1828 -- Thomas Thomas, grandfather of Creed Thomas, of Winona Lake, came to Indiana in 1828 and was the county's first clerk. When Thomas came to Indiana, he lived in Elkhart County, which at that time included Kosciusko, then a township. He moved to Warsaw with his son, Charles W. Thomas, father of Creed Thomas, local insurance man, in 1861 and died in 1886. He was the county's last veteran of the War of 1812.

Oct. 27, 1832 -- The lands lying within the present limits of Kosciusko County (as of 1954) were ceded to the United States Oct. 27, 1832. The president of the commission, on the part of the United States, was ex-Gov. Jonathan Jennings. The agent for the Indians was Gen. John Tipton. The principal chiefs were Flatbelly, Wawasee and his brother Musquabuck.

The treaty was registered about three miles from the present site of Rochester on the south bank of the Tippecanoe River, three-quarters of a mile from where the Michigan Road crosses the stream.

The treaty was ratified Jan. 21, 1833. The county boundary was established Feb. 7, 1835, and the county organized in April 1836.

At the session of the General Assembly of 1834-35, the boundaries of Kosciusko County were defined and established.

This county was named by John B. Chapman in honor of Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish noble, who came to America and served under Gen. George Washington for America's freedom.

Quite a large number of Native Americans were residents of the county when the first settlements were made. Most of the Indian lands had been ceded to the general government, yet several tribes of the Miami and Pottawatomi nations held tracts in the county.

August 1835 -- Leesburg, the oldest town in the county, was laid out in August 1835 by Levi Lee. Situated on section 8 in Plain Township, it also was the first recorded town in the county.

W.W. and I.R. Blain were the first merchants of the place, followed in 1835 by Judge James Comstock.

1836 -- When the first settlers came to Bourbon Township in 1836, they found peaceful bands of Potawatomi settled at Ben-ack village along the Tippecanoe River.

Chief Ben-ack had a trading post and lived in the township many years with his daughter, Mary Ann, and her husband, John Peashway, and family, after the government had forced most of the Indians to go to Kansas.

The first settlers were James Parks and his wife, Elizabeth Hughes Parks, eight unmarried sons and two daughters, Polly and Penelope, and their husbands, Solomon Linn and John Greer, and families.

In 1837, a log building was erected and used as a church and school and for public gatherings.

James Parks died in August 1839 and a plot of ground was set aside as a "burying ground." In 1849, a church was built on a corner of the "burying ground" and it was called the Shiloh Presbyterian Church.

Bourbon Township was organized in 1840. In 1842, it was divided and the south half was called Tippecanoe Township.

1836 -- Clay Township is bounded on the north by Wayne, east by Monroe and Jackson, south by Lake and west by Seward. Lake originally belonged to Clay Township.

The first cabin erected in Clay Township was built by Samuel Bishop, who sold his claim to Isaac Minear, the second pioneer in the township. Minear emigrated from Ohio with his family early in 1837.

1836 -- Akron, located in Henry Township, in Fulton County, was founded in 1836 by a group of settlers led by Dr. Sippy.

The first building was erected on the east side of the old trail, later (1954) the location of the Akron Exchange State Bank. The first schoolhouse was built in 1838 on the Asher Welton farm.

The first death in the township was that of Mr. Perry in 1837. A severe winter in 1836-37 resulted in the deaths of many of the female members of the settlement.

The first newspaper was the Akron Globe, first edited in 1866 by W.T. Cutshall.

April 4, 1836 -- Under the provisions of the legislative act creating Kosciusko County, an election of officers was held at Leesburg, the temporary seat of Justice, on April 4, 1836. The election judges were Samuel Stookey, C.W. Royce and Elisha Boggs and the clerks were Benjamin Johnson and John G. Woods.

April 10, 1836 -- Milford was laid out by Judge Aaron M. Perine on April 10, 1836. James R. McCord was surveyor.

Perine settled on the town site in 1834 and his family may properly be termed the first residents of Milford.

Samuel Sackett opened a blacksmith shop in 1836.

June 29, 1836 -- Turkey Creek Township abounds with lakes, some of which are more than 100 feet deep.

Syracuse Lake, one mile long and three-fourths of a mile wide, lies directly east of the village, and Nine-Mile Lake (Wawasee), about five miles long and one mile wide, is a beautiful body of water.

Turkey Creek was organized as a township June 29, 1836, and prior to 1838 comprised the territory which afterward formed the townships of Van Buren, Jefferson and Scott.

The first settlers were Henry Ward and Samuel Crawson, who, in 1832, constructed a dam across Turkey Creek, intending to erect a mill as soon as the lands were open for settlement.

The mill was completed in 1833 and in 1836, the same parties built a sawmill.

Oct. 21, 1836 -- Warsaw was surveyed by Christopher Lightfoot, and W.H. Knott, proprietor of the town, filed his plat before Jacob Rannels, justice of the peace, Oct. 21, 1836.

Warsaw was named by Hon. John B. Chapman in honor of the capital of Poland.

Warsaw was in an early day an uninviting location, laid out as it was so near the lakes, the banks of which were skirted by tall tamarack and scrubby oaks.

The first cabin was built of tamarack poles by Matthew D. Springer.

1837 -- In 1837, Messrs. Barbee, Willard and French purchased of Mr. Waugh a tract of land upon which they laid out the village of Oswego in the same year.

It enjoyed at one time a degree of commercial prosperity, and gave promise of becoming a town of importance. But in 1849, a score of its best citizens moved to California, withdrawing their capital and patronage from the village, and from that time dates its decline. By 1879, it contained a post office and store kept by John Hour and one blacksmith shop.

April 20, 1837 -- Palestine, in Harrison Township, was laid out by Isham Summy April 20, 1837, and like many towns of that day, reveled for a few years and dreams of future greatness and prosperity.

James Wooden and Andrew Sell were the first white settlers of Palestine. They came from Preple County, Ohio, in 1834.

May 2, 1837 -- John Ridinger was the original proprietor of the site of the town of North Webster, which was surveyed and platted May 2, 1837, by R.R. Shoemaker.

The village was named in honor of Daniel Webster by Shoemaker and is near Webster Lake. It had a population of 150 in 1890.

Aug. 11, 1837 -- The town of Syracuse lies adjacent to the lake bearing the same name and is one of the oldest towns in the county.

It was laid out by Samuel Crawson and Henry Ward Aug. 11, 1837. Christopher Lightfoot, one of the first surveyors of the county, surveyed and platted it.

William Kirkpatrick, pioneer merchant, opened a stock of goods in a small frame building built by Crawson in 1836 for this purpose, and was the first business house in the new town.

The school at Syracuse was the only township school in the county in 1890. It was attended by about 150 scholars. The school building was erected by the township in 1868 at a cost of $10,000 and was a handsome two-story brick. Professor J.P. Dolan was principal; Rosa Brown had charge of the intermediate; and Irene Sprague of the primary department. In 1890, the village had a population of 500 inhabitants.

March 1838 -- Franklin Township forms the southwest corner of the county and was organized in March 1838, at which time only eight white families were residents of the territory.

Without doubt, Benjamin Blue was the first man to effect a settlement, and his location was made inside the corporate limits of Mentone on section two.

March 8, 1838 --The organization of Tippecanoe Township occurred March 8, 1838. Originally, it was part of Plain Township.

The first cabin was erected in 1834 by Ephraim Muirhead.

March 8, 1838 -- Jackson Township was organized March 8, 1838.

James Abbott planted an orchard and the first crop of corn in Jackson Township in spring 1835. Abner, son of Samuel and Elma Abbott, was born June 11 of that year, the first white child born in the township.

March 8, 1838 -- Prairie Township was organized March 8, 1838, and the large portion of prairie land caused the early settlers to locate.

The first to locate was John Powell, March 31, 1833, and his cabin, built on section 21, was the first in the township.

March 8, 1838 -- The territory comprising Harrison Township was originally a part of Wayne.

It was organized March 8, 1838.

The first two settlers were James Wooden and Andrew Sell, who came in spring 1834. The first located on section 18, Sell on section 19, and their log cabins were the first erected in the township.

March 1838 -- Washington Township was organized in March 1838.

The first settlers were John Makemson and his brother Vincent. They built the first house in the township on section 3 in spring 1835 and the same autumn, Vincent Makemson erected the second house in the township.

The first election was held at the house of Martin Braysted in April 1838, and Lewis Keith was elected justice of the peace.

The first death was that of a daughter of John and Mrs. Bratt in 1838. Abner McQuigg died the next year and was the first interred in the Ryerson Cemetery, which was donated for such purposes by George W. Ryerson in 1839.

Fall 1838 --South Whitley, the oldest town in Whitley County, laid out in the fall of 1838, was originally called Springfield. Legally, the name has never been changed, though many attempts have been made to do so.

Joseph Parrett surveyed and platted the town. By 1954, the town had an approximate population of 600.

Early 1840s -- Monoquet, approximately four miles north of Warsaw on Ind. 15 along the Tippecanoe River, was named for Indian Chief Money-Quit.

In the early 1840s, the Harris Brothers, Van Rensslare and Frederick, of South Bend, bought land at Monoquet. In either 1842 or 1843, a dam was built across Tippecanoe River where it turns to the south just west of Ind. 15, and a flourishing mill race was cut just south of the dam running west about a half mile.

July 23, 1842 -- The early settlers of the Eel River community organized the Eel River Christian Church July 23, 1842; it was the first Christian church in Kosciusko County.

Services were held in the Samuel Abbott home and the Cantrel and Dodgertown schools for a number of years. In 1889, the present building was erected.

There were 26 charter members.

1844 -- Numbering among Warsaw's early pioneer families, who down through the years have contributed much to the growth of the community, is the Funk family, who settled here in 1844.

From this family came William B. Funk, the father of Elmer B. Funk, veteran Warsaw banker and executive vice president of the Lake City Bank, in 1854.

1848 -- The first courthouse was completed in 1848 at a cost of $4,200. Located on the courthouse square, the building was of wood construction and though inexpensive, it presented a pleasing appearance and was a great improvement over the building earlier used as a courtroom. Previously, a structure was used temporarily on Lot 101 at the northeast corner of Center and Indiana streets, and then a two-story house was built on the same location after the first building burned down.

March 1848 -- Scott Township was originally a part of Jefferson Township and was organized March 7, 1848.

Caspar Hepler and family, Jacob Hepler and Jacob and Henry Yockey, were the first settlers, and their location was made on section 11 in autumn 1837.

Daniel Hepler, son of David Hepler, died Aug. 17, 1839, the first death in the new settlement.

John Coil and Elizabeth Hepler were married in 1839, the first marriage in Scott Township.

Dec. 6, 1852 -- Pierceton, the second largest town in the county, was laid out Dec. 6, 1852, by Lewis Keith and John B. Chapman on the north part of the northwest quarter of Section 27, and christened Pierceton in honor of President Franklin Pierce.

John B. Chapman, one of its founders, inaugurated business enterprise by opening a general stock of merchandise in a small log house, on a farm outside the now corporate limits of the town.

In 1853, three frame buildings were erected and in the one that occupied the site of the building formerly owned by Lawrence Spayde & Co., a post office was established in 1854, with O.P. Smith as postmaster. Dr. William Hayes, one of the first medical men in the town, succeeded Smith as postmaster in 1855.

July 4, 1853 -- Etna Green's history as a community began July 4, 1853, when lots in the town site were first offered for sale.

Miami Indians first occupied the Etna Green territory but they had permitted the more aggressive Potawatomies to gain a foothold and gradually take over their lands and hunting grounds. In 1832, when the Treaty of Tippecanoe was signed, the United States government recognized the Potawatomies as legal owners. Here they lived until 1834 in undisputed possession of villages along the lakes and rivers.

Early residents recalled that such a settlement was located east of Etna Green near Huffman Lake and apparently the Indians spent much time along the banks of the Tippecanoe River.

Previous county histories have given the original settlers in the area around Etna Green as Robert Reid, Solomon Klingerman and Charles Rockhill, who were said to have arrived in 1843. Court records do not verify this.

March 25, 1854 -- Warsaw was incorporated as a town. There were approximately 750 residents.

1855 -- John Tucker was the original proprietor of Sevastopol. It was platted in 1855, and two years later, A.J. Whittenberger and his brother Thomas opened a stock of general merchandise.

William Dunlap, the postmaster, owned a farm adjoining the village plat, and at his house, a post office was established in 1857. He served as postmaster until the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, after which the office was removed to the Whittenbergers' store, and A.J. Whittenberger was appointed postmaster.

After the latter moved to Claypool, Dr. A.M. Towl was appointed and served several years, having the office in his drug store, the first enterprise in that line in the village.

Sept. 29, 1857 -- Agnes Teegarden and Harvey Hunt laid out Atwood village Sept. 29, 1857. The place was first called "Mount Rushka," but the name was changed by a petition of the citizens in 1865 to Atwood. A post office was established in 1864 with postmaster Ira Hovey.

1858 -- It appears that about the time of the Civil War, or possibly a little later, a county library was established in Warsaw. Just where this was located is not known; however, after 1858, Warsaw had a good three-story brick schoolhouse at the southwest corner of Market and Detroit streets, and it is quite likely that the first library open to all the public was started here by 1885.

After the Civil War, Capt. John N. Runyan started a reading room in the second story of the Phoenix Block in January 1867.

A school flourished from 1851-1876, known as Mrs. Cowan's Seminary, and it included one of the best small libraries in town on South Detroit Street near South Street.

Jane Cowan was one of the leading educators of the community for 25 years and was held in the highest esteem. She died in 1876.

1859 -- Silver Lake is the only village in Lake Township. It was surveyed and platted by Jacob Paulus March 8, 1859, and until the completion of Cincinnati, Wabash and Michigan Railway, was one of the most prosperous towns in the county. The original name was Silver Lakeville, but the latter syllable was dropped.

Jacob and Daniel Paulus were the first merchants of the village and in their log store house the first post office in the township was located. Jacob was postmaster and kept mail in a dry-goods box.

Feb. 16, 1859 -- Until fall 1858, Warsaw citizens barely ever felt the need of a fire department. The occasional fires had been extinguished by a "hand-to-hand conflict" in which pails of water did the job.

The town, however, began building up rapidly with frame structures, and one or two fires which had been particularly troublesome to manage led to the discussion of an organized fire department.

A public meeting on the matter was held and on Feb. 16, 1859, a permanent organization was created. The name chosen was Independent Protection Engine Co. No. 1.

June 8, 1859 -- Seward Township was organized June 8, 1859, forming the east side of Franklin. In creating Seward, a strip four miles wide and extending the full length north and south was taken from Franklin.

The first actual settler was Samuel Bishop, who came in spring 1836.

1864 -- In 1864, John Packer came to Kosciusko County and purchased four acres of land, now the site of the village of Packerton.

Packer also purchased a sawmill owned by David and Winfield Troyer. After operating the sawmill for a year, Packer returned to his Ohio home and disposed of mills he owned there.

In April 1866, he returned with his family to Clay Township and engaged in the manufacture of lumber on an extensive scale.

1867 -- The Wright House stood on the corner east of the courthouse and was destroyed by fire in 1867. James Whitcomb Riley lived there as a young man while doing sign painting in Warsaw.

1870 -- Warsaw became a two-railroad town in 1870 when the Warsaw, Goshen and White Pigeon Railroad laid tracks between Warsaw and Goshen. In the fall and spring of 1881 and 1882, the rail line was extended from Goshen through Elkhart to Niles and Benton Harbor, Mich., by the Cincinnati, Wabash and Michigan Railway, later a branch of the Big Four Railroad. The two lines formed a merger and completed a rail line from Warsaw to the two Michigan towns.

Sept. 20, 1870 -- Lake Township was organized Sept. 20, 1870, and was originally the south part of Clay Township.

John Rhoades, with his family, came in 1832, followed the next year by a number of other settlers. One of the oldest pioneers residing in the township was William Leffel, who came in 1840 and settled on a farm. He and his wife had been 50 years married, and were the oldest married couple in Lake Township in the early days.

Enoch, son of John and Catherine Rhoades, was born in October 1837, the first recorded birth.

May 10, 1873 -- Claypool is the largest village in Clay Township and was located by John and Nelson Beigh on May 10, 1873.

The first lot disposed of was donated to Capt. John Wells, who erected the large two-story frame building later used as a hotel.

This was occupied for some time by A.J. Whittenberger, who opened an extensive stock of general merchandise as soon as the store was completed.

1874 -- In 1874 the Opera House Block was built in Warsaw somewhat on the order of the Empire Block.

Mrs. Billy Williams had lived on this ground. The old Williams home sat toward the east end of the lot. At the west end of the lot was a frame Presbyterian church built about the time that Robert and Jane Cowan came to town in May 1851. The church was pushed down the street a block, the Williams house was moved away and the opera house block began to take shape.

It had a good hall in the second story capable of seating 1,500 people. Steps went up at the east end. At the top was the ticket booth and to the north the entrance both to the big hall and the gallery. The floor in the main auditorium sloped to the west. The stage was large and a curtain screened it.

The opera house was the showplace of Warsaw for 40 years.

1877 -- The population of Warsaw was 4,000.

1880 -- The beginning of the history of Clunette has been traced back to 1880, when the town was known as Galveston and had two woodworking shops, a wagon shop, a blacksmith shop, two general stores and a repair shop.

The woodworking shops were run by Wesley Anglin, Jacob Frantz and Hiram Boggs. Scott Schell operated the blacksmith shop. Boggs and Joe Neeley owned and operated the two general stores and Neeley later sold his store to Elick and George Harley.

Clunette at that time had three doctors: Dr. John Johnson, Dr. Boydson and Dr. Marine.

Autumn 1881 -- Sidney was surveyed and platted by Daniel Snell, John Mowan and Aaron Stumpff in autumn 1881.

Gustavus A. Biltz purchased the first lot and erected a residence and sawmill in December 1881.

Snell erected the first business house in 1881 into which Radcliff, McNamara and company opened a stock of general merchandise.

1882 -- Burket was surveyed and platted in the spring of 1882 by Elias Burkett.

The first improvement in the new town was the sawmill built by Samuel Banks, completed in autumn 1881. He cut the lumber for the first residence, also for the first business, the drug store occupied by Adam Horn and erected by Thomas Benton Sarber.

The second building was a hotel built jointly by Horace Tucker and Peter Blue. This when completed was conducted by Samuel and Mrs. Banks, who with their family were the first residents of Burket.

