The Mystery of LaGrange

My father was born in LaGrange County, Indiana, in the far north of the state, on the Michigan border.  When he was five years old, he was adopted by the Davis family and moved to Garrett.  He didn't remember anything about LaGrange County, and we never visited.  It was a cipher, a mysterious spot on the map, the Ultima Thule of my cosmology.

Recently we have been driving through the county on the Indiana Toll Road en route to visits to New York.  You can't see anything but trees and marshland, but still, the passing town names give me a little frisson of magic, and I always want to stop and take a look.

1. Shipshewana. LaGrange County is Amish country, and Shipshewana their capital, with the famous Menno-Hof cultural center and museum, the Millers Buggy Line Company, a huge auction and flea market, and a dozen Amish-style restaurants (plus El Zorito, Wanna-Cup, and East of Chicago Pizza).

2. Howe, home of the Howe Military Academy, founded 1884, closing at the end of the 2019 school year. 

There's a story about Howe on Tales of West Hollywood.

3. Wolcottville, year round population 1,000, double in the summer, when the ultra-rich of Chicago retreat to their lakeside "cottages."  Here's one for sale for a mere $438,000. 

Home of my fourth cousin Justine, one of the McCormicks (McCormick Place, McCormick Theological Seminary, etc).  There's a good story about her, and her grandson Michael, on Tales of West Hollywood.

This is actually the swim team of Angola High School, the next county over.  Is the guy second from the right like 40 years old?












4. LaGrange, the biggest town in the county, population 2,600, with a lot of historic buildings and old WPA murals.  Lakeland High, home of the Lakers, offers wrestling, football, cross-country, and golf, but no swimming.  No Gay-Straight Alliance.










5. Valentine, a collection of farmhouses, a long-abandoned church, and an abandoned post office about 5 miles south of LaGrange.  I can't find the house where my grandfather and father were born, but all I had to go on was a single photo.

Another swim team from the next county over.



What, precisely is a Grange?

Turns out to be a country home with farm buildings attached to it, so a farmhouse.   It derives from the Middle English grange, "barn," through Old French to the Latin granum, grain.

The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry is a farmer society, started in 1867.  There are still 160,000 members.  Its hundreds of Grange Halls are like private clubs for farmers.

LaGrange County, Indiana was actually named after the home of the Marquis de Lafayette. the Chateau de La Grange.