English, IN

English is the Crawford County seat in southern Indiana, where the 2020 census counted 685 residents. The settlement was laid out as Hartford in 1839 and renamed English when it incorporated in 1884, honoring Indiana politician William Hayden English. Crawford County moved its seat from Leavenworth to English in 1893, making the town one of Indiana’s smallest county seats. William Hayden English served in Congress and later became a vice-presidential candidate, giving a local place name a link to Indiana’s nineteenth-century political world.

ATTRNyttend / Public domain

The first community grew where Bird Dog Creek and Brownville Creek meet Blue River. That confluence gives English a water-based beginning, while the surrounding county is known for caves, limestone, sandstone, oil, and gas. The Crawford County Public Library is in town, and county offices keep English tied to the rural communities spread across southern Indiana. English is a courthouse town with three names in its story—Hartford, English, and Crawford County seat—and a river meeting at the center of its earliest map.