USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A standard history of Elkhart County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development, Volume I > Part 8
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FAMOUS POTTAWATTAMIE CHIEFS
Shaubenee, who for twenty years was head chief of the Pot- tawattamies, Ottawas and Chippewas, was a grand nephew of Pontiac, the famous Ottawa, and a contemporary of Tecumseh and Black Hawk. Born in Canada in 1775, when twenty-five years of age he accompanied a hunting party to the Pottawattamie country and married a daughter of the principal chief of that tribe, whose village stood on the site of the Chicago of today.
When forty years of age Shaubenee was war chief of both the Ottawas and Pottawattamies, and was next in command to Tecum- seh at the battle of the Thames. When Tecumseh fell, Shaubenee ordered a retreat, which concluded his warfare with the whites. He was deposed as war chief, but continued to be the principal peace chief of the Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawattamies. Shau- benee died in Grundy County, Illinois, on the south bank of the river by that name, in 1859, being eighty-four years of age. Al- though he never lived in Indiana, his name and fame were high among the Indians of the northern part of the state.
Alexander Robinson, or Chee-Chee-Bing-Way (Blinking Eyes), as he was known in the Indian tongue, was not as great a man among his people as Shaubenee, but is closely related to the wild
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life of northern Indiana before the civilization of the whites became planted therein. There is said to have run through his veins blood from Indian, French and English sources. He was able and enter- prising and in 1809, while still a young man, he was in the employ of John Jacob Astor and engaged in the transportation of corn around the head of Lake Michigan, as well as the purchase of furs. This grain was raised by the Pottawattamies and was taken to Chicago for sale and export in bark-woven sacks on the backs of ponies.
In August, 1812, while engaged in these occupations, he was making a canoe voyage to Fort Dearborn, when some friendly Miamis hailed him from the shore and warned him to avoid that post, as "it would storm tomorrow." On the 15th of that month occurred the Fort Dearborn massacre, for which the Pottawattamies are responsible. But the warning of the Miamis fortunately saved Robinson from any portion of the stigma attached to that horrible affair, as he left his canoe at the mouth of the Big Calumet and passed the succeeding winter in hunting and trapping in the Calumet region. In 1825 he became the principal chief of that tribe, and four years afterward married a woman of the Calumet region who was three-fourths Indian. At that time there was no more widely known character in Northwestern Indiana or Northeastern Illinois than Alexander Robinson. His headquarters were at Chicago, his journeys for the purchase of furs extended as far south as the Wabash River, and his word was law with the now peaceful Pot- tawattamies.
"It is claimed that he, as a Pottawattamie chief, evidently a trader rather than a warrior, called together an Indian council at Chicago during the Black Hawk war (1832), and it is said that in 1836, when the great body of this tribe met for the last time in that village, received their presents and started for the then Wild West, this trader chief went with them. But, like Shaubenee, who also went out to see his people settled in their new home, he soon returned and passed his last years on the Des Plaines River." The claim is made that Robinson was one hundred and four years of age at the time of his death-in many ways a remarkable man-a veritable link between the restless, migratory red man and the more settled and patient white man.
CHAPTER IV SETTLERS ANTEDATING 1830
THE FRENCH TRADER, ROSSEAU-JOSEPH NOFFSINGER "SQUATS"- ISAAC MCCOY NAMES CHRISTIANA CREEK-MATTHEW BOYD, PIONEER OF ELKHART PRAIRIE-SIMPSON AND RIGGS-THE RUSH TWINS, FIRST NATIVES-PHYSICIAN TO BODY AND SOUL- COLONEL JOHN JACKSON ARRIVES-OTHER PIONEERS WHO LOCATED BEFORE 1830.
Elkhart County had been organized a decade before the last of the Pottawattamies were cleared from the valley of the St. Joseph. Before it received a name and a body politic, for several years, white settlers of every nationality, and in considerable numbers, had been occupying the lands. A few of the best known are noted.
At the conclusion of the War of 1812 the Carey Mission of Protestants at Niles, Michigan, took a hand in converting the Pottawattamies to Christianity, the labors of its missionaries cover- ing a broad extent of country and especially spreading up the valley of the St. Joseph. There were two main Indian trails which, for years, were used both by red and white men in that region, whether bent on errands of peace or war. The best known in Elkhart County was that from Fort Wayne to St. Joseph, which ran across the bottom lands of the Elkhart River, skirting the eastern edge of the prairie and passing through the present site of Goshen. This was also the pioneer mail route, and it was not many years ago when not a few old settlers could remember the Indian corn fields which skirted Elkhart Prairie. Notwithstanding some raised their own crops, many preferred to beg corn and squashes from the settlers and give venison in return.
