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Photograph of Pierceton Historic District
Photograph by Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Pierceton Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

From the record

“The Pierceton Historic District encompasses the central business district of a small community in east central Kosciusko County, Indiana. It is next to the former Pennsylvania Railroad line.”

Wikipedia article Pierceton Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 17 National Register listings published here for Kosciusko County · listed in 1992 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

The ground it stands on

2,539 words

The chapter on Washington Township in Biographical and Historical Reocrd of Kosciusko County, published 1887 names Pierceton. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

The first public house was built upon the Ryerson homestead in 1839, and was for many years in charge of G. W. llyerson. He planted the first orchard in the township in 1841, having raised tlie young trees from seed obtained in Fort Wayne. The first postofhce was also established at his house in 1837, George Kyerson, postmaster; his son Ira, deputy postmaster. The Fort Wayne & Chicago Koad was surveyed in 1837, and passed the house of Mr. llyerson. The mail was carried on horseback between the points named, and the postman's arrival was a great event at that early day. Lewis Keith, one of the founders of Pierceton, was one of the most prominent men of that time, being miller, blacksmith, justice of the peace and general adviser in a legal, social and theological way. In 1853 he erected the first hewed-log house in the township, which was afterward used as a tavern, and stood on lot 1, block 15, in the original town pilat of Pierceton.

Passage source: Biographical and Historical Reocrd of Kosciusko County, published 1887.

The first church society organized was the Methodist, at the house of Robert McNeal in 1838, and for five years religious services were held at his house. In 1851 Mr. McNeal donated a lot, and a frame church was erected by the Methodist society, and until the organization of the Methidist Episcopal church at Pierceton the society was in a prosperous condition. The church was sold in 1872, and the congregation concenti'ated at Pierceton.

Passage source: Biographical and Historical Reocrd of Kosciusko County, published 1887.

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 Washington Township - 2,539 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Storms near this property

15 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Pierceton, the town this property stands in, in 15 storm reports between 1998 and 2022: 7 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 1 tornado, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 1998Thunderstorm WindPierceton$200,000A HOUSE WAS FLATTENED BY A LARGE OAK TREE. NO ONE WAS HOME AT THE TIME FORTUNATELY.
July 1998Thunderstorm WindPierceton$10,000TREE FELL ON HOME AND DAMAGED ROOF AND PORCH.
May 2022LightningPierceton$5,000A lightning strike caused a small house fire.
May 2003Tornado (F1)Pierceton$5,000A mini van driving southbound on a county road, about 6.5 miles south of Pierceton, was picked up by the tornado and deposited 10 to 15 feet west of the road in a field. The driver reported not being able to see out of the van, was pressing the accelerator but not going anywhere. The driver and her granddaughter were unharmed and there was no visible damage to the van. Just north of this location, 2 large trees, each roughly 2 to 3 feet in diameter and 8 to 10 feet of their top trunks removed by the tornado. An RV in the yard received extensive damage from the tornado, with debris striking a car in the yard, breaking out both the front and rear windows. .
July 2014HailPierceton-Amateur radio operators reported quarter size hail west of Pierceton.
July 2014HailPierceton-A trained spotter reported nickel size hail.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindPierceton-A trained spotter reported a six to eight inch diameter, 20 foot long tree branch down across County Road 350 South, near State Route 13.
November 2013Thunderstorm WindPierceton-A state official reported a tree down south of Pierceton.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindPierceton-Law enforcement officials reported a few trees blown in the area of State Route 13 and East County Road 500 South.
May 2003Thunderstorm WindPierceton-Several trees were uprooted 6 miles south of Pierceton, along county roads 550 E and 750 S. One tree fell onto the porch of a home, destroying the porch, but leaving the remainder of the house undamaged. The owners, who were in their basement at the time of the damage, were not injured. The roof was torn off a over 100 year old barn at one residence. Large trees were also uprooted in the general area of the barn damage. A unsecured, unoccupied mobile home was blown approximately 50 yards and destroyed in the area as well.
May 2003HailPierceton-Local residents reported hail up to the size of tennis balls falling with the storm.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindPierceton-Local utility reported trees and power lines down north of Pierceton.
June 2001HailPierceton-no account filed
June 2001HailPierceton-no account filed
May 2000HailPierceton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kosciusko County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

3 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Robert Orr Polygonal Barn4.3 miles1993
Winona Lake Historic District6.3 miles1993
Justin Zimmer House6.6 miles1991

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 92001147 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Kosciusko CountyAll 17 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.