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Wealth
No wealth file existed for this town: its fortunes stood where they were dug, in People, Businesses and Banks, unassigned and unruled. This addendum runs the leg. Its discipline is stated first, as the checklist demands, and every article under it obeys the rule or says why it cannot.
The published-figure rule, stated at the head
THE LEG'S STANDING RULE · APPLIES TO EVERY ARTICLE BELOW
Every figure in this section is a figure somebody published. An estate valuation in a probate notice, a capitalization in a directory, a price in a sale report, an amount in a foundation's filing, an acreage in a county history's sketch — each figure below carries its publisher with it. Where no figure was ever published for a fortune, this section says so rather than guessing: an unsized fortune is printed as unsized, and a "said to be" is printed as a saying. The rule is this section's whole defense against the two diseases of wealth history — the inflated ancestor and the precise invention — and it governs the treaty totals, the sector sizings, the philanthropy measures and the richest-man test that follow.
Sources:
The treaty-era fortune: the grants totalled, the cash stated at its record
1826–1835 · THE TREATY SCHEDULE AND CHAPMAN AT THE PAGE
The first fortune on this ground was paid in land, and the land can be totalled exactly. The Treaty of 16 October 1826 (7 Stat. 299) granted quarter-sections to the Carey Mission's scholars, and the people file counts fifty-eight…
The era structure: five parts, every fortune assigned
1826–2026 · THE LEG'S MAP
The leg's fortunes fall into five eras, and each fortune on this ground is assigned to its own. Trading and land (1826–1880): the treaty grants (the article above) and the prairie holders — Reynolds, Clark and Ranstead, 7,433…
The industrial fortunes, by sector
1834–1916 · EACH SIZED FROM A PUBLISHED SOURCE, OR PRINTED UNSIZED
Sector by sector, at the published-figure rule: land first, because on this ground land was the industry. Land and grain. The prairie holders, from Chapman's page 766, verbatim in its list: "John Reynolds, said to be the richest…
The richest-man test, run explicitly: "said to be the richest man in St. Joseph county"
1880 · THE CLAIM QUOTED TO ITS SOURCE AND TESTED
The claim is quoted to its contemporary source first: Chapman, 1880, page 766 — "John Reynolds, said to be the richest man in St. Joseph county." The test the floor discipline demands has three parts. The source: the claim is not…
The philanthropy turn, measured: where the pools became institutions
1859–1978 · THE DEEDS GATHERED AS A TURN
This ground's philanthropy turn is not a foundation era — it is a sequence of deeds by which private money became public institutions, and the deeds can be dated. 1859: J. H. Service gives $500 to start the Methodist college …
The Great Houses
1860–2026 · ONE HOUSE WHOLE, THE REST AT THEIR RECORD
A wealth record closes with houses, and this ground's close is one house whole and the rest at sketch strength. The Service House — this section's whole entry: built 1860–61, Italianate, the grain-and-banking family's seat…