This is a photo looking north from the south edge of Tippecanoe, taken on my first visit ever to the area in summer 2000. I remembered the railroad tracks, which seemed to serve as a giant speed bump for the road into town. It’s as if the railroad grade didn’t deign to run at the same level as the town.

I’m sure there’s a good reason for that. There’s a river nearby that has to be crossed, and I suppose the higher the grade level, the better. But it reminds me of my first impression of the town.

A couple of weeks ago I found a description in the Marshall County history that was published in 1881. I had to laugh, because if you had shown me that description with the name of the town blacked out, and asked me which town in the area it was describing, I would without hesitation have told you “Tippecanoe”. Except that now in the 21st century it was too worn out and run down to be wicked any longer.

A writer for one of the local county papers, in 1872, described Tippecanoe Town… ” … The town enjoys the reputation of being somewhat wicked, but it is no more, perhaps, in this respect, than many other places that might be mentioned possessing superior advantages. Of all the inhabitants, there is not one man that makes any profession of religion. There has never yet been a house of worship erected in the place, or in the township, either, I am told. There are one or two schoolhouses where a few people assemble to worship their Creator. ….” While there was some truth in the writer’s statements, yet his opinions were undoubtedly warped by personal feelings. The people of Tippecanoe Town and the inhabitants of the township generally, are as moral and upright and as intelligent as are usually found in localities somewhat isolated from the benefits of an advanced civilization.

What a slam, eh? The county history writer distances himself from the popular prejudice against the town, but can’t help repeating it, anyway. (Nor can I, for that matter.) And such a polite way of saying the people are stupid, backward, uncivilized, and immoral!

Now why did Tippecanoe look to me like a town that once had a reputation like that? I’ll bet the above photo doesn’t give that impression to anyone else, even though it’s a reminder for me. My ride through there this summer certainly didn’t give that impression.

Maybe there are several factors. For one, there is another spot on the map, just to the north, called “Old Tip Town.” That’s where Tippecanoe was in the 1870s. It later moved a mile south to be next to the railroad when it came though. A name like that evokes a certain image.

And maybe it was also some of the places I had been riding through before I got there.

Here I had happened upon an old church cemetery. The foundation of the church was still there, as were the concrete steps leading up into it, all overgrown with vegetation. A marker said, “Former site of Saint Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church Toisa / 1853 1931.” It put me in a ghost-town frame of mind.

And somewhere between that cemetery and Tippecanoe, I came across this bridge. No, it’s not one I rode across. I presume that’s the Tippecanoe River flowing under it, but I don’t remember just where this bridge was. Was it at Old Tip Town? I didn’t see anything like it when I was there this time. I suppose it didn’t have a great future ahead of it back in 2000, so maybe it no longer exists.

The cemetery and bridge could easily have given me the impression that I was in an old, decrepit corner of Indiana. But what about the “once-wicked” part? I guess I don’t have a good excuse for that.