Syracuse and Lake Wawasee

By Erin Lomax and Ann Vanderford Garceau

A vibrant community of artists, watermen, entrepreneurs, educators, and spiritual leaders left a legacy well worth preserving.

Nestled in northeastern Indiana's Kosciusko County, Syracuse and its two lakes, Lake Wawasee and Syracuse Lake, became a popular area both for industry and tourism following the completion of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1874. What had been a quiet fisherman's paradise developed quickly, as hotels, restaurants, and merchants sprang up to meet the growing demand of residents and visitors. Pharmaceutical manufacturer Col. Eli Lilly helped establish the first sailing club on Lake Wawasee, and Chicago-based mobsters in Al Capone's crime syndicate ran gambling operations. Upscale hotels attracted the wealthy and influential, while ambitious locals made Syracuse a competitive industrial presence in the state, nurtured innovative boat builders, and supported a strong foundation of schools and churches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: May 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781439645406

Erin Lomax

Erin Lomax and Ann Vanderford Garceau met as a result of their mutual interest in local history and initiated the Syracuse-Wawasee Digital Archives project in 2012. Garceau is the fourth generation of her family to enjoy the Syracuse-Lake Wawasee area and Lomax is the fifth generation of hers. Both have worked in education and for nonprofits for many years and enjoy their own families' histories on the lakes.

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INTRODUCTION

Located in the northeastern corner of Indiana, Syracuse and its lakes provide residents and seasonal visitors alike endless opportunities to make lifelong memories thanks to the natural beauty of the area, which continues to attract successive generations of families. Lakes Wawasee and Syracuse lie just north of the St. Lawrence continental divide, meaning their waters are part of the Great Lakes watershed and eventually flow to the Atlantic Ocean. During the last glaciation of the Wisconsin Ice Age, the Syracuse-Wawasee area lay under a massive glacier that blanketed most of Canada, New England, and the upper Midwest and extended into sections of what would become the Pacific Northwest. The glacier’s retreat, in approximately 10,000 bc, formed the basin of Lake Wawasee and Syracuse Lake, as well as nearly 400 other lakes in Indiana. Lake Wawasee and Syracuse Lake are connected by a channel. Lake Wawasee is the largest natural lake in Indiana, with an average depth of 22 feet—it is 77 feet at its deepest—and an approximate size of over 3,000 acres. Originating in neighboring Noble County, Turkey Creek flows through several small lakes before entering Lake Wawasee at the southeast end. After flowing through the channel and Syracuse Lake, it exits near Henry Ward Park, going over the dam spillway and meandering in a northwesterly direction before emptying into the Elkhart River at Goshen Pond. The Indiana Department of Statistics and Geology reported in 1901 that if the levels of Lake Wawasee were dropped by 40 feet, it would create four separate, unconnected bodies of water.

Nomadic Paleo-Indians, the earliest Native Americans, began to occupy the land that became Indiana at the end of the last glaciation. Numerous artifacts of prehistoric cultures have been recovered locally. The historic period began around 1650 ad, when European explorers began recording their experiences of contact with area natives. When Indiana became a state in 1816, the northern section was occupied by the Miami and Pottawatomi tribes. At the time of the first white settlers, the politically powerful leader of the Miami tribe in this region was Chief Papakeecha, also known as Flat Belly (seemingly a euphemistic name as he aged), who claimed to have fought in the Battle of Tippecanoe. According to historical accounts, Flat Belly was 60 years old in the 1830s and was a large, strong man of dark, copper color weighing approximately 300 pounds. His brother was Wa-wa-aus-see, Lake Wawasee’s namesake. In the 1826 Indian Treaty of Mississinewa, the Miami agreed to cede the bulk of Miami lands in northern Indiana to the United States. By the 1830s, Papakeecha was living on a 36-square-mile reservation in a house; by 1834, the house had been destroyed in a storm and the land, by treaty, was relinquished to the federal government. The Native American removal began at this point. Papakeecha died in approximately 1837, although some sources cite his death as late as 1840.

In its early days, Syracuse was somewhat of a rough-and-tumble town on the edges of civilization, one that didn’t have any local law enforcement officers for the first several decades of its existence. The Indiana Territory, created in 1800, was the first new territory carved from the lands of the Northwest Territory, which was organized in 1787. In the first few decades of the 19th century, the federal government proclaimed the Indiana Territory to be nearly free of its native inhabitants. In the 1830s, so many young settlers were attracted to free land in Kosciusko County that there was a land rush. According to Waldo Adams, first vice-president of the Kosciusko County Historical Society, would-be settlers waited on the Elkhart-Kosciusko County border, near the eastern end of Goshen to run for their stakes.

Syracuse town founders Henry Ward and Samuel Crosson (sometimes spelled Crawson in early documents) settled in the area in 1832 and built a dam across Turkey Creek to power a mill that they constructed. It was the first recorded commercial enterprise in Syracuse history. Huntington Road, part of what is now Huntington Street and State Road 13 (SR 13), was surveyed and created in 1834. The township was incorporated in June 1836, and the community soon included a schoolhouse, general store, public house, blacksmith, tannery, shoemaker, carpenter, and other merchants. The Church of God became active in the township as early as 1856. By 1858, elder George Thomas established the Lake Bethel Church on the east side of Lake Wawasee. The growing congregation dedicated a new church building near downtown Syracuse on October 13, 1867, and continues to worship there today. Syracuse was incorporated in October 1876.

In its heyday, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) stretched from Staten Island in New York all the way into Illinois. In 1874, the town of Syracuse became part of its line, allowing easier transport of goods and people. The town’s economy began to flourish. The area’s natural beauty attracted tourists, and eventually seasonal visitors, who built homes on the lake. With the population increase of both seasonal and permanent residents, merchants and restaurants saw to the town’s material and entertainment needs. Syracuse became known for its marl and concrete, of which many thousands of barrels per day were produced at the town’s Sandusky Portland Cement Company. Schools and churches were plentiful in this idyllic town in northeastern Indiana.

George W. Miles, commissioner of fisheries and game for Indiana, gives this charmingly evocative description of Syracuse in his biennial report for 1913–1914:

And a pretty little town [Syracuse is] indeed, with its shady streets, and its roofs and steeples reaching above the trees amidst which it nestles. Along the shore at the town is a row of boathouses, which cast their long reflection in the water on a calm day and thus heighten the scene from the lake. Not a more beautiful view is to be met with anywhere than when one has passed beneath the railway bridge and