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People, Long Tail — Roseland, Indiana
Benjamin Potter
1875 atlas footnote; Howard (1907) I, p. 284
The township's first named settler: "one of the first in this township, he came before 1829, on Section 24" (atlas). Howard lists him first in the 1829 wave.
John Hague
1875 atlas footnote; Chapman (1880)
Came July 1829, with the McCombs party; the atlas and both histories carry him in the first three names of the township. Hannah (Hague) McCombs, Lambert's wife, carries the surname into the McCombs line.
Thomas Longley
1875 atlas footnote; Howard (1907) I, p. 284
Settled Section 21 in 1830, in the second year of the wave; nothing further is carried of him in the books read.
John C. Stutsman
1875 atlas footnote; Howard (1907) I, p. 284
Took Section 24 in 1832, joining Potter and the Ulerys on the townsite's eastern neighbour section.
William Smith and John H. Smith
1875 atlas footnote
William Smith was on Section 14 early; John H. Smith, "son of Camion Smith, some say was the oldest settler" — the atlas prints the superlative as a saying, and it is carried here as one.
Joshua C. Johnson
1875 atlas footnote; Howard (1907) II, pp. 830–831
Came about 1831; Howard's McCombs sketch calls him "one of the early pioneers of Clay township." His daughter Caroline married Lambert McCombs the younger in 1866.
John Eyler
Chapman (1880), pp. 675–678; Howard (1907) I, p. 288
A river-bank settler of the first group, whose house on Section 23 held the township's first school, taught by Charles Murray. The first school-house stood later on Section 28.
Charles Murray
Chapman (1880), pp. 677–678
"A married man from 'Dutch Island,' in Harris township" — the first teacher in Clay Township, in Eyler's house on Section 23.
Daniel A. Veasey
Chapman (1880), pp. 677–678; Howard (1907) I, p. 288
Probably the first teacher in the township's first school-house, on Section 28 at the place later known as Stover's, on the Edwardsburg road.
George H. Stover
Chapman (1880), p. 681; 1875 atlas directory
Born in Virginia in 1839, of German descent; came with his parents in 1850 to Section 28. School trustee in 1880, a former schoolteacher who had attended college at Franklin, Indiana; Chapman: he "has held every other office in the tp." His father's name stands on the first school-house site — "Stover's."
Thomas Eaton
Chapman (1880), pp. 677–678
School trustee "for a number of years," credited with George Stover for the township's six brick school buildings and nine-month school year by 1880. Not to be merged with Jacob Eaton of Section 13 on this record.
John Weaver
Chapman (1880), pp. 676–677; Howard (1907) I, p. 285
A German Baptist preacher among the first river settlers; before the grist mill he built a saw-mill on the same Section 23 location, and "also had a carding-machine and fulling-mill" — the ground's first manufacturer, before Harris.
Burton Swearingen and Ephraim Trueblood
Howard (1907) I, pp. 285–288 (the Lyon paper)
Swearingen, with Samuel Brooks, contracted as millwright to build the Section 23 mill in 1836–'37; Trueblood was its first miller when it ran in the summer of 1837.
Edward Carpenter, and Jay S. and Oscar D. Carpenter
Howard (1907) I, pp. 285–288 (the Lyon paper)
Of New York City; bought the mill farm late in 1843 with J. and E. S. Sheffield, came in 1844 and took charge, building the large house on the bluff behind the mill — field-granite foundation, black-walnut doors, five fireplaces. His son Jay S. came in 1846; Oscar D. was born at the mill house; Edward died in South Bend in 1851.
Mary Elting, Dr. Robert Harris and Elisha Hall
Howard (1907) I, pp. 285–288 (the Lyon paper)
Elting took the mill on a mortgage sale in 1860; Dr. Robert Harris and Elisha Hall bought it in 1864, Harris selling his interest to Hall the next year — waypoints in the mill's ownership chain between the Sheffields and the Siders family.
John Siders and Mary Ann Siders
Howard (1907) I, pp. 285–288; 1875 atlas directory
John Siders bought the mill in 1866; "Mr. Siders and sons conducted it for many years," and the mill took his name. The 1875 directory lists Mary Ann Siders, of Union County, Pennsylvania (settled in the county 1854), as "Owner of Mill" — a woman holding the township's one industry in her own name in the record.
