presented here and there a few comfortable houses, and perhaps. 100 cabins. Jeffersonville and Lawrenceburg had been longer settled, but except the then fine residence of Governor Posey at the former place, there was no other good building in either, and Charleston, Salem, Vevay, Rising Sun and Brookville were then talked of as having magnificent prospects for the future. There were very few large farms in the state in 1816. The range of wild grass, the mast and roots were so abundant in the woods that hogs, cattle and horses required but little other food, and that was in general corn alone. It is probable that a single cornfield of from five to twenty acres constituted at least seven-eighths of the farms then cultivated in the state.

DEVELOPMENT OF STATE AND FORMATION OF COUNTIES

In 1828 the General Government purchased the "ten-mile strip" along the northern end of the state, and, in 1832, extinguished the remaining claims of the Indians, save the numerous reservations in the northern part. In 1835 the greater part of the natives were removed west of the Mississippi, and by 1840 all save a few had emigrated from the special reservations. Among these were several bands in the St. Joseph Valley, Michigan, whose picturesque departure is given elsewhere. As the state was thus left free for settlement, the surveyor pioneered the advancing civilization, and counties were rapidly organized in response to the growing demand. of the increasing population. The tide of immigration came principally from the South at first, and later from the East, the organization of counties giving a pretty clear indication of the nature of this development. At the organization of the state government, fifteen counties had been formed, and others were organized as follows: 1817, Daviess, Pike, Jennings, Sullivan; 1818, Crawford, Dubois, Lawrence, Monroe, Randolph, Ripley, Spencer, Vanderburg, Vigo; 1819, Fayette, Floyd, Owen; 1820, Scott, Martin; 1821, Bartholomew, Greene, Henry, Parke, Union; 1822, Decatur, Marion, Morgan, Putnam, Rush, Shelby; 1823, Hamilton, Johnson, Madison, Montgomery; 1824, Allen, Hendricks, Vermillion; 1825, Clay; 1826, Delaware, Fountain, Tippecanoe; 1828, Carroll, Hancock, Warren; 1829, Cass; 1830, Boone, Clinton, Elkhart, St. Joseph; 1831, Grant; 1832, LaGrange, LaPorte; 1834, Huntington, White; 1835, Miami,

Wabash; 1836, Adams, Brown, DeKalb, Fulton, Kosciusko, Marshall, Noble, Porter; 1837, Blackford, Lake, Steuben, Wells, Jay; 1838, Jasper; 1840, Benton; 1842, Whitley; 1844, Howard, Ohio, Tipton; 1850, Starke; 1859, Newton.

CHAPTER II

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY

PRESENT ELKHART COUNTY DEFINED BY CREATIVE ACT-THE STATE, A WATER-CUT PLAIN-ST. JOSEPH RIVER IN PREHISTORIC TIMES-FOSSILS OF THE VALLEY OF THE ST. JOSEPH-SURFACE GEOLOGY-WATERSHED BETWEEN THE GREAT LAKES AND THE MISSISSIPPI-GLACIAL DRIFT AND SOILS-BILLOWS OF LAND AND PRAIRIES-WATERSHED BETWEEN THE BIG AND LITTLE ELKHART THE COUNTY A CHILD OF THE ST. JOSEPH RIVER— THE ST. JOSEPH AND ITS TRIBUTARIES-THE LAKES OF THE COUNTY-MINERAL SPRINGS, OIL AND GAS-BEASTS AND REPTILES IN PRIMITIVE TIMES THE FEATHERED TRIBE-DISAPPEARANCE OF CERTAIN BEASTS AND BIRDS-THE COMING OF NEW BIRDS AND ANIMALS.

By somewhat circuitous routes we have reached our destination, Elkhart County; but it was necessary to traverse them in order to lay down an illuminating background for the central figure. As will be noted in the creation of the counties throughout the state, St. Joseph County was organized at the same time as Elkhart, and to them were attached for political purposes the region afterward divided into Lake, Porter, LaPorte, LaGrange, Steuben and Kosciusko counties.

PRESENT ELKHART COUNty Defined BY CREATIVE ACT

During the '20s, and covering the period of the first pioneer settlement of Elkhart County, Allen County embraced the territory which was later subdivided into Elkhart, Noble and LaGrange counties. In 1830 the territorial limits of Elkhart were literally fixed; for they have never been changed. Therefore this history, in all

27

its phases, is henceforth confined to the Elkhart County of the present.

The influx of settlers during 1827-28, both from the East and down the St. Joe Valley from the more populous regions of southwest Michigan, was a stimulant to the formation of new counties in northern Indiana. The old Anglo-Saxon idea of cooperation through law and government had its way, and an appeal of a sufficient number of pioneers to the Indiana Legislature of 1829-30 resulted in the erection of the County of Elkhart through an act approved in January, 1830. The northern boundary of Indiana had been fixed, and that, of course, constituted the northern line of the new county, the limits of which were described in the creative act as follows: Beginning on the north line of the state where the center line of range 4 strikes the same, thence east to the line dividing ranges 7 and 8, thence south to the line dividing townships 34 and 35 north, and thence west to the central section line of range 4 east, thence north to the place of beginning. These are the legal bounds of the territory described, in the following pages, from the standpoint of natural history.

THE STATE A WATER-CUT PLAIN

Indiana is nearly a plain, from the Ohio River to the lakes, and a product of the glacial period. The rivers and other water courses then cut their way through the plain and the bordering hills. The general trend of the plain is to the southwest. The elevation above the sea level is about 1,000 feet in the northern and eastern section, and at the mouth of the Wabash 313 feet. In the northeastern part of the state is a small section where the flow of the water is toward the north. This section is drained by the Maumee, which flows northeastwardly into Lake Erie, and the St. Joseph, which flows northwardly into Lake Michigan. All the other streams, of any importance, find their way to the Ohio, and then to the Gulf of Mexico. This watershed toward the southwest has had a tendency to lower by several hundred feet the general surface of what was originally nearly level.

ST. JOSEPH RIVER IN PREHISTORIC TIMES

It is a well established fact that lakes Michigan and Huron were at one time connected by a great river, or estuary, which passed