From the Files of the Kosciusko County Historical Society

Editor’s note: This is a retrospective article that runs a few times a month on InkFreeNews.  

Information for this retrospective series is courtesy of the Kosciusko County Historical Society. For more history of Kosciusko County in the news visit yesteryear.clunette.com

May 17, 1968 — The city of Warsaw is now ready to purchase — and Meyer and Rosa Levin are now ready to sell — the long-disputed piece of property, three-quarters of an acre, at the southeast corner of Center Lake which would round out the Warsaw Municipal Park.

Mayor Paul (Mike) Hodges said this morning a tentative price of $110,000 was agreed upon at a meeting that stretched well into the night between attorneys, owners and city officials.

The tentative agreement with actual details to be worked out later, culminates nearly 20 years of effort on the part of the city to acquire the Levin Junk Yard, which is in the heart of the park system.

The business is now operated by Howard Levin, son of the two owners who have had the property for more than 50 years. The ground in question runs 406 feet from Center Lake to Detroit Street, 102 feet along Detroit Street and widens as it approaches the lake.

BACK IN THE DAY …

Warsaw had eleven saloons. Then the town voted dry, and there were nightly trips via busses to Pierceton and later to Columbia City. Rev. Billy Sunday led the dry campaign here, speaking from a store box or back end of a dray at Shane’s grocer corner.

Robbers blew the safe in the Warsaw post office, which was then in the room occupied by the Quality Shoe store, but did not disturb the night policeman asleep across the street in the Campfield store. Blankets were used to silence the detonation. A special act of congress was necessary before the postmaster could be reimbursed for the $1,500 loss in stamps. Charles B. Bentley was the postmaster then.

Peas, corn, tomatoes and pumpkins were canned at the Pike Lake Canning factory. Laborers got from 2 cents for boys up to 10 cents per hour for men and they worked day and night. You could work as many hours as you wanted to.

Bradford G. Cosgrove, contractor, erected the three ward school buildings: the Central (then located at Market and Detroit streets); East School at Scott and Fort Wayne streets; and West School at the west end of Main Street. That was in the year 1872. Two of those structures, Center and East, were later torn down and new buildings erected, with the location of the Central School being changed from its original site to a location on East Main. During the period of construction of these buildings, school for most of the pupils was held in rooms in the third story of what was later known as the Widaman Block on Buffalo Street, while the overflow received instruction at Mrs. Cowan’s Seminary on South Detroit Street, the grounds surrounding which comprised most of the space between South and Jefferson streets.

The old mineral well, a 900-foot shaft sunk at the south terminal of Indiana Street in an effort to strike natural gas or oil there, gave forth only drinking water thought to have supreme medicinal properties. Small boys with wagons peddled it to all parts of the town at 10 cents for five gallons. Later, a sanatorium was built on South Indiana Street due to the prestige established by the medicinal mineral water’s curative qualities.

Wild animals of all kinds were kept in cages at Lakeside Park to attract visitors. Deer, monkeys and bears were among the exhibits. Sunday excursions brought thousands here every Sabbath during the summer. A large dance floor above the old boathouse attracted the young bloods, while a 40-passenger steam boat made regular excursions around the lake.

– Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels