WABASH

city, seat (1835) of Wabash county, northeastern Indiana, U.S., on the Wabash River, 45 miles (72 km) west-southwest of Fort Wayne. It was settled in 1835 on land ceded to the U.S. government by the Potawatomi Indian chief Pierish in the Treaty of Paradise Springs signed on a local hilltop in 1826. Completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal in the 1850s stimulated the community's growth. Wabash was one of the world's first electrically lighted cities (1880). It is now an agricultural trade centre with light industry, including the manufacture of rubber and paper products. The Wabash County Historical Museum in the County Courthouse has Indian and American Civil War relics. Nearby are the Honeywell (rose) Gardens and the state recreational areas of Salamonie and Mississinewa reservoirs. Inc. 1854. Pop. (1991 est.) 12,271.