INTRODUCTION

Southern St. Joseph County has always set itself apart from the larger, more populous areas of the county, namely South Bend and Mishawaka. The rural towns of North Liberty, Walkerton, and Lakeville thrived in their own quaint ways in the postwar era. The downtowns of these communities served as the centers of activity. Today, residents have to travel to the county’s cities for most shopping and business opportunities, but in the past, rural towns provided locals with a variety of groceries and drugstores, diners, bowling alleys, car dealerships, and even a movie theater. Residents of these small towns could find camaraderie in abundance while visiting with neighbors and family or at school and church activities, often simultaneously enjoying both. The disruption of this way of life started to gain momentum in the 1960s.

For years, rumors circulated that a park was going to be created near Potato Creek, which meanders through Liberty Township. North Liberty resident Darcey Worster grew up walking the wooded area near the creek at the dawn of the 20th century. His dream was for the area to have a man-made lake created by damming the creek. Area farmers, whose ancestors spent years dredging the wetlands of the Kankakee Valley to make it suitable for farming, thought the idea was unrealistic. No one believed that the often-saturated soil could sustain a lake. A self-taught naturalist, Worster conducted his own research, which proved that the ground could support a lake. He began creating insect sculptures out of hickory nuts and acorns, then sending them to politicians to “bug” them about his idea. His persistence paid off; in the spring of 1939, county and US Army engineers toured the site, and the Indiana Department of Conservation decided that Worster’s dream would become a reality. The Works Progress Administration was set to hire local workers, left unemployed by the Great Depression, to construct the lake; however, the project came to an immediate halt with the outbreak of World War II.

Twenty-five years later, rumblings started anew about the state being interested in building a recreational area in northern Indiana. Three spots were up for consideration: land between the Indiana Toll Road and the Michigan state line; an area near New Carlisle; and, spawned by the unwavering support of Worster, the Potato Creek area. Farmers who had acquiesced to the idea of donating a portion of their farmland in the 1930s now vehemently opposed the idea and argued that the other sites would take less farmland away from those who depended upon it for their livelihoods than the proposed site in rural North Liberty. Fears also mounted about the area becoming commercialized. In 1966, Indiana announced that it had selected North Liberty as the home of the new state park, and within a few months of that announcement, the first property owners began selling to the state. By the early 1970s, some holdouts were battling the state in court, with judgments going to the residents, who received more money for their land than what the state originally offered. In 1972, the state finally acquired all of the desired 3,840 acres at a cost of $5.7 million for land and development. Construction of the park began with buildings being cleared or relocated, the man-made lake being dug, the damming of Potato Creek (to fill the lake), and the addition of recreational facilities. After decades of planning, Potato Creek State Park was dedicated in June 1978 and opened to the public that August. Former landowners’ fears of commercialization were assuaged, as the natural beauty of the land was showcased throughout the park. Many former residents and their descendants take great pride in the role that their families played in the creation of parkland from farmland.

The creation of Potato Creek State Park was certainly a tumultuous time in the area. A much larger ordeal, which affected more residents, was the creation of the John Glenn School Corporation. In the late 1970s, North Liberty schools decided they wanted to secede from the South Bend Community School Corporation. The questions on everyone’s minds centered around which school corporation they would or should join. For many, the logical choice was to combine Liberty Township schools with Greene Township schools to form a new corporation, since the two high schools had already merged during the state’s consolidation of public districts in the 1960s. Local leaders and politicians proposed a new school building between Crumstown Highway and the Three Mile Curve on State Road 23 in Greene Township. The day before state representative Richard Mangus was scheduled to announce the proposal, community leaders and members of the Polk-Lincoln-Johnson School Board held a private meeting and decided that the Liberty Township schools would join their school board. This move created the John Glenn School Corporation, and the class of 1981 was the last to graduate from North Liberty High School. In 1988, North Liberty Middle School merged with Urey Middle School in Walkerton, leaving just the North Liberty Elementary School in North Liberty.

Many residents feel that the closing of the North Liberty High School was the death knell for the once-prosperous small town. North Liberty’s loss was Walkerton’s gain. Although many stores closed shop in North Liberty, they flourished in the larger Walkerton. Today, locals continue with efforts to bring North Liberty back to its heyday.

The driving force that remains the same in the communities of southern St. Joseph County is a sense of history and tradition. This sentiment is on full display at the various parades and festivals held throughout the towns, and having a place to gather for fellowship, from the Strawberry and Potato Creek Festival to the more recent Falloween Fest, is a steadfast commitment of the area’s residents.

In the case of this title, modernity encompasses the 1950s to today, and this book is intended to be a mere snapshot of the communities in southern St. Joseph County; it is by no means meant to be a comprehensive history of the area. Each photograph selected helps tell the collective history of modern southern St. Joseph County and is meant to be a reflection of what it means to be a Hoosier in rural Indiana.