munication, may be especially traced within the past few years. The early settlers largely depended on the land-ways for travel and transportation of goods; then came the railroads covering years of development, steam and electric; and, with a comparatively recent lull in railroad building, has come an earnest revival of highway construction. The automobile has come to stay; farms are being rapidly improved; rural districts, as well as villages and cities, must be placed in touch not only with the railroads, but with each other; all of which calls for good roads, and the townships and the county are building them.

EARLY ROADS FROM THE WABASH Valley

Before the advent of steamboat navigation to Elkhart in the early '40s, the southern and central portions of the county, represented by Goshen, were being absorbed into the systems of highways which were being extended from Fort Wayne and Logansport, or the valley of the Wabash.

The establishment of county roads was among the first acts of the county officials after the organization of the county. In the record of the Board of Justices, under date of November 7, 1831, is found a report rendered on a state road running from Logansport, via Turkey Creek and Elkhart prairies, to the northern line of the state in the direction of Pigeon Prairie. Then in the March session of 1832 the "River Road" was reported on, this extending from the western line of the county, mainly following the course of the St. Joseph River on the south side, to Pigeon Prairie. Also an item in the record of the session in May, 1832, ordering that all public roads be laid out in the various districts, shows the progress that communication was making at that early date.

The well known Fort Wayne road was the third to be reported on, the report being made under date of May 31, 1832. extended from Fort Wayne, via Goshen, to South Bend. Road This No. 4, ordered opened at the September session of 1832, was from the west line of the county on the north side of the St. Joseph, as far as Christiana Creek, and thence in a northerly direction to the state line.

From this time on the commissioners' records are filled with reports of proposed roads in various parts of the county, and many roads were surveyed and opened up for traffic within a few years.

It soon became evident to the county fathers that the highways were not sufficiently wide, and therefore at the November session of 1836 it was ordered that all county roads should be made forty feet wide, whereas they had been thirty or thirty-three in width.

THE FORT WAYNE-NILES MAIL ROUTE

With the establishment of these roads between the valleys of the Wabash and the St. Joseph, or really between the Ohio Valley and the region of the Great Lakes, the mails and passengers com

OLD TIME MAIL COACH

menced to circulate, and Elkhart County at length felt that she was
part and parcel of the great outside world. Joseph H. Defrees tells
about the Fort Wayne-Niles mail route, the first to benefit Elkhart
County: "In the spring of 1831, I think it was, a mail route was
the post-
established between Fort Wayne and Niles, the mail to be carried
over it once in four weeks. In the fall of the same year
office increased the speed (?) from once in four weeks to that of
once in two weeks. Many of you, no doubt, well remember how
elated you felt when you heard the sound of the old tin horn, blown
by 'Old Hall,' as he came wending his way through the grove east
of the village (Goshen) with his tantrum sorrels, himself astride
of one, and the mail bags, containing news from the 'settlements,'

on the other, with a 'string' fastened to the bits of the leader in order to guide him in the right path. The old horn with its music discoursed sweeter strains to its hearers than did ever Hall and Arnold's in their palmiest days." Think of it! one mail in four weeks, or in two weeks. Now, radiating in all directions through the country, approaching within convenient distance of every home in the county, are the rural mail routes, delivering packages, letters and the metropolitan dailies once a day, and with greater regularity and punctuality than was the case in the larger towns less than half a century ago.

The postal service in the year 1837 at Goshen is indicated by the following item in the Goshen Express: "Mail arrival and departure: Western mail arrives from Niles via South Bend every Sunday and Wednesday evening; departs every Tuesday and Saturday morning. Eastern mail via Fort Wayne arrives every Monday and Friday evening; departs Monday and Thursday morning. Southern mail, via Leesburg, arrives every Thursday at 12 o'clock; departs every Thursday at 1 o'clock p. m." And the same paper, on September 16, 1837, calls attention to a project for carrying the mail from Fort Wayne to Niles, Michigan, in four-horse coaches, and praises the proposition as "a grand undertaking," whereby this beautiful county would be opened up to immigrants, who naturally followed the easiest lines of access to new countries. "The mail from Fort Wayne to Niles," says the editor, "is now carried through on a horse."

In a fair consideration of the means of communication which the county has employed, the stage coach must be included-the old "twice-a-week" stage coach. It was a slow mode of travel, but the passengers had a good time. The rate of speed in pleasant weather and with favorable roads was perhaps seven or eight miles an hour and the average cost was perhaps 5 cents a mile.

ERA OF ARKS AND FLAT BOATS

The era of the arks and the flat boats covered the period from about 1830 to 1844, when their supremacy on the upper reaches of St. Joseph River was disputed by the steamboats. The important towns along the stream were Three Rivers and Mendon, St. Joseph County, Michigan; Bristol and Elkhart, this county; Mishawaka and South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana, and Niles and Berrien

Springs, Berrien County, Michigan. From the point of the island at the mouth of the Elkhart River to St. Joseph, Michigan, by way of the tortuous stream, it is ninety-six miles. The trip consumed from several days to a week, depending on whether you were going up or down stream, and whether you were on a keel boat, or the much more cumbersome ark, which resembled a scow or large raft.

THE KEEL BOATS

The keel boats averaged 75 feet in length and 12 feet in beam, with gunwales some 26 inches in height. They would carry from 300 to 500 barrels. The boats were rowed down the river with eighteen feet oars, eight to a boat. On the return trip, against the current, it was necessary to pole the boat, a crew of men being used in shifts. Each boat was rigged with a windlass and by fastening a rope to a tree the crew were enabled to get it over the riffles that were found in many places along the St. Joseph.

BIG ARKS COUPLED

The greater arks carried about 600 barrels of flour, or perhaps their equivalent in pork and produce. They were made of two pieces of timber, 50 feet long, hewn to a size 6 by 8 inches, then two sticks 16 feet long were hewn the same way, and the four framed together. Sleepers were put in lengthwise, sixteen foot planks spiked on crosswise and the cracks carefully calked. Studding was fastened to the gunwales. Two of the arks were fastened together and each section called a crib. Down to the mouth of the St. Joseph the coupled arks were floated, unloaded, taken to pieces and the timber sold to the captains of the lower lake vessels. Then the tired crew would make the return journey on foot through the forests.

ELKHART AS A RIVER TOWN

In the palmy days of the river trade, even before the coming of the steamboats, Elkhart was a busy commercial center. The space between Washington Street and the confluence of the two rivers was set apart for warehouses and wharves. John W. Ellis,