Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Robert English and John McMeekin belonged to one of the first Boy Scout troops formed in Kosciusko County. As members, they participated in placing the original Lincoln Highway markers in Washington Township Sept. 1, 1928.
Well into their eighth decades now, the Pierceton residents were honored, along with the late Paul Pletcher, in 1997 when a marker was returned to its original location on Lake Street in Warsaw.
Monday, they were part of a Boy Scout celebration in Warsaw's American Legion Post, moved there from Funk Park due to rain.
Local Boy Scouts recently placed 50 red, white and blue street signs along Lincolnway - known in Kosciusko County as Old U.S. 30.
English, 89, remembers the well-paved road as an improvement over the gravel roads of the 1920s.
"We set markers in Washington Township," English said of his Boy Scout troop. "They were about a mile apart, so there were six of them."
He alleged the county highway department did most of the work, digging the holes for the concrete posts.
The work was part of a national project fostered by the Lincoln Highway Association, occurring on a Saturday at 8 a.m., thanks to the support of the Boy Scouts.
In 1939, English's future wife, Esther, and her family moved from South Dakota, traveling from South Dakota to Indiana on the Lincoln Highway most of the time.
English remembers a stop along the route known as "Cubby's Camp," about two miles east of Old U.S. 30 and Ind. 13.
McMeekin, 88, remembers the markers as being about 5-1/2 feet long and quite heavy.
"It was symbolic, really," he said of the Boy Scouts' participation 75 years ago, adding that he remembers the county highway department doing a lot of work, too.
This summer the two men were honored for their participation in Fort Wayne by the Lincoln Highway Association.
McMeekin said he has taken the Lincolnway to New York.
"I didn't know then it would be such a big deal now," he said Monday.
The highway starts in Times Square in New York City. It passes through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California, ending in Lincoln Park in San Francisco.
In addition to the original marker in Funk Park, another marker recently was added along the road on the east side of the county. It was used as a fence post of years, according to Kosciusko County Lincoln Highway committee member Ken Locke.
As an Iowa nativ,e Locke said he and his family treated the Lincoln Highway as a marvel in a state where there still are few paved roads.
He presented a short history of the Lincoln Highway and gave English and McMeekin commemorative Boy Scout Lincoln Highway 75th anniversary patches and four others.
Holly Kolberg read her winning essay about the character of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president. She was presented with a $100 Warsaw/Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce gift certificate.
