From the files of Kosciusko County Historical Society:

Editor’s note: This is a new column that will appear a few times a month on Monday mornings.

Oct. 20, 1967 — Warsaw’s Murphy Medical Center will be seven years ahead of hospital survey bed needs when present construction is completed in early 1968, according to a brief filed with the State Board of Health today by Mrs. Hazel Murphy, president and administrator.

It was in answer to a request made by the state advisory hospital and health planning council to change the board’s previous determination of hospital bed needs in order that an organization called The Kosciusko Community Hospital Inc. could become eligible for federal aid.

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

W. Matthew Dalton, president of the Community Hospital Inc., and Dr. Robert Dormire, Warsaw physician, appeared before the state body Oct. 5 and urged the state to change its recommendation, which as of now calls for no federal funds, nor any additional beds other than those now under construction by Murphy.

Oct. 21, 1836 — Warsaw was surveyed by Christopher Lightfoot, and W.H. Knott, the 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.

Oct. 24, 1974 — The Glory Barn is presenting a major health problem, County Health Nurse Barbara Clouse asserted at the Board of Health meeting Wednesday night.

In her report to the board, a concerned Clouse stated that although the Glory Barn is not in Kosciusko County, the health problems the county is experiencing with it are getting worse.

Mrs. Clouse reported that diabetics are not taking their insulin and pregnant women are receiving no prenatal or post-natal care. “There is no silver nitrate to put in the babies’ eyes,” she said.

“They are laying dead babies and live babies next to each other on the altars and praying over them to get the live babies to bring life back to the dead ones,” Clouse said. “There was one woman in our county praying over a baby for four days before the funeral home got hold of it.”