TREATY

                            BY RON WOODWARD

     1876 is recorded as the opening of business in the little town of 
Treaty located on the C.C.C. & St. Louis Railroad and Indiana 15,  six 
miles south of Wabash in the northwest corner of Liberty Township.  It was 
named for Treaty Creek that flows nearby.  The community included a store, 
blacksmith shop, Big Four depot, an elevator, steam operated saw mill, 
wagon maker and carpenter.  The first store was opened by George 
Wohlgamuth and Company followed by Abraham Vandegrift who opened a 
blacksmith shop.  Wholgamath also built a depot and a grain warehouse.  By 
1884 25,000 bushels of corn were shipped from there. Edward Gibson began 
operating a steam powered saw mill in 1878.  D.R. Minnick opened in 1879 
as did Alvin Taylor set up as a carpenter and wagonmaker.  By 1884 the 
town was connected to adjoining communities by telephone.  
     The first school was a log cabin also used for religious gatherings.  
In 1884 it was replaced with a two-story brick structure.  Grade School 
classes were taught on the first floor and higher classes on the second 
floor.  The school bell was in a small dome on top of the mansard roof and 
summoned children to daily classes.  The school day opened with a salute 
to the American flag.  The building was heated with pot-bellied stoves; 
water came from an outside well.  The building was condemned as a school 
in 1928, so the remaining students attended LaFontaine School.  For a time 
a wool buyer stored wool in the abandoned school.   January 13, 1930, the 
building was obtained by members of the Tri Township Home Demonstration 
Club.  In 1950 a hallway, two stairways and the second story were removed.  
The exterior was repaired and a new roof put on.
     Treaty institute for Evangelism purchased the building from the Tri-
Township Club in 1975 and it was remodeled to house the institute 
administration office.
     In 1929 Treaty had a population of 100.  It has a Christian Church, 
American Express, Western Union telegraph and R.V. Templeton is 
postmaster.  Perry Kaufman grew up outside Treaty in the early 1930s.  he 
gave the following description of Treaty " If we needed something we could 
always go into Treaty.  At that time there were two groceries in Treaty, 
one garage and a church.  The grocery stores had just about everything you 
could want.  One was run by Ray Vergon and the other by a man by the name 
of Templeton.  One was just west of the elevator and the other on the east 
side where the trailer now sits.  I remember that they had a little red 
pop machine.  You could get a pop for a nickel.  They kept them cold with 
ice.  They didn't stock Pepsi-Cola until about 1936.  They also had pop 
made locally at Scheerer's Bottling in Wabash.  
     "The shelves were lined with just about anything you might need.  
Also there wasn't row upon row of dog and cat food.  The garage was at 
first a blacksmith shop then as automobiles became more they switched to 
them." 
     By 1959 the business centered around the elevator acquired from 
previous farmer owners bys the Wabash Farm Bureau in 1935.  The elevator 
burned in 1945 and was rebuilt the following year.  Additions to the 
business included bulk fertilizer plant, stor- age, grain bins, chemical 
storage building and anhydrous tank.
     To the south of Treaty was the Commodity Credit Grain storage area 
erected in 1949 which included 38 bins with capacity of 123,5000 bushels.
     The Church of Christ at Treaty had its beginning about 1873 when 
several young people of the community, called the Truth Seekers, met in 
the log school house.  In 1910 
its first brick building was dedicated.  In 1959 this building was torn down 
to make way for parking for a new church.  The present building cost 
approximately $40,000.  The 80 by 140 building seats about 350 people.  It 
also had 15 classrooms, a sound proof room for small children and a full 
basement.  With the exception of laying the blocks, most of the work was 
done by members of the church.
     Bridgegroom's grocery store and service station closed in the 1970s 
as has Harold Robbins service station and the Wabash Valley Sawmill.
     One of the most successful residents of Treaty was Edward W. Howe, 
better known as the "Sage of Potato Hill."  He was born in Treaty May 3, 
1853.  He was editor and proprietor of the Atchison Daily Globe from 1877 
to 1911.  He then produced E.W. Howe's Monthly from 1911 to 1937.  Howe 
also wrote the following books The Story of a County Town (1883), The 
Mystery of the Locks (1885), the Moonlight Boy (1886, Country Town Sayings 
(1911), The Blessings of Business (1918), Ventures in Common Sense (1919), 
the Anthology of Another Town (1920) and Plain People (1929).  One of his 
bits of wisdom was "Abuse a man unjustly, and you will make friends for 
him."  He died in 1937.    There was also Rome and Thurman Wagner, whose 
father operated a sawmill in Treaty.  They became physicians and invented 
the Mica-Plate X-Ray, both being pioneers in X-ray treatment of cancer.  
Both died of experimental burns.  Another was Thomas Daugherty who became 
a government surveyor and laid out the town of Council Bluffs, Iowa.