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Two World-Changing Innovations, One Small IN Town
Plus - Shop for candies at Indiana's oldest candy store, celebrate Indiana's 2022 Little League Baseball World Series representative, and more in Hagerstown.
Austin Sellers & Nate Spangle
May 03, 2026
Hagerstown
Small Town Breakdown
Head to Hagerstown, Indiana where two inventors changed the world forever, a candy shop has been around since 1890, and a little league baseball team inspired Hoosiers statewide.
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Fast Facts
📍LOCATION: Eastern Indiana
Hagerstown sits in northwest quadrant of Wayne County.
Indiana State Road 1 runs north-south through town, leading north to Modoc and south to Cambridge City; it also provides access to I-70, U.S. Highway 35, and U.S. Highway 40.
Indiana State Road 38 runs east-west through town, leading west to New Castle and east to Greens Fork and Richmond.
U.S. Highway 35 runs northwest-southeast just northeast of town, connecting Muncie and Richmond.
1 hour east of Indianapolis
40 minutes south of Muncie
👥 POPULATION & RANKING
1,684 residents (as of 2024)
Ranks as Indiana’s 262nd-largest town/city
Fourth-largest incorporated town/city in Wayne County behind the seat of Richmond (35,561), Centerville (2,769) and Cambridge City (1,736).
📏 LAND AREA
1.32 square miles
📅 FOUNDED
Wayne County was established in 1811.
It was named after “Mad” Anthony Wayne, a Revolutionary War General who also served in the Northwest Indian War in the 1790s.
Its county seat is Richmond.
Hagerstown was settled by German Baptists in 1820 and platted in 1832.
It is named after the Maryland town where the German settlers came from.
It grew as a transportation hub that featured the Whitewater Canal and the Big Four Railroad.
🏥 MAIN INDUSTRIES: Manufacturing, Agriculture
TEDCO Toys is a manufacturer known for creating educational and science toys, including 4D vision animal and human anatomy models. They’re the world’s largest manufacturer of toy gyroscopes.
Autocar Truck has manufactured severe-duty vocational trucks in town since 2003.
Cruise Control
Ralph Teetor, who lost sight in both of his eyes at the age of 5 after an accident with a knife, graduated from Hagerstown High School in 1908 and the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1912. He famously invented what is known today as cruise control and was granted over 40 U.S. patents in his life.
In 1919 he started working for the Piston Ring Company, later called the Perfect Circle Company, which was the successor to the Teetor family’s piston rings manufacturing division of the Teetor-Hartley Motor Company. He was president of the Perfect Circle Company from 1946-57 and in 1948, received his first patent on the speed control device named the “Speedostat.”
Teetor was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2024. Learn more about the inspirational inventor here.
Wilbur Wright Birthplace Museum
History buffs need to swing by the Wilbur Wright Birthplace Museum, which is just 10 minutes northwest of town. In addition to the homestead of Wright, one of the pioneers of aviation, guests can see an authentic replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer, replica of the Kill Devil Hills hangar, historic artifacts, and more.
History for Hagerstown Little League
In 2022, Hagerstown Little League made history and punched their ticket to the Little League Baseball World Series with a 4-3 walk-off win over Kentucky in the Great Lakes Region championship. They were Indiana’s first LLBWS representative since New Castle made it in 2012.
Got a game to watch, friends coming over, or zero interest in cooking tonight? Greek’s Pizzeria is ready for all of it. They’ve been serving up scratch-made Indiana pizza since 1969, and they still know how to bring people to the table. This is the kind of meal that makes a regular night feel like a good one. Make tonight a Greek’s night.
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Take a tour and shop for handmade caramels, chocolates and more at Abbott’s Candies, founded by William Clay Abbott in 1890. Operating today as Indiana’s oldest candy shop, Abbott worked as a salesman for local candy manufacturer Dilling Candy Company before making his first candy creation — butterscotch. The rest was history.
Tiger Bites
Willie and Red’s is a smorgasbord family restaurant that makes you feel like you’re at grandma’s house for the holidays. Guests rave about the prime rib, fried chicken, salad bar and pies, but it’s the smorgasbord that takes the cake. They’re open Wednesday through Sunday and have 4.4 stars among over 1,200 Google reviews.
Willow Springs Restaurant is open Monday through Friday and has 4.8 stars on Google. Be sure to try the breakfast hamburger and country fried steak sandwich smothered with mashed potatoes and gravy.
The Dairy is Hagerstown’s version of a diner, specializing in tenderloin sandwiches, burgers, milkshakes and ice cream.
The Ginger Gringo went from food truck to a brick-and-mortar location in the Ron De Voo, serving smoked chicken wings, quesadillas, tacos and more.
Pizza lovers can rely on the Indiana staple Pizza King for delicious ‘za, with the royal feast pizza and breadsticks as favorites.
Outdoor Entertainment
The Steve Swoveland Nature Preserve is a vibrant wetland located within city limits that spans 46 acres with a 1-mile mowed grass trail. Hundreds of frogs can be heard in the spring, and there are turtles, minks, salamanders, and many bird species that can be spotted.
Golfers will love Hartley Hills Country Club, a challenging 9-hole course that was built in the 1920s. It’s a great place to host weddings, receptions, graduation parties and reunions.
Hagerstown High
Hagerstown Jr.-Sr. High School serves the Nettle Creek School Corporation, which also includes the towns of Economy and Greensfork. The Tigers are longtime members of the Tri-Eastern Conference.
The school has not yet won an IHSAA state championship, but the football team secured regional championships in 1982 (1A) and 1985 (2A). On the court, girls basketball has won five sectional titles (1993, 1994, 1995, 2009 [2A] and 2015 [2A]) while boys basketball has four on its resume, all in the single-class format (1928, 1929, 1959 and 1965).