Editing St. Joseph, Michigan (section)

==History==
The mouth of the St. Joseph River at present day St. Joseph was an important point of Amerindian travel and commerce, as it lay along a key water route between the [[Great Lakes]] and the [[Mississippi River]]. Both the [[Miami tribe|Miami]] and [[Potawatomi]] used this route and would use the area as a camp.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/archives/miamis21/M78_6a.html |title=French and Indian Footprints |access-date=2016-02-06  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625055042/http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/archives/miamis21/M78_6a.html |archive-date=June 25, 2010 }}</ref> The St. Joseph River also allowed for connection with the [[Sauk Trail]], which was the major land trail through Michigan. In 1669, the mouth of the river was seen by European explorers. French explorer [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]], built [[Fort Miami (Michigan)|Fort Miami]] on the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sjcity.com/visit_relo/tour.phtml |title=City of St. Joseph, Michigan |access-date=2016-02-06  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104110653/http://www.sjcity.com/visit_relo/tour.phtml |archive-date=January 4, 2010 }}</ref> In 1678, he waited for the ship ''[[Le Griffon]]'', which never returned. Once the ship was deemed lost, La Salle and his men made the first land crossing of the lower peninsula by Europeans.{{sfn|Eccles|1997|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8N4ckSmAiL0C&pg=PA134 134]}}

The next permanent white settler in St. Joseph was William Burnett, who around 1780 started a [[trading post]] at the mouth of the St. Joseph River.{{sfn|Coolidge|1906|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3G0Qo9lf4nsC/page/19 19]}}  The post traded food, furs and goods with places including Detroit, Mackinac and Chicago.<ref name="hist">{{cite journal|title=History of Saint Joseph |journal=[[Michigan History (magazine)|Michigan History Magazine]] |url=http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/swmich/stjoehistory.pdf  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105152628/http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/swmich/stjoehistory.pdf |archive-date=January 5, 2009 }}</ref> In 1829, [[Calvin Britain]], who had come from [[Jefferson County, New York]], and had taught at the [[Carey Mission]] at [[Niles, Michigan|Niles]] for two years, came to the site of St. Joseph.{{sfn|Fuller|1916|page=[https://archive.org/details/economicsocialbe01full/page/276 266]}}  Shortly thereafter, he laid out the plat of the village, then known as Newburyport, named after [[Newburyport, Massachusetts|a coastal city in Massachusetts]]. Britain was influential in attracting other settlers to the area. Lots sold rapidly and the village flourished.{{sfn|Fuller|1916|pages=[https://archive.org/details/economicsocialbe01full/page/275 275–76.]}}

The St. Joseph river mouth was straightened through a channel and piers were added later. The first [[lighthouse]] in St. Joseph contends with Chicago's original lighthouse as the first to be built on Lake Michigan. Newburyport changed its name to St. Joseph when it was incorporated on March 7, 1834.<ref name="hist"/> The city was incorporated June 5, 1891.

The first water route across Lake Michigan between St. Joseph and Chicago began as a mail route in 1825, but service was sporadic until 1842 when Samuel and Eber Ward began a permanent service. That lasted eleven years. Before the rise of large ship companies on Lake Michigan, service was done primarily by owner-operated boats. With the rise in shipping in Benton Harbor and the rise in tourism in St. Joseph, permanent and larger operations began operating out of the ports.{{sfn|Hilton|2002}}

[[File:St Joseph has a Coast Guard station built on the site of this Lifesaving Service station from 1874.jpg|thumb|left|Original St Joseph Lifesaving Service boathouse, circa 1874.]]  
The Coast Guard still maintains a station on this site.{{efn-ua| As keeper of the Saint Joseph Life-Saving Station, Station 6, Joseph Napier demonstrated his heroism during multiple rescues as a career lifesaver on the Great Lakes. His gallantry was no more visible than on the day he risked his life and led his crew into gale-force winds to save six souls aboard a stranded vessel."<ref name=UscgBioJosephNapier/>}}
In 1876 the [[United States Lifesaving Service]] built a Lifesaving Station at St Joseph, appointing [[Joseph Napier (USCG)|Joseph Napier]] as the first stationkeeper.<ref name=UscgBioJosephNapier>
{{cite news 
| url         = http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/index.php/2010/11/coast-guard-heroes-joseph-napier/
| title       = Coast Guard Heroes: Joseph Napier
| publisher   = [[United States Coast Guard]]
| author      = Connie Braesch
| date        = 2010-11-08
| archive-date = 2012-09-03
| archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120903062911/http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/index.php/2010/11/coast-guard-heroes-joseph-napier/
| url-status     = live }}
</ref>
[[File:St. Joseph downtown (2020-09-24) 02.jpg|alt=|thumb|226x226px|Downtown St. Joseph]][[File:Maritime Heritage Trail, St. Joseph.jpg|alt=|thumb|226x226px|Maritime Heritage Trail Park]]After a bitterly fought political contest, St. Joseph was named the seat of Berrien County in 1894, when [[Berrien Springs, Michigan|Berrien Springs]] relinquished that status. The three largest towns in the county, [[Benton Harbor]], St. Joseph, and [[Niles, Michigan|Niles]], each wanted to be the county seat, but none had a majority vote. Once St. Joseph and Benton Harbor voters combined their votes, St. Joseph had enough to win.{{sfn|Fedynsky|2010|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ogrel7yYnvQC&pg=PA25 25]}}

