Jeffersonville, Indiana

=== 19th century ===

==== Early history ====
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.<ref name="JeffHist">{{cite web |url=http://www.cityofjeff.net/history/historymain.htm |title=Official History of Jeffersonville |publisher=Cityofjeff.net |access-date=July 28, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720154625/http://www.cityofjeff.net/history/historymain.htm |archive-date=July 20, 2008  }}</ref> In 1802 local residents used a grid pattern designed by [[Thomas Jefferson]] for the formation of a city.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TBvVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA29 | title=Biographical and Historical Souvenir for the Counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana | publisher=Chicago Printing Company | year=1889 | pages=29| isbn=9781548571665 }}</ref> On September 13, 1803, a post office was established in the city. In 1808 Indiana's second federal land sale office was established in Jeffersonville, which initiated a growth in settling in Indiana that was further spurred by the end of the [[War of 1812]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

In 1802, Jeffersonville replaced [[Springville, Clark County, Indiana|Springville]] as the county seat of Clark County. [[Charlestown, Indiana|Charlestown]] was named the county seat in 1812 but it returned to Jeffersonville in 1878, where it remains.<ref name="JeffHist" />

In 1813 and 1814 Jeffersonville was briefly the ''de facto'' capital of the [[Indiana Territory]], as then-[[governor]] [[Thomas Posey]] disliked then-[[Capital city|capital]] [[Corydon, Indiana|Corydon]] and decided to live in Jeffersonville to be closer to his personal [[physician]] in Louisville. The territorial legislature remained in Corydon and communicated with Posey by messenger.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tjymxfjAKXgC&q=dennis+pennington Life of Walter Quintin Gresham, 1832–1895] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230907104659/https://books.google.com/books?id=tjymxfjAKXgC&q=dennis%20pennington |date=September 7, 2023 }}'' By Matilda Gresham (Rand, McNally & company 1919) page 23-23</ref>

==== Shipbuilding ====
{{See also|Howard Steamboat Museum}}
In 1819 the first shipbuilding took place in Jeffersonville, and [[steamboat]]s would become key to Jeffersonville's economy.<ref name="JeffHist" /> In 1834, James Howard built his first steamboat, named the Hyperion, in Jeffersonville.<ref name="JeffHist" /> He established his ship building company in Jeffersonville that year but moved his business to [[Madison, Indiana|Madison]], [[Indiana]] in 1836 and remained there until 1844. Howard returned his business to the Jeffersonville area to its final location in [[Port Fulton, Indiana|Port Fulton]] in 1849. There is an annual festival held in September called Steamboat Days that celebrates Jeffersonville's heritage.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Welcome to jeffsteamboatdays.com|url=http://www.jeffsteamboatdays.com/|access-date=October 18, 2021|website=www.jeffsteamboatdays.com|archive-date=January 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116151240/http://www.jeffsteamboatdays.com/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Underground Railroad ====
{{See also|Underground Railroad in Indiana}}As a free state bordering the south, Indiana served as a crucial step along the [[Underground Railroad]]. By 1830, Jeffersonville was the first and largest route for fugitives crossing the Ohio River at Louisville. Hundreds of freedom seekers made their way north to Canada through Clark County.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Clark County Indiana History|url=https://www.co.clark.in.us/index.php/about-clark-county-indiana/clark-county-indiana-history|access-date=October 11, 2021|website=www.co.clark.in.us|archive-date=October 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019054217/https://www.co.clark.in.us/index.php/about-clark-county-indiana/clark-county-indiana-history|url-status=live}}</ref> There were many instances where Jeffersonville citizens helped fugitives flee enslavement.  In the 1850s, Mayors Oswald Wooley and Uriah Damron were arrested for "running off" enslaved people.  In 1863, Hannah Tolliver, a black wash woman, was arrested on the Louisville, Kentucky wharf as she attempted to help another woman cross the Ohio River to freedom.  Hannah was convicted and became one of seven women inmates at the Kentucky State Prison at Frankfort.  Dr. Nathaniel Field moved from Middletown, Kentucky to Jeffersonville in 1829.  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.  Field was President of the Indiana Antislavery Society and friend of Levi Coffin, the head of the Underground Railroad at Cincinnati and at Richmond, Indiana.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

The Rev. Calvin Fairbank was arrested in Jeffersonville for helping the woman, Tamar, escape.  He was tried in Louisville and convicted and spent decades in the Frankfort prison.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

