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 16
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167
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
HIGH SCHOOLS OF COUNTY
"Until 1908 Kosciusko County had but one commissioned high school. The number of high school pupils enrolled that year was 215 and the graduating class numbered 48. At present (January, 1917) we have 11 commissioned, 3 certified and 1 non-certified high school, with a total enrollment of more than 900 and a graduating class of 150. Most of these schools besides being equipped to do reg- ular high school work are doing some very creditable work in manual training, agriculture and domestic science.
"A very large per cent of our teachers have had some normal and college training, and are doing conscientious, efficient work. With this good start, we confidently believe that the day is not far distant when not only two thirds, but all of our boys and girls will have the opportunity of attending school in well equipped, sanitary school buildings, and have for their teachers throughout their entire course only noble, well trained men and women."
FIRST SCHOOLS IN NORTHERN TOWNSHIPS
It seems almost superfluous to make the statement that it was in the townships which were first settled in Kosciusko County that the first schools were established. Thus as early as 1835-36 Turkey Creek, Prairie and Van Buren townships blossomed forth with these mani- festations of intelligent American enterprise.
The first schoolhouse in the county of which there is positive rec- ord was that erected on section 29, Van Buren Township, a short distance southwest of Deware Lake and about a mile north of Mus- quabuck's Reservation. John G. Woods taught the first class col- lected within its log walls.
Turkey Creek Township established its first school on the hill at Syracuse in 1836. The village was platted around it in the following year.
As the schoolhouse was in the extreme northwestern part of the township, the settlers in the southwestern sections secured the service of a teacher in 1837, and their children were gathered for instruction in an unoccupied log house on the farm of Timothy Mote, which had formerly been used for a stable.
The northern sections of Prairie Township were first accommo- dated with a schoolhouse and a teacher. Mr. Moore had the honor of officiating and he, his few scholars and the rude log cabin on sec- tion 10 effected a combination in 1836. Among other pupils, Hiram
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
Hall, Clinton Powell and Mrs. Malinda Parks are known to have dedicated this primitive schoolhouse.
"TIPPECANOE AND HARRISON TOO"
Tippecanoe and Harrison townships next joined the good com- pany of Van Buren, Prairie and Turkey Creek in showing their faith in education by their works in providing schoolhouses and teachers for the future men and women of the county. Tippecanoe's first school was taught in the winter of 1838-39 in a cabin built by Warren Warner and then abandoned. Thomas K. Warner was the teacher.
Henry Bradley was the first to teach in Harrison Township, and gathered his pupils in a log cabin on section 29, in the southern part of the township not far from the present line of the Winona Inter- urban, about the time that Teacher Warner was instilling the great Three into the minds of the Tippecanoe Township class.
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP
Then the settlers in the northern part of what is now Jefferson Township decided to join the progressives and in 1840 employed James Martin to teach school in a log cabin on section 11. Like all the other schools of this period in the county it was a subscription institution, and the settlers who raised the money had a very faint idea as to what was going on in neighboring counties in like matters of educational provision.
WASHINGTON AND CLAY
In the same year, Washington and Clay townships, farther to the south, entered the lists against ignorance. The first efforts of the settlers of Clay were centered in the erection of a rather shaky cabin, built of poles and raised in the northwest corner of the township. That was replaced in the following year (1841) by a building of hewn logs, which was used for both intellectual and religious educa- tion ; it was deemed sufficiently secure to be used for both a school and a church, and was known as Mount Pleasant. The combination was followed by two school buildings-one, a frame, erected in 1859, and the other, a brick structure, completed in 1877.
It is said that Adam Laing taught the first school in Washington Township in a log building erected on the farm of William Moore for that very purpose.
169
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
SEWARD AND FRANKLIN TOWNSHIPS
These southwestern townships also organized subscription schools a number of years before the educational institutions of the state commenced to take shape as a system under the constitution of 1851. Both Seward and Franklin established schools in 1842-Seward, in a house erected on the farm of John Robinson, and taught by Mark Smith, Sr., and Franklin Township, in a rude log cabin, built on the land of Solomon Nichols, by Jeremiah Burns.
