Editing Charlestown, Indiana (section)

==History==
[[File:Charlestown Masonic Marker.jpg|thumb|left|Marker denoting first Grand Lodge in Indiana]]
Charlestown was established in 1808,<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TBvVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA10 | title=Biographical and Historical Souvenir for the Counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana | publisher=Chicago Printing Company | year=1889 | pages=10| isbn=9781548571665 }}</ref> named after one of its surveyors, Charles Beggs,<ref>{{cite book|title=History of the Ohio Falls Cities and Their Counties: Precincts of Jefferson County, Ky. General histories of Clark and Floyd counties, Ind. New Albany and Floyd County. Clark County and Jeffersonville|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMg4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA341|year=1882|publisher=L. A. Williams & Company|page=341}}</ref> upon {{convert|300|acre|km2}}, of which {{convert|3|acre|m2}} was designated for a town square. It was established one mile (1.6&nbsp;km) northeast of [[Springville, Clark County, Indiana|Springville]], and was responsible for Springville's demise.

Milling was important to the town, as the first mill was built in the area, on [[Fourteen Mile Creek]], in 1804. This mill would be abandoned when [[John Work House and Mill Site|John Work built a mill]] by use of a tunnel in 1814. Today, that mill is part of the Tunnel Mill Scout Reservation.

From 1811 to 1878 Charlestown was the county seat of Clark County, but as [[Jeffersonville, Indiana|Jeffersonville]] had surpassed it economically, the county seat reverted to Jeffersonville in 1878.

In 1818, the first Grand Lodge of [[Freemasonry|Free & Accepted Masons]] in Indiana met in Charlestown, due to [[Jonathan Jennings]]' influence.

In 1940 the population of Charlestown was 900, but it swelled to 13,400 due to the building and operation of the [[Indiana Army Ammunition Plant]] (INAAP). This created a housing problem, as chicken, wood, and wash houses had to house all the new residents who flocked to the area for the jobs created by the INAAP. Additional problems caused by the rapid influx of new residents were improper sanitation at restaurants, inefficient sewers, gambling, panhandling, and diseases such as [[typhoid]] and [[malaria]].

In 2014, the city announced they would be applying for a grant to redevelop Pleasant Ridge Subdivision, an impoverished area within the city. Some residents of the Pleasant Ridge Subdivision formed an association to fight against demolishing their homes via [[eminent domain]].<ref>{{cite news|author1=WHAS Staff|title=Charlestown residents continue fight to preserve neighborhood|url=http://www.whas11.com/story/news/local/indiana/2014/10/17/15947354/|access-date=March 6, 2015|publisher=[[WHAS-TV]]|date=July 7, 2014}}</ref>  The City Council did not call for a vote on the issue and the grant issue failed. Starting in 2016, the city was accused of using excessive fines against homeowners in the subdivision in order to force them to sell to a private developer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://reason.com/2017/02/13/this-indiana-town-wants-to-fine-a-commun/|title=This Indiana Town Wants to Fine a Community Out of Existence on Behalf of Private Developers|date=February 13, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://ij.org/case/charlestown-property-rights/|title=Charlestown Property Rights - Institute for Justice|work=Institute for Justice|access-date=2018-09-02|language=en-US}}</ref>