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    Berrien County, Michigan

    St. Joseph history and records

    County BerrienFounded 1829City 1891County seat

    On the valley map

    Grading and assorting peaches near Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Michigan
    Grading and assorting peaches near Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Michigan, 1913. none required

    St. Joseph sits on the bluff where the St. Joseph River meets Lake Michigan. La Salle built Fort Miami near here in the winter of 1679, and William Burnett kept a trading post at the river mouth from about 1780. Calvin Britain and Augustus Newell took up land in 1829, and the village they laid out was first called Newburyport. It was incorporated as St. Joseph in 1834, became a city in 1891, and in 1894 took the county seat from Berrien Springs.

    At a glance

    Founded
    land claimed by Calvin Britain and Augustus B. Newell, 1829; post office 1831, with Britain as first postmaster; village of St. Joseph incorporated March 7, 1834; city, June 5, 1891
    Name
    for the river. Ellis's 1880 county history records that the place was first called Newburyport, and the probate court dated its papers "Newburyport (St. Joseph)" until 1837
    The fruit port
    Ellis tells of seedling peaches from B. C. Hoyt's garden shipped across the lake to Chicago in 1839; once the timber trade waned, fruit became the port's chief export
    Industry
    in 1911 the Upton brothers began making electric washing machines in St. Joseph; the business became the Whirlpool Corporation
    County seat
    yes, of Berrien County since 1894, when a county vote moved the seat from Berrien Springs

    Worth a visit

    • St. Joseph North Pier Inner and Outer Lights

      North pier, mouth of the St. Joseph River, St. Joseph

      The two lighthouses on the north pier at the river mouth, joined by a catwalk; walk out the pier. National Register, 2005.

      Directions

    • Ninth District Lighthouse Depot

      128 N. Pier St., St. Joseph

      The old lighthouse service depot on the pier. National Register, 1993.

      Directions

    • Whitcomb Hotel

      509 Ship St., St. Joseph

      The downtown hotel tower above the lake. National Register, 2021.

      Directions

    • Blossomland Bridge

      M-63 over the St. Joseph River

      The bascule bridge carrying M-63 over the St. Joseph River between St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. National Register, 1999.

      Directions

    Through the year

    Where the records are

    St. Joseph is the county seat, but Berrien County's older vital records are kept by the County Records Department at 2100 E. Empire Ave., Benton Township: births and deaths from 1867, marriages from 1831; birth records over 100 years old are open. The Maud Preston Palenske Memorial Library in St. Joseph keeps a local history room. The Heritage Museum & Cultural Center on Main Street has archival collections and a research library. The St. Joseph Traveler, Herald and Herald-Press run from 1859 into the 1970s, much of it digitized on Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchive (subscription). Ellis's History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880) 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.

    The valley map Museums Find a grave or an obituary

    More towns: Mishawaka · Elkhart · Goshen · Benton Harbor · Buchanan · Berrien Springs · Shipshewana