The first servants: five trustees and a clerk of the election

1835 – 1899

The election of 1835: Mishawaka's public service begins with a return of election. When the qualified electors of the village of St. Joseph Iron Works met at the house of Orlando Hurd on Saturday, 31 January 1835, to choose the five trustees of the county's first village incorporation, Elias Smith was called to the chair and John J. Deming was appointed clerk of the election; Deming's hand signs the return, dated 3 April 1835, that Howard prints whole. The five chosen were James White, Alexander Sandilands, John J. Deming, Samuel Stancliff and Henry De Camp — the first public servants of the place, Deming doubling as the electorate's choice and its recording clerk. Chapman's county history of 1880 gives the same five names (its spellings Sandilands as "Sanderlands" and Stancliff as "Stancliif" are the older book's type, not different men) but dates the election 1 January 1835 where Howard prints the return itself for 31 January; the document governs, and the variance is printed because both books are this build's sources.

The town's long middle: Between those trustees and the city charter of 1899 the town was served by a succession of town boards, marshals and clerks whose names the sources read for this section do not carry year by year. The last town board is named, because it closed the town's account: the trustees who, in Howard's words, "superintended the transfer of Mishawaka from a town to a city government" were John C. Protsman, Charles E. Drapier, John J. Schindler, John W. Zigler and Peter W. Ipes. The sixty-four years of town officers before them stand as this section's first named gap: the settling records are the town's own minute books and the Mishawaka City Council Records, 1845–1977, at the Hesburgh Libraries, which the Fire & Safety section's gaps already name for the marshal's line.

Sources:

1. Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907), vol. 1, the City of Mishawaka chapter — the commissioners' orders of 1 September 1834 and 5 January 1835, the election return of 31 January 1835 with Deming as clerk and the five trustees named, and the last town board named at the transfer of 1899.
2. C. C. Chapman & Co., History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1880), Mishawaka chapter — the same five trustees, the election dated 1 January 1835.