Benton County is located in the northwest part of the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, along the border with
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
. As of 2010, the
county's population was 8,854.
It contains six incorporated towns as well as several small unincorporated settlements; it is divided into 11
townships
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...
which provide local services.
The
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
is
Fowler.
Benton County is part of the
Lafayette, Indiana
Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...
,
Metropolitan Statistical Area
In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or tow ...
.
History
The lands of present NW Indiana were explored by French explorer
Robert de LaSalle. At that time the area was inhabited by the
Miami Confederation of Indians. Through White settlement, encroachment, and confrontation, the various indigenous groups were forced to cede their claim to the area. In October 1818, the
Pottawattamies,
Weas
WEAS-FM is a mainstream urban radio station licensed to Springfield, Georgia, but serving the Savannah Area. The station is owned by Cumulus Media. Its studios are located on Television Circle in Savannah and utilizes a transmitter located west ...
, and
Delawares
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
ceded their lands west of the
Tippecanoe River
The Tippecanoe River ( ) is a gentle, U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 19, 2011 river in the Central Corn Belt Plains ecoregion in northern Indiana. It flows from Croo ...
to the government. In a treaty dated 23 October 1826, the Pottawattamie and
Miamis
The Miami ( Miami-Illinois: ''Myaamiaki'') are a Native American nation originally speaking one of the Algonquian languages. Among the peoples known as the Great Lakes tribes, they occupied territory that is now identified as North-central Indi ...
ceded all their lands east of the Tippecanoe. A treaty dated 26 October 1832 with the Pottawattamie ceded control of the northwestern part of Indiana; on 27 October the Pottawattamie of Indiana and Michigan also relinquished all claim to any remaining land in those states.
Before 1832, this area was not open to settlement; previous settlers had taken the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Northwestern Indiana was also less desirable for farming, being described as alternate swamps, sterile sand ridges and flat, wet prairies, although it did proliferate in
game.
A state legislative act dated 7 February 1835 created two counties in this area,
Newton and
Jasper
Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...
. The county governments were not created at that time and the counties were attached to
White County for administrative purposes. The Jasper County organization was effected beginning 15 March 1838. On 18 February 1840, the county of Benton was formed from Jasper's area. It was named for
Thomas H. Benton (D),
U.S. Senator from
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
. The original county seat selected in 1843 was
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, but after a long struggle between contending factions it was moved to Fowler in 1874.
Courthouse
The current Benton County courthouse, located in Fowler, was designed by
Gurdon P. Randall of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
and built in 1874 by Levi L. Leach at a cost of $62,257. The new courthouse was an impressive building from an architectural standpoint, but also provided much-needed improvements in security, including large fire-proof vaults. Randall had designed the
Marshall County courthouse a few years earlier.
Economy
In 2008 the
Benton County Wind Farm
The Benton County Wind Farm (also called Goodland I) consists of 87 model sl/sle Gen4 GE 1.5 MW wind turbines near Earl Park, Indiana in northern Benton County, Indiana. The farm's nameplate capacity is 130.5 MW. The farm was developed by Orion ...
began operating with 87 1.5
MW wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...
s.
Duke Energy purchases electricity from the wind farm and
sells it to customers through its GoGreen program.
In 2009 the
Fowler Ridge Wind Farm
The Fowler Ridge Wind Farm is a wind farm in Benton County, Indiana, near the city of Fowler, IN about northwest of Lafayette and northwest of Indianapolis. Fowler Ridge was originally developed in 2005 and 2006 by Orion Energy, LLC (Oakland, ...
opened nearby, giving Benton County one of the largest concentrations of wind turbines in the United States east of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
.
Geography
Benton County lies along the state's western border with
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
. It consists of low rolling hills, with all available terrain devoted to agriculture or development. Data gathered from space shuttle measurements list the county's lowest elevation as 138 meters (453 feet) and its highest elevation as 240 meters (787 feet). However, a knoll 4 miles (6.4 km) NNW of
Boswell is shown on official topographic maps as 915 feet (279 meters) ASL.
