When Father Sorin arrived in Indiana in 1841, leaving behind a comfortable life in France for missionary work among the Indians, he found on the present site of Notre Dame only waste land covered with snow, and only one building, a tumble down log hut. With $5 to begin work of erecting a school, he started in courageously, and spent five days repairing the hut and fitting it up so that one half served as a chapel and the other as a dwelling for himself and 6 lay-brothers. In 1844 his little college was chartered as a university by the legislature of Indiana. Father Sorin was elected superior-general of the Order of the Holy Cross for life. Besides Notre Dame, he founded many other schools and colleges in the United States and Canada. He died at South Bend in 1893. His co-worker, Father Badin, was the first priest consecrated in the United States.
The mural frescoes of the main university building are by Luigi Gregori, who was sent from the Vatican for this purpose, and who spent twenty years on this work and on the adjacent Church of the Sacred Heart. The latter is famous for its decoration, especially the beautiful altar. St. Mary's, a large girls' school conducted by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, has also fine buildings of more modern type than Notre Dame.
Schuyler Colfax at one time vice-president of the U.S. and for years an intimate and trusted friend of Lincoln's, lived here in his youth, as did the late James Whitcomb Riley. The soldier who, during the Great War, fired the first gun of the American army in France against the Germans was Alex Arch, a native of this city.
Though born in N.Y., Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885) passed his early years first in New Carlisle, Ind., then in South Bend, where his step-father was county auditor. After doing some journalistic work, he began his public career by making campaign speeches for Henry Clay in 1844. In 1852 he joined the newly formed Republican party, and served in Congress from 1854 to 1869. His name was widely mentioned for the office of postmaster-general in Lincoln's cabinet, but the president selected another man on the ground that Colfax "was a young man, running a brilliant career, and sure of a bright future in any event." In 1863 Colfax was elected Speaker of the House, and in 1868 vice-president. Four years later Colfax was implicated in a corruption charge, which though found groundless by the Senate Judiciary Committee, cast a shadow over the latter part of his life.
James Whitcomb Riley was born in 1853 in Greenfield, Ind. He spent several years as a strolling sign-painter, actor, and musician, during which time he revised plays and composed songs, and grew closely in touch with the life of the Indiana farmer. About 1873 he first contributed verses, especially in the Hoosier dialect, to the papers, and before long had attained a recognized position as poet-laureate of the Western country folk. His materials are the incidents and aspects of village life, especially of the Indiana villages. These he interprets in a manner as acceptable to the naïve as to the sophisticated, which is saying a good deal for this type of verse. Some of his best known books are The Rubaiyat of Doc Sifers, Home Folks, A Defective Santa Claus, The Old Swimmin' Hole, An Old Sweetheart of Mine, and Out to Old Aunt Mary's.
Among the important manufactories of South Bend are plows, sewing-machines, underwear, and motor-cars. The annual value of the combined output is around $60,000,000.
942 M. LA PORTE, Pop. 15,158.
(Train 3 passes 6:06; No. 41, 11:22; No. 25, 8:17; No. 19, 2:22. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 11:46; No. 26, 1:53; No. 16, 2:57; No. 22, 7:07.)
The name La Porte, which in French means "door" or "gate," took its origin from a natural opening through the timber that here interrupted the wide stretch of prairie. The main street of the town is built on an old Indian trail between Detroit and points in Illinois. La Porte was first settled in 1830. It is situated in the heart of a region of beautiful lakes—Clear, Pine, Stone and others—which have given it a wide reputation as a summer resort. The lakes furnish a large supply of natural ice which is shipped to Chicago. The soil about La Porte consists of sandy "timber" loam and vegetable mold, especially adapted to growing potatoes, wheat and corn. Farm and orchard products were early sources of the town's prosperity. There are now numerous manufactures—woolen goods, agricultural engines and implements, lumber and furniture, foundry products, musical instruments, radiators, pianos, blankets, bicycles and flour.