Founded in 1802 in the wilderness by Capt. Samuel C. Vance, Lawrenceburgh relied first on commerce and travel along the Ohio River, with pioneers building flatboats to carry goods to New Orleans markets and then walking back to the Ohio Valley through hostile Indian Territory. In 1832, Lawrenceburg Whig congressman George H. Dunn persuaded the state to charter Indiana’s first railroad, and in 1834 the Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis R. R. was begun in Shelbyville to connect with Ohio River transportation. Lawrenceburgh’s section was dedicated in 1835 before a crowd of 5,000, but the full line was left unfinished because of the financial disaster of 1838-1839. In 1848, construction began on the Ohio and Mississippi R. R., linking Cincinnati and St. Louis. In 1852, the Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis R. R. was reorganized as the Indianapolis and Cincinnati R. R.; a locomotive arrived by boat at Lawrenceburgh in Sept., and the eastern and western sections of the line were joined in Shelbyville. In 1857, the O&M R. R. became the earliest B&O-controlled line in Indiana. In 1861, President elect Abraham Lincoln addressed townspeople from his inaugural train behind this hotel. By 1900, the Cincinnati, Lawrenceburgh and Aurora Electric Street Railroad Company reversed direction at this intersection.
