Kathlyn V. Wade

With Illustrations by John D. Miller

TOPOGRAPHY

The middle section of Olive Township is crossed by the Valparaiso Moraine. This ridge runs a little north of east through the township until it abruptly ends at about the middle of the Studebaker Providing Grounds on State Route 2, some two miles south and one half mile east of New Carlisle. The Valparaiso Moraine was undoubtedly the ridge of a high hill which held back the waters of the slowly melting glaciers.

There is evidence that one of the mighty rivers from this source ran east from Lake Michigan through what is now Terre Coupe prairie until stopped by the high hills in the eastern part Warren Township. The water rose higher and higher until it finally ran over the hills in the vicinity of the proving grounds and thereby found a way south until it mingled it’s waters with the Kankakee River. The long continued flow of water finally washed the moraine entirely away and deposited it’s gravel and clay on the marsh land south of that point, where it eventually covered by muck. The valley of the old river was from eight to twelve miles wide and as century followed century, it became smaller and left it’s old shore shelves behind. New Carlisle is situated on the last of these shelves.

Many years ago the land was covered by a heavy growth of timber, but a narrow belt of land about three-fourths of a mile wide always remained clear of timber. This the Indians called Terre Coupe, meaning "shaking or quivering ground."

By John Asher White, New Carlisle Historian member of the St. Joseph County and Indian State Historical Societies.

SECOND PRIME MERIDIAN

Every survey measurement is based upon the original starting point, known as the Second Prime Meridian, a true north and south line that passes through St. Joseph county and the whole state.

The Meridian is about two miles east of New Carlisle and is generally along the same line as Spruce Rd. and it’s extensions. The line, shown on most maps, was arbitrarily established in the state when Indiana still was called the Northwest Territory.

A first Prime Meridian runs east and west and passes through the southern portion of the state. The lines have no connection with the world longitude and latitude lines and apply only to Indiana. Each state has it’s own.

 RANGE BOUNDARIES

From this Second Prime Meridian base line emanate the range boundaries, consisting of

six- mile wide squares. Each range is broken down into 36 sections, each one square mile. Thus properties east of the line would be designated as located in an east range, and those west in a west range number. Sections are similarly numbered. Six inch concrete blocks with brass pins imbedded mark each section corner.

The corners may have been disturbed or destroyed and that’s where the county surveyor comes into action. St. Joseph County has 470 sections of land.

INDIAN TREATIES

The site of New Carlisle, and also the beautiful Terre Coupee Prairie it overlooks, was included in the lands ceded to the United States by the treaty made the Pottawatomie Indians on October 16, 1826.

The Pottawatomie tribe of Indians, the owners and inhabitants if the territory now comprising northern Indiana, belonged to the Algonquin family and were related by ties of consanguinity to the Ojibways, Chippewas and Ottawas. Their name, meaning "fire makers" had reference to their custom of making a tribal council fire.

It is estimated that there were more than two thousand Pottawatomie in the region north of the Wabash River and south of Lake Michigan. They were a peaceful tribe and lived on friendly terms with the white people.

They had no uniform place of residence. During the fall and winter and part of the spring, they were scattered in the woods, hunting and fishing. Their wigwams were made of poles

stuck in the ground and tied together with pieces of bark, hickory withes and sometimes strips of rawhide. The Indians covered them with bark or mats made of flagweeds. In the summer they raised corn, but lived mostly on wild game or fish they caught in the streams or lakes. In season, fruits and nuts were added to their diet.

The growth of timber through this part was not dense forest. The Indians had a custom of annually burning away the underbrush and it opened fine vistas through the trees giving the land the appearance of a beautiful park. Through it all ran innumerable traveled ways, out of the surrounding wilderness. When white men first came here they found well marked pathways, troden by human feet.

These they called trails or traces. Many of the old original Indian trails have become

roads or highways because of the convenience and long usage. While at first many of them were narrow and almost indistinguishable, the wagons of the pioneers gradually widened them.

The policy of making treaties with the Indians as independent tribes for the possession of

their lands, was no doubt better than seizing the lands by force, but it was really only a pretense of negotiating, as the Indians were practically subjugated from the beginning. The treaties, by which they relinquished their rights and ceded their lands, usually stipulated a sum of money

and promises of various articles, such as rifles, blankets and tobacco to each Indian.

The treaty of October 16,1826 between Lewis Cass, James B. Ray and John Tipton on the part of the United States and the Chiefs and warriors of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians, was preceded by a talk by General Cass, urging the Indians to take advantage of the fine offer made them.

The speech began by thanking the Great Spirit for having granted them good weather and bringing them to the Council House in safety. He continued: "When the Great Spirit placed you upon this island (the Indians called this continent an island), he gave you plenty of game for food and clothing and bows and arrows to kill it. After some time it became difficult to kill the game and the Great Spirit sent the white men here who supplied you with powder and ball and with blankets and clothes. We were then a very small people, but we have greatly increased and we are now over the whole face of the country. You have decreased and your numbers are now much reduced. You have but little game, and it is difficult for you to support your women and children by hunting. Your Great Father, whose eyes survey the whole country, sees that you have a large tract of land here which is of no service to you; you do not cultivate it, and there is but little game upon it. The buffalo has long since left it, and the deer are going. There are no beaver, there will soon be no animals worth hunting upon it.

There are a great many of the white children of your Great Father who would be glad to live on this land. They would build houses and raise corn and cattle and hogs. You know when a family grows up and becomes large, they must leave their father’s house and look for a place for themselves. So it is with your white brethren, their family is increasing and they must find some new place to move to. Your Great Father is willing to give for this land, much more than it is

worth to you. He is willing to give you more than all the game upon it would sell for. You know well that all he promises, he will perform."

The speaker then pointed out how much happier the Indians would be far away from the whites, where there would be no danger of collisions, and especially where it would not be so easy for their young men to obtain whiskey.

He continued: "Your Great Father owns a large country west of the Mississippi River. He is anxious that all his red children should remove there and settle down in peace together; then they can hunt and provide well for their women and children and once more become happy people. We are authorized to offer you a residence there, equal in extent to your lands here, and to pay you an annuity which will make you comfortable, and to provide the means of your removal. You

will then have a country abounding with game, and you will also have the value of the country you leave, and you will be beyond the reach of whiskey, for it cannot reach you there. Your Great Father will not suffer his white children to reside there, for it is reserved for the red people;

it will be yours as long as the sun shines and the rain falls. You must go before long; you cannot remain here, you must remove or perish.

