Upland, Indiana

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The first White resident of the Upland area was John Oswalt, who came to Jefferson Township in the early 1830s and purchased 2,240 acres including almost all the land which is now a part of Upland. He bought this large amount of land because, as a speculator, he thought that an Indianapolis to Fort Wayne canal might pass through or near his property. Jacob Bugher, who moved to the township in 1851, purchased land from Oswalt. Sixteen years later, when the first railroad (the Indiana Central Railroad) passed through the township, Bugher planned the beginnings of Upland as a depot point for the railroad. The name of the town came from its reputed location as the highest point on the rail line between Columbus and Chicago. Gradually, the town grew in population and organization. By the late 1870s it had thirty families, 150 total population, one grade school, two churches, three dry-goods stores, one sawmill, and one blacksmith shop.

A guest-preaching engagement in 1982 in the Upland Methodist Church afforded Taylor University president Thaddeus Reade the chance to meet the minister of the church, Rev. John C. White. Because the school was having financial difficulties at its location in Fort Wayne, White and Upland citizen J.W. Pittinger worked to bring the school to Upland. In the spring of 1893 White negotiated an agreement between the Taylor trustees and the Upland Land Company whereby the university agreed to move to Upland and the company agreed to provide Taylor with $10,000 in cash and ten acres of land. In the summer of 1893, Taylor University relocated to Upland. White was able to find the local resources to support the university because of the recent discovery in the area of large deposits of natural gas. The gas boom of central Indiana began in 1886 and continued through the 1890s before the supply began to decline about 1900. The first gas discoveries in Upland were in 1888, and three years later the Upland Land Company came into existence to take advantage of the newly found resources by promoting the development of the town.

When Taylor University moved to the community in 1893, the incorporated town of one thousand inhabitants could boast of improved streets and carbon street lights, water and gas lines, a major glass bottle manufacturing plant, and a zinc factory.

In 1915, Taylor paid seven thousand dollars to purchase 70 more acres from Charles H. and Bertha Snyder. The university added another eighty acres to its present location in the early 1920s when the Lewis Jones farm was purchased.

During the 1960s, the infrastructure of the town was improved. Interstate Highway #69 was completed. The public schools were consolidated into the Eastbrook School District and Eastbrook Junior High and High School were built. The municipality constructed a new water and sewage system.

In the early 1990s, a new building was built by the Avis Industrial Corporation, led by Leland and LaRita Boren, across from Taylor University. The Avis-Taylor Prairie Restoration Project was also begun.

Upon the celebration in 1993 of Taylor's 100th year in Upland, the university worked with the community to purchase and relocated from Muncie the Upland train depot to serve as a local museum. The depot together with the new town hall and library were major developments in the downtown renewal project of Our Town Upland, Inc.