By Stephen Anderson

The centennial of the Hancock County Courthouse in the county seat of Carthage will be commemorated on Saturday, Oct. 18, by the bench, bar and civic leaders.

Completed on Oct. 20, 1908, the impressive landmark is clad in white Bedford stone, with interior walls of Tennessee marble. It is topped by red Spanish tile and a dome on which a statue faces south, holding the scales of justice.

A marker on the courthouse lawn signifies a speech that Abraham Lincoln gave on Oct. 22, 1858, during his campaign for the U.S. Senate. His opponent, Stephen A. Douglas, had spoken in Carthage 11 days earlier.

A Civil War marker on the west side of the building was erected by the Alexander Sympson Relief Corps, named for a friend of Lincoln in whose home the candidate once stayed.

The 118th Illinois Infantry in the Civil War consisted almost entirely of Hancock County men - 3,272 county residents served in Arkansas and Mississippi.

A marker on the north side, commemorating the founding of Hancock County in 1825, was dedicated in 1925 by school children in honor of John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Seven years after Illinois became a state in 1818, the county was formed Jan. 13, 1825, from territory that had been attached to Pike County.

The first courthouse was located at Montebello on the Mississippi River. A log courthouse was built in 1833 in downtown Carthage after the state legislature designated the city as the permanent county seat.

A subsequent courthouse, erected in 1839 at a cost of $3,700, was torn down in 1906 to provide a site for the present structure.

Courthouse Square is a few blocks from the infamous Carthage Jail, where Mormon leaders Joseph and Hyrum Smith of Nauvoo were killed by a mob on June 27, 1844. The renovated jail is now a museum.

County residents had feared the growth of the Mormon population since settlement of the community began in 1839. Rising to 20,000 in five years, Nauvoo was then the largest city in Illinois.

The Smith brothers were detained in the jail to await trial on the charge of destroying an anti-Mormon newspaper. Illinois Gov. Thomas Ford had ordered the Carthage Grays militia to protect them.

A vengeful mob overpowered the guards without much resistance, broke into the jail and shot the Smiths to death. In the next two years, thousands of Mormons crossed the Mississippi and began their arduous trek to Utah.