Creston, Indiana
unincorporated community in Lake County, Indiana
Creston is an unincorporated community that straddles the border between West Creek Township and Cedar Creek Township, Lake County, Indiana.
History
Creston was originally called Cedar Lake, but the name was changed in 1882 when the Monon Railroad was extended to that point. The early settlers of Cedar Lake were almost all descendants of the Revolutionary War soldier Obadiah Taylor I who settled there.
The town was planned out mostly by Obadiah Taylor III and Brant McAllen. The business ventures in the nearby village of Tinkerville were moved west to Creston where they would be close to the new railroad, and in the 1880s Creston had multiple stores, blacksmith shop, coal and lumber yard, grain elevator, and post office.
In the 21st century, Creston is a quiet residential area, without substantial business or industry. A few descendants of the settlers remain. The earliest settlers were named Austin, Beck, Davis, Dille, Edgerton, Hill, King, Lloyd, McCarty, Miller, Palmer, Stillson, Skinner, Stopps, Scritchfield, Taylor, Thompson, Vinnedge, and Warriner.
Geography
Creston is located one mile south of the town of Cedar Lake (which used to be called West Point), and three miles north of Lowell.
“Creston, Indiana” enters the record as unincorporated community in Lake County, Indiana. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Creston, Indiana and unincorporated can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Creston, Indiana” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Creston, Indiana and unincorporated provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5184602. Authority coordinates are 41.338, -87.431. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1882.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Creston, Indiana”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Creston, Indiana primary sources, Creston, Indiana archive and Creston research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Creston, Indiana”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Creston, Indiana” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.