BlockBefore

Bourbon, Indiana

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Bourbon Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46504. The Survey maps it on the Bourbon quadrangle. 1,698 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 843 feet above sea level.

Bourbon within Marshall County

On record in Bourbon

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 5 records

Population over time

2 figures

Bourbon fell from 1,810 to 1,698 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20101,810
20201,698-112 (-6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 12 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Bourbon township. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From McDonald, Daniel - History Of Marshall County, Indiana 1836-1880 (Kingman Bros., 1881), published 1881 - Bourbon Township

A Diabolical Murder

One of the most horrible and brutal rnurders ever recorded in Northern Indiana was committed near the railroad, one and a half miles east of Bourbon, on the morning of September 7, 1867. The name of the murdered woman was Barbara Catherine Dale, aged about fifty-six years. She came to this country a few years prior to the date of her murder, with her only son,a lad of about twenty years of age, who supported himself and mother in a comfortable

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

10,679 words on this township

McDonald, Daniel - History Of Marshall County, Indiana 1836-1880 (Kingman Bros., 1881), published 1881 names this settlement in its chapter on Bourbon Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

HIS township was organized January 6, 1$40), Prior to that time, it was a part of Center Township. In addition tothe territory now embraced within its boundaries, it contained what is now Tippecanoe Township. Its dimensions at that time were seven miles wide by fourteen in length. March 9, 1842, it was divided in the center east and west,and the southern half took the name of Tippecanoe Township. Bourbon Township is now seven miles sqnare, and contains about 31,460 aeres of land, of whieh probably 20,000 acres are under cultivation. The petitioners for the organization of Bourbon 'Township were James O. Parks, Grayson

Passage source: McDonald, Daniel - History Of Marshall County, Indiana 1836-1880 (Kingman Bros., 1881), published 1881.

N. Y. He was reared on a farm, and until seventeen years of age was engaged in the usual routine of farm labor, attending school in the winter. At the age of seventeen, he left home and accepted employment on the Albany & Boston Railroad, finally attaining the position of Superintendent of a section. The financial crisis of 1857 caused a general reduction of wages, to which he refused to submit, and this action was the first step in a course which finally made him a citizen or Marshall County. Having relinquished his position on the railroad, he decided to visit the West in quest of a satisfactory location, believing that he could earn better wages. He went first to Iowa, thence to Illinois, and afterward located at Fort Wayne, Ind. In May, 1858, he removed to Bourbon, in Marshall County, and was employed on the railroad until October of that year. Associated with F. P. Morgan, he then engaged in the lumber trade, operating a saw-mill at Bourbon, and has ever since continued in this line of business. In the fall of 1866, associated with Jacob Slough, he erected the saw-mill of which he is now the proprietor, having purchased the interest of his partner, after the death of the latter, in 1878. In June, 1879, he purchased the hardware establishment of Arnold & Tescher, at Bourbon, and associated his son with him as the junior member of the firm, still continuing his

Passage source: McDonald, Daniel - History Of Marshall County, Indiana 1836-1880 (Kingman Bros., 1881), published 1881.

The town of Bourbon was not laid out and regularly organized until April 23, 1853, thirteen years after the organization of the township. It contained but few houses even at the date of its organization, and the growth was very slow until the completion of the railroad, in 1856, gave it a fresh start, and from that time on its growth has been rapid and permanent. The original proprietors of the town were Samuel Thomas and J. 8, Neidig. then the following additions have been made: Martin's first and second; J. F. Parks' addition and continued addition: Linn's ad-

Passage source: McDonald, Daniel - History Of Marshall County, Indiana 1836-1880 (Kingman Bros., 1881), 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 Bourbon Township - it names this place 33 more 33 times.

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 Bourbon: 1 producer. All of them still produce. 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
J & M Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Marshall County

Storms near this place

19 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bourbon in 19 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 15 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2025Thunderstorm WindBourbon$75,000Eleven power poles were snapped between Elm and Fir Rd on 11th Rd. 700 customers were impacted.
June 2024Thunderstorm WindBourbon$40,000Tree down on a house, and trees down on Bourbon St south of the Railroad Tracks. Power is out in Bourbon.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindBourbon$10,000Major tree damage and some structural damage on S Beech Road between SR 10 and 14B Road. Siding is in the trees and on the road. There is a narrow path of downed trees through a patch of forest.
March 2023Thunderstorm WindBourbon$10,000Several trees down at this location.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindBourbon-Amateur radio operators reported trees and power lines were down in the area.
May 2019Thunderstorm WindBourbon-The public reported a tree was blown down onto US-30, east of Bourbon.
July 2018Thunderstorm WindBourbon-Local media reported a tree was blown down across a local road.
July 2017Thunderstorm WindBourbon-The public reported a two to three foot diameter tree was blown down onto a house, causing extensive siding damage.
June 2016Thunderstorm WindBourbon-Emergency management officials reported power lines were downed.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindBourbon-Emergency management officials reported several trees and tree limbs down in Bourbon. A few of these fell onto homes and power lines. No injuries were reported.
July 2013Thunderstorm WindBourbon-The public estimated a 60 mph wind gust. Pea sized hail and very heavy rain was reducing visibility to near zero.
July 2001Thunderstorm WindBourbon-Tree down on Cedar Rd. and CR 9B. Large limbs down.
May 2000Thunderstorm WindBourbon-Tree down.
April 1999Thunderstorm WindBourbon-Thunderstorm wind gusts damaged two 15-inch diameter pine trees. Tree trunks were broken half way up. Two other 15-inch diameter pine trees were uprooted.
July 1998Thunderstorm WindBourbon-TREES DOWN NEAR BOURBON 1 TO 2 AND A HALF FEET IN DIAMETER. TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN COUNTYWIDE.
September 2014HailBourbon-no account filed
June 2013HailBourbon-no account filed
July 2003HailBourbon-no account filed
June 1998HailBourbon-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Marshall 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Summit Chapel3.9 miles11
Inwood4.8 miles11
Old Tip Town5.0 miles11
Tippecanoe6.0 miles11
Argos6.6 miles11
Walnut9.7 miles11
Lake of the Woods10.5 miles13
Bremen10.5 miles13

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 BourbonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2105688The 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 431382. 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.

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.