John F. Kirby
Howard (1907) I, pp. 285–288; Chapman (1880), pp. 676–677
"The late John F. Kirby" was one of the mill's later owners in the Lyon paper's chain. Chapman's machine transcription reads the name "Curly"; the two printings stand in the pass note (C12), with the page image as settler and Kirby governing on the Lyon paper's strength.
James L. Robinson
Howard (1907) I, pp. 285–288 (the Lyon paper)
The mill's last private holder; sold about 1897 to the South Bend Power Company, which tore the historic structure down and built a one-story replacement on the property.
Richard H. Lyon
Howard (1907) I, pp. 285–288
Author of "the Passing of the Old Gray Mill," South Bend Weekly Tribune, 6 July 1901 — the paper Howard reprints whole and the source of nearly everything known of the mill. The township's record-keeper for its one industry.
Dr. Jacob Hardman
Chapman (1880), Ch. X, pp. 512–514 (reminiscences)
Settled in Clay Township; "helped E. Chalfant to rear a cabin" and "erected the first hewn log house, shingle roof and brick chimney in Clay township" on his quarter section. His reminiscence also carries his own claim to have written "the first total abstinence pledge in St. Joseph county… about the year 1839" — printed as a claim in the stories file. (Extracted at search strength; the page image is the settler for print-perfect quotation.)
Gideon Drapier and Ariel Euclid Drapier
1875 atlas footnote; Howard (1907) I, p. 284
Gideon took Section 31 in 1832; with Ariel he held a quarter of that section in the Chalfant–Bulla–Drapier cluster. Ariel's son William H. Drapier of Indianapolis is Howard's authority for the cluster's settlement account.
Thomas P. Bulla and William F. Bulla
Howard (1907) I, p. 284; Chapman (1880), Ch. X
Each a quarter of Section 31, "among the earliest" settlers; the family "uncompromising opponents of African slavery," related to the Julian family of Wayne County. Thomas married Hannah Draper; his reminiscence paper in Chapman carries the barrens judgment — the township's soil "hardly worth buying" until plaster and clover restored it. In April 1861 Thomas sat on Clay Township's subscription committee with G. E. Benton and Jacob Eaton (Howard's military chapter).
Evan C. Chalfant
1875 atlas footnote; Chapman (1880), p. 678
On Section 31 in 1831 (the footnote's date), with his sons' fuller settlement in 1832; married a sister of the Bulla brothers. His son Thomas B. Chalfant's biography stands in Chapman: came 1 November 1832, ex-township trustee, 236 acres at $75 the acre, married Jane Melling (1848; d. 1861) and Eleanor C. Alford (1864).
James Stuckey and Oliver P. Stuckey
1875 atlas footnote and directory; Howard (1907) I, p. 284
James was on Section 30 early; Oliver P. took Section 19 in 1836 (the directory gives his settling as 1835, of Wayne County, Indiana) — the small variance prints as the carriers give it. Curran S. Stuckey farms Section 30 in the 1875 directory.
Francis Jennings, Samuel Jennings and Jesse W. Jennings
1875 atlas footnote; Chapman (1880), p. 680; Howard (1907) II, pp. 1085–1086
Francis came with three sons in 1833 or 1834. Samuel (b. in the township 1845, son of Samuel and Matilda (Bargdoll) Jennings) was township assessor and served 1863 to 27 June 1865 in the 21st Indiana Battery. Jesse W., a shoemaker born in New York in 1809, entered a Clay Township farm in 1830, amassed a 600-acre estate across his course, and died at Cleveland, buried in South Bend's City Cemetery.
David Sossaman and Thomas J. Sossomen
1875 atlas footnote; Chapman (1880), p. 681
David came in 1841, on Section 19 (the name spelled Sossaman in the lists, Sossomen in the sketch). Thomas J., born in the county in 1846 to David and Elizabeth (Savidge) Sossomen, married Salinda Shearer in 1874; of the Dunkard Church; his parents by then lived in Mishawaka. The spelling variance prints as the carriers give it.
