OWENSBORO, ō'ĕnz-bŭr-ṓ. A city and the county-seat of Daviess County, Ky., 112 miles southwest of Louisville; on the Ohio River, and on the Louisville and Nashville, the Louisville, Henderson and Saint Louis, and the Illinois Central railroads (Map: Kentucky, D 3). It is the seat of the Owensboro Female College (non-sectarian), opened in 1890, and of Saint Francis Academy. Prominent features of the city are a fine United States Government building, the high school, the county jail, and the county court-house. Owensboro is surrounded by a farming and stock-raising country, and in the vicinity are valuable forests and deposits of coal, clay, building stone, iron, zinc, and lead ores. Oil wells are in operation hear the city. Owensboro has steamboat communication with important points on the river, and has developed extensive commercial interests, particularly in tobacco, being one of the largest leaf and strip tobacco markets in the United States. Its manufactures are extensive and varied. There are numerous tobacco factories, whisky and brandy distilleries, buggy, carriage, and wagon factories, a wheel factory, and a cellulose factory. The government, under a legislative charter, is vested in a mayor, who holds office for four years, and a council. Administrative officials are chosen by popular vote. The electric light plant is owned and operated by the city, and $200,000 has been appropriated for a new municipal water-works system. Population, in 1800, 9837; in 1900, 13,189.