Indiana · St. Joseph River Valley
St. Joseph County
The south bend of the St. Joseph River: South Bend, Mishawaka, Notre Dame and the farms around them.
Project Scroll is an independent local-history website. This is not an official page of St. Joseph County or of any township, city or village in it. For official business, contact the county or local offices directly.
Welcome
St. Joseph County, Indiana
St. Joseph County, Indiana, was formed in 1830 and named for the St. Joseph River, which bends south here before turning back north to Lake Michigan. South Bend, at that bend, is the county seat.
About 272,900 people live here today (272,912 at the 2020 census), in South Bend and Mishawaka, small towns from New Carlisle to Walkerton, and thirteen townships. Pick a place to begin.
Cities and towns
MishawakaCity · An iron town at the rapids that became a factory city.
South BendCity · The city at the great south bend of the St. Joseph.- LakevilleTown · A Michigan Road stopping place beside Riddle’s Lake.
- New CarlisleTown · A hilltop town with Philadelphia street names, above Terre Coupee Prairie.
North LibertyTown · A sawmill and wagon town in the old Liberty woods.- OsceolaTown · A mill town on the Baugo, named for a Seminole leader.
- RoselandTown · The small “Gateway Town” on the old Niles road.
- WalkertonTown · A railroad junction town cut out of the Kankakee thickets.
Crossroads and hamlets
Notre DameTownships
- Centre TownshipTownship · Palmer Prairie and the Michigan Road, south of the bend.
- Clay TownshipTownship · Mill creeks, college lakes and Henry Clay’s name, east of the river.
- German TownshipTownship · Portage Prairie, the old portage and three towns that vanished.
- Greene TownshipTownship · Sumption Prairie, the Kankakee marsh and a family from Greene County, Ohio.
- Harris TownshipTownship · Harris Prairie and the great marsh, on the Michigan line.
Liberty TownshipTownship · Heavy timber, Pennsylvania farmers and the lake at Potato Creek.- Lincoln TownshipTownship · The county’s youngest township, set off in 1866 around Walkerton.
- Madison TownshipTownship · Sawmills, ditches and the Yellow River country.
- Olive TownshipTownship · Terre Coupee Prairie, named for a pioneer’s young wife.
- Penn TownshipTownship · The river, the rapids and the peppermint marsh.
- Portage TownshipTownship · Named for the old portage, and home of the county seat.
- Union TownshipTownship · Michigan Road farms won from timber and marsh.
- Warren TownshipTownship · A chain of clear lakes from the Michigan line to the Kankakee.