St. Joseph County, Indiana

St. Joseph County Education, Geography, and History

St. Joseph County is a county located in the state of Indiana. Census 2010 put the population at 266,931. St. Joseph was created in 1830. The county seat is South Bend.  The county is named for the St. Joseph River which flows through it toward Lake Michigan.

St. Joseph County is part of the South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Etymology - Origin of St. Joseph County Name

The county is named for the St. Joseph River which was itself named for the Catholic Saint, husband of the Virgin Mary.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: CensusBureau Quick Facts

St. Joseph County History

St. Joseph County was organized January 29, 1830 becoming effective April 1, 1830.

St. Joseph County is divided into 13 Civil Townships as follows: Center, Clay, German, Greene, Harris, Liberty, Lincoln, Madison, Olive, Penn, Portage, Union and Warren.

Geography: Land and Water

As reported by the Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 461 square miles (1,194 km²), of which 457 square miles (1,185 km²) is land and 4 square miles (9 km²) (0.79%) is water.

St. Joseph county is located in north Indiana. The St. Joseph River flows through this county toward Lake Michigan.

Neighboring Counties

Bordering counties are as follows:

• Northeast: Cass County, Mich.
• East: Elkhart County
• South: Marshall County
• Southwest: Starke County
• West: La Porte County
• Northwest: Berrien County, Mich.

Education

Colleges & universities

Bethel College
Brown Mackie College
Holy Cross College
Ivy Tech North Central
Indiana University South Bend
St. Mary's College
University of Notre Dame

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