| The potential of the water power from the St. Joseph River and its tributary, the little Elkhart, appealed to many, who came to the village of Bristol, IN. |
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| The early settlers developed mills and dams of various types, beginning with a flour and a saw mill, which later burned. Where the St. Joseph and Little Elkhart came together, there was a dam, a sawmill and a distillery for corn whiskey. Edward Bonney built a grain mill on the Elkhart River, and this is the only mill in the area that survives to this day, as the Bonneyville Mill, an Elkhart County park. |
| The river served as the main transportation source, and first keel boats, and later steam boats made regular stops at the port of Bristol. |
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The old store, that still stands and
today houses a business, Reproductive Technologies, was used as both a store and a warehouse. |
| Flour, wheat and whiskey made their way back down river as far as Chicago to the west and eastward through the other Great Lakes. | |
| From the 1840's through the 1870's, the store was run by a legendary character, William Probasco, who came from New Jersey. His son, Robert, wrote the locally famous poem about the men who would gather nightly at the old store to swap stories. Robert's great friend, Solomon Sherwin, whose grandfather Lawrence had come to Bristol in the 1850's from Ireland, was a scholarly man with a fine library. He was thought by some to have the potential to be "the writer" that would make the area famous, but modest, unassuming, and maintaining a 138 acre farm, his talents were never realized. |
To be continued. Please check back later for an update.
