St. Clair County, Illinois

St. Clair County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Belleville
Year Organized: 1790
Square Miles: 664

Court House:

10 Public Square
County Courthouse
Belleville, IL 62220-1623

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Gen. Arthur St. Clair, Commander in Chief of the US Army after the American Revolution and Governor of US Territory northwest of the Ohio River.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

St Clair County was created on April 27, 1790 (Territorial Records of the Northwest Territory, St. Clair Papers, Vol. 2, p. 165) and was formed from the Northwest Territory. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: St. Clair County was the first county established in Illinois, at the time a part of the Northwest Territory.

The County was named for Arthur St. Clair, a soldier of the French and Indian wars, a Major General during the Revolution, Commander-in-Chief of the Army after the Revolution, and Governor of the Territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River. The County Seat is Belleville . Prior County Seats was Cahokia* (1790–1814), Kaskaskia* (1790–1795), Prairie du Rocher* (1790–1795) and Belleville (1814-Present).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 674 square miles (1,746 km²), of which, 664 square miles (1,719 km²) of it is land and 10 square miles (26 km²) of it (1.51%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Madison County
Northeast: Clinton County
Southeast: Washington County
South: Randolph County
Southwest: Monroe County
Northwest: St. Louis County, Mo.; St. Louis city, Mo.

Cities and Towns:

- Alorton	village	Incorporated Area
- Belleville (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Cahokia	village	Incorporated Area
- Canteen	township
- Caseyville	village	Incorporated Area
- Centreville	city	Incorporated Area
- Dupo	village	Incorporated Area
- East Carondelet	village	Incorporated Area
- East St. Louis	city	Incorporated Area
- Engelmann	township
- Fairmont City	village	Incorporated Area
- Fairview Heights	city	Incorporated Area
- Fayetteville	village	Incorporated Area
- Freeburg	village	Incorporated Area
- Lebanon	city	Incorporated Area
- Lenzburg	village	Incorporated Area
- Lovejoy	township
- Marissa	village	Incorporated Area
- Mascoutah	city	Incorporated Area
- Millstadt	village	Incorporated Area
- New Athens	village	Incorporated Area
- O'Fallon	city	Incorporated Area
- Prairie Du Long	township
- Sauget	village	Incorporated Area
- Shiloh	village	Incorporated Area
- Shiloh Valley	township
- Smithton	village	Incorporated Area
- St. Clair	township
- St. Libory	village	Incorporated Area
- Stites	township
- Stookey	township
- Sugar Loaf	township
- Summerfield	village	Incorporated Area
- Swansea	village	Incorporated Area
- Washington Park	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."