May 1882 -- The land now occupied by most of Mentone was part of the 80 acres purchased from the government in the 1870s by William Blue. It was next owned by Benjamin Blue, then by John Vantreese and later purchased by John Morgan. Albert Tucker bought this land from Morgan's widow and also 15 acres from Samuel Lee. About this time, the Nickel Plate Railroad was laid and there was much discussion about a town being built.

In May 1882, Albert Tucker, founder of Mentone, surveyed the plat where Mentone now is located and laid out the town as far east as Morgan Street and west to Elma Street, except the northwest corner.

This land was owned by James Blue, who later laid it out and it became known as the Blue Addition.

William Kintzel built the first house in the new town; construction began Sept. 5, 1882, and the house was completed and occupied Nov. 5.

Charles Dillingham, son of David and Sarah Dillingham, was the first male child in Mentone, and Dessie Mae Sellers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Sellers, was the first female baby born in the new town.

Mrs. George (Sarah) Myers named the town after reading an article in a newspaper about Mentone, France. She suggested it be called Mentone and the name was accepted.

In December 1885, the town was incorporated.

Oct. 10, 1883 -- At precisely eight minutes past noon, Charles W. Butler paid the penalty for his crime of murdering his wife at Pierceton by hanging in the jailyard at Columbia City.

Six years previous to the murder, Charles W. Butler married Abbie Sheehan, a beautiful and accomplished young lady, of Columbus, Ohio. During these six years, she lived the life of a dog, and it was only after all these years of inhuman treatment received from the hands of the man who today met his fate, that she resolved on separation from one who had always treated her worse than a brute.

On Sept. 29, 1883, he went to the residence of Ira Ryerson, Pierceton. After a few moments conversing with his wife, who was staying there, he shot her in the back, 2 inches below the neck.

Mrs. Butler lingered a few days, suffering greatly from the effects of the wound, and on the fourth day death put an end to all her miseries.

1885 -- Three famous authors lived in or near Warsaw in their youth.

Theodore Dreiser, author of "An American Tragedy," lived in Warsaw for four years, from 1885 to 1889. His family moved here when he was 14 and he attended school at West Ward, living across the street from the school, and at Warsaw High School.

Dreiser returned to Warsaw for a visit in the early 1900s, finding that most of his friends were no longer here.

He died Dec. 28, 1945, seven years before "A Place in the Sun," based on his novel "An American Tragedy," won an Academy Award.

His brother, Paul Dreiser, was a famous song writer; one of his compositions was the Indiana state song, "On the Banks of the Wabash."

James Whitcomb Riley, who was later to become the noted "Hoosier Poet," spent his youth as an itinerate sign painter and lived in Warsaw at several different times.

Years later as president of the Midwest Writers' conference, which met in the old Winona Hotel, and as a chautauqua lecturer in the auditorium, he made frequent visits to Winona Lake.

Riley was born in Greenfield Oct. 7, 1849, and died in Indianapolis July 23, 1916. He is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis.

Ambrose Bierce, once described as "America's one genuine wit," lived for some time with his brother Gus on a farm southwest of Eagle Lake near Warsaw.

At the age of 17, he worked as a "printer's devil" on the old Northern Indianian, Warsaw's early newspaper, living with the editor, Reuben Williams, and Mrs. Williams.

Falsely accused of theft, Bierce left Warsaw and never returned.

He later fought in the Civil War and attained fame as a journalist and writer of short stories, using a style similar to that of Mark Twain.

In 1916, he left his post as editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and went to Mexico, where he disappeared.

March 8, 1885 -- Monroe Township was organized March 8, 1885, and given the name of Chester. In December, it was reorganized and given its present name.

The township was uninhabited by white men until 1836, and from the best information obtainable, William Norris was the first actual settler.

1895 -- Revra DePuy founded the DePuy Manufacturing company, makers of fracture appliances, in 1895.

The first plant was at the corner of Columbia and Center streets in Warsaw.

DePuy pioneered the metal splint industry by introducing wire splints, which were a vast improvement over the old barrel-stave type of wood splint used previously.

At the start of the business, the plant employed only five or six employees.

May 4, 1899 -- Upon returning home May 4, 1899, from the Spanish-American War, men of Company H and of the 160th regimental band received a royal welcome as citizens of Warsaw and Kosciusko County turned out for a day-long celebration.

July 10, 1899 -- Rural mail delivery was just a dream until 1899, when the post office decided to experiment, hiring a man to deliver the mail in the rural areas.

Postmaster Bentley received an order July 6, 1899, from the post office department authorizing him to establish a free rural mail delivery route from the Warsaw post office to commence July 10, 1899, with one carrier at a salary of $400 per annum, which included horse hire.

With the establishment of this rural mail route, the post office at Orion was discontinued. Milo H. James was appointed carrier and Roy Sloane substitute carrier, and Postmaster Bentley arranged to have the carrier leave the Warsaw post office no later than 8 a.m.

This rural mail delivery was made without any expense whatever to farmers, the only requirement being that they provide a box that was placed on a post near the road so the mail carrier could deposit mail in the receptacle without getting out of his wagon. Farmers living near the route could go together and place a box at a crossroads on the route.

For the accommodation of the farmers, the carrier was at all times supplied with stamps, postal cards and stamped envelopes.

Delivery was made daily -- Sundays and legal holidays excepted.

Early 1900s -- In the early 1900s, the ice business was one of the largest industries in Warsaw.

Two local ice companies took care of the Warsaw and Winona Lake area and a wholesale outlet shipped to all parts of southern Indiana the year round.

Local ice companies were operated by Ernest Clase and Dr. W.L. Hines, who operated the Warsaw Ice Co., and John Collins, who operated the Collins Ice Co.

The Warsaw Ice Co. was on Center Lake on the north end of Buffalo Street, and the Collins plant was on the east side of Center, near the site of the Band City Oil Co.

The wholesale ice company, owned by Henry Kithmer, of Indianapolis, shipped ice in large refrigerator freight cars. His ice houses were on the east side of Center, the west side of Pike Lake and the west side of Eagle Lake.

May 4, 1903 -- Wilbur F. Maish Sr. and associates Edgar E. Lehman and James R. Frazer organized the Little Crow Milling Co. and purchased a flour mill previously operated by J.B. Foulke.

1918 -- The county suffered 28 casualties in World War I. The total manpower supplied by the county was approximately 2,000 men.

June 27, 1919 -- The Little Crow Mill was practically destroyed by fire June 27, 1919. W.F. Maish estimated that the loss was more than $25,000. The mill was at the corner of North Lake and Main streets.

April 17, 1922 -- As a result of the heavy rain early yesterday, Center Lake and some of the other lakes of Kosciusko County Monday night and early Tuesday rose 6 inches.

Hundreds of acres of land in Kosciusko County are now inundated by flood waters and considerable damage has been done.

Several farmers who visited Warsaw today said they had given up the idea of planting oats this year because of the delay experienced from rains in the last two weeks.

In many instances, growing wheat in Kosciusko County has been practically drowned out.

From all parts of the county came reports that numerous bridges had been damaged by the high water. A wooden bridge on the A.T. Rockhill farm near Mentone was washed out late yesterday. The bridge south of the Dunham school house in Tippecanoe Township went out last night.

Many carp are being caught by boys armed with pitchforks in the flooded lowlands near this city.

1927 -- Early in 1927, the Zimmer Manufacturing Co. was organized by Justin O. Zimmer, president, William S. Rogers, secretary and treasurer, and William S. Felkner, vice president, all of Warsaw.

Zimmer had 20 years prior experience in selling fracture equipment. Rogers was a banker and Felkner was a former manufacturer and salesman.

Sales showed a phenomenal growth from the start and the firm weathered the Depression with flying colors. In fact, the factory had only two weeks of less than 40 hours work in its history, and those were 35-hour weeks. Most of the time in its first 27 years there were overtime work weeks due to the demand by the profession for its unique and improved products.

In August 1945, Felkner and Rogers sold their interests to various salesmen and employees in the plant.

During World War II, many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fracture equipment was made for the armed services of the United States and foreign countries.

Jan. 26, 1927 -- One of Warsaw's greatest mysteries, one that was never completely solved, occurred on the night of Jan. 26, 1927.

It involved the complete disappearance of Frank Tucker, Warsaw cigar store clerk, who had never missed a day's work in four years.

With Tucker disappeared his bankroll, believed to be about $4,500.

It was established almost to a certainty that Tucker was waylaid, murdered and robbed while on his way from the cigar store to his home at 412 Pike St. His bloodstained cap, identified by Robert Breading, a fellow worker at the cigar store, and Frank's brother, the late Fred Tucker, clerk at Phillipsons, was found near the Big Four Railroad crossing at East Main Street, where it had evidently been kicked from a car by the slayers.

Oct. 12, 1939 -- One of the most cold-blooded and fiendish crimes in the history of Warsaw occurred Oct. 12, 1939, in the "neck-tie" slaying of Florence Potter, 65, whose badly beaten body was found face down on the floor of her home on the corner of Indiana and East Winona Avenue.

For this murder, Frank E. Potts, 23, of Catawba, S.C., was found guilty of first degree murder and given a life sentence.

Mrs. Potter, widow of Dr. J.C. Potter, of Milford, lived alone. Her battered body, with crushed face and clothing partly torn off, was found by neighbors Oct. 13, the day after her brutal murder.

Her kitchen was blood-splattered, indicating that she had been killed following a desperate struggle. A necktie had been tied around her neck and there was evidence that she had been struck with a shovel or rock, both found blood-stained nearby.

A posse of about 100 vigilantes and county, state and city officials searched the vicinity of Goose Lake, where it was thought the murderer might be hiding, but found no trace of the slayer.

Frank Potts was taken into custody early in November on a vagrancy charge at Atchison, Kan., and was identified as the killer through fingerprints sent to the FBI in Washington.

1945 -- Sixty-one of the 2,500 men from Kosciusko County in World War II lost their lives in the service of their country.

One, a Milford youth, Lt. Harry L. Michael, won the nation's highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Michael was killed March 13, 1945, his 23rd birthday.

Aug. 1, 1947 -- An original idea conceived by a native Chicagoan, Donald J. Dalton, who came to Warsaw in 1910, was developed, and as a result, he headed for many years one of the city's most successful industries, Dalton Foundries Inc.

Dalton was president of the company at the time of his death Aug. 1, 1947. He established his first foundry in an empty building on West Market Street in 1910. The then-abandoned building had been a foundry edifice and was adjacent to the Pennsylvania Railroad main lines. The late founder of Dalton Foundries Inc. was 66 years old at his death.

May 31, 1952 -- With a large wreath on the front of its giant engine, presented by the Retail Merchants division of the Warsaw Chamber of Commerce as a fitting farewell to an institution that served the community for nearly a half century, the last train of the Winona Railway at 11 a.m. started its "sentimental journey" to New Paris and back.

The huge propane electric locomotive, with Ralph Justus, veteran engineman, at the controls, pulled two gondola cars loaded with former officials and employees of the railroad and interested citizens. The group making the final run numbered about 60.

1953 -- The bitter, expensive and stalemated war in Korea that ended officially with the signing of a truce July 26, 1953, took the lives of at least 16 men from this area while countless others suffered combat wounds during the 37 months of fighting.

1954 -- Seventy-seven years ago, a man by the name of D.D. Morse drew a picture of the town of Warsaw looking toward the northeast. It shows all the buildings that made up the town at that time.

Not much was on Center Street east of the tracks, the most pretentious house being that of Judge Frazier.

The old Center Ward School is shown, with the Episcopal Church northeast of the school.

There were no brick buildings then south of the old Globe room, and the Phillipson corner is shown as a frame with frame awnings out in front. Their building was built by Chapman in 1884-85 and Phillipsons moved to the present site June 1, 1888.

The Wright Hotel and the Kirtley Hotel are shown east of the courthouse and the old Baptist Church to the east. North of the frame courthouse is shown a brick office building.

On south Washington Street is shown the Bung Factory.

Facing Columbia Street just north of the railroad is shown the Lesh Factory, which later extended east to Washington Street.

Many houses are shown north and west of the courthouse. On the Widaman corner two houses are shown, both facing Buffalo Street.

The depot for the Pittsburgh Railroad is shown on Union Street west of the flour mill. Where the Central School was later built is shown a part of Conrad's Wagon Factory.

There are ice houses at different points around the south and east sides of Center Lake and a steamer is shown on the lake, together with some sailboats. Before 1886, Warsaw had no parks.

The old Thrall's brick plant is shown southeast of West Ward School and a factory south of the present Fred McKown home.

North of the mill on Union Street is shown a cooper shop, where barrels were made.

All in all, the picture is an interesting reminiscence of a bygone age and will always be a valuable curio that should end up in a county museum.

July 2, 1954 -- Rain forced postponement of the scheduled "Queens of the Lakes" beauty contest eliminations but failed to interrupt a long and colorful parade that attracted an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people to North Webster for the fifth session of the ninth annual Mermaid Festival.

The 52 queen contestants were judged July 3. They were cut down to six finalists, from whom the 1954 queen will be chosen and crowned by Lt. Gov. Harold W. Handley.

July 2, 1954 -- Warsaw, as well as the neighboring communities, today awaited the opening tomorrow of Warsaw's big Lakeland Festival Centennial celebration, which will last through July 10 with a full schedule of entertaining events.

July 3, 1954 -- The city, as well as the neighboring communities, looked forward to the opening Sunday of Warsaw's big Lakeland Festival Centennial celebration, which will last through July 10, with a full schedule of entertaining events.

Sunday was set aside as religious dedication day and everyone was urged to attend church services in the morning. A vesper service, "Centennial of the Faith," was at 4:30 p.m. at the county fairgrounds, featuring Merv Rosell, America's great evangelist, as guest speaker.

At 10 a.m. Monday, there was an official festival opening at the courthouse lawn and a fish fry at 11 a.m. on North Buffalo Street. A gigantic parade highlighted the festival ceremonies at 1 p.m. Monday, and the night featured stock car races at the fairgrounds with a big fireworks display at approximately 9 p.m.

Farmer's day on Tuesday will feature an address by Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson at 1:30 p.m. on the courthouse lawn.

Other Tuesday features will include a tractor driving contest, threshing demonstration and at 7:30 p.m. the judging and crowning of the centennial queen at the fairgrounds.

Feature events will continue each succeeding day and great crowds are expected in Warsaw.

Jan. 2, 1954 -- Water Utilities Inc. began operating the Warsaw and Winona Lake water facilities on Jan. 1, with Samuel S. Oldfather of Warsaw serving as vice president and general manager of the new corporation, it was announced today by Frank S. Torgerson, of Chicago, president of the utility.

The new corporation, with headquarters in Warsaw, purchased the local water property, along with water properties at Fowler, Long Beach and Waterloo, from the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. for approximately $600,000, according to the announcement.

Jan. 4, 1954 -- Records revealed that 47 Kosciusko County residents suffered violent accidental deaths during 1953.

Accidents that occurred in this county killed 30 people, of which 18 were Kosciusko County residents and the other 12 from elsewhere. Of these 30, 21 were killed in automobile accidents, one by a train, three by drowning, two by strangulation, two by gunshot wounds and one by a fall.

Twenty-nine Kosciusko County residnets were killed outside this county. Of these, 24 were victims of automobile accidents, two were drowned, one was burned to death and two died of gunshot wounds.

Jan. 5, 1954 -- Earl Himes, county auditor, reported that distribution of the December tax funds totaling $884,326.69, has been completed, with checks going out to various units that share in the semi-annual disbursement.

The largest single item handled was the transfer of $91,350.38 to the county general fund. The city of Warsaw received $81,535.41 and the Warsaw school system, $74,551.02.

Jan. 27, 1954 -- Three young Mennonites from northern Indiana, including Manas Kuhns, 20, of Milford, yesterday received two-year prison sentences for refusing to be inducted into the armed forces.

The sentences were imposed at Indianapolis by Federal Judge William E. Steckler. Local draft boards had denied petitions by the three for classification as conscientious objectors. Kuhns, son of Fannie Kuhns, left with a group of draftees from Warsaw last July. However, when he reached Indianapolis, he refused to take the oath and was lodged in the Marion County jail.

Feb. 23, 1954 -- John Snell, chairman of the retail merchants division of the Warsaw Chamber of Commerce, called a special meeting of all local businessmen at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday for the purpose of discussing plans for the city's big centennial celebration this summer.

March 4, 1954 -- Lawrence D. Bell, the man who has more aeronautics "firsts" to his credit than any other living aircraft manufacturer, will return to the Indiana town of his birth -- Mentone -- and make a rare public appearance March 10 at 8 p.m.

Bell, president of the Bell Aircraft Corp., will be the principal speaker at the dedication of the new Mentone school addition and gymnasium.

Bell was born in Mentone April 5, 1894.

March 9, 1954 -- Warsaw's centennial celebration to be staged here July 4 to 10 inclusive, will be called "Warsaw's Lakeland Festival, Commemorating a Century of Progress," it was announced today by John Snell, chairman of the executive committee.

April 2, 1954 -- Jesse Owens, regarded in most circles as the greatest amateur athlete in world history, will appear in Warsaw as featured speaker for the annual Warsaw high school athletic banquet sponsored by the Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions clubs, to be held Monday night, May 3, at the Masonic temple, it was announced today.

April 2, 1954 -- Dr. Lawrence Clifton Jones, Missouri-born, northern-educated Negro, founder and operator of the Piney Woods school, near Jackson, Miss., was guest speaker at the luncheon meeting of the Warsaw Kiwanis Club at the Camel Club Thursday noon.

Dr. Jones, who is a graduate of Iowa University, devoted his life to educating and improving the lives of his own race.

April 5, 1954 -- Breach in the Kosciusko County Republican ranks widened today with the disclosure that Warsaw Mayor Mike Hodges has cast his lot with the Harris-Augsburger anti-organization forces in efforts to overthrow present GOP precinct committeemen and women and their leaders in the coming May primary election.

April 30, 1954 -- Centennial officials announced today that "Sisters of the Swish" badges, entitling Warsaw women to wear cosmetics, will be distributed to local stores by Mrs. Eddie (Mary) Aker.

Aker, chairman of the women's "swish" committee, said the cosmetics permit badges will go on sale Saturday. They will cost $1. More than 1,000 men's shaving permits and "Brothers of the Brush" badges for the July 4-10 Centennial have been sold the past week.

