Harrisonville is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in the historic Harrisonville Precinct of

Monroe County, Illinois Monroe County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 34,962. Its county seat and largest city is Waterloo. Monroe County is included in the St. Louis, MO-IL Metropolitan Stat ...

History

Harrisonville was the first county seat of Monroe County, and was originally called Carthage, or even earlier, in 1786, as Brashear's Fort. The name was changed by an act of the territorial assembly, in 1816, to honor

William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was the ninth president of the United States, serving from March 4 to April 4, 1841, the shortest presidency in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causin ...

, who actually owned several tracts of land in the area, mostly in Moredock precinct. However, sources suggest the name was already in common usage by 1810 or even earlier. The original site, some distance west of its current location has been swallowed up by the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

, and was obliterated by 1860. It was an important shipping point on the Mississippi River, lying on the bank directly opposite

Herculaneum, Missouri Herculaneum is a city in Jefferson County, Missouri, and is a suburb of St. Louis. The population was 4,273 at the 2020 United States census. The City of Herculaneum was the first county seat of Jefferson County from January 1, 1819, to 1839. ...

and drawing on the agricultural production of the

American Bottom The American Bottom is the flood plain of the Mississippi River in the Metro East region of Southern Illinois, extending from Alton, Illinois, south to the Kaskaskia River. It is also sometimes called "American Bottoms". The area is about , mos ...

.Combined History of Randolph, Monroe and Perry Counties, Illinois, J. L. McDonough & Co., Philadelphia, 1883 (Google Ebook)

References

Unincorporated communities in Monroe County, Illinois Unincorporated communities in Illinois Metro East Populated places established in 1810 Former county seats in Illinois {{MonroeCountyIL-geo-stub