Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Pence, IN

Pence is a small unincorporated community and census-designated place in Jordan Township, Warren County, Indiana, less than a mile east of the Indiana-Illinois state line.

Pence was founded in September 1902 by Frank R. Pence, who purchased 40 acres of land for the purpose of starting the town.

In 1903, just a year after its founding, Pence became the smallest town in the United States to have a central water system.

In the early part of the 20th century, tiny Pence supported a remarkable range of businesses, including a grain elevator, a blacksmith shop, a welding and machine shop, a lumber yard, a coal yard, the Bank of Pence, a hotel, restaurants, a general store, grocery stores, a hardware store, a weekly newspaper, a funeral home and a jewelry store.

Pence had about 150 residents in 1913, but the 2020 census counted just 41 people in the 0.17-square-mile community, at an elevation of about 689 feet.

Pence fielded a baseball team from 1910 to 1955 and also had a basketball team known as the Pence Aces.

The Pence post office operated from October 12, 1903, to April 5, 1957, and for a time it was housed inside the town's hotel.

Pence sits on County Road 300 North about a quarter mile from Jordan Creek, which flows southwest toward the Vermilion River, and the road continues west into Rossville, Illinois, about nine miles away; the community is served by the Metropolitan School District of Warren County.