Editing Hazleton, Indiana (section)

==History==
Hazleton is the second-oldest town in Gibson County after [[Patoka, Indiana|Patoka]]. It was named in honor of Gervas Hazleton,<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OlQ0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA14 | title=History of Gibson County, Indiana | publisher=Cook & McDowell Publications | author=Peattie, Elia Wilkinson | year=1897 | pages=14}}</ref> believed to be the second settler to permanently locate to the county. Hazleton first lived in a crude camp lit by large log fires that was a popular stopover for early migrants to the area.<ref>Gil R. Stormont, ''[https://archive.org/details/historyofgibsonc01stor History of Gibson County, Indiana]'' (B.F. Bowen, 1914), p. 377.</ref>

The town was platted in 1856 by Lucius French. T. S. Fuller erected the town's first frame building, and John Breedlove built the town's blacksmith shop.  The first steamboat of any note to travel up the White River was the ''Cleopatria'' in 1884.<ref>James T. Tartt and Company, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_984AQAAMAAJ History of Gibson County, Indiana]'' (1884), p. 187.</ref>

On March 10, 1897, a passenger train of the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad (now the [[Chicago & Eastern Illinois]]) wrecked near Hazleton. An embankment which carried the tracks past the White River had been weakened by the river's flood waters, and collapsed under the weight of the train, causing it to [[derailment|derail]].  Around a dozen people are believed to have been killed, though most bodies were never found.<ref>Stormont, ''History of Gibson County, Indiana'', pp. 108-109.</ref>