–Not graded

History · Coatesville

Coatesville’s post office opened in 1851, and 28% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1958 on and the census since 1880.

1851first post office

0on the National Register

28%homes built before 1940

1famous people

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Photo: ONUnicorn · CC BY-SA 4.0

Quick answers

How Coatesville began

When was Coatesville founded?

1851

The Coatesville post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 499 in 18802020 census: 555175 years

Founding year: the first Coatesville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Coatesville’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Coatesville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Coatesville’s homes were built before 1958.

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The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Coatesville’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

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The story

How Coatesville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Coatesville.

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Coatesville was founded in the late 1860s. It was incorporated as a town in 1909.

A filling station was opened in downtown Coatesville in the early 1900s. By 1958 it was operated by Standard Oil. At one time, Coatesville had three filling stations, but as of 2020 it has none. The location of the town's first filling station has been renovated into a replica of the Standard Oil station as it would have looked in the late 1950s.

On March 26, 1948 (Good Friday) a tornado destroyed most of the town, killing 14 residents. Damage and fatalities were widespread across west-central Indiana, and overall, 20 people perished.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Coatesville in 1914

Passages that mention Coatesville, cut from the printed page as they were published.

The business houses and residences of the town of Coatesville are attractive and orderly, in fact, to the visitor the town presents an aspect of civic pride and a progressive community. Everything is modern, the streets are well cared for and trade is excellent. The citizens claim that there is not… — **History of Hendricks County, Indiana, her people, industries and institutions**1914 · page 68Read the page →
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The business houses and residences of the town of Coatesville are attractive and orderly, in fact, to the visitor the town presents an aspect of civic pride and a progressive community. Everything is modern, the streets are well cared for and trade is excellent. The citizens claim that there is not a poor merchant in the town. A new high school was constructed in 1911 and is a model of its kind.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

tomary with all farmers' lads, attending school in the winter months, and working on the farm during the summer months. He attended the country schools until he reached the eighth grade and then took the last year of his common school course in the graded schools at Coatesville. With the idea of pr… — **History of Hendricks County, Indiana, her people, industries and institutions**1914Read the page →
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tomary with all farmers' lads, attending school in the winter months, and working on the farm during the summer months. He attended the country schools until he reached the eighth grade and then took the last year of his common school course in the graded schools at Coatesville. With the idea of preparing himself for the teaching profession, he attended the State Normal School at Terre Haute in the spring of 1890. Following this he taught for three years in the Coatesville schools, where he made a successful record as an instructor. He afterwards took some work in the Central Normal College at
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Coatesville, 1851 to 1958

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

19th century
1851Post officeThe Coatesville post office opens
20th century
1917Born hereEstel Wood Kelley is born here
1958On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Coatesville on the map, 1958 to 1980

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Coatesville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1958Coatesville sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Coatesville.

People over time

Coatesville, census by census

Between 377 and 555 people in every census since 1880.

13 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Coatesville’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Coatesville’s history

What year was Coatesville founded?

The Coatesville post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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