USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A twentieth century history and biographical record of Elkhart County, Indiana > Part 17
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With the development of electric roads there have come added ad- vantages of the city. Besides a city street railway Goshen is at present the eastern terminus of the excellent inter-urban system between South Bend and the intervening cities. The electric railroad connecting rural communities has sounded the knell of isolation, provincialism and the mossback customs which only a few years ago were so characteristic of country towns. The products and the privileges of civilization are no longer in the exclusive right of the people of large cities. Culture is diffused among all, the entire country is growing cosmopolitan in tastes and pursuits : the city man dwells in the country, the countryman
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spends his time in the city; the world is becoming more closely knit together, and the grain of civilization gets finer with each succeeding generation. No one influence has done more to bring about this condi- tion than the inter-urban railway. It is interesting to note how this means of transportation has supplanted the steam railroad. Only a few years ago the Lake Shore ran an accommodation train between Elkhart and Goshen; now practically all the passenger traffic between the two cities is cared for by the electric road, and, more than that, the freight and express service which has also been installed on the line provides an expeditions and cheap method of transporting all kinds of produce and merchandise between the cities and connecting points.
Goshen has always been liberal with manufacturing and industrial enterprises. The adjacent streams furnished excellent mill sites during the early days, and numerous factories and plants of various kinds have taken advantage of the location and the cordial assistance of the citi- zens in all the subsequent years. The enterprising men of the city have combined in various organizations in order to promote and upbuild in a legitimate and substantial manner the industries of the city. The Commercial Exchange and the Business Men's Protective Associations are both excellent organizations, and under the leadership of able men have done much for the city.
The promotion of the best material interests of a city requires co- operation and organization on the part of its representative citizens. It was with a view to secure most effectively the upbuilding of the city that the Goshen Commercial Exchange was organized, an association of business and professional men who in the subsequent years have taken every opportunity to make known to the world the advantages of Goslien as a manufacturing and business center and to induce individ- uals, institutions, railroads, factories and various industries to locate here. The Exchange co-operated in the movement which resulted in the Carnegie library, also was influential in bringing Goshen College here, and every enterprise of importance located here in recent years has been helped and encouraged by the Exchange.
The Exchange was organized January 1, 1890, and incorporated a few days later. On January 8 were elected the first officers as follows : .A. F. Wilden, president; Rev. J. N. Barnett, vice-president : E. E. Mummert, secretary, and A. R. Beyerle, treasurer. The present officers, in 1905. are: F. E. C. Hawks, president ; A. Deahl, vice-president : E. L. Jones, secretary, and O. M. Curtis, treasurer.
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.As to appearance and civic improvements Goshen has especial rea- son to be proud. It is known far and wide as the " Maple City of Northern Indiana," and the suggestion of beauty that this title implies is by no means belied by an actual visit to the city. The wide streets, stretching for a distance of several miles from north to south, are every- where shaded by magnificent maples, whose ornate foliage and graceful outlines give a sense of grateful repose and beauty to the homes and business district. If any Goshenite becomes pessimistic concerning the luxurious and captivating beauty of his city, he should, for purpose of contrast. visit some new-born town, set upon a wind-swept and sun- scorched prairie, where the gaunt and monotonous outlines of the houses are unsoftened and unrelieved by the dark background of trees, and he would thenceforth be grateful to the city fathers who planted the maples and embowered the city in shade and coolness.
Goshen's streets are broad, those in the business districts well paved with brick, and the work of paving is going on so that it is a matter of only a few years until all the principal thoroughfares are finished. Electric lights, water and fire protections are features already dwelt upon. The Goshen Gas Company furnishes both fuel and illuminating gas to hundreds of patrons ; there are telephones and all the public con- veniences to be found in the modern city. There are opera houses, a Carnegie library, lecture courses are maintained ; the city is noted for its educational and literary activities ; all the church denominations are represented, and both the civic and institutional life of the city has reached a high standard. Sanitary conditions are indicated by the show- ing of the vital statistics that Goshen has the lowest death rate of any city in the state.
