Partaking of a potluck supper, Tom Newkirk, left, and Angel Rose fill their plates at the Glenwood Community Center on Thursday. News-Examiner photo by Bob Hansen
Long-time Glenwood residents and newcomers mixed during a community meal Thursday. It’s what the organizers hoped would happen.
The town that sits on the line between Fayette and Rush counties hopes to retain something that Hoosier small towns have been known for: hospitality. They are trying to make improvements to the Glenwood Community Center and park that will attract residents.
The Data USA website reports that Glenwood had 403 residents as of 2023.
Thursday, about two dozen of them met over a potluck supper in a building so clean that it looked like you could have eaten off the floor.
Old friends mixed with newcomers like Bill Hyden. An employee of the Indiana State Board of Accounts, Hyden first came to Glenwood to conduct a routine review of the town’s financial records. He said he liked it enough that he bought a house and moved in.
“It’s a really quiet little town,” said George Stamm, a life resident who completed the first 10 years of his schooling at the old Glenwood School, which consolidated into the Rush County schools in the mid-1960s. Afterward, Stamm finished high school in Rushville and then worked 38 years as a machinist for Roots, in Connersville.
The school was torn down and the ground given to a community club, which built the Community Center in 1970.
Stamm said a cousin of his was the mason for the pale yellow building, using what’s known as Milroy block. Supported by dues and donations, the community club eventually became too small to take care of the building and park, which became the town’s responsibility. Stamm sits on the town park board.
Stamm likes living in Glenwood, saying he doesn’t think he could ever be happy in a city. Although there are no grocery stores, pharmacies or doctors, “If we need anything, it’s seven miles this way to Rushville or seven miles that way to Connersville.”
The woman who comes to town nearly every day to open the post office for two hours attended with her young son, who squealed when a man ran around the tables carrying to boy on his shoulder. Angel Rose, whose job title is postmaster relief, said she enjoys the job because the post office is still a community hub where residents talk to her and each other as they pick up their mail.
“We’re going to try to keep that small-town atmosphere,” said Mary Richardson, who, like Stamm, is a life resident. She is the town clerk-treasurer, having retired from a management career in banking that had her commuting to jobs in Connersville, Indianapolis, Liberty and Middletown, Ohio.
Richardson said the town anticipates that it might soon receive a grant for park improvements through the Rush County Community Foundation. Some of the well-maintained playground equipment dates from when the school still stood.
If the town receives the funding, then it will be time to make some plans. Richardson said it’s all in the hopes of keeping Glenwood a friendly, welcoming place.
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