Tipton County History

Pioneers entering Tipton County during the early 1800's found that Indians from the Miami, Delaware and Pottowatomie tribes used the swampy prairies and hardwood forests of the area as a shared hunting ground. Although the Indians may well have resented the entry of white settlers into the area, there is no record of any battle between settlers and Native Americans having ever taken place on the soil of Tipton County.

An 1826 treaty with the Indians ceded all of the Northwest portion of Indiana to the government, and established what is now Howard and Tipton Counties as the "Miami Reserve." From 1823 until 1838, the lands within the Reserve were purchased from the Indians, at which point the remaining residents of the Reserve were "escorted" to their new homes west of the Mississippi.

John Tipton, namesake of the City and County of Tipton, was a native of Tennessee, moving to Harrison County, Indiana with his family in 1807 at the age of 11. He joined a militia group known as the "Yellow Jackets" in 1809, and took part in the Battle of Tippecanoe on November 7, 1811. After the battle, Ensign Tipton was elected to take the place of his commanding officer, Captain Spencer, who had fallen during the battle. He was eventually promoted to Brigadier General. Tipton held many civic offices, serving as Justice of the Peace in Harrison County at the age of 25, and at age 30 served two terms as Harrison County Sheriff. He was elected to the State Legislature, where he served two terms as Representative, serving on the Commission which selected Indianapolis as the site for the new State Capitol. He later served on a commission established to set the boundary line between Indiana and Illinois.

Tipton County was organized and named after General John Tipton by an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana on January 15, 1844. Samuel King donated 100 acres of his property to the County for purposes of establishing a county seat. Pioneers discovered that the area was a harsh place to live, with lands covered in dense forest canopy and malarial swamps offering only sparse amounts of land near creek banks fit for farming. Efforts to clear woodlands and build roads was hampered by the fact that only one gravel pit could be found to supply the needed aggregate. Many of the pioneers who came to Tipton County emigrated from southern Indiana, adding to immigrants from Germany, Scotland, Sweden, Ireland, England and France. Settlers with an urge to "push West" came to Indiana from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Virginia, the Carolinas and Kentucky, making their way to the swampy wilderness of Tipton County.

The current Tipton County Courthouse , dedicated in October, 1894, was designed by well-known Indianapolis architect Adolph Sherrer, who also was the supervising architect for the new State Capitol building. Two previous courthouses served the county. The first was a 24x20 two-story log structure built in 1845 by George Tucker on the east side of Court Street for the princely sum of $235.50, and was used until it burned in 1857. County government and the courts convened in area churches and a nearby annex which had been built only six months prior to the fire. The second courthouse, a three-story brick structure built on the same site as the present structure, was completed in 1860 for nearly $15,000. It served the county until 1892, when the brickwork was sold to pay for construction of the current courthouse.

The base of the current courthouse measures 92' by 125', standing 66' at the cornice of the main building. The clock tower towers above the surrounding buildings, rising majestically 206 feet from cornerstone to flagpole. The four-story structure contains 45 rooms, and cost $183,411.30 to complete.

The original clock cost $1,425. Operating by a series of heavy counterweights, the bell stands 8 feet high and measures 4 feet across the bottom. Composed of 80% copper and 20% tin, the massive bell weighs in at 3,000 pounds. An inscription cast into its side reads, "Cast for Tipton County Indiana Courthouse, A.D. 1884."

Interestingly, the clock face was apparently originally painted black with white hands and letters, as seen in a photo published on page 49 of Tipton County: A Pictorial History (available for purchase at the Chamber of Commerce offices for $20), and was later repainted to the current black-on-white color scheme.