Decatur County, Indiana, Named for Naval Hero Stephen Decatur, Greensburg Founded By War of 1812 Colonel

From the November 8, 2019, Greensburg (Indiana) Daily News  "Decatur County veterans through the years" by Pat Smith.

The county was named for Stephen Decatur, a War of 1812 naval hero who was killed in a duel in 1820.    The following year, the county was named after him.

Decatur County historian Russell Wilhoit says there are 52 known War of 1812 veterans buried in the county and another ten buried in nearby counties who lived at one time or another in Decatur County.  He is doing a book on veterans from the American Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican War and Civil War who are buried in the county.

The founder of Greensburg, Thomas Hendricks, was a colonel in the War of 1812 and came with other surveyors to the newly opened land and purchased four 80-acre tracts of land in the county.  He built the first cabin in what was to become Greensburg and donated 100 acres of land  for the town of Greensburg which he named for his wife Elizabeth Trimble's native town in Pennsylvania.

He was uncle to Thomas A. Hendricks, governor of Indiana and vice president of the United States.

--Brock-Perry