Dr. Havilah Beardsley's curiosity about the Elkhart area was piqued by reports he'd heard about the beauty of the area. On his first arrival, he quickly saw the potential for water power that could be generated by Elkhart's three waterways (the Elkhart and St. Joseph Rivers, and Christiana Creek). He quickly set about making the business opportunities he envisioned a reality. Although he was trained as a physician, he did not have much interest in continuing to practice medicine. He soon became best-known as Elkhart's leading businessman.
Initially, he build a mill for grinding corn at the mouth of Christiana Creek. A sifter was soon added, much to the delight of the Indians and few white settlers. In the following year the father of Elkhart placed a rope ferry across the St. Joseph River, and built a sawmill not far from the corn mill. He built additional sawmills on Yellow Creek and Baugo Creek (near Jamestown, or "Jimtown." From these mills, he sold high grade ash, poplar and black walnut lumber $3 to $4 per 1,000 feet. The ready source of lumber was to attract more settlers to the area to build.
As the city and demand for services grew, Beardsley improved his cornmill by adding machinery to grind wheat. Then, on Christiana Creek, he built a linseed oil mill, a woolen factory and public carding machines and, at the foot of Main Street, near where the Main Street Bridge is now, he established another rope ferry across the St. Joseph River.
In 1840, Havilah dug a canal (race) from Christiana Creek to the St. Joseph River Bluffs (see map). Because this race dropped a total of 26 feet over its course, it produced a great amount of power. The finished canal divided into a "Y" and entered both mills through underground plumes. From there it flowed through a power turbine and emptied into the river. The first mill built on the bluff was erected in 1840. Owned by Dr. Havilah Beardsley and later by his son, the mill produced flour until the early 1900s.
In 1846 he built another mill located several hundred feet downstream from the flour mill. This mill produced paper products from rags. It also had the distinction of being the second paper mill built in Indiana. Its operation ceased in 1891. Today, the only visible sign of the mills' existence is a portion of the dry race bed running south from the creek to the river.
In 1850 Dr. Beardsley was active in securing the location of the Michigan Southern Railway Company, donating land for the railroad's machine shops.
Beardsley, to say the least, was a highly energetic entrepreneur. Even with all of his business interests, he was still respected as a doctor. He also served the county in one term as associate judge and was talked of as a candidate for governor on the Whig ticket. But his greatest contribution to the Elkhart area is probably his zeal for developing industry, because that became the lifeblood of the new town.
