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10 August 1811 – 19 February 1876
The founding document: Howard (vol. 1, pp. 309–310) quotes the recorded plat itself: "This is a plat of the town of Osceola, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, laid out on the west part of the southwest part of section nine, in township number thirty-seven north, range four east. The lots are each sixty-six feet front, and one hundred and thirty-two feet back, except those which are fractional…" Signed: "JOHN A. HENRICKS. November 17, 1837." The plat's beginning corner is the corner on the river between sections 8 and 9; its main street enters from the west as "Vistula street" and leaves east as the "Road to Toledo"; and Howard's reading of it shows a triple system of mill races joining the river to Babaugo Creek, with a small island in the river. The name, Howard says, the town took from the Seminole chief: "The town received its musical name from Osceola, the famous Seminole chief, who was taken prisoner by General Jessup in October, 1837, a few weeks before the town was platted." [TOWN] agrees in substance — the name was prominent in the news of the day — and doubts, itself, the embroidery that Henricks was a personal friend of General Jessup. The plat did not hold: "This original plat was vacated by act of the legislature approved January 31, 1842" (Local Laws 1841, p. 166), and the town the plat named effectively had to be founded again — on William C. Thrall's addition of 24 April 1856 in section 16, surveyed by Milton W. Stokes, who surveyed a second addition on 4 June 1859 — because the Lake Shore railroad ran through section 16, not section 9. Chapman's Penn chapter makes no plat statement at all: no proprietor, no plat date — a silence the mills article below meets again.
The man: Chapman's county biographical chapter (pp. 502–503) carries him whole, under the heading "JOHN A. HENRICKS": born in Pendleton County, Kentucky, 10 August 1811; farm to sixteen, then medicine at Urbana under Dr. Carter and a Cincinnati medical degree; in 1832 he removed to South Bend and entered practice with Dr. Hardman — "He was the second physician who settled in the place, Dr. Hardman being the first." In 1836 he married Miss Comparet, a half-sister of Mrs. Alexis Coquillard, and left medicine for the dry-goods trade with Coquillard, which failed in three years; a second venture with John Rush failed too; his wife and two children died. He married again (Miss Sanger), traded again, "built a mill," went to California in 1849 with William Miller and others, milled with Miller on his return, took the contract for building the State Prison at Joliet, sold his mill share to Miller in 1863, and was president of the First National Bank of South Bend "for many years" — Howard's banking chapter puts him among the bank's organizers when it opened 30 November 1863 and its president from 1869. He married a third time, in 1854, Miss Julia Appleby, who survived him; served several terms in the legislature, where in his first term he "was the means of having a branch of the State Bank located in South Bend"; and made his last political appearance as the Liberal candidate for Congress. "Dr. Henricks was called to his reward Saturday, Feb. 19, 1876." The critical negative stands in print: Chapman's own biography of Henricks never mentions Osceola or its plat. The founder link rests on Howard's quoted plat record and the town page alone. The spelling stands as the sources split it: the plat signature and both county histories print Henricks; the town page and the modern references print Hendricks. He is Henricks in this section, on the signature's authority.
Sources:
- Howard, vol. 1, pp. 309–310 (the plat, the vacation act, the Thrall and Stokes additions, the name); Chapman, pp. 502–503 (the biography), and Howard's banking chapter (the First National Bank presidency).
- [TOWN] — the name passage and its own doubt of the Jessup friendship claim.