In every direction of civic growth there has been progress, and not the least in population, the census figures for which are as follows : 1840, 600: 1850, 780: 1860, 2,053: 1870. 3.133: 1880, 3,918: 1890, 6,033: 1900, 7,810. With her court house and her splendid school buildings: with her water works, lighting plants and street railroads : with her fine streets, pleasant with summer green, birds and squirrels, or merry with winter sleigh bells; with her fine climate, her spacious outlying country, and her excellent railroad facilities-Goshen is the fit capital of one of the best counties in the state, a satisfactory home for her citizens, and an inviting spot for individuals who seek homes, and for corporations who seek an advantageous location for their manu- facturing plants.
DR. HAVILAH BEARDSLEY
1
MRS. RACHEL C. BEARDSLEY
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CHAPTER XI.
ELKHART.
lowered cities please us then, And the busy hum of men. -MILTON.
In contrast to her sister city of Goshen, Elkhart owes its location more definitely to geographical position than to the fiat of a body of commissioners. The confluence of the St. Joseph and the Elkhart riv- ers was the very kind of spot which would appeal to pioneers during the twenties and thirties as an ideal site for a future metropolis. Dif- ferent considerations moved the men of that day than would appeal with especial force to the town-makers of the present day. In truth, many towns founded before the days of railroads have since proved so dis- advantageously located for the convenient approach of railroads that they have remained practically isolated from the main course of com- merce, whose stream has found easier channels and left the old-time town to one side. But it has been the happy lot of Elkhart to be well situated both for the primitive times and for the progressive present. and its history shows stable growth and prosperity throughout the sev- enty-five years of its existence.
Many facts concerning the early settlement of Elkhart and vicin- ity have been set forth in an earlier chapter, and. here we shall describe merely the chain of circumstance and event which led up to the sub- stantial greatness of the City of the Forks. Chester Sage, at whose house it will be remembered was held the first court in Elkhart county, made settlement on the banks of the St. Joseph and erected a log cabin where for so many years has been the Beardsley place.
To Dr. Havilah Beardsley, of Ohio, belongs the title of " Father of Elkhart." From the Buckeye state he came some time about 1830. and with an eye for the useful and beautiful was captivated by the delightful region about the junction of the two rivers. In the way of his immediate occupation of the coveted land stood the Indian titles. for the Pottawottomies still sojourned in this vicinity and by rights of aboriginal possession as well as government guarantee claimed all this part of the state. After considerable negotiation Dr. Beardsley gained
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what he supposed was a valid title to the land on which has since grown up the city of Elkhart, although certain defects in the transaction caused a long series of litigations which were only settled in the supreme court of the United States. Without entering into these details, it will be interesting to record the deed of sale by which Pierre Moran, or Peer- ish, a Pottawottomie chief. transferred to Dr. Beardsley the site of a future city. Thus runs the instrument in question : " This indenture made this twenty-first day of April in the year of our Lord one thou- sand eight hundred and thirty-one, between Pierre Moran, of the first part, and Havilah Beardsley, of the county of Elkhart and state of Indi- ana, of the second part. Witnesseth that whereas by the provisions of . the third article of a treaty made and concluded between commissioners of the United States and the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawottomies, at Chicago, on the 29th day of August, 1821. one section of land to be located under the direction of the president of the United States was granted to the said Pierre Moran at the mouth of Elkhart river, which land was not to be sold or conveyed without the consent of the president, and by the direction of the president section No. 5 in township 37 north. of range 5 east of the second principal meridian of the state of Indiana, was selected for, and has this day been sold by Pierre Moran to the above named Havilah Beardsley, for the sum of fifteen hundred dol- lars law ful money of the United States, to him in hand paid, the re- ceipt whereof is hereby acknowledged.
" This indenture therefore witnesseth that in consideration of the payment aforesaid and in conformity with the foregoing stipulations and approbation, the said Pierre Moran has given grant. hargained and sold and by these presents doth give, grant, bargain and sell unto the said Havilah Beardsley, party of the second part, the above de- scribed tract of land, to have and to hold the same with all his rights. privileges and immunities thereunto belonging. to the said Havilah Beardsley, his heirs and assigns forever."