Meanwhile, eight local men who have been named by WRSW commentator Bill Mollenhour as being responsible for heisting the Centennial jail house and casket Monday night were denying the allegations today and crying, "Show us some proof!"

May 15, 1954 -- The long-standing and involved dispute among school board members at Nappanee is reported to have reached a climax Thursday night when three board members and the superintendent of the schools offered to resign.

A spokesman for one of the factions of the board is reported to have said that Dr. Douglas Price, Carlyle Mutschler and Harter Wright, members from Nappanee, and John Kendall, superintendent, all had offered to resign. Kendall, whose salary was reported as $8,500 per year, held a contract that extended to 1955.

The disagreement among the school board members reportedly was over building plans for schools and also was described as a clash of personalities.

May 21, 1954 -- Mrs. John J. Podemski, 38, of Nappanee, holds her 11th child in South BendÕs St. Joseph hospital, where all were delivered by Caesarean operation. The week-old baby, Jacqueline, and the mother are reported doing well.

June 22, 1954 -- National water-ski champions and stunt boat drivers performing spectacular feats will be heading the Tommy Barlett Florida water-ski and jumping boat show, which will appear at Center Lake July 8 and 9 as a feature of the Lakeland Festival, centennial officials said today.

Barlett, host on the NBC coast-to-coast radio and television show, "Welcome Travelers," is producing this outstanding outdoor attraction for the fourth consecutive season.

July 8, 1954 -- Perfect weather blessed Warsaw's centennial celebrations today, and a large crowd packed the high school auditorium to capacity this morning for a Ladies' Day "century theater" program with big gatherings expected for the Tommy Barlett Florida water-ski and boat-jumping thrill show this afternoon and tonight at Center Lake, and the Hostess Queen contest and pageant, "Pioneer Glory," at the fairgrounds tonight.

July 10, 1954 -- A highly successful Lakeland Festival celebration, commemorating Warsaw's 100th anniversary as an incorporated city, was drawing to a climax today with featured events including free "Super Circus" acts, the third annual Soap Box Derby, boat races, square dancing, stock car races, Warsaw high school homecoming and the Queen's Coronation Ball.

Aug. 3, 1954 -- Warsaw's tentative budget for 1955, reviewed at a special session of the city council last night, proposed a 47-cent increase from $1.54 to $2.01 in the total tax rate for the city.

Further discussions on the budget are set for 8 p.m. at the city hall next Monday with heads of the various city departments and all members of the cemetery, aviation, recreation, park and city planning commissions urged to attend.

Aug. 31, 1954 -- Two men reported seeing a "flying saucer" this morning while en route from their Oswego homes to Leesburg.

Herman Buckingham and Jack Rader, who were driving in separate cars toward the Leesburg Lumber Co., where they are employed, said the "flying saucer" cast a reflection on their windshields. They looked skyward and saw what they described as a "shiny ball of fire" traveling westward.

The two men said the saucer disappeared from their view in a split second.

Sept. 25, 1954 -- The Annual Mentone Egg Show ended last night with Robert Creighton, Rt. 5, Warsaw, receiving the trophy as grand sweepstakes winner in the egg exhibit contest, and with Lt. Gov. Harold Handley crowning Miss Sandra VanLue, 14, of Akron, as the 1954 queen.

Sept. 28, 1954 -- Safety precautions were being taken today to protect children in the Warsaw and Wayne township schools, especially at East Ward and West Wayne, following the diagnosis of polio in the illnesses of Linda Yoder, 5, and Mary Pat Van Osdol, 7.

Shortly before 2 p.m. today it also was learned here that Russell Farley Jr., 25, of northeast Sidney, was very ill with polio at the Whitley County hospital in Columbia City. Farley reportedly is paralyzed in both legs, the left arm, neck and spine.

Oct. 5, 1954 -- The Kosciusko County Jail was listed as one of the best in Indiana by Charles G. Griffo in one of a series of articles appearing in the Indianapolis Star about sordid conditions of Indiana's county jail system.

In the small jail category, Griffo said jails at Warsaw, Goshen, Huntington and Lebanon were singled out as among the few with high ratings.

Oct. 11, 1954 -- Warsaw, Kosciusko County and surrounding towns today were attempting to recover from the heaviest rainfall in history, a record 6.16 inches over Saturday and Sunday, that caused thousands of dollars of damage, flooded countless basements, blocked roads and highways and left water standing on valuable farmland around cottages and homes.

Oct. 14, 1954 -- Approximately 60 Kosciusko County Republican men and women will see and hear President Dwight Eisenhower give a major farm policy speech tomorrow night at the Butler Field House in Indianapolis, it was reported today.

Oct. 28, 1954 -- The resignations late yesterday of O. Ray Miner and Mrs. Dallas (Mary) Crooke as city Republican chairman and vice chairman, respectively, was followed today with a charge of supporters of Phil Harris, Warsaw attorney, that the GOP organization was failing to support Harris for re-election as prosecuting attorney in his bid against D. James Snodgrass, local democratic candidate, next Tuesday.

This charge brought about the demand by Harris supporters for the resignation of Miner and Mrs. Crooke. There were reports that Mayor Mike Hodges was among these supporters. Hodges, however, denied this today.

Nov. 13, 1954 -- Every town in Kosciusko County will be on fast time tomorrow.

The list of towns making the changeover was completed today with announcements that Burket, Atwood, Beaver Dam and Mentone would go on Central Daylight Time Sunday morning.

North Webster, Sidney and Syracuse made the change last Sunday. Tomorrow morning Warsaw, Winona Lake, Pierceton, Leesburg, Etna Green, Silver Lake, Claypool, Burket, Atwood, Beaver Dam and Mentone will switch to fast time, and Milford will make the change Sunday night.

Nov. 15, 1954 -- Carl Ohmer Cook Jr., 13-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Cook, of Rt. 2, Claypool, became Kosciusko County's first polio fatality of the year when he died at 7 p.m. Saturday in the McDonald Hospital of complications from the disease.

Jan. 3, 1955 -- Final rites were set for this afternoon and tomorrow for four Syracuse residents, including Kosciusko County's chief deputy sheriff, Joseph B. Bauer, who were fatally injured in what was said to be the worst New Year's Eve traffic accident in county history.

Bauer, 27, of Lake Wawasee, driver of one car, and James E. Blackburn, 33, of Syracuse Lake, operator of the other auto, were killed instantly when their cars collided nearly head-on at approximately 12:40 a.m. Saturday on a straight stretch of pavement between two curves on Ind. 13, south of Syracuse, and near Lake Wawasee. Blackburn's wife Esther, 27, died shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday in Goshen Hospital, and Paul Lee Traster, 26, of Syracuse, the only passenger in Bauer's auto, died at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Jan. 7, 1955 -- Human bones have been uncovered at the huge "Indian Mound," an old landmark at Winona Lake, which Bruce Howe Sr. and other workmen are leveling so that the area can be converted into lots.

The bones were found just 5 feet from the foot of the grave of John M. Hamilton, who died in 1839. Howe believes the bones found are Indian.

Jan. 31, 1955 -- Area opponents of proposed House Bill 262, which if passed, would require the licensing of all boats using motors on Indiana lakes, met Saturday in Rochester and decided to be represented at a hearing at 3:30 tomorrow when the bill is brought up before the natural resources and conservation committee of the house of representatives in Indianapolis. The Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce and the Wawasee Property Owners Association will both send groups to attend the hearing.

Feb. 5, 1955 -- Warsaw school board members last night approved the establishment of a new cumulative building fund, and a resulting 5 cent school tax hike as no remonstrators appeared at the hearing held in the office of Superintendent Carl Burt.

If finally passed by the state tax board, the cumulative building fund tax rate would be set at 30 cents on each $100 worth of taxable property in Warsaw. The current rate is 25 cents.

Feb. 21, 1955 -- Employees in the Warsaw plant of Kimble Glass division have been awarded a third place flag in the 1954 all-company safety contest, according to the year-end figures compiled by H.V. Gardner, Owens-Illinois safety director.

Members of the plant's safety committee are Gerald Dubbs, Maxine Pittenger, Rhea Miller, Alice Brown and chairman William H. Brooks.

March 21, 1955 -- The body of Pfc. William George Joy, of South Whitley, who was killed in a Korean invasion Nov. 24, 1950, will arrive in South Whitley Tuesday noon and services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Miller Funeral Home. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Omer Joy, of Roann, Pfc. Joy entered the service in 1949, took training at Fort Lewis, Wash., and went overseas on July 24, 1950. He attended the South Whitley schools. The body had been buried in the United Nations cemetery at Pyongyang, North Korea.

April 4, 1955 -- Simultaneous emergency meetings of the city council and Kosciusko County Fair Board have been called for Tuesday night to see what possible means can be devised to qualify Warsaw as a site for a new $200,000 national guard armory building. Plans for the erection of 18 new armory buildings over the state are now in the blueprint stages of the state and federal government planning boards. Tentative plans call for the construction of at least three new armory buildings in Indiana per year. Three of the 18 buildings, including one at Angola, are already under construction.

April 7, 1955 -- Judge Walter Brubaker has issued a call for the grand jury to meet at the court house at 9:30 a.m. next Monday, and there was every indication today that the jurors, composed of four women and two men, would be given information on allegations by the state board of accounts that Loren Melick, of Warsaw, is short $13,401.91 in state-owed fees and fines collected while he was Wayne Township justice of the peace from Jan. 1, 1951, to Nov. 30, 1954.

April 8, 1955 -- Seward Township trustee Fred Blackburn announced today that 776 residents of Seward Township, which he believes to be the required 51 percent of freeholders, have signed a petition asking for a $126,000 bond issue to repair the present Burket School and construct a new school building there. But an opposition group, which has formed a Committee for Better Schools, is going ahead with its efforts to abolish the township and merge with Lake and Clay townships.

April 18, 1955 -- The Wawasee Inn, formerly the Tavern Hotel, erected in 1926 on the south side of Lake Wawasee, was gutted by fire which broke out shortly before midnight, and Syracuse Fire Chief James Connolly said today that damage might run as high as $75,000. Only the frame of the two-story building, containing 26 rooms, remained standing today.

May 3, 1955 -- Prosecuting attorney Philip Harris reported at 1:30 p.m. today that an affidavit against Mrs. Gladys Blubaugh, in relation to the alleged arsenic poisoning of her husband, Francis, of Silver Lake, was being prepared in his office. Although the exact charges had not been determined, Harris said they would be filed this afternoon.

May 6, 1955 -- The North Webster School gym, located at the north end of the building, was virtually ruined by fire early this morning, with damage estimated at between $50,000 and $60,000 by Verland Bockman, North Webster fire chief, and Everett Smith, Tippecanoe Township trustee.

Smith and the township advisory board immediately decided to hold a meeting at the school house tonight to determine whether to have the gym repaired or to build a new gymnasium.

July 11, 1955 -- The public's support of the "Pioneer Days" celebration held Friday and Saturday by Warsaw merchants was "greater than anticipated," Max Hull, chairman of the retail merchants committee in charge of activites, reported today.

Hull also said that as a result of the enthusiastic response, Warsaw merchants had decided to make "Pioneer Days" an annual affair.

July 27, 1955 -- Although Winona Lake and Warsaw officials were playing a very close game today regarding reports that there had been some discussion on the possibility of merging the town and city, there was ample evidence that such a proposal is receiving some consideration.

No one in an official capacity wished to be quoted.

However, one member of the Winona Lake town board said there had been some talk among board members on this subject and that he thought it would be a good idea.

On Aug. 3, Winona Lake town board members issued a statement in which they termed as "false impressions" reports that they had considered a possible merger between Winona Lake and Warsaw, and in which they stated they were opposed to such a suggestion.

Aug. 15, 1955 -- It was revealed today that there will be no high school at Burket this year as Seward Township Trustee Fred Blackburn announced that the 65-70 students scheduled to attend high school there would instead be transferred to Silver Lake, Beaver Dam and Mentone.

Blackburn said this action was necessary due to the fact that the state board of education last March refused to grant Burket a high school commission and because the state tax board has not yet made its decision on a hearing held in Warsaw last June on township officials' petition for a $126,000 bond issue to erect a new high school building at Burket.

Aug. 20, 1955 -- Members of the Seward Township Committee for Better Schools, along with trustees of Lake and Clay townships, met today at the office of county superintendent of schools Glen Whitehead and announced their intentions to present on Monday a petition to abolish Seward Township and to add part of its territory to Lake Township and the balance to Clay Township.

Sept. 6, 1955 -- The Prohibition Party, at its national convention being held at Camp Mack on Waubee Lake, near Milford, on Monday scrapped its old name Prohibition Party in favor of the new name Pioneer Party, nominated Sen. William Langer, now Republican senior senator from North Dakota, as its candidate for president in 1956 and voted to establish its new national headquarters in Chicago and also open a special Washington office.

This announcement was made by Dr. Lowell H. Coate, national chairman of the Prohibition Party which for many years has had its headquarters at Winona Lake. He said the old name was scrapped in an effort to broaden, modernize and streamline its appeal.

Oct. 24, 1955 -- Lake Theater owner Nick Mallers and Fire Chief Norman Banghart met today with state fire marshal officials and insurance adjusters in an inspection to determine the cause of an explosion Sunday morning that left the interior of the large, 7-year-old theater at the corner of Main and Buffalo streets, Warsaw, a shambles of destruction, with damages estimated by Mallers as close to $150,000.

Nov. 9, 1955 -- Warsaw will have a Democratic mayor next Jan. 1 for the first time in 24 years --since Lewis J. Bibler last served in 1932 --and a majority of Democratic councilmen since even before that time.

In line with the trend which developed last night throughout most Indiana cities, voters here elected the entire Democratic ticket where contests were involved, naming Andrew G. (Jack) Engle mayor; Ernest Myers clerk-treasurer; Joseph Donovan councilman, first ward; Loran Mort, councilman, third ward; and Christ Gilbertson, councilman-at-large.

Dec. 6, 1955 -- Former Kosciusko County Prosecuting Attorney Porter Williamson, 39, today charged top ranking navy intelligence officers with an attempt to buy him off with confidential funds after labeling him "a security risk" for nearly 2-1/2 years.

Dec. 19, 1955 -- Dr. Homer Alvin Rodeheaver is dead.

The 75-year-old founder and president of the world's largest publishing house of gospel music died Sunday morning at his Rainbow Point home on Winona Lake. Convalescing from a previous heart attack earlier in the week, Dr. Rodeheaver suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died 15 minutes later at 10:55 a.m.

Feb. 9, 1956 -- Pierceton High School owns the unusual distinction of having three brothers on the varsity basketball squad. They are the three Slusher brothers -- senior Dick, sophomore Rex and junior John. They are the sons of Mr. and Mrs. James Slusher.

March 16, 1956 -- Col. Evan Ewan Kimble, founder of the Kimble Glass Co., which operates a plant on West Market Street, Warsaw, died Thursday night at his home in Ventnor, N.J.

March 27, 1956 -- Officials of United Telephone Co. of Indiana Inc. announced today their plans to convert the company's Warsaw exchange to automatic dial service next year. The new dial service was expected to be placed in operation within the third quarter of 1957.

April 4, 1956 -- The Fairview EUB Church and the Clifton Berry cottage were virtually demolished and six other cottages ruined when a tornado swirled through the north side of the Yellow Creek Lake resort community at 6:45 p.m. yesterday.

The church and all of the heavily damaged cottages were empty, and no one was reported injured. Damage was expected to reach several hundred thousands of dollars.

April 12, 1956 -- A cannon, shaped from Indiana limestone, is now in place on the war monument base on the courthouse lawn. County commissioners appropriated the money for the gun last year. It cost $515 and was designed by D.H. Lessig Engineers to replace Civil War guns which were contributed for munitions metal during World War II.

April 23, 1956 -- Forty-one cars of a westbound Nickel Plate freight train were derailed, most of them piled up, overturned and badly wrecked, a half mile west of Mentone shortly after 10 p.m. yesterday.

No one was injured, but communication lines were knocked down and wreckage was strewn extensively along the north side of tracks on the Manwaring No. 2 chicken farm.

Cause of the derailment was not known.

May 18, 1956 -- Forty-two cars of an eastbound Baltimore and Ohio freight train were derailed early today at Milford Junction, about a mile north of Milford, tearing up about 1,000 feet of tracks and scattering wreckage over a wide area.

No one was injured, but many of the overturned cars were carrying farm immplements, army tanks, cold storage meats, lumber loads and other perishables.

June 1, 1956 -- The Wagon Wheel Playhouse will present its first production July 2, marking the opening of a new era in entertainment in the northern Indiana area, Maj. Herbert Petrie, of Warsaw and Winona Lake, said today.

The idea of supplying the people of this area with professional theater during the summer months was conceived by Maj. Petrie as a civic gesture. The Wagon Wheel Playhouse will be on U.S. 30, just east of Warsaw. Excavation and construction now under way will be completed by June 24. Plays will be presented in a large tent, which is adaptable for use in warm weather. It will be equipped with comfortable arm chairs.

July 30, 1956 -- Warsaw high school alumni attending the recent reunion at the county fairgrounds totaled 356, representing 60 classes of the 78-year history of the local institution of education. Date of the next get-together is June 15, 1958.

July 31, 1956 -- Most everyone fears taking an anesthetic. Thanks to the work and research of a native of Atwood, much of the anxiety suffered by many is needless.

Dr. E.A. "Jack" Rovenstine, head of the department of anesthesia of the New York University Postgraduate Medical School and of Bellevue Hospital, was born and grew to manhood in Atwood. He is one of the men responsible for building anesthesiology into a great medical specialty.

Aug. 24, 1956 -- The 12th Annual Conference of the American Association for Jewish Evangelism will convene Aug. 27 at Winona Lake. The general theme of the conference, which will continue throughout the Labor Day weekend, is "Prophecy and the Jews."

Sept. 8, 1956 -- Faulty equipment was blamed today for a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train accident in Warsaw which injured at least 38 persons, 13 of whom were still hospitalized today.

The "Trail Blazer," eastbound from Chicago with 272 passengers, was derailed near the Scott Street intersection in East Warsaw where nine of the 18 cars leaped the tracks.

