to these, Elkhart is an important railroad point and a commercial and manufacturing centre.

Goshen is the county seat of Elkhart county. It is situated on the east bank of the Elkhart river, and near Elkhart prairie. This prairie is about five miles long and about three miles in width, and is noted for the depth and richness of its soil. The site of the city was formerly oak openings. The land upon which the city stands was entered by the county, and the first lots were sold in the fall of 1831. William Bissell was the first permanent white settler. The first mill was built on Rock Run, about half a mile from the centre of the town, by John Carpenter, in 1831. Goshen, as a town, began in true pioneer style; but, step by step, she has grown, until to-day, with a population of nearly six thousand, and rapidly increasing commercial and manufacturing industries, she stands among the important centres of wealth and population in the State. It will not be necessary to enumerate all the special features of Elkhart and Goshen; what can be said of one may be said of the other. They are both flourishing and prosperous cities, with a bright prospect for the near future. Goshen has excellent schools, and the higher educational advantages of the city are the pride of its citizens.

Elkhart county affords to-day a happy contrast with its condition twenty years ago. Then the farmers were struggling for a living; now they are mostly independent, live in neat and commodious residences, and take a vast deal of solid comfort. The youth have all the advantages of our great common school system, and the moral and intellectual condition of the people is not only improving, but already at a high standard. There are numerous thrifty villages in the county, all of which are graced with incorporated schools, fine churches, and other public improvements.

A portion of this sketch is compiled from Mr. Turner's work.

28

CHAPTER LVII.

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY

HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.

THE

HE surface of St. Joseph county is greatly diversified, and is thoroughly adapted to agriculture in all its branches. The soil is divided into four classes: 1st, The light, sandy soil of the original oak springs, or barrens; 2d, The black, sandy loam of the thick woods; 3d, The deep vegetable mould of the prairies; 4th, The natural meadows and marshes. There are some extensive prairies in the county, all of which are similar to the general prairies of the great west. "The marshes," says Mr. Turner, in his work on the St. Joseph valley, "are quite numerous, but none of them of much magnitude, except the celebrated Kankakee, which commences two miles from the St. Joseph river, near South Bend. It is but a few years since these lands began to be prized at something near their real value. At present, however, under a proper system of drainage, they have become very desirable. In many localities, the coarse marsh grass and useless weeds have given way to fields cultivated in wheat, corn, or other crops, or to pasture, or meadow lands, thickly set in timothy or blue. grass. The Kankakee marsh, or perhaps more properly, the valley of the Kankakee, in particular, presents a remarkable illustration of the benefits of judicious drainage. Here, on four square miles of land, or about two thousand five hundred acres, there have been constructed over twenty miles of ditch, averaging eight feet in width by four feet in depth. These ditches have an average fall of about four feet to the mile. Three-quarters of this drainage is through the outlet of the Kankakee lake into the St. Joseph river, some two miles distant, and more than forty feet below the lake and the sur

rounding country. Along here is the dividing line between the waters flowing into the St. Lawrence on the one hand, and into the Gulf of Mexico on the other. Indeed, so equal is the poise here, that it is frequently impossible to tell in which direction the water is inclined to run when unobstructed and unassisted by art."

St. Joseph county is well watered by fine springs, clear running streams, and several ponds and lakes, and at almost every point the best of water is found by sinking wells from fifteen to twenty-five feet.

St. Joseph county was organized on the twenty-seventh of

August, 1830. "On that day," says the author last quoted, "in pursuance of the act of the general assembly, Adam Smith, Lambert McComb, and Levi F. Arnold, met at the house of Alexis Coquillard, and having each presented his commission as a justice of the peace, from James B. Ray, governor of the State, took the oath of office before L. M. Taylor, clerk of the county. They then proceeded to elect Lambert McComb president of the board, and St. Joseph had a legal existence." The first act of the newly-created board was to appoint John D. Lasy treasurer of the county. Panels of grand and petit jurors were drawn to serve at the term of the

circuit court, to be held in the following November. It is said, however, that this court was never held. The first court of record, of which there has been any record preserved, was held at South Bend on the twenty-ninth day of October, 1832, by Hon. John R. Porter, president judge of the first judicial circuit to which the county was then attached for judicial purposes. The session of this court lasted but one day, and was held in the bar-room of Calvin Lilley's hotel.

The first steamboat arrived at South Bend in the spring of 1834. "She was propelled by a stern wheel, and was called the Matilda Barrey. She was hailed with great rejoicings, and her advent celebrated with numerous and full-sized libations of red-eye and tangle-leg decoctions."

It should be observed, in this connection, (as it should more properly have been in the first part of this volume,) that in 1831, by an act of the general assembly of the State, the boards of justices of the peace, in whom the government of counties had previously been vested, were abolished, and the election of county commissioners provided for. The first election under this law was held in St. Joseph county, in the summer of 1831, and resulted in the election of Aaron Staunton, David Miller, and Joseph Rarer.

In May, 1830, the commissioners appointed by the general assembly, met and located the county seat on the "McCartney farm," then owned by William Brookfield, about two miles. below the center of the present city of South Bend. "Each of the commissioners," says Mr. Turner, in his appropriate work, "was honored by having his name given to a streetan honor which, however brilliant in anticipation, has only been realized in successive crops of corn." In May, 1831, the county seat was located at South Bend. The first court house was completed in 1837, and this was taken down in 1854, to give place to the present one.

The city of South Bend is located on both banks of the St. Joseph, "near a point where the river suddenly turns from a nearly west course and stretches away with a rapid current northward, into the State of Michigan. The site of the city * The location is is extremely picturesque and beautiful. *

elevated and commanding, and the character of the soil, and the excellent facilities for perfect drainage, are a perpetual guarantee of healthy and attractive places of residence, and dry, hard thoroughfares for locomotion." We quote still further from Mr. Turner, concerning the beautiful city of South Bend: "The rich sandy loam, of which the soil is composed, forms abundant nutriment for the healthy and rapid growth of innumerable shade and ornamental trees, indigenous to the locality, among which may be mentioned the sugar and silver maple, the elm, the sycamore, the walnut, and the oak; while gardens are filled with thrifty apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry, and quince trees, and an abundance of the smaller fruits. The streets are wide and regular, crossing each other at right angles, and at convenient intervals. The grades are uniform, with a sufficient fall toward the river to secure perfect drainage, and afford a never-failing auxiliary to the natural healthfulness of the place. The business houses are capacious and convenient, while many of them, by their imposing appearance, impart a metropolitan air to the city. The private residences, many of which are of brick, are generally neat and tasteful, and frequently illustrate some of the most modern and artistic achievements in architecture.

The first white settlement at South Bend was made by Alexis Coquillard, in the Spring of 1824. This was also the first in the county. This gentleman was an Indian-trader, and agent for the North American Fur Company, then under the control of John Jacob Astor. He was a Frenchman, originally from Montreal, and, having lived a great portion of his life with the Indians, became a thorough pioneer of the old school. As a business man he was enterprising, prudent and successful. Other settlers soon followed, and step by step the little town grew into a city, and from an infant city to an important manufacturing and commercial centre.

We have no space in this volume to speak of the educational advantages of South Bend in the manner in which their importance deserves. Notre Dame! Who is not familiar with the name, and with its great merits? "Notre Dame University" is one of the few institutions of learning in the State