A Few Facts About Adams County:

• Adams County is divided into 12 Civil Townships as follows: Blue Creek, French, Hartford, Jefferson, Kirkland, Monroe, Preble, Root, St. Marys, Union, Wabash and Washington.
• Adams County was organized March 1, 1836. A large tract of land lying between Allen and Randolph counties had been previously called Adams County, however, no organization had been effected.
• Decatur is the County Seat. Samuel Johnson offered as an inducement to have the county seat located on his land, the sum of $3,100, four church lots, half an acre for a public square, one acre for a seminary and two acres for a cemetery. He further agreed to pay the expenses of the locating commissioners, and furnish a house to hold court in until suitable buildings could be erected. The county commissioners promptly accepted the offer "and proceeded to the aforesaid town site, and marked a white oak tree with blazes on four sides, on each of which they individually inscribed their names."
• Decatur was probably named in honor of Commodore Stephen Decatur and in 1849 it had seventy houses (three of which were brick, twenty-one frame and the remainder of logs) with a population of about 400.
• According to the Society of Indiana Pioneers, an individual was a pioneer of our county if they resided here on or before December 31, 1840.
• Indiana automobile License Plates issued in Adams County start with the prefix 1 because it is the first county in alphabetical listing.