Jacob Chirhart, J. H. Chirhart and Ed S. Chirhart
1875 atlas footnote and directory; Chapman (1880), p. 679; Howard (1907) II
Jacob reached Section 30 in 1845 (the directory says the family settled the county in 1844). J. H. (son of Apollinaris and Mary (Meyer) Chirhart, b. Ohio 1836) came in 1845 with his widowed mother, farmed Section 30 from 1865, 276 acres, Catholic, married Mary M. Palley. Ed S., born at Notre Dame in 1869, managed South Bend's East Side lumber yard — the family's second generation in the building trade. The surname prints Chirhart, Chearhart and Chirhart again across the carriers; they are one family at this record's strength, and the forms print as given.
Theobold Guli
Chapman (1880), p. 680
Born in France in 1821, came about 1831; farmed 250 acres on Section 20 and 100 more in Penn Township; Catholic; married Mary Chokar (1847; d. 1853) and Theresa Emily (1855). The township's French settler of the first wave.
John G. Kotz
Chapman (1880), p. 680
Born in Germany in 1822, son of Jacob and Anna (App) Kotz; to America 11 August 1840, in Ohio five years, to this county in the spring of 1846 and Clay Township in 1847; 160 acres on Section 29; built a two-story frame house in 1879 for $1,500; of the Evangelical Church; ten children, all living in 1880 — Jacob a wagon-maker and George a blacksmith, both of South Bend, and Daniel an artist in Chicago, who has his own line in the artists file.
John B. Wrightsman
Chapman (1880), p. 681
Born in Pulaski County, Virginia, in 1853, son of Samuel and Mary (Redpath) Wrightsman; came to the county in 1875 and married Fannie Cripe, a native of the township, in 1879. Minister of the German Baptist church on Section 24 and a teacher, on Section 26.
Aaron Ulery and David Ulery
Chapman (1880), p. 679; Howard (1907) II, pp. 1085–1086
Aaron, a farmer of Clay Township, married Jane Cripe, Peter Cripe's daughter. David's 150-acre Portage Township farm — also called the Stover farm — was by 1907 the residence of Mrs. Lucy (Jennings) Farneman. Both print at the strength of the sketches that name them; neither is joined to Fred Ullery of 1915 by any carrier.
William Randall
Town Code §11.01(F); the negative register as searched, Pass R-2
The donor of the land on which the Community Center Building — the present town hall at 200 Independence Drive — was built from 1974. No dates, family or obituary for him were reached on the open carriers searched; his entry stands at his gift, with the Tribune archive and the 1974 deed record as settlers (G-PP-2).
Dennis St. Germain
Town Code §11.01(G); the negative register as searched, Pass R-2
Co-designer, with Ella Riffel, of the town flag adopted in September 1976. No other carrier for the Roseland man was reached; an industrial-rigging namesake in Pennsylvania and California in the same searches is a different person and is not merged with him (G-PP-3).
Mrs. George Eisbrenner and Sally Eisbrenner
Town Code §11.01(G)
The flag's makers: the town code records that the 1976 flag was "produced on white polyester gabardine by Mrs. George Eisbrenner and her daughter, Sally." They print under the names their only carrier gives them.
Teddy Penn, Michael Lipsky, Dawn Jones, Heather Velez, Peter Agostino
Public Access Counselor file (2007); the town's 2024 documents (Pass R-1)
The reached line's second rank: Penn, council vice-president in 2007; Lipsky, town attorney the same year; Jones, deputy clerk-treasurer in 2024; Velez, police clerk in 2024; Agostino, town attorney in the 2024 record. Each prints at the single public-record fact that carries them.
Julie Mudrovich and Tom Clark
South Bend Tribune candidate record, February and October 2026 (Pass R-1)
The town's 2026 council candidates: Mudrovich (Democratic), who had run fourth in the 2023 four-way race, against Clark (Republican), for the seat that fell due. The certified winner was not reached in either pass; neither is printed as holder (G-GV-4).
Tested negatives — names this ground does not hold
Searched Pass R-2; printed where a reader will look for them
John F. Ullery and Ira M. Ullery belong to German and Warren townships — John F. (a German Township pioneer, the atlas's biography at p. 53) and his grandson Ira (b. Warren Township 1869, paying teller of the Merchants' National Bank of South Bend, Howard II's only full Ullery sketch); neither is a Clay Township or Roseland man on this record, and neither is joined to Fred Ullery. Joseph C. Ullery of Green Township (Goodspeed, 1893) is a third county line of the name, likewise unjoined. And Fred Ullery of East Ireland Road, South Bend (1980) is not identified with the grocer of 1915.