Place Information
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Pike County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of 2000, the population is 17,384. Its county seat is Pittsfield, Illinois.
History
Pike County was formed on January 31, 1821 out of Madison County. It was named in honor of Zebulon Pike, leader of the Pike expedition in 1806 to map out the south and west portions of the Louisiana Purchase. Pike served at the Battle of Tippecanoe, and was killed in 1813 in the War of 1812. Prior to the coming of the first settler to Pike County there had been French traders, hunters, and travelers passing through the native forests and beautiful prairies. Originally Pike County began on the south junction of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. The east boundary was the Illinois River north to the Kankakee River to the Indiana State line on north to Wisconsin state line and then west to the Mississippi River to the original point at the south end. The first county seat was Cole's Grove, a post town, in what later became Calhoun County. The Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri published in 1822 mentioned Chicago as a village of Pike County, containing 12 or 15 houses and about 60 or 70 inhabitants. Frank McWorter was an early settler in Pike County after investing in land sight unseen and purchasing the first few members of his family out of slavery in Kentucky. In 1836 he founded the town of New Philadelphia, near Barry, Illinois, returning to Kentucky over several decades to free other offspring. The town site is now an archaeological dig. Timeline
Population History
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