1955 - This is Knox County - Illinois Ancestors

Ot the several liiinois counties in whicu Lincoln andDouglas staged their series of seven Great Debates duringthe senatorial campaign of 1858, only Knox County retains abuilding m which one of those debates was held. This isOld Main, most ancient of the edifices on the campus ofKnox College at Galesburg. It was here that LincolnandDouglas engaged in the fifth of their series of historicdebates, the event taking place in the afternoon of October7, 1858.INTHE BEGINNINGAt one time, practically half of what is now the stateof Illinois was a single county called Knox, so-named afterGeneral Henry Knox of the Revolutionary War. But at thatearly period, which was after the Northwest Territory wasorganized in 1790, this Knox County included not onlv naifof Illinois but all of what later became Indiana, Vachiganand Wisconsin. When Indiana Territory was organized in 1800,however, this original, vast Knox County was greatly reducedin size and eventually it became an ordinary- si zed county mIndiana, enclosing tne historic old French town of Vincennes.By the time Illinois Territory was set up in 1809, noassociation with the earlier Knox County remained in the newterritory. Thus it may be seen that the Knox County in Illinoistoday was an entirely new county, not coming into existenceuntil 1825. It, also, was named after General Henry