Seth Ward is standing on the structure that has been variously called “the beach house” or “the sun porch” or just plain “structure down by the lake.” Photo provided by Ann Garceau.

Press Release

Seth Seaton Ward, “Grand Old Man of Lake Wawasee,” will be featured by Ann Garceau during the Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum’s Centennial Celebrity program at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 9, at the Syracuse Community Center across from Lakeside Park.

Every community needs a legend. For the Syracuse area, from the late 1950s until his death in 1974, it was towering, silver-haired Seth Ward. In 1917, as World War I loomed on the horizon, Ward graduated from Shortridge High School, then spent a year each at Purdue and West Point.

As a federal prohibition enforcement agent in the 1920s, he aided in the apprehension of D.C. Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in the Midwest. Ward became a successful trial lawyer in Indianapolis, first vacationing at the Spink Hotel and later living nearby on Lake Wawasee.

Not only is his life story fascinating, you’ll be amazed at the ties to other notables in the Lakeland area. Almost everybody knew of Seth; few really knew him. Everyone had a favorite Seth Ward story.

Thanks to the recent donation to the Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum of his scrapbooks and photo albums by Norma Baugher, Ward’s housekeeper in his last years, they’ve been able to reconstruct his life.

Also, thanks to Harlan Steffen, the Patrick family and numerous other area residents who shared more memorabilia and personal stories, the quest for accurate facts has been fulfilled.