City Of Columbus Indiana

Columbus is the county seat of Bartholomew County. In 1820, the land
which is now Columbus was bought by General John Tipton and Luke
Bonesteel. General Tipton built a log cabin on Mt. Tipton, a small hill
overlooking White River and the surrounding flat, heavily forested,
swampy valley. The town was known as Tiptonia, named in honor of
General John Tipton. On March 20, 1821, the town's name was changed to
Columbus. General Tipton was very upset by the change of names, and he
moved from Columbus. Later in life, General John Tipton became the
Highway Commissioner for the State of Indiana, and was given the job of
building a highway from Indianapolis to Louisville, Kentucky. Upon
reaching Columbus, he constructed the first bypass road ever built.
Mauxferry Road detoured south around the west side of Columbus on its
way to Seymour.

For years, it was recorded in the local history books that the land on
which Columbus sits was donated by General Tipton. However, a deed
purporting to show a sale of the land was acquired by the Historic
Columbus Indiana website www.historiccolumbusindiana.org in 2003, which
indicated that General Tipton actually sold the land.

A ferry was established in order to avoid crossing both the Flat Rock
and Driftwood rivers, which join only a short distance above the site
of the ferry. This became a village of three or four log cabins and in
1821, the first store was added. In the same year, Bartholomew County
was organized by an act of the State Legislature and named after the
famous Indian fighter, General Joseph Bartholomew. Columbus, Indiana
was incorporated as a city on June 28, 1864.