08/23/2026
This week’s Monon Monday was Romney 🚂
Romney was first platted by Josiah Halstead and Major Harvey Aristide of Crawfordsville in 1832. They determined it to be a good place for a stage coach stop and an advantageous trading post with the Indians.
Originally named Columbia, the town had a tavern and a large barn where the horses for the stage coach were kept and changed. A Blacksmith shop, church and school were built and as more settlers arrived several houses followed. Some of these settlers came from Romney, Virginia (now West Virginia) and out of love for their old home in Virginia they had the name changed from Columbia to Romney in 1846.
The railroad came to town in 1851-1852 as part of the Crawfordsville and Wabash.
By 1879 Romney had two Blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, a general store, post office drug store, a grocery store, an Odd Fellows hall, Masonic Lodge, two churches and a cemetery.
In 1901 a bank was established and was in business at that location until atleast 1932, at the writing of Romney’s Centennial publication. The bank is the same building as the present day post office, which explains the interesting shape of it.
Romney’s main (and perhaps only?) business on the railroad was grain. Romney had a grain elevator up until atleast 2004.
Romney is also known for boasting the last pair of operating semaphore signals which came down in December of 2010.
Hope you enjoy the following pictures of Romney. A few are from our archives, there’s a wonderful Barriger photo and some pictures are borrowed from the Monon bygone page. You will also find a few ads and pictures from the publication in 1932 for Romney’s Centennial.
🛤️ 📸
