Christian County, Illinois

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

County Seat: Taylorville
Year Organized: 1839
Square Miles: 709

Court House:

P.O. Box 647
Taylorville, IL 62568-0647

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The name first given to it was Dane, in honor of Nathan Dane, one of the framers of the Ordinance of 1787, but a political prejudice led to a change. A preponderance of early settlers having come from Christian County, KY., this name was finally adopted.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Christian County was created on February 15, 1839 as Dane County (Laws, 1839, p. 104), Name changed to Christian County in 1840 and was formed from Montgomery, Sangamon and Shelby Counties. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Sangamon County (1821–1839), Shelby County (1827–1839), Montgomery County (1821–1839), Fayette County (1821–1827), Clark County (1819–1821), Bond County (1817–1821), Crawford County (1816–1819), Madison County (1812–1817), Edwards County (1815–1816), St. Clair County (1790–1812) and Knox, Northwest Territory (1790–1801).

The County was named for Christian County in Kentucky through the influence of emigrants from that countyand for Col. William Christian, a native of Augusta County, Virginia, and a veteran of the Revolutionary War, killed by Native Americans in southern Indiana in 1786. The County Seat is Taylorville (1839-Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 716 square miles (1,854 km²), of which 709 square miles (1,836 km²) is land and 7 square miles (17 km²) (0.93%) is water.

CHRISTIAN COUNTY - a rich agricultural county, lying in the "central belt" and organized in 1839 from parts of Macon, Montgomery, Sangamon and Shelby Counties. The surface is level and the soil fertile, the northern half of the county being best adapted to corn and the southern to wheat.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Macon County
Southeast: Shelby County
Southwest: Montgomery County
Northwest: Sangamon County

Cities and Towns:

- Assumption	city	Incorporated Area
- Bear Creek	township
- Bulpitt	village	Incorporated Area
- Edinburg	village	Incorporated Area
- Jeisyville	village	Incorporated Area
- Johnson	township
- Kincaid	village	Incorporated Area
- King	township
- Locust	township
- May	township
- Morrisonville	village	Incorporated Area
- Mosquito	township
- Mount Auburn	village	Incorporated Area
- Moweaqua	village	Incorporated Area
- Owaneco	village	Incorporated Area
- Palmer	village	Incorporated Area
- Pana	city	Incorporated Area
- Prairieton	township
- Ricks	township
- Rosamond	township
- South Fork	township
- Stonington	village	Incorporated Area
- Taylorville (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Tovey	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."