Now is the time to make a good bargain for yourselves which will make you rich and comfortable. Come forward, then, like wise men and accept the terms we offer."

While the Indians could not have been fooled entirely, nevertheless, they signed the treaty, and

ceded the land of their forefathers to the white man.

The treaty affecting New Carlisle is in part as follows:

Lewis Cass, James B. Ray and

John Tipton, Commissioners on

the part of the United States,

with

The Chiefs and Warriors of the

Pottawatomie Tribe of Indians.

Treaty

Dated October 16,1826 Recorded

7^th United States Statutes at large,

Page 295 Indian Treaties.

Proclamation issued February 7, 1827. Article 1 of said Treaty recites as follows:

The Pottawatomie Tribe of Indians cede to the United States, all their right to land within the following limits: Beginning at a point upon Lake Michigan, ten miles due north of the southern extremes thereof: running thence due east, to the land ceded by the Indians to the United States by the treaty of Chicago: Thence south with the boundary thereof ten miles, thence west, to the southern extremes of Lake Michigan; thence with the shore, thereof, to the place of beginning

(with other lands.)

Article 6–The United States agrees to grant to each of the persons named in the schedule hereunto annexed, the quantity of land therein stipulated to be granted: But the land, so granted,

shall never be conveyed by either of the said persons, or their heirs, without the consent of the President of the United States: and it is also understood that any of these grants may be expunged from the schedule , by the President or Senate of the United States, without affecting any other part of the treaty.

To each of the following persons, Indians by birth, and who are now, or have been scholars in the Carey Mission Schools on the St. Joseph under the direction of the Reverend Isaac McCoy, one quarter section of land, to be located under the direction of the President of the United States:

That is to say: Joseph Bourissa, Noaquett, John Jones, Miko, Soswa, Manotuk, Betsey Ash, Charles Dick, Susanna Isaacs, Harriet Isaacs, Betsey Plummer, Angeline Isaacs, Jemima Isaacs,

Jacob Corby, Konkapot, Celicia Nimham, Mark Bourissa, Jude Bourissa, Annowussan, Topenibe, Terrez, Shesko, Louis Wilmett, Mitchell Wilmett, Lezett Wilmett, Esther Bailey, Rosann Baily, Eleanor Baily, Quehkna, William Turner, Chaukenozwoh, Lazarus Bourissa, Achan Bourissa, Achemukquee, Wesauwan, Peter Moose, Ann Sharp, Joseph Wolf, Misnoquo, Pomogna, Wymego, Cheekeh, Wauwossemoqua, Moeksumau, Lalautmo, Richard Clements, Louis M’Neff, Shoshqua, Nscotename, Chikawketch, Mnsheewoh, Saugana, Msonkqua, Mnitoqua, Okutcheek, Naomi C. Browning, Antoine, St. Antoine Mary, (From a document in the vault of the First National Bank.)

THE CAREY MISSION

The Carey Mission was located just over the line in Michigan, halfway between Niles and Buchanan at the great northern bend of the St. Joseph River. The institution was well known in the early history of southern Michigan and northern Indiana, and by people of Olive Township during the years immediately following the first settlement.

The Carey Mission was established in 1822 for the education of the Indian children. It was named after a distinguished Baptist Missionary and educator. Mr. McCoy and his assistants exhibited the greatest self-sacrifice in their effort to build up in the wilderness an institution that

might serve as a center from which Christianity and civilization should be diffused among all the Indians of the northwest.

A large farm was cleared and log buildings were erected for dwellings, school houses and barns. At one time there were as many as two hundred Indians in the institution.

The coming of the white people however, proved the ruination of this benevolent work. The

Indian titles to the adjacent lands were soon extinguished; and the Indians were forced to remove to the west. The mission was closed in 1832.

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY ORGANIZATION

The white population of this region was rapidly increasing by the year 1830. The legislature, then in session deemed it expedient to provide for the organization of two counties, St. Joseph county and Elkhart county, in the St. Joseph Valley.

This act of legislation, which was improved by the governor, became a law January 29, 1830.

A board of justices was formed for the transaction of county business. They met at the house of Alexis Coquillard in what is now South Bend, on the fourth Monday of May, 1830 and appointed the following county officers - A treasurer, required to post a bond of $1,000.00, an assessor, a tax collector, two constables, two overseers of the poor, and two fence viewers.

On Monday, September 6, 1830, the board of justices held their second meeting. Grand and petit jurors for the November term of Circuit Court were drawn. It does not appear from the records that any of these jurors were ever called. Names familiar to the people of New Carlisle were included in the petit jurors. Paul Egbert, John Druliner, Israel Rush, Barzillla Druliner, Jacob Harris, Richard Harris, Jacob Egbert and Sam Garwood.

A third session of the board of justices was held in the home of Alexis Coquillard, on Tuesday, September 14, 1830. At this meeting the commissioners were allowed three dollars a day each for their services in locating the county seat.

The fourth and last meeting of the board of justices was held in the home of Alexis Coquillard,

on Tuesday, on November 25, 1830. The last act of this fourth session of the board of justices was the division of the county into four townships.

The township, a part of which later became Olive Township, was first known as Deschemin Township. The board of justices ordered the Sheriff of St. Joseph County to give the citizens of the township written notification, according to law, to hold an election at the house of John Druliner to elect one justice of the peace for the township on the 18^th day of December, 1830.

Deschemin township consisted of territory now embraced within eastern LaPorte, northern Starke, and western St. Joseph counties. The towns of New Carlisle and Walkerton, in St. Joseph county; and Hudson, Rolling Prairie and Stillwell in LaPorte county are within what was Deschemin township.

Historians agree that Deschemin must be an interpretation of the french words Du Chemin. Hudson Lake was once called Lac Du Chemin, which means "Lake of the road", no doubt deriving it’s name from the fact that the Great Sauk Trail passed close to the south edge of the Lake. The Sauk Trail ran west by south through the north part of Olive Township, crossed the

old town of Terre Coupee, also called Prairie Coupee, Hudson, formally called Lakeport, on Lac Du Chemin, LaPorte and thence on to Chicago.

