Casterline Inn

The Casterline Inn sits on property most recently owned by a pair of Casterline brothers. However, the Casterline name goes back to at least 1843 when a “History of Cass County” noted the following: “Thomas J. Casterline was one of the first settlers in the timber lands bordering on the northwest corner of Young’s Prairie, only four families preceding him — a widow lady named Mary Hunter, who had been there some time, and came from Ohio, Albert White and Nathaniel Casterline, the latter came from Allegany County, N.Y., in 1843, and Hiram Wyatt; and, in the fall of 1844, two additional families — a Mr. Vanwart and Gabriel Hathaway — both building their log cabins in the woods ; the former was a blacksmith, and the latter a carpenter and joiner by trade, each being quite an acquisition to the settlement.

Mr. Casterline first mentioned came from Seneca County, N. Y., in the fall of 1844, and settled where he now resides. In the spring, he erected a log cabin, and commenced to clear his land, at the same time abandoning the practice of medicine, excepting in cases of urgent necessity. Even at this late date, they were accustomed to go to Niles, twenty miles distant, and St. Joseph, about forty miles, to do their principal marketing — ox teams being the most used — notwithstanding it had been many years since the settlement of Young’s Prairie and the erection of the county seat at Cassopolis — the principal market then in the county.”

The Casterline House is most often used nowadays for nature researchers with longer term durations. Being landlocked in its current form, the nearest access to this house is the Kelsey Lake entrance by the Motter Maintenance Shop.