USA > Indiana > Kosciusko County > A standard history of Kosciusko County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development. A chronicle of the people with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 11
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OTHER LAKES OF THE COUNTY
Further north, in the northeastern corner of the county, Turkey Creek rises in Wawasee Lake (old Nine Mile Lake), flowing west through its extremity, or Syracuse Lake, and meandering through the northern sections of Van Buren Township, cuts out a small corner of Jefferson Township, and finally leaves the county at the north.
The Tippecanoe River continues its general southwesterly course, throwing out creeks and expanding into little lakes, both north and south. In the northern central sections of Wayne Township, there
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is an especially attractive group, wonderfully improved within the last decade even beyond the beauties of Nature, and dedicated not only to those seeking pleasure, recreation and rest, but the inspiration of the higher life. Winona (formerly Eagle) Lake, the greater gem, is connected with the smaller of the group, Center and Pike lakes, by Walnut Creek and other tributaries of the Tippecanoe. Little Eagle, or Chapman's Lake, in the southeastern part of Plain Town- ship is connected with the group mentioned by what was formerly Deed's Creek, transformed of late years into Heter Ditch.
Farther to the west and forming sections of the southern water- shed of the Tippecanoe is the country watered by Trimble and Yel- low creeks. A well known and attractive expansion of Trimble Creek, on the borders of Harrison and Seward townships, is Pales- tine Lake, while the headwaters of Yellow Creek are merged into a charming group of little lakes in the central sections of Seward Township, the largest of which are Beaver Dam and Yellow. Still farther south is Silver Lake, the bright little child of Silver Creek.
There are several other lakes in the county, serving to make this section one of the noted lake regions of Northern Indiana and the old Middle West (now the Eastern West, if the term may be allowed).
There are few districts in the country which nature has better adapted to the raising of live stock and the development of dairying interests than those included in Kosciusko County.
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY
Originally a heavy growth of walnut, maple, hickory and oak covered most of the southern portion of the county. In the northern sections are the largest of the prairies, such as Big Turkey, Little Turkey and Bone, and the surface of the land, if not level, is gently rolling. These considerable tracts of level land aggregate some 10,000 acres. Both in the northern and other portions of the county were numerous tracts of lowlands, which the early settlers designated as "wet prairies" and which, under modern methods of ditching and drainage, have been reclaimed and made very productive. Such work has been made possible and greatly facilitated, by the wonderful system of drainage provided by Nature.
THE SURFACE GEOLOGY
The surface geology of Kosciusko County has been largely deter- mined by borings and other explorations in the vicinity of the lakes.
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It has been ascertained that there are about forty depressions, which form the beds of as many lakes, some of which eover but a few aeres.
The county lies within the drift formation of the Bowlder Epoeh, in geological parlance. The transported material ranges in thick- ness from about 150 feet on the southeast to 200 feet on the northwest. A sample series of the strata usually encountered is afforded by a well boring made near Silver Lake, in the southeastern part of the county, the result being: Black loam, 4 feet; dark sand, 18 feet ; hard-pan elay, 15 feet; dark sand, 6 feet; blue and gray hard-pan, 30 feet ; light fine sand, 7 feet; gray hard-pan, 8 feet; white sand, 31% feet ; gray hard-pan, 6 feet ; fine white sand, 3 feet ; hard-pan, 6 feet ; hard- pan and sand, 5 feet; fine white sand, 5 feet; small bowlders, 41% feet. Total, 121 feet.
At this point in the boring, the water rose seventy-eight feet in the well, though bed-roek had not yet been reached. It is reasonable to assume that it would have been encountered at least thirty feet farther down.
Other wells have been bored in Warsaw, Etna Green, Syraeuse, Webster and other places, and the general result is to substantially determine the fact that about seventy feet of the drift overlying the area of Koseiusko County is stiff, tenacious clay, with an oeeasional parting of sand, pebbles and transient roek. Where the elay has been unusually solidified, it is termed hard-pan. It is impervious to water, and serves as the bed of many of the lakes in the county. It is also of use as forming the walls of natural water reservoirs, the inter- mediate layers of land completing Nature's filter and insuring purity of supply.
