Franklin N. Sheneman II - Southern St. Joseph County

IMAGES
of Modern America

SOUTHERN
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY

ON THE FRONT COVER: Clockwise from top left: Naragons barn in Potato Creek State Park (see ).

ON THE BACK COVER: From left to right: North Liberty at Christmastime in the mid-1950s (see ).

IMAGES
of Modern America

SOUTHERN
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY

Franklin N. Sheneman II

Copyright 2015 by Franklin N. Sheneman II
ISBN 978-1-4671-1380-9
Ebook ISBN 9781439651834

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014951048

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This book is dedicated to the memory of my great aunt
Verla (Nelson) Burgener (19222009). She has been the
impetus for my love of genealogy and local history.

Pictured here at Verla (Nelson) Burgeners parents Liberty Township home in 1945 are, from left to right, Verla, Jean R. Nelson, Ethel (Turrell) Nelson, Dale Jerry Nelson, Irma (Walter) Nelson, Gloria Nelson, and Sandra Nelson. (Courtesy of the author.)

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A book like this has one author, but many contributors. I wish to express my profound gratitude to each individual and organization that provided images. Without the individuals whose names appear in the courtesy lines for each image, this book would simply not exist. I would like to give special acknowledgment to a few people who went above and beyond in assisting me. To brothers Allen and Bob Balsley, your patience, kindness, and love of North Liberty helped propel this project forward from the start. To Thomas Peterson, of Peterson Studios, who kept a large selection of the work of his father, Orville, throughout the years, you were also always available at a moments notice when I needed help. To John Wilcox, thank you for your advice and delivering some photographs that were especially dear to me. To Shelly Platz, thank you for your amazing technological assistance and friendship. To Chuck and Marilyn Sherland of the Walkerton Area Historical Society, your kindness in opening the Heritage House during off hours and the wealth of Walkerton history that you were able to provide is truly appreciated. To my dear friend Dr. Sharon Zechowski, your constant love, encouragement, and support helps me to accomplish so much. To my mother, Kathie Sheneman, thank you for your love, patience, and support; no one will fully understand the amount of time that was dedicated to this project but you.

Finally, I wish to dedicate this book in memory of my great aunt Verla (Nelson) Burgener. Auntie Vee, as her nieces and nephews affectionately called her, was the impetus for my genealogical endeavors and interest in local history. All this began, nearly a quarter of a century ago, from sitting down with her for hours and going through a plethora of old photographs. I thank her for passing her knowledge, as well as her passion for this subject matter, on to me. Preserving memories in the form of photographs was of great importance to her; this is made evident by the incredibly rare Kodacolor print from 1945 that is featured on ).

INTRODUCTION

Southern St. Joseph County has always set itself apart from the larger, more populous areas of the county, namely South Bend and Mishawaka. The rural towns of North Liberty, Walkerton, and Lakeville thrived in their own quaint ways in the postwar era. The downtowns of these communities served as the centers of activity. Today, residents have to travel to the countys cities for most shopping and business opportunities, but in the past, rural towns provided locals with a variety of groceries and drugstores, diners, bowling alleys, car dealerships, and even a movie theater. Residents of these small towns could find camaraderie in abundance while visiting with neighbors and family or at school and church activities, often simultaneously enjoying both. The disruption of this way of life started to gain momentum in the 1960s.

For years, rumors circulated that a park was going to be created near Potato Creek, which meanders through Liberty Township. North Liberty resident Darcey Worster grew up walking the wooded area near the creek at the dawn of the 20th century. His dream was for the area to have a man-made lake created by damming the creek. Area farmers, whose ancestors spent years dredging the wetlands of the Kankakee Valley to make it suitable for farming, thought the idea was unrealistic. No one believed that the often-saturated soil could sustain a lake. A self-taught naturalist, Worster conducted his own research, which proved that the ground could support a lake. He began creating insect sculptures out of hickory nuts and acorns, then sending them to politicians to bug them about his idea. His persistence paid off; in the spring of 1939, county and US Army engineers toured the site, and the Indiana Department of Conservation decided that Worsters dream would become a reality. The Works Progress Administration was set to hire local workers, left unemployed by the Great Depression, to construct the lake; however, the project came to an immediate halt with the outbreak of World War II.

Twenty-five years later, rumblings started anew about the state being interested in building a recreational area in northern Indiana. Three spots were up for consideration: land between the Indiana Toll Road and the Michigan state line; an area near New Carlisle; and, spawned by the unwavering support of Worster, the Potato Creek area. Farmers who had acquiesced to the idea of donating a portion of their farmland in the 1930s now vehemently opposed the idea and argued that the other sites would take less farmland away from those who depended upon it for their livelihoods than the proposed site in rural North Liberty. Fears also mounted about the area becoming commercialized. In 1966, Indiana announced that it had selected North Liberty as the home of the new state park, and within a few months of that announcement, the first property owners began selling to the state. By the early 1970s, some holdouts were battling the state in court, with judgments going to the residents, who received more money for their land than what the state originally offered. In 1972, the state finally acquired all of the desired 3,840 acres at a cost of $5.7 million for land and development. Construction of the park began with buildings being cleared or relocated, the man-made lake being dug, the damming of Potato Creek (to fill the lake), and the addition of recreational facilities. After decades of planning, Potato Creek State Park was dedicated in June 1978 and opened to the public that August. Former landowners fears of commercialization were assuaged, as the natural beauty of the land was showcased throughout the park. Many former residents and their descendants take great pride in the role that their families played in the creation of parkland from farmland.

The creation of Potato Creek State Park was certainly a tumultuous time in the area. A much larger ordeal, which affected more residents, was the creation of the John Glenn School Corporation. In the late 1970s, North Liberty schools decided they wanted to secede from the South Bend Community School Corporation. The questions on everyones minds centered around which school corporation they would or should join. For many, the logical choice was to combine Liberty Township schools with Greene Township schools to form a new corporation, since the two high schools had already merged during the states consolidation of public districts in the 1960s. Local leaders and politicians proposed a new school building between Crumstown Highway and the Three Mile Curve on State Road 23 in Greene Township. The day before state representative Richard Mangus was scheduled to announce the proposal, community leaders and members of the Polk-Lincoln-Johnson School Board held a private meeting and decided that the Liberty Township schools would join their school board. This move created the John Glenn School Corporation, and the class of 1981 was the last to graduate from North Liberty High School. In 1988, North Liberty Middle School merged with Urey Middle School in Walkerton, leaving just the North Liberty Elementary School in North Liberty.