The History of Logan County area begins with the earliest known inhabitants:

The Native Americans who lived in this area some 8 – 10,000 years B.C.  The earliest known village site in this area is on Lake Fork dating some 3 – 5,000 B.C.

Site of early Mississippian Native Americans.  Their village, one of the largest in this area, is located on the Fifth Street Road.

1673 - The Illini Native Americans came into this area.  One of their important villages was located on Elkhart Hill, which the Native Americans called Elk Heart.

1790 - Just on year after George Washington was inaugurated President, Mrs. Anna Gilham and her three children are captured in Kentucky and brought as slaves to the Kickapoo capitol village in this area, which was located on the present site of Lincoln Memorial Park west of the city of Lincoln.  The Native Americans held Mrs. Gilham and her three children for several years before being ransomed by Mr. Gilham.

1809 - February 3, the Illinois Territory is created.
          February 12, Abraham Lincoln was born.

1817 - Bond County is created, Logan County being a part.  First settlers come into what is to become the Sangamon County area.

1818 - December – Illinois becomes the 21st State.

1819 - James Latham and family become first settlers in the area that becomes Logan County in 1839.

1821 - Sangamon County is created.  At this time the future Logan County is a part of Sangamon County until 1839.

1831 - Abraham Lincoln comes to Sangamon County and locates at New Salem.

1832 - Middletown is the first town to be established in Logan County area.
          This same year, Abraham Lincoln makes his first unsuccessful bid for public office.

1834 - Abraham Lincoln makes his first survey in this area that will become Logan County.  He surveys a road beginning at Musick’s Ferry near Middletown to Jacksonville via New Salem. 

1834 - Lincoln is elected by the people of the Sangamon County area, of which Logan County is a part, to represent them at the state capitol at Vandalia.

1835 - Postville is established and becomes an important town on the stagecoach road from Chicago to Saint Louis.

1836 - Historic Crohurst Home is built and still stands at Elkhart.

1836 - Abraham Lincoln surveys town site of Albany at Rocky Ford.

1837 - Abraham Lincoln is instrumental in moving the state capitol from Vandalia to Springfield. 
          Abraham Lincoln moves from New Salem to Springfield.

1838 - John Dean Gillett moves to Logan County.  This man becomes an extensive land owner, breeder of Shorthorn cattle, helps to complete the railroad in 1835 from Chicago to Saint Louis, three years before the Illinois Central is completed. Mr. Gillett helped to found the city of Lincoln and Lincoln College and becomes known as the Cattle King of America by his exporting cattle and work with the establishment of the Fat Cattle Show that later becomes known as the International Livestock Show at Chicago.  A three-dimensional terra cotta relief of Mr. Gillett is located at the entrance to the Stock Yard Inn at Chicago, as well as an oil portrait in the Baron’s Room of the Saddle and Sirloin Club.  Saint John the Baptist Chapel in Elkhart Cemetery is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Gillett.  At the time of his death, he owned 16,000 acres of land and 4,000 head of purebred Shorthorn cattle.

1839 - February 15 – Abraham Lincoln carves Logan County out of the Sangamon County area and names it for John Logan, the Southern Illinois Democrat who had helped Mr. Lincoln in moving the state capitol from Vandalia to Springfield in 1837.
          Postville is selected as the new Logan County seat.

1843 - Postville Courthouse is the site of one of the earliest references to Mr. Lincoln as “Honest Abe.”

1846 - Peter Cartwright and Abraham Lincoln oppose each other for a seat in the U.S. Congress.  They often meet at Postville, Peter Cartwright as a circuit riding Methodist preacher, and Abraham Lincoln as a circuit-riding lawyer.  Mr. Lincoln won the election.

1848 - The County Seat is moved from Postville to Mount Pulaski, site of many historic cases involving Mr. Lincoln, among them the horological cradle case and the cast-iron tombstone case.  Many prominent men associated with this historic building include David Davis, Stephen A. Douglas, Robert C. Ingersol, John T. Stewart, Stephen T. Logan, William H. Herndon, and a coterie of other brilliant attorneys.  The original building is still standing and is maintained as a State Shrine.

