LEWISBURG, BINGVILLE, MASON OR WAYNEDALE

In the early 1870’s the railroad spur at the Lower Huntington Road intersection ignited the adventuresome spirit of our early settlers who wanted to be country dwellers. Pioneer landowners such as the Masons, Bradburys, and Weavers were most willing to sell acreage lots. Lewis and Catherine Mason saw an opportunity and placed a north south road west of the railroad from the Lower Huntington Road south to the Indianapolis Road (McArthur Drive), it was called Lewisburg Road (now Ideal Avenue).

In 1905, with the help of the interurban having stops at both ends of the Lewisburg Road (now Ideal Avenue), lots sold fast on the east side of the railroad by Bradbury, where the street name still prevails. A community spirit evolved when Henry Metting (who had the first department store) was urged to apply for a Post Office under the heading of Lewisburg. This post office would be placed at the original Noble’s Home Store where a public library had already been established. Noble’s moved their store location after that time to where The Waynedale Bakery is currently. The address was the intersection of the Indianapolis Road, Lewisburg Road (now Ideal Avenue) and the L. E. & W. Railroad, better known as the Leave Early and Walk Railroad. The problem was an existing southern Indiana town was already named Lewisburg.

Henry Metting was not about to give up so he reapplied with the name of Bingville. That too was ruled out in favor of Mason to match the railroad siding name. Due to federal requirements of incorporation the post office efforts stopped with the shift of population and when Abner Elzey began building in what is now the center of Waynedale, at the intersection of Old Trail and Lower Huntington Roads.

 

from the book PAPER TOWNS AND GHOST TOWNS by Roy M. Bates

LEWISBURG (1837)

The first town to be platted in Wayne Township outside the present limits of the city of Fort Wayne was Lewisburg. Waynedale was platted many years later.

The Lewisburg plat was entered by Lewis Mason on June 3, 1837, and contained 48 lots with six streets named First, Second, Third, Jefferson, Main and Marshall. It was situated a little to the west of the center of Section 33, near the present village of Waynedale. The Lewisburg Road, connecting the Lower Huntington Road and State Road 3, was named for this proposed town, which, like many of these early plats, never materialized.