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 29
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NINE MILE CHANGED TO WAWASEE LAKE
Obviously, Wawasee has an Indian ring to it. How did it happen to displace Nine Mile, so very prosaic? In this wise, as told by the Journal : After the burning of the old Cedar Beach Club House, on the northeastern shores of the lake, many years ago, it was deter- mined to form a new club. A number of the members did not like the name Cedar Beach, for it was often confused with Cedar Lake, a resort which did not have the best of reputations at that time.
At one of the club meetings it was resolved that Colonel Eli Lilly should rename both the club and the lake. He had learned of the former existence of an old Flat Belly Indian chief named Wawas, which meant "shape of the moon." Neither the colonel nor any red skin had ever traced any resemblance to the moon in the shape of
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Nine Mile Lake, but, as Wawas sounded smooth to the gentleman charged with the double rechristening, he added "ee" to it; and there you have the euphonious Wawasee. Laying the proposed name before several of the members of the new club, they greeted it so enthusiasti- cally that it was adopted then and there.
The next step was the baptism of the infant; its formal christen- ing. This was accomplished by painting two signs and nailing them on the railway station over in the cornfield back of Riddles, which was where the passengers on the Baltimore & Ohio landed in those days. As it seemed a good enough name, the railroad company also adopted it and worked it into its literature.
Daniel Ransdall, one of the members of the old Cedar Beach Club, was then marshal of the District of Columbia, and in touch with the Harrison administration, and through his good offices the Postoffice Department also changed the name of the postoffice to Wawasee. Thus the name was fixed, the present Wawasee station, on the Balti- more & Ohio Line being about half a mile north of Cedar Beach.
WAWASEE STATION
Wawasee station is simply the center of the summer resorters, who distribute themselves from that point around the shores of the lake, making a more or less permanent stay at the different parks, or beaches, or camps, so charmingly sprinkled throughout the region. The great supply depot, or business town of the locality is Syracuse, which, with the half a dozen summer hotels, reaps the chief financial harvest of the summer season.
GEORGE W. MILES, SUMMER RESORT PIONEER
The Wawasee Inn, one of the largest and most elegant of these hotels, was the direct outgrowth of the old Cedar Beach Club House, and perhaps no one man was more instrumental in launching the im- provements and arousing general enthusiasm in the possibilities of this lake region as an unsurpassed country for summer visitors and sportsmen than George W. Miles. The club had been founded ten years when he resigned his position as telegraph agent at Alida, Indiana, because of ill health and returned to Syracuse to study law with George M. Ray, with whom he afterward formed a partnership. He had been born in Syracuse, as a boy knew every foot of the lake shore and had explored every ereek and inlet and, as a sick, tired
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man was renewing his love for this particular piece of nature's handiwork.
With this renewed acquaintance on the part of Mr. Miles, between 1886 and 1890, Nine Mile or Turkey Lake, as it was still called, began to broaden its acquaintance with sportsmen, who came in the spring to hunt or spend a few weeks camping and fishing, and several of them found their surroundings so much to their liking that they erected summer cottages and invited various members of their fami- lies to share their healthful pleasures. It was during this period that the members of the Cedar Beach Club got together and fastened the pretty name of Wawasee upon their organization and the lake itself. They also erected the Inn, and, to assist in spreading the new name, christened it Wawasee.
SITE OF WAWASEE INN
The Journal, from which most of the information here conveyed is condensed, has this interesting bit regarding the site of Wawasee Inn: "There were (in 1876) only a few farm houses on or near the lake. The only boats were hewn out of logs. The land (for the site of the club house), consisting of about seven acres, was purchased for about $350. It was covered with a heavy growth of large oak and walnut, with cedar trees along the bluff on the lake. The present site of the Inn was undoubtedly the eastern terminus of the old In- dian trail, which led from what is now called Greider's Landing across the sandbar to Ogden Island and thence to this point on the mainland. From this elevated point war-smokes and scouts undoubt- edly made their observations and plans known to their tribe, the Pot- tawatomies, on the surrounding shores and adjacent land.
