Van Buren: Named for the Sitting President

Van Buren, Indiana, sits in Grant County and carries the name of Martin Van Buren, the eighth President of the United States. The township was named in his honor in eighteen thirty-seven while he was actually serving in office, making it one of the relatively rare cases where a Midwest community was named for a sitting president rather than a historical figure. Joseph Boxell platted the area that year.

For decades the settlement went by Roods Corner and Roods Town after an early homesteader named Rood, but the township name eventually won out. The town was incorporated in June of eighteen ninety-two. It remains a small community in a county that itself was named for two Kentucky captains killed fighting north of the Ohio River, making this a corner of Indiana where the names carry a long chain of American history.