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

Nov. 25, 1969 — The owners of farms that have been in their families for a century or more to a certain degree live closer to the past.

If they also live in the home that was occupied by their ancestors, that sense of affinity with the past is even greater. And if that home contains many of the furnishings used by their ancestors, that rapport is magnified.

Such is the case in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur McSherry on CR 600W in Seward Township. They live in the family residence that has housed four generations of McSherrys.

November 1969 — Homer Shoop, of North Webster, recognized spin expert, teamed with Gardnar Mulloy, nationally known netter, to capture the biggest prize of his colorful 45-year tennis career in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sunday.

Shoop and Mulloy won the Senior Bowl Invitational Doubles tourney in a three-set thriller at the Hotel Racquet Club in San Juan.

In addition to receiving the largest trophy of his many years in tennis, Homer celebrated his 57th birthday Sunday.

1885 — 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 the 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.

1870 — Warsaw became a two-railroad town in 1870 when the Warsaw, Goshen and White Pigeon Railroad laid tracks between Warsaw and Goshen. In the fall and spring of 1881 and 1882, the rail line was extended from Goshen through Elkhart to Niles and Benton Harbor, Mich., by the Cincinnati, Wabash and Michigan Railway, later a branch of the Big Four Railroad. The two lines formed a merger and completed a rail line from Warsaw to the two Michigan towns.

– Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels