The Henderson County Courthouse is a government building in

Oquawka Oquawka is a village in Henderson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,371 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Henderson County. Oquawka is part of the Burlington, IA–IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Geograph ...

, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of Henderson County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Built in 1842 and later expanded, it remains in use as the county's

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

, despite repeated attempts by other towns to obtain the status of county seat.

History

Treaties were signed with local Indians as early as 1804, but cruelty on the part of early squatters in the area provoked them to warfare, and not until 1829 could land be sold in what became western Henderson County.''History of Mercer and Henderson counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc.'' Chicago: H.H. Hill, 1882. Here a town was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

ted in 1836 and named Oquawka, and by 1838 it was prosperous enough to attempt to gain the status of county seat for

Warren County Warren County is the name of fourteen counties in the USA. Some are named after General Joseph Warren, who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War: * Warren County, Georgia * Warren County, Illinois * Warren County ...

. Henderson County was created out of Warren County in April 1841 by a law that designated also Oquawka the

, and one of the first acts of the original

county commission A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States; such commissions usually comprise ...

was to accept from commissioner Alexis Phelps a donation of land for county business.Weiser, Dennis. ''Illinois courthouses: an illustrated history''.

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

: Donning, 2009, 64. (Phelps and others had reserved land for this purpose five years earlier, when founding the town.) In October 1841, the county commission first announced plans to build a courthouse, and as the lowest bidder, Phelps was chosen as the contractor for a price of $1,219. Working with architect Abner Hebbard, brick mason James Ryason, and a pair of other contractors, he finished the building by the end of 1842. Oquawka sits twice as far from the county's southern boundary as from the northern, and for this reason, residents of the southern part of the county repeatedly sought to move the seat closer to their homes. Elections were held in 1859 (seeking to move it to

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval A ...

), 1865 (to

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

), 1869 (to Biggsville), and 1872 (again to Gladstone), but majorities consistently favored retaining the original location. As the county has never replaced the original building, it is Illinois' second-oldest active courthouse.Henderson County
9th District Illinois Appellate Court, 2019. Accessed 2019-02-02. Although Oquawka was not chosen to host any of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, both men visited at the Henderson County Courthouse during their campaigns;

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...

spoke on October 4, and

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

spoke on October 9. Douglas was already familiar with the location, having used the courthouse in the 1840s while a state appeals court judge.

Architecture

At the time of construction, the courthouse was a simple two-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...

rectangle, built in the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style. Its first floor was originally divided into office spaces for county officials, and a pair of staircases provided access to the large courtroom that occupied the entire second story. Two record vaults occupy the southwestern quarter; one was added after construction, while the other is perhaps original or may have been added later. A door at the rear of the building was removed in the early 1900s to make space for a small room for the judge, and in 1905 this room was expanded.Gross, Ralph S
Photographics Written Historical and Descriptive Data

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

, n.d. The county sought to make major changes to the building in 1946, but voters rejected the proposed spending, and a smaller-scale renovation project was conducted in 1965. Outside, the facade features a four-column

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

; the columns' original brick exterior was covered with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

in 1905. A door sits at the center of the facade, surrounded by windows. Above it, the building's roof rises to a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

, and an octagonal

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

with square base sits atop the roof and above the portico. Before wings were added to the sides, three windows pierced each story of the building's sides.

References

External links

Henderson County Clerk's Office
{{coord, 40, 56, 7, N, 90, 57, 12, W, display=title Government buildings completed in 1842 Brick buildings and structures Buildings and structures in Henderson County, Illinois County courthouses in Illinois Greek Revival architecture in Illinois