THE OLD FISHING DAYS
"Boats could go between Ogden Island and the main land then on their way from the main body of the lake to the kettle, or John- son's Bay. Members of the Cedar Beach Club tell wonderful tales of the fishing and hunting in those days. One of the members, Reuben Lutz, tells of seeing acres of blue gills on the top of the water on sunny June days when the water was smooth. Some of the original members were Reuben Lutz, Judge John W. Pettit, Harvey Iken- berry, George King, Bill Ditton, Cary Cowgill and Fred Smallstreet. Finally Indianapolis men joined the club, and for one reason or an- other the members ceased to come, and the property was sold to Col-
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onel Eli Lilly and others and the club house became a hotel. The following year it burned."
A new hotel was built and the name of the lake having been changed from Nine Mile to Wawasee Lake, the new hotel was also christened accordingly. The Wawasee Inn has had a number of changes in ownership and management, but has maintained the high standard which it originally set.
FIRST IMPROVEMENTS AT WAWASEE
With the increase of sportsmen and summer visitors to the lake region, it became evident that, as had often happened in other similar sections of the country, the fish supply was threatened with exhaus- tion. Several of the most enthusiastic of the visiting and local sports- men, among the foremost being Mr. Miles, formed various plans for promoting Wawasee Lake as the chief attraction of a summer resort region. Among other steps taken was the reorganization and incor- poration of the club in the early '90s as the Wawasee Protective Asso- ciation, with Mr. Miles as its president.
Through the efforts of that organization, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company improved its service and erected a more becoming station, while the association itself built a pier at that point and a concrete walk leading from the lake shore to the track.
INITIAL WORK IN FISH PROPAGATION
The first work in the propagation of fish and the restocking of the lakes was undertaken. A broodery was built in a small bay ad- joining the canal at Pickwick Park, between Syracuse and Wawasee lakes, and for two or three seasons schools of bass fry were gathered from their beds in the lake and placed within the screened enclosure. A deputy warden was commissioned and placed in charge of the broodery and authorized to enforce the fish and game laws of the state, half of his salary being paid by the Improvement Association and half by the State Commission.
When Thomas R. Marshall was elected governor in 1908, Mr. Miles sought the appointment of commissioner of fisheries and game, and two years later was named for the office. One of the first changes the new appointee asked of the Legislature was that he be empowered to spend money for the propagation of fish, and through his efforts the third of the department funds which had formerly been applied to the questionable work of stocking game preserves with Hungarian partridges were devoted to practical pisciculture.
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"Before the state could undertake actively the propagation of fish," says the Journal, "it was necessary to find suitable locations for the hatcheries. The task of seeking out the most favorable locations was not an easy one. The commissioner visited the hatcheries in Michi- gan and Wisconsin to acquaint himself thoroughly with the details required to constitute a good location. The traveling deputies and the commissioner himself made a thorough search over Indiana, and at last found three places-at Brookville ; at Tri Lakes, near Columbia City, and at the southeast end of Lake Wawasee.
ORIGINAL SITE OF WAWASEE STATE HATCHERY
"By far the best location found was at Lake Wawasee. The Northern Indiana Improvement Company had made a site possible --- had, in truth, unintentionally created an ideal location for a hatchery --- by erecting a few dams at the inlet to the lake, flooding more than 300 acres of land amongst the hills at the southeast end of the lake; thus creating an enormous head-water that was eight feet above the level of Lake Wawasee. This newly created and beautiful body of water the Improvement Company christened Lake Papakeechie, after the tribe of Indians of whose reservation the inundated land was formerly a part.
"A low marshy tract of land with an area of between four and five acres lay between Lake Papakeechie and Lake Wawasee; and at each of the two remaining sides of this tract stood a large hill of gravel, which offered the shortest possible hauling in the work of constructing the necessary embankments for the ponds. When Charles Sudlow, president of the Northern Indiana Improvement Company, was approached by Commissioner Miles relative to pur- chasing this tract of ground for a hatchery site, he met the proposi- tion in a very public spirited manner. He gave the state a perpetual lease on the ground, and all he asked in return was that a planting of bass be each year put into Lake Papakeechie equal to that planted annually in other Indiana lakes of its size.
"The work was begun by throwing up embankments and making two ponds of the tract. In this way the hatchery was operated for two seasons."