This is duly signed, and in the course of the following year the presidential approbation of the transaction, signed with the hand of AAndrew Jackson, arrived at Elkhart. It later came to light, however, that the Pottawottomie chief had been guilty of some double-dealing, having deeded the same section of land to Richard Godfrey of Michigan. After much litigation a compromise was effected, and Dr. Beardsley gave to Mr. Godfrey a large tract of land on the east side of the Elk- hart.
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At this point of our narrative we quote, as bearing directly upon the matters under immediate consideration and also as furnishing the reader a more intimate portrait of the man of wonderful energy and iron will who founded Elkhart, a life sketch of Mr. Beardsley, written a number of years ago and from close personal knowledge of the man and his work.
Havilah Beardsley was born at New Fairfield, Connecticut, April 1, 1795. While a child, his parents moved to Ohio, then the western verge of civilization. He was one in a family of fourteen children, twelve boys and two girls, all healthy and vigorous. Times were hard. the family poor ; so at an early age they voluntarily left home and sought self support by engaging in such industries as the country af- forded, and were rewarded by eventually attaining good and honorable positions in life, a rare record containing no "black sheep." Beards- ley's Prairie, Michigan, was named after Ezra, the oldest of the sons.
Havilah left his home when twelve years old and, with close appli- cation, rigid economy and self denial, managed to acquire a common school education, and in 1816 under the instruction of Professor Hill of Urbana, he commenced the study of medicine and in 1825 grad- uated from the Medical Department of the Transylvania University of Lexington, Ky.
After a few years of profitable practice at Leesburg. Ohio, he was attracted by glowing reports of the natural beauty and inducements of the St. Joseph River valley in northern Indiana, where it was claimed the "Big Strawberry grew;" and in 1830 on horseback, fol- lowing Indian trails, lie explored that and much of the unsettled country in Indiana, Michigan and Illinois, going as far west as Chicago, and returning by the way of Lafayette, where he came near locating but finally decided in favor of the St. Joseph valley.
The fertile soil, beauty and location of the valley, untouched by the hand of man, its primeval forests dotted with verdured plains, glim- mering lakes and meandered with flowing brooks, its groves and glades. presented a picture of rarest beauty and formed an ideal home for the Indian whose simple wants were easily supplied by the countless game which surrounded his wigwam: but the white man saw more than all these : he saw the miracle of cultivation.
The beauty of the country appealed to the Doctor's estlietic taste. but in the waters of its rivers he could see greater powers than those of the soil, greater even than those of the fabled Geni of the Lamp.
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In their flowing tides he beheld slumbering forces which in his practical mind could be harnessed to the factory's tireless wheels, and in imagina- tion he saw their fabrics transported upon the bosom of the river to Lake Michigan and onward to the markets of the world.
At the confluence of the St. Joseph, Christiana and Elkhart rivers, he bought Section 5. an Indian reservation owned by Moran, a Pot- tawottomie chief, and in 1832 employed George Crawford, a govern- ment surveyor and relative by marriage, to survey and plat the town of Elkhart on that section.
This was in the time of the stage coach and the prairie schooner, before the time of railroads; it was when the rivers and lakes were the only routes of transportation, and no industrial community could exist unless upon the banks of rivers or great lakes, hence the all-im- portance of the rivers on Section 5. from the evolutions of whose po- tentials would spring. a Cabin, a Town, a Commerce, a City.
To-day we have but faint conception of the obstacles to business which beset the pioneer nor of his courage and energy in facing them. Merchants bought and sold their goods on a credit of six and twelve months, their customers were consumers, not producers; the imports of the country largely exceeded the exports, causing money to be ex- ceedingly scarce, so much so that the circulating medium was not inaptly said to consist of hoop poles and coon skins. Returns from shipments to New York required from three to four months, and an answer by mail from three to four weeks.