THE FRENCH TRADER, ROSSEAU
The old French trader, Rosseau, was the connecting link be- tween the old and the new dispensations, appearing on Elkhart
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Prairie to the southeast of what is now Goshen in 1815. The war with England had been concluded, France was no longer a power in the new world, and here was Rosseau, a friend to both whites and reds, a master in the art of barter and trade, the first of his race to make a home within the bounds of the county, and yet who lived therein long enough to see the end of the Pottawattamies in that region and its permanent occupancy by the energetic and fore- handed white pioneer of the East.
JOSEPH NOFFSINGER "SQUATS"
Another early character was Joseph Noffsinger, the hermit squatter, who is said to have made his home at the junction of the Christiana and St. Joseph streams-now in the City of Elkhart-as early as 1821, but as soon as permanent settlement began to be made in that vicinity, about 1828, he withdrew. Very little is known of him, as he seems to have avoided all social commingling either with the red men or the settlers.
ISAAC MCCOY NAMES CHRISTIANA CREEK
The Carey Mission, on the banks of the St. Joseph, near the present Niles, Michigan, was a social and religious center during the '20s whence emanated various colonizing streams into the various sections of the surrounding country. Isaac McCoy, a minister of the' Baptist Church, and one of the founders and principal workers of this mission, came from the East on his way to this mission, and in the spring of 1824 crossed the St. Joseph at its junction with the Elkhart. To the stream flowing down from the north into the larger river he gave the name of his wife, Christiana, which as the present name of the little creek remains as a memorial of that devoted pioneer missionary and his followers.
MATTHEW BOYD, PIONEER OF ELKHART PRAIRIE
Matthew Boyd was one of the first, if not the first settler on Elkhart Prairie, and in 1828 he completed the erection of a log house at Elkhart crossing. In the early days Boyd ran a ferry across the Elkhart River at Benton. He was a red-headed Irishman and very droll, and his characteristics made him a well known
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personage in the neighborhood. In the summer when the water was low he was in the habit of going a little way down the stream and felling a number of trees across the river, thereby causing a dam and the consequent raising of the water so that toll could be
ISAIAH RUSH
demanded from the unsuspecting traveler for the use of Boyd's ferry.
SIMPSON AND RIGGS
Another comer in 1827 was William Simpson, who took up his abode near Boyd, and Elias Riggs made his home on the edge of the prairie somewhere near these two and in the same year.
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
THE RUSH TWINS, FIRST NATIVES
In the southwest corner of Pleasant Plain, near the present City of Elkhart, there settled in the fall of 1827 Jesse Rush. On May 16, 1828, Mrs. Rush bore twin children, a son and a daughter, and it is claimed that these were the first white children born in Elkhart County. Isaiah Rush, the son, was for many years a familiar figure on the streets of Elkhart.
There is at least one other claimant for the honor of being the first born in this county, and that is John H. Violett, who was born near Goshen, but not until November, 1829. If the dates are correct as given, there can be no question as to the proper priority.
Elias Carpenter settled upon Elkhart Prairie in 1829, and the next year moved into a log house located on the hill overlooking Rock Run, and within a hundred yards of the Noble Manufacturing Company's plant in Goshen.
PHYSICIAN TO BODY AND SOUL
Dr. C. C. Sparklin, of Goshen, says: "My father, Azel Sparklin, settled on Elkhart Prairie in 1829, coming from Connersville. He was a Methodist minister and administered to the spiritual as well as the material wants of the early settlers. The house where he lived was built of logs and the location happened to be an excellent one, as the state road was afterwards constructed within a few rods of the house. The nearest neighbors were John Violett and Israel Hess. Banking in those days was done at Fort Wayne, fifty miles away, and three days were consumed in the trip."
