Public Servants: Open Questions

1835 – today

The named gaps, with their settling sources: (1) The town officers of 1835–1899 between the first trustees and the last town board — the Mishawaka City Council Records, 1845–1977, at the Hesburgh Libraries, and the town minute books they continue. (2) The clerk's succession between Walter Michael (1905) and Joseph DeLorenzi (1921), and between DeLorenzi and Oscar Van De Putte (1949) — the Polk directories of the intervening years in the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris and St. (3) Oscar Van De Putte's first and last years, and the clerk-treasurer line from 1963 to Deborah S. Block — the Enterprise and Tribune obituary columns through the MPHPL obituary index for the endpoints; the run of the city's annual financial reports for the line. (4) The controllers of 1921–1949 and 1963–2021 — the same financial reports. (5) The city attorneys after 1921 — the council's appointment minutes. (6) The city court's judges between Raab (1922) and Cavanaugh (1949), and the court's end and last judge — the intervening directories; the Indiana Acts and the state court directories' run. (7) The police chiefs of 1922–1948 and 1964–2003 — the Board of Public Safety minutes, the departments' own records, and the Tribune's appointment record across those decades. (8) Dean Bolerjack's appointment as chief, and his sheriff years exactly — the safety board minutes for the first; the county election returns of 1966 and 1970 and the sheriff's roster for the second. (9) The fire chiefs the city's count of twenty-one implies beyond the eight documented, and Chief DeCaussemaker's given name — the department's own rolls and the safety board minutes. (10) The postmasters between Shaw (1907) and Herzog (1921), Bowen's endpoints, and the whole modern line — the Post Office Department's appointment register (National Archives) and the USPS Historian's Postmaster Finder. (11) The first postmaster's name, damaged in Chapman's type — the appointment register settles it outright. (12) The school superintendents of 1848–1903, 1913–1921, 1938–1948 and 1964–2019, and the Penn-Harris-Madison superintendents whole — the Bureau of Education's later directories, the corporations' board minutes and published histories, the Tribune's appointment record. (13) The school-naming resolutions for Emmons (1958), Hums (1970) and John Young — the School City board's minutes of the naming years. (14) The Penn Township trustees between Aldrich (1949) and Portolese (2026) — the county auditor's township records. (15) The statehouse line between Bingham (1906) and Fry (1988) — the Indiana legislative rosters and Blue Books. (16) The first Black holder of a Mishawaka public office, and the first woman elected to the council — neither is named in any source this build reached; the Enterprise's and Tribune's election files and the council minutes are the settling records, and until they are read both questions stand open in this section, as the council question already stands open in the Women's History section. (17) The kinships the record juxtaposes and never states — the two Eggleston clerks, the two Gansers, the two Binghams, the Simeris of 1963, the Elbodes of the council and the schools — printed as juxtapositions throughout, settleable only by the genealogical record, and no entry in this section rests on any of them.

Sources:

1. This entry is the section's own accounting, compiled from the gaps named in the entries above; the Government, Fire & Safety, Schools and Women's History sections' gap entries are cross-referenced where the same record settles both.