Daviess County, Indiana: History
After the American Revolutionary War was settled, the fledgling nation created the Northwest Territory, tentatively divided into two counties. The area that would become the state of Indiana in 1816 was included in the original Knox County. As the area became more settled, Knox was partitioned into smaller counties, the last of which was the present-day Daviess, authorized on February 2, 1818. The boundaries of Daviess were reduced on December 21, 1818, by the formation of Owen County, and on January 17, 1820, by the formation of Martin County. It has retained its present boundary since 1820.
Daviess County was named for Major Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, U.S. district attorney for Kentucky, killed at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Daviess County shares its namesake with another nearby Daviess County in Kentucky. Both counties are in the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky Tri-State Area.
The earliest settlements were along the White River, which allowed crops and timber to be transported to distant markets. The northeast part of the county was heavily forested, and timber industry flourished in the first half of the nineteenth century.