EXTENSION OF THE STATE HATCHERY
In 1914 another tract of about five acres was purchased by the state as a site for ponds. It was also between Lakes Papakeechie and Wawasee and lay a few hundred feet to the northeast of the old
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ponds, banked by two convenient gravel hills. Eight large ponds were constructed of this tract, and the old ponds were divided into seven more by the construction of embankments. In the fall of 1914, a large and handsome building was erected on the summit of the hill bordering the west side of the old group. It was designed as a res- idence for the custodian of the fifteen ponds and the beautiful sur- rounding grounds, as well as a temporary stopping place for any deputy wardens who might he visiting that part of the state.
DEATH OF GEORGE W. MILES
George W. Miles, the founder of this Wawasee State Hatchery, did not live to see his plans bear full fruit, as his death occurred at his old home in Syracuse, while still commissioner of fish and game, in December, 1914.
None of the four hatcheries of Indiana are better adapted to the purposes for which it was designed than the establishment between Lakes Wawasee and Papakeechie. From these hatcheries are shipped various species of fish best adapted to the different waters of the state, and anyone desiring an allotment for any particular river, stream, pond or lake, may procure the kind of fish desired by making application to the Fish and Game Commission, of which E. C. Shire- man is the present commissioner.
SOUTH PARK
Especially bright and numerous are the attractions which center in the parks above mentioned, which lie along the shores of Wawasee Lake. More than sixty years ago, Uncle Davie Sharpe and his old wife owned a tract of land and dreamed on the south shore of Wawasee Lake, and in 1888 they sold a strip about 150 feet wide immediately abutting its waters to Messrs. Wood & Draper. The gentlemen named platted their purchase into lots and built a road along the rear of the property, indicating that they had entered the lists of modern promoters. Two years afterward Charles A. Sudlow and Major F. E. Marsh, of Indianapolis, bought part of the strip, and in the spring of 1890 Major Marsh and John Vorhees built cottages on their lots.
Other cottages followed and in 1902 Major Marsh bought the remainder of the Sharpe farm from the heirs and put the road back 100 feet farther from the lake shore. He then commenced an ex- tended and systematic improvement of his large property, planting ornamental trees and shrubbery and fruit trees, laying out flower
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gardens and cutting roads and pathis where most desirable. His place, The Oaks, became a model for other resident lovers of the beautiful out-of-doors to emulate, and became the nucleus around which South Park developed with all its beauties and modern con- veniences.
LAKE VIEW
There is a point of land on the south shore of Lake Wawasee, with a fine gravel beach, which extends well out into the sunny waters and which has become widely known by local pleasure seekers as Lake View. It was originally called Black Stump Point, as its western shore was punctuated by a collection of black stumps. Lake View is not far from South Park, the Point having been a portion of the old Sharpe farm. The land has passed through the hands of such men as Milton Wood, Joseph Moore and George L. Lamb. The two last named built the Lake View Hotel, which was at first largely pat- ronized by Goshen people. Within the past few years a protecting wall has been built around the Point and other improvements been made which make Lake View a picturesque and refreshing resort.
OAKWOOD PARK
Oakwood Park, on the west shore of Lake Wawasee, is owned and controlled by the Indiana Conference of the Evangelical Associa- tion. It is the annual camp ground of the Young People's Alliance and Woman's Missionary Society, where also are held the conferences and conventions of these bodies. In 1914 the tabernacle erected, in 1898, by the conference branch of the Young People's Alliance was destroyed by fire, but replaced within a few months by a larger and more beautiful structure. The grounds, in every way, sustain the word Park, the superintendent of which has a handsome home on a hill overlooking its charms. The large Oakwood Hotel, the dormitory and numerous cottages at the Park, afford ample and comfortable accommodations for the large crowds which gather each year in . August.
VAWTER PARK
Vawter Park also lies on the south shore of Lake Wawasee, and in the early times was a dense beech forest, with small creeks fed by living springs and running to the lake a few hundred feet away. It is west of an old Indian trail, which led across the lake by way
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of the sandbar extending from the south shore to Ogden Island. Elk antlers and arrow heads are strewn along trail and sandbar, giving the locality a distinctive Indian atmosphere.
