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1834–1880 · the great Terre Coupee estates
Terre Coupee Prairie made three fortunes, and Chapman ranks them. John Reynolds, of the prairie, was "said to be the richest man in St. Joseph county"; with his brother James Reynolds, and with Henry H. Clark and H. B. Ranstead, he stands in the chapter's wealth list. The land leg's file carries the acreage: Reynolds, Clark and Ranstead together held 7,433 acres on Terre Coupee. Clark (born 1816 in Warren County, Ohio; came to the county in 1834) held 1,500 acres alone, dealt in lands, served as township supervisor, and was elected Justice of the Peace — "and refused to serve," the law's loss being the prairie's gain. He could speak the Indians' language, and Chapman prints his story of facing down a knife-armed man with the man's own gun; it is a story, and it prints here as Chapman's telling at sketch strength, no more. Henry B. Ranstead (born 1829 in Indiana; brought to the county in 1834) held 1,000 acres, 700 of it good farming land, and was a Freemason. His grandfather James Ranstead (1767–1837), a soldier under Washington, lies at Hamilton under a stone the DAR chapter itself marked; his course stands in the war leg's file.
Sources
- Chapman (1880), Olive Township chapter, p. 766 (the wealth list) and the sketches of Henry H. Clark and Henry B. Ranstead, pp. 775, 783.
- DAR cemetery inscriptions, Hamilton: James Ranstead (1767–1837), "soldier under Washington," grave marked by the Schuyler Colfax Chapter, D.A.R.