Hancock

Formed March 1, 1828 (58^th county)

Hancock County (79,851), Greenfield (23,484)                

The stone courthouse of Hancock County was built in 1897 and is sited on a square at State, Main, East, and South streets.  United States Highway 40 is Main Street.  Wing & Mahurin provided the Romanesque Revival and Tudor Gothic Revival designs for the courthouse.  The structure features a clock tower.  An Annex was built in 2004 to support the courthouse.  The county was established on March 1, 1828 from Madison County as the 58^th county with Greenfield as the only county seat.  President of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, inspired the county name.  The county seat is named for settler John Green. 

Hancock County government consists of a sheriff, an auditor, a clerk, a coroner, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 7 Council Members (legislative.)  A Circuit Court Judge, a Superior Court Judge, and a prosecutor serve Hancock County (judicial.) The county is in central Indiana immediately east of Indianapolis, Indiana.  The county center is 4 miles North-Northwest of Greenfield.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Madison, Henry, Rush, Shelby, Marion, and Hamilton counties. 

The area of the county is 306 square miles.  It is 80 out of 92 in the state.   It ranks 22 out of 92 in population in the state.  It has a density of 261.0 persons per square mile making it 19 out of 92 in the state.  Hancock County has 55.8% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 70 goes east to west through the county from Henry County to Marion County.  United States Highway 36 cuts the northwest corner from Madison County, north, to Marion County, west.  United States Highway 40 parallels Interstate Highway 70 from Henry to Marion counties.  United States Highway 52 cuts the southwest corner from Marion County, west, to Shelby County, south.  The county has stair steps on the southeast and the northwest sides of an otherwise rectangle.  Greenfield is in the southern half of the county.  Greenfield is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 29.4% of the county population.  This county is in the Indianapolis-Carmel Metropolitan Statistical Area.