Editing Crossville, Illinois (section)

==History==
Crossville was laid out by surveyor John Mills in 1872 for Thomas Cross and Silas Elliott, and named for Thomas Cross.  The original plat was one half mile square (160 acres or a quarter section), located in Section 23, Township 4 South, Range 10 East of the 3rd Principal Meridian.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fVY0AQAAMAAJ&q=history+white+county+illinois | title=The History of White County, Illinois | publisher=Inter-State Publishing Company | author=Inter-State Publishing Company | year=1883 | page=921}}</ref>

The town's existence is closely tied to the opening of the [[Cairo and Vincennes Railroad]] on December 9, 1872. In 1853 the Vincennes and Paducah Railway Company was formed for the purpose of creating a railroad through the area, but that venture was unsuccessful.  In 1857 the Illinois Southern Railway Company took up the idea, with a plan that originally contemplated routing the railroad through [[Phillipstown, Illinois|Phillipstown]], but local land owners Stephen Fitzgerald and Solomon Charles refused to donate land to the Railway. Instead, in 1857 Thomas Cross donated right-of-way through the center of what would later become Crossville.  The railroad project was stalled during the Civil War, but in 1867 the Cairo and Vincennes Railway Company was formed and work on the railroad proceeded in earnest.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Centennial History of Crossville & Phillips Township | publisher=Crossville Centennial History Committee | author=Crossville Centennial History Committee | year=1995 | page=18}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Carmi Times Sesquicentennial Edition, December 9, 1965  | publisher=publisher not known | author=Patricia S. Davis | year=1998 | page=132}}</ref>

The town was incorporated on September 30, 1895, and the town charter was filed on October 12, 1895, at 11:05 am.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Centennial History of Crossville & Phillips Township | publisher=Crossville Centennial History Committee | author=Crossville Centennial History Committee | year=1995 | page=15}}</ref>

===2017 tornado===
On [[Tornado outbreak of February 28 – March 1, 2017|February 28, 2017]], an [[Enhanced Fujita scale|EF3]] wedge tornado touched down in Crossville, damaging the village as it passed through, resulting in one fatality.<ref>Haley Church, "[http://www.mtcarmelregister.com/news/illinois-gov-rauner-visits-tornado-ravaged-crossville/article_62c0c16c-ffa3-11e6-8ae1-a7fb0818c80a.html Illinois Gov. Rauner Visits Tornado-Ravaged Crossville]," ''Mount Carmel Register'', March 3, 2017.</ref>