METHOD OF ASSIGNMENT OF INDIANA 1950 COUNTY CODES

      It had been assumed for many years that Indiana's 1950

letter prefixes were assigned to the state's 92 counties in

seemingly random order.  However, lists have since surfaced

which, after careful study, reveal a very organized system of

assignment.  The system starts with the largest county, Marion,

and proceeds in order of descending size, ending with Ohio county.

It is not known whether population or vehicle registrations were

used to determine the rank order when the system was devised in 1949.

      The system is described in the following groups below:

1. 24 counties from AA to ZZ, starting at the repeating-letter

   combination in each alpha.  YY and ZZ began one letter earlier

   to accomodate multiple branch offices in these counties.

2. 23 counties from ZA to BA, going in reverse order using "A" as

   the second alpha.  Jackson had 3 branches, so SJ-SL was

   substituted for BA.  Wells skipped GA to avoid confusion, as GA
   had previously been assigned to the General Assembly in 1942-49.

3. 21 counties from ZC to DC, going in reverse order using "C" as

   the second alpha.  "B" was skipped as a group because it had

   already been used for additional branches in 16 out of the 23
   "A" counties.  12 counties used substitute combinations, most
   of which were the next available after going around Group 4
   and 5 prefixes.

4. 20 counties from ZD to ED, going in reverse order using "D" as

   the second alpha.  8 counties used substitute combinations.

5. 3 counties from ZE to XE, going in reverse order using "E" as

   the second alpha.  1 county, Crawford, substituted ZG for ZE.

6. 1 county, Perry, was apparently not factored in when the

   system was set up, so it was assigned PY and inserted in what

   is assumed to be its ranked position between Warren (HD) and

   Scott (JD) in Group 4.  Perhaps in an earlier draft, letters I

   and O had not been removed yet, and Perry was accidentally

   left at the "ID" position.

      With 24 counties (just over 1/4th of the state) using

substitute prefixes, it's not surprising that the system appears

random.  Of these, most were simply bumped to the next open

prefix after all groups were initially assigned.  Sometimes

prefixes were skipped due to some objection.  MD had been used on

controversial Medical Doctor plates in 1948 and then withdrawn,

so that prefix would have been confusing if revived.  VD was

another obvious skip.  Other series may have been reserved for

future growth in some counties.  The method of assignment was

inconsistent.  For example, Ripley was assigned SC-SD, forcing

Orange over to SE.  Yet, Morgan, instead of using WC-WD and

bumping Washington to WE, went around Washington's original WD to

take WF-WG.  In the cases of Perry (PY), Spencer (SP) and Steuben

(SU), they gave up and merely assigned codes derived from the

county names themselves!  Others still defy all possible logic,

such as Jackson (SJ-SL) and Fountain (XJ-XL).  The complete list

is presented below:

NOTE:  For counties using substitute prefixes, the original

       prefix that would have been assigned is listed in ( ).

 GROUP 1             GROUP 2 (reversed)      GROUP 3 (reversed)

 AA-AT Marion

 BB-BH St. Joseph   (BA) SJ-SL Jackson

 CC-CQ Lake          CA-CB     Dearborn

 DD-DH Allen         DA-DB     Whitley       DC        Tipton

 EE-EH Vanderburgh   EA-EC     Hendricks    (EC) EJ    Jefferson

 FF-FK Madison       FA-FB     Clay          FC-FD     Vermillion

 GG-GK Elkhart      (GA) GB-GC Wells        (GC) GF    Jasper

 HH-HK Vigo          HA        Boone         HC-HD     Posey

 JJ-JK Delaware      JA-JC     Adams        (JC) JF    Warrick

 KK-KM Wayne         KA-KC     Johnson      (KC) XJ-XL Fountain

 LL-LN La Porte      LA-LB     Jay           LC        Decatur

 MM-MN Tippecanoe    MA-MC     Greene       (MC) MG    White

 NN-NR Grant         NA        Gibson        NC        Putnam

 PP,PW Howard        PA-PC     Noble        (PC) PF    Dubois

 QQ-QS Henry         QA-QB     Lawrence      QC        Carroll

 RR-RS Kosciusko     RA-RB     Shelby       (RC) SU    Steuben

 SS-ST Cass          SA-SB     Hamilton      SC-SD     Ripley

 TT-TU Knox          TA        Montgomery    TC        Fulton

 UU    Huntington    UA-UC     De Kalb      (UC) UD    Hancock

 VV-VW Monroe        VA-VB     Wabash       (VC) VE-VF Rush

 WW-WX Floyd         WA        Clark        (WC) WF-WG Morgan

 XX-XY Porter        XA        Clinton      (XC) XG-XH Daviess

 YX-YZ Randolph      YA-YB     Marshall     (YC) YF-YH Sullivan

 ZY-ZZ Miami         ZA-ZB     Bartholomew   ZC        Fayette

                     GROUP 4 (reversed)      GROUP 5 (reversed)

                     ED        Union

                    (FD) FM    Martin

                     GD        Switzerland

                    (HD) HE    Warren

                         PY    Perry

                     JD        Scott

                    (KD) KN    Owen

                     LD        Jennings

                    (MD) ME-MF Newton

                     ND-NF     Benton

                    (PD) SP    Spencer

                     QD        Pike

                     RD        Pulaski

                    (SD) SE    Orange

                     TD        Franklin

                    (UD) UE    Parke

                    (VD) VJ-VK Starke

                     WD        Washington

                     XD        Harrison      XE     Ohio

                     YD        Lagrange      YE     Brown

                     ZD-ZE     Blackford    (ZE) ZG Crawford

SOURCE

February 5, 1949, Logansport Pharos-Tribune news article, p.2.