Editing Nappanee, Indiana (section)

===Railroad town===

By 1870, seven farms had been established and forty people were settled around Nappanee. Locke Township had been founded in 1836 and named after Samuel Lockwood, and by 1863 a settlement called Wisler Town existed, but the actual platting of the village of Locke Town, approximately six miles from Nappanee, took place in December 1867. It would receive its last addition in 1874, the year that Nappanee was platted (on December 12, 1874).<ref>Nappanee History pp. 4-6,  9</ref>

The [[B&O Railroad]] sought a route westward from [[Sandusky, Ohio]] to the booming inland port of [[Chicago, Illinois]] in 1872. While the land around what became Nappanee and nearby [[Bremen, Indiana|Bremen]] was flat, permitting a straight crossing from [[Walkerton, Indiana|Walkerton]], it was also marshy, which led to various engineering challenges. The section through Nappanee was finally completed as a single track in the late summer of 1874 and replaced by steel rails in 1882. Farmers sold the railroad land so that its tracks would run right next to Nappanee on its route to [[Chicago]], although the railroad was unable to acquire the five acres needed to build a side track to the existing town of Locke. Nonetheless, on December 6, 1874, about three weeks after the railroad reached the outskirts of Chicago, it commenced service to what it first called Locke's Station. By the month's end, Daniel Metzler, Henry Stahly, and John Culp Jr. had platted the town of Nappanee; Culp gave the railroad three acres for a station and Metzler two acres. By 1875, trains arrived almost daily at the new depot and discharged freight and passengers.<ref>Nappanee History p. 7</ref> The Eby brothers of Locke said they suggested the name because they came from [[Napanee, Ontario]]; one of the Metzlers said their father selected the name in part because of its native American connotations.<ref>Nappanee History p. 20</ref> Over time the B&O Railroad eventually became [[CSX]].