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-organized in 1904. Norman Sage had been president of the latter until his death and had been succeeded by Charles T. Greene (former cashier), who was at the head of its affairs at the time of the consolidation. The St. Joseph Valley Bank had had three presidents, viz.: A. M. Tucker, Norman Sage and J. W. Fieldhouse. When the banks were consolidated the following officers were chosen to conduct the new St. Joseph Valley Bank: John W. Fieldhouse, president; Herman Boreman, Jacob Goldberg, Charles T. Greene, Walter S. Hazelton and Frank A. Sage (who had succeeded Mr. Greene as cashier of the First State Bank), vice presidents; John I. Liver, cashier. The original capital of the St. Joseph Valley Bank was $25,000; which has been increased, from time to time, until it is now $100,000. The surplus of the consolidated concern is $50,000 and the average deposits $2,000,000. About a year after the consolidation the old home of the bank was vacated in favor of the premises which, much enlarged and improved, had been occupied by the State Bank, at the corner of Main and Franklin streets.

The Citizens Trust Company, with headquarters on South Main street, was incorporated by Dr. Franklin Miles and others in January, 1910. Its capital stock in $75,000 and its affairs are under state supervision. Its officers are: Franklin Miles, president; Stephen M. Cummins, James H. Calkins and Cassius M. Lounsberry, vice presidents; Louis M. Simpson, secretary; James H. State, trust officer.

ELKHART'S NEWSPAPERS

The Elkhart Truth, issued by the Truth Publishing Company, was founded October 15, 1889, by Charles G. Conn, the noted band instrument manufacturer of Elkhart. It was issued as a morning paper for several months, but since February, 1890, when it absorbed the Daily Sentinel, it has been an afternoon daily. A Sunday edition was at first issued, but that was soon abandoned. Truth was first issued as a six-column folio, with an eight-page edition on Saturday, both daily and weekly editions being published. After several enlargements the paper assumed its present form, in April, 1899. For the first two years the paper was issued from an office in the Blackburn block, but in December, 1891, the plant was moved to the quarters now occupied on South Main

street. C. G. Conn is still president of the Truth Publishing Company. Frank Palmer is its editor and manager.

The first issue of the Elkhart Daily Review was published August 12, 1872, with C. H. Chase and A. P. Kent as proprietors. Mr. Chase died May 8, 1899, and the business was conducted by his partner, Mr. Kent, until the death of the latter, May 5, 1909. O. P. Bassett purchased the property in October, 1909, from the widows of the deceased, which has been the only actual change in ownership since the founding of the paper. In May, 1883, the Review Printing Company was incorporated for a period of thirty years, and reincorporated, in May, 1913, for thirty years. Since he became proprietor of the business, Mr. Bassett has been president and treasurer of the company. The Weekly Review, which was established in 1859, was abandoned by Mr. Bassett in January, 1910.

CHAPTER XVII

NAPPANEE TOWN

FOUNDED AS A RAILROAD TOWN-ORIGINALLY LOCKE STATIONFIRST SPELLING, NAPANEE-ORIGINAL SITE, HUCKLEBERRY SWAMP-SAW-MILL PRECEDED TOWN-NAPPANEE'S FIRST HOUSE AND INDUSTRY-ORIGIN OF THE COPPES INTERESTSWATER WORKS AND ELECTRIC LIGHT PLANT-THE TELEPHONE SERVICE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM-NAPPANEE BANKSTHE NEWSPAPERS-NAPPANEE'S INDUSTRIES-THE CHURCHES OF THE PLACE-Secret and Benevolent SOCIETIES.

Located in the southwestern corner of Elkhart County, in the midst of a beautiful and a fertile country, Nappanee is likewise the center of a commercial territory which is not carved to her detriment by towns of greater population and aggressiveness in her immediate vicinity. She is surrounded by Elkhart and Goshen, Mishawaka, South Bend, Plymouth and Warsaw, but they are from seventeen to twenty-eight miles away, so that, to a certain extent, she enjoys a tributary trading territory. Nappanee is certainly a neat, thriving and substantial place, with growing industries, sanitary water works and other modern public utilities, good banking facilities, two newspapers and generous means provided to advance intellectually and religiously.

