Belgian Settlement and Society in the Indiana Rust Belt^*

* Research for this article was funded by the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Women's Network Margaret Trussell Scholarship. I wish to thank the four reviewers for their comments and helpful suggestions and gratefully acknowledge the support of Susan W. Hardwick in this endeavor.

Abstract

At first glance the industrial city of Mishawaka, near the northern border of Indiana, appears to be ethnically homogeneous. Closer examination, however, reveals the rich ethnic heritage of Mishawaka, as it does in so many other Rust Belt cities from Pittsburgh to Chicago. One of the most fascinating of these immigrant stories is the rise of Belgian Town, on Mishawaka's southwest side. This study examines residential, commercial, and social patterns of this evolving ethnic community during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Although industrial jobs attracted immigrants to the city, creation of a Flemish Catholic church provided the foundation on which to build a tightly knit Belgian community.

• ethnic geography
• Flemish
• Indiana
• Mishawaka
• Rust Belt

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan E. Hume

Ms. Hume is a doctoral candidate in geography at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403‐1251.