Editing Benton County, Indiana (section)

==History==
The lands of present NW Indiana were explored by French explorer [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle|Robert de LaSalle]]. At that time the area was inhabited by the [[Western Confederacy|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 [[Potawatomi|Pottawattamies]], [[Wea]]s, and [[Delawares]] ceded their lands west of the [[Tippecanoe River]] to the government. In a treaty dated October 23, 1826, the Pottawattamie and [[Miami People|Miamis]] ceded all their lands east of the Tippecanoe. A treaty dated October 26, 1832, with the Pottawattamie ceded control of the northwestern part of Indiana; on October 27 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 (hunting)|game]].

A state legislative act dated February 7, 1835, created two counties in this area, [[Newton County, Indiana|Newton]] and [[Jasper County, Indiana|Jasper]]. The county governments were not created at that time and the counties were attached to [[White County, Indiana|White County]] for administrative purposes. The Jasper County organization was effected beginning March 15, 1838. On February 18, 1840, the county of Benton was formed from Jasper's area. It was named for [[Thomas Hart Benton (senator)|Thomas H. Benton]] [[Democratic Party (United States)|(D)]], [[U.S. Senator]] from [[Missouri]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Indiana Place Names|last1=Baker|first1=Ronald L.|last2=Carmony|first2=Marvin|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1975|location=Bloomington IN|page=12}}</ref> The original county seat selected in 1843 was [[Oxford, Indiana|Oxford]], but after a long struggle between contending factions it was moved to Fowler in 1874.<ref>{{cite book|author=De Witt Clinton Goodrich & Charles Richard Tuttle|publisher=R. S. Peale & co.|year=1875|location=Indiana|title=An Illustrated History of the State of Indiana|url=https://archive.org/details/anillustratedhi02tuttgoog| pages=[https://archive.org/details/anillustratedhi02tuttgoog/page/n563 551]–552}}</ref>

=== Courthouse ===
The current Benton County courthouse, located in Fowler, was designed by [[Gurdon P. Randall]] of [[Chicago]] and built in 1874 by Levi L. Leach at a cost of $62,257.{{#tag:ref|A $62,257 capital expense in 1874 would be roughly equivalent to $15,000,000 in 2009.<ref>Williamson, Samuel H. (April 2010).  ''Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to present''. [http://www.measuringworth.com MeasuringWorth]. Calculations made using Nominal GDP Per Capita, a measure of capital intensivity, using "the 'average' per-person output of the economy in the prices of the current year." This is a measure of the amount of capital and volume of labor required to reproduce the work over varying production methods, but assuming that money represents a proportion of the economy.</ref>|group="n"}} 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, Indiana|Marshall County]] courthouse a few years earlier.<ref>{{cite book|last=Counts|first=Will|author2=Jon Dilts|title=The 92 Magnificent Indiana Courthouses|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1991|location=Bloomington IN|isbn=978-0-253-33638-5|pages=14–15}}</ref>