Editing Woodford County, Illinois (section)

===Early administrative structure===
[[File:WOODFORDMAP.jpg|thumb|right|400px|This 1878 map shows the township structure of Woodford County.]]
When it was first established in 1841, the county seat of Woodford County was placed in Versailles for a temporary two-year interval.<ref>Moore 1910, p. 103.</ref> Competition for the honor (and related business opportunities) was fierce leading up to the June 1843 decision of the county commissioners to tap [[Metamora, Illinois|Metamora]] (then known as Hanover) as the new seat.<ref>Moore 1910, p. 104.</ref> A county courthouse was begun in Metamora in 1844 and a county jail in March 1852.<ref>Moore 1910, pp. 105–106.</ref>

It was during the pre-Civil War years that Woodford County adopted townships – which was met with strong opposition. No fewer than four public elections were held between 1850 and 1854 before the township system gained a majority of votes.<ref>Moore 1910, p. 100</ref>

Following the division of the county into townships in early 1855, the system of county government was likewise altered, with a county commission giving way to a board of supervisors. Early county officers, including the sheriff, coroner, school commissioner, surveyor, and treasurer were elected to two-year terms of office, later changed to four-year terms.<ref>Moore 1910, pp. 100–101.</ref>

Other claimants arose attempting to wrest the county seat from Metamora, including [[Eureka, Illinois|Eureka]], [[El Paso, Illinois|El Paso]], and [[Roanoke, Illinois|Roanoke]]. El Paso was nearly awarded the seat in 1867, when it sent a local attorney to make an offer of $30,000 to the town of Metamora to relinquish the county seat. A closely contested vote ended with the apparent result in favor of El Paso reversed by a bare 10 votes in a [[election recount|recount]].

Another vote in 1869 rejected an appeal to move the county seat to Eureka. A dubious recount in a third election held in November 1873 again overturned an apparent result to move the Woodford County seat to Roanoke. A fourth election in 1884, again proposing relocation to Roanoke, failed miserably. It was only in 1894 when a final election provided a decisive majority in favor of moving the county seat to Eureka that Metamora lost its status as county seat.<ref>Moore 1910, pp. 107–109.</ref>

An impressive new courthouse building was quickly constructed in Eureka, cementing that town's status as legal and governmental center of Woodford County.