DEPTH OF LAKES
Most of the lakes in Koseiusko County have been "officially" sounded. It is believed that Winona (Eagle) is the deepest lake in the state; certainly the deepest in the county. Its depth is sev- enty-eight feet. Center Lake was sounded by a geologieal party some forty years ago, and found to have a depth of forty-two feet; the greatest depth of Pike Lake is thirty-six feet, and so on down to shallow ponds.
SUNKEN LAKES
A number of sunken lakes have been uncovered, or discovered in Koseiusko County. One of the most notable instanees was the sink- ing from sight of a portion of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago
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Railroad where it crossed the tamarack marsh east of Warsaw. When it disappeared, clear water alive with fish took its place. These sunken lakes are generally surrounded by a heavy growth of marsh grass, which is constantly invading the water and adding its quota to the peat formations found in various portions of the county.
COMPOSITION OF THE DRIFT
The drift which forms a thick blanket for Kosciusko County, Northern Indiana, Southern Michigan and Northwestern Ohio, was a glacial deposit. Granite, basalt, spar, iron and clay were all brought down from the north in a vast moving field, and the water and the air, laden with chemical agents of silent dissolution, pulverized and disintegrated the mass, and deposited vast potential wealth in the upper soils of Kosciusko County.
Various compounds of iron (mineral paint) have been found in the central and southern townships-especially in Seward, Clay and Jackson. The colors include red, brown, yellow, buff and dark red.
The course of Tippecanoe is also marked with large deposits of bog iron, particularly in the marshy places. About forty years ago some of this iron was smelted in the furnaces located at Rochester, Fulton County, Mishawaka, St. Joseph County, and Lima, LaGrange County, but nothing commercially profitable came from the experi- ments, as fuel was too expensive, and not long afterward the immense deposits of iron ore in the Northwest were opened to the country and the world.
Also in this connection, it was hoped that the extensive beds of peat uncovered in the "boggy" country could be used both as fuel for the smelting of iron and for illuminating purposes. But supplies for both purposes were destined to come from other sources.
The clays of Kosciusko County are well adapted to the mann- facture of brick and tile, and they abound in every township. An especially fine clay is found in some portions of the county, and may be used in making superior grades of stoneware.
As the county progressed in material things, however, it was found that the wealth of its soil was not to be garnered in direct and immediate forms of manufacture, but through the intermediary of Nature and her wonderful processes of transformation in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The how and wherefore of these changes, stated most simply and practically in the story of agricul- tural progress, are subjects for another chapter.
CHAPTER VII
POLITICS, FINANCES AND STATISTICS
FIRST COUNTY OFFICERS-SHERIFF ISAAC KIRKENDALL-JUDICIAL, FINANCIAL AND LEGAL-A VERY TEMPORARY COURTHOUSE-THE OLD JAIL-NEW COUNTY BUILDINGS IN 1848-WARSAW'S CRITICAL YEARS-TERRITORY PROPOSED TO BE CLIPPED FOR LEESBURG-UPS AND DOWNS OF WARSAW-OSWEGO PUSHED AS COUNTY SEAT CAN- DIDATE-NATIONAL POLITICS ENTERS-WARSAW THE FINAL VICTOR -PETER L. RUNYAN, SR .- LIEUT. JOHN RUNYAN-THE THIRD COURTHOUSE-THE COURTHOUSE OF THE PRESENT-THE COUNTY INFIRMARY-KOSCIUSKO BY CIVIL DIVISIONS, 1890-1910-VALUE OF FARMS-VALUE OF TOWN AND CITY PROPERTY-TOTAL WEALTH OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY- FINANCES OF THE COUNTY.
Under the provisions of the legislative act creating Kosciusko County, an election for officers was held at Leesburg, the temporary seat of justice, on the 4th of April, 1836. The judges of election were Samuel Stooky, G. W. Royce and Elisha Boggs, and the clerks, Benjamin Johnson and John G. Woods.
FIRST COUNTY OFFICERS
According to the poll books, there were then 219 voters in Kosciusko County, and they elected the following as their first offi- cers: Clerk and auditor, R. H. Lansdale; recorder, Arnold L. Fair- brother; treasurer, John Blain; sheriff, Isaac Kirkendall; surveyor, C. D. Lightfoot ; coroner, T. W. Kirkpatrick ; county commissioners, William Felkner, for the northern third of the county ; David Rippey, for the middle, and William Kelley, for the southern.
