History of Benton Harbor, MI

*History of Berrien County, MI

*Fort St. Joseph, in Niles, MI, was probably the most prosperous of the early fort sites in this area. Historians believe that the fort was built in 1691 to aid in trade on the Saint Joseph River. The fort was taken over by the Spanish in 1781 and then by the British before the Revolutionary war.

*Another popular trading post in our area was that of William Burnett. He took an Indian bride, Kakima, and together they established a trading post about a half mile north of the Napier street bridge in 1775. He disappeared during the War of 1812, but his wife and son (James) successfully ran the post until 1833.

*Berrien became an official county in the territory of Michigan in 1831. It was named after John Berrien, the attorney general of the U.S. at the time. Even more people flocked to Michigan after it became an official state, in 1837.

In the 1820s, a teacher and businessman, *Calvin Britain laid out the town of Newburyport. It actually sits under the water in Lake Michigan now, but it was the original site of SJ. In 1833, they officially changed their name to St. Joseph.

Eleazor Morton was one of the most respected men in the area. People would come from all over would come to seek his advice.

*Henry, one of Eleazor's sons, also became a prominent man in the area. He helped his dad build the house that still stands at 501 Territorial. *He also helped to build the canal that made BH what it is today.

*Important "firsts" in Benton Harbor:

*J.S. Morton (Henry's son) started the first newspaper between Detroit and Chicago, right here in BH, he called it the Palladium. The newspaper had several owners, but ran smoothly after J.N. Klock bought the paper. *The current Palladium can trace it's roots back to the one started here in 1868.

*The very first car was built and tested on the streets of Benton Harbor! :)

*In 1894, the Baushke family, of BH, built something similar to a sedan, it was powered by gasoline and sat 5 people. It only went 23.5 mph, but that was considered really fast compared to the 8 mph a horse went. *People lined up on the streets of Benton Harbor to see the unveiling of this "horseless carriage". But the engineer that the brothers had hired had already left, gone down to Kokomo, IN and sold the idea to make the "Haynes Machine", which was later claimed to be the first automobile.

So BH really could've been the Motor City. Members of Baushke family were early converts to the House of David (we'll get to that later).

*The United States government could never get Capone on anything more than tax evasion. But before he went to jail in 1921, he held his going away party at the Vincent Hotel in BH.

Still to come, The House of David and an examination of Benton Harbor's fine infrastructure...

*(With an emphasis on Benton Harbor)

*The very first people in Berrien County

*Paleoindians are believed to be the first inhabitants of Berrien County. *We know that they were here because there is evidence of them. *Their old campsites can be found in what used to be inland lakes and rivers. This was when the glaciers that created the Great Lakes (and thus Michigan) were still melting.

Why "Benton" Harbor?

*Benton Harbor was originally named Brunson Harbor, after Sterne Brunson. But locals renamed the town when Michigan was trying to gain statehood.

Thomas Benton was a Missouri Senator who supported Michigan becoming a state, naming our town after him was a simple "Thank you".

*As the weather in this area changed, so did the ways that these first people hunted and lived. They began to use arrowheads when hunting. They also started to be more elaborate in the ways that they buried their dead.

*Brunson Harbor was founded as a city in 1860. *The city was founded by Sterne Brunson, Calvin Britain, and Henry Morton, and Charles Hull.

The *Hopewellians were a group of native people that lived all throughout southwest Michigan. *This group is most widely known for being "mound builders", using mounds of earth to bury their dead. Several of these mounds are believed to be in downtown Kalamazoo.

This area (BH) was basically a marshland and needed constant drainage. *The 4 men conspired to have a canal dug into Benton Harbor so that the city could take advantage of the river access. The canal was dug in 1862 and was expanded in 1868 so that large ships could turn around.

Pipestone Street 1906

*Local history:

*Benton Harbor's 1st settlers:

*The Saint Joseph River is named after the patron saint of Canada (remember, a lot of Canadians are French), but it was originally called the Miami River.

Relationships with the Native Americans in this area were cordial in the early 1800s. Many early settlers would often open their homes, or porches, to the native people, especially when it was cold outside. 2 of BH's early settlers were well-known for this.

*James Sorter often allowed for families of Native Americans to stay with his family. One morning, after they woke, they realized that the people who were staying with them had stolen much of their winter supply of food. They were surprised and upset, until later that week when a slaughtered deer arrived on their front porch, as payment for the stolen food.

*Eleazor and Joanna Morton moved here from Syracruse, NY with their 10 children. He bought 160 acres in Benton Township and in 1836, built a log cabin, which if it was standing today, would be right in the center of Main Street. The Morton's also welcomed travelers into their home. *Their property at 501 Territorial became a sort of wayside for travelers, as this road was the only suitable road between Chicago and Detroit. *Territorial Road used to be known as the Great Sauk Trail.

Eleazor Morton

*White men who "discovered" this area:

*Benton Harbor's Fruit Market:

*Jacques Marquette is the first white man credited to have entered this area.

*Gangsters in Benton Harbor:

SW Michigan happens to sit in an area of the state that makes it very easy for us to produce great tasting fruit that cannot be grown in the areas around us.

*Because of the canal, the fruit commerce in Benton Harbor went through the roof! In the 1870s ships were leaving dock with 300,000 cases of fruit each week.

However, *Rene Robert Cavalier Sieur de la Salle appears to have been the first white man to have had made an impact on the area. *He is credited with having built Fort Miami (where SJ is now). La Salle was hoping that the area would become a prosperous, French, fur-trading post. But he was so hated by his men that they killed him on a trip. Fort Miami fell to disuse shortly after la Salle's death, but many others would settle near the fort site, some reinhabiting it for a time.

*Al Capone's was a face that was incredibly common to see in BH in the 1920s and early 1930s. *Prohibition had led the Chicago gangsters towards Michigan.

*Even today, Benton Harbor still has the largest fruit market in the state.

*Berrien County was supplying much of the fruits and vegetables needed to make alcohol in the 1920s. Our county was also apparently a good place to dump a body, according to Chicago mobsters.

*Niles is known as the city of 4 flags because 4 different nations were claiming the area around the same time (France, Britain, Spain and the U.S.).