After a number of years of being shut down, the Mikesell Fountain in the Village at Winona has been resurrected.
Members of the Mikesell family came from as far as California and Michigan Sunday for a rededication of the restored fountain. A monument stone in front of the fountain reads “Mikesell Fountain 1998, Blaine and Charlotte Mikesell, Honoring Winona Lake.”
Blaine and Charlotte Mikesell donated money in 1998 to have the fountain restored. Some time passed after its restoration, and then the fountain was shut down.
“Dane and Mary Louise (Miller) fully intended for it to come back and be a part of the community,” Jeremy Marsh, Village managing director, said after the ceremony Sunday.
Water soon will be spouting out of the top of it like before, he said.
Starting Sunday’s rededication ceremony, Winona Lake Town Councilman Bruce Shaffner led everyone with prayer. Marsh then commented how the Village was so pleased that the Mikesell family had donated money for the fountain, which has now been “resurrected” with the help of the Millers.
Marsh thanked everyone for coming from so far away and caring enough to be a part of the rededication.
Marcia Mikesell, the daughter of Blaine and Charlotte, said she was surprised to get the phone call about it. Growing up, her family lived at 100 and 208 Chestnut St., Winona Lake, but she now lives in San Diego, Calif. She said her folks were really humble people.
“It’s beautiful now,” she said of the fountain.
Brian Swank of Michigan, grandson of Blaine and Charlotte, said the fountain was one of several personal crusades for his grandparents in Winona.
“They would be very touched by this,” he said.
Other members of the Mikesell family in attendance Sunday included Jack and Beth Anglin, Clunette, and Lorraine Anglin. Beth’s mother was Blaine Mikesell’s first cousin.
Marsh also thanked Elliott’s Lawn Care and Nichols Landscaping for their work around the fountain; Heritage Monument Co. for the stone; Shaffner for connecting them with the Mikesell family; and Superior Excavating for the center piece of the fountain.
After the ceremony, Marsh said the idea of wanting to resurrect the fountain started about a year ago, with planning beginning in the winter.
Al Disbro, local historian, said originally there was a Dukes Fountain by a pond in the 1900s where the Mikesell Fountain is now. Over the years, that fountain was replaced. In 1998, Marcia said, her parents donated money to upgrade the fountain that was there because it hadn’t been running for “quite awhile.”
Blaine Mikesell died Dec. 25, 2006, and Charlotte died Oct. 11, 2009.
According to her obituary, Charlotte graduated from Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University) in 1939. She taught high school English for three years. She lived in San Diego when her husband was in the Navy during World War II, returning to Winona Lake when his carrier shipped out to the South Pacific. When the war was over, Blaine returned to Winona Lake, where they lived for the next 62 years until his death.
In a 2000 letter to the editor, Blaine Mikesell said American Brattice Cloth Corp. (now known as ABC Industries Inc) was founded by his father, Daniel B. Mikesell, in 1926. The company, after being a part of the Peabody group, was reorganized by Steve Rufenbarger in 1989, and a new name was chosen – ABC Industries Inc.
“ABC is locally owned again – mostly by management, and also by the writer of this letter, who is technically retired, but is today a very active member of the ABC board of directors,” he wrote in the letter.
Blaine also was one of the founders of the Wagon Wheel Theatre.
(Story by The Times Union)
