When was elkhart indiana founded

This proposed settlement was not a success and the plat was vacated by an order of the County Commissioners in March Shipping by steamboat was established on the St. Joseph River in Boats began regular trips from Newburyport St. Joseph , Michigan to South Bend and on to the St. Joseph Iron Works Mishawaka in that year. It was not until the spring of that steamboats passed Osceola on their way to Elkhart. Early that year a steamer passed Osceola on a Sunday morning and steamed up the St.

Joseph River as far as the Main Street bridge at Elkhart. The boat tied up the bank to wait for daylight. On Monday, the middle span of the Main Street bridge was removed and the steamer proceeded on the an Elkhart warehouse dock.

This boat was believed to be named the Indiana. Pioneer ingenuity handily solved the smokestack problem by hinging them so they could be easily lowered for low bridges. Early Postal Mail Delivery. Early mail service furnished this territory consisted of infrequent deliveries which were brought in by horseback over the old Sauk Trail through Edwardsburg or Niles, Michigan.

Some mail trickled in through Fort Wayne and brought by the settlers as they came through with their wagons and ox carts. Joseph H. Defrees, an old resident of Elkhart, tells about the Fort Wayne-Niles mail route which was established around He states:. In the spring of , I think it was, a mail route was established between Fort Wayne and Niles. The mail to be carried over it once in four weeks. In the fall of that year, the post office increased the speed from once in four weeks to once in two weeks.

Mail for the Osceola settlers was left at Elkhart and brought out by the first settler who called at the post office there. There was probably not a heavy burden of mail for Osceola as there were only a few settlers here. It might be well to remember that Mishawaka was incorporated as a town on February 28, On that date it boasted a population of not quite people, a large blast furnace owned by the St. Joseph Iron Works, a general store and a tavern.

The first boat load of wheat from the farms of early St. Joseph County settlers went down the river in the fall of This service was established in The rate of speed in pleasant weather with fairly dry roads average about 8 miles per hour. In the wet seasons 2 or 3 miles an hour was considered good time in some portions of the road. The exact source of the name of Osceola is shrouded in mystery. If there was a specific reason for the name, then Mr. Hendricks never revealed it for the record.

John A. Hendricks, who recorded the first plat of the Town of Osceola, chose the name probably because the name of Chief Osceola of the Seminole Tribe in Florida had been prominent in the local news of the day. His name Chief Osceola occurred frequently in the few newspapers reaching the new settlements. There have been those who state that Mr. Hendricks was a personal friend of General Jessup who captured the famous chief by subterfuge. It is very doubtful if Mr. Hendricks knew that the chief was already a prisoner when he christened his new town on November 17, News traveled very slowly in those days.

In any event, he named his new town Osceola and the name has remained to this day with some distinction. Hendricks expected the river traffic to do great things for his new settlement. His plat was the present site of Eagle Point in the southwest quarter of Section 9.

His plat was an elaborate one. It boasted three mill races connecting the Baugo and St. The plat was not a success and Mr. The settlers on the north side of the river were not to be outdone. George W. Fowler, in her little log cabin on the banks of Willow Creek. Among Mrs. His father, Isaac Bancroft, was a lineal descendent of one of the Pilgrim fathers.

Bancroft married Emiline Belden. He purchased the old sawmill soon after his arrival. It was only a short time thereafter that he erected a grist mill near the site of the American Legion Post No. This mill was reached by a wooden bridge over the mill race. The capacity of this mill was 25 barrels of four per day and this was delivered to Goshen, Elkhart, Mishawaka and South Bend by horse and wagon and keel boat. The first miller employed by Mr. Bancroft was George Van Note.

It was a great event in Osceola when Mr. Van Note left on the long and tedious trip to Chicago to purchase the mill stones for the Bancroft Mill. After the mill was in operation, the ladies of the community would gather at the Bancroft home to sew the bolting cloths. This was the cloth used to separate the flour from the bran and chaff and was the only method known at that time.

This bolting cloth was a very fine grade of silk similar to crepe-de-chine and was quite expensive. Bancroft was successful in his business enterprises and purchased considerable land in the vicinity. Several of the subdivisions of the present town of Osceola were a part of his holdings. He was one of those instrumental in building the first log schoolhouse mentioned in the previous paragraph.

He was also one of the advocates of the first Methodist Church just east of Baugo Creek on the old Ft. Wayne Road. This is now the Church of the Brethren. This building was built in and has been remodeled several times. The mail service was increased as the population and its needs increased. It was recorded that in the mails were now being carried over the Vistula Road between Detroit, Ft.

Wayne and Chicago by stage coach. These arrived at Jackson Street with the present site of the Clifton House as the center. The site was occupied with a frame tavern whose landlord was named Runyon.