According to the 2010 census, the county has a total area of , of which (or 99.98%) is land and (or 0.02%) is water.
Adjacent counties
*
Newton County - northwest
*
Jasper County - northeast
*
White County - east
*
Tippecanoe County Tippecanoe may refer to several places or things in the United States:
* The 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana
* A nickname for William Henry Harrison (U.S. President March 1841–April 1841) from his role in the battle
** Tippecanoe and Tyler t ...
- southeast
*
Warren County Warren County is the name of fourteen counties in the USA. Some are named after General Joseph Warren, who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War:
* Warren County, Georgia
* Warren County, Illinois
* Warren County ...
- south
*
Vermilion County, Illinois
Vermilion County is a county in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Illinois, between the Indiana border and Champaign County. It was established in 1826 and was the 45th of Illinois' 102 counties. According to the 2010 United States Census, ...
- southwest
*
Iroquois County, Illinois
Iroquois County is a county located in the northeast part of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 United States Census, it has a population of 27,077.
It is the only county in the United States to be named Iroquois, after the Americ ...
- west
Cities and towns
*
Fowler
*
Otterbein (west half)
*
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
*
Boswell
*
Earl Park
*
Ambia
Unincorporated towns
*
Atkinson Atkinson may refer to:
Places
*Atkinson, Nova Scotia, Canada
* Atkinson, Dominica, a village in Dominica
*Atkinson, Illinois, U.S.
* Atkinson, Indiana, U.S.
*Atkinson, Maine, U.S.
*Atkinson Lake, a lake in Minnesota, U.S.
*Atkinson, Nebraska, U. ...
*
Barce
*
Chase
Chase or CHASE may refer to:
Businesses
* Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York
* Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company
* Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England
* Chase Co ...
*
Dunnington
Dunnington is a village and civil parish in the City of York and ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. The population of the civil parish was 3,230 at the 2011 Census. The village is approximately east from York city centre.
The vi ...
*
Fargo
*
Foresman
*
Free
*
Freeland Park
*
Gravel Hill
*
Handy
*
Lochiel
* Powley Corners (partial)
*
Raub
*
Swanington
*
Talbot
Talbot was an automobile marque introduced in 1902 by English-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot ...
*
Templeton
*
Wadena
Extinct towns
*
Dunn
*
Sheff
Townships
*
Bolivar
*
Center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
*
Gilboa
*
Grant
Grant or Grants may refer to:
Places
*Grant County (disambiguation)
Australia
* Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia
United Kingdom
* Castle Grant
United States
* Grant, Alabama
* Grant, Inyo County, ...
*
Hickory Grove
*
Oak Grove
*
Parish Grove
*
Pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...
*
Richland
*
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
*
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
Major highways
*
U.S. Route 52
*
U.S. Route 41
U.S. Route 41, also U.S. Highway 41 (US 41), is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs from Miami, Florida, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Until 1949, the part in southern Florida, from Naples to Miami, ...
*
State Road 18
*
State Road 55
*
State Road 71
*
State Road 352
Railroads
*
Bee Line Railroad
The Bee Line Railroad is a short-line railroad operated by the Kankakee, Beaverville and Southern Railroad, serving agricultural communities in northwestern Warren County and southwestern Benton County in Indiana, USA. It joins the Kankakee, Be ...
*
Kankakee, Beaverville and Southern Railroad
Education
The county's four public schools are administered by the
Benton Community School Corporation
The Benton Community School Corporation administers the one high school/middle school and two elementary schools in Benton County, Indiana. Its offices are located in the county seat of Fowler, Indiana
Fowler is a town in Center Township, Be ...
.
*
Benton Central Junior-Senior High School
* Boswell Elementary School (closed at end of May 2021)
*
Otterbein Elementary School
* Prairie Crossing Elementary School
* Sacred Heart Elementary, the county's only
parochial school
Climate and weather
In recent years, average temperatures in Fowler have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in January 1999 and a record high of was recorded in July 1995. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in February to in June.
