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.

Dec. 20, 1973 —“Unless it’s an emergency, stay home,” said Ron Himes, Kosciusko County highway department employee. 

Highway workers today are digging the main county roads out from under 13 inches of snow that began sifting down early Wednesday morning.

The power has accumulated to 18 inches in open areas with some drifting that has forced school closings in all area corporations, bogged traffic, halted some industrial and business schedules and fouled social events.

1856 — In 1856, Warsaw was connected to the east by railroad. The first train left the Buffalo Street Station on Oct. 27, 1856. It left at 7:40 a.m. Columbus, Ohio, time. The engine was the VanWert with Sam Slagle as engineer and A. P. Conn as conductor.

The first shipment east was 1,200 bushels of wheat to Pittsburgh by Williams and Montford. The engines were small and perhaps without any shelter for the engineer. They burned wood and had a top speed of about 25 miles an hour. Over a newly built road, it would be dangerous to travel very fast.

All summer, the road had been in the process of building. It reached Pierceton early in the summer. Much gravel was taken from the pit east of town on what was then the Boss farm. Irishmen were used in the construction and slip scoops and mules were the only machinery. For a month or so, one train went east in the morning and returned in the evening. It was not until later in the fall that trains began to run to Plymouth. 

Before this time, Peter L. Runyan had a line of hacks, and once a week a hack went to Plymouth one day and returned the next. Three times a week, a hack went to Peru, and daily a hack went to Columbia City where connection was made with the railroad.

The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad appears to have grown out of three smaller companies: the Ohio & Pennsylvania, the Ohio & Indiana and the Fort Wayne and Chicago. All was not smooth in building the line for we read of the Irish going on strike when their pay did not come through, and when they did get paid, much of it was spent at the saloons.

1832 — In 1832, approximately 500 Indians lived in the northern part of this county and at least eight chiefs were known by the early settlers. Of these eight known chieftains, six were Potawatomi and two were Miami.

The Potawatomi chiefs were: Monoquet, Musquawbuck, Benack, Checose, Mota and Topash. The Miami chiefs were Flat-belly and his brother Wawasee.

The most powerful Indian leaders in 1832 were: Monoquet, whose village consisted of approximately 150 persons; Musquawbuck, who ruled 125; Flat-belly, whose village population was approximately 75; and Wawasee who headed 75 Indians. Chiefs Moto, Checose, Topash and Benack ruled small villages of Indians with a total population of 75. These population figures are not certain. 

Chief Monoquet was a stern man and approximately 57 years old in 1832. His forehead was high and square; his eyes were small and bright; and he was a dark color. He had an aquiline nose, which was uncommon for an Indian to have, and his tenor voice was clear and sharp. He was approximately five feet seven inches tall, according to James W. Armstrong, in the History of Leesburg and Plain Township, Indiana. 

A brief encounter with Monoquet is described in the 1879 county atlas. Metcalf Beck, a Leesburg merchant in 1835 and a local historian, wrote a story about meeting the chief: “He (Monoquet) touched his forehead with the index finger of his right hand and thus addressed me: ‘Nin Mon-o-quet,’ then brought the hand down with a clap on his thigh and said ‘cheep’ (the Indians could pronounce no word ending with the sound of the letter “f”). It was a warm Sunday morning in the fall of 1835; his dress was a ruffled shirt of blue calico reaching midway down his thigh, and his feet were clad in moccasins. Our conversation was brief, for neither knew more than seven or eight words of the language of the other. We soon said all we could, then shook hands and parted; each made a bow to the other, and said ‘ba-sho-nick’, which in English meant ‘goodbye.’

Monoquet ruled a tribe of Pottawatomi Indians who were forced to live on a four-section sized reservation located midway between Leesburg and Warsaw with approximately two-thirds of the reservation lying on the west side of SR 15 North and one-third of the reservation lying on the east side of SR 15 North.

– Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels