Connersville

History

Connersville is named for settler John Conner, older brother of William Conner, an early Indiana settler and politician. There was also, at least through 1795, Connerstown, a small Shawnee village near Lancaster, Ohio, named for John's father, Richard Conner. The Whitewater River valley running north–south through eastern Indiana and southwestern Ohio was created by the Late Wisconsin Glaciation ending 13,600 years ago. Fayette County was at the southern fringe of the glaciation at that time. The Ice Age was punctuated by several prolonged warm periods during which the glaciers disappeared entirely from the temperate latitudes and a climate similar to modern times or even warmer prevailed. The flood waters produced resulted in lakes; breaching of the lakes resulted in rivers and streams carving its hills and valleys. In the Northwest Territory during the latter half of the 18th century, the Miami Indians were dominant in the region, but the Potawatomi and Shawnee had a significant presence. Delaware Indians, displaced from their eastern homelands by European settlement, migrated west and settled along the forks of the Whitewater River. The Whitewater and Ohio River valleys had also been inhabited earlier by other Native Americans called mound builders for their characteristic large burial mounds still in evidence. The geological aspects of the Whitewater River Valley contributed to early settlement after defeat of the Delaware Indians by General Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers in 1794, followed on August 3, 1795, by the Treaty of Greenville ceding most of Ohio and a sliver of southeastern Indiana to the United States. The valley, running south and southeasterly from east central Indiana to the Ohio River Valley, provided a convenient conduit for migration through…

Geography

Connersville is oriented roughly north–south. The center of town is roughly Central Avenue and 5th Street in the southern portion. According to the 2010 census, Connersville has a total area of , of which (or 99.81%) is land and (or 0.19%) is water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,835
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  3,797
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,283
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,248
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  3,123
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  2,813
• White-breasted Nuthatch

  Sitta carolinensis Latham, 1790 · Aves
  2,776
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  2,726

Most recent

• M 3.8 — 2004-09-12
  4 km NW of Manilla, Indiana