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St. Joseph County History and Information |
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County History |
Court Records |
Vital Records |
CENSUS Records |
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St. Joseph County was created on January 29, 1830 becoming effective April 1, 1830 and was formed from Unorganized Land. The County was named for the St. Joseph River, which flows through it toward Lake Michigan. The County Seat is South Bend. South Bend wasn't always the County Seat. The first County Seat was located on a farm owned by William Brookfield a few miles southwest of South Bend, in German Township, however, it is known that the first board of justices met at the house of Alexis Coquillard, at South Bend, and the courts were also held in his house. Judge Timothy A. Howard, in his history of St. Joseph County, says: "Theoretically, the County Seat was for a time on the farm owned by William Brookfield, at the town laid out by him at the portage of the St. Joseph River. This town was called St. Joseph. Though named as the first County Seat, it was never more than a town on paper. The location of the County Seat at St. Joseph on May 24, 1830, was made by the commissioners under section 3 of the act for the formation of St. Joseph and Elkhart counties." By an act of February 1, 1831, five commissioners were named to relocate the County Seat, which was done September 7, 1831, when South Bend was chosen as the seat of justice. See also County History for more historical details. Counties adjacent to St. Joseph County are Berrien County, Michigan (north), Cass County, Michigan (northeast), Elkhart County (east), Marshall County (south), Starke County (southwest), LaPorte County (west). St. Joseph County is divided into 13 Civil Townships as follows: Center, Clay, German, Greene, Harris, Liberty, Lincoln, Madison, Olive, Penn, Portage, Union and Warren. Cities, Towns and Communities include Colburn, Crumstown, Granger, Hamilton, Holy Cross, North Liberty, Notre Dame, Osceola, Pine, Plainfield, Lakeville, Lydick, Midway Corners, Mishawaka, New Carlisle, North Liberty, Nutwood, Osceola, Terr Coupee, River Park, Roseland, Rupel, South Bend, Walkerton, Westfield, Whartons, Woodland, and Wyatt.
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NOTE: The date listed for each category of record is the earliest record known to exist in that county. It does not indicate that there are numerous records for that year and certainly does not indicate that all such events that year were actually registered. See also the St. Joseph County Courthouse History St. Joseph County Clerk has Marriage Records from 1830 , Probate Records from 1830 and Court Records from 1830 and is located at 101 South Main Street, South Bend, IN 46601; Pho: (574) 235-9635, Fax: (574) 235-9831 St. Joseph County Recorder has Land Records from 1830 and is located at 227 W. Jefferson Blvd. Room 321, South Bend, IN 46601; Phone: (574) 235-9525, Fax: (574) 235-5170.
St. Joseph County Health Department has Birth / Death Records from 1882 and is located at City Building, Room 825, 227 West Jefferson Boulevard, South Bend, IN 46601; (574) 235-9750 Below is a list of online resources for St. Joseph County Court Records. Email us with websites containing St. Joseph County Court Records by clicking the link below:
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Below is a list of online resources for St. Joseph County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing St. Joseph County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
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Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for St. Joseph County, Indiana are 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your Family Tree in St. Joseph County, Indiana are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms. See Also Statewide Records that exist for Indiana Below is a list of online resources for St. Joseph County Census Records. Email us with websites containing St. Joseph County Census Records by clicking the link below:
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Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Ohio and other states. You can view rotating animated maps for Indiana showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps Below is a list of online resources for St. Joseph County Maps. Email us with websites containing St. Joseph County Maps by clicking the link below: |
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The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design. Below is a list of online resources for St. Joseph County Military Records. Email us with websites containing St. Joseph County Military Records by clicking the link below:
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Records of county taxes were kept as early at 1842, although most were discarded. Remaining ones would be at the county courthouse. National Archives-Great Lakes Region has records of the Internal Revenue Service for Indiana for 1867 to 1873. These are tax assessment records, arranged by district and then chronologically. Below is a list of online resources for St. Joseph County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing St. Joseph County Tax Records by clicking the link below: |
