Tyner

Tyner is about seven miles northwest of Plymouth and was the chief business and school center of Polk Township. The town was established along the Plymouth & Laporte railroad, then being built and which was completed the next year. This is now part of the Nickel Plate system. The Tyner station was discontinued in about 1934, and the building was mo... ved and transformed into a house which is still occupied today. Tyner City reportedly had the first county railroad station to hear a conductor's call of "all aboard". The early settlers of Polk Township were deeply interested in the cause of education. This early longing for knowledge and advancement was no doubt the inspiration of one of the early school masters who taught in Tyner about 1865-1870. This man, Professor James G McGraw, was an outstanding personality whose reputation and ability as a scholar and instructor was far reaching. It is said that U.S. Senator Nickolson of Illinois, hearing of this man's fame journeyed to Tyner to secure his services as an instructor in Illinois, but could not persuade him to leave because he had other plans and ambitions. It is not generally known to the younger generation, but this early schoolmaster and Mr. Thomas Tyner had formulated plans to found a university near the site of the former H.J. Heinz pickle factory. It was about the time that Valparaiso University was founded by Henry Baker Brown and this, together with the death of Professor McGraw, caused the plans to be abandoned. The Tyner City Post Office was established September 11th, 1856 with Consider Cushman being appointed the first postmaster. Tyner City was incorporated as a town in 1873, according to an early newspaper article, as the result of a feud between the towns people and the people outside the town. The feud was carried to such an extent that no resident of the town could be elected to a township office. The incorporation allowed the town to elect a justice of the peace, and within a few years the warring elements subsided and the corporation was ...Read More