Corydon, Indiana Corydon, Indiana Downtown Corydon Indiana viewed from the Pilot Knob in the Hayswood Nature Reserve Downtown Corydon Indiana viewed from the Pilot Knob in the Hayswood Nature Reserve Location in the state of Indiana Location in the state of Indiana State Indiana Corydon is a town in Harrison Township, Harrison County, Indiana.
State of Indiana, it is the seat of government for Harrison County.
Corydon was established in 1808 and served as the capital of the Indiana Territory from 1813 to 1816.
It was the site of Indiana's first constitutional convention, which was held June 10 29, 1816.
Forty-three convened to consider statehood for Indiana and drafted its first state constitution.
Under Article XI, Section 11, of the Indiana 1816 constitution, Corydon was designated as the capital of the state until 1825, when the seat of state government was moved to Indianapolis.
During the American Civil War, Corydon was the site of the Battle of Corydon, the only official pitched battle waged in Indiana.
A portion of its downtown region is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Corydon Historic District.
During the American Revolution George Rogers Clark captured the encircling area of what became the town of Corydon from the British, bringing it under the control of the fledgling United States government. In the early 1800s Edward Smith brought his family to settle at the edge of a fertile valley near a large spring, the site of the present-day Harrison County fairgrounds. William Henry Harrison, the first governor of the Indiana Territory and a future president of the United States, often stopped to rest at their home while travelling to and from Vincennes, the territorial capital. In 1804 Harrison purchased a tract of territory where Big Indian Creek and Little Indian Creek join to turn into Indian Creek and decided to build a town on the site. The town gets its name from "The Pastoral Elegy," a hymn that jubilates the death of a shepherd titled Corydon. Tradition says that Harrison asked Edward Smith's daughter, Jenny, to name the town and he chose the name from Harrison's favorite hymn, "The Pastoral Elegy." Harrison sold the town site to Harvey Heth in 1807. Heth donated the town square for enhance use and sold individual lots to pioneer and the territorial government. When Harrison County was established in 1808, Corydon became its governmental center of county of government.
See also: History of Indiana and Corydon Historic District Corydon became the second capital of the Indiana Territory on May 1, 1813, when it was relocated from Vincennes in Knox County.
Corydon competed with Charlestown, Clarksville, Lawrenceburg, Madison, and Jeffersonville to turn into the new territorial capital. Dennis Pennington, a Harrison County representative and the speaker of the territorial legislature's lower home, helped secure the town's selection amid the 1813 session of the Indiana Territory's general assembly.
The Harrison County court had allowed a design for a new county courthouse on Corydon's enhance square in 1811 and it could be used as an assembly building for the territorial legislature.
Pennington supervised assembly of limestone courthouse, which was nearly instead of when Indiana's first state council convened at Corydon in 1816. Main article: Constitution of Indiana On April 19, 1816, President James Madison signed an Enabling Act that provided for the election of delegates to a convention at Corydon to consider statehood for Indiana.
Forty-three delegates, including five men from Harrison County, convened June 10 29, 1816, to draft Indiana's first state constitution. The preamble of the constitution acknowledges the site of the historic gathering: "We the Representatives of the citizens of the Territory of Indiana, in Convention met, at Corydon, on Monday the tenth day of June in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixteen,..." A portion of its trunk has been preserved, surrounded by a sandstone memorial.) The delegates instead of their work in nineteen days, adjourning on June 29, 1816, when the newly signed state constitution went into effect. As outlined in Article XI, Section 11, of the constitution of 1816: "Corydon, in Harrison County shall be the seat of Government of the state of Indiana, until the year eighteen hundred and twenty-five, and until removed by law." On November 4, 1816, the Indiana General Assembly met for the first time at Corydon under the new constitution and state government. President James Madison signed the congressional resolution admitting Indiana as the nineteenth state in the Union on December 11, 1816, and Corydon began a new era as the first state capital of Indiana. The Harrison County courthouse, now known as the Old Capitol, served as Indiana's first state capitol building.
It homed state government offices from 1816 until 1825. Several other historic structures in Corydon date from the early statehood era, including the Governor's Mansion and the Old Treasury Building (Indiana's first state office building), which were assembled in 1817, and the Colonel Thomas Lloyd Posey home, among others. Cordon's Grand Masonic Lodge, the first in the state, was assembled in 1819. During the eleven years that Corydon served as a territorial and state capital, it was a center of politics.
