Lafayette, Indiana

 city, county seat

www.lafayette.in.gov/

The Native Americans were the first to discover the beauty of this Wabash Valley ... the Wea, Miami, Potawatomi, Shawnee, Wyandot, Winnebago, and Delaware were some of the tribes that settled here. Then the French arrived in the early 1700s and established a trading post at Ouiatenon and changes began in the valley.

Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, arrived to try and preserve the Native American way of life. They established the headquarters for their confederation at Prophetstown and this led to the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Within five years, Indiana became a state and the settlers arrived here on the banks of the Wabash.

One of these early settlers was William Digby. He was a young man, just starting in life ... he made his living as a riverman and he knew that this was about as far upriver as the new steamboats were going to be able to travel. So, he went to the 1824 Christmas Eve land sale at Crawfordsville and bought the land to establish a town. He platted it in May of 1825 and named it after the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the Revolutionary War.

Lafayette became the supply center for these new settlers moving into the area. In 1826, Tippecanoe County was formed with Lafayette as its county seat. The river provided transportation in those early years, with the city wharf just a block from the Courthouse Square. In the 1840s, the Wabash & Erie Canal arrived. By the 1850s the railroads had arrived to serve the developing town. Lafayette was soon a manufacturing, merchandising, and transportation center.

In August of 1859, Lafayette became the site for the first official air mail flight by the United States Postal Service. Professor John Wise and his balloon, the Jupiter, took off with a mail pouch including 123 letters and 23 circulars. Because of a capricious wind that blew south, the flight ended near Crawfordsville some 5 or 6 hours later. While this was not the intended destination... the flight was officially recognized.

Lafayette continued to grow and in 1869, Purdue University was founded. The school has played an important part in the development of the Lafayette - West Lafayette area. Today, Lafayette has developed as a diversified community ... with manufacturing, merchandising, education and transportation all contributing their share.

We are proud that Purdue University is known as home of the astronauts, but even as we look to the future, we continue to honor our past by preserving our architecture and historical heritage. Because of this attitude, Lafayette has won several national awards including "All American Main Street".