There is no further record of any action taken by our first and only board of justices after the fourth meeting of November 25, 1830. By an act approved January 19,1831, the general assembly changed the law regulating county business, substituting a board of commissioners for the board of justices. The act, with the exception of a few revisions, remains almost unchanged.

FIRST WHITE SETTLERS

Charles Vail, Grandfather of Mame Vail, came to Indiana from Romay, New Jersey in 1828. Alexis Coquillard and he were good friends. While he was cutting logs for his cabin, he injured his foot badly and blood poison set in. An Indian squaw found him. Everyday she sat stolidly on the dirt floor of his unfinished cabin, chewing patiently on slippery elm bark. When the bark grew soft and slimy, she spat it out and made a poultice out of it. Time and again she bound it on the

terribly wounded foot, until one day, the poison left his wracked body and he was healed.

The Sauk War was on by that time. Charles Vail returned to New Jersey. He stayed there until 1830 when he came back to Indiana. Soon after his arrival, he married Olive Stanton in LaPorte, Indiana. His young bride was seventeen years of age. They did not return to the log cabin on the prairie, but took up government land at what is now known as Trail Creek.

Lot Vail, a Quaker bachelor, settled on the old Charles Vail place at Terre Coupe. By this time the townships had been reorganized and the first election was held in the home of John Druliner on the 18^th of December, 1830, was ordered by the board of justices of St. Joseph county. Charles Vail was the inspector for that election. As he was a Quaker, he would not administer an oath, so he required the members of the election board to affirm.

One evening in 1831, Mr. And Mrs. Charles Vail had as their guest for dinner, Judge Elisha Egbert, Who had married them. The Honorable Judge must have been well pleased with the fare set forth by the demure Quaker housewife. According to legend he is supposed to have said: "Charles, the best and most beautiful township in St. Joseph County shall be named for thy lovely wife." Hence the name Olive Township.

The first settlement in the township, was on the Northeast side of the Terre Coupe Prairie. The Hubbards, Druliners, Garouttes, Haines, Bowkers, Swanks and Whites, Curreys, Nickersons, Ransteads, and Reynolds settled there.

Between Bourissa Hills (as New Carlisle was then called) and the lower section lived the Bordens, the Rush brothers, Sam, Jacob and Leonard, Lot and Thomas Vail, Hormal Reed, Judge Bowker, William Baldwin, and Gabriel Reed families.

The South Woods, or what is now called the Olive Chapel, was heavily timbered. The

Hooten, Van Dusen, Carr, Rodger, Bennitt and Moffitt families and others, settled there. They found the land difficult to cultivate, because of the various slabs of granite stone they called "nigger heads."

The Egbert family consisting of, John, Paul, Jacob and Charles, came here from New York State. John came in January, 1830. Four months later in May, Paul and Jacob Egbert arrived. They were all methodists. Paul Egbert was an exhorter and preacher, so the Egbert family along

with the Benjamin Reddings and others were active in the building of the Methodist church at Hamilton.

As the early settlers poured into the county, they were as diverse in culture and background as the part of the country they came from. Many were from New York state, Ohio and Southern Indiana and Kentucky. According to their talents and characteristics, they became a part of the rough frontier life.

And so it was that early in 1834, Richard Risley Carlisle, a relative of the Egberts, came to Olive Township from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Little is known of this man. While there are no authentic facts about him, aside from his old signature on old deeds, and papers, legend describes him as a dreamer and a wanderer.

Lazarus Bourissa lived in a double pole log cabin and ran a trading post on the site where Community Church stands today. A marriage record shows he was married to Mary Ann Harminson. Bourissa was a product of the Carey Mission School and owned "Bourissa Hill" by reason of a land grant as stated in a previous chapter.

On June 4, 1835, Mr. Carlisle purchased in consideration of $2,000.00 all the North 1/4 of Section 34; and Township No. 38 North and Range No. 1 West, containing 160 acres of ground,

being a certain quarter section of land reserved to Lazarus Bourissa in and by the treaty of October 6, 1826.

COPY OF THE WARRANTY DEED

Lazarus Borrossa Warranty Deed

(also spelled Dated June 24, 1835

Bourissa) Recorded March 4, 1837

to Deed record "C"

Richard R. Carlisle Page 521

Consideration $2,000.00

Conveys all the north East 1/4 of Range No. 34, and Township No. 38 North and of Range No. 1 West, containing 160 acres of ground. It being a certain quarter section of land reserved to the said Lazarus Bourissa in and by the treaty entered into the Wabash River on the 6^th day of

October in the year of our Lord 1826, between Governor Lewis Cass, Governor James B Ray,

and General John Tipton, Commissioners on the part of the United States and Chiefs and Warriors of the Pottawatomie Tribe of Indians, reference being had to the said Treaty and

ratification thereof will more fully appear. Said land being situated in the county of St. Joseph.

Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of Israel H. Rush, Leonard Rush.

Signed "Lazarus Bourissa."

By August 15, of the same year, Richard Carlisle had platted the town and named the streets after his native city of Philadelphia, Pa. The dedication and acknowledgment of the town plat reads as follows:

"This plat represents the Town of New Carlisle, situated in the northeast quarter of section thirty-four, in township thirty-eight north, in range one west, in St. Joseph County, Indiana. Each lot is one hundred and thirty-two feet in length by fifty feet in width. All the streets and alleys cross at right angles-variation north eight degrees and twenty minutes west. The width of the streets is marked on each respectively. (Michigan street is shown to be one hundred feet in width:

and Front, Chestnut, Cherry, Filbert, Arch, and race, each, sixty feet.)

The alleys lying parallel with Michigan street are each sixteen and one-half feet wide; those of a contrary course are each eight feet wide.

"Richard R. Carlisle,

Proprietor."

The beginning point to re-survey any of the lots of this is at a stone at the north east corner of No. 33.

"Surveyed by Tyra W. Bray, St. Joseph County Surveyor."

