Post office central to Camden since town's inception

Camden, located in Jackson Township, Carroll County, is recognizing 175 years of its existence with a special two-day celebration this weekend. What follows below is a brief look back at Camden's beginning and earlier years.

The township section was sold in 1830 for $1,500 and 16 acres were reserved for the purpose of laying out a town plat.

According to a township history book written by Otto C. Sterling in 1916, the village received its name from a post office located a mile west of town in the home of John Snoeberger. It was customary for the postal service to name its post offices, and Camden was born.

Residents received mail at Snoeberger's "Camden" post office for several years. The office, along with its name, were moved to the village in 1832 once it was established with five or six residences.

Only five buildings existed at the time. One that housed a grocery store stood where the library is located today. The other buildings were log dwellings. Around the same time another store was opened where Cree Funeral Home now stands.

Camden Post Office 1910

Camden was originally laid out in a row of lots on the north and south sides of a public road that came to be known as Main St. The road was often muddy and was lined with dense brush and undergrowth on both sides. The first sidewalks were paths along the road.

Early town growth was first established westward from present-day Water Street.

Camden Depot, formerly located on the northwest corner of Main and Church streets, originally housed a passenger train service. When the service was discontinued, Dr. B.C. Kerkhove purchased the building to use as a dentist's office.

Within the town's east corporate limits was the double log cabin of Johnathon Martin. He owned several lots in the town proper. From those he donated one and a half acres for a cemetery and church.

Around 1835 a church that doubled as a school was built on the donated grounds at the cemetery's northeast corner.

First to teach there was Ms. Nellie McDonald, a sister of one of the early merchants. During the Civil War the church was re-organized,

Camden Depot 1900

but the building was still used as a school for the next 20 years.

Eventually the building was lost to a fire and a new twostory

school was built on a different plot in town. Later a third story was added and used by the Interna- tional Order of Odd Fellows and for comm unity affairs.

Shortly after completion of the Logansport, Crawfordsville and Southwestern Railway, a grain warehouse was erected at the east end of town. Around 1871, another warehouse was built in town. Both were destroyed in fires, and in 1875 the town's grain business was consolidated when grain dealers Ray and Rice purchased both interests.

A few years after that a brick two-story school was erected at the school's present site. In 1876 two rooms were added on the west side. In 1899 the main school building was erected. In 1920 a gymnasium was added to the east side of the building.

Dr. Armstrong built a brick home in 1865 on part of a farm he owned extending east and north of town. Areas south and east of Main St. were wooded at the time. A road tunneled under the street led from the residence to the woods.

When the railroad was built through the area in 1869, homes and businesses began to sprout east through town. In 1881, Dr. Armstrong donated land for a Baptist church.

On Oct. 30, 1897, an entire block of homes and stores was destroyed by fire, along with a Presbyterian church across the street. According to resident Nettie Windle from a Camden history book, "The fire was started by children playing with matches in a nearby barn."

Main Street was paved with bricks in 1912. The same year Asa Cline built a garage that became Camden Auto Co. It was then owned and operated by Harold and Floyd Wyatt and George Clem.

A livery owned by J.H. Lesh stood on the site of Legion Hall from the 1920s to 1962.

Renovations were again made to the school in 1951 with the addition of a new gym on the east side of the old one. It contained several classrooms, a large shop, a band room and a stage. At the time it was the largest gym in the county. The Class of 1965 was the first to hold commencement there.

The main school building burned while being torn down in 1966. The present facility was then built to accommodate elementary students from Burrows, Rockfield and Camden. Through consolidation, junior high and high school students were bussed to Delphi.

Camden's population once exceeded 800. Changing times, including the loss of passenger train service, caused the closing of many places of business that once thrived in the town.