Rob Roy, Indiana
{{Use American English|date=July 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name = Rob Roy, Indiana
|settlement_type = Unincorporated community and Census-designated place
|motto =
|image_skyline = Rob Roy covered bridge.png
|imagesize =
|image_caption = Rob Roy covered bridge
|image_map = Map of Indiana highlighting Fountain County.svg
|mapsize = 150px
|map_caption = Fountain County's location in Indiana
|image_map1 =
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|image_dot_map =
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|dot_x =
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|pushpin_map = USA Indiana Fountain County
|pushpin_label = Rob Roy
|pushpin_label_position =
|pushpin_map_caption = Rob Roy's location in Fountain County
|pushpin_mapsize =
|subdivision_type = Country
|subdivision_name = United States
|subdivision_type1 = State
|subdivision_name1 = Indiana
|subdivision_type2 = County
|subdivision_name2 = Fountain
|subdivision_type3 = Township
|subdivision_name3 = Shawnee
|established_title =
|established_date =
|area_total_km2 =
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|coordinates = {{coord|40|14|29|N|87|15|03|W|region:US-IN|display=inline,title}}
|elevation_ft = 637
|founder =
|named_for = Rob Roy
|postal_code_type = ZIP code
|postal_code = 47918
|area_code =
|blank_name = FIPS code
|blank_info = 18-65178{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=2008-01-31|title=U.S. Census website}}
|blank1_name = GNIS feature ID
|blank1_info = 2830373{{GNIS|2830373}}
|website =
|footnotes =
}}
Rob Roy is an unincorporated community in Shawnee Township, Fountain County, Indiana.
History
The town of Rob Roy was named after the Scottish patriot Robert Roy MacGregor{{cite book|last=Baker|first=Ronald L.|title=From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History|url=https://archive.org/details/fromneedmoretopr00bake|url-access=registration|date=October 1995|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-32866-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/fromneedmoretopr00bake/page/n300 283]|quote=..named for the Scottish outlaw Rob Roy...}} by local John I. Foster, a lover of literature who was especially fond of Walter Scott's novels. Foster, described as an inventor and a worker of iron, lived in Rob Roy for six or seven years and founded a Methodist church there.
The town was platted circa 1826 and contained 48 lots, with a further addition on the east side by Hiram Jones in 1829. A writer in 1833 described Rob Roy as a small interior village with few inhabitants but increasing in improvement and population; by 1836 it had "five dry goods stores and four groceries, a hotel, three physicians, and was in the center of a very active settlement." The passage of the Chicago and Block Coal Railway through the town also stimulated growth, but competition with nearby Attica (which was on the Wabash and Erie Canal) eventually led to Rob Roy's demise.{{cite book
| last = Beckwith
| first = H. W.
| title = History of Fountain County
| url = https://archive.org/stream/historyoffountai00beck#page/n629/mode/2up
| year = 1881
| publisher = H. H. Hill and N. Iddings
| location = Chicago
| pages = 342–343
| chapter = Shawnee Township
| editor = Thomas A. Clifton
| title = Past and Present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana
| url = https://archive.org/stream/pastpresentoffou01clif#page/282/mode/2up
| year = 1913
| publisher = B. F. Bowen & Co.
| location = Indianapolis
| page = 168
}}
The post office in Rob Roy was established in 1832, and discontinued in 1906.{{cite web | url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=IN&county=Fountain&searchtext=&pagenum=2 | title=Fountain County | publisher=Jim Forte Postal History | accessdate=7 September 2014}}
Rob Roy was heavily damaged by a tornado in April 1953.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=348&dat=19530410&id=j69MAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UjEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1143,6729084|title=Midwest Tornadoes Leave Three Dead|newspaper=Rome News-Tribune|location=Rome, Georgia|date=April 10, 1953}} Today the town consists of a small gathering of homes.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Fountain County, Indiana}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Unincorporated communities in Fountain County, Indiana
Category:Unincorporated communities in Indiana