Read time: 6 min.

I’m a hobbyist historian with a penchant for public spaces. I like to focus on courthouses, schoolhouses, and other places where people used to congregate, but sometimes I stumble across a home that catches my eye. One of my favorites is on the old Summers farm in rural Huntington County. Some call it “The Castle¹.”

My mom and dad’s favorite pastimes were driving around and exploring the back roads. Years after they divorced and Dad died, Mom told me that one of their favorite haunts was a loop around the south part of the Huntington Reservoir that passed the old county home on Evergreen Road. It also passed one of the most stunning river rock houses Mom had ever seen.

Mom loves river rock. She must have figured that my shunpiking from Fort Wayne to Muncie had led me past the house she adored and asked me if I’d seen it. I’d never explored that part of Huntington County, so I joined a Facebook group and asked about it. My description of “a river rock house around Roush Lake” was enough to crowdsource the coordinates within a couple minutes.

Soon I was headed to Huntington. I took the interstate to State Road 5, passed through Majenica, and took a right at one of those churches that resembles a ship’s prow. I’d seen satellite views of the magnificent mansion nestled amidst the vast expanse of corn, but they didn’t prepare me for what I saw as I took another left. The hundred-year-old farmhouse I came across is a marvel of Queen Anne architecture! It stands in stark contrast to the simplicity of the surrounding landscape.

Omer Summers is to thank. Born in 1868, Summers was the seventh child of Golvin and Sarah. As a kid, he helped tend the family’s farm in Union Township during the summer when he was out of school. At nineteen, he became a schoolteacher in Huntington Township but chafed at the profession’s restrictive environment. It wasn’t long before he returned to farming².

Summers married his wife, Elizabeth Armstrong, in 1890. Soon after, he became one of the most “highly esteemed citizens and prosperous agriculturists of Rock Creek Township³,” according to county histories. Eventually, he became the proprietor of two adjoining farms: West Fairview, where he lived, and White Gables, which adjoined the property.

It was 1911⁴ or 1912⁵ when Summers built his castle. The seven-bedroom home featured fifteen rooms altogether! Built from double yellow-dressed brick⁶, the house featured a tile roof, two turrets, a Porte Cochere, river rock from the nearby Wabash, and natural woodwork from lumber sourced from Summers’ farms⁷. By the time it was completed, the home was considered the most elegant in Huntington County⁸.

Over time, Omer Summers became one of Huntington County’s best-known residents. As an agriculturalist, he was president of the Huntington County Farmers’ Institute. As a Democrat, Summers served at county and state party conventions. As a Baptist, he was a long-time deacon at his church⁹. Somehow, Summers also found time to work as the district manager of the Conservative Life Insurance Company in Fort Wayne¹⁰. Unfortunately, that’s what did him in.

A bout with blood poisoning, today known as sepsis, forced Omer Summers’ retirement from the life insurance trade in 1930. Otherwise healthy, he returned to the office two months later to retrieve a paperweight and a small set of postal scales he thought he’d been bilked out of from the company’s superintendent, Edward Morrison¹¹.

Morrison told Summers he could have the equipment if he paid him two dollars, and Summers replied that he’d pay it if he owed it. That set Morrison off, and he demanded that Summers leave the office. A scuffle broke out, and Summers tumbled from his chair and hit his head on a radiator. Morrison denied that he’d struck him¹².

The dispute occurred on a Friday. On his way out of town, Summers showed the police his superficial injuries- a cut and a bruise. He arrived home at the castle with a terrible headache, but his wife thought little of it. Summers retired to bed without incident on Saturday night, but Elizabeth couldn’t rouse him from sleep on Sunday morning. Omer Summers was dead at sixty-two¹³.

At first, Summers’ death was a cut-and-dried case thanks to the sepsis. That’s when an anonymous tipster called Allen County’s deputy coroner and suggested that an autopsy might shed more light on the mystery¹⁴. An inspection of Summers’ body revealed a concussion and cerebral hemorrhage, such as what might happen if one was hit on the head with a set of postal scales. Edward Morrison was arrested and held under a charge of involuntary manslaughter¹⁵. Later, he was charged with second-degree murder.

It’s unclear what came of the charges against Edward Morrison, but Elizabeth Summers lived another eleven years after her husband’s mysterious death. The old Summers farm was eventually acquired by several people, including Charles Enz and John Funderburgh, before it passed into its present ownership. It was a dreary December day when I first saw Summers’ castle, but I returned with Mom a few months later. It was the first time she’d seen the beautiful home she remembered in more than thirty years.

Nearly a century after Omer Summers died, it’s clear that his legacy has nothing to do with his political involvement, his faith, or his professional life. Rather, it stands in the heart of the rolling countryside, far from the city’s bustle. Today, the castle of Rock Creek Township is a testament to the legacy of a humble farmer whose dreams stretched beyond the fields he cultivated. Thanks to the careful stewardship of its present owners, I don’t doubt the palatial home will continue to stand as Omer Summers’ enduring legacy for another century or more.

Sources Cited
1 Huntington County Interim Report (1998). Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory. Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana.
2 Bash, F. S. (1914). History of Huntington County, Indiana. The Lewis Publishing Company [Chicago and New York]. Book.
3 (See footnote 2). 
4 (See footnote 2).
5 (See footnote 1).
6 Gernand, J. (2009, March 9). The Huntington County Tab. Web. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
7 (See footnote 2).
8 Brick Work Done At Summers Home (1911, July 22). The Huntington Herald. p. 3.
9 (See footnote 2).
10 Edw. Morrison Held At Ft. Wayne For Man’s Death (1930, May 1). The Garrett Clipper. p. 3.
11 Edw. Morrison Held At Ft. Wayne For Man’s Death (1930, May 1). The Garrett Clipper. p. 3. 
12  Social and Personal (1930, May 15). The Garrett Clipper. p. 5.
13 (See footnote 11).
14 (See footnote 11).
15 (See footnote 11).