Indiana Cities & Towns Thread

[TheDude]

Madison

1830 Largest city in Indiana (1752 citizens)
Named "Porkopolis" for a time.
Medal of honor winner, Samuel Woodfill WWI
And in 1943 we were the "typical American town"
History Rescue: 1943 The Town: WWII government propaganda film
Two major motion pictures made here. Some came running & Madison

 

[IrishSon of Liberty]

The Progressive Icon, Woodrow Wilson, selected his Vice President, Mr. Thomas R. Marshall from Indiana. Marshall was born in North Manchester, attended Wabash College, and practiced law in Columbia City (where his home is now a historical marker and museum) until he was elected governor of Indiana in 1909.

 

[Andy219]

I'm in Cedar Lake, also known as Cedar Tuckey for some reason. But the town has their official town holiday as Halloween, because everybody gets to pump kin.

 

[sharkey]

Dan Patch was foaled and trained in Oxford, IN.

Orville Redenbacher was born in Brazil, IN.

 

[CathyInBlue]

Orville Redenbacher was born in Brazil, IN.

So was I, Jimmy Hoffa, and Henry Lee Summer.

 

[mayor al]

A couple of points to add to some of the towns already mentioned--

1. Scottsburg is also the home of the RAAC- The importer of Saiga and Baikal Arms .

2. Charlestown mentioned earlier for isolation from it's rightful riverport development is seeing a major change in it's economic future as the former Ammo Plant acreage is converted to civialian use creating 1500 jobs at the Amazon Warehouse facility alone. The town is seeing a lot of benefits from the new industrial parks.

3. The "Little town of Bethlehem" on the river near the abandoned Marble Hill power plant, still operates it's outhouse-sized post office, hand cancelling thousands of Christmas mailings each year...then resting til the next Christmas season.

4. My current residence is near LANESVILLE, Home of a Fall Festival that really puts on a show of the old steam powered farm impliments each September. Nothing like watching those Steamerrs in action while enjoying Pork Chop Sandwiches and butter-dipped Roastin' Ears on a late Summer evening.

 

[sharkey]

So was I, Jimmy Hoffa, and Henry Lee Summer.

Ahhhh, but Don Davis was NOT one of your bodyguards before you disappeared and he had the capital to open his "establishments".

 

[Andy219]

On a serious note, Dr Schols got his start in Cedar Lake.

 

[Mgderf]

On a serious note, Dr Schols got his [STRIKE]start [/STRIKE] foot in the door in Cedar Lake.

FIFY

 

[red_zr24x4]

Here's a little bit of the early history of Walkerton-

Walkerton, Indiana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is a list of the famous people from town-

• Harold C. Urey (1893–1981), winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of deuterium, was born in Walkerton.
• Walter LaFeber (b. 1933), noted historian of American foreign relations, was born in Walkerton.
• Chad Blount, NASCAR Nationwide Series driver
• Lucas Runyan, First State Cross Country Qualifier

Then there's this little bit of Info, I haven't been able to find much about it though -

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]6[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]. WALKERTON, INDIANA:
Eight giants [FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]8[/FONT] to [FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]9[/FONT] feet tall, all in copper armour - [FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]1925[/FONT] (Frank Edwards, Strange World, p.[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]98[/FONT])[/FONT]

Supposedly in the '20's some people were digging in a indian burial mound close to town and found some giant skeletons. They removed them and all the artifacts, stored them in a old grist mill, which just happened to get washed away in the late '20's during a flood.

 

[Frosty]

Ah, yes. How could I forget Peru? I've never been to Chili, but I've been to Mexico and Denver and Peru. Drove past the one shop in Mexico, keep in mind this was 2008ish, and I think there was a Texaco sign up that way somewhere too.

If you take a road trip to the country between Greencastle and spencer you can visit Cuba, and see the Cuba united Methodist church! I know of a little fishing hole down there, you go through the town (area?) of carp, then through Cuba, I never did get to see Castro.

 

[DRob]

Trevlac, an unincorporated town in Brown County, was founded by one John Calvert who simply reversed his last name to name the town.

 

[CTS]

Woodburn - the smallest incorporated city in the state

I grew up there. Good place.