Notable inhabitants during this time encompassed Davis Floyd, a prominent small-town politician; two governors of Indiana, Jonathan Jennings and Ratliff Boon (the state's first and second governors, in the order given); Dennis Pennington, the first Speaker of the Indiana Senate; and William Hendricks, Indiana's first U.
The state constitution's provision making Corydon the seat of state government was not a prominent one, especially among the people of rival towns.
Others expressed concern that the town's geographical locale in the extreme southern part of Indiana would turn into inconvenient as the state's populace center shifted northward; however, Dennis Pennington and other Harrison County delegates to the Indiana General Assembly successfully resisted attempts to move the seat of government from Corydon until 1825. Governor Hendricks signed a legislative bill in 1824 to move the state capital to Indianapolis, effective January 10, 1825. After the seat of state government moved to Indianapolis in 1825, Corydon continued its part as the seat of county government and a market town for the encircling agricultural area. On September 11 14, 1860, the first annual county fair was held on Corydon's 36-acre (15 ha) fairgrounds.
During the Civil War, Corydon was the site of the only "official pitched battle" fought in Indiana.
The Confederate troops opposed about 450 members of a hastily assembled home guard at the Battle of Corydon outside of town, but the Union forces were quickly defeated and the town surrendered. Beginning in 1882 the Louisville, New Albany and Corydon Railroad, an 8-mile (13 km) spur of the Southern Railway, connected Corydon to other suburbs in the region. Southern Railroad's chief line ran athwart northern Harrison County at Crandall, and remained open to passenger traffic until 1996.
In 1889 Corydon was shocked by an attempted murder, the first in the town's history.
A quiet, orderly mob of 200 men led by twenty masked Indiana White Caps removed the two alleged assailants titled Devin and Tennyson from the county jail.
In 1917 the state of Indiana purchased the historic Old Capital with the goal of restoring it.
The Federal-style building opened as a state memorial in 1929 30; it is a part of the Corydon Capitol State Historic Site.
The Harrison County government also used the former statehouse until a new, three-story county courthouse was instead of in 1929. In 1973 a portion of Corydon's downtown region was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Corydon Historic District.
Initially, the precinct encompassed major sites dating from the reconstructionwhen Corydon was a territorial and state capital: the Old Capitol/Harrison County Courthouse building, the Governor Hendricks' Headquarters, Constitution Elm, the first state office building, the Kintner-Mc - Grain House (Cedar Glade), and the Posey House, among others.
In 2008 Corydon jubilated its bicentennial anniversary with a year-long series of affairs that encompassed the unveiling of a $200,000 bronze statue of Honorable Frank O'Bannon, the late governor of Indiana and a former citizen of Corydon. Corydon remains the governmental center of county of Harrison County. The current town board president is Fred Cammack, who has served in this position since 1975. Corydon is positioned near the center of Harrison County.
Indiana State Road 62 passes through the town from east to west; Interstate 64 passes in the same direction less than a mile north of the town.
Because of its historic sites and the historic affairs that took place at Corydon, it has turn into a southern Indiana tourist destination.
Local affairs include an annual Halloween Parade, the Harrison County Fair, Friday evening band concerts amid the summer, and an annual reenactment of the Battle of Corydon, as well as nation and bluegrass music performances.
See also: Corydon Historic District Old Capitol, Indiana's first state capitol building Old Treasury Building, Indiana's first state office building Former Indiana governor Frank O'Bannon once owned the publishing company. Funk studied law in New Albany, Indiana, and returned to Corydon to practice law.
Funk was also active in Indiana historical and genealogical societies and wrote many a several about Indiana history.
Hays was born in Corydon in 1924 to a sixth-generation Corydon family.
He earned degrees in government and law from Indiana University and served two years in the U.S.
O'Bannon also served as a state senator for eighteen years and as Indiana's lieutenant governor for eight years, before becoming Indiana's governor in 1997.
In 1809 Spencer was appointed the first sheriff of Harrison County and moved to Corydon.
Spencer, Indiana, as well as Spencer County, Indiana, and Spencer County, Kentucky, were titled for him. Zenor, born near Corydon, studied law in New Albany, Indiana, and returned to Corydon to practice law.
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Categories:
Corydon, Indiana - County seats in Indiana - Towns in Indiana - Towns in Harrison County, Indiana - Louisville urbane region - Former state capitals in the United States - Former colonial and territorial capitals in the United States
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