Editing Hardin, Illinois (section)

==Early history==
Hardin was first known as Terry's Landing, after its first settler, Dr. William Terry, according to John Lammy's American Centennial celebration speech in Hardin on July 4, 1876. Benjamin F. Childs bought the landing in 1835 and renamed it Childs' Landing. The village name was changed to Hardin when it became the county seat of Calhoun County in 1847. The new name honored [[John J. Hardin]], a former congressman and a colonel in the First Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, who was killed earlier that year in the [[Mexican–American War]].<ref>Calhoun County ILGenWeb, https://calhoun.illinoisgenweb.org/index.htm</ref> Hardin became the seat of Calhoun County after the county courthouse had burned down in [[Gilead, Illinois|Gilead]]. The seat was temporarily moved to [[Hamburg, Illinois|Hamburg]], but after an offer from Benjamin Childs of five acres of land and fifty thousand bricks for the new courthouse, as well as a free barbeque dinner, it was decided in a vote that the county seat would be moved in 1847.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carpenter |first=George Wilbur |url=http://archive.org/details/historyofcalhoun00carp |title=History of Calhoun County and its people up to the year 1910 |date=1933 |others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign}}</ref>