|
HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
by J. H. Battle 1882
ORIGIN OF THE COUNTY
submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer
November 28, 1814, the Territorial Legislature organized the county of
Edward's. White County was formed at the same session, and the line between them has remained unchanged. This line,
extending from the Wabash to the Third Principal Meridian, was the southern boundary of a county, the limits of
which extended northward to the international boundary. In 1816, Crawford was formed from the northern territory
of Edward's, leaving within the limits of the latter a magnificent territory, from which eight counties, entire,
or in part, have been formed. In 1819, the counties of Jefferson and Wayne were formed; in 1821, Lawrence County;
in 1823, Marion, and in 1824, Clay and Wabash, leaving Edward's with its present restricted area. The Little and
Big Wabash rivers naturally attracted the greater part of immigration and the early seats of justice were founded
at an inconvenient distance from the interior settlements, which, from 1818 to 1835, began to be quite numerous.
The precedent set of forming small counties in the case of Wabash and Edward's, was not lost upon the people of
this interior region, and an agitation for the erection of an independent county of the outlying portions of Clay
and Lawrence, was begun as early as 1838. The first vote was unsuccessful, but in 1841, the effort culminated in
an act of the Legislature which resulted in the provisional erection of Richland County, as follows:
" Beginning on the south line of Crawford County, where the range line, between Ranges
13 and 14 west, strikes the same; thence south, with said range line, to the south line of Lawrence County; thence
west, with said county line, to the line dividing Lawrence and Edward's counties; thence north, with the last mentioned
Line, to the south line of Clay County; thence west, with said line, to the center of the Little Wabash River;
thence up the middle of said stream, to the mouth of Muddy Fork thereof; thence up the center of the Muddy Fork,
to the line dividing townships Nos. 3 and 4; thence east with said line to the range line between ranges 8 and
9; thence north, with said range line, to the south line of Jasper County; and thence east, with said line, to
the place of beginning, shall constitute a new county, to be called the county of Richland.
" Sec 2. The county aforesaid is constituted upon the following conditions: The people
of the counties of Lawrence and Clay, as they are now organized, shall meet at the several places of holding elections
for senator and representatives to the General Assembly, in said counties on the first Monday in June next, and
proceed to vote in the same manner of voting for senator and representatives to the General Assembly whether said
county shall be constituted or not. The judges of elections in said counties, shall give twenty days' notice of
the time and place of holding said elections, by posting up notices thereof, at six of the most public places in
each of said counties; and on said day shall open a poll book at each election precinct in said counties, in which
they shall cause to be ruled two columns, in one of which they shall set down the votes given for the formation
of said new county; and in the other column, the votes given against the same, and said judges shall conduct said
election, and make returns thereof, to the clerks of the county commissioners' courts of Lawrence and Clay counties,
as is now provided by law in the case of elections for senator and representatives to the General Assembly; and
said returns shall be opened and counted in the same manner as required in such elections, and if a majority of
all the votes given in each of said counties at said election shall be in favor of the formation of said new county,
a certificate thereof shall be made by the clerks of the county commissioners' courts of said counties of Lawrence
and Clay, under the seals of said courts, and transmitted by them to the office of the Secretary of State of Illinois,
to be filed in his office as evidence of the formation of said county of Richland, and said clerk shall make a
like certificate to be filed in their respective offices, which shall be made a matter of record at the next succeeding
term of the county commissioners' court of each of said counties, which certificate shall be sufficient to prove
the fact therein stated, after which said county shall be one of the counties of the State of Illinois.
"Sec. 3. If said county of Richland shall be constituted as aforesaid,
the legal voters of said county shall meet on the third Monday of June next, at the several places of holding elections
in said new county, and vote for the place where the county seat of said county shall be located, on which day
persons proposing to make donations for the several places proposed to be voted for, shall file with the judges
of election of the several election precincts in said new county, their written propositions, which shall not be
for less than ten acres of land at the place the seat of justice shall be located, and upon the person or persons
offering the donation at the place receiving the greatest number of votes, making to the said county of Rich-land
a good and sufficient conveyance for the donation proposed to be given, such place shall be the permanent seat
of justice for said county, and said donation shall be disposed of by the county commissioners of said county,
in such manner as they may think proper, reserving necessary public grounds; and the proceeds arising from said
donation, shall be exclusively used [and] for the erection of public buildings in said county
.
" Sec. 4. Should said county of Richland be constituted according to
the provisions of this act, said county shall, on the first Monday of August next, elect all county officers for
said county, to be commissioned and qualified as in other cases.
" Sec 5. Said county of Richland shall make a part of the fourth judicial circuit, and
so soon as said county shall be organized, the clerk of the county commissioners court of said county shall notify
the judge of the said circuit, and it shall be his duty to appoint a clerk, and hold courts in said county, at
such times as said judge shall appoint, or shall be provided by law; said courts to be held at such place as the
county commissioners of said county shall provide, until public buildings shall be erected.
" Sec. 6. The school funds belonging to the several townships in said county, and all notes
and mortgages pertaining to the same, shall be paid and delivered over to the school commissioner of the county
of Richland, by the commissioners of the counties of Lawrence and Clay, so soon as the said county of Richland
shall be organized, and the commissioner of school lands shall be appointed and qualified according to law; together
with all interests arising out of said money that may not have been expended.
" Sec. 7. That, until otherwise provided by law, that portion of Richland County taken off Lawrence, and that
portion taken off Clay shall continue to vote with the counties they were taken off of, for senator and representatives
to the General Assembly.
"Sec 8. That the passage of this act shall in no wise alter or affect the assessment of
property, or the collection of taxes in the counties of Lawrence and Clay, as the same are now organized for the
year one thousand eight hundred and forty one. But should the said county of Richland be organized in pursuance
to the provisions of this act, the county commissioners' courts of the counties of Lawrence and Clay shall immediately,
after the settlement of the collectors of their respective counties, order that portion of taxes collected from
citizens residing in that portion of Richland County taken off their respective counties after deducting a proportionate
amount for the assessment and collection of the same, to be paid into the county treasury of Richland County.
"Sec. 9. The returns of the election for county officers to be held on the first Monday in August next, and
the returns of the election for the purpose of fixing the permanent seat of justice of said county, shall be made
to Samuel R. Lowry, James Laws and Joshua L. Johnston, who are hereby authorized and required to open the same
and make returns thereof, in the same manner as Clerks of county commissioners' courts and justices of the peace,.
called to their assistance in ordinary cases, are required to do."
The only opposition to the formation of a new county was based upon the natural hesitation to curtail the extent
of the old county's area, but so determined were the people to be benefited by this change that the project received
its most material aid from those about Lawrenceville. It was feared in this region that if the project failed the
county seat would be moved to a more central point, and hence their support to the new county. In Clay County there
was but little or no opposition, and the vote under the provisions of this act was in favor of the division by
a good majority. The name is due to the influence of Rev. Joseph H. Reed, who was a Methodist minister, a resident
of the county, prominent in the agitation for a new county, and subsequently a member of the State Legislature.
He wished to call the county seat Calhoun, but in deference to his efforts, and as a compromise, the county was
named after Richland County, in Ohio, from whence Reed had emigrated.
|