Otterbein, IN

Otterbein sits across the Benton–Tippecanoe county line, a small Indiana town laid out from a site once called Pond Grove. William Otterbein Brown donated land for the town, and the first sixty lots were laid out in 1872, with later additions following as the settlement grew. U.S. 52 runs along the north side, while the Kankakee, Beaverville and Southern Railroad cuts through the south side. The surrounding country is flat and open farmland, so the town reads as a railroad-and-road place set into the prairie. Otterbein Elementary and Benton Central carry the school connection, but the town’s basic story is still the original plat, the county line, and the tracks.