A Bend in Time

Episode 2: The In-Between Years After winning their first game against another college in 1889, Notre Dame football simply vanished — two full seasons with no opponents, no scores, no line of type in any newspaper, and no record of anyone deciding it should be that way. This is the story of the students who wouldn't let it die: a grieving younger brother rebuilding a team that didn't exist, and tw...

Episode 1: The Game They Didn't Know How to Play In November 1887, the University of Michigan came to South Bend to play Notre Dame's first-ever football game — except Notre Dame didn't know how to play. The students had tried learning the sport from a rulebook, and it had not gone well, so the visitors spent the morning teaching it before anyone bothered to keep score. What they finally played la...

Episode 8: Coquillard's Folly This final episode rounds up the milestones that turned a handful of cabins into a real town: Horatio Chapin's dry goods store, Sunday school, and stint as the town's first board president; the county's first sheriff, treasurer, and jail; the courthouse Peter Johnson built for $6,000; and the marriages, births, and everyday lives that filled in the town Coquillard and...

Episode 7: The Trail of Death As the region's new settlements grew, the desire for land grew with it. The land, however, was already occupied. Most of the area's native peoples were coerced, threatened, and then mandated at gunpoint to give up their homelands and move west. This episode traces the forced removal of Chief Menominee's band from Twin Lakes in 1838, the 660-mile march that killed at l...

Episode 6: Coquillard's Folly Canal Fever swept the nation after the Erie Canal turned Buffalo mud into New York gold, and Alexis Coquillard caught it bad. With the fur trade dead and mill-powered boomtowns like Lowell and Rochester as his model, South Bend's founder staked his fortune on a four-mile mill race meant to divert the Kankakee into the St. Joseph and turn South Bend into an industrial...

Episode 5: The First Census By 1831, South Bend is a real town of about 163 people, and this episode goes door to door to meet them: the innkeeper who built the courthouse, the man whose brick house made him "Frederick the Great," a keelboat captain who kept the town supplied before the railroads came, a young newspaperman who'd go on to run the U.S. Government Printing Office, a self-taught docto...

Episode 4: Southold Follow Coquillard and Taylor from fur traders to town-builders: the swamp that rerouted Michigan Road straight through South Bend, the baffling choice of "Southold" for the new post office, the platted streets that still exist today, and the three-thousand-dollar bond that stole the county seat away from a town that existed only on paper. By the end of it, the South Bend finall...

Episode 3: Fur Traders Alexis Coquillard takes over Pierre Navarre's post in 1823, and a young rival, Lathrop Miner Taylor, arrives four years later. Learn how John Jacob Astor built America's first great monopoly by crushing foreign competitors and government trading posts alike, and how his agents in South Bend turned the portage into a two-sided hustle: shipping furs upstream to keep their boss...

Episode 2: Indiana South Bend almost wasn't Indiana at all. When the Northwest Ordinance drew the territory's northern boundary, the future river bend sat squarely inside Michigan Territory — until an 1816 statehood petition, driven by Indiana's fear of being landlocked, pushed the border ten miles further north and swept the portage in almost as an afterthought.   Part of Series 7: Early South Be...

Episode 1: The Portage Twelve thousand years before Pierre Navarre built his cabin on the St. Joseph River, retreating glaciers carved a three-to-five-mile gap between two of the continent's great watersheds — and set South Bend's entire history in motion. In this episode, we trace the story of the St. Joseph-Kankakee portage from the last Ice Age through the arrival of French explorer Robert de L...

Episode 8: Revolutionaries In 1776, the United States' Founding Fathers launched a revolution. 250 years later, they're still here. They've been carved into marble and mountains. They are in your wallet. They have their own national holidays. And some of them have a street named after them in South Bend, Indiana. Learn about some famous revolutionaries' local ties, from Lafayette to Kosciuszcko, o...

Episode 7: Original People Depending on who's telling it, South Bend's story usually begins with the early fur traders coming to set up shop. But they came here because people were here, with lives, trade networks, and entire civilizations around the place that would become South Bend. Miami Street is named for the Miami people of the region, Parkovash for the bison who used to thunder across the...

Episode 6: Civil War Figures After the outbreak of war in 1861, President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers from the loyal northern states. Proud South Benders marched off to distant battlefields and unknown futures in defense of a nation not yet a hundred years old. Soon enough they would become martyrs, heroes, leaders, and legends - and some had streets named after them. Whether it wa...

