Town to city: the charter of 1899

1871 — MAY 8, 1899

Twice refused, the third time carried: Mishawaka governed itself as a town, under trustees, for sixty-four years, and its people were in no hurry to change. The question of a city charter was put and voted down in 1871, and put again and voted down in 1896. In February 1899 it was put a third time, and this time it carried, 702 to 336 — "the third time proved the charm," the Mishawaka Enterprise said. The charter gave the city a ten-member council, two from each of five wards, and an elected mayor, clerk, treasurer and marshal. The first mayoral election followed on May 2, 1899: Manuel Fisher, Republican, beat E. Volney Bingham, Democrat, 656 to 612. On May 8, 1899, the town board met for the last time and ceased to exist, and Fisher was sworn in as the first mayor of the City of Mishawaka. Fisher served until September 1902; Melville Mix won the election of that year and succeeded him. The city the charter made was still small — 5,560 people at the census of 1900 — but its form was set for the century: an elected mayor and council governing a factory town whose limits, as the annexation entry below tells, were about to be redrawn far beyond the four plats.

Sources:

1. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History — the defeated charter votes of 1871 and 1896, the February 1899 vote (702–336) and the Mishawaka Enterprise line, the charter's form, the election of May 2, 1899 (Fisher 656, Bingham 612), the town board's last meeting (May 8, 1899) and Fisher's and Mix's succession.