COL. JOHN JACKSON ARRIVES
In the spring of 1829 there arrived, over the frozen roads, Col. John Jackson, who purchased of Elias Riggs and William Simpson their claims on Elkhart Prairie in Jackson Township, and these two men then moved across the line into what is now the southeast corner of Elkhart Township, and became, in all probability, the first settlers in the township where Goshen is now situated. Colonel Jackson had an interesting history, and was acquainted with this county long before he became an actual settler. He played a valiant part in the War of 1812 under General Harrison. After the British and
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their Indian allies were driven from Fort Wayne, Colonel Jackson was a member of one of the detachments sent North in pursuit of the baffled enemy, who sought refuge in some of the Miami and Pottawattamie villages along the northern border of this state. In September, 1812, the Village of Obsbenobe was destroyed by fire at the command of the American officers. This Indian town stood near the present site of Benton, a few miles to the southeast of Goshen. Colonel Jackson was attracted by the beauty and fertility of this section of the county, and when settlement was directed this way he cast in his lot with the new country, where he became notably identified with Goshen and the entire history of the county.
Many years later, at an old settlers' meeting, Colonel Jackson related his experience in the War of 1812, when his company fol- lowed the Indians to this county, crossing the Elkhart at Benton and preparing to attack the village of the Pottawattamies there, but found it deserted. When he first entered on the prairie he thought it the most beautiful country he had ever seen, and resolved that when the war should close he would come and make it his home. He heard in 1827 that the Indians had sold their lands to the gov- ernment, and with a neighbor located to select a home. When he arrived he could hear nothing of the sale by the Indians, and went down to Beardsley's Prairie to see if he could find other coun- try as beautiful as Elkhart Prairie, but was disappointed and came back. He had been told by Rosseau, that a treaty of purchase had been made with the Indians at Carey Mission. He selected the spot where he later had his home and returning to Ohio brought back his family, driving three yoke of oxen. He crossed the Elk- hart on the ice where Benton now is, and found that Mr. Riggs had settled on his chosen land; he bought the land of Riggs and the next spring went to farming. He had to go forty miles to mill, and the nearest blacksmith shop was at White Pigeon, St. Joseph County, Michigan.
OTHER PIONEERS WHO LOCATED BEFORE 1830
The other leading pioneers who settled in what is now Elkhart County previous to its organization in 1830 were as follows :
Elkhart Township-Mrs. Susan Nickerson (Mrs. Wogoman), June, 1828; John B. Cripe, March, 1829.
Concord-In 1829, Isaac, James and John Compton, Dr. Havilah
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
Beardsley, William and Jesse Morgan, Peter Tuley, Peter Diddy and I. Middleton.
Washington Township-In 1829, James Nickolson and his sons, Samuel V., David T. and George; Peter Marmen, Aaron Brown, Reuben Bronson and James Cathcart.
Although most of the Pottawattamies had left Elkhart County for their western reservations by 1836, a few clung to their old haunts and quite a number refused to leave their reservation in St. Joseph County, Michigan. All the remnants of the tribe, however, were gathered in 1840, and conducted by government agents from the beautiful Valley of the St. Joe to their Kansas reservation be- yond the Mississippi.
Several years after the removal of the Pottawattamies, the Miamis, having ceded their lands to the United States, were also escorted by United States troops and government agents to their homes beyond the Valley of the Mississippi.
Vol. 1-5
CHAPTER V
GENERAL COUNTY MATTERS
FIRST COUNTY SEAT-CONCORD AND ELKHART TOWNSHIPS CREATED -OLD MONG-GO-QUA-NONG TOWNSHIP-JACKSON TOWNSHIP OF TODAY-TURKEY CREEK TOWNSHIP, KOSCIUSKO COUNTY- OLD MIDDLEBURY TOWNSHIP-WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP- BENTON TOWNSHIP OF THE PRESENT-JEFFERSON, CLINTON, HARRISON, OSOLO, UNION, YORK, OLIVE AND LOCK TOWNSHIPS SUCCESSIVELY FORMED-LOCATING THE SEAT OF JUSTICE- PIONEER COUNTY FINANCING-DEFINITE LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT-PROPOSED TOWN OF GOSHEN SELECTED-OLIVER CRANE AND THE COURT HOUSE SQUARE-LAID OFF AND SOLD ORIGINAL TOWN-TEMPORARY MEETING PLACES-THE FIRST COURT HOUSE-THE COURT HOUSE OF 1870-1905-THE ELKHART COUNTY INFIRMARY -- THE COUNTY JAIL-COUNTY SOCIETIES- ELKHART COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY-EARLY FAIRS- FAIR GROUNDS PURCHASED-AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY DIS- BANDED-THE PIONEERS' ASSOCIATION-ELKHART COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY-COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY-AGRICUL- TURE, THE GREAT PIONEER INDUSTRY-CULTIVATING THE WOOD- LANDS-BREAKING THE PRAIRIES-THRESHING AND CLEANING THE GRAIN-NO ROTATION OF CROPS-IMPROVING THE NATIVE SWINE-ONLY SCRUB CATTLE-JUST "HONEY" SHEEP-THE POULTRY-POPULATION FROM 1830 TO 1910-RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES.
