Editing Pike County, Indiana (section)

==History==
In 1787, the fledgling United States defined the [[Northwest Territory]], which included the area of present-day Indiana. In 1800, Congress separated [[Ohio]] from the Northwest Territory, designating the rest of the land as the [[Indiana Territory]].<ref name=GAC/> President [[Thomas Jefferson]] chose [[William Henry Harrison]] as the territory's first governor, and [[Vincennes, Indiana|Vincennes]] was established as the territorial capital.<ref>{{cite book|title=Indiana|author=Brill, Marlene Targ|year=2005|publisher=[[Marshall Cavendish]]|page=35|isbn=978-0-7614-2020-0}}</ref> After the [[Michigan Territory]] was separated and the [[Illinois Territory]] was formed, Indiana was reduced to its current size and geography.<ref name=GAC>{{cite web|title=Government at Crossroads: An Indiana chronology|website=[[The Herald Bulletin]]|date=January 5, 2008|url=http://www.heraldbulletin.com/news/local_news/government-at-crossroads-an-indiana-chronology/article_3a07aa44-1cd4-5028-82e7-96b907121b31.html?mode=jqm|access-date=July 22, 2009}}</ref> On December 11, 1816, the Indiana Territory was admitted to the Union as a state.

Starting in 1794, Native American titles to Indiana lands were extinguished by usurpation, purchase, or war and treaty. The United States acquired land from the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] in the [[Vincennes, Indiana#The Vincennes Tract|Vincennes Tract]], in the 1804 [[Treaty of Vincennes#Treaty of 1804|Treaty of Vincennes]], and in the [[Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809)|1809 treaty of Fort Wayne]] . These various dealings resolved the occupation issue for the future Pike County. Whites had been settling in the future county's terrain since 1800 (the first was Woolsey Pride, at White Oak Springs).<ref name=PCH>{{cite web|website=Indiana State Teachers College|url=http://scholars.indstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10484/7957/isua-thesis-1933-thomas.pdf?sequence=2|title=An Educational History of Pike County, Indiana|author=Arthur F. Thomas|date=1933|access-date=September 20, 2020|page=2}}</ref>

The area of present-day Pike County was first placed under local jurisdiction in 1790, when [[Knox County, Indiana|Knox County]] was created. This all-encompassing county was repeatedly subdivided as its lands were occupied − on April 1, 1813, the [[Gibson County, Indiana|County of Gibson]] was authorized from the SW portion of Knox County, and four weeks later another portion of Knox was partitioned to create [[Warrick County, Indiana|Warrick County]]. On November 1, 1814, portions of Warrick and Gibson were partitioned to create [[Perry County, Indiana|Perry County]]. Two years later, the northern portions of Gibson and Perry were sufficiently populated to warrant a separate governing structure, so on December 21, 1816 − ten days after being admitted to the Federal Union as a state − the Indiana state legislature authorized the creation of Pike County, taking areas from Gibson, Knox, and Perry counties. The first commissioners filed a report dated February 15, 1817, naming [[Petersburg, Indiana|Petersburg]] as the seat of government;<ref name=GS>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4uIKAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA336|title=History of Pike and Dubois Counties, Indiana|publisher=Goodspeed Brothers|page=336|isbn=978-5-87521-222-2}}</ref> the city was laid out and platted that same year. The city was named for Peter Brenton, an original owner of the town site.<ref name=GS/>{{rp|337}} A post office was put into service at Petersburg in 1823.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=IN&county=Pike&searchtext=&pagenum=2|title=Pike County|publisher=Jim Forte Postal History|access-date=October 5, 2015}}</ref>

Pike County was named for [[Zebulon Pike]], famous for his [[Pike Expedition]] of 1806–1807, exploring the southwest portion of the [[Louisiana Purchase]]. Pike commanded the 4th Infantry Regiment at the [[Battle of Tippecanoe]] in 1811. He was killed as a [[brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]] during the [[War of 1812]] after his men had captured York (now [[Toronto]]), Canada.<ref>{{cite book|author=De Witt Clinton Goodrich & Charles Richard Tuttle|publisher=R. S. Peale & co.|year=1875|location=Indiana|title=An Illustrated History of the State of Indiana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YDIUAAAAYAAJ| pages=582}}</ref>

The first courthouse in Pike County was a two-story log building, laid on the east side of the Petersburg public square in 1817. It remained in use until replaced by a two-story brick building in 1834. The third courthouse was a larger two-story structure, built in 1868; the present building was erected in 1922.<ref name=PCH/>

From 1959 to 1963 [[Vance Hartke]] and [[Homer E. Capehart]] were the U.S. senators for Indiana, both from Pike County.

In 2015, northern Pike County's economy received a boost from the completion of [[Interstate 69 in Indiana|Interstate 69]].