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The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over. Below is a list of online resources for St. Joseph County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing St. Joseph County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
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There are many churches and cemeteries in St. Joseph County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the St. Joseph County Tombstone Transcription Project. Baptist records are found at Franklin College (in Franklin); Methodist at DePauw University (in Greencastle); Mennonite at Goshen College (in Goshen); Presbyterian at Hanover College (in Hanover); Disciples of Christ at their historical society in Nashville, Tennessee; and French Catholic at Vincennes University in the Byron R. Lewis Collection. There are also Catholic church histories and records at the Catholic Archives, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. Quaker records are at Earlham College (at Richmond). The commissioner's office of each Indiana county may have burial records for soldiers, sailors, and marines. If available, the records should include name, age, date of enlistment, discharge date, and death date. Records begin about 1862. The Indiana State Library holds records of inscriptions from some Indiana cemeteries. The "Indiana Cemetery Locator File," compiled by the Genealogy Division, is an alphabetical listing of cemeteries, indicating the location in the state and the designation in the Genealogy Division of the Indiana State Library where inscriptions may be found. Below is a list of online resources for St. Joseph County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing St. Joseph County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
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When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for St. Joseph County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing St. Joseph County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
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1849 Adams County Retrospect - Based on "Indiana Gazetteer," published by E. Chamberlain The early log church at Notre Dame was built by Raseen Brown, the son of Abram and Charlotte Brown. This is the same Raseen Brown who owned the farm that was sold to the county where the County Home still stands. -- thanks to Marlyn BrownSt. Joseph County, so called from the river that passes through it, was organized in 1830. It is bounded north by the State of Michigan, east by Elkhart, south by Marshall, and west by LaPorte, and it contains 477 square miles. The civil townships are Olive, Warren, German, Portage, Green, Liberty, Madison, Penn, Center, Clay and Harris. The population in 1830 was 287, in 1840, 6,425, and at this time [1849] about 12,000. Except in the vicinity of the river, where the land is pleasantly rolling, the balance of the county is only so far from a level as to afford good drainage. About one-half is barrens, or oak openings, one-third heavy timber, and the other one-sixth is either wet or dry prairies. The soil in the timber and prairies is equal to any part of the State, and in the hickory and burr oak barrens the soil turns black and seems to become richer the longer it is farmed. Wheat has been the principal crop, though corn, oats, grass, fruit, vines, etc., are cultivated to advantage. Notre Dame Catholic College is located in this county. There are in the county five gristmills, ten sawmills, two oil mills, two woolen factories, 11 general assortment stores, two drug stores, three warehouses, one printing office, eight lawyers, ten physicians, six preachers of the Gospel, and 218,623 acres of taxable land. Iron ore of a good quality is found in great abundance near Mishawaka and other parts of the county, and marl, useful either for lime or as manure, may be found in great quantities in most of the marshes, and occasionally in the timbered land. St. Joseph will eventually be one of the richest and most important counties of the State. Its fine soil, abundant water power, valuable ores, the facility with which good roads can be made, and the advantages of the river navigation, are such as to encourage rapid improvement. 1938 Adams County Retrospect - Based on "Indiana Review," published by the State Legislature The early log church at Notre Dame was built by Raseen Brown, the son of Abram and Charlotte Brown. This is the same Raseen Brown who owned the farm that was sold to the county where the County Home still stands. -- thanks to Marlyn BrownMany features combine to make St. Joseph one of Indiana's great counties. Perhaps the nation knows it best as the home of the University of Notre Dame and the Studebaker automobile. Within its boundaries are examples of Indiana's outstanding leadership in fields of industry, commerce, agriculture, education, the arts, and religion. Numerous springs, lakes, and streams make it an important summer resort section. St. Joseph is near the center of the northernmost tier of counties, bordering the state of Michigan. It has an area of 460 miles, embracing thirteen townships. The incorporated cities are South Bend, 104,193, and Mishawaka, 28,630; towns: Walkerton, 1,137; North Liberty, 823; New Carlisle, 718; Lakeville, 522, and Osceola, 432. Total county population in 1890 was, 42,457; 1900, 58,881; 1910, 84,312; 1920, 103,304; 1930, 160,033. The history of South Bend dates back to 1679 when Robert Rene Cavalier Sieur de LaSalle landed on the west bank if the St. Joseph River, preparatory to traveling the