Mr. Lansdale served as clerk and auditor until his resignation in May, 1840. The county treasurer was originally appointed by the county commissioners, at their March term. This was the custom until 1841, when the office was made elective. Mahlon F. Davis was the first county treasurer elected.
SHERIFF ISAAC KIRKENDALL
Of these pioneer county officials, perhaps none was better known than the sheriff, and he, more because of his unique character than
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PICTURESQUE KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
Winona Lake Turkey Creek Bridge, Milford
Wawasee Lake
Old Channel, Winona Lake Along the Shore, Syracuse Lake Tippecanoe Lake
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because of any marked ability which he displayed. Kirkendall made a creditable sheriff; as a man he was unique.
Isaac Kirkendall, who is noted as having arrived the same year as John B. Chapman (1835) was not noted for his abilities, but for his absolute lack of imagination, and his bluntness of speech made him a famous character in the annals of the pioneer period. As his con- versational and oratorical talents were zero he must have been elected and re-elected from sheer force of character. He served as sheriff from 1836 to 1840, and at that time was nearing his fiftieth year. The sheriff stood six feet high, had one crooked eye, and was bald, with the exception of a thin fringe of gray hair which circled the back and lower part of his head. When he was in earnest-and he generally was-his voice was pitched in a high asthmatic treble, and it had remarkable "carrying" qualities, when he chose to speak at all. Kirkendall's home was on the farm with his brother Jacob, on the east side of Little Turkey Creek. When bound for Warsaw, or otherwise traveling on official business, he rode a large dapple gray horse. As stated, Isaac wasted no words, and was nothing if not personal. The only speech he is ever known to have made was during the campaign for the first election of county officers. It was delivered at Leesburg to this effect: "Gentlemen :- I am a candidate for sheriff, and if you elect me, and any of you need hanging while I am in office, I will hang you dead as h-1." He was elected, but no candidate came forward to test the sincerity of his promise.
Sheriff Kirkendall was no more versatile at letter-writing than at speech-making. Soon after his settlement in the county, he com- menced to get letters from his folks in Ohio begging him to write and tell them about the country and his personal affairs. He deferred the disagreeable task until his conscience really pained him, and one Sunday, when the children were away and his brother's house quiet and favorable to composition, he drew up the kitchen table, collected paper, ink and quill pen and sat himself down to his duty.
The sheriff correspondent progressed rapidly with the name of the county and state, and the year, month and day, with which his letter naurally commenced. "Dear Brother, I am well." That, too, was easy. Then hard labors brought forth: "Jake's Folks are well." Another much longer pause than the first, and painful facial and bodily contortions in his efforts to create another idea, with appro- priate dressings. Finally relief came with: "And if you are well, then, by G-d, all's well.
"Yours truly, I. K."
In politics Sheriff Kirkendall was a whig and afterward a repub- lican. With all his eccentricities and brusque mannerisms he made Vol. 1-8
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an efficient official, and was a congenial neighbor and a true friend. He died of lung fever, on March 17, 1863, aged seventy years.
JUDICIAL, FINANCIAL AND LEGAL
Although the courts and their officers are treated in a separate chapter, mention of those who headed the list is made at this point which marks the civil creation of Kosciusko County. Samuel C. Sample was president judge of the eighth circuit, and his citizen asso- ciates were Joseph Comstock and Henry Ward, the former also serving as probate judge. The prosecuting attorney for the Circuit Court was Joseph L. Jernegan.
The records indicate that in 1836 there were 289 polls in the county and that the taxable property amounted to $16,943.20. A tax of 50 cents was levied on each hundred dollars of valuation and 50 cents on the poll.
As stated, the first session of the Circuit Court, over which Judge Sample presided, was opened at Levi Lee's house, in the infant vil- lage of Leesburg, on October 31, 1836. His associates, Messrs. Com- stock and Ward, were on hand, but in the afternoon an adjournment was effected to the greater privacy (and perhaps area) of the village school. There was impaneled the first grand jury of Kosciusko County, composed of John McConnell, Thomas Harper, Sr., John Cook, Andrew Willis, Benjamin Bennett, Samuel Sackett, David Phil- lips, Samuel Harlan, James Bishop, Luke Van Osdel, Richard Gaw- throp, Charles Erwin and Benjamin Johnston. Mr. Willis was elected foreman.
