Spencer County, IN
History
Spencer County was formed in 1818 from parts of Warrick County and Perry County. It was named for Captain Spier Spencer, killed at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. He was also the namesake for Spencer, Indiana, the county seat of Owen County.Abraham Lincoln lived in Spencer County from 1816 to 1830, between the ages of seven and twenty-one. Originally, the area his family settled in was in Perry County. His family moved to Illinois in 1830. The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is located at the site of the Lincoln family farm. In addition, the graves of his mother Nancy Lincoln and sister Sarah Lincoln Grigsby are located in Spencer County.
On December 16, 1900, two African-American men, Bud Rowlands and Jim Henderson, were lynched by the county courthouse in Rockport after being arrested as suspects in the brutal robbery and killing of a white barber at 2 am the night before. A mob estimated at 1,500 broke open the jail and took them out, hanging them from a tree by the courthouse, and shooting their bodies numerous times. John Rolla was accused by Rowlands as a suspect and also lynched. This was the second-highest number of lynchings in the state, though it pales in comparison to lynchings in Southern states.
The current Spencer County courthouse was built in 1921. It is the fifth courthouse to serve the county.
Wikipedia
Modern Day Adjacent Counties
Dubois County, Indiana (north)Daviess County, Kentucky (south)
Perry County, Indiana (east)
Hancock County, Kentucky (southeast)
Warrick County, Indiana (west)