But braving these and many other obstacles the Doctor bent his energies to the production of the most necessary wants of the immi- grants and in 1831 built at the mouth of the Christiana a mill for grinding' corn, its burrs were fashioned from native boulders and the corn was ground without bolting. Much of the meal was sold to the Indians and the writer witnessed their wonder and delight when a sifter was added and they first saw bolted meal.
In the following year he placed a rope ferry across the St. Joseph river just below the mouth of the Christiana, and near the corn mill built a sawmill. These were the first mills of the kind in the country. The next year he dammed the Elkhart, and erected a sawmill near Voicnets ouring mill, then one on Yellow Creek and another on the Baubaugo at Jim Town. At these mills the best grades of ash, poplar and black walnut lumber were sold for three to four dollars per thou- sand feet.
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During the years 33-34 and 35 most of the public lands were sold to settlers; town lots were in demand, buildings were erected and population rapidly increased; all demanding an increase of manu- factured products. So the Doctor improved his corn mill by the addi- tion of machinery to grind wheat and. at a point where the highway crosses the Christiana on Cassopolis street, he built an oil mill and a woolen factory and public carding machines and, at the foot of Main street, he established another rope ferry across the St. Joseph river.
But in 1835 all the activities of the town were suddenly paralyzed by Godfrey, a Frenchman of Detroit, who claimed to be the rightful owner of Section 5, by right of a deed dated earlier than the Doctor's.
Being wards of the government, Indians could not themselves exe- cute titles, but must apply to the Indian department at Washington. Godfrey's deed was issued by the department with Commissioner Gen. Tipton's approval, but was not approved by the then President Jackson as required by law. Moran had timely presented the facts of the transac- tion to the president, begging his non-approval of the sale on the charge of fraud, claiming that Godfrey had induced him to drink excessively and while drunk obtained consent to the transfer for the consideration of one old wornout horse and cart valued at twenty-five dollars.
Although the Doctor had paid a fair price and had a clear title, while Godfrey's defective one was obtained by fraud and repudiated by Moran as soon as he became sober, yet the case was contested in court by Godfrey for six or seven years so stubbornly that, in the in- terest of property holders as well as his own, the Doctor effected a compromise by deeding to Godfrey all, or a part of all that part of Sec. 5 lying south of the St. Joseph river and east of the Elkhart river.
During the time of the litigation the town stood still, no lots were sold, a few demanded the purchase money returned to them, which was done, and all the titles were considered worthless, while many specu- lated anxiously upon the possibility of recovering damages from the Doctor.
But the Doctor's zeal never relaxed, he continued building mills and personally attended to the management of his extensive business. He, opened up a farm in the heavy timber three miles south of Elkhart. he ministered to the sick, was active in urging the locating and opening of highways and building of needed bridges and in the interest of his suit for title made two trips to Washington and several journeys on horseback to Indianapolis. His attorneys were Jesse D. Bright of cen-
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tral Indiana, Judge Niles of Laporte and one or two others whose names the writer has forgotten.
About the year 1840, he canalled the waters of the Christiana across to the bluff of the St. Joseph, obtaining a fall of twenty-six feet ; here he built a flouring mill which, until 1904, has done a large and constant business and about the year 1846, built a paper mill, using power drawn from the same canal. With the exception of one at Peru, Ind., this was the first one built in the state.
In 1850 he was active in securing the location of the Michigan Southern Railway Company, and, being a director in that company, his influence and liberal donation to the company of land secured for Elk- hart the location of the company's machine shops, which have added largely in the development of the town.
From the fact that he prospered in all his various enterprises it will be seen that he was a man of ability, energy and sagacity: his energy was such that during the sickly seasons he rode day and night on horseback, sleeping as he rode, attending upon the sick, covering a distance of fifteen or more miles in each direction. His ability as a physician and surgeon was recognized as the best in the country; and vet with all these duties he served the county one term as associate judge and was talked of as a candidate for governor on the Whig ticket.
He was broad, liberal and conservative in opinion, benevolent in spirit. Whig in politics, and Swedenborgian in religion, and as founder of the city of Elkhart is held in the highest respect by its citizens.
