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.

April 13, 1979 – Indiana Civil Liberties Union has joined the dispute over censoring of library books, texts and a newspaper in Warsaw schools because of the clear challenge to First Amendment rights, the organization’s executive director said Thursday.

“I’ve never seen quite so many censorship problems altogether in one place,” Barbara Williamson told a news conference at the ICLU’s Indianapolis headquarters.

ICLU volunteer attorneys last month filed two suits in U.S. District Court at South Bend against the Warsaw Community School Corp. board of trustees and superintendent and the principal of Warsaw Community High School.

April 11, 1978 – Warsaw police and fire officials are investigating a blaze early today at the old Freshman High School building, West Main Street, Warsaw, for arson. City Police Capt. Eugene Brown explained that there is no electricity and running water in the empty building, which is supposed to be torn down. The blaze started in the projector room near the auditorium on the second floor of the building. Alert residents spotted smoke billowing from four windows at 8:40 a.m. and notified city firemen. Warsaw and Winona Lake firemen brought the flames under control within minutes and remained at the scene for one hour.

April 16, 1977 – Jeff Miller and Susan Stokes wear smiles and crowns as the king and queen of the 1976-77 Junior-Senior Prom at Warsaw Community High School following the coronation in the school auditorium Friday night. Jeff is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Miller, 607 N. Lindberg St., Warsaw, and Susan is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stan Stokes, 1408 W. Cardinal Drive, Warsaw. Members of the court include Steve Reed, Christie Eherenman, Roseann Oest and Rod Mayer.

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.

– Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels