Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in North Vernon, IN

North Vernon is a city in Jennings County and, with 6,608 people at the 2020 census, the largest city in the county — although the county seat is its smaller namesake, Vernon, about two miles to the south.

North Vernon grew up in the 1850s at the crossing of two railroads — the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad and the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad — about two miles north of the older county seat of Vernon, from which it takes its name.

The junction was at first known simply as "The Crossing" and was derided by Vernon residents as "Lickskillet" before Colonel Hagerman Tripp and Hiram Prather acquired some 250 acres and platted a town there in 1854.

The town was originally platted as Tripton, named for Tripp, but the name was soon dropped — reportedly because of confusion with Tipton, Indiana — and the town was renamed North Vernon and incorporated in 1867.

During the Civil War the rail junction made the area a target of Morgan's Raid: on July 11, 1863, Confederate general John Hunt Morgan demanded the surrender of nearby Vernon, but its outnumbered defenders stalled him until Union reinforcements arrived and he bypassed the town, burning railroad bridges as he left.

In the summer of 1876, railroad workers at North Vernon and nearby Seymour — unpaid for about two and a half months by the financially troubled Ohio and Mississippi Railroad — went on strike, and newspapers reported the towns as armed "and in revolt" before U.S. marshals were sent to reopen the line.

The 2020 census counted 6,608 people in North Vernon, living in 2,715 households, with 2,943 housing units in the city.

Four North Vernon properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Annadale, the North Vernon Downtown Historic District, the State Street Historic District, and the Walnut Street Historic District.

Manufacturing and distribution anchor North Vernon's economy, with major employers including a Lowe's distribution center, auto-parts manufacturers American Axle & Manufacturing and Martinrea International, and a gray-iron foundry established in 1996.

Public education in North Vernon is provided by the countywide Jennings County School Corporation, and Jennings County High School is located in the city.