Our History

John Hathaway built a mill on the Patoka River in Winslow in the 1830s.  He founded the town of Winslow in 1837 and named it after his son, William Winslow Hathaway.  William Winslow Hathaway later became a justice of the peace.  George Deen came here in 1838 and was a prosperous merchant and also founded the first charitable trust in the state of Indiana, the Charity Farm, for the support of widows.  His trust became the model for many other trusts in the United States and the Charity Farm property remains today. Near the Charity Farm is the Dedman Cemetery where one of the fifteen Revolutionary War soldiers in Pike County is buried.  The Winslow Charter of Free and Accepted Masons was established in 1861 and is still active today.

In the 1800s, Winslow was once a booming port town on the Patoka River for flat boats taking furs and goods to New Orleans.  The river had a ford and a covered bridge was built later in the 1800s.  The covered bridge was torn down in the 1930s.  The levee and a green iron bridge were then built.

Winslow was home to a CCC camp that worked on many projects on the river and the Pike State Forest to put men back to work after the Great Depression.  That green iron bridge was torn down in the 1980s and replaced with the less scenic but more practical bridge we have today.

Winslow High School closed it’s doors in 1974 consolidating into Pike Central. The Winslow Eskimos were a basketball team to be reckoned with.

Snyders store was very popular and people would come from other counties to shop there. Winslow has seen a lot of businesses come and go through the coal mining years, but it is now a sleepy recreational town on the river in the middle of many state wildlife areas and close to the Patoka River National Wildlife refuge.

History provided by Rose Lynn Beyke

For more interesting history tidbits, check out her blog Meanderings Around Winslow Indiana at http://indianastoryteller.wordpress.com