EVANSVILLE, a city of south-western Indiana, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, 2oom. (by the river, though only 75m. in a bee line) below Louisville; a port of entry and the county seat of Vanderburg county. It is on Federal highway 41, and is served by river steamers and by the Big Four, the Chicago and Eastern Ill inois, the Evansville and Ohio Valley, the Evansville Suburban and Newburgh, the Illinois Central, the Louisville and Nashville, the Louisville, Henderson and St. Louis and the Southern railways. The population was 85,264 in 1920 (89% native white), and was 102,249 in 1930, The city occupies 9.5 sq.m. of land around a sharp bend of the river, partly low and partly hilly and rugged. It is the seat of the Southern Indiana hospital for the insane, a United States Marine hospital, and Evansville college (Methodist), which was chartered in 1919 to succeed a college founded in 1856 at Moores Hill, Ind. The assessed valuation of property in 1927 was $132,856,810. The surrounding country is a rich agricultural and coal-producing region. There are two coal mines within the city limits and 15o within a radius of 5o miles. Because of this environment and its exceptional transportation facilities by land and by water, Evans ville is the principal distributing point and manufacturing centre of southern Indiana. It is one of the leading hardwood lumber markets of the country and has an extensive shipping business in corn, wheat, pork and tobacco. The output of its factories in 1927 was valued at $86,362,208. Among the principal manufac tures are auto trucks, auto bodies, electric and gas refrigerators, steam shovels, gas engines, agricultural implements, tools, electric headlights, glass bottles, infant foods, grain products, brick and furniture. Bank debits in 1926 amounted to $492,327,000. A city plan commission was created under the permissive State legisla tion of 1921. Evansville was settled about 1812 ; laid out in 1817 and named after Robert Morgan Evans (1783-1844), one of the founders, who was an officer in the War of 1812. It soon became a thriving commercial town, with a large river trade; was incor porated in 1819 and chartered as a city in 1847. In 185o its popu lation was 3,235. The completion in 1853 of the Wabash and Erie canal from Evansville to Toledo (400m.) gave it a great stimulus, and by 186o the population had grown to 11,484. In the next 20 years it increased between and 1900, over i00%; and between 190o and 1920, 44%.