Evansville was first settled in 1816 by Hugh McGary, and was named after General R. M. Evans, one of the original proprietors. It is situated on a high bank of the Ohio River, about 200 miles from its mouth and the same distance below Louisville, at a bend four miles farther north than any part of the river below, and it is also farther north than any part of the river above for near sixty miles. It is 180 miles southwest of Indianapolis and fifty-six south of Vincennes, and is the point at which the Wabash and Erie Canal is to terminate. The situation is a fine one, on a slope gently ascending to Princeton, twenty-eight miles, and a large portion of the business of the southwest part of the State will always be done here. The opening of the canal, on the whole route to Lake Erie, which is expected to take place in about two years [1851], must vastly increase the importance of Evansville. AT this time, in connection with Lamasco, which is a part of it, in all respects except in name, it contains [in 1849] about 1,500 houses, of which one-fourth are brick, the others frame, and 5,000 inhabitants. Evansville is the County Seat of Vanderburgh County, and contains the usual buildings for the courts and offices of the county, a branch of the State Bank of Indiana, which is a splendid building and cost $30,000, a market house, seven hotels and seven fine churches, all but one of brick, for the following denominations, viz: Methodist, Old School Presbyterians, New School Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Catholics, German Methodists and German Lutherans, and it has also two well organized fire companies. The annual amount of exports from Evansville [in 1849] are about 6000,000 bushels of corn, 100,000 bushels of oats, 1,500 tons of hay, and 1,500,000 pounds of pork and bacon.