FOUNDED AS A RAILROAD TOWN

Nappanee is the youngest of the town corporations of Elkhart County. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad platted it in 1873, as one of the stations on its Chicago division. A number of its first settlers are, therefore, still living on its site, as prosperous citizens of a substantial and well-built town, whose grandchildren are usually young and of the last generation.

The Nappanee News, founded six years after the railroad town was laid out, has been owned since 1888 by Gordon N. Murray, of the family which has been so closely and prominently identified with the newspapers of the entire county. He is, therefore, a local pioneer, and speaks with special authority in regard to the founding and early progress of Nappanee. In a special edition of the News, published in 1905, Mr. Murray says: "There is considerable interest in the early history of Nappanee. The early settlers are here now, and with them their children and grandchildren.

"The inception of the town followed the construction of the Chicago division of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad in 1873. The first station-house was that now occupied by the Unger millinery rooms and stood about where the stock-pens are now located. Our townsman, Henry Eby, was the first station agent, he and his brother George, residing at Locke. Mr. Eby also had the first goods on sale here, occupying room in the station-house which stood in the edge of the timber.

ORIGINALLY LOCKE STATION

"The original town site was laid out on the farms of and by Messrs. Daniel Metzler, John Culp, Jr., and Henry Stahly, Sr., about the middle of December, 1874, and lots offered for sale. The present Dietrich corner was laid out in a clearing or 'deadening' with tall timber standing here and there. This station was then called Locke Station.

FIRST SPELLING, NAPANEE

"The railroad officials called the interested parties together to select a name. All the names suggested were not acceptable to the railroad people, as they were similar or alike to some other station on the line. George Eby was in the council and he suggested Napanee, an Indian name. This was rejected by those interested, though agreeable to the railroad people, who then said that it should remain Locke Station. When the town was surveyed and the proposition for a postoffice eventually came up, the name Nappanee was selected as previously suggested, there already being a Locke, and the railroad people at once adopted the new name,

spelling it Napanee. When it was adopted by the postoffice department at Washington the second 'p' was added.

ORIGINAL SITE, HUCKLEBERRY SWAMP

"The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad seemed then to have been the only inducement for people to buy these lots, for there were no other natural advantages aside from the distance from other trading points. Notwithstanding that the town was laid out on the 'water shed' the .highest point of ground in this part of the country-the water on the north side of Market street finding its way into the Great Lakes and the water on the south side of Market street flowing on to the Gulf via the Kankakee, the early homeseeker found considerable water on 'the shed.' The town site was closely bordered by the forest on the southeast, and swamp ash prevailed along with willows and huckleberry bushes on portions of the town lots. There was an abundance of timber adjacent.

SAW-MILL PRECEDED TOWN

"In fact, Messrs. J. C. Mellinger and B. F. Myers located a saw-mill here in 1873, prior to the time of laying out the town, the mill standing where the Methodist parsonage now is. However, these gentlemen resided in Locke, a then prosperous village 22 miles north and west, at the time the town was platted in 1874.

NAPPANEE'S FIRST HOUSE AND INDUSTRY

"Up to January, 1875, a large number of lots had been sold, but nobody had attempted to erect a dwelling thereon or to enter the new town as a citizen. There was no road south of the public square then. It was anything but an inviting proposition. But, early in that January, C. D. Volkmann, our present local machinist and boilermaker, was looking for a location to begin anew the battle for this world's goods, having lost his dwelling in a New Paris fire. The only lots within his then financial reach, were lots 37 and 38 in the John Culp, Jr., original plat. A now rusty document drawn by the late Robert H. Walburn, under date of January 11, 1875, in the form of a mortgage contract, shows that Mr. Volkmann came into possession of the two lots by paying $20

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