Alcinda or Indian Village
Although many people laugh when the little burg of Indian Village is spoken of, it has a very interesting history, which they probably have neither heard nor read.
The Indians were the first to settle here, and they built their wigwams upon the hill where the Indian Village cemetery is now located. Their cemetery was located about two or three miles from this village in the woods belonging to the John Lohr farm. This cemetery was not used until the white man came and convinced them to bury their dead. The Indian custom was to leave their dead unburied, protected only by a rude pen of logs built around them. The first Indian buried there was a chief who had drowned in High Lake. The Chief's horse was led to the grave and shot at the time of the funeral.
William Davis opened a grocery store in which he established the first Post Office, named Alcinda, in honor of his wife. On May 13, 1896, William A. Stoner took over as Postmaster. The office was discontinued December 6, 1902.
Excerpted from Ghost Towns of Noble County - by T.C. Holcomb:
In Sparta Township, Section 31, on Indiana 5 is what was once an Indian Reservation. Indian Village had a Post Office (at intervals) between January 30, 1867 and April 9, 1888.
Indian Village has had four school houses. The last one burned about 1920. At one time the enrollment was 108.
About the first grocery store was owned by Mr. PUFFINBARGER. Later a blacksmith shop was operated by "Hub" JOHNSON.
Several years later SCHLOSSER Brothers operated a cream station here. The burg has had many business places but in late years only a store operated in its memory. (The last store discontinued, probably in the 1940's).
To this day, Indian Village consists of the following: Two churches, one store, five dwellings, six adjoining farms, five roads, a cemetery on a hill, 2 bridges, the Indian Village Lake and Turkey Creek and still can boast of a tribe of little Indians of which I am one.
(As written by Karyll Eloise Stoner, July 30, 1936 – courtesy of Chancy and Ruby Himes.)