Mr. Tippecanoe explains how Tipp City ended up Tipp City
“Mr. Tippecanoe” Makes The Case For Tipp City’s Original Name
A recent Downtown Lowdown episode turned into a spirited history lesson and a call to reclaim Tipp City’s original identity, as local historian Gordon Honeyman argued that the town should once again be known as Tippecanoe. In conversation with host Tasha Weaver and co‑host Greg Enslen, Honeyman traced how postal confusion over seed catalogs led to the loss of the historic name and why he believes it is time to bring it back.
How Tippecanoe Became Tipp City
Honeyman explained that both the Miami County community and another Ohio town once shared the name Tippecanoe, which caused persistent mail mix‑ups, especially for Spring Hill Nurseries, then a major national mail‑order business based in town. Catalogs and orders would go missing all the time as mail was routed to the wrong “Tippecanoe.” Even after the local community tried rebranding as “Tippecanoe City,” orders and correspondence kept landing in the other town, frustrating residents and business owners alike.
In 1938, a group of prominent townsmen went to the courthouse in Troy and petitioned a visiting judge from Washington Court House to officially change the name to Tipp City to end the confusion. Honeyman said the judge asked whether there was any opposition, and the delegation replied there was none—even though many residents, including his father, later felt blindsided and strongly opposed losing “Tippecanoe.”
A Name With National History
For Honeyman, the loss is more than sentimental. He stressed that the name “Tippecanoe” is rich with national historical meaning, as it is tied to the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana and to William Henry Harrison—“Old Tippecanoe”—as well as the Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Harrison, who later became president, helped name the Miami County town in honor of his victory on the Tippecanoe River, where Tippecanoe County and Purdue University now sit.
By contrast, Greg said he thought “Tipp City” was a “silly name” that often prompts outsiders to ask “Tip of what?”, an exchange Honeyman said residents hear repeatedly when traveling or meeting new people. He argued that if the town still bore the full historic name, people would more readily recognize and respect its historical significance, just as they do in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, which has never changed its name.
From Letters To The Herald To The Tippecanoe Gazette
Honeyman first pushed for a return to Tippecanoe roughly 20 years ago, writing a series of four letters to the old Tipp Herald, which he recently rediscovered while cleaning out drawers at home. On the podcast, he promised to “dust them off” and submit them again—this time to the Tippecanoe Gazette—hoping to spark a new community discussion about the city’s name.
He also revealed that his love for the historic name helped shape the Gazette’s title. When the local weekly was being launched, he told founders that he would support the paper financially if “Tippecanoe” appeared in the masthead—but not if it were called the Tipp City Gazette—leading to the now-familiar Tippecanoe Gazette name and logo.
Could The Name Change Back?
Weaver and Greg pressed Honeyman on whether reverting to Tippecanoe is even possible today, given modern bureaucracy and the practicalities of addresses and branding. Honeyman said the main barrier is not logistics but political will, noting that residents already adapted to changes in zip codes and area codes with little trouble, and that address updates would be a manageable one-time adjustment.
He suggested that a well‑designed community survey showing majority support could help persuade a judge or state officials to approve a change, especially now that zip codes and digital sorting largely prevent the kind of mail confusion that prompted the original switch. Weaver floated the idea of using the Gazette as a forum for letters, historical documents, and public feedback to gauge interest before anyone approached the courts.
Preserving And Using Local History
Beyond the name debate, Honeyman used the episode to champion the value of local newspapers and the downtown historical museum as guardians of Tipp’s collective memory. He recounted spending one winter reading bound volumes of the Tip Herald year by year at the library, learning about everything from the 1913 flood to his own family’s births and deaths through old clippings.
He encouraged residents researching local events or genealogy to start with those archived papers, and praised the downtown museum—operated by the Historical Society—as a “fabulous” but often overlooked resource filled with photographs, artifacts, and stories from the community’s past. Weaver agreed that without people recording and preserving today’s news in print and curated collections, future generations will have a much harder time understanding how Tipp— or Tippecanoe—became the “Hallmark town” they know.
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