Few Midwest counties can claim such a rich heritage. Pivotal battles among Native Americans and their European antagonists were fought in this area. Peace Treaties were signed as well. In fact, the Paradise Spring Memorial Park in Wabash celebrates one such treaty signing. Study the legend of Frances Slocum, kidnapped as a young girl in Pennsylvania and found by her family living here more than 50 years later. She is buried in a Native American cemetery in Southwest Wabash County.

Before the great Wabash Railroad and the historic Wabash Cannonball, the Wabash and Erie Canal traversed the county. Old growth forest made travel nearly impossible before early pioneers hit upon the idea of a canal linking the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. (You may view magnificent examples of old growth forest in Wabash County.) By 1840, traffic was moving on the Canal, but by 1855, railroads had made the Canal obsolete. You may visit Kerr Lock, one of the last surviving Canal locks and St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, one the earliest churches in the Midwest, at Lagro.

The town of North Manchester was founded in 1836 on a vacant Miami and Potawatomi Native American village site near the Eel River. Flour and saw mills powered by the Eel helped the town thrive until the railroads arrived in the early 1870s. Twenty passenger trains passed through North Manchester in the early days and proximity to the Wabash/Erie Canal helped merchants and farmers transport their wares to points throughout the young nation.

North Manchester is home to Manchester College, founded in 1889, the North Manchester Covered Bridge, built in 1872, and the birth home of Thomas Marshall, Governor of Indiana and 28th Vice President of the United States.

The City of Wabash was established in 1834 and, in 1880, became the first electrically lighted city in the world when four carbon lamps were suspended from the courthouse dome, lighting the downtown. One of the original lights is on display in Wabash County’s beautiful Courthouse.

Wabash was home to noted inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Mark C. Honeywell. Born in the City in 1874, Mr. Honeywell worked in his father’s Wabash mill and graduated from Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1891. Mr. Honeywell developed a hot water heating system in 1905, which he installed in his Main Street home. He also pioneered automatic thermostat controls for heating systems and by 1927, Honeywell Incorporated employed more than 450 people with $1.5 million in sales.

Mr. Honeywell established the Honeywell Foundation Inc. in 1941. The perpetual charter of the Foundation has served the Wabash area since then. In 1952, the Honeywell Memorial Community Center was completed. Before 1960, Mr. Honeywell donated his country estate to the Foundation. In 1961, the Foundation built an Olympic-size swimming pool and donated the facility to the City of Wabash. Mark C. Honeywell passed away in 1964 after a long illness.

His legacy lives on throughout the Wabash Community. In addition to the Community Center and Pool that bear his name, Mr. Honeywell’s former country estate is now the beautiful 18-hole Honeywell Golf Course. His country home serves as the pro shop, and his movie projection studio/theater houses the Wabash Country Club.

For more historical details, please plan to visit the new Wabash County Museum or the libraries of LaFontaine, North Manchester, Roann, and Wabash.

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