Richard Carlisle, however, was a spender also. He had many fine guns, the most expensive of that day and was known to be an excellent marksman. According to Warner’s history of Olive Township, "He later went to England and toured the country giving exhibitions of his skill and marksmanship.

In April of 1836, therefore, he mortgaged the entire 160 acres that he purchased from Lazarus

Bourissa, bearing the date of June 24, 1835, to one John Willits, Bricklayer, of the city and the county of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania.

This mortgage was acknowledged by Carlisle on April 29, 1836, before James P. Antrim, a

Justice of the Peace in and for St. Joseph County, Indiana.

On March 15, 1837, Richard Carlisle filed and acknowledged an additional plat to the Town of New Carlisle, which included the original plat and also blocks one to twenty-one adjoining the original plat on the West and South.

This last plat was printed and lithographed in the city of New York, and contained a beautiful view of the town overlooking Terre Coupee Prairie. Apparently they wee intended to be circulated throughout the east to attract attention and encourage immigration here.

May 23, 1837, John Willitts issued a quit claim deed, back to Richard Carlisle, releasing the mortgage on the town. No record of Richard Carlisle’s marriage can be found, but on certain papers, the name of "Rebecca", his wife, began to appear. Their home was located a little south

and west of what is now Filbert Street and Front Street. There were some log cabins in the yard, one occupied by Samuel Bates (known as Stubby) and the other by Chovklet Crammer.

Two of Richard Carlisle’s children were buried in back of the First Methodist Church, and in 1854, Frances Warner told of taking two relatives of Richard Carlisle to view these graves. They were marked by a rail pen, but nothing marks the spot today.

According to legend, Richard Carlisle returned to America , after touring England, and became a theatrical man. The last heard of him, was that he was known on the stage as Richard Risley and owned a small circus. He stopped in New Carlisle, one day, while the train took on wood and water. John Hoyt was the station agent at the time. He said then, that he intended to return to the town named for him, but he never did.

THE MATTHEWS FAMILY

The year 1836 found the Matthews family in the great westward migration. They traveled by way of the Hudson River and Erie Canal to Buffalo, by streamer to Detroit, thence over the Chicago Trail to New Carlisle.

Schuyler Colfax, who became Vice President of the United States, was eleven years old, when his widowed mother married George W. Mathews on November 6, 1834. Although his step father was only fourteen years older, the two were always devoted to each other.

Soon after the Matthews family arrived in New Carlisle, George built a one story frame building on the north side of Michigan Street, thirty feet east of Arch street and opened a store there.

Mr. Matthews apparently was a good politician, for he was appointed Post-master and elected Justice of the Peace, within a year of their arrival. He made the most of the facilities at hand. He set up the Post office in his store and used it for a court room when necessity demanded. Mr.

and Mrs. George Matthews were good citizens from the moment of their arrival here. There is no question that the first Sunday School in New Carlisle was organized in the Mathews home that stood on the southeast corner of Michigan and Bray streets. They planted locust trees all around their lot and called it Locust Place.

Schuyler Colfax’s own father had been a very religious man and Mr. And Mrs. Mathews and Schuyler taught and maintained this Sunday School until 1841, when the family moved to South Bend.

NEW CARLISLE

A man by the name of John Littlejohn, an eccentric and eloquent speaker, as early as 1842, brought the Temperance Movement to New Carlisle. He was an ex Presbyterian preacher, composed his own songs and always worked with the church people. He held meetings in the Hamilton church. He so stirred the women folks of New Carlisle that the group of ladies, including Mrs. Jerry Service, Mrs. Gabe Druliner and Mrs. Jacob Warner, formed an organization to do away with whiskey and gambling in the town.

One of their procedures was to arm themselves with hatchets, saws and clubs. Then they would break up every piece of furniture, break all the bottles and empty every jug or keg, smash the tumblers and make general havoc with the place of business.

Schuyler Colfax was an ardent supporter of this movement and encouraged the women to choose their own course in dealing with the problem. Pledge cards were signed by the hundreds, and women would take turns going two by two and calmly sitting in the saloon, only to be relieved by two more, much to the annoyance and embarrassment of the saloon keeper. It was a

movement, however, that was to lead eventually to prohibition in the nation.

NOTE:-- Certain hand-written editions of temperance papers are on file in the Public Library, namely - "The Echo", January - 1868; "The Temperance Guardian", March - 1876; "The Watchman", September - 1876; and "The Banner", December - 1876.

RAILROADS

The coming of the Lake Shore railroad, that is now The New York Central, was the factor that established the town of New Carlisle, as it is by passed Hamilton, and made of that settlement a ghost town. The first train went through New Carlisle January 1^st, 1852.

During the early days of the railroad the crews were good natured fellows, often rendering service to the community far beyond the call of duty. Every engine had a name of it’s own

engineer.

The trains of that day were hand fired with wood, cut in four foot lengths. Much of our fine timber went for fire wood. It was a period when a spirit of adventure and confidence prevailed.

A spirit which later was to carry the town through wars, depressions and disasters.

And so, as the years went by, in the early 1900's, various franchises were granted to operate an electric line through the corporate limits of New Carlisle. In those days the roads that linked communities together were filled with mud and chuck holes. The automobile was something a few daring inventors were experimenting with.

But the electric motor had been developed to where it would propel a vehicle comparable in speed to the steam engine. So like the rest of the nation the people looked to the construction of an electric railway as a great step forward.

The towns people were anxious to have an interurban line run through the town and began early in the century to grant franchises to various companies in an endeavor to bring this about. An entire generation has grown up since the first franchise was placed ion the statute books of New Carlisle.

July 3^rd, 1902, W.A. Orton and G.W. Bryson were granted a franchise to operate an electric train through the corporate limits of New Carlisle, under the name of the Chicago and Indiana Airline Railway Company.

In May, 1903, Hobart and Western Electric were granted a franchise to construct a street railway over, upon, and along the highway, known as Michigan Street. An ordinance authorization the construction upon either Front, Chestnut or Ada Streets of a street railway by the Indiana Western railway company, was passed by the board of trustees of the town of New

Carlisle November 2, 1903. Mr. Wm. H. Deacon was town clerk at the time. On the board, Dr. J. Davis was president, James A. Catterlin, Henry Wethered, Ed. Kinney and Chas. D. White served as members.

