CHAPTER IV

SETTLERS ANTEDATING 1830

THE FRENCH TRADER, ROSSEAU-JOSEPH NOFFSINGER "SQUATS"— ISAAC MCCOY NAMES CHRISTIANA CREEK-MATTHEW BOYD, PIONEER OF ELKHART PRAIRIE-SIMPSON AND RIGGS THE RUSH TWINS, FIRST NATIVES PHYSICIAN TO BODY AND SOULCOLONEL JOHN JACKSON ARRIVES OTHER PIONEERS WHO LOCATED BEFORE 1830.

Elkhart County had been organized a decade before the last of the Pottawattamies were cleared from the valley of the St. Joseph. Before it received a name and a body politic, for several years, white settlers of every nationality, and in considerable numbers, had been occupying the lands. A few of the best known are noted.

At the conclusion of the War of 1812 the Carey Mission of Protestants at Niles, Michigan, took a hand in converting the Pottawattamies to Christianity, the labors of its missionaries covering a broad extent of country and especially spreading up the valley of the St. Joseph. There were two main Indian trails which, for years, were used both by red and white men in that region, whether bent on errands of peace or war. The best known in Elkhart County was that from Fort Wayne to St. Joseph, which ran across the bottom lands of the Elkhart River, skirting the eastern edge of the prairie and passing through the present site of Goshen. This was also the pioneer mail route, and it was not many years ago when not a few old settlers could remember the Indian corn fields which skirted Elkhart Prairie. Notwithstanding some raised their own crops, many preferred to beg corn and squashes from the settlers and give venison in return.

THE FRENCH TRADER, ROSSEAU

The old French trader, Rosseau, was the connecting link between the old and the new dispensations, appearing on Elkhart

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Prairie to the southeast of what is now Goshen in 1815. The war with England had been concluded, France was no longer a power in the new world, and here was Rosseau, a friend to both whites. and reds, a master in the art of barter and trade, the first of his race to make a home within the bounds of the county, and yet who lived therein long enough to see the end of the Pottawattamies in that region and its permanent occupancy by the energetic and forehanded white pioneer of the East.

JOSEPH NOFFSINGER "SQUATS"

Another early character was Joseph Noffsinger, the hermit squatter, who is said to have made his home at the junction of the Christiana and St. Joseph streams-now in the City of Elkhart—as early as 1821, but as soon as permanent settlement began to be made in that vicinity, about 1828, he withdrew. Very little is known of him, as he seems to have avoided all social commingling either with the red men or the settlers.

ISAAC MCCOY NAMES CHRISTIANA CREEK

The Carey Mission, on the banks of the St. Joseph, near the present Niles, Michigan, was a social and religious center during the '20s whence emanated various colonizing streams into the various. sections of the surrounding country. Isaac McCoy, a minister of the Baptist Church, and one of the founders and principal workers of this mission, came from the East on his way to this mission, and in the spring of 1824 crossed the St. Joseph at its junction with the Elkhart. To the stream flowing down from the north into the larger river he gave the name of his wife, Christiana, which as the present name of the little creek remains as a memorial of that devoted pioneer missionary and his followers.

MATTHEW BOYD, PIONEER OF ELKHART PRAIRIE

Matthew Boyd was one of the first, if not the first settler on Elkhart Prairie, and in 1828 he completed the erection of a log house at Elkhart crossing. In the early days Boyd ran a ferry across the Elkhart River at Benton. He was a red-headed Irishman and very droll, and his characteristics made him a well known

personage in the neighborhood. In the summer when the water was low he was in the habit of going a little way down the stream and felling a number of trees across the river, thereby causing a dam and the consequent raising of the water so that toll could be

SIMPSON AND RIGGS

Another comer in 1827 was William Simpson, who took up his abode near Boyd, and Elias Riggs made his home on the edge of the prairie somewhere near these two and in the same year.

THE RUSH TWINS, FIRST NATIVÉS

In the southwest corner of Pleasant Plain, near the present City of Elkhart, there settled in the fall of 1827 Jesse Rush. On May 16, 1828, Mrs. Rush bore twin children, a son and a daughter, and it is claimed that these were the first white children born in Elkhart County. Isaiah Rush, the son, was for many years a familiar figure on the streets of Elkhart.

There is at least one other claimant for the honor of being the first born in this county, and that is John H. Violett, who was born near Goshen, but not until November, 1829. If the dates are correct as given, there can be no question as to the proper priority. Elias Carpenter settled upon Elkhart Prairie in 1829, and the next year moved into a log house located on the hill overlooking Rock Run, and within a hundred yards of the Noble Manufacturing Company's plant in Goshen.

PHYSICIAN TO BODY AND SOUL

Dr. C. C. Sparklin, of Goshen, says: "My father, Azel Sparklin, settled on Elkhart Prairie in 1829, coming from Connersville. He was a Methodist minister and administered to the spiritual as well as the material wants of the early settlers. The house where he lived was built of logs and the location happened to be an excellent one, as the state road was afterwards constructed within a few rods of the house. The nearest neighbors were John Violett and Israel Hess. Banking in those days was done at Fort Wayne, fifty miles away, and three days were consumed in the trip."

COL. JOHN JACKSON ARRIVES

In the spring of 1829 there arrived, over the frozen roads, Col. John Jackson, who purchased of Elias Riggs and William Simpson their claims on Elkhart Prairie in Jackson Township, and these two men then moved across the line into what is now the southeast corner of Elkhart Township, and became, in all probability, the first settlers in the township where Goshen is now situated. Colonel Jackson had an interesting history, and was acquainted with this county long before he became an actual settler. He played a valiant part in the War of 1812 under General Harrison. After the British and

their Indian allies were driven from Fort Wayne, Colonel Jackson was a member of one of the detachments sent North in pursuit of the baffled enemy, who sought refuge in some of the Miami and Pottawattamie villages along the northern border of this state. In September, 1812, the Village of Obsbenobe was destroyed by fire at the command of the American officers. This Indian town stood near the present site of Benton, a few miles to the southeast of Goshen, Colonel Jackson was attracted by the beauty and fertility of this section of the county, and when settlement was directed this way he cast in his lot with the new country, where he became notably identified with Goshen and the entire history of the county.

Many years later, at an old settlers' meeting, Colonel Jackson related his experience in the War of 1812, when his company followed the Indians to this county, crossing the Elkhart at Benton and preparing to attack the village of the Pottawattamies there, but found it deserted. When he first entered on the prairie he thought it the most beautiful country he had ever seen, and resolved that when the war should close he would come and make it his home. He heard in 1827 that the Indians had sold their lands to the government, and with a neighbor located to select a home. When he arrived he could hear nothing of the sale by the Indians, and went down to Beardsley's Prairie to see if he could find other country as beautiful as Elkhart Prairie, but was disappointed and came back. He had been told by Rosseau, that a treaty of purchase had been made with the Indians at Carey Mission. He selected the spot where he later had his home and returning to Ohio brought He crossed the Elkback his family, driving three yoke of oxen. hart on the ice where Benton now is, and found that Mr. Riggs had settled on his chosen land; he bought the land of Riggs and the next spring went to farming. He had to go forty miles to mill, and the nearest blacksmith shop was at White Pigeon, St. Joseph County, Michigan.

OTHER PIONEERS WHO LOCATED BEFORE 1830

The other leading pioneers who settled in what is now Elkhart County previous to its organization in 1830 were as follows:

Elkhart Township-Mrs. Susan Nickerson (Mrs. Wogoman), June, 1828; John B. Cripe, March, 1829.

Concord-In 1829, Isaac, James and John Compton, Dr. Havilah