Oct. 22, 1956 -- Aviation pioneer Lawrence Dale Bell, who was born and raised in Mentone, will be buried Tuesday in Forest Lawn cemetery at Buffalo, N.Y.

Bell, 62, 1948 winner of the Collier Trophy, aviation's highest award, succumbed to a heart ailment at 5:15 p.m. Saturday in a Buffalo hospital.

Dec. 15, 1956 -- Medical services in the community took a giant step forward today.

The medical staffs and facilities of the McDonald Hospital and the Murphy Medical Center will be combined into a large hospital Jan. 1. Dr. and Mrs. J.R. Baum, owners of McDonald Hospital, announced the sale of their building to be used as a nursing home after the first of the year.

Jan. 3, 1957 -- On Saturdays this time of the year, the alley in back of Sears store in Warsaw is jammed up with cars and trucks and men and boys, loaded with boxes and bags, waiting their turn to get in the back door.

This is the fur trapping season and Warsaw is a center of fur buying. It is the only city in Indiana where Sears and Roebuck sends in professional buyers.

Jan. 18, 1957 -- A capacity audience of 1,700 persons filled the Manchester College auditorium last night to hear Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt speak on "Is America Facing World Leadership?"

Jan. 25, 1957 -- The engines of two Pennsylvania freight trains crashed head-on in East Warsaw at 7:45 a.m. today, sending six crewmen to the hospital, piling up four diesel engines and 15 cars.

It was the second train wreck in Warsaw in the last five months and the fourth in Kosciusko County in less than a year. None of the six men were hurt seriously, and all were dismissed from the Murphy Medical Center shortly before 11 a.m.

March 27, 1957 -- Warsaw High School's band launched its sixth annual concert tour with programs in Zionsville and Indianapolis today and headed for Scottsburg, west of Madison, where they play Thursday morning.

Director Bazil O'Reilley headed the tour party of 95, which included 78 band members, their announcer Doug Kehler, 12 chaperones and four drivers.

April 4, 1957 -- Anne Nelson, member of the WRSW radio staff, went to Fort Wayne Saturday night and interviewed Elvis Presley before he appeared at the Fort Wayne Coliseum.

April 5, 1957 -- The Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Warsaw today received a go-ahead on its plans for an expensive building program in east Warsaw, which will include a $250,000 grade school, a convent and rectory.

April 27, 1957 -- Diane Martin, 14-year-old Syracuse eighth-grader, today won her second Kosciusko County spelling championship in three years as the word "porcelain" led to the downfall of runner-up Larry Teghtmeyer, 12-year-old North Webster seventh-grade student.

May 6, 1957 -- Warsaw High School today claimed unprecedented state championships in debate and speech, brining home all four trophies awarded at the state finals in Indianapolis Saturday night for the first time in the school's history.

Largest item in the loot is the George Beauchamp Indiana High School Forensic state trophy. Debaters John Bennett, Connie Stavropulos, Seth Lewis and Carol Stone also won a second championship trophy. They participated in eight full debates on phases of the 90 percent parity question.

Aug. 29, 1957 -- Nearly one-fifth of the eggs being used for the manufacture of Asiatic Flu vaccine are being supplied by Creighton Brothers Hatchery, west of Warsaw.

Also, thousands of eggs are being incubated at the local hatchery and started on the way to the medical laboratories of Pittman-Moore, one of the producers of the vaccine.

Creighton Brothers today are supplying approximately 1,750 cases per week to the Pittman-Moore laboratories, and have tripled their egg capacity in order to meet the requirement.

Sept. 16, 1957 -- The Times-Union today adds the world-wide services of the Associated Press to its news-gathering facilities in an effort to give readers the best possible news coverage of state, national and world-wide events.

At the same time, it is announced that radio stations WRSW and WRSW FM will continue to use the facilities of United Press.

Oct. 30, 1957 -- Many months of planning by Warsaw Chamber of Commerce representatives neared a climax today as R.R. Donnelley and Sons, of Chicago, announced an agreement had been reached to purchase land in the Warsaw area for possible future construction of a multi-million dollar printing plant.

The agreement involves approximately 140 acres of land west of the Phillips' Addition, located on U.S. 30 about 1-1/2 miles west of the city limits.

Dec. 31, 1957 -- Mayor Jack Engle today issued orders to Police Chief Ralph Jay to see that all pinball machines and cookie jars operating in violation of state law be removed from business houses and clubs in Warsaw "within 24 hours."

Jan. 2, 1958 -- An expression of sincere love and fondness of young girls and boys is shown in the will of the late Jethro A. Greider, of near North Webster.

He bequeathed his 112-acre farm to be made into a permanent park for Kosciukso County youth.

The park will be known as "The Jethro A. Greider Memorial Park for Girls and Boys."

Greider died Dec. 15 as the result of injuries suffered two days earlier in an auto collision near Cromwell. He was 86.

The farm is in Turkey Creek Township, on the Kosciusko-Noble county line northeast of North Webster. It borders on the east shore of Spear Lake. It has an estimated value of $24,000 with personal property valued at $26,717.47.

Jan. 10, 1958 -- Along Ind. 15, 1-1/2 miles north of Silver Lake, the grand opening of a new public dining establishment is now under way, and food is being prepared daily to delight the palate of the most discerning connoisseur.

The new one-half-million-dollar development is known as the Claypool Sales' Steer Inn.

Jan. 25, 1958 -- Warsaw High School senior band will appear at 3 p.m. Sunday in a 30-minute concert on WSBT-TV, Channel 22, Bazil O'Reilley, instrumental music supervisor, announced today.

Feb. 21, 1958 -- Contracts totaling $238,252 were awarded last night for construction of the new Lincoln grade school building in east Warsaw. The general contract went to Walter Eldridge of New Paris. A $125,000 bond issue to help finance the building program was purchased by the Lake City Bank of Warsaw.

March 5, 1958 -- The death by suicide yesterday afternoon of Warsaw High School principal James Whitcomb Riley, 46, left the populace of this city in a state of shock and intense grief today.

The body of Riley, a junior high and senior high principal here since 1944, was found shortly after 4 p.m. hanging from a rope knotted over a beam in the garage at his home at 1201 S. Buffalo St., Herscher's Addition. No notes were found.

March 15, 1958 -- The sheriff's race in Kosciusko County was even "hotter" today as the Republican field reached 10 with filings Friday by former mayor Paul "Mike" Hodges and Russell C. Lichtenwalter, of Plain Township.

Altogether, there are 14 men now seeking the sheriff's $10,000-a-year office. Four are candidates for the Democrat nomination.

March 19, 1958 -- Warsaw and Wayne township school officials, and the community as a whole, today were studying a recommended consolidation of the city and township school corporations and a $3,672,000 school building program over the next 10 years.

The recommendations were presented last night by a team of Indiana University survey experts at a public meeting in the high school auditorium. An estimated 350 persons attended.

April 29, 1958 -- The way was paved today for consolidation of the Warsaw and Wayne township school systems with the adoption last night by the city school board and township trustee and advisory board of a joint resolution proposing the merger, effective Jan. 1, 1959.

May 31, 1958 -- A beautiful new Kroger supermarket will open its doors for business June 3 in Warsaw, A.F. Rose, Kroger division vice president, announced today. The new store will be on Center Street, Highway 30 East.

June 20, 1958 -- City postal carriers in Warsaw will blossom out tomorrow with the "new look" in delivering mail.

Postmaster Frank O. Rarick announced today that all city carriers will be equipped with caddy carts to take the load off their shoulders and aid in handling the increased volume of mail.

July 14, 1958 -- Jay Benson, 14, of Winona Lake, followed in his brother's footsteps Saturday as he won the annual Soap Box Derby on the North Indiana street hill in Warsaw and the right to compete in the All-American Derby at Akron, Ohio, Aug. 17.

Jay is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Benson.

July 22, 1958 -- Calvin Beck, Turkey Creek Township trustee, announced today that a school board is currently running the school system at Syracuse.

Beck said the board became the administrative body for the school last Saturday when no one appeared to remonstrate against forming a school board.

The new board will meet in the near future to appoint a fifth member, Beck said.

The board also will appoint a superintendent soon to take care of the administrative duties of the school.

Aug. 14, 1958 -- Post-operative complications have proven fatal to both 4-year-old Melody Ann Ewen and Nancy Ellen Gerard, 9, both of Warsaw.

Melody Ann, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Ewen, of Rt. 4 (Fox Farm Road), and Nancy Ellen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hurley Gerard Jr., 316 S. Indiana St., died within 30 minutes of each other early today after undergoing delicate heart operations.

Melody Ann died in Children's Memorial Hospital at Chicago at 2:50 a.m. Nancy Ellen died at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis at 3:15 a.m.

Each of the girls had come through the operations in fair condition and each at one time had recovered consciousness. Both failed to rally, however, following post-operative complcations.

Aug. 21, 1958 -- An institution that had been in the forefront of social and commercial life of Warsaw for nearly 100 years will be closed Sept. 1.

The Hotel Hays, corner of Center and Indiana streets, will go the way of many an old hotel when Hoosier International Corp., present owner, ceases to operate it.

The Hotel Hays has a colorful history that parallels the growth of Warsaw. It was started as the Hays House nearly 100 years ago by Elijah Hays from whom it got its name.

Sept. 9, 1958 -- Horace B. "Doc" Lowery, 54, of Rt. 1, Claypool, owner of the Lowery Shopping Center in Warsaw, owner-manager of the Lowery Farm, founder of the former Chief Market in 1939, and prominent Warsaw businessman, died at 2:30 p.m. Monday at Parkview Hospital, Fort Wayne.

Sept. 11, 1958 -- Jack L. Briggs, of Crete, Ill., today was named resident manager of R.R. Donnelley and Sons Co.'s plant now under construction at the west edge of Warsaw.

Briggs replaces H.K. Mikkelsen, previously assigned to the Warsaw position.

Construction of the multi-million dollar printing plant here began a few weeks ago and is scheduled to be in operation about the middle of next year.

Sept. 25, 1958 -- Warsaw will remain on Eastern Standard Time the year-around. This decision was reached last night at a combined meeting of city and Wayne Township school officials and officers of the Warsaw Chamber of Commerce and its retail merchants division.

Oct. 3, 1958 -- Some of the new teachers in Kosciusko County include Kent Adams, Leesburg; Gary Faudree, Pierceton; and George Plew, North Webster.

Nov. 4, 1958 -- Mrs. Minerva Zimmerman, of Silver Lake, is 102 years of age but that doesn't keep her from exercising her right to vote. Zimmerman said she had been voting since women were first allowed to vote following passage of the Women's Sufferage Act in 1920 (19th Amendment to the Constitution). She said she voted "straight Democrat" all her life.

Nov. 5, 1958 -- Howard "Sam" Holbrook, Warsaw cigar store operator, today became the first Democrat to be elected Kosciusko County Sheriff in 50 years. Republicans captured all other major county offices with the exception of Fourth District councilman, won by Democrat Seth Iden Mason, Etna Green hardware dealer who defeated Republican incumbent Chris Cain.

Nov. 14, 1958 -- The newly formed Optimist Club in Warsaw received its charter last night during a meeting in the Lake City Bank recreation rooms. The Optimist Club is a service organization similar to Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions. Its motto is the promotion of youth work, nationally and locally. It differs from other local service clubs in that it is a "breakfast" club, meeting at 7 a.m. each Wednesday at Horn's Restaurant. There currently are 27 members in the club. The officers are Robert Boley, vice president; John Logue, president; Fred Yohey, vice president; Richard Hamm, secretary treasurer; Howard Mock, Max Greenland and Paul Gadson, all directors. The Rev. Lee Rose, also is a director.

Dec. 20, 1958 -- A safe was taken from the Co-op Elevator at Pacseven 7 miles behind a vehicle and finally abandoned, without being opened, in the middle of a road south of Claypool.

Sheriff Carl Latta and Deputy Howard "Sam" Holbrook said the safe was found unopened on a county gravel road. Laurie Wilson, manager of the elevator, said he did not know how much money was in the safe.

Jan. 23, 1959 -- Warsaw will have a new, modern bank building within a year, a result of a large real estate purchase announced today.

Herbert B. Robinson, president of the Lake City Bank, said the Hotel Hays building at the corner of Indiana and Center streets, had been purchased from Warsaw industrialist Stanley H. Arnolt for an undisclosed amount.

The Lake City Bank, in a companion purchase, also has secured the vacant lot directly north across Center Street from the hotel property. This was purchased from Warsaw theater owner J. Ralph Boice.

Jan. 27, 1959 -- Three well-known local businessmen announced today the purchase of the Phillipson building in downtown Warsaw, corner of Market and Buffalo streets, and plan to perpetuate the location as a men's clothing store.

New owners are George Bowser and John Widaman, law firm associates, and Max Hull, owner-operator of the Hull House, a men's apparel shop.

March 16, 1959 -- Miss Rozella Ford, of Warsaw, affixed her signature to a contract with the Lakeland Golfer's Association deeding 200 acres of land southwest of the city for the construction of a new 18-hole golf course and picnicking grounds. The recreation center to be constructed by the newly formed association is to be named the "Rozella Ford Community Golf Course." The signing took place Saturday noon in Morrison Rockhill's office.

March 20, 1959 -- Robert P. Gast, prominent local highway builder, and his wife Geneva, of Country Club Drive, have donated 20.5 acres of ground to the Warsaw Community School system on which to build a new high school building.

The real estate, appraised in excess of $80,000, is located immediately west of the Fairlane Addition (west of the fairgrounds) and extends south from a north boundary at East Smith Street, approximately 1,600 feet. Frontage along Smith Street is approximately 100 yards, and would be bounded on the west by Reed Street (extended).

April 23, 1959 -- Plans for the construction of a new, all-modern $200,000 supermarket in the 300 block of West Market Street were announced today by Owen Emerick, veteran local grocer and longtime operator of the downtown Robinson Food Mart (100 block of East Market Street).

Work crews are nearing completion razing the block-long buildings housing the Warsaw Lumber Co. in preparation for the start of erection of the new supermarket.

May 1, 1959 -- Officials of the Gast Construction Co. of Warsaw, successful bidder for the Warsaw to Larwill link of dual-lane U.S. 30, said today that construction will probably get under way by mid-May.

The Warsaw company submitted the successful bid of $1,412,945 to construct the 10-mile westbound lane of the road from Warsaw to Larwill.

May 16, 1959 -- House-to-house city mail service began at 8:40 this morning at Winona Lake, and it was an historic occasion for the town residents, Postmaster Phil Laurien, the carriers and everyone concerned. The delivery will service 520 homes and business establishments at Winona.

May 18, 1959 -- You couldn't blame 13-year-old Tony Van Osdol today if he decided to spend the final weeks of school concentrating more on spelling than any of his other subjects at Warsaw Junior High School. Tony won the district spelling bee Saturday at Fort Wayne and will represent northeastern Indiana in the national finals June 8-13 in Washington, D.C. Tony is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Dean Van Osdol.

July 8, 1959 -- A fever-high pitch of excitement and enthusiasm was very noticeable this morning in Silver Lake as the town prepared to open its Centennial celebration with a big parade at 6 o'clock this evening.

Festivities honoring the town's 100th birthday will continue Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Aug. 13, 1959 -- The local plant of R.R. Donnelley and Sons Co. has produced its first ÒliveÓ printing. Resident manager Jack Briggs said production has begun on a limited basis in the recently completed plant, which is located off U.S. 30, just west of Warsaw.

Pages for a seed catalog represented the plant's first job. The first of these were printed on Tuesday and are being shipped to the company's plant for binding.

Aug. 13, 1959 -- Plans for completion by early fall of a new, $50,000 executive office headquarters at Market-Columbia streets was announced today by Mrs. Harry (A.W.) Hoopes, president of the local DePuy Manufacturing Co.

A single-story edifice of stone-brick exterior, the building will house four large private executive offices, a display room and ample secretarial space. The building will also contain a small kittchenette.

Sept. 4, 1959 -- The new Lincoln grade school in east Warsaw opened for the first time this morning. There are 204 pupils.

Sept. 16, 1959 -- Lee Norman "Pete" Thorn, Baker Boys club director, and Mrs. Hazel Murphy, president of Murphy Medical Center, last night were honored as Warsaw's first "Man and Woman of the Year" award winners as a highlight of the annual Chamber of Commerce banquet, held at the Elks home.

Chamber President Joe Mendenhall presented each with plaques donated by the Times-Union. The estimated 200 persons at the banquet stood and applauded when the awards were made.

Oct. 14, 1959 -- Former Akron High School basketball star Daniel "Danny" Flohr, 19, absent without leave from the Navy, took his own life early today with a .32 caliber pistol on the third floor of his home while the Fulton County Sheriff waited for him downstairs.

The young man died instantly of the self-inflicted bullet wound in his temple.

Sheriff Willard Clark said he was notified by military authorities to take Flohr into custody because he had been absent without leave since Oct. 5.

Mrs. Flohr said Daniel returned home due to mental distress. Daniel entered the Navy on May 25, 1959.

Dec. 31, 1959 -- Six shots from an old revolver wrote finis to an all-day domestic argument Wednesday afternoon when a vodka-crazed, unemployed 39-year-old Pierceton man killed his wife with five shots from the 32-caliber gun and then ended his own life with one shot as a 15-year-old daughter watched in horror.

Deputy County Coroner Dr. John Arford and investigating officers said the case was murder-suicide, and that William Adams, the father of five children, after a day of drinking and arguing with his wife Betty, age 37, followed her to the bathroom and dressing room of their Pierceton home, shot her four times in the right shoulder and once just behind the right ear, killing her instantly.

Jan. 18, 1960 -- The Mentone Bulldogs are a happy lot today after winning their third Kosciusko County high school basketball championship and the first since 1954, when they defeated Etna Green by a 49-42 count in the championship game Saturday at Grace College.

Team members are Dick Long, Jim Teel, Bob Long, Bob Griffis, Jerry Blackburn, student manager Roger Mollenhour, Doyle Eiler, Max Holloway, Allen Creighton and student managers Tom Whitcamper and Charles Smith. Cheerleaders are Linda Long, Mona Ross, Becky Kerin and Boni Spradlin.

Jan. 29, 1960 -- The Rev. Karl H. Lepper, 33, is the first to hold the title of "Young Man of the Year" in Warsaw after receiving the Junior Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award for 1959 last night. Lepper is the pastor of the Redeemer Lutheran Church in this city.