PRESENT STATUS OF COUNTY SCHOOLS
The status of the schools of Kosciusko County, in the fall of 1918, presented all the contrast expected when made with those of three- quarters of a century ago. As a matter of fact, there is no means of making a comparison, since until long after the '40s had passed no figures and few facts had been gathered showing their general con- dition.
The following table indicates by townships, towns and city (War- saw) four of the main groups of facts in connection with the schools of Kosciusko County :
Civil Divisions-
Enrollment
No. Schools Teachers
Value Prop. $12,000
Clay Township
291
6
12
Etna Township
278
2
10
30,000
Franklin
216
4
10
30,000
Harrison
411
7
14
25,000
Jackson
268
2
11
42,400
Jefferson
244
5
7
17,500
Lake
271
2
10
25,000
Monroe
132
3
5
14,500
Plain
123
5
5
15,000
Prairie
233
4
12
30,000
Scott
237
7
7
10,000
Seward
326
4
13
25,000
Tippecanoe
273
6
10
18,000
Turkey Creek
139
8
6
7,500
Van Buren
451
2
14
45,000
Washington
507
5
17
' 34,000
Wayne
345
3
10
30,000
Leesburg Town
141
1.
6
..
Syracuse Town
324
2
10
Warsaw City
1,129
4
31
180,520
Total
6,349
85
220
$591,420
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
The figures supplied for one of the latest school years indicate that the disbursements made for the support of the county schools amount to about $170,000 annually. Some $80,000 was paid the teachers of the elementary schools, and about $50,000 expended for apparatus, books, furniture and repairs. Over $30,000 was expended in salaries to the commissioned high school teachers and $7,000 in apparatus, books and other upkeep.
As to the graduates, there were more than 360 from the classes represented by the common branches, and 155 from the commissioned and certified high schools of the county.
The total school fund amounted to more than $130,000.
The foregoing facts and figures with the table giving a substantial picture of the schools late in 1918 ought, as a whole, to convey definite ideas as to the present status of the county system.
PASSING OF THE "GOOD" OLD DAYS
The reports as to the activities of the consolidated rural schools indicate that the "good old days" when the boys and girls had to tramp three, four and five miles to school daily, in all kinds of weather and over all kinds of roads and paths-or none at all-are past. Such exertions to get their education undoubtedly toughened some and injured others, but nowadays they are carried to school in comfortable conveyances, if they live beyond what is considered a reasonable walk- ing distance from their homes, and obtain their exercise under more favorable and agreeable conditions.
As stated, most of the ancient and unsanitary schoolhouses in the country districts have been abandoned, and others selected within range of the routes laid out by the township trustees and traveled by the wagons provided by the local authorities for the transportation of the children. There are about a score of these consolidated rural schools in the county, from eighty to ninety wagons are in service to carry the pupils to their destinations, and the average length of these routes is four miles and a half. From 650 to 700 pupils are thus accommodated.
CHAPTER X
HIGHWAYS OF TRAVEL
THE PIONEER WHITE MEN'S TRACES-PITTSBURGH, FORT WAYNE & CHICAGO (PENNSYLVANIA) RAILROAD-PIERCETON AND WARSAW SECURE CONNECTIONS-COMPLETED TO PLYMOUTH, DIVISION TOWN -CLEVELAND, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO & ST. LOUIS (BIG FOUR)-THE GOSHEN, WARSAW & WABASH RAILROAD PROJECT-CINCINNATI, WABASH & MICHIGAN RAILROAD FIRST TRAINS ON THE PRESENT BIG FOUR-NEW YORK, CHICAGO & ST. LOUIS ( NICKEL PLATE)- THE WABASH AND BALTIMORE & OHIO ROADS-THE WINONA INTER- URBAN RAILWAY-RAILROAD STATISTICS OF THE COUNTY-THE GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT IN THE COUNTY-MILES OF ROADS, BY TOWN- SHIPS-GRAVEL ROAD BUILDING-AUTO LICENSES AS PROMOTERS OF GOOD ROADS-THE BUGGY AND THE GAS CARRIAGE.
