Desoto 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 Delaware Township, Delaware County,

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

DeSoto, Indiana, was originally platted as the village of Woodlawn on January 15, 1881, by landowner Luther L. Perdieu. The settlement developed around the new

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

& Western Railroad

depot Depot may refer to: Places * Depot, Poland, a village * Depot Glacier (disambiguation) * Depot Island (disambiguation) * Depot Nunatak * Depot Peak Brands and enterprises * Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in Chicago, United States * Of ...

in southeastern Delaware Township. Perdieu laid out sixteen lots along the tracks, and the village quickly grew, with

sawmills A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimens ...

and businesses emerging to support the local economy. However, when Perdieu applied for a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, the name "Woodlawn" was rejected due to its similarity to another Indiana post office. He then resubmitted the application under the name "DeSoto," likely in homage to the Spanish explorer

Hernando de Soto Hernando de Soto (; ; 1497 – 21 May 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, ...

. DeSoto expanded in 1883 when Isaac Worley platted additional lots to the west. By the end of that year, it had developed into a small but thriving community with multiple stores, mills, and a blacksmith shop. In 1893, an adjacent development called East Muncie was planned to attract industry, but the project collapsed following the Panic of 1893. East Muncie was eventually absorbed into DeSoto, which remained an informal village without legal incorporation. DeSoto's early economic growth was fueled by rail and interurban transportation. In 1905, the Muncie and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

Traction Company established an interurban route through the village, later absorbed into the Union Traction system. Many residents found employment at Indiana Steel and Wire in Muncie, commuting via interurban trains. In 1908, a new school was built, consolidating several smaller township schools. The rise of DeSoto coincided with the decline of the nearby hamlet of Clifton, a small agricultural settlement that had thrived before the Civil War but was ultimately bypassed by the railroad. With frequent flooding and the shift to rail transport, Clifton gradually disappeared, while DeSoto continued to develop as its successor.

References

Unincorporated communities in Delaware County, Indiana Unincorporated communities in Indiana {{DelawareCountyIN-geo-stub