Editing Munster, Indiana (section)

===Early history===
The earliest known inhabitants of the area were the [[Potawatomi]]. Although a village did not exist in what was to become Munster's town boundaries, a trail along the dry sandy ridge now known as Ridge Road was well traveled by the indigenous inhabitants. Today, Munster's downtown area, the Town Hall, Police and Fire Department headquarters, the Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, and the Munster Post Office are all situated on Ridge Road.<ref name =ParkPDF>{{cite web|url=https://www.munster.org/egov/documents/1542401117_29583.pdf|title=Introduction: History and Background|work=Munster and Parks Recreation}}</ref>

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the area that is today Munster was part of land claimed by France as French territory. In the 1760s the British claimed the land where the Potawatomi lived as part of the [[British Empire]]. Twenty years later [[George Rogers Clark]] overran the British in the [[American Revolutionary War]], claiming the land for the newly independent [[United States|United States of America]].

In the 1850s, as the numbers of Native Americans dwindled, pioneer settlers began to inhabit the area which would become Munster to grow crops and provide dairy products to the profitable markets in Chicago.<ref name=townhistory />

When Jacob Munster, a young man from the Netherlands who until the 1860s spelled his surname "Monster,"<ref>Hmurovic, Edward, _Munster, Indiana_ (part of the "Images of America" series), Arcadia Publishing, 2003, p. 13</ref> opened an area general store complete with a U.S. postal station on the back, the local farmers and settlers came to rely on the postal station, which soon became a [[United States Post Office]]. The post office was named Munster, as it was located in Jacob Munster's general store.

Before long more and more people moved to the "Munster" area, and in 1907 Munster was incorporated as a town, with 76 residents voting "yes" for the incorporation and 28 voting "no."<ref name=ParkPDF />