The story
Welcome to Concord Township
Concord Township was created in 1830, when Elkhart County was first divided, and once covered the whole northern half of the county. Today it holds most of the city of Elkhart and the old settlements of Pleasant Plain and Dunlap.
At its first meeting in 1830 the county’s Board of Justices divided the new county into two townships: Concord, taking the land from the line between townships 36 and 37 north to the state line, and Elkhart, taking the rest to the southeast. Chapman (1881) says Concord was erected that year and embraced all the territory north of Elkhart Township. Its first constable was Howel Huntsman, and its first elections were held at the house of Chester Sage. Cleveland, Osolo and the other northern townships were later cut from it.
The first settlers, Chapman says, were Jesse Rush, on Pleasant Plain in 1827 or 1828, and Isaac Compton and his brothers James and John in 1829. Dr. Havilah Beardsley, William Dobson and Jesse Morgan settled on Pleasant Plain in 1829, and Peter Tuley, Peter Diddy and Associate Judge I. Middleton came that fall. Deahl (1905) says Mrs. Rush bore twins on May 16, 1828, claimed as the first white children born in the county. Jacob Ellis built the first frame barn and Ebenezer Chamberlain taught the first school.
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Chapman found the township blessed with water: the St. Joseph and Elkhart rivers, the creek from the northern lakes, springs and small streams. In 1880 Concord had 8,402 people, of whom 6,938 lived in the city of Elkhart, and its rural schools were nine brick houses and one frame, with a new graded school built on section 24 in 1879.
Weaver (1916) notes Dunlap’s, the New York Central station midway between Goshen and Elkhart, as the seat of the county asylum. Today most of the township is the city of Elkhart and its suburbs, and the 2020 census counted 55,903 people. Chapman counts a Jacob Puterbaugh among the early settlers, and the Joseph and Sarah Puterbaugh Farm was listed on the National Register in 1995.