 

[scott delaney]

not my home town but JAMIE HYNEMAN grow up in COLUMBUS

 

[sharkey]

Trafalgar spelt backwards is Raglafart.

 

[88E30M50]

Freeman field in Seymour was used during WWII as a base to test captured equipment. Aircraft of all types were tested and stored there before being shipped away or scrapped. In late 1945, just after the war ended, a US pilot was killed while flying a captured FW 190D-9. The aircraft impacted the ground in the center of the field and parts were simply buried in place after the investigation. For years, there have been rumors of foreign aircraft being buried in Seymour but no trace of a whole aircraft has ever been found. Parts yes, aircraft no.

Freeman field was the first US helicopter training base (1944)
Gus Grissom enter the military as a cadet at Freeman Field in 1944
In 1945, a bomber group with the Tuskegee Airman were stationed at Freeman Field.

 

[Gadgetmonster]

Crawfordsville... The rotary jail was initially designed by architect William H. Brown, and built by the Haugh, Ketcham & Co. iron foundry in the Indianapolis, Indiana neighborhood of Haughville.

Cover sheet for patent application.​

The application for United States Patent No. 244,358, on July 12, 1881 has this description:
The object of our inventions is to produce a jail in which prisoners can be controlled without the necessity of personal contact between them and the jailer or guard... it consists, first, of a circular cell structure of considerable size (inside the usual prison building) divided into several cells capable of being rotated, surrounded by a grating in close proximity thereto, which has only such number of openings (usually one) as is necessary for the convenient handling of prisoners.[h=2]Features[edit][/h]

Detail diagram of central core plumbing connections to cell.​

The pie-shaped cells rotated around a core having a sanitary plumbing system, which was considered an unusual luxury at that time. The cell block could be rotated by a single man hand-rotating a crank. It was connected to gears beneath the structure which rotated the entire cell block. The structure was supported by a ball bearing surface to allow for smooth rotation.
[h=2]Condemned[edit][/h]The jails encountered problems almost immediately with inmates' limbs being crushed or interfering with the cellblock's rotation. Most of the jails had to be welded in a fixed position and refitted with individual cell accesses. All of them were condemned by June 22nd, 1939.

 

[perry]

Fairmount Indiana has supposedly placed more people in the book of who's who per capita than any other town in the U.S.
James Dean actor
Jim Davis cartoonist Garfield
Phil Jones CBS news correspndent
Dr. Robert Sheets National Hurricane center
Olive Rush artist
Mary Jane Ward author
Alvin Seale marine biologist
There are others, mostly in the education field.

That book must not sell well, I have only heard of one person on that list.

Dean or Davis, which have you not heard of? I figured all Hoosiers knew em both

 

[Mackey]

A couple of points to add to some of the towns already mentioned--

1. Scottsburg is also the home of the RAAC- The importer of Saiga and Baikal Arms .

2. Charlestown mentioned earlier for isolation from it's rightful riverport development is seeing a major change in it's economic future as the former Ammo Plant acreage is converted to civialian use creating 1500 jobs at the Amazon Warehouse facility alone. The town is seeing a lot of benefits from the new industrial parks.

3. The "Little town of Bethlehem" on the river near the abandoned Marble Hill power plant, still operates it's outhouse-sized post office, hand cancelling thousands of Christmas mailings each year...then resting til the next Christmas season.

4. My current residence is near LANESVILLE, Home of a Fall Festival that really puts on a show of the old steam powered farm impliments each September. Nothing like watching those Steamerrs in action while enjoying Pork Chop Sandwiches and butter-dipped Roastin' Ears on a late Summer evening.

Regarding Charlestown:
Jeffersonville somehow accomplished a land grab of that Ammo Plant land. The Amazon Plant is officially in Jeffersonville.
I don't believe Charlestown is benefitting as much as you might think.

 

[indyartisan]

Cleveland Indiana, at one time home of the largest hobo camp in eastern Indiana. Back in the days of the steam locomotive the trains would slow down as they climbed "Hatfield Mountain" the highest point on the rail line between Indianapolis and Richmond sometimes having to try several attempts to cross the high point. The slow trains, wooded area and cool waters of Dilly crick to the south of Cleveland made a great way point for the train riding vagabonds.