Clarksville is the oldest American town in the old Northwest Territory, which included present-day Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. Located on the Falls of the Ohio, the town was founded in 1783 by the legislature of colonial Virginia to recognize the Revolutionary War service of George Rogers Clark and the men of his small army. Clark conceived and commanded the campaign that secured the entire Territory for the new United States.

People began to settle in Clarksville in 1784. A stockade, Fort Clark, was built that year to provide protection for the settlers from the Indians who still roamed the area.

In 1803, General Clark built the only home he ever owned on a large bluff. called "Point of Rocks," overlooking both the town and the Falls of the Ohio River. That same year, Meriwether Lewis joined William Clark, General Clark's brother and a resident of the town, in Clarksville. The two men recruited the nucleus of the Corps of Discovery from the surrounding area. They left Clarksville on their historic Lewis and Clark Expedition on October 26, 1803.

The Buffalo Trace, an ancient trail leading from the salt licks of Kentucky to the western plains, crossed the Ohio River at the Falls and emerged on the west side of Clarksville, moving along Silver Creek before crossing into Floyd County.

Indiana's only state prison prior to 1860 was built in Clarksville in 1847 and remained until 1923, when it became the Colgate Palmolive Company.

Clarksville's earliest history can be seen in the outcrop of 300-million-year-old Devonian fossils, that make-up the Ohio River bed along the length of Clarksville's river shore. The Interpretive Center of the Falls of the Ohio State Park, located on the site of the old Civil War muster site and hospital, Camp Joe Holt, brings visitors from all over the world.

The Clarksville Historical Society was founded by town councilman Bob Popp in April of 1996. A room in the Clarksville Municipal Building was set aside as a museum of town history. A collection of items from an earlier museum, sponsored by the Clarksville JayCees, was the nucleus of the present collection. Currently, a collection of artifacts, documents, maps and photographs obtained over the past 12 years are cataloged and housed in the museum.

The Society founded and hosted the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration for 6 years at the site where the famous expedition began, and were partners with the Falls of the Ohio State Park in the placing of the replica cabin at the George Rogers Clark Homesite at the Park.

In addition, the Society spearheaded the building of the Clarksville War Memorial on the grounds of the Municipal Center.

The Society meets monthly from March through November, and publishes a newsletter during that same period. From the original 12 members, the society has grown to more than 150 members in 8 states.