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 9
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The board of justices and other county officers had in the mean- time been elected, and although the commissioners' report was placed on record by that body, no action was taken upon it, and the Legislature of 1830-31 passed an act for relocating the county seat. The act was approved February 10, 1831.
The election for a state representative, sheriff and coroner, or- dered to be held on the first Monday in August, 1830, occurred, as provided for-for Concord Township, at Mr. Sage's house, and for Elkhart Township, at the schoolhouse on Elkhart Prairie.
PIONEER COUNTY FINANCING
The first records of county finances indicate thrift and close sailing to reach port safely. In 1830 the revenue collected amounted to $198.00, and the disbursements, $183.43. The receipts were derived from various items of taxation, as follows: The poll tax was 371/2 cents ; a like amount was levied on each horse, one-half that sum on each work ox; 25 cents was the rate for a silver watch, one dollar for a brass clock, one dollar for a four-wheeled carriage, and seventy-five cents for a two-wheeled carriage. These direct taxes probably were cheerfully paid, although occasionally we find recorded the case of a man who had his tax remitted on the ground that it was unjustly large.
The last meeting of the board of justices was held in July, 1831, and on the following September 5th Edward Downing and George McCollum were sworn into office as members of the new board of
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
commissioners. That was the governing body of the county for nearly seventy years. Both of these sessions were held at the residence of Thomas Thomas, county clerk, a short distance east of Elkhart on what is known as Two-Mile Plain.
DEFINITE LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT
One of the last, and certainly the most important of the acts performed by the old board of justices, was that which fixed the county seat at Goshen. Under the legislative act of 1831 the com- missioners named to examine sites and make a recommendation as to the one most suitable, were L. G. Thompson and L. Davis of Allen County ; Hiram Todd and Walter Wilson, of Cass County ; and David Miller, of St. Joseph County. The place designated for them to meet from which to proceed to the performance of the duties devolving upon them was at the mouth of the Elkhart River, and the time set for their meeting was the third Monday in March, 1831.
The record of the board of justices shows that Anthony L. Davis, L. G. Thompson and David Miller, a quorum of these com- missioners, met on the day designated and proceeded with their work. On the 26th of May they submitted their report to the board. The report recites that they examined the several sites under con- sideration, including the one previously selected, and recommended that it be vacated and the county seat relocated. The new location selected was described as the south fraction of the northeast quar- ter and the north fraction of the southeast quarter of section 9 in township 36 north, of range 6 east; providing that the two fractions should not exceed the maximum quantity of one hundred and sixty acres, to which the county had the right of preemption for county seat purposes. The commissioners further recommended that, should the two fractions exceed the maximum quantity, the first described fraction should be preempted and the second pur- chased by the county.
PROPOSED TOWN OF GOSHEN SELECTED
The records show further that the commissioners recommended the name of Goshen as a suitable name to be given to the town which should be built at the proposed seat of justice. The report
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
was accepted and approved by the board of justices, the seat of justice was located and the name of Goshen was officially given to the site at the time selected.
OLIVER CRANE AND THE COURT HOUSE SQUARE
H. S. K. Bartholomew, president of the Elkhart County His- torical Society, has written the following regarding the connection of Oliver Crane with the acquisition of the court house property and the platting of the original town site: "The opinion seems to be held by a great many people that the land included in the present court square was acquired from Oliver Crane, one of the earlier residents of this portion of the county. It is also believed that he gave the land to the county with the stipulation that should it ever cease to be used for that purpose it should revert to his heirs. The records show, however, that this opinion was not well founded. The fact is that a tract of ninety-two and twenty-eight hundredths acres of land was acquired from the government by preemption, as had been recommended by the commissioners. This tract embraced all of that part of the present City of Goshen which lies between the Elkhart River on the west and Broad Alley, now Cottage Avenue, on the east; and between Clinton Street on the north and the first alley south of Washington Street on the south. The deed of conveyance for this parcel of land was executed June 7. 1833, and is signed by Andrew Jackson, president of the United States, and attested by his private secretary, Andrew J. Donelson, and by Elijah Hayward, commissioner of the general land office. It states specially that the conveyance is made in ac- cordance with the provisions of the act of Congress passed in 1824, granting to parishes and counties in each state or territory the right of preemption to quarter sections of land for seats of justice. The deed is recorded on page 98 in deed record No. I of Elkhart County. Thus the county records completely controvert the time- honored tradition that Oliver Crane donated to the county the land which is included in the present court park.