==== Civil War ====

===== Camp Joe Holt =====
{{See also|Camp Joe Holt}}
During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] Jeffersonville was one of the principal gateways to the South. This was largely due to its location directly opposite Louisville. Three railroads (including the [[Jeffersonville Railroad]] and the [[Ohio and Mississippi Railway]]) served Jeffersonville from the north, as well as the waterway of the [[Ohio River]]. Operating in the South, the [[Louisville and Nashville Railroad]] furnished the connecting link between Louisville and the rest of the South. These factors made the city a good location to house supplies and troops for the [[Union Army]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Our County Seat|url=https://www.co.clark.in.us/index.php/about-clark-county-indiana/our-county-seat|access-date=October 18, 2021|website=www.co.clark.in.us|archive-date=October 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018003547/https://www.co.clark.in.us/index.php/about-clark-county-indiana/our-county-seat|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1862, two area regiments established the first military camp in the city. The location was christened [[Camp Joe Holt]], and the name was retained when the camp was converted to a hospital called Joe Holt Hospital.<ref name="IndHist">{{cite web|title=Camp Joe Holt and Jefferson General Hospital Photographs, 1865, Collection Guide|url=http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/camp-joe-holt-jeffersonville-indiana-photographs.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608235043/http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/camp-joe-holt-jeffersonville-indiana-photographs.pdf|archive-date=June 8, 2017|access-date=October 17, 2021|publisher=Indiana Historical Society}}</ref>

===== Evacuation to Jeffersonville =====
In September and October 1862, two [[Military forces of the Confederate States|Confederate]] armies led by [[General officer|Generals]] [[Braxton Bragg]] and [[Edmund Kirby Smith|E. Kirby Smith]] closed in on Louisville, a key strategic prize. General [[William "Bull" Nelson]] ordered women and children to evacuate. So many fled across the river to Jeffersonville that the city's hotels and rooming houses were filled to capacity. On September 24, General [[Don Carlos Buell]] and his men managed to reach Louisville barely ahead of the Confederates. The force of 100,000 Union soldiers successfully defended Louisville and forestalled any invasion.<ref name="Nokes-2002" />

===== Jefferson General Hospital =====
{{See also|Jefferson General Hospital}}Between 1864 and 1866 Port Fulton (now within Jeffersonville) was home to [[Jefferson General Hospital]], the third largest hospital in the country at that time. The institution was built to replace Joe Holt Hospital and occupied land obtained from U.S. Senator [[Jesse D. Bright]], a Confederate sympathizer. The land stretched down to the Ohio River, facilitating patient transfer from riverboats to the hospital. The facility contained 24 wards each radiating out like spokes on a wheel and all connected by a corridor one-half mile in circumference. Each ward was 150 feet long and 22 feet wide and could accommodate 60 patients. Female nurses and matrons were quartered separately from the men. During its nearly three-year existence the institution cared for more than 16,000 patients and served more than 2,500,000 meals.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jeffersonville Jefferson General Hospital Looking West|url=https://digital.library.in.gov/Record/IHS_dc008-1024|access-date=October 17, 2021|website=Indiana Memory|archive-date=October 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018003547/https://digital.library.in.gov/Record/IHS_dc008-1024|url-status=live}}</ref>

===== Construction of the Quartermaster Depot =====
{{See also|Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot}}

The [[Jeffersonville Quartermaster Intermediate Depot|Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot]] had its first beginnings in the early days of the Civil War as a storage depot for the Union [[Quartermaster]] Department. As the war came to a close all military supply depots along the [[Ohio Valley]] were shut down (except Jeffersonville's), and their supplies were stored at the Jeffersonville location.<ref name="PDF-2012">{{Cite web |title=The Falls City Engineers, Chapter VII: Civil War Engineering and Navigation |page=113 |url=http://publications.usace.army.mil/publications/misc/un22/c-7.pdf |access-date=January 27, 2024 |website=publications.usace.army.mil |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321223211/http://publications.usace.army.mil/publications/misc/un22/c-7.pdf |archive-date=March 21, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1871, the U.S. Army began consolidating operations in the city into four square blocks.<ref name="Nokes-2002" /> Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the Quartermaster Depot continued supplying troops engaged in [[American Indian Wars|frontier wars]] with Native Americans.<ref name="PDF-2012" />