Brown's Corners/ Toledo (Ghost Town)

The hamlet that was once known as Brown’s Corners and then Toledo had its origins early in Huntington County’s history when a man named Moses Brown built a sawmill. One business drew another and fairly soon a small village arose named in honor of Mr. Brown. After about thirty or forty years, it began to fade. Today, there are only a few homes, and the church and two cemeteries a mile north to remember the settlement.

In Township by Township, Jean Gernand wrote:

“In 1848, Moses Brown established a sawmill at the present location of 200E and CR 100S. This became known as Brown’s Corners, and at one time had a tile mill, three Blacksmith shops, a doctor, two stores and [a] post office.

There also was log school, which was replaced by a frame building, and still later one of brick. One brick building housed a general store with an Oddfellow’s Lodge meeting hall above. The lodge had 130 members in 1932. In 1893, the name of the post office was changed to Toledo, for unknown reasons. A terrible explosion once occurred there in 1928, which killed three men.”

In 1871, the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad (later the Erie) was formed. By 1879, it extended from Markle to Huntington. Passing just a few miles north of Browns Corners at Simpson, the railroad caused the slow decline of the town. By the time the reservoirs required the relocation of the Barnes Chapel Cemetery in the mid-1960s, very little was left of the small village. One of the last buildings housed the Odd Fellows Lodge which closed in the early 1970s.

The post office was opened in 1872. It closed in 1901 and all mail was rerouted through Huntington.

A plat of the hamlet was filed in 1875. A decade later the village had about 80 inhabitants. By the 1930 census it was down to 24 people in 6 homes. Today, about 6 or 7 homes are in the area of the former village.

1. Ancestry.com. U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com, 2010. Original data: Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971. NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls. Records of the Post Office Department, Record Group Number 28. Washington, D.C.: National Archives
2. Huntington County, Indiana History: Township by Township. 2004-2005. Jean Gernand.
3. History of Huntington County, Indiana: A Narrative Account. 1914. Frank Sumner Bash. Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., p168
4. Map of Huntington Co., Indiana. 1866. Warner, Hayes & Warner. Ligonier, Ind.: E.B. Gerber & C.S. Warner.
5. "Letter to the Editor." 18 Nov 1885. Indiana Herald, page 1.
6. Huntington County, Indiana. 1903. Herman Taylor, Warsaw, Ind.: National Map Co. Rockford, Ill.: Hixson Map & Litho. Co.