Decatur County is known for several historic people. Here is one famous person that isn't all that well known.
Carl Graham Fisher (January 12, 1874-July 15, 1939) was an American entrepreneur. Despite having a severe astigmatism, he became a seemingly tireless pioneer and promoter of the automotive, auto racing, and real estate development industries. He is widely regarded as a promotional genius.
Despite family financial strains and a disability in the late 19th century, Fisher quit school at age 12 and five years later, he became a bicycle enthusiast and opened a modest bicycle shop with a brother. An Indiana native, he also became involved in bicycle racing and later many activities related to the emerging U.S. auto industry in the early 20th century. In 1904, Carl Fisher and his friend James A. Allison bought an interest in the U.S. patent to manufacture acetylene headlights, a precursor to electric models which became common about 10 years later. Soon Fisher’s firm supplied nearly every headlamp used on automobiles in the United States as manufacturing plants were built all over the country to supply the demand. The headlight patent made him rich as an automotive parts supplier and he and Allison cashed out when they sold their company, Prest-O-Lite, to Union Carbide in 1913 for $9,000,000.
Carl loved speed and broke a record in 1904, driving an automobile two miles in 2.02 minutes around a track. As much as speed, he loved publicity and gimmicks. In 1911, after his Indianapolis Motor Speedway failed to attract large numbers, he built a 500-mile track and drew more than 80,000 people to a race onlookers described as "the greatest spectacle in sports."
Soon Miami Beach caught Fisher's eye. Foreseeing the automobile's impact on American life, he was instrumental in the construction of the first transcontinental highway, the Lincoln Highway, from New York to San Francisco, in 1913. People questioned his next project, the Dixie Highway. What need could there be for a highway running from Indiana through the Deep South and terminating in Miami Beach?
Fisher couldn't convince people of the value of Florida real estate. Even when he was literally giving land away in the late teens, he had no takers -- until a president and a pachyderm came along. Gimmicks, which Carl relied on from time to time, would propel Carl Fisher to success.
The information provided is from the "Wikipedia Encyclopedia" and from a book written by Jane Fisher "Fabulous Hoosier".