SOUTH BEND, Ind., city, county-seat of Saint Joseph County, on Saint Joseph's River near the source of the Kankakee River, and on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the New Jersey, Indiana and Illinois, the Michigan Central, the Saint Joseph, South Bend and Southern, the Terre Haute and Indiana, the Pennsylvarria and the Grand Trunk West ern railroads, about 89 miles east of Chicago, 135 miles north of Indianapolis, and six miles south of the Michigan State boundary. It is connected by electric lines with Mishawaka, Elkhart, Goshen, La Porte, Michigan City, Val paraiso and' New Carlisle, and Niles, Mich., all of which cities and towns contribute to the prosperity of South Bend. The census of 1910 gives the combined population of these places as 86,000. It was settled in 1824 by Alexis Coquillard. It is in the region traversed early by the missionaries and explorers. Across the northern portion of the city was the old portage from the Saint Joseph to the Kankakee. La Salle visited here in 1679 and later years as he journeyed from the "lakes)) to the interior. He founded here an Indian village, the Miami tribe; but later the Pottawattomis occupied the place. It is in a fertile agricultural region in which stock-raising is given considerable atten tion.
The city is the industrial centre for a large portion of Northern Indiana. Some of the manufactures are plows, wagons, auto mobiles and automobile bodies, clover hullers, woolen goods, paper, toys, shirts, sewing ma chine parts, blank-books, bicycles, baking pow der, bluing, bank, bar and office furniture, beer, steam boilers, electrical appliances, street sprinklers, wood and paper boxes, brick, cement, brooms, confectionery, cigars, barrels, culti vators, cutlery, dowels, furniture, feed mills, flour, harness, harrows, machinery, ice, knit underwear, lumber, tombstones, mattresses, proprietary medicines, linseed oil, varnish, pul leys. rubber stamps, sash, blinds, doors, screens, seeders, sheet iron products, steel ranges, mal leable steel castings, spark arresters, mineral waters, steel skeins, fishing tackle, indurated fibra goods, pharmaceutical goods for, physicans, cigar boxes, electrotypes, grain drills, roofing, automobiles, watches, etc. Nearly all the South Bend factories work the entire year.
The government census of 1914 gives the number of manufacturing establishments 250, the amount of capital invested $54,148,000, the number of employees in the manufactories, not including members of firms, 14,304, annual wages $9 A36,000. cost of material used annually
$12,742,000, value of products $31,180,000. The capital invested in the carriage and wagon fac tories is about $20,000,000, and the value of the annual output $10,000,000. The output of the agricultural implements works is about $3,500,000, and of the foundry and machine shop products $3,500,000. There are over 40 wholesale houses.
Buildings and Parks.— The principal public buildings are the government building, county courthouse and county jail ($40,000), city hall $75,000, Chamber of Commerce, Y. M. C. A. building, Saint Joseph's Hospital, Saint An thony's Convent, the city hospital and two theatres. The public parks embrace 280 acres. There are four one 20-acre play field and 13 social centres. The water supply comes largely from 62 artesian wells; there are about 100 miles of water mains.
Churches and, There are 44 church buildings and 51 church organizations, representing 18 different denominations. The educational institutions are one public high school, 18 public schools, 12 parish schools, Saint Aloysius and Saint Joseph's academies, conservatory of music, commercial schools, teachers' training school, historical society and a public library. Just outside the limits of the City, in the village of Notre Dame, are the large Roman Catholic schools, the University of Notre Dame (q.v.) for men and Saint Mary's College for women.
Banks and The four national banks have a combined capital of $500,000; the County Savings Bank has resources to the amount of $4,500,000, deposits $5,000,000 and a surplus of $250,000. There are six building and loan associations.
Government and govern ment is administered under a special charter granted by the legislature which provides for a mayor and a council of 10 members. The mem bers of the council hold office for a term of two years. There are about 20 nationalities repre sented in the city. The various industries and the good wages attract skilled workmen to South Bend. The principal nationalities, other than the English-speaking races, are Germans, Swedes, Poles, Belgians, Hungarians and Danes. Pop. 65,300.