Lee, Indiana

The site of what is now Lee is first recorded as a station stop on the Indianapolis, Delphi and Chicago Railroad,{{cite web | title = Monon Railroad Historical Technical Society: McCoysburg | url = https://monon.org/bygone_site/bygone/mccoysburgh.php | accessdate = 10 September 2022 | quote = Lee. MP 83.1 1st Subdivision. Named for the President of the Indianapolis, Delphi and Chicago Railroad, John Lee, this community was founded in 1883. The station name appears on timetables of the ID&C as early as 1878. The community was a grain market.}} a company which by late 1879 had completed its initial 40-mile stretch of railroad connecting Rensselaer and Delphi.{{citation | title = The Indianian, Volumes 3-4 | pages = 414–415 | year = 1898 | publisher = Indiana Trustees' Association | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=c_MTAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA414 | quote = In 1872 a company was organized to construct a narrow gauge railroad from Indianapolis to Chicago, under the title of the Indianapolis, Delphi and Chicago Railroad. By the latter part of 1879 about forty miles of this projected road, that part running from Delphi to Rensselaer, was built and opened for traffic.}} The following year on 25 October{{citation | last = Baker | first = Ronald L. | title = From Needmore to Prosperity | publisher = Indiana University Press | year = 1995 | page = 194 | quote = A post office was established on October 25, 1880; closed on June 30, 1933. The village was named for John Lee, president of the Indianapolis, Delphi, and Chicago Railroad, who developed a grain market here.}} a post office was established at the location to serve the rural districts northwest of Monon with Calvin Anderson as its first postmaster.{{citation | last = Goodspeed | first = Weston Arthur | title = Counties of White and Pulaski, Indiana: Historical and Biographical | publisher = F. A. Battey & Co.; reproduced by Unigraphic | year = 1883 |page = 172 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=amxFAQAAMAAJ&q=lee%2C+monon&pg=PT22 | quote = Lee Post Office, in the northwest corner of the township, was established about the year 1880. The first Postmaster was Calvin Anderson. He was succeeded, late in 1882, by Mr. Hoover, the present encumbent.}}{{citation | last = Bass | first = Cotter | title = The Treasure Hunter's Guide To Indiana's Lost & Buried Treasures: Plus Ghost Towns & Historic Sites | publisher = BookRix | year = 2020 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UQcOEAAAQBAJ&dq=Lee%2C+White+County%2C+Indiana&pg=PT445 | isbn = 9783748767732}} Around 1884 the railroad became known as the Monon Route.{{cite web | title = Monon Route | publisher = Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railway | year = 1947 | url = https://monon.org/documents/timetables/june9-1947timetable.pdf | accessdate = 7 September 2022}}

Lee was established in 1883 and named for John Lee, the president of the ID&C Railroad, who opened a grain market there.{{citation | last1 = Baker | first1 = Ronald L. | last2 = Carmony | first2 = Marvin | title = Indiana Place Names | publisher = Indiana University Press | year = 1975 | page = 89 | quote = Lee, village in White County. Established in 1883 as a grain market by John Lee, president of the Indianapolis, Delphi, and Chicago Railroad and named for him.}} Lee's location in the northwestern portion of the county{{citation | title = Carroll-White Counties Indiana Official Plat Book 2010: Including Index of Owners, City Street Maps | publisher = Athentic, Inc. | place = Laporte, Indiana | edition = 10th | year = 2010 |page = 57 |quote = }} was "a rich district of drained lands, admirably adapted to live stock," and as well as a place for marketing and shipping grain it was also an important local shipping point for hay; a 1915 history notes that hundreds of tons were baled and shipped annually.{{citation | last = Hamelle | first = W. H. | title = A Standard History of White County, Indiana: An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with an Extended Survey of Modern Developments in the Progress of Town and Country | publisher = University of Wisconsin - Madison | year = 1915 |pages = 209–210 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kVA0AQAAMAAJ&q=Lee,+White+County,+Indiana | isbn = | quote = The only existing postoffice in Monon Township outside the village is Lee, in the northwest corner, about a mile from the Jasper County line on the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago (Monon) Railroad... In August of [1886] it was platted by Benjamin A. Linville and Noble J. York, who laid out 120 lots on fractions of sections 3, 10 and 11, township 28 north, range 5 west. It is about five miles northwest of Monon and is the center of a rich district of drained lands, admirably adapted to live stock... Oakdale, or Lee, is an important shipping point for hay. Hundreds of tons are baled at the station every year and shipped abroad, and, with the improvement of the surrounding farming lands, it has become an equally good point for the marketing and shipping of grain.}}

