I’ve always loved traveling through forgotten burgs and tucked-away towns. Delaware County is full of them! One that always stuck with me is Progress. It’s barely more than a dot on the map, but we passed through it every time my stepdad picked me and my brother up from middle school. Once I looked up from my Nintendo, I began to wonder about its lone commercial structure. Who built it? What was it used for? Progress may be small, but it left a big impression on me.
Progress, Indiana, sits at the intersection of County Roads 500-South and 300-West, sometimes known as Progress Road. Samford Sharp platted the community on the path of the old Central Indiana Railway in 1903. His vision of Progress consisted of six blocks of ten lots1, but homes first sprung up around a post office in 19002. A few of them remain today.
Progress’ unique name was commendatory3, intended to attract people to the area. Other nearby places adopted similarly aspirational names around the same time, like Economy, Emporia, and Mechanicsburg. Unfortunately, there’s no economy in Economy and no emporiums in Emporia. There may be a mechanic or two in Mechanicsburg, but there’s little progress in Progress these days.
That was different around the turn of the twentieth century. In addition to its post office and train depot, Progress once featured a telegraph station, stockrooms, and even a grain elevator4! Today, the clearest reminder of its vibrant past is that single remaining commercial building I noticed once I pried my eyes away from Pokemon. It appears to have been built as a lodge for the Improved Order of Red Men, a fraternal organization established in 1834. Believe it or not, 400 members traveled from Muncie to christen the building in 1900!
Not long after, the lodge drew forty regular members5. In 1913, about a hundred and fifty Red Men and their wives celebrated the lodge’s anniversary. Muncie’s Arthur McKinney gave the keynote address on “Fraternalism and Organization,” followed by a musical program and banquet served by the lodge’s Pocohantas division6. As the lodge thrived, so did the community. By 1920, Progress boasted a service station, a blacksmith shop, and a general store.7.
Irving Kelso operated the Progress General Store in 1927 and promised the “highest grade merchandise,” in the form of groceries, meats, confections, dry goods, notions, and hardware, all with free delivery8. Apparently, Kelso’s Progress General Store was stocked by Muncie’s enormous Goddard Warehouse. Early every morning, the store’s proprietors would make the trip to the bustling city to gather enough supplies to keep its shelves full9.
The ritual connected tiny Progress to the broader commerce of Muncie, but it wasn’t to last: Progress’s fortunes faded after the railroad was dismantled in 192810. The town’s Koko Lodge, No. 286, lasted in the upper floor of the store until at least 1935, when it began talks to merge with Muncie’s larger lodge11. The general store eventually closed. Eventually, ts first floor became home to a small pool hall for teens12. The store appears to be a home today.
Progress quickly faded into a place most people drive through without a second thought. I must have ridden through it a hundred times before the weathered old store and lodge hall finally caught my attention! I don’t know if it looks anything like it did during its heyday, but the unexpected brick building transformed the community from a nameless blur into a place with history and character for me.
Progress may no longer be a bustling destination, but its story lives on in the structures that remain. Travelers will continue to drive along old Progress Road on their way to State Road 67. I hope they pause to see this often-overlooked community as a window into the resilience of small towns and the enduring legacy of their history.
Sources Cited
1 Sharp, S. (1903). Original Plat of the Town of Progress. Delaware County [Muncie]. Web. Retribed December 2, 2024.
2 Flook, C. (2019). Lost Towns of Delaware County, Indiana. The History Press [Charleston]. book.
3 Baker, R. L. (1995). From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History. Indiana University Press [Bloomington]. Book.
4 (See footnote 2).
5 City News (1900, April 21). The Muncie Times. p. 8.
6 Celebrate Anniversary (1913, April 25). The Muncie Morning Star. p. 2.
7 (See footnote 2).
8 Irving F. Kelso (1927, September 25). The Muncie Star. p. 47.
9 Ballman, P. Lost Muncie (2017, December 30). Dave Barrel a former Progress resident told me a story about this store. He remembered going to Goddard’s warehouse in [Comment]. Facebook.
10 Spurgeon, W. (1976, July 4). Some Towns Made It, Many Did Not in the County’s First 150 Years. The Muncie Star. p. 47.
11 A meeting (1935, April 11). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 10.
12 Hawk, J. Lost Muncie (2017, December 29). They had a pool hall in the 80s for younger people [Comment]. Facebook.
People tend to fly through these little burgs and spots in the road. I slow down if I can and try to imagine what’s not there and what it must have looked like another day and time. People are so arrogant in the way we think that what’s there now is the only thing that matters. I try to be respectful of the ghosts of what I do not see. It’s reassuring to know there are others who do the same!
“I try to be respectful of the ghosts of what I do not see.” Perfectly put! I, too, am glad to know others agree.
There’s comfort in numbers.
I bought and moved into the large three-story house in Progress in 1975. I was told it was built in 1912 when Emma Sharp inherited some money and wanted a house facing the east. She and her husband lived directly across the street in a log cabin at the time. The new house had a wrap-around porch that was eventually eaten away by carpenter ants.
The sidewalk still exists that was there for easier access from the new house to the old barn across the street. The barn was demolished just a few years ago. The log cabin was long gone by 1975. In 1978 or so, a house was built where the cabin stood. It was built by a couple that had lived in the log cabin as newly weds, Phil and Claudine Rogers. My daughter married their son. Phil grew up around Progress and tells as a boy walking along lighting leaks in the gas line that supplied houses from a gas well located in the original plat of Progress.
When originally purchased in 1975, the large house sat on 19 acres. In 1979 I sold 16 acres that butted against the platted Progress. It was then discovered that I did not have the deed to a 1/3 of an acre where the grain elevator had sat. It was in a triangle that was next to the railroad.
A history of Delaware County includes a picture of the operational store circa 1930 and also served as a two-pump “Sinclair” gas station.
Good information! Thanks for providing it. I’ll have to try and find that photo.