1850 - William Scully comes into Logan County area and buys 33,000 acres of land. Mr. Scully introduces crop rotation and soil conservation, has a tiling crew working year round for 40 years, which helps to drain much of the Northwest Quarter of Logan County.

1853 - February 11 – a bill is passed at Springfield to move the county seat to Section 31 
Northwest Quarter.

         August 27 – Sale of lots at the new county seat.  The new town of Lincoln, Illinois is named for Abraham Lincoln.  Mr. Lincoln laughs and says, “Boys, I wouldn’t do that for I know of nothing named Lincoln that amounted to anything.” A few years later at a place called Gettysburg, he says, “The world will little not nor long remember what we say here.”  Mr. Lincoln used the juice of a watermelon to christen his namesake city.  Messrs. John Dean Gillett, Virgil Hickock, and Robert Latham are the town promoters.

1856 - September 2 – Abraham Lincoln speaks for two hours at a Republican Rally on the courthouse lawn, and again on October 16, 1858.

1857 - After only one year of occupancy, the first Courthouse located in Lincoln burns and many Lincoln documents are lost.

1858 - Abraham Lincoln receives a town lot, located on the city square in Lincoln as a payment on a debt.

1858 - Stephen A. Douglas speaks in a circus tent rally in Lincoln during the time of the Great Debates with Abraham Lincoln in the audience.

1858 - Abraham Lincoln practices one of his Great Debate speeches in a building in Atlanta.  The building still stands today.

1859 - During the March term of Circuit Court, Abraham Lincoln participates as a judge in 34 court cases.

1859 - July 4 – Abraham Lincoln is presented with a gold-headed cane with silver studs spelling his name at Atlanta, Illinois.

1860 - March 19 – Abraham Lincoln participates in his last trial on the old Eighth Judicial Circuit before he becomes President.

1860 - First organization meeting of the Lincoln “Wide Awakes” at Atlanta, Illinois.

1860 - November 21 – Abraham Lincoln bids his last farewell to his friends in Logan County at the railroad station in Lincoln.  Abraham Lincoln made very few speeches between the time he was elected and inaugurated.  One of these occasions was at the Lincoln railroad station.  He also thanked Logan County for supporting him in the election and asked for their continued help.

1861 - April 12 – Fort Sumter is fired upon – beginning the Civil War.
          April 21 – the first of some 2,160 Logan County volunteers leave from the Lincoln railroad station in answer to Mr. Lincoln’s call for troops.
          April 26 – Shortly after the Civil War begins, Stephen A. Douglas gives a speech for the citizens of Logan County at the Lincoln railroad station in support of the Union.

1864 - Abraham Lincoln re-elected President of the United States.
          Richard J. Oglesby is elected Governor of Illinois.

1865 - February 12 – Lincoln College is named for Abraham Lincoln on his last living birthday with his full knowledge and consent. Lincoln College has a beautiful museum and library housing one of the finest Lincolnia collections to be found anywhere in the world.  A Merrill Gage statue of “Lincoln, the Student” stands on the campus mall with Mr. Lincoln’s prophetic words on the base of the statue reading, “I shall prepare myself and someday my chance will come.”

         February 16 – the city of Lincoln and the village of Postville become the city of Lincoln, and Postville will not become a ghost town.

1865 – May 3 – Mr. Lincoln’s funeral train stops at the Lincoln railroad station under an arch constructed over the tracks that reads “With malice toward none, with charity for all.”  A group of women dressed in white trimmed in black sing a Requiem for their beloved friend and neighbor, Abraham Lincoln.

1872 - Richard J. Oglesby is elected Governor for the second time.  Five days later he is appointed United States Senator.

1874 -  Mary Todd Lincoln deeds the Lincoln city lot to Robert Todd Lincoln.

1876 - Captain Adam H. Bogardus from Elkhart, Illinois, becomes World Champion Wing Shot in London, England.  He has invented a trap throwing device and patented glass target ball.  Captain Bogardus travels with the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show and is credited with having romanticized trap shooting in the United States.  On one occasion with a $5,000 side bet, he breaks 5,000 balls in 500 minutes.