Feb. 9, 1960 -- Pupils of the Warsaw Community grade schools today completed their voting and selected new names for their respective schools.

West Ward becomes Madison, West Wayne is now Washington and the new name for East Wayne is Jefferson.

The only schools still to be named are East Ward and Center Ward. Due to tie votes, pupils at those schools were asked to send in another ballot, and they were being counted today.

On Feb. 10, it was announced East Ward would become McKinley. Feb. 11, it was announced Center Ward will become Adams.

Feb. 29, 1960 -- Mrs. Alvin Denney (the former Miss Kathleen Small) is a very happy mother as she holds her newborn son, Allen Lewis, first Leap Year's Day baby born in Kosciusko County. The Denneys reside at 1613 E. Market St., Warsaw, and they also have twin sons who are now 20 months old. Allen Lewis is the winner of the Times-Union and WRSW "First Leap Year's Day Baby" contest and will receive many valuable gifts. He was born at 2:51 a.m. today at Murphy Medical Center and weighed 6 pounds, 14-1/2 ounces.

March 11, 1960 -- The appointment of Max Eugene Reed, 28, formerly of Warsaw, as administrator of the Intangibles Tax Division of the State Revenue Department was announced today by Gov. Harold W. Handley's office.

Max is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Reed of 416 W. Main St., Warsaw. Max graduated from Warsaw High School in 1949. He is married to the former June Hicks. They have two sons, Michael and Steven, and reside at 4610 W. 34th St., Indianapolis, where he is enrolled in the Indiana University law school.

March 12, 1960 -- An indictment charging reckless homicide has been returned by the Kosciusko County grand jury against Charles Berkeypile, 17, a Milford high school junior and basketball star.

The investigation was held this week on the recommendation of County Prosecuting Attorney Allen Rasor, as the result of an auto accident near Milford, Nov. 29, 1959, which claimed the lives of three Michigan residents.

March 17, 1960 -- Two Warsaw city police officers have been suspended and one is being held in the county jail following a shooting spree in the early hours this morning at a local gasoline station.

Officer Harold Biltz, 27, of 1704-1/2 E. Smith St., is held in the county jail facing possible charges of drunk and disorderly, discharging a firearm in the city and resisting arrest.

His companion, Officer Art Turner, 26, was suspended from duty by Mayor Paul "Mike" Hodges and Chief of Police Eugene Brumfield at Turner's home, 410 S. Hickory St., shortly after the incident.

Both officers were armed and in full uniform but were off duty when the episode started at the Red Comet Oil Co. station, 742 E. Center St., at 3:10 a.m.

March 21, 1960 -- With the filing deadline only three days away, the office of county coroner seems to be attracting the most attention in the May 3 primary election. Today, Mrs. Mary Wallace, Warsaw Democrat, became the first woman in history to seek the office.

The candidacy of Wallace, 1077-1/2 E. Center St., created a three-way contest for the Democrat nomination. She will oppose Meville Dickerson, Silver Lake funeral director, and Dr. Joe "Bill" Mishler, of Pierceton.

April 8, 1960 -- Plans were announced today by Seward Township Trustee Lowell Leckrone to construct a 10- to 12-room grade school at Burket in the near future.

Leckrone said if the school was built, it would replace both Seward Township grade schools - Burket and Franklin. He estimated cost of the structure at $126,000. Leckrone stated that there are 220 students from grades one through eight in the two schools at this time.

April 19, 1960 -- A two-week argument over where the Sidney town marshal parked his car was terminated in gunfire Monday afternoon when a Sidney businessman shot Marshal Dominick F. Murda, 42, in the wrist with a 12-gauge shotgun, stating he thought the marshal was "making a move" for his pistol.

Dennie Ward, 48, owner and manager of the Ward Paint and Wallpaper store, is being held in the Kosciusko County Jail as a result of the shooting.

April 29, 1960 -- The flight of a 32-year-old Warsaw resident and her two small sons to Germany to spend what promised to be a happy tour of duty with her U.S. Army sergeant husband, ended in tragedy today.

Mrs. Edna Louise Cotoreno and her two sons, Kevin T., 8, and Kirk A., 22 months, arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, today, probably expecting to be met by her husband, Sgt. Frank Annunziato Cotoreno, 37, formerly of Mt. Clemens, Mich.

She was met, however, by an Army doctor and an Army chaplain, who broke the sad news that her husband had died as the result of injuries suffered in the collision of his car and a German automobile in the center of Munich, while she was en route to Germany.

The accident occurred early this morning. An hour, later, Cotoreno was pronounced dead in the Munich U.S. Army hospital. Details of the accident were not available.

May 3, 1960 -- Lee N. "Pete" Thorn, executive director of Baker's Boys' Club in Warsaw, last night received a "Golden Achievement Award" at New York City, honoring his dedicated service to youngsters from the Boys' Club Professional Association of Boys' Clubs of America. The national award was presented at a fellowship dinner in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

July 7, 1960 -- Akron school patrons last night voted to enter into Kosciusko County's school reorganization plan, if possible.

At a meeting held in the Akron school building, 149 of the approximately 200 persons present voted to join a four-corporation plan now under consideration by the Kosciusko County committee that takes in Etna, Harrison, Prairie, Seward and Franklin townships. This plan, however, does not include the Akron school. The four-corporation plan is one of three proposed plans now under study.

Aug. 22, 1960 -- A Warsaw mother of 10 children died in a traffic accident over the weekend.

Mrs. Earland (Marjorie) Baron, 34, of 525 E. Lyons St., Warsaw, died at Murphy Medical Center about 7:40 a.m. Sunday after being injured in a single car accident south of Warsaw on Ind. 15 two hours earlier. She was a cook at the Liberty Cafe in Warsaw. Her 10 children range in age from 5 months to 16 years.

Sept. 20, 1960 -- Warsaw Municipal Airport, north of this city, will soon be known as "Earl Parker Field."

Warsaw city councilmen last night approved plans by the aviation board to name the city-owned airfield after Parker, local electrician, longtime aviation board member and aviation enthusiast.

Sept. 21, 1960 -- Max Truex - this nation's greatest distance runner - and Mrs. Mamie Braddock, English teacher at Warsaw High School for 35 years - last night were named Warsaw's "Man and Woman of the Year" at the annual Chamber of Commerce banquet, attended by 166 men and women at the Elks lodge.

Oct. 6, 1960 -- Al Bowman, 86, of Warsaw, the oldest Spanish-American War veteran in Kosciusko County, died Wednesday of complications in the Indiana State Soldiers home at Lafayette, where he had been ill for the past two weeks. Bowman served in Cuba for some time during the war.

Oct. 19, 1960 -- Number 5,000 is a boy! Yes, it was a historic moment at the Murphy Medical Center at 7:10 a.m. EST (6:10 CST, official hospital time) today when 6-pound, 1 ounce Douglas Dean Montel was born to Mr. and Mrs. Bob Montel of Rt. 3, (north Parker Street), Warsaw.

Since the first of the week, Murphy Medical Center owner and director Mrs. Hazel Murphy and her staff have been waiting anxiously for the 5,000th baby to be born there. Thus, there was a lot of excitement when Mrs. Montel, the former Linda Lou Clark, gave birth to her first child this morning.

Nov. 2, 1960 -- The county committee for the reorganization of schools last night adopted a revised three-corporation plan as the new preliminary plan for the reorganization of schools in the county, to be submitted to the state committee for consideration. The vote was 6 to 3.

Nov. 2, 1960 -- Plans to have a new city parking lot in operation by Dec. 1 at the northwest corner of the Main-Indiana street intersection (north of the jail) were announced today by Robert Brennan, Warsaw Chamber of Commerce parking committee chairman.

Brennan said his committee is currently looking for someone interested in demolishing the house on the corner (the Nora Ringer property).

Nov. 19, 1960 -- An ordinance creating a planning commission for the Winona Lake area was passed last night by the Winona Lake town board.

Virgil Brock, Norman Bradfield and Lyle Martin, members of the town board, will serve on the commission by virtue of their offices. They will soon appoint four residents of Winona Lake to the citizens' posts, thus filling out the seven-member commission.

Dec. 6, 1960 -- A resolution setting up a new school district that crosses county lines was passed last night at Mentone.

Twenty officials from Harrison, Franklin and Seward townships in Kosciusko County and New Castle and Henry townships in Fulton County passed the resolution creating the new school district to be known as "Koston Consolidated Schools."

Jan. 21, 1961 -- Warsaw's Chamber of Commerce celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. It was founded in 1911.

President Jack Moltz today announced plans to conduct a year-long Golden Anniversary program, commemorating the founding.

Feb. 8, 1961 -- With the turn of a shovel by Warsaw Community School Board President Bruce Maish at 4:10 p.m. Tuesday, the first phase in construction of a new $1.8 million high school became a reality.

The high school center will consist of four wings. The wings will contain class rooms, science and home economic laboratories, library, administrative offices, gymnasium and auditorium. Completion date for the center is July 1962. Actual construction will begin as soon as weather permits.

Feb. 15, 1961 -- Winona Lake honeymooners Capt. and Mrs. Richard C. Robinson, were among 73 persons killed today when a Sabena Belgian jet airliner from New York crashed just north of the Brussels, Belgium, airport. There were no survivors.

Capt. Robinson, 38, an Army career man, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Robinson of 103 11th St., Winona Lake. They operate a grocery store on South McClellan Street.

His wife, Jacqueline "Jackie," was 28. She was a native of Brussels and they were married there last Jan. 28.

The crash of the jet airliner wiped out the U.S. figure skating team.

Feb. 24, 1961 -- Warsaw druggist Robert Brennan received the Kosciusko County "Outstanding Young Man of 1960" award from the Rev. Karl Lepper of Mishawaka and formerly of Warsaw. This was the second year of the award presented by the Warsaw Junior Chamber of Commerce.

March 14, 1961 -- Kosciusko County Civil Defense Director Milo Clase tried to visualize how some beef stew will look in a skillet and stove that are part of a "fallout shelter" being displayed in Warsaw. The shelter, which has multiple uses, is free for the public to observe and there is an abundance of literature available. It is open during the daylight hours through Wednesday of this week on the east side of the courthouse.

March 18, 1961 -- Ralph O. Nusbaum, 76, of Winona Lake, beloved editor emeritus of The Times-Union, died of a heart attack at his home this morning.

March 25, 1961 -- Fire of unknown origin swept through the P.N. Hirsch department store in downtown Warsaw at 8 o'clock this morning, threatened adjoining stores and was raging on with the probability that damage will run between $250,000 and $500,000.

The Hirsch store, formerly Carter's, at the southeast corner of Market and Buffalo streets, was sure to be totally destroyed.

April 4, 1961 -- Mrs. Russell (Helen) Smith, of 1309 E. Market St., who yesterday was named Indiana Mother of the Year, tried to stay calm and collected today in the midst of happy confusion. There were 80 nominees.

Smith will go to New York early in May to take part in the national Mother of the Year competition.

April 22, 1961 -- A happy Kathleen Rood holds the engraved plaque she received from The Times-Union and WRSW after winning the "grand championship" of the Kosciusko County spelling contest this morning for the second consecutive year. Kathleen, 11, is in sixth grade at Pierceton.

July 20, 1961 -- Warsaw board of public works and safety members voted at the Tuesday meeting to ask the state to place "no parking" signs on Detroit Street, from the intersection of Market street north to the city limits.

Chief Brumfield told board members that parking on the east side of the street in certain areas is creating a traffic problem. The street already has no parking on the west side.

Aug. 4, 1961 -- Mrs. Minerva Zimmerman, at 105 years of age this county's oldest resident, died of a heart ailment at 5:20 p.m. Thursday in the Murphy Medical Center. She had been seriously ill for three weeks.

Believed to be one of the oldest persons ever to reside in Kosciusko County, Mrs. Zimmerman was born April 17, 1856, in a log cabin three miles northeast of Silver Lake -- then known as "Silver Lakeville." Her parents were Jesse and Mariah Stackhouse.

Aug. 16, 1961 -- Members of Kosciusko County's newly formed Republican steering committee have joined the public's battle to reduce local taxes, it was learned today.

Meeting in a special called session here last night, the 25-man group unanimously adopted a resolution calling for re-examination of all 1962 proposed budgets in GOP-held public offices, and appealed to all Republican officeholders to effect immediate voluntary cuts where possible.

Aug. 16, 1961 -- The controversy in North Webster over the town board's firing of Leo Miller as town marshal last week broke into the open last night.

An estimated 40 persons appeared at the town hall with petitions bearing some 251 names, requesting that Miller be reinstated. However, no town board members showed up.

Aug. 18, 1961 -- The Kosciusko County school reorganization committee today gave final approval to the proposed four-unit school plan following a hearing last night at Syracuse.

The plan that will be submitted to the state reorganization committee by Sept. 1 calls for four school districts to replace the 13-school systems in Kosciusko County and Henry Township in Fulton County.

Aug. 26, 1961 -- Twenty-one new teachers have been employed for Warsaw for the ensuing year, including William Koos, junior high; William Brenneman, junior high; and George Plew, junior high.

Sept. 8, 1961 -- The names of Jesse "Bud" Eschbach and Mrs. Cecil (Marie) Armstrong today were added to The Times-Union scroll of "Warsaw Man and Woman of the Year" award winners in the Chamber of Commerce offices, corner of Lake and Market streets.

These two civic leaders were so honored last night at the Chamber's 50th Anniversary banquet held in the American Legion home.

Sept. 12, 1961 -- If your newspaper feels "a bit heavy" today, there's a good reason. The Times-Union today pays tribute to Warsaw industry with a special 48-page edition - 36 pages of which are devoted to the 39 local industrial firms that will be exhibiting their products Wednesday and Thursday at the "Industrial Fair" at the Kosciusko County fairgrounds.

This is the largest edition published by The Times-Union since its special Centennial edition of July 3, 1954.

Those businesses included: Dalton Foundries Inc., quality products since 1910; DePuy Manufacturing Co., established in 1895; Warsaw Plating Works, started in 1929 with eight employees; Da-Lite Screen, the world's largest producer of slide and motion picture screens; Little Crow Milling Co., founded in the spring 58 years ago, currently serving 47 states and Canada; Zimmer Mfg. Co., begun in 1927; Sun Metal Products, today the industry's largest fabricator of wire wheels; and others.

Sept. 25, 1961 -- Mrs. C.C. Dubois, lifetime resident of Warsaw, is shown cutting the ribbon of dollar bills, officially opening the new $400,000 Lake City Bank today in Warsaw. Mrs. Dubois once lived in the Hays Hotel, former building where the new bank now is located at the southeast corner of Center and Indiana streets. Her father built the hotel.

Oct. 19, 1961 -- The first Warsaw showing of a movie that was filmed in Warsaw, "The Family That Changed The World," is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, at a Kosciusko County Youth For Christ rally in the Lincoln School building.

Norma Jean Weckler, a 1961 Warsaw High School graduate, and Knute Larson, a senior at Grace College, will be present at the premiere showing. Both appear in the film along with professional actors from the Chicago area.

Nov. 15, 1961 -- The State Highway Commission in Indianapolis has announced a $235,292,600 highway construction program for 1963-65, including 13.70 miles of U.S. 30 bypass from the Kosciusko-Marshall county line west of Etna Green to a point one-half mile east of the east city limits of Warsaw.

This is the first official notification that construction of the bypass is definitely scheduled.

Nov. 17, 1961 -- The formation of a nonprofit Kosciusko County YMCA Corp. for the purpose of establishing a county-wide YMCA in Warsaw, was announced today by Dr. Carl Shrader, a Warsaw physician, president of the new organization.

Other officers are John F. Snell, vice president; Mrs. George L. White, secretary; and Fred Yohey, treasurer.

Nov. 18, 1961 -- Life at the Corriganville Movie Ranch near Hollywood has its ups and downs for an apprentice like 18-year-old Judy Melick of Warsaw, who is training to be a stunt girl and acting in shows supposedly depicting the Old West.

Judy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Loren Melick, East Fort Wayne Street, was introduced to Corriganville when she went to California to make her home with her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Ernie Kelch, at Woodland Hills.

Dec. 12, 1961 -- The town of Milford was without a clerk-treasurer and minus one board member today after a controversy that began last month between board members and some citizens erupted Monday night.

During the meeting, clerk-treasurer Silas Howard resigned, and following the meeting, town board member Delbert Roderick also quit. Roderick's appointment to the board in September was challenged by citizens who appeared at the session.

The controversy began when in November, Robert Wolferman was fired as the town's chief marshal.

Feb. 6, 1962 -- When Marine Capt. John H. Glenn makes his historic flight around the earth in a space capsule, scheduled for Feb. 13, one of the technicians monitoring his progress will be Edward J. Edwards, 24, a native of Warsaw.

Edwards, son of Mrs. Esther Melick DuBois and nephew of Loren Melick, Warsaw, is assigned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's tracking station on Kauai, one of the Hawaiian Islands.

Feb. 13, 1962 -- Fred Olds, Warsaw artist and student of Indian lore, is building a reputation and becoming well known throughout the U.S. as a painter of western scenes, featuring Indians and Appaloosa horses.

Olds, who is also art supervisor of the Warsaw Community grade schools, has received and accepted a special invitation to show six paintings and his Appaloosa horse El Dorado at the Fifth International Appaloosa Horse Show and Rodeo, Feb. 14-18, in San Antonio, Texas, one of the largest shows of this type in the United States.

Feb. 22, 1962 -- Three "revolutionary" products in the field of medical equipment, exclusively produced by Zimmer Manufacturing Co., of North Detroit Street, have been written up in Time magazine recently.

The products are: a stainless steel rod, for spinal diseases such as scoliosis; a skin graft-spreading instrument, that is said to enable a 1-1/2 inch square piece of skin to cover some 90 inches of a burn; and a stainless steel joint that is used in fingers to relieve those who suffer from arthritis and other such diseases.

Feb. 27, 1962 -- A $50,000 to $100,000 fire destroyed the century-old Warsaw Grain & Milling Co. plant, located on South Union Street (adjacent to the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks in Warsaw) at 4:15 this morning.

March 1, 1962 -- The body of a prematurely-born baby girl -- probably a miscarriage -- was found shortly before 7:30 this morning in the grift receiving tank of the sewage disposal plant in Warsaw.

City police and the county coroner, Dr. Joe Bill Mishler, are investigating the incident. It was estimated that the infant was five or six months away from normal birth. It measured nine inches long and weighed between five and six ounces.

