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.

April 8, 1978 — Attempts by county residents to dispose of the byproducts of spring cleaning at the Ransbottom landfill this morning were thwarted.

Information for this retrospective series is courtesy of the Kosciusko County Historical Society.

Citing “deplorable conditions” of roads in the landfill, the Kosciusko County Commissioners ordered the landfill closed effective at 5 p.m. Friday until further notice.

Commissioners Gerald Smalley, Frederick Gilliam and Maurice Dorsey made an unannounced inspection earlier Friday at the sanitary landfill site operated by Ransbottom Brothers Excavating Inc., Claypool, to investigate complaints from residents.

The commissioners said they closed the landfill because they are concerned about the safety of county residents who dump refuse there.

April 4, 1973 — Five years ago, Wawasee Preparatory School on nearby Lake Wawasee was an all-white boarding school for boys.

Then, on the evening of April 4, 1968, students and faculty members were shocked when television programs they were watching were interrupted to announce that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated.

The Rev. Richard John, then prior of the Crosier priests and brothers at Wawasee who operated the school, invited students and faculty to join him in the school chapel to pray for the slain black leader.

During the service, Father John challenged the Wawasee students to come up with a scholarship for a black student as their Christian response to Dr. King’s death.

“Every institution in this country must do its part to help resolve the No. 1 problem in this country — racism,” Father John said. “We must not allow our school to be used as a retreat for those white parents who want their school to avoid school integration.”

Within days, Wawasee students raised $600 for a scholarship and the first black student enrolled in the fall of 1968. Since then, Wawasee Prep has solicited other funds to establish scholarships for minority students, and today 25 percent of the school’s 110 students are black.

The biggest contribution to the scholarship program has come from the Lilly Endowment Fund of Indianapolis, which has donated $65,000 annually for several years for general operating purposes.

Indian Burial Grounds

Burial Sites have been located on the west end of Big Turkey Prairie, at Oswego, on Trimble Creek and in Oakwood Cemetery, Warsaw, on top of a bluff directly overlooking Pike Lake, according to an 1880  article published in a local newspaper. Another Indian burial ground is located on the south side of the Tippecanoe River, opposite the Indian Village of Monoquet, according to James Armstrong in his book, “History of Leesburg and Plain Township Indiana.”