Editing Clark County, Illinois (section)

==History==
Clark County was formed in 1819 out of [[Crawford County, Illinois|Crawford County]]. At the time of its formation, Clark County included about a third of Illinois, and extended as far north as the present state of Wisconsin. In 1821 the northern part of Clark County became part of the newly created [[Pike County, Illinois|Pike County]] on January 31, and the newly created [[Fayette County, Illinois|Fayette County]] took the western part of Clark County on February 14. [[Edgar County, Illinois|Edgar County]] was created from the northern part of Clark County on January 3, 1823. The creation of [[Coles County, Illinois|Coles County]] occupied additional land from western Clark County, effective December 25, 1830.<ref name="Hebert">[http://maps.ilgw.org/index.htm  "Illinois County Boundaries 1790 - Present."] Hebert, Michael H. Retrieved June 17, 2014.</ref> The boundaries of Clark County have been unchanged since.

Clark County was named for [[George Rogers Clark]]<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n31 82]}}</ref> (older brother of [[William Clark (explorer)|William Clark]] of the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]]), an officer of the army of [[Virginia]] that captured the [[Northwest Territory]] from the British during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]].

<gallery>
File:Clark County Illinois 1819.png|Clark County from the time of its creation to 1821
File:Clark County Illinois 1821.png|Clark between 1821 and 1823
File:Clark County Illinois 1823.png|Clark between 1823 and 1830
File:Clark County Illinois 1830.png|Clark reduced to its current size in 1830 by the creation of Coles County
</gallery>

The county seat was located in Darwin Township in 1823. A county-wide referendum was held In 1839 to determine whether Auburn or Marshall would be designated as the new seat. Marshall won the election and has remained the county seat since then.<ref name="GenTrails">[http://www.genealogytrails.com/ill/clark/index.html "Welcome to Clark County, Illinois, Genealogy and History."] Retrieved June 10, 2014.</ref>