BERRIEN COUNTY. 235 



'Central railroads, renders this an attractive region to the commercial orchard- 

 ist, as well as to the amateur." 



Cass county, according to the census of 1884, has of 



Apple orchards, G,990 acres, 241,504 bearing trees, yielding in 1883, 70,929 

 bushels of fruit. 



Peach orchards, 223 acres, 4,044 bearing trees, yielding in 1883, 40 bushels 

 of fruit. 



The value of orchard products of all kinds sold or consumed in 1883 was 

 435,632.00. 



Vineyards, 30 acres: grapes sold in 1883, 24,645 pounds. 



wine made in 1884, 139 gallons. 



Nurseries, none. 



Market garden products sold in 1883, $4,046.00. 



BERRIEN COUNTY. 



• 



As has been heretofore stated, the Jesuits, Claude Dablon, James Mar- 

 quette and Claude AUouez, who had, in 1668, founded a Catholic mission 

 among the Indians at Sault Ste. Marie, are supposed to have circumnavigated 

 Lake Michigan during the following year, ascending the St. Joseph river a 

 considerable distance, and giving it the name Miami, doubtless from the name 

 of the Indian tribe then inhabiting its banks. It seems doubtful, however, if 

 a permanent establishment of the whites was effected till the arrival of 

 Eobert De LaSalle, in November of that year. The Jesuits are supposed to 

 have founded a mission and built a fort or trading-post here about the year 

 1679. This mission and trading-post are understood to have been maintained 

 until the conspiracy of Pontiac, when they fell a prey to the Indians under 

 his instigation, on the 6th of May, 1763. 



About 1775 a Mr. Burnett established a trading-house near the mouth of 

 the St. Joseph, which was maintained till about the year 18-^5. According 

 to the History of St. Joseph, published by Damon A. Winslow in 1869, there 

 was then standing, about one mile above the mouth of the river, on the lands 

 of Captain Samuel G. I^angley, an old apple orchard, believed to have been 

 planted by Mr. Burnett. 



In the autumn of 1822 the Carey mission was established by Rev. Isaac 

 McCoy, under the auspices of the Baptist Board of Missions, at a point one 

 mile west of the present city of Niles. The advance party consisted of 

 twenty-two persons, who were followed, in December, by the mission family 

 and its attendants, thirty-two in number, and steps were at once put in prog- 

 ress to provide for the sustenance of those connected with the mission. 

 Among other things, an orchard was planted at an early date, which is sup- 

 posed to have been the first in eastern Berrien. 



A. B. Copley, of Decatur, Van Buren county, in a paper read at the annual 

 meeting of the pioneer society, June 7th, 1882, states that a Mr. Thompson 

 came into eastern Berrien in 1823, he being the earliest settler in that local- 

 ity aside from those connected with the Carey mission. 



In the spring of 1825 Benjamin Potter and wife settled one mile north of 

 ithe present city of Niles, and the same spring Wm. Baldwin Jenkins, with 



