KNOX COUNTY, INDIANA


This is the artists conception of the appearance of
 The Old StateBank Building as it looked in 1836. Few residents have known the large brick building with its sandstone=columned portico, brick-walled dome topped with a glas cupola, supported by six fluted columns reaching from the first floor, haand riveted steel money vault ever existed in Vincennes
 The Knox Co. Courthouse built in 1873-1874 at a cost of about $360,000. was intended as a monument to the pioneers and soldiers of Knox Co. It is said to be the first public building erected as a soldier memorial in the country.
 The oldest Library in the state of Indiana contains more than 5000 volumes, many ofd which was printed before 1700, and the balance with a few exceptions, were printed prior to 1900. The oldest books on it's shelves bear the dates 1476, 1477, 1483 and 1489.



    In a view of Knox county, historically, our attention must at once centre round Vincennes, one of the oldest  and possibly the oldest settlements in the State of Indiana. This city  once a French trading post and. military station  is situated on the east bank of the Wabash river, about one hundred and ten miles southwest of Indianapolis, and, of course is the county seat of Knox county. It was on this spot where a French Jesuit missionary from Canada, or New France, said mass before astonished savages in the year 1702 This act may be regarded as the very beginning of French civilization in. Indiana, for, although missionaries had been in the habit of visiting the territory daring the fifteen years preceding, and notwithstanding Robert de La Salle passed through it on the old Wabash and Maumee route, erecting some temporary stockades in. 1680, there was no permanent mission established within the limits of Indiana until 1702. This was one year after the establishment of Detroit by La Motte Cadillie; and the French records show that this missionary came from that post or from some point in Michigan. Three years later, or in 1705  the date at which the French fort at the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers, where the city of Fort Wayne now stands, was erected, a French trading pest and stockade were established at Vincennes. Thus it will be seen that Fort Wayne and Vincennes stand on an equal footing in the important point of antiquity. The first fort, or more properly stockade, was established at both places in the same year, and it is said by the same man.

    There was not, however, any considerable settlement around Post Vincennes until 1745. In the latter year quite a Dumber of traders were found there, who, under the protection of the slight garrison, conducted a profitable commerce with the Indians, rum and tobacco being the chief articles of merchandise on. the one side, and peltries on the other.

    There is no authentic record of the affairs at Vincennes from its first settlement down to 1749  a period of about forty years outside of the government records at Quebec. From the latter date, however, a very complete record has been preserved by the Catholics of the place.

    While Vincennes may be regarded as one of the first settlements in Indiana, Knox county must be looked upon as the oldest county. As Virginia has been called the mother of States, so may Knox county be called the mother of Indiana communities. Its organization dates back to a period anterior to the territorial government, and finds a place among the earliest acts of the government formed for the territory northwest of the Ohio River. Its original boundaries extended from the Ohio River on the south to the lakes on the north and from the Wabash River on the west eastwardly to a line bisecting the State east and west. It's original area embraced one third the territory of the entire State, and from it have been carved, from time to time, thirty of the richest and most prosperous counties of the State.

    The site of the present city of Vincennes was for a long time only a trading post, and improved but slowly in wealth and population, as the traders were generally transient parties, permanently investing the means elsewhere acquired at this point. The organization of the territorial government and the location of its capital at Vincennes, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, added greatly, for a time, to its prosperity, and from that time down to a period as late as 1818 it promised to become one of the great centers of trade and wealth and population in the Northwest. Bat the removal of the territorial capital to Corydon, prematurely and unexpectedly, was a fatal blow, for the time, to its progress. Although it lost the stimulating impetus of political favor and the expenditure of public money  the creative powers of trade and commerce of late years  from its own intrinsic resources it has more than met the hopes of its people, and. fully demonstrated the sagacity of the early French, who years ago visited its site in the then wilderness, and with prophetic vision marked it as a future seat of empire, wealth and power.

