Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville and Terre Haute. Founded in 1732 by French fur traders, notably, François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes for whom the Fort was named, Vincennes is the oldest continually-inhabited European settlement in Indiana and one of the oldest settlements west of the Appalachians.
Vincennes University (VU) is a public university with its main campus in Vincennes, Indiana. Founded in 1801 as Jefferson Academy, VU is the oldest public institution of higher learning in the Northwest Territory and in Indiana. VU was chartered in 1806 as the Indiana Territory's four-year university and remained the state of Indiana's sole publicly funded four-year university until the establishment of Indiana University in 1820. In 1889, VU was chartered by the State of Indiana as a two-year university. From 1999 to 2005, Vincennes University was in a state-mandated partnership with what became the Ivy Tech Community College.. In 2005, VU began offering baccalaureate degrees.
Lincoln Memorial Bridge is a deck arch bridge carrying U.S. Route 50 Business over the Wabash River between Vincennes, Indiana and Lawrence County, Illinois. It is said to mark the point where Abraham Lincoln crossed the Wabash River on his way to Illinois in 1830, and a sculptural installation, the Lincoln Trail State Memorial, marks the western end of the bridge.
George Rogers Clark National Historical Park, located in Vincennes, Indiana, on the banks of the Wabash River at what is believed to be the site of Fort Sackville, is a United States National Historical Park. President Calvin Coolidge authorized a classical memorial and President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the completed structure in 1936.
Jane Jarvis was an American jazz pianist. She was also known for her work as a composer, baseball stadium organist and music industry executive.
François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes was a French explorer and soldier who established several forts in what is now the U.S. state of Indiana, including Fort Vincennes.
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, the French, British and U.S. forces built and occupied a number of forts at Vincennes, Indiana. These outposts commanded a strategic position on the Wabash River. The names of the installations were changed by the various ruling parties, and the forts were considered strategic in the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, the Northwest Indian War and the War of 1812. The last fort was abandoned in 1816.
Earl Wilson was a United States Representative from Indiana. He was born on a farm near Huron, Indiana and attended public schools there. He attended Purdue University and received degrees from Coyne Electrical School of Chicago, Illinois in 1928 and Indiana University of Bloomington, Indiana in 1931. He taught high school in Dubois, White, and Decautur Counties between 1931 and 1938 and as a high school principal in Jackson County 1939-1940.
In the U.S. state of Illinois, U.S. Route 50 is an east–west highway across the southern portion of the state. It runs from the Jefferson Barracks Bridge over the Mississippi River to Missouri east to the Red Skelton Memorial Bridge over the Wabash River to Indiana. This is a distance of 165.79 miles (266.81 km).
In the U.S. state of Indiana, U.S. Route 41 (US 41) is a north–south highway that is parallel to the Illinois state line. It enters the state south of Evansville as a four-lane divided highway passing around Vincennes and traveling north to Terre Haute. In Terre Haute, it is known as 3rd Street. North of Terre Haute, it hooks east and becomes a two-lane surface road. Those wanting to stay on a four-lane divided highway can use State Road 63 to the west. It passes through Rockville, Veedersburg, and Attica before returning to a four-lane divided highway when SR 63 terminates in Warren County. It remains a four-lane divided highway until Lake County where it becomes a main road known as Indianapolis Boulevard. It overlaps US 12 and US 20 in Hammond and exits Indiana into the South Side of Chicago.
State Road 441 (SR 441) is a part of the Indiana State Road that runs through Vincennes in the US state of Indiana. The 2.61 miles (4.20 km) of SR 441 that lie within Indiana serve as a minor highway. None of the highway is listed on the National Highway System. Most of the route is an urban two-lane highway. The highway passes through residential and commercial properties.
Southwestern Indiana is an 11-county region of southern Indiana, United States located at the southernmost and westernmost part of the state. As of the 2010 census, the region's combined population is 474,251. Evansville, Indiana's third-largest city, is the primary hub for the region, as well as the primary regional hub for a tri-state area which includes Kentucky and Illinois. Other regional hubs include Jasper, Vincennes, and Washington.
The Vincennes Trace was a major trackway running through what are now the American states of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Originally formed by millions of migrating bison, the Trace crossed the Ohio River near the Falls of the Ohio and continued northwest to the Wabash River, near present-day Vincennes, before it crossed to what became known as Illinois. This buffalo migration route, often 12 to 20 feet wide in places, was well known and used by American Indians. Later European traders and American settlers learned of it, and many used it as an early land route to travel west into Indiana and Illinois. It is considered the most important of the traces to the Illinois country.
The Pantheon Theatre was constructed in 1919 on the corner of 5th and Main Street in Vincennes, Indiana. It was built to hold 1200 people. One of the highest paid interior decorators in the world was hired to supervise the decorating of the theatre. The Pantheon's interior was highly embellished with ornamental plaster, draperies and painted details such as the birds of paradise. Over six miles of electrical wiring and 15 miles of rope for rigging was installed. With its large stage, orchestra pit, eleven dressing rooms, and fifty-two curtains and backdrops the Pantheon was the only facility in the area that could handle Broadway shows. The Pantheon featured live shows from Broadway, vaudeville, live music, cooking shows, fashion shows, and movies. At first the movies were silent and the Pantheon had a modest Wurlitzer theatre organ to play along with the silent movies. In 1929 the Pantheon showed the first "talkie" in Vincennes. The Pantheon was also the first building in Vincennes to be air-conditioned.
Benjamin Parke was an American lawyer, politician, militia officer, businessman, treaty negotiator in the Indiana Territory who also served as a federal judge in Indiana after it attained statehood in 1816. Parke was the Indiana Territory's attorney general (1804–08); a representative to the territory's first general assembly (1805); its first territorial delegate to the U.S. Congress (1805–08); one of the five Knox County delegates to the Indiana constitutional convention of 1816; and a territorial court judge (1808–16). After Indiana attained statehood, Parke served as the first judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Indiana (1817–35).
George Washington Buckner was an African-American physician and diplomat. He was United States minister to Liberia from 1913 to 1915.
The Vincennes Bridge Company, based in Vincennes, Indiana, was a designer and builder of bridges that was "one of Indiana's 'most successful bridge-building firms'".
Secrest Ferry Bridge is a historic Pennsylvania through truss bridge located in Bean Blossom Township, Monroe County, Indiana and Wayne Township, Owen County, Indiana. It was built by the Lafayette Engineering Co. and Vincennes Bridge Co. in 1903. It is a single-span bridge of 316 feet in length and spans the West Fork of the White River.
