White

Formed January 1, 1815 (7^th county)

White County (13,872), Carmi (4,860)

An old red brick building, built in 1828 and enlarged in 1883, is at Main and Main Cross streets.  Illinois State Highway 1 is Main Street in the town.  Alan Randolph provided the building designs.  A small tower sits on top of the structure.  The county has had Carmi as the county seat following its January 1, 1815 organizing as the 7^th county.  White County was taken from Gallatin County.  White County is named for Captain Leonard White who was a Battle of Tippecanoe hero.  Carmi is named for the ancient Biblical city. 

White County government consists of a sheriff, an attorney, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 5 Board Members (legislative.)  Twenty-one Circuit Court Judges serve White, Crawford, Edwards, Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Jefferson, Lawrence, Richland, Wabash, and Wayne counties and a court clerk serves White County (judicial.) The county is in southeast Illinois on the border with Indiana.  Evansville, Indiana is east and Saint Louis, Missouri is northwest of the county.  The Wabash River forms its eastern border.  The county center is 5.9 miles Southwest of Carmi nearer Brownsville.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Edwards and Wabash counties and Indiana and Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, and Wayne counties. 

The area of the county is 494 square miles.  It is 55 out of 102 in the state.  It ranks 76 out of 102 in population in the state.  It has a density of 28.1 persons per square mile making it 78 out of 102 in the state.  White County has 63.1% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 64 crosses the extreme north part of the county east to west from Indiana to Wayne County, north.  United States Highway 45 comes in from the north, White County, and exits out to the south, Gallatin County.  The county is rectangular except for the wandering eastern border.  Carmi is near the geographical center of the county.  Carmi is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 35.0% of the county population.  The county seat is pronounced KAR-MIE.

Mill Shoals