Published by The Evansville Courier

The War of 1812 had expanded the American frontier westward, and it was in 1812 that Col. Hugh McGary purchased a 200-acre tract of riverfront land that would become the heart of Evansville.

Delaware, Piankeshaw and Shawnee Indians still lived on surrounding acreage during the early years while families and explorers braved flatboat expeditions to the promising western territory.

While many early settlers lived in log cabins, frame and clapboard houses were common in Evansville by the mid-1840s, and brick construction was becoming popular.

In 1845, Evansville's developed area did not extend much more than five blocks beyond the waterfront. Water Street (now Riverside Drive) was lined with stores and homes as far as Chandler Avenue and downriver to just west of Court Street.

The city's earliest neighborhoods consisted mainly of houses, general strores, blacksmith shops, taverns and grist mills that processed corn and other grains. The block between Water and First streets was Evansville's earliest commercial district.

It would be decades before the heavily traveled city streets were paved, and the combination of precipitation and animal droppings could turn dry, dusty roads into foul, muddy expanses.

Even the most refined ladies and gentlemen found it difficult -- if not impossible -- to keep their hemlines and shoes free of the street beneath them.

Epidemics of cholera, typhoid, malaria, milk fever, smallpox and tuberculosis hit the young Evansville community from time to time, often wiping out large portions of the population. Outdoor toilets, garbage dumps, chicken coops and pig pens created foul-smelling breeding places for disease.

But the 1830s and '40s brought greater prosperity to the city and living conditions gradually improved for much of the population.

While disease and sanitation problems still threatened community health, resients began learning ways to protect themselves and medical care became more sophisticated.