[5] Jeffersonville began its existence as a settlement around Fort Finney after 1786 and was named after Thomas Jefferson in 1801, the year he took office.

U.S. Army planners chose the location for its view of a nearby bend in the Ohio River, which offered a strategic advantage in the protection of settlers from Native Americans.

[7] Precisely when the settlement became known as Jeffersonville is unclear, but it was probably around 1801, the year in which President Thomas Jefferson took office.

[7] In 1802 local residents used a grid pattern designed by Thomas Jefferson for the formation of a city.

[7] He established his ship building company in Jeffersonville that year but moved his business to Madison, Indiana in 1836 and remained there until 1844.

Howard returned his business to the Jeffersonville area to its final location in Port Fulton in 1849.

There is an annual festival held in September called Steamboat Days that celebrates Jeffersonville's heritage.

[10] As a free state bordering the south, Indiana served as a crucial step along the Underground Railroad.

He was the head of UGRR activity in Jeffersonville, hiding escapees in his cellar during the day and sending them on to the next "station" at night.

These factors made the city a good location to house supplies and troops for the Union Army.

[13] In September and October 1862, two Confederate armies led by Generals Braxton Bragg and E. Kirby Smith closed in on Louisville, a key strategic prize.

On September 24, General Don Carlos Buell and his men managed to reach Louisville barely ahead of the Confederates.

The facility contained 24 wards each radiating out like spokes on a wheel and all connected by a corridor one-half mile in circumference.

[6] Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the Quartermaster Depot continued supplying troops engaged in frontier wars with Native Americans.

Soon, the Carnegie Foundation donated $16,000 for the construction of a new library building – a beaux arts, copper-domed landmark.

[16] Due to the Ohio River Flood of 1937, the library suffered a near total loss of its collection.

On the eve of war, the Quartermaster Depot began producing a wide range in items, including saddles, harnesses, stoves, and kitchen utensils.

"[6] Meanwhile, the American Car and Foundry Company's local plant manufactured a variety of products ranging from components for over 228,000 artillery shells to 18,156 cake turners.

[6] Shortly after the war ended in 1918, civilian employment at the Quartermaster Depot fell to 445, and military presence dropped to just ten officers and two enlisted.

[6] For a brief period in the mid-1920s and early 1930s, Roy E. Davis, a founding member of the 1915 Ku Klux Klan, hosted a series of religious revivals in Jeffersonville.

He left Jeffersonville, and William Branham – formerly a ministering elder in Davis's church – became pastor of the congregation.

The Indiana National Guard deployed to the area to help those displaced, distribute much-needed emergency supplies, inoculate residents for typhoid fever, and purify drinking water.

[22] During this time, Jeffersonville attracted the likes of Clark Gable, John Dillinger, Al Capone, and others.

After Clarence Amster, a New Albany resident was gunned down on July 2, 1937, public sentiment turned against gambling and the mobsters it brought.

The areas received planning and zoning, building permits and drainage issues services immediately, with new in-city sewer rates.

The park features green space, fountains, a farmers market on Saturdays, a restroom, a bike-sharing station, a pavilion, a playground, and easy access to downtown shops and restaurants.

A plethora of businesses call Jeffersonville home, including both locally owned and operated companies, as well as national ones.

[41] The River Ridge Commerce Center is an industrial zone located on the outskirts of Jeffersonville near Charlestown, Indiana.

Built on land previously occupied by the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant, it now hosts a variety of industries.

The company closed due to an overproduction of barges, marking the end of 200 years of shipbuilding in Jeffersonville.