portage to the Kankakee River, but actual founding took place in 1823. In 1865 it was incorporated as a city. Today it is the third largest city in the state with a wealth of manufacturing. Located eighty-six miles east of Chicago, at the south bend of the St. Joseph River, it is served by six main railroads. Among the products are automobiles, auto accessories, automobile breaks, airplane wheels and accessories, aircraft and automobile carburetors, automatic clutch controls, agricultural equipment, ball bearings, brake linings, built-in furniture, boilers, cabinets, caskets, dental supplies and equipment, dies, electric motors, generators and accessories, electrotypes, elevators, floor coverings, furniture, flour, gas ranges, hardware, jewelry, lumber, lathes, machinery, microphones, medical electrical appliances, overalls, proprietary medicines, piston rings, roller bearings, steel products, sewing machines, stoves, safety clinic systems, trucks, truck bodies, trailers, valves, wagons, and wheelbarrows. According to figures of the 1935 federal census, South Bend had 148 manufacturing establishments employing 16,672 wage earners, on payrolls totaling $18,207,965. Value of the products was $93,255,053. This is the home of the Hoffman Hotel Company. There are few American cities of its size with so many points of historic interest. In Riverview Park a stone monument marks the landing place of LaSalle. In Highland Cemetery is the site of a magnificent oak tree, known as the Council Oak, under which LaSalle held council with the Indians in 1681. At the northeast corner of what is now LaSalle Avenue and Michigan Street is a bronze tablet marking the place at which the city's founder, Alexis Coquillard, established the fur trading post that was to become South Bend. In Leeper Park stands the cabin of the city's first white settler, Pierre Navalle [Navarre], who came in 1820. Vice-President Schuyler Colfax was a resident here and the site of his home is marked today by a bronze tablet in a granite boulder in the yard on the avenue bearing his name. The city cemetery, more than one hundred years old, provided the last resting place for President McKinley's paternal grandparents, who, until their death in 1847, had lived about six miles east of South Bend. One of the more recent famous men, Knute Rockne, the internationally known football coach at Notre Dame, is buried in Highland Cemetery, near Council Oak. This city is one of the recognized art centers of Indiana. The best historical museum in the state is here, that of the Northern Indiana Historical Society. This city has one of the best school systems and its library is one of Indiana's best. The world-renowned Notre Dame and St. Mary's College place South Bend as an outstanding educational center. The thirty-four public parks and properties with a total area of nearly six hundred acres make this city a leader in the vital aspect of community recreation. On these are playgrounds, picnic grounds, golf courses, clubhouses, a fine municipal swimming pool, and the countless other facilities which make a good park system. In addition, South Bend, situated as it is in the heart of the Middle West lake region, is within short distance of some of the best summer resorts. According to the United States Public Health Service, South Bend is one of the nation's healthiest cities. It appears consistently among the leaders of mortality, many times listed as having the lowest death rate per thousand of any community. This is undoubtedly due in part to the purity of its water supply. The city has its own plant, the water being taken from deep artesian wells. Features of modern South Bend include: one airport, two broadcasting stations, two newspapers, four golf courses, police radio system, and two excellent hospitals. Other points of interest include Notre Dame and St. Mary's, both described in following paragraphs. The Very Reverend Edward Sorin, the late Superior General of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, founded the University of Notre Dame, which is situated adjoining the city of South Bend, in 1842. The Legislature, in 1844, gave the university power to grant degrees. From one college program of studies in 1842 leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, the University has expanded to six distinct colleges, offering twenty-two different programs in arts, letters, sciences, engineering, architecture and law. The equipment, especially in technical lines, is complete and of the latest type. The main library has 75,000 volumes and 16,000 manuscripts. There are department libraries equally well supplies. In the general museum, the historical collection is especially noteworthy and valuable. In the scientific museum the department of botany has, in the Edward Lee Green collection, the most valuable herbaria in America. St. Mary's Academy, located one mile west from Notre Dame, is conducted by the Sisters of the Holy Cross and is one of the largest and best-equipped institutions of its kind in the United States. The early history of St. Mary's is touchingly interesting, brightened by the faith that is endured through hardships. St. Mary's as it stands today is a realization of the hopes and dreams of Father Sorin, made possible by the cooperation of the great Mother Angela, a woman fitted by nature, grace and education to dare and to do. The community itself may be said to have had its beginning with the four Sisters of the Holy Cross, who came from