Nappanee is a city in Elkhart and Kosciusko counties in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 6,648 as of the 2010 U.S. Census and had grown to 6,913 by the 2020 U.S. Census. The name Nappanee is thought to mean "flour" in the Algonquian language. The town has several tourist attractions: Amish Acres, Nappanee Raceway, The Arts & Crafts Festival, and the Apple Festival.
History
Several hundred years ago, the indigenous Mound Builders built their settlements in an area to the north of the city's marshes. Pottawatomi arrived in the area from near Green Bay, Wisconsin in the 1700s, partially displacing the previous Miami inhabitants. The Pottawatomis had settlements on the Elkhart River at Elkhart, Goshen, and Waterford, and at Monoquet between Leesburg and Warsaw in what became Kosciusko County, Indiana. Thus, the Plymouth-Goshen Road near Nappanee probably follows the course of an old Indian Trail. The first European settlers came to the area in 1830, as various treaties and a process the Pottawatomi call the "Trail of Death" led to the relocation of Native Americans away from their traditional territories.
Railroad town
By 1870, seven farms had been established and forty people were settled around Nappanee. Locke Township had been founded in 1836 and named after Samuel Lockwood, and by 1863 a settlement called Wisler Town existed, but the actual platting of the village of Locke Town, approximately six miles from Nappanee, took place in December 1867. It would receive its last addition in 1874, the year that Nappanee was platted (on December 12, 1874).
The B&O Railroad sought a route westward from Sandusky, Ohio to the booming inland port of Chicago, Illinois in 1872. While the land around what became Nappanee and nearby Bremen was flat, permitting a straight crossing from Walkerton, it was also marshy, which led to various engineering challenges. The section through Nappanee was finally completed as a single track in the late summer of 1874 and replaced by steel rails in 1882. Farmers sold the railroad land so that its tracks would run right next to Nappanee on its route to Chicago, although the railroad was unable to acquire the five acres needed to build a side track to the existing town of Locke. Nonetheless, on December 6, 1874, about three weeks after the railroad reached the outskirts of Chicago, it commenced service to what it first called Locke's Station. By the month's end, Daniel Metzler, Henry Stahly, and John Culp Jr. had platted the town of Nappanee; Culp gave the railroad three acres for a station and Metzler two acres. By 1875, trains arrived almost daily at the new depot and discharged freight and passengers. The Eby brothers of Locke said they suggested the name because they came from Napanee, Ontario; one of the Metzlers said their father selected the name in part because of its native American connotations. Over time the B&O Railroad eventually became CSX.
Development
The town's first industry was a sawmill, and later additions were box-making, charcoal, and furniture businesses. The first brickyard (using local resources) was established before 1879. The first canning company was established in 1894, and a hemp factory was built by 1913. The hemp factory never reached full capacity, and was burned down in 1920, not rebuilt. Mobile home construction had started in Elkhart and Goshen by World War II, and the Walco and Franklin Coach Company were built in Nappanee after the war. Once the land was cleared, corn and wheat were planted, and agriculture has long been important in the area. By the early 20th century, onions had become a major crop (inspiring an autumn festival), and other farmer-entrepreneurs grew hemp, spearmint and peppermint.