Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in 2014.We are republishing it as part of our holiday coverage.Santa Claus, Ind., located in Spencer County, was given that name on Christmas Eve in 1852 by a small group of German settlers. The town was originally known as Santa Fe, sometimes spelled Santa Fee, but eventually had to rename itself to establish a post office, town lore goes.
Because a town called Santa Fe existed in the north of the state, the townfolk had to scramble quickly to come up with another name, the story goes. With Christmas just a few weeks away, they decided to keep the first part of the town’s name and pay homage to St. Nick with the second.
Letters to Santa Claus, Indiana
Presumably, letters came to Santa Claus, Ind., for the next few decades but the post office would not gain renown until 1914 when the postmaster general James Martin started responding to the letters the town received with hand-written replies of his own.
A few years later, according to a 1934 Evansville Press story, a California stamp collector wrote to Martin, asking him to cancel a letter for him with the Yule postmark. According to that story, until that time, the town had been known as Santaclaus and the letter writer suggested changing the name to Santa Claus to attract attention from stamp collectors around the country. Martin wrote to the postmaster general, who granted the request…