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THE SOUTH BEND INN-UNION HALL-LILLY'S TAVERN-MICHIGAN HOTEL-EAGLE HOTEL-RAILROAD EXCHANGE-TEMPERANCE HOTEL-WASHINGTON HOUSE-TRAVELER'S REST-FRANKLIN HOUSE-WITH A GLANCE AT OTHER LATER HOSTELRIES-INTERSPERSED WITH SOME PERSONAL SKETCHES
The history of the hotels of South Bend has in several instances been given more or less attention through the local newspapers and otherwise. If the present effort in the same direction should show in some particulars more detail and closer approach to accuracy, it will be owing solely to the fact that more time and patience have been given to the matter than would be practicable in the rush of ordinary newspaper work. Yet I do not by any means flatter myself that my narrative is exhaustive or free from error. To the end that the facts and impressions given may be made as trustworthy as possible, candid acclaim is earnestly invited.
Within its first decade there were altogether eleven taverns operated in the town. Just when the first two of these were opened may not at present be easily determined. The earliest documentary evidence on the subject known to the writer is to be found in the records of the county commissioner's court, where, at their first September session, 1831, Calvin Lilly, Benjamin Coquillard, and Peter Johnson were each granted a license for this purpose. On November 12th, following, the advertisements of Lilly and Coquillard appeared in the Northwestern Pioneer, this being the second number of that newspaper, the first number being missing from the preserved file. Lilly's place is said to have been the first and Coquillard's the second, both dating back to 1830. These claims appear to be based solely upon tradition and cannot now be verified. Both Lilly and Coquillard boarded some of Brookfield's men when he was surveying the Town Plat in the spring of 1831, which may signify, as far as it goes, that they were keeping tavern at that date.
Mr. Lilly's announcement runs as follows: "SOUTH
BEND INN"
CALVIN LILLY
Has opened a House of Public Entertainment
on St. Joseph Street. His table is furnished with the best the country will
afford-his Bar is supplied with the choicest of Liquors and his Stable with
Provender. No exertion will be wanting to render general satisfaction to those who
may favor him with a call."
This building stood on the northeast corner of Lot 37, which is the irregular tract lying southwest of Vistula Avenue, and west of St. Joseph Street. The property seems to have belonged to Edmund Pitt Taylor, who advertises the same for sale April 17, 1832, possession to be given May 1, and describes it as "a good Frame House, 2 stories high, with a brick seller-likewise a 2 story hewed 'Log House and Kitchen' well calculated for a public stand and situated in as beautiful and pleasant a part of the town, as any other. The lot is 200 feet front on Pearl Street."
On May 22, 1832, the Northwestern Pioneer makes the following announcement: "The Printing Office has been removed to the second story of the house formerly occupied as a tavern by Mr. Lilly, on the corner of St. Joseph and Pearl Sts." St. Joseph street is here mentioned first, which may have some significance, indicating that this was then the principal street, the Michigan road not having been erected, and the 'Dragoon Trace' between Ft. Wayne and Chicago at that time crossing Bowman's Creek near the present Henry Studebaker's barn, intersecting the St. Joseph Street at about Wayne St., and then following the former down to Pearl. The place was now certainly vacated as a hotel. I have not been able to find out anything of its subsequent history. If part of the building was a frame, as is stated, it was most likely the first of the kind in the state north of Logansport. E. P. Taylor, the owner, as is well known, was a brother of Lathrop M. Taylor, one of the founders of the town, and came to this locality not long after his brother. Most people of today remember 'Pitts' Taylor best as the owner of a sawmill on the west race, and his immense log piles on and about the present site of the standpipe and over the adjacent bluff.
This 'House of Public Entertainment' in the language of that day, was owned by Benjamin
Coquillard, brother of the older Alexis, and father of the late Alexis, the well-known
capitalist and wagon manufacturer. The building stood on the site of the L. F. Baker
rooms attached to the rear of the present Citizens' National Bank. Some say the location
was on the point across the alley; but that is hardly probable, for Mr. Coquillard did
not own any ground there, and it is not likely he would have built on ground
Calvin Lilly, in 1831, purchased of the original proprietors Lots 28, 29, and 30 which
comprise the block lying on the west side of Michigan street between Jefferson and the
first alley north, being 198 feet by 165, or three-fourths of an acre. On this property
he erected a one and one-half story frame house which occupied the frontage now covered
by the Lippman Clothing Store and the Kuntsman Saloon. The proprietor took out a tavern
license for this stand at the September term. It was in the bar room of this
establishment that the first Circuit Court of the county was held on October 22, 1832,
with Hon. John R. Porter as the president judge. The session lasted but a single day.
The first case was a divorce suit and was successful, thus establishing a reputation for
the state in this line which it has since zealously sustained. The second case was for
libel, and the third the prosecution of a woman for selling liquor to the Indians. I
believe a son of this defendant learned his trade as a tanner with Mr. Bugbee, and is
now, if living, a respected citizen of one of the flourishing county seats of Northern
Indiana, having, represented the county in the legislature for one or more sessions. Mr.
