New County Home Built About 1895 it was thought best to build a new county home to supplant the old one which was crowded and not modern. The contract was let to Washington Vanator who had built the courthouse at Columbia City and many other buildings. The building went on all through the summer of 1896. John Nine and others hauled brick through town from the Wheeler brick yards to the poor farm. The writer has a small boy would ride out and back with Mr. Nine. He could make two trips a day. It is said that the late "Brick" Hodges learned his trade laying brick for the new poor house. Other bricklayers who helped were Hank Walters, Clyde and Fred Clark, Levi Zumbrun and Charley Hillegas. The building when completed was very pretty and showed up well from the distant road. Zeal Barringer was placed in charge of the furnace room. It was not long after the inmates had moved into their new and spacious quarters that a fire broke out, caused by some gasoline in the basement, and the building was destr! oyed except for the part occupied by the superintendent and his family. This fire, according to James B. Pfleiderer, was on Saturday afternoon in February, 1897. Some man who was driving a team to a farm wagon happened to be passing on the road. He on hitched his team, selected the fastest horse, mounted him and rode into Warsaw spreading the alarm. He caused quite a bit of excitement on South Buffalo street as he dashed across the railroad tracks crying that the poorhouse was burning up.http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~kosco/nye1850.html