Bethel, Indiana

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Harrison Township. It lies in ZIP code area 47396. It stands on Jakes Creek. The Survey maps it on the Gilman quadrangle. It stands 886 feet above sea level.

Bethel within Delaware County

On record in Bethel

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Garner, Job-Miller, Jacob W., Houselisted 1986

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 13 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1953 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
1956 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:250000
1960 USGS Gaston quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
1986 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings

In the county-history sources

14,234 words on this township

History of Delaware County, Indiana : with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1881 names this settlement in its chapter on Harrison Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

In the fall of 1842, Joshua Howell erected a mill on the banks of Big Kill Buck Creek, about a mile and a half below Bethel, in which he had a run of buhrs for grinding corn and supplying the neighborhood with meal. This was one of the primitive contrivances so often found in new settlements, and was only designed to subserve a baoe: (2 ary purpose.

Passage source: History of Delaware County, Indiana : with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1881.

In the year 1851, Jacob W. Miller completed a small brick storeroom adjoining his residence on the old Job Garner farm, and, in September of that year, went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and purchased a stock of merchandise, consisting of dry goods and groceries, which he hauled to his store in three wagons. He conducted a good trade here, renewing his stock from year to year until about 1855, when he sold the remnant of his stock to William Moore. During this time, he also served as Postmaster. Mr. Moore established himself at the village of Bethel, where he continued in trade about a year, and was succeeded by James K. Trimble, to whom Mr. Miller had the office of Postmaster transferred. Mr. Trimble sold his stock to Charles Kirk two or three years later, who continued to sell goods for several years longer. The office of Postmaster passed to Dr. Samuel E. Mitchell, the principal physician at that period, 3

Passage source: History of Delaware County, Indiana : with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1881.

During the earlier years of the settlement, there were a number of self-constituted physicians, but none whose qualifications would fairly entitle them to that hame, until the arrival of Dr. Samuel KE. Mitchell, in 1853 or 1854. He settled at the village of Bethel, where he practiced successfully until his decease. Dr. William J. Morgan settled at Bethel in 1867, continuing to practice there until 1875, when he removed to Gilman, Madison Co., Ind. Dr. Milton Ricks js the only practicing physician in the township at this time (Nov ember, 1880).

Passage source: History of Delaware County, Indiana : with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Harrison Township - it names this place 3 more 3 times.

Fires near this place

1 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Bethel in 2004, burning about 1 acre in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Recreation and ceremony	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
30 October 2004	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Bethel: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Riddle Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Delaware County

Storms near this place

5 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bethel in 5 storm reports between 2001 and 2011: 5 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Bethel	$40,000	Thunderstorm winds damaged the roof of Wes-Del High School and brought down tree limbs and utility lines in the immediate area. Other tree and utility line damage of a scattered nature was reported to the north from Gaston to Eaton and Shideler to Albany.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Bethel	$10,000	Thunderstorm winds blew a semi truck over on SR 69 at mile marker 46.
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Bethel	-	A 70 mph thunderstorm wind gust was reported in this location.
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Bethel	-	A 70 mph thunderstorm wind gust was reported in this location.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Bethel	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Delaware County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Reed Station	2.6 miles	14
Cammack	3.5 miles	17
Gaston	4.7 miles	13
Anthony	5.5 miles	13
Yorktown	5.7 miles	17
Andersonville	5.9 miles	17
West Muncie	6.1 miles	17
Stockport	6.2 miles	13

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Bethel	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4897813	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 430880. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.