OWENSBORO  , a

city and the county-seat of Daviess county, Kentucky, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, 112 M. by rail W.S.W. of Louisville . Pop . (1890) 9837; (1900) 13,189, of whom 3061 were negroes; (1910 census) 16,or r . The city is served by the Illinois Central, the Louisville & Nashville, and the Louisville, Henderson & St Louis railways, and by steamboat lines to river ports . At Owensboro are the Owensboro College for women (non-sect.), opened in 1850, Saint Francis Academy, and a Roman Catholic school for boys . Two miles S. of the city is Hickman Park (20 acres), a pleasure resort, and E. of the city is a summer Chautauqua park . Owensboro is situated in a good agricultural region; coal, iron, building stone, clay, oil, lead and zinc abound in the vicinity; and the city has a notably large trade in tobacco (especially strip tobacco) and has various manufactures . The value of the city's factory products increased from $1,740,128 in 1900 to $4,187,700 in 1905, or 140.6% . The municipality owns and operates its electric-lighting plant and water-works . Owensboro was settled about 1798, and for several years was commonly known as Yellow Banks; in 1816 it was laid out as •a town and named Rossborough, and two years later the present name was adopted in honour of Colonel Abraham Owen (1769–1811), a Virginian who removed to Kentucky in 1785, served in several Indian campaigns, and was killed in the battle of Tippecanoe . Owensboro was incorporated as a city in 1866 .