Jennings County, Indiana

Jennings County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

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Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for Jonathan Jennings who was Indiana's First Governor.

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History

Jennings County was organized effective February 1, 1817 It was named for the first Governor of Indiana and a nine term congressman, Jonathan Jennings. Jennings was governor when the county was organized

Jennings County is divided into 11 Civil Townships as follows: Bigger, Campbell, Center, Columbia, Geneva, Lovett, Marion, Montgomery, Sand Creek, Spencer and Vernon.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 378 square miles (980 km²), of which 377 square miles (977 km²) is land and 1 square mile (3 km²) (0.30%) is water. It is a rural county, with majority of the county consisting of personal farms and woodlands. There are only two incorporated towns in this county, Vernon, the county seat, and North Vernon. Both are quite small and underdeveloped by urban standards; many locals prefer to do their shopping in neighboring counties. The county is conveniently located in the center of an imaginary triangle consisting of Indianapolis, IN, Cincinnati, OH, and Louisville, KY and requires only 1 1/4 hour drive time to any of these urban centers.

It is also home to the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, located just outside North Vernon, at which various training exercises and scenarios are conducted for homeland security and other similar purposes.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Decatur County; Ripley County
Southeast: Jefferson County
Southwest: Scott County; Jackson County
Northwest: Bartholomew County

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County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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