On October 11, 1898, [[Augustus Moore Herring]] took one of his [[Glider aircraft|gliders]], fitted with a motor, to [[Silver Beach Amusement Park|Silver Beach]] in St. Joseph. Herring's machine lifted ever so slightly off the ground and actually flew for seven seconds. Eleven days later, the inventor made another flight of ten seconds. While Herring had a powered heavier-than-air craft, he did not have a way to control it. It was left to the [[Wright brothers]] to perfect controlled flight five years later, and give themselves and [[Kitty Hawk, North Carolina]], a place in history that might have ended up belonging to Herring and St. Joseph.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0207.shtml|title=Aerospaceweb.org - Ask Us - Augustus Herring & the Wright Brothers|work=aerospaceweb.org |access-date=May 9, 2015}}</ref>

===Transportation history===
Two major shipping companies operated between St. Joseph and Chicago during the last half of the 19th century, the Goodrich Transportation Company and the local firm of Graham and Morton. They dominated the traffic at St. Joseph for more than 100 years, although other smaller companies did operate during this time.

Starting in 1874, Henry Graham and J. Stanley Morton began operating a steam line out of St. Joseph. Their collaboration would become the Graham and Morton Transportation Company.<ref>{{cite book |title=Graham and Morton Line (from old catalog)|url=https://archive.org/details/grahammortonline00grah |date=1915 |author=Graham & Morton transportation co. |location=Chicago, Illinois, St. Joseph, Mich. |publisher=A. B. Morse company, [[Library of Congress]]
|page=32 |access-date=May 9, 2015}}</ref> Through vigorous competition, they won the war to become the major carrier out of St. Joseph. Goodrich stopped service to the Twin Cities in 1880. The company grew quickly and over the fifty plus years of its existence became the second largest line on Lake Michigan, behind only Goodrich.{{sfn|Hilton|2002}}
 
In 1924, as graded roads began to line the Lake Michigan shoreline, G & M was forced to merge into Goodrich. Like most other ports along Lake Michigan, St. Joseph saw a large drop in traffic during the early years of the twentieth century, which was exacerbated further by the Great Depression. The route between Chicago and St. Joseph survived until the 1950s.{{sfn|Hilton|2002}}
 
On January 29, 1870, the [[Chicago and Michigan Lake Shore Railroad]] extended a rail line from [[New Buffalo, Michigan|New Buffalo]] to St. Joseph. This railroad connected St. Joseph to [[Grand Rapids, Michigan|Grand Rapids]], [[Muskegon, Michigan|Muskegon]], Detroit and Chicago. (Prior to this, the only connection St. Joseph had to these other cities was by water.) The line was reorganized as the [[Chicago and West Michigan Railway]] and then was incorporated into the [[Pere Marquette Railroad]]. Nowadays it is recognized as the CSX Grand Rapids Subdivision which runs from Chicago, IL to Grand Rapids, MI along the former Pere Marquette Railroad. Passenger Rail Service is provided by Amtrak's "Pere Marquette" service running from Chicago, IL to Grand Rapids, MI, with stops in St. Joseph, Bangor, Holland, and Grand Rapids. Service is offered with one daily round trip.

===Business and industry history===
In 1892, Truscott Boat Manufacturing Co moved to St. Joseph from Grand Rapids. In the early 20th Century, the company was the largest employer in St. Joseph with 700 employees and built 600 wooden boats per year. The company built boats for the government in World War I, struggled during the Depression, was sold in 1940, revived during World War II to build ships for the Navy and went bankrupt in 1948.<ref>Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Maritime Industry By Kenneth J. Blume 2012</ref>

In 1911, [[Frederick and Louis Upton|Louis, Emory, and Frederick Upton]] began a business that produced household [[washing machine]]s. The business soon became a boom and has continued to grow to this day. In 1929, Upton Machine Company merged with Nineteen Hundred Corp., taking the latter name. The company began marketing a line of appliances known as the "Whirlpool" brand in 1948. Within the next decade, Nineteen Hundred changed its name to Whirlpool. Today, [[Whirlpool Corporation]] is the largest manufacturer of major home appliances and maintains a large presence in Benton Harbor and nearby St. Joseph. Whirlpool has its world headquarters in Benton Harbor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.whirlpoolcorp.com/about/history/1940s.asp |title=Whirlpool in the 1940s |access-date=2016-02-06  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081008052533/http://www.whirlpoolcorp.com/about/history/1940s.asp |archive-date=October 8, 2008 }}</ref>

In 1891 the [[Silver Beach Amusement Park]] was opened on land between the lake and mouth of the river in St. Joseph. Logan Drake and Louis Wallace bought the land from the [[Pere Marquette Railroad]] and added cottages to lure tourists to the lake front. As the park aged and grew in popularity, the pair added many attractions, including concessions, games, pool, a boardwalk and different rides. The first [[roller coaster]] was built in 1904 and was called the Chase Through the Clouds, which was replaced by the Velvet roller coaster (renamed the Comet). Among the most popular attractions were the [[carousel]] and the Shadowland Ballroom, built in 1927. During the 1960s and 1970s, the buildings decayed and the crowds decreased. Finally, crime in the park led police to shut it down in 1970.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.swmidirectory.org/History_of_Silver_Beach_Amusement_Park.html|title=Silver Beach Amusement Park History: The Southwest Michigan Directory|first1=Alan |last1=Schultz |first2=Jeff |last2=Terrill |first3=John|last3=Wenzlaff |journal=Michigan History Magazine |publisher=Southwest Michigan Business & Tourism Directory swmidirectory.org |access-date=May 9, 2015}}</ref>