In the fleeting picture given in a previous chapter of the displace- ment of the Indian and all his civilization (if his life and customs may be so designated) by the ways and institutions of the white man, a brief record has been made of the trails, or traces, which were visible on the soil of Indiana when the pioneers of Kosciusko County first planted themselves and their homes. Generally speaking the early roads pushed through the forests, through the swamps and over the prairies of the county by the white settlers from Elkhart County over- laid the network or system of Indian highways which they already found in this section of the state. .
THE PIONEER WHITE MEN'S TRACES
The roads in what is now Kosciusko County to be first laid out for the benefit of homesteaders and home-seekers were located in the pres- ent townships of Turkey Creek, Van Buren, Plain, Tippecanoe and Washington, and were connecting links between the older and much traveled thoroughfares of the territory now embracing Elkhart, Cass and other counties of northernmost Indiana, and the trails and high- ways leading southwest toward Logansport and the valley of the Wabash, and southeast in the direction of Huntington and the border- lands of Ohio.
171
172
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
The first of the main north-and-south trunk lines to penetrate Kos- ciusko County was the road put through, in the middle '30s, from White Pigeon, southern Michigan, to Huntington, Indiana, by way of Goshen, Elkhart County, and Turkey Creek and Van Buren town- ships, Kosciusko County. About the same time (1834-35) a road was surveyed south from Goshen, and farther to the west in this county, by way of Leesburg and Milford. It was laid out by James R. McCord, of Elkhart County.
Perhaps the first of the southwestern roads to strike through Kos- ciusko County toward the Wabash Valley was known as the Logans- port & Mishawaka Road, and, like the others which veered toward the southeast, joined the east-and-west trunk lines which passed through northern Indiana between lakes Erie and Michigan. The road also went by way of Peru, Miami County, and was more direct to Chicago and the southern shores of Lake Michigan than the lines which passed more to the east. This highway was surveyed through Franklin Town- ship in 1836.
In the following year roads were surveyed through Washington and Jackson townships, chiefly along the route of the Fort Wayne & Chicago road. The mail was carried over the Washington Township section on horseback from the postoffice established at the house of G. W. Ryerson. In 1838 another road was laid out in Washington Township from Warsaw to Wolf Lake, Noble County.
Another pioneer thoroughfare was surveyed from Warsaw to Springfield, Whitley County, and was included in that class or system of diagonal roads which were pushing from the southeast toward the northwest and Lake Michigan, including Kosciusko County on the way. It was put through Kosciusko County in 1837.
A later work of this character, more of a local character, was the road for which James Garvin petitioned the Legislature, praying, in 1840, that it be located through the center of Seward Township from north to south. The road was accordingly surveyed, soon afterward. by George R. Thralls, David Garvin and Daniel Underhill, with chain bearers and one blazer (William Stapleford).
With the increase of population and continuous settlement of the county, other roads were surveyed both for local convenience and in order to complete various links of more extended thoroughfares, which were already being displaced by the ways of iron and steel.
PITTSBURGH, FORT WAYNE & CHICAGO (PENNSYLVANIA) RAILROAD
The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad was the first of the modern ways to invade the old-time fields of the Indian traces and
173
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
the "blazed" roads of the white man. In June, 1854, the work was fairly inaugurated in the county by the breaking of ground at War- saw, at the east end of Jefferson Street south of lot 193, in the pres- ence of Hon. William Williams, A. T. Skist and others. Mr. Williams, who had already obtained some prominence in banking circles and in the public affairs of the county and was to become more widely known as a congressman and in large affairs of state, had been quite influen- tial in promoting this pioneer railroad project. Subsequently, he acted as its director for a number of years.
PRINCETON AND WARSAW SECURE CONNECTIONS
The following information regarding the county affairs of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad was furnished by D. P. Nichols, station agent of the road in 1855: The road reached Pierceton May 25, 1853, and the town was surveyed on January 1, 1854. The first agent at that point was A. A. Bainbridge, who was appointed October 1, 1854, and served until April 1, 1855, when Mr. Nichols succeeded him and continued there in that capacity until January 5, 1878.
The first station house used for passenger and freight office was a one-story frame, twenty by thirty feet, built at a cost of $125. The first passenger train reached there September 1, 1854. The name of the engine (important in those days) was the "Plymouth."* The first freight left Pierceton in October, 1854, and was less than a car- load. It consisted of local merchandise.