The ordinance passed by this board was ordered published in the New Carlisle Gazette January 18, 1904. An ordinance was passed on the 23^rd day of June, 1905, granting to the South Bend Western Railway Company the right to construct and operate a line of street railway in and along Zigler Street.

The company was to erect and maintain a station for the accommodation of it’s patrons and maintain lights there. The Northern Indiana Railway Company was the successor of the Indiana Western Railway Company, placed on file, with the New Carlisle town clerk, a certified copy of the resolution of acceptance.

In the Spring of 1907, two electric lines were completed. One line was from South Bend to Chicago by way of Michigan City by way of LaPorte. A station was built on Zigler Street to accommodate passengers for both roads. The Northern Indiana railroad went out of existence in 1932 and the track was taken up shortly after.

Rolling Prairie and New Carlisle were closely associated through various clubs and church activities. With the removal of the railroad, it became difficult to continue these activities, and what had been a pleasant association came to an end.

Today two railroads cross the town from East to West; The Chicago South Shore and South Bend Electric Railway and the New York Central, making available to the people all the advantages of the big cities between Chicago and South Bend. Work is not confined to the limits of the boundary lines of the town or the surrounding farms, but artisans of all trades live in New Carlisle, and work in adjoining cities.

PROGRESS

That the little town of New Carlisle was to be going concern, seemed apparent from the first. It was a natural sequence of events that made the people use the heavy growth of timber to the best advantage. There were two copper shops, one near Timothy Road, on the north side of Michigan Street, run by Chris Raburn, a German immigrant, who made barrels. The other one was run by Fred Huffman in the brick building owned by Carl Zahl that still stands at the foot of Michigan Street.

Raburn hired about twenty men. They made lard tierces, pork barrels and canes for the stock buyers. The stock buyers of that day were a colorful group of men. They rode on their ponies and an emblem of their trade was a cane and a big hat. These men could ride into a field or a pen and by poking the can into a cow or horse, evaluate the animal at once.

Blacksmith shops flourished where gaily colored cars now stop to fill up with gas. One was as far west as the Fred O’Laughlin property on Michigan Street. George Casaday’s great grandfather, George Miller was in partnership with Charles Buhland in this location.

In those days every blacksmith had a wood worker in his establishment as wagons, hayracks and bob sleds were made by hand. On the Joe Massey property, at the southeast corner of Michigan Street and Timothy Road, Isaac Wilder and Elisha Stevens prosperous smithy. The man who shod horses had to be an expert at handling animals.

Isaac Vail, son of Charles and Olive Vail, was 18 years old at the time of the Civil War. His parents, being Quakers, did not believe in war. So they sent their son to Otterville, Canada, where he stayed until he was 21. Here he learned the trade of building wagons. Upon his return

from Canada, he went immediately to LaPorte and enlisted.

At the close of the war, he worked at Studebakers, later going to partnership with Lewis Casaday. "Ike", as he was commonly known, made wagons and Lewis Casaday was the blacksmith. Their shop was on the southeast corner of Arch and Michigan Streets.

Mr. Casaday later invented the South Bend chilled plow that made him a multimillionaire. Over the years Frank Bleasdale, Sr., John Ordung, Charles Baer and James Perry served the community as blacksmiths. In 1955, Mr. Perry sold his business to William Martensen, who named it New Carlisle Iron Company. The village blacksmith is only a tradition today.

INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN

On June 7, 1866, Samuel C. Lancaster and thirty-one others, filed with the board of county commissioners, a petition for the incorporation of the town, and the board fixed June 30, 1866, for an election to determine the question. On September 4, 1866, the report of the election was

filed with the county board, and it showed forty-four votes for incorporation and six against it. There upon the board entered an order incorporating the town, under the name of New Carlisle.

Officers of the original town board were, Treasurer, Clerk, Marshall and Assessor. The first trustees received $1.50 for service actually performed on streets, sidewalks and alleys. In 1871, Mr. F. D. Warner was Town Clerk. The original town limits were bounded by Front street, Timothy road, Chestnut street and Cherry street.

ORIGINAL WARDS OF THE TOWN

The five wards of the town were established December 19, 1866. First ward was all that part of New Carlisle lying west of Race street to Arch street and north of chestnut street to the

boundary line. The second ward lay between Arch street and Filbert street and north to Chestnut street to the boundary.

The third ward was between Filbert street and Cherry street and north of Chestnut street to the boundary line. The part of town lying between Cherry and Bray street and north of Chestnut street to the boundary line, constituted the fourth ward. The fifth was all that part of town lying west of Bray street and north of Chestnut to the boundary. Each of the wards extended to the center of the streets.

THE MAIN STREET

In the Spring and the Fall, the main street of New Carlisle was a mud hole. Horses sunk deep in the mire. The horse manure lay in piles along the road and the flies were thick. Saturday was farmers day. The rutted street was crowed with rigs of all sorts. Buggies, lumber wagons and carts were fastened to the hitching posts, where horses stamped and switched at the flies. No one was in a hurry. On the sidewalks, groups talked endlessly, sometimes even in the street leaning against the wagon wheel.

The Indians came to town, too, with big earrings thrust through their tawny ears, selling baskets and a few trinkets. By the town ordinance No. 10, property owners were informed that by June 1^st, 1868, plank sidewalks were to be built not less than 4 ft. wide, of good, new lumber, not less that 1-1/2" thick, and more than 8 inches wide to be laid crosswise, or not less than 4x4 inches. The inside line of the walk to be laid 2 feet from the line of the lot.

The walk commenced at the northeast corner of Michigan and Arch streets and ran west to the west line of Incorporation, and commencing at the southwest corner of Michigan street and the northeast corner of lot No. 1 and ran west to the east line of the College grounds. After the sidewalks were laid, an ordinance (No. 11) was passed, stating that any horse, mule, sheep or hog found running at large in any of the streets or alleys would be impounded in the public pound.

The Marshall was paid 50 cents for each animal for the trouble and expense of advertising. If the animal was a hog or a sheep, the charge was 20 cents per day for feed. For an ox or cow, it was 50 cents per day. Any person other than the Marshall was entitled to receive 10 cents for the animal taken up.

