connecting and forming one with thoroughfares at the boundaries. Such highways were under the sole jurisdiction of the county commissioners and known as county roads. A very large part of the time of every session of the county board during the early period of the history of the county was taken up with hear- ing petitions for these county roads, appoint- ing viewers to lay them out, hearing and ap- proving the reports of the viewers and estab- lishing the roads, or in listening to remon- strances and appointing reviewers. In time, however, all the necessary roads have been laid out, and it is not often now that petitions for new roads are presented to the commis- sioners. The attention of the county board and of the township road authorities is now, and has for years, been chiefly given to bridg- ing, draining, grading, graveling and other- wise improving the highways already laid out. Plank roads were for a time resorted to on some lines, as on the Michigan road between South Bend and Plymouth; but these were
all wisely abandoned and gravel roads sub- stituted in their place.
It is said that the United States postal au- thorities in charge of the free delivery mail routes have recently pronounced the highways of Indiana the best in the Union. This is a high commendation for the publie spirit of the Hoosier state; and it is to the honor of St. Joseph county that nowhere in In- diana are the publie highways and bridges kept in better condition for public travel than within our own borders.
Although when first laid out and improved the various highways were for a time dis- tinguished as national, state, county and even township roads; yet now, and for a long time, all roads are improved and eared for under the county and township road authori- ties. and the laws in relation to highways apply uniformally to all public roads, no matter by what authority they were origin- ally established. We may note as a peculi- arity of our local highway system that the gravel road laws of the state have never been applied to the improvement of the highways of this county. Good road gravel is so abund- ant in almost every section of the county that the township trustees and road supervisors have had no trouble in graveling the roads by using the ordinary road labor and the township road fund for that purpose.
In Chapter Fifth, subdivision first, of this history, in connection with the first surveys of the public lands. we have given some par- ticulars concerning the early history of the most important public highway of the county, and indeed of the state also, the Michigan road. This road was to Indiana what the Erie canal was to the state of New York, what the Union Pacific was to the regions beyond the Rocky mountains and what the old Ro- man roads were to the several provinces into which they were extended. The most com- plete and detailed history of the Michigan road ever written was prepared by Miss Ethel Montgomery, a graduate of Purdue univer- sity and now one of the corps of teachers in
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
the South Bend high school. Miss Mont- gomery's paper was recently read by her be- fore the Northern Indiana Historical Society, and is to be published by the society as one of its most valued documents.
The Michigan road may be considered as a national as well as a state road. In Chap- ter Fifth we have seen that by the treaty of October 16, 1826, the United States seeured from the Pottawatomies the lands necessary for the construction of the road from Lake Michigan to the Ohio river, the road to be one hundred feet in width. Both in the treaty, however, and in the subsequent acts of congress in relation thereto, the Indiana legislature was given the right to locate the road and to dispose of the lands and apply the proceeds to its construction. Chief credit for the completion of the road through this county and on to the terminus at Michigan City is due to the commissioner then in charge. Judge William Polke, who was one of the most eminent of our public men in the early history of Indiana. The road runs almost in a direct line from the crossing of the Wabash at Logansport to the southern bend of the St. Joseph, passing through Plymouth, Lakeville and South Bend, all then within the limits of St. Joseph county. From South Bend the course turned to the west, so as to reach Michigan City by the most direct route. Michigan street and Michigan avenue mark the course of the Michigan road through South Bend. This section of the road was finished in 1834 and 1835; and its comple- tion gave a wonderful impetus to the settle- ment of this county as well as of all northern Indiana.
III. RAILROADS.
Sec. 1 .- THE LAKE SHORE .-- But the in- creased facilities for public travel and for commercial transactions, for the marketing of the products of the soil and the procuring of commodities needed for the use of the people, afforded by the opening of the Michigan road, adding as they did to the accommodations
furnished by the navigation of the St. Joseph river, as well as by the stage travel and the wagon traffic over the various other thorough- fares of the territory watered by the St. Jo- seph and the Kankakee, could not satisfy the eager commercial spirit of the people of St. Joseph county. As early as 1832, as we have seen, Mr. John D. Defrees, in the Northwest- ern Pioneer. advocated the encouragement of the building of a railroad into "the St. Joseph country."
