Then and now
Cassopolis, 1860 and today
The 1860 wall map has a little plan of Cassopolis, the county seat, with every block, lot and street the engraver knew. Here it is laid over the streets of today. Fade between the two, or drag a line across and see one beside the other.
Other towns: Niles · Dowagiac · Paw Paw · South Bend · Goshen · Elkhart · all seven
Drag to move. Scroll, pinch or use the buttons to zoom. The old plan was lined up by hand on street corners that still carry their 1860 names, so it is close but not exact: expect it to be out by a few yards in places.
Things to look for
- State Street and Broadway. The heart of the 1860 town. Find the Court House and the Jail just north of State, then fade to today.
- Timber Street, between O’Keefe and East. Look for it on today’s map.
- The Union School at the top of the plan, beside the State Road.
- The Tannery and the Cemetery on the west side of town, and the State Road running north.
- The names on the lots: Tompkins, Martin, Histed, Read, Jones and the rest. Each one is a lead to a deed.
How this was made
The plan was cut from the Library of Congress copy of the wall map. Nineteen street corners that appear on both maps (Broadway, Rowland, O’Keefe and East, where they meet York, State, Jefferson, Water and South) were matched by measurement, and the plan was scaled to fit them. On average the old corners land within about five yards of the new ones.
One label has been painted out of this copy so that it does not spoil the hunt. Nothing else has been changed.
1860 plan: Map of the Counties of Cass, Van Buren and Berrien, Michigan (Philadelphia: Geil, Harley & Siverd, 1860), inset “Cassopolis, County Seat of Cass Co.” Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, g4113c.la000324. Public domain. Today’s aerial photograph and, once the challenge is solved, today’s names: USGS The National Map (public domain). Today’s streets and water drawn as lines: OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License.
The business directory printed beside this plan is in the roll of names: who was in Cassopolis in 1860 →