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 hall 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 $275,000.

The public high school edifice is another of Vincennes' splendid buildings. It is 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

*See General History to find account of Clark's operations at Vincennes in 1778.

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 commenced 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 twentyfive 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 edifices.

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 a 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, the 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. Vin

cennes, of course, will become the depot for the accumulation of the products of these improved lands.

Besides these advantages, Vincennes has available communication with all parts of the country, both natural and artificial. The 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 great railroad 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 railroad 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 Crawfordsville railroad connects it with the Ohio river at Evansville, and with the northwest of the State by the way of Terre Haute; and the Chicago railroad, now nearly completed, will give direct communication with 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, to-day, 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.*

*We are indebted to Mr. Henry Cauthorn, one of the leading attorneys -a very intelligent and affable gentleman — of Vincennes, for assistance in producing the above sketch.

A

N historical and descriptive sketch of Vanderburgh can be but little else than of Evansville. The county has but few attractions outside of that city. In 1812, Col. Hugh McGary, of Kentucky, settled on the site of Evansville, erecting a log house - the first white man's dwelling in that section. At the time of this settlement there was an Indian village, of the Shawanoe tribe, near Pigeon creek. "In 1813," says Mr. Robert, "Warrick county was formed out of that portion of Knox county lying south of Rector's Base Line,' and extending from the boundary of Harrison county to the Wabash river, and Col. McGary, who owned the lower part of the present site of Evansville, laid out a number of lots, and donated some land to Warrick county, provided they would fix on this place as the permanent seat of justice. In 1814, the territorial legislature of Indiana divided Warrick county, creating Posey county on the west and Perry county on the east, which left the site of Evansville near the southwest corner of the then existing county of Warrick; for which reason the legislature ordered that the seat of justice be removed from Evansville to a certain tract of land owned by Nathaniel Ewing,' which was afterwards called 'Darlington.' This removal came near nipping the existence of the embryo city in the bud, and from this period until 1817, Evansville made very little progress, hardly having an existence as a village." However, it was not destined to remain long in obscurity. In 1816 and 1817, Gen. Robert M. Evans and James W. Jones, united with Col. McGary, and established the town on an enlarged plan. They purchased additional land, and