Lilly appeared at the commissioner's court for a tavern licensed the last time at the
May term 1834. On March 9, 1835, he sold to John Fowler and went his way to swell the
tide as the star of empire takes its way. From my rather cursory examination of the
record, Mr. Fowler appears to have held but one license as tavern-keeper, this having
been issued at the September term 1855. What happened here for several years suceeding
this date, I have been unable to learn. But in 1837, Mr. Almond Bugbee, to whom I am
The Michigan Hotel was situated on the corner known as the Coonley drug store. It was
erected by Peter Johnson, grandfather of Thad S. Taylor, and several years later, an
associate judge. Mr. Johnson moved with his family to South Bend from Logansport early
in 1831. Ice was still in the Tippecanoe and in Yellow river, but was too rotten for
safe crossing; so that Indian canoes had to be obtained with which to ferry. The trail
from the south then swung to the westward through what is now Liberty and Greene
townships, this county, to avoid the lakes, marshes, and heavy timber on the direct
route, afterward taken by the Michigan road. Mr. Johnson was a practical carpenter and
builder, and began at
In 1834, the license for this house was issued in the name of Mr. William L. Earl,
father of Mrs. A. B. Merritt, of this city, and Wm. L. and Daniel Earl of California.
Mr. Earl was previously a partner with Alanson M. Hurd in the iron works and town plat
of Mishawaka, and was keeping tavern there, says Mrs. Merritt, at the time of the great
meteoric shower, in 1833. He alleged that Hurd swindled him out of his interests in that
locality. In 1835, when the United States Land Office was opened at La Porte, the
Michigan Hotel did a thriving business. At the September term, 1836, Mr. Earl took out a
license for Earl's Tavern, a stand which he erected that season at the present site of
Lakeville, he having purchased for this purpose a forty acre tract of Jacob Rector,
grandfather of our Attorney J. D. Henderson. In the same year Mr. Johnson sold the
Michigan Hotel property to one Charles Thrasher, and built a sawmill on the edge of the
bluff at the rear of the present residence of Hon. J. B. Stoll. This was the first
attempt to employ steam power for manufacturing purposes in St. Joseph county, and the
experiment proved a dismal failure. It cost more for fuel than the mill could earn.
Daniel Gephart appears to have kept the hotel for a short time, having taken out a
license at the September term, 1836. Levi Wills followed; then John Mowry and Isaac M.
Baldwin, September 1837; several months after, Levi Wills again, in January, 1838. Mr.
Wills, it may here be stated, afterward kept "Our House" at Mt. Pleasant, this county.
In 1850 he crossed the plains to California. There he engaged in supplying some of the
Hangtown markets with beef cattle, and soon after was killed by a wild steer. The hotel
property was sold December 12, 1837, by Mr. Thrasher to Abram R. and John H. Harper and
John N. Smith. On February 27, 1838, a permit was granted these proprietors to occupy
for 120 days a part of Michigan street opposite this lot and the one adjoining on the
south for making improvements on this property. What these improvements were does not
appear; perhaps the erection of the wing to the west was one of them. It was the
Harpers, probably, that changed the name to American Hotel, a name borne on its large
Another story was current about the town for many years, happening during this
management. One James Mc Goggy, a carpenter, who had a terrible impediment of speech
from a bad case of hare-lip, came into the bar room one day, in a state, seemingly, of
great excitement. Elmer Rose was with him. Addressing Mr. Koehler, Mc Groggy went on to
detail that Rose and he had just bet the drinks on a certain dispute between them, and
asked
I do not know much of this hostelry. It is one of the three hotels marked on the first
map of South Bend, made, as would seem from some of its data, early in 1837. It was a
story and a half frame that stood on the southeast corner of Lafayette and Washington
streets, across from the present First Presbyterian church. The lot was purchssed of
Samuel Hanna by Levi Barnes and Samuel C. Russ, jointly, on November 16, 1835. Both were
carpenters and joiners, and doubtless put up the building. Samuel C. Russ was licensed
to keep tavern here at the May term, 1836, and again at the September term, 1837. Russ
was succeeded by John A. Prestana, who became owner of the property August 24, 1841.
Prestana sold to Amable M. Lapierre, April 26, 1843, and moved from here to Chicago. Mr.
Willis A. Bugbee remembers the family well and visited them in that city, they having a
son about his age. Mr. La Pierre was a Frenchman and an ardent Methodist, although
brought up a Catholic. He was a bricklayer and plasterer by trade, and was the head
mason on the first college building put up at Notre Dame. The smallpox here in 1845
marked him as one of its victims, and he carried a badly pitted face to his grave. He
was also involved in the noted Norris fugitive slave case and I think, as a consequence,
lost his property through process of the United
The Washington Block was the pride of the town in its day. The site was on Lot 19,
which lies on the north side of Washington street from Main to the first alley east. The
lot was purchased February 5, 1833, from State Senator Samuel Hanna, of Ft. Wayne, by
Samuel Studebaker, who was the original owner of the Martin L. Wenger farm, now embraced
within the city limits. March 1, 1836, Mr. Studebaker sold the same to Hiram Rush, but
there being some deferred payments, the deed was not made out till 1840. Mr. Studebaker,
dying meantime, the conveyance was executed by the late Judge Thomas S. Stanfield, as
commissioner in chancery. Mr. Rush, immediately after the purchase in 1836, subdivided
the lot into blocks fronting upon Washington street, about if not exactly, as marked off
by the several buildings that occupy the ground today. The purchasers were James and Wm.
