Lawrence County, Illinois

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

County Seat: Lawrenceville
Year Organized: 1821
Square Miles: 372

Court House:

1100 State Street
County Courthouse
Lawrenceville, IL 62439-2341

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Capt. James Lawrence, commander of the USS. Chesapeake; killed in naval battle in 1812.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Lawrence County was created on January 16, 1821 (Laws, 1821, p. 16) and was formed from Crawford and Edwards Counties. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Crawford County (1816–1821), Edwards County (1815–1819), Gallatin County (1812–1815),Madison County (1812–1815), Randolph County (1809–1812) and Knox, Northwest Territory (1790–1809).

The County was named for Captain James Lawrence, Commander of the Chesapeake, who was mortally wounded in an engagement between that vessel and the British vessel, Shannon, during the War of 1812. The County Seat is Lawrenceville . Prior County Seats was Home of Toussaint Dubois (Lawrenceville) (1821) and Lawrenceville (1821–Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 374 square miles (968 km²), of which, 372 square miles (963 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (5 km²) of it (0.52%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Crawford County
East: Knox County, Ind.
Southwest: Wabash County
West: Richland County

Cities and Towns:

- Allison	township
- Birds	village	Incorporated Area
- Bond	township
- Bridgeport	city	Incorporated Area
- Christy	township
- Denison	township
- Lawrence	township
- Lawrenceville (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Lukin	township
- Petty	township
- Russellville	village	Incorporated Area
- St. Francisville	city	Incorporated Area
- Sumner	city	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."