Early South Bend

St. Joseph County was formally created in 1830 and began with four original townships. Lathrop Taylor and Alexis Coquillard plotted the town of South Bend in 1831. Most of the inhabitants of the town were tavern owners, merchants, or fur traders. South Bend’s population in 1831 was about 128 men, women, and children. This is the original wording of the court record:

State of Indiana, St. Joseph County, ss.:

On this 28th day of March, A.D. 1831, Alexis Coquillard and Lathrop M. Taylor, the proprietors named in the foregoing instrument and town plat of the town of South Bend, personally appeared before me, one of the associate judges of the St. Joseph circuit court in and for said county, and severally acknowledged the signing and sealing of the aforesaid plat, to be their own free act and deed for the purposes therein expressed.

Given under my hand and seal the day and year first above written.

William Brookfield,

Ass’t J.C.C.

The first industry in South Bend was developed in the late 1830’s. Some of the first factories were glass factories, but their product was so poor in quality that the companies did not last. However, in the mid-1840s, industry began to grow around South Bend, especially along the St. Joseph River. Early industries were located on two races (manufactured canals), one on each side of the St. Joseph River in downtown South Bend. The east-side race was known as the East Race, and it covered an area bounded by the St. Joseph River, Niles Avenue, Madison Street, and Corby Street. The west-side race, known as the West Race, ran next to the South Bend Century Center. Industries harnessed waterpower for production. Many major industries started on one of the two races before relocating after the development of electric power.

In 1846, another village was platted and added to St. Joseph County. The town of Lowell, Indiana, was formed and covered the area between Washington Street and just north of Cedar Street, and the river to just east of Hill Street. The founders of Lowell hoped to capture the industrial success of its namesake, Lowell, Massachusetts. However, in 1867, South Bend annexed the town of Lowell, and it ceased to exist.

Electricity

The first electric-producing plant in South Bend had to be tied to the East and West Races along the St. Joseph River. Abraham Harper, William Patterson, and Lathrop Taylor formed the South Bend Manufacturing Company, which built the first usable dam on the St. Joseph River in 1842. The South Bend Hydraulic Company owned the water flowing down the East Race. A steam-powered generator on the East Race produced vast quantities of power that lit and heated most of Mishawaka and South Bend. In 1903, James Oliver, founder of the Oliver Chilled Plow Company, purchased ownership of the West Race. The Oliver Chilled Plow Company constructed a power plant on the West Race (the foundation of the old power plant can still be seen). The Oliver power plant was so efficient and powerful that it supplied electricity for light, heat, and power to the Oliver Opera House, Oliver Hotel, factories, and other Oliver properties. These power plants remained on the races of the St. Joseph River until the invention of self-contained coal/steam driven generators that allowed companies to move away from the East and West Race.

Transportation

The first locomotive to reach Mishawaka and South Bend roared into town the evening of October 4, 1851, when the locomotive, John Stryker, came puffing into the station to a grand collection of local citizens clapping and cheering. The South Bend Street Railway Company was formed in 1873 to investigate the feasibility of electric streetcars being constructed in South Bend. In 1882, the first overhead or trolley system was attempted-the first-time electrified streetcars were put into service anywhere in the world. However, the cars could travel only part of a city block because the electric current deteriorated over long stretches of wire (before electric transformers were used). In late 1882, after the electricity problem was solved, another streetcar company built an electric streetcar line from South Bend to Mishawaka (four miles) that proved successful.

scan012 The History Museum — Early image of the early streetcar system. The photograph shows Michigan Street, looking south from LaSalle Avenue, South Bend, Indiana.

Communication

The first telegraph line strung through northern Indiana was completed in 1847. However, because investors were slow to fund the project, South Bend didn’t connect with the rest of the country until 1848. The telegraph line was constructed between Buffalo, New York and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The telegraph soon gave way to the telephone. The South Bend Telephone exchange was authorized to erect poles and wires in March of 1880. The lines extended to include Mishawaka and other places outside of St. Joseph County. The first phones created were hooked into “party lines.” Party lines connected everyone’s phone on a city block to the same line. Each household had its own ring pattern, or set of rings, to alert members of the home to a call. In 1899, the first direct-dial (private line) phone was installed at the Oliver Chilled Plow Works factory office.

TelephoneOperatorsph705wm The History Museum — Telephone exchange operators in the South Bend telephone company switchboard room. C.1900.

Standpipeeditedwmph1511Edit The History Museum — The Standpipe under construction. The main pipe has been set in its foundation. November 17-18, 1873.

Standpipeconstructedph1332Edit The History Museum — The Standpipe completed. Photo is positioned looking northeast along Vistula Avenue. c.1900

Water

Most early residents of South Bend received drinking water from wells or the St. Joseph River itself. However, in 1871, the Holly Water Works Company planned to provide South Bend with water that could be piped directly into homes (and used to fight fires). They planned to accomplish this by constructing a standpipe (or water tower). When the standpipe was pumped full of water, the pressure (or weight) on the water mains throughout the city would be equal (equal water pressure). Leighton Pine, superintendent of the Singer Sewing Machine Company (which had recently moved to the East Race at Mr. Pine’s invitation), led support for the standpipe. A huge debate between Mr. Pine and supporters of a reservoir-type water system raged for months. The standpipe finally won majority support in 1872, and Mr. Pine’s plan would be put into action.

The standpipe was constructed with the following dimensions and materials:

A wrought iron pipe 5 feet in diameter and 200 feet high; the weight of the iron plates that made up the outside of the standpipe was 42,000 pounds; the castings for the support of the pipe, resting upon concrete foundations, weighed 12,180 pounds; the iron bolts used to put the plates together weighed 250 pounds; between the pipe and the protecting wall (the steel plates) was a winding stairway of 290 steps to the top; a roof was installed on the top of the standpipe with a diameter of 22 feet.

The standpipe stood at the crossing of Pearl, Jefferson, and Carroll Streets in South Bend (now the parking lot of the Century Center). After workers built the standpipe, they had to lift it into place. “The undertaking of lifting this mass of iron from the ground to perpendicular was the greatest engineering feat ever attempted in this part of the country. A like attempt at Toledo [Ohio] resulted in the falling and breaking of the standpipe when it had been lifted halfway up.” The raising of the standpipe began on Friday, November 14, 1873, which raised the pipe 22 feet off the ground. On Saturday, November 15, the raising continued until 4 p.m. when the standpipe reached an elevation of 70 degrees and hung in the air that night. Raising continued throughout Sunday, and the standpipe was finally set into its footing at 11 a.m. on Monday, November 17, 1873. The great standpipe never cracked or bent and stood 200 feet perpendicular to its rocky base. They tore down the standpipe in the 1930s.

References Used

Pictorial and Biographical Memoirs of Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties, Indiana, Together with Biographies of Many Prominent Men of Northern Indiana and of the Whole State, Both Living and Dead. 1893. Chicago: Goodspeed.

Chapman & Company. History of St. Joseph County, Indiana: Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens; History of Indiana. Woburn, MA: Unigraphic, 1880.
Coquillard, M. Alexis Coquillard, His Time: A Story of the Founding of South Bend, Indiana. South Bend, IN: Northern Indiana Historical Society, 1920.
Howard, Timothy E. A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana. Both Volumes. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1907.

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