The magazine of history with notes and queries, Vol. II, No. 6, December 1905

by Various

INDIANA COUNTY NAMES

The influence of the strong men of any time upon their time and community is strikingly illustrated by a study of the origin of the names of the counties of Indiana, which has just been completed by an old resident of the State after the work of collecting the scattered material in odd moments during the last twenty years. The result as completed shows that seventy-eight of the ninety-two counties were named after men prominent nationally or locally, in war and in peace; men of foreign birth and foreign training, of foreign birth and native training, and native birth and native training. And the strong influence of men whose personality so dominated small communities, men whose names have not been handed down as taking part in the affairs of the nation, is shown by the fact that of the seventy-eight men whose names have been given to counties of the State, forty-one were men whose life and work, influential as it must have been in the particular communities wherein they lived, were not of sufficient prominence to save them from almost utter oblivion in State or National history.

Of the thirty-eight counties that have been named from what might be called well-known men, men of more than local prominence, seven were named for Presidents of the United States: Madison, Monroe, Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Harrison (William Henry Harrison), and Adams (John Quincy Adams); sixteen were named for men prominent in military history—Clark, for George Rogers Clark; Decatur, for the commodore; De Kalb, for the famous German of Revolutionary days; Fayette, for La Fayette; Marion, for General Francis Marion; Morgan, for General Daniel Morgan; Perry and Porter, for Commodores Perry and Porter; Pulaski, for the Polish soldier; Putnam, for General Israel Putnam; Steuben, for Baron Steuben; Wayne, for “Mad Anthony”; Kosciusko, for the Polish soldier; Knox, for General Knox, one of the first secretaries of war; Greene, for General Nathaniel Greene; Warren, for General Joseph Warren, who fell at Bunker Hill, and Stark, for Captain John Stark, victor at the battle of Bennington.

Six signers of the Declaration of Independence were honored in the naming of counties—Huntington, Carroll, Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, and Jay. De Witt Clinton is honored in the naming of Clinton County. The eight other counties named for men of more than local prominence are Benton, after Thomas H. Benton; Boone, after the frontiersman; Clay, after Henry Clay; Fulton, after the inventor of the steamboat; Marshall, after the great Chief Justice; Henry, after Patrick Henry; Jennings, after Jonathan Jennings, Indiana’s first governor, and Posey, another governor, appointed to succeed Harrison.

Howard County is the only Indiana county that has changed its name. Its first name was Francisville, the name of a famous Indian chief, but on account of the universal esteem in which Colonel T. A. Howard, a prominent citizen of the community, was held, the name was changed.

Grant County was named for two Grant brothers, Samuel and Moses, early settlers in this region. Parke, for Benjamin Parke, one of the earliest of the educators in the State. He founded the State Law Library, was the first president of the Indiana Historical Society, and coöperated in the founding of the Vincennes Library and University.

Vigo County was named for Colonel Francis Vigo, a Sardinian, whose services were invaluable to General Clark in the capture of Vincennes. The bell now hanging in the court house at Terre Haute was bought with the $500 set apart in his will to show his appreciation of the people giving his name to the county.

Four counties—Delaware, Miami, Tippecanoe, and Wabash—received Indian names. St. Joseph County was named after the river running through it, named by the early French settlers. Switzerland was so named because most of the early settlers were Swiss, coming to grow grapes on the plan followed in the old country. The scheme failed. Ohio County was named for the river; Lake, for Lake Michigan; Elkhart, for a small island in the river that flows through the county. Laporte was named by the French. Three counties—Orange, Vermilion, and Randolph—were named after counties in other States—Vermilion for an Illinois county directly over the line, Orange and Randolph for North Carolina counties.

Of the remaining counties three were named after men of only local prominence: Allen, for Colonel John Allen, a Kentuckian who fell at the battle of River Raisin; Bartholomew, for General Joseph Bartholomew, State Senator, and identified with the early Indian wars; Blackford, for a judge of that name; Brown, for General Jacob Brown, one of the heroes of the War of 1812; Cass, for General Lewis Cass.

Crawford County was named for Colonel William Crawford, Washington’s land agent in the West, who was finally taken prisoner by the Indians and burned at the stake; Daviess, for Joseph H. Daviess, distinguished lawyer; Dearborn, for General Henry Dearborn, once secretary of war.

Toussaint Dubois, a Frenchman who had charge of the spies under General William Henry Harrison, has the name of Dubois County as a memorial. Floyd County was named after Colonel John Floyd, an old Indian fighter; Fountain, for Major Fountaine of Boone County, Kentucky, who was killed in the battle of Maumee, October 22, 1790.

General John Gibson, after whom the county of that name was called, was secretary of war, who repeatedly acted as territorial governor of the State in the absence of General Harrison. He was taken captive by the Indians, made himself one of them for a long time, finally going blind. Hendricks County was named after William Hendricks, the State’s first representative in Congress, and governor from 1822 to 1824.

Jasper County was named after Sergeant Jasper, the Revolutionary hero; Johnson, for John Johnson, one of the early judges of the Supreme Court; Lawrence, for Captain James Lawrence, an esteemed citizen of the community; Martin, after Major Martin, a citizen of Newport, Ky.; Montgomery, for General Richard Montgomery.

There is some question as to the origin of the name of Newton County. Some investigators contend that it was named after a sergeant in the Revolutionary war, while others give the more poetic explanation that at the time of the organization of the county one of the commissioners, who was somewhat of an astronomer, was an ardent admirer of Sir Isaac Newton, and saw that the county was named after him.

Noble County was named after Governor Noble; Owen, after Colonel Owen of Kentucky, who was killed in the battle of Tippecanoe; Pike, after Zebulon M. Pike, killed at the capture of York; Ripley, for General E. W. Ripley, an officer of 1812; Rush, for Dr. Benjamin Rush, a prominent citizen; Scott, for General Charles Scott, the Revolutionary soldier and later governor of Kentucky; Spencer, for Captain Spier Spencer, who fell at the battle of Tippecanoe; Sullivan, for Daniel Sullivan, who was killed by the Indians on the road from Vincennes to Louisville while carrying public papers; Tipton, for General John Tipton, who served in Congress; Vanderburg, for Henry Vanderburg, captain in the Revolution, member of the Legislative Council of the Northwest, and presiding judge of the first court organized in the Territory; Warrick, for Colonel Jacob Warrick, who fell at Tippecanoe; Wells, for Captain W. H. Wells, killed by the Indians while carrying papers from Fort Wayne to Fort Dearborn, now Chicago; White, for Captain Isaac White, killed at Tippecanoe; and Whitley, for Colonel William Whitley, who was killed in the battle of the Thames.—Indianapolis News.