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Inglefield, Indiana

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Coordinates: 38°6′29″N 87°33′32″W / 38.10806°N 87.55889°W / 38.10806; -87.55889
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Inglefield, Indiana
Ingle's
farm, post-office, and railway station
Map
Coordinates: 38°6′29″N 87°33′32″W / 38.10806°N 87.55889°W / 38.10806; -87.55889
CountryUnited States
StateIndiana
CountyVanderburgh
TownshipScott

Inglefield in Scott Township, Vanderburgh County, Indiana; also known as Ingle's and Ingles, and later to be a post-office, a village, and a railway station; began life as the farm of one John Ingle Sr.[1][2][3][4]

Ingle's was the first stop for travellers that was to appear on the road from Evansville to Princeton, back when it wound through woodland, before the state straightened the road.[5]

As a railroad stop on the Evansville and Crawfordsville Railroad it was known in the middle of the 19th century as Ingles,[3] later to become Inglefield on the later Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad (E&THR) and Chicago and Iowa Railroad.[4][6] The Inglefield post-office was originally named Sandersville, as was a town that Ingle Sr attempted to found.[7][8]

John Ingle, Sr and Jr

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Both Ingle Sr and his son John Ingle Jr were born in Somersham in England, the former in 1788 and the latter in 1812.[1][9] The Ingles came to the United States in 1818, and after short stays in Evansville and Princeton came to the farm in Scott Township.[1][9] Ingle Sr ran the post-office on his farm for 45 years.[1][10] He originally named it Sandersville on 1823-11-27 but it changed name to Inglefield on 1869-11-17.[8]

Sandersville was also the town that Ingle Sr platted on 1819-04-26.[6] It comprised 160 acres (65 ha) with a 266 by 255 feet (81 by 78 m) public square.[7] Some houses were erected including, in addition to Ingle's post-office, a store and a blacksmith's; but the town was largely abandoned by 1830 with only the post-office remaining.[6]

Ingle Sr, William Ingle, and others later contributed US$1,800 (equivalent to $40,496 in 2024) to the erection in 1867 of a Centenary Methodist Episcopal church nearby (38°06′32″N 87°32′56″W / 38.109°N 87.549°W / 38.109; -87.549 (Centenary Methodist Episcopal church)).[7]

William D. Miller, who had been a depot agent and a telegraph operator on the E&THR and a merchant at Inglefield, the only one left by 1889, took up the postmastership of Inglefield in March 1884.[11]

After education in Princeton (Indiana) and Philadelphia, Ingle Jr eventually became a lawyer with a practice in Evansville.[12][13] He was one of the founders of the Evansville and Crawfordsville Railroad; and, having initially being a superintendent, was the president of the company for over 20 years.[14][15] He also ran the John Ingle & Company coal mining business, incorporated in 1866.[14] By the end of the 19th century the business was in the hands of his sons, George and John Ingle, with 200 acres (81 ha) near the local insane asylum and a further 140 acres (57 ha) around Coal Mine Hill at a bend of the Ohio River, where the company had sunk its first shaft.[16] It was producing 50,000 long tons (51,000 Mg) of coal per year.[16]

Others

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Other people associated with Inglefield include Dr Thomas Runcie, an immigrant from Ireland, who practiced medicine there from 1849 until his death in 1867.[17] Samuel Scott, after whom Scott Township is named, once lived around 1 mile (1.6 km) south of where Inglefield would be.[18]

In the other direction, roughly 1 mile (1.6 km) north, James Cawson had run the second place to be cleared in the woodland for travellers to rest on the Evansville to Princeton road.[5] It was later to become the Ritchey homestead and the site of the Lockyear blacksmith's, the first smithy in the Township.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Elliott 1897, p. 399.
  2. ^ von Steinwehr 1873, p. 429, Inglefield.
  3. ^ a b Cowen 1866, p. 30, Ingles.
  4. ^ a b de Colange 1884, p. 494, Inglefield.
  5. ^ a b c BF 1889, p. 579.
  6. ^ a b c BF 1889, p. 582.
  7. ^ a b c BF 1889, p. 583.
  8. ^ a b Baker 1995, p. 176, Inglefield.
  9. ^ a b White 1873, pp. 203–204.
  10. ^ White 1873, p. 204.
  11. ^ BF 1889, p. 591.
  12. ^ Elliott 1897, pp. 399–401.
  13. ^ White 1873, pp. 204–205.
  14. ^ a b Elliott 1897, p. 401.
  15. ^ White 1873, p. 205.
  16. ^ a b Elliott 1897, pp. 401–402.
  17. ^ BF 1889, p. 233.
  18. ^ BF 1889, p. 578.

Bibliography

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  • History of Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Brant & Fuller. 1889. OCLC 3557957. (History of Vanderburgh County, Indiana at the Internet Archive History of Vanderburgh County, Indiana at the HathiTrust Digital Library)
  • White, Edward, ed. (1873). "John Ingle Jr". Evansville and Its Men of Mark. County and regional histories of the "Old Northwest.": Indiana. Evansville, Indiana: Historical Publishing Company. pp. 203–206.
  • Elliott, Joseph Peter (1897). A history of Evansville and Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Evansville, Indiana: Keller Printing Company. OCLC 8488951. (A history of Evansville and Vanderburgh County, Indiana at the HathiTrust Digital Library)
  • von Steinwehr, Adolph (1873). The Centennial Gazetteer of the United States. Philadelphia and Chicago: J. C. McCurdy & Company. LCCN 08033626. (The Centennial Gazetteer of the United States at the Internet Archive The Centennial Gazetteer of the United States at the HathiTrust Digital Library)
  • Cowen, M. V. B (1866). Indiana State Gazetteer and Shippers' Guide for 1866–67. Vol. 1. Lafayette, Indiana: Rosser, Spring & Cowen. OCLC 43856353. (Indiana State Gazetteer and Shippers' Guide for 1866–67 at the HathiTrust Digital Library)
  • de Colange, Leo (1884). The National Gazetteer: A geographical dictionary of the United States. London: Hamilton Adams & Company. LCCN 03009971. OCLC 4740756. (The National Gazetteer: A geographical dictionary of the United States at the Internet Archive)
  • Baker, Ronald L. (October 1995). From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-32866-3. (From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History at the Internet Archive)

Further reading

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