Converse, IN

Converse is a town split between Jackson Township in Miami County and Richland Township in Grant County, Indiana. It began as Xenia, laid out in 1849, and grew into a railroad town with three lines passing through. By 1910, as many as 24 passenger trains stopped in Converse each day. That rail traffic brought lumber companies, stores, and a busy connection between farm country and the Wabash Valley.

ATTRNyttend / Public domain

Natural gas created the next boom. After wells were found in 1887, the Xenia Real Estate Company offered free land, fuel, and cash to industries willing to move in. Glass, foundry, and machine-shop ventures followed, but the gas supply declined and the rush faded within two decades. Converse has kept the lesson in its local memory: railroads and natural gas could change the town quickly, and both could leave a different town behind. Today Oak Hill United School Corporation, the Converse-Jackson Township Public Library, local banks, and town services give the community its current center, while Pipe Creek and the roads toward the Wabash keep the older landscape close.