[
]
Government
The county government is a constitutional body granted specific powers by the Constitution of Indiana
The Constitution of Indiana is the highest body of state law in the U.S. state of Indiana. It establishes the structure and function of the state and is based on the principles of federalism and Jacksonian democracy. Indiana's constitution is su ...
and the Indiana Code
The Indiana Code is the code of laws for the U.S. state of Indiana. The contents are the codification of all the laws currently in effect within Indiana. With roots going all the way back to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the laws of Indiana h ...
. The county council is the legislative branch of the county government, controlling spending and revenue collection. Representatives, elected to staggered four-year terms from county districts, determine salaries, the annual budget and special spending. The council has limited authority to impose local taxes, in the form of an income and property tax that is subject to state level approval, excise taxes and service taxes. In 2010, the county budgeted approximately $5 million for the district's schools and $2.8 million for other county operations and services, for a total annual budget of approximately $7.8 million.
The Board of Commissioners is the county's executive body. They are elected countywide, in staggered four-year terms. One commissioner serves as Board President. The commissioners execute acts legislated by the council, collecting revenue and managing day-to-day functions of the county government.[
The county maintains a ]small claims court
Small-claims courts have limited jurisdiction to hear civil cases between private litigants. Courts authorized to try small claims may also have other judicial functions, and go by different names in different jurisdictions. For example, it may ...
that can handle some civil cases. The court judge is elected to a term of four years and must be a member of the Indiana Bar Association. The judge is assisted by a constable who is elected to a four-year term. In some cases, court decisions can be appealed to the state level circuit court.[
The county has several other elected offices, including sheriff, coroner, ]auditor
An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting and a ...
, treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury ...
, recorder
Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
, surveyor and circuit court clerk. They are elected to four-year terms. Members elected to county government positions are required to declare party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often featur ...
affiliations and be residents of the county.[
Each township has a ]trustee
Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...
who administers rural fire protection and ambulance service, provides poor relief and manages cemetery care, among other duties.[ The trustee is assisted in these duties by a three-member township board. The trustees and board members are elected to four-year terms.
Benton County is in ]Indiana's 4th Congressional District
Indiana's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Indiana. From 2003 to 2013 the district was based primarily in the central part of the state, and consisted of all of Boone, Clinton, Hendricks, Morgan, ...
, represented by Jim Baird in the United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
. It is part of Indiana Senate
The Indiana Senate is the upper house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The Senate is composed of 50 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. Senators serve four-year term ...
district 6 and Indiana House of Representatives district 13. It had previously been part of House District 15.
Demographics
As of the 2020 United States Census
The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...
, there were 8,719 people and 3,432 households in the county. The population density was . There were 3,939 housing units. The racial makeup of the county was 92.1% White, 1.1% Black or African American, 0.2% Asian, 0.3% American Indian or Native Alaskan, 0.1% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and 1.3% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 5.4% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 25.6% were German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, 12.9% were Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
, 5.4% were English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, and 5.2% were French (not Basque).
Of the 3,432 households, 31.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them. The average household size was 2.49. The median age was 40.5 years old. Of the total population, 18.5% have a visual or non-visual disability.
The median income for a household in the county was $49,488 and the median income for a family was $57,131 and $32,055 for nonfamily households. The per capita income for the county was $25,187. Additionally, 13.5% of the population were below the poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
, including 19.4% of those under age 18 and 5.8% of those age 65 or over.
Of the total 2020 population, 6.5% of were veterans. Regarding educational attainment, 42.8% earned a high school diploma or equivalent and 16.1% a bachelor's degree or higher. Of those employed, 20.4% work in education, health care and social services; 19.9% work in manufacturing, 10.1% work in retail, and 8.6% work in agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting or mining. Finally, 35.4% of science, technology, engineering and math jobs are held by females.
In Benton County, there were 3,783 housing units and 74% of the population owned homes in 2020 with 23.1% of the housing stock occupied by renters.
See also
*
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Benton 4 Business (economic development)
Official County website
{{Authority control
Indiana counties
1840 establishments in Indiana
Populated places established in 1840
Lafayette metropolitan area, Indiana
Sundown towns in Indiana