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From being known as ""The Heathen Town Four Miles Away"" to becoming a booming factory town, discover Anderson, Indiana through the centuries.

The city of Anderson is named after Chief William Anderson, whose Indian name was Kikthawenund, meaning ""making a noise"" or ""causing to crack."" Early settlers referred to the area as Anderson Town, while the Moravian missionaries called it ""The Heathen Town Four Miles Away."" It later became Anderstown before the Indiana State Legislature shortened the name to Anderson in 1844. In the spring of 1887, natural gas was discovered in the city. Several industries came to the area, leading to a population explosion. Anderson soon became a ""factory town,"" with General Motors building plants throughout the city. The success of the automobile factories attracted entrepreneurs and made Anderson the economic center of Madison County. From the 1940s through the 1970s, downtown Anderson had its share of family-owned businesses as well as national chain stores like J.C. Penney, Sears & Roebuck, and Montgomery Ward. Today, it remains filled with a rich heritage and continues to grow in a new economic market.

Nine years before Abraham Lincoln was elected president, Story came into being. In 1851, Pres. Millard Fillmore granted a land patent to Dr. George Story for the creation of this little town. Tucked into a scenic spot near the Hoosier National Forest, 13 miles southeast of Nashville, Indiana, Story lies deep in the heart of historic Brown County. And Story is just one reason to visit Brown County, also known as "the Art Colony of the Midwest." Amid forests, rolling hills, and winding country roads, charming Nashville is home to more than 120 shops, art galleries, and artists' studios and neighbors two villages quaintly named Gnawbone and Bean Blossom. The beauty of Brown County has always attracted artists and history buffs. Wander back roads across covered bridges that have spanned sparkling streams for more than a century to retrace the paths taken by artists seeking to capture the county's beauty.

Named for the Delaware Indians who lived in the area from about 1794 to 1820, this Indiana county was organized in 1827. It soon developed an economy based around agriculture, which remains important today. The area's first railroad, from Indianapolis to Bellefontaine, Ohio, came to Muncie in 1852. Indiana's first commercial gas well was drilled in Eaton, and many more wells were drilled in the area, which brought glass, metal, and other industries to the county, especially in towns such as Albany, Eaton, and Muncie. After the gas supply failed, automobile components--from gears to batteries--became a thriving industry. During World War II, Delaware County produced goods for the war effort ranging from land mines to submarine interiors. Ball canning jars were the area's most famous product until Jim Davis's Garfield (the cat) came along. In the 1950s and 1960s, Delaware County experienced growth and prosperity with the addition of machine and tool shops and small businesses.

In the late 1790s, when the first settlers arrived in Lanesville, they had a dream for a better life in which they could raise families and be part of a new and expanding country.

Lanesville became a town on December 11, 1817--exactly one year after Indiana became a state. The town grew as people built businesses with the abundant resources that were available. Meanwhile, Franklin Township was developing into one of the best farming communities in the southern part of the state. Farmers took great pride in their homesteads, and many families still farm the land that gave life to so many generations before them. They worshiped in their churches, they built the schools that educated their children, and they prospered.

Since its incorporation, Michigan City has appreciated its lakefront assets.

The point at which Trail Creek collides with Lake Michigan has always been a source of pride for the city's residents. However, it was not until 1959 that an agency was created to protect and maintain the city's interests at the lakefront. Michigan City Marinas chronicles the agency's efforts to realize the potential of one of Lake Michigan's most magnificent ports. The people, events, and other government agencies that helped shape the future of the marinas are explored along with the Michigan City Port Authority's tenacious oversight of the resources and facilities that are still in use today.

Long described as a dreamer and wanderer, Richard Risley Carlisle traveled from the East, purchased 160 acres, and platted the town of New Carlisle in 1835.

The little town on the hill grew as many settlers found the flat, fertile prairie lands surrounding the town ideal for farming. The construction of the Michigan Road just a few years prior had opened up settlement in New Carlisle and the surrounding Olive Township. The railroad built in 1852 ensured success of the town as it bypassed other rival towns causing them to fade into obscurity. The images in this book give a glimpse into the small-town life of New Carlisle and the surrounding areas such as the communities of Hamilton and Hudson Lake that played such an important part of the community's rich heritage.

Set near the south bank of the Maumee River, New Haven is on the route from the Great Lakes to the Central Plains.

The river itself carried the first travelers upstream to the short portage to the Mississippi watershed and the West. In the early 1800s, the Wabash and Erie Canal was started to provide a more reliable and even passage. Many came to work on it and settled, hacking out farmsteads from the dense, swampy forest. A canal lock nearby made a natural stopping and shipping point. In 1856, the Wabash Railroad superceded the canal with rapid all-weather transport and commerce flourished. The old canal towpath became a road, intersecting in the middle of the community with the Lincoln Highway, bringing in the automobile era. The local commuter age was born in the early 1900s with the interurban railroad from Lima, Ohio, to Fort Wayne, Indiana, providing hourly, fast service for jobs and shopping. This small, tree-lined city still shows clear marks of the ages and stages of transportation history that have given it life and form. Now greenway trails trace the old Indian paths along the river.

Take a journey through the history of Pendleton, Indiana with local author David Humphrey.

Named after Thomas Pendleton, one of the town's early settlers, Pendleton, Indiana, was established in 1820. With a ford on Fall Creek, the falls provided waterpower for mills and influenced migration to areas north of Pendleton.

The emergence of natural gas in Madison County led to the establishment of several glass factories, a tile plant, and other manufacturing sites, including the Motsinger Device Manufacturing Company and Fall Creek Cannery. Early entrepreneurs of Pendleton included Thomas McCartney, who built the first mill at the falls; Palmer Patrick, a colorful merchant; and Homer Motsinger, owner of Motsinger Device Manufacturing Company.

After the mills along Fall Creek were removed, the area became known as Pendleton Park, a tourist attraction that brought visitors from surrounding states. Falls Park, as it is known today, remains one of the most picturesque sites in Madison County, Indiana and is a mainstay for the Pendleton community.

With the 200th anniversary of Pendleton on the horizon, the town continues to progress in a positive fashion, while keeping the historical aspect of the community alive.

For centuries the shimmering waters of the historic Tippecanoe River have quietly marked the history of rural Pulaski County as the stream winds through the heart of the county's landscape, its banks lined with lush woods and rich farmlands.

The river was the lifeblood of the Potawatomi Indians who fished its waters and canoed home to camps along the shores. They were followed by pioneer hunters and trappers lured by plentiful wildlife. Early settlers harnessed the river's energy to run saw- and gristmills. Later the Tippecanoe attracted weekend and summer visitors from the city looking for some quiet fishing and peaceful reflection. Pulaski County was established in 1839. Dotted with quaint towns, family farms, and locally owned businesses and light industry, the county has been shaped by a heritage of hard work, simple pleasures, neighborliness, and a determined self-sufficiency that comes of relative isolation. It is a rich and increasingly rare bucolic prospect--nourished by a vigilant river.