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The history of Indianapolis spans three centuries. Founded in 1820, the area where the city now stands was originally home to the Lenape (Delaware Nation). In 1821 a small settlement on the west fork of the White River at the mouth of Fall Creek became the county seat of Marion County in 1821, and the state capitol of Indiana, effective January 1, 1825. Initially the availability of federal lands for purchase in central Indiana made it attractive to new settlement; the first European Americans to permanently settle in the area arrived around 1819 or early 1820. In its early years most of the new arrivals to Indianapolis were Europeans and Americans with European ancestry, but later the city attracted other ethnic groups. The city’s growth was encouraged by its geographic location, northwest of the state’s geographic center. In addition to its designation as a seat of government, Indianapolis’s flat, fertile soil, and central location within Indiana and Midwest, helped it become an early agricultural center. Its proximity to the White River, which provided power for the town’s early mills in the 1820s and 1830s, and the arrival of the railroads, beginning in 1847, established Indianapolis as a manufacturing hub and a transportation center for freight and passenger service. An expanding network of roads, beginning with the early National Road and the Michigan Road, among other routes, connected Indianapolis to other major cities. Alexander Ralston and Elias Pym Fordham surveyed and designed the original grid pattern for the new town of Indianapolis, which was platted in 1821. Ralston’s plan extended outward from Governor's Circle, now called Monument Circle, a large circular commons at the center of town. The early grid is still evident at the center of downtown Indianapolis, although the city has expanded well beyond its original boundaries. When White River proved too shallow for steamboats and the Indiana Central Canal was never fully completed, railroads helped transform the city into a business, industrial, and manufacturing center. The city remains the seat of state government and a regional center for banking and insurance, which were established early in the town’s history. As early as the 1820s and 1830s, the city’s residents established numerous religious, cultural, and charitable organizations to address social concerns and to preserve the state’s history and culture. ==Early settlement (prior to 1820)== Indianapolis was founded as the site for the new state capital in 1820 by an act of the Indiana General Assembly; however, the area where the city of Indianapolis now stands was once home to the Lenape (Delaware Nation), a native tribe who lived along the White River. The flat, heavily-wooded area supplied them with ample food and wild game, although part of the area was swampy and poorly drained. The White River and Fall Creek also offered water access and good fishing, but the Native Americans established no permanent settlement in the immediate area; however, they did set up temporary camps, especially along the waterways.〔 See also and 〕 Under the Northwest Ordinance (1787), the Northwest Territory was created from land within the boundaries of the United States lying west of the Appalachian Mountains and northwest of the Ohio River. This area included present-day Indiana and Indianapolis. In 1800 a large portion of land extending west from the Ohio border to the Mississippi River and north to the United States border with Canada was established as the Indiana Territory. As Indiana slowly progressed toward statehood, its territorial boundaries were reduced to establish the Michigan Territory (1805) and the Illinois Territory (1809). In 1816, the year Indiana became a state, the U.S. Congress donated four sections of federal land to establish a permanent seat of state government.〔 See also 〕 Two years later, under the Treaty of St. Mary's (1818), the Delaware relinquished title to their tribal lands in central Indiana and agreed to leave the area by 1821. This tract of land, which was called the New Purchase, included the site selected for the new state capital in 1820.〔Brown, p. 1; ''Centennial History of Indianapolis'', p. 26; and Howard, p. 2.〕 The availability of new federal lands for purchase in central Indiana attracted settlers, many of them descendants of families from northwestern Europe. Although many of these first European and American setters were Protestants, a large proportion of the early Irish and German immigrants were Catholics. Few African Americans lived in central Indiana before 1840.〔Baer, p. 10 and 58.〕 The first European Americans to permanently settle in the area that became Indianapolis were either the McCormick or Pogue families. The McCormicks are generally considered to be the town's first permanent settlers; however, some historians believe George Pogue, his wife, and their five children may have arrived first, on March 2, 1819, and settled in a log cabin along the creek that was later called Pogue's Run. Other historians have argued as early as 1822 that John Wesley McCormick and his family, along with his brothers, James and Samuel, and their employees became the first European American settlers when he built a cabin along the White River in February 1820.〔Brown, p. 2; ''Centennial History of Indianapolis'', p. 6; and Hale, p. 8.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Indianapolis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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