St. Joseph County (Saint Joseph County)
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French colonists in the late 17th century were the first Europeans to explore this territory, and they named the St. Joseph River for the patron saint of New France. This area was not part of the United States until after the American Revolutionary War. After the 1821 Treaty of Chicago was signed, regional tribes of the indigenous peoples ceded much land to the United States, opening the area for American settlement. The county was set off and organized by the Michigan Territory legislature in 1829; it was named for the river.
The area is home to the oldest and largest Amish community in Michigan.
St. Joseph County comprises the Sturgis, MI Micropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek-Portage, MI Combined Statistical Area.
This area was settled by members of the three Algonquian-speaking tribes of the Council of Three Fires: the Potawatomi, Odawa, and Chippewa (known as Ojibwa in Canada). French explorers in a party led by Father Hennepin came upriver from Lake Michigan in 1679. A Jesuit mission was established near where the French later built Fort St. Joseph, and they named the waterway as the St. Joseph River.
After the United States and tribal representatives made the 1821 Treaty of Chicago, much of the land in this region was ceded by the tribes to Michigan Territory, so more settlers came from Detroit, Monroe and later from New England and upstate New York. The first were ethnic French. The Godfroy brothers of Detroit built a trading post south of the river, near the later Marantette House site. They appointed Frances Mouton as an agent to trade with the natives of the Nottawaseepe (sippi) settlement. They had another post nearby where Patrick Marantette, also from Detroit, first worked as an agent. He ended up settling in and marrying Mouton's daughter Francis. Theirs was the first marriage in the settlement, and their daughter the first European American born here, in 1836.
Map - St. Joseph County (Saint Joseph County)
Map
Country - United_States
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| Flag of the United States | |
Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Americas for thousands of years. Beginning in 1607, British colonization led to the establishment of the Thirteen Colonies in what is now the Eastern United States. They quarreled with the British Crown over taxation and political representation, leading to the American Revolution and proceeding Revolutionary War. The United States declared independence on July 4, 1776, becoming the first nation-state founded on Enlightenment principles of unalienable natural rights, consent of the governed, and liberal democracy. The country began expanding across North America, spanning the continent by 1848. Sectional division surrounding slavery in the Southern United States led to the secession of the Confederate States of America, which fought the remaining states of the Union during the American Civil War (1861–1865). With the Union's victory and preservation, slavery was abolished nationally by the Thirteenth Amendment.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| USD | United States dollar | $ | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| EN | English language |
| FR | French language |
| ES | Spanish language |