Macoupin

Formed January 17, 1829 (50^th county)

Macoupin County (44,967), Carlinville (5,705)

The towering dome of the 1870 Beaux Arts courthouse stands out.  It is located on a city square at 1^st, High, Main and East streets.  East Street is Illinois State Highway 4.  There was an 1836 courthouse also in Carlinville, the only county seat.  Elijah E. Myers was the courthouse architect for this stone and masonry structure.  The county was taken from Greene and Madison counties on January 17, 1829 as the 50^th county.  The county’s name comes from the Macoupin Creek which gets its name for the Native American for “white root.”  The county seat is named for Governor Thomas Carlin. 

Macoupin County government consists of a sheriff, an attorney, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 18 Board Members (legislative.)  Twenty-two Circuit Court Judges serve Macoupin, Greene, Jersey, Morgan, Sangamon, and Scott counties and a court clerk serves Macoupin County (judicial.) The county is in south central Illinois southwest of Springfield and northeast of Saint Louis, Missouri.  The county center is 4.2 miles Southwest of Carlinville.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Sangamon, Montgomery, Madison, Greene, Jersey, and Morgan counties. 

The area of the county is 862 square miles.  It is 11 out of 102 in the state.  It ranks 32 out of 102 in population in the state.  It has a density of 52.2 persons per square mile making it 45 out of 102 in the state.  Macoupin County has 67.7% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 55 crosses the southeast corner of the county from Montgomery County, east, to Madison County, south.  The county is a tall rectangle.  Carlinville is located near the center of the county.  Carlinville is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 12.7% of the county population.  The county is pronounced MAK-O-PIN.  This county is in the Saint Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area.