In August 1886 the location was platted under the name of Oakdale by Noble J. York, a local businessman and president of the Monon town board,{{citation | title = Biographical History of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski Counties, Indiana, Volume 2 | publisher = Lewis Publishing Company | location = Chicago | year = 1899 | pages = 821–823 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NhUVAAAAYAAJ}} and Benjamin A. Linville, but it was generally known as Lee. In 1949, a petition led to one of Lee's street being vacated .{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/262073984/?terms=%22Lee+Indiana+monon%22&match=1|title= School Teachers...| date = July 8, 1949 |page = 6 |newspaper = Journal and Courier (at Newspapers.com)}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/262128857/?terms=%22Lee+Indiana+monon%22&match=1|title = Board will review White tax budgets|date=September 10, 1949 |page = 10 |newspaper= Journal and Courier (at Newspapers.com)}}

Lee's post office closed on 30 June 1933.{{cite web | title = White County | url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=IN&county=White | publisher = Jim Forte Postal History | accessdate = 6 July 2016 | quote = Lee (1880-1933)}} The line through Lee is now part of CSX Transportation Monon Subdivision{{cite web | title = Indiana Railroad System | publisher = Indiana Geological Survey (Appendix) | year = 2007 | url = https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/energy/assets/pdfs/cctr/researchReports/IU-IGCC_Final_Report_2008/Appendix4.pdf | accessdate = 7 September 2022}} and is used by Amtrak. While shown on Amtrak maps, service provided on the Cardinal (and previously also on the Hoosier State) does not stop at Lee.{{cite web |title = Cardinal |publisher = Amtrak |year = 2022 |url = https://www.amtrak.com/cardinal-train|accessdate = September 19, 2022}}

In 2016, Helen Louise George, an 88-year resident of the area, published History and Reflections of Lee, Indiana which chronicles the history of Lee.{{cite news | last = Sievers | first = Caitlin | date = 27 December 2016 | title = Area senior publishes first book at 88 years old | url = https://www-newsbug-info.translate.goog/monticello_herald_journal/area-senior-publishes-first-book-at-88-years-old/article_77967e14-cc8c-11e6-8750-e7ab1c165cd4.html?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=nl&_x_tr_hl=nl&_x_tr_pto=sc | work = Herald Journal | publication-place = Monticello, Indiana | accessdate = 8 September 2022}}

Lee is located at {{coord|40|53|47|N|86|58|05|W|type:city}} about {{convert|5|mi}} northwest of Monon near the intersection of County Roads 1000 North and 500 West{{citation | title = Family Maps of White County, Indiana: with homesteads, roads, waterways, towns, cemeteries, railroads, and more | last = Boyd

| first = Gregory A. | year = 2010

| publisher = Arphax Publishing | isbn = 978-1-4203-2023-7 | quote = Map D Index: Cities and Towns of White County Indiana: Lee.}} and on the rail line between Monon and Rensselaer.{{cite map | title = Railroad map of Indiana | date = c. 1896 | publisher = Indiana State Board of Tax Commissioners | scale = 1:570,240 | url = https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4091p.rr002140/?r=0.275,0.3,0.154,0.079,0 | access-date = 11 September 2022

}} The surrounding farmland is drained by Slough Creek, a tributary of the Iroquois River{{cite web | url = https://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/references/public/IN/Iroquois.pdf | title = Iroquois Watershed | date = Winter 2013 | website = NRCS Field Office Technical Guide | publisher = USDA | access-date = 10 September 2022}} that flows just south of Lee in a westward direction.

File:WhiteCounty.IN.map.1908.png|White County map, 1908

File:WhiteCounty.IN.(NW detail map).png|Monon Township map detail, 1920

File:Monon church 14.jpg|Abandoned church in Lee in 2019

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web | title = Cram's Township and Rail Road Map of Indiana | year = 1888 | url = https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4091p.rr002130/?r=0.229,0.319,0.258,0.131,0 | website = Library of Congress}}
• {{cite web | title = Monon Township, New Bedford, Lee (map detail) | publisher = Geo. Ogle & Co. | year = 1896 | url = http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/214884/Monon+Township++New+Bedford++Lee+++Left/White+County+1896/Indiana/ | website = Historic Map Works}}
• {{cite web | title = White County, Indiana (map detail) | publisher = Geo. Ogle & Co. | year = 1908 | url = https://www.mygenealogyhound.com/maps/indiana-maps/IN-White-County-Indiana-1908-map.html | website = My Genealogy Hound}}
• {{cite web | title = Outline Map of White County, Indiana | publisher = Kenyon and Company | year = 1920 | url = https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc035/id/197 | website = Indiana Historical Society}}
• [https://fineartamerica.com/featured/left-behind-abandoned-church-steve-gass.html Abandoned church at Lee] (image)

{{White County, Indiana}}

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Category:Unincorporated communities in White County, Indiana

Category:Unincorporated communities in Indiana