Editing Corydon, Indiana (section)

===State capital (1816–1825)===
[[File:Constitution Elm.JPG|thumb|upright|The Constitution Elm as seen in the summer of 2006]]
On November 4, 1816, the [[Indiana General Assembly]] met for the first time at Corydon under the new constitution and state government.<ref name="IH-Final-10-11">"The Final Steps to Statehood," Bennett, ''The Indiana Historian'', pp. 10–11.</ref> President James Madison signed the congressional resolution admitting Indiana as the nineteenth state in the Union on December 11, 1816,<ref name="BR-461-63"/> and Corydon began a new era as the first state capital of Indiana.<ref name="Taylor-169"/><ref>Lemmon, p. 5.</ref>

The Harrison County courthouse, now known as the Old Capitol, served as Indiana's [[Indiana first capitol building|first state capitol]] building. It housed state government offices from 1816 until 1825.<ref name="Taylor-169"/> Several other historic structures in Corydon date from the early statehood era, including the Governor's Mansion and the Old Treasury Building (Indiana's first state office building), which were built in 1817, and the Colonel Thomas Lloyd Posey home, among others.<ref>Colonel Posey was the son of [[Thomas Posey]], the [[Governor of Indiana|governor]] of the [[Indiana Territory]] from 1813 until 1816. See Griffin, pp. 19–21.</ref><ref name=CC>{{cite web |title=Corydon Capitol: About Corydon Capitol State Historic Site |publisher=Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites |url=http://www.indianamuseum.org/corydon-capital-state-historic-site |access-date=August 8, 2016}}</ref> Corydon's Grand Masonic Lodge, the first in the state, was built in 1819.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McDonald |first1=Daniel |title=A History of Freemasonry in Indiana from 1806 to 1898 |date=1898 |publisher=The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Indiana |location=Indianapolis, IN |url=http://mlmindiana.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/HistoryofFreemasryIndiana_McDonald.pdf |access-date=August 8, 2021}}</ref>

During the years Corydon served as a territorial and state capital, it was home to a number of politicians; notable residents during this time included [[Davis Floyd]], a prominent local politician; two governors of Indiana, [[Jonathan Jennings]] and [[Ratliff Boon]] (the state's first and second governors, respectively); [[Dennis Pennington]], the first Speaker of the [[Indiana Senate]]; and [[William Hendricks]], Indiana's first [[United States House of Representatives|U. S. Representative]], its third governor, and a [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]].<ref>Gugin, p. 54</ref>

The state constitution's provision making Corydon the seat of state government was not a popular one, especially among the citizens of rival towns. Others expressed concern that the town's geographic location in the extreme southern part of Indiana would become inconvenient as the state's population center shifted northward; however, Dennis Pennington and other Harrison County representatives to the [[Indiana General Assembly]] successfully resisted attempts to move the seat of government from Corydon until 1825.<ref name="BR-461-63">Barnhart and Riker, p. 461–63.</ref><ref name="IH-Constitution-12">"The Constitution of 1816," Bennett, ''The Indiana Historian'', p. 12.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Charles Kettleborough |title=Constitution Making in Indiana: A Source Book of Constitutional Documents, with Historical Introduction and Critical Notes |publisher=Indiana Historical Commission |series=Indiana Historical Collections |volume=1 |year=1930 |location=Indianapolis |pages=118, 138–39 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1UUpAAAAYAAJ&q=Constitution+Making+in+Indiana |oclc=3654268}}</ref> Governor Hendricks signed a legislative bill in 1824 to move the state capital to [[Indianapolis]],<ref>{{cite book |editor=Linda C. Gugin |editor2=James E. St. Clair |title=The Governors of Indiana |year=2006 |publisher=Indiana Historical Bureau and Indiana Historical Society Press |location=Indianapolis |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780871951960/page/57 57] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780871951960/page/57 |isbn=0871951967 |url-access=registration}}</ref> effective January 10, 1825.<ref>{{cite book |author=Donald F. Carmony |title=Indiana, 1816–1850: The Pioneer Era |publisher=Indiana Historical Bureau and the Indiana Historical Society |series=The History of Indiana |volume=I |year=1998 |location=Indianapolis |pages=112–13 |isbn=0871951258}}</ref>