The road was completed to Warsaw in November, 1854, and soon afterward a station was built at that place. It was a cheap wooden building and was consumed by fire in 1875. George Moon was the first agent at Warsaw. D. P. Nichols commenced his long service in that capacity in 1878.
COMPLETED TO PLYMOUTH, DIVISION TOWN
The report of Samuel Hanna, president of the Fort Wayne road, on December 1, 1854, stated that it was the purpose of the company at that time to direct its efforts to the early completion of the division between Fort Wayne and Plymouth, for the purpose of getting a tem-
* Plymouth was a noteworthy name in the history of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad at this early period, as it was the first division town on the line, and the road was completed to that point more than a year before it reached Chicago.
174
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
porary connection with Chicago over the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago road, which was completed to Plymouth at that time. The first train over the Fort Wayne road arrived at Plymouth on November 11, 1856. It was more than a year before the road was completed to Chicago.
Several residents of Plymouth were connected with the initial organization of the company and the building of the road. A. L. Wheeler was a member of its first board of directors and took an active part in its management until it was completed, when he resigned. C. H. Reeve, attorney and solicitor of the company, is credited with much of the important work connected with the raising of the original
READY FOR THE IRON HIGHWAY
funds, and several Plymouth men were identified with the first engi- neer corps of the road.
So there are many good reasons why one of the first engines to be placed on the tracks of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Rail- road should be christened "Plymouth."
The Pennsylvania Company's line passes nearly through the geo- graphical center of the county, in a slightly diagonal direction, and has the following stations along the way: Pierceton and Wooster, Washington Township; Warsaw, Wayne Township, and along the northern shores of Winona Lake and south of Center into the northeast corner of Harrison Township, where it cuts across the southern half of Motas Reserve to the Village of Atwood, which lies both in Harrison and Prairie townships, and thence to the last station on the line in the
175
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
county, Etna Green, on the western border of Etna Township. It joins the Big Four at Warsaw.
CLEVELAND, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO & ST. LOUIS (BIG FOUR)
The extension of the Big Four (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis) through Kosciusko County was a railroad movement from Michigan. In northern Indiana, Goshen was, for some years, the cen- ter of such activities. Hon. Joseph H. Defrees, of that city, became very prominent in these efforts to establish north and south lines into the interior of the state which should connect with and tap the great trunk systems running east and west through northern Indiana. It was at once seen how much Elkhart and Kosciusko counties would be benefited by lines which might place them not only in touch with the tide of travel passing between the Great Lakes, but with the older and prosperous settled country of southern Michigan.
THE GOSHEN, WARSAW & WABASH RAILROAD PROJECT
Mr. Defrees, of Goshen, William Williams, of Warsaw, and others were most active in promoting the Goshen, Warsaw & Wabash Railroad Company, which was put in operation between Warsaw and Goshen in 1870. If completed as originally intended, it would have passed through Middlebury, Elkhart County, and connected at White Pigeon, St. Joseph County, Michigan, with the railroad running thence to Kalamazoo.
To secure this, Middlebury voted liberal aid, and the money was paid into the county treasury for the company, but the road was never built and the money was returned. The failure to construct the line was a most serious detriment to Goshen, as it would have placed that place midway on an important line extending from Grand Rapids to Indianapolis. Its construction was prevented by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, which refused to agree to buy it if built, as its projectors had been led to believe would be the case. The result was that Goshen was the northern terminus of the line for some time. In 1872 the extension of the road to Niles, Michigan, was promised, if towns and cities and territory generally along the proposed line would aid in its construction; this having been done, the extension was quickly made.
CINCINNATI, WABASH & MICHIGAN RAILROAD
In the previous year (1871) a consolidation had already been effected of the so-called Warsaw, Goshen & White Pigeon and the
176
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
Grand Rapids, Wabash & Cincinnati railroads, under the name of the Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan Railroad. Without going into all the details as to the many legal steps and consolidations involved, it is sufficient for local purposes to know that the Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan was the predecessor of the present Big Four system. The original consolidation of June, 1871, known as the Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan, controlled a line from Anderson, Madison County, north- east of the central part of Indiana, to Goshen, Elkhart County, a dis- tance of 114 miles. It was opened throughout its entire length in May, 1876.
