by George A. Nye
in 1929

Clunette, a village in Kosciusko county Indiana, is located at the corner of sections 10, 11, 14 & 15 in congressional township 33 north, range 5 east of the 2nd principal meridan, in the civil township known as Prairie Township. The government surveying party which passed this point in April, 1834, made the first records we have of this ground. This party was composed of F. J. Dawson, deputy surveyor, D. C. Stephens and D. Wesler, chainmen, and Henry Felkner, marker. They were establishing section lines and they located the section corner which is now at the road intersection. From this corner they recorded a white oak tree fifteen inches in diameter stood S. 69 degrees W. 17 links (about 11 feet) and that a sugar tree thirty inches in diameter born N. 82 degrees E. 69 links (about 45 ½ feet). These witness trees have, of course, long since disappeared, having been cut down by the pioneer road builders, burned at a log rolling, or incorporated into some building of the time.

The surveyors recorded the land to the south as being second rate and having on it beech, sugar, hazel, sassafras, etc. At a point two hundred fifty feet north of the corner they entered the prairie. On the line east they entered the prairie at a point about eight hundred feet from the corner. A little over a quarter of a mile east of the corner they came to an Indian corn field. South of this five acre field was found an Indian village, & going north from the corner they crossed the Goshen-Logansport Road at a distance of 627 feet and at a distance of 61 ½ chains (4059 feet) a road going southwest. To the east and along this road they found the cabin of John Powell. John Powell and Benjamin McCleary, who lived two miles east in the north-east quarter of section 13 are the only two settlers this part found living in the township when they passed through. The land north of the corner is mentioned as first class timbered land, on which was growing sugar, oak and ash trees.

In October, 1832, near Rochester, a meeting of Indians and government agents was held on the south bank of the Tippecanoe river. In this meeting the Pottawatomies ceded their lands in Kosciusko and adjoining counties to the United States. This was against the will of some of the chiefs and one chief said as to leaving the land "Me no quit". From that day he was known as Chief Menoquit (Monoquet). This treaty was ratified by congress in 1833 and this ratification was the signal for some thirty families to move across the northern boundary of the county. They had been waiting throughout the winter for news of ratification. Some had been over and selected sites. It is supposed that William Felkner, who had chosen a site on the northern extremity of Little Turkey Creek Prairie, was a few days in advance of the rest. That John Powell and Benjamin McCleary, formerly mentioned, were amongst these thirty some families is a reasonable supposition. A daughter of William & Mary Ann Felkner born May 15, 1833 was the first white child born in Kosciusko County.

Preemptioners now took up land in the county expecting to buy it as soon as it was offered for sale. Amongst those who settled around the present site of Clunette were James Ross who came in 1835, Jacob Smith, John Martin, Samuel D. Hall, and others. When the land offices were located at LaPorte and Rochester they rode horseback to these places where, for the uniform sum of $1.25 per acre they purchased the land now (1922) worth $200.00 an acre. Early settlers in this new land led a hard life. Their homes were built or torn down occasionally by the Indians who behold with disgust the entrance of so many whites onto their hunting grounds. The settlers had to combat poverty, fever and ague, cold winters, and loneliness. Some families became so stricken with illness that all of its members would be found lying about on the floor at the mercy of a good neighbor. In the face of such hardships some of the early settlers returned to their former homes, but the greater number remained upon their new homesteads.

In giving up possession of the land, the Indians were to be paid certain sums of money by installments and were to be allowed to hunt for two years upon the grounds. Their actual possessions, however, were to be known as reservations, one of which was to be at Monoquet, another at Oswego. Any Indian with money was easy prey to the whites and so Eli Summy and William Biggs started a store in a shack at the corner of the sections for the purpose of trading with the redmen. Their bachelor headquarters was known as Narvoo, which name they later changed to North Galveston. This was in 1846. Their shack in the brush soon was replaced by a substantial building in which they conducted a traders' exchange for a number of years. Finally they moved their store into Leesburg and in 1860 David Anglin and Daniel Bowman were the proprietors of the general store in Galveston.

