Editing LaGrange, Indiana (section)

==History==
LaGrange was laid out and [[plat]]ted in 1836.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AVM0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA111 | title=Counties of LaGrange and Noble, Indiana: Historical and Biographical | publisher=F.A. Battey & Company | year=1882 | pages=111}}</ref> It took its name from LaGrange County.<ref>{{cite book|last=Baker|first=Ronald L.|title=From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SXB5AAAAMAAJ|date=October 1995|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-32866-3|page=189|quote=...and named for LaGrange County.}}</ref>

LaGrange County's initial settlers were [[Yankee]] immigrants, that is to say they were from [[New England]] and were descended from the [[English American|English]] [[Puritans]] who settled that region in the colonial era.  They were part of a wave of [[New England]] settlers moving west into what was then the [[Northwest Territory]] after the completion of the [[Erie Canal]].  The original settlers in LaGrange County specifically hailed from the [[Massachusetts]] counties of [[Worcester County, Massachusetts|Worcester County]], [[Suffolk County, Massachusetts|Suffolk County]] and [[Berkshire County, Massachusetts|Berkshire County]]; the [[Connecticut]] counties of [[Hartford County, Connecticut|Hartford County]] and [[Windham County, Connecticut|Windham County]] as well as the [[Connecticut]] towns of Sherman, Lebanon and Fairfield; and from the [[Vermont]] towns of [[Burlington, Vermont|Burlington]], [[Brookfield, Vermont|Brookfield]], [[Huntington, Vermont|Huntington]] and [[Grand Isle, Vermont|Grand Isle]].  They were mainly members of the [[Congregational church|Congregational Church]], but as a result of the [[Second Great Awakening]] many became [[Baptists]] and many also converted to [[Pentecostalism]] and [[Methodism]].  When they arrived in what is now LaGrange County, there was nothing but virgin forest and wild prairie, the [[New England]] settlers cleared roads, built farms, constructed churches, erected government buildings, and established post routes.  As a result of this migration, LaGrange County was culturally continuous with early [[New England]] culture for many years.<ref>The expansion of New England: the spread of New England settlement and institutions to the Mississippi River, 1620-1865 by Lois Kimball Matthews page 201</ref>

The [[LaGrange County Courthouse]] was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1980.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref> The courthouse and the annual fall festival are featured in the 1941 [[New Deal]] era [[United States post office murals|post office mural]] painted by [[Jessie Hull Mayer]]. She won the federal commission to paint ''Corn School'' as part of the [[Section of Painting and Sculpture]]′s projects, later called the [[Section of Fine Arts]], of the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury Department]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Lehman|first1=Octavia|title=Colorful portraits|url=http://kpcnews.com/features/life/kpcnews/article_cf7755f7-6c9f-5fb8-bfcf-25f683e8ed34.html|access-date=March 18, 2017|publisher=KPCNews|date=September 20, 2014|location=Kendallville, Indiana}}</ref>