Santa’s Political Past
Although the history of Santa Claus stretches back to the third century, you might be surprised how much influence the United States has had on his image. The origin of Santa Claus is St. Nicholas, who was born around 230 A.D. in Patura in Turkey. St. Nicholas was...
History of Christmas Cards
The very first Christmas card was printed in Victorian England in 1843. Sir Henry Cole, who is known for founding the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, had a problem. It was customary at the time to send letters at Christmas to all one’s friends. Because it was...
Thanksgiving in World War II
After celebrating Veteran’s Day, and as we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s a good time to look back to wartime holiday celebrations, particularly during World War II. So many of the things we take for granted were adversely affected by Word War II, even...
Hunting Tales
With the annual hunting season in full swing, it’s time to look at hunting tales from long ago from the archives at the Marshall County Historical Society. Documents tell us: “The tradition of the last bear that was shot in Marshall County, comes from the lips of...
The Town of Donaldson
This article was published on November 30, 1911, in the Weekly Republican newspaper. It’s interesting to get a look at the Town of Donaldson, back when it was a truly bustling community. Note that the location is described according to which railroad the town was...
Marshall County’s Only Prize Fight
The story is told in McDonald’s History of Marshall County of the only prize fight held in Marshall County: The prize fight was to take place at Baugherville, on the Lake Erie & Western Railroad, about nine miles northwest of Plymouth between Lou C. Allen of...
Introducing the Balcony Building
Some of the buildings in Marshall County’s cities and towns have quite an interesting history. They have changed ownership, of course, but some have even changed size and shape! A good example we have covered previously is the REES Theatre. It went from a...
Dredging the Yellow River
In 1909, Supreme Court of Indiana had ruled in favor of the farmers and cleared the way for the Yellow river to be dredged. This article has been edited from the Plymouth Tribune, December 8, 1910.Progress on the work of dredging the Yellow river is being completed...
Fatal 1911 Accident at Tippecanoe
We have quoted verbatim from the Argos Reflector newspaper of November 9th, so please excuse the fact that reporters of that era did not miss the opportunity to create great drama when writing the news. “Last Thursday evening the people of our neighboring community...
Ghosts: How They Live, Move, and Have Their Being
Excerpted from the 1881 History of Marshall County By Daniel McDonald By modern standards, early Marshall County Historian Daniel McDonald (1833-1916) was a man of contradictions. A believer in Spiritualism with a deep confidence in seances, he didn’t have any...
Funded in part by a grant from the Marshall County Community Foundation.