In 1846 the village of North Galveston was laid out by Felix Miller. At that time he owned the land north-east of the corner. He was a man of excellent character, well-liked by all who knew him. He built a new barn of such generous dimensions that the members of the New Light Christian Church used it for some time as a meeting house. Miller moved away to another part of the country expecting the little village he had founded to grow into a large commercial center. It was in the heart of a good prairie only a few miles from Leesburg, which then had fond hopes of being the county seat, and so in Miller's mind North Galveston would have a busy future. But the extension of the county to the south, the building of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and other causes dispelled the fancied dreams of greatness and the village of 1846 remains a village in 1922 and must be classed with Oswego, Monoquet, Sevastapol and Packerton. Even then it has outrun some of its competitors such as Dodgertown, Kinsey, Millwood, Angleton, Farmers and Charlottsville, all of which have completely passed from the face of the map, perhaps never to be revived.

Issues of the Northern Indianian newspaper for 1860 contain the advertisements of Bowman and Anglin. This store run by David Anglin and Daniel Bowman was, of course, a general store in whose stock could be found most any article from a needle to a plow point. By this time fair roads had been put through to Warsaw and the proprietors purchased much of their stock from Thrall's (wholesale and retail) Drug Store, opposite south of the Public Square, and of Chipman and Brother, who had conducted for many years, a general store opposite east of the square. Metcalf Beck had a fully stocked general store in Leesburg and sold some at wholesale to smaller places. Bowman and Anglin bought up furs and farm produce to sell to the larger markets. Their line of staple groceries did not include many things now offered for sale, for example, flour. This article was a home product in all rural communities. The grinding for North Galveston was done mostly at Hoover's Mill on the north side of Hoover's (Huffman's now) Lake. Here the men and boys who were fortunate as to get a trip to mill would fish until their grinding was done, abandoning their piscatorial pursuits only to answer the bugle call announcing dinner. Willet's Lake at this time was also noted for its good fishing.

Some of the trading, of course, was done in Leesburg. Powells traded there more or less for a number of years. It was their custom to ride horseback, grown people and children as well. One of the stores at which Powells traded was that of Dominique Rousseau. For a wife, Mr. Rousseau had chosen one of the Indian beauties and her home was of interest to her girl callers. They would usually find her sitting on the floor in front of the large fireplace. On the floor were her blankets. If mealtime were near, she would be found baking flapjacks on the live coals, or making corn meal mush, a common dish in those days. Rousseau was a Frenchman and it was no uncommon occurrence for the French to unite in the holy bonds of matrimony with a descendant of King Phillip, Pontiac, Pocahontas or other noted Americans. The trait which the French possessed of being by nature traders and trappers kept them in close relationship with the tribes. The Indians on this account treated the French more kindly than they did the Englishmen who came to settle permanently and use the happy hunting grounds of the savage for the abode of a more modern nation.

It was sometime after the war that Hiram Boggess conducted a store at North Galveston on the west side of the street, some distance south of the cross-roads. Boggess was known as a rather eccentric old gentleman who hailed from the vicinity of Leesburg. From current reports his store was a desirable place to trade, but his methods would scarcely bear the inspection of the pure food commissioners of today. This was true, to some extent, of all stores of sixty years ago, when no screens were used and the hitch racks faced the front door. Mr. Boggess, like many of the villagers, did not bother about wearing any shoes except when on dress parade. Sitting out in front of his store on a summer's day barefooted, or working around his old blacksmith's shop, he was a village fixture known to every one who passed his way. At times, he is said to have lost his religion. Especially was this true when on one occasion a billy goat upset Mr. Boggess and spilled onto the barn yard ground the entire contents of a bucket of corn he was carrying. Just where the goat struck him was always a matter of debate, but as it could hardly have been in the stomach it must have been in the vice versa. With all his shortcomings he was known as a good old gentleman who was willing to lend a hand whenever the exigencies of the case demanded it. His first wife is remembered as a miracle worker. She was one of those few gifted people who had the power to cure boils, bunions, and corns by placing her hands upon the affected parts and chanting the mystic rhymes which brought the divine cure from on high. Boggess's store was a two storied frame building which sat near the present site of the old brick schoolhouse. Scott Schell lived up above the store. Boggess lived in a house just south of his store. The blacksmith's shop was located nearby.

