Our County History
by County Historian Marion W. Coplen

In 1845 Kosciusko county was an isolated rural area without railroads and with a population of only about 7,000. The people had very little ready cash and much of the trading was done by a system of barter. It was quite a gamble, therefore, for a newspaper editor to attempt to publish a local sheet. In the summer of that year, however, Charles I. Murray began the publication of our county's first newspaper, the Kosciusko Republican.

The building in which the Republican was published was at the southwest corner of Main and Prairie streets in Monoquet. After a year and a half the paper was purchased by Andrew J. Bair and Peter L. Runyan and moved to Warsaw. During the time that Monoquet was the home of the paper the main editorial policy seemed to be to make that village the county seat. Politically the paper was Whig, but it probably did not take any political stand until the Warsaw period. The paper took a strong stand against the Mexican War and present day editorial blasts against the Korean War are mild in comparison. If any of our readers have copies of the Republican, we would appreciate knowing about it. As far as we know there are only about ten copies in existence, and we have found none of those published in Monoquet.

The Republican had a succession of editors, the last one being John Rogers. late in 1855 Rogers set out for Iowa, taking the press with him. Our county was then without a newspaper.

This provided the opportunity for two Warsaw men, Reuben Williams and George Fairbrother, to begin a new publication which they called the Northern Indianian. As next Saturday is the anniversary of the first issue of this publication, we will devote our next column to the Northern Indianian and one of its founders, Reuben Williams.

Warsaw Times-Union Tues. Jan. 6, 1953