Wickersham, Charles Egbert, F. J. and E. Townsend, and Wm. M. and John Parker.
In 1837, Benjamin Wall began tavern-keeping on the southeast corner of Michigan and Jefferson streets. Upon the great swinging sign, in conspicuous letters, was the alluring scroll, "Traveler's Rest". The license was issued at the November term. Mr. Bugbee was a guest at the opening spread. Mr. Wall kept the place a number of years. The writer well remembers the guide-board on the tall sign post that with its index finger so long pointed the wayfarer to the south, advertising him that it was "65 miles to Logansport".
The property was purchased by Mr. Wall of the writer's father, and, it is believed, did not prove satisfactory as a hotel venture. The building was removed by Alex. Staples to 1221 Laurel street, where it may still be seen.
This is the building that, with a number of modifications and under various
appellations, is still standing on the southwest corner of Michigan and Water streets,
the only one of the pioneer hotel structures in South Bend that still occupies its
original site. The lot is number one of the old plat. It was first sold to Levi F.
Arnold, who was a member of the Brookfield surveying party in 1829, and who was one of
the first justices of the peace of St. Joseph county. He is marked on Colonel Taylor's
books as such purchaser, but appears to have been given no deed for the property. August
11, 1834, the fee simple passed from Samuel Hanna to John Rush, "Black John", as he was
familiarly called, to distinguish him from another John Rush to whom he was distantly
related. Mr. Rush, most likely, proceeded at once to erect a building upon his purchase,
as may be inferred from the following entry in the minutes of the board of trustees of
the town corporation, at the meeting of December 29, 1835: "It is ordered that John Rush
be permitted to occupy ten feet in front of his building on Michigan and Water streets
for three months with lumber and building materials." This record is signed "H. Chapin,
Prest." It appears from this wording that the building was already erected at that date.
The place was first occupied as a general store by Mr. Rush in co-partnership with Dr.
John A. Hendricks, under the firm name of Hendricks and Rush. It is not probable that
the building as at first put up was more than a story and a half or two stories in
height, for it appears to have been designed only for a store room. In May, 1837,
Hendricks and Rush removed their store to the new square brick house that stood on the
east side of Michigan street, just in front of the present Hill Brothers grist mill. The
building vacated by them was fitted up for a tavern and perhaps now received its
christening as the Railroad Exchange. Benjamin R. Hall was the first landlord, taking
out his license in Septemder, 1837. Mr. Hall, later, kept "Our House" at Mt. Pleasant,
on the Michigan road, in German township. This, as remarked elsewhere in these sketches,
was a boom period for South Bend. The bridge across the St. Joseph, which was located
exactly east of the first alley north of Navarre street, was opened for travel; the
Kankakee race was about completed, it was thought, and the three mills to be thus set in
operation were one of the happy dreams of the village; the hydraulic canal on the east
side of the river was also in process of construction, giving employment to many
laborers; the boats, for the most part, landed and discharged their cargoes at the
Chapin warehouse directly opposite the Railroad Exchange; land speculation was running
rampant; in a word, the outlook for South Bend was remarkably promising, especially for
the north part. Other hotels were springing up in the village, and the capacity of the
Exchange must be enlarged to meet the demands
On March 3, 1838, the place was the scene of a grand dinner and jollification over the news that the twelfth branch of the State Bank of Indiana was to be located in South Bend. This was considered as of immense importance to the town and especially as a signal triumph over Michigan City, which had been working might and main to secure the same prize. Speeches were made, many toasts were given, and full many a purple bumper trembled at willing lips. One of the toasts, which passed as especially witty, ran about as follows: "Dot goose dot quack in de Michigan City (hard) Times, white folks cuss 'im an quit 'im. But bless 'im if I ketch 'im down this way, I pluck ebery tail fedder out of de wing." This Michigan City Times was a newspaper that most likely had been laboring hard to get the bank established in that village, and this sally was aimed as a terrific stunner for this now under dog. If I remember aright, Mr. Bugbee informed me that he was present as a participant on that occasion although we may be sure he drew not his inspiration from the purple cup.
John Hooper was married at this hotel to Miss Phoebe Smith, on April 14, 1840, his wife being a sister of Mr. Coquillard's partner in the hotel; and Mr. Hooper at about this date succeeded these gentlemen in the charge of the hotel. Mr. Bugbee boarded with the last named landlord during the exciting "log-cabin and hard-cider" campaign of that year. Everywhere wagons were to be seen in procession, surmounted with log-cabins with coon skins decorating the outside, and a cider barrel lying hard by. An immense caravan of ox-teams thus headed drove the whole distance from South Bend to the Tippecanoe battleground, where it was met by similar caravans from other parts of the state, and where a grand jubilee was held in furtherance of the Whig cause. Everywhere the air was resonant with the refrain "Go it Tip and come it Tyler, Pull the trigger, bust the biler", ending with the chorus, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."
