Hedrick is a small town in Jordan Township

Jordan Township, Warren County, Indiana

Jordan Township is one of twelve townships in Warren County, Indiana, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 254. It is almost entirely agricultural and contains no incorporated towns.-History:...

, Warren County

Warren County, Indiana

Warren County lies in western Indiana between the Illinois border and the Wabash River in the United States. Before the arrival of non-indigenous settlers in the early 19th century, the area was inhabited by several Native American tribes. The county was officially established in 1827 and...

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

.

History

The town of Hedrick began on 31 July 1881 with its platting

Plat

A plat in the U.S. is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. Other English-speaking countries generally call such documents a cadastral map or plan....

 by locals Parmenas G. Smith and G. W. Compton. The first house was built by John Hendricks and the first store opened by Zarse & Ahrens. The town also gained a drug store operated by Frank Hartman and a school house erected in the early 1880s. A post office was established in Hedrick on 14 January 1880 and closed on 31 January 1959.

A tornado nearly destroyed Hedrick on 17 April 1922. The storm cut a path through the town an eighth of a mile wide, killing four residents, destroying six homes and ten businesses, and leaving only three buildings intact. Following the storm, newspapers estimated from ten to fifty thousand people flocked to the area to view the destruction, prompting the governor to deploy part of the state militia to control the crowds and prevent looting.

Geography

Hedrick is located on flat, open farmland on the southern edge of Jordan Township, at the intersection of County Roads 900 West and 100 South. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of the Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 border, 11 miles (17.7 km) west of the county seat of Williamsport

Williamsport, Indiana

Williamsport is a town in Washington Township, Warren County, Indiana, United States. The population was 1,898 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Warren County and is the largest of the four incorporated towns in the county...

, and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of State Road 28

Indiana State Road 28

State Road 28 is an east–west road in central Indiana in the United States that crosses the entire state from east to west, covering a distance of about and passing about to the north of the state capitol of Indianapolis.-Route description:...

. Its elevation is 709 feet. Prior to the founding of the town, a wooded site called Hedrick's Grove stood to the east of nearby Redwood Creek.