March 13, 1962 -- Sears Roebuck and Co. will formally introduce its newly remodeled store to residents of this area March 15-17.

The introduction will include special attractions at the store's location on the corner of Market and Lake streets.

March 17, 1962 -- Shh! There'll be no private conversations at city hall, at least in most offices and city council chambers. No more secrets from Mayor Paul "Mike" Hodges (during business hours, at least) ... for he's had the place "bugged."

Now wired for official eavesdropping are most offices. All offices are "bugged" except the fire station, rest rooms and supply rooms.

April 18, 1962 -- A crane operator set trusses during current construction of the new concrete pier at the Center Lake bathing beach in Warsaw in preparation for the summer swimming season.

April 28, 1962 -- Lewis Immel, superintendent of the Metropolitan School District of Turkey Creek township (Syracuse schools), presents a bronze, engraved mounted wall plaque to 12-year-old Kathleen Rood, Pierceton seventh-grade pupil, who this morning won the Kosciusko County spelling championship for the third consecutive year. Runner-up was Kathy Murray, Syracuse fifth-grader.

May 9, 1962 -- Kosciusko County voters Tuesday created the Lakeland, Warsaw Community and Tippecanoe Valley cchool corporations, but the proposed Woodland District was soundly defeated.

The three new districts will take the place of nine independent school systems in this county.

In addition, Etna Township became a member of a school district that is part of the Marshall County school reorganization plan, and Scott Township and the west part of Jefferson will continue to be a part of the Nappanee Community School system.

May 24, 1962 -- Lee Harman and Jenny Bartlemay were crowned King and Queen of the Warsaw High School junior-senior prom Wednesday night at the Elks Club. Both are seniors.

June 1, 1962 -- The Syracuse Methodist congregation will move into new facilities this Sunday morning, June 3. This significant move in the life of the congregation follows 7-1/2 years of giving to the building fund, at least five years of research and planning and one year of actual construction.

The ground-breaking service was held on June 11, 1961, and work began the following day.

June 4, 1962 -- The Tippecanoe Valley school board has voted to discontinue high school at Beaver Dam.

Lawrence Butts, president of the school board, announced the decision today. Plans are to send the students in the north part of the township to Mentone and those in the south to Akron.

June 21, 1962 -- Delegates to the Hoosier Boys' State elected Michael Valentine of Warsaw as governor Wednesday.

Valentine headed the Nationalist Party ticket, which won five other major offices. The Federalist Party took three places.

Mike is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Lowell Valentine, of No. 3 Henderson Drive, Warsaw. He will be a senior this fall.

The Boys' State, held at Indiana University, is a government workshop sponsored by the American Legion.

July 3, 1962 -- Successful 43-year-old operation of the Milford Machine Co. at Leesburg will grind to a sad halt early next year, affecting employment of upwards of 120 persons, it was learned today.

Two years ago, the plant was sold to Textron and became a division of Homelite, world-famous maker of chain saws, pumps, ride-on mowers, carts and cart engines and generators. Milford Machine's prime production is the manufacture of crank shafts. In addition, it produces connecting rods, small drive shafts and precision machined parts for engines. Prior to the Textron purchase, Homelite had numbered among the local firm's largest customers.

July 7, 1962 -- Indiana's first production of "West Side Story," an exciting musical drama about a modern Romeo and Juliet and clashing street gangs in the slums of West Side Manhattan, will begin a two-week run at the Wagon Wheel Playhouse at 8:30 next Tuesday evening, July 10. Jan Templeton will sing the role of Maria and Jim Weston will portray Tony.

July 9, 1962 -- Kosciusko County councilmen today selected Cassius (Tim) Rovenstine, an Atwood merchant, to fill the vacant post of councilman at-large created by the recent death of Harry Zimmerman, of Leesburg.

Rovenstine, 54, was chosen in a secret ballot of the five councilmen present over two other candidates - Keith Horn, of Warsaw, and Charles Mikel, of Jefferson Township.

July 16, 1962 -- Fourteen-year-old Steve Lewis, of Mentone, blurted out with a "boy, that won't be hard!" when asked to come forth with a big smile immediately after winning the annual Soap Box Derby in Warsaw Saturday afternoon. It was the third time a Mentone boy has won in the last four years and nets Steve a $500 savings bond and a chance to compete in the All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio, on Aug. 4. Steve, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Lewis, defeated John Klinefelter Jr., of Etna Green, for the championship.

July 25, 1962 -- Donald H. Reap has been named executive secretary and director of the newly formed Kosciusko Community YMCA, it was announced by Dr. Carl E. Shrader, president of the board of directors.

July 26, 1962 -- Kosciusko County Sheriff Howard "Sam" Holbrook led a raid Tuesday evening upon the American Legion Post in Syracuse within a few hours after a disclosure of the U.S. Treasury Department's list of gambling machine tax stamp purchasers.

One expensive electric slot machine was seized as well as two cookie jars, 13 cookie jar refills, two packages of tip-boards, nine punchboards and eight boxes of match-folder-type pick and win tickets.

Aug. 7, 1962 -- Mrs. Edith Ummel, of the Beaver Dam community, widowed mother of one of the most remarkable families in 4-H history, was honored last night at the Kosciusko County Fair. Mrs. Ummel's 10 children have compiled a record of 100 years in 4-H club work.

Aug. 21, 1962 -- Warsaw's highly respected "old soldier" -- Col. Orville B. Kilmer -- who died Monday at the age of 83, will be laid to rest in Oakwood Cemetery Wednesday afternoon following funeral services at 1:30 p.m. in the Warsaw Methodist Church.

Kilmer, a veteran of the Spanish-American War and of World War I, died in the Warren Methodist home at Warren after a long illness.

Kilmer played an important part in the installation of war memorials now on the courthouse lawn.

Sept. 11, 1962 -- Since beginning its production of brake linings in Warsaw in 1926, the Gatke Corp. has increased its manufacturing space requirements approximately 600 percent. Founder Thomas L. Gatke, of Chicago, was first to develop and perfect the molded automotive brake lining.

Sept. 11, 1962 -- Now in its 35th year of continous production, the local Zimmer Manufacturing Co. is the world's largest manufacturer of splints and other types of orthopedic and surgical equipment and accessories.

Since its founding in 1927 by the late Justin O. Zimmer, the firm has enjoyed a steady growth, now employing 150 persons in Warsaw and 70 sales distributors ranging over the United States and Canada.

Currently, nine employees have been with the company from 30 to 35 years; 17 from 20 to 30 years; 41 from 10 to 20 years; and 40 have 5- to 10-year service records.

Sept. 13, 1962 -- A new half-million dollar plant expansion program was announced today by James Hartle, president of the Zimmer Manufacturing Co., here.

Following nearly a full year of intensive planning, the new edifice will include additional production, office, warehouse and laboratory space for the 35-year-old Warsaw industry.

Sept. 20, 1962 -- Joe Ettinger and Mrs. Willard (Emily) Snapp last night were named Warsaw's "Man and Woman of the Year" at the 51st Annual Chamber of Commerce dinner meeting at the Elks Club.

Sept. 28, 1962 -- Jacob Kern Sr., of Syracuse, today made the final run on his mail route. He is retiring after delivering the mail to residents on the east side of Lake Wawasee for the past 45 years.

Oct. 15, 1962 -- An estimated 2,500 persons inspected the facilities of the beautiful new $1.8 million Warsaw Community High School building on East Smith Street Sunday afternoon during "Open House" that followed a dedication program in the gymnasium.

Nov. 28, 1962 -- Ten-year-old Rex Allen Teeter Jr. of 4-1/2 miles southeast of Silver Lake, was shot and killed early Tuesday evening and his brother, William, 14, was being detained today in the Wabash County Jail for a grand jury hearing.

Rex Allen, a fifth-grader in the Laketon School, was shot in the chest with a single-action .22 caliber rifle. The bullet passed through the heart and lodged in a lung.

Wabash County Sheriff Paul Benson said the brother, William, admitted firing the fatal shot.

Nov. 30, 1962 -- The owner and operator of the Dahl's Septic Tank Sewer Service, Syracuse, Oscar E. Dahl, 61, of Rt. 4, Syracuse, died of infectious hepatitis Thursday at 12:25 p.m. in the Goshen Hospital.

It marked the first reported death in this county from the disease, which earlier this month had been reported by County Health Sanitarian Carroll Sherman to be rather widespread.

Dahl was not among 13 cases reported by Sherman on Nov. 20. However, it was learned that he had been ill 10 days.

Dec. 11, 1962 -- Charles H. Ker, chairman of Dalton Foundries Inc., announced today that Endicott Church Furniture Inc. would become a division of the Dalton Foundries Inc. effective Jan. 1, 1963.

Dec. 17, 1962 -- Warsaw High School senior Mike Valentine today added "American Legion State Oratorical Contest Champion" to the list of laurels he has won this year.

Mike, 17, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lowell (Rusty) Valentine, of Henderson Drive, won the state oratorical contest last Saturday at Rushville over three other finalists.

Dec. 20, 1962 -- A fitting climax to Courtesy Week at Warsaw Community High School was the crowning late this morning of Bill Cook, 17, and Kerry Anglin, 18, as Mr. and Miss Courtesy. They were chosen the most courteous students at the school by the entire student body. Bill is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Cook, Ellsworth Street, and Kerry is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Don Anglin, 415 N. Washington St.

Jan. 3, 1963 -- The state fire marshal's office has informed the Tippecanoe Valley School board that the Burket seventh and eighth grade school building has been condemned and must be closed at the end of the current school year -- not to reopen in the fall of 1963.

The two-story structure in Burket is just north of the new six-room elementary building completed a few years ago. The condemned two-story building is brick and has wooden floors. It was built a number of years ago and formerly housed both the Burket high and grade school students.

Jan. 9, 1963 -- It appears almost certain today that Warsaw High School will withdraw from the Central Indiana (athletic) Conference.

Superintendent of Warsaw Community Schools Carl Burt told The Times-Union this morning that he would call a school board meeting "very soon" to take formal action on the matter. Members of the school board have previously voiced disapproval of the conference -- as it now exists -- and are expected to go along with recommendations by Burt to withdraw.

Jan. 11, 1963 -- Gerald Smalley, 29, of Beaver Dam, was named Kosciusko County's "Outstanding Young Farmer of 1962" at the fifth annual awards banquet Thursday evening at Horn's restaurant. The Warsaw Junior Chamber of Commerce sponsors this event each year.

Jan. 11, 1963 -- Chief Engineer Frederick Gresso announced today that Radio Station WRSW was now operating with 1,000 watts of power.

Jan. 23, 1963 -- An exploratory meeting will be held Monday, Jan. 28, at Pierceton on the possibility of forming a school district of Kosciusko and Whitley county schools.

The meeting will be held at the Pierceton School at 7:30 p.m. Officials have been invited from Cleveland, Etna-Troy and Richland townships in Whitley County and Jackson, Clay, Lake, Washington and Monroe townships in Kosciusko County.

Feb. 6, 1963 -- A widowed daughter of a once socially prominent pioneer Warsaw family was found murdered today in her modest Winona Lake home at 1102 E. College Ave.

The brutally stabbed and bludgeoned body of Mrs. Louise (White) Bolinger, 56, an employee since 1956 in the nearby bindery department of the Free Methodist Publishing House, was discovered in the single car garage by a fellow employee, Albert Wilson.

Feb. 22, 1963 -- Officers today noon cracked the 17-day-old Louise White Bolinger murder case with the confession of Mark Alvin Wilson, 18, of 303 N. Detroit St. The youth broke down and admitted the brutal slaying during questioning that began at mid-morning at the county jail. He said robbery was his motive.

The slightly built youth sobbed out to officers how he went to the Bolinger home on the night of Feb. 5 with the expressed purpose of robbing the widow so that he and his 16-year-old girlfriend could elope.

March 6, 1963 -- Mark Wilson, 18, of 303 N. Detroit St., has been indicted by the Kosciusko County grand jury on a first degree murder charge in the beating and stabbing of Mrs. Louise White Bolinger, 56, of Winona Lake.

The grand jury did not return an indictment against Wilson's 16-year-old sweetheart Juell Daisy, of Warsaw. The girl has admitted being with Wilson when he hid the weapon used to beat Mrs. Bolinger. She is in the custody of her parents at this time.

March 13, 1963 -- Warsaw Community School Board members Monday night heard pleas from the Clay and Lake Township officials to become a part of the Warsaw school system.

Alton Kissinger, spokesman for the group and Lake Township trustees, said that the Lake and Clay township areas are tied to Warsaw economically and geographically.

Warsaw school board members made no comment after the pleas.

Lake, Clay, Jackson, Monroe and Washington were a part of a proposed school district formulated by the county committee that was turned down by voters in that area. Jackson, Monroe, Washington are considering at this time a school district with Richland township of Whitley county.

March 14, 1963 -- Mike Valentine and Kerry Anglin received the 1963 Ruth Rodeheaver Thomas drama awards last night after the final performance of the Warsaw High School senior class play, "The Silver Whistle."

Carl Burt, superintendent of schools, presented the awards. Winners are nominated and voted upon by senior class students and faculty members. The students are chosen on the basis of talent in dramatic activities, scholarship, citizenship and character.

March 15, 1963 -- Phil Payne, 30, of North Webster, Thursday night was named recipient of the Warsaw Junior Chamber of Commerce "Outstanding Young Man of the Year" award in ceremonies at Horn's Restaurant in Warsaw.

Also receiving awards at the DSA "Bosses Night Banquet" were Gordon Sand, chosen "Outstanding Jaycee," and Frank Kealey, who received the newly-given "President's Trophy."

March 23, 1963 -- "Melodies and Memories," the first musical program by the Warsaw Freshman choral department, will be presented at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, in the Freshman High School auditorium.

The program will feature a series of musical skits.

April 6, 1963 -- Thirteen-year-old Mary Jo Conway, a seventh-grade pupil in North Webster School, today won the Kosciusko County spelling championship and the right to compete May 11 in the Indiana regional contest at Fort Wayne.

Mary Jo, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dean Conway, correctly spelled equivalent and daffodil to win the title after her competitor, 11-year-old Marjorie Merkle, of Claypool, put an "o" in equivalent, spelling it equivolent.

Until Marjorie missed "equivalent," the two finalists had survived 82 rounds of words.

April 16, 1963 -- The Times-Union will open an office in Syracuse June 1 in time for the beginning of the 1963 lake season, according to an announcement made today by Ronald Sharp, state editor.

Personnel to man the "Syracuse Editorial" has not yet been selected.

The Syracuse office will be a year-around operation in keeping with recently announced plans of the Times-Union to bring daily service closer to the many communities now being served.

April 20, 1963 -- With stoic-like calmness, 18-year-old Mike Wilson today pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in the bludgeoning, back-stabbing slaying of 56-year-old Mrs. Louise White Bolinger, and threw himself upon the mercy of the court.

April 22, 1963 -- A referendum will be held to determine if Jackson, Monroe and Washington townships in Kosciusko County, plus Richland and Cleveland townships in Whitley County, will form a metropolitan school corporation.

Plans were being formulated today for the Kosciusko and Whitley county election boards to set a date for an election. It is hoped by officials that it can be held in June.

An election became necessary when 56 Jackson township residents signed a petition asking for a referendum vote.

April 23, 1963 -- A testimonial dinner honoring Lee Norman "Pete" Thorn, who has served as executive director of the Baker Boys' Club of Warsaw for the past 36 years, will be held Tuesday, June 11, at the Warsaw Community High School, East Smith Street.

Mr. Thorn is retiring this year from his post in the Warsaw schools as well as executive director of the Boys' Club. during his tenure with the schools, he served as a teacher, attendance officer and school administrator.

April 24, 1963 -- Shortly after the Kosciusko County Courthouse clock tolled 10 o'clock this morning, Mark Wilson, 18, confessed murderer of Mrs. Louise White Bolinger, was on his way to serve a life sentence in the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City.

The Warsaw youth had been sentenced to life imprisonment 55 minutes earlier by Judge B. Lee in circuit court.

Wilson could be eligible for parole in 15 to 20 years. He is one of the few from this county ever sentenced to a life term.

May 2, 1963 -- The U.S. contract management office at South Bend announced today that Dalton Foundries Inc. of Warsaw has been awarded a $598,000 contract to supply practice bombs to the Air Force.

The new contract from the Air Force calls for the Warsaw firm to start production on 121,000 practice bombs in late July 1963.

A company spokesman said the same bomb was produced by Dalton in 1961 and 1962.

May 23, 1963 -- Awards Day was held Thursday at Warsaw Community High School, East Smith street.

The program featured announcement of the 10 highest-ranking seniors scholastically. In order, they were Jeanne Tuka (valedictorian), Martha Tschetter and Tony Van Osdol (co-salutatorians), Sydney Martin, Dennis Harrell, Brian Smyth, Mike Valentine, Charles Cunningham, Pat Ellis and Robert Reynolds.

May 24, 1963 -- Robert Lichtenwalter, a member of the coaching staff of the Warsaw Community Schools, today was named executive director of the Baker Boys' Club of Warsaw.

May 25, 1963 -- Jack Schutz and Sonja Johnson, popular Warsaw High School seniors, were crowed King and Queen of the junior-senior prom Friday night.

June 3, 1963 -- The Times-Union's newest branch office, The Syracuse Edition, opened today at 107 N. Huntington St., Pickwick Building, Syracuse.

Manager of the Syracuse office will be 27-year-old David Halterman Jr.

June 12, 1963 -- Completion of the Kosciusko County School Reorganization program became one step closer Tuesday when citizens of Monroe, Washington and Jackson townships in Kosciusko County, and Cleveland and Richland townships, in Whitley County, voted to merge and create a new school corporation.

Creation of the school corporation means that schools at Sidney, Pierceton and Monroe, in Kosciusko County, South Whitley and Larwill in Whitley County will be managed by a school board starting July 1, 1963.

June 14, 1963 -- An interim board has selected "Whitko" as the name for the new metropolitan school corporation that includes Washington, Monroe and Jackson townships in Kosciusko County and Richland and Cleveland townships in Whitley County.

July 1, 1963 -- Dan Benson, the 13-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Benson, Winona Lake, added his name to the list of family champs Saturday by becoming the fourth brother to win the coveted Soap Box Derby title in Warsaw.