The first brick or concrete walks were built in 1877, and in 1908, a brick pavement was laid by hand from Arch street to Meridian street. It was not until 1929, that the hitching posts had to be removed. Who planted the beautiful maple trees on either side of the main street is unknown to present day residents, but the trees came from Newton Miller’s woods, south of town, in 1877.

As the town grew, many business firms took shape. For the most, they were substantial citizens and left their mark on the thriving young community. While some of the buildings still stand, others have been destroyed by fire or have been replaced by more modern structures.

Frank Tappan, a brick mason who reached the age of one-hundred years, built all of the older brick buildings in New Carlisle. He had lived in the town more than seventy years, when he passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Maggie Elliot in April, 1953. The first store, aside from the trading post of Lazarus Bourissa, was supposed to have been owned by a Frenchman by the name of John Phelan.

George Matthews opened up the second place of business and when he left New Carlisle to become County Auditor, he sold it to Chauncey and Lyman Blair of Michigan City. They placed

it under the management of a Brother-in-law, Edward Crosby. The store remained here until 1849.

The Hotel was built in 1838, by Cole Kramer. When it was completed, he sold it to Captain Richard Cramner of New Jersey. It was a large building extending from the southwest corner of Arch street to the ally next to the library. It housed a fine dining room, saloon, barber shop and a gambling room without windows. The grocery stores stayed open until midnight, so the men could shop after the saloons closed.

All travel from Chicago to Detroit was by stage coach and the hotel or (tavern as it was called) was a regular station. There was a livery barn where Clapps store stands and the horses were unhitched in front of the tavern, the coach standing, while the passengers and the drivers ate. The reason the main street is wider at that point was so the huge stage coaches, sometimes drawn by four to six horses, could turn around.

Richard Cramner, operated the tavern for several years and then deciding to be a farmer, he sold the place to Joseph Ivans, another New Jersey man. Joseph Ivans was a jovial, good humored man, tough and witty. His wife, Aunt Sally, as everyone called her, was an excellent cook. The fame at the tavern at New Carlisle spread far and wide. No one was ever turned away. If storms or break downs filled the house to capacity, Joe and Aunt Sally bedded them down on the floor and even though they paid the price of a bed, they left satisfied.

One day in 1842, a stage coach left Chicago in the morning in the care of a special messenger with a shipment of four boxes containing $20.000 in silver dollars aboard. They were destined for payment of troops at Detroit, Michigan. They arrived at New Carlisle shortly before supper. Contrary to the usual custom of unhitching the horses and leaving the coach in front of the hotel, this night, the coach was also taken to the barn. The theft of the money was almost immediately discovered and the towns people were shocked and angry to have their houses, barns and even their wells and cisterns carefully searched.

No trace of the money was ever found, however. Joseph and Charles Ivans, father and son, were both ordered to appear before a Federal Judge in Detroit, as witnesses. But the mystery was never solved. After the completion of the Michigan Central Railroad from Detroit to Michigan City, the stage coaches made less frequent trips and the hotel business was no longer so profitable. Nevertheless, it continued to operate under different owners until it burned in 1913.

Frank Hunt opened a dry goods store in 1839, but the next year he moved to Valparaiso,

Indiana. Soon after, John Mabey of New York State came and occupied the vacant rooms. After his death, his widow attempted to run the business, but having no business education, she was forced to take a partner, Theodore Borden. Jeremiah Service bought Mrs. Mabey’s share and the store was known as Service and Borden.

Firms engaged in the dry goods trade, previous to the Civil War, were Joseph Druliner, Jon

and Gabriel Druliner, Service and Son, Trowbridge and Service and Denio and Service. Thomas J. Garoutte bought Mr. Service’s interest in the firm of Trowbridge and Service and later acquired Mr. Trowbridge’s interest.

Dr. Josephus Davis’ dry goods store was in the Davis building, two doors left of the New Carlisle Lumber and Coal Company. He was not only a medical doctor but a dentist as well. Above his dry goods store, he maintained his doctor’s office.

When Grover Cleveland was president, the doctor’s son John became the postmaster. Dr. Davis built a one story addition, twenty feet long in the back of his building and the post office was moved there. Mrs. Davis was a very kind-hearted woman and whenever she heard of one of her husband’s patients that was in need, she would go quietly down to his store and help herself to any merchandise that would serve her purpose. Her philanthropies became too great for the good doctor that he finally gave up in despair and disposed of the store.

John Hay, a Civil War veteran, ran a men’s clothing store in a building that stood next door west of the Public Library. Major Walker built the brick building as it now stands. The only clothing store in the town today is owned by Mrs. John Hauser and son James.

The townspeople have always been particularly dressed. Situated so near Chicago, South Bend and LaPorte, they have never been "countrified", but always followed the fashions of the larger cities. Other dry good stores, too numerous to mention, came and went including Davison and Porter from LaPorte, Ed Danielson and Charles Phillips.

Millinery stores did a thriving business selling hand made hats. Eva Hooten (later Mrs. Henry Wethered) ran the Ladies Bazaar. Along with her hats, she carried a stock of corsets, zephyrs, and did dress making too. Later, Mrs. Sue Sutherland, Mrs. Wallace and Mrs. Charles Ashcraft ran millinery shops. A lady in those days was not properly dressed for the street without a hat and gloves.

The first record of a "beauty parlor" was in 1885. Mrs. J. Hefty, the proprietor, advertised that any lady wishing switches or any other kind of hair work done, should call and look over her fine assortment of goods. Pearl Fowler was the first beauty operator who dared venture to give the permanent wave in New Carlisle. Taking about six hours and twenty-five dollars, it was considered well worth it. Violet Hausenecht was in business on the corner of Front and Filbert

streets, Rachel O’Laughlin had a shop over McMullin’s store and Phyllis Hensel maintained a shop for several years.

The town now boasts of four modern beauticians and a weekly appointment is a "must"in the

busy schedule today. The Mirror Beauty Salon, owned by Martha Boutin and the Laurey Shop, owned by Loretta Laurey, are located on Michigan street. The Emma Louise Beauty Shop, and Lucien’s on Front street are owned respectfully by Mrs. Paul Bates and Mrs. James Clark.

