Wheeling 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 Washington Township, Gibson 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 ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The community contains a historic

covered bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

over the Patoka River, the Wheeling Bridge, completed in 1877.

History

Wheeling was originally named Kirksville, and under the latter name was platted in 1856. It was once a thriving agricultural community on the banks of the

Patoka River The Patoka River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 tributary of the Wabash River in southwestern Indiana in the United States. It drains a largely rural ...

until the railroad bypassed the community and it lost business to nearby towns. The village of Wheeling was platted July 4, 1856. It was first called Kirksville, sometimes spelled Kirkville. It may have been named for Robert Kirk, an early judge. The community was also locally known as Bovine. A post office called Bovine was established on April 4, 1854, but closed on July 14, 1902.

References

Unincorporated communities in Gibson County, Indiana Unincorporated communities in Indiana {{GibsonCountyIN-geo-stub