Well the Whigs won out at the election, but soon got more of "Tyler too" than was to
their liking. As is well known, about the first thing Tyler did, after succeeding to the
presidency, upon the death of General Harrison, was to vote the Whig pet measure to
re-charter the United States Bank. And now it was the Democrats' turn to laugh, which
they did metaphorically, with thundering cannon and a big whoop and hurrah blow-out at
the Exchange in the first week of September, 1844. Mr. Hooper still presided
Mr. Hooper was succeeded by J. B. Cicot, who was the last to keep the place as a hotel for several years to come. I do not know when Mr. Cicot began or when he quit, but after closing out the business, he removed to Detroit and settled there. His brother, Edward V. Cicot, was for a time one of Mr. Coquillard's mercantile partners, and he was also one of the early directors of the South Bend branch of the State Bank.
A serious reaction had now set in: in fact had set in some time before. The Kankakee
canal proved to be too small and had to be enlarged at great cost, and even then it was
a sad failure. Work on the East Race had been indefinitely suspended, indeed, had lasted
but a single season. The bridge north of town had become unsafe, and had been torn down.
Another bridge was thrown across the river at the foot of Washington street. Lewis M.
Alverson had absconded with nearly $30,000 of Mr. Coquillard's money, which the latter
was to have received from the government for removing the Indians west, and which he had
entrusted Alverson to collect. Altogether, the north part of the town, which had so long
depended largely upon Mr. Coquillard's bounty and enterprise, was now in a piteous
plight. Mr. Rush collapsed financially about the time he sold the Exchange to Coquillard
and Smith. He was never able to pay for much of the material with which the hotel had
been reconstructed in 1838. Cassius Caldwell, of German township, lost to the value of
about $100, on this account. A search of our land records will show that Mr. Rush was
engaged widely in land speculation on his own account, as well as with Dr. Henricks and
Coquillard. Henricks, as well as Rush, thus became swamped, while Coquillard also became
seriously crippled. The Exchange passed from hand to hand rapidly, and for a season was
abandoned to the bats and owls. During one summer when the hotel was thus forsaken, I
went to school in the frame building which until recently stood on the corner now
occupied as the Wyman residence grounds. This was the first time that I had heard
grammar parsed, and the lingo, "Man is a common noun, masculine gender, third person,
singular number, etc.", seemed very funny to me, and was as unintelligible to my
perception as if it had been Sioux or Pawnee twaddle. We boys went swimming in the river
about daily, and the dock of the Chapin warehouse was our favorite diving stand. We had
to pass the forlorn Exchange in going back and forth; the railroad part of the name had
now been dropped. There was a barn at the rear end, and all along Water street in that
vicinity was a wilderness of the odorous gimson, among which a flock of sheep was busy
in midday fighting flies. Finally Martin N. Gibbs, in 1855, got hold of the property. He
was a carpenter by trade, and had erected some of the best buildings in this section
whether in town or country. He changed
Captain Allen was succeeded, in 1873, by Jerry H. Knight and Captain Wm. C. Mills. The successive proprietors since have been John Freeman, Thomas Ragan, Wm. F. Mason and George H. Horn, Warren B. Titus, Colonel Wilson, Mason and Horn again, Howard Wagner and the present proprietor, Bird Bickford, who took possession Feb. 10, 1892, thus occupying the place for a considerably longer period than any of his predecessors. The name was changed from Dwight House to Sheridan House by Mr. Ragan, doubtless from the circumstance that the association of the names Ragan and Sheridan was more compatible in the view of the proprietor. The word "House" has since been dropped and that of "New" prefixed, so the name is now simply New Sheridan. To such terseness and simplicity is the present tendency; it is "The Oliver" and not "The Oliver House". The brick saloon part on the alley was erected by Mr. Ragan. He also enclosed the three piazzias, which fronted upon the north half of each of the three stories, the width of which may be seen in the break in the siding in the south wall. The extension on Water street out to the sidewalk line was done by John F. Kirby, when he became the owner, the brick veneering under Mr. Wagner's management. But with all its disguises and transformations, a close inspection can still determine the outlines of the building as it stood sixty-two years ago, when the citizens of the village, then with half its buildings of logs with stick chimneys and puncheon floors, here rollicked in gleeful banquet over securing a branch of the State Bank. Mr. Almond Bugbee was there, as I have said, and perhaps Cassius Caldwell. These alone remain to tell the story.
The Franklin House stood on Lot 36, on the first alley corner east of Odd Fellows Hall.
An oval signboard mounted upon a high post, and inscribed with the name of the house,
invited such as were
This old-time monument to the enterprise of South Bend stood upon the site of its present grand and massive successor, The Oliver. This was then a village with but about two thousand souls, but one railroad, not a paved or even a graded street, and its manufactories well nigh wholly confined to the West Race.
