Read time: 4 min.

My mom and I were zipping through southern Wayne County when a sign caught our eye for Potter Shop Road. The name was too good to pass up, so we followed it straight into the tiny community of Abington, a place neither of us had ever explored. Just as Mom was about to veer toward Centerville Road, something odd came into view: a weathered stone trough with a sign that read “Non Portable Water.” It looked like an artesian well to me! Mom cranked the wheel into a nearby parking spot without hesitation. 

The hamlet of Abington was laid out in 1817 by John and Joseph Cox¹. Ten years after it was founded, forty-two people called the place home. So did a fulling mill, a general store, two taverns, and a blacksmith shop². Today, the place is a quaint throwback with a Christian Church built in 1871, an old store building with some pop machines outside, a fire department, and yes, the old spring with the “Non-Portable” water. 

I want to know everything about the Abington spring. According to a plaque put up by the Abington Historical Society, the spring dates all the way back to 1815! Unfortunately, that’s about all I’ve got to go on. None of Wayne County’s early histories mention it, and even the old plat maps mark the town of Abington without any sign of a spring nearby. I guess the spring may be an old gas well that ruptured, given the town’s proximity to the Whitewater River, but the early 1815 date throws that theory off. Newspaper articles didn’t help much, either, when I tried to research the spring. Street View was a bust.

Where did the Abington spring come from? Why has it managed to stay so far under the radar? Perhaps the reason is that it’s no longer flowing. The faucet and the concrete trough it poured into were bone dry when Mom and I visited. Maybe it was shut off when the water tested poorly. Aside from the hilarious “Non Portable” water sign that really means “Non Potable,” another yellow placard at the rear of the well also indicates the water was unsafe for drinking. I’ve encountered a few of those before out in the field, but each of them kept flowing. Who knows what’s going on in Abington! 

Whatever the story, Abington’s water must have been portable after all since someone seems to have up and taken it away. Unfortunately, that only adds to its mystery. Is it a forgotten piece of early infrastructure? A converted well from a bygone era? Maybe it’s just a quirky roadside oddity with a misprinted sign and a plaque no one can verify.

I’m not sure yet, but I plan to keep digging. For now, it’s one more curious stop on the long list of Indiana’s overlooked places, one I wouldn’t have found if we hadn’t followed that sign for Potter Shop Road. 

Sources Cited
1 Young, A.W. (History of Wayne County, Indiana (1872). Robert Clarke & Co. [Cincinnati]. Book. 
2 History of Wayne County, Indiana, Vol. II (1884). Inter-State Publishing Company [Chicago]. Book.