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.

June 10, 1969 — An investigation into social studies teaching techniques in both junior and senior high schools is expected to be launched soon by members of the Warsaw Community School Board, president H. Dale Tucker announced today.

“Trustees over the past several years have been recipients of too many complaints by parents that certain teachers in history and applied economy and such allied courses have been wrongly indoctrinating pupils in governmental philosophies which directly oppose the principles upon which this nation was founded,” Tucker added.

“Our board plans to take immediate action in looking into such complaints and I intend to form an investigating committee from board members to root out the facts,” Tucker said

June 7, 1969 — “Mary Jane” is not a girl. It is an ephemism for marijuana, the drug most commonly sold and smoked by Kosciusko County teenagers and college students. It is not only imported, but grown here and therefore has attracted an undesirable element from outside the county that has compounded the problem.

Marijuana comes from Indian hemp. Years ago it was grown commercially in Kosciusko County and the remnants linger in a weaker variety than the Mexican cannabis — which is preferred by confirmed “pot” users.

Sheriff David Andrews and state police arrested some 20 “outsiders” last summer who came into this county to harvest the drug. At the same time attention was being diverted to these outsiders, a local ring had started using first the Kosciusko County variety, then the stronger Mexican “grass,” graduating to LSD.

June 10, 1965 — A two-day excursion down memory lane will come alive in Atwood Saturday and Sunday when residents celebrate their town’s centennial.

The general chairman for the affair is Maurice McDaniel. However, he couldn’t complete all the vast preparations himself and gives full credit to his committee chairmen.

As the books relate, Atwood was laid out on Sept. 29, 1857, by Harvey Hunt and Mrs. Agnes Teegarden, who were the proprietors. The town’s first name was Mount Ruska, which it retained until Dec. 11, 1865, when a petition signed by the citizens changed the name to Atwood.

1844 — Numbering among Warsaw’s early pioneer families, who down through the years have contributed much to the growth of the community, is the Funk family, who settled here in 1844.

From this family came William B. Funk, the father of Elmer B. Funk, veteran Warsaw banker and executive vice president of the Lake City Bank, in 1854.

– Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels