Historic Southern Indiana

Ethnicity and Race

All but two counties in the region in 2000 were less than 5 percent African American. Two, Clark and Vanderburgh, were 5 to 9 percent.

All but Clark, Floyd and Vanderburgh counties were 95 percent or more white non-Hispanic.

All of the counties were less than 3 percent Hispanic. None had more than a 1 percent Asian population.

Religious Affiliation

Among persons claiming to be adherents of a religious group in 2000, three southern Indiana counties ranked in the top tier, with 60 percent or more—Floyd, Dubois and Ripley. Two of the lowest five—less than 30 percent—were in the region: Pike and Switzerland. Twelve had at least 50 percent.

The religious group with the largest number of adherents in sixteen counties was Roman Catholic. American Baptist churches were the largest in Jefferson, Jennings and Switzerland counties. Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ were top in Crawford, Lawrence, Orange, Scott and Washington counties. Methodists were most numerous in Pike and Lutherans (Missouri Synod) in Jackson.

As a percentage of total adherents, Catholics accounted for 60 percent or more in Dubois and Perry counties. These two were the highest in the state. Of the seven Indiana counties that were 50 to 59.9 percent Catholic, five were in southern Indiana—Martin, Posey, Spencer, Dearborn and Ripley.

Among Protestant groups, United Methodists were most numerous in nine counties (all but two—Harrison and Dearborn—in southwestern Indiana), Southern Baptists in three (Clark, Floyd and Vanderburgh), Christians and Churches of Christ in seven (all but one, Ohio, in the central part of the region), and American Baptists in four (Scott, Jefferson, Ripley and Switzerland). Missouri Synod Lutherans were most numerous in Jackson County, and Evangelical Lutherans in Dubois County.

As a percentage of total adherents, insufficient data was available for Muslims in all but two counties—Vanderburgh, with about 1 percent, and Floyd, with 1 to 4.9 percent.

Friends (Quakers) were about 1 percent of total adherents in Washington and Posey counties and from 1 to 4.9 percent in Orange County.

Mennonites represented 5 to 9.9 percent of adherents in Daviess and 1 to 4.9 percent in Orange. Insufficient data existed for the other counties.

Old Order Amish accounted for 10 to 19.9 percent of adherents in Daviess County, from 5 to 9.9 percent in Martin, Orange, Washington and Switzerland counties, and about 1 percent in Jackson County.

Education

Seven counties in the region ranked in the top tier in high school dropout rates during the 1998-1999 year (2.5 percent or more). They represented a third of the state’s counties at that level. The seven were Spencer, Perry, Crawford, Clark, Floyd, Scott, and Daviess. Three more—Martin, Warrick and Jennings—had a rate of 2.0 to 2.49 percent.

Six of the state’s eleven counties with the highest percentage of the population without a high school diploma (25 percent or more in 2000) were in southern Indiana: Perry, Crawford, Orange, Daviess, Martin, Scott and Switzerland.

The same counties had the lowest percentage of the population without a high school diploma or a higher degree—less than 75 percent. Eleven counties had 80 to 89.9 percent. The highest was Warrick, with over 85 percent.

Only Warrick and Floyd counties had populations in which at least 25 percent had a bachelors degree or higher. Vanderburgh, Jefferson and Dearborn had 15 to 19.9 percent.

Among the percentage of high school graduates (2000) intent on pursuing higher education, only Dubois County rated in the top tier (85 percent or more). In the next highest tier (80 to 84.9 percent) were Vanderburgh, Warrick, Knox and Daviess. Eleven counties ranked in the lowest tier—less than 70 percent.

Hoops

Between 1911 and 2001, southern Indiana high schools won the IHSAA Boys’ Basketball Championship eighteen times. Leading the pack with two or more trophies were Evansville Bosse, Vincennes Lincoln, and Washington high schools.

Source: Jeffrey Wilson, Indiana in Maps: Geographic Perspectives of the Hoosier State (2003)

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Southern Indiana's People

The oldest continuously occupied town in Indiana is in the south—Vincennes, established as a French fort in 1732. Most of the historic native American villages in the state were not located in the southern portion of the state, which like Kentucky was a seasonal hunting region. Notable exceptions were along the lower Wabash, near Vincennes, between 1772 and 1810, and on the upper reaches of the Blue River.

Indiana Territory was formally organized out of the Northwest Territory on July 4, 1800. Until Michigan Territory was established in 1805, Indiana comprised all of the present states of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the eastern portion of Minnesota. The first territorial capital was Vincennes (1800-1813). The second was Corydon (1813-1816). Both of these are in southern Indiana. When Indiana was admitted to the Union on December 11, 1816, Corydon became state capital until the late fall of 1824, when the capital was moved to Indianapolis.

