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Place Name
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Vincennes
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Place Status (Type)
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city
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Capital Of
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Knox County
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Population
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19,859 (1990)
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Location
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Knox County, Indiana (IN), United States, North America
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Latitude
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38°41'N
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Longitude
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87°31'W
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Vincennes
, city (1990 pop. 19,859),  Knox co., SW Ind.,
on the Wabash R.; 38°41'N 87°31'W. Center of an extensive farm
area. Mfg. (printing; magnetic wire, transportation equip., glass,
chemicals, paper prods., food prods., machinery, asphalt, fabricated
steel, wood prods.). Vincennes is the oldest continually inhabited
settlement in Ind. Although 1702 is a traditional date for its
founding, Fr. fur traders had almost certainly come long before then.
By 1732 it had been fortified by the younger sieur de Vincennes and was
an important Fr. settlement. Occupied by the British in 1763, the town,
in the Amer. Revolution, was a main object of the expedition of George
Rogers Clark. Aided by Francis Vigo, Francis Busseron, and Father
Gibault, Clark triumphantly took the Br. Fort Sackville in Feb. 1779.
Vincennes was capital of Ind. Territory 1800-1813, and a treaty with
the Native Americans was signed here in 1805. A magnificent memorial
(dedicated 1936) to George Rogers Clark is included in George Rogers
Clark Natl. Memorial located on site of Fort Sackville; captured from
British by Clark in 1779. “Grouseland,” (built 1803-1804) the home
of William H. Harrison, 9th U.S. president, is a natl. historic
landmark. Ind. Territory State Memorial is in the N part of the city.
Vincennes Univ. dates from 1801. Inc. 1814.
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