At this session, also, the following were admitted to the bar of the Circuit Court for Kosciusko County: Gustave Everts, C. B. Simpson, Joseph L. Jernegan, Jonathan Lister, J. D. Defrees and E. M. Chamberlain. Thomas Powers had been appointed sheriff to organize the county but, as stated, the first sheriff elected was the eccentric Kirkendall.
A VERY TEMPORARY COURTHOUSE
The foregoing seems to have been all that was accomplished, when the court adjourned to meet on November 2, 1837, at the house of Jacob Losier, in Warsaw; but the county solons were too anxious to get a working organization to defer all action until that time, and the session opened, as the records show, in March of that year. Mr. Losier's house was its scene, but an adjournment placed the court
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within the precincts of the one-story frame courthouse which had just been completed as a temporary hall of justice. It was twenty by thirty feet on the ground, and was divided into a courtroom twenty feet square and two jury rooms, each of about half that size.
The courthouse proved to be of even a more temporary character than was anticipated, for in the summer of its first occupancy a brush heap caught fire and the flames set off the little "frame" like tinder. It is said that the progressive citizens of Leesburg were much relieved at the thorough work of the conflagration, as otherwise the courthouse shack might have been "made to do." The original structure stood on the northeast corner of Center and Indiana streets.
THE OLD JAIL
In the fall of 1837 a fairly creditable court house of two stories was erected. About the same time a jail of logs was built, the rough timbers being about fourteen inches square. The lower story was "double thick;" the upper, single. The only entrance to the lower part was through a trap-door in the floor of the upper story, through which prisoners were let down by a ladder, which was then pulled up and the entrance closed. The jail was about sixteen feet square and placed near the center of the courthouse square.
NEW COUNTY BUILDINGS IN 1848
Both the second courthouse and the first jail were replaced by more commodious and convenient structures in 1848. This was made feasible from the fact that, after years of political wrangling and uncertainties, the limits of the county had been made as permanent as such matters can be, and Warsaw had won the fixture of the county seat over all the contentions of rivals and their machinations.
That stirring and at times disconcerting period, for those resi- dents of the county who wished a settled state of affairs as an induce- ment to the coming of substantial men and the investment of their means and talents, has been so well described by William C. Graves that his account is reproduced, as follows :
WARSAW'S CRITICAL YEARS
In the early period of its history, Warsaw had much to contend with and for many years its prosperity was greatly retarded by unfortunate circumstances. Having been laid out in 1836, when
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money was plentiful and all western towns were improving at a rapid rate, it ought to, and otherwise would have obtained a good start in building and other improvements.
John B. Chapman, on behalf of himself and the other proprietors of the place, held the first sale of lots in June of that year. The lots were bid off at good prices-higher than they sold for at any time within the succeeding twenty years. But the other proprietors, all of whom lived at a distance, and were engaged in other and more interesting speculations, thought the prices too low and refused to ratify the sales, save of a few lots which sold at high prices. The remainder were withdrawn from the market, and for several years it was with great difficulty that a person wanting a lot could find a proprietor to sell him one.
The next year, 1837, came the great financial crash, the most dis- astrous in the history of the nation, which brought down the prices of all real estate, and caused a general suspension of western im- provements for a number of years. And, as if Warsaw's cup of misery was not yet full, about this time came the unkindest cut of all, the so-called "clipping" question, which began to assume for- midable proportions. It served to render any investment in Warsaw property extremely hazardous and likely to prove a total loss.
TERRITORY PROPOSED TO BE CLIPPED FOR LEESBURG
This clipping question was a project by interested parties to effect a removal of the county seat from Warsaw by clipping, or detach- ing, some six miles from the southern end of the county and thus throw the center north of Warsaw and near to the more dense settle- ments of the prairie region.
It is true that the early settlers were imbued with the belief that Leesburg was the most suitable place for the seat of justice, and as early as December, 1835, a petition was forwarded from that place to the care of Hon. E. M. Chamberlain, then the representative from this district, praying that body to lessen its area by detaching six miles wide from its southern extremity. This it was desired to do, in anticipation of the appointment, at that session, of commissioners to locate the seat of justice, who would find, on their arrival, the geographical center to be near Leesburg. But no effort was made beyond forwarding the petition by mail to their representative, who presented the same, had it referred, and that was the last of it. Had a lobby of two or three gone with it, the effort could not but have succeeded, for Chamberlain was friendly to the project, Warsaw had
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then no existence, and there were not twenty voters in the central part of the county, nor, in fact, in all the county south of the Tippe- canoe River. The true reason for an absence of effort at this time was a confident feeling at Leesburg that its superior claim for the county seat could not well be ignored in any event.