Most of the southern portion of the territory was opened up to white settlement during the administration of territorial governor William Henry Harrison, who served from 1800 to 1813 and secured major concessions of land during 1803-1809. There was relatively little resistance to the practice of ceding land in return for cash, gifts, and annuities, but a major opponent of Harrison, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, formed a short-lived confederacy and allied himself with the British, actions that helped lead to the War of 1812.

The first Anglo-American town in Indiana—and in fact in the Old Northwest—was Clarksville (1784), established by land grants to men who had served under Virginian George Rogers Clark in the Revolutionary War. (Kentucky was a county of Virginia from 1776 to its statehood in 1792.)

Early settlers in the southeast, near the Whitewater River, came from the Upper South. Jeffersonville and Lawrenceburg are the oldest communities (1802).

The majority of the earliest settlers in Indiana settled on or near the Ohio River and came from the Upper South. Evansville, now the largest city in southern Indiana, began with the purchase of land at the Vincennes Land Office by Hugh McGary, Jr., on March 27, 1812. Evansville, named after prominent territorial politician Robert M. Evans, was chartered as a town in 1819 and as a city in 1847. German immigrants began settling in large numbers beginning in the mid-1830s. The most substantial German-American populations were (and are) to be found in Dubois, southern Gibson, northern Spencer, Posey, and Vanderburgh counties, all in the southwest. Relatively few of the region’s populace to this day do not trace their roots to Britain, Ireland, or Germany.

Free African Americans (and runaway slaves) established a number of small rural communities in southern Indiana before the Civil War. None of them survives. After the war, large numbers settled in the Ohio River towns, especially Evansville, but after 1900 the amount dropped due to Jim Crow practices, violence and intimidation, and occupational opportunities to the North. In the Evansville of 2000, about 9 percent of the population is black.

When Indiana became a state in 1816, almost all of its population resided in what is now Historic Southern Indiana. Today, less than a third does. In 1850, two of the three largest cities were in southern Indiana—New Albany and Madison. (Indianapolis was second in size.) After the Civil War and the coming of a railroad network, only Evansville would remain in the top four—second in size in 1890, third in 1920, fourth in 1950, and third in 2000. New Albany, sixth in size in 1890, would drop out of the top ten permanently. No other southern Indiana city has been in the top ten in the last century except Evansville.

Governing Southern Indiana

When Indiana became a state in 1816, all but two of the counties were in the region that we call Historic Southern Indiana: Gibson, Posey, Warrick, Perry, Orange, Harrison, Washington, Jackson, Jefferson, Switzerland, and Dearborn. Knox, with its county seat at Vincennes, comprised present-day Knox County and most of the remainder of what is now Indiana.

Southern Indiana counties, in order of their date of formation, with county seats:

Knox	1790	Vincennes
Clark	1801	Jeffersonville
Dearborn	1803	Lawrenceburg
Harrison	1808	Corydon
Jefferson	1811	Madison
Gibson	1813	Princeton
Warrick	1813	Boonville
Perry	1814	Tell City
Posey	1814	Mount Vernon
Switzerland	1814	Vevay
Washington	1814	Salem
Jackson	1815	Brownstown
Orange	1816	Paoli
Daviess	1816	Washington
Jennings	1816	Vernon
Pike	1817	Petersburg
Crawford	1818	English
Dubois	1818	Jasper
Lawrence	1818	Bedford
Ripley	1818	Versailles
Spencer	1818	Rockport
Vanderburgh	1818	Evansville
Floyd	1819	New Albany
Martin	1820	Shoals
Scott	1820	Scottsburg
Ohio	1844	Rising Sun

Southern Indiana Historic Sites:

1.    Angel Mounds, Evansville
2.    J. F. D. Lanier Mansion, Madison
3.    Eleutherian College, Jefferson County
4.    Shrewsbury House, Madison
5.    New Harmony
6.    Corydon Capitol
7.    Culbertson Mansion, New Albany
8.    Col. Wm. Jones House, Gentryville
9.    Pigeon Roost, Scott County
10. George Rogers Clark National Historical Park, Vincennes
11. Vincennes State Historic Sites
12. William Henry Harrison Home (Grouseland), Vincennes
13. Cannelton Cotton Mill
14. West Baden Springs Hotel
15. Hillforest Mansion, Aurora
16. Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, Lincoln City

8600 University Boulevard - Evansville, IN 47712-3596 - 812/464-8600