The Mount Pulaski Courthouse State Historic Site is a historic county

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 ...

located in

Mount Pulaski, Illinois Mount Pulaski is a city in Logan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,566 at the 2010 census, and 1,481 at a 2018 estimate. It is the home of the Mount Pulaski Courthouse State Historic Site. The city is named in honor of Polish R ...

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 ...

. It was 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 ...

Logan County Logan County is the name of ten current counties and one former county in the United States: * Logan County, Arkansas * Logan County, Colorado * Logan County, Idaho (1889–1895) * Logan County, Illinois * Logan County, Kansas * Logan County, ...

from 1848 until 1855. It is one of only two remaining courthouses from Illinois's ''Eighth Circuit'', the circuit on which central Illinois

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

carried out much of his practice of law. The courthouse is operated by the

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency The Illinois Historic Preservation Division, formerly Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Illinois, and is a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. It is tasked with the duty of m ...

as a state historic site. Visitors are given guided tours of the recreated county offices and courtroom.

1848-1855: courthouse

Prior to 1848, the people of Logan County used a frame courthouse, now the

Postville Courthouse State Historic Site The Postville Courthouse State Historic Site is a replica county courthouse in Lincoln, Illinois, United States. The original frame courthouse was built in 1840 and later moved to Greenfield Village in Michigan; the current courthouse, which is a ...

, located close to the center of the county at

Postville Postville is a village in Allamakee and Clayton counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. It lies near the junction of four counties and at the intersection of U.S. Routes 18 and 52 and Iowa Highway 51, with airport facilities in the neighboring co ...

. Frame courthouses were especially vulnerable to fire, and county leaders began looking for a community that would subsidize the construction of a masonry structure. Mount Pulaski citizens combined to contribute $2,700 toward the $3,000 for a new structure. This 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 ...

brick building stands today as the Mount Pulaski Courthouse. 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 ...

building features

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

s spanning the length of the building and

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s at each corner. When the new courthouse was built in 1848, Abraham Lincoln of nearby

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

was representing central Illinois in the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

. Returning to Illinois in 1849, he resumed the practice of law in the Eighth Circuit, and often visited the Mount Pulaski courthouse. Mount Pulaski is located 25 miles (40 km) north of Springfield, a

day's journey A day's journey in pre-modern literature, including the Bible, ancient geographers and ethnographers such as Herodotus, is a measurement of distance. In the Bible, it is not as precisely defined as other Biblical measurements of distance; the dis ...

by the horse and light buggy that Lincoln used. Mount Pulaski is located in the southeastern quarter of Logan County. In the early 1850s, developers built a railroad, which would become the

Chicago and Alton Railroad The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad , was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 an ...

, northeastward from Springfield through Logan County. The new railroad became the focus of county development, and it did not go near Mount Pulaski. The railroad and county leaders agreed to move the Logan County seat once again, to a location very near the center of the county and directly on the new railroad line. The new county seat was named

Lincoln, Illinois Lincoln is a city in Logan County, Illinois, United States. First settled in the 1830s, it is the only town in the United States that was named for Abraham Lincoln before he became president; he practiced law there from 1847 to 1859. Lincoln is h ...

, after lawyer Lincoln, who by this time had made many friends throughout the county. The decision was affirmed by county voters in a referendum in 1853, and the court and county government had moved away by 1855. County leaders' fear of fire proved to be well-founded in 1857, when a blaze destroyed the relocated county records, including the dockets of the Logan County circuit court. As a result, very little is known of Lincoln's specific legal cases in Logan County during the Mount Pulaski interval.

After 1855

Mount Pulaski only served as the county seat until 1853, when it moved to

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 ...

, so the courthouse only served in its intended capacity for five years. After 1853, the building served as a school, the Mount Pulaski city hall and jail, and the local post office. Illinois Governor

Henry Horner Henry Horner (November 30, 1878 – October 6, 1940) was an American politician. Horner served as the 28th Governor of Illinois, serving from January 1933 until his death in October 1940. Horner was noted as the first Jewish governor of Illinois ...

launched a statewide search in the 1930s for surviving public buildings with which Lincoln had been familiar. Mount Pulaski gave the old brick courthouse building to the state of Illinois in 1936, and the state extensively restored it in 1936–1939 to resemble its function as the county courthouse. The courthouse was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on August 3, 1978, qualifying both because of its place in local history and because of its historically significant architecture. According to a member of the Logan County planning commission at the time, the building "ranks among the finest and best-preserved pre-1850 buildings in the state."

References

External links

Mount Pulaski Courthouse State Historic Site
{{Protected areas of Illinois Government buildings completed in 1848 Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area Former courthouses in Illinois Former post office buildings Former school buildings in the United States Greek Revival architecture in Illinois Illinois State Historic Sites Museums in Logan County, Illinois Law museums in Illinois Defunct schools in Illinois County courthouses in Illinois Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Logan County, Illinois