FIRST TRAINS ON THE PRESENT BIG FOUR
As stated, the section between Goshen and Warsaw was completed several years before that date. The first train left Warsaw going north on August 9, 1870. A. T. Skist was the first freight and ticket agent at that place ; William M. Kist, the first express agent. The first sta- tion was located on the east end of lot 200, in a building erected by Samuel E. Loney. The first freight house was on lot 7, at the east end of Market Street, and was known as Kist's warehouse.
From north to south, the stations on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad are Milford Junction and Milford in Van Buren Township; Leesburg, Plain Township, after which, a mile and a half south, it passes across the eastern portion of the Monoquet Reserve; Warsaw, Wayne Township, running between Pike and Center lakes and a short distance west of Lake Winona; Reed's Station, in the southern part of the same township; Claypool, Clay Township; about a quarter of a mile east of Silver Lake and Rose Hill station, Lake Township.
The juncture of the Big Four with the Pennsylvania line is at Warsaw, and with the Nickel Plate, at Claypool.
NEW YORK, CHICAGO & ST. LOUIS (NICKEL PLATE)
The Nickel Plate line was completed through the southern part of Kosciusko County, from east to west, late in 1882 and early in 1883. The original survey located the line about four miles south of Argos, Marshall County. The effect was to greatly disturb the citizens of that town, who finally induced the company to change the projected route and include Argos as one of its stations. The people of Argos paid for the survey, gave the right-of-way to the construction com- pany, and the building of the road on that line was pushed rapidly
177
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
to completion. It need not be added for the information of business and traveling men that the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad is now one of the important trunk lines between the East and the West, and is valuable to the people in the southern part of Kosciusko County.
The Nickel Plate line crosses the county in a generally easterly and westerly direction, including as its stations, Kinsey and Sidney in the northern part of Jackson Township; Packerton, cornering on Jack son, Monroe and Clay townships ; Claypool, west of the central part of Clay Township; Burket, northwestern part of Seward Township, and Mentone, located mostly in Harrison Township and partly in Franklin. Its junction with the Big Four is at Claypool.
THE WABASH AND BALTIMORE & OHIO ROADS
There are two other railroads which cross the territory of Kosciusko County, but such small portions of it that they have little effect upon its development. The Wabash, or Vandalia line, was one of the pioneer railroad projects, the object of which was to connect Northern Indiana with the Southwest and St. Louis, by way of Fort Wayne and Hunt- ington, Logansport, Lafayette and the valley of the Wabash in gen- eral. The Huntington people were especially close to those of Kos- ciusko County. The Eel River Valley was an important section of the route as finally adopted, and the line which cut off a small southeastern corner of the county was originally called the Eel River Railroad. There is no station on the Vandalia line in Kosciusko County at the present time.
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company began to survey its Chi- cago branch, which passes through several of the northern townships of the county, in 1873-74. The line was completed to the Village of Syracuse, at the western extremity of the lake by that name, and greatly stimulated it, as it did the other points farther east along the shores of Nine Mile (Wawasee) Lake. Wawasee and Syracuse are the stations in Turkey Creek Township. Milford Junction, at the point where the Big Four crosses the Baltimore & Ohio, is in the northern part of Van Buren Township.
THE WINONA INTERURBAN RAILWAY
The Winona Interurban Railway passes through the county from north to south, or vice versa, is a most popular line of travel, and for some time has provided both passenger and freight service. The trunk Vol. I-12
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General Offices - Warsaw, Indiana
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WINONA LINES ANO CONNECTIONS
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
of the system extends from Goshen, Elkhart County, to Peru, Wabash County, a distance of sixty-nine miles, so that Kosciusko County forms the central section of the line.
The enterprise originated in 1903, and in the following year Elk- hart Township voted $30,000 for the construction of the road, which was to pass through Waterford, New Paris, Milford and Leesburg to Warsaw. Construction was begun in 1905, when the Winona Inter- urban Railway Company was incorporated. The line was afterward extended to Peru, where connections are made with the Indiana Union Traction Company's lines to Indianapolis and other points south.
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