Editing Madison County, Indiana (section)

==History==
[[File:Madison County - DPLA - a26899f5931d8a77020facbb955d8c82.jpg|thumb|1903 map of Madison County, Indiana, showing landowners]]
In 1787, the fledgling United States defined the [[Northwest Territory]], which included the area of present-day Indiana. In 1800, Congress separated [[Ohio]] from the Northwest Territory, designating the rest of the land as the [[Indiana Territory]].<ref name=GAC/> President [[Thomas Jefferson]] chose [[William Henry Harrison]] as the territory's first governor, and [[Vincennes, Indiana|Vincennes]] was established as the territorial capital.{{sfn|Brill|2005|p=35}} After the [[Michigan Territory]] was separated and the [[Illinois Territory]] was formed, Indiana was reduced to its current size and geography.<ref name=GAC>{{cite web|title=Government at Crossroads: An Indiana chronology|website=[[The Herald Bulletin]]|date=January 5, 2008|url=http://www.heraldbulletin.com/news/local_news/government-at-crossroads-an-indiana-chronology/article_3a07aa44-1cd4-5028-82e7-96b907121b31.html?mode=jqm|access-date=July 22, 2009}}</ref> By December 1816 the Indiana Territory was admitted to the Union as a state.

Starting in 1794, Native American titles to Indiana lands were extinguished by usurpation, purchase, or war and treaty. The United States acquired land from the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] in the [[Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809)|1809 treaty of Fort Wayne]], and by the [[Treaty of St. Mary's (1818)|treaty of St. Mary's in 1818]] considerably more territory became property of the government. This included the future Madison County, which was authorized by the state legislature on January 4, 1823, designating areas covered by the Delaware New Purchase. No settler was allowed in the area until the government survey was completed in 1820, and in 1820 the first settlers entered the future county.{{sfn|Harden|1874|p=17}}

The new county was named for [[James Madison]], co-author of ''[[The Federalist Papers]]'' and the fourth [[President of the United States]] (1809 to 1817).<ref>{{cite book|last=Gannett|first=Henry|title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ|year=1905|publisher=US Government Printing Office|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n195 196]}}</ref> The then-small settlement of [[Pendleton, Indiana|Pendleton]] was named as the county, but its non-central location soon fostered a desire for a more central location as the county seat. After considerable local competition, the town of [[Anderson, Indiana|Anderson]] was platted in 1827 on donated land with the stipulation that the seat be moved to that location. This move began in 1828 and was completed by 1836.{{sfn|Harden|1874|p=23}}

The new county was completely wooded in 1820, with stands of white oak, poplar, walnut, sycamore, oak, and fir trees.{{sfn|Harden|1874|pp=21&ndash;22}} The settlers logged much of the area and cleared the remainder through burning; at present its terrain is completely devoted to agriculture or urban development, except for stands of brush in drainages.<ref name=MCI>[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Madison+County,+IN/@40.1618865,-85.859643,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8814dec2ed65daaf:0x5192868e23c3fac4!8m2!3d40.1469349!4d-85.684578 ''Madison County IN'' (Google Maps, accessed 10 September 2020)]</ref>

The county's first courthouse was authorized in the county's 1828 session, but this authorization was revoked in 1829. In 1831 a second authorization was passed, and the completed building was placed in service the following year.{{sfn|Harden|1874|pp=27&ndash;28}}

During the [[Indiana gas boom]], natural gas deposits were discovered in the county in 1887, at [[Alexandria, Indiana|Alexandria]], and [[Anderson, Indiana|Anderson]]. The offer of free natural gas brought several factories to the county.{{sfn|Glass|Kohrman|2005|pp=33&ndash;40}}