    Although the name of Vincennes is a household word throughout the State, and even the whole land, and in a historical sense it is an old place, yet the present city of Vincennes is but the child of yesterday, and is just springing into vigorous and active life. The mud thatched hut and the two wheeled cart of the early settlers, both constructed without the use of any metal implement whatever, have entirely disappeared within a very few years before the advancing wave of civilized progress, and the material appearance of Vin¬cennes today will compare with that of any city in the State. The old time business houses have all given place to fine business blocks, three and four stories high, of brick and stone, and of improved architecture. And only a few old time residences remain as landmarks, as it were, to remind us of the days of yore. The private residences of the citizens are among the finest in the State. Among them we may mention the splendid and costly mansions of Dr. Robb, Captain Ross and Mr. Pollock, built of wood, in a magnificent style, and those of Messrs. McKinney, Bayard and Wise, of brick and stone. The residence of General William H. Harrison, the first Governor of the territory, is still standing, and is one of the most substantial buildings in the State. It is built of brick, and was constructed in 1804 and its walls and inside finish are as good and perfect in all respects as when first put up.

    The public buildings of Vincennes are numerous, and some of them are fine specimens of architecture. Among them may be mentioned the city hail, a substantial brick building,
two stories high, erected in the centre of the city square, in the heart of the business portion of the city, containing rooms for the mayor's office, city clerk, engineer, and treasurer, and a hail for the meetings of the common council. The Knox county court-house, erected on the square owned by the county, and being the most elevated site in the city, is one of the finest buildings in the West, and, excepting the one at Indianapolis, the grandest, finest and costliest structure of the kind in the State. It was built after designs and plans furnished by Edwin May, architect, and Frank L Tarman, builder, and, unlike most other public buildings, its finished appearance surpasses the best representation that can be given of it on paper. It is built of a beautiful light colored and durable limestone. It has a front of ninety three feet on Seventh street, and extends back between Broadway and Busseron street One hundred and thirty one feet.. It is three stories high, and each corner is ornamented with a tower of beautiful proportion and design, each differing from the other. The tower on the west corner is the principal one, and is one hundred and forty eight feet high, and has a clock with a dial fronting each point of the compass, and a large bell, of eighteen hundred pounds, of a fine and musical tone. The outside face of the walls are beautifully and elaborately carved, and ornamented with marble statues, in appropriate niches, representing the celebrated General George Rogers Clark, the Goddess of Liberty, and a Federal soldier, and also two large monumental tablets of marble on the Seventh street front.

    The building is furnished in the finest style throughout. It was commenced in the spring of 1872, and completed in the spring of 1875, and cost over $275,OOO.
    The public high school edifice is another of Vincennes’ splendid buildings. It's of brick, three stories high, built on an elevated plateau, and can be seen from all parts of the city, and for a considerable distance on approaching it. The German Catholics have also a very large and commodious
 school building, of brick, of modern architecture, two stories high. The school building of the Cathedral congregation is another fine edifice of brick, two stories high, and of fine appearance. The buildings of the Vincennes University, for the accommodation of males and females, are also fine .looking structures.. The St. Rose Academy, for females, under the charge of the Sisters of Providence, is a commodious and neat building. The various school buildings of the city are sufficient to accommodate 1,500 pupils, and are all supplied with excellent schools in the proper seasons. So high in the public estimation are the schools of the city, that children from a radius of thirty miles around, in both Illinois and Indiana, are sent to Vincennes to receive the benefit of them.

    The churches of the city are numerous, and many of them are of beautiful design; and on approaching it from the elevated points in the vicinity, a dozen lofty spires, surmounting churches of various denominations in different parts of the city, meet the eye, and present a beautiful appearance. The Catholic Cathedral is as fine a church edifice as can be found anywhere. It is built of brick, and was commented in 1835, and improved from time to time, and ornamented elaborately, until, to-day, it is a perfect gem. The interior decorations are costly, and it is ornamented with splendid paintings. This church building is surmounted by a spire one hundred and sixty eight feet high, of beautiful proportions, and contains a clock and the largest bell in the State. The German Catholics have also a splendid church edifice built of brick, in a cruciform, and capable of accommodating 1,500 worshipers. Its walls are beautifully frescoed, and it is also surmounted by a spire about one hundred and twenty five feet high. The Presbyterians have two large and fine churches, finished within and without in the finest style. The one on Main Street was built in 1863, and is in the most approved style of architecture. The Methodists, Baptists, and Christians have each fine church edifice.

