ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 231 



ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



This was set off and named as a separate county by enactment of the Leg- 

 islative Council of the Territory, approved October 29th, 1829, and was organ- 

 ized in pursuance of a subsequent act of the same body, approved November 

 4th, 1829. It was named by the Jesuits in honor of the husband of the Vir- 

 gin Mary, who was regarded by them as che patron saint of " New France," 

 their name for what is now our northwestern States and Canada. 



At the date of the first wliite settlements the county was, in part, occupied 

 by the Pottawattomie Indian reservation. An exploration for the purpose of 

 settlement was made about the year 1825, but a few French " habitans" had, 

 several years previously, settled here for the purpose of trade with the 

 Indians, and had done something in an indifferent way in the cultivation of 

 the soil. 



In 1826 John W. Fletcher, Captain Moses Allen (spoken of in connection 

 with the first exploration of Hillsdale county), and a Mr. Hubbard of Wayne 

 county made a prospecting tour through this county, at which time there 

 were no settlements west of Washtenaw and L'jnawee, save one at Bertrand 

 in Berrien county. The prospectors returned east, and within a short time 

 Allen and Fletcher became settlers, the first, for agricultural purposes, in the 

 St. Joseph Valley. 



In 1827 John Winchell, Leonard Cutler and Arba Heald settled on Pigeon 

 Prairie. A Mr. — Olds and Asahel Savery came the same year, also others 

 ^t Mottville, and George Thurston and John Sturgis on Sturgis Prairie. 



So far as has been learned, the first nursery in the county was planted by 

 Leonard Cutler on White Pigeon Prairie about 1830. No nurseries remain 

 at the present time within the county, it being the impression of most 

 planters that eastern grown trees are to be preferred. 



Among the first orchards planted was one of twenty-five trees by Thomas 

 Burns, on lands now owned by J. A. Hartzer. A few of the trees yet remain, 

 now fifty-four years old. 



Elias W. Taylor, the oldest Indian trader in this region, planted about 

 thirty-three apple trees in the spring of 1832, near where the village of 

 Mottville now stands, a few of which yet remain. 



When Thomas Burns settled here, in 1832, there was an orchard, then, 

 apparently fifty years old, just back of an old trading house, on the bank of 

 St. Joseph river, where the village of Mottville now stands. A few of 

 these old trees are yet standing upon the river bank. 



In 1868 apples yielded only one-fourth of an average crop, owing to the 

 preceding cold winter and spring, and the prevalence of the codling moth. 

 Peaches were but one-tenth of an average crop. 



In 1869 apples were mostly frozen before gathering. 



In 1870 a fine display of fiowers and house plants added great beauty to 

 the floral hall. 



In 1876 a collection of fruit from this county was contributed to the ex- 

 hibit of the State Pomological Society, at the Centennial, by A. J. True, of 

 Three Kivers. 



\f An association known as the Colon and Matteson Pomological Society was 

 organized as auxiliary to the State Horticultural Society, on the 8th of 

 October, 1879, at which date it held a successful meeting and made a fine 