The ground was purchased of John Hammond, July 7, 1855, for $3,000, by the South Bend Hotel Company. The frontage on Main street extended across two lots, 132 feet, the same as that of The Oliver, and the frontage on Washington was 111 feet, 23½ feet less than that of the Oliver. No articles of incorporation can be found, so that the names of the stockholders cannot be definitely ascertained. Some hitch occurred in the working out of the project, the records showing that, on June 13, 1857, the property was sold on an execution to the late Judge Thomas S. Stanfield as commissioner in chancery, for $19,500. The same was quit-claimed by him January 1, 1858 for $38,168 to the following persons, with frontages on Washington proportional to the amount each paid: Elmer Rose, Matthew B. Hammond, David G. Rose, George F. Layton, Jesse Frame, Thomas Rockhill, John Hammond, William Miller, Hiram Doolittle, Christian Holler, John Casteter, William G. Whitman, and Elisha Egbert. All were residents of this county, and eight of them were farmers. It may be reasonably assumed that this list of names approximately tallies with that of the original South Bend Hotel company. Mrs. John Hammond of course joined in the conveyance; she is a resident of California. Mr. Whitman, familiarly known as "Bill Whit"—one of the stockholders, and County Treasurer John W. Zigler, Charles W. Martin, Thad. S. Taylor, and the Mesdames D. A. Veasey, John M. Veasey, E. S. Reynolds, J. F. Kirby, H. B. Hine, D. Dayton, and L. Humphrey. David K. Wall, now of Denver, was the first floor manager. The Hoosier Club, Dr. J. C. Sack, manager, and Lorenz Elbel, music director, gave popular entertainments here for several years, and some of our older citizens will remember in this connection "La Petite Ole Bull", the violin prodigy, and his father, J. Goodall, the dancing master.
George B. Stedman, a cousin of the late L. T. Stedman, of this city, was the first clerk and came with Mr. Butts from Cleveland. He did not remain long in that station, but became proprietor of the Edwards Hotel, Plymouth, and while keeping this place was killed in some sort of a brawl by one --- Tibbetts, father of Charles A. Tibbetts, who was ripped open with a knife and immediately killed by Orange G. Stage of Walkerton, in the west room of the St. Joseph Hotel block, then a billiard hall, on May 19, 1870.
Mr. Butts opened very auspiciously, but his patronage gradually waned. He was long a merchant tailor of South Bend and is supposed to be living in Chicago. All others connected with the enterprise are dead. Mr. Whitman has a son in Ann Arbor, who is a distinguished lawyer and politician, and another son in Detroit who is quite wealthy and occupies a high place in insurance circles. The investment, as these manipulations would indicate, proved to be far from satisfactory; and in March, 1858, the stockholders began one after another to dispose of their interests, till finally Mr. Ruckman and President Whitten became the sole owners, the bulk going to the former and much of this at about ten percent of the original cost.
Elmer Rose superintended the erection. Robert and James Alexander were the head carpenters. One Williams, of New Jersey, was foreman of the mason work. Oliver, Little & Co. made the castings. Arch Defrees helped on the carpenter work of several of the store rooms; though very few local mechanics were employed on the job. Financial embarrassment seems to have arisen at about the time of the completion of the work, for the records show that September 14, 1856, one Travis B. Day filed a lien against the property for $98, being a claim for 49 days' work at lathing and plastering. November 4th., following, the Alexanders also filed a lien to secure payment for carpenter work to the amount of $1,500.
The building was a four-story brick covering the entire ground—111x132 feet. On the lower floor there were eight rooms, four fronting on Main street, and four on Washington. The main entrance, 18 feet wide by 40 deep, was also on this floor, in the center of the south front. Near the north end, on Main Street, there was another entrance, chiefly for the use of the house. The first room from the north, 21x40 feet, was included in the lease and served for the kitchen and the pantries; next came the postoffice, then conducted by the late Ralph Staples; then the St. Joseph Valley Bank, alias "Waubeck Bank-De Soto", by Harry B. Hine & Co., and lastly, the offices of the U. S. Express and the "Electro Telegraph" companies, Esq. Charles M. Heaton, both agent and operator. The 'Squire never learned to read the ticks from sound.
The corner room fronted south and was leased to George F. Layton for a drug store. Adjoining, west, was Whitman's clothing and merchant tailoring house. Beyond the hotel entrance came the Farmer's or People's store, Hon. Mark Whinery, manager. It is uncertain as to whether the last room on this street was occupied. The rooms were not considered desirable, being too far from the business center. There were, in part, different occupants at the time of the great fire. Staples and Vanderhoof then had a grocery in the corner room and the First National Bank was in the room formerly occupied by the Waubeck bank.
The hotel proper comprized all above the first floor, together with the north room below, as already stated. The parlor was in the southeast room, second floor. Next, north, came the dining hail, and then the pastry bakery and lumber room. The public hall or ball room was on the fourth floor, on the west side; and ran along the whole length of the building, north and south. A court in the center afforded light and ventilation for the inner rooms.
The full text of the first hotel lease is recorded in Book A, Miscellaneous Records,
County Recorder's office. It was made September 6, 1856, to William R. Butts, and is
signed on the part of the company by John Hammond. Elmer Rose, Benjamin F. Price, and
William Ruckman, directors. The term was for five years, and the rental $500 for the
first year and $1,000 per annum, thereafter, all payable in equal quarterly
installments.
As has been mentioned else where in these sketches, John Hammond was at about this time keeping the Washington House, which was directly across the street east from the new hotel. Mr. Hammond, having now become part owner of the latter, immediately upon its opening, closed the former. There were a number of guests in the old hotel, and these, to make a sort of pageant, marched in a body, double file, across the street, from their old quarters to the new. C. A. Kimball, the genial, ever sunny "Cale", of the First National bank, was a member of this procession. Day board was $2.50 to $3 per week. Mr. Hammond and wife (no children) continued to reside at the old stand.