"There is another tradition, which seems to rest on a better foundation, that Oliver Crane first suggested the name of Goshen for the proposed county seat town, and that he did so because he had come from a town of that name in New York. Hon. John E. Thompson and the late Anthony Defreese were questioned by the
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
writer as to what they knew concerning this tradition. Both of them stated that for the past fifty years or more it had been gener- ally accepted as true. And in a personal memoir by the late John W. Irwin appears the following statement: 'Among the principal men who were early settlers here before 1832, the time of coming of Alexander Irwin, was Oliver Crane, who had come from Orange County, New York, the county town of which was named Goshen. It is understood that he was mainly influential in inducing those who had charge of laying out our county seat town for the name given it. My father is claimed to have been consulted about the name in 1831 and favored it, not from the standpoint of Crane, to follow a town name to which he was attached from local considera- tions, but from the fitness of the name as being a country rich and productive, as that of Goshen in Egypt, occupied, by the designation of Joseph, by his kinspeople during their sojourn in that country.' The public records appear to contain nothing either to prove or disprove this opinion. All that has been found concerning the matter is what has already been stated: That the name was recom- mended by the commissioners who chose the site for the county seat, and was officially confirmed by the Board of Justices in whom was vested the authority to transact all county business.
LAID OFF AND SOLD ORIGINAL TOWN
"The name of Oliver Crane is prominently identified with the earliest history of the Town of Goshen in another way, even though he is not entitled to the honor of having given the court square to the public. At the session of the Board of Justices held May 2, 1831, he was appointed agent for the county seat. This was just before the present site was selected. At the session of the board held June 2Ist, after the county seat had been re-located, he was ordered to lay off into lots the tract which had been chosen for this purpose. He was further ordered to advertise half of the lots to be sold on the 2d day of July. In September of the same year he made his first report, showing that he had sold fifty-four lots, receiving therefor $2,607.75. In November, 1831, he was succeeded by Robert Randall as county agent. It appears from the record, however, that Crane was associated with his successor and with the county surveyor, George Crawford, in surveying and laying out lots in the new town. The public records also show that twelve lots
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
were reserved by the county for a public square and public build- ings. These lots, numbers 131 to 136, inclusive, fronting on Main Street, and numbers 155 to 160, inclusive, fronting on Third Street.
"Besides the tract which was acquired from the Government by preemption, the county purchased of Oliver Crane another tract lying immediately north of it and including that portion of the present City of Goshen which lies north of Clinton Street, east of the Elkhart River and south of the New York Central Railroad. Its area is twenty-seven acres, three roads and three rods, the deed for which was made September 2, 1834, signed by Oliver Crane and his wife, Elizabeth Crane, and acknowledged before Peter L. Runyan, a justice of the peace. This tract was a part of the north- west quarter of section 9, township 36 north, range 6 east, and which was entered from the Government by Ephraim Seeley August 2, 1831. The two parcels of land which were acquired, the one by preemption and the other by purchase, aggregated one hundred and twenty acres, six and two-sevenths rods."
TEMPORARY MEETING PLACES
At the first meeting of the Board of Commissioners held at the residence of County Clerk Thomas in September, 1831, only Edward Downing and George McCollum were present. At the next session John Jackson, the third member of the board, presented his certifi- cate, the meeting being held at the residence of Commissioner McCullom on Main Street opposite the square. In January, 1832, another meeting was held at the same place. In March, of that year, the board met at the house of Luke Hulett, near the present site of the Baptist Church, Sixth and Washington, Goshen. From May, 1832, until August, 1833, the commissioners met at Abner Stilson's tavern, located where the Kindig Block now stands at the corner of Main Street and Lincoln Avenue; also at the county seat. The court house was completed in 1833, the board of commis- sioners assembling therein for the first time in September of that year.
