Hesston 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 Galena Township, LaPorte 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

Originally called Mayes' Corners after Matthew Mayes opened a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

1835 Events January–March * January 7 – anchors off the Chonos Archipelago on her second voyage, with Charles Darwin on board as naturalist. * January 8 – The United States public debt contracts to zero, for the only time in history. ...

. In 1857, Valentine Smith established a sawmill west of Mayes' Corner near the Galena River. It burned in 1862. In 1865, the

Christian Church In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus Christ. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a syn ...

established a congregation in this area with Rev. Caleb Davis leading the congregation, before he moved to Michigan. P.M. Hess came to the township in 1856 from New York and began farming. He ran a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, 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 ...

and operated a store, contributing his name to the location.Chapman, Charles C.; History of LaPorte County, Indiana: History of Indiana, Illustrated: Chas Chapman & Co., Chicago, Illinois; 1880 pgs 693-708 A post office was established at Hesston in 1877, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1900. The community was named for P. M. Hess, an early settler.

Culture

The

Hesston Steam Museum Hesston Steam Museum is an outdoor museum operated by the La Porte County Historical Steam Society in Hesston, Indiana. It is located at 1201 E 1000 N, La Porte, IN 46350. The museum occupies 155 acres and is the home of four different gauge ...

, which contains several railroads with multiple track gauges including

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

, gauge, and gauge, is located just west of Hesston.

References

Unincorporated communities in Indiana Unincorporated communities in LaPorte County, Indiana {{LaPorteCountyIN-geo-stub