The hotel was formally dedicated on Wednesday evening, September 10, 1856, with a grand banquet and ball. Several of the printed programs are still extant-- one in the possession of Mrs. W. D. Martin and another treasured by Charles W. Martin. It is quite an elaborate engraving, of which the Tribune presented a half-tone copy in its special edition on the recent dedication of The Oliver. The honorary members outside of South Bend comprised representatives from Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, Mishawaka, La Porte, Goshen, Adrian, White Pigeon, Fremont, Coldwater, Elkhart, Monroe, Carlisle Hill, Terre Coupee, Niles, Plymouth, Rochester, Sturgis, Constantine, and Michigan City. Dean and Leland's orchestra, of Chicago, furnished the music. The chef, the waiters, and the corkscrew artist for the occasion were also from that city. There were one hundred and twenty-six couples present. A rubber-cushioned false floor covered the entire hall for the benefit of the terpsichorean devotees. South Bend has not to this day seen a more sumptuous or elegant social affair; at least, so some who were present still maintain. The guests on that occasion who were then and still are residents of South Bend, are John Gallagher, Caleb A. Kimball, ex-mayor William Miller. The lease had to be cancelled and about April 1, 1858, Dr. Alanson B. Merritt became the lessee. The late Daniel Hatch, the well-known liveryman, was the first clerk and later one Thomas.
The late Theodore Witherill was the only boarder at the hotel when Mr. Butts retired,
and he remarked that he would not have been there, only that he was boarding out a debt.
But business picked up rapidly under the new management, and at the end of about nine
months there were 100 patrons instead of a lone one. The rooms on the third floor had
not been furnished by the preceding occupant. This now became necessary and was done,
and the patronage reached a fair paying basis. The doctor became financially involved
because of some other unfortunate business ventures,
Sylvanus G. Gaylord, just from the American Hotel, and Lot Day, jr. succeeded Dr. Merritt December 30, 1858, having at that date entered into a partnership for the term of three years for this purpose. In the following April, Mr. Day sold his interest to the late Dr. Jacob Hardman, when the proprietorship became Gaylord and Hardman. It is not known how long this management lasted, but ex sheriff Charles M. Tutt and Thomas B. Roberts were the next occupants. In 1860, when George Wyman, our dry-goods prince, came to South Bend to cast his fortune among us, William Ruckman was occupying about one-half of the east part of the building for hotel purposes and Whitten and Borden the west part for the same. No further change of occupants occurred until the great fire of Tuesday, April 25, 1865, an account of which appeared in The Register.
The St. Joseph Hotel was a losing enterprise well-nigh from the start, and more in advance of the town at that day than is its magnificent successor, The Oliver, at present. The Oliver is two stories higher and has 23½ more feet of frontage on Washington street than The St. Joseph. Making a rough comparison of the floor area, the Oliver, exclusive of the section on the alley, is about as 20 is to 11, or somewhat less than double that of the St. Joseph, while the population of South Bend during the intervening period has increased at least fifteen fold.
Of course the merry jokes went round at that day, as ever. One was that a certain boarder had gone out one night to call upon his best girl, and the hours flitting away all too swiftly, as usual in such cases, on returning he found the street entrances locked against him. Night clerks and watchmen had not become known to South Bend at that day. A high board fence at the rear shut off the hotel from the livery stable and its unsightly concomitants. He could scale this fence easily enough; had done so many times before. Inside was a ponderous sugar hogshead used for a swill receptacle. It had been standing on the other side of the gate but now some blundering scavenger had changed its place. It was filled nearly to the brim; but all unawares of this change, over bounded the hapless swain "kersplash" into the unsavory cask up to the chin. He had just that evening donned his spring suit for the first time, a natty fresh tailor-made gray. The next morning he appeared at the table; in his seedy, last-years castaway garments, exciting much surprise and evoking the humorous comments of his fellow boarders. The facts would out despite all efforts to suppress them. But the victim won out on the main issue; he got his girl, has her yet, is still a resident, and now has several to call him grandpa.
This is the quaint-looking three-story brick, with four dormer windows, now known as 115-117 Colfax Avenue, and partly occupied by Schuler & Klingel, the wholesale fruit, feed, and produce dealers.
It was built and owned by the late David Greenwalt, being planned expressly for a hotel. Mr. Greenwalt was from Lebanon, Pa. and had the peculiar Pennsylvania ideas of architecture. The brick on Water street directly north of this hotel presents another example of Mr. Greenwalt's architectural taste, as did the J. F. Studebaker residence, just east of Sunnyside, before it was remodelled.