The tract of land upon which Vawter Park was laid out was in- cluded in the parcel purchased in 1846 by Balser Hess from the State of Indiana. He built a log cabin upon it, as was necessary, and that is all known either of him or his purchase for eleven years. In May, 1857, he sold to Israel Hess, who, in 1864, transferred it to George Markey. Mr. Markey cleared more ground and placed it under cultivation. In April, 1883, he sold the property to John T. Vawter, the founder of the Park, who was then a resident of Frank- lin, Indiana.
Mr. Vawter soon platted the land into lots, with a roadway behind them, and called it Vawter Park; built a hotel which took the name of the park, and some time later sold the old Markey farm house, at the south end of the grounds, to Charles A. Sudlow. Mr. Sudlow added to it, remodeled the entire structure and transformed it into a pleasant summer home. In November, 1887, Mr. Vawter sold the hotel to the Crescent Club, largely composed of Indianapolis men, and it was owned and operated by that organization until 1896. The hotel then returned to Mr. Vawter, and since 1901 has been under various ownerships and managements. From the park and the hotel as a starting point, cottages of all sizes and descriptions have crept along the south shore of the lake, along Ideal Beach to the northwest and toward South Park, and in a southeasterly direction toward Cot- tingham Beach.
CROW'S NEST AND WAVELAND BEACH
The upper end of Lake Wawasee commemorates the name of a be- loved pioneer family in the form of one of the most picturesque lodges and private grounds in the region; Crow's Nest is known to every frequenter of this lake country and all who have sampled its simple beauties have come again. The original arrival of Nathaniel Crow, the founder of the family in these parts and of the Nest, is thus described by a local historian: "In the early spring of 1848 a tall young man on horseback, with a change of clothing strapped on behind-the horse, saddle, bridle and clothing comprising his whole worldly possessions-came plodding his weary way through the dense forest of walnut, oak and poplar of what is now Nattycrow Beach, and halted at a tiny clearing on the present site of Crow's Nest, where a man, Mr. John Chapman by name, was hoeing corn with a
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grubbing hoe. Travelers along the narrow zigzag path were a rarity in those days, so Mr. Chapman halted from his work and extended to the young stranger a hearty handshake and a glad welcome.
"Such was the coming of the young pioneer, Nathaniel Crow, and thus his first sight and acquaintance with the beauties of the spot which for sixty-four long and useful years thereafter was the place of all places most dear to him. With his share of his father's estate ($25) he had purchased the horse, saddle and bridle, and with youth's spirit of adventure set bravely forth on his trip from Champaign County, Ohio, to Indiana, which was then the Wild and Woolly West."
Nathaniel Crow was so pleased with the country and the few people he found around the southeastern shores of the lake that he stayed and soon had his young bride sharing his land, his cabin and his fortunes. This ideal partnership and comradeship endured for fifty-three years, and at his own death in November, 1912, he was the owner of between 500 and 600 acres along the eastern shores of the upper lake, including Waveland Beach and other familiar stretches of shore. Being a home-loving man, Nathaniel Crow spent the later years of his life in the pleasant work of establishing a comfortable and pleasant abiding place-first for his wife and children and then for his daughter, who, after the death of the mother, co-operated with him in the founding and beautifying of Crow's Nest. It is now a modern retreat-a veritable lodge of rest.
CHAPTER XVIII
PIERCETON AND WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
PIONEER SETTLERS OF WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP-MAIN EVENTS OF THE EARLY TIMES-UNCLE JOHNNY MAKEMSON-SOME PIONEER MAR- RIAGES-THE SUMMERVILLES AND JOHN DUNHAM-THE RYERSON CEMETERY - PIERCETON FOUNDED - THE TOWN INCORPORATED - CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES -- THE PIERCETON OF THE PRESENT - FINANCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL.
Washington is in the eastern tier of townships and includes some of the earliest settled sections of Kosciusko County. It has always been largely a community of rural peoples, Pierceton being the only large center of population.
In area, it is one of the square townships of the county, six miles each way, and its surface is not characterized by any marked features, being generally undulating and, in places, flat and low. It is watered by Deeds and Willow creeks, or ditches, and there is little land which has not been brought under thorough and scientific cultivation.
PIONEER SETTLERS OF WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
In the fall of 1835 the first white settlers entered the township with a view of making their homes therein. They were John and Vincent Makemson, from Logan County, Ohio, who settled on section 3. For an entire year they were the only residents in Washington Township.
