South Bend Was Springing Forward Earlier Than You Think

While Indiana fought Daylight Saving Time for decades, South Bend was changing its clocks anyway… nearly 100 years ago.

BY AARON HELMAN // POSTED MARCH 17, 2026

It was just a few weeks ago that we all sprung forward, giving up that extra hour of sleep for an extra hour of sunlight in the evening. Of course, it wasn't too many years ago that we didn't ever spring forward at all — at least not in Indiana.

The United States first adopted Daylight Savings Time in 1918 in an attempt to conserve energy during World War I. Believe it or not, every state participated in the effort, including Indiana. At war's end, DST was repealed, but it came back a few decades later, during the second World War, and for all the same reasons.

After World War II, policymakers realized that it was a worthwhile goal to conserve energy even during times of peace, and there began a nationwide push to make Daylight Savings Time an annual tradition.

It was an annual tradition that Indiana wanted nothing to do with. They'd played along during times of war, adjusting their clocks to support their soldiers, but they also had their own people to think about. They had farmers to consider.

The story tells that Indiana voted down DST on the behest of the state's dairy lobby. Milk cows, it was said, are creatures of habit. It was not good to change those habits, and dairy cows had little understanding of clock-based energy conservation efforts.

Hoosier cows had their way for a while, but in 2006, the Indiana state legislature made a move that 47 states had made decades earlier. They voted to adopt Daylight Savings Time. For the first time ever, Indiana sprung forward of its own volition.

It was strange for some and confusing for many, but most of us mostly figured it out. You probably remember the excitement and anxiety that attended that first time change in half a century.

But what you might not know is that while Daylight Savings Time was new for Indiana, it was old news in South Bend — a city that voted to spring forward all the way back in 1931.

People tolerated the first iteration of Daylight Savings Time because it was a war and because they were doing it for their country. But when that first World War ended, they were thrilled to give up the biannual changing of the clocks, and probably they were sure they would never have to do it again.

An agricultural nation works on the rhythms of the sunrise. It works with animals who don't wear watches. Morning comes when the cock crows, and there's no turning back the rooster an hour in the fall.

So when the Great War ended, DST was retired and left unmourned. Most people didn't give it a second thought.

But business leaders took notice, and what they noticed was something they hadn't expected. DST was supposed to conserve energy and save money, but it also gave consumers more hours of daylight at the end of the day to go out, visit stores, and spend money. For a business owner, that meant more money.

So the farmers hated DST because it created headaches, and the businessmen loved it because it created more revenues.

In the end, money tends to win.

The years between the wars were something of a Wild West when it came to the management of the nation's clocks. Daylight Savings Time phased out with the end of the Great War, but municipalities — and in some cases, individual businesses — were allowed to make their own decisions on the matter.

Throughout the 1920s, the Indiana statehouse considered bills that hoped to bring DST to the Hoosier State. In every case, they voted those bills down. In 1931, they took it a step further. They passed legislation specifically banning the adoption of Daylight Savings Time.

South Bend's men of industry weren't beholden to the causes of the men at the state house. They were ready to take matters into their own hands, and so were voters at ballot boxes across St. Joseph County.

The first shoe dropped when Penn Township — and only Penn Township — voted to adopt Daylight Savings Time against the state's edict. A few weeks later, Bendix announced that its factory would adopt DST regardless of what the rest of the city, county, or state chose to do.

Studebaker was next to announce that it would adopt DST at all of its factories. The railroads crossing through South Bend came next, announcing that arrivals and departures would be timed on DST. The churches were the last domino to fall, and they took out ads in the newspaper to inform their parishioners about their decision to observe the time change.

It was politics by force, and when the City Council met to discuss the issue before them, it was no longer about the merits of the energy saving measure. It was a question of chaos versus sanity. They could vote with their colleagues at the state house, and their city would run on a pair of different clocks for six months...

...or they could vote the way the businessmen were pushing them and restore order.

They voted to restore order. On April 26, 1931, South Bend sprung forward as one.

The State of Indiana stayed out of it. They seemed content to let South Bend do what it wanted to do, and apparently what South Bend wanted to do was to change its clocks twice a year. The city adopted DST again in 1932, 1933, and 1934. In 1935, the City Council passed a resolution to make it permanent.

When the United States got involved with World War II, the nation adopted DST all over again, but South Bend was already doing it.

In 1949, after the war ended, the state of Indiana passed an even stronger law that was supposed to make impossible the observation of Daylight Savings Time in the Hoosier State. South Bend acted in defiance of that law, too, and they would continue to do so until 1965.

If you woke up on March 8 grumbling about the time change, you're in good company. For more than 40 years, South Bend's newspapers filled up with op-eds and community letters from frustrated residents every single April and again every single October. But for more than thirty years, they all ended up changing their clocks anyway, even though the state disallowed it.

Daylight Savings Time might still seem a novelty for long-time residents of South Bend, but it turns out, it's not. During the last 100 years, the people who live here have sprung forward more often than they haven't.