Linton

History

Linton was essentially founded around the entrepreneuring of John W. Wines, who first sold goods in the Linton area, briefly in 1831. Although he would later relocate to Fairplay, Indiana, he returned and opened a general store in Linton in 1837. He would later build a small horse mill as well as a tannery. The city itself was officially chartered and named in June 1850, laid out by Hannah E. Osborn and Isaac V. Coddington. In the late 19th century, small underground coal mines began to appear near and almost inside the city and the population expanded rapidly. At the turn of the 20th century, the population was larger than it is today. At one point in the 1920s, there were at least 35 drinking establishments and an equal number of churches. In 1896, Linton drove 300 African-American strikebreakers from town after one of them shot a white boy, after which it became a sundown town, prohibiting African-Americans from living there. In 1903, union miners drove black waiters from town, and the ban expanded to all of Greene County. Violence against African-Americans continued into the 1940s. Historian James W. Loewen cites Linton as an example of a town where strikebreakers were used as pretext for more general discriminatory practices. In the 1920s, small surface mines began to predominate, and their small, unreclaimed hills and strip-pit lakes still surround the city. The lakes have provided a regular, if limited, amount of fishing tourism for decades. Signs of the underground mines remain as well, including tipples on private land and sinkholes that appear regularly on private property, roads and even within the city limits. By the 1940s, the underground mines were gone and the small surface mines had moved on or been consumed by large corporations such as Peabody Coal…

Geography

According to the 2010 census, Linton has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  8,693
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  7,287
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  6,438
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  6,113
• Killdeer

  Charadrius vociferus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  5,910
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,197
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  4,999
• Great Blue/Cocoi Heron

  Ardea herodias Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  4,617

Largest nearby schools

• Linton-Stockton Elementary
  Elementary · Linton · 702 students · 22.6:1 ratio
• Linton-Stockton High School
  High · Linton · 386 students · 16.8:1 ratio
• Shakamak Elementary School
  Elementary · Jasonville · 370 students · 16.8:1 ratio
• Linton-Stockton Middle School
  Middle · Linton · 312 students · 13.6:1 ratio
• Shakamak Jr-Sr High School
  High · Jasonville · 304 students · 11.7:1 ratio
• White River Valley High School
  High · Switz City · 210 students · 11.7:1 ratio
• White River Valley Middle School
  Middle · Lyons · 209 students · 13.9:1 ratio
• Greene-Sullivan Special Ed Coop
  Other · Linton