Accomplishments of WPA in Marshall County

Accomplishments of WPA in Marshall County

by | Oct 29, 2025 | Argos, Culver, General History, Parks, Plymouth

In our U.S. history classes most of us gained a passing acquaintance with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his Works Progress Administration program that helped Depression-era workers get back to earning a paycheck. The projects were wide ranging geographically as well as in type. Everything from buildings to bridges were constructed or improved. WPA workers built roads, dams and hatcheries, just to name a few. Below is an article published in the June 5, 1940, edition of the Culver Citizen about the impact the WPA had on Marshall County. It has been lightly edited to improve readability.

The Works Progress Administration constructed eight new buildings, reconstructed or improved five others and paved or improved 78.5 miles of highways, roads and streets, according to a survey released today by John K. Jennings, state administrator. Jennings said the survey was the first all-inclusive one to be made of WPA accomplishments in Marshall County. It includes all major projects since the start of the work-relief agency in August 1935. The survey said that a total of 729 Marshall County men and women who lost their jobs in private industry have been given WPA work-relief at one time or another.

Almost all the WPA roadwork centered on improving farm-to-market roads, of which 71.8 miles were bettered. In city street and alley work, the WPA improved a total of 4.1 miles. Of that, it laid new paving on 2.3 miles.

The WPA constructed a new warehouse for the Plymouth City Hall, a bathhouse at Culver, a hatchery clubhouse (Isaac Walton Leaugue), a barn at Magnetic Park in Plymouth and one other building at the same park (Conservation Clubhouse). In reconstruction and improvement work, the WPA bettered the Marshall County Courthouse, highway garage, jail and infirmary (Shady Rest Home). It improved the school at Inwood, Lincoln High School Athletic Field, Culver Park, Bremen Cemetery, and Huff Cemetery in German Township.

Isaac Walton League Clubhouse in Argos, IN.

 

In miscellaneous construction work, WPA employees built a dam at Plymouth having a storage of 300 acre-feet, the Magnetic Park fish hatchery which now has a capacity of 10,000 fingerlings, and the Argos Fish Hatchery with a capacity of 375,000 fingerlings annually. Magnetic Park, 17 acres, and Centennial Park, 35-acres, both in Plymouth, also received improvements.

Throughout Marshall County, WPA workers reconstructed or improved 26 steel bridges measuring 2,356 feet, improved 352 miles of roadside drainage, paved 4.8 miles of sidewalks and paths, laid 7.7 miles of curbs and seven-tenths of a mile of gutters.

In the utilities and sanitation field, the WPA laid 2.2 miles of water mains, aqueducts, and distribution lines, installed 5.8 miles of storm and sanitary sewers, made 19 sewerage connections and dug 221 manholes and catch basins. Nearly 1,200 sanitary privies were erected by the WPA. (These privies had concrete slabs and vaults and were considered more sanitary. They were nicknamed “Eleanors” due to Eleanor Roosevelt’s support for the program.)

More than 2,300 feet of retaining walls and revetments were constructed. One new airplane landing field was built on which runways totaling 5,280 feet were laid. In the professional and service division, WPA workers renovated 2,232 books, turned out 15,183 garments from sewing projects, and completed 5,490 items other than garments such as mattresses, quilts, etc. The sewing products were given to the needy.

The impact of the Works Progress Administration on Marshall County and its residents can hardly be overstated. If you want to know more about the WPA in Marshall County, come into the Marshall County Historical Society. Our research specialists will be happy to help! We are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

The First Soccer Game in Marshall County

The First Soccer Game in Marshall County

by | Sep 24, 2025 | Argos, Culver, Sports

During October, thousands of students will be playing on soccer fields around Indiana, looking to capture a sectional title. Parents and grandparents will bring folding chairs, classmates will fill the stands and everyone will cheer for their favorite team.

62 years ago, the Dragons traveled 9.6 miles down State Road 10 to play CMA in the first high school match in Indiana.

Introducing Soccer to Indiana

In 1963, Argos athletic director/basketball coach Ralph Powell was looking for a fall sport to use as conditioning for his team. He had visited Culver Military Academy earlier to watch its intramural soccer program.

“Not only is soccer a good conditioner for basketball because of its bursts of speed and stop-and-go motions, but many of the defensive moves are the same in both sports,” Powell told the Culver Alumnus magazine. “I’m willing to give up an hour and 15 minutes of basketball practice in October in order to play soccer. After 5 p.m., we play basketball.”

That led Powell and CMA athletic director Chester Marshall, who was also the basketball coach, to agree to a five-game series in September and October. Those became the first interscholastic soccer matches in state history.

Local Media Coverage

In building up to the historic event, the September 18 issue of the Argos Reflector ran a team photo and an article giving a brief description of soccer for the uninitiated:

“Soccer, the most widely played of all international team sports, is a game in which the ball is moved up and down a field and scoring is accomplished by manipulating the ball with the feet. Use of hands is prohibited except for the goalkeeper. Soccer is a prominent sport in many parts of the United States. However, it has never been promoted in Indiana.”

Some familiar last names pop out of the caption that accompanies the photo: Hagan, Rice, Snyder, Hand, Umbaugh, VanDerWeele, Nifong, Weidner and Kline – to name a few.

Playing the Game

To help grow the game, Powell and Marshall also conducted a joint meeting at Argos to talk with other high school officials who might be interested in playing soccer. When Argos and CMA squared off in the last game of the season two days later, The Vedette (CMA’s student newspaper) said three area coaches were present to watch. CMA won, 1-0, in what CMA coach Eric Anderson called “the best of all year.”

The series ended with CMA winning four and one game finishing in a draw. CMA did have the upper hand, having offered an intramural program since 1927, thanks to its international student population. The team that played Argos was comprised of all-stars from that program. And, according to an autumn 1963 article in the Culver Alumnus, since many of the CMA players were from Mexico or Latin America, they shouted instructions to each other in Spanish to confuse the Argos players.

The Impact of Soccer

As more schools added soccer to their fall sports list, Argos and CMA continued to play a home-and-home series. They were also founding members of the Northern Indiana Soccer Conference. And the CMA vs. Argos game still gets circled on everyone’s calendar. The rivalry is still that intense 60 years later. This year’s game is September 28 at Argos.

Now, there is a three-class IHSAA soccer tournament with more than 318 boys teams and 280 girls teams participating each season.

And, to think, it all started with a short bus ride down State Road 10 in 1963.

 

 

Jan Garrison has covered his fair share of Argos-CMA soccer matches while at The Pilot-News from 1977-1987 and as Culver Academies assistant director of publications from 2000-2021. A big research assist was offered by Jeff Kenney, the director of the Culver Academies Museum & Gift Shop.