During the period when the county had no structural representa- tive of its dignity, Justice, in the form of the Circuit and Probate courts, patiently wielded her sceptre at the homes of such good citizens as Chester Sage, Thomas Frier, Henry Dusenberry, George McCullom and Abner Stilson, the last being the hotel man. With
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
the completion of the court house in 1833, Justice has had a home of her own and has never wandered from it.
THE FIRST COURT HOUSE
As to Elkhart County's first court house, no record has been found of any contract made for its construction, although several of the pioneers, who were in positions to be authorities on the
FIRST COURT HOUSE, 1833-70
subject, agree that the builder was Jacob Studebaker, who modeled the structure after the court house at Dayton, Ohio. The only citizen of the county, whose residence and memory directly connect him with that period, is the venerable John W. Ellis, of Elkhart City, who is in his ninety-first year (spring of 1916) and still bright and strong mentally ; in view of his years, he is also in a wonderful state of preservation, physically. The editor is proud to acknowl- edge him as one of his associates in the preparation of this work.
When the old court house was completed in Goshen John W. Ellis was a boy of about eight years. In October, 1831, his father
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
had brought him, with other members of the family, from his native county of Oswego, New York, where he had been engaged for a number of years in unprofitable farming. At an earlier period, however, he had become interested in lake transportation, and when he located on a large tract of land in the Two-Mile Plain, now in the eastern edge of Elkhart City, he not only engaged in farming, but in the river business, owned boats, built a hotel on his farm-a stage inn-erected a large warehouse at Elkhart, and became a busy, successful man in the new country to which he had transferred his large family.
John W. inherited his father's abilities and at the age of twenty had become his mainstay in many of his enterprises, and for many decades after never slackened in the founding and prosecution of works which have been creditable to him and conducive to the development of his home community. His large and varied interests brought him often to the county seat, so that he has had ample opportunity to verify his clear recollections of the old court house. To make the description still clearer Mr. Ellis, on the last day of March, 1916, sent to the writer a penciled outline of the interior arrangement of the building completed when he was a young boy and when his busy father used to occasionally drive his bright and sturdy hopeful to Goshen and its court house. It seems that the original structure was forty feet square and two stories in height, with the county offices on the second floor. The court room occupied the entire first floor. The main entrance was from the east, and the judge's seat, or bench, opposite, against the western wall. On the northern and southern sides were two large fire- places-one on each side-and the offices above were similarly accommodated, large chimneys running up along the outside of the walls.
Several years later the county offices became so inadequate that one-story wings were erected on either side of the main entrance and were occupied by the treasurer, auditor, sheriff and recorder.
THE COURT HOUSE OF 1870-1905.
In 1868, after thirty-five years of honest wear, the old court house showed such signs of dissolution that work was begun on a structure more appropriate to the progress and standing of the county. The undertaking, which was in charge of Commissioners
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
THE 1870 COURT HOUSE BEFORE REMODELING
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
James Bechtel, J. E. Thompson and Nathaniel Thompson, was com- pleted in 1870. It was of brick and stone, classic in architecture, two stories and basement, covered 82 by 72 feet, and from base to cornice was 52 feet in height. At the south end was a clock tower, which was twice the height of the main building and which became so oppressively imposing that in 1905, when the court house was lengthened at both ends and generally remodeled, that obtrusive feature was eliminated. A dome-like and moderate tower, in pro- portion with the dimensions and in harmony with the general architectural lines of the body of the court house, was substituted, so that the present structure is really imposing and creditable to the judgment and taste of designers and builders. The total ground space added was 87 by 70 feet. The well-lighted basement contains accommodations for several county officers, toilet and rest rooms, and the County Historical Society, with an interesting museum in connection with the last named. The main floor is also occupied by the officers of various county departments, and a broad staircase leads from the central court to the court rooms, jury rooms, office of the county prosecutor, witness rooms, and all other modern accommodations for the efficient and pleasant administration of justice. About $100,000 was expended in the well-conceived and executed work of addition and reconstruction in 1905.