In the fall of 1836 they were joined by John McNeal, Henry Hoover, George and Henry Sommerville, Samuel Firestone, William Moore, Alexander Graham and William Beasley.
During 1837 came John Hoover, William Stephenson, Jehu Dun- ham, Robert MeNeal and John Doke, and in 1838 James Chaplin, Charles Chapman, Jesse Little, Lewis Keith, James Stinson and John Elder.
MAIN EVENTS OF THE EARLY TIMES
By adding to this brief picture of some of the pioneers of Wash- ington Township, a mention of the main happenings of the early
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times a fairly complete idea of this formative period may be obtained by the outsider,
The first house in the township was erected by John Makemson in 1835. He was assisted by his two brothers and a hired man, and after its completion all joined forces to erect the eabin of Vineent Makemson, the second home in the township.
The first road to be surveyed through the township was known as the Fort Wayne and Chieago and was laid ont in 1837. Over it the mail of the first settlers was carried on horseback from the post- office kept at the house of George W. Ryerson and his son, Ira J., in whatever direction it was destined. In the following year (1838) the seeond road was surveyed from Warsaw to Wolf Lake.
The first religious meeting was held at the house of John Bratt in 1838 by William Divinney, a missionary of the Methodist Episcopa! Church. The occasion was the funeral of his daughter.
The Baptists held the second meeting in the township at the eabin of William Moore in 1839.
In the latter year John MeNeal donated a lot to the Methodists, who ereeted a frame church building upon it.
About the same time Lewis Keith opened the first blacksmith shop on his farm, and G. W. Ryerson established the pioneer tavern at his homestead near the Fort Wayne and Chicago road. The latter was especially a well-advertised suecess.
Blacksmith Keith also built the first grist mill on Deeds ('reek at about the same time that he opened his shop.
As stated, a log schoolhouse was opened in 1840 on the William Moore farm, and was taught in the winter of that year by Alfred Laing. The second schoolhouse was built near the home of G. W. Ryerson, and was known as the Ryerson School. It should not be necessary to add for the benefit of those who are at all posted on the institutions and customs of these times that they were both private, and supported by the subseriptions of the neighborhood settlers who had children to send to them.
The first orehard in the township was set out by George W. Ryer- son in 1841, the trees being raised from seed brought from Fort Wayne, Indiana. In the following year James Chaplin, the father of Mrs. Roxanna Wince, established the second orehard.
The free-school system of Indiana was introduced to Washington Township in 1851, and within a few years each distriet was receiving substantial support from the public treasury, instead of being ob- liged to depend upon the uncertainties of private subscriptions.
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UNCLE JOHNNY MAKEMSON
Mrs. Roxana Wince has written the following regarding most of the prominent pioneers mentioned thus briefly in the foregoing para- graphs: "I was not intimately acquainted with Mr. John Makemson, but have good cause to hold him in kindly memory, 'because of his Christian bearing toward my brother in the closing years of his life. His people had come from England to Kentucky and had moved from there to Logan County, Ohio, when the settlers had to flee to block honses at night to protect themselves from the Indians. John was born there December 19, 1811, and was therefore two years younger than my father, when he and his brother, Vincent, came to Wash- ington Township in October, 1835. They then settled on section 3, John having entered a farm of 200 acres.
"John Makemson cut the first tree that was felled by a white man in the township. He brought his horses, cattle and hogs with him, and as there was no hay to feed the cattle he kept them through the winter by giving them the branches of trees upon which to browse. The hogs, I suppose, lived on beech nuts and acorns. He had his own tools and with these he made his own bedsteads, tables, chairs, plows, harrows, rakes, cultivators, sleds and grain cradles, as well as the lasts and pegs used in making shoes of deer-hide for his family. He cut his own road to Warsaw and Leesburg the first year he was here and, having bought some sheep of a man in another township, his wife, after shearing time, carded and spun the wool, had the yarn woven into cloth and made their own winter clothes.
"Uncle Johnny was a good man and much esteemed. He helped in the building of ten churches. He and his brother Vincent and their families lived alone in the township for a year, with only the Squawbuck and Miami Indians for neighbors and with the Miamis somewhat hostile.
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