Evansville, Indiana

City: Evansville

County: Vanderburgh

State: Indiana

Lat/Long: 37.9667, -87.5500

Evansville is located in southwestern Indiana on the Ohio River. The first permanent white settler in what is now Evansville arrived in 1812 and established a ferry. Evansville was named in 1814 in honor of General Robert M. Evans, and was briefly the county seat of Warrick County before the splitting off of new counties meant that it was no longer centrally placed in Warrick County. Following the creation of Vanderburgh County in 1818, Evansville was selected as the county seat and was soon thereafter chartered as a town. In 1847, Evansville received its city charter.

“An Act Granting to the Town of Evansville, in the County of Vanderburgh, a City Charter,” 27 January 1847, Local Laws of the State of Indiana (1847), 3-35; Joseph P. Elliott, A History of Evansville and Vanderburgh County, Indiana (Evansville, IN: Keller, 1897), 61, 65, 67-68; Frank M. Gilbert, History of the City of Evansville and Vanderburg County Indiana (Chicago: Pioneer, 1910), 1:48, 58-60; Webster's New Geographical Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1988), 386.