Welcome to Owen County Indiana
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Owen County is located in west central Indiana.The county seat being Spencer and is fifty-three miles southwest of Indianapolis It is bounded north by Putnam, east by Morgan and Monroe, south by Greene, and west by Clay, and contains 396 square miles. Owen County is divided into 13 Civil Townships as follows: Clay, Franklin, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Lafayette, Marion, Montgomery, Morgan, Taylor, Washington and Wayne. |
Owen County was named for Abraham Owen, a member of the Kentucky Militia, who was killed in the Battle of Tippecanoe while serving as a volunteer aid to General Harrison in 1811.
Owen County’s first residents were prehistoric Indians evidenced by mounds, campsites and ‘workshops’ for making stone implements, the relics of which exist in nearly every township.
The first settlers arrived in Owen County in 1816. These pioneers first found their way to Owen County around 1816, the year of statehood. Most were of Scotch-Irish, German and English decent, migrating north from Virginia and the Carolinas. Many were veterans of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 The original homesteaders’ purchased from the U.S. Government. “Congress lands,” they were called, bought at $2 an acre or less.
John Dunn, Philip Hart, David Thomas and Samuel Bigger made the first settlement in Owen County about the beginning of 1817. The first church organized and the first meeting house and mill built was in 1819. Previous to that time, grain was sent about sixty miles to be ground
The county was established by an act of the Indiana Legislature, 1818-1819 and was created 21 December 1818 from Daviess and Sullivan Counties and was organized January 1, 1819
The boundary of the new county was quite different from today, containing about twice the current area. That portion of the county in which Gosport lies was in Monroe County; and where Quincy is, was in unorganized territory; the western border joined Vigo Co. It was not until April 1825 that the current borders were fixed.
The early settlers referred to this county as "Sweet Owen".
The first County Seat was located at Lancaster, about half a mile up the river from the present town of Spencer on 150 acres donated by John Dunn. On account of a defect in the title to the land, commissioners were appointed to change the location.
The first permanent settler in of the Cataract area was Isaac Teal who lived near the lower falls. He erected a small mill around 1820
In 1820 the town of Spencer, named after Captain Spier Spencer who was killed at the Battle of Tippecanoe was laid out and the first auction of lots took place. First settled in 1820, by John Dunn, Philip Hart and Richard Beem, by 1849 it contained a Methodist Church, a Christian Church, four stores, three warehouses, eight mechanics shops, and a population of about 300.
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Spencer became the County Seat February 12, 1820. A temporary log courthouse was built and was replaced in 1825 with a permanent brick courthouse which
stood until it was replaced in 1910. |
| The historical marker reads: owen county courthouse - Owen county formed by General Assmebly, 1819. Spencer selceted county seat, 1820. Neoclassical building, designed by Jese T. Johnson, Indianapolis and built by Christian Kanzler & Son, Evansville (1910-1911), was second courthouse on land donated by Daniel Beem. listed in national register of Historic Places, 1994. |  |
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What's New Beginning January 1, 2010?
Owen County Neighbors
PUTNAM | MORGAN | MONROE | GREENE | CLAY |
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