Stark County, Illinois

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

County Seat: Toulon
Year Organized: 1839
Square Miles: 288

Court House:

P.O. Box 97
County Courthouse
Toulon, IL 61483-0097

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Gen. John Stark, revolutionary soldier; won fame at Bunker Hill, Trenton, Princeton and Bennington.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Stark County was created on March 2, 1839 (Laws, 1839, p. 229) and was formed from Knox and Putnam Counties. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Putnam County (1825–1839), Knox County (1829–1839), Fulton County (1823–1825), Pike County (1821–1823), Madison County (1812–1821) and St. Clair County (1801–1812).

The County was named for John Stark, a soldier of the French and Indian wars, a Major General of the Revolution, who served with distinction at Bunker Hill, Trenton, Princeton, and Bennington. The County Seat is Toulon (1841-Present).

The History of Bureau County (Taken From the Earliest Historical Facts of Marshall-Putnam Counties, Also Bureau and Stark Counties,

Compiled and Published by Mr. Henry A. Ford, 1860)
Chapter II: The History of Illinois 1690-1825 and Chapter V: The Black Hawk War
Chapter I: European Discovery in the West

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 288 square miles (746 km²), of which, 288 square miles (746 km²) of it is land and 0 square miles (1 km²) of it (0.10%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Bureau County
East: Marshall County
South: Peoria County
Southwest: Knox County
Northwest: Henry County

Cities and Towns:

- Bradford	village	Incorporated Area
- Elmira	township
- Goshen	township
- La Fayette	village	Incorporated Area
- Milo	township
- Osceola	township
- Penn	township
- Princeville	village	Incorporated Area
- Toulon (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Valley	township
- West Jersey	township
- Wyoming	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."