The hotel was opened September 10, 1868, by Chauncey Nichols, formerly of the Bond House, of Niles, as proprietor, and L. H. Packard as clerk. The next year Barber & Slocum took the place and this management was succeeded by E. L. Abbott, in 1871; by Jerry H. Knight and Henry Galloway, in 1872; by Henry Galloway in 1873-4-5; and by John G. Greenwalt, in 1876, at the close of whose lease the St. Joseph Hotel, with its large imposing sign, ceased to exist. The building then stood untenanted till about 1880, when Marvin Campbell became the lessee, with an extensive stock of hardware. With Marvin's characteristic hustle the locality became a brisk and stirring center. Mr. Campbell sold his business in 1886 to Munroe & Creviston. When this film, now Munroe & Keltner, removed to 111 North Michigan street, James A. Schuler & Philip Klingel, under the firm name of Schuler & Klingel, began their present business in the east half of the building. If "Jimmy's" genial nature and ever sunny smile count for what they ought, the haunts thereabouts will be radiant and jolly-wise for many a day. Jimmy sometimes drives the police patrol wagon, just for a little outing, you know, when his graceful and stately bearing becomes the cynosure of all eyes that may be so fortunate as to be along this line of the run.
In 1852, the late President Whitten, father of ex-city Engineer William M. Whitten, purchased of the late Evan C. Chalfant, of Clay township, 54 feet of the west end of lots 240 and 239, this being part of of the site of The Oliver block. He also purchased the next lot north and the one now occupied by Louis Nickel, Jr. & Co. There was a one-story frame on Washington next to the alley. Mr. Whitten put another story on this for his family residence and alongside of it he erected a two-story wagon shop. Just east of this building he had a blacksmith shop. William Conrad, later, became interested with Mr. Whitten in both ownership of the property and the business, the firm being Whitten & Conrad. The former was a blacksmith and the latter a wagonsmith. Mr. Conrad, later, became a resident of Warsaw, where he still resides. He is a staunch Democrat; is always seen at Democratic district gatherings and has served as a member of the state central committee.
In about 1857, Mr. Whitten removed his shop to the rear end of the lot just across the
alley east of the present post-office and converted his two buildings adjoining the St.
Joseph Hotel into one and added at the rear a one-story part 30 x 40 feet. About the
first of December, 1859, John A. Derbin leased this property and went to keeping tavern,
calling the place The Derbin Hotel. County Assessor Thomas J. Slick clerked there about
three months, commencing in December of that year. Mr. Derbin
About June 1, 1861, Mr. Derbin was succeeded by M. M. Shultz, who changed the name to National Hotel. Mr. Shultz (father-in-law of J. Edward Skillman, of the Singer works) continued here until 1862, when Mr. Whitten and his son in-law, Harvey C. Borden, took possession and rented the west half of the St. Joseph Hotel of Elisha Egbert and Mary J. Higinbotham, connecting this with the frame by an arched way. The west room of the St. Joseph Hotel was used for the office. The name National Hotel was continued under the new arrangement. In February, 1865, about two months before the great fire, Lot Day, Jr. purchased Mr. Borden's interest. There were some deferred payments. The loss was total, with no insurance. There was not the scratch of a pen to witness the indebtednes, yet it was paid to the last cent, without a whimper or quibble. The Days, it may be added, were long a prominent family in and about South Bend. Captain Lot Day, the elder, settled here in 1832, carried on the tanning business in several places, one of his tanyards being on Michigan street just north of Navarre. He was also a brick manufacturer, and was the contractor in the erection of the first brick jail. He served as county commissioner, twice as sheriff, and once as state senator. At a celebration of the Fourth of July, 1844, young Lot, then about twenty-one, was acting as cannoneer. The cast-iron piece was placed on the bluff, about where the standpipe now lifts its lofty column. A charge prematurely exploded, driving the ramrod, with its rough swab end, through Lot's hands, tearing off the right hand entirely and the thumb off the other hand, besides terribly lacerating the remaining four fingers but these were saved. Lot walked from the scene of the accident to the old Eagle Hotel (southeast corner of Washington and Lafayette) then occupied by his sister, Mary Ann, wife of William Norton. Here a Dr. Brown and Dr. Merritt amputated the arm and dressed the other wounds, the former operating and doing a bungling job. This, I believe was prior to the use or knowledge of anesthetics in the practice of surgery. David Stover, ex-mayor Miller and Thomas Byerly witnessed the operation. Much sympathy was aroused for the unfortunate young man and liberal contributions were made by the citizens for his schooling, under the tutorship of Prof. C. M. Wright, who was long the leading educator in this section.
In 1846, the two Lots, father and son, were candidates on the Democratic ticket, the one for the state senate and the other for sheriff. The county was decidedly Whig, and each had a strong competitor, but both were elected. Lot Jr. succeeded himself as sheriff by a largely increased majority, and at the close of his second term was elected county recorder. Later, he was a member of the first board of directors of the state prison North. Of splendid figure, pleasing address, and a genial nature, Lot Day Jr. was beloved by everybody that knew him, even by the schoolboy and the frowsy urchin playing "knuckles" on the sidewalk. The elder Lot was among the early overland emigrants to California, where he died. The younger Lot went too later; kept the National Hotel, at Sacramento, for awhile, and died in that state some ten or more years ago.
