Atwood is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Prairie Township, and Harrison Township, Kosciusko County, in the

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Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

History

Originally named "Mount Ruska," Atwood was laid out as a village by Harvey Hunt and Agnes Teegarden on September 29, 1857. It was situated at an important trading point due to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railway passing through the area in 1856. A post office was established in 1864. By a petition of the citizens in 1865, the town's name was officially changed to Atwood. The petition cited the fact that the location had come to be known and designated on railroad maps as "Atwood Station." After the name change, the community expanded in geographic size with the inclusions from 1866 to 1868 of Longyear’s, Williamson’s, Green’s, and Wray’s additions to the original village plat. The first church building in Atwood was constructed by Methodist volunteers in 1868, using donated lumber from the wooded area south of town known as “Carpenter’s Woods.” The land upon which the church was built first belonged to Ira Atwood, an early area landowner. The first school building was erected in 1878. As the community developed, businesses began to crop up and thrive along the village’s Main Street, which served as a connection to the county seat of

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. “Then Atwood had it’s little season of hopes,” wrote Judge Lemuel Royse in his 1919 history of Kosciusko County, but “with small fruition; for it was too near Warsaw to control any considerable territory.” Despite its small size, for years the community had a respectable business base, supporting grocery stores, hardwares, restaurants, factories, mills, and other small business operations. The

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is one of the first transcontinental highways in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated Octob ...

was built and passed through the heart of the town in 1927, bringing many new travelers and economic opportunities. The modern, four-lane U.S. 30 was constructed north of town in 1972, however, syphoning traffic and business away from the area. Concerned citizens established a volunteer fire department in 1946, and it remains in operation today. Though the community never incorporated to become a municipality, it has a

community building Community building is a field of practices directed toward the creation or enhancement of community among individuals within a regional area (such as a neighborhood) or with a common need or interest. It is often encompassed under the fields o ...

, owned and operated by a nonprofit board of private citizens, and streetlights throughout the town, which have been maintained and funded by the Atwood

Lions Club Lions Clubs International, is an international service organization, currently headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. , it had over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members (including the youth wing Leo clubs, Leo) in more than 200 ge ...

since 1960.

Geography

Atwood is situated along the border between Prairie and Harrison Townships in Kosciusko County, with the northern portion of the town lying in Prairie and the southern portion in Harrison. The community is southeast of Hoffman Lake, northeast of Crystal Lake, and north of the nearby Tippecanoe River. Atwood 1909 vs 2024

Schools

The Atwood High School was constructed in 1909. The school mascot was a Greyhound. The Atwood boys' basketball team won a regional championship in the1921-1922 season. A gymnasium was added to the school building in 1949. Prior to that, the basketball team played its home games in a separate building across town or in the gym of neighboring Etna Green. The high school shut down in 1962, but the building continued to house the Atwood Elementary School until its closure in 2005. Today the building serves as a church. Those who had attended the Atwood school now attend Warsaw Community High School.

Notable people

* Harold Achor; Justice of the

Indiana Supreme Court The Indiana Supreme Court, established by Article 7 of the Indiana Constitution, is the highest judicial authority in the state of Indiana. Located in Indianapolis, the Court's chambers are in the north wing of the Indiana Statehouse. In Dec ...

Emery Andrew Rovenstine Emery Andrew Rovenstine (July 20, 1895 – November 9, 1960) was an American anesthesiologist best known for organizing the first academic Department of Anesthesiology at New York's Bellevue Hospital. He also helped develop the anesthetic use for ...

; renowned anesthesiologist

References

Unincorporated communities in Kosciusko County, Indiana 1857 establishments in Indiana Unincorporated communities in Indiana {{KosciuskoCountyIN-geo-stub