Russellville

Russellville is the only town in Russell township. It covers a total area of .47 square miles, according to the 2010 census. In 2000 the population was 119 persons, 52 households, and 27 families residing in the village.  In 2020 the population was 98. Of the 1,466 places in Illinois to live, Russellville is the 1362nd most populous.

POPULATION  RUSSELLVILLE

Historical population

Census Population    %±

1870    311                       —

1880    265                       −14.8%

1890    284                       7.2%

1900    253                       −10.9%

1910    257                       1.6%

1920    200                       −22.2%

1930    205                       2.5%

1940    224                       9.3%

1950    207                       −7.6%

1960    197                       −4.8%

1970    174                       −11.7%

1980    171                       −1.7%

1990    133                       −22.2%

2000    119                       −10.5%

2010    94                          −21.0%

HISTORY OF RUSSELLVILLE

The town was laid out by David Price and surveyed and platted by S. Dunlap, the county surveyor, on October 26, 27, and 28 of 1835. It was named in honor of August, Andrew and Clement Russell, three brothers from Kentucky who built a sawmill and manufactured the lumber for the first buildings in the town.

From a letter to editor of Vincennes Weekly Sun April 8th 1871, written by Jim Hanger, Sr who shared his memories of days gone by. “Having been a reader of your paper for 50 years I claim a place to record some of the early history of Russellville. I visited Russellville in 1834, and found Mr. Gustavus Russell putting up a steam sawmill, the first engine ever put up in Eastern Illinois, if not in the state. I took a ride down through the Prairie with Mr. Russell. We saw large flocks of wild geese and sand hill cranes. Ducks were to be seen by the 10,000, and Prairie chickens too numerous to mention. I visited Russellville again in 1836 and found a great change in the town. Mr. Russell’s sawmill had been changed into a grinding mill and distillery, on a tolerably large scale. You could get good whiskey for $.20 a gallon, and when you bought it by the barrel for family use, it could be had for $.15.”

On October 21, 1837, a Vincennes paper advertised lots in Russellville for sale. There had apparently been an earlier sale, and the proprietors wanted to give buyers another opportunity to buy lots at auction on Saturday, October 28. To encourage them to buy the following was printed.

“The lots then to be offered comprise many of the choicest in the town, lying on, and contiguous to, the river. The avidity with which lots sold in July, and the prices paid for them, evince the public estimation of the importance of the town, and furnishes additional evidence that ere long Russellville will rank in comparison with her older and wealthier competitors.

A large public hotel, with a number of other houses, are now in progress of building, on the addition, and the difficulty of obtaining workmen and materials at this time, only prevent the erection of many more.

To strangers and others unacquainted with this section of Illinois, it may be well to state that Russellville is beautifully situated on the Wabash River at the head of Allison Prairie, a body of ground unsurpassed in fertility surrounded by excellent timber, and cultivated by an industrious, enterprising and rapidly increasing population. The high bluff, on which the town is situated, has been for many years the depot of immense quantities of produce, destined for the southern and eastern markets. The river at this point affords at all times a first rate harbor for steamboats etc. Ferry boats are also about to be established between this point and the opposite shore, this connecting Allison on the Illinois with Shaker Prairie on the Indiana side.

The original town, lying farther back from the river, was laid off in 1825 before the present town site came in to market, and already entertains a steam saw and gristmill and number of stores etc. In a word, its situation on the Wabash River, and the Chicago and Vincennes Stage Road – – its commercial, agricultural and other local advantages, offer to the capitalist, the mechanic and tradesman, inducements for settlement and investment rarely to be met with in the Western country.

A plot of the town may be seen, and further information had, by calling upon either of the subscribers in Lawrenceville. Terms: A liberal credit will be given if required, and particulars made known on the day of the sale

 Another letter signed only as “a Farmer’ describes Russellville at the end of the Civil War. (Vincennes Weekly Sun July 17, 1869) "The town of Russellville is beautifully located on the Wabash river, ten miles from Vincennes on the Illinois side, and all she likes to make a lively town is a few enterprising men to engage in merchandising and to buy the produce of the country, so as to keep the trade here, for where people go to sell their produce, there they will also buy.  There never was a better opening for an enterprising man with a moderate capital to sell goods and to buy the farmers’ produce.  We have but two stores here, and one of them is for sale, the junior partner having died recently.”

In 1870 the city had three public thoroughfares, running into it, two running parallel with the river that were intersected at right angles by one from the West."

Jim Hanger Sr continued in his letter to the Vincennes Weekly Sun on April 8th 1871: “We have a large Christian church in Russellville, everything that might have a tendency to demoralize the members is strictly forbidden, except for swapping. If you ride a good nag into Russellville, it will not be long before you have a chance for a swap. Russellville also has a debating society and a literary society.”

The town was incorporated in 1872. (Vincennes Weekly Sun February 2, 1872)

“This village is undergoing incorporation just now, and by the time we write you again we hope to be able to announce the names of Mayor, Marshall, and the city fathers. We don’t intend any longer to be the little, unassuming village that we have been in the past, but are going to enter upon a new era, and put on city airs considerably. Some of the boys haven’t slept well since incorporation has been talked of, for dreaming of a Marshall and a ‘caliboose’ (jail). We also expect by the first day of next January to visit your city in a railroad car, run over the DP and Vincennes Railroad.”

On March 29, 1872 Frederick Pierce, a blacksmith, was elected Mayor and T. E. Adams, a grain merchant, J. B. Trombly, a farmer, J. D. Stevens, a physician, Dr. H. B. Broyles, minister and physician, and Frederick Wild, a carpenter were all elected to sit on the City Council after incorporation. The constable was Fred Wyles.

If Russellville had had a Chamber of Commerc.e the director might have written the following promotional piece for the city.  The article that follows was printed in the Vincennes newspaper November 8, 1891.

 Headline:  Russellville- the northern trading point of Lawrence County – a flourishing people surrounded by a wealthy and intelligent community – farming, its chief industry – progressive churches and schools- a picturesque place on the Wabash

Located on the banks of the beautiful Wabash River, in the northern portion of Lawrence County, Illinois, is the quaint

old town of Russellville with its 400 inhabitants who are happy and contented people. Blessed as they are by the never-ending products of the rich valley of the Wabash and the fertile prairies that surround it, these people are a prosperous and intelligent community.

Russellville has a fine school which is in flourishing condition and has two able instructors and an enrollment of 100 pupils with a census enumeration of 134 potential schoolchildren. The Christian church with a membership of 100, is the only church and is in a healthy and prosperous condition. Russellville also has five general stores, two blacksmith shops, a sawmill and two physicians, but it stands greatly in need of a good gristmill, which would prove to be a great success with the abundance of grain waiting at its very door to be converted into flour. At an early date this prosperous little village was one of the main shipping towns on the Wabash. From this point thousands of bushels of grain have been floated down to New Orleans and disposed of, and on the boats return, they were loaded with the products of a foreign land to be consumed by the grain producing people who inhabited the rich valley’s and productive prairies with which Lawrence County abounds.

Russellville, situated on an elevated point of Allison Prairie, affords a commanding view of the meandering Wabash and Allison Prairie, which makes Russellville a very pleasant and picturesque place in which to live. It is 9 miles north of Vincennes and 14 miles east of Lawrenceville, the county seat. There is no richer farming and stock raising country in the world than the country in which these quiet, home loving people live. And my dear reader, if you are ever afforded the opportunity to visit this locality it will pay you to do so.