Every village of the days gone by, had its blacksmith's shop. It was one of the first institutions to open its doors, and today where fall the moldering ruins of a village of the sixties, may still be seen the little old shop, covered with show bills, its doors falling off, the roof sagging under the strain of the winter's snow, and within nothing but desolation. Usually there was a large tree close by, under which the patrons sat in the summer while waiting their turn. Here was a favorite place to hear the true voice of the people. Their speeches here were well-seasoned with Biblical allusions, they were pure, unadulterated expressions that came directly from the heart. Every subject worth debating at all sooner or later found its way to the village smithy's shop, be it the latest marriage, the latest bit of seasoned scandal, or such great political questions as the Emancipation Proclamation, the Boss Tweed Ring, or the death of James A Garfield at the hands of the half-crazed fanatic, Charles Guiteau. Here every political campaign, the republicans and democrats threshed out their difficulties, the smith, of course being neutral on all questions for business's sake. It is true that all the arguments around these minor forums were not carried out strictly according to the modern rules of forensic debate. For many of the presentations no brief whatsoever had been prepared, however, some of the answers might have taken the brief, terse nomenclature of, "Go to H___", or words to that effect as the defeated opponent drove his team away en route home. But not all the conversation about the shops was of this nature. Here too, people who had not seen each other for a long time would happen to bring their teams the same day, and under the shade trees they would rest and visit, their tender words of love and friendship being mellowed into music for the soul by the measured beat of the bellows and the chiming of the smithy's sledge upon the ringing anvil. Patronized by every villager and farmer at all seasons of the year, the village blacksmith's shop in the days gone by was a favorite resort for the citizens, young and old.

Sometime in the sixties Joseph S. Neely purchased the store at North Galveston. It was then run under the name of Neely and Brother. The Neelys found the place a very pretty little cross-roads village. The surrounding country was being rapidly settled. They hauled their goods from Warsaw, and took orders for whatever they did not keep in stock. With the incoming of new settlers their trade increased. Amongst the prominent families in and around the village at this time were those of Joel Hall, Hiram Hall, John Powell, Harvey Anglin, Lansom Summy, Edmon Thomas, Jacob Smith, Christian Byler, William Hughs and Toliver G. Parks.

The community was alive. Roads were improved. Ditches were petitioned and much of the low ground drained. The price of land had gone up. cabins had long been supplanted by frame houses built with lumber sawed at Myer's Mill in Leesburg or one of the several others in the north part of the county. The day of the large farmhouse was at hand and farmers vied with one another in making their houses pretentious and keeping their premises neat and clean. It was the day of travel by horses. Every farmer had his fast horses for driving. The horse that could not clip off the trip to Leesburg in twenty-five minutes, or the trip to Warsaw in an hour was entirely out of the race. Every youth had to have a rig, and horse racing on the main streets of the village was a common event. Neelys kept in stock all such articles as buggy whips, curry combs, brushes, harness parts, and robes. A youthful suitor to sand any show at all with the fairer sex, had to have a horse that could clip off a mile in three minutes. To properly show off this pacer or trotter he had to have all the harness well oiled with the metal parts polished. The horse's head was well poised when it assumed about a sixty degree angle with the horizontal. Blinders must, of course, cover both eyes. No reason was given for this except that that was the way their fathers did it. Once in a while just to scare the fair one, a kicking strap or bucking strap about two inches wide was fitted over the horse's hinder parts to keep him from upsetting the buggy when they would meet a threshing machine and rear, or when the youth, just to show off, would tickle him in the groin. With this kind of horse, a Harper buggy with wheels of second growth hickory, running gears bright red, in the socket a dollar whip that would crack like a small cannon when used, no youth needed to be ashamed to court the daughter of the richest landowner around North Galveston in the seventies.

During Mr. Neely's stay in the village, the medical profession was represented by Doctors Ludlow Cole, John Wesley Love, and Nicholas E. Manville. Dr. Edward Parks, the first doctor of the village, had moved to Leesburg. He was a very capable doctor and a good surgeon. Doctor Daniel Bowman had moved away, taking Lucinda Hall of North Galveston, his wife. There was much sickness in these days. Fever and ague was common. Typhoid fever was prevalent much of the time. This was done, no doubt, to the standing water on the marshes, and to the fact that most people drank from dug wells. Doctor Manville's death was very sad. Mistaking jelseminum (?) for cough syrup he took a dose of this poison and died soon after.

Doctor Love died in the fall of '66 from typhoid fever contracted from his patients. Could these old servants of mankind talk to us now, they would relate many cases of suffering such as we know nothing about. Dr. Parks had doctored there for years. He knew the earliest settlers, Jake Smith, who lived east a short distance, the Rosses, the Halls, the Bishops, the Carmines, and John Martin from Virginia. When Cyrus Wolf, as a lad, came to the village after the doctor from his father's home two miles west, in 1867, he secured the services of Doctor Daniel Bowman. Every household had its bitters for ague, (the more bitter, the better), prickly ash, bitter sweet, and tansey. Every good grandma had her flower bed, and at one end her medicinal herbs.

