Galveston, IN

Galveston is a Cass County town seven miles northwest of Kokomo, laid out in 1854 and incorporated in 1870. The name probably follows Galveston, Texas, though the local folk version is the memorable “gal with a vest on.” Its present-day map sits between Kokomo and Logansport, with Town Hall on South California Street, utility business handled from the same civic core, and local government organized around the center. That gives Galveston one foot in the Kokomo orbit and the other in Cass County's rural road network.

Education and books give the town a couple of unusually specific institutions. The Galveston branch of Cass County Public Library operates from town, and Lewis Cass Polytechnic Academy carries the name of the former Galveston Elementary School. That keeps a school-centered identity in the local story even as the education system has changed around it. Galveston's local history is straightforward Hoosier town-making—an 1850s plat, 1870 incorporation, a Texas-flavored name, and a library-and-school center that still serves Jackson Township.