History of Indianapolis

Initially the availability of federal lands for purchase in central Indiana made it attractive to the new settlement; the first European Americans to permanently settle in the area arrived around 1819 or early 1820.

Its proximity to the White River, which provided power for the town's early mills in the 1820s and 1830s, and the arrival of the railroads, beginning in 1847, established Indianapolis as a manufacturing hub and a transportation center for freight and passenger service.

When White River proved too shallow for steamboats and the Indiana Central Canal was never fully completed, railroads helped transform the city into a business, industrial, and manufacturing center.

The White River and Fall Creek also offered water access and good fishing, but the Natives established no permanent settlement in the immediate area; however, they did set up temporary camps, especially along the waterways.

Other historians have argued as early as 1822 that John Wesley McCormick and his family, along with his brothers, James and Samuel, and their employees became the first European American settlers when he built a cabin along the White River in February 1820.

[15] Ralston's grid pattern with wide roads and public squares extended outward from the four blocks adjacent to the Circle, and also included four diagonal streets, later renamed as avenues.

(Tennessee and Mississippi Streets were renamed Capitol and Senate Avenues in 1895, after several state government buildings, including the Indiana Statehouse, were built west of the Circle.)

[10] Indianapolis has been closely linked to politics since its selection as Indiana's seat of government in the 1820s, but early in its history the city became a railroad transportation hub for the region and a center for civic and cultural affairs.

In 1828, Indiana supporters of John Quincy Adams's candidacy for president of the United States held their state convention in Indianapolis; in 1833, William Henry Harrison, former governor of the Indiana Territory, attended a reception held in his honor; in 1840, the country's first Whig convention met at Indianapolis; and, in 1842, former U.S. president Martin Van Buren and Kentucky politician Henry Clay visited the city.

[43] In the town's early years manufactured goods were brought overland by wagons or along the White River by keelboats and flatboats, but much of the local produce was not exported to markets outside Indianapolis until railroads began passing through in the city in the 1850s.

[60] Although local funding limited the expansion of free public schools prior to the Civil War, private and state-funded institutions continued to support educational opportunities in Indianapolis.

His diary entries, which date from 1817 to 1835, recorded daily events; Fletcher's perspectives on law, business, and agriculture; and details of early Indianapolis railroads, banks, schools, and the charitable institutions in which he was involved.

The Diary of Calvin Fletcher, published by the Indiana Historical Society in nine volumes, provides a detailed, first-hand account of life in Indianapolis during its first forty-five years.

"[71] Governor Oliver P. Morton, a major supporter of President Abraham Lincoln, quickly made Indianapolis a rallying place for Union army troops as they prepared to enter Confederate lands.

[91] Local soldiers' aid societies and the Indiana Sanitary Commission, whose headquarters were at Indianapolis, raised funds and gathered additional supplies for troops in the field.

[99] On May 20, 1863, Union soldiers attempted to disrupt a statewide Democratic convention at Indianapolis, forcing the proceedings to be adjourned, and caused an sarcastically referred to as the Battle of Pogue's Run.

[76][90] In the last half of the nineteenth century, when the city's population soared from 8,091 in 1850 to 169,164 in 1900, urban development expanded in all directions as Indianapolis experienced a building boom and transitioned from an agricultural community to an industrial center.

[106] Some of the city's most iconic structures were built during this period, including several that have survived to the present day: the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument (1888, dedicated 1902), the Indiana Statehouse (1888), Union Station (1888), and the Das Deutsche Haus (1898), among others.

A strong black middle class called this neighborhood home, as did jazz greats such as Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Coe, Noble Sissle, and Wes Montgomery.

[114][115] The late nineteenth century was also a time of growth and change in the Indianapolis educational community, when several improvements were made to the city's schools and public library.

[116] In 1875 North Western Christian University relocated from its campus at present-day Thirteenth Street and College Avenue to a new site in the suburban community of Irvington, east of downtown Indianapolis.

[126] Other civic improvements included formation of the Home for Aged and Friendless Women (1866), the Indianapolis Flower Mission (1876), and the Free Kindergarten and Children's Aid Society (1881),[127] among others.

[139] The 1880s and 1890s are considered to be the city's golden years, when Indianapolis resident Benjamin Harrison was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1881 and won as the Republican Party candidate for president of the United States in 1888.

Several of the state's popular authors and poets had ties to Indianapolis, including Lew Wallace, Maurice Thompson, Charles Major, and James Whitcomb Riley.

[141] Indianapolis survived financial challenges during the last half of nineteenth century to become a prominent railroad hub, food processor, and a Midwestern manufacturing and industrial center.

With roads as the spokes of a wheel, Indianapolis was on its way to becoming a major hub of regional transport connecting to Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus and St. Louis, as is befitting the capital of a state whose motto is "The Crossroads of America."

The union demanded the passage of a law to better protect what they believe to be their rights and wanted Governor Samuel Ralston to call a special session of the Indiana General Assembly to pass such a bill.

Her long and remarkably successful career as both a businesswoman and a philanthropist is memorialized by the Madam Walker Legacy Center which continues to provide entertainment on Indiana Avenue to this day.

The four "excluded cities" of Beech Grove, Lawrence, Southport, and Speedway still maintain separate police forces, as do many of the school districts and "included towns" within Marion County.

On April 4, 1968, the day of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy delivered an impromptu speech on race reconciliation to a mostly African-American crowd in a poor inner-city Indianapolis neighborhood.