Auburn, Indiana - History

History

Auburn's site on Cedar Creek was chosen by Wesley Park and John Badlam Howe at the intersection of two major trails, Goshen-Defiance Road and Coldwater Road, and next to the land of John Houlton. The name for the community likely came from "The Deserted Village" by Oliver Goldsmith, that begins "Sweet Auburn! Loveliest village of the plain." The plat of the Village of Auburn is dated April 21, 1836, but it was held by Howe and not recorded until March 12, 1879. John Drury purchased the first lot (Lot 73) for $25.00 on September 5, 1837. The first store was built at Park's corners by Thomas Freeman, applying for a license on March 5, 1838, and bringing supplies by horseback from Fort Wayne. Daniel Altenburg, Levi Walsworth, the Sherlock family, Samuel Sprott, David Weave, David Shoemaker, Henry Curtis, Lyman Childsey, James Cosper, and David Cosper were early residents.

A post office was established in 1839. In 1841, malaria ran through the town, and in 1843 a terrible storm wreaked havoc on cabins and crops. The Church of God was built by the Presbyterians in 1846. The Village of Auburn was incorporated in 1849, divided into wards, and governed under a town board and constable. By the end of the American Civil War, the town included over 700 inhabitants. The storm of September 29, 1872, destroyed Odd Fellow's Hall and damaged the Methodist Episcopal church. A few months later (April 6, 1873), the new brick block of Seventh Street (Snyder's Building) collapsed, also destroying the Ensley Building. Auburn water and lights was constructed in 1898. The change in status to the City of Auburn on March 26, 1900 followed a referendum. Notable citizen Charles Eckhart erected a public library and a YMCA building. The Auburn Automobile Company founded in 1900 produced its first automobile in 1903. William Wrigley, Jr. and Errett Lobban Cord controlled interests in the company that eventually acquired Duesenberg, Lexington, and Lycoming. The company failed in August 1937. The Auburn Rubber Company was started in 1913 as the Double Fabric Tire Company, making tires for Auburn Automobile Company. In the 1920s as Auburn Rubber, it became a large manufacturer of rubber toys, leaving Auburn in 1959.

Notorious bank robber John Dillinger and some accomplices raided Auburn's police station on October 14, 1933, stealing a submachine gun, two steel vests, three rifles, six pistols and over 1000 rounds of ammunition. The acts that led to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349 (1978), the leading American case on judicial immunity, took place in Auburn in 1971. On June 28, 1988, four workers were asphyxiated at a local metal-plating plant in the worst confined-space industrial accident in U.S. history; a fifth victim died two days later.