Creating Counties and Townships

Russell Township lies in the northeast corner of Lawrence County, Illinois bounded on the north by Crawford County, on the east by the Wabash River, on the south by Allison Township and on the west by Lawrence and Bond Townships.

Between 1816 and 1821, the lands north of the mouth of the Embarrass River including what would become Petty, Bond, Russell, and the northern parts of Lawrence and Allison townships were included in the boundaries of Crawford County.  To create Lawrence County in 1821, these northern lands were split off from Crawford County to become the northern part of Lawrence County while land from the northern part of Edwards County was used to form the southern part of the new county. 

Primitive trails led from one settlement to another. Early maps show a trail from Centerville, a small religious community of Christians on Allison Prairie to Palestine, through Little Village, site of present-day Russellville, about 1815.  One of the first orders of business for the new county of Lawrence was to establish proper roads.

The first Lawrence County Commissioners’ court met on April 14, 1821, and appointed ‘viewers’ to establish the best routes for these new roads.  A Supervisor was then appointed to be responsible for the roads in his district.  Joseph Beard was appointed supervisor of the area that would later become all of Russell Township and part of Allison Township. John Mills later succeeded Beard. Landowners along the roads were required to work five days a year for one dollar a day on maintenance of the roads. If the roads required more work during the year, it was to be done on a voluntary basis. 

As the population increased so did the need for more government. In December 1856, the County Commissioners, Peter Smith, W. D. Adams, and Walter Buchanan, met and divided the county into townships: Perry (now Petty), Bond, Russell, Hardin (now Christy), Lawrence, Thompson (now Allison), Marion (now Lukin) and Denison.  Later in 1872 the township of Christy was divided into two townships, the new one being called Bridgeport Township.