June 13, 1865, Mr. Whitten purchased of the late George Knoblock the Lafayette Hotel, a one-story frame on the southeast corner of Lafayette and South Streets. He enlarged the building by putting on another story and adding other improvements. In the following December the place was opened as the National Hotel, with Mr. Whitten and Thomas J. Slick, his son-in-law, proprietors. July 28, 1868, Sarah A. Matthews, widow of Daniel Matthews, deceased, and daughter of Mr. Whitten, purchased part of the property at $5,000, and Mr. Slick retired. The business was continued in the firm name of Whitten & Matthews till 1874, when L. H. Packard took charge. In 1877, we find R. Wansborough thus acting. This is the year the building was partially destroyed by fire; but was soon rehabilitated, making it a three-story, as you see it today, when it was re-christened the St. James. Mrs. Matthews had now become the sole owner.
We shall now have to run over the succeeding proprietorships hastily as detail would be tedious. L. H. Packard, 1879; Matthews & Crawford, 1880; Mathias M. Faulknor, 1881-2-3-4-5; Clem Crawford, 1885; Byron J. McElrath till May 18, 1888, when the irrepressible Louis Pfeiffer stepped upon the scene, purchasing the property, refurnishing the hotel, making certain improvements, and in general instilling new life and a thrifty air into the place. Louis seems to be there to stay.
The history of this hotel was recently printed in ample detail, and therefore calls for little notice here. The story, in short, is that three-story business blocks and Good's Opera House were erected by various parties on the site of the first St. Joseph Hotel after its destruction by fire in 1865. December 24, 1878, the entire block was again destroyed by fire, and in rebuilding the owners decided to convert a part of the first floor and the greater part of the other stories into a hotel. Out of compliment to Mr. James Oliver, the new hostelry was christened the Oliver House, which was formally opened on the evening of July 14, 1879, with Jerry H. & Godfrey E. Knight proprietors. The Knight brothers ran the place for nearly ten years and were followed successively by Jones & Cox, J. S. Mc Farland, father-in-law of Melville E. Stone, founder of the Chicago News, W. B. Titus, Phelps & Parsons, Parsons, Parsons and Faulknor, Faulknor & Mc Elrath, Rice & Faulknor, and S. H. Rice. Under the latter's management, the house was finally closed with a supper on the evening of April 30, 1898, after a period of nearly nineteen years. Few tears followed its passing, for it betokened the beginning of the gorgeous up-to-date and splendidly equipped new hotel, The Oliver.
On South Michigan street 114 116, built and owned by Daniel M. Shively. Henry C. Knill
was the first proprietor, opening in 1875. M. L. Dennis succeeded Mr. Knill in 1882.
Frank Knill, Thomas Ragan, Henry C. Needham, A. K. Price, George W. Reynolds,
Now the Y. M. C. A. hall, 121 124 South Main street. Erected by Dr. Robert Harris and Edward M. Irvin in 1880. Opened by L. H. Packard the following year. In 1883, Mrs. Anna R. Smith became the proprietress, and changed the name to Hotel Bristol, under whose management the establishment eked out a precarious existence for about two years, when it finally closed as a hotel.
On the southeast corner of St. Joseph street and Vistula avenue. Built by Christopher Muessel in 1892-3. Opened August 11, 1893, by John Ober. Then came, in order, Byron L. Mc Elrath, Sept. 28, 1896; Godfrey E. Knight, March, 1897; Mrs. Ida Powell, June, 1898; Thos. M. Morrison, March, 1899, who changed the name to The Morrison. The building is a substantial and sightly four-story brick and the view from the location is one of the most picturesque in the city. It is the property of the heirs of the original projector, as above stated.
Situated adjacent to the Chicago & Grand Trunk passenger station on the north side. Built by Johnson & May in 1895. Was badly damaged before its completion by the burning of John R. Shank's livery barn. Was purchased by Charles L. Goetz and the late Louis Benz and leased by them, June 1, 1896, to Alexander Curtis, who at once won a liberal patronage and has since maintained the stand as a favorite resort for the local and transient public. Mr. Curtis was by no means a novice in the hotel business, having, previously, long and acceptably filled that station at the Milburn House, Mishawaka. He also, by the way, belongs to one of Penn township's earliest pioneer families, being himself a native of that section, not of yesterday, either. He bears vivid recollections of the luxuries of the round-log cabin, the country schoolmaster's hickory sprout, and corn-hoeing barefoot among the nettles, as well as do some of the rest of us.
Under the heading of "hotels" the following houses are mentioned in the city
directories, but were perhaps more in the nature of boarding houses than hotels. Emmet
House, corner of Franklin and South streets, F. Sullivan, 1869-70-71-72, Kunstman House
1871-2, 125 South Michigan street, Andrew
The Oliver of today needs no writing up. It speaks for itself, as the pride of South Bend, as unexcelled in the state or in the West, as the latest and highest ideal of hotel appointments, as an enduring monument to its public-spirited and free-handed founder, James Oliver. It may be added, however, that the patronage of the house has proved much more encouraging than was expected by the management.
An item overlooked at the proper place might still be mentioned as fitly illustrative
of the advantages incident to our free institutions where there are the proper elements
of character to render these available. Two of the boys that were diningroom waiters
at the St. Joseph Hotel in the early Sixties merit notice in this connection. Later, one
became a leading attorney at our bar and served as city judge; the other is well
remembered as a member of our city council and long the trustee and efficient employe of
the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway as baggagemaster and ticket agent. I of
course refer to the brothers- the late John and Cornelius Hagerty. Surely,