Connersville

Connersville: Canal House

Connersville, city, seat (1819) of Fayette county, east-central Indiana, U.S., on the Whitewater River, 57 miles (92 km) east of Indianapolis. A fur-trading post was established on the site in 1808 by John Conner, who later worked as a guide and interpreter for General William Henry Harrison, governor of Indiana Territory and later U.S. president. An early shipping point on the Whitewater Canal, Connersville once was the place of manufacture for the Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg cars. The city now has industries that produce automotive and industrial equipment, blowers, and building supplies and is a marketing centre for a corn- (maize-) growing and hog-raising area. The Reynolds Museum of Science and History is in the city; among Connersville’s several historic structures are the Canal House (1839–42; former headquarters of the Whitewater Canal Company), the Fayette County Courthouse (1849), and Conner’s trading post, which has been in near-continuous use since it was built. The Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary of the Indiana Audubon Society and Whitewater Memorial and Brookville Lake state parks are nearby. Inc. town, 1840; city, 1870. Pop. (2000) 15,411; (2010) 13,481.