Episode 5: African American Heroes   As you walk, drive, or bike through St. Joseph County, you'll find roads named for trees, flowers, national heroes, and local figures. However, you'll be hard-pressed to find many named for African American individuals. Learn about three trailblazers who made a difference and the roads that were (re)named for them in this episode of A Bend in Time.    Part of S...

Episode 4: Original Pioneers   When you travel down Ireland Road, do you think of the green fields of Ireland? Or perhaps of the Fighting Irish? Think again! Samuel Irvin Houston Ireland was a very early Mishawaka resident and the first county assessor - our very own "Uncle Sam." Learn more about his family, along with the origins of Day Road and Navarre Street, in this episode of A Bend in Time. ...

Episode 3: University Legends   You might know the story behind Rockne Boulevard or Sorin Street, but did you know the stones in Notre Dame's Grotto paid for a family’s mortgage? Or why there are so many streets named for saints near campus? Learn about these and more in this episode of A Bend in Time!   Interested in learning more about notable Notre Dame figures? Search the University Archives c...

Episode 2: Forgotten Political Figures   Driving down Brick Road or Sample Street, one assumes their common names are references former brick pavers, or perhaps a free sample of something - and one would be wrong. Learn about the legendary political figures Samuel Sample and Abraham Lincoln Brick in this episode of A Bend in Time.    While in Congress, Samuel Sample corresponded regularly regardin...

Episode 1: Lathrop, Miner, Taylor Join us as on A Bend In Time as we travel across South Bend to find the stories behind the names of Lathrop Street, Miner Street, and Taylor Street. See photos of Lathrop Taylor and Miner Listenberger, Taylor's original post office, and even the key to his general store at The History Museum's online artifact collection!    Part of Series 6: Street Names, Volume 1...

Episode 8: Ghosts of the Gilded Age A restored Birdsell Mansion, whispers of West Washington tunnels, Tippecanoe Place’s stairway specters, Studebaker’s after-hours echoes, and a doll named Lucy who might not like strangers.   Part of Series 5: Spooky South Bend A Bend in Time is presented by The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana and hosted by Aaron Helman.  Visit The History Museum's website...

Episode 7: Shadows from the East From Bristol’s Opera House ghosts (Beth, Helen, and Percy) to Elkhart’s Old Bag Factory and Mishawaka’s original Hacienda mansion, we tour stages, shop floors, and dining rooms that refuse to sleep.   Part of Series 5: Spooky South Bend A Bend in Time is presented by The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana and hosted by Aaron Helman.  Visit The History Museum's w...

Episode 6: Grave Warnings After-hours legends from Michiana’s cemeteries: Little Egypt’s angry spirits, Primrose’s Troll Bridge, Portage Prairie’s quiet Dunkards, and South Bend City Cemetery’s bridge to nowhere, where some swear they hear water that never flowed.   Part of Series 5: Spooky South Bend A Bend in Time is presented by The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana and hosted by Aaron Helm...

Episode 5: Michigan Melonheads A beach party near Saugatuck goes dark: every light, every phone, every battery, just as a small, pale figure steps from the dunes. We chase Michigan legends: the buried town of Singapore, haunted shipwrecks off St. Joseph, and Allegan County’s infamous Melon Heads.   Part of Series 5: Spooky South Bend A Bend in Time is presented by The History Museum in South Bend,...

Episode 4: Primrose Road After dark, Primrose Road turns from a sleepy backroad into South Bend’s most storied haunt—tires that mysteriously deflate, engines that die, ritual rumors in the woods, and the ever-watchful lady in white.   Part of Series 5: Spooky South Bend A Bend in Time is presented by The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana and hosted by Aaron Helman.  Visit The History Museum's...

Episode 3: Hauntings on Campus A midnight walk across Notre Dame and St. Mary’s uncovers campus legends: Father Sorin’s lingering presence, the Gipper at Washington Hall, Potawatomi warriors at Columba Hall, and the faceless nun of Le Mans. Eerie history meets enduring hauntings.   Part of Series 5: Spooky South Bend A Bend in Time is presented by The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana and host...

Episode 2: Giants of Walkerton In 1925, a Walkerton farmer uncovered giant skeletons clad in copper armor. The bones vanished, but the legend never did. This is the mystery of Walkerton’s lost giants.   Part of Series 5: Spooky South Bend A Bend in Time is presented by The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana and hosted by Aaron Helman.  Visit The History Museum's website at historymuseumsb.org