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    St. Joseph County, Indiana

    Mishawaka history and records

    County St. JosephFounded 1833City 1899

    On the valley map

    Springbrook Park, South Bend, Ind
    Springbrook Park, South Bend, Ind, about 1910. St. Joseph County Public Library (South Bend, IN)

    Mishawaka began with bog iron. In 1832 Alanson Hurd sent a prospector up the St. Joseph River to look for ore, and in 1833 he bought land at the rapids and built the St. Joseph Iron Works, the town's first name. By 1837 four little towns stood side by side, and in February 1838 the legislature joined them under one name, Mishawaka. The town became a city in 1899, and its mills made Dodge pulleys, Ball-Band rubber boots and the Simplex motor car.

    At a glance

    Founded
    iron works and town platted, 1833; incorporated as the village of St. Joseph Iron Works, 1835; four towns united as Mishawaka by act of the legislature, February 17, 1838; city, 1899
    Name
    from the Potawatomi; Howard's 1907 county history notes that the name Mishawaka was in use while the town's official name was still St. Joseph Iron Works, and that William Barbee's plat was the first to carry it on record. The linguist Michael McCafferty reads it as a Potawatomi word meaning "at the firewood-tree land"; the older reading, "swift water" or "big rapids," is the one the city and museum give
    The four towns
    St. Joseph Iron Works, Barbee's plat, Fowler's Addition, and Indiana City, platted on the north bank by Joseph Battell and James and Grove Lawrence in June 1836
    Industry
    the iron works built what is said to be the first blast furnace in Indiana and made pig iron from 1834; Wallace Dodge's factory opened in 1878; the Mishawaka Woolen Company, incorporated in 1874, became Ball-Band and then Uniroyal, and closed in 1997
    A fire
    in 1872 a fire burned 49 buildings downtown, and the town then barred wood-frame buildings from the business district
    County seat
    no; the county seat of St. Joseph County is South Bend, four miles downriver

    Worth a visit

    • Battell Park Historic District

      Mishawaka Ave., Mishawaka

      The city's riverside park, on land once platted as Indiana City and deeded to the town in 1880; the Soldiers' Monument stands there (1884). National Register, 1996.

      Directions

    • Old Mishawaka Carnegie Library

      122 N. Hill St., Mishawaka

      The public library of 1916, built largely with Andrew Carnegie's gift. National Register, 1998.

      Directions

    • Kamm and Schellinger Brewery

      100 Center St., Mishawaka

      The brewery formed in 1880, which brewed until 1951; the old buildings now hold shops and restaurants (100 Center). National Register, 1979.

      Directions

    • Beiger House (Beiger Mansion)

      317 E. Lincolnway, Mishawaka

      The Beiger family mansion on Lincolnway, damaged by fire in 1975 and restored. National Register, 1973. Now an inn and event house.

      Directions

    Through the year

    Eat and stay

    More places to eat and stay in the valley ›

    Where the records are

    Deeds, probate and marriage records are kept by St. Joseph County in South Bend, the county seat. The Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library holds its Local & Family History Collection at the downtown Mishawaka library, with St. Joseph County newspapers on microfilm from 1853, and runs the Mishawaka Memories digital archive. The Mishawaka Enterprise has been published since the 1850s; the South Bend Area Genealogical Society has indexed its legal notices, and the South Bend News-Times (1913–1938) is free on Chronicling America. The History Museum, 808 W. Washington St., South Bend, keeps the county's historical collections. Howard's History of St. Joseph County (1907) gives the town a full chapter.

    Sources

    Dates and names are from the county histories and official sources listed here. Where they disagree, we say so. Know better? Send a correction.

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