Coplen Follows Curiosity in Writing County History
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Jordan Fouts-
Dan Coplen takes an “amazed curiosity” approach to writing about bygone landmarks, personalities and ways of life in Kosciusko County, the historian said Wednesday. From digging into Warsaw’s days as a swamp and Winona Lake’s swells of summer resort visitors – and the canals and rail lines that tied the two together – to professional area clown Koko and the last family to live in the county jail, Coplen follows his curiosity about what he sees, hears or reads. He’s written for the county historical society’s “Thaddeus” magazine since 2002, with accounts featuring not only newspaper reports of the old days but also interviews with residents who lived them. “There are a lot of local people interviewed for the articles – it’s mostly not just researching old stories and history books, but as much as possible interviewing people to get their memories and what it was like to be there,” he said in his home just south of Winona Lake. Coplen recently collected 40 of those articles in “That’s Life: Stories From Kosciusko County, Indiana,” in time for both the state’s bicentennial and the county historical society’s 50th anniversary. The 260-page book containing photos from his research alongside his articles is available for $18.16, with proceeds benefiting the Kosciusko County Historical Society. Call the historical society at 574-269-1078 or visit www.kosciuskohistory.com for information on how to order it. Coplen has put together three other books for the historical society since 1995, after moving back to the area from Huntington, where he wrote for a newspaper for 20 years. He said he hopes this smaller paperback can be something people hang on to and remember not just the bicentennial celebration, but also the way things were 100 years ago. “I wanted something for the bicentennial, something you could hold in your hand,” he said. “A parade is over fast, but keepsakes help us remember.” He also expressed a hope that his books help preserve local history for decades to come. “I want to preserve it in a way that people can sort of determine what it was like here,” Coplen remarked. “I always say to people, you usually think of history as a list of dates and names but really I see it as ‘stories as true as we can get them.’” The stories in “That’s Life” are arranged in categories including “People,” such as Koko, the clown alter ego of Wilbur Neer for 40 years; “Getting Around,” with recollections of the canals and early roads that marked the land; and “Taking Care of Business,” featuring familiar landmarks such as the Flag Pole custard stand, the Pound Store and Horn’s Sunnymede Restaurant, which benefited from the culinary insight of Col. Sanders himself. He said he’s often surprised by what he finds. He paints a picture of the county that might be unrecognizable today, when swamp rattlesnakes were a common nuisance, almost every lake was used to produce ice to store up for summer, and all but vanished towns like Gravelton and Hepton still marked the map. Coplen said he might find a subject he wants to research from the old newspapers and history books he reads – that’s how he found out about the California gold rush of the mid-1800s making some local men rich but also robbing towns like Oswego of many of its residents – or something he drives past every day that he begins to wonder about. That’s what led him to look into the “City of Warsaw,” a passenger ship built in 1896 that was eventually sent to Indianapolis where it was renamed the “Sunshine” – and soon after, sank to the bottom of White River, as a band played on deck, “Titanic” style. “It’s a neat story, something you see and ask about that turns out to be interesting,” Coplen said. Outside of written accounts, his research often boils down to finding someone who might know someone who remembers something. Sometimes he hits a few brick walls and sometimes he finds a fountain of knowledge who can point him to other people who remember the same thing. He’s currently on the trail of a cigar store Indian statue that used to stand at the corner of Market and Buffalo streets, which is proving a little difficult to dig up solid information on. “I finally found a lady who remembered a lot about it. It’s one of those mysteries I heard about,” he said. “I haven’t seen a picture and I don’t know what happened to it, but I do have a pretty good description of how it looked.”