Cyrus Wolf found the village consisting of a store, a frame church and school house, and a blacksmith's shop. Big days were fourth of July, and days when political demonstrations took place. James Ross remembers that a good rally celebrated the election of James Buchanan in '56. Buck horns on a long pole were carried in the parade. During every campaign some kind of a demonstration took place; there was much shooting, shouting, and withal some little locking of horns with the hard cider flowed too freely. Two granges were in and about the village. These organizations did a great deal towards keeping up a community interest.

There was also a Grange at Stony Point, and we find at one time the officers were as follows: Worthy Master S. D. Anglin, Worthy Secretary, Thomas Ross, Overseer, E. Wolf, Lecturer, Jehu Ross and Steward, M. Boon, Assistant Steward, J. G. Anglin, Treasurer, J. F. Anglin, GateKeeper, M. Ross, Chaplain, W. C. Zinn, Crese, Sarah V. Martin, Flora, Adaline Taylor, Lady Asst. Steward, Almira Scott and Pomona, Emily O. Anglin. They held regular meetings, each grange having at least twenty-five members. In the grange halls and out in the open took place the public speaking during a campaign. Speakers were Hon. James S. Frazer, Hon. William Williams, and O. Musselman, of our own county, and such men as Francis P. Blair, Oliver P. Morton, and Robert Ingersoll, and others of national fame. Seldom would the speakers of national fame visit the smaller places, but when they spoke at Warsaw every one turned out for a jolly good time lasting all day. In North Galveston elections were held at the schoolhouse.

Neely's store became the distributing point for the mail. It was customary for someone who happened to be going to Leesburg to bring back with him all of the village mail. Leesburg was on the stage line from Leesburg to Goshen. Every day the stage coach of Peter L. Runyan took the mail to Leesburg from Warsaw. In Leesburg the sound of the driver's horn as he entered the town was welcomed by those who took the daily paper and by those waiting at the Empire House to go north. The Empire House was run by J. S. Lessig, a prominent citizen of Leesburg at that time. At Neely's store each evening the mail was distributed. Here the citizens would meet to talk over such events as Grant's election, the great Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, the Hayes-Tilden contest and the great fire of Chicago. Those were some of the balmy days of the village, the days to which many of the older people now look back upon as their happiest days, the days of childhood.

Alex Harley and George Harley purchased the store of Neely's in 1880, and for twenty-one years conducted a first-class general store patronized by most of the good citizens of the prairie. Their only competitor was Hiram Boggess. The Harleys came from Ohio. Three boys, Eugene, Porter, and John took their stand with the youths of the village and scarcely any village prank was played during the eighties without one or more of the Harley boys counted among the prime instigators. Harleys added to the stock of the store, made some changes for the better, and became very popular in the neighborhood. The store building at this time was a two-storied frame facing the north. It stood at the southwest corner of the crossroads.

Due to the leadership displayed by the Harley Brothers, the United States government about 1882, while Garfield was president established a post office at Harley's store. Although there had been a postoffice at North Galveston some years before, it had been discontinued and people were getting their mail in a haphazard manner from Leesburg four miles east across the prairie on the Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan railroad. Due to the generosity of the postmaster there, the mail for all North Galveston people was given to some messenger who happened to be in town. In winter or during the busy farm season this made it a long time between mails. Then, too, this method admitted of great publicity of matters of a more private nature and valuable mail would be subject to loss through carelessness perhaps on the part of some person who did not fully appreciate the responsibility.

When Harley Brothers petitioned congress for a postoffice at North Galveston, they were advised that confusion might result because in Howard county there was already a town called Galveston; that the office would have to be know by some other name. The next question about the village then became "What shall be the name?" To Alex Harley must go all the credit for naming the village Clunette. Many names had been selected and suggested, talked of and discussed, but none could be settled upon as hardly appropriate for the village. It had to be named within a certain time or there would be no post office there. Every day counted and time was fleeting. Boggesville, Wolfton, Harleypolis, and Hall's Crossing all would have been appropriate, but such names might have aroused some jealousy amongst the older inhabitants. One day when Alex Harley was opening up some new stock he christened it with a name formerly unheard of, a name nobody understood, a name that baffled philologists, a name, perhaps which no other city, town, hamlet or crossroads listed in the archives of the government had ever borne. He had opened a caddy of tobacco. Across the wooden lid in large red letters was imprinted the word "Clounette". "Here, boys," he said, "here is the proper name for our postoffice. Let's leave out the "o" and just say "Clunette." It was carried unanimously and without further ceremony this name which seems to be of French origin was sent in. What it may mean to a southern tobacco grower or dealer we do not know, but anyway it sounds good and is easily pronounced. The postoffice was duly established and George Harley was appointed postmaster.