Under the act of the Legislature organizing the County of Elkhart an election was held in the spring of 1830, at which were chosen the following officials to administer its affairs: Thomas Thomas, clerk ; Eli Penwell, sheriff ; William Latta and Peter Diddy, associate judges of the Circuit Court; J. W. Violett, recorder ; and James Mather, John Jackson and Arminius Penwell, justices
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COURT HOUSE OF THE PRESENT
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of the peace. The first three sessions of the board of justices were held at the house of Chester Sage, a log cabin on the north bank of the St. Joseph River nearly opposite the mouth of the Elkhart ; these meetings covered the period from June, 1830, to May, 1831.
FIRST COUNTY SEAT
In an old record book in the office of the county auditor appears the following item under date of June 28, 1830: "The Board of Justices for the County of Elkhart met at the house of Chester Sage in said county, the place appointed by law for doing county business." This first county seat was located in the present City of Elkhart on the bank of the St. Joseph River at the point where the Main Street bridge crosses the stream.
CONCORD AND ELKHART TOWNSHIPS CREATED
One of the first acts of the board of justices was the division of the county into two townships, and the following record will show how that was done: "Concord Township shall include all that part of the county northwest of a line beginning at the western boundary of the county between townships 26 and 37 and running thence east to the line between 6 and 7, thence north to the state line, and all that part of the county southeast shall be included in Elkhart Township." From this it would appear that Concord Township included what are now Cleveland, Baugo, Osolo, Con- cord, Washington and Jefferson townships. Thus instead of draw- ing the dividing line straight across the county between townships 36 and 37, a block of almost two townships, now called Middlebury and York, was set upon Elkhart Township, which made the area of the latter division much larger than Concord Township. Did we not have the actual records of the board before us, as above quoted, this division would seem almost inexplicable when taken in connec- tion with subsequent township divisions. At the time this boundary line explains the word "southeast" employed in the above record, and without doubt marks the two original townships as the justices intended they should be. However, on the organization of Middle- bury Township, noted below, the phraseology used is, "Ordered that all that part of Concord Township in ranges 6 and 7 be set apart and known by the name of Middlebury Township." But
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
range 7 was never constituted, so far as we have record, a part of Concord Township, so that a discrepancy at once arises between the records and the resultant facts. The explanation which sug- gests itself most readily is that the clerk omitted the phrase, "and of Elkhart Township" directly after "Concord Township" in the above sentence ; or that, in a day when the written word was only a poor symbol for pioneer logic and deed, "in ranges 6 and 7" was meant to be construed as including all that part of the county lying north of the line between townships 36 and 37 and in Elkhart County. At the best, it is an interesting bit of ancient history of this county.
In Elkhart Township was included not only all the rest of the county as at present constituted but, for voting and other purposes, LaGrange, Noble and Steuben counties on the east, and Kosciusko County on the south.
OLD MONG-GO-QUA-NONG TOWNSHIP
The first important change was made at the session of the board of justices on July 13, 1830, when all the territory east of Elkhart County proper was formed into a separate township and given the unwieldly Indian name Mong-go-qua-nong, and so remained until the counties of Noble, LaGrange and Steuben were erected therefrom.
JACKSON TOWNSHIP OF TODAY
Jackson Township was the first township to be erected with limits as they are today. This is a full congressional township and as such is designated township 35 north, range 6 east. This or- ganization for civil purposes was effected in November, 1833, and Col. John Jackson was chosen the first justice of the peace.
TURKEY CREEK TOWNSHIP, KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
In May, 1833, the commissioners made the following order : "That all the territory lying south of Elkhart County and attached thereto be designated and set apart and known by the name of Turkey Creek Township." Thus the old Elkhart Township was
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again limited in extent, and a short time afterward Turkey Creek Township became Kosciusko County.
OLD MIDDLEBURY TOWNSHIP
In March, 1834, Middlebury Township was set apart from all that part of Concord Township lying in ranges 6 and 7. The new division thus comprised that block of country now known as Mid- dlebury, York, Jefferson and Washington townships.
