Marion County, Illinois

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

County Seat: Salem
Year Organized: 1823
Square Miles: 572

Court House:

P.O. Box 637
County Courthouse
Salem, IL 62881-0637

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Gen. Francis Marion, known as the "Swamp Fox," distinguished soldier in the Carolinas during the American Revolution.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Marion County was created on January 24, 1823 (Laws, 1823, p. 49) and was formed from Fayette and Jefferson Counties. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Jefferson County (1819–1823), Fayette County (1821–1823), Crawford County (1816–1821), Edwards County (1815–1819), Gallatin County (1812–1815), Madison County (1812–1815), Randolph County (1803–1813), St. Clair County (1790–1813) and Knox, Northwest Territory (1790–1801).

The County was named for Francis Marion, a soldier of the Revolution who distinguished himself as a partisan commander in the Carolinas. The County Seat is Salem (1823-Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 576 square miles (1,491 km²), of which, 572 square miles (1,482 km²) of it is land and 3 square miles (9 km²) of it (0.60%) is water.

The southwest corner of Marion County is the intersection of the Baseline with the Third Principal Meridian, the point of origin for the third survey of the Northwest Territory under the Land Ordinance of 1785. The origin is marked with a boulder south of Centralia just off U.S. 51.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Fayette County
Northeast: Clay County
Southeast: Wayne County
South: Jefferson County
Southwest: Washington County
West: Clinton County

Cities and Towns:

- Alma	village	Incorporated Area
- Carrigan	township
- Central City	village	Incorporated Area
- Centralia	city	Incorporated Area
- Foster	township
- Haines	township
- Iuka	village	Incorporated Area
- Junction City	village	Incorporated Area
- Kell	village	Incorporated Area
- Kinmundy	city	Incorporated Area
- Meacham	township
- Odin	village	Incorporated Area
- Omega	township
- Patoka	village	Incorporated Area
- Pope	township
- Raccoon	township
- Romine	township
- Salem (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Sandoval	village	Incorporated Area
- Stevenson	township
- Tonti	township
- Vernon	village	Incorporated Area
- Walnut Hill	village	Incorporated Area
- Wamac	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our 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."

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