The office established, the mail question was not settled until the contract was let for carrying the mail regularly from Leesburg once a day except Sunday. The work was bid on and the contract let to Joel Hall. Mr. Hall sub-let the job to Gene Harley, then just a chunk of a boy. Gene was the proud owner of a pony and was looking for just such a place as this. And so, for a long time Gene Harley rode the mail circuit leaving for town about ten in the morning and getting in sometime before dark. Through storms of sleet, snow and rain, driving over a prairie, Gene carried the mail by pony express. Many a time the friends at Leesburg would request him to wait until a storm had abated, but with courage and stamina that would have become one of more advanced age, the boy was off on his pony for the postoffice on the prairie where he was received with outstretched arms by those who were waiting on their mail.

Later, conditions were changed and Clunette was put on a star route out of Warsaw. The route ran from Warsaw to Clunette, then to Angleton and then on to Millwood. A full trip from Warsaw and back again was made each day. The driver left Millwood early in the morning and came down through Angleton where Will Anglin ran a general store. From here he went to Harley's at Clunette and then on into Warsaw. In the afternoon the drive was reversed, the driver trying to remember all the errands he was to do for people along the route while he was in the county seat. This brought the evening mail to Clunette, and, of course, all the villagers called at the postoffice after supper for their letters, magazines and newspapers, especially the Northern Indianian which was issued every Thursday.

The old store building faced the north and was two-storied. Up above there was a grange hall. This building burned in 1887, on December 27th. The fire was supposed to have caught in some rags which were stored in an old church building which had been moved up near this building and was being used for a warehouse. The night of the fire it began to rain and snow about 11 p.m. and put the fire out. Mrs. Hall's daughter noticed the fire coming out of the old building when she was getting read to go to bed. There was a big dinner bell at Hall's which they never allowed anyone to ring unless there was serious trouble. They rang this and got the neighbors in from all about the country. Gene, Porter, and John Harley were sons of George Harley and slept in a room above the store. John was just a little fellow. They got the books out of the store which recorded all the credits for they did much crediting. The wind was in the southwest and Mr. Hall ha to work to keep things from catching on fire about his premises. The fire was a sad loss to the Harleys because they carried no insurance. The store was rebuilt a good bit by donation from the people of the community. The Harleys came from Ohio to Clunette.

The postoffice remained at Harley's until Cleveland's administration, when W. H. Thomas became postmaster and the office was moved to a building south of the corner store. Winifred Scott Schell succeeded Mr. Thomas as Uncle Sam's representative and in 1891 the office was again back in Harley's store. Here it remained for ten years when it was it was discontinued and Clunette was put on Route 5 out of Warsaw. This route was driven by George Foster, of Warsaw. George received the remarkable salary of $600.00 a year. With this he had to keep two horses and furnish a mail wagon. This wagon was a light affair, the lighter the better, and looked like a dry goods box mounted on a chassis. Glass doors slid open on each side. Enclosed within this vehicle with a lantern, the mail driver of the early days of the twentieth century could drive the coldest day and keep warm. When roads were bad both horses were hitched to the wagon. Most of the time one horse sufficed. The writer rode the route one day with Mr. Foster and helped him pick some cherries near Clunette at noon. All the people along the route were very good to the driver, donating to him many farm products and fruit in season. Route 5 was started out of Warsaw about 1901 while Charles B. Bentley was postmaster at the county seat. This year also marked the close of the long residence of Harley Brothers at the village of Clunette. Mr. Alex Harley, with his family, moved to Warsaw to take up the duties of county treasurer, which he held with honor for four years. Gene Harley moved to Leesburg where, with John Harley, he established one of the largest dry goods and grocery stores in the town. The crossroads store at Clunette passed into the hands of ____ and the Harley family which along with the others had contributed much to the life of this inland village left its social circles and home fires to the precious care of a new generation.

