Last year, I wrote about NIOIO Estates, an addition in Delaware County with one of the strangest names I’ve ever encountered. The neighborhood’s origins perplexed me every time I passed, but recent insight from a couple friends of this blog shed some light on the mystery.
NIOIO Estates sits on State Road 32 between Yorktown and Daleville. I’ve formed a habit of yelling its name loudly as I pass! Here’s what I wrote about the place last summer: the land that makes up NIOIO was once the farm of O. A. Tucker, a World War I veteran and doctor who practiced in Daleville for more than fifty years1.
Tucker and his wife, Lillian, named their property NIOIO Farm2. The farm was widely-known as a community gathering place. Cross country meets3, Halloween parties, and all manner of celebrations were held at NIOIO until Tucker died in 1963.
The NIOIO Estates addition was platted after Dr. Tucker’s death in 1963. Despite considerable efforts, I hadn’t uncovered why the Tuckers chose that unique name for their property when I wrote about it. I didn’t even know how to pronounce it correctly! I assumed it had Native American origins based on street names like Council and Arrow, but the closest native settlement sat two miles northeast4.
The first section of the neighborhood was platted a year after Tucker died. Soon after my post went live, I learned that reader decotriumph grew up in the area. He solved one mystery by commenting that the proper pronunciation of NIOIO Estates is with long vowels like “NYE-oh-eye-oh5.” Here I’d been calling it “NEE-oh-eee-oh” like a rube!
Decotriumph also told me that a developer named Leon Calvert was responsible for the addition. Born in Trafalgar, Indiana, in 1919, Calvert and his dad ran a canning factory in Daleville before he decided to start building houses6. Over time, Calvert’s mid-century modern homes became highly regarded. Outside of NIOIO, they can still be found in Delaware County additions like Rivercrest, Kimberlee Acres, Yorkchester Park, and Beverly Heights.
More information came in. A couple weeks ago, reader Kenton W. Main provided some additional history about NIOIO Estates. Like decotriumph, he also grew up in the area. In fact, Dr. Tucker was his family physician! In those days, Tucker’s barn -embellished with the enigmatic appellation- was a community landmark. Unfortunately, it seems to have been demolished in the early 90s.
As a kid, Main heard stories about Doc Tucker’s farm being named after an aircraft identification (#N-1010). Eventually, he asked him about it. Tucker said Nioio was a Native American who was one of his ancestors7, and there you have it. I was shocked to find that two quick comments solved the mystery of NIOIO!
I’m glad to be able to shout out the addition’s name properly as I drive by. I’m also happy my theory about Native American origins proved correct! That said, the new information raised as many questions as it answered. Most of mine revolve around that Nioio fella. Just who was he? I mean no disrespect for Dr. Tucker, but I wonder if he really existed.
Unfortunately, primary sources about the Native American presence in Indiana are often untrustworthy or incomplete. The name “Nioio” is absent from county histories written by Helm, Kemper, and Haimbaugh. That said, it’s possible that Nioio lived in the Lenape settlement called Owenachki or Hockingspa’s Village. It stood just a few miles northeast of the addition on what’s sometimes called Old Indian Hill8.
Figuring out whether someone named Nioio really resided near Dr. Tucker’s land in southwestern Delaware County requires expertise in Native American history. I don’t have it, but I figured a place named NIOIO Estates would feature a compelling backstory. It does, and I’m glad decotriumph and Kenton Main could help fill it in.
Postcript: A friend reached out shortly after this post went live. His cousin was the grandson of Dr. O.A. Tucker, and a family history relates the true origins of NIOIO. Tucker bought the farm in 1947 and struggled to come up with a name for it. Inspiration struck after he purchased a new boat: the trailer had a license plate reading N1010!
Tucker liked the way the name sounded vaguely Native American and had his barn inscribed with it. Apparently, a Ball State professor once stopped to ask about it. In jest, he told the scholar that it was the name of an old Delaware Indian Chief buried on the property. The professor didn’t pick up on the joke and visited several times to find the grave. He never did because it didn’t exist9 .
Now we know!
Sources Cited
1 Tucker Rites To Be Monday (1963, June 29). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 7.
2 Daleville (1956, August 28). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 12.
3 Runners Needed (1966, September 15). The Muncie Star. p. 30.
4 Flook, C. (2019). Lost Towns of Delaware County, Indiana. The History Press [Charleston]. book.
5 decotriumph (2023, July 23). Ted, I grew up in Daleville in the 1950s and 1960s. Leon Calvert was the developer of Nioio Estates. [Comment on the post “This coping mechanism makes me sound crazier than the bipolar does”]. TedShideler.com.
6 I. Leon Calvert (2006, September 12). The Muncie Star Press. p. 15.
7 Main, Kenton W. (2024, March 12). Ted, The question of NIOIO Estates appeared on one of “our” Daleville pages today. I grew up very near there [Comment on the post “Exploring State Road 32 between Muncie and Anderson on my birthday”]. TedShideler.com.
8 (See footnote 4).
9 Careins, R. (2024, April 21). I have a cousin whose Mother was the daughter of Dr O A Tucker. He has many fond memories of [Comment on the post “I wrote about the Salem Township addition NIOIO Estates last year wondering where the name possibly came from.”]. Facebook.
A place with that name just begs to be in Ohio. At first I thought it was onion spelled backwards, but I realized I would have to buy an N.