Editing New Pekin, Indiana (section)

==="Old" Pekin ===
On September 29, 1819, Isaac Davis entered section 30 in what was to become Polk Township. Several years later, in 1831, Christian Bixler laid out the town of Pekin on the south side of Mutton Fork, Blue River.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_EVQ0AQAAMAAJ | title=History of Lawrence, Orange, and Washington Counties, Indiana: From the Earliest Time to the Present | publisher=Higginson Book Company | year=1884 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_EVQ0AQAAMAAJ/page/n801 790]}}</ref>

Before 1831, there were several buildings at this location. As early as 1830, [[stagecoach]]es were making regular runs between [[Jeffersonville, Indiana|Jeffersonville]] and [[Salem, Indiana|Salem]]. A wagon route between [[Salem, Indiana|Salem]] and [[New Albany, Indiana|New Albany]] also passed through this area. Pekin was a staging stop where horses were watered and changed.

The town prospered until 1851, when the railroad was completed. The train station was built on the more level north side of the [[Blue River (Indiana)|Blue River]]. Businesses gradually migrated to the new location. In 1854 the County Commissioners declared the town vacant and the area became known as Old Pekin.