The first harness shop was started by Hiram Barrett in 1856. Unfortunately he was related to a family named Akins. Robert Akins was arrested for counterfeiting and the disgrace proved too much for Mr. Barrett, so he closed the shop and returned to his native state, Ohio.

Sam Lancaster, in partner-ship with William Wair, soon opened a new harness shop, but in a few years, Lancaster bought out the interest of his partner and continued for many years. He built the house on the northeast corner of Michigan and Bray streets, and became one of the most influential men in the building of this fine community.

Myra, his wife, was a very beautiful and gracious lady. They adopted two children, Inez and Rolla. Inez married Charles White and passed away at an early age. Mr. Lancaster was elected Justice of the Peace in 1861, and held the office continuously for more than 25 years. Finally he sold his business of harness making to Charles Carney. When "Charlie" Carney passed away, the old trade died with him in New Carlisle.

A cabinet and furniture store was opened by Mowry and Herpolsheimer in 1856, when furniture was nearly hand made. It was a custom in those days to have along with such an establishment, the undertaking business, as it was then called. Coffins were hand made of wood, generally walnut, and so in this first shop, Charles Herpolsheimer gave his attention to furniture and Mr. Mowry managed the undertaking department.

The next undertaker was James S. Parnell, followed by Louis Argerbrite, Henery Wethered, Cutler and Son, Robert Cutler, and Robert Doyle. At present, Homer Amen and Son, Robert, maintain a funeral home on the southwest corner of Chestnut and Filbert streets. On the northeast corner of Michigan and Arch streets, stood a small frame building owned by Jacob B. Warner. At first he ran a grocery, boot and shoe store, but in 1853, he established the first drug store.

Dr. Tense Massey opened a drug store in 1867 in the Peters building and was in business for over twenty years. In the meantime, the building owned by Mr. Warner was moved to the

northwest corner of Michigan and Arch street and enlarged to make room for the post office. His son, Francis D. Warner bought it and in 1874, it was replaced by a two story brick building. The west room was T.J. Garoutte’s dry goods store and the east room was used for a drug store.

The Warner Drug Store was sold to Lory J. and Daisy Stinchcomb Graffort who later sold it to Kellogg Drug Company from Knox, Indiana. In June, 1949, Glen and Winnie Watson of LaCrosse, Indiana purchased the building and the business. They remodeled the west side and opened a gift shop there.

William VanAiken opened the first store that dealt exclusively in groceries in 1859. It was a risky step in the days of the general store. In 1862, he sold his store and home to E.C. Taylor who continued this business until his death.

Edward Harris was very successful in this line, having an enviable reputation for honesty and fairness. He was in business for 60 years. Daniel White and Stephen Tappan entered the grocery

business in 1878. After a few years, Dan White took over. He was in business 35 years.

Every store had a pot-bellied stove and a box full of ashes or sand for the convenience of the tobacco chewing customers. Politics and other topics of the day were discussed and settled as the men sat and waited for their women folks to finish shopping.

Huge barrels of crackers, pickles and brown sugar stood open. The children would hand the clerk a penny and they were free to put their hands in the barrel of brine and extract the pickle of their choice. The stores stayed open in the evening, dimly lighted by kerosene lamps.

There have been other grocery stores including the Curry Brothers, James and Michael, Charles Hauser and his son John, Rue Green, Howard and Lissa Brockway, Lute Bruch, Jake Miller and George Green. Today there are four grocers in New Carlisle; W.C. Taylor, Clyde Clapp, Chester Jones, and James Horvath.

In the early 1900's, Mr. Elra Rapp built the building where the Home Café is located. He opened a general store and did a flourishing business for many years. Ellen and Frank Bleasdale followed Mr. Rapp in the same line of business until Mr. Voorheis opened a restaurant on the site. It has continued as a restaurant with Seymore and Nina Fradenburgh, Orville Swartz and the present owner, Bernard Streeter.

Mr. and Mrs. Earl McMullin and their children, Robert and Jane, moved to New Carlisle from South Bend, November 1, 1938, and opened a department store. At the death of Mr. McMullin in 1949, Robert, the son, became a partner in the business.

Around 1861, a small hardware and implement store, stood on Main street. The basement had a dirt floor and the first floor was divided through the center, with farm implements on the west side and hardware items on the east side.

Some years later the manager, a man by the name of Thompson, was on the verge of bank-ruptcy. He contacted Mark Brummitt, who in partnership with his father, William, bought the business. In the course of a few years, the old original building was moved back to the alley and a new addition was built on the front. It was known as the Brummitt Mercantile Company.

Pete Hoffman was the tinner, At the then exorbitant salary of $12.00 a week, for a ten hour, six day week, he put in his time in the long cold winter months, building tea kettles and wash boilers by hand, to be sold in the spring trade. He also invented an ingenious device he called a fly trap. They were placed along the side walks and were a great help in those days of poor sanitation, when most of the food in stores were sold from open boxes or barrels.

About 1890, William Brummitt retired and Arthur Brummitt went into the business with his brother Mark. The store was then called The Bummitt Hardware Company. There was a private bank in New Carlisle known as the Service and Son Bank. This with the dry goods store and

shoe store was housed in a frame building on the site of the First National Bank. But they had no real banking facilities.

The Brummitt Hardware Company carried an open account in Chicago and paid bills thru draft on a Chicago bank. D.S. Scoffern ran the grain elevator. One day he came up and made a deposit with the Hardware. Thomas C. Wright, who ran a saw mill, followed suit and many others, until the Hardware had to open up a set of books.

The ceiling in the Hardware Store was made of corrugated iron. Arthur Brummitt, Sr. and his wife lived in an apartment over the store. Although they locked the money in a huge safe, there was always the possibility of a robbery. So Mr. Brummitt had a hole cut through the ceiling of the store and the floor of the apartment directly over the safe. The hole in the ceiling of the store was covered with a screen, so it was not noticeable from down stairs.

A trap door was built into the floor in the apartment and lined with felt. In this opening, lay a double barreled shotgun, loaded with buckshot. Although no one attempted to rob the bank, the money was safe-guarded at all times. In 1898, the Service Bank burned to the ground and in 1900, the banking facilities were moved out of the Hardware.