Dan, who followed kinfolks Dale, Jay and Paul to the victory platform, won a $500 savings bond and the expense-paid trip to compete in the 26th running of the All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio, Aug. 3.

July 9, 1963 -- Judge Gene B. Lee has been asked by two attorneys to set aside a guilty plea to second degree murder, that led to a life sentence for Mark Wilson, 18, of Warsaw, and order a new trial.

The two attorneys, William Erbecker, of Indianapolis, and Myron Hack, of South Bend, filed in the Kosciusko Circuit Court a verified petition for writ of error coram nobis.

The 12-paragrah, six-page petition asks that the court set aside the judgment of conviction and accept a plea of "not guilty." If Judge Lee overrules the motion for a new trial, it is expected that the case will be appealed to the State Supreme Court.

July 20, 1963 -- Dennis Plummer, 503 W. Center St., is expected to take six months active training under the National Guard program. Plummer, employee of the Times-Union, will leave in October. He is a graduate of Atwood High School and Fort Wayne Business College. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Plummer, of Rt. 4, Warsaw.

July 24, 1963 -- Movement of personnel and equipment into the newly constructed half-million-dollar Zimmer Manufacturing Co. plant has been virtually completed, it was announced today by President James F. Hartle.

Construction of a new home for the 37-year-old Warsaw industry was begun last September by the Easterday Construction Co., of nearby Culver. A year previous, the construction firm completed the nearly $2 million high school building here.

July 26, 1963 -- Purchase of a site for Kosciusko Community YMCA's future Olympic-size swimming pool and other indoor recreational facilities was announced today by Board President Dr. Carl E. Shrader.

Consisting of nearly one acre, the newly purchased land occupies the entire frontage of the 600 block on East Smith Street and is two blocks east of the new Warsaw Community High School building.

July 31, 1963 -- Brothers Jerry and Bobby Brown of Warsaw offer proof that "the big ones" are in Kosciusko County lakes. They are proudly displaying the channel catfish, weighing approximately 6 pounds, which they caught in Pike Lake, Warsaw. The boys said they had several other "bites" but this is the only one that didn't get away. Jerry and Bobby are the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Ridley Brown of 111 N. Grant St.

Aug. 17, 1963 -- Robert "Robbie" Morton Jr., 16-year-old Warsaw High School junior, became the first casualty of the 1963 football season when he was taken to the emergency room of Murphy Medical Center this morning, still in his football suit, unconscious, and in critical condition.

He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Morton of Pike Lake.

Robbie has been examined by a neurologist, who confirmed that the boy has a ruptured blood vessel in the brain, which is causing pressure, partially paralyzing his respiratory system.

Aug. 19, 1963 -- Services for Robert C. "Robbie" Morton, a 16-year-old Warsaw High School junior and the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Morton, of Spring Hill Acres (Pike Lake), were held at 10:30 a.m. this morning in the Landis funeral home in Warsaw. Burial was in Oakwood Cemetery.

Robbie died shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday in the Murphy Medical Center, where he was taken following his collapse at football practice behind the new Warsaw High School building on East Smith Street earlier in the day.

Sept. 5, 1963 -- A young Akron mother, Mrs. Neil McKinney, and her small daughter, Christa, are waiting patiently at their home today for word of her husband, who is among four persons missing on a patrol over Vietnam.

Mrs. McKinney, a native of Akron, believes that her husband is all right.

"He's strong-willed and physically strong, so if he got out of the aircraft he's all right," she said. She said that she had heard a number of stories from newspapers about the aircraft in which her husband was riding, but hadn't heard anything from the Air Force since receiving a notice Labor Day that Neil was missing.

Sept. 5, 1963 -- Some of the new 28 teachers in Warsaw Community Schools include Ellen Kiefer, Senior High; Martha Klondaris, Lincoln; Rose Marie Martin, Madison; and William Landrigan, Junior High.

Sept. 26, 1963 -- Carl W. Burt and Mrs. J.R. (Daisy Lou) Baum -- two highly respected citizens who have devoted virtual lifetimes to serving others -- today hold the titles of Warsaw's 1963 "Man and Woman of the Year."

Burt, superintendent of Warsaw Community Schools, and Mrs. Baum, noted for her work and energy in helping those in suffering and pain, became the fifth recipients of the coveted awards during the 52nd Annual Warsaw Chamber of Commerce dinner Wednesday night at the Elks club. Approximately 225 persons attended.

Oct. 1, 1963 -- Warsaw Community School Board members Monday night ejected reporters and the public from their meeting and discussed possible costs of a new addition to the Warsaw High School and further plans for the merger with Clay and Lake townships.

The motion to hold the meeting in secret was made by board member Matt Dalton, because, he said, "The paper had one time made public a story that interfered with our plans." Board president Bruce Maish felt the meeting should be open and board members Ethan Kaufman and Dale Tucker also expressed opinions that the meeting should be open. However, Dalton insisted and was joined by member Stan Evans in the effort to close the meeting.

Upon the insistence of Dalton and Evans, under the rules of the board, the majority was over-ruled and the future plans and costs were discussed in secret after reporters were forced to leave.

Oct. 9, 1963 -- Kosciusko County Sheriff Howard "Sam" Holbrook, 48, has been named "Indiana Sheriff of the Year" by colleagues attending the annual state Sheriff's Association convention this week at Terre Haute.

The high honor, first to be awarded a local law enforcing officer, was bestowed on Sheriff Holbrook in ceremonies during his attendance yesterday at a noon luncheon.

Nov. 12, 1963 -- For the second time within a year, the Whitley-Kosciusko county areas have been startled with the revelation that a young person committed murder.

A Whitley County girl, age 20, confessed to officers Monday morning that she murdered her mother in the family's farm home four miles southeast of South Whitley last Thursday.

Linda Ann Miller, who resides in Fort Wayne, told officers she shot her mother, Mrs. Kenneth (Florence) Miller, 45, because of a long built-up resentment.

Nov. 16, 1963 -- Mayor Paul E. "Mike" Hodges, through his attorney, has formally charged 87 Warsaw precinct workers with "mistake or fraud," thus costing him the election for mayor Nov. 5.

Robert Reed, Syracuse attorney, late Friday filed a petition in Kosciusko Circuit Court for a recount in all 12 Warsaw precincts in the balloting that gave the mayor's job to Republican Joe Johnson by 95 votes.

Nov. 20, 1963 -- Whitko Corp. School Board members have a proposal under consideration at this time to reduce the number of high schools in the district from four to two.

A proposal is now before the board that would call for closing Larwill and Sidney high schools and housing all high school students in South Whitley and Pierceton school buildings.

Jan. 4, 1964 -- The county council took another step in the hiring of a county highway engineer Friday morning in a special appropriations meeting.

An additional appropriation of $2,500 from county highway funds was approved, supplementing $10,000 previously granted the commissioners to hire a highway engineer for 1964.

Commissioners Frederick Gilliam, Raymond Ferverda and Lawrence Butts, present at the meeting, pointed out that the commissioners had hoped to hire a highway engineer for $10,000, but for an experienced engineer the lowest yearly salary for which they could hire a well-qualified person was $12,500.

Jan. 9, 1964 -- Burdell Blackburn, 28, of Rt. 2, Warsaw, Wednesday night was named Kosciusko County's "Outstanding Young Farmer of 1963" at the sixth annual Warsaw Junior Chamber of Commerce "OYF" banquet at Horn's Restaurant, Warsaw.

Blackburn, who resides with his wife Darlene and two children, Anita Jean, 8, and Cindy Lou, 4, on Crystal Lake Road, west of the city, is Warsaw's first winner of the event.

Jan. 27, 1964 -- Members of the Warsaw High School band will employ the use of the school's new riser platform at their Wednesday 7:30 p.m. band concert.

The platform, which will hold the entire band, is believed to be one of the largest in the country and perhaps the largest platform for high school students.

The high school band has 108 members.

Jan. 31, 1964 -- Kosciusko County will have its first full-time highway engineer starting early in February, it was announced today by Ray Ferverda, president of the Kosciusko County board of commissioners.

Ferverda stated that Charles Cleveland, of Rt. 4, Syracuse, has been employed as engineer. Cleveland, who has resided in Kosciusko County for 15 years, will fill the post created by the commissioners in 1963. The salary of the position is listed at $12,500 per year.

Feb. 5, 1964 -- Three floors of the new $819,000 women's dormitory at Grace College, Winona Lake, will be ready for occupancy on Saturday, Feb. 8. On that day, 140 young women students will move from their present quarters at the Westminster Hotel to the ultra modern residence hall. The top floor will be ready for students next September.

Feb. 19, 1964 -- Donald Tyler and David Clark, Warsaw High School cornetists, won top honors at the state instrumental contest held at Butler University in Indianapolis by earning superior ratings in seven of the eight events they entered -- and in that eighth event, they were rated excellent. Don is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Claude Tyler, of Rt. 2. Dave's parents are Mr. and Mrs. Edward Clark of Winona Lake. Both boys are seniors.

Feb. 21, 1964 -- Gifts of land donated by two prominent Warsaw families have doubled the area available for the projected building of Kosciusko Community YMCA facilities in Warsaw in the near future.

Mr. and Mrs. Norman Kelly, Country Club Drive, and Mr. and Mrs. James Johnson, North Union Street, gave the land in an act of appreciation for their home community, it was announced today by Phillip Harris, president of the YMCA.

The tracts, containing approximately 60,000 square feet, adjoin land recently purchased by the YMCA at the corner of East Smith and Bronson streets, opposite the main entrance to the county fairgrounds.

March 2, 1964 -- "Team teaching," a fairly new teaching method capitalizing on the special abilities of each instructor on the team, is being introduced to the students and instructors of North Webster High School.

First to take part in this method of instruction were 66 students of the junior class and Mrs. William C. Harvuot and Mrs. Dennis Plummer, team members in the English department inaugurating the procedure.

March 5, 1964 -- Lossie E. Rinker, 62, of 113 S. Harrison St., Syracuse, died Wednesday at his home.

In 1928, he began designing and building boats as a hobby, and in 1935, he went into the business of building pleasure and racing boats. Rinker-built boats are known and raced throughout the United States.

March 6, 1964 -- Ardel F. Hanna, a 33-year-old Warsaw policeman, Thursday night was named Kosciusko County's "Outstanding Young Man of the Year" at the annual Warsaw Jaycees' Distinguished Service Award "Bosses' Night" banquet, at Horn's Restaurant.

March 12, 1964 -- C.W. Lake Jr., president of R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., announced to a group of Warsaw industrialists and businessmen Wednesday that the Donnelley firm is working on a contract with J.C. Penney Co., which would result in an 80 percent expansion of the Warsaw plant.

Lake said that J.C. Penney Co. was entering the mail order business in addition to its 1,800 retail outlets in the United States, and if the contract to print its catalogs was successfully completed, it would require an expansion of the Warsaw plant of nearly 80 percent.

Lake said that both Donnelley and the J.C. Penney Co. agreed that the new plant should be in Warsaw.

March 17, 1964 -- Apparently the consolidation of the Warsaw Community Schools with the Clay and Lake township schools (Claypool and Silver Lake) into one school system will become a reality.

In the absence of any opposition to the move Monday night, the three groups of school authorities launched the merger action in passing a joint resolution of intent to consolidate the Lake and Clay township schools with the Warsaw Community School system.

About 217 Clay and Lake township high school students, ninth through 12th grade, will enter the enlarged Warsaw Community School system in the fall of 1966 if the consolidation does not encounter strong opposition in the next three weeks.

If no remonstrance is filed within the legally specified period, the officials of the consolidating corporations would then pass a final resolution of consolidation which would become effective Jan. 1, 1966.

April 13, 1964 -- Frank Kliewer and Douglas Hollar, Warsaw High School students, won state championships last weekend in speech events at the annual National Forensic League state tournament held at Concord High School near Elkhart. David Barnett already had won a state championship in humorous interpretation the previous weekend.

April 25, 1964 -- It took 75 minutes and 128 rounds to do it, but 13-year-old Mary Jo Conway, of North Webster, finally won her second consecutive Kosciusko County spelling championship today in a tense, dramatic final "spelldown" with 11-year-old James Sloan, of Warsaw.

Mary Jo, an eighth-grader at North Webster, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dean Conway. She won the county crown in 1963 as a seventh-grader. The Sloan boy is in the sixth grade at Madison School in Warsaw. His parents are Mr. and Mrs. James Sloan Jr., of 429 W. Center St.

April 27, 1964 -- William Mollenhour, a member of the Murphy Medical Center board of directors and master of ceremonies at the "Ball Parisienne" Saturday night, crowned the queen of the ball, Mrs. Neal (Joy) Carlson, during one of the highlights of the evening. Mrs. Carlson was representing the nurses. Attendants were Mrs. Troas Douglas, gray ladies; Ramona Enyeart, candy stripers; and Evelyn Shilling, women's service league. Approximately 600 persons were served dinner at the local hospital's ÒAppreciation BallÓ held at the National Guard Armory, north of Warsaw.

April 29, 1964 -- Damage estimates ranged from $100,000 to as high as $250,000 today as residents of the east part of Nappanee began the arduous task of repairing some 30 to 35 homes and three businesses establishments that were in the path of a devastating tornado Tuesday afternoon.

They were thankful, however, that with all the damage only two persons were injured by the twister that swept down upon the city at 2:35 p.m.

The only injuries were to June Heltzel, of 1105 E. Walnut St., who was doing her laundry at the U-Du Laundry, and to Mrs. LaMar Hepler, of Rt. 1, Nappanee, who was visiting at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Becker, a mile north of the city. They were not hospitalized.

May 5, 1964 -- The Pierceton High School track squad won the county championship last week for the sixth consecutive year Ð in fact, the 10th time in the last 11 years. Members are Edward Christoffel, Robert Osborn, William Bailey, Michael Miner, Gale Danner, coach Thomas Sittler, James Faurote, Clint Pletcher, Barry Reid, John Faurote, Doug Gregory, Scott Hanley, Richard Wells, Ray Slusher, Michael Coyle, Rex Reid, Wayne Carlin and Garth Cone.

May 6, 1964 -- Citizens in the 21 voting precincts of the city of Warsaw, Wayne and Prairie townships also assured the Jan. 1, 1966, consolidation of Lake and Clay townships with the Warsaw Community School system. There were 2,052 "yes" votes for the merger as compared to 1,117 "no" votes. It was supported in all of the Warsaw and Wayne township precincts. Prairie Township residents, however, voted against it 103 to 83.

June 16, 1964 -- Final action was taken consolidating Clay and Lake township schools with the Warsaw Community School system Monday night when officials of the three schools signed the last legal papers.

June 20, 1964 -- Those harried, hurried housewives whose lives are taken into consideration by all manufacturers rushing those "convenience" foods to the supermarkets may be relieved of the awesome burden of whipping eggs. That is, if a new experiement of Creighton Brothers (west of Warsaw) proves successful with restaurants, hotels and institutions.

Creighton Brothers, working with food technologists at Purdue University, and particularly Dr. William Stadleman, has developed a new frozen product -- already beginning July 1, will use 20,000 mixed eggs. Purdue University used pounds of the new frozen product for a year in its dining halls. Packed and frozen in gallon milk containers, holding nine pounds each, the eggs will be defrosted in refrigerators and are ready for use.

If the results are successful there, Creightons will then package the mixed eggs in smaller cartons for super markets.

July 25, 1964 -- For the first time in history of the Wagon Wheel Playhouse, every single seat for the entire two-week run of the performance of "Sound of Music" has been sold out.

However, the demand for tickets has become so great that the Wagon Wheel has decided to schedule three extra performances.

Aug. 11, 1964 -- Walter "Ducky" Long, 83, Pierceton's Spanish-American War veteran, is still active. He is one of four living Spanish-American War veterans in the area.

Mr. Long enlisted in the Army in 1897 at the age of 18, and was immediately sent to the Phillipines, where he served with the 39th Infantry during the Spanish-American War.

He was commissioned an officer in the Indiana National Guard Artillery later. He served four years with the guard. At the outbreak of World War I, he enlisted as a photographer in the signal corps. He was detailed to Artillery as an instructor at Camp Taylor, where he was stationed 2-1/2 years.

Aug. 22, 1964 -- There will be no high school at Sidney this year.

This news came as a shock today to the area as residents believed the school would continue this year. Board members made no announcement prior to the meeting that they were considering disbanding the school at this time.

The Whitko Community School board apparently voted to close the school at a special meeting. The first news of the closing came late Friday in a prepared news release issued by Superintendent Delbert Hatton.

Aug. 22, 1964 -- Kent J. Adams, of Leesburg, formerly of Warsaw, is one of 54 young Hoosier men embarking on careers as Indiana State Police troopers.

Adams, son of the late Roy Adams, a longtime Warsaw policeman and former police chief, has given up his school teaching career to become a state trooper.

Aug. 26, 1964 --The WRSW-JA contingent representing Warsaw's Junior Achievement program in national competition at Indiana University is to receive special recognition Friday at the awards presentation as "intermediate company of the year."

While the group was eliminated from competition after the second interview Tuesday morning, the special recognition is being given Friday because this is the first time an intermediate company (from a comparatively small city) has reached the national contest.

Sept. 1, 1964 -- Miss Rozella Ford, 88, of Rt. 2, Warsaw, Kosciusko County's most outstanding lady farmer and breeder of fine livestock, died of complications at 8:30 a.m. today following an illness of five months.

The land on which the Rozella Ford Community Golf Course is located was leased from Miss Ford four years ago and bears her name.

Sept. 10, 1964 -- Doubts were dispelled today on the date for the merger of the Clay and Lake township schools with the Warsaw Community School system. Warsaw Superintendent Carl Burt was informed by the state commission on consolidation that approval of the merger plan will be given next year so that the schools will consolidate on the originally planned date -- Jan. 1, 1966.

Sept. 15, 1964 -- Citizens of Larwill will observe the 110th anniversary of the community Sept. 25-27.

Eudolph Holycross, general chairman, said there would be nine events to commemorate the founding of the community in 1854.

Sept. 17, 1964 -- Hobart Creighton and Mrs. Fred (Lucy) McKown Sr. today hold the title of Warsaw's 1964 "Man and Woman of the Year" bestowed upon them last night at the 53rd annual dinner meeting of the Chamber of Commerce.