THE ELKHART COUNTY INFIRMARY
"In the early forties," according to P. M. Henkel, "there was no asylum for the care of the poor and indigent persons. Such as were dependent upon public charity were farmed out by the county commissioners for their support by the year to the lowest responsible bidder. At this date (1845) but two persons in the county were provided for. The first farm purchased by the county to be used as an asylum for the poor was located in Jefferson township and consisted of eighty acres. A superintendent was appointed and all indigent persons transferred to his care." This poor farm was 21/2 miles northwest of Goshen, and was known as the Adam Harman Farm.
In 1847 Miss Dix, the eminent philanthropist and reformer of prison conditions, visited on her tour of inspection the institutions of Elkhart County, and her strictures relative to the county poor farm were specially severe. "The poor house," to quote Miss Vol. 1~ 6
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
THE COUNTY INFIRMARY
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
Dix's report as it appeared in a local paper of that year, "is situated several miles from Goshen, and has a farm of eighty acres, forty of which are cultivated. No dwelling is as yet constructed for the poor of sufficient capacity for their suitable accommodation. The situation of this establishment is remote and difficult of access." Only three individuals were kept there at county expense at that time, so that it is hardly surprising that the home had not yet reached the dignity and efficiency of a public institution.
Perhaps this criticism led to the action of the county board in 1853 by which a substantial building was planned for the accom- modation of the county's almoners. This house was erected on Elkhart Prairie, five miles southeast of Goshen, on the old Fort Wayne Road. The poor house was burned in February, 1871, but was replaced by another in the summer of that year. In 1882 the county commissioners traded with W. D. Platter for a marsh farm of 453 acres between Bristol and Elkhart on the St. Joseph River. This trade was rescinded by the new board of commissioners elected in 1882, and, Platter refusing to surrender the old farm, a lawsuit followed. The case was in the courts two years, was tried in the Circuit Court at LaGrange before Judge Robert Lowry, of Fort Wayne, who decided in favor of the county. Platter took an appeal to the Supreme Court, where Judge Lowry's decision was affirmed, so that the county continued in the possession of its farm on Elk- hart Prairie several years longer.
In 1885 the farm on the prairie was sold, and the site of the present Elkhart County Infirmary was bought of David Rupp, for the sum of $5,000. The farm is located at Dunlaps, in Concord Township, half way between Goshen and Elkhart, and is reached by the interurban electric line. It contains II0 acres, of which eighty acres are tillable land. As to live stock, there are 18 head of cattle, 7 horses, 40 hogs and 200 head of poultry of all kinds.
The asylum, as it was then known, which was erected in 1886, is a brick building, two stories and basement, and contains sixty- five rooms. The east side is for the women and the west for the men. An addition to the main structure, 31 by 60 feet, was made in 1905, which provides for a hospital, and rooms and cells for the several classes of insane patients. Since that year improvements in the buildings, farm and grounds have been continuous, so that Elkhart County Infirmary meets every requirement. As an institu- tion it cares for forty males and twenty-three females.
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
THE COUNTY JAIL
The present county jail, on the west side of the court house square in its exterior aspect resembles a pretentious private resi- dence. Its reconstruction to the present condition occurred in 1879, costing the county over $20,000. It is said that Ira Storr was the first offender to be incarcerated in the old building.
