Project Scroll Research Note 2026-27
“Cassopolis” with an O in print by February 1833: Bishop Chase’s appointments, from the St. Joseph’s Beacon
Summary
The county seat of Cass County, Michigan, was platted in 1831 as “a village to be called Cassapolis,” with an A, and its post office kept that spelling until 1870. The earliest printing of the modern spelling cited until now was John T. Blois’s Gazetteer of the State of Michigan (1838). The Episcopal Recorder of Philadelphia for 23 February 1833, reprinting from “the St. Joseph’s” Beacon, prints Bishop Philander Chase’s appointments in south-west Michigan: “On January 27th at White Pigeon, on the 29th at Edwardsburgh, on the 30th at Niles, at Edwardsburgh again on the 1st of February, and at Cassopolis on the 2nd and 3rd.” In the same year the federal Official Register listed the post office, with Alexander H. Redfield as postmaster, as “Cassapolis.” The village was spelled both ways within two years of its plat.
The record
Episcopal Recorder (Philadelphia), vol. 10, no. 47, 23 February 1833, p. 187, “Bishop Chase,” from the St. Joseph’s Beacon
“On January 27th at White Pigeon, on the 29th at Edwardsburgh, on the 30th at Niles, at Edwardsburgh again on the 1st of February, and at Cassopolis on the 2nd and 3rd.”
Internet Archive · See the record
Official Register of the United States, 30 September 1833, list of post offices
“Cassapolis … M. T. … Alexander H. Redfield.”
Internet Archive · See the record
What it changes
The O spelling moves from 1838 to February 1833, five years earlier, and is shown in use while the post office was still officially “Cassapolis.”
Limits
The text is a reprint, from the St. Joseph’s Beacon; the spelling may be the Recorder’s or the Beacon’s. The appointments are announced, not reported as kept. Earlier hits for “Cassopolis” in the Internet Archive’s full text proved misdated on inspection.
What we searched before calling it new
Internet Archive full text for “Cassopolis” and “Cassapolis” to 1838, and for “Bishop Chase” with Cassopolis; Rogers (1875), Mathews (1882) and Glover (1906); Wikipedia; the Library of Congress’s newspapers; web searches (October 2026). HathiTrust and Google Books full text could not be reached.
Our standard for calling a finding new is set out in How we research, and how we weigh each kind of record in Scrollsigns.
“New” means new to print as far as we can tell. If you know of an earlier publication, tell us and we will credit it here and raise the note’s version.
Works cited
Earlier work, catalogues and databases named in this note, besides the records quoted above.
- Michael Urbanski, “How Cassopolis Got Its Name,” Project Scroll (2026). https://projectscroll.com/news/how-cassopolis-got-its-name/
- John T. Blois, Gazetteer of the State of Michigan (Detroit, 1838). https://archive.org/details/gazetteerofstate00bloi
The full story
The finding is set out in context, with the rest of its sources, in How Cassopolis got its name. In the discoveries register:
How to cite this note
Michael Urbanski, “‘Cassopolis’ with an O in print by February 1833: Bishop Chase’s appointments, from the St. Joseph’s Beacon,” Project Scroll Research Note 2026-27, version 1 (5 November 2026), https://projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-27/. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23968683.
BibTeX
@techreport{urbanski202627,
author = {Urbanski, Michael},
orcid = {0009-0006-8183-5828},
title = {{``Cassopolis'' with an O in print by February 1833: Bishop Chase's appointments, from the St. Joseph's Beacon}},
institution = {Project Scroll},
type = {Project Scroll Research Note},
number = {2026-27},
year = {2026},
month = {nov},
url = {https://projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-27/},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23968683},
note = {Version 1}
}