If you’ve ever driven west out of Muncie on Jackson Street Pike, you’ve probably passed through Cammack without realizing it. Blink, and you might miss it, since the community consists of a handful of houses, a restaurant, and a grain elevator quietly situated back from the road. Fortunately, a closer look reveals the remnants of a once-busy railroad town whose story stretches back nearly a century and a half.

The village we now call Cammack got its start under a far less distinguished name- “Switch A.” The label came from its placement along the Erie and Western Railroad, where trains once stopped to load and unload freight. That began to change in 1879, when lumber dealer David Cammack arrived on the scene. Before long, he’d built a rail station, a sawmill, and even opened a post office¹ just half a mile east of the Antioch schoolhouse that stood at the west end of Jackson Street Pike². 

By 1887, Cammack was a bustling little hub. Along with the places I already mentioned, the town boasted a hoop factory, a tile works, and a tidy dozen lots that made up its core³. Small-town fortunes can shift fast, though, and that happened to Cammack once the post office closed its doors in 1907⁴. Over time, the once-independent settlement quietly folded into what’s now technically part of Yorktown.

Still, there’s much to be seen in the old town. My favorite site is Cammack’s old school. It isn’t the Antioch schoolhouse, which was leveled in a 1911 windstorm. Instead, the two-room structure was built in 1912⁵. Grades 1 through 8 were taught at the two-room schoolhouse, which featured a removable partition that allowed the creation of a single, large teaching area.

A portion of the school’s belfry was destroyed during the winter of 1935 when sparks from a nearby chimney ignited the wooden cupola. Remarkably, though, the institution persisted until 1936 and was sold to George and Edward Aul five years later. Still recognizable as a schoolhouse, the expanded building served as Aul Bros. Tool and Die, Incorporated until the company was recently acquired by nearby Mursix Corporation. 

Cammack’s next landmark is its old Red Men’s hall. Built from 1899 to 1901, the top of the two-story brick structure at the corner of West Jackson and Cammack Street originally served as the lodge for the White Feather Tribe of the Independent Order of Red Men, a fraternal organization similar to the Odd Fellows or Knights of Pythias⁶. David Cammack was a founding Red Men member. The bottom of the building was home to three storefronts that held a variety of businesses. 

In 1938, Herman Carpenter bought the building and remodeled it into a locally famous hardware store. Among 8,000 square feet of space and sixteen-foot ceilings, Carpy offered items as diverse as metal gas cans, manual washboards, and garden supplies in two- to three-foot foot aisles⁷. If something was missing from his stock, Carpy could tell you exactly where to find it⁸, at least until he sold the store to developer Dick Howe in 2003⁹. Today, Carpy’s is home to several businesses and apartments. 

Pete’s Grocery met a similar fate. Pete Davis started working at Cammack’s tiny filling station in the 1940s, then purchased it outright in 1959¹⁰. By the time I came of age, Pete held court as the “Mayor of Cammack,” selling cold cuts, cheese, and sandwiches to anyone who stopped in. He also sold tootsie rolls for a penny and candy cigarettes for twenty cents to kids like me who rode in from the suburbs on our bicycles.

You could find motor oil, milk, cigarettes, bread, and most everything but fresh produce at Pete’s¹¹, before he retired and sold to DIck Howe around 2005¹². These days, the expanded building is home to the Cammack Station restaurant. 

Cammack’s final monument to its early years is its grain elevator, built in 1930 by the Farmers Co-Operative Company of Cammack¹³. Nearly every rural community once featured a grain elevator, but Cammack’s is unique because of its construction: instead of concrete or wood, it was built with clay tiles, a method that had already fallen out of favor by the early 20th century. Despite rumors of its impending demise, the elevator still stands proudly just behind Cammack Station. 

Cammack may have lost its railroad station, post office, and many of the businesses that once kept it humming, but it’s far from forgotten. Echoes of its past are still there in the schoolhouse-turned-factory, the old Red Men’s hall, the enduring grain elevator, and the corner store that lives on as a popular restaurant with a mean tenderloin. Each tells a story of adaptation, of a town that found new ways to stay relevant, even as the world around it has changed.

Sources Cited
1 Thanks to David Cammack, this little town got its name. (1993, August 6). The Muncie Star, pp. 5B
2 Kingman, A.L. (1874). Map of Delaware County, Indiana : from recent & original surveys, made expressly for this map, drawn, compiled and published by A.L. Kingman and assistants. map, Chicago, IL; A.L. Kingman.
3 Griffing, B. N. (1887). Mt. Pleasant Township. An atlas of Delaware County, Indiana . map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company. 
4 Flook, C. (2019). Lost Towns of Delaware County, Indiana. The History Press [Charleston]. book.
5 Cammack Crossroads. (1977, July 3). The Muncie Star, pp. D1.
6 Towns, E. (1998, March 3). Cammack hardware store offers unusual items. The Muncie Star Press. p. 20.
7 Herman M. Carpenter, 97 (2007, January 16). The Muncie Star Press. p. 4. 
8  Take a Step Back to Cammack (1979, May 13). The Muncie Star. p. 37. 
9 McBride, M. (2007, January 21). Hardware Store Owner poured his soul into it (2007, January 21). The Muncie Star Press. p. 5.
10 Walker, D. (1997,m January 6). Cammack clings to traditions. The Muncie Star Press. p. 19.
11 Wilham, T.J. (2000, July 10). Pete’s Grocery. The Muncie Star Press. p. 7. 
12 McBride, M. (2007, September 2). Cammack Station open for business. The Muncie Star Press. p. 31.
13 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Parcel ID: 1003302007000. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.