France in 1843 in response to an invitation from Father Sorin, the founder of Notre Dame. Bringing with them the statue of Our Lady, which is still sacredly preserved in the Sisters' Infirmary at St. Mary's, these humble-hearted women became the founders of a community and school destined to be beacon lights in the history of religious orders and Catholic education in the United States. St. Mary's of today is a city in itself, including in its system of buildings, connected, yet distinct, the college, academy, music hall, convent, novitiate, conventual chapel, loretto, presbytery, St. Joseph's Hall or students infirmary, St. Angela's Hall, used for gymnasium and commencement exercises; Sisters infirmary, laundry, St. Basil's Hall, and Rosary Hall - the latter a plain strong brick building which is used for kitchen, dairy and industrial purposes. The college is built in the form of a "T." Every room in the college is an "outside room" with an abundance of daylight and fresh air. One point of interest is the Studebaker Museum of Transportation. In the museum are carriages used by such notables as Abraham Lincoln and LaFayette, as well as the more modern vehicles. Another feature maintained by the Studebaker Corporation is the million-dollar automobile proving grounds twelve miles west of the city. Notables of the city have been: the Very Reverend Edward Sorin, C. S. C., who founded the University of Notre Dame; the late Dr. Maurice Francis Egan, who resided in the city while an instructor at the university, Minister to Denmark; Reverend Julius A. Nieuwland, C. S. C. inventor of synthetic rubber, now an instructor at the University; Dr. Harold C. Urey, discoverer of what is commonly known as "heavy water"; Martha Findley, author of the celebrated Elsie Dinsmore books; Daniel Kotz, noted artist; James Oliver, inventor of the famed Oliver chilled plow; the Honorable Clem Studebaker, the famous automobile manufacturer and President of the Pan-American Congress, 1889; Thomas Millen, who made the first Portland cement in the United States in his plant in South Bend, lived here for many years; the late Senator Benjamin F. Shively; Charles R. Phillips, author of "Paderewski, the Story of a Modern Immortal," etc., was an instructor at Notre Dame; Professor J. A. Reyniers, who succeeded in raising guinea pigs free of bacteria, a discovery of significance in biology, is a biologist at Notre Dame; John L. Smithmeyer, one of the architects of the great Congressional Library building, spent his early life of here; Reuben L. Farnsworth, author; Mrs. Emma Barrett Molloy, temperance lecturer; the late Rear Admiral Royal R. Ingersoll; Rear Admiral James H. Dayton, retired, resides here; Vice Admiral Campbell was born here; Ralph Domke, of the "Sisters of the Skillet" radio team, is a native. J. P. McEvoy, outstanding humorist and playwright, was a newspaper reporter here, as was the inimitable Ring Lardner; Floyd Streibel, newspaper cartoonist, is a native; Packy McFarland, former World's Lightweight Boxing Champion, got much of his early experience here; Guglielmo Gherardi, famous European tenor, was born in South Bend as Willard Ehrhardt; Charles Butterworth, screen comedian, was born here; Walter O'Keefe, radio comedian, began in Notre Dame shows; Paul Mallon, political columnist, was a South Bend reporter; Buck Jones, screen star, was a resident; William Anthony McGuire, playwright, wrote one of his earlier plays while at the university; Allan Dwan, motion picture director, who attended Notre Dame; Brigadier General John F. Miller, a lawyer in South Bend, 1852, and later Senator from California; and Alex Arch, who fired the first American artillery shot in the World War, is now a resident. Mishawaka is an important manufacturing city, located four miles east of South Bend, and served by two railroads. Its industries include the manufacture of shoes and rubber boots, shoe lasts, iron beds, aluminum castings, cement and veneer products, pulleys, machine tools, power machinery, gasoline engines, window screens, and galvanized tanks. Also important are its packinghouses, grain elevators, bottling works, and brass foundries. It is the home of one of the most important plants of the nation's greatest rubber company. According to figures of the 1935 federal census, the city had twenty-four manufacturing establishments, employing 4,155 wage earners. This city is also on the beautiful St. Joseph River and is distinguished for its fine schools, homes, and churches. Mishawaka is at the head of the St. Joseph River navigation on the site of an Indian village of the same name. It was the home of the contemporary poetess Ross Hartwick Thorpe. In Battell Park is a monument to the soldiers and sailors of the Civil War. A World War Memorial of distinction is the group of Memory Trees, numbering close to 600. Some of the old residences are noted for their collections of rare books and shawls. One of the outstanding manufacturing counties, St. Joseph had 179 manufacturing establishments, according to the 1935 federal census. A total of 20,873 wage earners were employed on payrolls totaling $22,202,902. The value of the products was $112,366,191. The county had 3,059 farms averaging 78.9 acres each. Their value was $16,527,288. A total of 50,488 head of livestock was reported. This is the fourth richest county in the state, with a total tax valuation, according to the 1936 figures, of $202,323,840. ? |
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