The City of Muncie was incorporated in 1865. However, the area was originally settled by the Lenape, or Delaware, tribe of Native Americans. Originally from the north-east coastal area, the Lenape tribe was pushed further and further west from their homelands due to inter-tribal disputes and the ever expanding European settlers during the colonial era. After the Revolutionary War, the US government again pushed the Lenape further west where they settled in the Muncie, Indiana area in the 1770’s. Today, most live in Ontario, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

he railroad was not far behind. It arrived in 1852, when Muncie was still primarily a farming and trading center. Thanks in part to the area having a boom in natural gas at the time, Muncie was one of the earlier cities to get a rail line. The Railroad connected it to the commerce and prosperity  that was to follow.

Toppan, Carpenter & Co. engraved the note which was issued in 1854, and depicts farmers next to a canal barge and the newer, faster railway which would soon all but eclipse the canal system.