Arcadia is a town in Jackson Township, Hamilton County, Indiana, United States.

[3] On December 12, 1836, John and Harriet Shaffer bought 160 acres of land adjacent to a plot owned by Daniel and Matilda Waltz, which was later to become the heart of downtown Arcadia.

[5] By 1849 the town was laid out [6][7] when the railroad had surveyed a route across the land owned by Shaffer and Waltz, and a year later in 1850, the two men donated the land on which the town was founded, which was plotted the next year by Isaac Martz.

The land was drained by two large open ditches, later spanned by crude log bridges.

Early sidewalks were raised wooden platforms, later replaced by gravel and sawdust.

[11] Immediately Arcadia enjoyed steady growth as a farming community, and attracted a wide variety of businesses, which in the early years included a cigar factory, a cabinet shop, a flour and sawmill, and a planing mill to manufacture building materials.

[13] By 1880, eastern factories had used most of the timber they needed for fuel, and were moving west where coal was plentiful, but natural gas allowed them to fire kilns used in glass and brick manufacturing.

[14] In 1898, the Arcadia Cheese Factory was opened by E. Wiles and John Burris, manufacturing an average of 200 lbs.

[15] As early as 1840, a school of hewed logs was built on wooded property donated by Moses Martz.

School terms lasted three months, financed by private subscriptions of $1.50 per pupil.