Editing Woodford County, Illinois (section)

===Establishment===
Woodford County is part of what was formerly the homelands of several [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] peoples, including the [[Potawatomi]],<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/woodfordcountyhi00wood |title=The Woodford County History |publisher=Woodford County Board of Supervisors |year=1968 |editor-last=Yates |editor-first=William |location=Bloomington IL |page=xiii}}</ref> the [[Meskwaki]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moore |first=Roy L. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwoodfor00inmoor |title=History of Woodford County |publisher=Woodford County Republican |year=1910 |location=Eureka, Illinois |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofwoodfor00inmoor/page/n12 9]}} Twenty-first century names have been provided for Moore's "Fox" and "Sac" tribes, south of the "Illini."</ref> and the [[Sauk people|Sauk]] peoples. It was located just south of the land of the [[Illinois Confederation|Illiniwek]]. The western portion of the county in particular shows much archeological evidence of having supported extensive First Nations populations.

At the time of the [[American Revolutionary War]], three competing American colonies – Massachusetts, Virginia, and Connecticut – claimed part of what is today the state of Illinois. The matter was solved in 1778 when Virginia amalgamated lands in the region into a massive county called Illinois, borrowing the name of a native people. [[Indiana Territory]] was formed in 1800 with [[William Henry Harrison]] as Governor; the future Illinois was part of this territory. It was not until 1809 that [[Illinois Territory]] was formally established as an official territory of the United States of America. Statehood followed in December 1818.

The first organized Anglo settlements in the future Woodford County region appeared in the 1820s. First settlement in the county came at [[Spring Bay, Illinois|Spring Bay]], with pioneers managing to select the same ground occupied by an ancient Indian <!---I am intentionally using this word for flavor---> burial site which ran north-and-south through the entire settlement. The location was chosen due to its proximity to the [[Illinois River]].<ref>Moore 1910, pp. 10–18</ref>

[[File:MesquakieIndians1857.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Meskwaki (Fox) were pushed from their historic homelands to Iowa and [[Indian Territory]] (part of today's Oklahoma).]]

In the 1870s, an early historian of Woodford County wrote:
<blockquote>
There were a few Indians in the county at the time of settlement by the whites, but the two races did not come into conflict to any extent. The advancing wave of civilization seemed to follow up the retreating wave of barbarism. The first settlers encountered a few Indians ... and in 1832 were involved to some extent in the [[Black Hawk War]], but the active operations were further north than Woodford County.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Radford |first=B. J. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwoodfor00radf |title=History of Woodford County: Giving a Brief Account of Its Settlement, Organization, Physical Characteristics and Progress |publisher=W. T. Dowdall |year=1877 |location=Peoria, Illinois |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofwoodfor00radf/page/15 15]}}</ref></blockquote>

The current boundaries of the county were not those originally drawn; moreover, the names of various counties in the region changed frequently The Eastern portion of Woodford County was known as Edwards (1814–16), Crawford (1816–19), Clark (1819–21), and Fayette (1821-25) Counties, while the Western part of today's county was included in Madison (1814–17), Bond (1817–21), and Sangamon (1821–25) Counties.<ref name=Moore12/>

In 1827 new lines were drawn and [[Tazewell County, Illinois|Tazewell County]] was established, including all of today's Woodford County.<ref name=Moore12/> Settlers began arriving from neighboring territories during the early 1830s.<ref>Moore 1910, p. 20.</ref> This led to the formal creation of Woodford County along its current boundaries in February 1841 from a portion of Tazewell County and a portion of McLean County that had been part of Tazewell County before 1830.<ref name="Moore12">Moore 1910, p. 12</ref>

The county was named for [[Woodford County, Kentucky|Woodford County]], [[Kentucky]], which was in turn named after General [[William Woodford]], who served with General [[George Washington]] at [[Valley Forge]], Pennsylvania during the brutal winter of 1777–78.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=luoxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA37 ''The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Vol. 1.''] Kentucky State Historical Society, 1903; p. 37.</ref>

The first post office in today's Woodford County was established in 1836 at [[Partridge Township, Woodford County, Illinois|Partridge township]], named for local tribal leader Black Partridge.<ref>Moore 1910, p. 14.</ref> Also in 1836, the area's first (private) school was founded, by Miss Betsy Page. The first [[government school|public school]] followed shortly thereafter.<ref>Moore 1910, p. 33.</ref> The first [[Sunday school]] was established in 1837 in the home of Parker Morse in [[Cazenovia Township, Woodford County, Illinois|Cazenovia]].<ref>Moore 1910, p. 94.</ref>