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.

 July 6, 1976 — Kosciusko County’s Bicentennial activities ran the gamut from water to street parades, from egg carrying contests to worship services, from salutes to the American flag to star-spangled salutes from firecrackers lighting up the night sky over three lakes at once.

There were dances, beard and costume contests, exhibits of every kind of antique from butter paddles to old-time farm equipment, proclamation readings, dedications, flag presentations, ice cream socials, concerts, picnics and even a canoe trip down the Tippecanoe River.

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.

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 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.

— Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels