LaOtto’s churches build on, bank plans new site

LaOtto’s churches saw a year of growth in 2002, with each building a new addition on its building.

LaOtto Wesleyan Church built a new addition to accommodate its growing youth group and have more room for church suppers.

Emmanuel Lutheran Church added on a new ramp so people with handicapping conditions can be driven up to sanctuary level and enter for worship services.

Also during the year, the town’s only bank, Farmers and Merchants Bank, announced plans to move its headquarters to the town’s new commercial park. That will put the bank’s headquarters across the county line in DeKalb County when the move is completed.

HISTORY: LaOtto is a quiet village located just west of the four-lane S.R. 3, which was completed in 1990. The highway connects Kendallville with Fort Wayne, routing the traffic around LaOtto instead of down its main street.

In the 1830s, settlers followed the Mongoquinong Trail, later called Lima Plank Road, north from Fort Wayne into Noble County. A U.S. Post Office was established along the trail at Simon’s Corners, now LaOtto. From 1856 to 1861, LaOtto was called Simon’s Corners, and from 1872 to 1875 it was called Grand Crossing, the site where two railway lines crossed.
The Rev. B.F. Shultz, the first Lutheran minister in the southern part of Noble County, suggested calling the growing settlement LaOtto. A petition was prepared and county commissioners accepted it.

The small, 101-lot hamlet at the junction of the north-south Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad and the east-west Eel River Railroad lines was platted.

LaOtto’s first building was the LaOtto Wesleyan Church building, dedicated on Nov. 16, 1861, as Lee Chapel. The building originally stood just west of what is now Old State Road 3 and a quarter mile north of what is now S.R. 205. The church building was moved to its present location on the south side of LaOtto on Old State Road 3 in 1876.

In 1871, a steam sawmill was built by David Simon, one of the church’s first members. A blacksmith shop and shoe repair shop followed, and in 1872 LaOtto’s first industry, a planing mill and bedstead factory, was erected. A grist mill for making flour followed on the town’s east side.

In 1902, two separate railroad depots were established, a pickle cannery existed from 1905 to 1931 and onion farms surrounded the community. In 1923, Lima Road became a concrete highway, and in 1948 S.R. 205 from Churubusco east to U.S. 27 came through LaOtto.

The LaOtto Volunteer Fire Department building is a venue for community activities like bingo nights, auctions and all types of fund-raisers.

POPULATION: About 400.

ACCESS: Old State Road 3 and S.R. 205.

GOVERNMENT: Larry Campbell, Swan Township trustee, 11449 E. S.R. 205, LaOtto, IN 46763, may be reached at 897-2373.

EDUCATION: LaOtto School, K-5, S.R. 205 just west of Old State Road 3, part of the East Noble School Corp. For more information, call Principal Karen Gandy at 897-2491.

RECREATION: Community Park, south side just west of Old State Road 3, nine acres with baseball field and playground equipment. T-ball and youth baseball summer competition.

BANKING: Farmers and Merchants Bank has its headquarters at 213 Main St., LaOtto. It has branches in Huntertown and Churubusco.

UTILITIES: General Telephone, Northern Indiana Fuel & Light, Noble County REMC.

POLICE: Noble County Sheriff’s Department, 636-2182.

FIRE: LaOtto Volunteer Fire Department, S.R. 205 and Old State Road 3, 897-2286. Randy Lutter is the fire chief and Jim Molargik is the assistant fire chief.

POST OFFICE: The LaOtto Post Office is located at 210 S. Main St. Postmaster Percie White may be reached at 897-3054. The post office’s lobby is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. through 1 p.m. Saturday to provide customers access to their post office boxes. Window hours — for the purchase of stamps and other services — are 8 a.m. through 1 p.m. and 3 to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday from 7:45 a.m. through 10 a.m.