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Source: The News-Journal, December 31, 1936
TOWN 100 YEARS OLD MONDAY
North Manchester will be officially 100 years old January 4. That
is, the survey of the original plat of the town was completed then,
although it was not recorded at Wabash until February 13, 1838. In
commemoration of the event, there will be a meeting of the Wabash
Historical Society Tuesday evening at the Central school building.
All who are interested are invited to this meeting, and will have
opportunity to tell anything they may know of the early history of
the town.
W.E. Billings, former publisher of The News-Journal, in his "Tales
of Old Days," told the history of the founding of the town. He had
obtained this information partly from records, but more by word of
mouth from people who had known Ogan, or had heard of him directly
from their parents. According to his information Ogan came to North
Manchester in 1834. He was a road contractor and had helped build
the road between Anderson and Wabash in 1826 or earlier. But it was
not until 1834 that Ogan built his cabin on the bank of Eel River
and shortly after visualized the surrounding ground as a place for a
town site. The next year, October 12, 1835, he bought the land in
section 5 lying south of the alley between Second and Third streets
and east of Market street. But that was not enough land and the next
day he bought of the government another eighty acres directly north
of his first purchase.
Then came the plan for the town. He employed Surveyor Tomlinson, the
same surveyor who surveyed and platted Rochester. It is not known
whether the idea was original with Ogan or whether it originated
with Tomlinson, but five streets, one hundred feet wide, were
provided in the original plat. They are Main, market, Fourth, or
Church Street as it was then termed Mill and Wayne Streets. If Ogan
originally had the idea, he was far ahead of his time, for he could
not visualized the days of automobiles and crowded traffic
conditions. But at any rate North Manchester people can well praise
the foresight it took to provide these wide streets, even though we
have allowed property owners to encroach and narrow some of the
streets.
The first lot was sold before the survey was completed or the plat
recorded. October 22, 1836, Ogan sold to Joseph Harter the quarter
block from the alley by the Trust Company Building, west to Market
street, the land on which The News-Journal building stands, being a
part of the two lots sold. Other lots were sold, as the settlers
came into the township, and soon North Manchester was vying with
Judge Comstock, founder and for many years virtual owner of Liberty
Mills, for commercial supremacy of the north part of the county.
Originally and for a number of years after the town was called
Manchester. There was also a little village in Southern Indiana near
Aurora called Manchester and the post office department declined to
handle mail for two Manchesters in the same state. To avoid
confusion the local town took the name of North Manchester. Most of
the old deeds read "In the town of Manchester, now called North
Manchester."
According to tradition Ogan did not stay many years in the town he
founded, but in the true pioneer spirit sold his holdings as people
crowded into this locality, and went on westward. Even the old times
of North Manchester lost track of him, and there is no reliable
information as to the history of his doings after he left here. |
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