Calhoun County, Illinois

Calhoun County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Hardin
Year Organized: 1825
Square Miles: 254

Court House:

P.O. Box 187
County Courthouse
Hardin, IL 62047-0187

Etymology - Origin of County Name

John C. Calhoun, southern statesman and US Vice President under Presidents Adams and Jackson.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Calhoun County was created on January 10, 1825 (Laws, 1825, p. 65) and was formed from Pike County. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Pike County (1821–1825), Madison County (1812–1821) and St. Clair County (1795–1812). The County was named for John C. Calhoun, a lawyer and statesman, Representative in Congress and United States Senator from South Carolina, Secretary of War under Monroe, Vice-President of the United States, and Secretary of State under Tyler, and was recognized as the "Father of Nullification."

The County Seat is Hardin. Prior County Seats was Gilead (1825–1847), Hamburg—Temporary selection (1847) and Hardin (1847–Present).

Calhoun County, like Jo Daviess County in northwest Illinois, is unique in the state in that glaciers didn’t touch it and therefore has a more rugged terrain that is dissected by valleys than the generally flat terrain associated with the rest of Illinois. Calhoun County is also located at the tip of the peninsula formed by the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and is almost completely surrounded by water. Often referred to as the ‘Kingdom’, Calhoun County is sparsely populated with only 5 incorporated towns.

Human habitation of Calhoun County dates back as far as the Early Archaic era (6400 – 3900 B.C.E.) and many have termed the area the "Nile of North America." Kampsville is centered in the heart of this remarkable archeological region and the archeologists and students of the Center for American Archeology spend their summers conducting digs and fieldwork. There are also many mounds dating from the Middle Woodland era (800 – 1200 A.D.) that have been located in different parts of the county. When the French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette passed by Calhoun County in 1673 the Illini Confederation occupied the territory. The Illini were a woodland people who alternated between farming and hunting depending on the season and located their villages in river valleys to take advantage of the soil conditions. The power of the Illini was on the wane in the late 17th century due to pressure from surrounding tribes particularly by the Iroquois from the east. There are historical accounts of a massacre near the present day site of the Brussels Free Ferry in 1680 and over the last 75 years farmers plowing their fields in this area have found skulls, skeletons, and weapons.

The first permanent European settler was a French trapper named O’Neal who settled in Point Precinct (the southern tip of Calhoun County) in 1801 and lived in a cave until his death in 1842. O’Neal was followed by other French trappers who started a colony above the Brussels Free Ferry but were driven out by floods in 1815. After the war of 1812 the government set aside the lands between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers for veterans and a rush of settlers began around 1823. However most of the land settled in Calhoun County was not by veterans, most of who sold their land to speculators, but by settlers who learned about the region. In 1821 Pike County was organized and included all the territory between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers up to the Wisconsin border and east to Lake Michigan. In 1825 the southern part of Pike County was cut off and made into a separate county. The new county was named after John C. Calhoun, a lawyer, politician, and statesman, from South Carolina and Gilead was selected as the county seat. In 1847 the county seat was moved to Child’s Landing, now known as Hardin.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 284 square miles (171680 Acres) (735 km²), of which 254 square miles (657 km²) is land and 30 square miles (77 km²) (10.53%) is water.

Calhoun County is a narrow finger of mostly high ground located between the Mississippi River and the Illinois River.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Greene County
Southeast: Jersey County
South: St. Charles County, Mo.
Southwest: Lincoln County, Mo.
Northwest: Pike County, Mo.; Pike County

Cities and Towns:

- Batchtown	village	Incorporated Area
- Brussels	village	Incorporated Area
- Hamburg	village	Incorporated Area
- Hardin (County Seat)	village	Incorporated Area
- Kampsville	village	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."