Culture seems a rather strained term for such refinements as we can trace in the territorial period. In view of the fact that many of the residents of Vincennes were persons of education familiar with the culture of the larger centers whence they had emigrated, it is possible that there was an elegant side to society in the little isolated capital, and this was also probably true of Jeffersonville, Charlestown, Salem, Corydon, Madison, Brookville and other towns, though very little actual record of it is to be found. In a note by Mr. Webster on "Intellectual Life at Vincennes," he points out that "a large number of able lawyers made the Vincennes Bar unusually strong." He also speaks of a medical society, organized in 1807, which continued with vigor until long after Statehood; of the Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Society, dating from 1808, and for the Vincennes Library, founded the same year, which contained at the start from 3,000 to 4,000 volumes. As early as 1806 a dramatic organization, "The Thespian Society," made its appearance and throughout the territorial years contributed to the gaiety of Vincennes life.

The newspaper, even of those days, might be considered a cultural agent to a limited degree as it not only disseminated light in the form of news and of political opinion, but afforded a certain outlet for local literary aspirants besides borrowing more or less from the larger literary field for the education of its readers. The first apostle of ideas in this direction was Elihu Stout who, as early as 1804, brought to Vincennes from Kentucky a printing outfit and launched "The Indiana Gazette." Not a copy of this paper is now in existence so far as is known, as Stout's office was destroyed by fire, but, phoenix-like it sprang into new life, this time as the "The Western Sun," under which name, after various changes of title, it exists to the present [1915] day. Prior to and including 1816 five or six other papers are of record, these being "The Western Eagle," of Madison, in 1813; "The Corydon Gazette," 1814; "The Plaindealer and Gazette," Brookville, about 1815; "The Republican Banner," afterward the "Indiana Republican," Madison, 1815; and "The Indiana Register," Vevay, 1816. Copies of any of these are very rare or entirely lost, but fortunately files of "The Western Sun" from 1807 have been preserved and are now among the prized possessions of the State Library. Touching many matters of territorial times they are the chief source of information and are valued accordingly by research students. Like all pioneer papers they are provokingly silent on local affairs of a social and intimate nature, but in a literary way we find home talent fostered, particularly in the poet's corner which in maintained under the happy title of "The Poetical Asylum."