Oct. 3, 1964 -- Miss Candy Thomas is the 1964 Warsaw High School Homecoming Queen. A senior, she is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Paul (Lud) Thomas, 214 W. Jefferson St.

Oct. 3, 1964 -- Miller's Merry Manor is now in operation - and is the beginning of a dream to be fulfilled for the owners, the Wallace Millers -- a retirement center.

Formerly the old county home, which the Millers purchased at auction from the county commissioners April 7, the interior of the rugged, stately brick structure has undergone a complete transformation.

Oct. 5, 1964 -- Miss Dawn Geiger, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Geiger, is shown receiving instruction from William Kitson of the North Webster School. Four instructors of the school are volunteering their services to give the North Webster student her lessons so that she will be able to join classmates later. Miss Geiger was injured in an auto accident last summer. She is required to wear a cast. Others helping in the instruction program are Mrs. Dennis Plummer, Paul Royer and Mrs. Chester Perry.

Oct. 8, 1964 -- They don't seem to be real happy, but after all, they were probably in shock. Mrs. Fred McKown Sr., Mrs. Raymond Korth, Mrs. Arthur DeWispelaere and Mrs. William Brooks, all of Warsaw, were dealt perfect hands during a bridge game at the Tippecanoe Lake Country Club near Oswego. Thirteen diamonds to Mrs. Brooks, 13 hearts to Mrs. McKown, 13 clubs to Mrs. Korth and 13 spades to the one who had the first and last laugh -- Mrs. DeWispelaere -- the dealer.

Oct. 14, 1964 -- Lakeland Community School students will attend a new consolidated high school at the beginning of the 1967-68 school year if a tentative schedule is followed.

Lewis Immel, superintendent, reported to the school board Tuesday night that the completion date had been set as Sept. 1, 1967. When completed, students from Milford, Leesburg, North Webster and Syracuse will all attend one high school.

Oct. 14, 1964 -- William D. Metcalf, fire control technician third class, USN, son of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Metcalf, of Rt. 1, Leesburg, has been awarded a letter of commendation by the commanding officer of the destroyer USS Turner Joy for outstanding performance on duty during an attack on his ship by seven high-speed North Vietnamese motor torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin on the night of Aug. 4.

Oct. 24, 1964 -- Lt. Neil McKinney, of Akron, has been classified as "presumed dead" by the Air Force.

Lt. McKinney has been listed as missing since his aircraft was reported missing in Vietnam on Labor Day 1963.

Plans are to hold a memorial service for Lt. McKinney at the Akron Methodist Church at 2 p.m. Sunday.

A wire to Mrs. McKinney, the former Barbara Waechter, stated that since no further word concerning Lt. McKinney has been received for 12 months, the department of the Air Force has changed its classificiation to "presumed dead."

Oct. 29, 1964 -- The South Shore Inn on Lake Wawasee was destroyed by fire at 3:53 a.m. today. Loss of the 60-room, two-story, 44-year-old structure was estimated at a quarter of a million dollars.

The landmark was owned by Commercial Investments Inc. of Gary and was one of the two remaining hotels on Indiana's largest natural lake. Johnson's Hotel, located near the State Fish Hatchery, remains.

Oct. 31, 1964 -- The Wa-Nee School Board decided to permit a prom for the junior and senior classes at Wakarusa High School in a meeting held recently in Nappanee.

A petition with 500 names was presented to the board requesting they rule against having a prom.

The petition circulated by several churches of the community was presented to the board with the Rev. Forrest Shuck of the Bethel United Missionary Church acting as spokesman for the group.

Dr. Robert Abel, Wakarusa Wa-Nee School Board member, said he was in favor of a prom and there was considerable community sentiment favoring this point of view.

Dec. 9, 1964 -- This week marks the 50th anniversary of Washington Grade School, located at the south edge of Warsaw on Ind. 15. It was on Dec. 10, 1914, that dedication services were held.

Dec. 26, 1964 -- Herman Hoyt, president of Grace College, announced today that a $650,000 library will be constructed on the campus of the college at Winona Lake, beginning in March 1966.

Jan. 2, 1965 -- It was surely a "Happy New Year" for the Ronald Holaway and Cecil Poe families as they were blessed with New Year's Day babies, both born simultaneously at 2:45 a.m. Friday, according to attendants at the Murphy Medical Center. Mrs. Holloway gave birth to an 8-pound, 7-ounce daughter and Mrs. Poe gave birth to a 6-pound, 10-ounce son. Mr. and Mrs. Holaway reside at Goshen. The Poes live at Liberty Mills.

Jan. 4, 1965 -- The promotion of Ronald Sharp, city editor, to the dual post of circulation director and news bureau chief was announced today by Curtis Garber, editor of the Times-Union.

Garber said the dual posts were created to coordinate activities of this newspaper's three news bureaus in the county and the circulation department.

Jack Knisely, present circulation manager, will continue in that capacity. He will be in charge of press room distributions.

Jan. 8, 1965 -- It was learned here today that all but a few acres of Camp Kosciusko at Winona Lake -- former summer conference center of the United Presbyterian Synod of Indiana -- has been sold to the president of the board of directors of the Chicago Boys Club Inc.

W. Clement Stone, of Chicago, reportedly has paid approximately $75,000 for 14.4 acres of the camp grounds and will use the land as an expansion to the present Chicago Boys Club facilities which are adjacent to Camp Kosciusko.

Meanwhile, it was announced that the United Presbyterian Synod will start developing a new $600,000 conference center near Rochester next spring to replace the Camp Kosciusko facilities. The new center, north of Rochester on the west side of U.S. 30, will be for yearround use by the Synod.

Jan. 11, 1965 -- Don R.J. Cramer, a veteran of 27 years in the newspaper business, today became managing news editor of the Times-Union.

Jan. 23, 1965 -- Master Sgt. Herman L. Green, son of Gale Green, Rt. 1, Milford, was one of 10 persons killed in the crash of a U.S. Air Force plane near Athens, Greece, Friday.

Green, 46, former Milford resident and a graduate of Milford High School in 1936, entered the service in 1941. The aircraft, a Military Air Transport Service Globemaster, crashed and burned 100 miles southeast of Athens.

Feb. 24, 1965 -- Discussions will be initiated today by the Lakeland School Board regarding the feasibility of releasing Plain Township in its entirety from that corporation to the Warsaw Community Schools.

Feb. 25, 1965 -- A bid of $376,660.70 by Russell Easterday Construction Co., of Culver, was accepted by the Warsaw Community School Board Wednesday for the building of the 16-room addition to Warsaw Senior High School.

Completion date for the 16-room addition is scheduled for July 1, 1966. The addition became necessary to accomodate Clay and Lake township students who will be attending Warsaw Senior High School in September 1966.

Feb. 25, 1965 -- Ethan Kaufman, president of the Warsaw Community School Board, Wednesday night squelched any rumors that Plain Township would be accepted into the Warsaw Community School system immediately.

Board president Kaufman appointed a committee -- Matthew Dalton and James E. Girard -- to meet soon with a committee representing Lakeland School Board to formulate guidelines for an initial discussion.

March 4, 1965 -- Damage of at least $35,000 was estimated today in a fire that destroyed a Milford manufacturing firm, damaged another and posed a serious threat to the entire downtown area for a time Wednesday.

The blaze, which broke out about 1:30 p.m., destroyed a building housing the Syr-Web Manufacturing Co. and also damaged the adjoining Turf Bar. The Syr-Web firm manufactures canvas awnings and is operated by Jack Hickman of Milford. The building is owned by Mrs. Glenn Neer, Rt. 2, Pierceton.

March 6, 1965 -- Graham Kreicker was named "Outstanding Young Man of the Year" last night by the Warsaw Junior Chamber of Commerce.

March 18, 1965 -- No positive position can be taken by the Warsaw Community School Board to accept Plain Township into its school system until more definite information is presented as to the desires of the people concerned.

A committee of the Lakeland Community School Corp. has agreed to obtain facts as to the feelings of the citizens of Plain Township to present to the Warsaw board at a later time.

March 29, 1965 -- There were varied expressions of elation, disappointment and surprise today following last Saturday's 2-1 vote by Plain Township citizens to transfer from the Lakeland Community School Corp. to the Warsaw Community School system.

The actual count was 560 to transfer to Warsaw, and 270 to remain in the Lakeland system.

Lakeland School Board President James Stucky warned today that while the vote was "overwhelming" in favor of joining the Warsaw school system, members of the Warsaw and Lakeland school boards must agree on the transfer before it becomes a reality.

April 5, 1965 -- Lt. Col. William J. Bizjack, Fort Wayne subsector commander with the U.S. Army, presented the Army Commendation Medal Friday to Sg. Phillip M. Dierks, who was cited for exceptional meritorious service while serving in Vietnam from December 1963 to May 1964. Sgt. Dierks resides with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Dierks, at Sidney.

April 24, 1965 -- Thirteen-year-old Margie Merkle, four-time finalist from Claypool, today won the 1965 Kosciusko County School Spelling Championship and will advance to Indiana regional competition in Fort Wayne on May 8.

Margie, an eighth-grader at the Claypool school, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Merkle.

April 26, 1965 -- Construction of a $225,000 unit of the men's dormitory has been approved by the board of trustees of Grace College, Winona Lake, and construction is scheduled to begin about September 1965, with completion date set for August 1966, according to Dean Arnold R. Kriegbaum, chairman of the committee.

April 28, 1965 -- What is thought to be the first Civil Defense disaster plan in the county was formulated at a meeting of representatives of numerous city and county groups and organizations at the city hall in Warsaw Tuesday evening.

Kosciusko County Civil Defense Director Milo Clase conducted the meeting and said leaders were present from civic organizations, police and fire departments, Red Cross and radio communication groups from the county. Towns also were represented.

May 8, 1965 -- Tri-Township School Board members made the decision to build a new junior-senior high school on the Bourbon Fairgrounds in one portion of a three-point program passed last night.

Officials, meeting in temporary headquarters in Etna Green, revealed that survey recommendations propose the construction be completed by 1967.

May 12, 1965 -- Petitions reportedly carrying 1,075 names to keep Plain Township as a part of the Lakeland system were presented to the board of the Lakeland Community Schools Tuesday night.

The petitions were taken under advisement by board members.

May 25, 1965 -- Hunters may use their bows and arrows and guns to pursue their sport of killing wild hogs on the Walter Blocher game preserve (about four miles east of Silver Lake) until midnight, Sept. 30.

This was the compromise settlement agreed upon by the defendant and neighbors who had filed a complaint for an injunction to halt the importation and hunting of boars on his property.

Adjoining property owners and neighbors filing the complaint against Blocher's maintenance of the wild boar preserve were Guy and Leone Aker, Russell Bauer, Dr. Elbie V. Herendeen, Junior Rule and Guy and Ruth Cripe.

June 9, 1965 -- Plain Township has been released in its entirety from the Lakeland School Corporation to the Warsaw Community School system. This action is subject to the acceptance of the township by the Warsaw board.

The Lakeland board approved a resolution Tuesday night at Syracuse "to authorize and approve an attorney's drawing up the necessary resolution effecting the release of Plain Township in its entirety to the Warsaw Community School Corp. as provided by law."

June 10, 1965 -- A two-day excursion down memory lane will come alive in Atwood Saturday and Sunday when residents celebrate their town's centennial.

The general chairman for the affair is Maurice McDaniel. However, he couldn't complete all the vast preparations himself and gives full credit to his committee chairmen.

As the books relate, Atwood was laid out on Sept. 29, 1857, by Harvey Hunt and Mrs. Agnes Teegarden, who were the proprietors. The town's first name was Mount Ruska, which it retained until Dec. 11, 1865, when a petition signed by the citizens changed the name to Atwood.

June 21, 1965 -- Closing of Times-Union news bureaus in Syracuse and Pierceton and the transfer of management personnel to the newspaper's main reportorial offices in Warsaw was announced today by Editor Curtis Garber.

June 24, 1965 -- Warsaw School Board members officially signed the annexation resolution Monday night approving Plain Township's merging with the Warsaw Community School system.

The Lakeland School Board is expected to sign a similar resolution June 29.

June 25, 1965 -- Little Otis Marsillett, a hard-luck Warsaw 9-year-old, was engulfed by flames today when gasoline in which two youngsters were playing ignited.

"Odie" suffered burns over nearly 100 percent of his body in the flash explosion at the Phillips 66 Bulk Plant near his home at 747 W. Market St. He is the youngest of five children of Mr. and Mrs. Ervin Marsillett.

June 26, 1965 -- Nine-year-old Otis Edward Marsillet, whose body was engulfed by flames when gasoline in which he and another youngster were playing ignited, died at 6:15 p.m. Friday at Murphy Medical Center.

The tragedy occurred shortly before 10 a.m. Friday.

June 30, 1965 -- In a special meeting Tuesday night, the Lakeland Community school board formally adopted a resolution to release Plain Township in its entirety from the Lakeland corporation effective Jan. 1, 1966.

July 1, 1965 -- A longtime landmark in northern Kosciukso County, the Hastings Store, five miles southwest of Milford, will soon be gone but will not be forgotten by the many natives of the area.

Due to its deteriorating condition the old general store which has stood on the same location for more than 70 years, is being razed by its present owner, Harold Fox.

The building served the small community as a general store, post office and meeting place for many years following its opening in the 1890s. It was closed seven years ago by John Kaufman, of Nappanee, after the competition from the larger supermarkets became too great and the smaller country stores gradually disappeared from the scene.

July 10, 1965 -- The Cardinal Workshop, which is to provide employment opportunities for the mentally retarded, will open in September, it was announced today by the Council for the Retarded of Kosciusko County Inc.

Howard L. Wilson, a registered occupational therapist from Des Moines, Iowa, has been hired as director of the workshop.

Wilson hopes to provide work in the "sheltered" workshop situation for mentally retarded adults, aged 16 and older.

July 10, 1965 -- By late fall, the hammering sounds of men at work will be silenced as librarian James Sloan opens the doors of the remodeled and enlarged Warsaw Public Library, northwest corner of Center and Detroit streets.

The library's 49,212 books and 150 periodicals dating, on the average, back 10 years, will be housed in a structure more than two times the size of the old library.

July 22, 1965 -- An explosion blitzed the Rt. 2, Syracuse, home of Rev. Jason Martin Wednesday, seriously injuring a young son, Steven, and requiring treatment for Mrs. Martin and another son.

The blast, believed to have been caused by bottled gas, ripped out the entire east section of the two-story dwelling, blew furniture into the yard and loosened two other walls.

The house was described as a total loss.

July 23, 1965 -- County officials are groaning as they are learning of some of the new amendments passed by the 1965 State Legislature involving additional expenses and duties of their offices.

Effective Jan. 1, 1966, a new county drainage board must be created and function as authority on all problems relating to county ditches. This board will be composed of the county commissioners.

July 26, 1965 -- Ceremonies dedicating the recently constructed East Plant of the Warsaw Manufacturing Division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. to the production of catalogs for the J.C. Penney Co. will be held at the printing firm's site west of town on U.S. 30 at noon Thursday.

July 28, 1965 -- Three firms have contracted to locate in the newly acquired Syracuse-Wawasee Industrial Park.

The efforts of the Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce Industrial committee resulted in the procurement of the Industrial Park located on Syracuse-Webster Road. The 14 acres included in the site are behind the present Weatherhead Co. The property was purchased from Mrs. Ruth Rapp for an undisclosed amount.

The erection of a building for the Rebco Construction Co., of Fort Wayne, is to begin immediately. Rinker Brothers Boat Co. will begin the expasion of its facilities in August and the McClintic Products Co. will begin construction later in the fall. Both firms are established Syracuse industries.

Aug. 2, 1965 -- In a crackdown on illegal possession and transportation of alcoholic beverages by minors the county sheriff's department organized a raid at the Tippecanoe Lake Dance Hall near Leesburg Saturday and 33 young men were cited in less than 50 minutes.

Sheriff Howard (Sam) Holbrook said about 30 officers and special deputies surrounded the area at approximately 8 p.m. and checked every car entering and leaving the area.

Aug. 10, 1965 -- At long last Winona Lake will have its own bank.

Bruce Wright, executive vice president of the Lake City Bank, announced today that contracts had been signed for construction of a $75,000 branch bank at Winona.

Wright said construction would start within two weeks and the new bank would be in operation by mid-November.

Aug. 21, 1965 -- A major expansion of the facilities at the Murphy Medical Center here was announced today by Hazel J. Murphy, president and administrator of the hospital.

The engineering firm of D.H. Lessig Inc. has been engaged to draw plans and let bids for a fourth story on the present three-story hospital.

Mrs. Murphy said the fourth-story addition would cover the full 192-foot length of the hospital along Winona Avenue and extend 75 feet south.

Sept. 16, 1965 -- G. Freeland Phillips and Mrs. Inez Devenney today humbly, but proudly, wore the titles of "Man and Woman of the Year" in Warsaw following their selection Wednesday night at the annual Chamber of Commerce banquet.

Sept. 16, 1965 -- DePuy Manufacturing Co., Warsaw's oldest business, located at 110-112 S. Columbia St., has been acquired by a group of research-oriented businessmen, according to today's announcement by Mrs. Amrette W. Hoopes, former owner.

DePuy, established in 1895, manufactures and distributes a full line of products in the orthopedic and rehabilitation fields through its area distributors to physicians, surgeons and hospitals throughout the world. The firm employs 115 people.

Sept. 22, 1965 -- The Kosciusko County Welfare Board Tuesday defied an appealed decision by the State Welfare Department, and two members threatened to resign if the state dictates that welfare recipients receive more income than city employees.

The local board granted a recipient $25 instead of $136 a month ordered by the state agency in a recent appeal case, and board members James Snodgrass and William Chapel threatened to resign.

County board members were perturbed recently when the State Welfare Department reversed a decision of the board to refuse welfare aid to a father of five children with an income of $75 a week. The father appealed the county board's verdict to the state agency. Within 10 days the appeal was heard in Indianapolis and the county board was told that it must grant the "need" of $136 a month to the father.

Dec. 13, 1965 -- Extra effort on the part of Kosciusko County citizens "orbited" the 1965 United Fund drive over the top today with some $81,000 collected or pledged.

It was the first time in the history of the countywide United Fund that the goal had been obtained and exceeded. The 1965 campaign goal for the 13 participating agencies was set at $79,854.

Warsaw Times Union July 3, 2004

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