January 7, 1912, Ella and Fred Zeck purchased the business from Mark Brummitt and continued to carry on with integrity and honest dealings, until April 11, 1924, when W.M. Hass and Associates bought them out.

William M. Hass, "Bill", as he was affectionately known, was a cool headed and pleasant man, a rugged individualist, with the courage to undertake any project he believed in. He brought out his words in a terse, strait fashion, that gave you confidence in the man at once. Although he never lived in New Carlisle, his influence in the community was felt from the beginning of his investments here.

Mr. Hass put his brother-in-law, Joseph Ekstrom, in charge of the store and lumber yard. Ward Smith went to work for the Company and had been with them 36 years. The Ekstrom’s

were a fine family. Prominent in church work and civic activities, they soon became an integral part of the community. Ill caused Mr. Ekstrom to resign and Lon Moore became manager. He was in charge five years and during this time the first New Carlisle Lumber Company Addition speculative houses was built on U.S. 20, east of New Carlisle.

Carl Ekstrom, one of Joseph Ekstrom’s sons, established his own business in 1946, a furniture and appliance store located on Michigan street. They lived in the old Lindahl home on Chestnut street. Ann-Nita Ekstrom, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Ekstrom won numerous Baton Twirling Championships. At the age of 15, she became Senior National Champion and was named to the 1955 Hall of Fame for Twirlers.

Edwin A. Penick was transferred to New Carlisle on July 13, 1950, from the Walkerton Lumber Company, a Hass owned organization. He was a gentle voiced, courteous man. A native Steuben County, he came from a long line of sturdy Hoosiers. Under his direction, the Vogler

Addition and Sunny-crest were opened, streets laid out, trees planted and new modern homes were built.

In February, 1951, Lon Moore, with George Hancz, organized the H and M. Construction Company. After building five scattered houses, they developed a Livelsberger Addition in the west end of town. They built more than 75 houses. Other hardware stores were in business for a while in New Carlisle. Among them; Egbert and Compton, The Burden Brothers and the Lindahl Hardware, but their business was gradually absorbed into the one store and lumber yard.

Charles Bates also had a small hardware store for a few years on Michigan street. He held a unique position in the community. He served on Jury duties nineteen times. He did not believe in capital punishment and in no instance would he waiver from his convictions. He was a staunch Democrat and served nine years as Postmaster under Woodrow Wilson. He was the father of Ben, Elves and Paul Bates and Ruth (Bates) Hauser.

FLOUR MILLS

Not the least of the hardships of the pioneers was the procuring of bread. Soon after New Carlisle became generally settled, enterprising men were ready to embark in the milling business. The first flour mill was that of Joseph Druliner, who later sold it to Thomas Sancomb. The mills capacity was limited to ten or twenty barrels per day.

Milling was profitable at that time, so Morton and Brown erected a three story mill just north of the pumping station, on Michigan street. This mill was equipped with machinery to grind and blend winter and spring wheat, and had a capacity of fifty to sixty barrels a day.

This mill was sold to James Reddington and son, Ora. It burned, and Reddington built a mill on south Arch street. Later he sold this mill to O.H.Massey, who in 1933 sold out to Carl and Alma Zahl, after operating the forty barrel flour mill for 26 years. In 1938, the flour business slowed down on account of bread delivery to farms and the feed business started to replace some of the flour sales.

In 1944, the flour mill was dismantled and the feed mill took it’s place. On account of a short age of feed grain storage, the Farmers Grain Company was purchased from Ida Wenger and from 1944 to 1949 this was used to ship farmers grain such as wheat, beans and oats. The corn and grain yields per acre increased considerably do to scientific farming taught in G. I. classes every year after the World War #2.

In 1949, it was necessary to build a larger 20,000 bushel capacity elevator in addition to the old elevator of 10,000 bushel capacity, with a grain dryer to take care of the ever growing corn yields. In 1952, the feed mill on Arch street was discontinued and replaced by a modern feed mill, 50 feet east of the new elevator, operated separately in order to use the elevator for shipping purposes only, which amounts from two to three hundred box cars per year. The old cooper

shop was purchased in 1953, to be used for feed and fertilizer storage. This business now employs five men besides Mr. and Mrs. Zahl.

The original elevator was in the top of the old depot. It had a trestle narrow gauge track built on the back. A farmer would dump his grain in a little car, tie a rope on it and hitch his team on. The car holding about 20 bushels would then be carried up to the grain bin. This provided inadequate as more land came under cultivation and a new elevator was built by Pears East Grain Company of Buchanan, Michigan. Dick Scoffern and later Wm. (Boots) Reinhart managed it.

When Mark Brummitt left the Hardware store, a stock company was formed known as the Farmer’s Grain, with Mr. Brummitt as the first manager. Eventually Clyde Bean bought it. William Miller and the misses Ida and Belle Wenger ran it for many years until finally it passed into the hands of the present owners, Carl and Alma Zahl.

One of the chief attractions in New Carlisle was the livery barn. Until the day of the automobile, it was one of the most important businesses. Nearly every home had it’s own barn, but some townspeople kept their horses in the livery stable. Horses and buggies were for hire at any time, day or night. On Sunday it was the custom to hire a livery rig for a drive through the country. The carriages were all different. On some of the finer ones it was not unusual to have a bit of scenery or fine striping painted on the body. In the winter, cutters and sleighs replaced the carriages. When farmers came to town in winter, the team was often put in the livery barn. The children who drove a horse and buggy to school put the horse in the livery barn for five cents a day if they brought their own feed.

Among the old timers who ran livery stables were Ol Hullett, Milt Stinchcomb, Ed White and Sam Lauver. The barns were located on the south of E. Michigan street. Two of the buildings still stand, owned by Leon Kelley, farm implement dealer.

After the advent of the automobile, the livery barns were replaced by garages. Ray Evans was the first to venture in this precarious business. There were so few cars that people fortunate enough to own were quite willing to pay for keeping their car in a heated building. Anti-freeze

was unknown so the radiator had to be drained each night during cold weather.

In later years, Andrew Gould, Frank Fisher and Orville Smith were in business. At present John Barnhart runs a Ford Agency and Ernest Meyers the Chevrolet Agency.