Prince Town

Prince Town. February 14, 1814. Gibson County was formed in 1813 from the southwestern portion of the Indiana Territory. Once the wheels of county government began turning, the push to locate a county seat was imminent. The settlement of Patoka had been selected for the seat, but a malaria-like epidemic killed many residents that summer, necessitating a move to higher ground. On Valentine's Day, 1814, a court session was held at the home of Henry Hopkins to name and select a new location for the county seat. Commissioners Robert Elliott, William Prince, Abe Westfall and William Polk drew lots amongst themselves to determine in whose honor the county seat would be named. William Prince won the luck of the draw, hence the early name of Prince Town. William Prince was born in Ireland in 1772 and emigrated to America in 1794. He served in many positions in Indiana military and government, including Captain in the Battle of Tippecanoe and Gibson County's first Prosecuting Attorney in 1813. He was later elected to the Indiana Senate, as well as to the 18th Congress of the United States. After the founding of Prince Town, the Commissioners saw the need for a jail and courthouse and began to lay out the town square. A March 12th, 1814 advertisement in the Vincennes Sun announcing the sale of lots stated, "Princeton being situated about central between the mouth of the Big Pigeon [creek] and Vincennes, at a place where nearly all the public roads leading through the county will naturally concentrate, cannot fail to become a flourishing and populous town." The first county courthouse opened in 1815 and was constructed of bricks made nearby on the public square. A second courthouse was built to replace the first one in 1843 for the cost of $9,000.00. The Gibson County Courthouse we see today was built in 1884 at a cost of $188,661.00. Built in the Romanesque Revival style, it is widely recognized today for its iconic architecture and as a symbol of local government.