Welcome to the Illinois Genealogy Trails
History & Genealogy Website
for
Douglas County
part of the Genealogy Trails
Group
This county's website is available for adoption. If you are interested in becoming
the host for this website, contact Kim
If you would like to contribute genealogical data, you can also send it to here
If you need help getting started with your research, please visit
our Research
Page where you will find links to the available online
databases, as well as links to the most helpful researching sites.
General County Information
HISTORY
"Douglas County, lying
a little east of the center of the State, embracing an area of 410 square miles and having apopulation (in 1900)
of 19,097. The earliest land entry was made by Harrison Gill, of Kentucky, whose patent was signed by Andrew Jackson.
Another early settler was John A. Richman, a West Virginian, who erected one of the first frame houses in the county
in 1829. The Embarras and Kaskaskia Rivers flow through the county, which is also crossed by the Wabash and Illinois
Central Railways. Douglas County was organized in 1857 (being set off from Coles) and named in honor of Stephen
A. Douglas, then United States Senator from Illinois. After a sharp struggle Tuscola was made the county-seat.
It has been visited by several disastrous conflagrations, but is a thriving town, credited in 1890, with a population
of 1,897. Other important towns are Arcola (population, 1.733), and Camargo, which was originally known as New
Salem. " "Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois", 1901
"Tuscola, a city and the
county-seat of Douglas County, located at the intersection of the Illinois Central and two other trunk lines of
railway, 22 miles south of Champaign, and 36 miles east of Decatur. Besides a brick court-house it has five churches,
a graded school, a national bank, two weekly newspapers and two establishments for the manufacture of carriages
and wagons. Population (in 1880), 1,457; (in 1890) 1,897; (in 1900) 2,569" "Historical
Encyclopedia of Illinois", 1901
Established February 8 & February 16, 1859
Township Names: Arcola, Bourbon, Bowdre ( Name
changed from Deer Creek on June 5, 1868), Camargo, Garrett, Murdock ( Formed from Camargo and Newman on December
7, 1882.), Newman, Sargent, Tuscola
They will take phone calls, but not email. Copy charges are nominal....10 cents
a page (with a minimum charge of $1.00) and they will bill you (so don't send them $ in your first letter). The
interns are usually pretty quick in responding.
Gossip and other
items from Miscellaneous Newspapers
Illinois Central Train Wreck - Originating in Chicago, the wreck took place in Douglas County - c. 1941. These newspaper
articles list the names of the dead and injured. This is on the IL Trails Cook County site, so make sure to hit
"back" to return here.
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of this site.
Information is furnished for the free use of researchers who are
interested for the purpose of researching their family histories and genealogies. However, copying & pasting
the information presented here onto another website is prohibited! This website is considered to be a compilation
of facts, and is therefore covered under current copyright laws.
While every effort has been made to provide accurate information,
there is no warranty of any kind regarding the accuracy of any information found on this or any other genealogy
website presented by this author. It is the responsibility of the interested party to research and document the
information located on this or any other website. Links to other sites should be considered referrals only and
should not necessarily be taken as endorsements.
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