Pittsfield, Illinois Pittsfield, Illinois Courthouse, Pike County, Pike County Courthouse County Pike Location of Pittsfield inside Illinois Location of Pittsfield inside Illinois Wikimedia Commons: Pittsfield, Illinois Pittsfield is a town/city in and the governmental center of county of Pike County, Illinois, United States. The populace was 4,576 at the 2010 census, an increase from 4,211 in 2000.
Pittsfield was initially settled by pioneer from New England.
A group of pioneer from Pittsfield, Massachusetts headed west and settled this region of Illinois in 1820.
When they appeared the region was a virgin wilderness, they constructed farms, roads and government buildings. Pittsfield was home to John Hay, Lincoln's personal secretary, ambassador to England under President William Mc - Kinley, later Secretary of State for Theodore Roosevelt and creator of the Open Door Policy.
As county seat, the town was one of the various places in central Illinois where Abraham Lincoln practiced law as part of the circuit court, working on 34 cases between 1839 and 1852.
One small-town newspaper, now known as the Pike Press, was then owned by another of Lincoln's future secretaries, John Nicolay, and featured an editorial including one of the first known suggestions of Lincoln as the Republican nominee for the presidency.
There are many historic landmarks inside the town/city limits, the most notable of which is the Pike County Courthouse.
It was the third courthouse in the town, but the fourth in Pike County.
The building is contemporary (boated from Joliet on the Illinois river) and brick burned in Pittsfield.
The school closed in 1955 and was unoccupied until 1978 when it was renovated and became the home of the Pike County Historical Society and the Pike County Historic Museum.
There are nine homes still in existence in Pittsfield that are connected to Abraham Lincoln, including the Shastid House, where Lincoln often stayed while practicing cases in the county.
According to the 2010 census, Pittsfield has a total region of 4.968 square miles (12.87 km2), of which 4.58 square miles (11.86 km2) (or 92.19%) is territory and 0.388 square miles (1.00 km2) (or 7.81%) is water. Pittsfield's drinking waterworks is provided by Lake Pittsfield, an artificial reservoir held in by an earth and concrete dam.
Pittsfield, along with the bulk of Pike County, is positioned in the territory between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers as they move toward convergence in St.
The territory is riddled with streams and bottom lands mostly draining through the Mc - Gee Creek drainage watershed into the Illinois River.
Thus, the territory around Pittsfield and Pike County is much more hilly and forested than the rest of the plains of central Illinois.
This geography, combined with a relative lack of heavy development, make the areas around Pittsfield especially suited to wildlife.
Pittsfield regularly attracts large numbers of out-of-state game hunters, and Pike county persistently leads all other Illinois counties in the number of deer harvested amid fall hunting seasons.
John Hay, statesman, diplomat, journalist, and private secretary, to Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of State under William Mc - Kinley and Theodore Roosevelt John George Nicolay, associate of Abe Lincoln, diplomat, editor of Pittsfield journal The expansion of New England: the spread of New England settlement and establishments to the Mississippi River, 1620-1865 by Lois Kimball Matthews page 211 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pittsfield, Illinois.
Pike County Chamber of Commerce Pike County Express Pittsfield High School Municipalities and communities of Pike County, Illinois, United States County seat: Pittsfield Atlas Barry Chambersburg Cincinnati Derry Detroit Fairmount Flint Griggsville Hadley Hardin Kinderhook Levee Martinsburg Montezuma New Salem Newburg Pearl Perry Pittsfield Pleasant Hill Pleasant Vale Ross Spring Creek
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Cities in Pike County, Illinois - Cities in Illinois - County seats in Illinois
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