The attention of the people of the state was then chiefly engrossed by the construction and operation of the Wabash and Erie canal, and the high hopes awakened as to the great commercial highway connecting Lake Erie and the Wabash river. However, in February 1835. the legislature passed an act for the incorporation of a company to be known as the Buffalo & Mississippi railroad company, with the design to have a railroad constructed from Buffalo to the Mississippi river. In 1838 a company was organized under this act to build a railroad from the eastern boundary of the state. to run through South Bend and Michigan City. General Joseph Orr, of La- porte county, was the active mover in this enterprise. But little headway could then be made. and the project was abandoned for several years.
In 1847. the agitation was renewed, and a meeting of persons interested, from Toledo to Chicago, was held at Mishawaka. At this meeting Thomas S. Stanfield first appeared as a railroad builder. To the untiring efforts of this eminent man, St. Joseph county was ultimately indebted for the first railroads that entered its territory. After Alexis Co- quillard, there is no man to whom St. Joseph county is more largely indebted than to Thomas S. Stanfield. When the time comes in which the county shall provide for the erec- tion of statues to its distinguished citizens. the figure of Judge Stanfield. who brought to us our first railroads and opened up to the world our cities and towns and our splendid farming territory, will not be forgotten.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
At this time a corporation known as the Michigan Southern railroad company had con- structed its road from Toledo, Ohio, to Hills- dale, Michigan; and it was proposed that a corresponding Indiana corporation should be formed to aid in completing the road to Chi- cago. This resulted in the formation of the Northern Indiana railroad company. In 1850 the two companies were consolidated under the . name of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railway Company. Desir- ing to reach Chieago more directly than could be done through Michigan City, the old charter of the Buffalo & Mississippi com- pany was resorted to, and the road thus com- pleted by way of Mishawaka, South Bend and Laporte.
But the rivalry then existing between the Michigan Central railroad company and the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana again brought Judge Stanfield's resourcefulness into action. When the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana was built as far as White Pigeon, it found itself unable to reach the Indiana line in a direct route without violat- ing the terms of the charter which it had re- ceived from the state of Michigan. This un- favorable legislation had been enacted through the influence of the rival railroad; and the result was that the Michigan Southern must either come to a standstill or else go out of its way at a considerable loss. In this junc- ture Judge Stanfield proposed to the com- pany that they should furnish him with the means, and he would proeure the right of way and build an independent line of rail- way, four miles in length, extending from White Pigeon to the Indiana line. This was done; and for ten years this four miles of road, known as the Portage railroad, was nominally owned by Judge Stanfield, but leased from him by the company and operated as a part of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana.
To aid the enterprise. St. Joseph county agreed to subscribe for forty thousand dol- lars of the capital stock of the company; but
the private subscriptions by the people proved sufficient for the building of the road, and the county subscription was not needed. Even the stock subscribed by the citizens was taken off their hands by Judge Stan- field who found eastern capitalists glad to take it, so that the building of this great highway of commerce, so vital to the pros- perity of our community, was completed with- out cost to the county or to any of its people.
The day when the first through train from the east reached Mishawaka and South Bend is memorable in the history of St. Joseph county. This was on Saturday evening, Oc- tober 4, 1851; and when the locomotive, John Stryker, came puffing into the stations it was received with all demonstrations of joy by the assembled multitudes. Cheer after cheer came from the enthusiastic people whose hopes were thus gratified. Forty-eight rounds of ean- non and brilliant bonfires bore the joyous in- telligence to the sight and hearing of the eager inhabitants who were themselves unable to be present. Almost equal enthusiasm was mani- fested on the incoming and outgoing of the trains on the ensuing Monday, and for days afterwards. It was the culmination of the efforts and hopes of the people, ever since the first settlement of the county. After the consolidation of this great railroad with the Lake Shore road from Buffalo to Toledo the name of the consolidated railroad was changed to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern. It is commonly spoken of as the Lake Shore rail- road.
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