Kinsey, Indiana

Kinsey, Indiana
Unincorporated community
Kinsey Show map of Indiana Kinsey Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 41°05′46″N85°42′18″W / 41.09611°N 85.70500°W / 41.09611; -85.70500
Country	United States
State	Indiana
County	Kosciusko
Township	Jackson
Elevation [1]	866 ft (264 m)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code	46510
GNIS feature ID	437345 [1]

Kinsey or Kinzie was an unincorporated town in Jackson Township, Kosciusko County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. ^[1] Platted in the 1880s with the hope of becoming a thriving town along the new rail line (the Nickel Plate Road), after some brief growth in the 1890s, it largely reverted to only a train stop. A small portion of the original town plat stayed in place until 2017.

Geography

The community was located around the intersection of County Road 950S and County Road 700E, about 3.5 miles east of Sidney along the rail line.

History

The railroad was extended to Kinsey in the early 1880s. ^{[2] [3]} A post office opened as Kinzie in 1882, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1907. ^{[4] [5]}

Kinsey was platted in 1883 with 80 lots; early on it was listed as Kinzie in documents. There was a general store there until at least 1911. The location proved less than ideal for a train station, because the rail line had an uphill grade when it passed the station, so when trains stopped they had to back down the slope before starting again. The difficulty of trains stopping, the burning down of the local sawmill, in addition to the relative greater success of nearby towns like Sidney and Packerton to the west, and the rise of automobile use, all contributed to Kinsey's failure to thrive. Much of the town plat was vacated in 1924 for farm use, and a 1990s county history reports that nothing existed of the town by the 1930s. ^[6] However, a small portion of the original plat remained in place until 2017. ^[7]

The population was 25 in 1890, ^[8] and was 28 in 1900. ^[9]

See also

• Indiana portal

• Gravelton, Indiana

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Kinsey, Indiana
2. Royse, L. W. (1919). A Standard History of Kosciusko County, Indiana. Lewis Publishing Company. p.  371.
3. (10 April 2023). Timeline From The Past: Nickel Plate Railroad, Ink Free News ("Kinzie and Dodgertown were on the map at this time.")
4. "Kosciusko County". Jim Forte Postal History. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
5. Baker, Ronald L. (October 1995). From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History . Indiana University Press. p.  185. ISBN   978-0-253-32866-3. A post office called Kinzie was established...
6. Coplen, Daniel L. Kosciusko County, Indiana: An Oral and Pictorial History, p. 221-22 (1997) ("was located in the Eel Rivers area of the county's southeast corner, it thrived for a few years in the 1890s, then faded away because of inefficient rail service", "grew up in the Kinzie area, agrees that by the 1930s, nothing existed of the town. 'There was really nothing there when I remember ...'")
7. (7 August 2017). Small Community Of Kinsey Ceases To Exist, Ink Free News
8. Cram, George Franklin (1891). Cram's Universal Atlas: Geographical, Astronomical and Historical, Containing a Complete Series of Maps of Modern Geography, Illustrated by Numerous Views and Charts; the Whole Supplemented with Valuable Statistics, Diagrams, and a Complete Gazetteer of the United States. G.F. Cram. p. 365.
9. Cram's Modern Atlas: The New Unrivaled. J. R. Gray & Company. 1900. p. 135.