The long service, gathered: what the rosters prove

1899 – 1963

The roll of the stayers: Read as one record, the rosters and directory pages this section is built on give Mishawaka a roll of long service that no single source states, because no single source spans it. Gathered, at exactly the strength each entry carries: Charles Doolittle, street commissioner in six rosters across twenty-two years (1899–1921). Austin R. Klein, at the municipal utility's desk across forty-two years of directories (1921–1963). Harry J. Magrane, sealer across thirty-five years of directories (1921–1956). William M. Clark, treasurer in five successive rosters (1899–1905). Alfred S. Hess, on the council in three of the city's first four rosters and on its Board of Health in 1905. Walter Michael, clerk in 1905 and controller in 1921, sixteen years across the fiscal desks. Oscar Van De Putte, clerk and then clerk-treasurer across three directories (1949–1963). Thomas H. Pressler, fire chief across the directories of 1949 and 1956 and the safety board between them. Dean Bolerjack, police chief across three directories (1949–1963) and then the county's sheriff (1971). John J. Young, superintendent across three directories (1949–1963). Fred J. Hums, school board treasurer then president across three directories (1949–1963). Ida L. Betts, the school board's secretary and clerk across twenty-eight years of books (1921–1949). John H. Meengs, on the library board across three directories (1949–1963). Joseph M. Bowen, postmaster across three directories (1949–1963). Oscar Elbode, councilman and school board member across the same three (1949–1963).

What the roll means, stated carefully: A directory proves a holder at its canvass, not on every day between canvasses, and this roll claims nothing more: these are spans between books, each end documented, the middles the holders' own. Even so bounded, the roll is the section's finding. The Mishawaka of the directories was a city whose working government changed far more slowly than its mayors: across the middle of the twentieth century the clerk-treasurer, the fire chief, the police chief, the utility superintendent, the school superintendent, the school board's president and the postmaster in the three books of 1949, 1956 and 1963 are, desk for desk, substantially the same small company of servants, and the city that doubled in size around them was administered by people who had already been at their desks for years when the growth came. That is a fact about Mishawaka no mayor's biography contains, and it is why this section is a people-leg.

Sources:

1. The rosters and directory pages cited in the entries above: Howard (1907), rosters of 1899–1905; Polk directories of 1921, 1949, 1956, 1963 and 1971 — each span in this roll is the span between the books named in its own entry, and no span is stated beyond them.