Blue Bell Inc., Factory Building

While Whitley Court House postoffice was established May 14, 1842, there was no mail service to the place until July 1st of the same year. During these six weeks or more, mail for the place was supposed to lie in the Fort Wayne postoffice till called for by the postmaster or some one for him, and outgoing mail had to be carried to Fort Wayne in the same manner. Then came a confusion between the two Whitley postoffices, that was very annoying and lasted until long after Whitley Court House had become Columbia City postoffice. Letters intended for either place often went to the other, and many found their way to the dead letter office and were never received by the party intended. As the business of the offices grew, this became SO' annoying that something had to be done. The long name was never popular and was not chosen by the people. Agitation for a change kept up from the first, but did not take definite form till the winter of 1853 and 1854. Finally, somebody called a meeting or election to be held in the new Court House, December 16, 1853, to decide the name. Richard Collins renewed the fight for the Indian name Beaver, and Dr. Swayzee led the fight for Columbia City. If it could not be Columbia, it could be that name with city attached. It would give the place a big name. Considerable acrimony was manifest before and during the caucus, but Columbia City won out, was certified to the department at Washington as the choice of the people, and on the 16th day of January, 1854, the day Lewis Dowell took the office, the name was changed. The railroads carried the name Columbia until recent years when they, too, changed to Columbia City. From Jul}- 1, 1842, to July 1, 1846, there was a weekly mail, onte round trip a week from Fort Wayne to Whitley Court House and back. The next year, on the establishment of Coesse postoffice along the route, it was included.

Passage source: History of Whitley County, Indiana, published 1907.

On the 29th day of February, 1904, the office was discontinued, the patrons being supplied by rural delivery from Columbia City, route fourteen. From the establishment of the office April 11, 1848, to July 1, 1850, there was no delivery of mail to the place. Mail for Popano remained in the Columbia City office until called for by the postmaster or some one for him. Also outgoing mail had to be carried to Columbia.

Passage source: History of Whitley County, Indiana, published 1907.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Columbia Township - 81,095 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.