Crawfordsville - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CRAWFORDSVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Montgomery county, Indiana, U.S.A., situated about 4 o m. N.W. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1890) 6089; (1900) 6649, of whom 230 were of negro descent and 221 were foreign-born. It is served by the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, and the Vandalia railways, and by interurban electric lines. Wabash College, founded here in 1832 by Presbyterian missionaries but now non-sectarian, had in 1 9 08 27 instructors, 345 students, and a library of 43,000 volumes. Among manufactures are flour, iron, wagons and carriages, acetylene lights, wire and nails, matches, brick paving blocks, and electrical machinery. North-east of the city there are valuable mineral springs, from which the city obtains its water-supply. Crawfordsville, named in honour of W. H. Crawford, was first settled about 1820, was laid out as a town in 182 3, and was chartered as a city in 1863. It was for many years the home of Gen. Lew Wallace.