Topeka, IN

Topeka is a LaGrange County town spread across Clearspring and Eden townships, about 11 miles south of Shipshewana. The 2020 census counted 1,206 residents. Town hall, the waterworks, farm businesses, and the Topeka branch of the LaGrange County Public Library sit around the main intersection. The library is half a block from the center of town, close to the pharmacy and other everyday stops. Larger shopping, medical, and county-government trips run toward Shipshewana, LaGrange, and the rest of northern Indiana.

The settlement began in the spring of 1832 as Hawpatch. It was platted in 1893 and incorporated in August 1913, with its own waterworks soon afterward. The town's name was likely chosen because the surrounding landscape reminded settlers of Topeka, Kansas. Agriculture and small industry have always shared the local economy, and the road pattern still carries farm equipment, school traffic, and ordinary errands through the center. Topeka is a northern Indiana town with a practical civic core, a library close to Main Street, and a rural landscape that remains part of the town's daily work.