Poe was first named Williamsport, in honor of landowner William Essig, but it was changed because the U.S. postal authorities refused to accept that name, there being another post office in the state with a similar name.[4]
Poe has a downtown. In 1995 Kamath quoted an area resident who stated that Poe's downtown had much less activity than it had previously.[3]
Infrastructure
The fire department building moved onto land donated by an area individual in the 1960s.[3]
A post office was established at Poe in 1856,[5] and remained in operation until it was discontinued by 1917. The Fort Wayne, Indiana post office serves Poe as of 1997.[3]
In 1956 the Poe Southwestern Telephone Association was issuing One share of Capital Stock for $25 per share.[6]
Poe and Hoagland share a Methodist congregation,[3] Hope United Methodist Church, located outside of the Hoagland CDP.[9] There were previously two separate congregations, Poe (Williamsport) United Methodist Church and Hoagland United Methodist Church (originally Middletown Methodist Church), which merged into Hope in 1995.[10] The former Poe church was to be converted for residential use.[3]
Recreation
Poe Days is an annual celebration to help fund the fire department.