UPS AND DOWNS OF WARSAW
But events shaped themselves differently ; the seat of justice was located at Warsaw, or, we should rather say, in the center of the county, and the plat of Warsaw was laid out and recorded. The selection was acquiesced in with scarcely a murmur, and the feeling prevailed for a time that being in the center of a large county of excellent land, it must become a thriving and growing place. The sale of lots before referred to was largely attended, the bidding was brisk and most of the business men of the other villages announced a determination to remove to Warsaw. But all its prospects were blighted by the differences among the proprietors, resulting, as they did, in the withdrawal of the lots from the market and the failure of the proprietors to take any further interest in the place. Chapman, the only proprietor who resided in the place, when he found the other proprietors would not ratify his sale, sold out to them all his interest and withdrew from the concern, and the other proprietors scarcely ever returned to the place.
OSWEGO PUSHED AS COUNTY SEAT CANDIDATE
This sudden stoppage of improvements at Warsaw revived the talk in favor of some other place, and the question of removal began to be agitated. Soon a powerful opposition to Warsaw manifested itself, which established the clipping question upon a formidable basis. A firm of wealthy men, Messrs. Barbee, Willard & French, laid off the village of Oswego on Tippecanoe Lake, with the publicly expressed intention of effecting a removal of the seat of justice to that point. They erected mills and made other improvements and, by the liberal use of money, Oswego soon became a popular and thriving village.
The Oswego interest effected a combination with some land-holders in the south part of the county, which had the effect of arraying the settlers in the south against Warsaw. These land-holders had in view the formation of a new county out of parts of Kosciusko. Wabash and Miami counties, and the securing of a seat of justice in
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Clay Township. Thus an almost solid combination was formed against Warsaw by the people of the south, as well as northeast of Warsaw, to a greater distance than three miles. Beyond that distance, in these directions, Warsaw had but few friends. The center only was a unit for Warsaw, and that was numerically weak. The citizens generally of Milford, of Leesburg, and to the west of the latter place, were for Warsaw.
NATIONAL POLITICS ENTER
But there was an evident majority of the voters of the county favorably disposed toward the Clippers, principally actuated by mo- tives of self-interest, and the project of clipping could not have failed of success if the local question could have been brought to a square test. But the complications incident to national politics could not be avoided, and, somehow or other, they would sadly interfere with the arrangements of the Clippers just when success seemed ready to crown their efforts.
Messrs. Barbee, Willard & French were whigs, but several others of the more prominent Clippers were of the democratic persuasion, and were enabled to enlist influential democratic leaders in their behalf. By means of this influence, they nearly succeeded in accomplishing their designs in the year 1839. In that year the democracy were gen- erally successful at the polls throughout the state. Kosciusko County gave a majority of ninety-three for Congress. A. L. Wheeler, of Ply- mouth, was elected to the Legislature from Marshall and Kosciusko, receiving a decided majority in each county. This senatorial district, however, composed of the same counties, with the addition of the County of St. Joseph, was represented in that body by a whig, elected in 1838-the Hon. Thomas D. Baird, a very able and popular man.
When the Legislature met in December, 1839, Wheeler, with the able assistance of Judge Long, of Franklin County, championed the cause of the Clippers in the House, and after a stormy contest, suc- ceeded in passing through that body the bill to divide the county. Baird, however, in the Senate, espoused the cause of Warsaw, made a series of brilliant speeches in denunciation of the scheme, and finally succeeded in defeating the bill by a small majority.
Having been so nearly successful, the Clippers now felt sure of ultimate triumph, and prepared for another and more vigorous effort. But the year 1840, unluckily for them, brought around that most re- markable political campaign in our national history, the Log Cabin and Hard Cider contest, which was destined, during its continnance,
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to overshadow and dwarf all other questions. In vain did French, who, by the way, had remarkable talent as an organizer, endeavor to rally his democratic and whig Clippers in a common cause, and in- duce them to support Clippers for office without regard to political considerations. Dearly as they loved the Clipper cause, they would drift into political currents. Whigs would support whigs and dem- ocrats support democrats, without regard to their status on the local question.
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