CLEVELAND TOWNSHIP
In January, 1835, Concord Township suffered another large diminution of her original bounds. At that time all that portion of the county lying between the Michigan line on the north and the St. Joseph River on the south, St. Joseph County on the west, and range six (the western limit of Middlebury as above fixed) on the east, was organized as an independent township, and was named Cleveland.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
Middlebury Township as first constituted soon became too populous to remain as a single township, and on May 5. 1835. the commissioners ordered that all that portion of the township lying in range 6 be constituted a township and named Washington.
BENTON TOWNSHIP OF THE PRESENT
In the southern part of the county, Elkhart Township was divested of a large district. On November 2, 1835, the commis- sioners ordered that all the country in congressional township 35, in range 7, be known by the name of Benton Township, and by this act the extreme southeastern corner was set off and desig- nated as it is today.
BAUGO TOWNSHIP
In the commissioners' record of March, 1836, appears the fol- lowing: "Ordered that all that part of Elkhart County west of
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
range 5 east and south of the St. Joseph River be set apart and known by the name of Baugo Township." It therefore comprised that strip of country, three miles wide, on the western edge of the county, where now are seen three townships, and during the first years the fractions of the townships now in St. Joseph County were attached to Baugo Township.
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP
At the same session of the commissioners, in March, 1836, an order was entered forming township 37 north, range 5 east, into Jefferson Township. This division, created from the original Washington Township, is a full congressional township, except the triangular piece of section 31 cut off by the Elkhart River, and which, by order of the board, became a part of Concord Township.
CLINTON AND HARRISON TOWNSHIPS
The board met again in May, 1836, and directed that "a portion of Elkhart Township in range 7 be set apart and be known by the name of Clinton." Elkhart Township was by this restricted in size to three congressional townships, and at the September meeting in 1836, township 36 north and range 5 east was constituted inth Harrison Township.
OSOLO TOWNSHIP
In January, 1837, the original township of Cleveland was divided, and township 38 north and range 5 east, south of the state line, was set apart and named Osolo Township.
UNION TOWNSHIP
In March, 1837, Union Township came into legal existence by order of the commissioners. And on the same date and in direct consequence Elkhart Township was reduced to its present limits, being, technically, township 36 north, range 6 east.
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
YORK TOWNSHIP ALSO FORMED
York Township came into existence at the same time with Union. This is the fractional township 38 north, range 7 east, originally a part of Middlebury, which, as one of the oldest and most extensive townships, on that date took on the limits by which it is still known.
OLIVE TOWNSHIP ERECTED
Two more townships remained to be formed. Under date of November 5, 1839, the commissioners directed that "fractional township 36 north, range 4 east, be set off from Baugo Township, it now being a part thereof," and named Olive.
LOCKE TOWNSHIP, LAST FORMED
Locke Township, the little division in the extreme southwest corner of the county, was the last to be formed, and it had a some- what varied experience before organization. It is said that in the early days its citizens, so far at least as election purposes were concerned, had to go into Harrison Township to vote; they next voted in Union Township, and then in Olive, and finally, in June, 1841, they were set off to themselves, the record being as follows: "Ordered that the congressional township No. 35 north of range 4 east, in the County of Elkhart, and State of Indiana, and the same is hereby set off as a civil township to itself for the purposes of trans- acting township business for said township; and it is further ordered that said township be known by the name of Locke; and it is further ordered that an election be held in said township on Saturday, the 24th day of July, 1841, for the purpose of electing a justice of the peace."
Thus were the sixteen townships of Elkhart County created by fiat of the board of trustees and the board of commissioners, at various meetings from June 28, 1830, to June, 1841.
LOCATING THE SEAT OF JUSTICE
Even before the county government was organized the five commissioners appointed under the creative act to locate the seat of justice were making progress in their assigned duties. The gentle-
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
men selected were William G. Ewing and Hugh Hanna, of Allen County ; Samuel Fleming and John Bishop, of Wayne, and John Bennett, of Delaware. They were instructed to meet at Mr. Sage's house on the fourth Monday in May, 1830. This they did, and then commenced the examination of proposed sites for the county seat. Two days later they met at the same place, and reported that they had selected the southwest quarter of section 24, township 37 north of range 5 east. The tract specified was at the present station of Dunlap, on the New York Central Railroad, a short distance north of the Elkhart River, and nearly opposite the county asylum on the south shores of the stream. As there was no county govern- ment at the time the commissioners held their meeting after they had selected the site, they could only report to themselves, and therefore adjourned to July 12th following.
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