The opposite northeast corner was also a frame tavern whose landlord was Eli Penwell. This tavern was the stage house where the Detroit and Chicago stage coaches stopped for an exchanged of horses since it was a relay station. The stage arrivals brought out the villagers to the tavern for news and plain curiosity. The Griffitts family came into the new settlement early in Samuel Griffitts and his wife Ann purchased property in the west one-half of the southeast quarter of section 8 on July 10, Griffitts, as did his neighbor George West, did not live long to enjoy his new home.

He died in August of His wife Ann and his brother William served as administrators of his estate. A note in their final report says that they completed the building of a house and stable on the present residence of Carl Ritter on Vistula Road.

Ritter is a lineal descendent of Samuel Griffitts. The error was not discovered until street signs were placed there several years later. It remains uncorrected to this day. Early Railroads in the Osceola Area. The Northern Indiana Railroad was chartered in the late s.

Ogden Avenue in Chicago is named for him. Almost as soon as it was built, the Northern Indiana came under the control of the Michigan Southern Railroad and the two were consolidated in as the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana.

The purchase of the necessary right-of-way from Osceola to Bristol was handled by Silas Baldwin of Elkhart. He later became active as an employee of the railroad in other capacities.

The railroad today uses the same right-of-way which was purchased in The rails of the Michigan Southern reached the borders of Indiana just west of White Pigeon, Michigan, on August 22, and crossed into Indiana on the right-of-way of the new Northern Indiana Railroad.

The rails were laid through Osceola about September 30, The track gang laid the last 30 miles form the state line to South Bend in 42 days. This was a record which stood for many years. The engineer in charge was Henry Farnham, a New Englander-builder of canals. The first through passenger train from Monroe, Michigan to South Bend passed through Osceola after dark on Saturday evening, October 4, It reached South Bend about p.

The train and crew were met by a large crowd at the depot. There were bonfires and shooting of the one cannon along with dancing on the depot platform to celebrate the arrival. It was a night of rejoicing. The first train was pulled by the engine named John Stryker, a little 8 wheel, wood burning locomotive. The train had no headlight since those had not yet been invented. Tradition has it that a trainman with a lighted pine limb sat on the pilot-house of the little locomotive to light the way through the woods between Osceola and South Bend with orders to watch closely for the track crews which were still spiking down the rails ahead of the train.

The first depot at Osceola was located where the town park now is today: close to the intersection of Lincolnway East and Apple Road. A supply of wood, cut for use in the locomotives, was kept at the Osceola depot for emergency use and trains often stopped to take on a supply before proceeding on to Elkhart. Wood was contracted for by Judge Stanfield of South Bend who was the first supplier to the new railroad. It is now used for a wide range of concerts, special events, and local productions.

It is a year-round park with an ice skating path in the winter and a splash pad in the summer. A spray park was built at McNaughton Park in It is known as one of the premier Jazz festivals in the nation. In , the festival celebrated its 20th anniversary. It is a weekend event put on at the city's Island Park. It is a typical summer festival with live music and food. It featured a wide variety of airplanes old and new.

The event was canceled in due to financial issues. It is unclear whether the show is on hiatus or gone for good. On February 9, President Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of thousands at Concord High School in an attempt to bolster support for his nearly trillion dollar economic stimulus package.

The Elkhart Miracle are a new, independent, minor league baseball team that will begin play in the Northern League in The stadium will be located on the city's southwest side on State Road The Elkhart Express was a semi-professional men's basketball team in the International Basketball League.

The franchise began operation in and won the International Title in and The Elkhart Express officially released news that they were folding under bankruptcy on January 5, In January , head coach and founder Daimon Beathea announced that the Express would return for the season, but those plans never came to fruition.

Elkhart lies in the South Bend-Elkhart television market, the 89th largest in the United States as of Elkhart, Indiana facts for kids Kids Encyclopedia Facts. Quick facts for kids. Location in the state of Indiana. All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles including the article images and facts can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:.

This page was last modified on 8 November , at Suggest an edit. Main Street in downtown Elkhart. Decennial Census. As a result of this heritage, most of Elkhart County supported the abolitionist movement before the American Civil War.

Elkhart County provided substantial numbers of recruits for the Union Army. During the end of the nineteenth century, Irish and German migrants came to Elkhart County, although most did not come directly from Europe, but had stopped in other areas in the Midwest, such as Ohio.

This is a very small excerpt from a long history of our great county. Do we have your interest? The electricity and water supply assured quick growth of the town. With the growth, the demand for power increased leading to the construction of a new dam in In , Elkhart became the second city in the world to implement the electric streetcar system.

Elkhart is home to C. Conn, a leading manufacturer of brass band musical instruments, which was established here in The Sousaphone was invented in Elkhart.