1876 - A counterfeiting ring with headquarters in Lincoln plot to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln and hold it for $200,000 ransom and the return of their engraver – the plot is uncovered and foiled in Lincoln.  The attempt to steal the body is unsuccessful.

1877 - Lincoln State School founded. Later known as Lincoln Developmental Center.

1878 - Mentor Graham, Abraham Lincoln’s famous New Salem school teacher, moves to a house on 8th Street and spends his last year in Illinois happily living in Mr. Lincoln’s namesake city.

1884 - Richard J. Oglesby, while living in Lincoln, Illinois, is elected the only three-time Governor of the State of Illinois.

1890 - Richard J. Oglesby retires from public office and comes to Elkhart where he builds a beautiful 52 room mansion called Oglehurst, still standing on historic Elkhart Hill.

1899 - Richard J. Oglesby dies and is buried from Saint John the Baptist Chapel with Robert Todd Lincoln, Adali Stevenson, and some 5,000 in attendance.  His tomb is located in Elkhart Cemetery.

1900 - Frank Capps, a native of Mount Pulaski begins his inventing career connected with the early recording industry.  He invents the magnetic sound pick-up principle still used in recording today, the spring driven motor that made Mr. Edison’s talking machine so successful, and the sapphire recording needle.

1910 - Mount Pulaski is the home of the Mount Pulaski Horse Shows and the shows take place for many years.  Some of the finest horses in the Midwest came from Logan County.

1910 - Mount Pulaski is the home of the State Champion hose teams from the Phoenix Fire Department.

1912 - Miss Vaughn DeLeith, a native of Mount Pulaski, while working with early radio pioneer, Dr. Lee DeForest, becomes the First Lady of Radio for many years.  She is a popular radio and recording star.

1929 - Henry Ford steals away historic Postville Courthouse and places it in the famous Greenfield Village Museum at Dearborn, Michigan.

1944, Lincoln Christian College was founded in Mr. Lincoln’s namesake city, and as a result, many young people have furthered their Christian education.

1953 - The State of Illinois restores the historic Postville Courthouse site with the building of a replica.

1970- Lincoln Savings and Loan Company dedicated their new statue of Abraham Lincoln christening his town with the juice of a watermelon.  Their new building is erected across the street from the christening site (now State Bank of Lincoln).

36) Founded in 1865, Lincoln College has to be Mr. Lincoln’s proudest godchild.  For more 
than 140 years, it has taught the philosophy that the education of the heart is just as important as the education of the mind.  Lincoln College has a beautiful new museum and library housing one of the finest Lincolnia collections to be found anywhere in the world.  A Merrill Gage statue of “Lincoln, the Student” stands on the campus mall with Mr. Lincoln’s prophetic words on the base of the statue reading, “I shall prepare myself and someday my chance will come.”

Elkhart Cemetery  Site of Richard J. Oglesby tomb
    Graves of John Dean Gillett and Captain Adam H. Bogardus
    Saint John the Baptist Chapel
    Old Gillett Farm
    Under the Prairie Archeological Museum

Mount Pulaski   Mount Pulaski Courthouse, a state-maintained Lincoln Shrine 
The Heritage Museum

Lincoln   Lincoln Memorial Park
    Reconstructed Postville Courthouse
    Lincoln College Library and Museum
    The “Lincoln, the Student” statue, by Merrill Gage, on the Lincoln 
College Campus
Logan County Courthouse, site of the “Lincoln the Lawyer” statue
Lincoln Savings and Loan, site of the Statue “Lincoln, Christening 
the City of Lincoln”
The Information Station, site of the Logan County Chamber of 
Commerce, Logan County Economic Development Partnership, 
and Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County

Atlanta    Turner’s Grove, site of the Lincoln Cane Presentation
    The Heritage Museum at the Atlanta Public Library.  Site of 
Lincoln practicing one of his Great Debates
Tall Paul – Statue on the corner of Race and Vine Streets

Middletown   Site of Musick’s Ferry at Salt Creek just north of Middletown
    Stagecoach Inn
    Knapp Library and Museum

Rocky Ford  Town site of Albany, one of the few towns Abraham
Lincoln surveyed

Broadwell   Pig Hip Museum