At Greenfield, Ohio, in 1823. he married Rachel E. Calhoun, first cousin to the statesman, John C. Calhoun, which proved a union of the most perfect harmony of mind and spirit. She sympathized with him in his enterprises and willingly shared in the hardships attending those who lead in the van of civilization. Their son, J. R. Beardsley, gave Island Park to Elkhart: two sons, Charles and J. R. Beardsley and a son-in-law, B. L. Davenport, served two sessions each as state senators, and Richard Beardsley, the youngest son, became distinguished in pub- lic life. He served in the United States army as pay master on the gunboat Owasco during the Rebellion and participated in the capture of New Orleans and the siege of Vicksburg, and for bravery was recom- mended for promotion by Commodore Porter, was appointed by Presi- dent Lincoln United States consul to Jerusalem and subsequently was promoted to consul general for the United States at Cairo, Egypt. Sec- retary Seward, in his book of travel around the world, says he found
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Mr. Beardsley one of the brightest diplomats in the service. He died at Cairo in January, 1876, and by request of the people of that city was buried there and in evidence of their esteem they erected a fine mon11- ment to his memory.
Dr. Beardsley died in 1856 at Elkhart, his wife surviving him un- til 1800. Theirs was the strenuous life and they builded better than they knew.
The main business section of the present city of Elkhart and all of the town as originally laid out is on the south side of the St. Joseph river. But Elkhart as thus constituted cannot claim the honor of being the oldest center of population in this region. Elkhart once had an immediate rival, and its ultimate absorption of the older settlement is a case of the " survival of the fittest." Comparatively few of the pres- ent generation know that, when they cross to the north side of the river. they are standing on the site of what was once known in the official postoffice guide and to the people of this part of the country as Pulaski. But such was the case. On the north side of the river was the house of Chester Sage mentioned above, also where Jesse Rush and a man by the name of Noffinger located at least two years before Dr. Beards- ley came to this vicinity. Where Christiana creek empties its purling waters into the river. George Crawford and Mr. Huntsman built, in 1829. the first grist mill, and in the same year the postoffice authorities established there the first postoffice, with Mr. Crawford as its postmas- 1er. It is said that the duties of this pioneer employe of Uncle Sam were not onerous, since his only duty was to examine the mails as the courier passed his residence north of the river on his way back and forth he- tween Fort Wayne and Niles.
But beyond its grist mill and its postoffice and its name. Pulaski had very little claim to be distinguished as a center of population; it W.s never platted, never had streets, and its large and flourishing neigh- bo. on the south has long since spread over its site and arrogated to it- sel" all the ancient marks of a village.
But Dr. Beardsley had no sooner come into possession of his tract of land to the south of the St. Joseph than he proceeded with all the energy and progressiveness so characteristic of his nature to lay the foundation for the town which his judgment dictated as a future metropolis. To lay out the town he engaged the services of his neigh- hor. George Crawford, a civil engineer, who also platted Goshen. The original plat of Elkhart included fifty-four lots, and was bounded on
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the north by the present Washington street, on the east by the Elkhart river, on the south by Pigeon street, and on the west by the alley west of Second street. By an extension of the limits, made on January 3. 1835, the boundaries were extended to High and Vistula streets and the St. Joseph river. To this site Dr. Beardsley gave the name of Elk- hart, which name came into general use in 1832. Three years later the Pulaski postoffice was moved to the south side of the river, some time later renamed Elkhart, and since this act of expansion there has been no Pulaski, only an ever increasing and growing Elkhart.
Of Elkhart, the Express of March 4. 1837, said : " It is pleasantly situated at the junction of the Elkhart with the St. Joseph river. Since it was laid out, a few years ago, its growth has been very rapid, and is now a flourishing village, containing four stores, two groceries, one public house and a due portion of mechanics, etc. A bridge across the St. Joseph has just been completed. The day is not far distant when its immense (water) power will be brought into requisition to propel flouring mills and machinery of every description," a prophecy entirely fulfilled.
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