There are few people living today (1929) who figured prominently in the early history of Clunette. Most of them have long since passed to their reward. Joel Hall, who for years lived in the big house northeast of the crossroads, Clunette's Hotel one might say, passed away at his home in Warsaw some fifteen years ago. His good wife lived with her daughters on Lake Street for a long time. They will be remembered as people of sterling character, whose influence helped to make the community in which they lived one of the most cultured settlements in the county. Toliver G. Parks lived to a good old age. I. T. Smith lived south of Clunette until a few years ago, being a petitioner of the I. T. Smith road between Warsaw and Clunette. Dr. Byler is still a physician in Warsaw, but well up in years. Angeline Powell spent her last years with her son in Warsaw. Her mind was very clear on incidents of the past when she was a girl around Clunette. The Powells settled in very early days one mile north of the site of Clunette. It is no doubt true that this corner known as Powell's Corners has held its name longer than any other crossroads in the county.

It is not the purpose of this article to follow the history of the village of Clunette further than about the year 1901. A few general statements, however might be made from the writer'' own memory. Instead of growing into a town, the village remains today no larger, if as large, as it was in the seventies (1870's). With the advent of the automobile and good roads, it is customary for people today to go many miles to trade. They seek those places where competition is keen and prices are made on narrow margins of profit.

An excellent gravel road known as the Boggs Road was built through Clunette east and west about ten years ago. Through Powell's Corners the Hartzell Road was built a short time later. These connect with Nappanee, Leesburg, Etna Green and Warsaw. A person going to Nappanee today from the village rides over the Hartzell Road, the D. K. Martin Road, the George Rummel Road, the Harmon Road, through East Millwood and on into Nappanee over the nine foot Gwinn Road. The latter was one of the first hard surface roads ever built in this vicinity under the surveyorship of George W. McKrill assisted by Charles L. Sellers, the most precise engineer that ever practiced in the county.

The route to Warsaw now leads east over the Boggs Road to a stretch built by Clarence Helvey, County Road Supervisor, thence east to the concrete road known as the Starner Road at Rosebrough's Crossing, thence south through Monoquet on this road, then on to Warsaw over the new State Road No. 15 which is now being constructed by E. A. Gast from New Paris to Warsaw. To make the fills, a gravel pit was started in the spring of 1929 on the south edge of Leesburg where formerly there was a pretty level field. Heavy fills have been made just north of Leesburg and across Wheeler's marsh north of Warsaw at Pike Lake outlet.

Atwood may be reached over the Boone Road and Etna Green over the Johnson Road built while Paul Summy was surveyor. And so the building of these roads has led to school consolidation, church consolidation, and has had a tendency to keep the smaller towns at a standstill unless they happen to be on a main road, and even then it is doubtful if the small town is going to profit a great deal from the tourists, most of whom fly through the place thirty to fifty miles per hour.

But while the village has scarcely held its own in population, yet we must say that in appearance it has no doubt improved. The homes are well kept, the buildings painted, and the fences neatly trimmed. One of the neatest appearing schoolhouses in the county is located here. The farming district round about is noted for its fertility and being level, it is easier tended than for instance the hills of Monroe township. The township trustee, Mr. Lester Yeiter, and his good wife have run the store for a number of years and live next door south. Doc. Roose, whom everyone in the township knows, is the handyman about the village and looks after the general welfare of the school house. High school students are taken in auto busses to Atwood and Leesburg. The doctor lives as a single man in a small frame house on the east side of the road just north of the corner. One of the finest appearing farm homes in the county is that of Arthur J. Anglin, just west of the village. Mr. Anglin's people were early settlers in and around this vicinity and he and his family have helped to keep the Clunette community in high standing. The Wolf family and the Byer family who, for a number of years, lived in the village and contributed much to the village life in church and school, have both moved to Warsaw. Mr. Cyrus Wolfe is a highly respected old gentleman living with his daughter, Edna Wolfe, in the famous third ward of the county seat. Mr. Ernest Byer, the village clown of 1914, is now prominent in the gasoline and oil business in Warsaw. Miss Edith Maxine Anglin, graduate of Northwestern is now a popular teacher in LaGrange, Ill.

And so changes might be enumerated at great length. Suffice it to say that the village of Clunette has always been held in high esteem and some of our best citizens have come from this community. May it ever be so!

What the future may hold for this village nobody can say. Whether it, at some future day, due to an oil boom or a great airport project will become a great metropolis of the prairie, whether it will stand still for another century as a small inland crossroads village, or whether in the annals of future history citizens flying over will point down to the vicinity and say "Years ago there used to be quite a village there called Clunette" this historian of 1929 cannot say. Whatever happens, the word Clunette will bring back many tender memories to those who now, and in years gone by, lived there and were active in those early days when crossroad communities figured so prominently in the life of the nation.

(newspaper publication date unknown)