Early Mt. Vernon History - Mt Vernon, IN
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 37° 55.899 W 087° 53.712
16S E 421330 N 4198609
One of two side by side historical markers on this courthouse lawn, next to a huge and impressive Civil War Monument.
Waymark Code: WM9M0E
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 09/01/2010
Views: 2
County of Marker: Posey County
Date Marker Erected: Sept. 1, 1979
Marker Text:
EARLY MT. VERNON HISTORY
A Scotchman, Andrew (Tweedle-Dee-Dum) McFadin, a friend of Daniel Boone, crossed the Ohio and discovered the location of our present city in 1798. He was determined to make it his home because of its elevation. In 1806 he built a log cabin at the foot of what is now College Avenue. He was joined by two cousins, William and "Slim Andy" Andrew McFadin. At the suggestion of Wm. McFadin they called the site McFadin's Bluff. The McFadin's were joined by William Weir, Thomas Givens, Aaron Williams, Aaron Burlison, Absolum Duckworth, Paul and Thomas Casselberry, Thomas Duckworth, William and Hugh Todd, John Black, and the Rev. Samuel Jones a Baptist minister
General William Henry Harrison purchased all of the section's 371.82 acres on May 25, 1807.
The first white child born in the vicinity was Malinda Weir in 1807. In 1811 the first steamboat passed the Village. The first school was built in 1814. On "Muster Day" in 1816 Sam Rowe proposed honoring George Washington by changing the town's name to Mt. Vernon. In 1816 the first plat was laid out by John Wagoner, on the west side of Mill Creek and the present public square. Fifteen families were living in Mt. Vernon at the time . The county seat was moved to Mt. Vernon in 1825. The first incorporation was in 1832. The first lodge was instituted in 1848, the I.O.O.F. Mt. Vernon was incorporated the second time in 1849. At that time 350 people lived in the village.