| Marshall is located on the western edge of
Marshall Township.
It was founded on September 20, 1835 by Colonel W. B. Archer on land owned by
Joseph Duncan and himself who had purchased it from the federal government.
It was named after John Marshall, 4th Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. The plat was filed in October, 1835.
It was located at the intersection of the National Road (U.S. route 40) and the
and the Vincennes and Chicago State Road (route 1).
The National Road began to be built through the site of Marshall in 1827
and many came for the construction work there. The first settlement on the site was made in 1836. The County Seat of Clark County was moved from Darwin
to Marshall in 1839 where it remains to the present day.
During the Civil War, a group of
Copperheads, who opposed the Civil War, provided protection for deserters from
the Union Army. In March, 1863, an Army detail from
Indiana arrested several of the
soldiers. Judge Charles H. Constable freed them and ordered the arrest of two
Union sergeants on kidnapping charges. This resulted in the dispatch of 250
soldiers under the command of Col. Henry B. Carrington by special train from
Indianapolis,
who surrounded the courthouse, freed the sergeants and arrested the Judge.
Judge Constable was, however, later acquitted after presenting an elaborate
defense1
Abraham Lincoln practiced law several times at Marshall.
The Archer House, located in downtown Marshall claims to the the oldest
continually operated hotel in Illinois.
See Also:
History of Crawford and Clark Counties,
1883 |