Formed January 1, 1819 (17th county)
Clark County (15,457), Marshall (3,958)
The red brick courthouse was built in 1903 on a square at Archer, 6th, Locust, and 5th streets. Illinois State Highway 1 is two blocks to the east. Fuller and Hawkes are the architects of this Georgian Revival style courthouse. The courthouse features a working clock tower. The grounds veteran memorials, a gazebo, and a Lincoln statue. The county was created from Crawford County on January 1, 1819 as the 17th county. Aurora (1819), Darwin (1823), and Marshall (1838) have all served as the county seat. Revolutionary War office George Rogers Clark is the namesake for the county. John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, provided his name for the county seat.
Clark County government consists of a sheriff, an attorney, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive). It has 13 Board Members (legislative.) Seventeen Circuit Court Judges serve Clark, Coles, Cumberland, Edgar, and Vermilion counties and a court clerk serves Clark County (judicial.) The county is in southeast Illinois on the border with Indiana. The Wabash River forms part of the southeast border with Indiana. Springfield, Illinois is northwest and Terre Haute, Indiana is directly east of the county. The county center is 4.9 miles Southwest of Marshall. The county is surrounded clockwise by Edgar County and Indiana and Crawford, Jasper, Cumberland, and Coles counties.
The area of the county is 501 square miles. It is 53 out of 102 in the state. It ranks 71 out of 102 in population in the state. It has a density of 30.9 persons per square mile making it 72 out of 102 in the state. Clark County has 51.8% of its population in its incorporated areas. Interstate Highway 70 goes east to west through the county from Indiana to Cumberland County. United States Highway 40 parallels Interstate Highway 70 from Indiana to Cumberland County. The county is a rectangle except for the southeast river border. Marshall is located in the northeast quarter of the county. Marshall is the county seat and the largest city. It is 25.6% of the county population.
Marshall
Martinsville
Westfield
Casey
