Beyond its fame or notoriety or sacredness because of the Carthage Jail where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were held and assassinated, Carthage has a very interesting non-Mormon history.

Carthage is in Hancock County. The county formed in 1825 but population was so sparse Hancock became attached to Adams County immediately to the south. But by 1829 population had grown enough (to 350) so that Hancock County became independent. In 1833 the State of Illinois decided that the county seat ought to be in the center of the county. A settlement grew up in the prescribed center with some businesses and a simple courthouse structure. Carthage was incorporated in 1837. Many of those early settlers in Hancock County had received their land as grants for their military service in the War of 1812. Hancock County was included in the military tract. And soldiers who did not want land in the military tract were able to sell their allotments to settlers migrating into the area. Significant settlement did not begin until after 1839, though, until the steel bottom plow was invented, with which to cut the thick, tall prairie grass. The relationship of Carthage to the prairie in which it arose is captured in the 1938 oil painting in the city’s post office ( 615 Main Street), by artist Karl Kelpe. It is called “Pioneer Tilling the Soil and Building Log Cabin” – supporting our project’s notion of a Western Illinois Pioneer Trail (see also the Galesburg post office mural). It was painted as a commission from the New Deal’s Treasury Department Fine Arts section.

As this early map shows, Carthage was in the center of Hancock County with roads radiating in and out to it. Carthage is the county seat of Hancock County with unquestionably one of the most beautiful courthouses in the State of Illinois – outside and especially inside.  

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A “Looking for Lincoln” panel, outside the Courthouse, explains the legal case that Lincoln lost here in 1839. His client was hanged.

Like many but certainly not all county seats, Carthage has a town square, dominated by its courthouse. The Courthouse Square was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The first five minutes of an amateur video on youtube traverses Courthouse Square.

Lincoln returned to Carthage in 1858 during the dramatic campaign for U.S. Senate against Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas spoke on October 11 and Lincoln spoke on October 22. Although Douglas carried Hancock County, during the Civil War Hancock County was on the Union side.

Carthage has always been a center for farming. This plus usual in-town commercial services created prosperity as seen in the many buildings around Courthouse Square.

Carthage is the site of Carthage College, and here history becomes very interesting. Carthage College was founded in Hillsboro, IL in 1847, the county seat of Montgomery County and with its own beautiful courthouse and a very unusual urban setting – not quite having a town square around it (see HIllsboro). In Hillsboro it was known as The Literary and Theological Institute of the Lutheran Church in the Far West. The name was shortened to Hillsboro College. In 1852 the college relocated to Springfield, IL and became Illinois State University. Abraham Lincoln was an early trustee. Finally, in 1870 the college relocated to Carthage and became known as Carthage College.

A very interesting collection of local artifacts covering the breadth of Carthage history is displayed at the Kibbe Hancock Heritage Museum. Interestingly, the museum acquired a significant portion of the defunct (in 2009) Museum of Funeral Customs that had existed in Springfield. That collection includes fascinating funerary material from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in central Illinois. The museum also holds several Lincoln-related artifacts, as indicated on the “Looking for Lincoln” panel outside the museum.

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