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From unorganized ground to Harris Township — the orders of 1832, 1835, 1836, 1840 and 1842 — and the handoff
The county: The civil frame closed over the ground in the same spring as the entries. St. Joseph County was created by the act of 29 January 1830 — its boundaries described from Range 2 West of the Second Principal Meridian east to where Range 3 East intersects the state line, and thirty miles south — took organized existence from 1 April 1830, and was organized on 27 August 1830 at Coquillard's house, the trader's post at the south bend; L. M. Taylor, the S. Hanna clerk of the traders entry, was elected the county's first clerk — and first clerk-and-recorder — on 18 October 1830. The ground's first civil skin was the original township scheme: by the county board's order of 6 May 1832 the original townships were Penn, Portage and Olive — Portage embracing range two east, Olive all west of it, and Penn all east of that range: the whole of this section's ground, Harris and Clay-side alike, began its civil life as Penn Township.
Washington, expunged; Harris, formed: The first attempt to cut this corner out of Penn failed on the record. By order of 4 May 1835 the board formed Washington Township in this corner of the county — elections to be held at the house of Jonathan Hartsell — but, Howard records, "It does not appear… that any election took place in Washington township; and the order for the formation of the township was itself expunged from the record of the board, for the reason, no doubt, that the action taken was not favored by a majority of the people affected." A few months later the board acted again, and Howard's Harris section gives the instrument whole: "on January 5, 1836, the township of Harris was formed in the same locality, but embracing less territory" — omitting the south tier of sections proposed for Washington — "The boundaries of Harris township, as formed by the last mentioned order were as follows: Commencing at the northwest corner of section eight, township thirty-eight, range three east; thence south to the southwest corner of section twenty-nine, same township and range; thence east to the county line; thence north to the state line; thence west to the place of beginning." Chapman dates the organization to the same year, 1836, and his county area table gives the township 13,329 acres of the county's 285,831.
The Clay detachments, and the present bounds: The township's west side went to make Clay. "By an order made May 5, 1840, the county board, in forming Clay township, detached a section and a half in width, east and west, off the west side of Harris and attached the same to Clay. On December 7, 1842, another half section in width, east and west, was detached from Harris and added to Clay. By these two orders Harris was reduced to its present dimensions, to-wit: Beginning on the north boundary of the state, at the northwest corner of fractional section ten, township thirty-eight north, range three east; thence south to the southwest corner of section twenty-seven, same township and range; thence east to the line dividing St. Joseph and Elkhart counties; thence north to the north boundary of the state; thence west to the beginning." The two detached strips are the western ground of today's Granger frame — settled, as the entries entry shows, as Harris ground by Harris families, and civilly Clay since 1840 and 1842. Harris Township, so reduced, stands at 21.12 square miles in the modern record, next to the smallest of the county's thirteen townships in Howard's day, "having but a section of land more than Center" — and, in his judgment, making "up in quality for what it lacks in quantity." Its named ground endures in the frame: Harris Prairie, and on Adams Road the Harris Prairie Cemetery, where the township's first generations lie in the prairie they entered in April 1830.
Where this section ends: This section ends where the survey closes and the first spring's entries are made — at the named line where entered land becomes farms and a designated place, two centuries on, becomes Granger. The ownership chain from Johnston's and Bell's forties forward — tract book to deed book to farm — stands in The Land section. The place itself stands in the Story of Granger section: a post office in operation from 1875, a founding in 1883 on the Grand Trunk railroad's line through Penn and Harris townships — Howard watched the "thriving, though as yet quite small town, the town of Granger" from 1907 — and a name that Howard records for the Grangers' fraternal organization. What came before all of it is in this section: a fence run in 1827 across another nation's country; a prairie held as an upcountry by a people whose chiefs' towns stood at the line; a treaty signed at a Baptist mission that took the ground in a morning's articles; one band that an article, a faith and 874 acres in fee let stay; columns that marched the rest away in 1838 and 1840–43; and, on the first day the land could be bought, two forty-acre entries in Section 11 — the first in the county — made by the prairie's own people. The ground was Granger's before Granger was.
Sources: The county creation and organization record — the act of 29 January 1830, the organization of 27 August 1830 at Coquillard's house, Taylor's election of 18 October 1830 — as carried in the Mishawaka history; Howard (1907), Chapter V introduction and §§3–4 — the original townships of 6 May 1832, the Washington order of 4 May 1835 and its expunging, the Harris formation of 5 January 1836 with its bounds, the Clay detachments of 5 May 1840 and 7 December 1842 with the present bounds, and the size judgment — read first-hand for this section; Chapman (1880) — the organization year and the township acreage table; Howard (1907) — the town of Granger on the Grand Trunk and the name from the Grangers' organization (p. 311), as carried in the place record, with the post office date from the Jim Forte postal history record — the Story of Granger section's opening beats, printed here as pointers only.