The water-power ground: dam, races, and the reserved tract

1835 — 1881 AND AFTER

The town's second title system was written in water: The St. Joseph Iron Works' charter — the act approved 22 January 1835 constituting Hurd, John J. Deming, John H. Orr and their associates "the president, directors and company of the St. Joseph Iron Works, for the purpose of manufacturing iron" (Local Acts 1834, page 79) — provided by its sixth section "that the said corporation shall be and they are hereby authorized to erect a dam across the river St. Joseph, at the head of the Mishawaka rapids." The dam right was thus a legislative grant, part of the same paper that created the company, and the races that carried the water to the wheels were dug on both banks; by 1880 Chapman could measure them: "The race on the south side is about 400 yards in length, and the one on the north side over 200 yards," the fall over the dam eight feet against a natural fall at the rapids, "ascertained by actual measurement," of two feet and nine inches — the figure Howard also carries. The mill seats along the races were the industrial lots of the water-power town; the firms that filled them are Businesses' record, and the ground's title course is what is carried here.

When the dam was built, the record gives three accounts, and they are printed together because no one of them cancels the others. Chapman and Howard agree that the St. Joseph Iron Company built it in 1835 — Howard: "The dam thus authorized was built by the iron company in 1835. It was the first dam across the St. Joseph river and is still in good condition." The 1875 atlas tells a rougher story: in 1835 "Zenas Dunbar built, or attempted to build, a dam and lock across the St. Joseph. It was finished by Mr. Orr, and cost the round sum of $38,000" — a dam and lock, a navigation work as well as a power work, finished by John H. Orr of the company. And the state's marker at the site (Indiana Historical Bureau 71.1968.1) dates the finished work two years later: "The original dam, providing power for which Mishawaka was noted, was completed in 1837. It was 577 feet long, 24 feet thick and cost $38,000.00." The $38,000 is common to the atlas and the marker; the two-year difference between a building in 1835 and a completion in 1837 is the kind a work of that size, begun under an 1835 charter and finished across two building seasons, can honestly carry — but the record does not say that, and this history does not say it for the record: authorized 1835, built 1835 on two county histories, completed 1837 on the state's marker, at a cost both traditions put at $38,000.

The north bank's water power exists only on paper, and its paper had the strangest afterlife of any parcel in the city. Indiana City's plat of 1836 shows, between Joseph Street and the river, a vacant tract marked "Reserved for water power," and a mill race drawn from the rapids along the north side of the river down to the island. "The mill race, however, was never dug along the plat of Indiana City, and consequently the vacant tract was never used 'for water power'" (Howard). What happened to the tract instead is a title course in three instruments: in 1852 Joseph Battell "bought out the remaining interest from the Lawrences and became the sole owner" of the land (the National Register nomination's account, as digested in the Clio entry for the park); the ground was kept as a private park, Riverside Park, through Battell's life — he died in 1874 — and in 1881 members of the Battell family, Robbins and Anna Battell among them, deeded it to the city. The Indiana Historical Bureau's marker for the ground states the result: "Mishawaka's oldest park, circa 1860s; given to city (1881) by members of Battell family." Battell Park, eleven acres on the river bluff where the race was to have run, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on 11 January 1996. The power ground's own paper was meanwhile consolidated: on 28 June 1867 the manufacturers using the water organized the Mishawaka Hydraulic Company, its articles stating its objects "to keep up the dam, water power, races, banks and other matters connected with the power, and to sell and dispose of water power to other manufacturers," with a subscribed capital of $50,000 and an incorporators' list that runs from George Milburn and the Kuhns to the St. Joseph Iron Company itself, by Henry G. Niles, trustee (Howard). The historian of the town on the eve of the Civil War worked from that company's records; the dam, the races and the power rights had become, by then, a body of paper of their own.

Sources:

1. Timothy Edward Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Vol. 1 (1907), Chapter X — the charter act of 22 January 1835 (Local Acts 1834, p. 79) and its sixth section's dam authorization; the dam built by the company in 1835; the Indiana City reserved tract and undug race; the Mishawaka Hydraulic Company organized 28 June 1867, its objects, capital and incorporators.
2. Chas. C. Chapman & Co., History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1880), Penn Township — the dam built by the St. Joseph Iron Company in 1835; the races measured (south about 400 yards, north over 200); the falls measured.
3. An Illustrated Historical Atlas of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1875), History of Mishawaka — Dunbar's dam and lock of 1835, finished by Orr, $38,000.
4. Indiana Historical Bureau, markers 71.1968.1 (First Dam Across the St. Joseph River / Power Race — completed 1837, 577 feet, 24 feet thick, $38,000) and 71.1997.2 (Battell Park — oldest park, circa 1860s, given to the city 1881 by members of the Battell family).
5. National Register of Historic Places, Battell Park Historic District (NRIS 95001541, listed 11 January 1996) — the district record; the nomination's account of Battell's 1852 purchase of the Lawrences' interest and the family's 1881 deed as digested in the Clio entry for Battell Park (Kaitlin Mann, 2020).
6. Ward Baker, "Mishawaka on the Eve of Conflict," Indiana Magazine of History — the Mishawaka Hydraulic Company's records behind the account (see the Story of Mishawaka section).