COUNTY SOCIETIES
There are several societies and institutions whose scope is county-wide, and their histories fall logically within this chapter. The old County Agricultural Society, with its exciting and instruc- tive fairs held generally at or near Goshen, is no more, but in its place have arisen the farmers' institutes, granges and other bodies of agriculturists cooperating for mutual improvement and the progress of their calling and social conditions. The County Medical Society is a stalwart combination of the medical fraternity of many years standing, and the early physicians and surgeons of the county were prominent in the Union Medical Society of Northern Indiana before they formed a separate association. Although the members of the bar have had an association for years, its membership is not as general among the lawyers as that of the medical society among the physicians. For twenty years, on the other hand, the County Historical Society has been alive and doing a fine work in its field, which is both the preservation of all literature, whether published or in manuscript, bearing legitimately upon the history of Elkhart County, as well as the collection of such illustrative articles as photographs of pioneers or pioneer buildings, relics of the olden times, historic and prehistoric, souvenirs of war and of peace, and other curios of the museum order.
ELKHART COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
The county fairs, the first of which was held in 1851 and the last in 1893, exercised a wholesome influence upon the agriculture of the county and contributed materially toward its progress. These fairs were held under the auspices of the Elkhart County Agricultural Society, which was organized in 1851. But long before this an agricultural society had been proposed, as is shown
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
by the following extract from the commissioners' record: At May session, 1836, "ordered that the clerk write six advertisements that there will be held at the court house in the town of Goshen on the last Saturday of June next a meeting for the purpose of organ- izing a county agricultural society, and that the sheriff set up the same in the most public place in the county." No permanent result seems to have followed this action of the board.
EARLY FAIRS
The history of the county's agriculture would be incomplete without some mention of the society and the exhibits it held from year to year. The first officers of the organization were: Ebenezer M. Chamberlain, president ; C. A. Hinman, vice president ; Charles L. Murray, secretary ; Nathan Smiley, treasurer. The first fair was held in the court yard at Goshen, October 24th and 25th of the same year. There was what was then considered an excellent exhibit of the products of the farm, including grains, fruits and vegetables, as well as live stock. In later years the same exhibit would have been considered very small and inferior in quality. In the live-stock department horses were well represented, there being a total of 45. There were but 16 head of cattle, 9 sheep and 4 hogs. According to the secretary's report there was not shown at the fair a single pure-bred animal of any kind. Among the exhibitors that year were Elias Paul, Irvin Vincent, George P. Rowell, S. H. Weyburn, M. M. Latta, Azel Sparklin, Peter Fetters, James Canton, William Vesey, J. W. Violett, Matthew Rippey, Henry G. Davis, Thomas Miller and Abner Blue, names which were well known throughout the county at that time and for years after- ward and many of whose descendants are among the leading citizens of the county at the present day.
FAIR GROUNDS PURCHASED
The fairs continued to be held in the court yard and court house for four years, when a small plat of ground, consisting of four acres, was purchased for fair ground purposes. This ground was located on the south side of Madison Street in Goshen and extended some distance east and west of Ninth Street. Later a tract of ten acres was purchased about half way between Goshen and Water-
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
ford and fitted up for fair ground purposes. In 1866 and from 1868 to 1873, inclusive, no fairs were held. In 1874 a fine tract of land consisting of twenty-nine acres lying just outside of the corporate limits of Goshen on the east side of the Fort Wayne Road, was purchased by a joint stock company organized for this purpose, and leased to the society. The lease also stipulated that the society should have the privilege of purchasing the grounds at some time in the future, which was done. In 1874 a successful fair was held on the new ground, and this continued for a period of nine- teen years.
INDIANA CORN EXHIBIT
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY DISBANDED
In 1892 the agricultural society became embarrassed financially and a year later, after holding an unsuccessful fair, it practically disbanded. Subsequently the beautiful grounds were sold, and for twelve years Elkhart County held no fairs. Several years ago a new site was established at the Lesh farm just east of the city, and fairs are held each year.
THE PIONEERS' ASSOCIATION
Another institution of the past was the Pioneers' Association, which has not met for some years. It was once a flourishing organ-
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
ization, its meetings aroused much enthusiasm not only among members, but the entire populace, and were eagerly looked forward to as one of the annual events of the county's social life. The first annual meeting of the association was held at the court house on May II, 1858, with James H. Barns as chairman and E. W. H. Ellis, secretary.
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