    The buildings of the banking and business houses in the city are among the finest in the State. The city possesses many superior advantages, which cannot fail to make it one
of the most prominent and important places in the west It has unrivaled advantages for trade, manufactures., and commerce combined, such as are possessed by no other single point in the State, and only need the talismanic touch of capital and labor to make them tell upon the future of the place. It is situated in the midst of the finest timbered region  in the west, where all kinds of wood material for manufacturing are at hand, in inexhaustible quantities. It is also in the centre of the finest coal region in the State the coal fields of Daviess, Pike and Knox counties being the richest and most  productive in Indiana. It is also situated on a gravel foundation, and is blessed with the best streets and sidewalks and the finest water. The streets are never muddy, and the natural gravel foundation makes a better sidewalk than either brick or stone. Vincennes is also situated in the midst of one of the most fertile agricultural districts in the West. The county of  Knox is bounded on all sides, except the north, by natural boundaries the Wabash and White rivers and the pocket of land enclosed, between them forming the county, contains vast area of rich alluvial bottom land, unsurpassed for fertility anywhere. The annual rise of the Wabash and White rivers overflowed a large extent of territory tributary to Vincennes, and prevented its settlement and development. The Wabash river opposite Vincennes has often, from overflow, been eight  or nine miles wide, but, within the past few years, construction of levees in Illinois and Indiana, have effectually restrained the water and protected these lands from overflow, and they are rapidly being brought into cultivation, thus increasing the agricultural products that find a market at Vincennes. The levee on the Illinois side, extending from the high land some ten miles above Vincennes, to a point four or five miles below, will effectually  protect from the overflow of the Wabash river a rich prairie, some ten miles long and six miles broad, immediately adjoining the city and the west, which heretofore could not be cultivated with profit, on account of the annual overflow of the river, and will make it the finest agricultural district in either of the States. Vincennes, of course, will become the depot for the accumulation depot of these improved lands.

    Besides these advantages, Vincennes has available communcation with  all parts of the country, both natural and artificial, Wabash river is navigable six months of the year by steamboats of as large a draught as can navigate the Ohio river; besides, it has become, within the past two years, a road centre, and from it the iron bands radiate in all directions, like the spokes of a wheel from the hub. The Ohio and  Mississippi railroad gives an outlet to the markets of the East and the West, and connects the Ohio and Mississippi rivers at this central point by a direct line at the cities of Cincinnati and St. Louis. The Indianapolis and Vincennes connects it with the State capital, the great railroad centre of the West, and the Cairo and Vincennes railroad, with the head waters of the continuous navigation on the Mississippi. The Evansville and Orawfordsviile railroad connects it with the Ohio river at Evansville, and with the northwest of the state by the way of Terre Haute; and the Ohicago railroad now nearly completed, will give direct communication the entire Northwest. The various advantages, both  natural and artificial, are attracting the attention of capital and labor, and, in consequence, the city is improving rapidly in wealth and population. In 1860, it contained less than 2,000 inhabitants; in 1870, about 4,000; and, today, Vincennes has a population of over 8,000. The city has an efficient fire department, and is in every respect a delightful, safe, comfortable, and healthy place to reside.

  In the foregoing brief sketch of Vincennes and. Knox county, the compiler has, no doubt, disappointed the reader, who, of course expected to find only accounts of the thrilling incidents of war and pioneer life in the days of Clark and. Bowman. Sufficient of this has been given in the general history of the State, in another part of this volume, and in this sketch the writer has  given a history of the modern rather than the ancient. This will be appreciated.
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