99 INDIANAPOLIS REGIONAL CENTER PLAN 2020 PLANNING DOWNTOWN�fS FUTURE TODAY APPENDIX A: HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT 1820-1846: SETTLEMENT It was called The Capital In the Wilderness and rightfully so.  Indiana had been accepted into the Union only two years previously, its capital established in Corydon.  With the Indiana Evacuation Treaty of 1818, however, the northern two-thirds of the State was opened to settlement and Governor Jennings looked for a  central location from which to administer the fledgling State.  A site at the confluence of White River and Fall Creek was chosen, based principally on its proximity to the route of the approaching National Road and the supposed navigability of the White River.  At the suggestion of Judge Jeremiah Sullivan, the new capital was named Indianapolis despite the objections of many who viewed the name as too pretentious. The General Assembly in 1820 approved a one square mile donation for the new town (anticipating that it wouldn't need more) and an $8,000 appropriation for the construction of a 50 foot by 50 foot courthouse.  William Wick was appointed judge and Hervey Bates named the first sheriff.  In the spring of 1822, the small settlement of 400 (as estimated by the newly- formed Indianapolis Gazette) elected John McCormick, William McCartney and John T. Osborne its first Board of Commissioners.   history of Indianapolis had begun. Christopher Harrison, assisted by Elias Fordham and Alexander Ralston, laid out the original plat which Ralston modeled after Pierre L'Enfant's plat of Washington, D.C. and Thomas Jefferson's system of regular squares.  Three years later, before the state government actually was moved to the new capital, Marion County was organized and named (ironically, it proved) after Col. Francis Marion, the famed Swamp Fox of the Revolutionary War.  The first summer the new capital proved to be a near disastrous one.  Mosquitoes, bred in the swamps on the east bank of the White River, spread malaria during what came to be known as the sickly season of July and August, killing one-eighth of the population.  The swamps pushed further development east in accordance with Ralston's plat. Growth was slow.  Ten years after the initial auction of plots, two-thirds remained unsold.  It took 20 years for the State to dispose of them all some prime plots going for as little as $10.   The Census of 1830 placed the town's population at 1,085 and in 1840 only 2,692. Of great significance to the early development of Indianapolis was the chartering of the Second State Bank of Indiana in 1834 (the First and its contemporaries having failed due to mismanagement or outright embezzlement).   The Second State Bank, in contrast to its predecessors, was soundly managed by State Treasurer Samuel Merrill and its directors, Seaton W. Morris, Robert Morrison, Thomas R. Scott and Calvin Fletcher.  The bank engaged in commercial loans and issued paper money.   As such, it provided the financing and credit essential to the economic growth and vitality of the community.  Calvin Fletcher's brother, Stoughton, founded the bank that would later become the Fletcher and Churchman Bank and eventually, the American Fletcher National Bank. German and Irish immigrants began to arrive as laborers for the National Road and later the ill-fated Central Canal.  Others were attracted to the area's rich farmlands and the opportunity to practice their trades as bakers, wheelwrights, shoemakers, cabinetmakers and brewers.   A significant Slovak and African American population also took up residence contributing to the emergence of the capital's social and business life.  Their places of worship followed the migrations and in addition to administering to their spiritual needs, helped broker their integration into the society of the time. Anxious to decrease the isolation of the capital, the State embarked on an ambitious program of road building.  The success of the Erie Canal and the emergence of the steam engine and railroads posed a dilemma to the General Assembly.   Both transportation modes had strong backers.   In 1829, Governor James Brown Ray argued strongly in favor of railroads and 11 railway charters for Indianapolis were granted in a short period of time.  The proponents of canals argued with equal vehemence. Old Madison Railroad Building, c. 1909 Indiana Historical Society, Bass Photo Collection, 17242 Original plat of Indianapolis